A Simple Method Using Tracer Gas to Identify the Main Airflow and Contaminant Paths within a Room

The main airflow and contaminant paths or the spatial distribution of the age of air (or contaminant) in a room are of great interest in estimating venrilation efficiency. A simple meusurement method is presented which consists of injecting one or more tracer gases at locations of interest and analysing the concentration at several other locations, carefully chosen for best accuracy. Response functions can be fitted to these measurements, which are the age of the tracers or of the air or the concentration of the tracers as a function of the location. The salient paths, such as the dead zones, are also determined from these functions. The paper presents the method, its application and validation in a well controlled test room.     

Effect of a changed temperature regime on the benthos of a norwegian regulated river

The lowermost 20 km of the River Surna, north-western Norway receives cool water during summer from a hypolimnetic release mountain reservoir. The benthic fauna is completely dominated by insects. Benthic densities immediately below the power station are much lower than at all other localities. Although benthic densities increase downstream of the power station, they never exceed the densities above. The dominant insect group, chironomids, can be divided into four categories according to their abundance and distribution above and below the power station: (1) rare or absent above, but common or abundant below; (2) abundant or common above but rare or absent below; (3) slightly less abundant below; (4) unchanged abundance. No major differences in the species composition were recorded for stonefilies, mayflies and caddisflies.     

Cloning and characterization of a cDNA encoding a novel subtype of rat thyrotropin-releasing hormone receptor

A cDNA encoding a thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) receptor expressed in the pituitary was previously cloned (De La Pena, P., Delgado, L. M., Del Camino, D., and Barros, F. (1992) Biochem. J. 284, 891-899; De La Pena, P., Delgado, L. M., Del Camino, D., and Barros, F. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 25703-25708; Duthie, S. M., Taylor, P. L., Anderson, J., Cook, J., and Eidne, K. A. (1993) Mol. Cell Endocrinol. 95, R11-R15). We now describe the isolation of a rat cDNA encoding a novel subtype of TRH receptor (termed TRHR2) displaying an overall homology of 50% to the pituitary TRH receptor. Introduction of TRHR2 cDNA in HEK-293 cells resulted in expression of high affinity TRH binding with a different pharmacological profile than the pituitary TRH receptor. De novo expressed receptors were functional and resulted in stimulation of calcium transient as assessed by fluorometric imaging plate reader analysis. The message for TRHR2 was exclusive to central nervous system tissues as judged by Northern blot analysis. Studies of the expression of TRHR-2 message by in situ hybridization revealed a pattern of expression remarkably distinct (present in spinothalamic tract, spinal cord dorsal horn) from that of the pituitary TRH receptor (present in hypothalamus, and ventral horn of the spinal cord, anterior pituitary). Therefore, we have identified a novel, pharmacologically distinct receptor for thyrotropin-releasing hormone that appears to be more restricted to the central nervous system particularly to the sensory neurons of spinothalamic tract and spinal cord dorsal horn, which may account for the sensory antinociceptive actions of TRH.     

Decidable properties of monadic recursive schemas with a depth parameter

Summary Monadic table counter schemas (MTCS) are defined as extensions of recursive monadic schemas by incorporating a depth-of-recursion counter. The family of languages generated by free MTCS under Herbrand interpretation is shown to be the family of ETOL languages. It is proven that the halting and divergence problems are decidable for free MTCS and that the freedom problem is decidable. Most of these results are obtained using results on regular control sequences from L system theory.     

Frequency distribution and signal formation around a vessel

We describe the NMR signal formation properties of a single vessel. Instead of assuming the frequency distribution to be a simple Lorentzian or Gaussian one, we take into account that the frequency distribution around the vessel is a complex function. Considering the static dephasing regime we find a relationship between signal formation and frequency distribution. Analytical expressions for the frequency distribution in a voxel and the magnetization decay are obtained. In the case of small volume fractions of blood and week magnetic fields the results can be used for describing signal formation processes in a vascular network. A relationship between the frequency distribution and the properties of the vascular network is derived. The magnetization decay in different time regimes is discussed. The result is relevant for describing signal formation processes around a vessel for arbitrary pulse sequences.     

