Microbubbles enhanced synthetic phorbol ester degradation by ozonolysis

A phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) is a synthetic analogue of phorbol ester (PE), a natural toxic compound of Euphorbiaceae plant. The oil extracted from plants of this family is useful source for primarily biofuel. However this oil might also be used as a foodstuff due to its significant nutrition content. The limitations for utilizing the oil as a foodstuff are mainly due to a toxicity of PE. Currently, a majority of PE detoxification processes are expensive as include multi steps alcohol extraction sequence. Ozone is considered as a strong oxidative agent. It reacts with PE by attacking the carbon-carbon double bond of PE. This modification of PE molecular structure yields a non toxic ester with high lipid content. This report presents data on development of simple and cheap PE detoxification process with water application as a buffer and ozone as reactive component. The core of this new technique is an application for a new microscale plasma unit to ozone production and the technology permits ozone injection to the water-TPA mixture in form of microbubbles. The efficacy of a heterogeneous process depends on the diffusion coefficient which can be controlled by contact time and interfacial area. The low velocity of rising microbubbles and high surface to volume ratio allow efficient mass transfer to be achieved during the process. Direct injection of ozone is the most efficient way to process with such highly reactive and short lived chemical. Data on the plasma unit behavior are presented and the influence of gas oscillation technology on the microbubble production mechanism has been discussed. Data on overall process efficacy for TPA degradation is shown

System control of an autonomous planetary mobile spacecraft

The goal is to suggest the scheduling and control functions necessary for accomplishing mission objectives of a fairly autonomous interplanetary mobile spacecraft, while maximizing reliability. Goals are to provide an extensible, reliable system conservative in its use of on-board resources, while getting full value from subsystem autonomy, and avoiding the lure of ground micromanagement. A functional layout consisting of four basic elements is proposed: GROUND and SYSTEM EXECUTIVE system functions and RESOURCE CONTROL and ACTIVITY MANAGER subsystem functions. The system executive includes six subfunctions: SYSTEM MANAGER, SYSTEM FAULT PROTECTION, PLANNER, SCHEDULE ADAPTER, EVENT MONITOR and RESOURCE MONITOR. The full configuration is needed for autonomous operation on Moon or Mars, whereas a reduced version without the planning, schedule adaption and event monitoring functions could be appropriate for lower-autonomy use on the Moon. An implementation concept is suggested which is conservative in use of system resources and consists of modules combined with a network communications fabric. A language concept termed a scheduling calculus for rapidly performing essential on-board schedule adaption functions is introduced

Letter from William Zimmerman to Senator Langer Regarding Wilcox Relocation Plan, February 15, 1949

This letter dated February 15, 1949, from William Zimmerman to United States (US) Senator William Langer, Zimmerman lists organizations currently working on similar plans, including the Missouri River Basin Investigations Staff of the Indian Service, the Indian Service, and US Congress. This letter is in regards to Burton Wilcox\u27s plan for the relocation of The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation tribal members. He also notes that US HJ Res 33 is related to these goals. He concludes by writing that Wilcox\u27s proposal is thoughtful and that he should forward it to Allan G. Harper, the Assistant Regional Director of the Indian Service. The document has a handwritten note at the top that reads Indians. See also: Letter from Senator Langer to William Zimmerman Regarding Wilcox Relocation Plan, February 3, 1949 Letter from Senator Langer to Burton Wilcox Regarding Relocation, March 17, 1949 An Act to Vest Title to Certain Lands of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota, in the United States, and to Provide Compensation Thereforhttps://commons.und.edu/langer-papers/1522/thumbnail.jp

Letter from William Zimmerman to Senator Langer Regarding US Senate Resolution 292 Authorizing Investigation of Oil-and-Gas Producing Tribal Lands in US and Alaska, July 14, 1944

This letter dated July 14, 1944, from William Zimmerman, Assistant Commissioner of the United States (US) Bureau of Indian Affairs, to US Senator William Langer, refers to a request the bureau received for a report on US Senate Resolution 292, which would authorize an investigation of oil-and-gas bearing Indian lands in the U.S. and Alaska. Zimmerman writes that he sees no need for the proposed resolution and asks Langer what lies behind the resolution. Zimmerman restates his position that such an investigation is unnecessary.https://commons.und.edu/langer-papers/1880/thumbnail.jp

