Intralesional radiolabeled human monoclonal IgM in human tumor xenografts

Sensory-perceptual abnormalities in people with autism are discussed from two perspectives: published firsthand accounts and existing psychological research evidence. A range of abnormalities, including hyper- and hyposensitivity, sensory distortion and overload, and multichannel receptivity and processing difficulties, are described in firsthand accounts and frequently portrayed as central to the autistic experience. A number of dangers are inherent in uncritically accepting these accounts at face value and in any wider generalization to the autistic population as a whole. Evidence from clinical studies suggests that unusual sensory responses are present in a majority of autistic children, that they are manifested very early in development, and that they may be linked with other aspects of autistic behavior. In addition, experimental studies using a range of indices have found evidence of unusual responses to sensory stimuli in autistic subjects. However the clinical and experimental research to date suffers from serious methodological limitations and more systematic investigation is warranted. Key issues for future psychological research in the area are identified.     

Prognose von 15 Zeitreihen der DGOR mit Neuronalen Netzen

In 1982, the working group “Forecasting Methods” of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Operations Research (DGOR) carried out a forecasting comparison between 12 various models which were applied to 15 time series. The results of this study can be considered as a good benchmark for further prediction techniques. This paper reports upon the prediction of these 15 time series by using a Neural Network which was developed by the Backpropagation algorithm. The four highest autocorrelated lag-variables were used as the input variables of the Neural Network. The results show that the Neural Network delivered worse predictions than the other methods including the naive prediction by forecasting non-stationary time series. Stationary time series could be predicted better than the naive prediction, but in comparison to the other techniques the results were only average. After regarding the problem of non-stationarity by using the Dickey-Fuller-Test, first differences were chosen as the input-variables of the Neural Network. In this case, there was a considerable improvement, but the best method (Box-Jenkins' ARIMA technique) could not be surpassed.     

Surface and Biocidal Properties of Gemini Cationic Surfactants Based on Propoxylated 1,6-Diaminohexane and Alkyl Bromides

Two new classes of gemini cationic surfactants—hexanediyl-1,6-bis[(isopropylol) alkylammonium] dibromide {in the abbreviation form: C_nC₆C_n[iPr-OH] and C_nC₆C_n[iPr-OH]₂; alkyl: C_nH_{2n + 1} with n = 9, 10, 12 and 14}—have been synthesized by interaction of alkyl bromides with N,N′-di-(isopropylol)-1,6-diaminohexane and N,N,N′,N′-tetra-(isopropylol)-1,6-diaminohexane. The surface tension, electrical conductivity, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques were used to investigate the aggregation properties of the gemini cationic surfactants in aqueous solution. The formation of critical aggregates at two concentrations in an aqueous solution from obtained gemini cationic surfactants were determined via the tensiometric method. Thus, these gemini cationic surfactants start to form aggregates at concentrations well below their critical micelle concentrations (CMC). The surface properties and the binding degree (β) of the opposite ion were tested against the length of the surfactant hydrocarbon chain and the number of the isopropylol groups in the head group. By applying the DLS technique, it was explored that how the number of isopropylol groups in gemini cationic surfactants with C₁₂H₂₅ chain affects the sizes of micelles at concentrations greater than CMC. It was discovered that the obtained gemini cationic surfactants have a biocidal character.     

Tensile Fracture Toughness Measurements in Ceramics

A novel procedure is outlined whereby fracture toughness values for ceramics can be measured under uniaxial tension (mode I) in specimens containing a fatigue crack. Circumferentially notched rods of rapolycrystalline aluminum oxide were precracked in cyclic compression to introduce a fatigue crack at room temperature, following the technique proposed by Suresh and co-workers.^7,10,11 Subsequently, the precracked rods were fractured in pure tension. Highly reproducible values of fracture toughness were obtained using this method.     

