Influence of clay in limestone fillers for self-compacting cement based composites

High workability together with a good resistance to segregation is needed for cement based composites, specifically fresh self-compacting mortars (SCM); in this prospect, the amount of coarse materials has to be reduced and replaced by fine material. Several limestone fillers are here compared and analysed. These by-products are issued from different industrial sectors, such as the aggregate and lime production industry (quarrying operations) and the ornamental stones industry (sawing operations).Particular attention has been paid to clay content, as consistency of fresh mortars was varying, while other physical characteristics like granulometry remained the same. Relationship between the physico-chemical properties of the fillers and the properties of fresh and hardened mortars are brought forward. Even if it may affect fresh properties of mortars, results clearly show that clay type and content has minor influence than limestone filler itself.     

New sources of resistance to Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say) and Zabrotes subfasciatus Boheman (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) in mature seeds of five species of Phaseolus

The importance of carefully applied bioassay techniques is highlighted for identifying resistance of Phaseolus spp to the bruchids Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say) and Zabrotes subfasciatus Boheman. Two potential sources of resistance are identified amongst the varieties of P. vulgaris screened. In one the presence of a lectin-like protein (LLP) was identified, which has previously been associated with resistance, while in the other, resistance may be linked to the presence of a novel protein, similar to but not the same as LLP. The use of anti-LLP antibodies are suggested as a useful tool for distinguishing between resistant and susceptible varieties. Five varieties of P. lunatus and six of P. acutifolius are shown to be resistant to A. obtectus, and the potential is recognized for transferring resistant genes to P. vulgaris via interspecific crosses.     

Regularized Pre-image Estimation for Kernel PCA De-noising

The main challenge in de-noising by kernel Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is the mapping of de-noised feature space points back into input space, also referred to as “the pre-image problem”. Since the feature space mapping is typically not bijective, pre-image estimation is inherently illposed. As a consequence the most widely used estimation schemes lack stability. A common way to stabilize such estimates is by augmenting the cost function by a suitable constraint on the solution values. For de-noising applications we here propose Tikhonov input space distance regularization as a stabilizer for pre-image estimation, or sparse reconstruction by Lasso regularization in cases where the main objective is to improve the visual simplicity. We perform extensive experiments on the USPS digit modeling problem to evaluate the stability of three widely used pre-image estimators. We show that the previous methods lack stability in the is non-linear regime, however, by applying our proposed input space distance regularizer the estimates are stabilized with a limited sacrifice in terms of de-noising efficiency. Furthermore, we show how sparse reconstruction can lead to improved visual quality of the estimated pre-image.     

Scheduling schemes for multimedia service in wireless OFDM systems

Scheduling schemes play a key role in the system performance of broadband wireless systems such as WLANs/WMANs. Maximal SNR and round robin are two conventional scheduling strategies that emphasize efficiency and fairness, respectively. The proportional fair scheme provides a trade-off between efficiency and fairness, and has been well studied in TDMA and CDMA systems. In this article we extended the PF scheduling scheme to OFDM-based BWSs (OPF). In addition, we propose three variations: adaptive OPF (AOPF), multimedia AOPF (MAOPF), and normalized MAOPF (NMAOPF) in order to meet the QoS requirements for multirate services in multimedia systems. The adaptive modulation and coding schemes in time varying and frequency selective fading are considered. The system performances of the algorithms are compared in terms of efficiency (throughput and mean packet delay) and fairness (user satisfaction rate and average user rate). Joint physical and media access control layer simulation results show that AOPF and MAOPF can improve throughput at the cost of fairness, and NMAOPF can provide the highest throughput without losing fairness.     

PSOBLAP: Particle Swarm Optimization-Based Bandwidth and Link Availability Prediction Algorithm for Multipath Routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - In mobile ad hoc network (MANET), optimal path identification is the main problem for implementing the Multipath routing technique. MANET desires an efficient...     

A correlation-based approach to calculate rotation and translation of moving cells.

We present a noniterative image cross-correlation approach to track translation and rotation of crawling cells in time-lapse video microscopy sequences. The method does not rely on extracting features or moments, and therefore does not impose specific requirements on the type of microscopy used for imaging. Here we use phase-contrast images. We calculate cell rotation and translation from one image to the next in two stages. First, rotation is calculated by cross correlating the images' polar-transformed magnitude spectra (Fourier magnitudes). Rotation of the cell about any center in the original images results in translation in this representation. Then, we rotate the first image such that the cell has the same orientation in both images, and cross correlate this image with the second image to calculate translation. By calculating the rotation and translation over each interval in the movie, and thereby tracking the cell's position and orientation in each image, we can then map from the stationary reference frame in which the cell was observed to the cell's moving coordinate system. We describe our modifications enabling application to nonidentical images from video sequences of moving cells, and compare this method's performance with that of a feature extraction method and an iterative optimization method.     

Impact of Temperature Cycling and Isothermal Storage on the Quality of Acidic and Neutral Shelf-Stable Dairy Desserts Packaged in Flexible Pouches

The aims of the present study were, first, to identify the quality changes occurring in sterilized vanilla and strawberry pudding during storage at 20 °C; second, to understand the effect of storage temperature on aging; and, third, to determine if temperature could be used as an accelerating factor for shelf life or stability studies. Shelf-stable pudding was produced industrially and packaged in flexible pouches. Different ingredients were used to produce strawberry and vanilla pudding, and the resulting pH was 4.1 and 6.5, respectively. Pudding pouches were kept for 7 days at 20 °C and stored for up to 112 days at ??18, 4, 20, and 30 °C, or cycled repeatedly between ??18 and 20 °C, 4 and 20 °C, and 30 and 20 °C with a frequency of two cycles per week. Color, pH, apparent viscosity, flow behavior, and fluorescence spectra measurements were conducted up to 112 days of storage. The most relevant indicators to monitor quality changes in vanilla pudding were η, pH, b*, and tryptophan emission spectra, and in strawberry pudding, a*, b*, and riboflavin, tryptophan, and vitamin A emission spectra. Indeed, the temperature of 30 °C was identified as the most suitable accelerating factor for accelerated aging tests regarding changes in pH, color, riboflavin, and tryptophan fluorescence spectra of pudding, while cycles of 4/20 °C and isothermal storage at 4 °C were the most appropriate tests to accelerate changes in apparent viscosity of pudding.     

Comparison of the effects of black and green tea on in vitro lipoprotein oxidation in human serum

Lipoprotein oxidation is a process thought to be involved in atherogenesis. Dietary antioxidants that prevent or inhibit oxidative damage to lipoproteins may help to prevent atherosclerosis. Both black and green teas can be major dietary sources of flavonoids and other phenolics with antioxidant activity. Results of previous studies suggest that green tea may have a greater antioxidant potential than black tea. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the effects of black and green tea on in vitro lipoprotein oxidation. The tea extracts were prepared using a method similar to that used to prepare infusions of tea for drinking. Antioxidant activities of seven black teas and four green teas were assessed using an in vitro assay that measures Cu²⁺ ‐induced oxidation of lipoproteins in human serum. All tea extracts inhibited in vitro lipoprotein oxidation in human serum to a similar extent. No significant difference in antioxidant activity was found between black and green tea. Caffeine prepared to a comparable concentration to that found in tea had no effect on lipoprotein oxidation. Further studies are required to determine the importance of these findings in relation to possible protective effects of black and green tea consumption against atherogenesis and cardiovascular disease. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry