Feasibility Study

We present our findings from a study to evaluate the feasibility of a radioisotope power system (RPS) combined with active cooling to enable a longduration Venus surface mission. On-board power with active cooling technology featured prominently in both the National Research Council's Decadal Survey and in the 2006 NASA Solar System Exploration Roadmap as mission-enabling for the exploration of Venus. Power and cooling system options were reviewed and the most promising concepts modeled to develop an assessment tool for Venus mission planners considering a variety of future potential missions to Venus, including a Venus Mobile Explorer (either a balloon or rover concept), a long-lived Venus static lander, or a Venus Geophysical Network. The concepts modeled were based on the integration of General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) modules with different types of Stirling cycle heat engines for power and cooling. Unlike prior investigations which reported on single point design concepts, this assessment tool allows the user to generate either a point design or parametric curves of approximate power and cooling system mass, power level, and number of GPHS modules needed for a "black box" payload housed in a spherical pressure vessel. Input variables include altitude, pressure vessel diameter, payload temperature, and payload power on Venus. Users may also specify the number and type of pressure vessel windows, use of phase-change material for additional (time-dependent) payload cooling, and amount of (rechargeable) battery power for peak power demand operations. Parameter sets that would enable a Venus surface mission with fewer than 16 GPHS modules were identified. Thus, the study provides guidance for design practices that might enable a long-duration Venus surface mission with an attainable quantity of 238 Pu, and with achievable operating parameters. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .

Currently effective Rollover Protective Structure standards exist for Buses, Earthmoving Equipment and Agricultural Tractors. Construction guides for racing cars have also evolved. There are no well-recognised Rollover Protective System tests, standards or design guides for either Military or Civilian (4 Wheel Drive Vehicles) 4 × 4's. This paper presents a range of test protocols, procedures and demonstration methods that have been developed and used to evaluate and test Rollover Protective Structures for Military 4 × 4's. A dynamic test method developed by Exponent, Inc. is also examined.

The disclosure of audio-visual meeting recordings is a new challenging domain studied by several large scale research projects in Europe and the US. Automatic meeting summarization is one of the functionalities studied. In this paper we report the results of a feasibility study on a subtask, namely the summarization of meeting transcripts. A Maximum Entropy based extractive summarization system using a mix of 15 features improved the performance of a baseline system selecting all utterances longer than 10 words with 20%( ...

Abstract. Combining Mobile Internet and Grid technologies could mean the ability to command the power of supercomputers with a mobile device. The computing and data transfer capacities of mobile devices are expanding and Grid-related technologies are already being employed in them. In this paper, we survey the current technologies and standards, mainly concentrating on MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) devices and Java (J2ME) interfaces. The technology has a potential for many new interesting applications. This paper outlines a feasibility study, a technological review and examples of applications. 1

Coastal erosion is and will be an increasing major environmental issue. We apply shape optimization techniques to the design of coastal structures such as breakwaters, groins and other innovative shapes. Actually, we compute the solution of a boundary value problem describing the water waves scattered by the structure and modify accordingly its shape, in order to minimize a pre-defined cost function taking into account the strength (energy) of the waterwaves. The optimization procedure relies on a new global semi-deterministic algorithm, able to pursue beyond local minima.

Results from the feasibility study of the "GiZero" free falling capsule are reported. GiZero is a capsule designed to perform experiments in free fall from ballooning at stratospheric altitude. It is shown that the residual gravitational disturbances inside GiZero during 20 s of free fall are smaller than 1 O-l2 g / &.

