Wettability of Wood Pulp Fibers: Applicability of Methodology

The applicability of a newly devised technique, based on the Wilhelmy principle, for measuring wetting properties of textile fibers has been demonstrated for a series of wood pulp fibers. The wettability of unbleached kraft, neutral sulfite semichemical (NSSC), and thermomechanical pulp fibers was determined and differences are discussed in terms of variations in chemical composition and surface morphology. It was found that grafting of the kraft and NSSC pulps with styrene considerably decreased wettability due to presence of the hydrophobic styrene polymer at the surface of the pulp fiber

Examination of air transportation trip time variability

Scheduled air transportation is required to provide a service that is safe, consistent, and dependable, with reliable trip times and delays managed within acceptable limits. High trip time variability and delay in the current system are driven by multiple factors; The study objectives were: (1) to develop a comprehensive database for individual major U.S. airline domestic trips between 1995 and 2005; (2) to explore the central tendency and variability of airline gate-to-gate trip times and delays; (3) to develop values for unconstrained, or unimpeded, trip times, and (4) to develop traveler and airline delay and variability costs relative to unimpeded trip times; The research used U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) data for scheduled domestic airline trips reported by major U.S. air carriers between 1995 and 2005. For valuing air carrier cost savings, this research estimated variable costs for individual trips, based on individual carrier financial reports to U.S. DOT; The research used reported trip times as a primary indicator, unimpeded trip times as a reference, and attached a cost to the excess of reported trip time over unimpeded trip time at the individual flight level. This approach represents a process for evaluating the time savings and operating cost impacts of measures for increasing capacity and reducing impedance in U.S. domestic scheduled air transportation; Areas in which trip time variability and delay impose a high penalty on travelers and airlines were identified. The most important study results concerned disproportionately higher delays and costs relative to: (1) origin and destination airports and corridors; (2) times of day; and (3) the days with highest delays. The main areas were arrivals and departures at leading airports (40 percent of flights and 55 percent of costs), flight departures and arrivals between noon and early evening (50 percent of flights and 60 percent of costs), and during the 40 percent of days in which there were heavy system wide delays (55 percent of costs) costs appropriate to time changes on individual trips, the magnitude of penalties incurred by impeded trips were estimated relative to unimpeded trips. These were: 150 million annual excess traveler hours per year; {dollar}8 billion annual excess air carrier operating costs; with 400 million annual gallons of excess jet fuel consumption. The costs of impeded trips added about 10 percent (or about {dollar}3.4 billion annually) to airline variable operating costs during the study period

Bonding of Oxidized Cellulose Fibers and Interaction with Wet Strength Agents

A sulphite pulp was oxidized with oxidized with dichromate in oxalic acid to introduce primarily aldehyde groups into the fibers. Compared to unmodified pulps, this method results in greater wet strength, which can be further enhanced by hert treatment, Addition of a high molecular weight carbony] containing additives, such as dialdehyde starch, was found tol have a synergistic effect on the wet strength. Although acetal and hemiacetal bonds may contribute to this wet strength, an additional crosslinking reaction has been postulated to more satisfactorily explain the experimental observations. An aldol condensation type reaction between adjacent carbony] groups has thus been suggested as a primary reaction in the development of wet strength in pulp systems containing aldehyde groups. Confirmation of this theory, however, awaits model compound studies

Large area, label-free imaging of extracellular matrix using telecentricity

Subtle alterations in stromal tissue structures and organizations within the extracellular matrix (ECM) have been observed in several types of tissue abnormalities, including early skin cancer and wounds. Current microscopic imaging methods often lack the ability to accurately determine the extent of malignancy over a large area, due to their limited field of view. In this research we focus on the development of simple mesoscopic (i.e. between microscopic and macroscopic) biomedical imaging device for non-invasive assessment of ECM alterations over a large, heterogeneous area. In our technology development, a telecentric lens, commonly used in machine vision systems but rarely used in biomedical imaging, serves as a key platform to visualize alterations in tissue microenvironments in a label-free manner over a clinically relevant area. In general, telecentric imaging represents a simple, alternative method for reducing unwanted scattering or diffuse light caused by the highly anisotropic scattering properties of biological tissue. In particular, under telecentric imaging the light intensity backscattered from biological tissue is mainly sensitive to the scattering anisotropy factor, possibly associated with the ECM. We demonstrate the inherent advantages of combining telecentric lens systems with hyperspectral imaging for providing optical information of tissue scattering in biological tissue of murine models, as well as light absorption of hemoglobin in blood vessel tissue phantoms. Thus, we envision that telecentric imaging could potentially serve for simple site-specific, tissue-based assessment of stromal alterations over a clinically relevant field of view in a label-free manner, for studying diseases associated with disruption of homeostasis in ECM

Data-driven imaging of tissue inflammation using RGB-based hyperspectral reconstruction toward personal monitoring of dermatologic health

