Field Evaluation of Highly Insulating Windows in the Lab Homes: Winter Experiment

This field evaluation of highly insulating windows was undertaken in a matched pair of 'Lab Homes' located on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus during the 2012 winter heating season. Improving the insulation and solar heat gain characteristics of a home's windows has the potential to significantly improve the home's building envelope and overall thermal performance by reducing heat loss (in the winter), and cooling loss and solar heat gain (in the summer) through the windows. A high quality installation and/or window retrofit will also minimize or reduce air leakage through the window cavity and thus also contribute to reduced heat loss in the winter and cooling loss in the summer. These improvements all contribute to decreasing overall annual home energy use. Occupant comfort (non-quantifiable) can also be increased by minimizing or eliminating the cold 'draft' (temperature) many residents experience at or near window surfaces that are at a noticeably lower temperature than the room air temperature. Lastly, although not measured in this experiment, highly insulating windows (triple-pane in this experiment) also have the potential to significantly reduce the noise transmittance through windows compared to standard double-pane windows. The metered data taken in the Lab Homes and data analysis presented here represent 70 days of data taken during the 2012 heating season. As such, the savings from highly insulating windows in the experimental home (Lab Home B) compared to the standard double-pane clear glass windows in the baseline home (Lab Home A) are only a portion of the energy savings expected from a year-long experiment that would include a cooling season. The cooling season experiment will take place in the homes in the summer of 2012, and results of that experiment will be reported in a subsequent report available to all stakeholders

Field Evaluation of Highly Insulating Windows in the Lab Homes: Winter Experiment

This field evaluation of highly insulating windows was undertaken in a matched pair of 'Lab Homes' located on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) campus during the 2012 winter heating season. Improving the insulation and solar heat gain characteristics of a home's windows has the potential to significantly improve the home's building envelope and overall thermal performance by reducing heat loss (in the winter), and cooling loss and solar heat gain (in the summer) through the windows. A high quality installation and/or window retrofit will also minimize or reduce air leakage through the window cavity and thus also contribute to reduced heat loss in the winter and cooling loss in the summer. These improvements all contribute to decreasing overall annual home energy use. Occupant comfort (non-quantifiable) can also be increased by minimizing or eliminating the cold 'draft' (temperature) many residents experience at or near window surfaces that are at a noticeably lower temperature than the room air temperature. Lastly, although not measured in this experiment, highly insulating windows (triple-pane in this experiment) also have the potential to significantly reduce the noise transmittance through windows compared to standard double-pane windows. The metered data taken in the Lab Homes and data analysis presented here represent 70 days of data taken during the 2012 heating season. As such, the savings from highly insulating windows in the experimental home (Lab Home B) compared to the standard double-pane clear glass windows in the baseline home (Lab Home A) are only a portion of the energy savings expected from a year-long experiment that would include a cooling season. The cooling season experiment will take place in the homes in the summer of 2012, and results of that experiment will be reported in a subsequent report available to all stakeholders

The novel mu-opioid antagonist, GSK1521498, reduces ethanol consumption in C57BL/6J mice.

RATIONALE Using the drinking-in-the-dark (DID) model, we compared the effects of a novel mu-opioid receptor antagonist, GSK1521498, with naltrexone, a licensed treatment of alcohol dependence, on ethanol consumption in mice. OBJECTIVE We test the ability of GSK1521498 to reduce alcohol consumption and compare its intrinsic efficacy to that of naltrexone by comparing the two drugs at doses matched for equivalent receptor occupancy. METHODS Thirty-six C57BL/6J mice were tested in a DID procedure. In 2-day cycles, animals experienced one baseline, injection-free session, and one test session when they received two injections, one of test drug and one placebo. All animals received GSK1521498 (0, 0.1, 1 and 3 mg/kg, i.p., 30 min pre-treatment) and naltrexone (0, 0.1, 1 and 3 mg/kg, s.c. 10 min pre-treatment) in a cross-over design. Receptor occupancies following the same doses were determined ex vivo in separate groups by autoradiography, using [3H]DAMGO. Binding in the region of interest was measured integrally by computer-assisted microdensitometry and corrected for non-specific binding. RESULTS Both GSK1521498 and naltrexone dose-dependently decreased ethanol consumption. When drug doses were matched for 70-75 % receptor occupancy, GSK1521498 3 mg/kg, i.p., caused a 2.5-fold greater reduction in alcohol consumption than naltrexone 0.1 mg/kg, s.c. Both GSK1521498 and naltrexone significantly reduced sucrose consumption at a dose of 1 mg/kg but not 0.1 mg/kg. In a test of conditioned taste aversion, GSK1521498 (3 mg/kg) reduced sucrose consumption 24 h following exposure to a conditioning injection. CONCLUSIONS Both opioid receptor antagonists reduced alcohol consumption but GK1521498 has higher intrinsic efficacy than naltrexone

