Survival of rotavirus SA-11 on vegetables

Survival of rotavirus on lettuce, radishes, and carrots was studied to evaluate the potential of rotavirus transmission by vegetables irrigated with wastewater. The vegetables were contaminated with rotavirus SA-11 and stored at 4°C and room temperature in covered and uncovered containers to simulate post harvest conditions. Virus decay rates were greater on radishes and carrots than lettuce. Decay rates of rotavirus on lettuce, radish, and carrot ranged from ?0·057 to ?0·479 (log₁₀ pfu/day). Rotavirus SA-11 survived on lettuce, radish, and carrot for 25 to 30 days at 4°C but at room temperature survival was very different for the various vegetables varying from 5 to 25 days. Greatest survival was always observed on the lettuce. These data suggest that rotaviruses can survive long enough on contaminated vegetables as to be transmitted by this vehicle.     

A Lightweight nickel composite electrode II. Electrochemical impregnation

The structure of sintered nickel composite plaque is characterized by an irregular pore structure with a wide distribution of pore sizes as well as a l     

A randomized voltage vector switching scheme for three-level powerinverters

In this paper, a feasibility study of a randomized space vector switching scheme for three-level inverters is reported. Based on the traditional space vector concept for pulse width modulation (PWM) inverters, the sequence of the space vector is randomized in this scheme. The overall vector, resulting from the randomization, is mathematically identical to that of the traditional space vector. It has been found that the randomized scheme can effectively spread the switching noise over a wide frequency range and at the same time keep the steady-state link capacitor voltage balanced. The proposed scheme has been implemented in real time in a digital controller and its features have been experimentally confirmed     

Risk factors associated with recidivism among extrafamilial child molesters.

This study examined the predictive efficacy of 10 rationally derived, archivally coded variables for assessing reoffense risk among extrafamilial child molesters. Follow-up data on 111 child molesters who were discharged from the Massachusetts Treatment Center between 1960 and 1984 were used. Degree of sexual preoccupation with children, paraphilias, and number of prior sexual offenses predicted sexual recidivism. Juvenile and adult antisocial behavior, paraphilias, and low amount of contact with children predicted nonsexual victim-involved and violent recidivism. Area under the receiver-operating characteristic curves in all three analyses indicated discrimination that was substantially better than chance, ranging from .73 to .79. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilities management, building maintenance and modernization link

The widening of interest and scope of property management and maintenance has attracted a greater diversity of professional disciplines into facilities management. Dr Quah, coordinator of CIB W70 on Management, Maintenance and Modernization of Building facilities, expresses her personal views on the current fascination with the subject.     

Frequency discrimination: Assessing global-level and element-level units in memory.

Assessed the retention of memory units for word-like strings of letters using the perceptions of 120 undergraduates in 2 experiments in determining how frequently various letters appeared. A series of strings was presented at 1 of 3 exposure durations. Within the series, the frequencies of occurrence of different strings and of the letters composing the strings were varied orthogonally. Results indicate that, at relatively long exposure durations, Ss could discriminate the frequency of occurrence for both strings and their constituent letters. The formation of global-level (string) memory units was indicated by judgments of string frequency being unaffected by either the frequencies of their component letters or experimental conditions (brief exposures) that prohibited accurate judgment of letter frequency. Although judgments of letter frequency were sometimes biased by the frequency of the strings containing the letters, the success with which the judgments discriminated different levels of letter frequency did not depend on the activation of string-level memory units. Furthermore, Ss' frequency judgments for letters were not predictable from their recall of the strings containing the letters. Results provide evidence for the formation of element-level (letter) memory units. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrated scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems employingautomated guided vehicles

Centralized and distributed automated guided vehicle system (AGVS) models for materials handling, and the model for part processing are integrated into a single coherent model. This formulation can be used to collectively schedule and control the entire flexible manufacturing system (FMS) as opposed to the traditional separate scheduling of part processing and material handling. The two AGVS models are based on Petri nets and can be directly used in the scheduling method that uses Petri nets for formulation and heuristic search for solution. This method employs a global search to seek the optimal operation of an entire FMS. Scheduling examples are presented and the method compares favorably with the results simulated using heuristic dispatch rules     

A neural network control system with parallel adaptive enhancementsapplicable to nonlinear servomechanisms

In this paper, we present a technique for using an additional parallel neural network to provide adaptive enhancements to a basic fixed neural network-based nonlinear control system. This proposed parallel adaptive neural network control system is applicable to nonlinear dynamical systems of the type commonly encountered in many practical position control servomechanisms. Properties of the controller are discussed, and it is shown that if Gaussian radial basis function networks are used for the additional parallel neural network, uniformly stable adaptation is assured and the approximation error converges to zero asymptotically. In the paper, the effectiveness of the proposed parallel adaptive neural network control system is demonstrated in real-time implementation experiments for position control in a servomechanism with asymmetrical loading and changes in the load