Rationalisierung des Zeichnungswesens im Chemie-Apparatebau

Rationalizing drawings for chemical apparatus . For small and medium-sized manufacturers of apparatus, producing drawings may constitute a disproportionate waste of time and personnel, particularly when no new designs are involved but only modification or improvement of drawings supplied by the customer. One possibility for rationalizing drawing is to simplify the old-fashioned approach by using symbols for frequently drawn or standard items, or by listing alphanumerically. This presumes a kind of systematization permitting determination of those symbols and their reasonable use, as well facilitating rationalization by means of data processing. There are different approaches to computer-aided drawing (from computer controlled drawing-board to interactive screens); here a CAD programme is presented which was especially developed for graphic presentation of chemical apparatus, and which can be used without learning a programming language.     

87Sr/86Sr from rock and soil into vine and wine

For provenance assignments of wines strontium isotope ratios can be used because soils from different wine-growing regions, and hence the wines grown there, each show specific ratios. Some successful applications are demonstrated.

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⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr aus Gestein und Boden in Rebe und Wein

Zusammenfassung Zur Herkunftsbestimmung von Weinen können Strontium-Isotopenverhältnisse herangezogen werden, da die Böden verschiedener Weinbaugebiete, und damit die dort gezogenen Weine, jeweils spezifische Verhältnisse aufweisen. Einige erfolgreiche Anwendungen werden demonstriert.

     

Management of E. coli dependent factorial diseases in weaning piglets

The most important postweaning factorial diseases are at least partly caused by E. coli. The term postweaning coli complex can be subcategorized into the following manifestations: postweaning diarrhoea, edema disease, postweaning wasting and hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. In the presented study the effect of prophylactic zootechnique alone and zoo- and biotechnique in combination was evaluated during the first weeks postweaning. The results showed that combined zoo- and biotechnique is superior to simple zootechnique regarding food conversion (1.41 kg versus 1.73 kg), average daily weight gain (390 g versus 325 g) and postweaning piglet mortality (3.1% versus 4.9%). It is the opinion of the authors that combined postweaning zoo- and biotechnique should be performed in such pig production units where ETEC and/or SLTEC are present.     

Optimizing the design of railway tank cars to minimize accident-caused releases

The design of vehicles transporting hazardous materials has important public safety and economic implications. Conventional wisdom among industry and government has held that a thicker tank on railroad tank cars and trucks reduces risk. However, a thicker tank increases vehicle weight and thus leads to an increase in the number of shipments required to transport the same amount of product and consequently greater exposure to accidents. In this research we develop a model that analyzes the tradeoff between increased damage resistance and greater exposure to accidents in which the objective function is minimization of the probability of release. The model accounts for the reduction in tank car release probability as a function of tank thickness, and the increased exposure to accidents that occurs due to the increased number of shipments needed for the heavier car. Three variables affecting this optimal thickness are considered in this paper: the volumetric capacity of the tank, the probability of release from other, non-tank sources, and the weight capacity of the car. Sensitivity analyses using the model indicate that for any particular configuration of tank car there is an optimal thickness. This optimal thickness is affected by several factors and there is no single optimum for all tank cars.     

Congenic rats reveal three independent Copenhagen alleles within the Mcs1 quantitative trait locus that confer resistance to mammary cancer

It has previously been shown that the Copenhagen (COP) rat contains several genetic loci that contribute to its mammary tumor-resistant phenotype after 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) administration. One of these loci, mammary carcinoma susceptibility 1 (Mcs1), is located on the centromeric end of chromosome 2 and appears to act in a semidominant fashion. To confirm the existence and independent action of this locus and also aid in the identification of the physical location of the Mcs1 gene, congenic lines were generated by transferring the Mcs1 COP allele onto a Wistar Furth (WF) genetic background. Male carriers were genotyped using microsatellite markers spanning 20-30 cM of the Mcs1 locus. One of the congenic lines minimally retained the COP allele at D2Mit29 on the centromeric end of chromosome 2 and extended distally to D2Rat201. Heterozygous Mcs1 carrier rats were interbred, and the female offspring were treated with DMBA. The female rats from the Mcs1 congenic line that carried one or two COP alleles of the Mcs1 region had a significantly reduced (65 and 85%, respectively) tumor development (P < 0.001) compared with rats carrying zero COP alleles at this locus. A WF.COP-D2Mit29/D2Rat201 homozygous congenic strain derived at the N10 generation was treated with DMBA, and the COP homozygous rats developed 1.5 +/- 0.3 carcinomas/rat versus 6.3 +/- 0.5 in WF control rats (P < 0.0001). Fine mapping of this congenic interval using several recombinant lines identified three genetic loci within the Mcs1 congenic region that independently supported a tumor resistance phenotype. These genetic loci have been termed Mcs1a, Mcs1b, and Mcs1c. In rats for which each locus was homozygous for the COP allele, tumor development was reduced by approximately 60% compared with littermate controls. The identification of these independent loci within the Mcs1 COP allele provide a model of the genetic complexity of cancer.