Enhancing the US Navy's GIDB Portal with Web Services

Using Web services, the authors have been able to increase the amount of data accessible through the Naval Research Laboratory’s Geospatial Information Database (GIDB) portal. They created a Web crawler for Web Mapping Services (WMS) that harvests and adds data to the portal index and a translator that provides access to non-WMS data through the WMS interface. The Integrated Web Services Broker, using traditional Web services standards, provides automated access to meteorological and oceanographic data.     

Perceived effectiveness of filial therapy for a Jamaican mother: A qualitative case study.

Although filial therapy has traditionally been viewed as suitable for children of diverse cultures, there is limited research to support this perspective. This qualitative case study examined the perceived effectiveness of filial therapy for a Jamaican mother and the perceived effect on the mother-child relationship. Findings indicate that some aspects of filial therapy are congruent with the parenting practices and values of this Jamaican mother. The mother reported an increase in empathy, a heightened awareness of her child's needs, and a stronger relationship with her child. She expressed some difficulty with limit setting and tracking skills taught as part of the model. Future research directions include further examination of the compatibility of filial therapy with other Jamaican parents and the effectiveness of group filial therapy with Jamaican parents or other parents of Caribbean descent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Iterative optimization of high-affinity proteases inhibitors using phage display. 1. Plasmin

We generated a series of libraries having variants of the first Kunitz domain of human lipoprotein-associated coagulation inhibitor (LACI-D1, also known as tissue-factor pathway inhibitor-I) displayed on bacteriophage M13 as pIII-fusions. We varied LACI-DI iteratively in two regions: the P1 region (positions 10-21) and the "second loop", (positions 31-39), which together form one end of the domain. Display-phage library Lib#1 allows 31 200 amino-acid sequences in P1 region (residues 13, 16-19). Preliminary, we screened Lib#1 against human plasmin (PLA, EC 3.4.21.7) immobolized on agarose to enrich for phage displaying variants with PLA affinity. We introduced a 1600-fold increase in second-loop diversity (residues 31, 32, 34, 39) into the population of selectants from Lib#1, yielding Lib#2. Lib#2 (allowing approximately 50 million amino-acid sequences) was screened against PLA-agarose to isolate highest affinity binders. Protein EPI-P211, derived from the best isolate of Lib#2, inhibits PLA with Ki = 2 nM (at least 500-fold better than LACI-D1) and with high specificity. We used amino-acid sequences of PLA-binding selectants to design a PLA-biased library (Lib#3) which we screened against PLA. The protein EPI-P302 (derived from the best binder obtained from Lib#3) has Ki for PLA inhibition of 87 pM, which is 25-fold better than the first-round best binder and > or = 12 500-fold better than LACI-D1. EPI-P302 also shows very high specificity for PLA vs other human proteases and is resistant to inactivation by oxidants and extremes of temperature or pH. Thus, one can use selectants from one library to design target-tailored combinatorial libraries and obtain quite stable, highly specific, very high-affinity binding molecules while maintaining an essentially human framework.     

Light aromatics from the hydropyrolysis of coal

The hydropyrolysis of British coals was studied at hydrogen pressures of 5–15 MPa using heating rates of up to 30 K s^?1. In a single-stage reactor, hydropyrolysis of a high-volatile coal gave a maximum yield of 4.5 Wt % of single-ring aromatics. The results suggested that the evolution of volatiles and their cracking to benzene, toluene and xylenes were sequential reactions. This was confirmed using a two-stage reactor in which the coal was heated in one zone and the volatiles cracked in a separate, isothermally heated zone. Yields of up to 12 wt % benzene were then obtained from a high-volatile bituminous coal in hydrogen at 15 MPa, both the cracking temperature and the vapour residence time being separately optimized. Hydropyrolysis of model compounds showed that benzene was a major product of the cracking of polynuclear aromatics under hydrogen pressure.     

