Structural Ultrafine Grained Steels Obtained by Advanced Controlled Rolling

Steels with ultrafine grains (lower than 5 μm), which usually known as ultrafine ferrite or ultrafine grained materials, are presently the object of intense research, because of the improvement in resistance and fracture toughness they may reach compared to conventional steels (with grain sizes above this value). It is shown that the forenamed steels designated in the Euronorm EN 10149-2, which are manufactured by advanced techniques of controlled rolling and mainly used in automotive industry, have an ultrafine grain size in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 μm, and with elastic yield stresses higher than 400 MPa. Based on the Morrison-Miller criterion, it is shown that values of the strain-hardening coefficient lower than 0.08 would make the industrial application of these steels unfeasible.     

The heat treatment and the gelation are strong determinants of the kinetics of milk proteins digestion and of the peripheral availability of amino acids

This study aimed to determine the kinetics of milk protein digestion and amino acid absorption after ingestion of four dairy matrices by six minipigs: unheated or heated skim milk and corresponding rennet gels. Digestive contents and plasma samples were collected over a 7 h-period after meal ingestion. Gelation of milk slowed down the outflow of the meal from the stomach and the subsequent absorption of amino acids, and decreased their bioavailability in peripheral blood. The gelled rennet matrices also led to low levels of milk proteins at the duodenum. Caseins and β-lactoglobulin, respectively, were sensitive and resistant to hydrolysis in the stomach with the unheated matrices, but showed similar digestion with the heated matrices, with a heat-induced susceptibility to hydrolysis for β-lactoglobulin. These results suggest a significant influence of the meal microstructure (resulting from heat treatment) and macrostructure (resulting from gelation process) on the different steps of milk proteins digestion.     

Lamination of polyethylene composite films by ultrasonic welding: Investigation of peel behavior and identification of optimum welding parameters

The lamination of different polyethylene (PE) composite films by ultrasonic welding to fabricate peelable seals that open at defined burst pressures is investigated. The sealing time, pressure, and amplitude were varied within the range of 100–400 ms, 50–250 kPa, and 12–24 µm, respectively. T‐peel tests and electron micrographs revealed four different peel regimes, depending on the parameter combination: (I) Interlaminar peeling at low‐peel strength with uniform peeling along a weakly bonded PE lamination layer; (II) transition tearing at intermediate peel strength showing areas of interlaminar peeling and translaminar tearing; (III) translaminar tearing at high‐peel strength showing tears through the entire film; and, (IV) undefined tearing at varying tear strength occurring when vibration effects during welding lead to insufficient contact of the films or high pressures lead to a displacement of PE. This study will allow the systematic adjustment of ultrasonic welding parameters for PE films. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40291.     

Design of an Efficient Channel Block Retuning

Cellular networks must be updated very often. Due to technical and economical reasons, the complete channel retuning of an urban network has to be done in several steps. The objective is then to define the steps in such a way that the increase in the interference level is minimum, and do not let it go further than a given threshold of minimum quality for the cellular network. We propose a greedy heuristic and an ascent–descent method including a Tabu Search module to retune a network in a given number of steps. All constraints of the channel assignment problem are taken into account (co-channel, adjacent channel, minimum channel spacing on antennas) as well as retuning constraints such as the number of steps and limits on the maximum number of cells which can be retuned at each step. Co-channel and adjacent channel constraints are expressed through compatibility matrices produced with a discretization of the signal-to-interference ratio. Numerical results are presented on a Bell Mobilité urban network of 359 cells.     

Knowledge representation and sharing using visual semantic modeling for diagnostic medical image databases.

Information technology offers great opportunities for supporting radiologists' expertise in decision support and training. However, this task is challenging due to difficulties in articulating and modeling visual patterns of abnormalities in a computational way. To address these issues, well established approaches to content management and image retrieval have been studied and applied to assist physicians in diagnoses. Unfortunately, most of the studies lack the flexibility of sharing both explicit and tacit knowledge involved in the decision making process, while adapting to each individual's opinion. In this paper, we propose a knowledge repository and exchange framework for diagnostic image databases called "evolutionary system for semantic exchange of information in collaborative environments" (Essence). This framework uses semantic methods to describe visual abnormalities, and offers a solution for tacit knowledge elicitation and exchange in the medical domain. Also, our approach provides a computational and visual mechanism for associating synonymous semantics of visual abnormalities. We conducted several experiments to demonstrate the system's capability of matching synonym terms, and the benefit of using tacit knowledge in improving the meaningfulness of semantic queries.     

The role of neuropeptide Y and interaction with leptin in regulating feed intake and luteinizing hormone and growth hormone secretion in the pig

Two experiments (EXP) were conducted in ovariectomized prepubertal gilts to test the hypothesis that neuropeptide Y (NPY) stimulates appetite and modulates LH and GH secretion, and that leptin modifies such acute effects of NPY on feeding behavior and LH and GH secretion. In EXP I, gilts received intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections of 0.9% saline (saline; n = 6), or 10 microg (n = 7), 50 microg (n = 5) or 100 microg (n = 7) NPY in saline and blood samples were collected. In EXP II, gilts received ICV injections of S (n = 4), or 50 microg leptin (n = 4), or 100 microg NPY (n = 4) or 100 microg NPY +50 microg leptin (n = 4) in saline, and feed intake was measured at 4, 20 and 44 h after feed presentation and blood samples collected. In EXP I, NPY suppressed LH secretion and the 100 microg dose stimulated GH secretion. In EXP II, NPY reversed the inhibitory effect of leptin on feed intake and suppressed LH secretion, but serum GH concentrations were unaffected. These results support the hypothesis that NPY modulates feed intake, and LH and GH secretion and may serve as a neural link between metabolic state and the reproductive and growth axis in the pig.     

A statistical study of the relevance of lines of code measures in software projects

Lines of code metrics are routinely used as measures of software system complexity, programmer productivity, and defect density, and are used to predict both effort and cost. The guidelines for using a direct metric, such as lines of code, as a proxy for a quality factor such as complexity or defect density, or in derived metrics such as cost and effort are clear. Amongst other criteria, the direct metric must be linearly related to, and accurately predict, the quality factor and these must be validated through statistical analysis following a rigorous validation methodology. In this paper, we conduct such an analysis to determine the validity and utility of lines of code as a measure using the ISBGS-10 data set. We find that it fails to meet the specified validity tests and, therefore, has limited utility in derived measures.