Factors Influencing Depression and Anxiety among Black Sexual Minority Men

The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationships between depression and anxiety, and ethnic and sexual identity development, and discrimination and harassment (DH) among Black sexual minority men. Additional aims were to determine whether an interaction effect existed between ethnic and sexual identity and whether coping skills level moderated these relationships. Using an observational cross-sectional design, 54 participants recruited through snowball sampling completed self-administered online surveys. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used. Sixty-four percent of the variance in depression scores and 53% of the variance in anxiety scores were explained by DH and internalized homonegativity together. Thirty percent of the sample had scale scores indicating likelihood of depression and anxiety. Experience of DH and internalized homonegativity explained a large portion of the variability in depression and anxiety among Black sexual minority men. The study showed high prevalence of mental distress among this sample

Oil recovery through deemulsification research : separation of water from emulsified oil

In an effort to improve the environment, there is a need to recover and reuse the oil and water components of lubricating emulsions used in copper drawing and rolling processes. The Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. copper rod mill located in El Paso, TX was chosen as the site location for this project. It is one of the largest rolling and drawing operation facilities in the world, and it meets the established criteria set by Project ORDER. A large facility generates an average of 8,400 gallons of spent lubricant per day. The WERC emulsion sample contains 98 v% water and 2 v% lubricating oil and contains metal debris that would negatively impact water quality if it were discharged into surface waters. Oil and water are valuable resources and their maximum recoveries are desired. Project ORDER successfully recovers more than 90 v% of the water and essentially all of the oil. The recovered water could be recycled for fresh lubricant production within the facility, eliminating almost all water discharge and reducing water intake. The recovered oil will be sent to oil recyclers, lowering discharge expenses. Project ORDER has carefully evaluated several water recovery, oil recovery, and metal recovery technologies to design the commercial process. The first processing step of Project ORDER is an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane that recovers 90 v% of the water in the spent emulsion sample. As water permeates the membrane, the concentration of oil in the emulsion increases from about 2 v% to 30 v%. The second processing step removes essentially all of the water from the UF concentrate using an evaporator, which operates by passing low pressure steam through a jacketed, agitated vessel. The third processing step removes metal debris from the oil using a depth filter. The fourth processing step utilizes a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane to purify the UF permeate water for recycle. The fifth processing step reduces the amount of waste from the RO reject using an evaporator, which also operates by passing low pressure steam through a jacketed, agitated vessel. The evaporator removes essentially all of the water in the RO reject and the remaining waste is sent for disposal. The evaporated water from both evaporation units is condensed and combined with the RO permeate to be recycled. Based on a spent emulsion production rate of 8,400 gal/day, it costs $793, 000 per year for current disposal by incineration. For Project ORDER the fixed capital investment is$899,000, the yearly operating cost is $528,000, and the net present worth is$413,000 with a 24% discounted rate of return. After the initial investment is recovered, Project ORDER results in a net savings of $265,000 per year. This project is a promising process to achieve all the goals of Task 5. It produces oil with less than 3% water content, produces maximum water yield, minimizes waste solution, avoids the use of harmful materials and is cost and energy efficient. The health and safety of all individuals involved and the environmental impact of Project ORDER is of utmost importance throughout the construction and life of the project. The facility will ensure that all processes will comply with regulations outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and Texas State and El Paso County regulations. All operations and company procedures will comply with The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. The following report provides a detailed proposal for an oil and water recovery system, including experimental research results, process optimization, full-scale design, economic analysis, and environmental, health and safety considerations

MADNESS: A Multiresolution, Adaptive Numerical Environment for Scientific Simulation

MADNESS (multiresolution adaptive numerical environment for scientific simulation) is a high-level software environment for solving integral and differential equations in many dimensions that uses adaptive and fast harmonic analysis methods with guaranteed precision based on multiresolution analysis and separated representations. Underpinning the numerical capabilities is a powerful petascale parallel programming environment that aims to increase both programmer productivity and code scalability. This paper describes the features and capabilities of MADNESS and briefly discusses some current applications in chemistry and several areas of physics

