A Project Management and Systems Engineering Structure for a Generation IV Very High Temperature Reactor

The Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) will be an advanced, very high temperature (approximately 1000o C. coolant outlet temperature), gas cooled nuclear reactor and is the nearest term of six Generation IV reactor technologies for nuclear assisted hydrogen production. In 2001, the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), a ten nation international forum working together with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC), agreed to proceed with the development of a technology roadmap and identified the next generation of nuclear reactor systems for producing new sources of power. Since a new reactor has not been licensed in the United States since the 1970s, the risks are too large for a single utility to assume in the development of an unprecedented Generation IV reactor. The government must sponsor and invest in the research to resolve major first of a kind (FOAK) issues through a full-scale demonstration prior to industry implementation. DOE’s primary mission for the VHTR is to demonstrate nuclear reactor assisted cogeneration of electricity and hydrogen while meeting the Generation IV goals for safety, sustainability, proliferation resistance and physical security and economics. The successful deployment of the VHTR as a demonstration project will aid in restarting the now atrophied U.S. nuclear power industry infrastructure. It is envisioned that VHTR project participants will include DOE Laboratories, industry partners such as designers, constructors, manufacturers, utilities, and Generation IV international countries. To effectively mange R&D, engineering, procurement, construction, and operation for this multi-organizational and technologically complex project, systems engineering will be used extensively to ensure delivery of the final product. Although the VHTR is an unprecedented FOAK system, the R&D, when assessed using the Office of Science and Technology Gate Model, falls primarily in the 3rd - Exploratory Development, 4th – Advanced Development, and 5th- Engineering Development stages of maturity rather than in the basic and viability stages. Therefore the R&D must be controlled and project driven from the top down to address specific issues of feasibility, proof of design or support of engineering. The design evolution must be through the systems approach including an iterative process of high-level requirements definition, engineering to focus R&D to verify feasibility, requirements development and conceptual design, R&D to verify design and refine detailed requirements for final detailed design. This paper will define a framework for project management and application of systems engineering at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The VHTR Project includes an overall reactor design and construction activity and four major supporting activities: fuel development and qualification, materials selection and qualification, NRC licensing and regulatory support, and the hydrogen production plant

A New Species of Bothriocidaris (Echinoidea) from the Cincinnatian Maquoketa Group of Iowa

A new species of echinoid , Bothriocidaris maquoketensis, has been discovered in the Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) Fort Atkinson Formation, Maquoketa Group, of northeastern Iowa. The new species is characterized by two widely spaced primary perforate tubercles on opposite sides of the peripodia and by numerous paired interambulacral plates. This occurrence extends the geographic and stratigraphic range of Bothriocidaris in North America

Prospectus, December 14, 1983

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL; Memories recalled from Christmases past; 32 are named in Who\u27s Who; News Digest; Parkland student talks with Santa; Simpson keeps position; Illinois joins no-fault divorce movement; PC Happenings: Second blood drive is success; German club goes to Chicago; Rotary scholarships available; Camera ban lifted; Final Exam Schedule; Looking forward to a winter like last year\u27s!; Parkland publishes annual magazine--Intercom; Zamary decorates cakes; Letter to the editor; Christmas carols are important part of world history; Letter to the editor; Question: When did you stop believing in Santa?; Question: What was the best Christmas gift you ever received?; Question: What is your best Christmas memory or tradition?; Christmas--ancient celebration of the birth of Christ; Spring brings more of an abundance of Cabbage Patches; The brighter side of Christmas; Make holiday cleaning easy; Tips for easier Holiday Baking; Tree trimming is art; Christmas cards originate in England; Recipes for Christmas and New Years; Christmas of yesteryear at the Lake of the Woods; Parkland before the brown brick campus; Photographer captures old-fashioned Christmas; Wham Bam it\u27s Tieken man and U.R.S.A..; Pulitzer winner at Krannert; WILL--most varied holiday line-up; Variety of films hits the 1983 Christmas season; Dylan is back again; \u27Stones\u27 come back to life; January Krannert Schedule; Classifieds; Tips on how to stay out of an accident on icy days; 1984 Bowl game schedule; Cobra volleyball players feted; Composite Athletic Schedule; I.M. News...; Women win; Track tream ready for season; Fire hazard safety tips; Local search for Opryland talent; President\u27s Christmas messagehttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1983/1000/thumbnail.jp

