Hot stage TEM investigations of dislocation climb in NiAl

Hot stage was used to investigate dislocation loop formation and growth at climb sources in Al rich alloys of β-NiAl. The loops grew by absorbing vacancies retained during cooling of the samples. The growth rate was dependent on the speed of cooling and anomalously high growth of loops occurred near the foil surfaces. The loop shapes were nearly square as a result of loop growth by a jog mechanism. Estimates of the vacancy concentration contained in the loops after growth demonstrated that nearly all thermal vacancies can be retained in NiAl.     

Infective endocarditis as a complication of heroin use

Infective endocarditis in heroin addicts has been reported to have a mortality as high as 85% and reports have varied widely regarding predominant valvular involvement and infecting microorganisms. A retrspective study was done and 61 cases of heroin-associated infective endocarditis were identified at Freedmen's Hospital and the District of Columbia General Hospital, Washington, DC between January 1969 and January 1973. Our results indicate that staphylococcal infection of the tricuspid valve has a much higher incidence in this population than has generally been believed and that it is the predominant presentation of infective endocarditis in these patients. The outcome of patients in our series compares favorably with previous reports and suggests that early diagnosis and prompt institution of appropriate antimicrobial therapy are important and may lead to improved survival in addicts with tricuspid endocarditis.     

72-hr canine kidney preservation without continuous perfusion

A new flushing solution consisting of electrolytes and mannitol has provided successful 3 day canine kidney preservation evidenced by immediate life-supporting renal function. In our experiments the solutions described by Sacks and Collins have failed to achieve this prolonged renal storage but have been successful in storing canine kidneys for 2 days. This relatively simple new hypertonic solution does not require additives and has been successfully used in clinical renal transplantation.     

Mechanical strength of acrylic bone cements impregnated with antibiotics

Admixing of several antibiotic powders which were insoluble in methyl methacrylate did not decrease the compressive and diametral tensile strengths of two acrylic bone cements when tested after setting for 1 day and after leaching 40 days in water at 37 degrees C. When antibiotics were added as water solutions, the included water resulted in a significant decrease in these bulk mechanical properties. Storage in water for 40 days caused surface irregularities only on specimens of the set antibiotic admixtures. Approximately 0.5% of the admixed dosage of these water-soluble antibiotics could be leached from the set cements. The observed surface channels, presumably left by the loss of antibiotic, suggest further study of surface-sensitive mechanical properties may be needed. The bulk mechanical strengths presented here are conclusive only for the particular combinations of antibiotics and cements investigated, and should not be generalized at this time to any or all antibiotic admixtures or other mechanical properties.     

Stereochemical requirements for intercalation of platinum complexes into double-stranded DNA's

The complexes 1,10-phenanthrolineethylenediamineplatinum(II) and 2,2'-bipyridineethylenediamineplatinum(II) have a planar, aromatic ligand system that facilitates intercalation, as shown by their ability to unwind closed circular duplex DNA. Nonbonded steric interactions can rotate the pryidine ligands out of the coordination plane in bis(pyridine)ethylenediamineplatinum(II), thus preventing intercalation. Fiber x-ray diffraction patterns of the two metallointeracalators indicate that the binding is governed by the neighbor exclusion principle.     

Effect of charcoal-broiled beef on phenacetin metabolism in man

When charcoal-broiled beef was fed to human volunteers, who were then given phenacetin orally, the concentration of phenacetin in the plasma was lowered, but its half-life in the plasma was not changed. The data suggest that feeding charcoal-broiled beef enhances the metabolism of orally administered phenacetin in the intestine or during its first pass through the liver, or both.     

Hydrogenation of brown coal. 2. Iron-based catalysis

Some of the inherent cations of Victorian brown coals have been exchanged for iron by treatment with solutions of iron salts. Coals with various iron contents are obtained by variation of the pH of the solutions used. Hydrogenation of coals treated in this way at 395 °C, and an initial hydrogen pressure of 10 MPa, give product yields similar to those obtained using commercial cobalt molybdate on alumina catalysts, and greater than those obtained using red mud as a catalyst. The increase in yields compared with non-catalysed experiments results mainly from increased production of asphaltenes. The amount and composition of gas (80–90 wt% C0₂, resulting from decarboxylation) remains constant. Despite the similar conversions, the hydrogen consumption and tetralin/naphthalene ratios for iron-catalysed experiments are less than for cobalt—molybdate-catalysed experiments.     

Leukocyte image analysis in the diff3 system

The diff3 System uses image processing and pattern recognition techniques to automatically analyze normal and abnormal white blood cells in a blood smear. The system consists of a spinner which creates a monolayer of cells on a glass slide, a stainer utilizing Wright's stain, the reagents to support the spinner and stainer, and an analyzer for automatic slide handling, analysis and report generation. The analyzer incorporates a wide range of image processing functions, including the generation and storage of gray scale image data, whole-field and partial-field image histogramming, and high-order binary image texture analysis and image transformation using the Golay processor (GLOPR). This paper describes the manner in which these hardware capabilities are used for white cell acquisition, scene segmentation and feature analysis. It concludes with some examples of texture extraction which illustrate the power of the Golay processor as a tool for image analysis.