Parasites, pawns and partners: disability research and the role of non-disabled researchers

Important methodological questions are raised by the act of researching disablement. Disability research has attracted much methodological criticism from disabled people who argue that it has taken place within an oppressive theoretical paradigm and within an oppressive set of social relations. These issues are of heightened significance for non-disabled researchers and bear many similarities to those faced by researchers investigating barriers to the social inclusion of women, Black and ‘Third World’ peoples. Such challenges have led to the development of an ‘emancipatory’ research paradigm. Six principles of emancipatory research are identified and the authors’ own research projects are critically examined within this framework. A number of contradictions are identified and an attempt made to balance the twin requirements of political action and academic rigour

Cogeneration Technology Alternatives Study (CTAS). Volume 4: Energy conversion systems

Industrial processes from the largest 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. The advanced and commercially available cogeneration energy conversion systems studied in CTAS are fined together with their performance, capital costs, and the research and developments required to bring them to this level of performance

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

Cogeneration Technology Alternatives Study (CTAS). Volume 5: Cogeneration systems results

The use of various advanced energy conversion systems is examined and compared with each other and with current technology systems for savings in fuel energy, costs, and emissions in individual plants and on a national level. About fifty industrial processes from the largest 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. The methodology and results of matching the cogeneration energy conversion systems to approximately 50 industrial processes are described. Results include fuel energy saved, levelized annual energy cost saved, return on investment, and operational factors relative to the noncogeneration base cases

Cogeneration Technology Alternatives Study (CTAS). Volume 2: Analytical approach

The use of various advanced energy conversion systems were 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. The ground rules established by NASA and assumptions made by the General Electric Company in performing this cogeneration technology alternatives study are presented. The analytical methodology employed is described in detail and is illustrated with numerical examples together with a description of the computer program used in calculating over 7000 energy conversion system-industrial process applications. For Vol. 1, see 80N24797

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Improve Recovery, whereas Omega-6 Fatty Acids Worsen Outcome, after Spinal Cord Injury in the Adult Rat

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a cause of major neurological disability, and no satisfactory treatment is currently available. Evidence suggests that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) could target some of the pathological mechanisms that underlie damage after SCI. We examined the effects of treatment with PUFAs after lateral spinal cord hemisection in the rat. The ω-3 PUFAs α-linolenic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) injected 30 min after injury induced significantly improved locomotor performance and neuroprotection, including decreased lesion size and apoptosis and increased neuronal and oligodendrocyte survival. Evidence showing a decrease in RNA/DNA oxidation suggests that the neuroprotective effect of ω-3 PUFAs involved a significant antioxidant function. In contrast, animals treated with arachidonic acid, an ω-6 PUFA, had a significantly worse outcome than controls. We confirmed the neuroprotective effect of ω-3 PUFAs by examining the effects of DHA treatment after spinal cord compression injury. Results indicated that DHA administered 30 min after spinal cord compression not only greatly increased survival of neurons but also resulted in significantly better locomotor performance for up to 6 weeks after injury. This report shows a striking difference in efficacy between the effects of treatment with ω-3 and ω-6 PUFAs on the outcome of SCI, with ω-3 PUFAs being neuroprotective and ω-6 PUFAs having a damaging effect. Given the proven clinical safety of ω-3 PUFAs, our observations show that these PUFAs have significant therapeutic potential in SCI. In contrast, the use of preparations enriched in ω-6 PUFAs after injury could worsen outcome after SCI

Towards the “ultimate earthquake-proof” building: Development of an integrated low-damage system

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence has highlighted the severe mismatch between societal expectations over the reality of seismic performance of modern buildings. A paradigm shift in performance-based design criteria and objectives towards damage-control or low-damage design philosophy and technologies is urgently required. The increased awareness by the general public, tenants, building owners, territorial authorities as well as (re)insurers, of the severe socio-economic impacts of moderate-strong earthquakes in terms of damage/dollars/ downtime, has indeed stimulated and facilitated the wider acceptance and implementation of cost-efficient damage-control (or low-damage) technologies. The ‘bar’ has been raised significantly with the request to fast-track the development of what the wider general public would hope, and somehow expect, to live in, i.e. an “earthquake-proof” building system, capable of sustaining the shaking of a severe earthquake basically unscathed. The paper provides an overview of recent advances through extensive research, carried out at the University of Canterbury in the past decade towards the development of a low-damage building system as a whole, within an integrated performance-based framework, including the skeleton of the superstructure, the non-structural components and the interaction with the soil/foundation system. Examples of real on site-applications of such technology in New Zealand, using concrete, timber (engineered wood), steel or a combination of these materials, and featuring some of the latest innovative technical solutions developed in the laboratory are presented as examples of successful transfer of performance-based seismic design approach and advanced technology from theory to practice

The state of the upper mantle beneath Southern Africa

We present a new upper mantle seismic model for southern Africa based on the fitting of a large (3622 waveforms) multi-mode surface wave data set with propagation paths significantly shorter (≤ 6000 km) than those in globally-derived surface wave models. The seismic lithosphere beneath the cratonic region of southern Africa in this model is about 175 ± 25 km thick, consistent with other recent surface wave models, but significantly thinner than indicated by teleseismic body-wave tomography. We determine the in situ geotherm from kimberlite nodules from beneath the same region and find the thermal lithosphere model that best fits the nodule data has a mechanical boundary layer thickness of 186 km and a thermal lithosphere thickness of 204 km, in very good agreement with the seismic measurement. The shear wave velocity determined from analyzes of the kimberlite nodule compositions agree with the seismic shear wave velocity to a depth of not, vert, similar150 km. However, the shear wave velocity decrease at the base of the lid seen in the seismic model does not correspond to a change in mineralogy. Recent experimental studies of the shear wave velocity in olivine as a function of temperature and period of oscillation demonstrate that this wave speed decrease can result from grain boundary relaxation at high temperatures at the period of seismic waves. This decrease in velocity occurs where the mantle temperature is close to the melting temperature (within not, vert, similar100 °C)

Design of an N^7-Glycosylated Purine Nucleoside for Recognition of GC Base Pairs by Triple Helix Formation

Pyrimidine oligodeoxyribonucleotides bind in the major groove of DNA parallel to the purine Watson-Crick strand by formation of specific hydrogen bonds between thymine and adenine (T•AT triplet) and protonated cytosine and guanine (C+GC triplet) on the Hoogsteen face of the purine base. Alternatively, purine oligodeoxyribonucleotides bind in an antiparallel orientation relative to the purine Watson-Crick strand by formation of G•GC and A•AT triplets. The prerequisite protonation of cytosine in C+GC triplets leads to a considerable pH dependence in the binding affinity of C-containing oligodeoxyribonucleotides (Figure 1). Substitution of 5-methylcytosine (^mC) for cytosine results in increased binding affinities near physiological pH. In an attempt to eliminate the necessity for protonation, recent efforts have been directed toward the synthesis of nonnatural nucleosides which display the hydrogen bonding functionality of protonated cytosine