Psychology and aggression

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68264/2/10.1177_002200275900300301.pd

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) research agenda for healthcare epidemiology

This SHEA white paper identifies knowledge gaps and challenges in healthcare epidemiology research related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with a focus on core principles of healthcare epidemiology. These gaps, revealed during the worst phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, are described in 10 sections: epidemiology, outbreak investigation, surveillance, isolation precaution practices, personal protective equipment (PPE), environmental contamination and disinfection, drug and supply shortages, antimicrobial stewardship, healthcare personnel (HCP) occupational safety, and return to work policies. Each section highlights three critical healthcare epidemiology research questions with detailed description provided in supplementary materials. This research agenda calls for translational studies from laboratory-based basic science research to well-designed, large-scale studies and health outcomes research. Research gaps and challenges related to nursing homes and social disparities are included. Collaborations across various disciplines, expertise and across diverse geographic locations will be critical

Analysis of thorium-salted fuels to improve uranium utilization in the once-through fuel cycle

Calculations and analyses indicate that no improvement can be achieved in uranium utilization for the once-through LWR fuel cycle over use of slightly enriched uranium by employing thorium distributed with uranium. The study included thorium additions: (1) slight amounts, (2) larger amounts, in either intimately mixed or in duplex pellets, (3) in spectrally shifted or not spectrally shifted reactors, and (4) in three- or five-year reactivity limited exposures. While thorium-uranium combinations improves the initial conversion ratio, the reactivity lifetime was not extended enough to override the additional uranium required. The effective fission cross-section of the bred /sup 233/U relative to /sup 239/Pu's in typical LWR neutron spectra is not large enough for /sup 233/U to make as great a contribution to end-of-life reactivity as /sup 239/Pu in a slightly enriched uranium fuel element. /sup 233/U's reactivity contribution relative to /sup 239/Pu's is lower in fuel configurations such as slightly enriched uranium LWR fuel loads. On the other hand, /sup 233/U's reactivity contribution appears more positive for reactors that involve lower average concentrations of thermal neutron absorbers. If /sup 238/U-thorium fuels reprocessed, the recovered /sup 233/U would increase uranium utilization, but may not reduce fuel cycle costs. The thorium-salted fuels exhibit substantially flatter reactivity characteristics with exposure time. Spectral shift helped the utilization of uranium and thorium

A comprehensive classification system for lipids

Lipids are produced, transported, and recognized by the concerted actions of numerous enzymes, binding proteins, and receptors. A comprehensive analysis of lipid molecules, “lipidomics,” in the context of genomics and proteomics is crucial to understanding cellular physiology and pathology; consequently, lipid biology has become a major research target of the postgenomic revolution and systems biology. To facilitate international communication about lipids, a comprehensive classification of lipids with a common platform that is compatible with informatics requirements has been developed to deal with the massive amounts of data that will be generated by our lipid community. As an initial step in this development, we divide lipids into eight categories (fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides) containing distinct classes and subclasses of molecules, devise a common manner of representing the chemical structures of individual lipids and their derivatives, and provide a 12 digit identifier for each unique lipid molecule. The lipid classification scheme is chemically based and driven by the distinct hydrophobic and hydrophilic elements that compose the lipid. This structured vocabulary will facilitate the systematization of lipid biology and enable the cataloging of lipids and their properties in a way that is compatible with other macromolecular databases