Combining programs and state machines

State machines consume and process actions complementary to programs issuing actions. State machines maintain a state and reply with a boolean response to each action in their interface. As state machines offer a service to programs, their interface is also called a service interface. State machines can be combined with several natural operators, thus giving rise to a state machine calculus. State machines are used for abstract data type modeling.     

Quality control of immunohistochemical evaluation of tumour-associated plasminogen activators and related components. European BIOMED-1 Concerted Action on Clinical Relevance of Proteases in Tumour Invasion and Metastasis

The plasminogen activation (PA) system is involved in the breakdown and remodelling of the extracellular matrix. In the case of cancer, this is a prerequisite for invasion and metastasis. The expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 in particular have been reported to be of clinical and prognostic value. This has primarily been proven in the case of breast carcinoma and colon carcinoma, using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as a quantitative assay to determine the level of expression. Immunohistochemistry is another technique to investigate the presence of PA components. It allows assessment in a semiquantitative way and informs in addition on the specific distribution within the tissue. To take full advantage of the benefits of immunohistochemistry, it is important to aim at optimal quality in all steps influencing the final judgement of the staining results. These various steps are highlighted and discussed in this paper.     

A co-located partitions strategy for parallel CFD–DEM couplings

In this work, a new partition-collocation strategy for the parallel execution of CFD–DEM couplings is investigated. Having a good parallel performance is a key issue for an Eulerian-Lagrangian software that aims to be applied to solve industrially significant problems, as the computational cost of these couplings is one of their main drawback. The approach presented here consists in co-locating the overlapping parts of the simulation domain of each software on the same MPI process, in order to reduce the cost of the data exchanges. It is shown how this strategy allows reducing memory consumption and inter-process communication between CFD and DEM to a minimum and therefore to overcome an important parallelization bottleneck identified in the literature. Four benchmarks are proposed to assess the consistency and scalability of this approach. A coupled execution on 280 cores shows that less than 0.1% of the time is used to perform inter-physics data exchange.     

Carbon Source-Dependent Changes of the Structure of Streptococcus pneumoniae Capsular Polysaccharide with Serotype 6F

The structure of the exopolysaccharide capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae is defined by the genetic arrangement of the capsule operon allowing the unequivocal identification of the pneumococcal serotype. Here, we investigated the environment-dependent composition of the polysaccharide structure of S. pneumoniae serotype 6F. When grown in a chemically defined medium (CDM) with glucose versus galactose, the exopolysaccharide capsule of the serotype 6F strains reveals a ratio of 1/0.6 or 1/0.3 for galactose/glucose in the capsule by ¹H-NMR analyses, respectively. Increased production of the capsule precursor UDP-glucose has been identified by ³¹P-NMR in CDM with glucose. Flow cytometric experiments using monoclonal antibodies showed decreased labelling of Hyp6AG4 (specific for serotype 6A) antibodies when 6F is grown in glucose as compared to galactose, which mirrors the 1H-NMR results. Whole-genome sequencing analyses of serotype 6F isolates suggested that the isolates evolved during two different events from serotype 6A during the time when the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) was introduced. In conclusion, this study shows differences in the capsular structure of serotype 6F strains using glucose as compared to galactose as the carbon source. Therefore, 6F strains may show slightly different polysaccharide composition while colonizing the human nasopharynx (galactose rich) as compared to invasive locations such as the blood (glucose rich).     

Microfabricated Silicon High-Frequency Waveguide Couplers and Antennas

A method has been developed to fabricate waveguide-to-waveguide couplers and tapered dielectric rod antennas for the millimeter-wave regime from microetched silicon. A proof-of-concept study shows that the structures can be realized using relatively simple wet etching and robotic process control. Experimental measurements of the waveguide-waveguide couplers agree in key features with simulations. The results indicate that two-stepped tapers perform nearly as well as smooth linear tapers, but are much easier to fabricate. Coupling transmissivity of better than -1 dB, and peak antenna gain of 8-10 dB are indicated at W-band frequencies. Lateral dimension etch control of 5-mum precision was realized. To solve a challenge of controlling the length of the first step, either an improved masking method or a switch to dry etching processes is required.     

