Technology for high-alumina mortar in the Belokamensk Refractory Plant

Materials proposed for the production of a high-alumina mortar are investigated, namely, waste of melting of secondary aluminum, polishing powder of normal electrocorundum, and sintered corundum. A technology for the production of high-alumina mortars of three compositions has been developed for these materials. An experimental industrial batch of mortar composed of ShKN chamotte, polishing powder of normal electrocorundum, and DN2 clay has been manufactured and tested with a positive result. Production of the mortar has been introduced in the Belokamensk Refractory Plant.Translated from Ogneupory, No. 1, pp. 27 – 28, January, 1996.     

Alu and L1 sequence distributions in Xq24-q28 and their comparative utility in YAC contig assembly and verification

The contents of Alu- and L1-containing TaqI restriction fragments were assessed by Southern blot analyses across YAC contigs already assembled by other means and localized within Xq24-q28. Fingerprinting patterns of YACs in contigs were concordant, and using software based on that of M. V. Olson et al. (1986, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83: 7826) to analyze digitized data on fragment sizes, fingerprinting itself could establish matches among about 40% of a test group of 435 YACs. At 100-kb resolution, both repetitive elements were found throughout the region, with no apparent enrichment of Alu or L1 in DNA of G compared to that found in R bands. However, consistent with a random overall distribution, delimited regions of up to 100 kb contained clusters of repetitive elements. The local concentrations may help to account for the reported differential hybridization of Alu and L1 probes to segments of metaphase chromosomes.     

Chromatographic support to remove solvent/detergent mixture utilized as viral attenuation agent

BACKGROUND: Extracerebral fluid collections in infancy are a common diagnostic problem, because by noninvasive imaging studies (including cranial ultrasonography, CT and NMR), no definite differentiation between two distinct pathological conditions can be found until today: An enlargement of the subarachnoid spaces in children with macrocephaly is a frequent observation of mostly unknown etiology but is known to be associated with a good prognosis. If surgery is necessary in these patients, ventricular shunting is required. On the other hand subdural effusions are often of traumatic origin and require frequently neurosurgical intervention (subdural shunting). Most reports on extracerebral fluid collections in infancy have not differentiated between both pathological conditions and therefore reveal confusing results. Recent studies using magnetic resonance imaging have shown that vascular flow phenomena in the arachnoid space can be used to a reliable diagnosis, whereas previous noninvasive neuroimaging attempts including high resolution computerized tomography (CT) have been useless. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We investigated a cohort of 20 patients aged 4 mths to 30 mths (mean 10.5 +/- 6.6 months) 16 with the history of macrocephaly and normal neurological development and 4 patients after head trauma and symptoms of an elevated intracranial pressure. RESULTS: In all 16 patients with the clinical diagnosis of benign subarachnoid space enlargement colour coded Doppler sonography detected archnoid vessels within the fluid collection, furthermore high resolution ultrasound demonstrated the dural border of of the arachnoidea as an echogenic membrane, an observation useful as a further sign of the subarachnoid location of the fluid collection. In the 4 patients with subdural hematoma the fluid collection showed an increased echogenity, no vascular structures and no surrounding border. CONCLUSION: Out of these observations we conclude that high resolution ultrasound and colour-Doppler sonography are able to reliably differentiate between a subdural and a subarachnoid fluid collection. An NMR investigation with its higher risks (sedation, anesthesia) focused on this target only seems therefore to be not necessary in these patients.     

Collision Detection for Animation using Sphere-Trees

The detection of collisions between moving polyhedral objects is one of the most computationally intensive tasks in the computer animation process. The use of object-oriented techniques to encapsulate data within the objects' structures compounds this problem through the requirement for inter-object message passing in order to obtain geometric information for collision detection. The REALISM system decreases the time for collision detection by using a three stage process. The first stage identifies objects in the same locality using a global bounding volume table. The second stage locates regions of possible collision using a sphere-tree data structure (a hierarchical tree of spheres based on octree-type spatial subdivision). The final stage finds intersections between polygonal faces of the objects that are contained within the intersecting pairs of leaf nodes. Hence the algorithm uses a spherical geometry approximation rapidly to locate regions of potential collisions and then uses a local intersection test with actual object geometry information. The system is therefore fast and accurate. Tests for various geometric objects support this and show performance improvements of jive times over traditional polyhedral intersection tests.     

The activity of catechol-O-methyltransferase and monoamine oxidase in the uterine artery of pigs during the oestrous cycle

Activities of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), total monoamine oxidase (MAO) and both types of MAO-A and MAO-B activities were examined in uterine artery on the 0-2nd, 13-14th and 16-18th days of the oestrous cycle in pigs. It was shown that activity of COMT was the lowest on the 0-2nd day, while on the 16-18th day of the oestrous cycle it increased by 52.4% (p < 0.05). Total activity of MAO was the highest at periovulatory phase, whereas on days 13-14 and 16-18 of oestrous cycle is was lower by 83.5% (p < 0.01) and 58.1% (p < 0.01) compared with its activity at periovulatory phase, and was higher on day 16-18 by 153.3% (p < 0.01) in relation to the luteal phase (13-14th day). MAO-A activity was 31.3% (p < 0.01) and MAO-B 62.5% (p < 0.05) of the total activity of MAO. Their activities were also highest at periovulatory phase, then decreased by 86.8-87.4% (p < 0.01) on 13-14th day and by 54.8-57.5% (p < 0.01) or 16-18th day of oestrous cycle. Activities of MAO-A and MAO-B were higher by 223.0-258.2% (p < 0.01) on 16-18th day in relation to the luteal phase (13-14th day). On that base we suppose that variations of COMT and MAO activities can significantly change the catecholamines content in the blood vessels of reproductive organs of pigs.