Brain mechanisms for reading and language processing in spina bifida meningomyelocele: A combined magnetic source- and structural magnetic resonance imaging study.

Objective: The development of the ability to process spoken and written language depends upon a network of left hemisphere temporal, parietal, and frontal regions. The present study explored features of brain organization in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and shunted hydrocephalus, who commonly present with precocious development of word reading skills and preservation of vocabulary and grammar skills. Method: Eight children with SBM were compared with 15 IQ and reading-level matched, typically developing controls on MRI-based morphometric and Magnetic Source Imaging-derived neurophysiological profiles. Results: Children with SBM showed reduced magnetic activity in left inferior parietal regions during spoken word recognition and pseudoword reading tasks. We also noted reduced surface area/volume in inferior parietal and posterior temporal regions in SBM and increased gray matter volumes in left middle frontal regions and gyral complexity in left posterior temporal and inferior parietal regions. Conclusions: A complex pattern of changes in cortical morphology and activation may serve as evidence for structural and functional brain reorganization ensuring preservation of language and decoding abilities in children with SBM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multifamily Affordable Housing: Residential Satisfaction

The objectives of this paper are to identify strategic issues impacting multifamily affordable housing resident satisfaction and to develop a systematic model to forecast residential satisfaction based on data gathered from two multifamily affordable housing properties located in Atlanta. This study concluded that major variables impacting residence are satisfaction with property management, tenant selection policies, enforcing residential rules, communication with residents, property management staff answering quickly to residents’ concerns, how cooperative property management staff is with residents, how friendly staff is to residents, residents referring their friends to live in their apartment complex, quality of the community, maintenance, residents’ quality of life, building quality, quality of building repairs, overall cleanness of property grounds, overall cleanness of the community, residents’ perception of safeness in their neighborhood at night, residents’ perception of safeness at night while inside their units, and overall resident satisfaction with their apartment units. The study provides a framework for developing a decision support system that could be used by property managers or developers.     

Functional disruption of the brain mechanism for reading: Effects of comorbidity and task difficulty among children with developmental learning problems.

Objective: The study investigated the relative degree and timing of cortical activation associated with phonological decoding in poor readers. Method: Regional brain activity was assessed during performance of a pseudoword reading task and a less demanding, letter-sound naming task by three groups of students: children who experienced reading difficulties without attention problems (N = 50, RD) and nonreading impaired (NI) readers either with (N = 20) or without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; N = 50). Recordings were obtained with a whole-head neuromagnetometer, and activation profiles were computed through a minimum norm algorithm. Results: Children with RD showed decreased amplitude of neurophysiological activity in the superior temporal gyrus, bilaterally, and in the left supramarginal and angular gyri during late stages of decoding, compared to typical readers. These effects were restricted to the more demanding pseudoword reading task. No differences were found in degree of activity between NI and ADHD students. Regression analyses provided further support for the crucial role of left hemisphere temporoparietal cortices and the fusiform gyrus for basic reading skills. Conclusions: Results were in agreement with fMRI findings and replicate previous MEG findings with a larger sample, a higher density neuromagnetometer, an overt pseudoword reading task, and a distributed current source-modeling method. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Design and Construction Challenges of a Federal Laboratory Building: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study regarding design and construction challenges of a federal laboratory building. The case study illustrates the successful collaboration of two federal agencies, General Services Administration (GSA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Creative methods were used to resolve complex design, construction, and budgetary issues. This paper describes lessons learned from a specific laboratory project on issues such as: A master plan and its role in locating secure laboratory buildings, site planning issues, contracting mechanisms, building security, energy, project development, design and construction excellence, and funding. Although CDC and GSA approved the release of this paper, the authors offer a disclaimer that the opinions and conclusions drawn in the papers are those of the authors, and are not necessarily shared by the CDC and GSA.     

Bagged ensemble of Fuzzy C-Means classifiers for nuclear transient identification

This paper presents an ensemble-based scheme for nuclear transient identification. The approach adopted to construct the ensemble of classifiers is bagging; the novelty consists in using supervised fuzzy C-means (FCM) classifiers as base classifiers of the ensemble. The performance of the proposed classification scheme has been verified by comparison with a single supervised, evolutionary-optimized FCM classifier with respect of the task of classifying artificial datasets. The results obtained indicate that in the cases of datasets of large or very small sizes and/or complex decision boundaries, the bagging ensembles can improve classification accuracy. Then, the approach has been applied to the identification of simulated transients in the feedwater system of a boiling water reactor (BWR).     

Online NetFPGA decision tree statistical traffic classifier

Classifying online network traffic is becoming critical in network management and security. Recently, new classification methods based on analysis of statistical features of transport layer traffic have been proposed. While these new methods address the limitations of the port based and payload based traffic classification, the current software-based solutions are not fast enough to deal with the traffic of today’s high-speed networks. In this paper, we propose an online statistical traffic classifier using the C4.5 machine learning algorithm running on the NetFPGA platform. Our NetFPGA classifier is constructed by adding three main modules to the NetFPGA reference switch design; a Netflow module, a feature extractor module, and a C4.5 search tree classifier. The proposed classifier is able to classify the input traffics at the maximum line speed of the NetFPGA platform, i.e. 8 Gbps without any packet loss. Our method is based on the statistical features of the first few packets of a flow. The flow is classified just a few micro seconds after receiving the desired number of packets.     

