Cold Water Tank Research Articles

Abstract 362: Behavioral Testing With Morris Water Maze in Rats Resuscitated With Emergency Cardiopulmonary Bypass From 10 Min Ventricular Fibrillation Cardiac Arrest

Background: Rodent models of cardiac arrest help to investigate detailed pathophysiologic mechanisms of cerebral ischemia and reperfusion. Sensitive neurologic and behavioral tests would enhance the ability of such models to evaluate possible beneficial effects of protective therapies. The Morris Water Maze (MWM) is a procedure to study spatial learning and memory. The aim of this study was to investigate behavioral testing with the MWM in rats resuscitated from ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest (CA) via emergency cardiopulmonary bypass (ECPB). Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats (450g, male, anesthetized) were put into VF CA. After 10 min of CA the animals were resuscitated with ECPB, epinephrine and defibrillations and cooled to mild hypothermia (33°C) . Ten surviving animals with favorable neurologic recovery were compared to 8 healthy rats. MWM was performed in each animal 2 times on 4 consecutive days for maximal 60 s with a hidden platform in a 22°C cold water tank and on day 7 and 14 with the platform removed for memory testing. Results: The latency time to find the hidden platform decreased in the CPB group and the control group from 60(IQR 39-60) s and 60(IQR 60-60) s to 9(IQR 6-29) s and 10(IQR 6-19) s respectively (p=0.46). After removal of the platform the time within the target sector on day 7 in 60 s was 17±6 s and 22±5 s (p=0.08) and on day 14 12±4 s and 13±4 s (p=0.76) respectively. Conclusions: Spatial learning and memory in clinical neurologically intact animals resuscitated from a 10 min VF CA cooled to mild hypothermia was comparable to normal healthy controls. With this MWM setup learning was performed well, the remembrance of platform position was kept for one week in both groups equally.

A heatstroke prediction and prevention system for outdoor construction workers

Abstract Background Recently, the number of heatstroke cases is increasing among construction workers. To prevent heatstroke at construction sites, it is necessary to accurately predict both the thermal environment of construction sites and the physiological condition of workers, which is presently difficult to achieve. Methods We have therefore developed the Construction Workers’ Heatstroke Prevention (CWHP) system specifically for outdoor construction workers. The CWHP system consists of the Thermal Environment Prediction (TEP) system, which predicts changes in the thermal environment based on forecast values obtained from the Japan Meteorological Agency and results of computational fluid dynamics and solar insolation simulations, and the Core Body Temperature Prediction (CBTP) system, which predicts changes in worker core body temperature based on the TEP system results. The CWHP’s heatstroke risk notification system indicates the risk of worker heatstroke considering the work site and schedule, so that construction managers can appropriately schedule work or install appropriate facilities such as tents, electric fans, and cold water tanks before work starts. The system is flexible enough to accommodate situations differing from meteorological agency forecasts. Results In summer 2011 the CWHP system was applied at Osaka University campus under hypothetical situations using the Virtual Reality Avatar Thermal Environment (VRATE) system, previously developed by the authors. Conclusions The system accurately predicted the time history of construction worker core body temperatures and informed users of times of heatstroke risk, allowing work sites and worker schedules to be modified such that new plans showed no risk for that day.

Investigation of four geometrical parameters on thermal stratification of cold water tanks by exergy analysis

In this paper, effects of four geometrical parameters of tanks on the thermal stratification within a cold storage tank are analysed. Nine two–dimensional models have been numerically simulated by using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program, fluent. Realistic boundary and initial conditions are applied. The level of thermal stratification in each model has been quantified by means of exergy analyses. The results obtained show increasing the tanks Aspect Ratio (AR) of height to width, decreasing inlet/outlet diameter, moving the inlet/outlet position to the outer extremities of the tank, and increasing input angle towards top of the tank all lead in increasing levels of thermal stratification.

Effect of cold immersion on grip force, EMG, and thermal discomfort

This study has investigated the effect of gender, cold and warm immersion on hand skin temperature, grip MVC, EMG, and discomfort. In this study, twelve male and twelve female participants immersed their hands in a cold water tank for 40 min followed by warm water immersion for 15 min, during which all performance measures were collected. Structural equation model was applied to examine relationship among skin temperature, gender, anthropometrics, and MVC. The results indicate that the cold immersion had an enormous effect on skin temperature, which subsequently affected the MVC. Gender had significant impact on skin temperature and MVC, and MVC was also affected by palm length. Due to adaptation, participants experienced greater discomfort at the beginning of the cold immersion and the discomfort diminished after 4 min. During warm immersion, the EMG resumed its baseline after 15 min which indicates that the muscle performance was fully recovered after 15 min of warm immersion. Relevance to industry Statement indicating the relevance of the findings for ergonomics practice. Performance of the workers exposed to different temperature conditions is a common problem in industries. This study was designed to test the MVC, EMG, thermal discomfort sensation and hand skin temperature response to cold and warm immersion of the human forearm. The result can help to protect workers who work in cold immersion occupations such as fisherman, fish filleters, and divers.

