Two-stage combustion for reducing pollutant emissions from gas turbine combustors

Combustion and emission results are presented for a premix combustor fueled with admixtures of JP5 with neat H2 and of JP5 with simulated partial-oxidation product gas. The combustor was operated with inlet-air state conditions typical of cruise power for high performance aviation engines. Ultralow NOx, CO and HC emissions and extended lean burning limits were achieved simultaneously. Laboratory scale studies of the non-catalyzed rich-burning characteristics of several paraffin-series hydrocarbon fuels and of JP5 showed sooting limits at equivalence ratios of about 2.0 and that in order to achieve very rich sootless burning it is necessary to premix the reactants thoroughly and to use high levels of air preheat. The application of two-stage combustion for the reduction of fuel NOx was reviewed. An experimental combustor designed and constructed for two-stage combustion experiments is described

Teachers\u27 perceptions of computer technology\u27s impact upon student achievement

The purpose of this study was to determine if computer technology is an effective tool for raising student achievement in education. Much of the related research indicated there is a pressing need for educators, at both the school site and district levels, to develop accurate assessment tools to accurately determine the most effective use of computers as it applies to instructional technology

Effects of Planting Date and Hybrid Maturity on Moisture Stress in Corn

A two-year (2011 and 2012) study was conducted at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Farm near College Station, Texas, to examine the effects of planting date and hybrid maturity on moisture stress in corn (Zea mays L.). The objective of this research was to determine the interactive effects of these factors on corn physiological processes, development, growth and yield in southcentral Texas. Treatments consisted of two irrigation strategies (dryland and irrigated), three planting dates (25-Feb, 10-Mar, and 25-Mar), and four hybrid relative maturities (117 day, 111 day, 95 day, and 83 day). Plants were evaluated at three different growth stages (R1, R3 and R5), with several physiological parameters measured, including: photosynthetic activity, chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf temperature, and yield. Photosynthetic activity was the rate of stored carbon assimilate measured with a LI-COR 6400. Chlorophyll fluorescence was the quantum efficiency of photosystem II measured with a PAM-2100. Leaf temperature was measured with SmartCrop infrared canopy temperature sensors and data was represented as canopy temperature less ambient air temperature (canopy temperature depression). Significant differences due to treatment occurred for all the above parameters. Measurements taken at the R1 growth stage provided little insight relative to plant stress. Canopy temperature depression was more indicative of stress than actual leaf temperature. Irrigation provided greater yield, height, and photosynthetic activity. In general, later planting and longer maturing hybrids increased grain yield

Regeneration of the Ventricular Endocardium Within Acellular Whole Rabbit Hearts Using a Layer-by-Layer Seeding Method

In the United States, 1 out of every 9 death certificates in 2013 referenced heart failure.1 Despite the outstanding need of treatment options for heart failure, heart transplantation remains the optimal treatment method. However, there is a severe shortage of donor hearts available for transplantation.2 Other available treatment options are not ideal because they do not fully restore function and are associated with creating other complications.3 Thus, there is a need for developing a living tissue engineered whole heart for transplantation to provide an alternative option for patients on the waitlist to receive a donor heart. Our solution is to create acellular myocardial tissue scaffolds seeded with autologous cells corresponding to the patient’s heart. Once the cell seeded scaffold is conditioned and prepared to support life, it would not elicit an immune response post-implantation. The goal of this project is to reconstitute the endocardium in both ventricles of decellularized rabbit myocardium with clinically relevant cell types and hydrogels. We first developed a bi-ventricle perfusion decellularization procedure which yielded fully acellular hearts. The shape, architecture, and most of the extracellular matrix components of the scaffolds were preserved. Some minor drawbacks included partial removal of the basal lamina components and increased scaffold porosity. Next, we performed a series of cell seeding and hydrogel infusion experiments to develop a procedure for delivering the necessary components for rebuilding the endocardium. To help us reach our goal, several devices were designed and developed along the way including a 3-D printed stand and funnel for gravitational seeding and a rotational bioreactor system. Our final procedure utilized a layer-by-layer method for administering human endothelial cells, human fibroblast cells, collagen hydrogel, and fibrin hydrogel. Using different analysis techniques, we found hydrogels infused onto the surfaces of the ventricle cavities and cells affectively adhered to the linings of ventricles while remaining active through secreting matrix proteins. However, we could not fully cover the entire surfaces of the ventricles with our tissue engineered endocardium. Future work will be geared towards developing a uniform inner lining of the ventricles. References for abstract 1. Mozaffarian, D. et al. Executive summary: Heart disease and stroke statistics-2016 update: A Report from the American Heart Association. Circulation 133, 447–454 (2016). 2. Transplant Trends. Available at: https://www.unos.org/data/transplant-trends/. (Accessed: 15th December 2017) 3. Momtahan, N., Sukavaneshvar, S., Roeder, B. L. & Cook, A. D. Strategies and Processes to Decellularize and Recellularize Hearts to Generate Functional Organs and Reduce the Risk of Thrombosis. Tissue Eng. Part B Rev. 21, 115–132 (2015)

