Most Popular Books by J. Oliver

More than 600 public campgrounds are described in this guidebook to camping in Northern California. Maps. Photos.

They have been among us for centuries, the monsters known as the Croatoan, patiently waiting to rain down genocide on the human race! The only thing standing in their way is a darkly disturbing secret—one held close to the vest by the only organization that knows how to fight them…how to kill them…the Order.Blood Blue is the second stand-alone installment in the continuing Croatoan saga. This nail-biting, thrill ride grabs you from the first page, throws you into the skin of one of the main characters, and deeply submerses you, so you can watch firsthand as the horrifying world engulfs one of the Order''s brave, new agents, Andrea Ellijay. You will feel every gut-wrenching twist as you experience each terrifying page!The war between the Croatoan and the Order is heating up. Crashing onto the scene are two new players—the seductive vampire, Vartuhi, and the agent on a blood-line mission, Scott Reiger. Which side will they take in this latest, epic battle?From the best-selling author of Southern Fried Monster and Croatoan, comes this electrifying story laced with breath-stealing horror. So, grab your copy, curl up tight, and if you dare…venture into the lives of Scott and Andrea as they fight to stay alive, win, and find the truth about themselves.

At this point, recommendations could then be made so that fire departments, fire officers, and building officials could become aware of the potential dangers associated with these new building methods and materials.

A simplified model of cement attack by pure water or undersaturated lime solutions is proposed for long-term predictions of concrete degradation. The degradation is modeled by ionic diffusion in the cement pores coupled with mass exchange between the solid and aqueous phases. The local equilibrium hypothesis is discussed and justified for the present application. The only solid phases taken into account are portlandite [Ca(OH)2] and calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). The model predicts the existence of an undamaged core separated from the free surface being attacked by a sharp portlandite dissolution front with a progressive C-S-H decalcification zone located between this front and the surface. Good agreement has been found between the model and experimental results for the degradation of thin portland cement discs kept for three years in an undersaturated lime solution (1.6 mM/L). The model is completely determined with a few parameters measurable by simple tests (porosity, calcium and portlandite contents, diffusion coefficient). The model predicts a ?t kinetics for the cement degradation (as long as an undamaged core remains).

Problem statement: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the central nervous system and is among the most common neurological disorders in adults. MS causes significant disability and has no cure. Neurological disease severity is thought to contribute to disability but may not be the main determinant. Individual and environmental factors may modify the relationship between disease severity and disability or directly influence it. Research simultaneously relating these factors in MS has not yet been conducted. Methods: Participants completed an internet questionnaire and a telephone-administered cognitive recall performance task. Clinical data were extracted from a data registry maintained by the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationships between disease severity, individual factors, environmental factors and biopsychosocial disability (BPSD). Results: One hundred-eighty (180) adults with relapsing forms of MS participated in the study, representing approximately 15% of the total MS patient population followed by the database registry at DHMC. The study population was 76% female, had 14.6 years of education, a mean annual income of $35,000, was 75% relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), had a mean EDSS of 2.4, and a mean ARR of 0.21. In multiple regression analyses, disease severity explained 3%, demographic variables 6%, individual factors 69%, and environmental factors 64% of the variance in BPSD, respectively. The final model incorporating disease severity, individual factors, and environmental factors explained 74% of the variance in BPSD. Depression and environmental status demonstrated the stongest associations with BPSD. Conclusions: Neuropsychiatric status, bowel and bladder function, self-efficacy, social support, and environmental status are key factors associated with BPSD. These factors are modifiable by medical, psychosocial, and/or case management interventions. This study has three major limitations: (1) inabiltiy to predict causality or directionality of associations; (2) susceptibility to self-report bias; and (3) susceptibility to temporal bias. This study provides a basis for continued research on biopsychosocial disability reduction and to related healthcare quality improvement, shared decision making, and health policy initiatives.

Groups of related amino acids can be identified from the graph. The rules are probabilistic and indicate a degree of confidence in a prediction. The more confident predictions are generally more accurate. For this initial application of decision graphs to protein structure problems, the data comprised 10K amino acids from 50 proteins. The data was divided into various training and test sets."

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a carcinogenic, chlorinated volatile organic compound that was commonly used as a degreasing solvent for aircraft maintenance at many US Air Force bases. Past improper disposal of TCE has resulted in contaminated groundwater at many of these facilities. Phytoremediation, defined as the use of plants and their associated microorganisms to stabilize or remove contamination, has been implemented as part of a TCE groundwater cleanup at Travis Air Force base near Sacramento, CA and is being considered as a remediation option at other bases. Volatilization of TCE from leaves and the surface of the soil near the trees were shown to be the most important removal mechanisms at the Travis site. Past studies conducted on indigenous trees growing above TCE contaminated groundwater at several Hill Air Force Base (HAFB) locations have also shown that TCE is taken up and volatilized by the trees. However, phytoremediation has not been implemented, in part because of the difficulty in predicting the potential effectiveness of TCE removal over time. Flow through or recirculating chambers were used to quantify the amount of TCE removed by volatilization through leaf, trunk, and soil surfaces. Tenax4́Ø sorbent tubes, used to collect TCE from the chambers, were analyzed by thermal desorption gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Tree cores were collected using an incremental borer and analyzed by headspace GC/MS to quantify the TCE mass contained in the trees. Field measured transpiration stream concentrations (TSC) and groundwater data were used to calculate transpiration stream concentration factors (TSCF) for TCE. Comparing current and historical data, it was found that trees reach a steady state TSCF value of 0.26 after about 15 years. Using this information, it was predicted that a phytoremediation plot containing 40 poplar trees located in a seep area within HAFB OU2 would remove 4.82 kg of TCE annually. A larger plot covering the entire hillside above this seep (160 trees) could remove up to 19.28 kg of TCE annually, once trees reach a steady state TSCF.