Crystallography of Directionally Solidified NiO-Y2O3 Eutectic

The crystallographic relations between the two phases of the eutectic in the system NiO-Y₂O₃ was studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The very small lattice mismatch found at the interface may account for the extremely regular eutectic structures which are observed.     

Measurements of natural radionuclides in soil samples from Upper Egypt

This paper presents the results of natural radioactivity measured for the soil of Qena using gamma-ray spectrometry at ZSR, Hanover University, Germany. Soil samples of radioactive concentrations of ^238U-series （^234Th, ^214pb, and ^214Bi）, 232Th-series （^228Ac, ^212pb, and ^208Tl） and ^40K were analyzed. Three objectives were set： （1） activity levels by surface soft sampling at 0-30 cm depth, （2） dose rates of gamma radiation, radium equivalent, index hazard, and effective dose, and （3） ambient dose rates.     

Functional Properties of Veal Bone Hydrolysates

Meat hydrolysates were prepared from crushed veal bone residues, using a commercial preparation of Bacillus subtilis (55°C, pH 7.0). Influence of degree of hydrolysis (DH = 4.0; 5.0; 5.6; 6.2, 8.2%) on functional properties of freeze-dried hydrolysates was studied as compared to sodium caseinate and gelatin, for possible use as natural stock bases for soups, sauces and ready-cooked dishes. Limited proteolysis was controlled using pH-stat and the trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-methods with strong correlation. Partial hydrolysis improved protein solubility more than 74% over a wide pH range. Emulsifying capacity (EC), activity (EA) and stability (ES) were determined by conductivity measurements. EC and EA increased with protein concentration ranging from 0.025 to 0.25%, while EC decreased with DH. Correlations were high between EA, EC, DH, and adsorption rate.     

Use of a Flow Cell Apparatus to Determine the Emulsifying Properties of Casein

A newly designed flow cell apparatus was used to investigate the effect of protein concentration and oil fraction on casein stabilized emulsions. Emulsifying capacity showed an exponential decrease with increasing casein concentration. The microstructure of the emulsion suggested that insufficient surface coverage and mechanical stress on oil droplets' membranes were factors responsible for its collapse. Protein load and membrane thickness calculations, showed that the minimal surface coverage, or the minimal membrane thickness required to prevent emulsion collapse, increased with the oil fraction. This last relationship is suggested as a membrane resistance indicator for film forming proteins.     

Soluble and Lipid-Bound Calcium and Zinc During Processing of Infant Milk Formulas

Samples were withdrawn during the manufacture of infant formulas to determine steps which may affect soluble and lipid-bound Ca and Zn, which were estimated after centrifugal separation of in vitro digested samples. Pasteurization did not significantly reduce solubility of Ca and Zn. Blends forewarmed at low temperature contained a smaller proportion of soluble Ca than skim milk, but Zn was not affected. Forewarming at high temperature reduced solubility of Ca. The solubility of Ca and Zn was lower in sterilized and spray-dried formulas than in blends forewarmed at low temperature. Though initial Ca and Zn levels were greater in infant formulas than in human milk, percentages of soluble Ca and Zn were not higher.     

Quantitative stability of dynamical systems

The stability of general dynamical systems is studied from a quantitative viewpoint (involving specific bounds on the system trajectories). Theorems yielding necessary and sufficient conditions for quantitative stability and asymptotic quantitative stability are proven.     

Adaptive checkpointing in message passing distributed systems

Determining consistent global checkpoints is common to many distributed problems such as fault-tolerance, distributed debugging, properties detection, etc. Uncoordinated and coordinated checkpointing algorithms have been traditionally used for such determinations. This paper addresses a third technique, namely adaptive checkpointing, that has recently emerged. This technique assumes processes take local checkpoints independently and requires them to take additional local checkpoints in order that all local checkpoints be members of some consistent global checkpoint. We first study the characteristics of such adaptive algorithms. Then, a general adaptive checkpointing algorithm is designed from a condition, first stated by Netzer and Xu, that answers the following question: ‘does a given local checkpoint belong to a consistent global checkpoint’' (such a local checkpoint is not useless). The resulting algorithm has the nice property to reduce the number of additional local checkpoints taken to ensure the property ‘no local checkpoint is useless’. Futhermore, it provides each local checkpoint with a consistent global checkpoint to which it belongs. Compared to uncoordinated and coordinated checkpointing algorithms, this algorithm combines the advantages of both without inheriting their drawbacks.     

Observation of Potassium βm-Alumina in Sintered Alumina

Potassium-containing plate-like precipitates having the β^m-alumina structure were identified within intergranular spinel inclusions in MgO-doped sintered aluminum oxide ceramics. Transmission electron microscopy revealed the corresponding epitaxial relation: (0001) β^m{111} spinel and 1120 β^m110 spinel. Chemical analyses and quantitative metallography suggested that in α-Al₂O₃ the 1800^°C solubility limits of magnesium and potassium do not exceed 300 to 400 ppm and 5 to 10 ppm by weight, respectively.     

QUANTITATIVE CAPACITIVE MEASUREMENTS OF VOIDAGE IN GAS-SOLID FLOWS

ABSTRACT

New capacitance probes were developed for quantitative, time-dependent measurements of voidage in gas-solid flows. Based on a unique guard circuit which nearly eliminates all stray and cable capacitances, these probes are fast (2 kHz) and they do not require in situ calibration. Two configurations were studied: small parallel plates for recording voidage profiles, and a non-intrusive design for local voidage measurements near a wall Static tests were performed using a fixed bed of known voidage and dielectric constant. The probes were also demonstrated in a two-dimensional fluidized bed of glass beads.     

XPLANS: CASE-BASED REASONING FOR PLAN RECOGNITION

In the context of a command, control, communication, and intelligence (Cff) system, we have built a case-based reasoning module for plan recognition. It is based on knowledge representation structures called XPlans, inspired in part by Schank's Explanation Patterns. The uncertainty inherent to an uncontrolled flow of input and the presence of lacunar data make the retrieval of cases difficult. This led us to develop an algorithm for partial and progressive matching of the target case onto some of the source cases. This matching amounts in practice to a credit assignment mechanism, included in the algorithm associated with each XPlan. This method has been designed to meet the requirements of a DRET project to build a decision support module for a C3I system— the MATIS project. Its task is to interpret and complete the results of an intelligent “ pattern-recognition-and-data-fusion” module in order to make the intentions underlying the recognized situation explicit to the decision maker. This advice is given as a causal explanation of an agent's behavior from low-level information.