Cogeneration Technology Alternatives Study (CTAS). Volume 3: Industrial processes

Cogenerating electric power and process heat in single energy conversion systems rather than separately in utility plants and in process boilers is examined in terms of cost savings. The use of various advanced energy conversion systems are examined and compared with each other and with current technology systems for their savings in fuel energy, costs, and emissions in individual plants and on a national level. About fifty industrial processes from the target energy consuming sectors were used as a basis for matching a similar number of energy conversion systems that are considered as candidate which can be made available by the 1985 to 2000 time period. The sectors considered included food, textiles, lumber, paper, chemicals, petroleum, glass, and primary metals. The energy conversion systems included steam and gas turbines, diesels, thermionics, stirling, closed cycle and steam injected gas turbines, and fuel cells. Fuels considered were coal, both coal and petroleum based residual and distillate liquid fuels, and low Btu gas obtained through the on site gasification of coal. An attempt was made to use consistent assumptions and a consistent set of ground rules specified by NASA for determining performance and cost. Data and narrative descriptions of the industrial processes are given

Structures and Reactivity Patterns of Group 9 Metallocorroles

Group 9 metallocorroles 1-M(PPh_3) and 1-M(py)_2 [M = Co(III), Rh(III), Ir(III); 1 denotes the trianion of 5,10,15-tris-pentafluorophenylcorrole] have been fully characterized by structural, spectroscopic, and electrochemical methods. Crystal structure analyses reveal that average metal−N(pyrrole) bond lengths of the bis-pyridine metal(III) complexes increase from Co (1.886 Å) to Rh (1.957 Å)/Ir (1.963 Å); and the average metal−N(pyridine) bond lengths also increase from Co (1.995 Å) to Rh (2.065 Å)/Ir (2.059 Å). Ligand affinities for 1-M(PPh_3) axial coordination sites increase dramatically in the order 1-Co(PPh_3) < 1-Rh(PPh_3) < 1-Ir(PPh_3). There is a surprising invariance in the M(+/0) reduction potentials within the five- and six-coordinate corrole series, and even between them; the average M(+/0) potential of 1-M(PPh_3) is 0.78 V vs Ag/AgCl in CH_2Cl_2 solution, whereas that of 1-M(py)_2 is 0.70 V under the same conditions. Electronic structures of one-electron-oxidized 1-M(py)_2 complexes have been assigned by analysis of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopic measurements: oxidation is corrole-centered for 1-Co(py)_2 (g = 2.008) and 1-Rh(py)_2 (g = 2.003), and metal-centered for 1-Ir(tma)_2 (g_(zz) = 2.489, g_(yy) = 2.010, g_(xx) = 1.884, g_(av) = 2.128) and 1-Ir(py)_2 (g_(zz) = 2.401, g_(yy) = 2.000, g_(xx) = 1.937, g_(av) = 2.113)

Study of combustion experiments in space

The physical bases and scientific merits were examined of combustion experimentation in a space environment. For a very broad range of fundamental combustion problems, extensive and systematic experimentation at reduced gravitational levels (0 g 1) are viewed as essential to the development of needed observations and related theoretical understanding

Iodinated Aluminum(III) Corroles with Long-Lived Triplet Excited States

The first reported iodination of a corrole leads to selective functionalization of the four C–H bonds on one pole of the macrocycle. An aluminum(III) complex of the tetraiodinated corrole, which exhibits red fluorescence, possesses a long-lived triplet excited state

Proposal for an IMLS Collection Registry and Metadata Repository

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposes to design, implement, and research a collection-level registry and item-level metadata repository service that will aggregate information about digital collections and items of digital content created using funds from Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants. This work will be a collaboration by the University Library and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. All extant digital collections initiated or augmented under IMLS aegis from 1998 through September 30, 2005 will be included in the proposed collection registry. Item-level metadata will be harvested from collections making such content available using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI PMH). As part of this work, project personnel, in cooperation with IMLS staff and grantees, will define and document appropriate metadata schemas, help create and maintain collection-level metadata records, assist in implementing OAI compliant metadata provider services for dissemination of item-level metadata records, and research potential benefits and issues associated with these activities. The immediate outcomes of this work will be the practical demonstration of technologies that have the potential to enhance the visibility of IMLS funded online exhibits and digital library collections and improve discoverability of items contained in these resources. Experience gained and research conducted during this project will make clearer both the costs and the potential benefits associated with such services. Metadata provider and harvesting service implementations will be appropriately instrumented (e.g., customized anonymous transaction logs, online questionnaires for targeted user groups, performance monitors). At the conclusion of this project we will submit a final report that discusses tasks performed and lessons learned, presents business plans for sustaining registry and repository services, enumerates and summarizes potential benefits of these services, and makes recommendations regarding future implementations of these and related intermediary and end user interoperability services by IMLS projects.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Low-rank longitudinal factor regression

