517 research outputs found
Risk-Informed design process of the IRIS reactor
Westinghouse is currently conducting the pre-application licensing of the International Reactor Innovative and
Secure (IRIS). The design philosophy of the IRIS has been based on the concept of Safety-by-DesignTM and within this
framework the PSA is being used as an integral part of the design process. The basis for the PSA contribution to the design
phase of the reactor is the close iteration between the PSA team and the design and safety analysis team. In this process the
design team is not only involved in the initial phase of providing system information to the PSA team, allowing in this way the
identification of the high risk scenarios, but it is also receiving feedback from the PSA team that suggests design modification
aimed at reaching risk-related goals.
During the first iteration of this process, the design modifications proposed by the PSA team allowed reducing the initial
estimate of Core Damage Frequency (CDF) due to internal events from 2E-6/ry to 2E-8/ry. Since the IRIS design is still in a
development phase, a number of assumptions have to be confirmed when the design is finalized.
Among key assumptions are the success criteria for both the accident sequences analyzed and the systems involved in the
mitigation strategies. The PSA team developed the initial accident sequence event trees according to the information from
the preliminary analysis and feasibility studies. A recent coupling between the RELAP and GOTHIC codes made possible the
actual simulation of all LOCA sequences identified in the first draft of the Event Trees. Working in close coordination, the
PSA and the safety analysis teams developed a matrix case of sequences not only with the purpose of testing the assumed
success criteria, but also with the perspective of identifying alternative sequences developed mainly by relaxing the extremely
conservative assumptions previously made.
The results of these simulations, bounded themselves with conservative assumptions on the Core Damage definition,
suggested two new versions of the LOCA Event Tree with two possible configurations of the Automatic Depressurization
System. The new CDF has been evaluated for both configurations and the design team has been provided with an additional
and risk-related perspective that will help choosing the design alternative to be implemented
A Stimulated Raman Loss spectrometer for metrological studies of quadrupole lines of hydrogen isotopologues
We discuss layout and performance of a high-resolution Stimulated Raman Loss
spectrometer that has been newly developed for accurate studies of spectral
lineshapes and line center frequencies of hydrogen isotopologues and in general
of Raman active transitions. Thanks to the frequency comb calibration of the
detuning between pump and Stokes lasers and to an active alignment of the two
beams, the frequency accuracy is well below 100 kHz. Over the vertical axis the
spectrometer benefits from shot-noise limited detection, signal enhancement via
multipass cell, active flattening of the spectral baseline and measurement
times of few seconds over spectral spans larger than 10 GHz. Under these
conditions an efficient averaging of Raman spectra is possible over long
measurement times with minimal distortion of spectral lineshapes. By changing
the pump laser, transitions can be covered in a very broad frequency span, from
50 to 5000 , including both vibrational and rotational bands.
The spectrometer has been developed for studies of fundamental and collisional
physics of hydrogen isotopologues and has been recently applied to the
metrology of the Q(1) 1-0 line of
Morphometric analysis of hepatocellular nodular lesions in HCV cirrhosis
Background and aims. We generated a computerized morphometric model to evaluate and quantify the morphological features in large regenerative nodules (LRN), high-grade dysplastic nodules (HGDN) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods. Sixteen LRN, 10 HGDN and 16 HCC in HCV-cirrhotic livers, were stained with H&E, smooth muscle actin, CD34, CD31 and reticulin to evaluate volume and surface fractions.
Results. On H&E stains, the features most discriminatory between LRN, HGDN and HCC were volume fraction and number of hepatocytes nuclei in unit volume, and hepatocyte nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio. On immunohistochemistry, volume fractions of capillarised sinusoids, capillary units and isolated arteries were significantly different among all groups and highest in HCC; surface fraction of reticulin was markedly decreased in HCC.
Conclusions. Our morphometric model is an objective method of quantification of the morphological changes of the nodular lesions and it could be applied in studies involving histological evaluation of the spectrum of nodular lesions arising in the cirrhotic liver
Time efficiency and efficacy of a centralized computer-aided-design/computer-aided-manufacturing workflow for implant crown fabrication: A prospective controlled clinical study
OBJECTIVE
To assess time efficiency and the efficacy of the prosthetic manufacturing for implant crown fabrication in a centralized workflow applying computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM).
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Fifty-nine patients with one posterior implant each, were randomly allocated to either a centralized digital workflow (c-DW, test) or a laboratory digital workflow (l-DW, control). Patients were excluded from efficiency and efficacy analyses, if any additional restoration than this single implant crown had to be fabricated. A customized titanium abutment and a monolithic zirconia crown were fabricated in the c-DW. In the l-DW, models were digitalized for CAD-CAM fabrication of a monolithic zirconia crown using a standardized titanium base abutment. Time for impression, laboratory operating and delivery time were recorded. The efficacy of the prosthetic manufacturing was evaluated at try-in and at delivery. Data was analyzed descriptively. Statistical analyses using student's unpaired t- and paired Wilcoxon were performed (p < 0.05).
