On the atmospheric corrosion of thin copper films

Sputtered and electrodeposited copper specimens were exposed to the laboratory atmosphere for 18 months, after which the corrosion products were analysed by electrochemical methods and reflectance spectra. The formation of corrosion products takes place in three stages: initially cuprous oxide is formed, followed by the growth of cuprous sulphide, and finally cuprous oxide is converted to cuprous sulphide. The presence of water is essential for these corrosion reactions to occur.     

Dietary fat intake and risk of lung cancer: a prospective study of 51,452 Norwegian men and women

The relationship between incidence of lung cancer and intake of dietary fats, high-fat foods, fish, and fish products was studied in 25,956 men and 25,496 women aged 16-56 years attending Norwegian health screening between 1977 and 1983. Linkage to the Cancer Registry of Norway and the Central Bureau of Statistics of Norway ensured a complete follow-up until 31 December 1991. Diet was recorded on a semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire, and 153 cases of lung cancer were identified during follow-up. Mean age at diagnosis was 56 years. After adjusting for smoking status, gender, age at screening, and attained age, significant lower risks were found for cod liver oil supplement (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3-1.0) and for skim milk compared to whole milk (IRR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3-0.9)). No association was found with dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. A threshold of increased risk starting at the second quartile was seen for mono- and polyunsaturated fat. The potential protective effect of cod liver oil, a supplement rich in preformed vitamin A, omega-3 fatty acids, and monounsaturated fat, has to our knowledge, not been reported before. Confounding from lifestyle is possible, but the result deserves further investigation.     

A piloting plane for controlling wireless devices

The development of the IEEE wireless technologies is promising the ultimate Internet service deployment on wireless and mobile infrastructures since they would offer larger bandwidth at cheaper price. However, it is disquieting to see that the different control algorithms supposed to be the heart of the wireless deployment are not evolving as fast as the wireless technologies do. Here we come up with the hard question: how to pilot these control algorithms? This paper is proposing a revolutionary tyre where all control algorithms are fed in a concerted manner by a self-steering system. In network terms, this paper is proposing a definitely new technology that will permit to optimize, secure, manage and control the wireless devices using an automatic pilot system.     

Dimensional modelling of wood pyrolysis using a nodal approach

New gasification installations and techniques are being tested today but they all struggle with mainly the same drawbacks such as removal of various pollutants in the producer gas or clogging of material pathways.This work is oriented on developing a new model for the non-oxidative pyrolysis step of a gasification process as a part of a wider research conducted on the overall gasification of wood waste. A batch reactor is modelled by means of nodal modelling, a technique widely used for simple heat transfer processes. Additionally to the heat transport inside the batch reactor the model uses a simple and versatile generic chemistry and simplified mass transfer principles. Thermal data from modelling is compared with data obtained from an experimental batch pyrolysis reactor using wood sawdust and cutter shavings. Experimental and theoretical results regarding thermal phenomena are in good agreement.     

Genetic diagnosis of Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome is a complex developmental disorder. The major cardiovascular component of Williams syndrome is supravalvular aortic stenosis, a progressive disease that may need surgical repair. Williams syndrome is associated with heterozygous microdeletion in the chromosomal region 7q11.23 encompassing the elastin gene. We have identified a new, highly informative tetranucleotide repeat polymorphism within the human elastin gene. This marker together with other, previously described elastin gene markers was used to show deletion of the elastin gene in nine sporadic Williams syndrome patients from Hungary. Application of polymorphisms within and flanking the elastin gene on chromosome 7 provides a fast, polymerase chain reaction based method for mutational analysis of Williams syndrome patients.     

On the plastic behavior of homogeneous ethylene copolymers compared with heterogeneous copolymers

The plastic behavior of homogeneous ethylene-octene copolymers and heterogeneous ethylene-butene copolymers has been compared on uniaxial tensile draw. True-stress-strain curves have been determined for various draw temperatures and strain-rates. Significant differences in yield behavior and strain-hardening have been revealed between the two types of materials, at equivalent crystallinity. In parallel, thermal analysis gave an indication that homogeneous copolymers have much narrow distributions of lamellae thicknesses together with lower values of the most probable thickness. Quantitative data from small-angle X-ray scattering support the latter point. An estimation of the surface free energy has revealed a more disordered chain-folding topology for the homogeneous copolymers. Interpretation of the mechanical behavior is based on the framework of a previous model for the plastic deformation of polyethylene involving competition of homogeneous and heterogeneous crystal slip processes. The former process governs the ability of the material to develop macroscopically homogeneous plastic deformation; the second process is a precursor to necking. It is proposed that the nucleation of dislocations, which is the basic mechanism of the homogeneous crystal slip, is favored for homogeneous copolymers, owing to the lower value of the most probable lamellae thickness. More tie molecules and chain entanglements in the disordered amorphous phase may also favor stable homogeneous plastic deformation in the case of homogeneous copolymers.     

Optimal Fine and Medium Grain Parallelism Detection in Polyhedral Reduced Dependence Graphs

This paper presents an optimal algorithm for detecting line or medium grain parallelism in nested loops whose dependences are described by an approximation of distance vectors by polyhedra. In particular, this algorithm is optimal for the classical approximation by direction sectors. This result generalizes, to the case of several statements. Wolf and Lam's algorithm which is optimal for a single statement. Our algorithm relies on a dependence uniformization process and on parallelization techniques related to system of uniform recurrence equations. It can also be viewed as a combination of both Allen and Kennedy's algorithm and Wolf and Lam's algorithm.     

The MINI software factory: Development of kernel mechanisms around process modeling and software bus techniques

The global evolution of software development leads to large projects involving many people. Organizing these people is a big challenge for software engineering. The ESF (Eureka Software Factory) program, funded by a number of European countries, relies on the idea of a software factory for improving the productivity and the quality of software development. The MINI is a software factory prototype. Based on the principles and the architecture defined by the ESF project, the MINI factory intends to demonstrate the cooperation of users involved in the management, production, and support of software development. Built from a set of heterogeneous and dissimilar components or tools, the MINI factory provides an integrated and coherent environment available for each actor of the software production. The MINI factory allows us to look at the users' daily activities within the context of a software factory, as well as at the integration mechanisms used to build such an environment.