Design and simulation of a heat pump for simultaneous heating and cooling using HFC or CO 2 as a working fluid

This article presents a Heat Pump for Simultaneous heating and cooling (HPS) designed for hotels, luxury dwellings and smaller office buildings. The main advantage of the HPS is to carry out simultaneously space heating and space cooling in a dual mode. The ambient air is used as a balancing source to run a heating or a cooling mode. The HPS also participates to domestic hot water preparation all year round. The second advantage is that, during winter, some energy recovered by subcooling of the refrigerant is stored at first in a cold water tank that is not used for cooling. This energy is used subsequently as a cold source at the water evaporator in order to improve the average coefficient of performance and to run a defrosting sequence at the air evaporator. Two refrigerants are studied: HFC R407C and carbon dioxide. HFCs provide good performance, but new restrictive regulations on F-gases lead us to study low-GWP refrigerants as well. Highly efficient models of compressors and heat exchangers have been defined. Annual simulations show that CO 2 is a refrigerant which adapts rather well to the operation of the HPS thanks to the higher amount of energy available by subcooling and the large temperature glide at heat rejection used for DHW production.

The neuroendocrine effects of the TASER X26 ®: A brief report

Introduction Law enforcement officers use conducted electrical weapons (CEW) such as the TASER X26 ® to control violently resistive subjects. There are no studies in the medical literature examining the effects of these weapons on the human stress response. This is the first study to compare the human stress response to conducted electrical weapons, oleoresin capsicum (O.C.), a cold-water tank immersion, and a defensive tactics drill. Methods Subjects were randomized to one of the four interventions studied. Subjects received either a 5-s exposure from the TASER X26 CEW with the probes fired into the back from 7 ft, a 5-s spray of O.C., a skin and mucous membrane irritant, to the eyes, a 45-s exposure of the hand and forearm in a 0 °C cold water tank, or a 1-min defensive tactics drill. Results Alpha-amylase had the greatest increase from baseline at 10–15 min with the defensive tactics drill. Cortisol had the greatest increase at 15–20 min with O.C. Cortisol remained most elevated at 40–60 min in the defensive tactics drill group. Conclusions Our preliminary data suggests that physical exertion during custodial arrest may be most activating of the human stress response, particularly the sympathetic–adrenal–medulla axis. This may suggest that techniques to limit the duration of this exertion may be the safest means to apprehend subjects, particularly those at high-risk for in-custody death. Conducted electrical weapons were not more activating of the human stress response than other uses of force.

Isolation of Legionella species/serogroups from water cooling systems compared with potable water systems in Spanish healthcare facilities

Surveillance of Legionella spp. in hospital water systems was performed in forty-four inpatient healthcare facilities in Spain during 2005-2006. A total of 2,341 samples were collected: 470 from cooling systems (cooling towers) and 1,871 from potable water systems. The latter included 211 from cold-water tanks and 260 from hot-water tanks, totalling 471 from central water reservoirs 136 from showers, 1,172 from unfiltered taps and 92 from filtered taps, totalling 1,400 from peripheral points. Temperature, chlorine levels and the presence of Legionella spp. were determined. In all, 373 (15.9%) samples yielded Legionella spp. Significantly higher isolation rates were obtained from cooling towers (23.8%) versus cold- and hot-water tanks (approximately 4.7%), due to the significantly higher number of samples positive for serogroup 1 (19.4 vs 0.9-3.5%). In potable water systems, no differences were found between central water tanks and showers, but significant differences in isolation rates between central water tanks and unfiltered taps were observed (4.7 vs 19.6%) due to differences in non-serogroup 1 L. pneumophila. Filters significantly decreased isolation rates of these serotypes (11 vs 0%). Some seasonal differences were noted, with higher isolation rates in summer for legionella serogroup 1 in cooling systems and for L. pneumophila serogroups 2-14 in potable water systems. In regression models, higher temperatures were associated with colonisation in cooling systems, while lower chlorine levels were associated with colonisation in potable water systems.