Shear-current effect in a turbulent convection with a large-scale shear

The shear-current effect in a nonrotating homogeneous turbulent convection with a large-scale constant shear is studied. The large-scale velocity shear causes anisotropy of turbulent convection, which produces the mean electromotive force \bec{\cal E}^{(W)} \propto {\bf W} {\bf \times} {\bf J} and the mean electric current along the original mean magnetic field, where ${\bf W}$ is the background mean vorticity due to the shear and ${\bf J}$ is the mean electric current. This results in a large-scale dynamo even in a nonrotating and nonhelical homogeneous sheared turbulent convection, whereby the $\alpha$ effect vanishes. It is found that turbulent convection promotes the shear-current dynamo instability, i.e., the heat flux causes positive contribution to the shear-current effect. However, there is no dynamo action due to the shear-current effect for small hydrodynamic and magnetic Reynolds numbers even in a turbulent convection, if the spatial scaling for the turbulent correlation time is $\tau(k) \propto k^{-2}$, where $k$ is the small-scale wave number.Comment: 8 pages, Physical Review E, in pres

Nonlinear turbulent magnetic diffusion and effective drift velocity of large-scale magnetic field in a two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

We study a nonlinear quenching of turbulent magnetic diffusion and effective drift velocity of large-scale magnetic field in a developed two-dimensional MHD turbulence at large magnetic Reynolds numbers. We show that transport of the mean-square magnetic potential strongly changes quenching of turbulent magnetic diffusion. In particularly, the catastrophic quenching of turbulent magnetic diffusion does not occur for the large-scale magnetic fields $B \gg B_{\rm eq} / \sqrt{\rm Rm}$ when a divergence of the flux of the mean-square magnetic potential is not zero, where $B_{\rm eq}$ is the equipartition mean magnetic field determined by the turbulent kinetic energy and Rm is the magnetic Reynolds number. In this case the quenching of turbulent magnetic diffusion is independent of magnetic Reynolds number. The situation is similar to three-dimensional MHD turbulence at large magnetic Reynolds numbers whereby the catastrophic quenching of the alpha effect does not occur when a divergence of the flux of the small-scale magnetic helicity is not zero.Comment: 8 pages, Physical Review E, in pres

Preoperative Exercise during Neoadjuvant Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer: A Pilot Study

Exercise improves cancer treatment outcomes including health-related quality of life and physical functioning. Patients with pancreatic cancer are generally older adults, and frailty and cachexia are prevalent. Chemotherapy and chemoradiation are increasingly administered prior to pancreatic cancer surgery, and sarcopenia has been shown to accompany these therapies. Preoperative exercise may improve health, well-being, and perioperative outcomes among patients undergoing preoperative therapy for pancreatic cancer. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the feasibility of exercise in this context. Feasibility was defined as patients completing, on average, 60% of recommended weekly exercise minutes. Twenty patients (M=64 years old, SD=9.9; 42% female) enrolled in a home-based exercise program during preoperative therapy (chemotherapy and/or chemoradiation and preoperative “rest”, M=21.2 weeks total, SD=16.4). Exercise recommendations included moderate-intensity walking for 20-30 minutes/day on ≥3 days/week and moderate-intensity resistance exercises for 30-45 minutes/day on ≥2 days/week. Exercise recommendations (120 minutes of moderate-intensity activity/week) were based on American College of Sports Medicine and American Cancer Society recommendations (150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity/week), but reduced due to patients’ older age and concurrent preoperative therapy. Resistance exercises targeted upper body, lower body, and abdominal muscles, and patients were instructed to perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions of multiple exercises for each region during each session. Patients received Yamax Digiwalker pedometers, graded resistance tube sets, and booklets and DVDs with instructions and safety tips. Research staff provided detailed instructions and resistance exercise demonstrations at enrollment and monitored and encouraged adherence with biweekly phone calls. Patients recorded minutes of walking and resistance exercise in daily logs. On average, patients reported 73.9 minutes of walking (\u3e100% of recommendation, SD=72.4) and 43.1 minutes of resistance exercise per week (71.8% of recommendation, SD=39.0). Patients reported the most walking during chemoradiation (M=94.7 minutes/week, SD=104.3), followed by preoperative “rest” (M=77.4 minutes/week, SD=80.4), and chemotherapy (M=70.8 minutes/week, SD=75.2). Patients reported the most resistance exercise during the preoperative “rest” period (M=51.6 minutes/week, SD=52.3), followed by chemoradiation (M=38.0 minutes/week, SD=36.8), and chemotherapy (M=31.1 minutes/week, SD=38.1). Walking and resistance exercise are feasible for patients undergoing preoperative therapy for pancreatic cancer. Varying levels of fatigue and treatment-related side effects may affect exercise during different treatment phases

