瑞士人的“入侵”——沃克艺术中心，明尼苏达州，明尼阿波利斯市——狄杨博物馆，加利福尼亚州，旧金山市

今年，普里茨克奖获得者，瑞士建筑设计师赫尔佐格和德梅隆强强联手的博物馆设计登陆美国，明尼阿波利斯市的沃克艺术中心扩建后在四月份正式开放。这是他们在美国的第二个设计项目，却是他们在这儿的第一个公共建筑项目。旧金山的金门公园里十月份开放的狄杨博物馆代表着他们首个大型博物馆设计。     

ANTENNAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES OF GRAPEVINE MOTH <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lobesia botrana</Emphasis> FEMALES TO VOLATILES FROM GRAPEVINE

Grapevine moth Lobesia botrana is the economically most important insect of grapevine Vitis vinifera in Europe. Flower buds, flowers, and green berries of Chardonnay grapevine are known to attract L. botrana for oviposition. The volatile compounds collected from these phenological stages were studied by gas chromatography—mass spectrometry, and the antennal response of L. botrana females to these headspace collections was recorded by gas chromatography—electroantennography. The compounds found in all phenological stages, which consistently elicited a strong antennal response, were pentadecane, nonanal, and -farnesene. In a wind tunnel, gravid L. botrana females flew upwind to green grapes, as well as to headspace collections from these berries released by a piezoelectric sprayer release device. However, no females landed at the source of headspace volatiles, possibly due to inappropriate concentrations or biased ratios of compounds in the headspace extracts.     

Effect of Straw Application on Rice Yields and Nutrient Availability on an Alkaline and a pH-neutral Soil in a Sahelian Irrigation Scheme

Like elsewhere in the Sahel, actual rice yields (3–5 t ha⁻¹) are far below yield potential (±8 t ha⁻¹) in an irrigation scheme in central southern Mauritania. Earlier studies showed that yields are especially low on alkaline soils due to N and P deficiency. We investigated the potential of rice straw application as a mean to improve yields and fertilizer efficiency on an alkaline soil (pH 8.2) and a pH-neutral soil (pH 6.2). Application of 5 t straw ha⁻¹ increased yields by 1.1 t ha⁻¹ on average, independent of soil type and fertilizer dose. Contrary to our study, similar studies in Asia showed little short-term effects of straw on yield and N uptake. Straw application improved N availability, but not P availability. The improved N availability was attributed to N mineralized from the straw, from increased mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM) with a low C:N ratio (< 7.2) and from increased mineral fertilizer N (urea) recovery efficiency. We deduced that improved N fertilizer recovery upon straw application was due to reduced nitrification–denitrification losses. On the alkaline soil, volatilization was important, but that process seemed unaffected by straw application. We hypothesize that the positive effects of straw application at our study site are due to low soil C content (< 43 g kg⁻¹) and low C:N ratio compared to most lowland rice soils in Asia.     

The influence of passivation and electropolishing on the performance of medical grade stainless steels in static and fatigue loading

The effects of surface passivation and electropolishing on the mechanical performance of a group of biomedical grade stainless steels have been investigated. Surface roughness measurements showed that the treatments had a significant effect on the final surface finish. However, static mechanical testing demonstrated no difference in static mechanical properties, regardless of surface treatment. High cycle fatigue testing was carried out at a frequency of 120 Hz with a load ratio of R = 0.1, in both air and a simulated in vivo wet corrosive environment. 316LVM (cold worked) proved superior to 316L (annealed) in fatigue performance, in both dry and wet environments. The fatigue performance of both materials did depend on the surface treatment, with electropolishing resulting in better performance than passivation. The fatigue performance of both materials was significantly better in the dry environment in comparison to the wet environment. The dry-to-wet deterioration in fatigue performance was somewhat dependent on the surface treatment for the 316L material but almost independent of surface treatment for the 316LVM material. Significant surface pitting and damage was evident for 316L during fatigue in the wet environment, whereas almost no pitting and damage was observed for 316LVM.     

Transparallel mind: classical computing with quantum power

Inspired by the extraordinary computing power promised by quantum computers, the quantum mind hypothesis postulated that quantum mechanical phenomena are the source of neuronal synchronization, which, in turn, might underlie consciousness. Here, I present an alternative inspired by a classical computing method with quantum power. This method relies on special distributed representations called hyperstrings. Hyperstrings are superpositions of up to an exponential number of strings, which—by a single-processor classical computer—can be evaluated in a transparallel fashion, that is, simultaneously as if only one string were concerned. Building on a neurally plausible model of human visual perceptual organization, in which hyperstrings are formal counterparts of transient neural assemblies, I postulate that synchronization in such assemblies is a manifestation of transparallel information processing. This accounts for the high combinatorial capacity and speed of human visual perceptual organization and strengthens ideas that self-organizing cognitive architecture bridges the gap between neurons and consciousness.     

新型自动变速箱对润滑油的额外要求

减少二氧化碳排放是防止地球大气层受到对气候有影响的微量气体之影响的一种努力。所有的消费市场都必须增加效率和最经济地使用化石能源。为了尽可能利用所有的节油措施，同时继续提供对重要的安全和舒适性标准，汽车工业早已不对发动机消耗抱有希望。他们的努力集中在改善整车效率上。新变速器采用智能化的电控系统以优化发动机和变速器的互相作用，它能显著改善排放。常规的有级自动变速器现正被新型的无级自动变速器（ＣＶＴ）所     

Determination of celiac disease-specific peptidase activity of germinated cereals

A method to determine the celiac disease-specific peptidase activity of different germinated cereals was developed. Kernels of common wheat, spelt, emmer, einkorn, rye, and barley were germinated, lyophilized, and milled into flour and bran. The latter was extracted at pH 4.0 to obtain a solution enriched with peptidases. The synthetic α-gliadin peptide with the amino acid sequence PQPQLPYPQPQLPY (peptide IV), which has been shown to be toxic for celiac disease patients, was selected as substrate for bran peptidases. It was quantified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography on C₁₈ silica gel. For kinetic studies, rye bran extract was incubated with peptide IV at 50 °C and pH 6.5. The peptide was degraded continuously, and only 30.2% of the original peptide was detected after 90 min. Accordingly, the bran extracts of all cereals were investigated. The incubation time was set to 60 min at 50 °C, and the degradation of peptide IV was performed at pH 4.0 and 6.5, respectively. Except for rye, peptide degradation was faster at pH 4.0 than at pH 6.5. At pH 4.0, emmer extract was most active, followed by spelt, common wheat, and einkorn extracts. The activity of rye and barley extracts was significantly lower. In conclusion, the method is easy to perform, quick, and provides reproducible results. It can be applied to other peptidase sources such as bacterial or fungal cultures to optimize peptidase preparations suitable for detoxifying gluten-containing food or for drugs to treat celiac disease.