Properties of Edible Films from Total Milk Protein

The mechanical properties and water vapor permeability of edible films made from various total milk proteins (TMPs) were investigated. Two TMPs obtained from nonfat dry milk (NDM) by removing lactose and three TMPs obtained from a commercial source were studied. Lactose was extracted from NDM by ultrafiltration or suspension in ethanol followed by filtration. TMP concentrate obtained by ultrafiltration (UF) produced films with the lowest water vapor permeability (WVP) and the highest tensile strength at break. Commercial TMP concentrates produced films more ductile than those from the UF-TMP or retentate from ethanol extraction. Further research is needed to improve mechanical properties of UF-TMP films without increasing the WVP.     

Cyclic fatigue of long and short cracks in alumina

The cyclic fatigue behaviour of long and microstructurally short cracks in a 10 μm grain-size alumina has been investigated. This material was found to be stress sensitive, a modest drop in applied stress resulting in a considerable lifetime enhancement. The growth of long cracks was studied using the circular compact tension geometry and was found to follow a Paris law behaviour. The crack path was entirely intergranular in this material with long fatigue crack growth governed by the degradation of crack-wake bridging. Short-crack growth was investigated using indented discs in a biaxial flexure geometry. Short cracks were observed to grow at lower values of applied ΔK than long cracks, increasing with crack length as bridging of the crack wake increased. The fatigue crack growth of AD90 alumina was also investigated by in situ testing within the specimen chamber of an SEM. The long-crack behaviour was found to be similar to the 10 μm grain-size alumina and other data reported in the literature. However, the crack path followed a mixture of transgranular and intergranular fracture and discontinuous in nature with frequent arrests. The crack-advancement mechanisms in these two alumina materials are different and affect the short-crack behaviour. However, in both cases the long-crack behaviour is dominated by crack-wake effects. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A neural network based system for predicting earthmoving production

An artificial neural network based system (NN earth) is developed for construction practitioners as a simple tool for predicting earthmoving operations, which are modelled by back propagation neural networks with four expected parameters and seven affecting factors. These networks are then trained using the data patterns obtained from simulation because there are insufficient data available from industrial sources. The trained network is then incorporated as the computation engine of NN earth. To engender confidence in the results of neural computation, a validation function is implemented in NN earth to allow the user to apply the engine to historic cases prior to applying it to a new project. An equipment database is also implemented in NN earth to provide default information, such as internal cost rate, fuel cost, and operator's cost. User interfaces are developed to facilitate inputting project information and manipulating the system. The major functions and use of NN earth are illustrated in a sample application. In practice, NN earth can assist the user either in selecting a crew to minimize the unit cost of a project or in predicting the performance of a given crew.     

TWO CONCEPTIONS OF RELEVANCE

Courts use complex modes of relevance judgments in regulating the introduction of information and construction of factual narratives. Likewise, common law works both through and around relevance presuppositions in determining doctrine. This study examines different functions of relevance--conceived as different conceptions, at times competing, at times interdependent. The distinctions between these conceptions are arranged on three levels: (1) a normative/"causal" level, arguing for the status of relevance as a requirement for a "meaning-based" conception of entailment and drawing on discussions from relevance logic and modal logic; (2) a pragmatic/metapragmatic level that explores the ways in which law's "factfinding" and other epistemological functions are subjected to normative, practical purposes (under the heading "practical primacy"); and (3) the relevance/metarelevance distinction between the kinds of information admitted to the court's discursive space and the very notion of reliance on information in regulating decision making. All these levels are accommodated primarily by the law of evidence (although not exclusively); in an important sense, they define it. The study claims that although pragmatic and semantic relevance (corresponding to the "fit thesis") are at the center of most studies, it is relevance's metapragmatic function in constituting legal discourse that merits special attention, viz, the constitutive role of relevance in determining what may count as knowledge rather than merely its regulative or derivative function regarding relations between information and presupposed doctrine.     

