Considerations and strategies behind the design and construction requirements of the Istanbul Strait immersed tunnel

This being a design-build project, the challenge faced during preparations of the Employer’s requirements for design and construction of the Istanbul Strait immersed tunnel was to give the contractor as much freedom as possible and yet specify enough so that the Employer obtained the required facility. When completed, this will be a world-class facility. This paper discusses on a strategic level many of the aspects to be presented by the author in two papers in later sessions of the day. Unusual features of this crossing include the deepest ever immersed tunnel crossing, extra waterproofing requirements, strong currents with bi-directional flow, close proximity of the North Anatolian Fault which is predicted to have a major seismic event during the life of the tunnel, and the method of connecting the adjacent bored tunnels to the immersed tunnel. Safety during tunnel construction and operation has been paramount, and resulted in changes to contract packaging and extra requirements. Other challenges discussed include fish migration, control of an international waterway, environmental issues and ensuring the stability of the soft soils during a seismic event.     

Chitosan particles agglomerated scaffolds for cartilage and osteochondral tissue engineering approaches with adipose tissue derived stem cells

In the XML file of the original article, H. Redl’s affiliation is incorrect. It is listed correctly in both the paper and PDF versions of the article, and can be found below: The online version of the original article can be found at     

Cobol: perception and reality

The authors list the perceptions they have uncovered and counter them with the reality of Cobol. Some of the perceptions are: Cobol is a mainframe language-it has been available on PCs since their inception; Cobol stopped evolving in the 1970s, stopped growing in popularity in the 1980s, and stopped being used to develop client-server and Web-based applications in the 1990s; and Cobol is not an object-oriented language, when, in fact, it has objects galore     

Use of the nuclear microprobe at the University of Arizona for the study of heavy metal deposition in rabbit renal tissue

Industrial wastes consigned to disposal sites frequently contain substantial amounts of heavy metals. We have successfully applied proton induced X-ray emission analysis (PIXE) in the conduct of heavy metal (Hg, Cd, Cr, As) toxicity studies using precision cut rabbit renal cortical slices. The large beam diameter (4000 μm) of the proton macroprobe at The University of Arizona Ion Beam Analysis facility allowed an overall concentration of the metal(s) of interest in the samples to be determined, but lacked the ability to resolve point concentrations in the tissue. The ability to locate these areas has now been made available to us with the addition of a rastering microprobe (μ-PIXE) to the facility. Studies now being conducted in our laboratory using this micro-technique include analysis of renal tissue taken from rabbits injected intraperitoneally with HgCl₂, K₂Cr₂O₇, and NaAsO₂. The small beam size (3 μm) and the ability to raster this beam over areas of up to 125 μm × 125 μm has allowed regional mapping of endogenous and non-endogenous metal concentrations and revealed trends in heavy metal deposition in in vivo treated renal tissue, significantly increasing the amount of information obtained from these animal studies using PIXE alone. The combination of small beam size, high resolution, and multi-element detection makes μ-PIXE a powerful tool for investigating the impact of non-endogenous metals on the kidney.     

Experimental determination of electron and hole mobilities in MOSaccumulation layers

This letter presents for the first time, the experimentally determined majority carrier mobilities in the accumulation layer of a MOSFET for both p-type and n-type channel doping for a wide range of doping concentrations. The measured carrier mobility is observed to follow a universal behavior at high transverse fields, similar to that observed for minority carriers in MOS inversion layers. At the higher doping levels, the effective mobility for majority carriers at low to moderate transverse fields is found to be very close to the bulk mobility. This is believed to be due to carrier screening of the ionized impurity scattering which dominates at the higher doping concentrations     

Scattering center parameterization of wide-angle backscattered datausing adaptive Gaussian representation

We present a scattering center extraction algorithm to parameterize the backscattered data from complex targets collected over large angular apertures. This parameterization is based on a scattering center model of the target, but includes an aspect-dependent amplitude function for each scattering center. A two-dimensional (2-D) adaptive Gaussian representation (AGR) algorithm is used to extract the position and the amplitude function associated with each scattering center. The algorithm is tested with data generated by the Xpatch radar simulation code as well as chamber measurement data. The results show that a very good compression ratio can be achieved, resulting in a compact scattering center model of the target. Once such model is available, we can easily reconstruct range profiles and ISAR images at any aspect on the same plane with good accuracy     

Causes of Decay of Fresh-cut Celery

A decay of fresh-cut celery (Apium graveolens) segments stored at < 5°C in sealed film bags began with a water soaking of the cut surfaces. Slimy moisture accumulated inside the bags. The segments water soaked completely, softened, discolored and sometimes disintegrated. Total aerobic bacterial populations isolated from decayed segments ranged from log₁₀ 7.0–7.7 CFU/g tissue weight. The predominant bacteria, identified by fatty acid analysis as Pseudomonas fluorescens and P. marginalis, caused water soaking, soft rot, and discoloration in freshly inoculated celery tissues stored at 5 or 25°C. Leuconostoc mesenteroides was also isolated and may have been responsible for slime production.     

INFLUENCE OF FAT CONTENT AND PRESERVATIVES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES IN BEAKER SAUSAGE

Behavior of Listeria monocytogenes Scott A in pork liver sausage containing 22–67% fat, and antilisterial activities of sodium lactate, sorbic acid, potassium sorbate and sodium propionate were studied during storage at 4C and 10C. Commercial pork liver sausage batter (22% fat), alone and with additions of lard (15, 30, and 45% by weight) were tested. Concentrations of 1.8% sodium lactate, 0.1% sorbate as the acid or the potassium salt, and 0.2% sodium propionate were tested in heat sterilized sausage inoculated with a 24 h culture of the organism (10⁴ CFU/g). Fat content alone caused small reductions in cell numbers by the end of the storage periods: from log CFU/g of 9.9 to 9.4 after 14 days at 10C, and from 7.3 to 6.5 after 50 days at 4C in the basic sausage formulation and with 45% added fat, respectively. The inhibitory activities of lactate and propionate increased with increase in fat content, and were more pronounced at 4C, where the effects were listericidal. Inhibition by sorbic acid was least influenced by the fat content, and the potassium salt was less antilisterial than the acid.