Diabetes mellitus(DM) or impaired glucose tolerance occurs in up to 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer at the time of cancer diagnosis. It has been reported that plasma amylin (islet amyloid polypeptide) levels are elevated in all patients with pancreatic cancer who were diabetic and even moderately elevated in pancreatic cancer patients with normal glucose tolerance. The purpose of the present study was to determine the specificity of elevated amylin levels for pancreatic cancer. Methods: Plasma samples were obtained from patients with the medical conditions listed in the table below. Amylin was measured by specific radioimmunoassay after Sep-Pak cartridge extraction. One hundred and thirty-one patients (69 males, 62 females) with a median age of 59.5 years (range: 23-94) were evaluated. Mean amylin levels for the conditions are shown below. Summary: Elevated levels of plasma amylin were detected in several disorders besides pancreatic cancer, in particular, chronic pancreatitis, other GI malignancies and biliary obstruction from benign causes. Conclusion: These results suggest that elevated plasma amylin is not specific for pancreatic cancer, thereby, limiting its role as a tumor marker. Further studies are needed to see if amylin, used in conjunction with other biological markers, may be useful as a marker for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. 1483 DUAL·HEAD COINCIDENCE GAMMA CAMERA FDG PET IN PATIENTS WITH COLORECTAL AND ANAL CANCER. Eywin Bruun, Inge-Lis K. Hansen, Herlev Univ Hosp, Herlev, Denmark.

Quite often, in order to derive meaningful insights, accounting researchers have to analyze large bodies of text. Usually, this is done manually by several human coders, which makes the process time consuming, expensive, and often neither replicable nor accurate. In an attempt to mitigate these problems, we perform a feasibility study investigating the applicability of computer-aided content analysis techniques onto the domain of accounting research. Krippendorff (1980) defines an algorithm's reliability as its stability, reproducibility and accuracy. Since in computer-aided text classification, which is inherently objective and repeatable, the first two requirements, stability and reproducibility, are not an issue, this paper focuses exclusively on the third requirement, the algorithm's accuracy. It is important to note that, although inaccurate classification results are completely worthless, it is surprising to see how few research papers actually mention the accuracy of the used classification methodology. After a survey of the available techniques, we perform an in depth analysis of the most promising one, LPU (Learning from Positive and Unlabelled), which turns out to have an F-value and accuracy of about 90%, which means that, given a random text, it has a 90% probability of classifying it correctly.

This paper describes a technique which can be used for wideband satellite signal power measurements. This method consists in measuring signal's power within its spectral mask for a certain period of time. A series of measurements has been carried out not only for evaluating the derived results of the proposed method, but also for the computation of building penetration loss for indoor satellite coverage. The results of this measurement campaign showed site and frequency dependence and they were evaluated by comparing results obtained using this method for signals of both vertical and horizontal polarization as well. Penetration loss for satellite signals can be modeled using regression models for both polarizations.

In a domain such as space technology, where robustness, mass, volume and power efficiency are key, biological organisms may provide inspiration for new systems with high performance. By using micro-technology processes, designers of space systems may take advantage of the millions of years over which miniaturised mechanisms in plants and animals have been optimised for survival. Space exploration often requires systems equipped with drills, and miniaturised drillers could enable a number of new space operations. Two natural digging systems have been studied as potential miniature space digging systems; the ovipositors of the female locust and of sirex noctilio, a species of woodwasp. Being insectoid systems, the mechanics of their design work on an inherently small scale, though they are also thought to be scalable. Results of preliminary studies, performed during collaboration between the Advanced Concepts Team of ESA, the University of Bath, the University of Surrey, D'appolonia and EADS-Astrium, are presented and discussed. Engineering solutions are proposed and analysed to assess the potential of new bio-inspired miniaturised digging systems for space applications.

Objective Evaluate the feasibility of implementing a combined in-hospital and home-based exercise program in older hemodialysis (HD) patients. Design A prospective longitudinal 12-week pilot study. Setting A university hospital HD unit and patients' homes. Participants A convenience sample of nine older ([55 years) patients undergoing HD.

In this study, non-woven MBR was used to treat hydrolysed biosolids wasted from a biological treatment plant. The concentration of SS of hydrolysed biosolids in influent was 10,000 mg/L and the concentration of SS in effluent was less than 200 mg/L with/without discharging wasted sludge depending on different HRTs, i.e. 20, 15 and 10 d. The results indicated that the percentage of biosolids reduction in terms of SS removal efficiency in non-woven MBR was around 65, 60 and 35%, respectively, depending on different HRTs. Meanwhile, the ratio of VSS/SS was decreased from 0.78 to 0.50 and the number of smaller inorganic particle sizes increased due to extended SRT. The initial flux in the non-woven MBR was set at 0.02, 0.04 and 0.06 m 3 /m 2 /day and trans-membrane pressure (TMP) was less than 10 kPa. The permeate flux could be maintained quite stably due to lower TMP. The proposed non-woven MBR could be used to achieve the reduction of biosolids in the wastewater treatment plant.