Between Big City and Authentic Village: Branding the Small Chinese City

While recent academic research has already produced an impressive corpus on big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, the small Chinese city has been mostly ignored. In this article, I suggest that consideration of the small city can bring a new perspective on the wider urban fabric of which it is an element. Although small city governments have embraced urban entrepreneurialism with the same enthusiasm as China’s big cities, different configurations of space, branding and the everyday have nevertheless resulted. My case study of Kaili in Guizhou province indicates that the small city exists in a complex relationship with the big city and the village; it is pulled towards large-scale urbanization while simultaneously attempting to construct a unique city image based upon the evocation of rural cultural practices. The perspective from the small city thus suggests the need to consider the rural-urban divide – long a dominant geographical imagination of China – alongside other geographies, including a triad of the small city, the village and the big city

Threats to freshwater fisheries in the United States: perspectives and investments of state fisheries administrators and Agricultural Experiment Station directors

Freshwater fisheries provide human benefits (e.g., food, recreation) but are increasingly threatened by climate change, invasive species, and other stressors. Our purpose was to survey fisheries administrators from state fisheries agencies and Agricultural Experiment Stations (AESs) about their perceptions of, and resource investment toward threats to freshwater fisheries in the United States. Our rationale for studying these two types of fisheries administrators simultaneously was to inform state fisheries professionals about the fisheries relevance of AESs, elevate the profile of fisheries within AESs, and promote mutually beneficial state agency–AES partnerships. Survey respondents generally agreed that recreational, socioeconomic, and ecological services of fisheries were more important than nutritional and commercial benefits. The greatest perceived fisheries threats were water quality/quantity impairment, land‐use change, and invasive species—but, interestingly, not climate change. State fisheries agencies invested more personnel and finances into issues rated as less important but more controllable (e.g., fish production, habitat management) than issues rated as more important but larger in scale and more difficult to control (e.g., water quality/quantity, invasive species). Our research underscores the importance of ensuring that state agencies can address long‐term, socio‐ecologically critical management issues (e.g., climate change) amid budgetary constraints. We call for state agencies to collaborate with new partners (e.g., AESs) to mitigate fisheries threats by expanding fisheries management to more fully encompass terrestrial and human systems; promoting receptiveness to novel research/management ideas; actively predicting, monitoring, and planning for future stressors; and enhancing fisheries social‐ecological resilience

Data-driven approach for creating synthetic electronic medical records

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>New algorithms for disease outbreak detection are being developed to take advantage of full electronic medical records (EMRs) that contain a wealth of patient information. However, due to privacy concerns, even anonymized EMRs cannot be shared among researchers, resulting in great difficulty in comparing the effectiveness of these algorithms. To bridge the gap between novel bio-surveillance algorithms operating on full EMRs and the lack of non-identifiable EMR data, a method for generating complete and synthetic EMRs was developed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This paper describes a novel methodology for generating complete synthetic EMRs both for an outbreak illness of interest (tularemia) and for background records. The method developed has three major steps: 1) synthetic patient identity and basic information generation; 2) identification of care patterns that the synthetic patients would receive based on the information present in real EMR data for similar health problems; 3) adaptation of these care patterns to the synthetic patient population.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We generated EMRs, including visit records, clinical activity, laboratory orders/results and radiology orders/results for 203 synthetic tularemia outbreak patients. Validation of the records by a medical expert revealed problems in 19% of the records; these were subsequently corrected. We also generated background EMRs for over 3000 patients in the 4-11 yr age group. Validation of those records by a medical expert revealed problems in fewer than 3% of these background patient EMRs and the errors were subsequently rectified.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A data-driven method was developed for generating fully synthetic EMRs. The method is general and can be applied to any data set that has similar data elements (such as laboratory and radiology orders and results, clinical activity, prescription orders). The pilot synthetic outbreak records were for tularemia but our approach may be adapted to other infectious diseases. The pilot synthetic background records were in the 4-11 year old age group. The adaptations that must be made to the algorithms to produce synthetic background EMRs for other age groups are indicated.</p

Genome Characteristics of a Novel Phage from Bacillus thuringiensis Showing High Similarity with Phage from Bacillus cereus

