Distributions of the growth rate of the germ tubes and germination time of Penicillium chrysogenum conidia depend on water activity

The effects of water activities for sporulation (a(wsp)) and germination (a(wge)) on the distributions of the growth rate of the germ tubes (mu) and the germination time (t(G)) of Penicillium chrysogenum conidia were determined by monitoring the length of the same germ tubes throughout the experiments automatically. No relationship between the individual t(G)'s and mu's could be established. Irrespective of the water activity for germination, mu was greater and t(G) was less for conidia produced at 0.95a(wsp) than that at 0.99a(wsp). At 0.99 a(wge) the mean and the standard deviation of t(G) were smaller than those obtained at 0.95a(wge). At 0.99a(wge), normal distributions for mu and t(G) were exhibited, but not at 0.95a(wge). The cumulative frequencies were used to reconstruct the germination curves. Great differences in the percentage of spores capable of germination (P(G)) and in the mean germination times between conidia produced at 0.95a(wsp) and at 0.99a(wsp) were clearly exhibited at 0.95a(wge), thus demonstrating the paramount influence of sporulation conditions on germination kinetics.     

Analysis of Scattering in Mobile Radio Channels Based on Clustered Multipath Estimates

This paper presents the results of angle and delay measurements in physically nonstationary radio channels obtained in an outdoor urban environment. The multidimensional estimation data are obtained using a recently developed 3-D high-resolution channel sounder. The estimation results are compared with results obtained from a 3-D deterministic propagation prediction tool. For a better analysis, a hierarchical clustering method is presented that can separate and group the multidimensional estimation data into clusters. Measurements performed at a fixed position as well as along a trajectory are used to characterize the angular dispersion in both azimuth and elevation. The angular dispersion in terms of the rms cluster angular spread in both elevation and azimuth of the different clusters is analyzed over space and time and related to its physical scattering sources. Compared to the measurements, a large number of multipath clusters are missing in the predictions. Furthermore, it is observed from the measurements that different objects cause different angular spread values in azimuth and elevation. The results can be very helpful for the identification, improvement and calibration of deterministic propagation prediction models.     

Adsorptive Performance of Surface-Modified Montmorillonite in Vanadium Removal from Mine Water

Montmorillonite modified with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide was used to remove vanadium (V) from synthetic and real mine water. Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterise the adsorbent before and after adsorption, while the amount of V adsorbed was determined by ICP-OES. Batch adsorption was evaluated for dissolved V concentrations of 50–320 mg/L and V tailings seepage water from a South African mine. Adsorption capacity was affected by solution pH, temperature, sorbent mass, and the initial concentration. Electrical conductivity of the mine water before and after adsorption was measured to estimate the total dissolved solids. Equilibrium isotherm results revealed that V sorption follows the Freundlich isotherm, indicating that the sorbent surface was heterogeneous. A pseudo-second order kinetic model gave the best fit to the kinetic experimental data. The results of this study allow us to predict uptake efficiency of South African montmorillonite for V removal from mine water. However, the best adsorbent for the uptake of V or other contaminants will depend on the effluent to be treated.     

Admission control in Flow-Aware Networking (FAN) architectures under GridFTP traffic

Computing and networking resources virtualization is the main objective of Grid services. Such a concept is already used in the context of Web-services on the Internet. In the next few years, a large number of applications belonging to various domains (biotechnology, banking, finance, car and aircraft manufacturing, nuclear energy etc.) will also benefit from Grid services. Admission control is a key functionality for Quality of Service (QoS) provision in IP networks, and more specifically for Grid services provision. Service differentiation (DS) is a widely deployed technique on the Internet. It operates at the packet level on a best-effort mode. Flow-Aware Networking (FAN) that operates at the scale of the IP flows relies on implicit flow differentiation through priority fair queuing (PFQ). It may be seen as an alternative to DS. A Grid session may be seen as a succession of parallel TCP/IP flows characterized by data transfers with much larger volume than usual TCP/IP flows. In this paper, we propose an extension of FAN for the Grid environment called Grid over FAN (GoFAN). We compare, by means of computer simulations, the efficiency of Grid over DS (GoDS) and GoFAN. Two variants of GoFAN architectures based on different fair queuing algorithms are considered. As a first step, we provide two short surveys on QoS for Grid environment and on QoS in IP networks respectively.     

Time orientation and social class: An experimental supplement.

This study attempted to demonstrate a relationship between action-time span of stories told by school children and a "rating" measure of frustration tolerance. Such a relationship was not shown to exist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamic analysis of structures using the rank force method

The application of the finite element rank force method for the dynamic analysis of redundant structures is presented. The applied loading consists of discrete and distributed loads. Both forced and free vibrations are considered, the latter yielding latent vectors corresponding to dynamic redundancies. It is shown that the dynamic properties of an element are given by a static flexibility matrix, an inverse mass matrix, a damping parameter and a displacement vector representing the effect of the applied distributed loading.     

Noninvasive vascular elastography: theoretical framework

Changes in vessel wall elasticity may be indicative of vessel pathologies. It is known, for example, that the presence of plaque stiffens the vascular wall, and that the heterogeneity of its composition may lead to plaque rupture and thrombosis. Another domain of application where ultrasound elastography may be of interest is the study of vascular wall elasticity to predict the risk of aneurysmal tissue rupture. In this paper, this technology is introduced as an approach to noninvasively characterize superficial arteries. In such a case, a linear array ultrasound transducer is applied on the skin over the region of interest, and the arterial tissue is dilated by the normal cardiac pulsation. The elastograms, the equivalent elasticity images, are computed from the assessment of the vascular tissue motion. Investigating the forward problem, it is shown that motion parameters might be difficult to interpret; that is because tissue motion occurs radially within the vessel wall while the ultrasound beam propagates axially. As a consequence of that, the elastograms are subjected to hardening and softening artefacts, which are to be counteracted. In this paper, the Von Mises (VM) coefficient is proposed as a new parameter to circumvent such mechanical artefacts and to appropriately characterize the vessel wall. Regarding the motion assessment, the Lagrangian estimator was used; that is because it provides the full two-dimensional strain tensor necessary to compute the VM coefficient. The theoretical model was validated with biomechanical simulations of the vascular wall properties. The results allow believing in the potential of the method to differentiate hard plaques and lipid pools from normal vascular tissue. Potential in vivo implementation of noninvasive vascular elastography to characterize abdominal aneurysms and superficial arteries such as the femoral and the carotid is discussed.     

Depth profiling of high-energy hydrogen-implanted 6H-SiC

The results of implanting silicon carbide with a 1-MeV proton beam at a dose of 1 x 10(17) cm(-2) are presented. Using high-resolution confocal Raman spectroscopy, we analyzed the depth profile of the implantation damage before and after thermal annealing. When it is applied to a high-refractive-index medium, such as SiC, this technique requires careful manipulation to ensure the correct interpretation of results. To this end we discuss a simple ray-tracking model that includes the effects of additional spherical aberration and of the Gaussian intensity profile of the excitation beam. In addition, infrared reflectance measurements show evidence of a well-defined step in the refractive-index profile at the expected implantation depth.