Nonspecific lymphocyte cytotoxicity in patients with malignant melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and sarcomas, and in nontumor patients

Mononuclear cell-mediated tumor cell destruction was studied in 114 patients with malignant melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, or sarcomas, and in 122 non-tumor-bearing control subjects, with the use of the microcytoxicity assay. Cytotoxic reactions were found in all patients and control groups against melanoma, renal carcinoma, sarcoma, and fibroblast-derived cell cultures; mean levels of cytotoxicity against allogeneic combinations of tumor cells and fibroblasts were similar in tumor-bearing and control patients. These results support the concept that the reactions found represent nonspecific cytotoxicity.     

Self-lubricant nanocomposite hard coatings in Ti-Al-N-C system

An ambitious objective in the development of self-lubricating wear-resistant coatings is to make use of lubricious phases such as graphite, amorphous carbon or MoS2 incorporated into coatings. A series of (Ti,Al)(N,C)coatings with different carbon contents (0 -28 %, mole fraction) were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering of TiAl in a mixture of Ar, N2 and CH4 gases. The microstructure and constitution of these coatings were investigated using EPMA, AFM, XPS, (HR)TEM, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Starting from a pure TiAlN coating significant changes in the microstructure of the coatings were observed dependent on the carbon concentration. Under optimum conditions nanocomposite coatings with a structure of a coexisting metastable hard, nanocrystalline fcc (Ti,Al)(N,C) phase and an amorphous carbon phase were deposited. The localization of an amorphous carbon phase was shown by HRTEM.     

A unified approach to ranking in probabilistic databases

Ranking is a fundamental operation in data analysis and decision support and plays an even more crucial role if the dataset being explored exhibits uncertainty. This has led to much work in understanding how to rank the tuples in a probabilistic dataset in recent years. In this article, we present a unified approach to ranking and top-k query processing in probabilistic databases by viewing it as a multi-criterion optimization problem and by deriving a set of features that capture the key properties of a probabilistic dataset that dictate the ranked result. We contend that a single, specific ranking function may not suffice for probabilistic databases, and we instead propose two parameterized ranking functions, called PRF ^ω and PRF ^e, that generalize or can approximate many of the previously proposed ranking functions. We present novel generating functions-based algorithms for efficiently ranking large datasets according to these ranking functions, even if the datasets exhibit complex correlations modeled using probabilistic and/xor trees or Markov networks. We further propose that the parameters of the ranking function be learned from user preferences, and we develop an approach to learn those parameters. Finally, we present a comprehensive experimental study that illustrates the effectiveness of our parameterized ranking functions, especially PRF ^e, at approximating other ranking functions and the scalability of our proposed algorithms for exact or approximate ranking.     

Visual analysis of geospatial habitat suitability model based on inverse distance weighting with paired comparison analysis

Geospatial data analytical model is developed in this paper to model the spatial suitability of malaria outbreak in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. In general, Disease control strategies are only the spatial information like landscape, weather and climate, but also spatially explicit information like socioeconomic variable, population density, behavior and natural habits of the people. The spatial multi-criteria decision analysis approach combines the multi-criteria decision analysis and geographic information system (GIS) to model the spatially explicit and implicit information and to make a practical decision under different scenarios and different environment. Malaria is one of the emerging diseases worldwide; the cause of malaria is weather & climate condition of the study area. The climate condition is often called as spatially implicit information, traditional decision-making models do not use the spatially implicit information it most often uses spatially explicit information such as socio-economic, natural habits of the people. There is need to develop an integrated approach that consists of spatially implicit and explicit information. The proposed approach is used to identity an effective control strategy that prevents and control of malaria. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) is a type of deterministic method used in this paper to assign the weight values based on the neighborhood locations. ArcGIS software is used to develop the geospatial habitat suitability model.     

