Monitoring the planning quality of health promotion projects in Flanders

The levels of bacterial blood endotoxin, antiendotoxin antibodies and the overall immunity were studied in 48 females with inflammatory genital diseases complicated by pelvioperitonitis. The severest pelvioperitonitis-complicated abnormality was shown to characterized by high concentrations of endotoxin and low levels of antibodies. Endotoxinemia was found to be of diagnostic and prognostic value.     

Impurity Distribution Behavior in Caprolactam Extraction with Environmentally Benign Mixed Solvents

In a previous study a solvent mixture of heptane containing 40 mass % heptanol was selected as an alternative in the industrial extraction of caprolactam to replace benzene, toluene, or chlorinated hydrocarbons. This work reports the equilibrium distribution ratio of caprolactam and four model impurities of organic nature, namely, cyclohexanone, aniline, n‐methylcaprolactam, and cyclohexane‐carboxamide, comparing the mixed solvents with toluene as a reference. The resulting phase equilibria were interpreted using the equilibrium stage model. Based on these calculations it was found that, compared to toluene, the co‐extracted fraction of cyclohexanone and aniline was higher, that of n‐methylcaprolactam was comparable, and that of cyclohexane‐carboxamide was lower using the mixed solvent. Overall, the mixed solvent reduced the fraction of co‐extracted impurities by almost 10 %.     

Screening of supports for the immobilization of pectinmethylesterase from acerola (Malpighia glabra L)

A partially purified extract of pectinmethylesterase (PME) from acerola fruit was immobilized on various supports: glass, celite, chrysotile, agarose, concanavalin A Sepharose 4B, egg shell, polyacrylamide and gelatin. In addition, reticulation with glutaraldehyde was assessed, as well as the use of gelatin in the presence of celite, glass and silica. The highest immobilization yields were obtained when the pectinmethylesterase was immobilized in concanavalin A Sepharose 4B (81.7%) and in gelatin‐water (78.0%). Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

High-performance surface-micromachined inchworm actuator

This work demonstrates a polycrystalline silicon surface-micromachined inchworm actuator that exhibits high-performance characteristics such as large force (/spl plusmn/0.5 millinewtons), large velocity range (0 to /spl plusmn/4.4 mm/sec), large displacement range (/spl plusmn/100 microns), small step size (/spl plusmn/10, /spl plusmn/40 or /spl plusmn/100 nanometers), low power consumption (nanojoules per cycle), continuous bidirectional operation and relatively small area (600 /spl times/ 200/spl mu/m/sup 2/). An in situ load spring calibrated on a logarithmic scale from micronewtons to millinewtons, optical microscopy and Michelson interferometry are used to characterize its performance. The actuator consists of a force-amplifying plate that spans two voltage-controlled clamps, and walking is achieved by appropriately sequencing signals to these three components. In the clamps, normal force is borne by equipotential rubbing counterfaces, enabling friction to be measured against load. Using different monolayer coatings, we show that the static coefficient of friction can be changed from 0.14 to 1.04, and that it is load-independent over a broad range. We further find that the static coefficient of friction does not accurately predict the force generated by the actuator and attribute this to nanometer-scale presliding tangential deflections.     

Analysis of the fluorescence of the ion Eu in fluoroborate glasses containing silver particles

We have studied theoretically and experimentally the fluorescence enhancement in fluoroborate glasses, doped with the ion Eu³⁺, containing small silver particles. The model developed shows that the gain coefficient has quenching and enhancement regions. The absorption peak of the metallic particles occurs at 425 nm, which is not in resonance with the ⁵L₆ level of the ion Eu³⁺. For this reason it is not possible to make a complete comparison between theoretical and experimental results, but the structure of the absorption spectra allows us to check some crucial aspects of the problem, such as energy transfer, enhancement of the local field and the high absorption by the particle system. Results of electronic microscopy have revealed non-uniformity of the particle distribution with average radii of approximately 20 Å and 35 Å and a measured localized mean filling factor of 0.02.     

Occurrence of the mycotoxins ochratoxin A, zearalenone and deoxynivalenol in feed components.

The mycotoxin contamination of feed components used by the Dutch cooperative feed industry was surveyed to estimate the risk for animal production losses. Of 89 randomly and 6 selectively taken samples of raw materials harvested in 1988 and 1989 27% were contaminated with ochratoxin A (OCHRA), 31% with zearalenone (ZEA) and 20% with deoxynivalenol (DON). The mean content (microgram/kg) of all positive randomly taken samples was 18 (OCHRA), 62 (ZEA) and 630 (DON). The highest level (microgram/kg) for all samples was 120 (OCHRA) in barley, 3100 (ZEA) in corn cob mix and 1900 (DON) in maizegluten feed. The results of this survey show that feed components are often contaminated with mycotoxins. However, the contamination level could only sporadically cause production losses in animal husbandry.     

Cimaterol and clenbuterol residue analysis by HPLC-HPTLC in liver.

A method has been developed for the analysis of cimaterol and clenbuterol residues in liver, with detection limits of 0.25 micrograms/kg and 0.5 micrograms/kg, respectively. The recovery varied from 55% to 60%. After extraction, a clean-up procedure with Baker-spe C-18 columns was performed. The two chemical compounds of interest were eluted with methanol. Cimaterol and clenbuterol were quantitatively determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using an RP-Select B (5 microns) column and a post-column reaction procedure. The positive results were confirmed by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) as this technique reaches the same level of sensitivity as the HPLC method.     

STATIONARY AND NON-STATIONARY STATE SPACE MODELS

Abstract. The concepts of time invariance, stationarity, non-stationarity and immemorial time are considered for state space models (SSMs). Necessary and sufficient conditions for stationarity are given and connected with standard conditions. Expressions are given for the unconditional mean and covariance matrix of the state of a time-immemorial SSM. Application of the results is made to a variety of theoretical and empirical models and the initialization of the Kalman filter in the non-stationary case and for the ARIMA ( p, d, q ) model.