Mullite Coatings on SiC and C/C–Si–SiC Substrates Characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy

Mullite (3Al₂O₃·2SiO₂) coatings on SiC substrates and SiC precoated carbon/carbon composite (C/C-Si-SiC) substrates were produced by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using pressed mullite powder targets. The layers can be characterized efficiently by IR reflection spectroscopy in the spectral range between 650 and 5000 cm⁻¹. The deposited coatings turn into mullite upon oxidation in air at temperatures between 1400° and 1600°C. Fabry-Perot interferences indicate a high quality and homogeneity of the mullite coating/SiC substrate interface. Amorphous SiO₂ gradually forms during prolonged heating or at higher temperatures.     

Analysis of oxygen-18 tracer profiles in two-stage oxidation experiments (I): predominant oxygen diffusion in the growing scale

Typical two-stage oxidation experiments in high-temperature oxidation studies on metals are analyzed. Two cases of predominant oxygen diffusion in the scale are studied: pure volume diffusion and simultaneous transport via grain boundaries and via the bulk. An analytical expression for the growth of the oxide layer is given for the assumption that the chemical potential of the oxygen varies linearly over the oxide layer. The numerical treatment of the differential equation is improved so that the calculation is possibly faster and/ or more accurate compared to a method given in the literature. The experimental profiles are described by four parameters, the grain boundary width, the grain radius, and the volume and grain boundary diffusivities. Two equations correlating these parameters can be extracted from the profiles. Two benchmark tests are described for testing the program. An analytical solution is presented which approximately describes the distribution of O-18 in the oxide layer for pure volume diffusion. Experimental SIMS profiles on Fe-Cr-Al alloys are explored on the basis of our calculation.     

Compressed Multiresolution Hierarchies for High‐Quality Precomputed Shadows

The quality of shadow mapping is traditionally limited by texture resolution. We present a novel lossless compression scheme for high‐resolution shadow maps based on precomputed multiresolution hierarchies. Traditional multiresolution trees can compactly represent homogeneous regions of shadow maps at coarser levels, but require many nodes for fine details. By conservatively adapting the depth map, we can significantly reduce the tree complexity. Our proposed method offers high compression rates, avoids quantization errors, exploits coherency along all data dimensions, and is well‐suited for GPU architectures. Our approach can be applied for coherent shadow maps as well, enabling several applications, including high‐quality soft shadows and dynamic lights moving on fixed‐trajectories.     

Clip art rendering of smooth isosurfaces

Clip art is a simplified illustration form consisting of layered filled polygons or closed curves used to convey 3D shape information in a 2D vector graphics format. This paper focuses on the problem of direct conversion of smooth surfaces, ranging from the free-form shapes of art and design to the mathematical structures of geometry and topology, into a clip art form suitable for illustration use in books, papers and presentations.We show how to represent silhouette, shadow, gleam and other surface feature curves as the intersection of implicit surfaces, and derive equations for their efficient interrogation via particle chains. We further describe how to sort, orient, identify and fill the closed regions that overlay to form clip art. We demonstrate the results with numerous renderings used to illustrate the paper itself.     

Fluid-Induced Seismicity: Theory, Modeling, and Applications

Operations including borehole fluid injections are typical for exploration and development of hydrocarbon or geothermic reservoirs. Microseismicity occurring during such operations has a large potential for understanding physics of the seismogenic process as well as in obtaining detailed information about reservoirs at locations as far as several kilometers from boreholes. We propose that the phenomenon of microseismicity triggering by borehole fluid injections is related to the process of the Frenkel–Biot slow wave propagation. In the low-frequency range (hours or days of fluid injection durations) this process reduces to the pore-pressure diffusion. We search for diffusion-related features of induced microseismicity. Two types of such signatures are considered. The first one is related to the geometry of microseismic clouds. Another type of signature is related to the probability of microearthquakes. On this basis we introduce a concept for interpretation of microseismic data which provides a possibility to infer information about hydraulic properties of rocks. Such information can be of significant importance for industrial applications and for understanding physical properties of geological structures.