A Wire Spark Chamber Spectrometer with a Capacitor Memory and FET Readout

A 20-plane wire chamber spectrometer utilizing capacitors as memory elements and suitable for operation in a magnetic field is described. The (parallel) wire planes are separated by 1 cm. The active areas of the chambers range in size from 120 × 120 cm2 to 200 × 240 cm2. The wire separation is 1 mm. Each readout wire is connected to a separate capacitor resulting in a 30 K-bit memory for the total system. Using FET's as gates, the capacitors are read out in 32 bit words. These words are formatted into data sets of 18 bits/spark and transferred to a PDP-9 computer. Digital processing of data is briefly described, including the computer interface and test procedures. Advantages of this system are discussed together with some performance characteristics.     

Moment transmission by a universal joint

A general theory for calculation of the moments transmitted by an arbitrary universal joint was developed. The theory based on the assumption of a static system with friction, inertia and elastic forces disregarded, was confirmed for two particular cases, the C.V.J. and Hooke's joint. It turns out that a moment component normal to the shaft is unavoidable.     

Degreening and postharvest storage influences 'Star Ruby' grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) bioactive compounds

Ethylene is commercially used for artificial degreening of early season grapefruits. The present study investigated the effect of degreening and storage period on Star Ruby grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) bioactive compounds. Freshly harvested grapefruits were degreened in commercial packing shed for 60h using 2ppm of ethylene at a constant temperature of 20°C. Both degreened and non-degreened (control) fruits were stored at 10°C for 21days and later transferred to 20°C for a period of 14days to simulate shipment and retail store market conditions. Bioactive compounds including carotenoids, limonoids, flavonoids and furocoumarins were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Nomilin was significantly higher (P<0.05) in degreened fruits at 35days after storage. In contrast, flavonoids such as narirutin, naringin and poncirin were significantly (P<0.05) lower in degreened fruits at 35days after storage. Degreening treatment reduced the levels of deacetyl nomilinic acid glucoside and bergamottin after 35days of storage; however, it had no significant effect on total soluble solids, decay, fruit softening, taste, odour, ascorbic acid, β-carotene, lycopene, limonin, neohesperidin, didymin, 6,7-dihydroxybergamottin, 5-geranyloxy-7-methoxycoumarin and radical scavenging activity. Therefore, degreening could be utilized to enhance the grapefruit aesthetic quality, with minimal effect on nutritional quality.     

Multi-identity planning process in a studio course: Integrative planning in multi-identity environments

The planning process in a planning studio demonstrates a microcosm of diverse concepts of ideologies and identities seeking acknowledgment and spatial recognition.In the modern world of multiple and dynam icidentities and ideologies,aspiring for the self-recognition of regions, towns, and communities, aplace-based identity has become a core aspect that needs to be taken into planning consideration.The analytic planning method used is iterative of both top–down and bottom–up approaches,thereby creating multi-dimension and coherent planning alternatives where spatial solutions arise from communities along theirc hanging processes.We present two spatialal ternative plans that were developed in the studio course and are based on this line of thinking. Results were very dynamic aspiring complex plans, which are also highly applicable and flexible, thereby addressing a wide range of ideologies and identities.     

Chloride free Pt‐ and PtRu‐ Nanoparticles Stabilised by “Armand's Ligand” as Precursors for Fuel Cell Catalysts

Chloride residues on the surface of fuel cell catalysts are known to decrease the catalytic activity, especially for O₂ reduction. Using Armand's ligand, which contains the chloride free DCTA anion, for the colloidal stabilisation of nanoscopic Pt and PtRu catalysts precursors (< 2 nm size) leads to PEMFC and DMFC catalysts with improved activity compared to commercial E‐TEK catalysts as evidenced by both methanol oxidation and CO‐stripping voltametric studies.     

ARMA spectral estimation based on partial autocorrelations

This paper presents a new method for estimating the coefficients of autoregressive moving-average parameters of stationary time series. The method is based on computing the sample autocorrelations of the given time series and fitting an ARMA model so as to approximate the partial autocorrelations in a least-squares sense. When the given time series are characterized by spectral zeroes near the unit circle, they tend to have relatively long sequences of nonzero partial autocorrelations; hence the new method is especially effective in such cases. This paper contains a derivation of all necessary mathematical details, as well as several numerical examples illustrating the performance.     

Transformation of primary human endothelial cells by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), or human herpesvirus 8, is invariably present in Kaposi's sarcoma lesions. KSHV contains several viral oncogenes and serological evidence suggests that KSHV infection is necessary for the development of Kaposi's sarcoma, but cellular transformation by this virus has not so far been demonstrated. KSHV is found in the microvascular endothelial cells in Kaposi's sarcoma lesions and in the spindle 'tumour' cells, which are also thought to be of endothelial origin. Here we investigate the biological consequences of infecting human primary endothelial cells with purified KSHV particles. We find that infection causes long-term proliferation and survival of these cells, which are associated with the acquisition of telomerase activity and anchorage-independent growth. KSHV was present in only a subset of cells, and paracrine mechanisms were found to be responsible for the survival of uninfected cells. Their survival may have been mediated by upregulation of a receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor. Our results indicate that transformation of endothelial cells by KSHV, as well as paracrine mechanisms that are induced by this virus, may be critical in the pathogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma.     

Similarity-invariant signatures for partially occluded planar shapes

A methodology is described for associating local invariant signature functions to smooth planar curves in order to enable their translation, rotation, and scale-invariant recognition from arbitrarily clipped portions. The suggested framework incorporates previous approaches, based on locating inflections, curvature extrema, breakpoints, and other singular points on planar object boundaries, and provides a systematic way of deriving novel invariant signature functions based on curvature or cumulative turn angle of curves. These new signatures allow the specification of arbitrarily dense feature points on smooth curves, whose locations are invariant under similarity transformations. The results are useful for detecting and recognizing partially occluded planar objects, a key task in low-level robot vision.     

The effects of acute and repeated restraint stress on the nociceptive response in rats

The effects of acute and repeated restraint stress on nociception, as measured by the tail-flick latency, were studied in adult male and female rats. After the exposure to a single restraint session, both male and female rats presented an increased latency in the tail-flick test. On the other hand, chronically stressed females presented a performance similar to the control group, whereas chronically stressed male rats responded to restraint with a decrease in the tail-flick latency. This response could be determined by the chronic treatment itself or by the restraint done just before the measurement. Thus, the effect of chronic stress upon basal tail-flick latency was evaluated. In male rats, this latency was significantly decreased in the stressed animals compared with the control group. In female rats, no difference between those groups was observed. Therefore, the results suggest that: (a) acute restraint stress induces an analgesic response in both male and female rats, and (b) there is a gender-specific nociceptive response induced by repeated restraint stress with a hyperalgesic effect in response to stress only in males.     

An automatic and guaranteed determination of the number of roots of an analytic function interior to a simple closed curve in the complex plane

A well known result from complex analysis allows us, under suitable circumstances, to compute the number of roots of an analytic function,f(z), that lie inside a counterclockwise, simple closed curve,C, by computing the integral. $$\frac{1}{{2\pi i}}\int_C {\frac{{f'(z)}}{{f(z)}}} dz.$$ We employ interval arithmetic and automatic differentiation to give an automatic and guaranteed bound on the integral. Furthermore, we explore the interplay of the choice of curveC, the location of the roots relative toC, the number of subdivisions, and the arithmetic precision used, upon the time necessary to obtain satisfactory bounds.