Reaction of steam with molybdenum is studied

Comprehensive report studies the reaction of flowing steam with refractory metals /in particular molybdenum/, in the temperature range of 1100 degrees C. The reaction products are hydrogen gas and molybdenum oxide vapor

Reaction studied of steam with niobium and tantalum

Study reveals the kinetics of niobium and tantalum with steam at elevated temperatures to determine the suitability of high melting metals for fabrication of equipment for temperature steam environments. Niobium obeyed linear kinetics from 1050 degrees to 1500 degrees C but tantalum followed a paralinear rate law

Power Modelling for Heterogeneous Cloud-Edge Data Centers

Existing power modelling research focuses not on the method used for developing models but rather on the model itself. This paper aims to develop a method for deploying power models on emerging processors that will be used, for example, in cloud-edge data centers. Our research first develops a hardware counter selection method that appropriately selects counters most correlated to power on ARM and Intel processors. Then, we propose a two stage power model that works across multiple architectures. The key results are: (i) the automated hardware performance counter selection method achieves comparable selection to the manual selection methods reported in literature, and (ii) the two stage power model can predict dynamic power more accurately on both ARM and Intel processors when compared to classic power models.Comment: 10 pages,10 figures,conferenc

Soy protein improves cardiovascular risk in subclinical hypothyroidism : a randomized double-blinded crossover study

© 2017 Endocrine Society. Background: Soy protein with isoflavones appears to have an adverse effect on thyroid function, but it is not known whether it is the protein or isoflavone component that is deleterious. The effect of isoflavone-free soy on thyroid function was determined in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism, with a secondary aim of assessing its effect on cardiovascular risk indices. Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, crossover study involving 80 patients with subclinical (compensated) hypothyroidism. Patients were randomly assigned to either isolated soy (isoflavone-free) protein (SP) or casein protein (CP) supplementation for 8 weeks, washed out for 8 weeks, and then crossed over for a further 8-week period. Results: Thyroid function was unaffected by either a SP or CP. There were significant decreases in fasting glucose (4.760.6 vs 5.561.4, P < 0.01), insulin resistance (3.3±3.0 vs 3.8±3.4, P = 0.05), total cholesterol (4.4 ± 0.9 vs 5.3 ± 1.2, P < 0.01), triglycerides (0.9 ± 0.5 vs 1.7 ± 0.9, P < 0.1), and highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP; 0.8 ± 0.7 vs 2.6 ± 2.8, P < 0.01) in the SP group compared with the CP group. Blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein remained unchanged in both groups. Conclusion: SP alone had no effect on thyroid function in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism and resulted in a significant reduction in fasting glucose, insulin resistance, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and hsCRP compared with CP

Pulmonary cavitation in coalworkers' pneumoconiosis: with special reference to the cavitation in the massive fibrotic form of the disease

1). An historical review is given of pulmonary cavitation occurring in coa'ltorkers, pith special reference to the observations of the nineteenth century Scottish physicians.2). Pulmonary cavitation may occur in association with simple pneumoconiosis. Eight such cases admitted to the Pneumoconiosis Research Unit ward between 1946 and 1952 are described. The differential diagnosis is discussed and the management and treatment are considered.3). Cavitation was discovered in 104 patients with progressive massive fibrosis admitted to the ward between the same dates. Of these 104 cases, 26 had tubercle bacilli in the sputum during life and 78 did not, although bacilli were cultured from the lungs of one of them at autopsy. Difficulty in classification may arise from the finding of nonpathogenic acid -fast bacilli in the sputum and the importance of animal inoculation is stressed.4). Fever, loss of weight, toxaemia and an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate are not reliable guides to the differentiation between sputum positive and negative cases of cavitated progressive massive fibrosis because the frequent non -tuberculous respiratory infections in patients with progressive massive fibrosis may affect these clinical findings.5). The prognosis for patient; in the sputum positive group of cavitated progressive massive fibrosis is poor, few surviving for more than two years after the appearance of tubercle bacilli in the sputum. In the absence of a positive sputum the prognosis for patients with cavitated progressive massive fibrosis is no vorse than for non-cavitated progressive massive fibrosis.6). Treatment is unsatisfactory but the sputum positive cases should be given anti-tuberculous drugs for the symptomatic benefit which they frequently confer. In sputum negative cases cavitation is of little clinical significance and such cases only require reassurance and possibly symptomatic treatment.7) . The nature and pathogenesis of coalworkers' pneumoconiosis are discussed. It is considered that simple pneumoconiosis is a pure coal dust effect. Progressive massive fibrosis occurs in lungs which already contain a certain amount of coal dust and is probably the result of some additional factor. There is evidence that this factor is tuberculous infection but the hypothesis remains unproven. Cavitation often occurs in massive fibrosis and it appears to be due to two basic processes, tuberculosis or ischaemic necrosis, acting alone or in combination

The effect of atorvastatin on pancreatic beta cell requirement in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background There is an increased risk of developing T2DM in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and there is evidence that statins improve metabolic parameters in these patients. However, there is some data to show that statins increase the risk of incipient diabetes. Material and Methods We have previously shown that 12-weeks of atorvastatin improves insulin resistance when measured using HOMA-IR. This post hoc-analysis was designed to look at the effect of atorvastatin on pancreatic β cell function using HOMA-β in the same study. In this randomised, double blind placebo controlled study, 40 medication naïve patients with PCOS were randomized to either atorvastatin 20 mg daily or placebo for 3 months. A 3-month extension study for both groups of patients was undertaken with metformin 1500 mg daily after completing initial 3 months of atorvastatin or placebo. Results There was a significant reduction in HOMA-β (240±3.2vs.177±2.3; pvalue&lt;0.01) after 12 weeks of atorvastatin treatment which was maintained by metformin in the subsequent 12 weeks. There were no changes in HOMA-β after the placebo or after subsequent metformin treatment. There was no linear correlation between reduction in HOMA-β with improvement of free androgen index (FAI) (r2=0.02;p=0.72), testosterone (r2=0.13;p=0.49), SHBG (r2=0.22;p=0.48), hsCRP (r2=0.19;p=0.64), triglycerides (r2=0.09;p=0.12), total cholesterol (r2=0.11;p=0.32) or LDL-C (r2=0.19;p=0.38). Conclusion Treatment with atorvastatin for 12 weeks in women with PCOS significantly reduced HOMA-β. This could be potentially due to fall in βcell requirement with improvement of insulin resistance rather than a reduction of βcell function

Alternative Methods of Grading One or More Multiple Choice Examinations

This paper describes the use of the standardized score in grading multiple choices examinations by computer. Since standardized scores make no allowance for guessing, it is recommended that the percent of questions known be used instead, and that a student who correctly answers significantly fewer than a predetermined number of questions be given a failing grade