Active drug users with HIV infection suffer from both low utilization of, and adherence to, primary care. Combining drug treatment and primary care on-site reduces these problems significantly because it creates a social support structure; treatment program staffs can monitor patients' adherence and provide ongoing encouragement. But in the United States, only a very small minority of HIV+ drug users receive this demonstrably effective form of care. We report the results from a feasibility study of an alternative support structure, termed a ''peer-driven intervention'', that serves as a functional equivalent to drug treatment for increasing drug users' adherence to HIV therapeutics. The sixmonth study included 14 adult active drug users receiving medical care for HIV disease in New Haven, Connecticut. As a health advocate, each subject was assigned and asked to meet with another subject once a week at the project's storefront to provide peer support and counseling. As a peer, each subject was assigned and asked to meet with another health advocate once a week to receive support in keeping up his or her medical care. No two subjects played both roles for one another. Advocates earned nominal monetary rewards for eliciting positive responses from their peers in keeping clinical appointments, responding to physicians' referrals, picking up prescriptions on time and attending weekly meetings with the advocate. The results of the study suggest that an alternative social support structure to drug treatment is feasible for increasing active drug users' adherence to medical care. Innovative mechanisms that harness drug users' peer pressure to promote positive behavioral changes deserve greater study. r

Purpose: Carrying out a feasibility study for setting up an archive in the Office of Air Accidents of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Method and Research Design: For data gathering, observations and interviews were carried out. For developing a checklist and a questionnaire we consulted ISO/IEC and 10443 INSO standards as well as library materials. Skills required by staff of the archive, extracted from the standards and interviews, formed the content of the checklist. 23 main categories and 191 sub-categories in 24 separate tables addressed the issues of human resources, the equipment, and the building needed for the archive. 35 (out of 45) experts of the ICAO did the ranking of the items in the checklist. The checklist and the questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS 19th version.
Findings and Conclusion: ICAO is not in a good condition regarding human resources, facilities and a building to establish an archives for its documents. Findings show that even if problems with skills and equipment are solved, the problem with the building will remain. Therefore, a new building, properly designed for the archive, is needed.

The combination of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with direct current (DC) is a promising strategy to improve the efficiency of RFA. However, DC-enhanced monopolar RFA is limited by electrolytic injury at the positive-electrode site. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of the DC-enhanced bipolar RFA. To obviate the need for the subcutaneous positive electrode, the DC circuit was combined with a commercially available bipolar RFA system, in which both poles of the DC circuit are connected to a single RF probe. DC was applied for 15 min and followed by RFA in bovine livers using the following various DC currents: (1) no DC (control), (2) 3V continued until the end of RFA, (3) 5V continued until the end of RFA, (4) 10V continued until the end of RFA, (5) 5V continued in the circuit with reversed pole, (6) 3V stopped after initiation of RFA, and (7) 5V stopped. Coagulation volume, temperatures at a distance of 5, 10, and 15 mm from the RF probe, mean amperage, ablation duration, applied energy, minimum impedance, and degree of tissue charring were assessed and compared (analysis of variance, Student-Newman-Keuls test). All combined DC and RFA groups did increase coagulation volume. The 10V continued group showed significantly lower applied energy, shortest ablation duration, highest minimum impedance, and highest degree of charring with the lowest coagulation volume (p \ 0.05). DC-enhanced bipolar RFA with both poles of the DC circuit on a single probe appears to be ineffective.

The authors are solely responsible for the content of this technical presentation. The technical presentation does not necessarily reflect the official position of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), and its printing and distribution does not constitute an ...

First of all Ozdenefe et al. (2018) have to be appreciated for their attempt to develop an approach for Trombe wall (TW) sizing through an integrative appraisal of energy consumption, economics and thermal comfort. It was mentioned that the electrical energy consumption of the split unit air conditioner during cooling season (May 1 to October 31) for the insulated building involving no TW becomes 0 kWh whereas for the non-insulated building it is 417.1 kWh. It should be mentioned that it is almost impossible to get 0 kWh for the electrical energy consumption of the split unit air conditioner during cooling season in case of the insulated building involving no TW due to the fact that the building consists of windows as shown in Fig. 2. The heat can easily penetrate the building through the windows located on south and west part of the building. As a result, the indoor temperature would reach above 25 o C as the cooling set point (during cooling season) and the split unit air conditioner should start working in summer. Note that North Cyprus has yearly average temperature of 19 °C and the hottest month is usually July with temperatures ranging from 37 to 40 °C during daytime.

