Cold Flow Verification Test Facility

The cold flow verification test facility consists of a 15-foot high, 3-foot diameter, domed vessel made of clear acrylic in two flanged sections. The unit can operate up to pressures of 14 psig. The internals include a 10-foot high jetting fluidized bed, a cylindrical baffle that hangs from the dome, and a rotating grate for control of continuous solids removal. The fluid bed is continuously fed solids (20 to 150 lb/hr) through a central nozzle made up of concentric pipes. It can either be configured as a half or full cylinder of various dimensions. The fluid bed has flow loops for separate air flow control for conveying solids (inner jet, 500 to 100000 scfh) , make-up into the jet (outer jet, 500 to 8000 scfh), spargers in the solids removal annulus (100 to 2000 scfh), and 6 air jets (20 to 200 scfh) on the sloping conical grid. Additional air (500 to 10000 scfh) can be added to the top of the dome and under the rotating grate. The outer vessel, the hanging cylindrical baffles or skirt, and the rotating grate can be used to study issues concerning moving bed reactors. There is ample allowance for access and instrumentation in the outer shell. Furthermore, this facility is available for future Cooperative Research and Development Program Manager Agreements (CRADA) to study issues and problems associated with fluid- and fixed-bed reactors. The design allows testing of different dimensions and geometries

Dynamic analysis of process reactors

The process design for integration of advanced gasifiers for combined-cycle facilities requires a dynamic analysis tool for predicting the gasifier performance and stability. Such a tool provides an understanding of both process reactions and the interaction of process components. To illustrate the utility of the process dynamic tool, a Gasifier Dynamic Model (GDM) was developed at the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) to investigate alternative designs and operational scenarios during process design development. Empirical data and first principles were combined into steady-state process models to develop sensitivity parameters around a nominal process design condition. These gain factors were then coupled with time-dependent functions for process mass and energy inventories to develop the dynamic model (GDM). Engineering calculations performed in the GDM were used to predict process responses such as gas make, flow, pressure, and temperature. Small research facilities were constructed and operated to validate both the steady-state process and dynamic models. GDM predictions provided engineers insights into the design integrity and operational safety of the reactions, components, and control elements

Oil Shale Development from the Perspective of NETL's Unconventional Oil Resource Repository

The history of oil shale development was examined by gathering relevant research literature for an Unconventional Oil Resource Repository. This repository contains over 17,000 entries from over 1,000 different sources. The development of oil shale has been hindered by a number of factors. These technical, political, and economic factors have brought about R&D boom-bust cycles. It is not surprising that these cycles are strongly correlated to market crude oil prices. However, it may be possible to influence some of the other factors through a sustained, yet measured, approach to R&D in both the public and private sectors

Solids Fraction Measurement with a Reflective Fiber Optic Probe

A method has been developed to extract solids fraction information from a reflective fiber optic probe. The commercially available reflective fiber optic probe was designed to measure axial particle velocity (both up and down directions). However, the reflected light intensity measured is related to particle size and particle concentration. A light reflection model is used to relate the reflected light intensity to solids fraction. In this model we assume that the reflected light intensity is a fixed fraction, K1, of the total light intensity lost in penetration of a solid layer. Also, the solids fraction is related to particle concentration, N, in the light path, by N = K2 (1- ε), where (1-ε) is the solids fraction. The parameters K1 and K2 are determined through a calibration and curve fitting procedure. This paper describes this procedure and the steps taken to derive the values of K1 and K2. It is proposed that the reflective fiber optic can be used for real time measurement of solids fraction in a circulating fluid bed

Outer-Sphere Contributions to the Electronic Structure of Type Zero Copper Proteins

Bioinorganic canon states that active-site thiolate coordination promotes rapid electron transfer (ET) to and from type 1 copper proteins. In recent work, we have found that copper ET sites in proteins also can be constructed without thiolate ligation (called “type zero” sites). Here we report multifrequency electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic data together with density functional theory (DFT) and spectroscopy-oriented configuration interaction (SORCI) calculations for type zero Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin variants. Wild-type (type 1) and type zero copper centers experience virtually identical ligand fields. Moreover, O-donor covalency is enhanced in type zero centers relative that in the C112D (type 2) protein. At the same time, N-donor covalency is reduced in a similar fashion to type 1 centers. QM/MM and SORCI calculations show that the electronic structures of type zero and type 2 are intimately linked to the orientation and coordination mode of the carboxylate ligand, which in turn is influenced by outer-sphere hydrogen bonding

Developmental and gender-related trends of intra-talker variability in consonant production

