A NOTE: POLYVALENT RADIOVACCINE AGAINST SALMONELLA

Salmonella strains exposed to lethal doses of gamma radiation are detoxified but retain their antigenic properties. Using eight Salmonella strains representative of each of the Salmonella serogroups A to G, a polyvalent radiovaccine has been developed which effectively immunizes mice to several Salmonella serotypes.     

Demonstration of the Performance of an Inclined Anaerobic Digester in Wine Stillage and Pea Blancher Wastewater Treatment

Disposal of high strength wastes has been a problem in the fruit and vegetable processing industries. We have designed and tested an inclined continuous anaerobic digester for the rapid treatment of unmodified wine stillage (21,000–25,000 mg COD per liter) and waste water from a pea blancher (20,000 mg COD per liter). The digester was successfully operated for periods up to 9 months using feed rates as high as 10.7g COD per liter per day (hydraulic detention time of 2.4 days). COD removal efficiency ranged from 95.9% to 99.5%, and effluent suspended solids were less than 800 mg per liter.     

Dyestuff—fibre interactions

The strength and nature of dye–fibre interactions vary according to fibre type and dye type. In the case of acid dyes for polyamide fibres, cationic dyes for acrylic fibres, disperse dyes for hydrophobic fibres, and direct dyes for cellulosic fibres, these interactions may be classified as non-covalent, a classification which includes van der Waals (VDW), electrostatic, induction, solvophobic and charge-transfer interactions.
Reactive dyes are a notable exception to the above, since the interaction which is responsible for their excellent wet fastness is the dye–fibre covalent bond, however, these dyes are increasingly viewed as environmentally unfriendly due to high salt usage and residual unfixed colour. This situation may be improved by either incorporating amine sites in the cellulose or by reversing the system to incorporate reactive residues in the fibre and nucleophilic sites in the dye.
Nonionic disperse dyes are valuable for hydrophobic fibres such as polyester but have made little impact on hydrophilic fibres such as silk, wool and cotton. Experiments to develop simple treatments to render the latter fibres disperse dyeable are described and the combined role of solvophobic and – interactions discussed.     

Corrigendum

There is a growing collection of applications of optimal control theory to mathematical models of biological systems in which ‘ decisions ’ are made. We point out that if the decision variables enter the problem linearly and in additive groups, the behaviour of the variables in each group is qualitatively identical. This is in direct contrast to (incorrect) results recently presented for a cell growth model.     

AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON FUZZY SET-BASED APPROXIMATE REASONING

Abstract

On the subject of fuzzy set-based approximate reasoning, this paper attempts to present a perspective that is both rigorously stated and different from the standard approach as stated by Mamdani and many others. Functionally speaking, this alternative perspective produces results essentially the same as the standard one, and in fact we intend to prove that subject to certain assumptions the results will be exactly die same. We feel however that the alternative perspective offers advantages in that it makes a more appropriate and more understandable use of such concepts as fuzzy relations, the extension principle, and fuzzy composition. If indeed it can lead to a clearer and more widespread understanding of the approximate reasoning formalism then this could conceivably spark broader interest in fuzzy control and other applications.     

RESCALING AMBITIONS: WATERFRONT GOVERNANCE AND TORONTO'S 2015 PAN AMERICAN GAMES

Toronto is a rare global city because negotiating public land ownership remains a defining feature of the city's urban politics. The awarding of the 2015 Pan American Games to Toronto is a prime occasion to witness how fragmented governance can limit the ambition and enthusiasm of a sporting mega‐event. Historically, Toronto has not been known for its ability to host large‐scale sporting events but it has recently used a series of failed Olympic bids and smaller sporting events to trigger piecemeal “legacy” development. In this article we argue that the awarding of the Pan American Games to Toronto was predicated on a process that removed local politics from the bidding process. Focusing on the development of the athletes’ village in the West Don Lands and incorporating a number of interviews with key stakeholders across Toronto, this research illustrates that the heavy involvement and investment of the Province of Ontario in the Pan American spectacle forces us to ask: Whose waterfront? Whose games?     

Identifying Nucleotidic Materials Released by Fermenting Brewer's Yeast

SUMMARY— During fermentation a brewer's yeast released into the medium substantial amounts of materials absorbing ultra-violet light at 260 mμ These materials were separated by chromatography and identified by further chromatography and spectrophotometry. Nine nucleotides, five free bases (purines and pyrimidines) and four nucleosides were identified in the fermented medium and in the intracellular pool of the yeast. Some of these released materials may be of consequence in the fermented beverage industry since they were not reabsorbed by yeast and can be expected to persist to the finished product.     

Neural network solution for finite-horizon H-infinity constrained optimal control of nonlinear systems

In this paper, neural networks are used to approximately solve the finite-horizon constrained input H-infinity state feedback control problem. The method is based on solving a related Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation of the corresponding finite-horizon zero-sum game. The game value function is approximated by a neural network with time- varying weights. It is shown that the neural network approximation converges uniformly to the game-value function and the resulting almost optimal constrained feedback controller provides closed-loop stability and bounded L2 gain. The result is an almost optimal H-infinity feedback controller with time-varying coefficients that is solved a priori off-line. The effectiveness of the method is shown on the Rotational/Translational Actuator benchmark nonlinear control problem.