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In order to reduce risks from the Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) accident and to meet safety targets, various measures have been analyzed to minimize the amount of fission product (FP) release. In this paper, we propose an introduction of a Containment Filtered Venting System (CFVS) connected to the steam generator secondary side, which can reduce the amount of FP release while minimizing adverse effects identified in the previous studies. In order to compare the effect of new equipment with the existing strategy, accident simulations using MELCOR were performed. As a result of simulations, it is confirmed that CFVS operation lowers FP release into the environment, and the release fractions are lower (minimum 0.6% of the initial inventory for Cs) than that of the strategy which intends to depressurize the primary system directly (minimum 15.2% for Cs). The sensitivity analyses identify that refill of the CFVS vessel is a dominant contributor reducing the amount of FP released. As the new strategy has the possibility of hydrogen combustion and detonation in CFVS, the installation of an igniter inside the CFVS vessel may be considered in reducing such hydrogen risk.

This paper proposes the design scheme of the alternative adaptive observer and controller based on the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. The T-S fuzzy modeling and the state feedback control technique are adopted for the simple structure. The proposed method maintains consistent performance in the presence of parameter uncertainties and incorporates linguistic fuzzy information from human operators. In addition, with the simple adaptive state feedback controller, it solves the singularity problem, which occurs in the inverse dynamics based on the feedback linearization method. Using Lyapunov theory and Lipschitz condition, the stability analysis is conducted, and the adaptive law is derived. The proposed method is applied to the stabilization problem of a flexible joint manipulator in order to guarantee its performance.

This Letter proposes an adaptive fuzzy bilinear observer (FBO) based synchronization design for generalized Lorenz system (GLS). The GLS can be described to TS fuzzy bilinear generalized Lorenz model (FBGLM) with their states immeasurable and their parameters unknown. We design an adaptive FBO based on TS FBGLM for synchronization. Lyapunov theory is employed to guarantee the stability of error dynamic system via linear matrix equalities (LMIs) and to derive the adaptive laws to estimate unknown parameters. Numerical example is given to demonstrate the validity of our proposed adaptive FBO approach for synchronization.

Flash memory has critical drawbacks such as long latency of its write operation and a short life cycle. In order to overcome these limitations, the number of write operations to flash memory devices needs to be minimized. The B-Tree index structure, which is a popular hard disk based index structure, requires an excessive number of write operations when updating it to flash memory. To address this, it was proposed that another layer that emulates a B-Tree be placed between the flash memory and B-Tree indexes. This approach succeeded in reducing the write operation count, but it greatly increased search time and main memory usage. This paper proposes a B-Tree index extension that reduces both the write count and search time with limited main memory usage. First, we designed a buffer that accumulates update requests per leaf node and then simultaneously processes the update requests of the leaf node carrying the largest number of requests. Second, a type of header information was written on each leaf node. Finally, we made the index automatically control each leaf node size. Through experiments, the proposed index structure resulted in a significantly lower write count and a greatly decreased search time with less main memory usage, than placing a layer that emulates a B-Tree.

As the total amount of traffic data in networks has been growing at an alarming rate, there is currently a substantial body of research that attempts to mine traffic data with the purpose of obtaining useful information. For instance, there are some investigations into the detection of Internet worms and intrusions by discovering abnormal traffic patterns. However, since network traffic data contain information about the Internet usage patterns of users, network users' privacy may be compromised during the mining process. In this paper, we propose an efficient and practical method that preserves privacy during sequential pattern mining on network traffic data. In order to discover frequent sequential patterns without violating privacy, our method uses the N-repository server model, which operates as a single mining server and the retention replacement technique, which changes the answer to a query probabilistically. In addition, our method accelerates the overall mining process by maintaining the meta tables in each site so as to determine quickly whether candidate patterns have ever occurred in the site or not. Extensive experiments with real-world network traffic data revealed the correctness and the efficiency of the proposed method.

CART peptide has been shown to regulate the actions of psychomotor stimulants. Here we have further investigated the role of the biologically active CART 55-102 peptide in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in the expression of behavioral sensitization by amphetamine (AMPH). Rats were pre-exposed 5 times to either saline or AMPH (1 mg/kg, i.p.). After 2 weeks of withdrawal, rats were microinjected into the NAcc with saline or CART 55-102 (1.0, or 2.5 microg/0.5 microl/side) followed by AMPH challenge (1 mg/kg, i.p.). The enhanced increase of locomotion and rearing produced by repeated AMPH pre-exposures was dose-dependently inhibited by microinjection into the NAcc of CART 55-102 peptide. These results indicate that CART 55-102 peptide in the NAcc can play a compensatory inhibitory role in the expression of behavioral sensitization by AMPH and further suggest that CART peptide may be a useful target to control the drug addiction by psychomotor stimulants.

