Maximal left ventricular (LV) hydraulic power output (PWR(max)), corrected for preload as PWR(max)/(V(ed))(beta) (where V(ed) is the end-diastolic volume and beta is a constant coefficient), is an index of LV contractility. Whereas preload-adjusted maximal power (PAMP) is usually calculated with beta = 2, there is uncertainty about the optimal value of beta (beta = 1 for the normal LV and 2 for...

Venus, a planet similar to Earth in heat budget lacks plate tectonics, yet displays ample evidence of extensive volcanic and tectonomagmatic processes, including regions large enough to be considered LIPs. Thus Venus provides an excellent opportunity to examine large-scale magmatic processes outside a plate tectonic framework. I discuss four groups of Venus’ largest tectonomagmatic provinces: v...

Although there have been some severe nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island (USA), Chernobyl (Ukraine) and Fukushima (Japan), nuclear fission energy is still a source of clean energy that can substitute fossil fuels in a centralized way and in a great amount with commercial availability and economic competitiveness. Since the pressurized water reactor (PWR) is the most widely used nuclear ...

In the Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) approach we want to understand not just the frequency of an event like core damage, but how close we are (or are not) to key safety-related events and how might we increase our safety margins. The RISMC Pathway uses the probabilistic margin approach to quantify impacts to reliability and safety by coupling both probabilistic (via stoch...

BACKGROUND NASP (Nuclear Autoantigenic Sperm Protein) is a histone chaperone that is present in all dividing cells. NASP has two splice variants: tNASP and sNASP. Only cancer, germ, transformed, and embryonic cells have a high level of expression of the tNASP splice variant. We examined the consequences of tNASP depletion for prostate cancer PC-3 cells. METHODS tNASP was depleted from prostat...

Plasmon-waveguide resonance (PWR) spectroscopy is an optical technique that can be used to probe the molecular interactions occurring within anisotropic proteolipid membranes in real time without requiring molecular labeling. This method directly monitors mass density, conformation, and molecular orientation changes occurring in such systems and allows determination of protein-ligand binding co...

Abstract Corrosion products in the primary circuit of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) during operation will cause Chalk Rivers Unidentified Deposit (CRUD), increase level coolant source term and deposition outside core, then affect normal PWR radiation field shutdown overhaul. Stretch-Out (SO) is a flexible mode reactor, which can improve economy reactor. In this paper, theoretical model CRUD a...

Corrosion damage has been found in a number of nuclear power plant containment structures, and this could degrade the pressure capacity of the vessel. This has prompted concerns regarding the capacity of corroded containments to withstand accident loadings. For the low-carbon, low-strength steels used in containments, the effect of corrosion on material properties is discussed in this report, a...

BACKGROUND Poverty is multi dimensional. Beyond the quantitative and tangible issues related to inadequate income it also has equally important social, more intangible and difficult if not impossible to quantify dimensions. In 2009, we explored these social and relativist dimension of poverty in five communities in the South of Ghana with differing socio economic characteristics to inform the d...