A novel feed for a multifrequency hybrid resonator antenna

A novel feed technique for a hybrid resonator antenna is proposed and developed. The antenna consists of microstrip-patch radiator and a pair of twin resonator slots. The proposed feed mechanism is based on a new coupling aperture technique, in which a single microstrip feed line is etched on the same side of the substrate as the radiating patches. The patches are coupled to the feed line through a twin slots located in the ground plane. By selecting suitable structure parameters for the slots and the patches, multifrequency operation is obtained. The proposed antenna structure is suitable for the development of large antenna arrays.     

Accelerated development of CuSbS2 thin film photovoltaic device prototypes

Development of alternative thin film photovoltaic technologies is an important research topic because of the potential of low‐cost, high‐efficiency solar cells to produce terawatt levels of clean power. However, this development of unexplored yet promising absorbers can be hindered by complications that arise during solar cell fabrication. Here, a high‐throughput combinatorial method is applied to accelerate development of photovoltaic devices, in this case, using the novel CuSbS₂ absorber via a newly developed three‐stage self‐regulated growth process to control absorber purity and orientation. Photovoltaic performance of the absorber, using the typical substrate CuIn_xGa_{1 − x}Se₂ (CIGS) device architecture, is explored as a function of absorber quality and thickness using a variety of back contacts. This study yields CuSbS₂ device prototypes with ~1% conversion efficiency, suggesting that the optimal CuSbS₂ device fabrication parameters and contact selection criteria are quite different than for CIGS, despite the similarity of these two absorbers. The CuSbS₂ device efficiency is at present limited by low short‐circuit current because of bulk recombination related to defects, and a small open‐circuit voltage because of a theoretically predicted cliff‐type conduction band offset between CuSbS₂ and CdS. Overall, these results illustrate both the potential and limits of combinatorial methods to accelerate the development of thin film photovoltaic devices using novel absorbers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partial biochemical characterization of tetrazolium red‐reactive Lactobacillus plantarum mutants

One thousand colonies derived from Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014 cells that survived 34–43 × 10³ ergs cm^‐2 ultraviolet irradiation were screened on media containing tetrazolium red to detect fermentative mutants. Fermentation end‐products formed from pyruvate, glucose, or lactose catabolism were determined. All 37 stable tetrazolium red‐reactive mutants had increased pyruvate utilization compared to the wild‐type strain. Only two did not produce lactate from exogenous pyruvate. When glucose or lactose were substrates, these two mutants and six other representative mutants produced lactate at levels similar to the parent strain. Although the average lactate and acetoin production from pyruvate by the mutants and wild‐type strains were similar, 25% of the mutants had increased acetoin production.     

Taste aversions to food flavors and vaginal secretion in golden hamsters.

Although rodents readily associate virtually any distinctive flavor with gastrointestinal illness when the flavor and illness have been paired, experience with a flavor can provide information that interferes with later attempts to produce aversions to the familiar taste. The vaginal secretion of female hamsters carries sexual information for males, which does not depend on previous experience; it was studied, in the present 3 experiments, whether that built-in information might interfere with associations between flavor of the excretion and illness. Surprisingly, the Ss, 32 male Syrian hamsters, showed dramatic changes in behavior toward the vaginal secretion when its presentation was followed by lithium chloride poisoning. Results suggest that mammalian responses to sex pheromones are far more easily modified by experience than has been supposed. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transureteroureterostomy for urinary diversion in children

We report here a model of submaximal spinal cord injury, employing direct thoracic cord compression in ferrets. This yields consistent and reproducible long term consequences on local cellular structure and on locomotive function. We show also that both the anatomical and functional losses can be measured objectively using simple techniques, and that useful long-tract mediated locomotion is preserved after severe axonal losses at the site of injury.     

Vibrio vulnificus load reduction in oysters after combined exposure to Vibrio vulnificus--specific bacteriophage and to an oyster extract component

Oysters infected with Vibrio vulnificus can present a serious health risk to diabetic, immunocompromised, and iron-deficient individuals. Numerous studies have been conducted with the goal of eliminating this organism from raw oysters. We utilized two natural oyster-associated components: pooled Vibrio vulnificus-specific bacteriophage and an extract of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) that contains an antimicrobial component we named anti-Vibrio vulnificus factor, which is bactericidal for V. vulnificus. Although each component alone can reduce V. vulnificus numbers independently, the simultaneous use of both components in an in vitro system successfully more effectively reduced V. vulnificus bacterial loads.     

Ruminal degradation of tannin‐treated legume meals

The inefficiency of protein utilisation by ruminants fed protein concentrates (based on legume meals) causes serious economic loss and environmental damage owing to their rapid hydrolysis and deamination in the rumen. Thus efforts aimed at slowing the ruminal fermentation of such feeds are needed, and recent studies have observed potentially positive effects of tannins on ruminant nutrition under certain circumstances. Tannins are a complex group of naturally occurring plant polyphenols characterised by their ability to bind with proteins. This property of tannins is considered responsible for the decreased ruminal digestibility of forages both in vivo and in vitro. Under that perspective, commercial tannic acid was added at three proportions (10, 25 and 50 g kg^?1 on a dry matter basis) to four different legume meals (horse bean, kidney bean, soybean and pea), and the effect on in situ dry matter and crude protein ruminal disappearance was assessed. The results confirmed the dose‐dependent (although not persistent after 48 h) slowing of in situ digestibility, this effect being significant at the highest tannin treatment when compared with untreated samples. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that soybean seed endosperm cell walls were protected from digestion by the ruminal microbiota, while the digestion of starch granules was relatively unaffected by tannic acid. Electrophoresis of the protein fractions confirmed the lower digestibility of tannin‐treated seeds as well as the relative lack of alteration of the electrophoretic profile of individual proteins. Implications for the digestion of concentrates in ruminants are discussed. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Geochemical modulation of pesticide sorption on smectite clay

Pesticide adsorption by soil clays can be dramatically influenced by the exchangeable cations present. Among the common exchangeable base cations in soils (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and Na+), K+-saturated clays frequently demonstrate the strongest affinity for pesticides. In the presence of multiple exchangeable cations in the system, we hypothesize that the magnitude of pesticide sorption to soil minerals is proportional to the fraction of clay interlayers saturated with K+ ions. To test this hypothesis, we measured sorption of three pesticides with different polarities (dichlobenil, monuron, and biphenyl) by homoionic K- and Ca-smectite (SWy-2) in KCl/CaCl2 aqueous solutions. The presence of different amounts of KCl and CaCl2 resulted in varying populations of K+ and Ca2+ on the clay exchange sites. The sorption of dichlobenil and, to a lesser extent monuron, increased with the fraction of K+ on clay mineral exchange sites. Ca- and K-SWy-2 displayed the same sorption capacities for nonpolar biphenyl. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that at lower fractions of K+-saturation, exchangeable K+ ions were randomly distributed in clay interlayers and did not enhance pesticide sorption. At higher populations of K+ (vs Ca2+), demixing occurred causing some clay interlayers, regions, or tactoids to become fully saturated by K+, manifesting greatly enhanced pesticide sorption. The forward and reverse cation exchange reactions influenced not only K+ and Ca2+ populations on clays but also the nanostructures of clay quasicrystals in aqueous solution which plays an important, if not dominant, role in controlling the extent of pesticide sorption. Modulating the cation type and composition on clay mineral surfaces through cation exchange processes provides an environmental-safe protocol to manipulate the mobility and availability of polar pesticides, which could have applications for pesticide formulation and in environmental remediation.     

Genetic correlations of mid-infrared-predicted milk fatty acid groups with milk production traits

The objective of this research was to estimate the genetic correlations between milk mid-infrared-predicted fatty acid groups and production traits in first-parity Canadian Holsteins. Contents of short-chain, medium-chain, long-chain, saturated, and unsaturated fatty acid groupings in milk samples can be predicted using mid-infrared spectral data for cows enrolled in milk recording programs. Predicted fatty acid group contents were obtained for 49,127 test-day milk samples from 10,029 first-parity Holstein cows in 810 herds. Milk yield, fat and protein yield, fat and protein percentage, fat-to-protein ratio, and somatic cell score were also available for these test days. Genetic parameters were estimated for the fatty acid groups and production traits using multiple-trait random regression test day models by Bayesian methods via Gibbs sampling. Three separate 8- or 9-trait analyses were performed, including the 5 fatty acid groups with different combinations of the production traits. Posterior standard deviations ranged from <0.001 to 0.01. Average daily genetic correlations were negative and similar to each other for the fatty acid groups with milk yield (?0.62 to ?0.59) and with protein yield (?0.32 to ?0.25). Weak and positive average daily genetic correlations were found between somatic cell score and the fatty acid groups (from 0.25 to 0.36). Stronger genetic correlations with fat yield, fat and protein percentage, and fat-to-protein ratio were found with medium-chain and saturated fatty acid groups compared with those with long-chain and unsaturated fatty acid groups. Genetic correlations were very strong between the fatty acid groups and fat percentage, ranging between 0.88 for unsaturated and 0.99 for saturated fatty acids. Daily genetic correlations from 5 to 305 d in milk with milk, protein yield and percentage, and somatic cell score traits showed similar patterns for all fatty acid groups. The daily genetic correlations with fat yield at the beginning of lactation were decreasing for long-chain and unsaturated fatty acid groups and increasing for short-chain fatty acids. Genetic correlations between fat percentage and fatty acids were increasing at the beginning of lactation for short- and medium-chain and saturated fatty acids, but slightly decreasing for long-chain and unsaturated fatty acid groups. These results can be used in defining fatty acid traits and breeding objectives.