Exception handlers in functional programming languages

Constructs for expressing exception handling can greatly help to avoid clutter in code by allowing the programmer to separate the code to handle unusual situations from the code for the normal case. The author proposes a new approach to embed exception handlers in functional languages. The proposed approach discards the conventional view of treating exceptions, as a means of effecting a control transfer; instead, exceptions are used to change the state of an object. The two types of exceptions, terminate and resume, are treated differently. A terminate exception, when raised, is viewed as shielding the input object. On the other hand, a resume exception designates the input object as curable and requires the immediate application of a handler function. This approach enables the clean semantics of functions raising exceptions without associating any implementation restriction and without loss of the referential transparency and the commutativity properties of functions     

Experimental infection of chimpanzees with hepatitis C virus of genotype 5a: genetic analysis of the virus and generation of a standardized challenge pool

Six major genotypes (genotypes 1-6) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been identified. These genetic variants are being transmitted to chimpanzees, the only recognized animal model for the study of HCV. Genotype 5a (strain SA13), a variant found primarily in South Africa, has been transmitted to chimpanzees for the first time. Experimental infection of 2 chimpanzees was characterized by early appearance of viremia and peak virus titers of 10(5)-10(6) genome equivalents/mL. The HCV infection was resolved by week 15 after inoculation in 1 chimpanzee and persisted in the other. Both chimpanzees became anti-HCV-positive by week 14 after inoculation. Both chimpanzees developed viral hepatitis. The infectivity titer of a genotype 5a challenge pool prepared from the first passage of HCV in a chimpanzee was approximately 10(4) infectious doses/mL. Finally, sequence analysis of strain SA13 confirmed that genotype 5a is genetically distinct from other genotypes of HCV.     

Deformation processing of metal powders: Part I—Cold isostatic pressing

Analytical and numerical techniques are used to analyze in detail the stage I Cold Isostatic Pressing (CIPing) of metal powders. Plastic yielding is considered to be the only densification mechanism and the constitutive model developed recently by Fleck, Kuhn and McMeeking [(J. Mech. Phys. Solids40, 1139 (1992)] is used to describe the elastoplastic behavior of the metal powder. It is shown that, for the case of powder consolidation in a long cylindrical tube, a change in length is not possible, unless it is accompanied by some distortion (“shape change”) of the CIPed specimen. The numerical implementation of the constitutive elastoplastic equations in a finite element program is discussed. The finite element method is used to analyze the CIPing of titanium powder. The predictions of the finite element solution agree well with available experimental data.     

Cure-reaction kinetics of amine-blocked polyisocyanates with alcohol using hot-stage Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Cure reaction between a series of N-methylaniline-blocked polyisocyanates, based on 4,4′-methylenebis(phenyl isocyanate), poly(tetrahydrofuran) and several substituted N-methylanilines, and n-decanol has been studied. The solid-state isothermal cure reaction was carried out using hot-stage FTIR spectroscopy, in the temperature range of 125–145°C. The urea carbonyl absorption band of blocked polyisocyanate moiety was used to monitor the conversion of blocked polyisocyanate into polyurethane. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were calculated using normalized conversion curves. The overall order of cure reaction, for each of the blocked polyisocyanates was found to be first order. Based on the results of kinetics and reaction conditions used in this study, the elimination-addition (S_N¹) mechanism was suggested for the cure reaction between N-methylaniline-blocked polyisocyanates and n-decanol. The effect of substituents present in the blocking agents on the cure reaction of N-methylaniline-blocked polyisocyanates was investigated and found that the cure reaction of N-methylaniline-blocked polyisocyanates was retarded by electron-donating substituents and facilitated by electron withdrawing substituents. The observed high negative entropy of activation value supports the formation of a four-centered, intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded ring structure during transition state of the cure reaction. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Fast Likelihood Computation in Speech Recognition using Matrices

Acoustic modeling using mixtures of multivariate Gaussians is the prevalent approach for many speech processing problems. Computing likelihoods against a large set of Gaussians is required as a part of many speech processing systems and it is the computationally dominant phase for Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) systems. We express the likelihood computation as a multiplication of matrices representing augmented feature vectors and Gaussian parameters. The computational gain of this approach over traditional methods is by exploiting the structure of these matrices and efficient implementation of their multiplication. In particular, we explore direct low-rank approximation of the Gaussian parameter matrix and indirect derivation of low-rank factors of the Gaussian parameter matrix by optimum approximation of the likelihood matrix. We show that both the methods lead to similar speedups but the latter leads to far lesser impact on the recognition accuracy. Experiments on 1,138 work vocabulary RM1 task and 6,224 word vocabulary TIMIT task using Sphinx 3.7 system show that, for a typical case the matrix multiplication based approach leads to overall speedup of 46 % on RM1 task and 115 % for TIMIT task. Our low-rank approximation methods provide a way for trading off recognition accuracy for a further increase in computational performance extending overall speedups up to 61 % for RM1 and 119 % for TIMIT for an increase of word error rate (WER) from 3.2 to 3.5 % for RM1 and for no increase in WER for TIMIT. We also express pairwise Euclidean distance computation phase in Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) in terms of matrix multiplication leading to saving of approximately ${1} \over {3}$ of computational operations. In our experiments using efficient implementation of matrix multiplication, this leads to a speedup of 5.6 in computing the pairwise Euclidean distances and overall speedup up to 3.25 for DTW.     