Frontal lobe changes occur early in the course of affective disorders in young people

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>More severe and persistent forms of affective disorders are accompanied by grey matter loss in key frontal and temporal structures. It is unclear whether such changes precede the onset of illness, occur early in the course or develop gradually with persistence or recurrence of illness. A total of 47 young people presenting with admixtures of depressive and psychotic symptoms were recruited from specialist early intervention services along with 33 age matched healthy control subjects. All participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging and patients were rated clinically as to current stage of illness. Twenty-three patients were identified as being at an early 'attenuated syndrome' stage, while the remaining were rated as having already reached the 'discrete disorder' or 'persistent or recurrent illness' stage. Contrasts were carried out between controls subjects and patients cohorts with attenuated syndromes and discrete disorders, separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The patients that were identified as having a discrete or persisting disorder demonstrated decreased grey matter volumes within distributed frontal brain regions when contrasted to both the control subjects as well as those patients in the attenuated syndrome stage. Overall, patients who were diagnosed as more advanced in terms of the clinical stage of their illness, exhibited the greatest grey matter volume loss of all groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that, in terms of frontal grey matter changes, a major transition point may occur in the course of affective illness between early attenuated syndromes and later discrete illness stages.</p

A chimeric virus-mouse model system for evaluating the function and inhibition of papain-like proteases of emerging coronaviruses

To combat emerging coronaviruses, developing safe and efficient platforms to evaluate viral protease activities and the efficacy of protease inhibitors is a high priority. Here, we exploit a biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) chimeric Sindbis virus system to evaluate protease activities and the efficacy of inhibitors directed against the papain-like protease (PLpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) pathogen. We engineered Sindbis virus to coexpress PLpro and a substrate, murine interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), and found that PLpro mediates removal of ISG15 (deISGylation) from cellular proteins. Mutation of the catalytic cysteine residue of PLpro or addition of a PLpro inhibitor blocked deISGylation in virus-infected cells. Thus, deISGylation is a marker of PLpro activity. Infection of alpha/beta interferon receptor knockout (IFNAR−/−) mice with these chimeric viruses revealed that PLpro deISGylation activity removed ISG15-mediated protection during viral infection. Importantly, administration of a PLpro inhibitor protected these mice from lethal infection, demonstrating the efficacy of a coronavirus protease inhibitor in a mouse model. However, this PLpro inhibitor was not sufficient to protect the mice from lethal infection with SARS-CoV MA15, suggesting that further optimization of the delivery and stability of PLpro inhibitors is needed. We extended the chimeric-virus platform to evaluate the papain-like protease/deISGylating activity of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) to provide a small-animal model to evaluate PLpro inhibitors of this recently emerged pathogen. This platform has the potential to be universally adaptable to other viral and cellular enzymes that have deISGylating activities

An Introduction to the Chandra Carina Complex Project

The Great Nebula in Carina provides an exceptional view into the violent massive star formation and feedback that typifies giant HII regions and starburst galaxies. We have mapped the Carina star-forming complex in X-rays, using archival Chandra data and a mosaic of 20 new 60ks pointings using the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, as a testbed for understanding recent and ongoing star formation and to probe Carina's regions of bright diffuse X-ray emission. This study has yielded a catalog of properties of >14,000 X-ray point sources; >9800 of them have multiwavelength counterparts. Using Chandra's unsurpassed X-ray spatial resolution, we have separated these point sources from the extensive, spatially-complex diffuse emission that pervades the region; X-ray properties of this diffuse emission suggest that it traces feedback from Carina's massive stars. In this introductory paper, we motivate the survey design, describe the Chandra observations, and present some simple results, providing a foundation for the 15 papers that follow in this Special Issue and that present detailed catalogs, methods, and science results.Comment: Accepted for the ApJS Special Issue on the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP), scheduled for publication in May 2011. All 16 CCCP Special Issue papers are available at http://cochise.astro.psu.edu/Carina_public/special_issue.html through 2011 at least. 43 pages; 18 figure