The Moral Dimensions of Globalization.

Responds to the comments by L. T. Hoshmand (see record 2003-08988-012) and J. Aros (see record 2003-08988-013) on the article by J. Arnett (see record 2002-18352-003) regarding the psychology of globalization. In this response, Arnett discusses the moral implications of globalization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deactivation of V2O5-WO3-TiO2 SCR catalyst at a biomass-fired combined heat and power plant

The deactivation of a commercial type V₂O₅-WO₃-TiO₂ monolith catalyst under biomass combustion was studied at a full-scale grate-fired power plant burning straw/wood using a slip stream pilot scale reactor. The aerosols in the flue gas consisted of a mixture of potassium chloride and sulphate. Three catalyst elements were exposed at 350 °C, and one element was exposed at 250 °C for comparison. The catalyst activity was measured in the reactor at the exposure temperature by addition of NH₃ and extra NO. The activity, in terms of a first-order rate constant, dropped by 52% after about 1140 h indicating a very fast deactivation compared to coal firing. It was also found that the reactor temperature was not of importance for the deactivation rate. SEM-EDX analysis showed that particle deposition and pore blocking contributed to the deactivation by decreasing the diffusion rate of NO and NH₃ into the catalyst. However, potassium also penetrated into the catalyst wall and the resulting average K/V ratio in the catalyst structure was high enough (about 0.3–0.5) for a significant chemical deactivation. Chemisorption studies carried out in situ showed that the amount of chemisorbed NH₃ on the catalyst decreased as a function of exposure time, which reveals that Brøndsted acid sites had reacted with potassium compounds and thereby rendered inactive. When washed by 0.5 M H₂SO₄ the regenerated catalyst regains a higher activity than that of the fresh catalyst at temperatures higher than 300 °C, but even though reactivation is possible, the deactivation rate appears too high for practical use of the SCR process in straw combustion.     

The effect of surface roughness on the radiative properties ofpatterned silicon wafers

The radiative properties of patterned silicon wafers have a major impact on the two critical issues in rapid thermal processing (RTP), namely wafer temperature uniformity and wafer temperature measurement. The surface topography variation of the die area caused by patterning and the roughness of the wafer backside can have a significant effect on the radiative properties, but these effects are not well characterized. We report measurements of room temperature reflectance of a memory die, logic die, and various multilayered wafer backsides. The surface roughness of the die areas and wafer backsides is characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM). These data are subsequently used to assess the effectiveness of thin film optics in providing approximations for the radiative properties of patterned wafers for RTP applications     

In situ bypass and diabetes

From 1986 through to 1990 a total of 483 in situ bypass procedures were performed in 444 patients. Preoperative risk-factors were equally distributed among diabetic (DM) and non-diabetic (NDM) patients, except for smoking habits (DM:48%, NDM:64%, p = 0.002) and cardiac disease (DM:45%, NDM:29%, p = 0.005). Critical limb-ischaemia was more often present in diabetic than non-diabetic patients (DM:57%, NDM:36%, p = 0.0002). Diabetic patients had a significantly lower distal anastomosis than non-diabetic patients (p = 0.00001). There were no differences among diabetic and non-diabetic patients regarding three years primary and secondary patency (58% and 64% respectively), and regarding major amputations. However, the rate of minor amputations was higher in insulin-dependent compared with non-insulin-dependent diabetics, who in turn had a higher rate than non-diabetics (p < 0.00001). A markedly decreased survival rate was found in diabetics (p < 0.00005). We found the in situ bypass technique very useful in the treatment of critical ischaemia of the lower limb in diabetic patients. The overall results in diabetic patients, whether insulin-dependent or not, were equal to those in non-diabetic patients.     