Sensitizing Pancreatic Cancer to Gemcitabine Through Sphingosine Kinase 2 Inhibition

Pancreatic cancer is extraordinarily resistant to chemotherapy. With current treatment options on average extending life by less than a year, advancements in sensitizing tumors to chemotherapy are a must. The combination of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel is the current standard of care for treating pancreatic cancer. Resistance to both of these drugs can occur through deregulation of the NFMκB pathway, MAPK pathway, Bcl-2 family members, as well as the balance of sphingolipids. More importantly, resistance to gemcitabine occurs through aberrations in its metabolism – mainly overexpression of the M2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase. Additionally, overexpression of the transcription factor c-Myc has been shown to contribute to gemcitabine resistance. The specific sphingosine kinase 2 inhibitor ABC294640 has previously been shown to diminish the activation of ERK1/2 and NFMκB as well as alter the balance of Bcl-2 family members, thereby promoting cell death. ABC294640 can also diminish c-Myc protein levels. Preliminary studies revealed that ABC294640 synergized with both gemcitabine and paclitaxel in vitro in three pancreatic cancer cell lines. This led me to propose the central hypothesis that inhibition of nuclear SphK2 by ABC294640 synergizes with gemcitabine in different cell types by alteration of one or more common pathways that can be traceable to a common S1P mediated signaling event. Specific Aim 1 was to determine whether ABC294640 synergizes with gemcitabine through inhibition of the growth pathways known to promote gemcitabine resistance or alteration of the expression ratios of Bcl-2 family. Specific Aim 2 was to determine whether ABC294640 synergizes with gemcitabine by altering gemcitabine metabolism. In tracing the mechanism of the synergistic cell killing produced by the combination of ABC294640 and gemcitabine it was discovered that ABC294640 had no consistent impact on the NF-κB and MAPK pathways nor did it alter the ratio of Bcl-2 family members. However, treatment with ABC294640 decreased RRM2 and MYC transcript as well as their protein expression in three pancreatic cancer cell lines (BxPC-3, MiaPaCa-2, and Panc-1). Inhibition of RRM2 and c-Myc was shown to occur as a result of increased histone acetylation, which lead to increased expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21. p21 prevents cyclinD/cdk4/6 mediated phosphorylation of Rb preventing release of the E2F transcription factors, thereby diminishing the transcription of its target genes two of which are RRM2 and MYC. ABC294640 caused a reduction in transcription of these genes. Due to the requirement of E2F in cell cycle progression, ABC294640 also caused G1 arrest in three pancreatic cancer cell lines. These data led to a model in which inhibition of SphK2 by ABC294640 in the nucleus leads to inhibition of histone deacetylase activity because of loss of nuclear S1P and/or elevation of nuclear sphingosine levels. The rise in histone acetylation leads to an increase in p21, which binds CDK/Cyclin-D1 complexes preventing the phosphorylation of Rb. Hypophosphorylated Rb sequesters the transcription factor E2F suppressing the expression of E2F target genes such as MYC and RRM2. This results in a decrease in proliferative signaling and an inhibition of cancer growth

After The Death Of God: From Political Nihilism To Post-Foundational Democracy

The topic of this dissertation is Heideggers deconstruction of metaphysics viewed through the prism of Nietzsches declaration that God is dead. I argue that Nietzsches transvaluation of value remains ensnared by the will to power and the nihilistic destiny of the eternal return. I look at Heideggers late thought as a response to the disenchantment of nature and the technological framing of Earth. I argue that the delineation of a non-instrumental way life requires a political turn that is quite different from Heideggers own conservative nationalism. While the post-structuralist appropriation of Heideggers late thought makes some tentative moves towards a post-foundational democracy, I argue that the deconstruction of political community stemming from Derrida, Levinas, and Nancy fails to adequately deal with the question of democratic sovereignty. In light of this inadequacy, I take up the political theory of Benjamin, Schmitt, and Agamben in order to further delineate a negative political theology without reference to any metaphysical grounding of sovereign power. Essential to such a politics is the non-linear experience of time as event. I contrast Benjamins notion of empty homogenous time with Agambens analysis of non-linear revolutionary time. I suggest that the eschatological remembrance of democracy requires an interruption of history as a linear sequence of time. Against the instrumental framing of democracy, I advocate for the decentralization of sovereignty to local modes of participatory self-government such as general assemblies, councils, and cooperatives

