Protein Vaccines Against Acute Otitis Media Caused by Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in a Murine Model

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is one of the major organisms in the upper respiratory nasopharyngeal microbiota. In addition to its role as a commensal in the nasopharynx, NTHi is also the cause of sinusitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. Most relevant to this work, NTHi is one of the major causes of otitis media (OM), an inflammatory disease of the middle ear that affects 65-300 million children globally each year. In the US, acute OM (AOM or ear infection) is the most common reason for prescribed antibiotics. Due to the dramatic increase in antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, there is currently an urgent need for alternative treatments for NTHi. After decades of studies, several proteins have risen to the top as potential protein vaccine candidates for NTHi. P6, Protein D, and OMP26 are three such NTHi proteins, which have been shown to be immunogenic in young children. We proposed to test all three vaccine candidates as a single trivalent vaccine formulation and as individual protein vaccines for protection against AOM using a mouse model. This work describes our efforts to develop a robust AOM mouse model for the assessment of protein vaccines, as well as our protein vaccine study which employed that model. The results of our study suggest that Protein D, Omp26, and P6 all elicit protection against colonization of NTHi in the ear, and the best protection occurs when all three proteins are contained within a single formulation. We also describe a surprising finding that two of the proteins interact in vivo, yielding one of the proteins ineffective at eliciting an antibody response

Biomass Conversion into Solid Composite Fuel for Bed-Combustion

The purpose of this research is the conversion of different types of biomass into solid composite fuel. The subject of research is the heat conversion of biomass into solid composite fuel. The research object is the biomass of the Tomsk region (Russia): peat, waste wood, lake sapropel. Physical experiment of biomass conversion is used as method of research. The new experimental unit for thermal conversion of biomass into carbon residue, fuel gas and pyrolysis condensate is described. As a result of research such parameters are obtained: thermotechnical biomass characteristics, material balances and product characteristics of the heat-technology conversion. Different methods of obtaining solid composite fuel from the products of thermal technologies are considered. As a result, it is established: heat-technology provides efficient conversion of the wood chips and peat; conversion of the lake sapropel is inefficient since the solid composite fuel has the high ash content and net calorific value

Spectral factorization of the Krylov matrix and convergence of GMRES

Is it possible to use eigenvalues and eigenvectors to establish accurate results on GMRES performance? Existing convergence bounds, that are extensions of analysis of Hermitian solvers like CG and MINRES, provide no useful information when the coefficient matrix is almost defective. In this paper we propose a new framework for using spectral information for convergence analysis. It is based on what we call the spectral factorization of the Krylov matrix. Using the new apparatus, we prove that two related matrices are equivalent in terms of GMRES convergence, and derive necessary conditions for the worst-case right-hand side vector. We also show that for a specific family of application problems, the worst-case vector has a compact form. In addition, we present numerical data that shows that two matrices that yield the same worst-case GMRES behavior may differ significantly in their average behavior. (Also UMIACS-TR-2001-86

Small Distributed Energy Russia: Combined Heat and Power Generation

The issues and current trends of research in the field of decentralized energy supply for the period up to 2030 were considered. The analysis of the cogeneration market in Russia was done. The questions of gasification and hydrogen technologies as applied to the market of cogeneration plants were elucidated. Promising technologies for autonomous decentralized energy supply and the evaluation of their applicability to small energy were presented

Kyoto protocol mechanisms for modernization of heat power engineering

The main principles of the international mechanisms of affecting the limitations of greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere, assigned by Kyoto protocol by the UNO framework convention in climate change as well as the possibility of their application in Russian heat power engineering to reequip heat power stations are considered

The Peat and Wood Gasification at Different Conditions of the Pyrolysis Process

In this article are described the prospects of peat and wood using as a raw material for gasification with producing of high potential synthesis gas. It is shown that the low-grade fuel recycling, in particular wood and peat makes a use of this energy sources a possible alternative to the using a more traditional coal and natural gas. The features of low-temperature pyrolysis are analyzed and computer modeling of this process at different conditions is conducted. The temperature influence of recycling to main parameters (calorific value, elementary composition of gaseous components) of produced gas is established

Mineralogical identification of macxrocomponents of inorganic part of Kansk-Achinsk coals

The results of research of mineral formation in composition of coal samples with different ash level using expanded complex of physical chemical methods allowing increase of reliability of revealing ash-forming components in coal to estimate variants of their transformation as applied to techniques of coal preparation and burning, interaction with gaseous products of these techniques are presented

Biomass Conversion into Solid Composite Fuel for Bed-Combustion

The purpose of this research is the conversion of different types of biomass into solid composite fuel. The subject of research is the heat conversion of biomass into solid composite fuel. The research object is the biomass of the Tomsk region (Russia): peat, waste wood, lake sapropel. Physical experiment of biomass conversion is used as method of research. The new experimental unit for thermal conversion of biomass into carbon residue, fuel gas and pyrolysis condensate is described. As a result of research such parameters are obtained: thermotechnical biomass characteristics, material balances and product characteristics of the heat-technology conversion. Different methods of obtaining solid composite fuel from the products of thermal technologies are considered. As a result, it is established: heat-technology provides efficient conversion of the wood chips and peat; conversion of the lake sapropel is inefficient since the solid composite fuel has the high ash content and net calorific value