Progress Report on the Fluorox Process for April 30, 1957-January 14, 1958

Progress in the Fluorox program is reported. The chemical reaction of primary interest in the Fluorox program is the oxidation of UF/sub 4/ with O/sub 2/, 2UF/sub 4/ + O/sub 2/ = UO/sub 2/F/sub 2/ + UF/sub 6/; however, to study this process at higher temperatures, the thermal decomposition of UO/sub 2/F/sub 2/, 3UO/sub 2/F/sub 2/ = 2/3 U/sub 3 /O/sub 8/ + UF/sub 6/ + 1/3 O/sub 2/, is being investigated by thermogravimetric methods in the temperature range 750 to 900 deg C. A fluidized bed reactor and a flame reactor have been used successfully to perform the continuous oxidation of UF/sub 4/ with O/sub 2/. The 3-in. fluidized bed reactor was operated up to 825 deg C on both a continuous and batch basis while the flame reactor was used to continuously react finely divided UF/sub 4/ with O/sub 2/ in a CO-O/sub 2/ flame at temperatures greater than 1200 deg C. (auth

Concentration of anti-Müllerian hormone in dairy heifers is positively associated with productive herd life

Reliable biomarkers predictive of productive herd life (time in herd after birth of first calf) have heretofore not been discovered in dairy cattle. However, circulating concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) are positively associated with number of follicles or antral follicle count (AFC), ovarian function, and fertility, and approximately 25% of cows have a relatively low AFC and low AMH concentrations. The present study tested the hypothesis that heifers with the lowest AMH concentrations have suboptimal fertility and are removed from a herd for poor reproductive performance at a greater rate, and therefore have a shorter productive herd life compared with age-matched herdmates with higher AMH. To test this hypothesis, 11- to 15-mo-old Holstein heifers (n=281) were subjected to a single measurement of AMH. All heifers not removed from the herd had the opportunity to complete 2 lactations and start their third lactation after calving. During this time, performance and health parameters for each individual were recorded daily by herd managers. Results showed that the quartile of heifers with the lowest AMH concentration also had, on average, a shorter productive herd life (by 196 d), a reduced survival rate after birth of the first calf, the lowest level of milk production (first lactation), the lowest total percentage of cows pregnant (across all lactations), the highest culling rates (first and second lactations and overall), and the highest culling rate for poor reproduction (first lactation) compared with age-matched herdmates with higher AMH. We concluded that a single determination of AMH concentration in young adult dairy heifers may be a simple diagnostic method to predict herd longevity, and AMH may be a useful phenotypic marker to improve longevity of dairy cows

Academic language socialisation in high school writing conferences

This study examines multilingual high school writers’ individual talk with their teachers in two advanced English language development classes to observe how such talk shapes linguistically diverse adolescents’ writing. Addressing adolescent writers’ language socialization through microethnographic discourse analysis, the author argues that teachers’ oral responses during writing conferences can either scaffold or deter students’ socialization into valued ways of using academic language for school writing. She suggests what forms of oral response provide scaffolding and what forms might limit multilingual adolescent learners’ academic literacy. Constructive interactions engaged students in dialogue about their writing, and students included content or phrasing from the interaction in their texts. Unhelpful interactions failed to foster students’ language development in observable ways. Although teachers attempted to scaffold ideas and language, they often did not guide students’ discovery of appropriate forms or points. These interactions represent restrictive academic language socialization: while some students did create academic texts, they learned little about academic language use

The evolution of language: a comparative review

For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful "just so stories" about language origins. However, in the last decade a new synthesis of modern linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has begun to make important contributions to our understanding of the biology and evolution of language. I review some of this recent progress, focusing on the value of the comparative method, which uses data from animal species to draw inferences about language evolution. Discussing speech first, I show how data concerning a wide variety of species, from monkeys to birds, can increase our understanding of the anatomical and neural mechanisms underlying human spoken language, and how bird and whale song provide insights into the ultimate evolutionary function of language. I discuss the ‘‘descended larynx’ ’ of humans, a peculiar adaptation for speech that has received much attention in the past, which despite earlier claims is not uniquely human. Then I will turn to the neural mechanisms underlying spoken language, pointing out the difficulties animals apparently experience in perceiving hierarchical structure in sounds, and stressing the importance of vocal imitation in the evolution of a spoken language. Turning to ultimate function, I suggest that communication among kin (especially between parents and offspring) played a crucial but neglected role in driving language evolution. Finally, I briefly discuss phylogeny, discussing hypotheses that offer plausible routes to human language from a non-linguistic chimp-like ancestor. I conclude that comparative data from living animals will be key to developing a richer, more interdisciplinary understanding of our most distinctively human trait: language

