The effect of axial residual stress on the mechanical behaviour of composites

The effect of axial residual stress on the properties of continuous fibre composites is calculated. It is emphasized that composite strength should be considered as a more complex phenomenon than usually done so by merely considering ultimate strength. It is shown that the information contained in ()-curves if plotted in a more suitable form as hysteresis and set versus total strain, taking into account residual stress, may be a useful means for characterizing the composite and for detecting deviations from perfect structure. Conclusions are derived as to how composite performance may be improved. The results are substantiated by metallic composite data.     

High intergrain critical current density in fine-grain (Ba0.6K0.4)Fe2As2 wires and bulks

The K- and Co-doped BaFe(2)As(2) (Ba-122) superconducting compounds are potentially useful for applications because they have upper critical fields (H(c2)) of well over 50?T, H(c2) anisotropy γ < 2and thin-film critical current densities J(c) exceeding 1?MA?cm(-2) (refs 1-4) at 4.2?K. However, thin-film bicrystals of Co-doped Ba-122 clearly exhibit weak link behaviour for [001] tilt misorientations of more than about 5°, suggesting that textured substrates would be needed for applications, as in the cuprates. Here we present a contrary and very much more positive result in which untextured polycrystalline (Ba(0.6)K(0.4))Fe(2)As(2) bulks and round wires with high grain boundary density have transport critical current densities well over 0.1?MA?cm(-2) (self-field, 4.2?K), more than 10 times higher than that of any other round untextured ferropnictide wire and 4-5 times higher than the best textured flat wire. The enhanced grain connectivity is ascribed to their much improved phase purity and to the enhanced vortex stiffness of this low-anisotropy compound (γ~1-2) when compared with YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-x) (γ~5).     

DMT1 Protects Macrophages from Salmonella Infection by Controlling Cellular Iron Turnover and Lipocalin 2 Expression

Macrophages are at the center of innate pathogen control and iron recycling. Divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) is essential for the uptake of non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) into macrophages and for the transfer of transferrin-bound iron from the endosome to the cytoplasm. As the control of cellular iron trafficking is central for the control of infection with siderophilic pathogens such as Salmonella Typhimurium, a Gram-negative bacterium residing within the phagosome of macrophages, we examined the potential role of DMT1 for infection control. Bone marrow derived macrophages lacking DMT1 (DMT1fl/fl^LysMCre(+)) present with reduced NTBI uptake and reduced levels of the iron storage protein ferritin, the iron exporter ferroportin and, surprisingly, of the iron uptake protein transferrin receptor. Further, DMT1-deficient macrophages have an impaired control of Salmonella Typhimurium infection, paralleled by reduced levels of the peptide lipocalin-2 (LCN2). LCN2 exerts anti-bacterial activity upon binding of microbial siderophores but also facilitates systemic and cellular hypoferremia. Remarkably, nifedipine, a pharmacological DMT1 activator, stimulates LCN2 expression in RAW264.7 macrophages, confirming its DMT1-dependent regulation. In addition, the absence of DMT1 increases the availability of iron for Salmonella upon infection and leads to increased bacterial proliferation and persistence within macrophages. Accordingly, mice harboring a macrophage-selective DMT1 disruption demonstrate reduced survival following Salmonella infection. This study highlights the importance of DMT1 in nutritional immunity and the significance of iron delivery for the control of infection with siderophilic bacteria.     

Chemische Synthese der Oligonucleotide dpG-A-T-A-T-C,dpG-A-T-C-T-T-T-T und dpT-T-T-C-A-T-C-A-T

Chemical Synthesis of the Oligonucleotides dpG-A-T-A-T-C, dpG-A-T-C-T-T-T-T and dpT-T-T-C-A-T-C-A-T For studies of some sequence dependent structural factors the oligonucleotides dpG-A-T-A-T-C, dpG-A-T-C-T-T-T-T and dpT-T-T-C-A-T-C-A-T were required. Their chemical synthesis is reported according to the diester method.     

Selecting An EDP System For Audit

Abstract

In spite of an ambiguous standard with regard to definition, spyware is one of the most challenging problems confronting the information technology (IT) community in terms of privacy violations. This problem is magnified in the business arena. Despite the increasing technical endeavors made toward spyware mitigation, no panacea exists for spyware control and management, which is now becoming a serious business strategic issue. This article focuses on the vicious side of spyware. A framework is proposed to identify five involved parties for spyware management and control along with respective recommendations to cope with spyware pervasion.     

Performance of direction-finding systems with sensor gain and phase uncertainties

In this paper we study the performance of direction-finding systems which attempt to estimate unknown array parameters (such as sensor gains and phases) in addition to the estimation of the directions of arrival (DOA), as a way of performing array self-calibration. We develop compact closed form expressions for the Cramér-Rao bound associated with the joint estimation of DOAs, gains, phases, and the signal covariance matrix. By evaluating the Cramér-Rao bound for selected cases we gain some insight into the performance of direction-finding systems in the presence of gain and phase uncertainties.This work was supported by the Army Research Office under Contract No. DAAL03-89-C-0007, sponsored by U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command, Center for Signals Warfare.