Reflections After a Trip to Chicago

It is very important that we rebuild the horrible American ghettoes and make them habitable. The inner cities of this country must no longer be ignored. Instead of saying, Oh, isn\u27t it a shame , it is up to us as a nation to form communities where pride and dedication-rather than laziness and despair-form the most admirable role models

The use of building simulation within an architectural practice

This paper documents the development and implementation and use of simulation within an architectural practice and reports how its use facilitates the practice's commitment to Sustainable Design

Experience of using building simulation within the design process of an architectural practice

This paper documents work that follows on from a previous study [Morbitzer et al 2001] on the implementation of a simulation-tool into anarchitectural practice at outline design stage. Theuse of simulation is now pervasively and routinely undertaken by designers within the company toevaluate energy and environmental performance oftheir design concepts. The paper documents the changes to the interface, based on the feedback from designers. It includes a case study of how these improvements have impacted on the degree-of-use of the simulation tool by designers, the impact of the tool on the design process and the design outcome, a discussion on the development of the simulation tool, and the issues facing the architectural practice with use of simulation

Rapid Diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis by Testing Vaginal Swabs in an Isothermal Helicase-Dependent AmpliVue Assay

The AmpliVue™ Trichomonas Assay (Quidel) is a new FDA cleared rapid test for qualitative detection of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) DNA in female vaginal specimens. The assay is based on BioHelix’s Helicase-Dependent Amplification (HDA) isothermal technology in conjunction with a disposable lateral-flow detection device, with a total turn-around time of approximately 45 minutes

Boron in Very Metal-Poor Stars

We have observed the B I 2497 A line to derive the boron abundances of two very metal-poor stars selected to help in tracing the origin and evolution of this element in the early Galaxy: BD +23 3130 and HD 84937. The observations were conducted using the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. A very detailed abundance analysis via spectral synthesis has been carried out for these two stars, as well as for two other metal-poor objects with published spectra, using both Kurucz and OSMARCS model photospheres, and taking into account consistently the NLTE effects on the line formation. We have also re-assessed all published boron abundances of old disk and halo unevolved stars. Our analysis shows that the combination of high effective temperature (Teff > 6000 K, for which boron is mainly ionized) and low metallicity ([Fe/H]<-1) makes it difficult to obtain accurate estimates of boron abundances from the B I 2497 A line. This is the case of HD 84937 and three other published objects (including two stars with [Fe/H] ~ -3), for which only upper limits can be established. BD +23 3130, with [Fe/H] ~ -2.9 and logN(B)_NLTE=0.05+/-0.30, appears then as the most metal-poor star for which a firm measurement of the boron abundance presently exists. The evolution of the boron abundance with metallicity that emerges from the seven remaining stars with Teff < 6000 K and [Fe/H]<-1, for which beryllium abundances were derived using the same stellar parameters, shows a linear increase with a slope ~ 1. Furthermore, the B/Be ratio found is constant at a value ~ 20 for stars in the range -3<[Fe/H]<-1. These results point to spallation reactions of ambient protons and alpha particles with energetic particles enriched in CNO as the origin of boron and beryllium in halo stars.Comment: 38 pages, 11 Encapsulated Postscript figures (included), uses aaspp4.sty. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. The preprint is also available at: http://www.iac.es/publicaciones/preprints.htm