Bacillus thuringiensis is an important entomopathogenic bacterium belongs to the Bacillus cereus group, which also includes B. anthracis and B. cereus. Several genomes of phages originating from this group had been sequenced, but no genome of Siphoviridae phage from B. thuringiensis has been reported. We recently sequenced and analyzed the genome of a novel phage, BtCS33, from a B. thuringiensis strain, subsp. kurstaki CS33, and compared the gneome of this phage to other phages of the B. cereus group. BtCS33 was the first Siphoviridae phage among the sequenced B. thuringiensis phages. It produced small, turbid plaques on bacterial plates and had a narrow host range. BtCS33 possessed a linear, double-stranded DNA genome of 41,992 bp with 57 putative open reading frames (ORFs). It had a typical genome structure consisting of three modules: the “late” region, the “lysogeny-lysis” region and the “early” region. BtCS33 exhibited high similarity with several phages, B. cereus phage Wβ and some variants of Wβ, in genome organization and the amino acid sequences of structural proteins. There were two ORFs, ORF22 and ORF35, in the genome of BtCS33 that were also found in the genomes of B. cereus phage Wβ and may be involved in regulating sporulation of the host cell. Based on these observations and analysis of phylogenetic trees, we deduced that B. thuringiensis phage BtCS33 and B. cereus phage Wβ may have a common distant ancestor

Sample size considerations for trials using cerebral white matter hyperintensity progression as an intermediate outcome at 1 year after mild stroke: Results of a prospective cohort study

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are commonly seen on in brain imaging and are associated with stroke and cognitive decline. Therefore, they may provide a relevant intermediate outcome in clinical trials. WMH can be measured as a volume or visually on the Fazekas scale. We investigated predictors of WMH progression and design of efficient studies using WMH volume and Fazekas score as an intermediate outcome. Methods: We prospectively recruited 264 patients with mild ischaemic stroke and measured WMH volume, Fazekas score, age and cardiovascular risk factors at baseline and 1 year. We modelled predictors of WMH burden at 1 year and used the results in sample size calculations for hypothetical randomised controlled trials with different analysis plans and lengths of follow-up. Results: Follow-up WMH volume was predicted by baseline WMH: a 0.73-ml (95% CI 0.65-0.80, p < 0.0001) increase per 1-ml baseline volume increment, and a 2.93-ml increase (95% CI 1.76-4.10, p < 0.0001) per point on the Fazekas scale. Using a mean difference of 1 ml in WMH volume between treatment groups, 80% power and 5% alpha, adjusting for all predictors and 2-year follow-up produced the smallest sample size (n = 642). Other study designs produced samples sizes from 2054 to 21,270. Sample size calculations using Fazekas score as an outcome with the same power and alpha, as well as an OR corresponding to a 1-ml difference, were sensitive to assumptions and ranged from 2504 to 18,886. Conclusions: Baseline WMH volume and Fazekas score predicted follow-up WMH volume. Study size was smallest using volumes and longer-term follow-up, but this must be balanced against resources required to measure volumes versus Fazekas scores, bias due to dropout and scanner drift. Samples sizes based on Fazekas scores may be best estimated with simulation studies

Common genetic variants in the CLDN2 and PRSS1-PRSS2 loci alter risk for alcohol-related and sporadic pancreatitis

Pancreatitis is a complex, progressively destructive inflammatory disorder. Alcohol was long thought to be the primary causative agent, but genetic contributions have been of interest since the discovery that rare PRSS1, CFTR, and SPINK1 variants were associated with pancreatitis risk. We now report two significant genome-wide associations identified and replicated at PRSS1-PRSS2 (1×10-12) and x-linked CLDN2 (p < 1×10-21) through a two-stage genome-wide study (Stage 1, 676 cases and 4507 controls; Stage 2, 910 cases and 4170 controls). The PRSS1 variant affects susceptibility by altering expression of the primary trypsinogen gene. The CLDN2 risk allele is associated with atypical localization of claudin-2 in pancreatic acinar cells. The homozygous (or hemizygous male) CLDN2 genotype confers the greatest risk, and its alleles interact with alcohol consumption to amplify risk. These results could partially explain the high frequency of alcohol-related pancreatitis in men – male hemizygous frequency is 0.26, female homozygote is 0.07

Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease

We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a 3-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, 34,174 samples were genotyped using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P<1×10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, an additional 14,997 samples were used to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P<5×10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed 3 novel genome-wide significant (GWS) AD associated non-synonymous variants; a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905/p.P522R, P=5.38×10-10, OR=0.68, MAFcases=0.0059, MAFcontrols=0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338/p.S209F, P=4.56×10-10, OR=1.43, MAFcases=0.011, MAFcontrols=0.008), and a novel GWS variant in TREM2 (rs143332484/p.R62H, P=1.55×10-14, OR=1.67, MAFcases=0.0143, MAFcontrols=0.0089), a known AD susceptibility gene. These protein-coding changes are in genes highly expressed in microglia and highlight an immune-related protein-protein interaction network enriched for previously identified AD risk genes. These genetic findings provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated innate immune response contributes directly to AD development