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Content and performance of the MiniMUGA genotyping array: A new tool to improve rigor and reproducibility in mouse research

The laboratory mouse is the most widely used animal model for biomedical research, due in part to its well-annotated genome, wealth of genetic resources, and the ability to precisely manipulate its genome. Despite the importance of genetics for mouse research, genetic quality control (QC) is not standardized, in part due to the lack of cost-effective, informative, and robust platforms. Genotyping arrays are standard tools for mouse research and remain an attractive alternative even in the era of high-throughput whole-genome sequencing. Here, we describe the content and performance of a new iteration of the Mouse Universal Genotyping Array (MUGA), MiniMUGA, an array-based genetic QC platform with over 11,000 probes. In addition to robust discrimination between most classical and wild-derived laboratory strains, MiniMUGA was designed to contain features not available in other platforms: (1) chromosomal sex determination, (2) discrimination between substrains from multiple commercial vendors, (3) diagnostic SNPs for popular laboratory strains, (4) detection of constructs used in genetically engineered mice, and (5) an easy-to-interpret report summarizing these results. In-depth annotation of all probes should facilitate custom analyses by individual researchers. To determine the performance of MiniMUGA, we genotyped 6899 samples from a wide variety of genetic backgrounds. The performance of MiniMUGA compares favorably with three previous iterations of the MUGA family of arrays, both in discrimination capabilities and robustness. We have generated publicly available consensus genotypes for 241 inbred strains including classical, wild-derived, and recombinant inbred lines. Here, we also report the detection of a substantial number of XO and XXY individuals across a variety of sample types, new markers that expand the utility of reduced complexity crosses to genetic backgrounds other than C57BL/6, and the robust detection of 17 genetic constructs. We provide preliminary evidence that the array can be used to identify both partial sex chromosome duplication and mosaicism, and that diagnostic SNPs can be used to determine how long inbred mice have been bred independently from the relevant main stock. We conclude that MiniMUGA is a valuable platform for genetic QC, and an important new tool to increase the rigor and reproducibility of mouse research

PROCESS FOR DISSOLUTION OF BORAX IV REACTOR FUEL: LABORATORY DEVELOPMENT

Flowsheets are presented for the dissolution of Borax IV reactor fuel (6.35% UO/sub 2/)--ThO/sub 2/ pellets encased in 1% nickel--aluminum alloy and bonded with lead). In the preferred method the alurninum is dissolved first in boiling 2 M NaOH--1.78 M NaNO/sub 3/, with a urarium loss of approximately 0.07%. The lead and nickel are then dissolved in boiling 1.5 M HNO/sub 3/, with uranium losses of <0.2%. The oxide core is dissolved in two successive digestions with boiling 13 M HNO/sub 3/--0.04 M NaF--0.1 M Al(NO/sub 3/)) to produce a solution 0.6 M in thoriunn and 0.04 M in uranium. Dissolution of only the aluminum in sodium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide--sodium nitrate solution prior to core dissolution is unattractive since the rate of core dissolution is lowered greatly if lead is present and a product solution containing greater than 0.2 M thorium is unattainable owing to the low solubillty of lead nitrate in nitric acid-- thorium nitrate solutions. Simultaneous dissolution of aluminum and lead in mercury-catalyzed nitric acid appears costly since a mercury concentration of at leset 0.5 M is required to ensure an adequate dissolution rate. The solubility of lead nitrate in nitric acid and nitric acid--thorium nitrate solutions was determined. (auth

CHEMICAL PROCESSING OF COATED PARTICLE FUELS

BS>Laboratory studies on the processing of graphite-base fuel elements containing pyrolytic carbon- or Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-coated particles are reviewed. Potential processes for recovering U and Th from irradiated elements include grinding followed by acid leaching, and, burning and subsequent dissolution of the oxide ash. Disintegration in 90% HNO/sub 3/ was briefly evaluated as a method for determining the integrity of coated particles dispersed in graphite matrices. (auth