Localized corrosion of (lean) duplex stainless steels in immersion units of urban wastewater treatment plants

With lower alloying cost and higher mechanical properties, lean duplex stainless steels can be an alternative to the more commonly used austenitic stainless steels. However, these alloys are still not the preferred choice, probably due to a lack of field experience. A study was thus initiated in view of defining the limits of use of selected (lean) duplexes for urban wastewater treatment units. The present paper shows the localized corrosion performance of selected lean duplexes in chloride contaminated solutions. The results are compared with austenitic S30403 and S31603 and with the more standard duplexes S82441 and S32205. The effect of welding was also investigated. Exposures in field municipal wastewater plants were conducted for 1 year in low and high chloride content units. The results show that lean duplexes S32101 and S32202 can be used as alternatives to S30403 and S31603 in low chloride electrolytes. At 500 ppm of chloride content, duplex stainless steel S32304 showed better corrosion resistance than S30403 and S31603. For higher chloride contents (1000 ppm and above) the standard duplexes S82441 and S32205 shall be preferred.     

Defining Dry Eye from a Clinical Perspective

Over the past decades, the number of patients with dry eye disease (DED) has increased dramatically. The incidence of DED is higher in Asia than in Europe and North America, suggesting the involvement of cultural or racial factors in DED etiology. Although many definitions of DED have been used, discrepancies exist between the various definitions of dry eye disease (DED) used across the globe. This article presents a clinical consensus on the definition of DED, as formulated in four meetings with global DED experts. The proposed new definition is as follows: “Dry eye is a multifactorial disease characterized by a persistently unstable and/or deficient tear film (TF) causing discomfort and/or visual impairment, accompanied by variable degrees of ocular surface epitheliopathy, inflammation and neurosensory abnormalities.” The key criteria for the diagnosis of DED are unstable TF, inflammation, ocular discomfort and visual impairment. This definition also recommends the assessment of ocular surface epitheliopathy and neurosensory abnormalities in each patient with suspected DED. It is easily applicable in clinical practice and should help practitioners diagnose DED consistently. This consensus definition of DED should also help to guide research and clinical trials that, to date, have been hampered by the lack of an established surrogate endpoint.     

Moderate lameness leads to marked behavioral changes in dairy cows

Lameness is one of the most prevalent diseases affecting the welfare of cows in modern dairy production. Lameness leads to behavioral changes in severely lame cows, which have been investigated in much detail. For early detection of lameness, knowledge of the effects of moderate lameness on cow behavior is crucial. Therefore, the behavior of nonlame and moderately lame cows was compared on 17 Swiss dairy farms. On each farm, 5 to 11 nonlame (locomotion score 1 of 5) and 2 to 7 moderately lame (locomotion score 3 of 5) cows were selected for data collection in two 48-h periods (A, B) separated by an interval of 6 to 10 wk. Based on visual locomotion scoring, 142 nonlame and 66 moderately lame cows were examined in period A and 128 nonlame and 53 moderately lame cows in period B. Between these 2 periods, the cows underwent corrective hoof trimming. Lying behavior, locomotor activity, and neck activity were recorded by accelerometers (MSR145 data logger, MSR Electronics GmbH, Seuzach, Switzerland), and feeding and rumination behaviors by noseband sensors (RumiWatch halter, ITIN + HOCH GmbH, Liestal, Switzerland). Furthermore, visits to the brush and the concentrate feeder, and the milking order position were recorded. In comparison with nonlame cows, moderately lame cows had a longer lying duration, a longer average lying bout duration, and a greater lateral asymmetry in lying duration. Average locomotor activity, locomotor activity during 1 h after feed delivery or push-ups, and average neck activity were lower in moderately lame cows. Eating time and the number of eating chews (jaw movements) were reduced in moderately lame compared with nonlame cows, whereas no effect of moderate lameness was evident for ruminating time, number of ruminating chews and boluses, and average number of ruminating chews per bolus. Moderately lame cows visited the concentrate feeder and the brush less frequently, and they were further back in the milking order compared with nonlame cows. In conclusion, nonlame and moderately lame cows differed in a biologically relevant way in many of the behavioral variables investigated in this study. Therefore, the use of these behavioral changes seems to be promising to develop a tool for early lameness detection.     

