Application of bounding spectra to seismic design of piping based on the performance of above ground piping in power plants subjected to strong motion earthquakes

This report extends the potential application of Bounding Spectra evaluation procedures, developed as part of the A-46 Unresolved Safety Issue applicable to seismic verification of in-situ electrical and mechanical equipment, to in-situ safety related piping in nuclear power plants. The report presents a summary of earthquake experience data which define the behavior of typical U.S. power plant piping subject to strong motion earthquakes. The report defines those piping system caveats which would assure the seismic adequacy of the piping systems which meet those caveats and whose seismic demand are within the bounding spectra input. Based on the observed behavior of piping in strong motion earthquakes, the report describes the capabilities of the piping system to carry seismic loads as a function of the type of connection (i.e. threaded versus welded). This report also discusses in some detail the basic causes and mechanisms for earthquake damages and failures to power plant piping systems

Inadequacy of protein intake in older UK adults

The current dietary recommendation for protein intake in the UK is 0.75 g/kg/day, however, this population-wide recommendation does not necessarily reflect altered requirements for older adults to maintain muscle protein synthesis, nor does it encompass the potential impact of intake timing. Optimal muscle protein synthesis in older adults requires both higher intake requirements and a distribution of protein intake above a 25 g threshold, three times across the day. This study aimed to describe the protein intake of older adults in a UK region and compare the results to recommendations. The study re-assessed two existing datasets with rich diet information for older adults in the South Yorkshire area. Data were extracted from food diaries of 256 adults aged between 65 and 89 years old (mean ± SD 72.4 ± 5.3 years). Quantity and timing of intake were coded using Nutritics software and compared to recommendations. The relationship between body mass index (BMI), age, and protein intake was explored. Fewer than 50% of the participants met current UK recommendations (0.75 g/kg/day) and fewer than 15% met the ESPEN 1.2 g/kg/day age-specific recommendation. Only one participant met the 25 g/meal recommendation across three meals. These findings suggest that the older adult population is not achieving recommendations to maintain muscle protein synthesis. Nonetheless it identifies several straightforward opportunities for improvement, notably elevation of morning intake

Scale setting for alpha_s beyond leading order

We present a general procedure for incorporating higher-order information into the scale-setting prescription of Brodsky, Lepage and Mackenzie. In particular, we show how to apply this prescription when the leading coefficient or coefficients in a series in the strong coupling alpha_s are anomalously small and the original prescription can give an unphysical scale. We give a general method for computing an optimum scale numerically, within dimensional regularization, and in cases when the coefficients of a series are known. We apply it to the heavy quark mass and energy renormalization in lattice NRQCD, and to a variety of known series. Among the latter, we find significant corrections to the scales for the ratio of e+e- to hadrons over muons, the ratio of the quark pole to MSbar mass, the semi-leptonic B-meson decay width, and the top decay width. Scales for the latter two decay widths, expressed in terms of MSbar masses, increase by factors of five and thirteen, respectively, substantially reducing the size of radiative corrections.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, LaTeX2

Decomposition and nutrient release of leguminous plants in coffee agroforestry systems.

Leguminous plants used as green manure are an important nutrient source for coffee plantations, especially for soils with low nutrient levels. Field experiments were conducted in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais State, Brazil to evaluate the decomposition and nutrient release rates of four leguminous species used as green manures (Arachis pintoi, Calopogonium mucunoides, Stizolobium aterrimum and Stylosanthes guianensis) in a coffee agroforestry system under two different climate conditions. The initial N contents in plant residues varied from 25.7 to 37.0 g kg-1 and P from 2.4 to 3.0 g kg-1. The lignin/N, lignin/polyphenol and(lignin+polyphenol)/N ratios were low in all residues studied. Mass loss rates were highest in the first 15 days, when 25 % of the residues were decomposed. From 15 to 30 days, the decomposition rate decreased on both farms. On the farm in Pedra Dourada (PD), the decomposition constant k increased in the order C. mucunoides < S. aterrimum < S. guianensis < A. pintoi. On the farm in Araponga (ARA), there was no difference in the decomposition rate among leguminous plants. The N release rates varied from 0.0036 to 0.0096 d-1. Around 32 % of the total N content in the plant material was released in the first 15 days. In ARA, the N concentration in the S. aterrimum residues was always significantly higher than in the other residues. At the end of 360 days, the N released was 78 % in ARA and 89 % in PD of the initial content. Phosphorus was the most rapidly released nutrient (k values from 0.0165 to 0.0394 d-1). Residue decomposition and nutrient release did not correlate with initial residue chemistry and biochemistry, but differences in climatic conditions between the two study sites modified the decomposition rate constants

