Proteolytic and lipolytic activities of mould strains isolated from Spanish dry fermented sausages

Proteolytic and lipolytic activities of ninePenicillium strain and oneMucor strain previously isolated from Spanish dry fermented sausages have been studied.P. camemberti STCC 2267 andAspergillus oryzae ATCC 9362 were also used. Myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins as well as fat extracted from pork meat and -naphthyl acetate, -naphthyl caprilate and -naphthyl laurate were used as substrates. Mould strains were grown in an enrichment medium prepared at pH 5.5 and 7.0 and malt extract broth. Strains were incubated at 18°C and 22°C. Myofibrillar proteins and -naphthyl caprilate were the most hydrolysed substrates. The greater enzymatic activities were observed at a pH 7.0 and 22°C. However, five mould strains showed considerable enzymatic activities under conditions similar to those used for ripening dry fermented sausages. These strains can be assayed as potential starter cultures for industrial sausage production.     

Diode-Pumped Solid-State Lasers for Inertial Fusion Energy

We have begun building the Mercury laser system as the first in a series of new generation diode-pumped solid-state lasers for inertial fusion research. Mercury will integrate three key technologies: diodes, crystals, and gas cooling, within a unique laser architecture that is scalable to kilojoule and megajoule energy levels for fusion energy applications. The primary near-term performance goals include 10% electrical efficiencies at 10 Hz and 100J with a 2–10 ns pulse length at 1.047 m wavelength. When completed, Mercury will allow rep-rated target experiments with multiple chambers for high energy density physics research.     

Fractional-Fourier-transform calculation through the fast-Fourier-transform algorithm

A method for the calculation of the fractional Fourier transform (FRT) by means of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm is presented. The process involves mainly two FFT's in cascade; thus the process has the same complexity as this algorithm. The method is valid for fractional orders varying from -1 to 1. Scaling factors for the FRT and Fresnel diffraction when calculated through the FFT are discussed.     

Microstructural aspects of hypervelocity impact cratering and jetting in copper

Light and transmission electron microscopy techniques have been applied in observations of hypervelocity impact craters in two different copper targets: a 38 m grain size mill-processed target, and a 763 m grain size annealed target, the smaller grained target being impacted with a 1100 aluminium sphere and the larger grained target being impacted with a soda-lime glass sphere, at velocities near 6 km s^–1. Both target craters exhibited dynamic recrystallization near the crater wall. The jetting associated with these two craters was very different. Considerably more plastic flow and a larger rim characterized the larger grained target. No significant melt-related phenomena were observed either near the crater wall or in the jetted rim for either crater. Consequently, the principal features of crater formation involve extreme plastic flow in the solid state. Microbands were observed to occur profusely in a zone below the smaller grained mill-processed target crater while more profuse and extremely long, unidirectional bundles of microbands (which were coincident with traces of {1 1 1} planes) occurred below the annealed larger grained target crater. These observations attest to the dominant and unique role played by deformation microbands in cratering in copper, because essentially no deformation twins were observed in either target.     

Endoscopic sclerotherapy is useful in Dieulafoy''s disease

1.5% Capsaicin (Cap) or Vehicle was respectively used to treat the right or left sciatic nerve in 20 Sprague-Dawley rats. On the seventh day, the 20 rats were at random divided into electroacupuncture (EA) group and non-EA group, the spinal cord corresponding to the afferent segments of sciatic nerve was taken out for observing the changes of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity and [3H]-quinuelidinylbenzylate (QNB) binding sites in the spinal dorsal horn (SDH). The results were as follows: (1) EA "Huantiao" could enhance AChE activity in the SDH and decrease [3H]-QNB binding sites; (2) Cap treating sciatice nerve could weaken AChE activity in the SDH and merease [3H]-QNB binding sites; (3) Cap treatment could inhibit or partially inhibit the actions of EA as above. The results indicated that ACh participated in the primary afferent of acupuncture information and might exist in Cap-sensitive neurons.     

