Peripheral noxious stimulation induces CREM expression in dorsal horn: involvement of glutamate

Thermal washout curves have been proposed as noninvasive tools for analysing lower airway dimensions and pulmonary blood flow, but how upper airway heat transfer affects these washout curves is unclear. The present study was designed to compare extrathoracic and tracheobronchial contributions to thermal washout curves. Respiratory frequency, air ambient temperature, and body core temperature (tc) were varied in six male subjects before and after immersion in cold (1.1 degrees C) water for up to 2 h under three conditions: 1) control: ambient temperature (tamb) = 25 degrees C, rectal temperature change (delta tre) = 0 degrees C; 2) pre-immersion: tamb = 4 degrees C, delta tre = 0 degrees C; and 3) post-immersion: tamb = 25 degrees C, delta tre = -0.7 degrees C. Both peak expiratory nasal (tpn) and oral (tpo) airstream temperatures were measured. Each subject was tested twice. Expiratory tpo was generally higher than tpn in all conditions. Increasing breathing rates lowered tpn and tpo in the control and cold air environments. Orifice temperatures, which are presumed to reflect upper airway blood temperatures, correlated with both tpn and tpo. Lowering tc had no effect on washout curves during quiet breathing and affected only tpn during rapid breathing. The results suggest that while tracheobronchial conditions may contribute to thermal washout curves, extrathoracic conditions predominate. Strong correlations between orifice temperatures, peak expiratory nasal temperatures and peak expiratory oral temperature demonstrate the dominant role of upper airway heat exchange in determining thermal washout curves.     

A new low-energy ion implanter for bombardment of cylindrical surfaces

An ion implanter of cylindrical geometry is described suitable for uniform implantation at a few keV of inert gas ions of narrow energy distribution into conducting targets of axial symmetry. For helium implantation the ion current in the present device can easily be maintained at over 1 mA, allowing high dose implantation of large areas (several tens of cm²) in minutes. For temperature control of the target, a thermal shunt is incorporated. The sizes and the implantation energy of the device are scalable. Reactive gases can also be implanted with the device when operated at lower pressures and ion currents.     

β-hydroxyacyl-coa-dehydrogenase (HADH) activity of unfrozen and frozen—thawed frog (Rana esculenta) legs

The β-hydroxyacyl-CoA-dehydrogenase (HADH) activity of unfrozen and thawed frog legs was investigated. The enzyme was extracted by either immersing frog legs in phosphate buffer 0.1 M, pH 6.0 at 25°C for 15 min or pressing them between trichinoscopy glasses. The enzyme activity was assayed using acetoacetyl-CoA as substrate and measured spectrophotometrically at 340 nm. It was possible by both extraction methods to distinguish between thawed and unfrozen samples although when the juice was obtained by pressing the HADH activity of the dilution was ～ 1.5 times higher than that obtained by immersion. The HADH activity was significantly higher (P≤0·001) in frozen-thawed frogs than in unfrozen legs because during freezing there is a release of HADH. No significative differences were found in the HADH activity in samples frozen in the temperature range -10 to -196°C. HADH activity was not affected by the storage time in crushed ice up to 6 days.     

Propagation of flicker in electric power networks due to windenergy conversions systems

Wind energy conversion systems (WECS) produce fluctuating output power, which may cause voltage fluctuations and flicker. Flicker assessment in networks may be difficult since its evaluation requires long computing time and special procedures to calculate the flicker severity index, Pst. In this paper, a frequency domain method to study flicker propagation is presented. This method is based on propagation of frequency components from WECS output currents throughout the grid. In this way, a fast flicker analysis in a network of any size can be performed. Also, an algorithm for flicker measurement in the frequency domain, which allows Pst calculation, is proposed. Several study cases have been performed, and results have been compared with time domain simulations, showing good agreement between them     

Invasive angiology in acute arterial pathology in a critically ill newborn infant

