A New Immobilized Glucose Isomerase with High Productivity Produced by a Strain of Streptomyces murinus

The properties of a new immobilized glucose isomerase, produced by a selected strain of Streptomyces murinus, are described. The major advantages of the new immobilized enzyme are a productivity of more than 10,000 kg syrup dry substance per kg enzyme under optimal industrial conditions, increased activity and a very low syrup by-product formation. The influence of process parameters (temperature, pH and feed syrup additives) on activity and stability is discussed based on laboratory and industrial plant data.     

A longitudinal observational study of the dynamics of Mycoplasma bovis antibodies in naturally exposed and diseased dairy cows

Mycoplasma bovis is an important pathogen causing disease and substantial economic losses in cattle. However, knowledge of the dynamics of antibody responses in individual cows in the face of an outbreak is currently extremely limited. The use of commercial antibody tests to support clinical decision-making and for surveillance purposes is therefore challenging. Our objective was to describe the dynamics of M. bovis antibody responses in 4 Danish dairy herds experiencing an acute outbreak of M. bovis-associated disease, and to compare the antibody dynamics between dairy cows with different disease manifestations. A total of 120 cows were examined using a standardized clinical protocol and categorized into 4 disease groups: “mastitis,” “systemic,” “nonspecific,” and “none.” Paired blood and milk samples were collected and tested using a commercial M. bovis antibody–detecting ELISA. Plots of raw data and generalized additive mixed models with cow and herd as random effects were used to describe serum and milk antibody dynamics relative to the estimated time of onset of clinical disease. Cows with mastitis had high optical density measurement (ODC%) of antibodies in both milk and serum at disease onset. The estimated mean ODC% in milk was below the manufacturer's cut-off for the other groups for the entire study period. The estimated mean serum ODC% in the “systemic” group was high at onset of disease and stayed above the cut-off until 65 d after disease onset. However, the lower 95% confidence interval (CI) for the mean ODC% was only above the manufacturer's cut-off between 7 and 17 d after onset of disease. The CI of the “systemic” and “none” groups did not overlap at any time between the day of disease onset and 65 d after disease onset, and the estimated mean ODC% for both the “nonspecific” and “none” groups were generally below the cut-off for the majority of the study period. In conclusion, the serum antibody responses were highly dynamic and showed a high level of variation between individual cows. This strongly suggests that serology is unlikely to be useful for individual diagnosis of M. bovis-associated disease in dairy cows. However, it might still be useful for herd- or group-level diagnosis. Antibodies in milk were only increased in cows with M. bovis mastitis, indicating that milk antibody measurements only have diagnostic utility for cows with mastitis.     

伦敦帕丁顿中心Two Kingdom Street项目

<正>KPF设计师事务所已完成了Two Kingdom Street项目设计。该项目投资8800万英镑,由Development Securities公司开发,为Aviva Investors公司和Quinlan Private公司所有。该项目提供了2.2万m2的最佳办公空间,是帕丁顿中心项目第二阶段的最新增加项目,位于帕丁顿火车站附近的大型综合开发区内。     

Development of Mechanical Anchor for CFRP Tendons Using Integrated Sleeve

A durable and very efficient external strengthening system is achieved if steel tendons for posttensioning applications can be replaced with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) tendons, and if reliable anchorage systems are developed. This paper presents a newly developed and simple-to-use, two-piece wedge anchorage for CFRP tendons with an integrated sleeve and a differential angle between barrel and wedge sections. Three longitudinal slits are cut into the one-piece wedge, with one slit open and the other two stopping 1 mm from the inner wedge hole. The integrated sleeve holds the wedge’s sections together during presetting and loading, resulting in a circumferential confined gripping of the CFRP tendon and optimized surface friction area. Therefore, the one-piece wedge differs from conventional wedge systems, where the wedges act separately with adjacent spaces, wedging the separate tendon sleeve in the longitudinal direction. Evaluation of the failure modes during testing was one of the main keys in achieving an increasingly better performance of the anchorage until the final anchorage was developed. The obtained failure modes are therefore described to enlighten the importance of addressing them when testing. The test setup used and measured behavior are described further together with the loading procedure. The anchorage reached the full capacity of the CFRP tendon and was seen to ensure a stable load of fracture.     

