American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Federal Energy Management Program Technical Assistance Project 224 Altus Air Force Base Solar Technologies

The principal goal of this project was to evaluate altus Air Force Base for building integrated silicon or thin film module photovoltaic opportunities. This report documents PNNL's efforts and documents study conclusions

Low serum myeloperoxidase in autistic children with gastrointestinal disease

Anthony J Russo1, Arthur Krigsman2, Bryan Jepson2, Andy Wakefield21Research Director, Health Research Institute/Pfeiffer Treatment Center, Warrenville, IL, USA; 2Thoughtful House Center for Children, Austin, TX, USAAim: To assess serum myeloperoxidase (MPO) levels in autistic children with severe gastrointestinal (GI) disease and to test the hypothesis that there is an association between serum MPO concentration and inflammatory GI disease, including antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), previously seen in a subgroup of autistic children.Subjects and methods: Serum from 40 autistic children with chronic digestive disease (most with ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia (LNH) and inflammation of the colorectum, small bowel and/or stomach), and 48 controls (12 age-matched autistic children with no GI disease, 20 age-matched children without autism or GI disease, and 16 nonautistic individuals with no family history of autism) were tested using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays designed to quantitate serum MPO levels. MPO serum concentration of autistic children with GI disease was compared to GI disease severity (including LNH and erythema) and presence of ANCA.Results: We found that a significant number of autistic children with chronic digestive disease had low serum levels of MPO. However, there was no significant relationship between these levels and severity of GI disease, including the presence of ANCA.Discussion: These results suggest a relationship between low MPO levels and GI disease seen in a subpopulation of autism spectrum disorders individuals. MPO concentration may therefore be a useful biomarker for GI disease in this group of autistic children.Keywords: autism spectrum disorders, autism, myeloperoxidase, GI disease, oxidative stres

Renewable Energy Opportunities at Fort Sill, Oklahoma

This document provides an overview of renewable resource potential at Fort Sill, based primarily upon analysis of secondary data sources supplemented with limited on-site evaluations. This effort focuses on grid-connected generation of electricity from renewable energy sources and on ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling buildings. The effort was funded by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) as follow-on to the 2005 Department of Defense (DoD) Renewables Assessment. The site visit to Fort Sill took place on June 10, 2010

Renewable Energy Opportunities at Fort Polk, Louisiana

This document provides an overview of renewable resource potential at Fort Polk, based primarily upon analysis of secondary data sources supplemented with limited on-site evaluations. This effort focuses on grid-connected generation of electricity from renewable energy sources and also on ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling buildings. The effort was funded by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) as follow-on to the 2005 Department of Defense (DoD) Renewables Assessment. The site visit to Fort Polk took place on February 16, 2010

Renewable Energy Opportunities at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona

This document provides an overview of renewable resource potential at Yuma Proving Ground, based primarily upon analysis of secondary data sources supplemented with limited on-site evaluations

Renewable Energy Assessment Methodology for Japanese OCONUS Army Installations

Since 2005, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been asked by Installation Management Command (IMCOM) to conduct strategic assessments at selected US Army installations of the potential use of renewable energy resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, waste, and ground source heat pumps (GSHPs). IMCOM has the same economic, security, and legal drivers to develop alternative, renewable energy resources overseas as it has for installations located in the US. The approach for continental US (CONUS) studies has been to use known, US-based renewable resource characterizations and information sources coupled with local, site-specific sources and interviews. However, the extent to which this sort of data might be available for outside the continental US (OCONUS) sites was unknown. An assessment at Camp Zama, Japan was completed as a trial to test the applicability of the CONUS methodology at OCONUS installations. It was found that, with some help from Camp Zama personnel in translating and locating a few Japanese sources, there was relatively little difficulty in finding sources that should provide a solid basis for conducting an assessment of comparable depth to those conducted for US installations. Project implementation will likely be more of a challenge, but the feasibility analysis will be able to use the same basic steps, with some adjusted inputs, as PNNL’s established renewable resource assessment methodology

Age at first childbirth and oral contraceptive use are associated with risk of androgen receptor-negative breast cancer: the Malmö Diet and Cancer Cohort.