This study investigates the effect of age and gender on the internal structure, cross-category distance, and discriminability of phonemic categories for two contrasts varying in fricative place of articulation (/s/-/ʃ/) and stop voicing (/b/-/p/) in word-initial tokensspoken by adults and normally-developing children aged 9 to 14 years. Vast between- and within-talker variability was observed, with 16% of speakers of all ages exhibiting some degree of overlap between phonemic categories—a possible contribution to the range of talker intelligibility found in the literature. Females of all ages produced farther and thus more discriminable categories than males, though gender-marking for fricative between-category distance did not emerge until approximately 11 years of age. Children produced farther yet also much more dispersed categories than adults, with increasing discriminability with age, such that by age 13, children’s categories were no less discriminable than those of adults. However, children’s ages did not predict category distance or dispersion, indicating that convergence on adult-like category structure must occur later in adolescence

Speech Communication

Contains reports on two research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 ROl1 NS04332)National Institutes of Health (Training Grant 5 T32 NS07040)C.J. LeBel FellowshipsNational Science Foundation (Grant BNS77-26871

The impact of a decision aid about heart disease prevention on patients' discussions with their doctor and their plans for prevention: a pilot randomized trial

BACKGROUND: Low utilization of effective coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention strategies may be due to many factors, but chief among them is the lack of patient involvement in prevention decisions. We undertook this study to test the effectiveness of an individually-tailored, computerized decision aid about CHD on patients' discussions with their doctor and their plans for CHD prevention. METHODS: We conducted a pilot randomized trial in a convenience sample of adults with no previous history of cardiovascular disease to test the effectiveness of an individually-tailored, computerized decision aid about CHD prevention against a risk factor list that patients could present to their doctor. RESULTS: We enrolled 75 adults. Mean age was 53. 59% were female, 73% white, and 23% African-American. 66% had some college education. 43% had a 10-year CHD risk of 0–5%, 25% a risk of 6–10%, 24% a risk of 11–20%, and 5% a risk of > 20%. 78% had at least one option to reduce their CHD risk, but only 45% accurately identified the strategies best supported by evidence. 41 patients received the decision aid, 34 received usual care. In unadjusted analysis, the decision aid increased the proportion of patients who discussed CHD risk reduction with their doctor from 24% to 40% (absolute difference 16%; 95% CI -4% to +37%) and increased the proportion who had a specific plan to reduce their risk from 24% to 37% (absolute difference 13%; 95% CI -7% to +34%). In pre-post testing, the decision aid also appeared to increase the proportion of patients with plans to intervene on their CHD risk (absolute increase ranging from 21% to 47% for planned medication use and 5% to 16% for planned behavioral interventions). CONCLUSION: Our study confirms patients' limited knowledge about their CHD risk and effective risk reduction options and provides preliminary evidence that an individually-tailored decision aid about CHD prevention might be expected to increase patients' discussions about CHD prevention with their doctor and their plans for CHD risk reduction. These findings should be replicated in studies with a larger sample size and patients at overall higher risk of CHD. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0031597

A Three-Component Gene Expression System and Its Application for Inducible Flavonoid Overproduction in Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

Inducible gene expression is a powerful tool to study and engineer genes whose overexpression could be detrimental for the host organisms. However, only limited systems have been adopted in plant biotechnology. We have developed an osmotically inducible system using three components of plant origin, RD29a (Responsive to Dehydration 29A) promoter, CBF3 (C-repeat Binding Factor 3) transcription factor and cpl1-2 (CTD phosphatase-like 1) mutation. The osmotic stress responsible RD29a promoter contains the CBF3 binding sites and thus RD29A-CBF3 feedforward cassette enhances induction of RD29a promoter under stress. The cpl1-2 mutation in a host repressor CPL1 promotes stress responsible RD29a promoter expression. The efficacy of this system was tested using PAP1 (Production of Anthocyanin Pigment 1) transgene, a model transcription factor that regulates the anthocyanin pathway in Arabidopsis. While transgenic plants with only one or two of three components did not reproducibly accumulate anthocyanin pigments above the control level, transgenic cpl1 plants containing homozygous RD29a-PAP1 and RD29a-CBF3 transgenes produced 30-fold higher level of total anthocyanins than control plants upon cold treatment. Growth retardation and phytochemical production of transgenic plants were minimum under normal conditions. The flavonoid profile in cold-induced transgenic plants was determined by LC/MS/MS, which resembled that of previously reported pap1-D plants but enriched for kaempferol derivatives. These results establish the functionality of the inducible three-component gene expression system in plant metabolic engineering. Furthermore, we show that PAP1 and environmental signals synergistically regulate the flavonoid pathway to produce a unique flavonoid blend that has not been produced by PAP1 overexpression or cold treatment alone