The Relative Persuasiveness of Gain-Framed and Loss-Framed Messages for Encouraging Disease Detection Behaviors: A Meta-Analytic Review

A meta-analytic review of 53 studies (N = 9,145) finds that in messages aimed at encouraging disease detection behaviors, loss-framed appeals (which emphasize the disadvantages of noncompliance with the communicator's recommendation) are only slightly, but statistically significantly, more persuasive than gain-framed appeals (which emphasize the advantages of compliance); the difference corresponds to a correlation of −.04. Loss-framed appeals enjoy a small statistically significant advantage for messages advocating breast cancer detection behaviors, but not for any other kind of detection behavior (detection of skin cancer, other cancers, dental problems, or miscellaneous other diseases) nor for all other kinds of detection behaviors combined. Thus, in advocacy of disease detection behaviors, using loss-framed rather than gain-framed appeals is unlikely to substantially improve persuasiveness.     

Biegeschubversuche an Stahlbetonbalken mit nachträglich eingemörtelter Querkraftbewehrung

Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird über Querkraftversuche an insgesamt zehn Stahlbetonbalken berichtet, von denen acht mit nachträglich eingemörtelten Bewehrungsstäben verstärkt wurden. Anzahl und Abstand der geneigten Bewehrungsstäbe sowie die verwendeten Verbundmörtel wurden variiert. Während am oberen Ende der Stäbe eine Verankerung im Bauteilinneren durch Verbund erfolgte, wurden für die Verankerung an der Tragwerksunterseite eigene Ankerkörper entwickelt. Die Versuche bestätigen die Wirksamkeit der Maßnahme, die keine Änderungen der Bauteilabmessungen erfordert und von der Tragwerksunterseite her durchgeführt werden kann. Im Zuge der Untersuchungen wurden auch grundlegende phänomenologische Erkenntnisse zur Querkraftabtragung von Stahlbetonbalken gewonnen, insbesondere was die Rissverzahnung entlang des Schubrisses, den Anteil der Dübelwirkung der Längsbewehrung sowie die Mitwirkung der Biegedruckzone betrifft. Bending Shear Tests on R/C‐Beams with Post‐Installed Shear Reinforcement A research project has been started to investigate a new method of strengthening beams with insufficient shear resistance by applying post‐installed reinforcement. 10 reinforced concrete beams have been tested in shear, number and location of the inclined rebars as well as type of injection mortar have been varied. The rebars were installed in mortar‐injected boreholes and anchored with metal plates at the accessible bar end. The test results confirmed that post‐installed rebars can significantly increase the beam shear resistance provided they are situated properly and adequate injection mortars used. Above that the evaluation of the different contributions to shear resistance like truss action, dowel action and shear strength of compression chord provides new findings on the general shear failure mechanism in RC structures.     

Quantification and localization of contrast agents using delta relaxation enhanced magnetic resonance at 1.5?T

Object

Delta relaxation enhanced magnetic resonance (dreMR) is a new imaging technique based on the idea of cycling the magnetic field B ₀ during an imaging sequence. The method determines the field dependency of the relaxation rate (relaxation dispersion dR ₁/dB). This quantity is of particular interest in contrast agent imaging because the parameter can be used to determine contrast agent concentrations and increases the ability to localize the contrast agent.

Materials and methods

In this paper dreMR imaging was implemented on a clinical 1.5?T MR scanner combining conventional MR imaging with fast field-cycling. Two improvements to dreMR theory are presented describing the quantification of contrast agent concentrations from dreMR data and a correction for field-cycling with finite ramp times.

Results

Experiments demonstrate the use of the extended theory and show the measurement of contrast agent concentrations with the dreMR method. A second experiment performs localization of a contrast agent with a significant improvement in comparison to conventional imaging.

Conclusion

dreMR imaging has been extended by a method to quantify contrast agent concentrations and improved for field-cycling with finite ramp times. Robust localization of contrast agents using dreMR imaging has been performed in a sample where conventional imaging delivers inconclusive results.     

Automated effect-specific mammographic pattern measures

We investigate the possibility to develop methodologies for assessing effect specific structural changes of the breast tissue using a general statistical machine learning framework. We present an approach of obtaining objective mammographic pattern measures quantifying a specific biological effect, such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT). We compare results using this approach to using standard density measures. We show that the proposed method can quantify both age related effects and effects caused by HRT. Age effects are significantly detected by our method where standard methodologies fail. The separation of HRT subpopulations using our approach is comparable to the best methodology, which is interactive.