Abstract In this paper an automatic texture based volumetric region growing method for liver segmentation is proposed. 3D seeded region growing is based on texture features with the automatic selection of the seed voxel inside the liver organ and the automatic threshold value computation for the region growing stop condition. Co-occurrence 3D texture features are extracted from CT abdominal volumes and the seeded region growing algorithm is based on statistics in the features space. Each CT volume is composed by 230 slices, ...

Future energy needs and requirements in manufacturing processes (like fertilizers, synfuels, etc.) makes hydrogen an important chemical commodity. It is projected that hydrogen required for various processes may reach 1.8 x ]09 MBTU by the year 2000. This increases the importance of producing hydrogen especially from a cheap raw material like water. A survey of the different approaches for splitting water (electrolysis, plasmolysis, magnetolysis, magmalysis, photolysis, photoelectrochemical methods, radiolysis, etc.) is made and discussed in detail in this review.

A remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/ FS) of the Calcasieu Estuary cooperative site was initiated in 1998. This site, which is located in the southwestern portion of Louisiana in the vicinity of Lake Charles, includes the portion of the estuary from the saltwater barrier on the Calcasieu River to Moss Lake. As part of the RI/ FS, a baseline ecological risk assessment (BERA) was conducted to assess the risks to aquatic organisms and aquatic-dependent wildlife exposed to environmental contaminants. The purpose of the BERA was to determine if adverse effects on ecological receptors are occurring in the estuary; to evaluate the nature, severity, and areal extent of any such effects; and to identify the substances that are causing or substantially contributing to effects on ecological receptors. This article describes the environmental setting and site history, identifies the chemicals of potential concern, presents the exposure scenarios and conceptual

Background and Aims Studies suggest that stroke patients with thrombus in a major cerebral vessel respond less favorably to intravenous (IV) thrombolysis. The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of a protocol comparing IV versus intra-arterial (IA) recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) in an acute ischemic stroke with major vessel occlusion. Methods Consecutive ischemic stroke patients presenting <3 h from symptom onset with major vessel occlusion on CT angiogram (CTA) were randomly assigned to IV TPA (per NINDS protocol) or IA TPA (22 mg over 2 h). Demographics, times to presentation and thrombolysis, presenting NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) and 90-day NIHSS, Barthel Index, and modified Rankin Scale were recorded. CT-scans at 24-h were reviewed for presence of hemorrhage. Recanalization was determined by post-procedure MR angiograms, which are obtained the day after thrombolytic therapy. Results Seven patients (median NIHSS = 16) were randomized to IV (N = 4) or IA (N = 3) TPA. There were no significant differences in the presentation NIHSS, time to presentation, or time to treatment between the two groups. Hemorrhage was noted in one patient in the IA group (asymptomatic) and one patient in the IV group (symptomatic). Recanalization was seen in all patients treated with IA TPA and none treated with IV TPA (P = 0.03, Fisher's Exact test). Conclusions We found that it is feasible to conduct a trial comparing IV vs. IA TPA in ischemic stroke patients with major vessel occlusion presenting <3 h from onset. Patients treated with IA TPA showed a trend toward higher rate of recanalization. A larger trial may be designed to test safety and effectiveness of IA TPA in this specific group of stroke patients. Keywords Thrombolysis Á Stroke Á CT angiogram Á Intra-arterial Investigator initiated study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00624000). TPA (Alteplase) for IV and IA treatment was supplied by Genentech Inc.

