A bidding decision index for construction contractors

Results from applying the model on a sample of contractors, the majority of whom were international and operating in Egypt, reinforces the credibility of the developed methodology, claim the authors.     

Interactions of histaminergic and serotonergic neurons in the hypothalamic regulation of prolactin and ACTH secretion

Serotonergic and histaminergic neuronal systems are both involved in mediation of the stress-induced release of the pituitary hormones prolactin (PRL) and ACTH. We investigated the possibility of an interaction between serotonin (5-HT) and histamine (HA) in regulation of PRL and ACTH secretion in conscious male rats. Animals were pretreated systemically with antagonists to 5-HT1, 5-HT2 or 5-HT3 receptors prior to intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of HA. The 5-HT1 + 2 receptor antagonist methysergide prevented and the 5-HT2 receptor antagonist LY 53857 attenuated the HA-induced PRL release while the 5-HT3 receptor antagonist ondansetron had no effect on this response. None of the three 5-HT receptor antagonists affected the ACTH response to HA. Specific blockade of HA synthesis by alpha-fluoromethylhistidine or blockade of postsynaptic HA receptors by icv infusion of the H1 receptor antagonist mepyramine or the H2 receptor antagonist cimetidine inhibited the PRL response to 5-HT or to the 5-HT precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan (5- HTP) given in combination with the 5-HT reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine (Flx). Blockade of the histaminergic system had no effect on the ACTH response to serotonergic stimulation. The H3 receptors are inhibitory HA receptors. Systemic pretreatment with the H3 receptor agonist R(alpha)methylhistamine, or the H3 receptor antagonist thioperamide had no effect on the hormone response to activation of the serotonergic system by 5-HTP plus Flx. We conclude that the serotonergic and histaminergic neuronal systems interact in their stimulation of PRL secretion, but not in their stimulation of ACTH secretion. This interaction involves serotonergic 5-HT1 and 5-HT2 receptors and histaminergic H1 and H2 receptors. Furthermore, the previously observed inhibitory effect of the H3 receptor agonist R(alpha)methylhistamine on stress-induced PRL and ACTH release seems not to be exerted by activation of presynaptic H3 receptors located on serotonergic neurons but rather on histaminergic neurons.     

Deep levels,electrical and optical characteristics in SnTe-Doped GaSb Schottky Diodes

The GaSb layers investigated were grown directly on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using SnTe source as the n-type dopant. By using admittance spectroscopy, a dominant deep level with the activation energy of 0.23-0.26 eV was observed and its concentration was affected by the Sb₄/Ga flux ratio in the MBE growth. A lowest deep-level concentration together with a highest mobility was obtained for GaSb grown at 550°C under a Sb₄/Ga beam equivalent pressure (BEP) ratio around 7, which should correspond to the lowest ratio to maintain a Sb-stabilized surface reconstruction. In the Hall measurement, an analysis of the temperature-dependent mobility shows that the ionized impurity concentration increases proportionally with the sample’s donor concentration, suggesting that the ionized impurity was introduced by an SnTe source. In addition, optical properties of an undoped p-, a lightly and heavily SnTe-doped GaSb layers were studied by comparing their photoluminescence spectra at 4.5K.     

Dynamic programming implementation on array processor architectures

Dynamic Programming (DP) applies to many signal and image processing applications including boundary following, the Viterbi algorithm, dynamic time warping, etc. This paper presents an array processor implementation of generic dynamic programming. Our architecture is a SIMD array attached to a host computer. The processing element of the architecture is based on an ASIC design opting for maximum speed-up. By adopting a torus interconnection network, a dual buffer structure, and a multilevel pipeline, the performance of the DP chip is expected to reach the order of several GOPS. The paper discusses both the dedicated hardware design and the data flow control of the DP chip and the total array.This work was supported in part by the NATO, Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division, Collaborative Research Grant SA.5-2-05(CRG.960201)424/96/JARC-501.     

Consumption of reduced-fat products: effects on parameters of anti-oxidative capacity

Plasma levels of fibrinogen, factor VIIc and prothrombin fragment F1 + 2, a marker of thrombin generation in vivo, were studied in 68 subjects with serum total cholesterol (TC) levels between 135 and 349 mg/dl but without clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease and other atherosclerotic risk factors. F1 + 2 plasma levels were directly correlated with TC (p < 0.0004), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; p < 0.0018) and factor VIIc (p < 0.024). Thirty-five subjects with TC greater than 249 mg/dl (median value of the whole group) showed higher levels of F1 + 2 (p < 0.0001) and fibrinogen (p < 0.0015) than those with TC lower than 249 mg/dl. In subjects with TC > 249 mg/dl and F1 + 2 > 1.2 nM (median value of the whole group), a cholesterol-lowering drug (simvastatin) was able to reduce F1 + 2 (p < 0.009) as well as TC and LDL-C. This study shows a relationship between serum cholesterol and the rate of thrombin generation supporting the hypothesis that a hypercoagulable state may occur in hypercholesterolemic subjects before the onset of clinical evidence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.     

Potential-time measurements on mild steel in etch primer solutions

Experiments were carried out in a two pack system; polyvinyl butyral, zinc tetroxychromate in one pack, and phosphoric acid in the other with an isopropanol solvent in both packs. This study examines the functions of the phosphoric acid and the chromate containing pigment separately by utilising the feature that the alcohol dispersed components have sufficient conductivity to carry out potential-time measurements in the wet components before and during mixing.     

Design, manufacture and evaluation of a scalable high-performanceneural system

The authors describe a scalable neural system, HyperNet, based on a probabilistic RAM-based architecture and using a custom VLSI IC. A system using five HyperNet VLSI ICs and capable of realising up to 10240 neurons has been designed, manufactured and demonstrated to have the potential to learn more than three orders of magnitude faster than simulations on current workstations     

Direct optical injection locking of 20 GHz superlattice oscillators

For the first time, a direct optically injection-locked oscillator based on the Esaki-Tsu effect in superlattices is reported. The microwave output power is -7 dBm at 20 GHz with an optical input power of -10 dBm at a wavelength of 1.3 μm