Fourteenth Annual Simulation Symposium

The Fourteenth Annual Simulation Symposium was held March 18–20, 1981, in Tampa (Florida). The Annual simulation Symposium is the longest running symposium dedicated to the computer simulation field. The main reason for this continuing popularity is its quality as evidenced by the outstanding papers, non-concurrent presentation format and guest speakers at the luncheons.The Annual Simulation Symposium is the major program in Simulation Week which also includes a one day workshop sponsored by ACM's Special Interest Group on Simulation and another one day workshop sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society's Technical Committee for Simulation.     

Use of soy proteins in Swedish foods

A positive action program has been instituted in Sweden. A new food law recognizing soy protein as a food ingredient and not an additive was obtained, a discriminatory tax was reduced by 75%, and the image of soy proteins was changed in newspapers and journals. Many soy-containing foods are now on the market as a result of these changes.     

Projection and prospects for rapeseed and mustard seed

Rapeseed is number five among the oilseeds of the world. During the last 10 years the crop has increased more in per cent than any other oilseed crop. In the FAO prospects an annual rate of increase of 4.7% is foreseen. The fatty acid composition will change during the next years so that erucic acid will be practically removed. The content of glucosinolates will also be reduced dramatically, and consequently the meal will be accepted much more readily.     

Detaillösungen bei Ermüdungsfragen und dem Einsatz hochfester Stähle bei Türmen von Offshore‐Windenergieanlagen

Fatigue problems and the use of high strength steel in towers of offshore wind turbines. The research project P 633 on offshore wind turbine structures is presented in this paper, particularly dealing with different design layouts and the application of high strength steel. Together with the general organisation and the presentation of the field of activities of the individual participants the first steps of this project are illustrated and the objectives of the research work are presented.     

Hybrid Monte Carlo/Molecular Dynamics Simulation of a Refractory Metal High Entropy Alloy

The high entropy alloy containing refractory metals Mo-Nb-Ta-W has a body-centered cubic structure, which is not surprising given the complete mutual solubility in BCC solid solutions of all pairs of the constituent elements. However, first principles total energy calculations for the binaries reveal a set of distinct energy minimizing structures implying the likelihood of chemically ordered low-temperature phases. We apply a hybrid Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics method to evaluate the temperature-dependent chemical order. Monte Carlo species swaps allow for equilibration of the structure that cannot be achieved by conventional molecular dynamics. At 300 K (27 °C), a cesium-chloride ordering emerges between mixed (Nb,Ta) sites and mixed (Mo,W) sites. This order is lost at elevated temperatures.     

Protein expression and enzymatic activities in normal and soft textured Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) muscle

Soft textured Atlantic salmon is a sporadic and occasionally very severe problem for the farming and processing industries. The firm and soft fillets examined in this work differed in their gelatinase activities, cross-reactivity with anti-ubiquitin and anti-cathepsin L antibodies, as well as in the in-gel α-chymotryptic peptide maps of electrophoretically isolated myosin heavy chain (MHC) bands. The immunodetections of actin, α-actinin, MHC, and the MALDI TOF MS peptide mass fingerprinting of electrophoretically isolated MHCs only showed minor differences between samples. Other analyses revealed merely individual differences. These results seem to indicate a higher level of gelatinase activation, ubiquitination and cathepsin L cross-reacting material in softer muscle. These results would be consistent with a myopathy, but also with what could be expected in the skeletal muscle of healthy salmonid fish during a normal period of hyperplastic growth.     

The feasibility of using geothermal energy in hydrogen production

A feasibility study exploring the use of geothermal energy in hydrogen production is presented. It is possible to use a thermal energy to supply heat for high temperature electrolysis and thereby substitute a part of the relatively expensive electricity needed. A newly developed HOT ELLY high temperature steam electrolysis process operates at 800 – 1000°C. Geothermal fluid is used to heat fresh water up to 200°C steam. The steam is further heated to 900°C by utilising heat produced within the electrolyser. The electrical power of this process is reduced from 4.6 kWh per normalised cubic meter of hydrogen (kWh/Nm³ H₂) for conventional process to 3.2 kWh/Nm³ H₂ for the HOT ELLY process implying electrical energy reduction of 29.5%. The geothermal energy needed in the process is 0.5 kWh/Nm³ H₂. Price of geothermal energy is approximately 8–10% of electrical energy and therefore a substantial reduction of production cost of hydrogen can be achieved this way. It will be shown that using HOT ELLY process with geothermal steam at 200°C reduces the production cost by approximately 19%.     

