Differences in attraction to semiochemicals present in sympatric pine shoot beetles,Tomicus minor andT. piniperda

The chemical ecology of host- and mate-finding in the pine shoot beetles,Tomicus minor andT. piniperda, was studied in southern Sweden. Beetles were collected in the field from defined attack phases on Scots pine. Using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy, a number of oxygen-containing monoterpenes, e.g., 3-carene-10-ol, myrtenol,trans-verbenol, and verbenone, were identified from hindgut extracts of both sexes of both species. Compared toT. minor,T. piniperda contained additional compounds and in larger amounts. The amounts were highest in both species at the time when the beetles had bored into contact with the resin-producing xylem-phloem tissue. The synthesis of (1S,6R)-3-carene-10-ol by photooxidatipn of (+)-(1S,6R)-3-carene is described. In comparative electroantennogram (EAG) measurements on males and females of both species, the most active of the tested compounds wastrans-verbenol. Laboratory bioassays of walking beetles showed thatT. piniperda was attracted to uninfestèd pine logs.T. minor was more strongly attracted to pine logs infested with females than to uninfested pine logs, indicating a female-produced aggregation pheromone. Field tests confirmed thatT. piniperda was strongly attracted to pine logs. The attraction ofT. minor to logs was significant only when logs were combined with racemictrans-verbenol and (1S,6R)-3-carene-10-ol.T. minor was also attracted to a combination of these monoterpene alcohols alone. We suggest that host and mate location inT. piniperda is achieved by means of a kairomone composed of host monoterpenes, whileT. minor utilizes a primitive pheromone synergized by host odors. Evolution of host colonization strategies of the two beetles are discussed.Coleoptera: Scolytidae.This study was made within the project Odour signals for control of pest insects.     

Surface Structure Formation in Direct Chill (DC) Casting of Al Alloys

The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of the surface zone formation during direct chill (DC) casting of aluminum billets produced by the air slip technology. The depth of the shell zone, with compositions deviating from the bulk, is of large importance for the subsequent extrusion productivity and quality of final products. The surface microstructures of 6060 and 6005 aluminum alloys in three different surface appearances—defect free, wavy surface, and spot defects—were studied. The surface microstructures and outer appearance, segregation depth, and phase formation were investigated for the mentioned cases. The results were discussed and explained based on the exudation of liquid metal through the mushy zone and the fact that the exudated liquid is contained within a surface oxide skin. Outward solidification in the surface layer was quantitatively analyzed, and the oxide skin movements explained meniscus line formation. Phases forming at different positions in the segregation zone were analyzed and coupled to a cellular solidification in the exudated layer.     

A reduced MIMO Wiener model for recursive identification of the depth of anesthesia

This paper presents a modeling and identification strategy for the depth of anesthesia using the propofol and remifentanil rates as the system inputs, and the bispectral index and state entropy measurements as the systems outputs. The standard model used for this purpose has twenty two patient‐dependent parameters. This high number of parameters, the little input excitation, and the small amount of output data make classical system identification approaches unsuccessful. To overcome these issues, the new model presented in this paper has six parameters, thereby meeting the parsimony principle of system identification. An extended Kalman filter algorithm is also developed and applied to real data. The good fitting results, combined with noise suppression and a recursive update of the model parameters, are promising for the design of the depth of anesthesia controllers to be used in real time platforms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Real-time ultrasound simulation using the GPU

Ultrasound simulators can be used for training ultrasound image acquisition and interpretation. In such simulators, synthetic ultrasound images must be generated in real time. Anatomy can be modeled by computed tomography (CT). Shadows can be calculated by combining reflection coefficients and depth dependent, exponential attenuation. To include speckle, a pre-calculated texture map is typically added. Dynamic objects must be simulated separately. We propose to increase the speckle realism and allow for dynamic objects by using a physical model of the underlying scattering process. The model is based on convolution of the point spread function (PSF) of the ultrasound scanner with a scatterer distribution. The challenge is that the typical field-of-view contains millions of scatterers which must be selected by a virtual probe from an even larger body of scatterers. The main idea of this paper is to select and sample scatterers in parallel on the graphic processing unit (GPU). The method was used to image a cyst phantom and a movable needle. Speckle images were produced in real time (more than 10 frames per second) on a standard GPU. The ultrasound images were visually similar to images calculated by a reference method.     

Recursive identification of a nonlinear state space model

The convergence of a recursive prediction error method is analyzed. The algorithm identifies a nonlinear continuous time state space model, parameterized by one right-hand side component of the differential equation and an output equation with a fixed differential gain, to avoid over-parametrization. The method minimizes the criterion by simulation using an Euler discretization. A stability analysis of the associated differential equations results in conditions for (local) convergence to a minimum of the criterion function. Simulations verify the theoretical analysis and illustrate the performance in the presence of unmodeled dynamics, by identification of the nonlinear drum boiler dynamics of a power plant model.     

Transient Friction in Pressurized Pipes. III: Investigation of the EIT Model Based on Position-Dependent Coefficient Approach in MIAB Model

Recently, the modified instantaneous acceleration-based (MIAB) model has been improved by the authors by using position-dependent coefficients found from investigation of the convolution-based (CB) model. Although this improvement is not proven general by any means, the fit with experimental results is very good. The three existing classes of one-dimensional models for the water-hammer transient that are applicable from an engineering point of view are the two models mentioned previously and the extended irreversible thermodynamics (EIT) model, which uses a coefficient found from thermodynamical considerations. This paper seeks the equivalent coefficients for the EIT model corresponding to the position-dependent coefficient the MIAB model to investigate the implications to the EIT model by using these coefficients. This is interesting because the EIT model is based on physical considerations using irreversible thermodynamics, and conclusions can possibly be drawn from this approach. The EIT coefficients found based on the position-dependent coefficients are used in simulations, and the results show an improvement compared to classical constant-coefficient EIT simulations. Based on this and discussion of water-hammer transient phenomena, it is suggested that limitations in the original EIT model regarding the coefficients might not be just and may be a possible limitation to the EIT model’s performance.     

An algorithm for fast adaptive image binarization with applications in radiotherapy imaging

Locally adaptive image binarization with a sliding-window threshold can be an effective tool for various image processing tasks. We have used the method for the detection of bone ridges in radiotherapy portal images. However, a straight-forward implementation of sliding-window processing is too time consuming for routine use. Therefore, we have developed a new thresholding criterion suitable for incremental update within the sliding window, and we show that our algorithm gives better results on difficult portal images than various publicly available adaptive thresholding routines. For small windows, the routine is also faster than an adaptive implementation of the Otsu algorithm that uses interpolation between fixed tiles, and the resulting images are equally good.     

Multivariate methods in the development of a new tablet formulation: optimization and validation

In a previous study of the development of a tablet formulation approximately 100 excipients were characterized in screening experiments using multivariate design. Acceptable values for important responses were obtained with some of the formulations. The relationships between the properties of the excipients and the responses were evaluated using PLS. In this study additional experiments were performed in order to validate models obtained from the screening study and to find a formulation of suitable composition with desired tablet properties. A formulation with the desired disintegration time was found with the additional experiments and the agreement between observed and predicted values was fair for the tablets that did disintegrate. A limitation of this study was that tablets from four experiments did not disintegrate within the set time limit. The lack of agreement between observed and predicted values of these four experiments was probably due to the nature of one of the factors in the design. Considering the reduced experimental design the results are still encouraging.