Directional features in online handwriting recognition

The selection of valuable features is crucial in pattern recognition. In this paper we deal with the issue that part of features originate from directional instead of common linear data. Both for directional and linear data a theory for a statistical modeling exists. However, none of these theories gives an integrated solution to problems, where linear and directional variables are to be combined in a single, multivariate probability density function. We describe a general approach for a unified statistical modeling, given the constraint that variances of the circular variables are small. The method is practically evaluated in the context of our online handwriting recognition system frog on hand and the so-called tangent slope angle feature. Recognition results are compared with two alternative modeling approaches. The proposed solution gives significant improvements in recognition accuracy, computational speed and memory requirements.     

Buckling behaviour of imperfect spherical shells subjected to different load conditions

The paper deals with an analysis of the bifurcation and initial post-buckling behaviour of highly imperfection-sensitive large spherical .shells, such as cargo tanks for ship transportation of liquefied natural gas and large spherical containment shells for nuclear power plants. The numerical analysis procedure has sufficient generality to treat shells of revolution with arbitrary curved generators and with arbitrary variation of the thickness. The shells can be subjected to non-axisymmetric time-varying loadings. The purpose of the paper is to present simple procedures for scantling selections in the initial design phase and to propose an analysis procedure for verification of the final design of optimized thin-walled spherical shells.     

Optimization of a method for simultaneous analysis of cell surface phenotype and cell cycle in human bone marrow and peripheral blood leukocytes by flow cytometry: the value of both internal and external standards

Three different methods for the simultaneous analysis of surface phenotype and DNA quantification were compared. One method, involving the fixation of cells in 70% ethanol, was convincingly superior, both with regard to the CV of the G0G1 peak and the intensity of the DNA labelling. Furthermore, the correlation between the surface antigen densities before and after fixation were high. Experiments evaluating the intraday and the interday variation of the DNA ratio (the mean channel of the G0G1 peak of the sample divided by the mean channel of the G0G1 peak of chicken erythrocytes), documented the former to be small, with S.D. values varying from 0.0 to 0.016, while the latter were considerably higher with S.D. values varying from 0.077 to 0.123. Since the intraday variation of the DNA ratio was consistently low and the interday variation strongly correlated to the position of the red fluorescence test beads, it was possible to minimize the interday variation of the DNA ratio, by calculating the DNA index as the ratio between the DNA ratio of the sample and that of an external control (buffy coat leukocytes). Analyzing normal bone marrow and calculating the DNA index (DI) on the basis of these ratios, the confidence limits of the DI were decreased by more than half the values obtained when DI calculation was based solely on an internal standard, thereby making subsequent ploidy determinations of patient samples more precise. We conclude that this setup of internal and external standards allows accurate determinations of DNA aneuploidy even in an assay where whole cells labelled for surface antigen and DNA content are analyzed.     

Ornithine-delta-aminotransferase expression and ornithine metabolism in cultured epidermal keratinocytes: toward metabolic sink therapy for gyrate atrophy

There is now strong evidence that the chorioretinal degeneration associated with ornithine-delta-aminotransferase (OAT) deficiency is a consequence of hyperornithinemia. Therefore development of a metabolic system for clearing ornithine from the circulation is being pursued as a potential treatment. The skin is considered an attractive location for such a metabolic system because autologous cells can be safely and easily utilized. This study was undertaken to determine the ornithine metabolizing capacity of epidermal keratinocytes expressing normal and superphysiologic amounts of OAT. The data show that overexpression of OAT in keratinocytes cultured from a gyrate atrophy patient restores ornithine metabolism and results in a rate of ornithine disappearance from the medium that is significantly higher than the rate of disappearance from the medium bathing normal keratinocytes. In addition, OAT activity determined in soluble protein prepared from sonicates suggests that the capacity to maintain plasma ornithine within the normal range is contained within an accomplishable graft of keratinocytes overexpressing OAT. However, the actual rate of ornithine disappearance from the media was significantly less than predicted from enzyme activity assays. Following ornithine metabolite production by intact cells suggests that ornithine metabolism is limited primarily by clearance of downstream metabolites, as opposed to substrate delivery.