Sintering and mechanical behavior of SiC and WC co-added TiC-based composites densified by hot-pressing

In this investigation, the individual and synergetic influences of the SiC whiskers and WC particles on the various features of TiC were studied. Fully dense specimens were secured when 40 vol% SiC additive was added to the TiC and TiC-WC systems. The nucleation and growth of the new SiC grains were found as the two main mechanisms positively affecting the sinterability of TiC. Although WC particles were completely dissolved into the TiC matrix in the TiC-WC system, they were entrapped in the newly grown SiC grains in the TiC-WC-SiC system, contributing to strengthening of the specimen. The highest values of flexural strength (590 MPa) and Vickers hardness (2525 HV_0.5 kg) were attained for the sample codoped with SiC whiskers and WC particles.     

Expression of killer cell inhibitory receptors on human uterine natural killer cells

The establishment of the human placenta in early pregnancy is characterized by the presence of large numbers of natural killer (NK) cells within the maternal decidua in close proximity to the fetally-derived invading extravillous trophoblast which expresses at least two HLA class I molecules, HLA-G and HLA-C. These NK cells have an unusual phenotype, CD56(bright) CD16, distinguishing them from adult peripheral blood NK cells. They may control key events in trophoblast migration and therefore placentation. Human NK cells in peripheral blood express receptors for polymorphic HLA class I molecules. This family of receptors, known as killer cell inhibitory receptors (KIR), are expressed on overlapping subsets of NK cells to give an NK cell repertoire which differs between individuals. Using a panel of monoclonal antibodies to several members of the KIR family and analysis by flow cytometry, we have found that KIR are expressed by decidual NK cells. There is variation in both the percentage of cells expressing a particular receptor and the density of receptor expression between decidual NK cells from different individuals. Comparison of NK cells from decidua and peripheral blood of the same individual showed that NK cells from these two different locations express different repertoires of KIR. Receptors are present in individuals who do not possess the relevant class I ligand, raising the possibility that these NK receptors may be involved in recognition of the allogeneic fetus by the mother at the implantation site.     

On deadlocks of exclusive AND-requests for resources

Summary.  Although there are numerous concurrency control algorithms and they use a variety of techniques, there is an underlying serializability theory that serves both as a basis for analyzing their correctness and as a guide for designing new protocols. Following this paradigm, this paper proposes a uniform framework for characterizing and developing distributed deadlock-related algorithms. The system considered here consists of processes making multiple requests for exclusive access to resources. The results examine the role of process abortion and the asymmetry between processes and resources. To illustrate the generality of the framework, the results are used to analyze several well-known deadlock detectors, thus revealing a common structure among them, despite the variety of techniques they use. Received: March 1994 / Accepted: May 1995     

A 200 MHz quadrature digital synthesizer/mixer in 0.8 μm CMOS

A 200 MHz quadrature direct digital frequency synthesizer/complex mixer (QDDFSM) chip is presented. The chip synthesizes 12 b sine and cosine waveforms with a spectral purity of -84.3 dBc. The frequency resolution is 0.047 Hz with a corresponding switching speed of 5 ns and a tuning latency of 14 clock cycles. The chip is also capable of frequency, phase, and quadrature amplitude modulation. These modulation capabilities operate up to the maximum clocking frequency. The chip provides the capability of parallel operation of multiple chips with throughputs up to 800 MHz. The 0.8 μm triple level metal N-well CMOS chip has a complexity of 52000 transistors with a core area of 2.6×6.1 mm². Power dissipation is 2 W at 200 MHz and 5 V     

Apoptosis in the early human placental bed and its discrimination from necrosis using the in-situ DNA ligation technique

Extensive areas of necrosis are present in the early human placental bed. Our aim was to determine whether apoptosis is also a feature. A method was therefore required to differentiate unequivocally necrosis and apoptosis. Initially, terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling was used to visualize apoptotic cells. However, non-specific labelling, probably due to free DNA released by necrotic cells, was excessive; thus, in-situ DNA ligation was employed. In this technique, two DNA fragments with single-base 3' overhangs and blunt-ends were labelled with a fluorochrome and then ligated to the DNA breaks on the sections. Immunolabelling for cytokeratin or leukocyte common antigen was performed to determine the phenotype of apoptotic cells identified by the in-situ DNA ligation technique. A proportion of the dying cells was confirmed to be trophoblasts. No co-localization with leukocyte common antigen was found in this region, suggesting that maternal macrophages and natural killer cells (CD56+) were not dying by apoptosis in significant numbers. In conclusion, in-situ DNA ligation in association with immunocytochemistry can readily distinguish apoptosis from necrosis in the placental bed. The results suggest that a proportion of invading trophoblast cells are eliminated by apoptosis in early pregnancy.     