Influence of different types of water on strength, porosity and hydric parameters of metakaolin admixtured cement

The present research deals with strength, porosity and hydric behavior of metakaolin cement admixtured with different types of water. The hydration of ordinary Portland cement in the presence of 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% metakaolin treated with distilled, ground and sea water with the water to cement ratio of 0.4 was studied. The experimental results on setting time, strength, porosity and hydric parameters are reported. The results show that, metakaolin percentage increases in strength with a decrease in porosity. The observed results are discussed with SEM micrographs. Further, sea water accelerates the cement hydration at the early stages but retards it in the latter stages of hydration.     

Role of Zinc (Zn) in Human Reproduction: A Journey from Initial Spermatogenesis to Childbirth

Zinc (Zn), the second-most necessary trace element, is abundant in the human body. The human body lacks the capacity to store Zn; hence, the dietary intake of Zn is essential for various functions and metabolism. The uptake of Zn during its transport through the body is important for proper development of the three major accessory sex glands: the testis, epididymis, and prostate. It plays key roles in the initial stages of germ cell development and spermatogenesis, sperm cell development and maturation, ejaculation, liquefaction, the binding of spermatozoa and prostasomes, capacitation, and fertilization. The prostate releases more Zn into the seminal plasma during ejaculation, and it plays a significant role in sperm release and motility. During the maternal, labor, perinatal, and neonatal periods, the part of Zn is vital. The average dietary intake of Zn is in the range of 8–12 mg/day in developing countries during the maternal period. Globally, the dietary intake of Zn varies for pregnant and lactating mothers, but the average Zn intake is in the range of 9.6–11.2 mg/day. The absence of Zn and the consequences of this have been discussed using critical evidence. The events and functions of Zn related to successful fertilization have been summarized in detail. Briefly, our current review emphasizes the role of Zn at each stage of human reproduction, from the spermatogenesis process to childbirth. The role of Zn and its supplementation in in vitro fertilization (IVF) opens opportunities for future studies on reproductive biology.     

Clustering of heavy particles in vortical flows: a selective review

Heavy particles in a turbulent flow tend to leave regions of high vorticity and cluster into regions of high strain. The consequences of such clustering have been studied in a variety of situations over the past few decades, and this problem has seen several review papers already. Our objectives in this paper are three-fold. (i) We introduce the reader to the basic ideas, and explain why the problem is interesting. (ii) Using an N-vortex system we present an interesting case where particles are attracted to the vicinity of vortices. A new scaling for the critical Stokes number of attraction is obtained. (iii) We review a number of papers, which are related to cloud physics in this context.     

The effect of laminating factors on the thermal properties of unfired multilayer glass-ceramic and alumina substrates

This paper presents experimental data on heat capacities and thermal conductivities of two ceramic tapes measured using standard ASTM methods. The two ceramic tapes were prepared using alumina and a glass ceramic of aluminum-magnesium silicate with poly(vinyl butyral) binder, and laminated at pressures of 208E5 to 620E5 Pa at two laminating temperatures and times. The measured properties showed that laminating pressures have a greater effect, and that thermal conductivities are affected more than heat capacities. Empirical models have been developed to fit the experimental data. A correlation is developed to express the density of laminated green sheets in terms of the laminating variables—time, temperature, and pressure.     

Citrus fruits--varieties, chemistry, technology, and quality evaluation. Part II. Chemistry, technology, and quality evaluation. A. Chemistry

In Part 2 of this review on citrus fruits, the literature on chemistry, technology, and quality evaluation are critically considered. Sweet oranges, mandarin, grapefruit, lemon, and lime are generally used for processing. The literature on chemical components of citrus fruit which include sugars, polysaccharides, oraganic acids, nitrogenous constituents and lipids; carotenoids which contribute to color; vitamins and minerals, and flavonoids; limonoids, some of which impart bitterness to the juice; and the volatile components which contribute to aroma have been reviewed. Chilled and pasteurized juices, juice concentrates, and beverages are the important products manufactured commercially, and to a limited extent powdered citrus juices, canned segments, and marmalades. The literature on the manufacture of these products also as new types of juice and oil extractors; TASTE and other types of evaporators; tank farms to store juice and concentrate in bulk; aseptic filling in bulk containers and retail packs; alternate flexible and rigid containers other than glass and tin; and recovery of volatile flavoring constituents during juice processing are some of the important technological developments in the recent past and have been discussed. Bitterness in citrus juices and its control, composition of cloud, and its stability and changes during storage have been reviewed. Essential oils, pectin, frozen and dried juice sacs, dried pulp and molasses, flavonoids, seed oil, and meal are the important byproducts, the manufacture of which is given in essential details. Generally, consumers judge the product on the basis of its sensory attributes. The quality of finished product is dependent upon the raw materials used and control of processes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards for different products, physicochemical and microbiological parameters prescribed as indices of quality of fruit, juice, concentrate, and other products; composition of essential oils; and aroma concentrates are discussed in relation to sensory quality. Analytical methods for compounds affecting quality, and methods for detection of adulteration in different citrus products are briefly reviewed. The importance of sensorily evaluating quality of citrus products to select and develop quality control indices is emphasized. Areas where further research are required are indicated. A comprehensive bibliography is provided to aid further study and research.