Barriers to Insulin Initiation: The Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes Insulin Starts Project

OBJECTIVE Reasons for failing to initiate prescribed insulin (primary nonadherence) are poorly understood. We investigated barriers to insulin initiation following a new prescription. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We surveyed insulin-naïve patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, already treated with two or more oral agents who were recently prescribed insulin. We compared responses for respondents prescribed, but never initiating, insulin (n = 69) with those dispensed insulin (n = 100). RESULTS Subjects failing to initiate prescribed insulin commonly reported misconceptions regarding insulin risk (35% believed that insulin causes blindness, renal failure, amputations, heart attacks, strokes, or early death), plans to instead work harder on behavioral goals, sense of personal failure, low self-efficacy, injection phobia, hypoglycemia concerns, negative impact on social life and job, inadequate health literacy, health care provider inadequately explaining risks/benefits, and limited insulin self-management training. CONCLUSIONS Primary adherence for insulin may be improved through better provider communication regarding risks, shared decision making, and insulin self-management training

Growth rate of small-scale dynamo at low magnetic Prandtl numbers

In this study we discuss two key issues related to a small-scale dynamo instability at low magnetic Prandtl numbers and large magnetic Reynolds numbers, namely: (i) the scaling for the growth rate of small-scale dynamo instability in the vicinity of the dynamo threshold; (ii) the existence of the Golitsyn spectrum of magnetic fluctuations in small-scale dynamos. There are two different asymptotics for the small-scale dynamo growth rate: in the vicinity of the threshold of the excitation of the small-scale dynamo instability, $\lambda \propto \ln({\rm Rm}/ {\rm Rm}^{\rm cr})$, and when the magnetic Reynolds number is much larger than the threshold of the excitation of the small-scale dynamo instability, $\lambda \propto {\rm Rm}^{1/2}$, where ${\rm Rm}^{\rm cr}$ is the small-scale dynamo instability threshold in the magnetic Reynolds number ${\rm Rm}$. We demonstrated that the existence of the Golitsyn spectrum of magnetic fluctuations requires a finite correlation time of the random velocity field. On the other hand, the influence of the Golitsyn spectrum on the small-scale dynamo instability is minor. This is the reason why it is so difficult to observe this spectrum in direct numerical simulations for the small-scale dynamo with low magnetic Prandtl numbers.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, revised versio

Uncovering the Putative B-star Binary Companion of the SN 1993J Progenitor

The Type IIb supernova (SN) 1993J is one of only a few stripped-envelope SNe with a progenitor star identified in pre-explosion images. SN IIb models typically invoke H envelope stripping by mass transfer in a binary system. For the case of SN 1993J, the models suggest that the companion grew to 22 M_☉ and became a source of ultraviolet (UV) excess. Located in M81, at a distance of only 3.6 Mpc, SN 1993J offers one of the best opportunities to detect the putative companion and test the progenitor model. Previously published near-UV spectra in 2004 showed evidence for absorption lines consistent with a hot (B2 Ia) star, but the field was crowded and dominated by flux from the SN. Here we present Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and Wide-Field Camera 3 observations of SN 1993J from 2012, at which point the flux from the SN had faded sufficiently to potentially measure the UV continuum properties from the putative companion. The resulting UV spectrum is consistent with contributions from both a hot B star and the SN, although we cannot rule out line-of-sight coincidences