Real‐Time Estimation of Pollution Emissions and Dispersion from Highway Traffic

Traffic‐related air pollution is a serious problem with significant health impacts in both urban and suburban environments. Despite an increased realization of the negative impacts of air pollution, assessing individuals' exposure to traffic‐related air pollution remains a challenge. Obtaining high‐resolution estimates are difficult due to the spatial and temporal variability of emissions, the dependence on local atmospheric conditions, and the lack of monitoring infrastructure. This presents a significant hurdle to identifying pollution concentration hot spots and understanding the emission sources responsible for these hot spots, which in turn makes it difficult to reduce the uncertainty of health risk estimates for communities and to develop policies that mitigate these risks. We present a novel air pollution estimation method that models the highway traffic state, highway traffic‐induced air pollution emissions, and pollution dispersion, and describe a prototype implementation for the San Francisco Bay Area. Our model is based on the availability of real‐time traffic estimates on highways, which we obtain using a traffic dynamics model and an estimation algorithm that augments real‐time data from both fixed sensors and probe vehicles. These traffic estimates combined with local weather conditions are used as inputs to an emission model that estimates pollutant levels for multiple gases and particulates in real‐time. Finally, a dispersion model is used to assess the spread of these pollutants away from the highway source. Maps generated using the output of the dispersion model allow users to easily analyze the evolution of individual pollutants over time, and provides transportation engineers and public health officials with valuable information that can be used to minimize health risks.     

Simple holographic polarogram

A new technique capable of obtaining quantitative values of the rotation angle of the polarization vector by using holography is presented. This is a two-stage holographic process; during the recording stage a hologram of the object of interest is obtained. The reference beam is composed of two beams that form a small angle between them and keep their polarization states at right angles to each other. In the reconstruction stage of the hologram, two images from the hologram are obtained along two different angles. As a result of the interference between these two images, a set of parallel fringes is formed at the image plane. The fringe contrast on the reconstruction is related to the angle of the polarization vector of the light at each position on the image plane. Measurements of the rotation of the polarization angle of a fraction of a degree were obtained. The main application of this technique is in the study of transient phenomena, where single-shot measurements are the only means of obtaining reliable data.     

Characterization of protein fractions from chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and oat (Avena sativa L.) seeds using proteomic techniques

Albumin, globulin and glutelin fractions were prepared from chickpea and oat seeds using sequential extractions. Molecular characteristics of individual protein fractions were investigated using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in combination with proteomic techniques. SDS-PAGE results revealed that chickpea albumin and globulin fractions (C-Ab and C-Gb) showed protein bands with molecular weights (MWs) related to subunits of legumin (11S globulin) and pea vicilin (7S globulin); oat protein fractions (O-Ab, O-Gb and O-Gt) showed most protein bands with MWs related to subunits of oat 12S globulin (avenalin). With proteomic analysis, eighteen tryptic peptides from chickpea globulin fraction showed sequence homology that corresponded to chickpea legumin α- and β-subunit (NCBI accession number: gi|6273402; theoretical mass 56,216 Da) while sixteen tryptic peptides from chickpea albumin fraction (C-Ab) were identified as chickpea provicilin precursor (NCBI accession number: gi|82173888; theoretical mass 51,390 Da); fifteen tryptic peptides from oat protein fractions were identified with origin from oat 12S seed storage globulin 1 (NCBI accession number: gi|134918; theoretical mass 58,508 Da). The identified tryptic peptide, ALIVPQNFAIAAK, was commonly found in chickpea glutelin fraction (C-Gt), rice glutelin fraction (R-Gt), and oat albumin, globulin and glutelin fractions (O-Ab, O-Gb and O-Gt).     

Implications of fecal bacteria input from latrine-polluted ponds for wells in sandy aquifers

Ponds receiving latrine effluents may serve as sources of fecal contamination to shallow aquifers tapped by millions of tube-wells in Bangladesh. To test this hypothesis, transects of monitoring wells radiating away from four ponds were installed in a shallow sandy aquifer underlying a densely populated village and monitored for 14 months. Two of the ponds extended to medium sand. Another pond was sited within silty sand and the last in silt. The fecal indicator bacterium E. coli was rarely detected along the transects during the dry season and was only detected near the ponds extending to medium sand up to 7 m away during the monsoon. A log-linear decline in E. coli and Bacteroidales concentrations with distance along the transects in the early monsoon indicates that ponds excavated in medium sand were the likely source of contamination. Spatial removal rates ranged from 0.5 to 1.3 log(10)/m. After the ponds were artificially filled with groundwater to simulate the impact of a rain storm, E. coli levels increased near a pond recently excavated in medium sand, but no others. These observations show that adjacent sediment grain-size and how recently a pond was excavated influence the how much fecal contamination ponds receiving latrine effluents contribute to neighboring groundwater.     

