Materials technology for aerospace applications

Modern helicopter design depends on the successful combination of materials to fulfil a very wide range of critical functions. In the past few years demands from the aerospace industry have caused considerable enhancement in the favourable properties of both polymer based materials and metals. These are discussed in connection with the progressive technical evolution of helicopters and other advanced technological products from the Westland Group.     

Modelling and analysis of 3-D arrangements of particles by point processes with examples of application to biological data obtained by confocal scanning light microscopy

Within the concept of point processes, a review is presented of quantities which can be used in studies of three-dimensional (3-D) aggregates of particles. Suitable characteristics and estimators are given for both unmarked and marked point processes. To demonstrate the feasibility of such quantitative approaches, an application in histology, dealing with 3-D arrangements of cell nuclei in rat liver, is described. Using a confocal scanning light microscope, 3-D images are recorded and image analysis used to obtain the coordinates of the centroid, together with the volume and DNA content, of each cell nucleus. Examples of results are given, using both unmarked and marked point processes. In the latter case, cell type, nuclear volume and ploidy group are suitable marks.     

Comparison of nutrient cycling in a surface-flow constructed wetland and in a facultative pond treating secondary effluent.

There is a growing interest in the possibilities offered by combinations of waste stabilisation ponds (WSP) and constructed wetlands (CW). The purpose of our study was to compare treatment performances and nutrient cycling in a surface-flow wetland (SFW) and in a WSP treating secondary effluent. In the period between 2000 and 2003, a pilot SFW and a pilot WSP were constructed at the outlet of the wastewater treatment plant and their performance monitored while both were active under the same conditions. The SFW was planted with Phragmites australis and Eichhornia crassipes, while in the WSP development of algae was spontaneous. Performance efficiency was monitored by means of evaluation of physical and chemical parameters in water, by measurement of plant productivity and by analysis of N and P contents in biomass. The SFW with macrophytes proved more efficient in decreasing the suspended solids (64.6%), settleable solids (91.8%), organic N (59.3%), total N (38%), COD (67.2%) and BOD5 (72.1%) than the WSP. The WSP with algae was more efficient in treatment of ammonia nitrogen (48.9%) and ortho-phosphate (43.9%). The results of this study provide data that are of help in optimising combinations of SFW and WSP.     

Architecture and algorithms for tracking football players with multiple cameras

A system architecture and method for tracking people is presented for a sports application. The system input is video data from static cameras with overlapping fields-of-view at a football stadium. The output is the real-world, real-time positions of football players during a match. The system comprises two processing stages, operating on data from first a single camera and then multiple cameras. The organisation of processing is designed to achieve sufficient synchronisation between cameras, using a request-response pattern, invoked by the second stage multi-camera tracker. The single-view processing includes change detection against an adaptive background and image-plane tracking to improve the reliability of measurements of occluded players. The multiview process uses Kalman trackers to model the player position and velocity, to which the multiple measurements input from the single-view stage are associated. Results are demonstrated on real data.     

Crystal growth of selected II–VI semiconducting alloys by directional solidification: Part I Ground-based experiments

A series of Hg_0.84Zn_0.16 Te crystal ingots have been grown from pseudobinary melts by the Bridgmam–Stockbarger type directional solidification using a Marshall Space Flight Center/Space Science Laboratory heat-pipe furnace and the ground control experiment laboratory furnace of the crystal growth furnace which was flown on the first United States Microgravity Mission. A number of translation rates and a series of hot- and cold-zone temperatures were employed to assess the influence of growth parameters on the crystal properties for the purpose of optimizing the in-flight growth conditions. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Artefactual cleavage of E coli H-NS by OmpT

In the bacterium Escherichia coli, H-NS-(H1, H1a) is a heat-stable protein with a molecular mass of 15.5 kDa involved in nucleoid organisation and gene regulation linked to certain signal transduction pathways. We have shown that, following addition of preparations of everted inner membrane vesicles, heat-stable cleavage products of approximately 10 kDa of H-NS are formed in vitro from newly synthesised, radio-labelled H-NS and from purified H-NS. The 15.5 kDa protein and its cleavage products were also recovered from a minicell system. These results raised the possibility that cleavage of H-NS is physiologically significant. However, the cleavage of H-NS observed appears to occur during cell breakage and to depend on the method of protein extraction and the presence of the outer membrane protease, OmpT. Nevertheless, the results indicate that H-NS may contain at least two separate domains with cleavage occurring between these domains at a preferred OmpT site. Failure to take account of H-NS cleavage in sample preparation and analysis can lead to serious underestimation of H-NS levels.     

