Evaluation of ERTS-1 data for certain hydrological uses

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 MSS data have been used in a variety of hydrologic research including snow-extent mapping; studies of snowmelt, snowmelt runoff, spectral reflectance of snow for assessing snowpack conditions, and snow albedo; lake ice formation, breakup, and migration; lake current measurements; multispectral studies of lake ice; and flood studies. MSS sensing of soil moisture over a well-vegetated test site was unsuccessfully attempted. Although a powerful research tool, ERTS-1 has very limited use as an operational system for hydrologic communities because of its 18-day revisit cycle and its lack of a quick look capability

Evaluation of LANDSAT-2 data for selected hydrologic applications

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Evaluation of LANDSAT-2 data for selected hydrologic applications

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Pressure ulcer related pain in community populations: a prevalence survey.

BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers are costly to the healthcare provider and can have a major impact on patient's quality of life. One of the most distressing symptoms reported is pain. There is very little published data on the prevalence and details of pain experienced by patients with pressure ulcers, particularly in community populations. The study was conducted in two community NHS sites in the North of England. METHODS: The aim was to estimate the prevalence of pressure area related pain within a community population. We also explored the type and severity of the pain and its association with pressure ulcer classification. A cross-sectional survey was performed of community nurses caseloads to identify adult patients with pressure ulcers and associated pain. Consenting patients then had a full pain assessment and verification of pressure ulcer grade. RESULTS: A total of 287 patients were identified with pressure ulcers (0.51 per 1000 adult population). Of the 176 patients who were asked, 133 (75.6%) reported pain. 37 patients consented to a detailed pain assessment. Painful pressure ulcers of all grades and on nearly all body sites were identified. Pain intensity was not related to number or severity of pressure ulcer. Both inflammatory and neuropathic pain were reported at all body sites however the proportion of neuropathic pain was greater in pressure ulcers on lower limbs. CONCLUSIONS: This study has identified the extent and type of pain suffered by community patients with pressure ulcers and indicates the need for systematic and regular pain assessment and treatment

Aquatic Eddy Correlation: Quantifying the Artificial Flux Caused by Stirring-Sensitive O2 Sensors

In the last decade, the aquatic eddy correlation (EC) technique has proven to be a powerful approach for non-invasive measurements of oxygen fluxes across the sediment water interface. Fundamental to the EC approach is the correlation of turbulent velocity and oxygen concentration fluctuations measured with high frequencies in the same sampling volume. Oxygen concentrations are commonly measured with fast responding electrochemical microsensors. However, due to their own oxygen consumption, electrochemical microsensors are sensitive to changes of the diffusive boundary layer surrounding the probe and thus to changes in the ambient flow velocity. The so-called stirring sensitivity of microsensors constitutes an inherent correlation of flow velocity and oxygen sensing and thus an artificial flux which can confound the benthic flux determination. To assess the artificial flux we measured the correlation between the turbulent flow velocity and the signal of oxygen microsensors in a sealed annular flume without any oxygen sinks and sources. Experiments revealed significant correlations, even for sensors designed to have low stirring sensitivities of ~0.7%. The artificial fluxes depended on ambient flow conditions and, counter intuitively, increased at higher velocities because of the nonlinear contribution of turbulent velocity fluctuations. The measured artificial fluxes ranged from 2-70 mmol m(-2) d(-1) for weak and very strong turbulent flow, respectively. Further, the stirring sensitivity depended on the sensor orientation towards the flow. For a sensor orientation typically used in field studies, the artificial flux could be predicted using a simplified mathematical model. Optical microsensors (optodes) that should not exhibit a stirring sensitivity were tested in parallel and did not show any significant correlation between O2 signals and turbulent flow. In conclusion, EC data obtained with electrochemical sensors can be affected by artificial flux and we recommend using optical microsensors in future EC-studies

Fossil crinoid studies

26 p., 9 fig.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Caustic leaching of high-level radioactive tank sludge: A critical literature review

