Employment and alcohol: analysis of a clinical casuistic

The relationship between alcohol and work was studied in a group of 537 voluntary patients (393 male and 144 female) admitted to the department of Medicina del Lavoro, Pavia University for alcohol rehabilitation. The highest incidence of alcohol abuse was found in non-working subjects (pensioners, unemployed, housewives) although the start of excessive drinking takes place after beginning a working activity; a cause-effect relationship between these two factors can not be clearly determined, however. It is true that the stress provoked by this new condition (introduction to the work experience) can, in certain subjects, be a contributing factor in alcohol abuse. The increasingly lower age of initiation to alcohol reconfirms the need for prevention and instruction even at scholastic level. We can deduce how no working condition, low age and low education can constitute makers of risk for alcohol abuse.     

Thin layer activation of chromium with deuterons

In view of the recent increased interest in chromium based materials, the thin layer activation of chromium has been studied. This paper considers relative activity as a function of depth for the deuteron induced reaction in natural chromium. The presented results are based on calculations using computer codes and experimental verification using the stacked foil technique and electropolishing of activated bulk samples. A very good agreement of the various methods was obtained. It is shown that using 10 MeV deuterons, a reasonable homogeneous activation over 120 μm can be obtained.     

The Lorentz reciprocity theorem and range-dependent propagationmodeling

Modeling of electromagnetic propagation in the troposphere has been advanced in the last decade to the point where both the vertical and horizontal variation of refractivity can be accommodated readily. A hybrid ray-optics/parabolic equation model is utilized to predict propagation loss for a range-varying refractive structure to demonstrate the model obeys the Sommerfeld-Pfrang statement of the Lorentz reciprocity theorem     

An automated film reader for DNA sequencing based on homomorphicdeconvolution

An automated reader for electrophoresis based DNA sequencing methods is described that provides fast and accurate sequence determination. Digitized sequencing lanes are processed with homomorphic blind deconvolution in preparation for peak detection, interlane alignment, peak refinement and base calling. Initial reads from direct blot sequencing films have error rates of about 1% at the rate of 5 nucleotides/s. Typical read lengths are 500-600 nucleotides. The described reader is a significant improvement over existing readers and could be an essential component in the sequencing efforts of the Human Genome Project     

Array pattern synthesis in the complex plane optimised by a geneticalgorithm

Array pattern nulling by operating on the roots of the array polynomial in the complex plane using a genetic algorithm (GA) is demonstrated. A pattern envelope constraint and an array efficiency criterion are applied. The algorithm is much faster than a similar GA operating on the complex weights of the array factor     

Evaluation of hot hardness and creep of a 350 grade commercial maraging steel

The hardening response and the indentation creep of a 350 grade commercial maraging steel were evaluated using a hot hardness tester. The hardness versus temperature plot exhibited three distinct regions. Hardness response was noted between 500–800 K. The unusually high values of activation energy and stress exponent obtained during the creep experiment could be rationalized by a novel concept of introducing a back stress term in the indentation creep relation. The corrected value of the activation energy was found to be reasonably in agreement with the activation energy for diffusion of Ni in iron. Results are supplemented with microstructural observation.