Evaluation of assisting agents for electrodialytic removal of Cd,Pb, Zn,Cu and Cr from MSWI fly ash

Different assisting agents (0.25 M ammonium citrate/1.25% NH(3), 0.25 M Na-citrate, 2.5% NH(3), DI water) have been used for aiding the removal of heavy metals during electrodialytic treatment of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash. In this study, the effectiveness of the different agents was evaluated. The heavy metal speciation in solution was discussed and simulated at the different conditions using the geochemical equilibrium model Visual MINTEQ. The heavy metals examined were Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu and Cr.The 2.5% NH(3) solution was the best assisting agent for removal of Cd, probably due to formation of stable tetraammine complexes; whereas the best Pb removal was obtained with 0.25 M Na-citrate (Pb forms very stable chelates with citrate). The best compromise for removal of all five metals was obtained with the 0.25 M ammonium citrate/1.25% NH(3) solution.     

Surveyance of disease frequency in a population by linkage to diagnostic laboratory databases. A system for monitoring the incidences of hyper- and hypothyroidism as part of the Danish iodine supplementation program

In Denmark an increase in iodine intake through salt iodization has been introduced in 1998. In parallel a program for surveyance of thyroid diseases in the population was developed as recommended by UNICEF and WHO. OBJECTIVE: To develop and evaluate a computer based system to identify and register new cases of hyper- and hypothyroidism in a well defined cohort, by linkage to diagnostic laboratory databases. DESIGN AND RESULTS: (1) Two sub cohorts for monitoring were defined (n=535,859), and evaluated to minimize loss of new cases. Collaboration was established with laboratories covering thyroid hormone analyses in the cohort; (2) a diagnostic algorithm was defined and evaluated against clinical practice; (3) evaluation of the laboratory methods employed by the four participating laboratories, to ensure they would reach the same diagnosis in a patient; (4) a register database was developed which used data imported from the laboratory databases to automatically identify previously unknown cases of hyper- and hypothyroidism and record diagnostic activity in the area. All parts of the registration were carefully evaluated. CONCLUSION: We describe for the first time a computer based system for prospective measuring the incidence rate of hyper- and hypothyroidism. The system is particularly useful for monitoring of iodine supplementation programmes.     

Designing plates for minimum internal resonances

Internal resonance is a nonlinear phenomenon for a structure when the eigenfrequencies of the structure are commensurable or close to being commensurable. Using optimization we have the possibility to control the eigenfrequencies, i.e., move an eigenfrequency, maximize a given eigenfrequency, or maximize the gap between eigenfrequencies. It is therefore also possible to design a structure that is as free as possible of internal resonance up to mode of order n.We consider plates made of two materials. The designs depend on the boundary conditions and on the frequency range within which the plate should be as free of internal resonance as possible. The two materials can either be two physical materials, or one can be a physical material and the other a weakening of the first material. By doing this we are in principle solving three different problems: a reinforcement problem, a problem of where to put holes in the structure, and, finally the more involved case (from a manufacturing point of view), of two different materials. The optimizations are performed using the finite element method for analysis and the topology optimization approach for design. The optimization problem is formulated using a bound formulation where the objective is to maximize a minimum detuning parameter. Special attention is given to the formulation of the conditions for internal resonance. Using the method presented in this paper it is possible to remove an unwanted nonlinear phenomenon without the use of a nonlinear model and without knowledge of the nonlinearities present in the system.     

A Deformable Template Model, with Special Reference to Elliptical Templates

This paper suggests a high-level continuous image model for planar star-shaped objects. Under this model, a planar object is a stochastic deformation of a star-shaped template. The residual process, describing the difference between the radius-vector function of the template and the object, is allowed to be non-stationary. Stationarity is obtained by a time change. A parametric model for the residual process is suggested and straightforward parameter estimation techniques are developed. The deformable template model makes it possible to detect pathologies as demonstrated by an analysis of a data set of cell nuclei from a benign and a malignant tumour, using stochastic deformations of ellipses.