COMPARISON OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE METHODS FOR MODELING PHARMACEUTICAL QSARS

A common step in pharmaceutical development is the formation of a quantitative structure-activity relationship *(QSAR) to model an exploratory series of compounds. A QSAR generalizes how the structure (shape) of a compound relates to its biological activity. A comparative study was carried out of six artificial intelligence and traditional algorithms for modeling QSAR's: GOLEM, CART, and MS from symbolic machine learning; back-propagation from neural networks; and linear regression and nearest-neighbor from traditional statistics. Two test case problems were studied: the inhibition of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) by pyrimidines, and the inhibition of ratlmouse tumor DHFR by triazines. It was found that there was no significant statistical difference between the methods in terms of their ability to rank unseen compounds by activity. However, symbolic machine learning methods, in particular relational ones, were found to generate rules that provided insight into the stereochemistry of compound receptor interactions.     

Approximating reachable sets for a class of linear control systems†

We present a technique for overestimating the reachable set from the origin for a class of n-dimensional linear control systems. The proposed ‘box’ method is based upon decomposing the system into one and two-dimensional subsystems for which bounds on the new variables can readily be found. Using these bounds enables the construction of a n-dimensional parallelepiped containing the reachable set of the original system. Examples of this procedure are given as well as a comparison to an overapproximation afforded by a Lyapunov approach.     

Mathematical Treatment of Glass Corrosion Data

Acid corrosion data obtained at elevated temperatures were related mathematically in a multiple regression form. The mathematical model was tested satisfactorily for several glasses corroding in four mineral acids at different concentrations.     

Hydrogen Treating Process for Steel

Steel is exposed to cathodically generated hydrogen until a decrease in density and an increase in porosity is obtained. The change in structure may be noted by ultrasonic mechanical vibrations. Upon the removal of a substantial portion of the hydrogen, glass may be applied to the steel and it will be free of high- and low-temperature hydrogen defects. This process permits the use of ( a ) nonpremium steels, ( b ) nonbubbly mill additions, and ( c ) ground-coat compositions that have greater corrosion resistance than conventional ground coats.     

Parallelizing Imperative Functional Programs: the Vectorization Monad

Traditionally a vectorizing compiler matches the iterative constructs of a program against a set of predefined templates. If a loop contains no dependency cycles then amaptemplate can be used; other simple dependencies can often be expressed in terms offoldorscantemplates. This paper addresses the template matching problem within the context of functional programming. A small collection of program identities are used to specify vectorizable for-loops. By incorporating these program identities within a monad,allwell-typed for-loops in which the body of the loop is expressed using thevectorization monadcan be vectorized. This technique enables the elimination of template matching from a vectorizing compiler, and the proof of the safety of vectorization can be performed by a type inference mechanism.     

Haemocompatiblity of controlled release glass

There are many medical applications which benefit from the use of soluble biomaterials, including the sustained release of drugs over a precise period of time, or temporary conduits for controlling nerve regrowth. We have manufactured a series of phosphate-based controlled release glasses (CRGs) in which the solubility could be controlled by varying the concentration of CaO and Na2O. Fibres of the CRG containing iron and cerium were placed into direct contact with human neutrophils and macrophages in tissue culture for 2.5 and 24 h respectively and the responses analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy. The supernatants were analysed for the cytokine IL-1 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Disks of CRG of various compositions were placed in contact with whole blood for 30 min and platelet adhesion assessed by SEM. Activation of platelets, granulocytes and complement were quantified by ELISA for -thromboglobulin, elastase and iC3b. Intrinsic coagulation activation was measured by timing the clotting of recalcified plasma. Only the cerium fibre inhibited IL-1 release from macrophages. No platelet adhesion was observed to any disk composition. Three compositions containing MgO inhibited plasma clotting and showed an insignificant level of complement activation. This study has demonstrated the development of a number of compositions of CRG, which have great potential in a wide variety of biomedical applications.