Dynamic thermal methods and microprocessing units for measuring the rates and properties of material flows

A multifunctional measurement system utilizing a noncontacting, thermal-tracer primary detector is described. It provides for the automatic acquisition of information on volumetric and mass flow rates and the properties of fluid flows.Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 8, pp. 10–11, August, 1994.     

An evaluation of the degree of the morphological activity and the stage of the process in patients with chronic liver diseases caused by coinfection with the hepatitis B, C and/or D viruses

In order to determine the differences in histological grade of activity and the stage of fibrosis in patients with chronic liver diseases due to multiple hepatitis virus infection and single infection of HBV and HCV we assessed the 68 liver biopsies samples according to Knodell and Scheuer scoring systems. Retrospectively, 216 liver biopsies reports from consecutive patients with chronic viral hepatitis were analysed. Histological activity index (HAI) in HBV/HCV coinfection was higher than in a single HCV infection; it did not differ in groups of HBV/HBC and HBV. The difference was due to the interface hepatitis; lobular activity and portal inflammation were the same. In HDV superinfection HAI was high due to both portal-periportal and lobular hepatitis. HAI depended mainly upon the presence of HBV replication; in patients with chronic hepatitis C with HBV-DNA HAI was also higher than in single HCV group. No difference in HAI between triple and dual hepatitis virus infection was found. In patients with HBV/HCV coinfection and especially with HDV superinfection the advanced stages occurred more than often than in patients with single infections.     

Intracranial arterial dolichoectasia in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a systemic disorder with a variety of cardiovascular manifestations. This study presents a group of patients with ADPKD who had intracranial arterial dolichoectasia. One hundred seventy-eight ADPKD patients were screened with magnetic resonance angiography, 40 ADPKD patients had conventional angiography, and 98 ADPKD patients underwent a brain autopsy. For comparison, 360 patients without ADPKD who had magnetic resonance angiography and conventional angiography or brain autopsy were also studied. The prevalence of asymptomatic intracranial arterial dolichoectasia was 2.2% (4 of 178), 2.5% (1 of 40), and 2.0% (2 of 98) in the three ADPKD groups, respectively. None of the patients without ADPKD had intracranial arterial dolichoectasia. In addition to the seven patients with asymptomatic disease, two ADPKD patients with vertebrobasilar dolichoectasia had posterior circulation ischemic symptoms. The mean age of the nine patients (five men and four women) was 56.6 yr (range, 41 to 67 yr). The posterior circulation was involved in five patients, the anterior circulation was involved in two patients, and both were involved in two patients. Arterial dissection was believed to have caused middle cerebral artery dolichoectasia in one patient, and intracranial arterial dissections were strongly suspected in two other patients. Six of the nine patients with intracranial arterial dolichoectasia had additional vascular manifestations of ADPKD. Some patients with ADPKD are at an increased risk of developing intracranial arterial dolichoectasia and dissections. Recognizing this association is important because (1) it may be a cause of stroke; (2) it may mimic a saccular aneurysm on radiographic studies; and (3) it suggests that the arteriopathy of ADPKD may be more generalized than previously believed.     

Stability of the solutions of the observation error equations at control of the steel converter process

Consideration was given to the nonlinear observer with the feedback sensitivity function which showed itself well in estimating the carbon and silicon content in the converter melt on the basis of the nonlinear model with time-constant parameters. In the case of controlling the melt temperature by the cooling additives, the plant parameters vary in time, which requires additional studies. For the estimation error under permanent perturbations where the matrix of the linear part is time-dependent, the zero solution of the equation system was proved to be stable.     

Nonlinear suboptimal filtration of pseudorandom sequences

The critical importance of studies of alternative methods of representation and processing of signals constructed from pseudorandom sequences of maximal period is demonstrated. For the first time, it is proposed that a multidimensional nonlinear finite-difference representation of an arbitrary pseudorandom sequence be employed. A suboptimal algorithm for nonlinear discrete Kalman filtration of a pseudorandom sequence is obtained. A numerical example of filtration of a sequence formed on the basis of a given recurrence rule is considered and its efficiency is demonstrated.     

Linkage mapping of fifty-eight new rat microsatellite markers

Fifty-eight new anonymous simple sequence repeats (SSR) were generated and mapped to various rat chromosomes. Among them two genes (rat homologs for human cadherin-14 and mouse fibroblast growth factor-related protein) were mapped on Chromosomes (Chrs) 2 and 11 respectively. The majority of markers were generated from a small insert genomic library specific to Chr 11, 13, 14, and 15. Twenty new markers were mapped to Chr 13, which is known to contain a blood pressure quantitative trait locus (QTL). Several approaches to obtain microsatellite markers are described. The protocols and newly generated markers should be useful for ongoing rat genome project.     

Purification of alcohol dehydrogenase from four genotypes of the olive fruit fly Bactrocera (Dacus) oleae

Two forms of a sampling theorem for concentric circles are established for a bandlimited two-dimensional (2-D) function. The location of the samples is prescribed either on equidistant circles or on the roots of the Bessel function J0( ). Both methods give comparable results, however, the number of samples required for their numerical evaluation is significantly less for the root-sampling formulation.     

New generation of boiling-water-reactor nuclear power plants of increased safety

Scientific-Research Construction Institute of Power Engineering. Russian Scientific Center Kurchatov Institute. Special Design Office of Industrial Organization Izhorskii Plant. All-Union Scientific-Research and Design Institute of Power Engineering Scientific-Industrial Organization. Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 13–19, July, 1992.