Rayleigh scattering, absorption, and birefringence of large-size bulk single-crystal sapphire

While the thermomechanical properties of sapphire make it an excellent candidate of test mass for advanced laser interferometers, its optical quality is not well understood or well controlled. We have studied the results from high-resolution measurements of scattering, absorption, and birefringence in test-mass samples to better understand issues of quality. Samples show large-scale scattering structures clearly linked to the crystal-growth process. Samples characterized by the presence of point defects have significantly lower scattering (except at the point defects). In general on a large scale, high scattering also correlates with higher absorption and higher average birefringence inhomogeneity. However, on a smaller scale there is not a clear point-to-point correlation between scattering and absorption. Often a large-scale scattering structure is spatially displaced by tens of millimeters from a similar absorption structure, indicating that quite separate microscopic mechanisms give rise to scattering and absorption. The spatial displacements indicate that absorption centers and scattering centers are laid down during crystal growth at different distances from the solid-liquid interface. We suggest that absorption may be linked to F centers, while scattering may be linked to impurities such as iron.     

Cobalt‐Catalyzed Cross‐Coupling Reaction between Functionalized Primary and Secondary Alkyl Halides and Aliphatic Grignard Reagents

The coupling of primary and secondary unactivated alkyl bromides with alkyl‐Grignard reagents was performed in good yields under mild conditions by using a new catalytic system: consisting of cobalt chloride and tetramethylethylenediamine (CoCl₂⋅2 LiI, 4 TMEDA). The reaction is very chemoselective since ketone, ester and nitrile functions are tolerated.     

Influence of the properties of externally bonded CFRP on the shear behavior of concrete/composite adhesive joints

This paper concerns the strengthening of concrete structures with externally bonded composite reinforcement, and focuses mainly on the influence of the FRP characteristics on the mechanical behavior of the composite to concrete interface. An experimental investigation was conducted, based on the characterization of such bonded assemblies and using a double lap joint shear test. Twelve different series of specimens were studied in order to evaluate the influence of various parameters related to the FRP material (i.e. the use of carbon or aramid and of fiber reinforced systems, the type of manufacturing process, the values of the Young modulus, the thickness of the FRP and the bonded length) as well as several parameters related to the adhesive joint (i.e. the lap joint thickness, the curing conditions and the elastic modulus of the epoxy adhesive). Analyses of the strain and shear stress distributions along the lap joints emphasized significant effects of the FRP properties and epoxy curing conditions on the interfacial strength. In addition, a bond strength model is proposed in the last part of the study.     

Reversal set formation in the visually decorticate rat.

Results of 4 experiments with 32 male black-hooded rats show that Ss given large visual cortex lesions demonstrated a simultaneous task reversal deficit previously reported by R. C. Gonzales et al (1964) to follow more extensive cortical ablation. However, no deficit appeared in an operant discrimination that deemphasized visuospatial cues, and the simultaneous task deficit vanished when translucent eye occluders were applied to eliminate spatial, but not intensity, cue use. Because the lesion Ss showed an impairment only when visuospatial cues were available and relevant to correct reversal performance, they seemed hindered by their incompetent processing of visuospatial information. Results support spatial rather than learning approaches to visual cortex function. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acridine orange fluorescence cytochemistry for detecting lymphocyte immunoreactivity

Acridine orange staining reveals changes within 3 hours of in vitro stimulation of normal rat lymphocytes with mitogens, and of immune rat lymphocytes with the sensitizing antigen. An increased number of red fluorescent cytoplasmic organelles, presumably lysosomes are seen by fluorescence microscopy. Fluorimetry of the supernatants from stained cell suspensions suggests an overall decreased cell uptake of the dye. The microscopy and fluorimetry detected early events in the reaction of lymphocytes from tumour-bearing rats with the target tumour cells. It would appear that the changes in intracellular behaviour of the dye and in overall cell uptake after immune stimulation are a reflection of dissociated variations in internal and external cell membrane permeability, and may provide simple general means for recognizing cellular immune reactions.