Sensitive and accurate assessment of dermatologic inflammatory hyperemia in otherwise grossly normal-appearing skin conditions is beneficial to laypeople for monitoring their own skin health on a regular basis, to patients for looking for timely clinical examination, and to primary care physicians or dermatologists for delivering effective treatments. We propose that mathematical hyperspectral reconstruction from RGB images in a simple imaging setup can provide reliable visualization of hemoglobin content in a large skin area. Without relying on a complicated, expensive, and slow hyperspectral imaging system, we demonstrate the feasibility of determining heterogeneous or multifocal areas of inflammatory hyperemia associated with experimental photocarcinogenesis in mice. We envision that RGB-based reconstructed hyperspectral imaging of subclinical inflammatory hyperemic foci could potentially be integrated with the built-in camera (RGB sensor) of a smartphone to develop a simple imaging device that could offer affordable monitoring of dermatologic health

Superoxide dismutase downregulation in osteoarthritis progression and end-stage disease

Oxidative stress is proposed as an important factor in osteoarthritis (OA). To investigate the expression of the three superoxide dismutase (SOD) antioxidant enzymes in OA. SOD expression was determined by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry using human femoral head cartilage. SOD2 expression in Dunkin–Hartley guinea pig knee articular cartilage was determined by immunohistochemistry. The DNA methylation status of the SOD2 promoter was determined using bisulphite sequencing. RNA interference was used to determine the consequence of SOD2 depletion on the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) using MitoSOX and collagenases, matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) and MMP-13, gene expression. All three SOD were abundantly expressed in human cartilage but were markedly downregulated in end-stage OA cartilage, especially SOD2. In the Dunkin–Hartley guinea pig spontaneous OA model, SOD2 expression was decreased in the medial tibial condyle cartilage before, and after, the development of OA-like lesions. The SOD2 promoter had significant DNA methylation alterations in OA cartilage. Depletion of SOD2 in chondrocytes increased ROS but decreased collagenase expression. This is the first comprehensive expression profile of all SOD genes in cartilage and, importantly, using an animal model, it has been shown that a reduction in SOD2 is associated with the earliest stages of OA. A decrease in SOD2 was found to be associated with an increase in ROS but a reduction of collagenase gene expression, demonstrating the complexities of ROS function

How Do Literacy Teacher Educators Engage as Literacy Leaders?

Literacy teacher educators play a pivotal role in developing future PreK-12 classroom teachers for the task of literacy leadership. However, little is known about literacy teacher educators and how they engage as literacy leaders. In the current study, we retrieved data from 132 literacy teacher educators and analyzed it descriptively using teacher educator identify as a theoretical lens. Findings revealed 15 different literacy leadership practices that represented five distinct groups. Among these groups, respondents demonstrated high and low levels of engagement with literacy leadership practices that pointed to important implications for administrators of teacher education programs

Meeting Overview: Interferon Lambda - Disease Impact and Therapeutic Potential

A meeting entitled, Interferon Lambda: Disease Impact and Translational Potential, was held on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on October 25-26, 2018. To our knowledge, this was the first meeting that focused exclusively on interferon lambda (IFN-λ). The meeting\u27s purpose was to enhance interdisciplinary communication and promote new collaborations. The gathering brought together an international group of scientists from a wide range of disciplines. Sessions included: IFN-λ Biology, Therapy and Genetic Variation; IFN-λ and Hepatitis C Virus Infection; IFN-λ in Other Infections; and IFN-λ - Hepatic Fibrosis and Cancer. The next meeting on IFN-λ is planned for 2020

X-ray enabled MOCASSIN: a 3D code for photoionized media

We present a new version of the fully 3D photoionization and dust radiative transfer code, MOCASSIN, that uses a Monte Carlo approach for the transfer of radiation. The X-ray enabled MOCASSIN allows a fully geometry independent description of low-density gaseous environments strongly photoionized by a radiation field extending from radio to gamma rays. The code has been thoroughly benchmarked against other established codes routinely used in the literature, using simple plane parallel models designed to test performance under standard conditions. We show the results of our benchmarking exercise and discuss applicability and limitations of the new code, which should be of guidance for future astrophysical studies with MOCASSIN.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS 9 pages, 5 figure

Density functional study of the actinide nitrides

The full potential all electron linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals (FP-LAPW + lo) method, as implemented in the suite of software WIEN2K, has been used to systematically investigate the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the actinide compounds AnN (An = Ac, Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am). The theoretical formalism used is the generalized gradient approximation to density functional theory (GGA-DFT) with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlation functional. Each compound has been studied at six levels of theory: non-magnetic (NM), non-magnetic with spin-orbit coupling (NM+SOC), ferromagnetic (FM), ferromagnetic with spin-orbit coupling (FM+SOC), anti-ferromagnetic (AFM), and anti-ferromagnetic with spin-orbit coupling (AFM+SOC). The structural parameters, bulk moduli, densities of states, and charge distributions have been computed and compared to available experimental data and other theoretical calculations published in the literature. The total energy calculations indicate that the lowest energy structures of AcN, ThN, and PaN are degenerate at the NM+SOC, FM+SOC, and AFM+SOC levels of theory with vanishing total magnetic moments in the FM+SOC and AFM+SOC cases, making the ground states essentially non-magnetic with spin-orbit interaction. The ground states of UN, NpN, PuN, and AmN are found to be FM+SOC at the level of theory used in the present computations. The nature of the interactions between the actinide metals and nitrogen atom, and the implications on 5f electron delocalization and localization are discussed in detail.Comment: 5 tables, 12 figure