Short-term exposure of mice to cigarette smoke and/or residual oil fly ash produces proximal airspace enlargements and airway epithelium remodeling

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with inflammatory cell reactions, tissue destruction and lung remodeling. Many signaling pathways for these phenomena are still to be identified. We developed a mouse model of COPD to evaluate some pathophysiological mechanisms acting during the initial stage of the disease. Forty-seven 6- to 8-week-old female C57/BL6 mice (approximately 22 g) were exposed for 2 months to cigarette smoke and/or residual oil fly ash (ROFA), a concentrate of air pollution. We measured lung mechanics, airspace enlargement, airway wall thickness, epithelial cell profile, elastic and collagen fiber deposition, and by immunohistochemistry transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), macrophage elastase (MMP12), neutrophils and macrophages. We observed regional airspace enlargements near terminal bronchioles associated with the exposure to smoke or ROFA. There were also increases in airway resistance and thickening of airway walls in animals exposed to smoke. In the epithelium, we noted a decrease in the ciliated cell area of animals exposed to smoke and an increase in the total cell area associated with exposure to both smoke and ROFA. There was also an increase in the expression of TGF-β1 both in the airways and parenchyma of animals exposed to smoke. However, we could not detect inflammatory cell recruitment, increases in MMP12 or elastic and collagen fiber deposition. After 2 months of exposure to cigarette smoke and/or ROFA, mice developed regional airspace enlargements and airway epithelium remodeling, although no inflammation or increases in fiber deposition were detected. Some of these phenomena may have been mediated by TGF-β1

Fine Structure Discussion of Parity-Nonconserving Neutron Scattering at Epithermal Energies

The large magnitude and the sign correlation effect in the parity non-conserving resonant scattering of epithermal neutrons from $^{232}$Th is discussed in terms of a non-collective $2p-1h$ local doorway model. General conclusions are drawn as to the probability of finding large parity violation effects in other regions of the periodic table.Comment: 6 pages, Tex. CTP# 2296, to appear in Z. Phys.

Provervios de Seneca

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Cultura. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 200

Glass Furnace Combustion and Melting Research Facility.

The need for a Combustion and Melting Research Facility focused on the solution of glass manufacturing problems common to all segments of the glass industry was given high priority in the earliest version of the Glass Industry Technology Roadmap (Eisenhauer et al., 1997). Visteon Glass Systems and, later, PPG Industries proposed to meet this requirement, in partnership with the DOE/OIT Glass Program and Sandia National Laboratories, by designing and building a research furnace equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostics in the DOE Combustion Research Facility located at the Sandia site in Livermore, CA. Input on the configuration and objectives of the facility was sought from the entire industry by a variety of routes: (1) through a survey distributed to industry leaders by GMIC, (2) by conducting an open workshop following the OIT Glass Industry Project Review in September 1999, (3) from discussions with numerous glass engineers, scientists, and executives, and (4) during visits to glass manufacturing plants and research centers. The recommendations from industry were that the melting tank be made large enough to reproduce the essential processes and features of industrial furnaces yet flexible enough to be operated in as many as possible of the configurations found in industry as well as in ways never before attempted in practice. Realization of these objectives, while still providing access to the glass bath and combustion space for optical diagnostics and measurements using conventional probes, was the principal challenge in the development of the tank furnace design. The present report describes a facility having the requirements identified as important by members of the glass industry and equipped to do the work that the industry recommended should be the focus of research. The intent is that the laboratory would be available to U.S. glass manufacturers for collaboration with Sandia scientists and engineers on both precompetitive basic research and the solution of proprietary glass production problems. As a consequence of the substantial increase in scale and scope of the initial furnace concept in response to industry recommendations, constraints on funding of industrial programs by DOE, and reorientation of the Department's priorities, the OIT Glass Program is unable to provide the support for construction of such a facility. However, it is the present investigators' hope that a group of industry partners will emerge to carry the project forward, taking advantage of the detailed furnace design presented in this report. The engineering, including complete construction drawings, bill of materials, and equipment specifications, is complete. The project is ready to begin construction as soon as the quotations are updated. The design of the research melter closely follows the most advanced industrial practice, firing by natural gas with oxygen. The melting area is 13 ft x 6 ft, with a glass depth of 3 ft and an average height in the combustion space of 3 ft. The maximum pull rate is 25 tons/day, ranging from 100% batch to 100% cullet, continuously fed, with variable batch composition, particle size distribution, and raft configuration. The tank is equipped with bubblers to control glass circulation. The furnace can be fired in three modes: (1) using a single large burner mounted on the front wall, (2) by six burners in a staggered/opposed arrangement, three in each breast wall, and (3) by down-fired burners mounted in the crown in any combination with the front wall or breast-wall-mounted burners. Horizontal slots are provided between the tank blocks and tuck stones and between the breast wall and skewback blocks, running the entire length of the furnace on both sides, to permit access to the combustion space and the surface of the glass for optical measurements and sampling probes. Vertical slots in the breast walls provide additional access for measurements and sampling. The furnace and tank are to be fully instrumented with standard measuring equipment, such as flow meters, thermocouples, continuous gas composition analyzers, optical pyrometers, and a video camera. The output from the instruments is to be continuously recorded and simultaneously made available to other researchers via the Internet. A unique aspect of the research facility would be its access to the expertise in optical measurements in flames and high temperature reacting flows residing in the Sandia Combustion Research Facility. Development of new techniques for monitoring and control of glass melting would be a major focus of the work. The lab would be equipped with conventional and laser light sources and detectors for optical measurements of gas temperature, velocity, and gaseous species and, using new techniques to be developed in the Research Facility itself, glass temperature and glass composition

Avaliação fitossociológica da comunidade infestante em áreas de transição para o café orgânico.

Objetivou-se com este trabalho verificar os efeitos dos insumos orgânicos e convencionais na dinâmica de plantas daninhas da lavoura durante o primeiro e o segundo ano de transição agroecológica. Para isso, montou-se um experimento em um cafezal de seis anos, onde iniciou-se a transição para o sistema de cultivo orgânico. A espécie mais importante no primeiro ano da transição, na maioria das áreas avaliadas, foi Ageratum conyzoides; no segundo ano ocorreu considerável mudança na relação de dominância entre as espécies, destacando-se Leunurus sibiricus na maior parte das áreas estudadas. Ocorreu também aumento do número de espécies presentes na maioria das áreas de um ano para o outro. No segundo ano de transição observou-se decréscimo na diversidade de espécies em relação ao primeiro ano. Dessa forma, pode-se concluir que nos dois anos de avaliação verificaram-se mudanças no número, na diversidade e na relação de importância entre as espécies de um ano para o outro

Kaon Production and Kaon to Pion Ratio in Au+Au Collisions at \snn=130 GeV

Mid-rapidity transverse mass spectra and multiplicity densities of charged and neutral kaons are reported for Au+Au collisions at \snn=130 GeV at RHIC. The spectra are exponential in transverse mass, with an inverse slope of about 280 MeV in central collisions. The multiplicity densities for these particles scale with the negative hadron pseudo-rapidity density. The charged kaon to pion ratios are $K^+/\pi^- = 0.161 \pm 0.002 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.024 {\rm (syst)}$ and $K^-/\pi^- = 0.146 \pm 0.002 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.022 {\rm (syst)}$ for the most central collisions. The $K^+/\pi^-$ ratio is lower than the same ratio observed at the SPS while the $K^-/\pi^-$ is higher than the SPS result. Both ratios are enhanced by about 50% relative to p+p and $\bar{\rm p}$+p collision data at similar energies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl