Clock Spring (United States)

ABSTRACT This paper examines critical challenges in preservation, such as infrastructure limitations, technological barriers and resource constraints, and explores potential solutions through collaborative initiatives, standardised reporting and targeted investments. Drawing on existing literature and previous efforts to preserve academic content, including journal preservation and digital content archiving, the paper outlines actionable steps to safeguard the future of scholarly books. A working group was formed to create a comprehensive guide for preservation, providing a framework that will support publishers, libraries and researchers in securing the ongoing availability of digital monographs.

HIV infection accelerates biological aging, but the contribution of the host's age to this process is unknown. We investigated the influence of SIV infection in macaques (SIVmac) on the risk of comorbidities and aging in young and old rhesus macaques (RMs) by assessing pathogenesis markers, DNA methylation-based epigenetic age (EA), and EA acceleration (EAA) in blood and tissues. Initially, upon SIV infection, the young RMs showed greater resilience to CD4+ T cell depletion, better control of T cell activation, hypercoagulation, and excessive inflammation, yet this resilience was progressively lost in the advanced stages of infection. During the late stages of infection, the young RMs, but not the aged ones, showed an increase in EA in PBMCs; also, EAA in the cerebellum and heart of young RMs was higher compared with old RMs. SIV infection was more pathogenic in aged animals in early stages, leading to a more rapid disease progression; however, accelerated aging mostly affected young animals, so that the levels of multiple key pathogenesis markers in the young RMs converged toward those specific to aged ones in the late stages of infection. We conclude that SIV infection-driven age acceleration is tissue specific, and that host age influences the susceptibility of different tissues to enhanced aging.

Small molecular food components contribute to the health benefits of diets rich in fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. The cellular mechanisms by which noncaloric bioactives promote healthspan are not well understood, limiting their use in disease prevention. Here, we deploy a whole-organism, high-content screen in zebrafish to profile food-derived compounds for activation of autophagy, a cellular quality control mechanism that promotes healthy aging. We identify thymol and carvacrol as activators of autophagy and mitophagy through a transient dampening of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Chemical stabilization of thymol-induced mitochondrial depolarization blocks mitophagy activation, suggesting a mechanism originating from the mitochondrial membrane. Supplementation with thymol prevents excess liver fat accumulation in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity, improves pink-1-dependent heat stress resilience in Caenorhabditis elegans, and slows the decline of skeletal muscle performance while delaying epigenetic aging in SAMP8 mice. Thus, terpenoids from common herbs promote autophagy during aging and metabolic overload, making them attractive molecules for nutrition-based healthspan promotion.

ABSTRACTOver the last decades, several premature aging mouse models have been developed to study aging and identify interventions that can delay age-related diseases. Yet, it is still unclear whether these models truly recapitulate natural aging. Here, we analyzed DNA methylation in multiple tissues of four previously reported mouse models of premature aging (ERCC1, LAKI, POLG and XPG). We estimated DNA methylation (DNAm) age of these samples using the Horvath clock. The most pronounced increase in DNAm age could be observed in ERCC1 mice, a strain which exhibits a deficit in DNA nucleotide excision repair. In line with these results, we detected an increase in epigenetic age in fibroblasts isolated from patients with progeroid syndromes associated with mutations in DNA excision repair genes. These findings highlight ERCC1 as a particularly attractive mouse model to study aging in mammals and suggest a strong connection between DNA damage and epigenetic dysregulation during aging.

This paper will review the history of pipeline repairs. Prevailing codes, standards , design guidance’s and regulation typically permit several types of repairs: namely: replace pipe as a cylinder, repair by grinding or buffing out a defect, weld overlays techniques, utilizing a steel reinforcement sleeve or utilizing a composite reinforcement sleeve or composite wrap. This paper will review the history of the technology and the efforts to document and codify consensus standards such as ASME PCC 2 Article 4.1, ASME B31.8s, ASME B31.4 and ISO 24817. Contemporaneous issues related to the subject will be addressed as well of the durability of the aforementioned repair methods. Globally pipeline operators are required to operate their pipelines in a safe and reliable manner, preventing any unplanned loss of containment, and ensuring the asset continues to run reliably delivering a profit for the pipeline owner/operator. Most pipeline operators are required to maintain their pipelines to an approved code either by National Regulators and/or insurers with the aim of improving safety of the pipeline and unplanned losses of containment. Most National Regulators guidance for the repair of pipelines refers to either ASME B31.4 for liquid pipelines and B31.8(S) for gas pipelines, while for process piping most operators complete repairs following the ASME PCC2 Article 4 guidelines. These guidelines are credible and are globally accepted as being an effective method to operate and maintain pipelines. This paper with reference to the three ASME guidelines highlighting the acceptable repair methods and also looks at the requirements of ISO TS 24817 and highlights how this does and does not fit into the maintenance of high pressure pipelines.

Circadian rhythms are a system integrated into almost every organism that lives on Earth. Clock genes are responsible for circadian oscillations. In mammals, four kinds of major clock genes(products) , namely BMAL1, CLOCK, PER, and CRY, form a negative feedback loop consisting of transcription and translation of transcription factors, and there is an oscillating 24-h rhythm in almost all cells or organs in the body. Clock genes not only oscillate circadian rhythms, but also provide rhythmic periods of approximately 24 h in the expression of various factors through fluctuations in transcriptional activity of the clock genes around a 24-h cycle. Studies of clock gene-knockout mice have revealed that some genes(Per1, Per2, and Cry1) have an active rhythmic cycle that is shorter than that of wild-type genes, genes(Clock and Cry2) , that become longer, or genes(Bmal1) whose rhythm disappears.

This paper summarized the results of computational modeling study for the confluence of the Kankakee and the Iroquois Rivers. This project aims to study the effectiveness of engineering alternatives on reducing sedimentation at the confluence. The hydraulics and sediment transport patterns of three management scenarios, which are keeping natural situation without engineering structures, constructing three short dikes at the left banks of the Kankakee River, and constructing three longer dikes at the left banks are studied by applying the EnSed2D model. The sediment transported in the Kankakee and the Iroquois Rivers are primarily suspended sediment. Channel bed has a thin layer of bed material, and occasionally bed rocks are exposed. Therefore, this study focused on the simulation of suspended sediment transport in the system. Two methods were applied to simulating suspended sediment deposition and erosion processes. One method assumes that bed material layer is too thin to allow suspended sediment concentration reach equilibrium at the bottom that only deposition occurs, the other method assumes there is a sufficient amount of sediment that can be entrained from channel bed so that the change of bed elevation is the difference between the rate of deposition and entrainment.

In a new project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, feasibility is being determined for a convenient, affordable method to map corrosion on the outside surface of pipelines. The goal of the project is a system that can produce a contour map of a corroded area and be easily deployed in the field by pipeline maintenance personnel. The collected data will support assessment algorithms such as B31G and RSTRENG (Remaining Strength), which rely on three-dimensional corrosion sizing. The array will be made up of multiple eddy current sensors, scanned electronically to collect data that represent local wall-loss measurements. The work is being performed at Southwest Research Institute and is building upon the results of an earlier project concerned with graphitic corrosion in cast iron pipe. Technical assistance is being provided by Clock Spring Company, who is cofunding the project and planning to commercialize the system if it proves feasible. This paper presents the basic measuring technology, results of laboratory testing of breadboard coils and a description of the proposed field operating procedure.