Medical Waste Co-Firing Comes of Age

In early 1992 DONLEE Technologies, Inc., in cooperation with the Department of Energy Fossil Energy Program, completed pilot testing of simulated non-infectious waste combustion, co-fired with coal, at its test facility in York, Pennsylvania. The goal of this testing was to demonstrate the ability of fluidized bed combustion to completely destruct medical waste with minimized dioxin emissions. The test facility is a full scale circulating fluidized bed unit with a maximum heat input capability of ten million BTU per hour. The tests showed that the circulating fluidized bed system is ideally suited to meet the medical/infectious waste destruction needs of the health care industry. The dioxin emission levels proved to be significantly lower than those from presently operating MWIS. Based on the successful test results, a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy Fossil Energy Power Systems, DONLEE Technologies, and the Veterans Administration was reached to design, construct, and test a demonstration unit at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Plant design and construction was started in 1993, with DONLEE Technologies functioning as both the technology supplier and the plant EPC contractor. After some delay the construction of the demonstration unit finally reached completion in the spring of 1996. The unit is currently undergoing initial shakedown and testing to verify the base operating parameters. The unit will first be fired with coal only, followed by the introduction of non-infectious waste and finally total waste, including the ``red bag`` material. The program calls for an extended testing period of up to one year. While the unit is being operated as part of the stream supply system at the VA Hospital, the hospital`s waste is destroyed via combustion in the Fluidized Bed Unit

On the boundary of the dispersion-managed soliton existence

A breathing soliton-like structure in dispersion-managed (DM) optical fiber system is studied. It is proven that for negative average dispersion the breathing soliton is forbidden provided that a modulus of average dispersion exceed a threshold which depends on the soliton amplitude.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, to appear in JETP Lett. 72, #3 (2000

Effects of variation in posture and respiration on RSA and pre-ejection period

The extent to which variation in posture and respiration can confound pre-ejection period and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as indices of cardiac sympatho-vagal activity was examined. Within-subjects changes in these measures were assessed in 36 subjects during different postures and (paced) respiratory frequencies. Changes from supine to sitting to standing led to reduced RSA values and longer pre-ejection periods, reflecting the known decrease in vagal but not the increase of sympathetic activity. Multilevel path analysis showed that within-subjects changes in sympatho-vagal balance were faithfully reflected by changes in interbeat interval, but imperfectly by changes in RSA and pre-ejection period. It was concluded that pre-ejection period should be stratified for posture and RSA for respiratory frequency to reliably index changes in sympatho-vagal balance when these factors are prone to change (e.g., during 24-h ambulatory recording). Copyright © 2005 Society for Psychophysiological Research

Gaussian Mixture Model of Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate variability (HRV) is an important measure of sympathetic and parasympathetic functions of the autonomic nervous system and a key indicator of cardiovascular condition. This paper proposes a novel method to investigate HRV, namely by modelling it as a linear combination of Gaussians. Results show that three Gaussians are enough to describe the stationary statistics of heart variability and to provide a straightforward interpretation of the HRV power spectrum. Comparisons have been made also with synthetic data generated from different physiologically based models showing the plausibility of the Gaussian mixture parameters

Differences sustained between diffuse and limited forms of juvenile systemic sclerosis in expanded international cohort. www.juvenile-scleroderma.com

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the baseline clinical characteristics of juvenile systemic sclerosis (jSSc) patients in the international Juvenile SSc Inception Cohort (jSScC), compare these characteristics between the classically defined diffuse (dcjSSc) and limited cutaneous (lcjSSc) subtypes, and among those with overlap features. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed using baseline visit data. Demographic, organ system evaluation, treatment, and patient and physician reported outcomes were extracted and summary statistics applied. Comparisons between dcjSSc and lcSSc subtypes and patients with and without overlap features were performed using Chi-square and Mann Whitney U-tests. RESULTS: At data extraction 150 jSSc patients were enrolled across 42 centers, 83% were Caucasian, 80% female, dcjSSc predominated (72%), and 17% of the cohort had overlap features. Significant differences were found between dcjSSc and lcjSSc regarding the modified Rodnan Skin Score, presence of Gottron's papules, digital tip ulceration, 6 Minute walk test, composite pulmonary and cardiac involvement. All more frequent in dcSSc except for cardiac involvement. DcjSSc patients had significantly worse scores for physician rated disease activity and damage. A significantly higher occurrence of Gottron's papules, musculoskeletal involvement and composite pulmonary involvement, and significantly lower frequency of Raynaud's phenomenon, were seen in those with overlap features. CONCLUSION: Results from a large international jSSc cohort demonstrate significant differences between dcjSSc and lcjSSc patients including more globally severe disease and increased frequency of ILD in dcjSSc patients, while those with lcSSc have more frequent cardiac involvement. Those with overlap features had an unexpected higher frequency of interstitial lung disease