Chlorination of commercial molybdenite concentrate in a fluidized bed reactor

Studies on recovery of molybdenum from commercial grade molybdenite using the technique of fluidized bed chlorination in the presence of oxygen are presented. Molybdenum recovery above 99 pct at a chlorine utilization efficiency of 84 pct has been achieved for a fluidizing gas flow-rate of 3 L/min of the gases Cl₂, O₂, and N₂ mixed in the proportion of 2∶5∶23, respectively, at 300 °C. The investigations on kinetics showed that the overall oxychlorination reaction is controlled by chemical reaction and is of first order with respect to particle surface area.     

Densification mechanism maps for hot isostatic pressing (HIP) of unequal sized particles

A model is developed for the mechanisms of densification of powder compacts of unequal sized powder particles subjected to isostatic pressures at elevated temperature. The regimes of deformation mechanisms examined are those of athermal plastic flow and power law creep. Specifically, a bimodal distribution of particle sizes is assumed and the model evaluates the magnitude of the interparticle contact areas and the interparticle contact stresses are for each type of particle. It is found that the smaller particles bear the burden of higher interparticle contact stresses and plastic strains on an average and, accordingly, there is no longer a single boundary on a densification mechanism map between the regions of athermal plastic flow and power law creep for the bimodal case but rather a separate boundary for each particle size. The results are discussed with respect to a previous densification model for monosized particles, and the implications for a full size distribution are analyzed based on the bimodal results.     

Neonatal outcome in infants with evidence of fetal exposure to opiates, cocaine, and cannabinoids

This study evaluated the neonatal outcome of infants with evidence of fetal exposure to cocaine, opiates, and cannabinoids. Subjects were from the newborn nursery of an inner-city university teaching hospital. Meconium from 141 infants admitted to the full-term nursery was analyzed for metabolites of opiates, cocaine, and cannabinoids. The population was 72% African-American; 82% had medical assistance; history of drug use was reported in the medical records in 18%; mean maternal age was 24.2 years; mean birth weight was 3,234 +/- 502 g; and neonatal abstinence syndrome was reported in 7%. Meconium analysis data showed the following: 52.5% were drug-free; cocaine was present in 31%, opiates in 18% (cocaine and/or opiates 39%), and cannabinoids in 17%. In 38 infants in whom urine toxicology was obtained for clinical indications, meconium was more sensitive than urine in detecting drug exposure (55.3% vs 31.5%). There was no significant difference between cocaine/opiate-exposed and drug-free infants in race, socioeconomic status, maternal age, birth weight, head circumference, length, and Apgar scores. Cocaine/opiate-exposed infants had greater length of stay and increased frequency of maternal sexually transmitted diseases during pregnancy, with a trend toward a higher percent with fetal distress.     

Biopsy-induced tricuspid regurgitation after cardiac transplantation

Transvenous endomyocardial biopsy is now well-established as the gold standard for evaluation of possible rejection episodes after cardiac transplantation. From 1985 to August 1992, 1990 patients have undergone 193 cardiac transplantations at Barnes Hospital. One hundred eighty-three patients survived their initial hospitalization and serve as the study group. Their records were reviewed for the purposes of identifying those with tricuspid regurgitation as a complication of right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy. These patients have undergone a total of 2,960 biopsies for an average of 16.2 biopsies per patient. Over a mean follow-up period of 4.22 years, all patients have been evaluated with standard two-dimensional echocardiograms. Mild to moderate tricuspid regurgitation was very common, but was thought to be biopsy-induced only if severe and accompanied by flail components of the tricuspid valve. Twelve patients were identified with this entity at our institution. Of these, 5 had no symptoms and were receiving no diuretics, 3 had mild symptoms consisting of lower extremity edema and continued to receive diuretics, 2 had moderate symptoms, and 2 had right heart failure and anasarca refractory to medical therapy. Both of the severely affected patients subsequently required tricuspid valve replacement. We conclude that the tricuspid valve apparatus is at significant risk of injury during endomyocardial biopsy, that most patients will be minimally symptomatic due to tricuspid regurgitation when this injury occurs, and that when the injury is accompanied by severe symptoms, the likelihood of improvement with medical therapy is small.     

Data storage channel equalization using neural networks

Unlike in many communication channels, the read signals in thin-film magnetic recording channels are corrupted by non-Gaussian, data-dependent noise and nonlinear distortions. In this work we use feedforward neural networks-a multilayer perceptron and its simplified variations-to equalize these signals. We demonstrate that they improve the performance of data recovery schemes in comparison with conventional equalizers. The variations of the MLP equalizer are suitable for the low complexity VLSI implementation required in data storage systems. We also present a novel training criterion designed to reduce the probability of error for the recovered digital data. The results were obtained both from experimental data and from a software recording channel simulator using thin-film disk and magnetoresistive head models.     

Influence of steam sterilization induced surface changes of polyester materials on its biocompatibility

Steam sterilization is conventionally used for the sterilization of materials used in surgery and medicine. When subjected to repeated steam sterilization, oligomers of polyethylene terephthalate are produced on the surface of the polyester materials. The consequences of the production of such oligomers on the biocompatibility of the polyester material have been investigated. Growth inhibition of L929 fibroblast cells has been observed on the repeatedly sterilized materials in thein vitro cell-material contact studies.In vivo implantation of the repeatedly sterilized materials elicited a hostile tissue response comprising enhanced macrophage activity, which could have an adverse effect on the long term stability of the polyester materials.     

Selection of antigens for use in a virus-vectored immunocontraceptive vaccine: PH-20 as a case study

In this work we had assumed to clarify the role of the water structure in the process of the radiation damage of DNA. It is known that the aliphatic alcohols stabilize the water structure until the critical concentration. In this connection we have analyzed the changes of the long- and short-distance interactions in the DNA irradiated in the water-ethanol solutions with various concentration of the ethanol and ions of metal. It was shown that as the water structure becomes more stable the conformational damages in the DNA are decreasing and finally at the some concentration of the alcohol in the irradiated solution the damages disappear. By the achieving of the alcohol concentration which lead to the destruction of the water structure the radiation results in the same changes of the considered parameters as in the case of the DNA irradiated in the water-salt solution with ethanol. The analyses of the experimental data allow us to conclude that the radiation destroys the structure of the water and thus helps the positive ions from the solution to come nearer to the DNA, to say, the radiation reduce intramolecular electrostatic interactions. This concept allows us to explain the observed changes of intrinsic viscosity and the difference in the polarizabilities of the DNA in the process of the radiation damage.