Exploring liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry fingerprints of urine samples from patients with prostate or urinary bladder cancer

Data processing and analysis have become true rate and success limiting factors for molecular research where a large number of samples of high complexity are included in the data set. In general rather complicated methodologies are needed for the combination and comparison of information as obtained from selected analytical platforms. Although commercial as well as freely accessible software for high-throughput data processing are available for most platforms, tailored in-house solutions for data management and analysis can provide the versatility and transparency eligible for e.g. method development and pilot studies.This paper describes a procedure for exploring metabolic fingerprints in urine samples from prostate and bladder cancer patients with a set of in-house developed Matlab tools. In spite of the immense amount of data produced by the LC-MS platform, in this study more than 10¹⁰ data points, it is shown that the data processing tasks can be handled with reasonable computer resources. The preprocessing steps include baseline subtraction and noise reduction, followed by an initial time alignment. In the data analysis the fingerprints are treated as 2-D images, i.e. pixel by pixel, in contrast to the more common list-based approach after peak or feature detection. Although the latter approach greatly reduces the data complexity, it also involves a critical step that may obscure essential information due to undetected or misaligned peaks. The effects of remaining time shifts after the initial alignment are reduced by a binning and ‘blurring’ procedure prior to the comparative multivariate and univariate data analyses. Other factors than cancer assignment were taken into account by ANOVA applied to the PCA scores as well as to the individual variables (pixels). It was found that the analytical day-to-day variations in our study had a large confounding effect on the cancer related differences, which emphasizes the role of proper normalization and/or experimental design. While PCA could not establish significant cancer related patterns, the pixel-wise univariate analysis could provide a list of about a hundred ‘hotspots’ indicating possible biomarkers. This was also the limited goal for this study, with focus on the exploration of a really huge and complex data set. True biomarker identification, however, needs thorough validation and verification in separate patient sets.     

Nutritional composition of blubber and meat of hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) and harp seal (Phagophilus groenlandicus) from Greenland

Seal blubber and skin are widely used, but the utilisation of blubber and meat for human consumption is limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional composition of seal blubber and meat. The fatty acid composition, selected minerals and trace-elements, vitamins, amino acids and proximal composition of blubber and meat from hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) and harp seal (Phagophilus groenlandicus) from the “West Ice” near Greenland were analysed. The results showed that seal blubber is an excellent source of long- and very long-chain (VLC) n − 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), in addition to long- and VLC monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) content contributed to a clear separation between blubber and meat from the two species. The blubber of harp seal showed the highest EPA (9.2%), whereas the muscle of harp seal showed the lowest EPA (3%) content. Seal meat is lean with less than 2% total fat, mainly composed of MUFAs, long- and VLC n − 3 PUFAs. In addition, the meat contains a high amount of proteins with a well-balanced amino acid composition. The trace-element content of seal meat is very high, particularly iron (379 μg/g muscle in hooded seal) and zinc (30 μg/g muscle in harp seal), as also is the vitamin content, especially vitamins A, D₃ and B₁₂. The seals included in this study varied greatly in age and size, which in turn may be the principal reason for the great individual variation observed in nutritional composition. On average, however, consumption of only 40 g seal meat covers the recommended daily intakes of iron and vitamin B₁₂ for young women. In conclusion, as long as the products fulfil the amending legislations regarding contaminants, both seal blubber and meat, from the present species, represent high quality food regarding nutrients and bioactive components beneficial for human health.     

Electromyography of the reticulum, abomasum and duodenum in dairy cows with left displacement of the abomasum

Electromyographic (EMG) recordings of the reticulum, abomasal corpus, pyloric antrum and duodenum of six dairy cows with left displacement of the abomasum (LDA) were made in order to substantiate abomasal atony as a prerequisite to abomasal displacement. EMG recordings were made when LDA was present as well as when absent. Mean values were determined in five of six cows for the maximum peak or amplitude, mean peak values, peak-to-peak interval and count of the electrical response activity (ERA) for each 15 min segment of the waveform recordings. Segments containing phase III migrating myoelectric activity were not analysed. LDA positive periods were compared to LDA negative periods in each cow. The 6 h period (transition period) prior to the diagnosis of LDA was analysed separately. Paired t-tests were applied to group values with statistical significance established at the P = 0.05 level. There was a significant decrease in the ERA count during the LDA positive periods in the abomasal corpus (-1.40% to -7.88%, P = 0.0217) and in the pyloric antrum (-2.05% to -11.98%, P = 0.0430). A corresponding significant increase occurred in the peak-to-peak interval. During the transition period spike activity in the duodenum increased 0.5% to 48.31% (P = 0.0474) and the peak-to-peak interval was significantly decreased. No extended periods of atony were observed in the abomasum during this study.