Concerted utility review of VVER-440 safety research needs (VERSAFE)

There are twelve operating VVER-440/213 reactors in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The plant owners have carried out extensive safety enhancement programmes, which have included measures to improve prevention, mitigation and control of design basis accidents. Recently, there have been a number of projects to study the Severe Accident Management aspects of these plants. The plant owners have also initiated Plant Life Management programmes. The objective of the VERSAFE Concerted Action is to create a network of the VVER-440/213 plant owners and operators, which aims at definition of the further research needs of severe accidents and plant ageing from the utilities’ viewpoint. The starting point is to formulate a general approach to severe accident management and plant life management and then proceed to define the needs for the additional information expected from the safety research. The role of national research institutes and organisations of the partner countries is of crucial importance in performing such research and, thus, creating and maintaining the expertise on the national level. The successful completion of the project will assist in establishing well-defined research projects that are oriented to the needs of the end-users and provide information that can be used to facilitate and support the negotiations of the EU applicant countries operating VVER-440 reactors.     

Optimal control of distributed hyperbolic systems with deviating arguments

In this paper optimal control problems for hyperbolic systems in which deviating arguments appear in the integral form both in the state equations and in the boundary conditions are considered. Making use of Lion's scheme, necessary and sufficient conditions of optimality for the Neumann problem are derived. A simple example of application is also provided.     

Transistor Paint: Environmentally Stable N‐alkyldithienopyrrole and Bithiazole‐Based Copolymer Thin‐Film Transistors Show Reproducible High Mobilities without Annealing

New solution processable 4‐(2‐hexyldecan)‐4H‐bisthieno[2,3‐d:3′,2′‐b]pyrrole and 4,4′‐dialkyl‐2,2′‐bithiazole‐based copolymers (PBTzDTPs) are synthesized with excellent FET performance. These novel copolymers have considerable potential in printable electronics as they have high charge carrier mobilities, excellent air stability, good solution processibility, and no requirement for post‐deposition thermal annealing, all requirements for this field of application. The thin film transistors fabricated from PBTzDTPs achieve field effect mobilities as high as 0.14 cm² V^?1 s^?1 with current on/off ratios up to 10⁶ without thermal annealing. In addition, the devices exhibit stable performance in air, showing no significant degradation over 60 days. Moreover, the polymers described here provide an excellent example of the systems in which higher mobility performance does not require higher crystalline, long‐range ordered structures. Such a system appears to be particularly promising for rapid fabrication techniques, where kinetic conditions usually prevent the development of long‐range order.     

Broadening the Scope of Hypermedia Principles

Hypermedia systems have been implemented for such a wide range of applications that one must wonder whether their principles should not be included among the building blocks of computer environments themselves. In this paper, we argue that this would indeed be desirable and present a model on which such extension could be based.

After a brief review of hypermedia principles and the terminology used in this paper, we give examples of several computer applications in which hypermedia already are or could advantageously be used. We then suggest that most computer applications would greatly benefit if hypermedia were extended from isolated applications to a system-wide facility and that this could substantially simplify implementation of new hypermedia applications. This claim is then generalized and it is shown that extending hypermedia concepts to the organization of the computer environment itself --- the file system --- and to the user interface would make computer environments more flexible and easier to use.

We then list the main characteristics of such a ‘hyperenvironment’ and conclude the paper with an outline of its implementation model and an example.     

A framework for computing extrasentential references

We are concerned with developing a computational method for selecting possible antecedents of referring expressions over sentence boundaries. Our stratified model which uses a Λ-categorial language for meaning representation incorporates valuable features of Fregean-type semantics (a la Lewis, Montague, Partee, and others) along with features of situation semantics developed by Barwise and Perry. We consider a series of selected two-sentence stories which we use to illustrate referential interdependencies between sentences. We explain the conditions under which such dependencies arise, explain the conditions under which various translations can be performed, and formalize a set of rules which specify how to compute the reference. We restrict our discussion to two-sentence stories to avoid most of the problems inherent in where to look for the reference, that is, how to determine the proper antecedent. We restrict our considerations in this paper to situations where a reference, if it can be computed at all, has a unique antecedent. Thus we consider examples such as John wants to catch a fish. He (John) wants to eat it. and John interviewed a man. The man killed him (John). We then summarize the transformation which encompasses these rules and relate it to the stratified model. We discuss three aspects of this transformation that merit special attention from the computational viewpoint and summarize the contributions we have made. We also discuss the computational characteristics of the stratified model in general and present our ideas for a computer realization; there is no implementation of the _t"ratified model at this time.     

