The real time mass evaluation system as a tool for detection of undeclared cascade operation at GCEPs

Given the flexibility of current cascade designs a real time mass monitoring system is preferred for safeguarding Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants. However, if such a system is to be installed in a GCEP it must not impinge on plant operation or be intrusive. Since load cells are already part of the operational process and located outside the cascade hall their exploitation for safeguards purposes is an obvious development. The paper describes, through dynamic simulations, how transients would be observed in real-time mass balances when undeclared cascade operation takes place in a declared facility

Marine ecotoxicology: field and laboratory approaches

Preliminary results on the levels of organochlorine residues and mercury in the main compartments of the North Sea are described and the advantage of presenting data on three bases (wet weight, fat weight and water volume) is emphasized.Higher concentrations are by far found in the pelagic seabirds but no biomagnification can be detected at the first levels of the food chain (phytoplankton -zooplankton and fish). The results are discussed considering the relative importance. of the uptakes by food and directly from water.The modeling of the pollutants cycles in marine ecosystems requires notably the knowledge of the percentages of ingested pollutants assimilated, the concentration factors and the rates of excretion which all have to be determined in the laboratory.Some physiological adaptations to pollution are described which can change their kinetics of uptake and should be taken into account in the interpretation of the ecotoxicological data. Finally we discuss the fact that the liposolubility of all stable pollutants (organic and inorganic) would be related to their rate of uptake, suggesting that general laws describing the fate of pollutants in aquatic systems may exist

Long-Wave Research: The State of the Art, Anno 1983

In this paper a classification and a survey of recent long-wave theories are presented. According to the basic variable of each approach, real-economic, monetary-financial, and social structure theories can be discerned. The inductive research is concentrated round the generalization of logistic growth paths borrowed from natural science, and the traditional but perhaps more preferable descriptive statistical methods for treating historical time series. The more deductive research is the most expansive field, and four directions can be found in it. The historical-institutional approach of Freeman and his SPRU group considers essentially the diffusion of the microelectronics technology complex as the most important challenge for the world economy. The growth-theoretical approach, starting with Mensch's publications, deals more with the analysis of unstable growth paths originating from technological basic innovations. The system dynamics model simulation of Forrester and his MIT group accentuates the rational behavior of microeconomic agents resulting in macroeconomic instability, caused by a self-ordering mechanism. In this context, monetary and financial variables seem to be important amplifiers of that instability. Finally, the influence of extraeconomic variables is an important debating theme. Indeed, fundamental technological change leads to institutional innovations on a national but most of all on an international level, and this leaves ample room for economic policy

Some General Regularities of Techno-Economic Evolution

One of the most exciting phenomena of the modern world is the fundamentally homogeneous direction of the overall techno-economic development trajectory in practically all regions of the world. The existing economic systems in different countries are collapsing one after another under the pressure of an expanding industrial culture and are becoming drawn into the international division of labor. Simultaneously, their economic development is influenced by the general regularities of the world techno-economic system, the rhythm of which is set by the industrially developed countries. These general regularities of long-term techno-economic development, invariant under different sociopolitical systems, are the subject of this chapter

Long Waves, Depression, and Innovation: Implications for National and Regional Economic Policy

The opening sentences in the IIASA Charter speak about the problems generated by industrialization. Therefore industry, technology, and the economy have been implicitly or explicitly embodied in most of the Institute's projects. The first big IIASA research program, on energy, naturally entailed studying the impacts and dynamics of technology diffusion. This was the first research at the Institute to touch on the possible causes of long-term economic growth. Later studies of the management of innovation acknowledged the need to understand the interaction of technological with economic (and social) development beyond the frame of classical and neoclassical economics. One particular question reflected that need: How could cyclical influences be distinguished from structural ones? We tried to gain a better view by doing some case studies, which only increased our conviction that examination of these issues promised to be rewarding. The small meeting on long waves that we started to arrange eventually developed into a conference. The way the conference was organized and the cooperation it engendered further demonstrated that studies of these issues are timely. The problem that the organizers had to face was how to make maximum use of all the creative potential of the participants. It was therefore decided to arrange the conference in the following way: -- Full papers describing results of research on long waves were distributed before the conference and not read to the audience. -- Position papers on particular topics were selected before the conference so as to focus attention on the most important issues; the ensuing discussions and comments captured interesting views and ideas, reflecting the creative atmosphere of the meeting. This proceedings volume is structured accordingly: Parts I and II consist of a selection of the papers and comments on the five topics, and Part III includes further discussion by various participants. Part I starts with J. Delbeke's paper which gives an overview of the conference. This paper is particularly useful for those who are making a first acquaintance with this topic. We were also fortunate that several complete models or position papers on different long-wave schools were submitted to us. To keep the proceedings volume to a manageable and economic length, we were obliged to publish several of the papers submitted (by A. Piatier, A. Kleinknecht, J. Sterman, and J. Delbeke) separately as IIASA Collaborative Papers. We feel that this strikes a sensible middle course between the need to document the conference's work and the dictates of size and finance. The presence of leading representatives of different theories of long waves made it possible to gain first-hand insight into the state of the art, as well as to hear about the more promising directions for further research. Most meetings on long waves tend to be exclusively economy oriented, but the Siena/Florence meeting was rather different. Consistent with IIASA's interdisciplinary role, representatives of other disciplines were present and it is worth recording that researchers working in biology, demography and sociology hinted, in their contributions, at mechanisms studied in their own disciplines that could also lead to long-wave phenomena. In spite of the fact that many economists do not accept the existence of long waves as proven, the majority of scientists at the meeting did not question the existence or relevance of long-wave phenomena, irrespective of their cause. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to identify long-wave phenomena and several participants mentioned the problems to be expected in such investigations. IIASA and IRPET both focus on policy orientation and policy instruments. Proponents of all the theories represented were united in the idea that numerous phenomena could be better understood by applying long-wave theories. This understanding is essential for the design of optimal policies; therefore it appears that future research into long-wave issues is both desirable and necessary. We were very fortunate to have the support of our Italian hosts at an early stage in the development, preparation and organization the Conference. It is also to their credit that the meeting surpassed all expectations as far as scientific coverage of the topics and international representation was concerned, and we owe them our thanks for their warmth and generosity. Finally, the meeting in Siena and Florence was exceptional, both in that its scope was wide and that it integrated the work of researchers from East and West

