Empirical estimation of the ERS-1 SAR radiometric resolution

This letter describes a technique to evaluate the radiometric quality of distributed target responses extracted from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. The approach is original in that it aims to estimate the Equivalent Number of Looks of clustered pixels, a parameter which summarizes the first order statistics of speckle. This empirical method can be applied to processed, interpolated, and even speckle-filtered, SAR images. Using ERS-1 Precision Image SAR data, it is shown, first, how to discriminate between uniform and non-uniform targets, and, then, to estimate the radiometric resolution of pixels gathered according to several clustering schemes.     

Optimum Measure of Cap Color in Agaricus bisporus Wild and Cultivated Strains

Cap color was characterized on a wide range of Agaricus bisporus strains. L, a and b tristimulus coordinates were tested by linear model analysis to determine color information related to each parameter. One model was retained: log(L/(100-L)) =α* H +β. Visual cap color variation was continuous and well described by log(L/(100-L)) or H parameters. In the wild, the range of color varied from white to dark brown which would enable mushroom breeding for cap color adapted to the market.     

Analysis of a 35·6 kb Region on the Right Arm of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Chromosome XV

We report the sequence of a 35 600 bp fragment covering the PET123 region on the right arm of chromosome XV from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This region contains 19 possible open reading frames (ORFs) of which 16 are non-overlapping ORFs. Eight ORFs correspond to the SPP2, SMP3, RPB2, PDR5, NFI1, PUP1, PET123 and MTR10 loci, described previously. Two ORFs correspond to yeast homologues of genes from other organisms: O3530 is a member of the large ribosomal subunit protein L13 family and O3560 (SME1 gene) is a 94-codon ORF and is a homologue of the mammalian SmE spliceosomal core protein. Three ORFs (O3513, O3521, O3548) present significant similarities to proteins of unknown function and three ORFs (O3510, O3536, O3545) lack homology to sequences within the databases screened. The sequence has been deposited in the GenBank database under Accession Number U55020. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hi-Nicalon reinforced silicon nitride matrix composites

The present paper reports on the fabrication and the mechanical properties of SiC (Hi-Nicalon) fibres reinforced Si3N4 matrix composites. The composite was fabricated by liquid infiltration of an aqueous Si3N4 slurry followed by hot-pressing. The effect of fibre coating layers was investigated with a 400 nm thick pyrolytic carbon. The fibre coating was found to have a significant effect on the frictional stress of the fibre-matrix interface and consequently on the fracture behaviour of the composite.     

Practical abduction: characterization,decomposition and concurrency

Abstract

Abductive inferences seem to be ubiquitous in cognition, and cognitive agents often solve complex abduction tasks very rapidly. However, abduction characterized as ‘inference to the best explanation’ is in general computationally intractable. This paper describes three related ideas for understanding how intelligent agents might efficiently perform abduction tasks. First, we recharacterize the abduction task as inference to a confident explanation, where a confident explanation is internally consistent, parsimonious, distinctly more plausible than alternative explanations, and explains as much of the data as possible with high confidence. Second, we describe a decomposition of the task of synthesizing a confident explanation into several subtasks so that the synthesis starts from islands of relative certainty and then grows opportunistically. This decomposition helps in controlling the computational cost of accommodating interactions among explanatory hypotheses, especially incompatibility interactions. Third, we present a concurrent mechanism for synthesizing confident explanations. The mechanism exploits data and processing dependencies afforded by the decomposition of the synthesis task. The emphasis of this approach to abduction is on characterizing the constraints of the abduction task and exploiting these constraints for making abductive inferences. In describing this approach, we also clarify the precise class of abduction problems addressed by the RED-2 system, and report on some new experiments. The main result is a computational model that not only enables efficient abductive inferences but also accommodates explanatory interactions, uncertainty, and data collection.     

Micro‐CT scouting for transmission electron microscopy of human tissue specimens

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides sub‐nanometre‐scale details in volumetric samples. Samples such as pathology tissue specimens are often stained with a metal element to enhance contrast, which makes them opaque to optical microscopes. As a result, it can be a lengthy procedure to find the region of interest inside a sample through sectioning. We describe micro‐CT scouting for TEM that allows noninvasive identification of regions of interest within a block sample to guide the sectioning step. In a tissue pathology study, a bench‐top micro‐CT scanner with 10 μm resolution was used to determine the location of patches of the mucous membrane in osmium‐stained human nasal scraping samples. Once the regions of interest were located, the sample block was sectioned to expose that location, followed by ultra‐thin sectioning and TEM to inspect the internal structure of the cilia of the membrane epithelial cells with nanometre resolution. This method substantially reduced the time and labour of the search process from typically 20 sections for light microscopy to three sections with no added sample preparation.     

Quality Characteristics of Hydrocolloid-added Oven-Roasted Turkey Breasts

Oven-roasted turkey breasts were manufactured with 70% added brine to increase yield. The brine contained salt, phosphate, and various combinations of κ-carrageenan, starch, and nonfat dry milk and was incorporated into the breasts by injecting and vacuum tumbling. After stuffing into casings, the breasts were cooked at 72°C, and then cooled to 4°C. Incorporation of 0.5%κ-carrageenan increased yield, improved visual appearance, sliceability, and rigidity and decreased expressible juice compared with the control product. Addition of 1% starch increased yield, but did not increase rigidity. The brine-added products were rated acceptable by a sensory panel.     

LOCALIZATION OP THE LOSSES IN AN INDUCTION MACHINE SUPPLIED BY AN INVERTER

ABSTRACT

By the measurement of the temperatures in different points of the machine (rotor, stator, coils and magnetic circuit of the stator) and to a simplified thermal model of the motor, the value and the localization of the losses for each type of supply can be deduced.

The method consists of determining the distribution of the losses so that the theoretical heating curves obtained from the thermal model coincide with the experimental heating curves. Some parameters used for the elaboration of the then.-al model are poorly known, therefore, we determine them by simple tests of the motor for which the distribution of the losses is well known. Then, we test our method in the case of a sinusoidal supply and we exhibit the extra losses in the rotor, which are difficult to identify with another method.

After that, we can study the distribution of the different losses in the motor when it is supplied by an inverter     

Understanding the microbial ecosystem on the grape berry surface through numeration and identification of yeast and bacteria

Microbial species present on the surface of grape berries at harvest play an important role in winemaking, thus counting and identifying them is of great importance. The use of conventional microbial techniques and molecular methods allowed a quantitative and qualitative inventory of the different microbial species present on the grape berries. These experiments were carried out in several areas of the Bordeaux region on the red grape varieties Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Populations and species clearly varied according to berry development stage. The most widespread yeast species at berry set, Aureobasidium pullulans was never detected at harvest. Fermentative yeasts were detected at harvest and not in the first stage of grape growth. Oenoccocus oeni was detected on immature as well as on mature berries. Gluconobacter oxydans was detected mainly at harvest. Detection of Pediococcus parvulus , was dependent on the vineyard. Veraison appeared to be a key stage for yeast colonisation and the increase in population involved a change in the proportion of each species. The number of A. pullulans fell significantly at veraison as it was superseded by fermentative yeasts. Microbial populations peaked at harvest when the berry surface available for adhesion was largest and no agrochemical treatments had been applied for some weeks. Soil, grape variety and grapegrowing practices may also influence this microbial ecosystem. Based on these and published data, we formulated hypotheses to describe this microbial ecosystem, thus enabling us to develop the concept of a microbial biofilm.