AGCL,a FORTRAN IV program for agglomerative,nonhierarchical Q-mode classification of large data sets

This paper describes a FORTRAN IV computer program for an agglomerative, nonhierarchical classification scheme for large data sets. The program will accomodate 1000 items and 10 components. An example of geochemical data from Lake Erie is given.     

Binding of ²³⁹Pu and ⁹⁰Sr to organic colloids in soil solutions: evidence from a field experiment

Colloidal transport has been shown to enhance the migration of plutonium in groundwater downstream from contaminated sites, but little is known about the adsorption of ??Sr and plutonium onto colloids in the soil solution of natural soils. We sampled soil solutions using suction cups, and separated colloids using ultrafiltration to determine the distribution of 23?Pu and ??Sr between the truly dissolved fraction and the colloidal fraction of the solutions of three Alpine soils contaminated only by global fallout from the nuclear weapon tests. Plutonium was essentially found in the colloidal fraction (>80%) and probably associated with organic matter. A significant amount of colloidal ??Sr was detected in organic-rich soil solutions. Our results suggest that binding to organic colloids in the soil solutions plays a key role with respect to the mobility of plutonium in natural alpine soils and, to a lesser extent, to the mobility of ??Sr.     

Early validation analyses of atmospheric profiles from EOS MLS on the aura Satellite

We present results of early validation studies using retrieved atmospheric profiles from the Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite. "Global" results are presented for MLS measurements of atmospheric temperature, ozone, water vapor, hydrogen chloride, nitrous oxide, nitric acid, and carbon monoxide, with a focus on the January-March 2005 time period. These global comparisons are made using long-standing global satellites and meteorological datasets, as well as some measurements from more recently launched satellites. Comparisons of MLS data with measurements from the Ft. Sumner, NM, September 2004 balloon flights are also presented. Overall, good agreement is obtained, often within 5% to 10%, but we point out certain issues to resolve and some larger systematic differences; some artifacts in the first publicly released MLS (version 1.5) dataset are noted. We comment briefly on future plans for validation and software improvements.     

Renal tubular acidosis in children

Renal tubular acidosis represents a heterogenous group of disorders with various etiologies and mechanisms. The physiopathologic basis of each type of renal tubular acidosis is reviewed, focusing on the laboratory investigations necessary to define the nature of the hyperchloremic renal tubular acidosis. Clinically, the four types of renal tubular acidosis can be associated with complications such as osteomalacia, urolithiasis and failure to thrive. Very often, the chronic administration of alkali results in normal growth and development, and greatly reduces the risk of stone formation or nephrocalcinosis.     

DEFAULT LOGICS: A UNIFIED VIEW

Default logic has been introduced for handling reasoning with incomplete knowledge. It has been widely studied, and various definitions have been proposed for it. Most of the variants have been defined by means of fixed points of some operator. We propose here another approach, which is based on a study of the way in which general rules with exceptions, used in a default reasoning process, can contradict one another. We then isolate sets of noncontradicting rules, as large as possible in order to exploit as much information as possible, and construct, for each of these sets of rules, the set of conclusions that can be deduced from it. We show that our framework encompasses most of the existing variants of default logic, allowing those variants to be compared from a knowledge representation point of view. Our approach also enables us to provide an operational definition of extensions in some interesting cases. Proof-theoretical and semantical aspects are investigated.     

Photoelectric Laser Stimulation applied to Latch-Up phenomenon and localization of parasitic transistors in an industrial failure analysis laboratory

This paper describes a new technique that uses a 1064 nm wavelength laser for failure analysis of CMOS integrated circuits. We propose a new flow to deal with Latch-Up (LU) phenomenon issues and for this we have developed a new technique that allows localizing areas sources of Latch-Up triggering in an Integrated Circuit (IC). An effectiveness of this method is verified by an experiment on a microcontroller and has proved to be useful for finding the sensitive location. The proposed methodology further extends the capabilities of Photoelectric Laser Stimulation (PLS) in qualification and characterization domains.     