Effect of glucagon on myoelectrical and mechnical activity of the isolated homologous perfused porcine stomach

Totally isolated whole porcine stomachs, perfused extracorporeally with homologous blood, were used for recording gastric electrical and mechanical activity. Hormones Hormones were administered into the arterial system of the isolated organ. Pentagastrin, methacholine and electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve induced premature control potentials with uncoupling of the normal, phase-locked, pattern of electrical control activity and also produced electrical response activity and mechanical reaction. When glucagon was infused a progressive decrease of frequency of the cycles of electrical control activity was observed. Glucagon also abolished electrical response activity and mechanical activity, if they were present prior to hormone infusion. When pentagastrin, methacholine or electrical stimulation were applied during the infusion of glucagon, the responses to these stimulants were decreased or absent. The inhibitory action of glucagon was dependent on the duration of infusion of this hormone and lasted for 30-45 min after the infusion was discontinued. During infusion of glucagon the mean gastric arterial perfusion pressure and gastric peripheral vascular resistance were reduced.     

Establishment and characterization of a megakaryoblast cell line with amplification of MLL

A new cell line with megakaryoblastic features, designated UoC-M1, was established from the malignant cells of a 68-year-old patient with acute myeloid leukemia. The patient's leukemic cells reacted with alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase and acid phosphatase and expressed CD7, CD24, CD34, CD38, CD45, HLA-DR and CD61. Cytogenetic analysis of the patient's malignant cells (and of the UoC-M1 cells) showed a human, male hypodiploid karyotype with many chromosome rearrangements and marker chromosomes. Spectral karyotyping (SKY) analysis complemented the G-banded karyotyping and clarified several chromosomal translocations and identified the marker chromosomes. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and SKY analysis demonstrated that one marker chromosome contained three segments of chromosome 9 interspersed with three segments of chromosome 11, as well as a portion of chromosome 19. FISH analysis with a probe for MLL revealed that the UoC-M1 cells contained four copies of the MLL gene. Southern blot analysis determined that the MLL gene had a germline profile while Northern and Western analyses showed that the MLL mRNAs and protein were of the appropriate sizes. This is the first report of amplification of the MLL gene which may be an additional mechanism of leukemogenesis or disease progression.     

Atmospheric correction of hyperspectral airborne GCAS measurements over the Louisiana Shelf using a cloud shadow approach

As an image-driven method to correct for atmospheric effects, the cloud shadow (CS) approach does not require accurate radiometric calibration of the sensor, making it feasible to process remotely sensed data when radiometric calibration may contain non-negligible uncertainties. Using measurements from the Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events Airborne Simulator and from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer over the Louisiana Shelf, we evaluate the CS approach to airplane measurements in turbid-water environments. The original CS approach somehow produced remote-sensing reflectance (R_rs, sr^?1) with an abnormal spectral shape, likely a result of the assumption of identical path radiance for the pair of pixels in and out of the shadow, which is not exactly valid for measurements made from a low-altitude airplane. To overcome this limitation, an empirical scheme using an effective wavelength-dependent radiance reflectance for the cloud (γ, sr^?1) was developed and reasonable GCAS R_rs retrievals are then generated, which were further validated against in situ R_rs. Issues and challenges in applying CS to measurements of low-altitude airplanes are discussed.     

Optimization of Novel Human Acellular Dermal Dressing Sterilization for Routine Use in Clinical Practice

Gamma rays and electrons with kinetic energy up to 10 MeV are routinely used to sterilize biomaterials. To date, the effects of irradiation upon human acellular dermal matrices (hADMs) remain to be fully elucidated. The optimal irradiation dosage remains a critical parameter affecting the final product structure and, by extension, its therapeutic potential. ADM slides were prepared by various digestion methods. The influence of various doses of radiation sterilization using a high-energy electron beam on the structure of collagen, the formation of free radicals and immune responses to non-irradiated (native) and irradiated hADM was investigated. The study of the structure changes was carried out using the following methods: immunohistology, immunoblotting, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. It was shown that radiation sterilization did not change the architecture and three-dimensional structure of hADM; however, it significantly influenced the degradation of collagen fibers and induced the production of free radicals in a dose-dependent manner. More importantly, the observed effects did not disrupt the therapeutic potential of the new transplants. Therefore, radiation sterilization at a dose of 35kGy can ensure high sterility of the dressing while maintaining its therapeutic potential.