Risk factors for breast cancer vary according to breast cancer subtype. This study analyzes the impact of potential risk factors in breast cancer by androgen receptor (AR) status

Regulated expression of matrix metalloproteinases, inflammatory mediators, and endometrial matrix remodeling by 17beta-estradiol in the immature rat uterus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Administration of a single physiological dose of 17beta-estradiol (E2:40 microg/kg) to the ovariectomized immature rat rapidly induces uterine growth and remodeling. The response is characterized by changes in endometrial stromal architecture during an inflammatory-like response that likely involves activated matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs). While estrogen is known as an inducer of endometrial growth, its role in specific expression of MMP family members in vivo is poorly characterized. E2-induced changes in MMP-2, -3, -7, and -9 mRNA and protein expression were analyzed to survey regulation along an extended time course 0-72 hours post-treatment. Because E2 effects inflammatory-like changes that may alter MMP expression, we assessed changes in tissue levels of TNF-alpha and MCP-1, and we utilized dexamethasone (600 microg/kg) to better understand the role of inflammation on matrix remodeling.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ovariectomized 21 day-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were administered E2 and uterine tissues were extracted and prepared for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), mRNA extraction and real-time RT-PCR, protein extraction and Western blot, or gelatin zymography. In inhibitor studies, pretreatment compounds were administered prior to E2 and tissues were harvested at 4 hours post-hormone challenge.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using a novel TEM method to quantitatively assess changes in stromal collagen density, we show that E2-induced matrix remodeling is rapid in onset (< 1 hour) and leads to a 70% reduction in collagen density by 4 hours. Matrix remodeling is MMP-dependent, as pretreatment with batimastat ablates the hormone effect. MMP-3, -7, and -9 and inflammatory markers (TNF-alpha and MCP-1) are transiently upregulated with peak expression at 4 hours post-E2 treatment. MMP-2 expression is increased by E2 but highest expression and activity occur later in the response (48 hours). Dexamethasone inhibits E2-modulated changes in collagen density and expression of MMPs although these effects are variable. Dexamethasone upregulates MMP-3 mRNA but not protein levels, inhibiting E2-induced upregulation of MMP-7, and -9, and MCP-1 mRNA and protein but not inhibiting the hormone-induced increase in TNF-alpha mRNA.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The data demonstrate that E2-regulated endometrial remodeling is rapid in onset (<1 hour) and peak expression of MMPs and inflammatory mediators correlates temporally with the period of lowest stromal collagen density during uterine tissue hypertrophy.</p

Phase-Locked Signals Elucidate Circuit Architecture of an Oscillatory Pathway

This paper introduces the concept of phase-locking analysis of oscillatory cellular signaling systems to elucidate biochemical circuit architecture. Phase-locking is a physical phenomenon that refers to a response mode in which system output is synchronized to a periodic stimulus; in some instances, the number of responses can be fewer than the number of inputs, indicative of skipped beats. While the observation of phase-locking alone is largely independent of detailed mechanism, we find that the properties of phase-locking are useful for discriminating circuit architectures because they reflect not only the activation but also the recovery characteristics of biochemical circuits. Here, this principle is demonstrated for analysis of a G-protein coupled receptor system, the M3 muscarinic receptor-calcium signaling pathway, using microfluidic-mediated periodic chemical stimulation of the M3 receptor with carbachol and real-time imaging of resulting calcium transients. Using this approach we uncovered the potential importance of basal IP3 production, a finding that has important implications on calcium response fidelity to periodic stimulation. Based upon our analysis, we also negated the notion that the Gq-PLC interaction is switch-like, which has a strong influence upon how extracellular signals are filtered and interpreted downstream. Phase-locking analysis is a new and useful tool for model revision and mechanism elucidation; the method complements conventional genetic and chemical tools for analysis of cellular signaling circuitry and should be broadly applicable to other oscillatory pathways