Mitochondrial and cytosolic branched-chain amino acid transaminases from yeast, homologs of the myc oncogene-regulated Eca39 protein

We have isolated a high copy suppressor of a temperature-sensitive mutation in ATM1, which codes for an ABC transporter of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondria. The suppressor, termed BAT1, encodes a protein of 393 amino acid residues with an NH2-terminal extension that directs Bat1p to the mitochondrial matrix. A highly homologous protein, Bat2p, of 376 amino acid residues was found in the cytosol. Both Bat proteins show striking similarity to the mammalian protein Eca39, which is one of the few known targets of the myc oncogene. Deletion of a single BAT gene did not impair growth of yeast cells. In contrast, deletion of both genes resulted in an auxotrophy for branched-chain amino acids (Ile, Leu, and Val) and in a severe growth reduction on glucose-containing media, even after supply of these amino acids. Mitochondria and cytosol isolated from bat1 and bat2 deletion mutants, respectively, contained largely reduced activities for the conversion of branched-chain 2-ketoacids to their corresponding amino acids. Thus, the Bat proteins represent the first known isoforms of yeast branched-chain amino acid transaminases. The severe growth defect of the double deletion mutant observed even in the presence of branched-chain amino acids suggests that the Bat proteins, in addition to the supply of these amino acids, perform another important function in the cell.     

Comment and discussion on digital processing of PD pulses

Some of the more salient aspects of the digital processing technology of PD signals are examined. Most of the efforts in this field are concentrated on the application of digital analyzers for pulse height analysis, pattern recognition and identification of the physical phenomena. It is demonstrated that errors in the signal processing unit can lead to dominant mistakes in the interpretation of the test results     

Introduction

Concluding remarks With this brief exposition of the areas covered in this special double issue on Eurotra, we shall now conclude our introduction. We hope that the volume will achieve its goals, as outlined above, at least to some extent. Certainly, much more could be said about a wide range of topics which have been covered in the lifetime or the project so far. For instance, these article, mainly written by linguists, deliberately neglect the software implementation and environment aspects of the prototype Eurotra Translation System, as well as a number of peripheral tools and components of the system that are available to the user, such as lexical data bases, text-handling mechanisms and the like. The reader interested in aspects of this kind is referred to Raw et al. 1989 for a very brief introduction, and to the Eurotra software team at the Commission of the European Communities (DG XIII, Luxembourg) for more details. However, one goal that we do hope to come close to achieving is to give a fair overview of the Eurotra linguistic theory of translation and the mainstream and sideline formalisms expressing variant versions of it. If we have come anywhere near achieving that, our gratitude is due to the numerous Eurotra colleagues who have supported us in preparing this volume, and to the editor of this journal.     

Study of the beta -delayed neutron decay of 18N

The shortage of suitable liver donors for children has motivated the use of ABO-incompatible (ABO-I) grafts for transplantation in urgent situations. However, survival after ABO-I liver grafts has been reported at about 30% as compared with 80% in cases of ABO-identical or -compatible liver grafts. This difference has been attributed to antibody-mediated, hyperacute or chronic liver rejection, due to preformed ABO antibodies (alloantibodies). In this study, we report our results with ABO-I livers in children without alloantibodies at the time of transplantation. From January 1988 to June 1993, 143 OLT were performed in 122 children. Eight children received 8 ABO-I liver grafts. Of these, 7 patients were included in the study. All 7 were alloantibody free before OLT. Five children were spontaneously alloantibody free, while in 2 children, the plasma alloantibodies were eliminated before and after transplantation using intravenous infusion of specific blood group antigens of the donor blood group (soluble antigens). Immunosuppression consisted of a triple-drug treatment combining CsA, AZA, and steroids. The follow-up period was between 10 and 48 months. One child died from a surgical complication. Six children survived, but 1 died 10 months later from intestinal obstruction. There were no graft losses and no episodes of hyperacute or chronic rejection. The graft and patient survival rate was 71%. There was a 28% incidence of rejection, but all were mild (requiring steroid boluses only). Our results suggest that the absence of ABO alloantibodies at the time of and after transplantation can protect ABO-I liver grafts against antibody-mediated rejection, whether hyperacute or chronic, and that soluble antigens are effective in eliminating alloantibodies in children.     

Neutron Scattering and Ordering of Nuclear Spins

The ordering of nuclear spins takes place at extremely low temperatures because of the weakness of the interactions between their magnetic moments. Neutron scattering is the traditional and unique method to study the collective ordering of magnetic moments. The combination of the problem (nuclear spin ordering) and the method (neutron scattering) leads to new insight into the many body behaviour of the nuclear spin system and into some of the long standing general questions of the cooperative behaviour of magnetic systems. We describe neutron scattering studies on the nuclear spin systems in Cu and Ag at nano- and subnanokelvin temperatures as an example of a very successful international collaboration based on the work performed at the Low Temperature Laboratory, in the Helsinki University of Technology in Otaniemi. The collaboration was initiated by Olli V. Lounasmaa.