Morality and Architecture

In the 1870s and 1880s, when the establishment of schools of architecture in the United States was in its infancy, one of the main methods of architectural education for builders, carpenters and others who wished to advance in the field was to study the many books on architecture being published after the Civil War. Even professional architects had frequent recourse to books (and also periodicals) for design ideas, theory and contemporary issues.     

Television as a Design Tool

Television is not only the most powerful medium of communication that our age has produced; it is also the most flexible. Yet its common role in education is that of a mere substitute, called in to mitigate the effects of the shortage of teachers or (to look at the matter historically) the excess of students. That it can be more than that is shown by two University of Nebraska faculty members, describing an experiment in the creative use of television as a tool in the development of that awareness of the characteristics of space which is among the architect's indispensable qualifications.     

Increased conversion efficiency in cadmium telluride photovoltaics by luminescent downshifting with quantum dot/poly(methyl methacrylate) films

Commercially available quantum dots have been encapsulated in a poly(methyl methacrylate) film and used as a luminescent downshifting layer on cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride photovoltaic devices. Application of these films has resulted in a relative improvement to the short‐circuit current of over 4% by I–V measurement, with a significant increase in the contribution of short‐wavelength light resulting in 25% of the current available in this part of the spectrum being captured. The films have been shown to be highly scattering and the associated difficulties this provides to external quantum efficiency measurements have been discussed. A range of optical characterisation techniques, particularly laser beam induced current, have been used to probe the effect the films have on a cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride device. An alternate methodology for performing external quantum efficiency measurements with the quantum dot films has been proposed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of equiangular spiral antennas

In this work, equiangular spiral antennas are analyzed with the well-known method of moments in conjunction with triangular patch modeling. In particular, the analysis focuses on the validity of several generic guidelines hitherto available for designing such antennas. In our study, numerical results indicate that increasing the number of spiral arm turns broadens the radiation pattern (i.e., the axial ratio increases), but that tapering the outermost portion of the arms has little effect. Furthermore, as a spiral is wrapped tighter, the radiation pattern broadens and the gain increases. We also show that the useful frequency range of the spiral antenna depends not only on the spiral arm length and the inner radius near the spiral center, but also on the wrap tightness. Finally, numerically determined input impedance differed considerably from the 188-Ω impedance expected for these self-complementary type antennas. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Salmonella in uncooked retail meats in New Zealand

A national quantitative survey of Salmonella in five types of uncooked retail meats in New Zealand was undertaken from August 2003 to May 2005 to establish baseline proportionality data. The overall prevalence of Salmonella in 1,108 meat samples was 1.1% (95% confidence interval, 0.6 to 1.9). Low prevalences of Salmonella in each meat type were observed, with 3% (1.2 to 6.1) in chicken, 1.3% (0.3 to 3.8) in lamb and mutton, 0.5% (0 to 3.0) in unweaned veal, 0.4% (0 to 2.4) in beef, and 0% (0 to 1.6) in pork. The Salmonella serotypes isolated were Salmonella Infantis from beef; Salmonella Typhimurium PT1 from unweaned veal and chicken; Salmonella sp. 6,7:k:-, Salmonella Enteritidis PT9a, Salmonella sp. 4,5,12:-:-, Salmonella sp. 4,12:-:-, and Salmonella Typhimurium PT160 from chicken; and Salmonella sp. 4:-:2 and Salmonella Brandenburg from lamb. Four of the isolates from chicken, Salmonella sp. 4,5,12:-:- (two isolates), Salmonella sp. 4,12:-:-, and Salmonella Typhimurium PT1, were very similar phenotypically and serologically to the attenuated Salmonella vaccine strain used in MeganVacl for poultry. One lamb sample yielded a count of Salmonella Brandenburg of 4.24 most probable number (MPN)/g, while all other positive samples were <1.0 MPN/g. The results provide baseline proportionality data for Salmonella in retail uncooked meats that will contribute invaluably toward future risk assessment in light of other information, such as consumption data that can be used for risk characterization.     

Classical and Differential Thermal Analysis Studies of the Glass-Ceramic Transformation in a YSiAlON Glass

Nucleation and crystallization studies were conducted on a YSiAlON glass that contained 17 equiv.% nitrogen (7.5 at.%) by using a two-stage nucleation-and-growth treatment. Classical and differential thermal analysis (DTA) techniques were both used to study the crystallization process, to ensure that the optimum heat-treatment schedule that yielded a fine microstructure and minimum residual glass was applied. The optimum nucleation and crystallization temperatures were determined from DTA traces that were recorded from isothermal heat treatments at different nucleating temperatures, ranging between T _g - 40°C and T _g+ 100°C for 1 h and crystal-growth temperatures in the range of 1170°-1310°C for 0.5 h, respectively. The activation energy for the crystallization process was determined, based on the analysis of the variation of peak temperature at five different heating rates. Specimens heat treated in a tube furnace under nitrogen gas were subjected to microscopical investigation, and results showed variations in the volume fraction of crystalline phases and crystal size with nucleation temperature. The nucleation temperature, T _g+ 40°C (1025°C), which corresponded to the maximum volume fraction of crystalline phases and minimum crystal size, was consistent with the optimum nucleation temperature, T _g+ 35°C (1020°C), as determined from DTA. The time and temperature of nucleation and crystal growth dictated the nature and size of the crystalline phases. Properties such as hardness and density were assessed and correlated to the nucleation temperature. The influence of sample specific surface on the devitrification mechanisms was estimated, and bulk nucleation was observed to be the dominant nucleation mechanism.     

Tobacco particulate matter is more potent than nicotine at upregulating nicotinic receptors on SH-SY5Y cells.

The effect of total particulate matter (TPM) from cigarette smoke on the expression and binding properties of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) was investigated using a human neuroblastoma cell line (SH-SY5Y). TPM but not nicotine on its own inhibited cell growth at nicotine concentrations above 5 microM. To examine effects on nAChR expression, intact cells were incubated with 3H-epibatidine, and a Bmax of 13 fmoles/10(5) cells (7.8 x 10(4) binding sites/cell) was measured in unexposed cells as well as in cells treated with 2 microM nicotine alone or with TPM containing 2 microM nicotine. Using Scatchard analysis, we measured a Kd of 0.3 nM for 3H-epibatidine binding to nAChRs. This Kd was increased to 1.3 nM by addition of nicotine or TPM extract, both at 2 microM nicotine. Bmax, however, was unaffected, suggesting competitive binding of nicotine to its receptor. Short-term and prolonged 3-day exposures of SH-SY5Y cells to either TPM or nicotine at nicotine concentrations ranging from 0.2 microM to 20 microM increased specific binding, suggesting upregulation of nAChR expression. Most significant, binding was consistently greater in cells pretreated with TPM than in cells pretreated with nicotine. We conclude that TPM contains compounds that are toxic to cells at high concentrations (cell growth inhibition) but that do not compete with nicotine for binding to nAChRs (Scatchard analysis). These non-nicotinic compounds are capable of increasing the expression of one or more of the nAChR subunits. Furthermore, our cell culture assay provides a useful in vitro model for assessing the relative addictiveness of different tobacco products, including that of non-nicotine components.