Developmental epidemiology commonly focuses on assessing the association between multiple early life exposures and childhood health. Statistical analyses of data from such studies focus on inferring the contributions of individual exposures, while also characterizing time-varying and interacting effects. Such inferences are made more challenging by correlations among exposures, nonlinearity, and the curse of dimensionality. Motivated by studying the effects of prenatal bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalate exposures on glucose metabolism in adolescence using data from the ELEMENT study, we propose a low-rank longitudinal factor regression (LowFR) model for tractable inference on flexible longitudinal exposure effects. LowFR handles highly-correlated exposures using a Bayesian dynamic factor model, which is fit jointly with a health outcome via a novel factor regression approach. The model collapses on simpler and intuitive submodels when appropriate, while expanding to allow considerable flexibility in time-varying and interaction effects when supported by the data. After demonstrating LowFR's effectiveness in simulations, we use it to analyze the ELEMENT data and find that diethyl and dibutyl phthalate metabolite levels in trimesters 1 and 2 are associated with altered glucose metabolism in adolescence

Electronic Structures of Group 9 Metallocorroles with Axial Ammines

The electronic structures of metallocorroles (tpfc)M(NH_3)_2 and (tfc)M(NH_3)_2 (tpfc is the trianion of 5,10,15-(tris)pentafluorophenylcorrole, tfc is the trianion of 5,10,15-trifluorocorrole, and M = Co, Rh, Ir) have been computed using first principles quantum mechanics [B3LYP flavor of Density Functional Theory (DFT) with Poisson−Boltzmann continuum solvation]. The geometry was optimized for both the neutral systems (formal M^(III) oxidation state) and the one-electron oxidized systems (formally M^(IV)). As expected, the M^(III) systems have a closed shell d^6 configuration; for all three metals, the one-electron oxidation was calculated to occur from a ligand-based orbital (highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of B_1 symmetry). The ground state of the formal M^(IV) system has M^(III)-Cπ character, indicating that the metal remains d^6, with the hole in the corrole π system. As a result the calculated M^(IV/III) reduction potentials are quite similar (0.64, 0.67, and 0.56 V vs SCE for M = Ir, Rh and Co, respectively), whereas the differences would have been large for purely metal-based oxidations. Vertically excited states with substantial metal character are well separated from the ground state in one-electron-oxidized cobalt (0.27 eV) and rhodium (0.24 eV) corroles, but become closer in energy in the iridium (0.15 eV) analogues. The exact splittings depend on the chosen functional and basis set combination and vary by ~0.1 eV

A genome-wide association study suggests an association of Chr8p21.3 (GFRA2) with diabetic neuropathic pain

BACKGROUND: Neuropathic pain, caused by a lesion or a disease affecting the somatosensory system, is one of the most common complications in diabetic patients. The purpose of this study is to identify genetic factors contributing to this type of pain in a general diabetic population. METHOD: We accessed the Genetics of Diabetes Audit and Research Tayside (GoDARTS) datasets that contain prescription information and monofilament test results for 9439 diabetic patients, among which 6927 diabetic individuals were genotyped by Affymetrix SNP6.0 or Illumina OmniExpress chips. Cases of neuropathic pain were defined as diabetic patients with a prescription history of at least one of five drugs specifically indicated for the treatment of neuropathic pain and in whom monofilament test result was positive for sensory neuropathy in at least one foot. Controls were individuals who did not have a record of receiving any opioid analgesics. Imputation of non‐genotyped SNPs was performed by IMPUTE2, with reference files from 1000 Genomes Phase I datasets. RESULTS: After data cleaning and relevant exclusions, imputed genotypes of 572 diabetic neuropathic pain cases and 2491 diabetic controls were used in the Fisher's exact test. We identified a cluster in the Chr8p21.3, next to GFRA2 with a lowest p‐value of 1.77 × 10(−7) at rs17428041. The narrow‐sense heritability of this phenotype was 11.00%. CONCLUSION: This genome‐wide association study on diabetic neuropathic pain suggests new evidence for the involvement of variants near GFRA2 with the disorder, which needs to be verified in an independent cohort and at the molecular level

TGRS Observations of Positron Annihilation in Classical Novae

The TGRS experiment on board the Wind spacecraft has many advantages as a sky monitor --- broad field of view (~2 pi) centered on the south ecliptic pole), long life (1994-present), and stable low background and continuous coverage due to Wind's high altitude high eccentricity orbit. The Ge detector has sufficient energy resolution (3-4 keV at 511 keV) to resolve a cosmic positron annihilation line from the strong background annihilation line from beta-decays induced by cosmic ray impacts on the instrument, if the cosmic line is Doppler-shifted by this amount. Such lines (blueshifted) are predicted from nucleosynthesis in classical novae. We have searched the entire TGRS database for 1995-1997 for this line, with negative results. In principle such a search could yield an unbiased upper limit on the highly-uncertain Galactic nova rate. We carefully examined the times around the known nova events during this period, also with negative results. The upper limit on the nova line flux in a 6-hr interval is typically <3.8 E-3 photon/(cm2 s) at 4.6 sigma. We performed the same analysis for times around the outburst of Nova Vel 1999, obtaining a worse limit due to recent degradation of the detector response caused by cosmic ray induced damage.Comment: 5 pp. inc. 3 figs. Proc. 5th Compton Symposium (AIP Conf. Series), ed. M. McConnell, in pres