Termites live in a material world: exploration of their ability to differentiate between food sources.

Drywood termites are able to assess wood size using vibratory signals, although the exact mechanism behind this assessment ability is not known. Important vibratory characteristics such as the modal frequencies of a wooden block depend on its geometry and boundary conditions; however, they are also dependent on the material characteristics of the block, such as mass, density and internal damping. We report here on choice experiments that tested the ability of the drywood termite Cryptotermes secundus to assess wooden block size using a solid wooden block paired with a composite block, the latter made of either wood and aluminium or wood and rubber. Each composite block was constructed to match mass or low-frequency vibratory modes (i.e. fundamental frequency) of the solid wooden block. The termites always chose the blocks with more wood; they moved to the solid wooden blocks usually within a day and then tunnelled further into the solid wooden block by the end of the experiment. Termites offered composite blocks of wood and rubber matched for mass were the slowest to show a preference for the solid wooden block and this preference was the least definitive of any treatment, which indicated that mass and/or damping may play a role in food assessment. This result clearly shows that the termites were not fooled by composite blocks matched for mass or frequency, which implies that they probably employ more than a single simple measure in their food assessment strategy. This implies a degree of sophistication in their ability to assess their environment hitherto unknown. The potential importance of alternative features in the vibrational signals is discussed.     

Directly Compressible Acetaminophen Compositions Prepared by Fluidized-Bed Granulation

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) in aqueous solution was used as a binding agent in a fluidized-bed system to agglomerate acetaminophen powder into directly compressible granules. It was found that a minimal amount of 5% w/w PVP in a concentration of 7.5% w/v or less was needed to produce granules with an acceptable flow and the corresponding tablets having enough hardness without capping. There was a strong correlation between the time for 80% dissolved (T₈₀) and the logarithm of granule volume-surface mean diameter. A directly compressible acetaminophen composition to manufacture tablets having a T₈₀ value less than 30 min can be prepared simply by adding an appropriate amount of disintegrant (crospovidone, sodium starch glycolate, or pregelatinized starch) to the agglomerated granules.     

Evaluation of Qbd for electrons tunneling fromthe Si/SiO2 interface compared to electron tunneling from thepoly-Si/SiO2 interface

Electrical time-to-breakdown (TTB) measurements have shown the charge to breakdown Q_bd of gate oxide capacitors fabricated on n-type well (n-well) substrates always to be higher than that of capacitors on p-type well (p-well) substrates on the same wafer when both are biased into accumulation under normal test conditions. Here the authors correlate the higher n-well Q_bd to smooth capacitor oxide/substrate interfaces and minimized grain boundary cusps at the poly-Si gate/oxide interfaces, confirming that Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is the dominant current conduction mechanisms through the oxide. They correlate higher Q_bd to higher barrier height for a given substrate type and observe that the slope of the barrier height versus temperature plot is lower for both p-well and n-well cases with electrons tunneling from the silicon substrate. This is attributed to surface roughness at the poly-Si gate/SiO₂ interface. A poly-Si gate deposition and annealing process with clean, smooth oxide/substrate interfaces will improve the p-well breakdown characteristics and allow higher Q_bd to be achieved     

The gradient of the finite element variational indicator with respect to nodal and applications in fracture mechanics and mesh optimization

We derive a closed-form expression for the change in the variational indicator of a finite element mesh with respect to perturbations in nodal point co-ordinates. The expression is evaluated very effectively from standard finite element data obtained in one solution, and may be easily programmed as part of a general finite element code. We present the derivation for two- and three-dimensional isoparametric elements used in linear and nonlincar elasticity. The expression has practical applications in the computation of stress intensity factors in fracture mechanics and in the determination of the ‘optimal’ mesh with a given element-node connectivity. We demonstrate both applications by accurately determining the stress intensity factor of a Mode I crack using a finite element mesh which was improved using mesh optimization.     

