[en] The PLEXSYS software engineering tool provides an environment with which utility engineers can build and use expert systems for power plant applications. PLEXSYS provides the engineer with access to many powerful Artificial Intelligence methodologies, while retaining an engineering frame of reference and minimizing the need for a formal background in computer science. The principle concept is that the description and understanding of power plant systems centers on graphical forms such as piping and instrumentation diagrams and electrical line diagrams, which define a graphics-based model of plant knowledge that is common to many applications. PLEXSYS provides a model editor that allows the user to construct and modify models of hydraulic, electrical, and information systems in terms of elementary components and their interconnections. Analysis of the resulting schematic models is provided by several functions that perform network analysis, schematic browsing, mathematical modeling and customization of the user interface. 41 figs., 1 tab

[en] Small differences in dietary fats cause marked differences in cholesterol metabolism in different strains of mice. CBA/J mice adjust HMGCOA reductase activity and C57BR/cdJ mice change fecal excretion of cholesterol. Phenomenological compartmental modeling of movement of 4¹⁴C-cholesterol in the two strains of mice fed 40 en % fat, P/S = 0.24 (SFA) or 30 en % fat, P/S = 1 (PUFA) was used to analyze rates of movement between serum, liver, heart, and carcass. The C57 mice had slower movement between all compartments than CBA. Residence times in tissues were longer in mice fed SFA than those fed PUFA diet. The kinetic results are in agreement with the organ concentrations and enzyme activities measured

[en] Sculpin populations in the Cheakamus River were affected by an accidental discharge of sodium hydroxide in 2005. Th product did not persist, but it caused a reduction in sculpin densities of nearly 98 per cent. The Cheakamus Ecosystem Restoration Technical Committee was created to assess the impacts of the spill and to promote the subsequent recovery of fish populations in the river. The Committee proposed a natural recovery strategy for sculpins, with a multi-year monitoring plan to assess sculpin abundance and recovery. The 2007 monitoring plan was revisited through adaptive management to include considerations such as spatial distribution, population structure and genetic diversity. Projects include monitoring of sculpin migration and investigations of population distinctiveness among neighbouring systems, as well as sampling different life stages. The monitoring plan has promoted the collaboration of multiple regulatory agencies, local government, the Squamish Nation, CN Railway and other stakeholders. It has fostered educational opportunities at the community level and has led to research involving microsatellite DNA analyses. Monitoring results are providing a better understanding of sculpin response and recovery as well as species ecology in the study area.

[en] A train derailment in August 2005 resulted in the release of Bunker C heavy fuel oil into the waters of Wabamun Lake. Alberta Environment issued an Environmental Protection Order requiring CN Railway to prepare a long-term plan to monitor the effects of the spilled oil on the aquatic environment. To date, monitoring has included assessments of potential effects on plankton, benthic invertebrate, emergent vegetation, and fish communities. Approximately 2,000 sediment grabs were collected for chemistry, toxicity, and benthic invertebrate analysis. In addition 700 litres of water were collected for chemistry and toxicity analyses and the biomass of 40 kg of emergent vegetation was measured. Analytical techniques included a variety of laboratory and field experiments. Nearly 200 semi-permeable membrane devices were deployed to measure exposure to hydrocarbons. An in situ assessment of larval fish development was conducted on 4,000 whitefish and 12,000 northern pike eggs. Testimony from the initial, intensive studies was integrated into a single framework. Follow-up studies were then conducted to identify the potential effects of the oil spill. The oil spill did not cause wide-scale effects in Wabamun Lake according to the study results.

[en] A train derailment in August 2005 resulted in the release of about 149,500 litres of bunker C oil into Wabamun Lake, a lake which has been subject to ongoing contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from multiple sources for decades. This study compared the pattern, frequency and severity of deformity in larvae of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and northern pike (Esox lucius) incubated in-situ in areas of Wabamun Lake exposed only to background PAH contamination as well as in areas exposed to PAHs from the oil spill. All sites in the lake had higher than normal incidences of deformity as observed in laboratory studies. At a small number of oil-exposed sites, lake whitefish showed higher incidences of some deformities and a tendency to exhibit deformities of higher severity than sites not exposed to oil. However, deformities in northern pike larvae were few and with relatively small differences among sites, and none that could be attributed to PAH exposure. Semipermeable membrane devices that were deployed with the eggs showed that northern pike embryos were exposed to higher concentrations of dissolved PAHs compared to lake whitefish, suggesting that uptake or sensitivity to PAHs is different between the 2 species.