ARPO-2: An expert system for legal advice on the breach of building contracts

Although Berman and Hafner [Berman 1989, pp. 928–938] presented the possibility to adapt the model of reasoning of development of an expert system for medical diagnosis to the reasoning of a judge when he/she sentences criminals does not resemble the reasoning found in the decisions of physicians, mathematicians or statisticians.When a lawyer reasons, he/she not only looks for the solution of a case; he/she simultaneously looks for the bases on which his/her reasoning can rest [Galindo 1992, pp. 363–367]. That is to say, he/she not only needs to find the solution but moreover he/she has to find the references (laws, jurisprudence and bibliography) that allow him/her to argue the solution.In many cases, computer solutions to these reasoning processes have been made in a separated way: the solution to the cases using expert systems, and the search of documentation using information retrieval systems.This paper presents the ARPO-2 prototype, a solution integrating the two aspects of legal reasoning: an expert system which is able to simultaneously find the solution to a problem and to give the necessary references so that the lawyer argues the solution. The subject on which the prototype solves problems is the breach of building contracts.In this paper, we describe the process of development of an expert system for solving, justification and documentation of breach of contracts, giving details on the way how the objects that intervene in the case were defined as well as on the reasoning followed.This paper was funded in part by DGICYT, Spanish Civil Law Computerization Project: PB870-632.     

An adaptive, real-time, traffic monitoring system

In this paper we describe a computer vision-based traffic monitoring system able to detect individual vehicles in real-time. Our fully integrated system first obtains the main traffic variables: counting, speed and category; and then computes a complete set of statistical variables. The objective is to investigate some of the difficulties impeding existing traffic systems to achieve balanced accuracy in every condition; i.e. day and night transitions, shadows, heavy vehicles, occlusions, slow traffic and congestions. The system we present is autonomous, works for long periods of time without human intervention and adapts automatically to the changing environmental conditions. Several innovations, designed to deal with the above circumstances, are proposed in the paper: an integrated calibration and image rectification step, differentiated methods for day and night, an adaptive segmentation algorithm, a multistage shadow detection method and special considerations for heavy vehicle identification and treatment of slow traffic. A specific methodology has been developed to benchmark the accuracy of the different methods proposed.     

APROMORE: An advanced process model repository

Business process models are becoming available in large numbers due to their widespread use in many industrial applications such as enterprise and quality engineering projects. On the one hand, this raises a challenge as to their proper management: how can it be ensured that the proper process model is always available to the interested stakeholder? On the other hand, the richness of a large set of process models also offers opportunities, for example with respect to the re-use of existing model parts for new models. This paper describes the functionality and architecture of an advanced process model repository, named APROMORE. This tool brings together a rich set of features for the analysis, management and usage of large sets of process models, drawing from state-of-the art research in the field of process modeling. A prototype of the platform is presented in this paper, demonstrating its feasibility, as well as an outlook on the further development of APROMORE.     

Numerical identification of a nonlinear diffusion coefficient by discrete mollification

The discrete mollification method is a convolution-based filtering procedure suitable for the regularization of ill-posed problems. Combined with explicit space-marching finite difference schemes, it provides stability and convergence for a variety of coefficient identification problems in linear parabolic equations. In this paper, we extend such a technique to identify some nonlinear diffusion coefficients depending on an unknown space dependent function in one dimensional parabolic models. For the coefficient recovery process, we present detailed error estimates and to illustrate the performance of the algorithms, several numerical examples are included.     

Broadband system to increase bitrate in train communication networks

MVB (Multifunction Vehicle Bus), defined in IEC 61375, has been broadly adopted as the communication standard between embedded control systems on-board modern trains. In this work a new method to take advantage of the full bandwidth of the channel using an OFDM technique is described. With this new method it is possible to share the physical medium between standard MVB traffic and new OFDM traffic. A 90 Mbps theoretical bitrate can be achieved. The results of this work have been validated in a test bench including standard MVB nodes transmitting on a line similar to a real vehicle bus.