Evaluation of event data recorders in real world crashes and full-scale crash tests

With the advent of advanced safety systems in U.S. passenger vehicles, there has been increased interest shown by automakers in recording crash related parameters that ultimately lead to the deployment of these safety systems in what are known as Event Data Recorders (EDRs). Since the only other record of these parameters, specifically crash pulse, comes from staged crash tests in a controlled environment, the advent of the EDR has become increasingly important to crash researchers. The purpose of this study is to quantify the performance of EDRs in full-scale crash tests and real world crashes. Comparison of EDRs with staged crash tests included 6 General Motors vehicles. The EDRs performed well in staged crash tests reporting delta-V accurately in five of six tests. They were able to report other crash related parameters such as driver seat belt and airbag deployment status accurately in five of six tests as well. Comparison of EDRs with real world accident reconstructions was performed for 315 General Motors cases and 10 Ford cases from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (NASS / CDS) database. Computer generated (WinSmash) values for delta-V showed the tendency to underestimate delta-V for high-speed deployment events and overestimate delta-V for low-speed nondeployment events when compared to the GM EDR. The Ford EDR showed a lack of sufficient recording duration to draw any concrete conclusions on the accuracy of its delta-V value

DEVELOPING THE SACRED: Local & Global Bikas in the Nepali Bhotkhola

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of bikas on community and culture. Research was conducted from 9-30 November 2010 in the Bhotia village Chyamtang in the Sankhuwasabha district of Northeastern Nepal. The forms of development observed at the site are separated into local bikas and global bikas, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Research focused on a two-year old development project initiated by The Mountain Institute (TMI) using medicinal plant cultivation and community participation. Methods for studying Bhotia culture and development took the form of interviews with local healers, religious figures, farmers, and TMI staff. While ancient, their culture is as fragile as it has ever been and is threatened with extinction, much like chiraito in recent years, the medicinal plant that is being used for local development. In this way, by respecting Bhotia’s culture sanctity, recognizing their need for economic development, and making the people their own change agents, this project is helping to preserve their culture during this collision of global ideas that is pushing and pulling apart indigenous cultures

An investigation into pharmaceutically relevant mutagenicity data and the influence on Ames predictive potential

Mutagenicity presents a challenging problem in modeling despite the addition of modern prediction methods and easier access to data. Previous studies have focused mainly on treatment of all mutagenic compound classes, while some have focused on a very small sets of alerting compounds such as aromatic amines with quantitative mutagenicity data. Data currently available at Novartis provide a large, unique set of mutagenicity data originating from one laboratory, providing compounds connected to the discovery and production of medicinal compounds rather than compounds associated with agricultural, environmental and foodstuff concern. We were especially interested in predicting the The performance of commonly used descriptors and methods performed quite poorly for the set of aromatic amines, while using the reaction energy to produce a reactive intermediate provides a prediction accuracy of at least 70% across multiple data sets. Whereas many papers have represented the study of aromatic amines and Ames results as a platform for study of prediction methods with good performance, we show that the set is quite difficult. The performance of methods in our hands will be compared with previously compiled datasets and reported models

Potential Crop Evapotranspiration and Surface Evaporation Estimates via a Gridded Weather Forcing Dataset

Absent local weather stations, a gridded weather dataset can provide information useful for water management in irrigated areas including potential crop evapotranspiration calculations. In estimating crop irrigation requirements and surface evaporation in Utah, United States of America, methodology and software were developed using the ASCE Standardized Penman-Monteith Reference Evapotranspiration equation with input climate drivers from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) gridded weather forcing dataset and a digital elevation model. A simple procedure was devised to correct bias in NLDAS relative humidity and air temperature data based on comparison to weather data from ground stations. Potential evapotranspiration was calculated for 18 crops (including turfgrass), wetlands (large and narrow), and open water evaporation (deep and shallow) by multiplying crop coefficient curves to reference evapotranspiration with annual curve dates set by summation of Hargreaves evapotranspiration, cumulative growing degree days, or number of days. Net potential evapotranspiration was calculated by subtracting effective precipitation estimates from the Daymet gridded precipitation dataset. Analysis of the results showed that daily estimated potential crop evapotranspiration from the model compared well with estimates from electronic weather stations (1980–2014) and with independently calculated potential crop evapotranspiration in adjacent states. Designed for this study but open sourced for other applications, software entitled GridET encapsulated the GIS-based model that provided data download and management, calculation of reference and potential crop evapotranspiration, and viewing and analysis tools. Flexible features in GridET allows a user to specify grid resolution, evapotranspiration equations, cropping information, and additional datasets with the output being transferable to other GIS software