This project explored functional requirements for an institution-wide method, at Partners HealthCare, for interpreting clinical knowledge for decision support. Such knowledge is currently incorporated in a variety of clinical applications, yet the methods of representation and of execution vary and the ability to author/edit the rules by human experts is limited. We expanded on a 2002 &quot;Knowledge Inventory&quot; at Partners to evaluate feasibility of designing a single representation approach entailing: (a) exploration of specific needs of different applications, in terms of kinds of response required (synchronous/asynchronous, time criticality, etc.), context (e.g., implied patient, time frame, or episode), and kinds of actions to be triggered; (b) kind of representation of knowledge and feasibility of casting knowledge in the form of if em leader then statements; and (c) data and knowledge resources used (implied data model, and particular knowledge sources and terminology sou...

Renal transplantation is associated with frequent gastrointestinal complications. Intestinal metaplasia is a feature of atrophic gastritis whereas the diagnosis of Barrett&#39;s esophagus is based on histological demonstration of specialized metaplasia. Both conditions are associated with increased risk of adenocarcinoma. The aim of the present study was to assess whether magnification endoscopy improves the diagnostic accuracy of intestinal metaplasia in stomach and in esophagus. In this non-randomized, feasibility study thirty one (12 women and 19 men) renal transplant recipients, with a mean age of 44.0 years were evaluated for the presence of intestinal metaplasia. Standard esophagogastroscopy with methylene blue staining was followed by magnification endoscopy. The presence of gastritis and intestinal metaplasia was classified according to modified updated Sydney classification. Of 31 patients, 16 patients had endoscopic and histopathological evidence of gastric intestinal meta...

Background Patients receiving intensive chemotherapy can experience increased distressed related to both the cancer diagnosis and treatment isolation. If not addressed, distress can lead to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and possible benefits of a music imagery intervention for patients hospitalized in a protective environment for the treatment of acute leukemia or highgrade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Materials and methods Adults receiving intensive myelosuppressive chemotherapy in a protective environment were randomized to standard care or standard care plus music imagery. The music imagery sessions occurred twice weekly for up to eight sessions. Patients were encouraged to use the music imagery daily. Results The principal criteria of feasibility were rate of consent, rate of completion of scheduled sessions, and rate of questionnaire completion. Forty-nine out of 78 patients consented, a 63% consent rate. Seventy-two percent of all scheduled music imagery sessions were completed. The rate of questionnaire completion was 60% with missing data because of illness severity and early discharge. The principal outcomes of benefit (e.g., efficacy) were positive and negative affects, fatigue, and anxiety. Both groups improved over time on all outcomes (all p < 0.001). However, a subgroup of individuals with low baseline negative affect who received the intervention reported significantly less anxiety at discharge than individuals with low baseline negative affect who did not receive the intervention. Conclusions Music imagery is feasible for adults with acute leukemia in protected environments. Patients with lower initial distress may benefit from a music imagery program in terms of reduced anxiety at discharge.

Abstract: Higher Education is increasingly relying on e-learning as a means of providing students with teaching and learning resources. Almost inevitably, this means that students interact with these learning resources through the medium of the computer screen. Although there have been significant advances in the design and implementation of online resources, exactly how students interact with these resources is a relatively new field of research. In this feasibility study students were asked to interact with a virtual learning environment, i.e. Blackboard, as well as Internet based resources, i.e. Ingenta and Wikipedia. Specifically, the students were asked to find the answer to a question provided, e.g. “what is classical conditioning?”orto locate a body of research related to a given topic, e.g. “theories of forgetting”. As they searched for the information the eye movements of the students were recorded using a Tobii X50 eye tracking system. The data gathered was analyseddynamic...

The effective use of near water equivalent organic plastic scintillators (OPS) for radiation dosimetry with high-energy sources under laboratory conditions is recognized. In this work, an OPS-based dosimeter using a photodiode combined with improved solid state detection and signal processing techniques has been developed; it offers the potential for the construction of a stable and fully portable dosimeter which will extend the useful range of measurement beyond the usual MeV area and provide reliable readings down to sub-'100 keV' X-ray energy levels. In these experiments, the instrument described has been used for the dosimetry of INTRABEAM intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) equipment at distances as low as 1.8 mm from the effective source, i.e., 0.2 mm from the X-ray probe surface. Comparison is shown with dosimetry measurements made using the calibrated reference ion chamber supplied by the IORT equipment manufacturer.