Digital Fluid Technologies for the Steel Industry

Digital fluid systems are controlled solely by on-off valves, in contrast to analogue fluid systems which use continuously adjustable valves. Many digital fluid systems have been in practical use for some decades. The steel industry relies on several fluid technologies. Apart from the handling of the liquid steel, several other fluid processes exist to fulfill indispensable functions; examples include cooling, motion control, torch cutting, descaling, and lubricating. Many of these processes need better control concerning precision, dynamics, resource demand, reliability, and environmental impact or must offer additional functionalities for use in factories of the future. In several cases digital fluid systems are the better solutions. In this paper this is demonstrated by four examples, ranging from proven simple solutions and concepts going currently into industrial application to promising concepts for the future.     

Bench-scale evaluation of seawater desalination by reverse osmosis

In bench-scale tests of seawater reverse osmosis desalination it is important to carefully consider osmotic pressure effects and determine the extent of concentration polarization so that sources of flux variation—whether from fouling, compaction, or osmotic pressure changes—can be properly assessed. Rigorous modeling of concentration polarization is difficult because of the complex geometries and flow regimes in RO modules; typically, concentration polarization must be measured. However, concentration polarization measurement usually requires knowledge of membrane permeability, which can vary from coupon to coupon. In this study a method is presented to determine both the membrane permeability and the concentration polarization regime in a single test. The key to the test is to allow the salt concentration to vary over time in a predictable way and extract parameters from a model fitted to the flux data. The usefulness of this technique is highlighted by evaluating results from several seawater experiments. It was found that specific flux decline in the experiments was caused by changes in osmotic pressure and membrane compaction. RO fouling by seawater organic-matter was not significant for the several seawater samples tested.     

Spatial heterogeneity of personal exposure to airborne metals in French urban areas

The spatial distribution of urban population exposures to ambient air particles was investigated as part of the Genotox'ER study conducted in four metropolitan areas (Grenoble, Paris, Rouen and Strasbourg) in France. In each city, 60 to 90 non-smoking adult and children volunteers were selected. Subjects lived in three different urban sectors: one highly exposed to traffic emissions, one influenced by local industrial sources, and a background urban environment. The Harvard Chempass multi-pollutant personal sampler was used to sample PM10 and PM2.5 particles during 48 h during two different seasons ('hot' and 'cold'). The elemental composition of the filters was analysed by Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). Sixteen elements were found to be over the method detection limits: Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb. The relative concentrations of elements of crustal origin (Si, Al, Ca) were higher in the coarse fraction of PM10 filters, while elements associated with combustion processes (traffic emissions or industrial combustion) presented higher relative concentrations in the PM2.5 fraction (S, Ni, V, Pb). Spatial heterogeneity of elemental exposures by urban sector is substantial for some metals of health concern, with 20% to 90% greater exposure values, on average, in the traffic proximity or industrial sectors, compared to the background sector, for Fe, Zn, Cu, V and Cr. This spatial heterogeneity should not be overlooked in epidemiological or risk assessment studies.     

城市中心区生活的复兴:更为深入的探察

"城市中心区生活的复兴:更为深入的探察"是一项由林肯学院等机构资助的关于城市中心区及住房发展的研究项目,本文介绍了该研究的7个主要发现.     

Immunohistochemical diagnosis of typhus rickettsioses using an anti-lipopolysaccharide monoclonal antibody

A monoclonal antibody directed against an epitope on the lipopolysaccharide of typhus-group rickettsiae was developed for the purpose of detecting this heat-stable, proteinase-resistant antigen in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. Rickettsia prowazekii organisms were identified in endothelium and macrophages in sections of the brains of three Egyptian men who died of epidemic louse-borne typhus in Cairo during World War II and in the brain from a recent case of typhus fever acquired in Burundi. R. typhi organisms were identified in endothelial cells from a fatal case of murine typhus and in experimentally infected mice. This approach is applicable not only to the study of archival tissues and experimental animal models but also could be used to establish a timely diagnosis of typhus-group rickettsiosis by immunohistochemical examination of cutaneous biopsies of rash lesions during the acute stage of illness.