MetrIntPair—A Novel Accurate Metric for the Comparison of Two Cooperative Multiagent Systems Intelligence Based on Paired Intelligence Measurements

In this paper, we propose a novel metric called MetrIntPair (Metric for Pairwise Intelligence Comparison of Agent‐Based Systems) for comparison of two cooperative multiagent systems problem‐solving intelligence. MetrIntPair is able to make an accurate comparison by taking into consideration the variability in intelligence in problem‐solving. The metric could treat the outlier intelligence indicators, intelligence measures that are statistically different from those others. For evaluation of the proposed metric, we realized a case study for two cooperative multiagent systems applied for solving a class of NP‐hard problems. The results of the case study proved that the small difference in the measured intelligence of the multiagent systems is the consequence of the variability. There is no statistical difference between the intelligence quotients/level of the multiagent systems. Both multiagent systems should be classified in the same intelligence class.     

Nano-structure formation of Fe-Pt perpendicular magnetic recording media co-deposited with MgO, Al2O3 and SiO2 additives

Perpendicular magnetic recording media samples were prepared by sputter deposition on sapphire with a layer sequence of MgO seed-layer/Cr under-layer/FeSi soft magnetic under-layer/MgO intermediate layer/FePt-oxide recording layer. The effects of MgO, Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ additives on the morphology and orientation of the FePt layer were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The samples exhibited (001) orientation of the L1₀ FePt phase with the mutual orientations of sapphire substrate//MgO(100)[001]//Cr(100)[11¯0]//FeSi(100)[11¯0]//MgO(100)[001]//FePt(001)[100]. The morphology of the FePt films varied due to the co-deposited oxides: The FePt layers were continuous and segmented by stacking faults aligned at 54° to the surface. Films with SiO₂ addition, beside the oriented columnar FePt grains, exhibited a fraction of misoriented crystallites due to random repeated nucleation. Al₂O₃ addition resulted in a layered structure, i.e. an initial continuous epitaxial FePt layer covered by a secondary layer of FePt-Al₂O₃ composite. Both components (FePt and MgO) of the MgO-added samples were grown epitaxially on the MgO intermediate layer, so that a nano-composite of intercalated (001) FePt and (001) MgO was formed.The revealed microstructures and formation mechanisms may facilitate the improvement of the structural and magnetic properties of the FePt-oxide composite perpendicular magnetic recording media.     

Lamellar growth in sputter-deposited aluminum-tin-aluminum sandwich layers

In recent experiments, the formation of lamellar features within an Al film was observed when deposited on a thin Sn layer. The present study investigates the influence of the deposition rate of the Al film on the lamella thickness to gain insight into the mechanism of lamella formation.Al-Sn-Al sandwich layers were prepared in HV by magnetron sputtering at 180 °C substrate temperature on natively oxidized Si wafers. Al and Sn were sequentially sputtered from a 100-mm diameter DC magnetron target. The samples consisted of an Al base layer (400 nm), a Sn interlayer (10 nm) and an Al capping layer (400 nm). The base layer and the Sn interlayer were deposited at a rate of 0.4 and 0.1 nm s⁻¹, respectively. The deposition rate for the capping layer was varied between 0.1 and 0.8 nm s⁻¹.Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (X-TEM) shows that, with increasing deposition rate of the capping layer, the lamella thickness slightly decreases. This is in contradiction to a previously formulated hypothesis of lamella growth which predicted an increase of lamella thickness with increasing deposition rate. On the other hand, contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) as well as X-TEM show a significant decrease of the Al grain size in the polycrystalline capping layer with increasing deposition rate. If the resulting higher grain boundary density is taken into account, the experimentally observed lamella thicknesses can reasonably be described by a model combining the diffusion of Sn along the Al grain boundaries and the oxidation of Sn on the growth surface.     

