Absorption phenomena in the treatment of cotton with formaldehyde and cyclic oxymethylenes

Monomeric formaldehyde and the cyclic oxymethylenes tetraoxane and pentaoxane were retained by cotton to similar extents at the high temperatures used in textile finishing, but the mechanisms of absorption appeared to differ. Trioxane, however, was not retained by cotton. The absorption of cyclic oxymethylenes did not seem to involve bonding to cellulose by primary valence bonds. The presence of other substances had a greater effect on the absorption of monomeric formaldehyde than of cyclic oxymethylenes, but changes in extent of absorption were not large enough to influence textile properties of treated fabric.     

Outcome of unsuspected pneumococcemia in children not initially admitted to the hospital

The records were reviewed of 97 episodes of unsuspected pneumococcemia in children not initially admitted to the hospital. Antimicrobial agents were prescribed at the first visit for 46 children; at the second visit 37 of them were improved and nine were not. No antimicrobial agents were prescribed at the first visit for 51; at the second visit 16 of these patients were improved and 35 were not. Pneumococcemia persisted in two treated children and in 13 untreated children. Meningitis was identified later in four children (two treated and two untreated). Although pneumococcemia in children may be a transient event, it may also persist or result in meningitis or other localized infections.     

Generation of tunable, narrow-band mid-infrared radiation through a 532-nm-pumped KTP optical parametric amplifier

We report generation of broadly tunable (2.5-4 μm), narrow-band (0.04-0.35 cm-1) pulsed infrared radiation through a nanosecond optical parametric amplifier based on potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) pumped by the second harmonic of a 10-Hz Nd:YAG laser. Input radiation at signal wavelengths of 615-662 nm was derived from a pulsed tunable dye laser system. Advantages of this device are simplicity, the broad range of infrared wavelengths to which a single dye in the dye laser provides access, and conversion efficiencies >10% at modest levels (<150 μJ) of input radiation.     

Image-based finite element mesh construction for material microstructures

One way of computing the macroscopic behavior of a material sample with complex microstructure is to construct a finite element model based on a micrograph of a representative slice of the material. The quality of the results produced with such a model obviously depends on the quality of the constructed mesh. In this article, we describe a set of routines that modify and improve the quality of a 2D mesh. Most of the routines are guided by an effective element “energy” functional, which takes into account the shape quality of the elements and the homogeneity of the elements as determined from an underlying segmented image. The interfaces and boundaries in the image arise naturally from the segmentation process. From these routines, we construct a close-to-automatic mesh generator that requires only a few inputs, such as the linear sizes of the largest and smallest features in the micrograph.     

Virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus double mutants lacking restriction and an alkaline protease in a low-dose model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis

To investigate the pathogenicity of Aspergillus fumigatus mutants lacking putative virulence factors, we have developed a new murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis based on neutropenia, the major factor predisposing patients to this infection. Mice were treated with cyclophosphamide and inoculated by the intranasal route with 5 x 10(3) conidia, a significant reduction from inoculum levels used in previous models. Evidence for the production of the extracellular alkaline protease (Alp) in lung tissue was obtained by using a fungal transformant harboring an alp::lacZ reporter gene fusion. The pathogenicities of single mutant strains lacking either Alp or the ribotoxin restrictocin and of a double mutant strain lacking both proteins were assessed in this infection model. There were no significant differences between the mutant and the wild-type strains in terms of mortality or histological-features. Inoculations with mixtures of conidia showed that the double mutant strain is slightly less virulent than the wild-type strain. We conclude that Alp and restrictocin are not important virulence determinants in pulmonary infection.