A study supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), in the context of its General Studies Programme, performed an investigation of the possible use of space for studies in pure and applied plasma physics, in areas not traditionally covered by &#x27;space plasma physics&#x27;. A set of experiments have been identified that can potentially provide access to new phenomena and to allow advances in several fields of plasma science. These experiments concern phenomena on a spatial scale (101-104 m) intermediate between what is achievable on the ground and the usual solar system plasma observations. Detailed feasibility studies have been performed for three experiments: active magnetic experiments, large-scale discharges and long tether-plasma interactions. The perspectives opened by these experiments are discussed for magnetic reconnection, instabilities, MHD turbulence, atomic excited states kinetics, weakly ionized plasmas, plasma diagnostics, artificial auroras and atmospheric studie...

The objective of this study was to conduct an experimental analysis to investigate the performance and energy saving of the wellknown desiccant airconditioning system in Thailand. The system was composed of a silica gel bed, a split type air-conditioner (1.5 ton refrigeration) installed in a room of volume 76.8 m 3 , air ducts and a blower. Its design allows us to adjust the percentages of return air, outdoor air and indoor air mixed to the air leaving the desiccant, and desiccant bed thickness as well. Tests were conducted on several days with relatively similar ambient conditions. Under the test conditions used here, a 5 cm bed thickness is recommended with a maximum adsorption rate of 473 g/h. The optimum percentages of air ratios are as follows: 15% outdoor air, 15% return air (mixed together at the desiccant bed inlet) and 70% of indoor air mixed to the dry air leaving the desiccant. The corresponding electricity saving was about 24%. As expected, simple economic analysis indicated that the desiccant airconditioning is only viable for large cooling capacities and central air-conditioned buildings. The payback period is about 4 yr.

The WALC intervention was designed to motivate exercise in the elderly. Persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) face similar exercise barriers. We described theoritical underpinnings of theWALC intervention and how we adapted it for SSDs. We conducted a feasibility study of the adapted intervention in 17 persons with SSDs. The adapted intervention incorporated low intensity stretches, exercise education and exercise cues. The intervention was feasible and acceptable to participants; approximately two-thirds of all groups were attended and nearly half of participants attended at least 75% of groups. Follow up studies should examine the effect of the intervention upon future exercise behavior, with the goal of identifying evidence based interventions to increase exercise in this group.

The root growth of trees close to buildings can cause directly or indirectly structural damages and the necessity arises of diagnostic tools to follow their time-spatial behaviour. In this framework, sensing techniques as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) are of relevant interest since they allow in principle the detection and identification of roots in a fast and non invasive way.

The technical and economic feasibility of the installation of a mini-hydroelectric power plant on El Valle River in Venezuela is assessed. Special attention is paid to modeling Venezuela’s energetic and economic scenarios. Sensitivity, risk and emission analyses are also carried out. The results of the study show very attractive economic indicators, such as a 280.3% internal rate of return and a 0.4 years pay-back period. The positive results of the study are indication that clean energies could find very fertile scenarios in countries such as Venezuela, where the advantages of their application may not be evident.

In Orkney islands, a number of wind energy projects have been established due to its potential for wind energy development especially as cluster developments on hilltop and moorland. This Self-sufficient Orkney Wind Energy (SOWE) project is trying to follow this pattern of development and has designed as a simple linear development of medium-large scale wind turbines which avoids dominating the landscape, while providing diversification required for the energy security, along with strong economic benefits to the local community. The developer completed preliminary designs and landscape assessment, resulting in the detailed design and the development of 27 wind turbine project for the expectation to generated electricity of 549.2 GWh annually. The SOWE project has been designed and selected the use of the Enercon E44-900 kW and Norex N80-2.5 MW wind turbines. These machines represent the maximum scale, respectively, as; • the site layout and all modelling have used a 45m, and 60m turbine tower height; • a rotor diameter of 44 m, and 80 m; and • The blade length is 22 m and 40 m. It has been found that the SOWE project provides a promising contribution towards the Scottish Government renewable energy production and carbon reduction targets.

