No abstract

Annealing fractured single crystal quartz in the presence of pore fluid at 200 MPa (2 kb) pressure at 400° and 600°C for various periods resulted in the reorganization of initially planar cracks into arrays of spherical and tubular fluid inclusions, a process termed crack healing. Samples heated to 600°C for several days with no added pore fluid showed no optically measurable crack healing. The amount of healing in samples with added pore fluids is a function of the temperature, time, initial concentration of silica in the pore fluid, and the initial crack dimensions. Several lines of evidence indicate that cracks heal as silica is locally transported by diffusion along the crack surface and/or through the pore fluid. Extensive crack healing occurs at temperatures as low as 400°C in times as short as 1–2 days. Estimation of the thermal activation parameters for crack healing suggest that microcracks in quartz will have geologically short lifetimes at temperatures of 200°C or greater.

No abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine selected physiological and psychological responses to strenuous live-fire drills in different configurations of protective firefighting gear. Career firefighters (n = 10) performed three sets of firefighting drills in a training structure that contained live fires in two different configurations of firefighting gear. On separate days subjects wore: (a) the NFPA 1500 (1987) standard configuration, and (b) a hip-boot configuration of the firefighting gear. Physiological and psychological measurements were recorded pre-activity and at the end of each trial. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a strong trend for performance time to be greater in the 1500 gear than in the hip-boot gear. There was a significant Time x Gear interaction for tympanic membrane temperature, with temperature being greater in the 1500 gear. Perceptions of effort and thermal sensations were also greater in the 1500 gear than in the hip-boot configuration of the gear. There was little difference in mean performance on cognitive function measures between the two gear configurations, but there was greater variability in performance in the 1500 gear. These data suggest that performing strenuous firefighting drills in the current NFPA 1500 standard configuration results in longer performance time, greater thermal strain, and greater perception of effort and thermal sensation.

FoundationOne®CDx (F1CDx) is a United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved companion diagnostic test to identify patients who may benefit from treatment in accordance with the approved therapeutic product labeling for 28 drug therapies. F1CDx utilizes next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) technology to examine 324 cancer genes in solid tumors. F1CDx reports known and likely pathogenic short variants (SVs), copy number alterations (CNAs), and select rearrangements, as well as complex biomarkers including tumor mutational burden (TMB) and microsatellite instability (MSI), in addition to genomic loss of heterozygosity (gLOH) in ovarian cancer. CGP services can reduce the complexity of biomarker testing, enabling precision medicine to improve treatment decision-making and outcomes for cancer patients, but only if test results are reliable, accurate, and validated clinically and analytically to the highest standard available. The analyses presented herein demonstrate the extensive analytical and clinical validation supporting the F1CDx initial and subsequent FDA approvals to ensure high sensitivity, specificity, and reliability of the data reported. The analytical validation included several in-depth evaluations of F1CDx assay performance including limit of detection (LoD), limit of blank (LoB), precision, and orthogonal concordance for SVs (including base substitutions [SUBs] and insertions/deletions [INDELs]), CNAs (including amplifications and homozygous deletions), genomic rearrangements, and select complex biomarkers. The assay validation of >30,000 test results comprises a considerable and increasing body of evidence that supports the clinical utility of F1CDx to match patients with solid tumors to targeted therapies or immunotherapies based on their tumor’s genomic alterations and biomarkers. F1CDx meets the clinical needs of providers and patients to receive guideline-based biomarker testing, helping them keep pace with a rapidly evolving field of medicine.