RESULTS
At impression taking, 12 patients (c-DW) and 19 patients (l-DW) were included. The impression time was 9.4±3.5 min (c-DW) and 15.1 ± 4.6 min (l-DW) (p < 0.05). The laboratory operating time was 130 ± 31 min (c-DW) and 218.0±8 min (l-DW) (p < 0.05). The delivery time was significantly longer in the c-DW (5.9 ± 3.5 1 days) as compared to the l-DW (0.5±0.05 days). At try-in and at delivery, efficacy of prosthetic manufacturing was similar high in both workflows.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The c-DW was more time efficient compared to the lab-DW and rendered a similar efficacy of prosthetic manufacturing
Treatment options for localised renal cell carcinoma of the transplanted kidney
Currently, there is no consensus among the transplant community about the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) of the transplanted kidney. Until recently, graftectomy was universally considered the golden standard, regardless of the characteristics of the neoplasm. Due to the encouraging results observed in native kidneys, conservative options such as nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) (enucleation and partial nephrectomy) and ablative therapy (radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, microwave ablation, high-intensity focused ultrasound, and irreversible electroporation) have been progressively used in carefully selected recipients with early-stage allograft RCC. Available reports show excellent patient survival, optimal oncological outcome, and preserved renal function with acceptable complication rates. Nevertheless, the rarity and the heterogeneity of the disease, the number of options available, and the lack of long-term follow-up data do not allow to adequately define treatment-specific advantages and limitations. The role of active surveillance and immunosuppression management remain also debated. In order to offer a better insight into this difficult topic and to help clinicians choose the best therapy for their patients, we performed and extensive review of the literature. We focused on epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnostic work up, staging strategies, tumour characteristics, treatment modalities, and follow-up protocols. Our research confirms that both NSS and focal ablation represent a valuable alternative to graftectomy for kidney transplant recipients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stage T1aN0M0 RCC. Data on T1bN0M0 lesions are scarce but suggest extra caution. Properly designed multi-centre prospective clinical trials are warranted
Superprocesses as models for information dissemination in the Future Internet
Future Internet will be composed by a tremendous number of potentially
interconnected people and devices, offering a variety of services, applications
and communication opportunities. In particular, short-range wireless
communications, which are available on almost all portable devices, will enable
the formation of the largest cloud of interconnected, smart computing devices
mankind has ever dreamed about: the Proximate Internet. In this paper, we
consider superprocesses, more specifically super Brownian motion, as a suitable
mathematical model to analyse a basic problem of information dissemination
arising in the context of Proximate Internet. The proposed model provides a
promising analytical framework to both study theoretical properties related to
the information dissemination process and to devise efficient and reliable
simulation schemes for very large systems
The impact of environmental effects on AGN: a decline in the incidence of ionized outflows
AGN have been generally considered to be less frequent in denser environments
due to the lower number of galaxy-galaxy interactions and/or the removal of
their gas-rich reservoirs by the dense intergalactic medium. However, recent
observational and theoretical works suggest that the effect of ram-pressure
stripping might reduce the angular momentum of their gas, causing it to infall
towards the super massive black hole (SMBH) at their centre, activating the AGN
phase. In this work we explore the connection between environment and nuclear
activity by evaluating the variation in the incidence of ionized outflows in
AGN across different environments. We select a sample of optical AGN
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 13 that we match with the group
catalogue from Lim et al. 2017. We further probe their environment through the
projected distance to the central galaxy of the group/cluster and the projected
surface density to the 5th neighbour (). We find that at lower masses
(M), the fraction of ionized outflows is significantly
lower in satellite (%) than in isolated (%) AGN. The fraction of
outflows in all satellite AGN decreases towards closer distances to the
central, whereas only the lower-mass ones display a significant decline with
. Although this study does not include AGN in the densest regions of
galaxy clusters, our findings suggest that AGN in dense environments accrete
less gas than those in the field potentially due to the removal of the gas
reservoirs via stripping or starvation, consistent with a negative connection
between environment and AGN activity. We propose that the observed change in
the incidence of outflows towards denser regions of groups and clusters could
contribute to the higher gas metallicities of cluster galaxies compared to
field ones, especially at lower masses.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
On Kaluza's sign criterion for reciprocal power series
T. Kaluza has given a criterion for the signs of the power series of a
function that is the reciprocal of another power series. In this note the
sharpness of this condition is explored and various examples in terms of the
Gaussian hypergeometric series are given. A criterion for the monotonicity of
the quotient of two power series due to M. Biernacki and J. Krzy\.z is applied.Comment: 13 page
Opa1 overexpression ameliorates the phenotype of two mitochondrial disease mouse models
SummaryIncreased levels of the mitochondria-shaping protein Opa1 improve respiratory chain efficiency and protect from tissue damage, suggesting that it could be an attractive target to counteract mitochondrial dysfunction. Here we show that Opa1 overexpression ameliorates two mouse models of defective mitochondrial bioenergetics. The offspring from crosses of a constitutive knockout for the structural complex I component Ndufs4 (Ndufs4â/â), and of a muscle-specific conditional knockout for the complex IV assembly factor Cox15 (Cox15sm/sm), with Opa1 transgenic (Opa1tg) mice showed improved motor skills and respiratory chain activities compared to the naive, non-Opa1-overexpressing, models. While the amelioration was modest in Ndufs4â/â::Opa1tg mice, correction of cristae ultrastructure and mitochondrial respiration, improvement of motor performance and prolongation of lifespan were remarkable in Cox15sm/sm::Opa1tg mice. Mechanistically, respiratory chain supercomplexes were increased in Cox15sm/sm::Opa1tg mice, and residual monomeric complex IV was stabilized. In conclusion, cristae shape amelioration by controlled Opa1 overexpression improves two mouse models of mitochondrial disease
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