Effects of ultrasonic waves on carbon dioxide solubility in brine at different pressures and temperatures

The adverse impacts of CO₂ emission on the global warming highlight the importance of carbon capture and storage technology and geological storage of CO₂ under solubility trapping mechanisms. Enhancing the solubility of CO₂ in formation water has always been the focus of research in the area of CO₂ sequestration. Ultrasound techniques are one of the environmentally friendly methods that use high-intensity acoustic waves to improve gas solubility in liquids. Ultrasonic waves can alter the properties of different phases that lead to chemical reactions and provide a means to increase the solubility of CO₂ in connate water. In this study, we investigated the effects of ultrasound on the solubility of CO₂ in connate water under different conditions of pressure, temperature, and salinity. The results showed that the solubility of CO₂ was improved with increasing pressure under ultrasonic effects. However, the solubility of CO₂ was inversely proportional to the increase in brine salinity and temperature. Therefore, it was concluded that the solubility of CO₂ might be enhanced in the presence of ultrasound.     

Application of sustainable foaming agents to control the mobility of carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) flooding is a conventional process in which the CO₂ is injected into the oil reservoir to increase the quantity of extracting oil. This process also controls the amount of released CO₂ as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere which is known as CO₂ sequestration process. However, the mobility of the CO₂ inside the hydrocarbon reservoir is higher than the crude oil and always viscous fingering and gravity override problems occur during a CO₂ injection. The most common method to overcome these problems is to trap the gas bubbles in the liquid phase in the form of aqueous foam prior to CO₂ injection. Although, the aqueous foams are not thermodynamically stable, special care should be considered to ensure bulk foam preparation and stability. Selection of a proper foaming agent from a large number of available surfactants is the main step in the bulk foam preparation. To meet this purpose, many chemical and crude oil based surfactants have been reported but most of them are not sustainable and have disposal problems. The objective of this experimental study is to employ Lignosulfonate and Alkyl Polyglucosides (APGs) as two sustainable foaming agents for the bulk foam stability investigations and foam flooding performance in porous media. In the initial part, the bulk foam stability results showed that APGs provided more stable foams in comparison with Lignosulfonate in all surfactant concentrations. In the second part, the results indicated that the bulk foam stability measurements provide a good indication of foam mobility in porous media. The foaming agent’s concentration which provided the maximum foam stability also gave the highest value of mobility reduction in porous media.     

Thermodynamic evaluation of distillation columns using exergy loss profiles: a case study on the crude oil atmospheric distillation column

This paper presents a case study on the crude oil atmospheric distillation column of Tabriz refinery plant to show the applicability of exergy loss profiles in thermodynamic examination of the different retrofit options. The atmospheric distillation column of Tabriz refinery has been revamped as a consequence of increase of the plant capacity to 100,000 bpd. To cover the deficit of feedstock of the revamped unit, a blend of the existing feedstock with imported crude oil is used as a feedstock. However, to investigate how the blend of these two different types of crudes as a feedstock has an influence on the operating conditions, the examination of the column is needed. Exergy as a comprehensive thermodynamic property which translates the temperature, pressure and composition change into a common unit has been chosen to evaluate the distillation column thermodynamically. Furthermore, the exergy loss profile of the base case serves as a scoping tool to pinpoint the source of inefficiencies. Then, the exergy loss profile as a screening tool has found the retrofit options which are likely to yield greatest energy saving from a list of retrofit options proposed by the industrial partner. In the presented case study, the exergy loss profile identifies the best retrofit option with 17.16% reduction in exergy losses, which finally lead to 3.6% reduction of primary fuel demand.     

The influence of different carbon sources in the carbothermal reduction and nitridation (CRN) synthesis of SiAlON from nanocomposite precursors based on Al–SBA-15

Nanocomposites of Al–SBA-15 with the organic polymers poly-4-vinyl pyridine (P4VP) and polyacrylamide (PAM) were synthesized to produce SiAlON precursors containing various carbon contents. These CRN precursors, and their products after firing under N₂ at 1450 °C for 3 h were investigated by XRD, SEM/EDS and surface area analysis (BET) to compare the influence of the organic polymer carbon source. The results were also compared with those from precursors containing carbon black as the carbon source. XRD and SEM/EDS analysis of the Al–SBA-15 confirmed the formation of mesoporous structures, while BET and pore size distribution measurements indicated that the entry of P4VP into the Al–SBA-15 nanocomposite precursor is significantly more efficient than that of PAM. Firing these precursors in nitrogen produced β-SiAlON and β-cristobalite. At all carbon concentrations the P4VP nanocomposite precursors formed significantly more SiAlON than those of the PAM and carbon black precursors, due to the proximity of a greater amount of the organic carbon source to the silica template in the P4VP composite, and possibly also to the lack of oxygen in the P4VP monomer, in contrast with PAM. At least twice the stoichiometric amount of carbon was required in all cases, with optimal SiAlON formation occurring in the P4VP precursor containing 6 times the stoichiometric amount of carbon. Increasing the carbon content further suppresses SiAlON formation, possibly due to the build-up of back pressure of CO by-products in the pores of the nanocomposite.