Experimental results of a solar assisted heat pump rice drying system

In the last rice harvest season, experimental results have been obtained on the efficiency and drying quality of a solar assisted heat pump drying prototype system. The system has been operated as a solar and heat pump system and drying curves for the different options have been obtained. The advantage of the low temperature and better control in the drier shows that the heat pump assisted solar drying system is an excellent alternative to traditional drying systems.     

Synthesis and biological studies on analogs of cyclolinopeptide A with a shortened peptide chain

Continuing our work on the immunosuppressive activity of cyclolinopeptide A (CLA), a cyclic nonapeptide of the sequence: c-(-Leu-Ile-Ile-Leu-Val-Pro-Pro-Phe-Phe), we synthesized a series of 6 linear analogs of CLA, successively shortened at the N-terminus of the peptide chain. Immunosuppressive activity of acetates as well as trifluoroacetates of these peptides was investigated using PFC (humoral immunity) and DTH (cellular immunity) tests. It was found that the immunosuppressive potency of the peptides examined diminishes with shortening of the peptide chain. Octapeptide I with the sequence Ile-Ile-Leu-Val-Pro-Pro-Phe-Phe was found to be the most active of the whole series. The immunosuppressive activity increased again for a tripeptide fragment of CLA of the sequence Pro-Phe-Phe. The immunosuppressive activity of octapeptide probably depends on the suppression of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF production by the cells involved in immune and inflammatory response.     

A new technique for on-line and off-line high speed computation

A novel technique for both online and offline computation is presented. With this technique, a reconstruction analysis in elementary particle physics, otherwise prohibitively long, has been accomplished. It will be used online in an upcoming Fermilab experiment to reconstruct more than 100000 events per second and to trigger on the basis of that information. The technique delivers 40 gigaoperations per second, has a bandwidth on the order of gigabytes per second, and has a modest cost. An overview of the program, details of the system, and performance measurements are presented     

Feminist identity and feminist therapy behaviors of women psychotherapists.

Investigated whether (1) feminist identity development for women therapists was related to their use of feminist therapy behaviors (FTBs) and (2) feminist identity development and use of FTBs for women therapists were related to self-identification as a feminist therapist. 153 women psychologists (aged 30–77 yrs) were administered a women's issues in therapy questionnaire, which included a short version of the Feminist Identity Scale (FIS; K. M. Rickard, 1989, 1990). Ss were categorized into stages of feminine identity development according to their scores on 4 subscales of the FIS: Passive-Acceptance (PA), Revelation (REV), Embeddedness (EMB), and Synthesis (SYN). Ss scoring high on SYN and REV, and low on PA, reported greater use of FTBs; scores on the EMB were not related to the use of FTBs. All 4 subscales were predictive of women therapists who self-identified as feminist therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family burden following traumatic brain injury.

Investigated burden experienced by 60 spouses and 71 parents who served as primary caregivers to individuals with traumatic brain injury (BI). Burden levels, as assessed by the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (QRS-SF), were compared for spouses and parents. Both parents and spouses exhibited high levels of burden. Relative to spouses, parents reported significantly greater burden related to lifespan care. Spouses reported significantly less personal reward than did parents. The presence of social aggression and cognitive disability in the individual with BI was found to have a greater association with subjective burden of caregivers than was the presence of physical disability or injury severity. Results of previous studies with QRS-SF scores show that the responsibility assumed by spouses and parents of persons with BI was as great as that experienced by families of people with severe chronic physical disabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the linear and nonlinear complexity profile of nonlinear pseudorandom number generators

We obtain lower bounds on the linear and nonlinear complexity profile of a general nonlinear pseudorandom number generator, of the inversive generator, and of a new nonlinear generator called quadratic exponential generator. The results are interesting for applications to cryptography and Monte Carlo methods.     

On transitive orientations with restricted covering graphs

We consider the problem of finding a transitive orientation of a comparability graph, such that the edge set of its covering graph contains a given subset of edges. We propose a solution which employs the classical technique of modular tree decomposition. The method leads to a polynomial time algorithm to construct such an orientation or report that it does not exist.