Reducing energy-related CO2 emissions using accelerated weathering of limestone

The use and impacts of accelerated weathering of limestone (AWL; reaction: CO₂+H₂O+CaCO₃→Ca²⁺+2(HCO₃⁻) is explored as a CO₂ capture and sequestration method. It is shown that significant limestone resources are relatively close to a majority of CO₂-emitting power plants along the coastal US, a favored siting location for AWL. Waste fines, representing more than 20% of current US crushed limestone production (>10⁹ tonnes/yr), could provide an inexpensive or free source of AWL carbonate. With limestone transportation then as the dominant cost variable, CO₂ mitigation costs of $3-$4/tonne appear to be possible in certain locations. Perhaps 10–20% of US point–source CO₂ emissions could be mitigated in this fashion. It is experimentally shown that CO₂ sequestration rates of 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻⁵ moles/sec per m² of limestone surface area are achievable, with reaction densities on the order of 10⁻² tonnes CO₂ m⁻³day⁻¹, highly dependent on limestone particle size, solution turbulence and flow, and CO₂ concentration. Modeling shows that AWL would allow carbon storage in the ocean with significantly reduced impacts to seawater pH relative to direct CO₂ disposal into the atmosphere or sea. The addition of AWL-derived alkalinity to the ocean may itself be beneficial for marine biota.     

On the application of CAD technology for the synthesis of spatial revolute–revolute dyads

This work presents a method based on Computer Aided Design or CAD for facilitating the synthesis of Revolute–Revolute (R–R) dyads with adjustable moving pivots. The CAD-based method presented in this work ensures that all prescribed rigid-body parameters used to synthesize the R–R dyad satisfy particular kinematic requirements of an R–R dyad. Through the application of this CAD method, five of the six general R–R dyad constraint equations are satisfied and therefore not essential for the synthesis of the R–R dyad. By reducing the number of dyad design constraints from six to one, the user can synthesize R–R links with adjustable moving pivots for multi-phase motion and path generation applications. The example included demonstrates the use of the CAD method in the synthesis of an RRSS path generator with adjustable moving pivots.     

Colour measurement of fish minces using hunter L,a, b values

Hunter L, a and b values are used to order fish mince colour according to species or processing parameters. Mince colour difference (ΔE) or statistical examination of L, a and b values are used to establish a 3-dimensional plot to illustrate colour differences between samples.     

A Dual-Fed, Self-Diplexing PIFA and RF Front-End

A dual-fed, self-diplexing planar inverted F antenna and an associated RF front-end are described. It is shown that co-design of the antenna and front-end can be used to double the operational bandwidth, without significant size or performance penalties. Indeed, the use of two feeds allows the antenna to be self-diplexing, which results in improved overall efficiency     

Filtration of diaspirin crosslinked hemoglobin into lung and soft tissue lymph

Diaspirin crosslinked hemoglobin (DCHb) is a new blood substitute manufactured from human blood. To evaluate its microvascular filtration properties, we infused DCLHb into unanesthetized sheep (10%, 20 ml/kg) and measured the flow and composition of lung and soft tissue lymph. For comparison, we also infused human serum albumin (HSA; 10%, 20 ml/kg). DCLHb raised systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures from baseline values of 83 +/- 7 and 13 +/- 2 mm Hg, respectively, to peak values of 113 +/- 9 and 26 +/- 3 mm Hg (p < 0.05 versus baseline). These increases were significantly greater than those associated with HSA, which raised systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures from baseline values of 86 +/- 4 and 13 +/- 2 mm Hg, respectively, to peak values of 97 +/- 3 and 21 +/- 7 mm Hg (p <= 0.05 versus baseline and versus DCLHb). These differences reflect the known pressor properties of DCLHb. Accordingly, DCLHb raised lung and soft tissue lymph flows to peak values of 12.2 +/- 3.8 and 1.6 +/- 0.7 ml/30 min, respectively, while HSA raised lung and soft tissue lymph flows to peak values of 7.5 +/- 4.8 and 4.6 +/- 1.9 ml/30 min, respectively (p <= 0.05 versus DCLHb). The half-times of DCLHb equilibration from plasma into lung and soft tissue lymph of 1. 0 +/- 0.3 and 2.1 +/- 1.1 h, respectively, were significantly faster than HSA equilibration half-times of 3.1 +/- 0.2 and 3.8 +/- 0.9 h. Filtration differences between DCLHb and HSA appear to be due to the pressor properties DCLHb.     

