A unified critical state model for geomaterials with an application to tunnelling

This paper is prepared in honour of Professor E.T. Brown for his outstanding contributions to rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering and also for his personal influence on the first author's research career in geomechanics and geotechnical engineering. As a result, we have picked a topic that reflects two key research areas in which Professor E.T. Brown has made seminal contributions over a long and distinguished career. These two areas are concerned with the application of the critical state concept to modelling geomaterials and the analysis of underground excavation or tunnelling in geomaterials.Partially due to Professor Brown's influence, the first author has also been conducting research in these two areas over many years. In particular, this paper aims to describe briefly the development of a unified critical state model for geomaterials together with an application to cavity contraction problems and tunnelling in soils.     

Study of Disk-Loaded Waveguide Filled with Plasma

Recently disk-loaded waveguide has been widely used in high-power traveling wave tubes (HPTWT). It has been shown in many experiments that the interaction efficiency and output power can be increased greatly by injecting plasma into the vacuum microwave device. Using field analysis, the dispersion characteristics and the interaction impedance of the disk-loaded waveguide filled with plasma are analyzed in a strong longitudinal magnetic field. In conclusion, the frequency of the TM₀₁ mode increases as the density of the plasma increases. It also can be found when the plasma density increases to a large scale, the TM₀₁ mode of the disk-loaded waveguide overlaps the TG mode, these two modes couple each other and form the new hybrid modes.     

Enterococcal bacteremia in a medical center

BACKGROUND: The enterococci have become important nosocomial pathogens. They can cause multiple site infections and enterococcal bacteremia becomes more frequently associated with a high mortality rate. Previous studies of enterococcal bacteremia showed a variety of results. To establish the significance and importance of enterococci as nosocomial pathogens in this hospital, to characterize their clinical pictures and to search for the risk factors for mortality, this retrospective study was performed. METHODS: There were 208 cases of enterococcal bacteremia which occurred from 1988 to 1992. Twenty-seven cases had no medical charts, dismissing possibility of evaluation. Finally, 181 cases of enterococcal bacteremia were analysed. RESULTS: One hundred and eighteen episodes were nosocomial infections. Polymicrobial bacteremia occurred in 68.5% of the patients and the most common co-isolate was Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Those patients (78.5%) with underlying diseases and malignancies were the most common underlying problems. The portal of entry could be found in 69.6 percent of patients, with the gastrointestinal tract the most common sources. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed high gentamicin resistance rate (89.5%), and ampicillin still had about 80 percent sensitivity rate. The group who received specific antibiotic therapy for enterococcus showed lower mortality (36.4% versus 47.6%). Only one case had infective endocarditis. Forty-nine patients suffered from septic shock, the cause of 30 deaths. Totally 75 patients died during hospitalization. Besides sepsis, another major cause of death was their underlying diseases itself. CONCLUSIONS: Enterococci have no doubt become important nosocomial pathogens and enterococcal bacteremia were associated with high mortality, especially in elderly patients with underlying diseases such as malignancy or diabetes. When clinically dealing with sepsis from the gastrointestinal or biliary tract, especially when previous cephalosporins therapy showed no response, the possibility of enterococcal bacteremia should always be considered.     

Wortmannin enhances CPP32-like activity during neuronal differentiation of P19 embryonal carcinoma cells induced by retinoic acid

P19 EC cells undergoes apoptosis during neuronal differentiation induced by retinoic acid. Two CPP32-like proteases, CPP32 and Mch-3, are expressed in untreated and retinoic acid-treated P19 EC cells. CPP32-like activity is remarkably increased in apoptosis during neuronal differentiation of P19 EC cells. Inhibition of CPP32-like proteases prevents apoptosis, suggesting that activation of CPP32-like proteases play central roles in the apoptosis during neuronal differentiation of P19 EC cells. Wortmannin, PI-3K inhibitor, enhances the CPP32-like activity of the retinoic acid-treated P19 EC cells. PI-3K may be involved in the apoptosis during neuronal differentiation as negative regulator.     

Effects of sinus surgery on speech

The human 4 hour patch test provides an opportunity to identify substances with significant skin irritation potential without recourse to the use of animals. The protocol is designed to avoid the production of more than mild irritant reactions and meets the highest ethical standards. This paper provides the background to the development of the method and comments on its performance in the light of recent intra- and inter-laboratory investigations. In particular, the value of the method in providing 'gold standard' data for the identification of those substances (or preparations) which should, or should not, be classified as irritant to skin in European legislation is discussed. On the basis of the published data and supplementary investigations, recommendations are made on both the conduct and interpretation of the human 4 hour patch test. Finally, the lack of any necessity for formal validation of this assay is addressed.     

A Linear Cross-Coupled Control System for High-Speed Machining

We present a linear cross-coupled controller to improve highspeed contouring accuracy independently of tracking accuracy in a biaxial machine tool feed drive servomechanism. Unlike conventional cross-coupled controllers, the cross-coupled controller presented here is a linear system, so it is very easy to perform the stability and steady-state error analysis, and to optimise the controller parameters. The proposed controller is evaluated experimentally on a CNC LOM machine and compared to an uncoupled controller and a conventional cross-coupled controller. Controller performance is evaluated for a circular contour at a feedrate of 30 m min _1 . The experimental results show that the proposed controller can greatly reduce the contour error at large feedrates. The linear cross-coupled controller is simple to implement and is practical.     

Improvement of RCA transistor using RTA annealing after theformation of interfacial oxide

A polysilicon emitter RCA transistor (an ultra-thin interfacial oxide layer exists between polysilicon and silicon emitter) is presented which can operate at 77 K for the first time. An ultra-thin (1.5 nm) interfacial oxide layer is grown deliberately between polysilicon and silicon emitter using RCA oxidation and excellent device stability is obtained after rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment in nitrogen atmosphere. The RCA transistor exhibits good electrical performance at very low temperature for an emitter area of 3 × 8 μm². The maximum toggle frequency of a 1:2 static divider is 1.2 GHz and 732 MHz at 300 K and 77 K, respectively     

Construction and performance of a multiparameter focal plane detector for use on a QMG/2 magnetic spectrometer

The design, construction and performance of a modular, two pressure focal plane detector, 550 mm long, 1000 mm deep and with an active height of 60 mm are described. The detector has been operated with ions ranging from 50 MeV ¹H to 200 MeV ³⁶S. Typical results achieved are 0.5 mm and 0.3° for the spatial and angular resolutions, and 0.7% and 3% for the total energy and energy loss measurements. A height signal is also provided.     

Matrix unit cell scheduler (MUCS) for input-buffered ATM switches

This paper presents a novel matrix unit cell scheduler (MUCS) for input-buffered asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches. The MUCS concept originates from a heuristic strategy that leads to an optimal solution for cell scheduling. Numerical analysis indicates that input-buffered ATM switches scheduled by MUCS can utilize nearly 100% of the available link bandwidth. A transistor-level MUCS circuit has been designed and verified using HSPICE. The circuit features a regular structure, minimal interconnects, and a low transistor count. HSPICE simulation indicates that using 2-μm CMOS technology, the MUCS circuit can operate at clock frequency of 100 MHz