Real-time image acquisition for absorbance detection and quantification in thin-layer chromatography

This paper presents the first quantitative study of real-time acquisition of images of spots on thin-layer chromatographic plates during development. Procedures are described for imaging using a CCD camera and for image processing, incorporating corrections for fixed pattern effects and compensation for the moving solvent front, to measure the absorbance of the analyte. Imaging of Sudan II was carried out in transmission mode, and peak areas were found to be time-independent. Quantification of the relationship between peak area and sample loading was established over the range 1-50 ng. After averaging 55 images obtained during a single chromatographic run, which attenuates noise contributions from local nonuniformities in the sorbent layer, precision and detection limits were found to be comparable with values obtained in previous work using offline measurements.     

Sequential Quadratic Programming and Congestion Management

Contents This paper presents a basic idea for a congestion management system based on an optimal power flow using the sequential quadratic programming method under the consideration of FACTS-devices. The potential for using this congestion management system in the deregulated market is discussed. An approach for using the balance markets and regulating power markets to resolve congestions is illustrated here. A special focus in the current research is given to the possibility of using FACTS devices included in the OPF as a congestion management system. Received: 30 April 2001 / Accepted: 6 June 2001     

Diffraction of short waves modelled using new mapped wave envelope finite and infinite elements

We consider a two‐dimensional wave diffraction problem from a closed body such that the complex progressive wave potential satisfies the Sommerfield condition and the Helmholtz equation. We are interested in the case where the wavelength is much smaller than any other length dimensions of the problem. We introduce new mapped wave envelope infinite elements to model the potential in the far field, and test them for some simple Dirichlet boundary condition problems. They are used in conjuction with wave envelope finite elements developed earlier [1] to model the potential in the near field. An iterative procedure is used in which an initial estimate of the phase is iteratively improved. The iteration scheme, by which the wave envelope and phase are recovered, is described in detail. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Glutathione Modulation in PVYNTN Susceptible and Resistant Potato Plant Interactions

Glutathione is a metabolite that plays an important role in plant response to biotic stress through its ability to remove reactive oxygen species, thereby limiting the degree of potential oxidative damage. It can couple changes in the intracellular redox state to the development, especially the defense responses, of plants. Several studies have focused on measuring glutathione levels in virus infected plants, but have not provided complete information. Therefore, we analyzed, for the first time, the content of glutathione as well as its ultrastructural distribution related to susceptible and hypersensitive potato–Potato virus Y NTN (PVY^NTN) interaction, with an aim of providing new insight into interactive responses to PVY^NTN stress. Our findings reported that the inoculation of PVY^NTN caused a dynamic increase in the content of glutathione, not only in resistance but also in susceptible reaction, especially at the first steps of plant–virus interaction. Moreover, the increase in hypersensitive response was much more dynamic, and accompanied by a significant reduction in the content of PVY^NTN. By contrast, in susceptible potato Irys, the content of glutathione decreased between 7 and 21 days after virus inoculation, which led to a significant increase in PVY^NTN concentration. Additionally, our findings clearly indicated the steady induction of two selected potato glutathione S-transferase StGSTF1 and StGSTF2 genes after PVY^NTN inoculation, regardless of the interaction type. However, the relative expression level of StGSTF1 did not significantly differ between resistant and susceptible plants, whereas the relative expression levels of StGSTF2 differed between susceptible and resistant reactions. Therefore, we proposed that StGSTF2 can act as a marker of the type of response to PVY^NTN. Our observations indicated that glutathione is an important component of signaling as well as the regulatory network in the PVY^NTN–potato pathosystem. In resistance responses to PVY^NTN, this metabolite activates plant defenses by reducing potential damage to the host plant cell, causing a reduction in virus concentration, while it can also be involved in the development of PVY^NTN elicited symptoms, as well as limiting oxidative stress, leading to systemic infection in susceptible potato plants.     

Esters from castor oil functionalized with aromatic amines as a potential lubricant

Vegetable oils are very promising alternatives to fossil lubricants due to their abundance, low cost, excellent performance, and environmental friendliness. Due to its multifunctional structure, castor oil is an excellent precursor in the synthesis of new biolubricants. However, it showed poor thermal-oxidative stability and a higher pour point. This study used castor oil fatty acids prepared by transesterification (EHRO), epoxidation (TEPO), and oxirane ring opening with the aromatic amines aniline (ANIL) and p-anisidine (ANIS). The chemical structure of these oils was verified by ¹H and ¹³C NMR analysis, and mass spectrometry. Measurements show that the presence of an aromatic amine increases the viscosity resulting in 172 (ANIL) and 199 (ANIS) cSt at 40°C, but reduces viscosity index to 16 and 1, respectively. In addition, the amine groups can scavenge radicals increasing their thermal and oxidative stability. These products do not oxidize copper, and tribological analysis reveals that ANIS has the lowest torque with wear equivalent to commercial mineral lubricant NH-140.