Preparation of autologous bone marrow grafts for cryopreservation using the AS104 cell separator

The heterocomplex of glycoproteins E and NS1 of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus was isolated from culture fluid of continuous SPEV (porcine embryo kidney) cells by affinity chromatography on CL4B sepharose with immobilized monoclonal antibodies to TBE virus protein NS1. Comparison of the TBE E-NS1 heterocomplex from culture fluid and cells showed the predominance of secreted extracellular form. A similar TBE virus heterocomplex E-NS1 was revealed in the blood sera of patients with TBE but not in their lymphocytes. Extracellular localization of the E-NS1 complex at the late stage of infection rules out its hypothesized participation in the replication of TBE virus. Virtual absence of the heterocomplex and presence of proteins E and NS1 in high concentrations in the cells makes the nonspecific aggregation of these proteins impossible. Evidently, the extracellular heterocomplex E-NS1 may react with virusspecific antibodies or with cytotoxic T lymphocytes.     

Engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cells with purine analog-containing chemotherapy: harnessing graft-versus-leukemia without myeloablative therapy

The immune-mediated graft-versus-leukemia effect is important to prevent relapse after allogeneic progenitor cell transplantation. This process requires engraftment of donor immuno-competent cells. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of achieving engraftment of allogeneic peripheral blood or bone marrow progenitor cell after purine analog containing nonmyeloablative chemotherapy. Patients with advanced leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who were not candidates for a conventional myeloablative therapy because of older age or organ dysfunction were eligible. All patients had an HLA-identical or one-antigen-mismatched related donor. Fifteen patients were treated (13 with acute myeloid leukemia and 2 with MDS). The median age was 59 years (range, 27 to 71 years). Twelve patients were either refractory to therapy or beyond first relapse. Eight patients received fludarabine at 30 mg/m2/d for 4 days with idarubicin at 12 mg/m2/d for 3 days and ara-c at 2 g/m2/d for 4 days (n = 7) or melphalan at 140 mg/m2/d (n = 1). Seven patients received 2-chloro-deoxyadenosine at 12 mg/m2/d for 5 days and ara-C 1 at g/m2/d for 5 days. Thirteen patients received allogeneic peripheral blood stem cells and 1 received bone marrow after chemotherapy. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine and methyl-prednisolone. Treatment was generally well tolerated, with only 1 death from multiorgan failure before receiving stem cells. Thirteen patients achieved a neutrophil count of greater than 0.5 x 10(9)/L a median of 10 days postinfusion (range, 8 to 17 days). Ten patients achieved platelet counts of 20 x 10(9)/L a median of 13 days after progenitor cell infusion (range, 7 to 78 days). Eight patients achieved complete remissions (bone marrow blasts were < 5% with neutrophil recovery and platelet transfusion independence) that lasted a median of 60 days posttransplantation (range, 34 to 170+ days). Acute GVHD grade > or = 2 occurred in 3 patients. Chimerism analysis of bone marrow cells in 6 of 8 patients achieving remission showed > or = 90% donor cells between 14 and 30 days postinfusion, and 3 of 4 patients remaining in remission between 60 and 90 days continued to have > or = 80% donor cells. We conclude that purine analog-containing nonmyeloablative regimens allow engraftment of HLA-compatible hematopoietic progenitor cells. This approach permits us to explore the graft-versus-leukemia effect without the toxicity of myeloablative therapy and warrants further study in patients with leukemia who are ineligible for conventional transplantation with myeloablative regimens either because of age or concurrent medical conditions.