TMAOase Activity of European Hake (Merluccius merluccius) Organs: Influence of Biological Condition and Season

ABSTRACT: Trimethylamine N-oxide demethylase (TMAOase) activity of several internal organs of hake were studied for 2 consecutive y. The correlation between enzymatic activity and season of year, sex, weight, and length were analyzed. While kidney and spleen showed the highest activities, liver, heart, bile, and gall bladder activities were much lower, and in some cases they were below the detection limit. A correlation between TMAOase activity of kidney and season was found. During winter and spring (February to May), the months matching the spawning peak, high activities were detected, while in summer months the activity level was lower. TMAOase activity in the rest of the organs did not seem to have a seasonal influence. Keywords: TMAOase, season, biological condition, hake, soluble protein     

Vestigial sideband filtering at 10 Gbit/s using 12.5 GHzchannel-spacing demux

A 32-channel 12.5 GHz-spaced free-space demux with low crosstalk and low polarisation dependent loss has been constructed. Using this demux, vestigial sideband filtering at 10 Gbit/s has been studied. It is shown that this demux can achieve very high spectral efficiency without polarisation division multiplexing     

Floating-island TFT leakage caused by process step reduction

The leakage mechanism for a top-gate thin-film transistor (TFT) produced using the fewest process steps in the industry is analyzed in order to achieve a high-contrast liquid crystal display (LCD). Using a T-shaped TFT structure, the OFF and ON channel lengths are defined independently, so that the leakage can be reduced with no ON current decrease     

Intermetallic compounds formed at the interface between liquid indium and copper substrates

The interfacial reactions between liquid In and Cu substrates at temperatures ranging from 175°C to 400°C are investigated for the applications in bonding recycled sputtering targets to their backing plates. Experimental results show that a scallop-shaped Cu₁₆In₉ intermetallic compound is found at the Cu/In interface after solder reactions at temperatures above 300°C. A double-layer structure of intermetallic compounds containing scallop-shaped Cu₁₁In₉ and continuous CuIn is observed after the Cu/In interfacial reaction at temperatures below 300°C. The growth of all these intermetallic compounds follows the parabolic law, which implies that the growth is diffusion-controlled. The activation energies for the growth of Cu₁₆In₉, Cu₁₁In₉, and CuIn intermetallic compounds calculated from the Arrhenius plot of growth reaction constants are 59.5, 16.9, and 23.5 kJ/mole, respectively.     

A high-linearity 100-element diode grid mixer

Grid-mixer arrays can achieve high linearity and dynamic range through quasi-optical power combining. We present a 100-element single-ended diode grid mixer operating at 2.45 GHz. Each element incorporates two diodes in series. We measure an input third-order intercept of 11 W (40.5 dBm), and output third-order intercept of 3.4 W (35.4 dBm), and an associated conversion loss of 5.1 dB. The power-handling capability of the array is 100 times larger than that of a microstrip mixer using a single element. The local oscillator (LO) drive requirement for the entire array is 1.4 W (31.6 dBm). The angular dependence of the array's IF power is also presented and is in agreement with theory     

Interface stability during displacement reactions between Cu<Subscript>2</Subscript>O and Co<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis></Subscript>Fe<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis></Subscript> alloys at 1223 K

The stability of the reactive interface during the solid-state displacement reaction, Cu₂O+Co_1−X Fe _X =2Cu+(Co_1−X Fe _X )O, is studied as a function of Co-Fe alloy composition at 1223 K. For X≤0.03, the reaction zone has a layered structure, and the cation diffusion in (Co, Fe)O is the rate-limiting step. The interface is unstable in the early stages of the reaction; the instability decreases with time as the oxide thickness increases, and the interface becomes planar at long times. The time required for the attainment of interface planarity increases with the value of X. The reaction kinetics are consistent with the available cation-diffusion data in (Co, Fe)O. For X≥0.045, the product zone is a composite of Cu+(Co, Fe)O, and the rate is limited by the oxygen transport in copper. The transition to interface instability occurs when the oxide can support a cation flux that exceeds the maximum possible oxygen flux in copper. During the reaction, composition gradients develop in (Co, Fe)O because of higher diffusion rates for iron than for cobalt.     

Harper-dorn creep and specimen size

Under conditions typical of Harper-Dorn (H-D) creep the statistical slip-length may become comparable to, or even exceed, the specimen diameter (a size effect). It is demonstrated that a consequence of such a size effect is that the rates of dislocation storage and dynamic recovery are reduced and the static recovery rate will exceed the dynamic one. Under such conditions, the analysis shows that the creep rate will scale linearly with the applied stress, a characteristic of H-D creep. This article is based on a presentation made in the workshop entitled “Mechanisms of Elevated Temperature Plasticity and Fracture,” which was held June 27–29, 2001, in San Diego, CA, concurrent with the 2001 Joint Applied Mechanics and Materials Summer Conference. The workshop was sponsored by Basic Energy Sciences of the United States Department of Energy.     

An approach to the reliability optimization of software withredundancy

An approach to the optimization of software reliability is proposed. The emphasis is put on the software redundancy to achieve fault tolerance, i.e. the results of the optimization process are used to determine the optimal structure of the software to be developed. Two optimization models are formulated covering, respectively, modified recovery block scheme and multiversion programming approaches. Both cases are illustrated by simple examples. The models show that it is possible to formulate and solve some software related reliability optimization problems. They further show that the concept of redundancy to achieve fault tolerance (basic for the traditional theory of reliability) can be used in the field of software reliability optimization     

A short recipe for seashell synthesis

Several artistic examples of seashell-like forms produced on a graphics supercomputer are provided. The shapes were created using a simple graphics primitive and rendered using lighting and shading facilities of 3-D extensions to X Windows or the PHIGS+ proposed standard. It is expected that the techniques, equations, and systems will provide useful tools and stimulate future studies in the graphics characterization of morphologically rich spiral shapes produced by relatively simple generating formulas