Rheological studies with spherically shaped thin liquid films

The present work shows the first experimental and theoretical results for investigations on the rheology of liquid films. The experiments are planned to be performed under microgravity conditions. This environment will allow forming films of different thickness, which is impossible under ground conditions due to drainage. Then the films are forced to harmonic oscillations of the film area so that the film elasticity can be measured as a function of frequency. The presented theoretical model demonstrates the main relationships to be solved under corresponding boundary conditions     

A database model for object dynamics

To effectively model complex applications in which constantly changing situations can be represented, a database system must be able to support the runtime specification of structural and behavioral nuances for objects on an individual or group basis. This paper introduces the role mechanism as an extension of object-oriented databases to support unanticipated behavioral oscillations for objects that may attain many types and share a single object identity. A role refers to the ability to represent object dynamics by seamlessly integrating idiosyncratic behavior, possibly in response to external events, with pre-existing object behavior specified at instance creation time. In this manner, the same object can simultaneously be an instance of different classes which symbolize the different roles that this object assumes. The role concept and its underlying linguistic scheme simplify the design requirements of complex applications that need to create and manipulate dynamic objects. Edited by D. McLeod / Received March 1994 / Accepted January 1996     

Collinearity and Parallelism are Statistically Significant Second-Order Relations of Complex Cell Responses

By investigating the second-order statistics of Gabor wavelet responses derived from natural images, we show that collinearity and parallelism are conspicuous relations. We give a precise mathematical characterization of these Gestalt principles by the conditional probability of two responses. Essential for our investigations is a non-linear transformation, initially utilized within the object recognition system [5], which transforms continuous Gabor wavelet responses into a binary code indicating the presence or absence of local oriented line segments.     

Plasmon energy mapping in energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy

In this paper, we demonstrate the two-dimensional mapping of plasmon energies by energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy. The maps are obtained from a series of energy-filtered images in the plasmon energy region. Examples are shown for a nano-crystalline Si-B-C-N ceramic. This material contains SiC and Si(3)N(4) grains as well as intergranular regions composed of hexagonal BN (h-BN) and turbostratic carbon (t-C). The different phases can be clearly identified by their specific plasmon energies. An energy resolution of < or =0.1eV is achieved. In addition, the plasmon map of an amorphous carbon film is used to visualize the non-isochromaticity of the Corrected Omega filter (90 degrees filter) of the SESAM2. A procedure is proposed for the correction of the non-isochromaticity.     

Investigation of blind tip estimation

In this work we study functions for maximum likelihood estimation in blind tip estimation. We will implement the expectation maximization (EM), the stochastic EM, and stochastic approximation EM algortithms to estimate the unknown tip geometry. To demonstrate the functionality of the algorithms we applied it to dilated artificial input signal.     

Inactivation of staphylococcal enterotoxins by heat and reactivation by high pH treatment

Inactivation of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) added to different media upon heat treatment (80 degrees C or 100 degrees C for 10 min) and reactivation of inactivated SE was studied. In gelatin (pH 4.0), lettuce extract, peas and beans extracts and ovalbumin (pH 5.0) the immunological activity of SE was lost almost completely upon heating. The loss of immunological activity of SEA was accompanied by a concomitant loss of biological activity of this toxin (monkey feeding test). A high pH treatment (pH 11) of the different preparations restored both the immunological and biological activity in most samples tested. Heating at 80 degrees C or 100 degrees C for 10 min of SE containing gelatin (pH 7.0), cauliflower extract (pH 4.0 or pH 7.0), milk (pH 4.0), casein (pH 6.0), rice extract (pH 7.0), noodles extract (pH 4.0) and oat-flakes extract (pH 7.0) had a much lower effect on the immunological activity of the SE (activity greater than or equal to 25%).     

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Simulating the spread of opinions in online social networks when targeting opinion leaders

An increasing number of people are joining online social networks. By interacting with each other, network members influence one another’s opinion. These influencing effects can be utilized by marketing. A wave of influence can be triggered by addressing only a few opinion leaders in the network. Targeting the right opinion leaders is a big challenge. This paper presents a new approach which simulates the spread of opinions when influencing certain opinion leaders. In contrast to other approaches, the influencing effects are not assumed but revealed by real data. The principles of opinion formation are detected by ant mining algorithms before they are applied to simulate the spread of opinions. The approach is applied to an online gaming community and provides valuable insights for marketing.