Improvement of protective properties of low-sulfur diesel fuels

Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 10, p. 21, October, 1992.     

Aging, expertise, and narrative processing.

In a study of how aviation expertise influences age differences in narrative processing, young and older pilots and nonpilots read and recalled aviation and general narratives. They chose referents for sentences referring to a protagonist or minor character mentioned 1 sentence (recent character) or 3 sentences (distant character) before this target sentence. All groups chose referents less accurately for sentences about distant and minor characters than about recent and protagonist characters, perhaps because these referents were less likely to be in working memory. Young readers and pilots were more accurate for distant and minor character target sentences in aviation narratives and recalled aviation narratives more accurately. Expertise did not reduce age differences. Expertise differences may reflect decreased demands on working memory capacity, and age declines may reflect reduced capacity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Technological basis of SHS extrusion

The results of the development of the SHS extrusion process, including creation of the equipment, studies of the production conditions and product quality are presented. The concepts of the ability of different composite refractory materials to plastic deformation are formulated. Examples of practical applications of the method developed are given.Institute for Structural Microkinetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 63, No. 5, pp. 525–537, November, 1992.     

An optimum parallel architecture for high-speed real-time digital signal processing

The authors describe a parallel processing architecture for real-time digital signal processing that has demonstrated virtually 100% data processing efficiency in a number of areas. The Teamed-Architecture Signal Processor (T-ASP) is a field-proven, commercially available optimal system solution to the extremely high computational and I/O rates encountered in modern digital-signal-processing environments. The design of T-ASP involves the consideration and implementation of many architectural concepts used to enhance the performance of a computer, including programmability, parallel processing, vector processing and pipelining, memory interleaving, double cache memories, multiple high-speed I/O interfaces, and segmentation of the processors for elimination of both CPU and data-handling overhead. The authors discuss hardware architecture design and implementation; hardware management; and software architecture design and implementation.<>     

Exposure to metals that have recently come into use.

The possibility of deriving normal biological values for some rare metals is investigated. The metals under study are gallium, germanium, indium, niobium and tellurium, i.e. a group of metals with increasing utilization in the electronics industry. So far some data are unavailable for some of the elements, e.g. daily intake, oral absorption and half-life time for gallium, and body burden for gallium and germanium. Reliable values of blood concentration are available only for gallium, niobium and tellurium. The problem related to a proposed urinary biological limit value for tellurium is also discussed.     

Visualizing the topography of coating surfaces

An optical system for imaging the topography of (coating) surfaces using a video monitor is described. The grey level of the image correlates with the slope of the surface. The principle of operation of the method is explained and some applications are indicated.     

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF TIMBER FROM RED BEECH (N. FOSCA) BY INTERMITTENT DRYING

The effect of cycling the external conditions on the timber quality and drying time during seasoning has been studied for red beech (Nothofagus fusca), a difficult-to-dry New Zealand hardwood, inalaboratorybatchdryer. Intermittent drying at anair temperature of 45°C and a wet-bulb depression of 10°C takes longer to yield a given moisture content than continuous drying under the same conditions, but produces timber without honeycomb or severe case-hardening as observed in continuous drying. The experiments also indicate that the timber can tolerate a higher air temperature (55°C) in intermittent drying at the same wet-bulb depression with less case-hardening and without showing honeycomb compared with continuous drying at 45°C, having a similar total drying time. Intermittent drying at a slightly higher dry-bulb temperature (60°C) and a much higher wet-bulb depression (18°C) gives a similar degree of case-hardening to that found in samples dried continuously at a dry-bulb temperature of 45°C.