Hydrogen peroxide induced impairment of post-ischemic ventricular function is prevented by the sodium-hydrogen exchange inhibitor HOE 642 (cariporide)

Using highly degenerate, serine-protease-specific PCR primers on a midgut-specific cDNA library it was estimated that a minimum of 24 independent serine proteases were expressed in the midgut of Stomoxys calcitrans. The relative abundance of these 24 independent serine proteases has been estimated by restriction analysis of PCR products, showing that 69% fall into six almost equally abundant groups. Two highly abundant serine protease cDNAs (Ssp1 and Ssp2) were isolated and sequenced. They encode preproenzymes of 272 amino acids (Mr 28521) and 255 amino acids (Mr 27097) with putative signal peptides of 17 amino acids and 16 amino acids, putative activation peptides of 15 amino acids and 10 amino acids and mature enzymes of 239 amino acids (Mr 25322; pI 4.89) and 228 amino acids (Mr 24182; pI 7.59), respectively. Both deduced amino acid sequences contain the Asp/His/Ser catalytic triad and the highly conserved sequences surrounding it. Ssp2 also has the aspartate and two glycine residues in the specificity pocket, marking this as a typical trypsin. The positioning of the residues in the specificity pocket of Sspl is unusual; aspartate and glycine residues are present, which is typical of trypsin, but both are separated from surrounding conserved residues by additional amino acids; the second glycine found in the specificity pocket of trypsin is replaced by a serine, which is typical of chymotrypsin. Although a serine protease, the precise substrate specificity of Sspl remains to be determined. Northern analysis shows that both serine proteases are expressed constitutively with only a 20% change in the levels of expression of Ssp1 and Ssp2 through the digestive cycle, and that expression occurs predominantly in the opaque region of the midgut, the region responsible for secretion of digestive enzymes.     

Using neural networks to select wavelet features for breast cancerdiagnosis

This study focuses on improving microcalcification classification by establishing an efficient computer-aided diagnosis system that extracts Daubechies-4 and biorthogonal wavelet features. These wavelets were chosen because they have been used in military target recognition and fingerprint recognition research with images characterized by low contrast, similar to mammography. Feature selection techniques are employed to further increase classification performance. The artificial neural network feature selection techniques are complemented by a conventional decision boundary-based feature selection method. The results using the wavelet features are compared to more conventional measures of image texture, angular second moment, and Karhunen Loeve coefficients. The use of alternative signal processing to compare wavelet and neural techniques allows for a measure of the problem difficulty. It is concluded that advances and contributions have been made with the introduction of two novel feature extraction methods for breast cancer diagnosis, wavelets and eigenmasses. Additionally, feature selection techniques are demonstrated, compared, and validated, transforming adequate discrimination power into promising classification results     

Chi recombination activity in phage lambda decays as a function of genetic distance

In Escherichia coli, chi is a recombination hotspot that stimulates RecBCD-dependent exchange at and to one side of itself. chi activity is highest at chi and decreases with distance from chi. The decrease in chi activity may be a simple property of the physical distance over which chi can stimulate recombination. Alternatively, the decay in chi activity with distance may reflect the high likelihood that chi-stimulated recombination occurs in a single chi-proximal act, to the exclusion of additional chi-stimulated exchanges more distal to chi. To test the models, we determined if chi activity decreases as a function of physical distance (i.e., DNA base pairs) or genetic distance (homologous DNA base pairs). Our results indicate that chi activity decays as a function of genetic distance. In addition, we found that the sbcB gene product (exonuclease I, a 3'-->5' ssDNA exonuclease) modulates the distance over which chi can act. In contrast, the recJ gene product (a 5'-->3' ssDNA exonuclease) does not alter the decay of chi activity.     

Effect of hydrogen loading on temperature/electric-field poling ofSiO2-based thin films on Si

Waveguide stacks of GeSiO₂-based glass deposited on Si exhibit a permanent second-order nonlinearity following temperature electric-field poling. High temperature hydrogen loading increases the second harmonic signal under certain conditions     

Computation of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised factor scores: Equal and differential weights.

Standard procedures for estimating factor scores for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R; D. Wechsler, 1981) involve equally weighted sums of the subtests that load most highly on the factor being estimated. We argue that factor scores derived in this manner lack discriminant validity; they are strongly biased toward g (the first unrotated factor) and away from the other 2 unrotated factors. If regression-like weights are applied to all of the WAIS—R subtests and the products are summed, the resulting differentially weighted factors give results that show similar convergent validity and much greater discriminant validity with respect to the original factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)