An integrated structure and scaling methodology for severe accident technical issue resolution: Development of methodology

Scaling has been identified as a particularly important element of the Severe Accident Research Program because of its relevance not only to experimentation, but also to analyses based on code calculations or special models. Recognizing the central importance of severe accident scaling issues, the United States Regulatory Commission implemented a Severe Accident Scaling Methodology (SASM) development program involving a lead laboratory contractor and a Technical Program Group to guide the development and to demonstrate its practicality via a challenging application. The Technical Program Group recognized that the Severe Accident Scaling Methodology was an integral part of a larger structure for technical issue resolution and, therefore, found the need to define and document this larger structure, the Integrated Structure for Technical Issue Resolution (ISTIR). The larger part of the efforts have been devoted to the development and demonstration of the Severe Accident Scaling Methodology, which is Component II of the ISTIR. The ISTIR and the SASM have been tested and demonstrated, by their application to a postulated direct containment heating scenario. The ISTIR objectives and process are summarized in this paper, as is its demonstration associated directly with the SASM. The objectives, processes and demonstration for the SASM are also summarized in the paper. The full body of work is referenced.     

Energy–exergy analysis and modernization suggestions for a combined‐cycle power plant

Energy and exergy analysis were carried out for a combined‐cycle power plant by using the data taken from its units in operation to analyse a complex energy system more thoroughly and to identify the potential for improving efficiency of the system. In this context, energy and exergy fluxes at the inlet and the exit of the devices in one of the power plant main units as well as the energy and exergy losses were determined. The results show that combustion chambers, gas turbines and heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) are the main sources of irreversibilities representing more than 85% of the overall exergy losses. Some constructive and thermal suggestions for these devices have been made to improve the efficiency of the system. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The tumour-associated antigen MAGE-1 is detectable in formalin-fixed paraffin sections of malignant melanoma

The MAGE-1 gene encodes a protein encompassing a HLA-A1-restricted target epitope for cytolytic T lymphocytes. Monoclonal antibodies directed against the MAGE-1 protein were tested for usage in immunohistology of routine pathology material. Seven formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded malignant melanomas were studied by the Avidin-Biotin complex (ABC) method with or without different antigen retrieval methods. Native, frozen tissues from the same tumours were used to validate the results by immunohistochemistry on frozen sections, by PCR for mRNA and by protein demonstration in tissue extracts using western blotting. Of 4 monoclonal antibodies tested, mAB 34B and mAB 77B were highly efficient in detecting MAGE-1 protein in deparaffinised sections with the regular ABC method after microwave pretreatment. In a series of an additional 28 patients 75% expressed MAGE-1, 50% in a substantial proportion. Follow-up studies in 6 patients indicate that the expression pattern remains stable but may change substantially within a short range. Immunohistology is thus a rapid and well-established method that might be used to select and monitor HLA-A1 positive patients with malignant melanoma and other candidate tumours for MAGE-1-directed immuno-therapy.     

A new enzyme superfamily - the phosphopantetheinyl transferases

BACKGROUND: All polyketide synthases, fatty acid synthases, and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases require posttranslational modification of their constituent acyl carrier protein domain(s) to become catalytically active. The inactive apoproteins are converted to their active holo-forms by posttranslational transfer of the 4'-phosphopantetheinyl (P-pant) moiety of coenzyme A to the sidechain hydroxyl of a conserved serine residue in each acyl carrier protein domain. The first P-pant transferase to be cloned and characterized was the recently reported Escherichia coli enzyme ACPS, responsible for apo to holo conversion of fatty acid synthase. Surprisingly, initial searches of sequence databases did not reveal any proteins with significant peptide sequence similarity with ACPS. RESULTS: Through refinement of sequence alignments that indicated low level similarity with the ACPS peptide sequence, we identified two consensus motifs shared among several potential ACPS homologs. This has led to the identification of a large family of proteins having 12-22 % similarity with ACPS, which are putative P-pant transferases. Three of these proteins, E. coli EntD and o195, and B. subtilis Sfp, have been overproduced, purified and found to have P-pant transferase activity, confirming that the observed low level of sequence homology correctly predicted catalytic function. Three P-pant transferases are now known to be present in E. coli (ACPS, EntD and o195); ACPS and EntD are specific for the activation of fatty acid synthase and enterobactin synthetase, respectively. The apo-protein substrate for o195 has not yet been identified. Sfp is responsible for the activation of the surfactin synthetase. CONCLUSIONS: The specificity of ACPS and EntD for distinct P-pant-requiring enzymes suggests that each P-pant-requiring synthase has its own partner enzyme responsible for apo to holo activation of its acyl carrier domains. This is the first direct evidence that in organisms containing multiple P-pant-requiring pathways, each pathway has its own posttranslational modifying activity.     

Positive transfer from successive reversal training to learning set in blue jays ( Cyanocitta cristata ).

Five blue jays received 160 successive reversal training (SRT) problems and were then tested on 96 learning set (LS) problems. During LS testing, SRT birds performed at higher levels than did 5 jays that had received an equivalent amount of experience on a single problem (SP), but they performed at lower levels than did 5 jays that had received 160 previous LS problems. In addition, the SP birds performed better than did naive birds that were given LS testing directly after pretraining. Analyses of the effects of the Trial 1 outcome indicated that win-stay strategy learning may have produced the SP transfer and that lose-shift learning definitely contributed to SRT transfer. Results strongly support the conclusion that the learning of a win-stay, lose-shift response strategy underlies LS performance in blue jays. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analytical function for lidar geometrical compression form-factor calculations

A simple model of image formation in a Newtonian telescope was used for calculating an analytical formula, that describes the geometric compression form factors of coaxial and biaxial lidars. Calculations were successfully validated by comparison with real measurements, confirming the accuracy of our approach. The need for different alignment of coaxial and biaxial systems to increase the overlap between the lidar emitter and receiver is also discussed.     

Numerical study on the spectroscopic ellipsometry of lamellar gratings made of lossless dielectric materials

The spectroscopic ellipsometry of lamellar gratings made of lossless dielectric materials is studied numerically by using the rigorous coupled-wave method with the use of Li's Fourier factorization rules [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 13, 1870 (1996)], which are known to improve the convergence on the analyses of metallic gratings. Numerical results show that the calculation method also provides fast convergence on lossless gratings, and accurate values of the ellipsometric angles are obtained in very short computation times. Moreover, estimation of grating parameters is investigated by using a cost function defined by the average distance on the Poincaré sphere, and it is shown that the computation required for accurate estimation is possible in reasonable computation time.     

A Spectral Analysis of Single Motor Unit Potentials from Human Extraocular Muscle

A spectral analysis of single motor unit potentials from the human medial rectus extraocular muscle is described. The analysis was performed by first averaging individual single motor unit potentials and then subjecting the average to Fourier analysis using a digital computer. The portion of the spectrum between 300 Hz and 2.8 kHz has definite bandpass characteristics with -3-dB points for the low-and high-frequency sides equal to 470 Hz and 1.4 kHz, respectively. The spectrum provides some insight into the characteristics of a filter that would provide an indication of the occurrence of single unit potentials in an interference electromyogram.