Oxidation of oleuropein studied by EPR and spectrophotometry

The autoxidation at alkaline pH and enzymatic oxidation by mushroom tyrosinase of oleuropein, the dominant biophenol present in the fruits and leaves of Olea europea, was followed by both electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and absorption spectroscopy. For comparison, the same oxidation processes were applied to 4‐methylcatechol, a simple polyphenol present in olive mill wastewaters. EPR spectra of stable o‐semiquinone radicals produced during autoxidation at pH 12 and short‐lived o‐semiquinone free radicals produced during autoxidation at pH 9.0 or tyrosinase action and stabilized by chelation with a diamagnetic metal ion (Mg²⁺) were recorded for both polyphenols, and the corresponding hyperfine splitting constants were determined. The UV‐Vis spectral characteristics of the oxidation of polyphenols were highly dependent on the type of polyphenol, oxidant type and the pH of the reaction. The kinetic behavior of tyrosinase in the presence of oleuropein and 4‐methylcatechol was followed by recording spectral changes at 400 nm (absorption maximum) over time. The tysosinase activity with oleuropein showed a pronounced pH optimum at pH 6.5 and a minor one around pH 8. From the data analysis of the initial rate at pH 6.5, the kinetic parameters K_m = 0.34 ± 0.03 mM and V_max = 0.029 ± 0.002 ΔA₄₀₀ min^–1 were determined for oleuropein.     

Support vector regression for determining the minimum zone sphericity

Several methods have been investigated to determine the deviation of manufactured spherical parts from ideal geometry. One of the most popular is the least squares technique, which is still widely employed in coordinate measuring machines used by industries. The least squares algorithm is optimal under the assumption that the data set is very large and has the inherent disadvantage of overestimating the minimum tolerance zone, resulting sometimes in the rejection of good parts. In addition, it requires that the data be distributed normally. The support vector regression approach alleviates the necessity for these assumptions. While most fitting algorithms in practice today require that the sampled data accurately represent the surface being inspected, support vector regression provides a generalization over the surface. We describe how the concepts of support vector regression can be applied to the determination of tolerance zones of nonlinear surfaces; to demonstrate the unique potential of support vector machine algorithms in the area of coordinate metrology. In specific, we address part quality inspection of spherical geometries.     

Active memory chips: A brief survey and case study

Conventional random access memories are capable only of writing data into and reading data from the storage location corresponding to a given address. The availability of VLSI circuits containing hundreds of thousands of switching devices, however, has recently made practical the implementation of active memory chips capable of performing a range of complex operations on their stored data. Such designs are characterized by the extensive intermingling of processing and memory resources within a single chip to achieve the rapid and cost-effective parallel execution of operations relevant to such tasks as image processing, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and database management.This paper presents a brief survey of a number of active memory chips that have been implemented or proposed, along with a more detailed examination of a particular active memory circuit, the NON-VON 3 primary processing subsystem chip.This research was supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, under contract N00039-84-C-0165, in part by the New York Center for Advanced Technology in Computers and Information Systems at Columbia University, and in part by an IBM Faculty Development Award.     

Conjugated dienes and trienes from methyl oleate and methyl linoleate

Methyl oleate and methyl linoleate were converted to conjugated dienes and trienes, respectively, by selecting and modifying the conventional procedures usually applied to the generation and characterization of fatty hydroperoxides. Conditions have been studied in the laboratory for: (a) the optimum production of hydroperoxides with a minimum of by-products, (b) the effective separation and concentration of the resulting hydroperoxide, (c) the economic reduction of the hydroperoxide mixture, (d) simple dehydration of the reduced product, and, (e) recovery of the resulting polyene-rich material. If the processing sequence is halted after the reduction step, the resulting product,is a mixture of allylic hydroxy monoene or diene methyl esters. Our investigations have been extended to include studies on the methyl esters of commercial oleic acid and the mixture of methyl esters resulting from alcoholysis of lard oil. Products containing 20–25% conjugated diene and lesser proportions of conjugated triene were obtained. Presented at the AOCS Meeting, Houston, April 1965. E. Utiliz, Res. Dev. Div., ARS, USDA.