[en] To gain a better understanding of the hydraulic constraints on transpiration, altered canopy water relations in response to elevated carbon dioxide was evaluated in a morphological context. It was expected that by integrating the information gained into predictive models of canopy water balance in elevated carbon dioxide, our understanding of leaf-level responses to drought stresses and evaporative demand will also improve. To achieve these objectives, transpiration rates and leaf-to-sapwood area ratios in clonal stands of cottonwoods grown in near-ambient and elevated carbon dioxide were measured at the Biosphere 2 facility near Oracle, Arizona. Results were interpreted in terms of physical controls versus the direct and indirect effects of growth mediated by morphological changes on transpiration fluxes during periods of drought and high evaporative demand. Leaf-level transpiration rates were found to be nearly equivalent across carbon dioxide treatments when soil water was not limited. However, during drought stress, canopy-level transpiration was roughly equivalent across carbon dioxide treatments, but leaf-level fluxes were reduced in elevated carbon dioxide by a factor equal to the leaf area ratio of the canopies. This shift from equivalent leaf-level transpiration to equivalent canopy-level transpiration with increasing drought stress is taken to mean that maximum water use rates are controlled by atmospheric demand at high soil water content and by soil water availability at low soil water content. Changes in vapor pressure deficits had less pronounced effect on transpiration than changes in soil water content. 37 refs., 3 tabs., 5 figs

[en] This study was undertaken to evaluate the fluctuations of cardiac parameters in a baboon model during pentobarbitone anaesthesia which will serve as a baseline control for shock studies. Thermodilution and radionuclide methods were used to determine cardiac parameters. Radionuclide studies were repeated without any cardiac catheters to assess the effect of these on cardiac performance. The results represent baseline fluctuations in cardiac parameters against which cardiac dysfunction can be diagnosed in shock studies. The results also indicate that cardiac catheterisation does not affect cardiac performance significantly. (orig.)

[en] Automated image processing techniques have the potential to aid in the performance evaluation of nuclear fuels by eliminating judgment calls that may vary from person-to-person or sample-to-sample. Analysis of in-core fuel performance is required for design and safety evaluations related to almost every aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle. This study presents a methodology for assessing the quality of uranium–molybdenum fuel images and describes image analysis routines designed for the characterization of several important microstructural properties. The analyses are performed in CellProfiler, an open-source program designed to enable biologists without training in computer vision or programming to automatically extract cellular measurements from large image sets. The quality metric scores an image based on three parameters: the illumination gradient across the image, the overall focus of the image, and the fraction of the image that contains scratches. The metric presents the user with the ability to ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ an image based on a reproducible quality score. Passable images may then be characterized through a separate CellProfiler pipeline, which enlists a variety of common image analysis techniques. The results demonstrate the ability to reliably pass or fail images based on the illumination, focus, and scratch fraction of the image, followed by automatic extraction of morphological data with respect to fission gas voids, interaction layers, and grain boundaries. - Graphical abstract: Display Omitted - Highlights: • A technique is developed to score U–10Mo FIB-SEM image quality using CellProfiler. • The pass/fail metric is based on image illumination, focus, and area scratched. • Automated image analysis is performed in pipeline fashion to characterize images. • Fission gas void, interaction layer, and grain boundary coverage data is extracted. • Preliminary characterization results demonstrate consistency of the algorithm

[en] A 510MeV electron-positron collider has been proposed at UCLA to study particle beam physics and Phi-Meson physics, at luminosities larger than 10³² cm^-2s^-1. The collider consists of a single compact superconducting storage ring (SMC), with bending field of 4 T and a current larger than 1 A. The authors discuss the main characteristics of this system and its major technical components: superconducting dipoles, RF, vacuum, injection