Mycobacterium aviumsubsp.paratuberculosisin Lake Catchments, in River Water Abstracted for Domestic Use, and in Effluent from Domestic Sewage Treatment Works: Diverse Opportunities for Environmental Cycling and Human Exposure

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis from infected animals enters surface waters and rivers in runoff from contaminated pastures. We studied the River Tywi in South Wales, United Kingdom, whose catchment comprises 1,100 km2 containing more than a million dairy and beef cattle and more than 1.3 million sheep. The River Tywi is abstracted for the domestic water supply. Between August 2002 and April 2003, 48 of 70 (68.8%) twice-weekly river water samples tested positive by IS900 PCR. In river water, the organisms were associated with a suspended solid which was depleted by the water treatment process. Disposal of contaminated slurry back onto the land established a cycle of environmental persistence. A concentrate from 100 liters of finished water tested negative, but 1 of 54 domestic cold water tanks tested positive, indicating the potential for these pathogens to access domestic outlets. In the separate English Lake District region, with hills up to 980 m, tests for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis in the high hill lakes and sediments were usually negative, but streams and sediments became positive lower down the catchment. Sediments from 9 of 10 major lakes receiving inflow from these catchments were positive, with sediment cores indicating deposition over at least 40 to 50 years. Two of 12 monthly 1-liter samples of effluent and a single 100-liter sample from the Ambleside sewage treatment works were positive for M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Since Lake Ambleside discharges into Lake Windermere, which is available for domestic supply, there is a potential for these organisms to cycle within human populations.

Performance of a Diesel Locomotive Waste-Heat-Powered Adsorption Air Conditioning System

An innovative exhausted-heat-powered solid adsorption air conditioning system with zeolite-water as working pair is designed for providing air-conditioning for the driver's cab of a diesel locomotive. Only one adsorber is used in the system and a cold storage water tank is attached to provide cooling during generation process to ensure the continuous cooling output. Experiments on the laboratory prototype have been carried out and a mean cooling power output of about 3.3 kW is obtained when the condensing temperature and the evaporating temperature are 40°C and 7°C respectively. The influences of some operating conditions on the system performance are analyzed by simulation and experiments. The results of the performance testing of the prototype installed in a diesel locomotive are also discussed as well. An average cooling power of 4.1 kW is got under typical summer condition. It is proved that such a system is quite competitive even if a little bit heavier.

A Novel Decomposition Method for MILP and Its Application to Optimal Operation of a Thermal Storage System.

A novel decomposition method for solving large scale mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problems with the block angular structure is proposed to efficiently conduct the operational planning of energy supply systems with thermal storage units. The method is composed of solving two types of problems repeatedly: One is a large-scale MILP master problem with the values of part of integer variables fixed from the results of the other; The latter is a small-scale MILP subproblem with the values of simplex multipliers obtained from the results of the former. The method is applied to the operational planning of a heat supply system with cold and hot water tanks. The validity and effectiveness of the method is evaluated in terms of solution optimality and computation time. As a result, it turns out that the method is superior to conventional branch and bound methods with the depth-first and best-bound searches.

Antagonism of morphine analgesia by prolyl-leucyl-glycinamide (MIF-1) in humans

Prolyl-leucyl-glycinamide (MIF-1) has been observed to inhibit the analgesic effect of morphine in a series of animal studies. In the present study, the naloxone-like properties of MIF-1 were assessed in human subjects. Eight men received a capsule containing 60 mg of MIF-1 or placebo followed one hour later by a 10 mg intramuscular injection of morphine in a double-blind, crossover design at two visits 4 weeks apart. Experimental pain was induced by the cold pressor test administered 45, 75, 120 and 180 min after the morphine. Each subject recorded severity of pain on a 100 mm line scale every 5 sec during the 120 sec his foot was immersed in the cold water tank and during the 60 seconds immediately following its removal. On a third visit, baseline values were measured in the absence of morphine, MIF-1 or placebo. Analysis of variance revealed that MIF-1 resulted in significantly higher scores (less analgesia) compared with placebo when measured at 45 and 75 min after morphine during the immersion phase and during all four times the subjects were evaluated during the removal phase. The results indicate that MIF-1 can act in humans as an opiate antagonist.

The effect of cold on the composition of the phospholipids of the blood plasma of healthy athletes.

SummaryThe phospholipid composition of the blood plasma of nine healthy athletes was examined before and after the subjects were placed in a tank filled with water at 2°. It was found that the phosphatidylglycerol (GPG) content of the plasma was very significantly elevated immediately after and 7 min following the exposure to the cold. Only one other phospholipid, phosphatidic acid, showed much lesser elevation of GPG after the subjects left the cold-water tank. All the remaining individual phospholipids and total lipid phosphorus were not affected by the experiment. The possible significance of these changes of GPG in stress are discussed.

British Food Journal Volume 49 Issue 12 1947

British Food Journal Volume 49 Issue 12 1947