Green manure in coffee systems in the region of Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais: characteristics and kinetics of carbon and nitrogen mineralization.

The use of green manure may contribute to reduce soil erosion and increase the soil organic matter content and N availability in coffee plantations in the Zona da Mata, State of Minas Gerais, in Southeastern Brazil. The potential of four legumes (A. pintoi, C. mucunoides, S. aterrimum and S. guianensis)to produce above-ground biomass, accumulate nutrients and mineralize N was studied in two coffee plantations of subsistence farmers under different climate conditions. The biomass production of C. mucunoides was influenced by the shade of the coffee plantation.C. mucunoides tended to mineralize more N than the other legumes due to the low polyphenol content and polyphenol/N ratio. In the first year, the crop establishment of A. pintoi in the area took longer than of the other legumes, resulting in lower biomass production and N2 fixation. In the long term, cellulose was the main factor controlling N mineralization. The biochemical characteristics, nutrient accumulation and biomass production of the legumes were greatly influenced by the altitude and position of the area relative to the sun

Reconstructing anatomy from electro-physiological data

Here we show how it is possible to make estimates of brain structure based on MEG data. We do this by reconstructing functional estimates onto distorted cortical manifolds parameterised in terms of their spherical harmonics. We demonstrate that both empirical and simulated MEG data give rise to consistent and plausible anatomical estimates. Importantly, the estimation of structure from MEG data can be quantified in terms of millimetres from the true brain structure. We show, for simulated data, that the functional assumptions which are closer to the functional ground-truth give rise to anatomical estimates that are closer to the true anatomy

Immune pathways and defence mechanisms in honey bees Apis mellifera

Social insects are able to mount both group-level and individual defences against pathogens. Here we focus on individual defences, by presenting a genome-wide analysis of immunity in a social insect, the honey bee Apis mellifera. We present honey bee models for each of four signalling pathways associated with immunity, identifying plausible orthologues for nearly all predicted pathway members. When compared to the sequenced Drosophila and Anopheles genomes, honey bees possess roughly one-third as many genes in 17 gene families implicated in insect immunity. We suggest that an implied reduction in immune flexibility in bees reflects either the strength of social barriers to disease, or a tendency for bees to be attacked by a limited set of highly coevolved pathogens

Revisiting the scaling of the specific heat of the three-dimensional random-field Ising model

We revisit the scaling behavior of the specific heat of the three-dimensional random-field Ising model with a Gaussian distribution of the disorder. Exact ground states of the model are obtained using graph-theoretical algorithms for different strengths = 268 3 spins. By numerically differentiating the bond energy with respect to h, a specific-heat-like quantity is obtained whose maximum is found to converge to a constant in the thermodynamic limit. Compared to a previous study following the same approach, we have studied here much larger system sizes with an increased statistical accuracy. We discuss the relevance of our results under the prism of a modified Rushbrooke inequality for the case of a saturating specific heat. Finally, as a byproduct of our analysis, we provide high-accuracy estimates of the critical field hc = 2.279(7) and the critical exponent of the correlation exponent ν = 1.37(1), in excellent agreement to the most recent computations in the literature