German codes and standards concerning metallic nuclear power plant components — Present state and trends expected

The German codes and standards for the design of nuclear power plants are the KTA Safety Standards. For integrating them into the international code activities the following aspects are presented: Organisation and function of the KTA, extend of standard activities, standards for metallic components, bases for the standard development, structure of a representative standard, comparison with international standards, and current activities in the standard work.     

The herbicide propachlor--14 C synthesis, toxicologic problems and methodology studies on the determination of residues in corn, potatoes, water and soil

Using the synthesized agent propachlor (N-isopropyl-2-chloroacetanilid) labelled with 14C, methodical investigations revealed an extremely high steam volatility not being assumed before because of the low vapour pressure. The method of steam distillation basing on this fact is of universal application to the processing of maize, potatoes, water, and soil, in which propachlor could be quantitatively determined by gas chromatography with a detection sensitivity of 0.02 ppm. Furthermore, this methods allows a simple purification of the raw product of synthesis containing impurities up to 20%. Propachlor codistilled with steam had a purity of more than 99%. Possibly, the high steam volatility of propachlor could have economic and toxicological consequences as to its application (volatilization in the open air with a high atmospheric humidity along with high temperatures). Therefore, an investigation of the steam volatility in the general screening programme for new agents is to be recommended in addition to the usual investigations of steam pressure.     

Application-Specific Instruction-Set Processor for Retinex-Like Image and Video Processing

This brief presents an application-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) for real-time Retinex image and video filtering. Design optimizations are addressed at algorithmic and architectural levels, the latter including a dedicated memory structure, an adapted pipeline, bypasses, a custom address generator and special looping structures. Synthesized in CMOS technology, the ASIP stands for its better energy-flexibility tradeoff versus reference ASIC and digital signal processing Retinex implementations.     

Ochratoxin A in pork kidneys--description of a method

A rapid procedure for the isolation and clean-up on a silica gel column is described for the determination of Ochratoxin A from pork kidneys. The detection limit is 0.3 microgram/kg.     

Development of a simple low-cost solar simulator for indoor collector testing

Indoor test methods for solar collectors are widely accepted and recommended by ASHRAE. The development of a solar simulator for indoor testing and the certification procedure for photo-thermal solar devices is discussed in this paper. The system consists of 14 quartz halogen lamps and provides a testing area of about 1 × 1 m. The irradiance can be varied from 400 to 1500 W/m². This is achieved by varying the input power supplied to individual lamps. The radiation output characteristics of a single lamp have been studied. The distribution of intensity over the covered area of 1·20 × 1·20 m has been recorded using a precision Eppley pyranometer.A variety of collectors—evacuated tubular collectors and flat-plate collectors of both liquid and air heating types—has been tested under sufficiently stable insolation conditions. Results for a conventional solar air heater are presented together with suggestions for further improvements.