At present, part of the forward RPC muon system of the CMS detector at the CERN LHC remains uninstrumented in the high-η region. An international collaboration is investigating the possibility of covering the 1.6 < |η| < 2.4 region of the muon endcaps with large-area triple-GEM detectors. Given their good spatial resolution, high rate capability, and radiation hardness, these micro-pattern gas detectors are an appealing option for simultaneously enhancing muon tracking and triggering capabilities in a future upgrade of the CMS detector. A general overview of this feasibility study will be presented. The design and construction of small (10 × 10 cm 2 ) and full-size trapezoidal (1 × 0.5 m 2 ) triple-GEM prototypes will be described. During detector assembly, different techniques for stretching the GEM foils were tested. Results from measurements with x-rays and from test beam campaigns at the CERN SPS will be shown for the small and large prototypes. Preliminary simulation studies on the expected muon reconstruction and trigger performances of this proposed upgraded muon system will be reported.

ReProTect is a project within the 6th European Framework Program which has developed alternative methods aimed to reduce or replace animal experimentation in the field of reproductive toxicology. In its final year, a ring trial, named the “Feasibility Study”, was conducted, in which 10 blinded chemicals with toxicologically well-documented profiles were analyzed by employing a test battery of 14 in vitro assays. EC50 (half maximal effective concentration) or equivalent endpoints were determined and the test compounds were ranked relative to chemicals previously assayed in the tests of the battery. This comparative analysis together with a weight of evidence approach allowed a robust prediction of adverse effects on fertility and embryonic development of the 10 test chemicals in vivo. In summary, the vast majority of the predictions made based on the in vitro results turned out to be correct when compared to the whole animal data. The procedure used here, a nearest neighbor analysis coupled with a weight of evidence approach, may guide future activities in the field of alternative toxicity testing.

In the sport of rowing athletes and coaches are concerned with optimizing a rower's technique in order to improve rowing performance. In this paper, we present the design and real-world evaluation of a sensor network approach to support improving the rower's performance. In cooperation with professional rowing teams, we found that a network of inertial measurement units (IMUs) is well suited to continuously and unobtrusively monitor important indicators relating to rowing technique. In a feasibility study with 5 participants we first investigated the optimal sensor setup, and in the final setup we attached 3 IMUs to the oars and the boat. From 18 participants (including both ambitious amateurs and world-class rowers) we recorded both training and racing sessions which each consisted of 1000m rowing. We present 4 rowing technique indicators for all 18 participants. Using the example of two world-class rowers we demonstrate in detail how sensor networks support the iterative process of optimizing the individual rowing technique.

Creating a more healthful food environment requires a new line of research that examines the impact of healthful changes on business's bottom line. This study investigates whether supermarket-sponsored shuttles can be self-supporting or make a profit in low-income urban areas.2000 Census data were used to identify zip codes in California with low income, low vehicle ownership, and high population density to identify potential markets for shuttle programs. The breakeven point was calculated for a hypothetical shuttle program operating in these zip codes.Breakeven point in the number of months of shuttle operation.Breakeven analysis.Sixty-seven zip codes met the criteria for inclusion in the study. A supermarket shuttle program would break even in most zip codes if 10% of households without a car used the shuttle. If 15% used the shuttle, shuttle programs in all zip codes would make a profit.A shuttle program could be self-supporting in all 67 zip codes.Those interested in changing the food environment to support a healthful diet could use this information to share with supermarket executives and other key decision makers.

A feasibility study for reclamation of a secondary treated sewage effluent mainly from industrial sources (60%) in Singapore has been conducted using a dual membrane UF-RO process. The pilot system had a treatment capacity of 2 m 3 /h. The UF unit and RO unit were operated at 70-80% and 40% water recovery, respectively. Six-month run for the pilot was carried out to study the stability and fouling tendency of membranes. The characteristics of the raw feed indicated that ammonia-N was consistently high at 30-50 mg/L. Very high fluctuations in iron (0.3-3.7 mg/L), turbidity (1-27.1 NTU) and TOC (3.2-56.7 mg/L) were observed. Nitrate was low at <0.2 mg/L. The results of the study showed that dosage of alum in the UF process significantly reduced organic foulants and phosphate scalants. The polymeric RO membrane could tolerate organics from industrial wastewater and performed >96% salt rejection at the end of the study after 6 months. The study concluded the dual membrane process was capable of reclaiming the sewage effluent mainly from industrial sources for industrial use.