Adequate symptom relief justifies hepatic resection for benign disease

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term results of partial liver resection for benign liver lesions. METHODS: All patients operated on for benign liver lesions from 1991 to 2002 were included. Information was retrieved from medical records, the hospital registration system and by a telephonic questionnaire. RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients with a median age of 41 years (17–71) were operated on (M/F ratio 5/23). The diagnosis was haemangioma in 8 patients, FNH in 6, HCA in 13 and angiomyolipoma in 1. Eight patients were known to have relevant co-morbidity. Median operating time was 207 minutes (45–360). The morbidity rate was 25% and no postoperative mortality was observed. Twenty-two patients (79%) had symptoms (mainly abdominal pain) prior to surgery. Twenty-five patients were reached for a questionnaire. The median follow up was 55 months (4–150). In 89% of patients preoperative symptoms had decreased or disappeared after surgery. Four patients developed late complications. CONCLUSION: Long-term follow up after liver surgery for benign liver lesions shows considerable symptom relief and patient satisfaction. In addition to a correct indication these results justify major surgery with associated morbidity and mortality

EANM/SNMMI Guideline for 18F-FDG Use in Inflammation and Infection

The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is an international scientific and professional organization founded in 1954 to promote the science, technology and practical application of nuclear medicine. Its 16,000 members are physicians, technologists, and scientists specializing in the research and practice of nuclear medicine. In addition to publishing journals, newsletters, and books, the SNMMI also sponsors international meetings and workshops designed to increase the competencies of nuclear medicine practitioners and to promote new advances in the science of nuclear medicine. The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) is a professional nonprofit medical association that facilitates communication worldwide between individuals pursuing clinical and research excellence in nuclear medicine. The EANM was founded in 1985

Automatic Morphometry of Nerve Histological Sections

A method for the automatic segmentation, recognition and measurement of neuronal myelinated fibers in nerve histological sections is presented. In this method, the fiber parameters i.e. perimeter, area, position of the fiber and myelin sheath thickness are automatically computed. Obliquity of the sections may be taken into account. First, the image is thresholded to provide a coarse classification between myelin and non-myelin pixels. Next, the resulting binary image is further simplified using connected morphological operators. By applying semantic rules to the zonal graph axon candidates are identified. Those are either isolated or still connected. Then, separation of connected fibers is performed by evaluating myelin sheath thickness around each candidate area with an Euclidean distance transformation. Finally, properties of each detected fiber are computed and false positives are removed. The accuracy of the method is assessed by evaluating missed detection, false positive ratio and comparing the results to the manual procedure with sampling. In the evaluated nerve surface, a 0.9% of false positives was found, along with 6.36% of missed detections. The resulting histograms show strong correlation with those obtained by manual measure. The noise introduced by this method is significantly lower than the intrinsic sampling variability. This automatic method constitutes an original tool for morphometrical analysis

Infrared neurostimulation in ex-vivo rat sciatic nerve using 1470 nm wavelength.

OBJECTIVE: To design and implement a setup for ex-vivo optical stimulation for exploring the effect of several key parameters (optical power and pulse duration), activation features (threshold, spatial selectivity) and recovery characteristics (repeated stimuli) in peripheral nerves. APPROACH: A nerve chamber allowing ex-vivo electrical and optical stimulation was designed and built. A 1470 nm light source was chosen to stimulate the nerve. A photodiode module was implemented for synchronization of the electrical and optical channels. MAIN RESULTS: Compound Neural Action Potentials (CNAPs) were successfully generated with infrared light pulses of 200-2000 µs duration and power in the range of 3-10 W. These parameters determine a radiant exposure for stimulation in the range 1.59-4.78 J/cm2. Recruitment curves were obtained by increasing durations at a constant power level. Neural activation threshold is reached at a mean radiant exposure of 3.16 ± 0.68 J/cm2 and mean pulse energy of 3.79 ± 0.72 mJ. Repetition rates of 2-10 Hz have been explored. In 8 out of 10 sciatic nerves, repeated light stimuli induced a sensitisation effect in that the CNAP amplitude progressively grows, representing an increasing number of recruited fibres. In 2 out of 10 sciatic nerves, CNAPs were composed of a succession of peaks corresponding to different conduction velocities. SIGNIFICANCE: The reported sensitisation effect could shed light on the mechanism underlying Infrared NeuroStimulation (INS). Our results suggest that, in sharp contrast with electrical stimuli, optical pulses could recruit slow fibres early on. This more physiological order of recruitment opens the perspective for specific neuromodulation of fibre population who remained poorly accessible until now. Short high-power light pulses at wavelengths below 1.5 µm offer interesting perspectives for neurostimulation