Daily hyperhydration effect on electrolyte deficiency of endurance-trained subjects during prolonged hypokinesia

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a daily intake of fluid and salt supplementation (FSS) on the deficiency of electrolytes, which is characterized by higher rather than lower plasma concentration of electrolytes during prolonged hypokinesia (HK) (decreased number of km taken per day). Forty long distance runners aged 22-25 yr with a peak VO2 65.4 mL min(-1) kg(-1) with an average 14.2 km d running distance were selected as subjects. They were equally divided into four groups: 1) unsupplemented control subjects (UCS); 2) unsupplemented hypokinetic subjects (UHS); 3) supplemented hypokinetic subjects (SHS), and 4) supplemented control subjects (SCS). During the investigation of 364 d, groups 2 and 3 maintained an average running distance of less than 4.7 km per day, groups 1 and 4 did not experience any modification in their normal training routines and diets. During the preexperimental period of 60 d and during the experimental period of 364 d urinary excretion of electrolytes and concentrations of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium in plasma were determined. Whole blood hemoglobin, hematocrit index, plasma osmolality, and plasma protein concentration were measured. In the UHS plasma concentration of electrolytes and urinary excretion thereof, fluid elimination, hematocrit, whole blood hemoglobin, plasma osmolality, and plasma protein concentration increased significantly (p < 0.05) when compared with the UCS, SCS, and SHS groups. In the SHS plasma concentration of electrolytes and urinary excretion thereof, fluid excretion, whole blood hemoglobin, hematocrit, plasma osmolality, and plasma protein concentration decreased when compared with the UHS and increased insignificantly when compared with the UCS and SCS groups. It was concluded that FSS may be used to prevent or minimize electrolyte deficiency in endurance-trained volunteers during prolonged restriction of muscular activity.     

Genetic transformation of Vitreoscilla sp

Of all the methods customarily used to transform E. coli we found only electroporation to be effective for transformation of the Gram-negative bacterium Vitreoscilla, yielding 5.10(5) transformants/microgram of plasmid DNA. The conditions used were close to those described for E. coli E. coli plasmids are stably maintained in Vitreoscilla. This is the first report of exogenous DNA transfer in Vitreoscilla which opens the way for the application of recombinant-DNA techniques to study this unique group of organisms.     

Single units and conscious vision

Figures that can be seen in more than one way are invaluable tools for the study of the neural basis of visual awareness, because such stimuli permit the dissociation of the neural responses that underlie what we perceive at any given time from those forming the sensory representation of a visual pattern. To study the former type of responses, monkeys were subjected to binocular rivalry, and the response of neurons in a number of different visual areas was studied while the animals reported their alternating percepts by pulling levers. Perception-related modulations of neural activity were found to occur to different extents in different cortical visual areas. The cells that were affected by suppression were almost exclusively binocular, and their proportion was found to increase in the higher processing stages of the visual system. The strongest correlations between neural activity and perception were observed in the visual areas of the temporal lobe. A strikingly large number of neurons in the early visual areas remained active during the perceptual suppression of the stimulus, a finding suggesting that conscious visual perception might be mediated by only a subset of the cells exhibiting stimulus selective responses. These physiological findings, together with a number of recent psychophysical studies, offer a new explanation of the phenomenon of binocular rivalry. Indeed, rivalry has long been considered to be closely linked with binocular fusion and stereopsis, and the sequences of dominance and suppression have been viewed as the result of competition between the two monocular channels. The physiological data presented here are incompatible with this interpretation. Rather than reflecting interocular competition, the rivalry is most probably between the two different central neural representations generated by the dichoptically presented stimuli. The mechanisms of rivalry are probably the same as, or very similar to, those underlying multistable perception in general, and further physiological studies might reveal much about the neural mechanisms of our perceptual organization.     

Crystallization kinetics of bulk amorphous Se80−xSbxTe20

Crystallization kinetics of the Se_80–x Sb _x Te₂₀ (0x9) alloys have been studied using differential scanning calorimetry. The activation energies for the glass transition and that for crystallization have been determined from the heating rate dependence of the glass transition temperature and the peak crystallization temperature. The results have been analysed using the modified Kissinger's and Matusita's equations for the non-isothermal crystallization of materials. The variation of glass transition temperature with composition suggests that a small amount of Sb ( 4 at %) leads to an increase in the chain length of Se-Te, whereas further increase in Sb atomic per cent increases the number of Se-Te chains in the alloys.     

A six-wafer combustion system for a silicon micro gas turbineengine

As part of a program to develop a micro gas turbine engine capable of producing 10-50 W of electrical power in a package less than one cubic centimeter in volume, we present the design, fabrication, packaging, and experimental test results for the 6-wafer combustion system for a silicon microengine. Comprising the main nonrotating functional components of the engine, the device described measures 2.1 cm×2.1 cm×0.38 cm and is largely fabricated by deep reactive ion etching through a total thickness of 3800 μm. Complete with a set of fuel plenums, pressure ports, fuel injectors, igniters, fluidic interconnects, and compressor and turbine static airfoils, this structure is the first demonstration of the complete hot flow path of a multilevel micro gas turbine engine. The 0.195 cm³ combustion chamber is shown to sustain a stable hydrogen flame over a range of operating mass flows and fuel-air mixture ratios and to produce exit gas temperatures in excess of 1600 K. It also serves as the first experimental demonstration of stable hydrocarbon microcombustion within the structural constraints of silicon. Combined with longevity tests at elevated temperatures for tens of hours, these results demonstrate the viability of a silicon-based combustion system for micro heat engine applications     

Policy-based Diffserv on Internet servers: the AIX approach

The Internet infrastructure must evolve from best-effort service to meet the needs of different customers and applications. With Internet traffic differentiation, service providers can support a range of offerings, such as loss or delay bounds and network bandwidth allocation, to meet different performance requirements. The differentiated services (Diffserv) architecture provides a scalable approach, in which network access (or edge) devices aggregate traffic flows onto provisioned pipes that traverse a streamlined network core. We have identified the key requirements for provisioning Diffserv functions on Internet servers. Based on these requirements, we have implemented, and deployed, a policy-based architecture on IBM's AIX operating system that provides Diffserv services to both QoS-aware and -unaware applications     

A low power,temperature compensated,robust design of CS amplifier in nanoscale regime

Microsystem Technologies - A low power, temperature compensated, robust design of CS amplifier is proposed in this paper. A new voltage reference is introduced to enhance reliability of the design...     

Introduction to the Works of Rodney C. Wingrove: Engineering Approaches to Macroeconomic Modeling

A continuous-time control model was formulated and fitted to macroeconomic data by an expert control engineer who worked at NASA-AMES in the 1980s, Rodney C. Wingrove. Two articles were prepared and made available to the aerospace industry at that time, however the authors feel that wider distribution of his study posthumously is warranted at this time. This introduction to the two Wingrove articles that follow provides background information on the technologies Wingrove was working with, as well as subsequent developments in both macroeconomic and engineering modeling and analysis technology. Our purpose is to stimulate further research along the same lines which can potentially lead to structural and/or policy rule improvements that can prevent the extremely turbulent abberations that have been seen in recent years, and promote steady growth with low inflation and low unemployment in a sustainable way. Of particular concern is the exploding national debt problem.