Preparation of multilayered nanocrystalline thin films with composition-modulated interfaces

The properties of multilayer thin film structures depend on the morphology and structure of interfaces. A broad interface, in which the composition is varying, can enhance, e.g., the hardness of multilayer thin films. In the present experiments multilayers of TiAlN and CrN as well as TiAlN, CrN and MoS₂ were studied by using unbalanced magnetron sputter sources. The sputter sources were arranged side by side on an arc. This arrangement permits development of a transition zone between the layers, where the composition changes continuously. The multilayer system was deposited by one-fold oscillating movement of substrates in front of sputter sources. Thicknesses of layers could be changed both by oscillation frequency and by the power applied to sputter sources. Ti/Al: 50/50 at%, pure chromium and MoS₂ targets were used in the sputter sources. The depositions were performed in an Ar–N₂ mixture at 0.22 Pa working pressure. The sputtering power of the TiAl source was feed-back adjusted in fuzzy-logic mode in order to avoid fluctuation of the TiAl target sputter rate due to poisoning of the target surface. Structure characterization of films deposited on 1 0 0 Si wafers covered by thermally grown SiO₂ was performed by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. At first a 100 nm thick Cr base layer was deposited on the substrate to improve adhesion, which was followed by a CrN transition layer. The CrN transition layer was followed by a 100 nm thick TiAlN/CrN multilayer system. The TiAlN/CrN/MoS₂ multilayer system was deposited on the surface of this underlayer system. The underlayer systems Cr, CrN and TiAlN/CrN were crystalline with columnar structure according to the morphology of zone T of the structure zone models. The column boundaries contained segregated phases showing up in the under-focused TEM images. The surface of the underlayer system was wavy due to dome-shaped columns. The nanometer-scaled TiAlN/CrN/MoS₂ multilayer system followed this waviness. Crystallinity of the TiAlN and CrN layers in the multilayer system decreases with increasing thickness of the MoS₂ layer.     

Flow Modelling in Continuous Casting of Round Bloom Strands with Electromagnetic Stirring

For the majority of continuously cast semis for stringent applications such as wire rods, rails, seamless tubes, etc. an optimal cleanness, surface and sub‐surface quality as well as a minimum of centre line segregation and central shrinkage porosity is almost mandatory. In‐mould electromagnetic stirring (M‐EMS) has a number of functions but its primary purpose is to help breaking down coarse columnar dendritic solidification structure to produce a finer dendritic structure and a larger proportion of equiaxed grains. The rotary effect of M‐EMS has also an important impact on the cleanness of the steels, which can be explained by its action on exogenous and endogenous inclusions. The modelling of turbulent flow, steel temperature, solidification, exogenous inclusion transport and electromagnetic stirring with mathematical and ‐ as far as possible ‐ physical models are presented, including PIV‐measurements on a 1:1 scale water‐model of the strand.     

Effect of the substrate temperature on the physical characteristics of amorphous carbon films deposited by d.c. magnetron sputtering

The growth rate, composition, electrical resistivity, mass density, refractive index and microstructure of amorphous carbon (a-C) films prepared by direct current (d.c.) magnetron sputtering were investigated as functions of the substrate temperature (50–350°C). The hydrogen content determined by elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and the electrical resistivity of films were found to be dependent on both the base pressure in the deposition chamber and substrate temperature. For films deposited below 200°C, the hydrogen content was less than 2 at.% and the substrate temperature was the only parameter which affected their electrical resistivity. The electrical resistivity decreased from 0.2 to 0.03 Ωcm as the substrate temperature increased from 50 to 200°C. The mass density of films evaluated from Rutherford backscattering (RBS) data and film thickness decreased from 2.2 to 1.4 g cm⁻³ with increasing substrate temperature. A linear relationship between the refractive index and the mass density of a-C films was clearly established. From the optical measurements, the decrease in mass density was correlated to an increase in porosity of films with increasing substrate temperature. The decrease in electrical resistivity with increasing substrate temperature was attributed to a graphitization of a-C films. This modification of the microstructure of a-C films as the deposition temperature was varied from 50 to 350°C was observed by examination of the cross-section of samples by transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopic analyses of a-C films.