Long-term and long-range migration of radioactive fallout in a Karst system

Mountainous areas are often covered by little evolved soils from which deposited radionuclides can potentially leak into the vadose zone. In the Swiss Jura mountains, we observed unusual isotopic ratios of nuclear weapon test (NWTs) fallout with an apparent loss of NWTs plutonium relative to 13?Cs of Chernobyl origin in thinner soils. Here, we studied the karstic watershed of a vauclusian spring to determine the residence times of plutonium, 2?1Am, and ??Sr deposited by global fallout and their respective mobility in carbonaceous soils. The results show that ??Sr is washed most efficiently from the watershed with a residence time of several hundred years. The estimated plutonium residence time is more than 10 times higher (in the range of 5000-10,000 years), and the 2?1Am residence time is double that of plutonium. The spring water 2?1Am/23?+2??Pu isotopic ratio is lower (0.12 - 0.28) than found in watershed soils (0.382 ± 0.077). Similar differences are found in aquatic mosses (2?1Am/23?+2??Pu isotopic ratio 0.05-0.12), which are permanently submerged in spring waters. In contrast to plutonium, ??Sr is leached from these mosses with 0.5M HCl, demonstrating that strontium is probably associated with calcium carbonate precipitations on the mosses. The higher plutonium to americium isotopic ratio found in the samples of spring water and mosses at the outlet of the karst shows that plutonium mobility is enhanced.     

Study of a continuous reactor for selective solvent extraction of haemorphins in the course of peptic haemoglobin hydrolysis

The continuous hydrolysis of bovine haemoglobin at pH 3 in a triphasic reactor was studied in order to prepare two pure transient and hydrophobic opioid peptides in one step. A continuous stirred‐tank reactor was designed to extract continuously and selectively LVV‐haemorphin‐7 and VV‐haemorphin‐7 by a butan‐2‐ol–octan‐1‐ol mixture in the course of bovine haemoglobin hydrolysis by pepsin immobilised on A568 Duolite resin. The residence time in the aqueous and organic phases was maintained at 1 h. This system allowed a steady state to be achieved for haemorphin concentrations in each phase and the pepsin stability to be maintained. Finally, success was achieved in producing and extracting continuously the two haemorphins in the aqueous/butan‐2‐ol–octan‐1‐ol biphasic medium for more than 10 bed volumes of the reactor. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Preparation from bovine colostrum of a fraction rich in latent transforming growth factor-β2 and cleared of most allergenic proteins by one-step Cibacron Blue chromatography

A strategy was developed for the preparation of a latent transforming growth factor-β2 (latent TGF-β2) rich fraction from bovine colostrum. Different conventional chromatography techniques were tested to investigate some physicochemical properties of latent TGF-β2 complexes to optimize their recovery. Three latent TGF-β2 forms were detected by gel filtration (600, 150–250 and 65–150 kDa). Cation exchange chromatography showed that the pI of latent TGF-β2 was above pH 7; hydrophobic interaction chromatography showed that the hydrophobicity of latent TGF-β2 was much higher than that of other whey proteins. Affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue 3G was used to separate latent TGF-β2 and immunoglobulin G from the most immunogenic proteins, α-lactalbumin, β-lactoglobulin and albumin. Optimum conditions were determined: preparation of a fraction 26 times richer in TGF-β2 than in serocolostrum was obtained with a good yield (up to 70%) of TGF-β2, 80% of which was in the latent form.     

Improved “cure on demand” of aromatic bismaleimide with thiol triggered by retro-Diels-Alder reaction

This study focuses on the synthesis of new liquid aromatic bismaleimide monomers in order to improve self-curing on demand(SCOD)systems previously based on aliphatic bismaleimides.These SCOD systems are based on Diels-Alder(DA)/retro-DA reactions.The syntheses of new different aromatic bismaleimides with ester and amide bonds are presented.These maleimides have been protected using DA reaction and characterized by 1H NMR analysis to determine protection rate and diastereomer ratios.The retro-DA reactions of both aromatic and aliphatic DA adducts in presence of thiol molecules were studied.Kinetic analysis was monitored by 1H NMR and compared to model study.Finally,both aromatic and aliphatic bismaleimides-based polymers were synthesized with 2-mercaptoethyl ether and thermal properties of polymers were compared.The glass transition temperature values ranged from–20°C to 14°C and very good thermal stabilities were observed(up to 300°C).