Mussel shells from central California coastal archaeological sites record changes in sea surface temperatures in the past 2000 years, Water temperatures, inferred from oxygen isotopes in the shells, were about 1°C cooler than present and stable between 2000 and 700 yr ago, Between about 700 and 500 yr ago, seasonal variation was greater than present, with extremes above and below historic level...

In December 2000, physicians in the Republic of the Marshall Islands reported the first known outbreak of Vibrio cholerae O1 infection (biotype El Tor, serotype Ogawa) from this country. In a matched case-control study on Ebeye Island, patients with cholera (n=53) had greater odds than persons without cholera (n=104) to have drunk adequately chlorinated water collected from a US military instal...

Even drinking water is contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. This does not necessarily pose a risk for healthy individuals, but it may result in serious consequences in people with impaired immune systems. This is particularly valid if drinking water is used for medical purposes. The heater-cooler unit (HCU) connected to heat exchangers or blankets by tubing, the connection is closed wat...

A 3-stage pulse tube cooler has been designed to operate at 10¶K. The staged cooler uses the same compressor and parallel staging configuration for the 1 st and 2 nd stages as previously employed for our delivered High Capacity Cryocooler (HCC). The 2 nd and 3 rd stages are in a serial configuration. The addition of the third stage extends the performance of this cooler to lower operating tempe...

Nosocomial infections acquired during the course of cardiac surgery and hospitalization can have devastating patient consequences. The source of these infections is often difficult to determine which complicates eradication efforts. Recently it has become apparent that the heater-cooler devices used in conjunction with cardiopulmonary bypass may become contaminated with bacteria that are normal...

P ower dissipation, which results in heat generation in electronic chips, is the number one difficulty facing the semiconductor industry. The problem is so severe that it threatens to halt the huge development that has been enjoyed since the microprocessor industry’s inception — a doubling in processor performance roughly every 18 months, which was predicted by the celebrated Moore’s law. And t...

CONTEXT Thermocouples and electrothermometers are used in therapeutic modality research. Until recently, researchers assumed that these instruments were valid and reliable. OBJECTIVE To examine 3 different thermocouple types in 5 degrees C, 15 degrees C, 18.4 degrees C, 25 degrees C, and 35 degrees C water baths. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING Therapeutic modality laboratory....