The role of the biologically active CART 55-102 peptide in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in the expression of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization was investigated. Rats were divided into four groups: one for saline and the other three for cocaine pre-exposures (15 mg/kg, i.p., once daily for 7 days). After 3 weeks of withdrawal, rats were microinjected into the NAcc either saline or CART 55-102 (1.0, or 2.5 microg/0.5 microl/side) followed by cocaine challenge (10 mg/kg, i.p.). Microinjection into the NAcc of CART 55-102 peptide dose-dependently blocked the expression of locomotor sensitization produced by repeated cocaine pre-exposures. Next, we further examined the effect of CART 55-102 microinjection on extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation levels in the NAcc. Additional four groups of rats were all cocaine pre-exposed and, after 3 weeks of withdrawal, they were either saline or cocaine challenged systemically following microinjection into the NAcc of either saline, CART 55-102 (2.5 microg/0.5 microl/side), or the equivalent mole amount of inactive CART 1-27 peptide. The increase of ERK1/2 phosphorylation levels in the NAcc by cocaine was completely blocked by CART 55-102 microinjection in this site, while it remains unaffected by inactive CART 1-27 peptide. These results suggest that CART 55-102 peptide in the NAcc may play a compensatory inhibitory role in the expression of behavioral sensitization by cocaine and these effects may be mediated by its inhibition of ERK1/2 phosphorylation in this site.

Among the three G-protein-linked acetylcholine (ACh) receptors (GAR-1, -2, and -3) in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), GAR-3 appears most similar to mammalian muscarinic ACh receptors (mAChRs). The gar-3 gene, unlike mammalian mAChR genes, contains introns within the coding region. In this study, we identified an alternatively spliced isoform of GAR-3 (GAR-3a), which differs only in the third intracellular (i3) loop from the previously described one (GAR-3b). GAR-3a has a 26 amino acid insert in the i3 loop compared with GAR-3b. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on stage-specific RNAs indicated that both isoforms are expressed at all developmental stages examined, with gar-3b being more abundantly expressed than gar-3a. When these two GAR-3 isoforms were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, they exhibited similar ligand binding characteristics. In response to carbachol treatment, the two isoforms stimulated phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis with similar efficacy. Together with our earlier observations that GAR-1 and GAR-2 undergo alternative splicing, this study shows that alternative splicing plays an important role in promoting molecular diversity of G-protein-linked ACh receptors in C. elegans.

Purpose The purpose of our study is to compare surgical outcomes of proximal submandibular stones between intraoral removal and traditional SMG resection. Materials and methods Forty-four patients were diagnosed with proximal submandibular stones by Neck CT. They are randomly assigned to either the intraoral removal of stone (IORS) group or the conventional SMG resection (SMGR) group. A single surgeon performed all of the operations. Results Means stone size was significantly smaller in IORS group than SMGR group by 5.2–9.0 mm.Means distance from hilum of both groups showed no significant difference. Means distance from hilum of both groups showed no significant difference. Mean operation time was significantly shorter in IORS group than that of SMGR group by 51.1 versus 83.2 min. Mean hospital stay was also significantly shorter in IORS group by 2.6–5.3 days. Mean postoperative pain estimated by VAS was significantly lower in IORS group by 3.0 versus 4.3. Conclusions Intraoral removal of proximal submandibular stones has several advantages over SMG resection in terms of hospital stay, mean operation time, and postoperative pain. Also there were no reported complications after the operations. We therefore recommend that our intraoral removal method replace SMG resection as the primary procedure for the removal of proximal submandibular stones.

Objectives The decision whether or not to preserve orbital contents during surgical resection of malignant tumors involving the sinonasal tract and the orbit has been an issue of controversy. The purpose of the study was to examine the oncological and functional outcomes of multimodality therapy for patients with advanced maxillary cancer that invaded the orbit. Materials and methods Retrospective study was conducted using medical records of 55 patients who underwent primary surgical management with or without orbital exentration for maxillary cancer abutting or eroding orbit. Results Among 55 cases of maxillary cancer, 26 patients (26/55, 47%) were suspected to be invaded orbit in pre-operative radiologic studies. During surgery, 11 patients (11/26, 42%) had the tumor close to periosteum without definite involvement and six patients (6/26, 23%) had the tumor with periosteum involvement in frozen biopsy. These 17 patients (17/26, 63%) underwent maxillectomy without orbital exentration. And nine patients (9/26, 35%) had the tumor with orbital fat or muscle involvement in frozen biopsy and received orbital exentration. 19%(5/26) of the patients had local recurrence. There were no statistically significant differences in recurrence rates (18% vs 22%) and 5-year disease free survival rate (55% vs 34%) between orbit preservation group and orbital exentration group. In 11 patients (11/26, 42%), discrepancy between pre-operative radiologic studies and pathologic reports were found. Conclusion Control of the primary site and functional results are important in the curative treatment of maxillary cancer. Orbital preservation procedure during radical maxillectomy for the patients without definite orbital fat or muscle invasion must be considered carefully. And proper pre-operative evaluation and frozen biopsy during surgery for orbital invasion is essential because of the high false positive rate of pre-operative radiologic studies for orbital invasion.