Saturation of ecosystems with toxic metals in Sudbury basin, Ontario, Canada

Mining and resource recovery activities have not been kind to ecosystems in the Sudbury basin, Ontario. The combination of logging, smelting, fires and erosion resulted in an unusual anthropogenic ecosystem of denuded barren land with lifeless lakes, or a micro-desert. Since the 1970s, however, the concerted efforts made to reduce the emissions and rehabilitate parts of the degraded ecosystem have resulted in improvements in water quality, and recoveries in phytoplankton, zooplankton, zoobenthos and fish communities but have had little impact on toxic metal concentrations in many lakes. We show that most of the catchments in the Sudbury basin have become saturated with Cu and Ni, and some with Zn and Pb. It is estimated that mobilization of metals stored in soils and glacial overburden by surface runoff, groundwater drainage and wind re-working of tailings can sustain the high concentrations of Cu and Ni in many lakes for well over 1000 years. Strategies to immobilize the pollutant metals in the watershed rather than further emission controls may be required for dealing with high levels of toxic metals in surface waters of the saturated ecosystems.     

Experimental infection of chimpanzees with hepatitis C virus of genotype 5a: genetic analysis of the virus and generation of a standardized challenge pool

Six major genotypes (genotypes 1-6) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been identified. These genetic variants are being transmitted to chimpanzees, the only recognized animal model for the study of HCV. Genotype 5a (strain SA13), a variant found primarily in South Africa, has been transmitted to chimpanzees for the first time. Experimental infection of 2 chimpanzees was characterized by early appearance of viremia and peak virus titers of 10(5)-10(6) genome equivalents/mL. The HCV infection was resolved by week 15 after inoculation in 1 chimpanzee and persisted in the other. Both chimpanzees became anti-HCV-positive by week 14 after inoculation. Both chimpanzees developed viral hepatitis. The infectivity titer of a genotype 5a challenge pool prepared from the first passage of HCV in a chimpanzee was approximately 10(4) infectious doses/mL. Finally, sequence analysis of strain SA13 confirmed that genotype 5a is genetically distinct from other genotypes of HCV.     

Theoretical explanation of the relationship between backscattered electron and x-ray linear attenuation coefficients in calcified tissues

Adverse reactions to seafood are common and may cause many types of symptoms that are difficult to define. The nature of these reactions are variable including allergic and toxic reactions as well as infectious diseases. The differentiation between these entities is essential in choosing therapy. We describe 9 patients with IgE mediated allergic reactions due to crustaceans and fish diagnosed from case history, clinical findings, skin tests and specific IgE antibodies. Most symptoms of a IgE mediated allergic reaction appear within 30 minutes after ingestion. Characteristics clinical features may include an urticarial rash, gastrointestinal symptoms and even anaphylaxis. In this case immediate therapy with intravenous glucocorticoids, antihistamine and perhaps subcutaneous epinephrine is required.     

Rapid identification technique for virtual CNC drives

This paper presents a technique for rapid identification of machine tool drives by conducting a short G-code test. The proposed strategy uses commanded and measured axis profiles and requires minimal intervention to the servo control loop. The drive system is identified as a whole, including the feed mechanism, motor, amplifier, and the control law. The methodology is fairly general and applicable to linear or ball screw drives, controlled with commonly used controllers like P, PI, PID, P–PI Cascade or Adaptive Sliding Mode Control; with or without feedforward dynamic or friction compensation. In order to guarantee the stability of identified dynamics, bounds are imposed on the pole locations. The identified models can be used in a Virtual CNC system for predicting the contouring and tracking errors to different part programs. Simulation and experimental case studies are presented, where tracking and contour errors are successfully predicted using drive models identified with the proposed strategy.     

Microstructure - cyclic deformation property relationships of biodegradable di-crystalline triblock copolymers

The synthesis, morphological characterization and cyclic deformation behaviour of a double crystalline triblock copolymer containing crystalline poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) or random copolymer of poly(l-lactide) and polycaprolactone (PCL) hard segment and a random copolymer of polycaprolactone and poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) soft segment are presented. The hard segment content was varied via the CL/LLA molar ratio to produce copolymer with distinct morphologies. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements confirmed the existence of a microphase-separated structure and the domain size was largely affected by the hard segment PCL content. Furthermore, combined measurements of WAXD and stress - strain curves revealed the molecular mechanism responsible for the superior strain recovery behaviour. It was formed that the permanent set can be largely reduced by incorporating PCL into PLLA hard segment and the strain recovery is enhanced by the ease of PCL crystal rotation upon retraction.     

FREQUENCY DOMAIN TESTS OF MULTIVARIATE GAUSSIANITY AND LINEARITY

A stationary multivariate time series { X _t } is defined as linear if it can be written in the form X _t = ∑^∞ _{j =−∞} A _j e _{t − j} where A _j are square matrices and e _t are independent and identically distributed random vectors. If the e _t } are normally distributed, then { X _t is a multivariate Gaussian linear process. This paper is concerned with the testing of departures of a vector stationary process from multivariate Gaussianity and linearity using the bispectral approach. First the definition and properties of cumulants of random matrices are used to obtain the expressions for the higher-order cumulant and spectral vectors of a linear vector process as defined above. Then it is shown that linearity of a vector process implies constancy of the modulus square of its normalized higher-order spectra whereas the component of such a vector process does not necessarily have a linear representation. Finally, statistics for the testing of multivariate Gaussianity and linearity are proposed.     

Using tchebichef moment for fast and efficient image compression

Orthogonal moment is known as better moment functions compared to the non-orthogonal moment. Among all the orthogonal moments, Tchebichef Moment appear to be the most recent moment functions that still attract the interest among the computer vision researchers. This paper proposes a novel approach based on discrete orthogonal Tchebichef Moment for an efficient image compression. The image compression is useful in many applications especially related to images that are needed to be seen in small devices such as in mobile phone. Meanwhile, the method incorporates simplified mathematical framework techniques using matrices, as well as a block-wise reconstruction technique to eliminate possible occurrences of numerical instabilities at higher moment orders. In addition, a comparison between Tchebichef Moment compression and JPEG compression is conducted. The result shows significant advantages for Tchebichef Moment in terms of its image quality and compression rate. Tchebichef moment provides a more compact support to the image via sub-block reconstruction for compression. Tchebichef Moment Compression is able to perform potentially better for a broader domain on real digital images and graphically generated images.     

求解结构动应力有限元方法的新探讨

利用常规有限元方法，结合数值计算方法对振型函数进行［Ｌ］算子的微分计算，从而可方便迅速的得到了复杂结构动应力响应，通过算例计算表明该方法具有较高的精度，较一般的动态有限元具有通用性强、计算简单等特点