Early prediction of cooling load in energy-efficient buildings through novel optimizer of shuffled complex evolution

The crucial significance of proper management of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems in energy-efficient buildings were the main reason for dedicating this study to test a novel approach for this task. Shuffled complex evolution (SCE) is an efficient metaheuristic technique that is used to optimize the performance of a multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP) for accurate prediction of cooling load (CL). The CL information of 768 residential buildings, obtained from a vast computer simulation in the published literature, is used to train and validate the performance of the proposed model. The results showed that the SCE could properly surmount the computational drawbacks of the MLP, as its learning and prediction accuracies are enhanced by 19.52 and 22.84%, respectively. Also, the SCE outperformed two benchmark optimizers of moth–flame optimization and optics inspired optimization in both training and testing phases. Another advantage of the tested SCE-MLP was the considerably simpler structure, and consequently, shorter computation time (722 vs. 1050 and 46,192 s). Therefore, the proposed model can be promisingly used in practice for the early prediction of CL in energy-efficient buildings.

     

Computational modification of neural systems using a novel stochastic search scheme,namely evaporation rate-based water cycle algorithm: an application in geotechnical issues

Recent studies have demonstrated the high efficiency of metaheuristic algorithms for various optimization engineering problems. The main focus of the present study is to apply a novel notion of stochastic search methods, namely evaporation rate-based water cycle algorithm (ER-WCA) to the problem of soil shear strength (SSS) prediction. The ER-WCA, as the name indicates, is a modified version of the water cycle algorithm that is used to computationally modify an artificial neural network (ANN) for the mentioned purpose. The sensitivity analysis showed that the most proper values for the number of rivers + sea and the population size are 5 and 300, respectively. The performance of the ER-WCA–ANN hybrid is compared to an ANN typically trained by the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed metaheuristic technique. The findings showed that incorporation of the ER-WCA results in reducing the root-mean-square error by 5.87% and 4.92% in the training and testing phases, respectively. Meanwhile, the coefficient of determination rose from 84.27 to 86.11% and from 78.80 to 80.83% in these phases. It indicates that the weights and biases suggested by the ER-WCA can construct a considerably more reliable ANN. Therefore, the introduced method is recommended for practical uses in the early prediction of the SSS in civil engineering projects.

     

Sources of fall armyworm,Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), kairomones eliciting host-finding behavior inCotesia (=Apanteles) marginivenitris (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

Bioassay responses inCotesia marginiventris (Cresson) females to materials derived from fall armyworm (FAW) larvae,Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), were most intense for frass and somewhat less intense for larval and pupal cutical materials, scales, exuviae, silk, and oral secretion, with FAW larval hemolymph eliciting only a slight response. The highest percentage of ovipositor probing was caused by frass (100%) and moth scales (90%). Various types of corn-leaf damage when assayed alone did not produce responses as intense as when assayed in combination with frass, cuticle material, and oral secretion. Parasitoid response was somewhat better to frass derived from FAW larvae feeding on corn and peanut leaves than from larvae feeding on the foliage of soybeans, Bermuda grass, cowpeas, or laboratory diet. Hexane and chloroform were better than methanol and water for extracting active material from FAW frass, and chloroform was the best of these solvents for extracting corn leaves. Serial dilutions of frass extracts resulted in a reduction in parasitoid response.This paper was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville.     

Gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of cyclopropenoid fatty acids

A method is described for the analysis of cyclopropenoid fatty acids in oils. The method consists of reacting the methyl esters of the cyclopropenoid fatty acids with silver nitrate in methanol to form ether and ketone derivatives. The derivatives formed from the cyclopropenoid fatty acids are separated from the methyl esters of the normal fatty acids by gas-liquid chromatography on a 15% diethylene glycol succinate column. The method is applicable to oils containing from 0.01% to 100% of cyclopropenoid fatty acids. The derivatives of oils containing lew levels of cyclopropenoids are separated from the normal methyl esters by alumina chromatography prior to gas-liquid chromatography. Studies on the quantitative aspects of the derivative formation, alumina chromatography, and gas-liquid chromatography are reported. Analyses for total cyclopropenoid fatty acid content of cottonseed oil andSterculia foetida oil by the gas-liquid chromatographic and hydrobromic acid titration procedures showed good agreement. Replicate analyses of a sample ofSterculia foetida oil for malvalic and sterculic acid gave coefficients of variation of 6.04% and 1.17%, respectively.     

THE BEHAVIOUR OF ADHESIVELY BONDED BEAMS VERSUS THEIR WELDED EQUIVALENT

The study aims to produce a design guide for the calculations of stresses and deflections of adhesively bonded beams fabricated from steel adherends using a structural epoxy adhesive. Such design calculations already exist for welded but not for bonded beams. Small models based on beams with a T-section profile, at various beam lengths, are formulated. A key to these calculations is the determination of the adhesive/adherend interface factors/coefficients, to correct the estimated values of stress and deflection from three-point bending conditions. This article presents the methodology for evaluating bonded beams in relation to equivalent welded (solid) beams. This includes mechanical testing, an analytical method based on beam and sandwich theory, and finite element techniques. Results from these techniques are presented and compared and values of the coefficients for T-section beams are determined.