The Department of Energy (DOE) must treat and safely dispose of its radioactive tank contents, which can be separated into high-level waste (HLW) and low-level waste (LLW) fractions. Since the unit costs of treatment and disposal are much higher for HLW than for LLW, technologies to reduce the amount of HLW are being developed. A key process currently being studied to reduce the volume of HLW sludges is called enhanced sludge washing (ESW). This process removes, by water washes, soluble constituents such as sodium salts, and the washed sludge is then leached with 2--3 M NaOH at 60--100 C to remove nonradioactive metals such as aluminum. The remaining solids are considered to be HLW while the solutions are LLW after radionuclides such as {sup 137}Cs have been removed. Results of bench-scale tests have shown that the ESW will probably remove the required amounts of inert constituents. While both experimental and theoretical results have shown that leaching efficiency increases as the time and temperature of the leach are increased, increases in the caustic concentration above 2--3 M will only marginally improve the leach factors. However, these tests were not designed to validate the assumption that the caustic used in the ESW process will generate only a small increase (10 Mkg) in the amount of LLW; instead, the test conditions were selected to maximize leaching in a short period and used more water and caustic than is planned during full-scale operations. Even though calculations indicate that the estimate for the amount of LLW generated by the ESW process appears to be reasonable, a detailed study of the amount of LLW from the ESW process is still required. If the LLW analysis indicates that sodium management is critical, then a more comprehensive evaluation of the clean salt process or caustic recycle would be needed. Finally, experimental and theoretical studies have clearly demonstrated the need for the control of solids formation during and after leaching

Caustic leaching of high-level radioactive tank sludge: A critical literature review

The Department of Energy (DOE) must treat and safely dispose of its radioactive tank contents, which can be separated into high-level waste (HLW) and low-level waste (LLW) fractions. Since the unit costs of treatment and disposal are much higher for HLW than for LLW, technologies to reduce the amount of HLW are being developed. A key process currently being studied to reduce the volume of HLW sludges is called enhanced sludge washing (ESW). This process removes, by water washes, soluble constituents such as sodium salts, and the washed sludge is then leached with 2--3 M NaOH at 60--100 C to remove nonradioactive metals such as aluminum. The remaining solids are considered to be HLW while the solutions are LLW after radionuclides such as {sup 137}Cs have been removed. Results of bench-scale tests have shown that the ESW will probably remove the required amounts of inert constituents. While both experimental and theoretical results have shown that leaching efficiency increases as the time and temperature of the leach are increased, increases in the caustic concentration above 2--3 M will only marginally improve the leach factors. However, these tests were not designed to validate the assumption that the caustic used in the ESW process will generate only a small increase (10 Mkg) in the amount of LLW; instead the test conditions were selected to maximize leaching in a short period and used more water and caustic than is planned during full-scale operations. Even though calculations indicate that the estimate for the amount of LLW generated by the ESW process appears to be reasonable, a detailed study of the amount of LLW from the ESW process is still required. If the LLW analysis indicates that sodium management is critical, then a more comprehensive evaluation of the clean salt process or caustic recycle would be needed. Finally, experimental and theoretical studies have clearly demonstrated the need for the control of solids formation during and after leaching

Mechanisms Underlying Age- and Performance-related Differences in Working Memory

This study took advantage of the subsecond temporal resolution of ERPs to investigate mechanisms underlying age- and performance-related differences in working memory. Young and old subjects participated in a verbal n-back task with three levels of difficulty. Each group was divided into high and low performers based on accuracy under the 2-back condition. Both old subjects and low-performing young subjects exhibited impairments in preliminary mismatch/match detection operations (indexed by the anterior N2 component). This may have undermined the quality of information available for the subsequent decision-making process (indexed by the P3 component), necessitating the appropriation of more resources. Additional anterior and right hemisphere activity was recruited by old subjects. Neural efficiency and the capacity to allocate more resources to decision-making differed between high and low performers in both age groups. Under low demand conditions, high performers executed the task utilizing fewer resources than low performers (indexed by the P3 amplitude). As task requirements increased, high-performing young and old subjects were able to appropriate additional resources to decision-making, whereas their low-performing counterparts allocated fewer resources. Higher task demands increased utilization of processing capacity for operations other than decision-making (e.g., sustained attention) that depend upon a shared pool of limited resources. As demands increased, all groups allocated additional resources to the process of sustaining attention (indexed by the posterior slow wave). Demands appeared to have exceeded capacity in low performers, leading to a reduction of resources available to the decision-making process, which likely contributed to a decline in performance