Four patients who complained of symptoms and signs compatible with biliary tract disease and in whom the diagnosis of gallbladder (three cases) and common bile duct ascariasis (one case) was made sonographically are reported. In two patients with gallbladder ascariasis, cholecystectomy corroborated the presence of the round-worms, and was curative. The third patient was a pregnant woman (32nd gestational week) who took piperazine citrate, and a second sonogram performed 29 days later was completely normal. The fourth patient with common bile duct ascariasis underwent choledochotomy with extraction of one ascaris lumbricoides from the common duct, and a T tube was left in place for 15 days. All patients received antiparasitics and had a favorable outcome. Ultrasonography is an important noninvasive diagnostic procedure in the work-up of these patients, who usually describe a clinical picture suggesting gallstone disease: this is especially true in the presence of pregnancy.     

Computationally efficient methods for bit-error rate evaluation inweakly coherent optical systems

A semianalytical method to estimate the bit-error rate performance of nonsynchronous ASK and FSK optical heterodyne systems is presented. This approach takes into account numerous system details with an accuracy similar to Monte-Carlo simulation, but with a computation time reduced by several orders of magnitude. An analytical approximation, based on a closed-form expression for the decision variable moment generating function, is also presented. The results obtained with the semianalytical method and the analytical approximation are compared to Monte-Carlo simulation results and to measurements obtained on a practical FSK system     

土质边坡稳定分析中条分法与有限元法的比较

对比分析了土质边坡稳定性计算中条分法和有限元法的特点，讨论了在有限元法中边坡稳定系数的计算方法，并针对铜钟水电站库区左岸滑坡分别采用条分法和有限元法研究其稳定性，计算结果表明两种计算方法得到的滑坡稳定系数规律相同，但条分法计算值一般大于有限元值，反映出条分法中部分基本假设与实际情况存在一定差异。     

An integrated downstream processing strategy for the recovery and partial purification of penicillin acylase from crude media

An integrated process strategy for the recovery of penicillin acylase was developed, based on precipitation of non‐enzymatic proteins directly from Escherichia coli homogenates or crude extracts using Rolquat (quaternary ammonium salt) and adsorption of the enzyme on Amp‐Seph (3.8 µmole ampicillin cm^?3) under pseudo‐affinity conditions. The effect of pH, concentrations of ammonium sulfate and Rolquat, and also concentrations of protein and cell debris on the precipitation of non‐enzymatic proteins from homogenates and crude extracts of penicillin acylase were analysed. The method of addition of Rolquat to homogenates and crude extracts significantly influenced the size of the precipitated particles. Improved results on the specific activity of penicillin acylase were obtained for 22% and 1% (w/v) of ammonium sulfate and Rolquat, respectively, added sequentially to enzyme solutions and at room temperature. Under these experimental conditions, the specific activity of penicillin acylase in homogenates and crude extracts was enhanced 2.5–3.0‐fold. Finally, the integrated process strategy was implemented first by precipitation of non‐enzymatic proteins and recovery of penicillin acylase directly from the enzyme solution treated with Rolquat using an adsorption/filtration system with an overall yield of 86%. This system allows simultaneously the filtration of cell debris and fine precipitated particles, in situ recovery of penicillin acylase by its adsorption on Amp‐Seph, and selective desorption of the enzyme with a specific activity of 11 IU (mg prot)^?1 and a desorption yield of 95%. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

基于杂波跟踪的CFAR检测研究

通过设立专门通道将图像处理技术应用于雷达检测域杂波功率数据处理,对特征杂波进行跟踪,为恒虚警处理提供背景信息.本文介绍了对抗杂波边缘的自适应CFAR检测器设计中的研究工作,设计了基于杂波跟踪的杂波属性CF(clutter feature)-CFAR检测器和结构元素SE(structuring element)-CFAR检测器,对其检测性能进行了分析.并通过蒙特卡罗(Monte Carlo)仿真方法对上述两种检测器的检测性能进行了仿真.