Advanced Conducting Project

Contents include: 1. Glenbury Grove by Julie Giroux2. Air for Band by Frank Erickson3. All Creatures of our God and King: St. Francis arranged by William Gordon4. Ghost Fleet by Robert Sheldon5. Prelude, Sicilano and Rondo by Malcomb Arnold, arranged by John Paynte

Artifacts: Selected Poems

The title, Artifacts, is a compost of words art and fact—with fact as Latin for “something made.” A poet recreates language from syllable, word, and shard, and ropes off sacred or desecrated places. The movement of the imagination from small to sublime, from clay shard or carved flint arrow to cultural landscape, is a useful analogy for poetics – a field school approach influenced by my studies in anthropology. Artifacts’ poems vary in context (place), but each explores emblematic structure, kinetic tension, eco-poetics and a language-driven (vs. idea-driven) process. Sections include: Turning the Field: Structure and Surprise; Examining Shards: Emblematic Poems; Piecework Expertise: Poet as Archaeologist and Curator; and, The Nature of Dig Sites: Locality, Language and Transformation. In conclusion: “The artist, poet, ecologist and archaeologist each use imagination, locality, and all of experience to recreate a whole from fragments, emblems, syllables, and the tension of words, wire and line.

Gaseous fission product release during storage at various temperatures for HTGR-type fuels

Measurements were made of gaseous fission product releases from an HTGR-type fuel body under conditions simulating storage at temperatures up to 300/sup 0/C. The fuel was a recycle test element containing BISO-BISO coated fuel particles which had been irradiated for 701 effective full-power days in the Peach Bottom HTGR. Storage test temperatures were ambient (about 30/sup 0/C), 100, 150, 200, and 300/sup 0/C. The initial release rates of /sup 85/Kr varied after each change in temperature. A fairly stable release rate was reached that increased from approximately 60 ..mu..Ci/day at ambient temperature to approximately 1000 ..mu..Ci/day after 30 days at 200/sup 0/C and slowly decreased to about 200 ..mu..Ci/day after 554 days at 200/sup 0/C. In the experiment at 300/sup 0/C, a final release rate of 4000 ..mu..Ci/day was attained after 66 days. The releases of /sup 85/Kr were followed for about two and one-half years. The stabilized release rates for /sup 3/H were approximately 0.02 ..mu..Ci/day at ambient temperature, approximately 0.750 ..mu..Ci/day at 200/sup 0/C after 30 days, and 0.460 ..mu..Ci/day after 554 days. The final release rate at 300/sup 0/C was about 30 ..mu..Ci/day after 66 days.Over the lifetime of the experiment, approximately 22% of the initial /sup 85/Kr inventory was evolved and swept out, and approximately 4% of the initial /sup 3/H inventory was evolved and swept out. The activation energies calculated for the Kr and /sup 3/H evolution were approximately 7.8 kcal/mole and approximately 12.4 kcal/mole, respectively

Thorex solvent extraction studies with irradiated HTGR fuel: series I

A series of solvent extraction experiments to test the first-cycle fuel reprocessing flowsheet, proposed by the General Atomic Company for the Hot Engineering Test Facility, was completed. Using irradiated fuel, the experiments were designed to test the extraction, partition, partition-scrub, and strip operations. Each experiment utilized crosscurrent batch extractions and consecutive stages. Each stage was tested in duplicate. Experimental procedures were developed with synthetic feeds and then were used in a hot cell with radioactive solutions of dissolved irradiated fuel. The analytical measurements for thorium and acid compared favorably with the values predicted by the computer program for solvent extraction processes having interacting solutes (SEPHIS-MOD4). The SEPHIS-MOD4 program was valuable in interpreting this first set of experiments with irradiated fuels. Significant problems were experienced in the analysis for uranium in irradiated solutions. These problems emphasize the need for continued development of new or improved procedures for analyzing highly radioactive materials

Plasma Dynamics

Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects.National Science Foundation under Grant G-9930Air Force Cambridge Research Center under Contract AF-19(604)-5992WADC Contract AF33(616)-3984, with the Electronic Systems LaboratoryContract AF19(604)-4551 with Air Force Cambridge Research CenterAtomic Energy Commission under Contract AT(30-1)184

Chondroprotection by urocortin involves blockade of the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1

Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterised by progressive destruction of articular cartilage and chondrocyte cell death. Here, we show the expression of the endogenous peptide urocortin1 (Ucn1) and two receptor subtypes, CRF-R1 and CRF-R2, in primary human articular chondrocytes (AC) and demonstrate its role as an autocrine/paracrine pro-survival factor. This effect could only be removed using the CRF-R1 selective antagonist CP-154526, suggesting Ucn1 acts through CRF-R1 when promoting chondrocyte survival. This cell death was characterised by an increase in p53 expression, and cleavage of caspase 9 and 3. Antagonism of CRF-R1 with CP-154526 caused an accumulation of intracellular calcium (Ca2+) over time and cell death. These effects could be prevented with the non-selective cation channel blocker Gadolinium (Gd3+). Therefore, opening of a non-selective cation channel causes cell death and Ucn1 maintains this channel in a closed conformation. This channel was identified to be the mechanosensitive channel Piezo1. We go on to determine that this channel inhibition by Ucn1 is mediated initially by an increase in cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and a subsequent inactivation of phospholipase A2 (PLA2), whose metabolites are known to modulate ion channels. Knowledge of these novel pathways may present opportunities for interventions that could abrogate the progression of OA

Nuclear power and nuclear weapons

The proliferation of nuclear weapons and the expanded use of nuclear energy for the production of electricity and other peaceful uses are compared. The difference in technologies associated with nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants are described