The Michigan Way

Tribute to Harold Jacobson

Efficient compact micro DBD plasma reactor for ozone generation for industrial application in liquid and gas phase systems

Ozone is well known as a powerful, fast reacting oxidant. Ozone based processes produce no by-product residual as non-reacted ozone decomposes to molecular oxygen. Therefore an application of ozone is widely accepted as one of the main approaches for a Sustainable and Clean Technologies development. There are number of technologies which require ozone to be delivered to specific points of a production network or reactors construction. Due to space constraints, high reactivity and short life time of ozone the use of ozone generators even of a bench top scale is practically limited. This requires development of mini/micro scale ozone generator which can be directly incorporated into production units. Our report presents a feasibility study of a new micro scale rector for ozone generation (MROG). Data on MROG calibration and indigo decomposition at different operation conditions are presented. At selected operation conditions with residence time of 0.25 s the process of ozone generation is not limited by reaction rate and the amount of ozone produced is a function of power applied. It was shown that the MROG is capable to produce ozone at voltage level starting from 3.5kV with ozone concentration of 5.28*10⁻⁶ (mol/L) at 5kV. This is in line with data presented on numerical investigation for a MROG. It was shown that in compare to a conventional ozone generator, MROG has lower power consumption at low voltages and atmospheric pressure. The MROG construction makes it applicable for both submerged and dry systems. With a robust compact design MROG can be used as an integrated module for production lines of high complexity

XASH genes promote neurogenesis in Xenopus embryos

Neural development in Drosophila is promoted by a family of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors encoded within the Achaete Scute-Complex (AS-C). XASH- 3, a Xenopus homolog of the Drosophila AS-C genes, is expressed during neural induction within a portion of the dorsal ectoderm that gives rise to the neural plate and tube. Here, we show that XASH-3, when expressed with the promiscuous binding partner XE12, specifically activates the expression of neural genes in naive ectoderm, suggesting that XASH-3 promotes neural development. Moreover, XASH-3/XE12 RNA injections into embryos lead to hypertrophy of the neural tube. Interestingly, XASH-3 misexpression does not lead to the formation of ectopic neural tissue in ventral regions, suggesting that the domain of XASH proneural function is restricted in the embryo. In contrast to the neural inducer noggin, which permanently activates the NCAM gene, the activation of neural genes by XASH-3/XE12 is not stable in naive ectoderm, yet XASH-3/XE12 powerfully and stably activates NCAM, Neurofilament and type III β-tubulin gene expression in noggintreated ectoderm. These results show that the XASH-3 promotes neural development, and suggest that its activity depends on additional factors which are induced in ectoderm by factors such as noggin

A case of DRESS syndrome due to Vancomycin

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome is a severe systemic reaction that usually begins 2-6 weeks after the introduction of the inciting agent. It is mostcommonly characterized by fever, rash, hematologic abnormalities (eosinophilia, atypical lymphocytosis), lymphadenopathy, HHV-6 reactivation and internal organ involvement

Then and Now: Tracking a Federal Agency’s Threat Assessment Activity Through Two Decades With an Eye Toward the Future

The following is an edited summary of a plenary session provided by the speakers during the 25th Annual Conference of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) Conference held August 2015. We are going to talk a little bit about history. We are sorry to bore you with this again but this is going to be about the history of the Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section. In 1987, the command made a decision to develop a threat assessment unit. We were trying to find out who actually made that command decision but nobody claimed it. We credit our Chief of Police at the time who was James Carvino. The Congress, the Senate, and the Capitol Police were not satisfied with the results that they were getting related to threats against Members of Congress. At that time, the USCP was in the process of starting a dignitary protection division for congressional leadership and so they needed a little bit of justification for spending the money. Like everything else back then, they did it in a really organized fashion as they brought two investigators and a Sergeant together and said, “Ok guys, you are going to take care of threats on Members of Congress.” We will tell you that there was not a lot of training on threat assessment and threat management back then...