Increasing Reliability in Cable-Free Radio LANs Low Level Forwarding in HIPERLAN

Radio LANs are emerging in the computing world. They are supported by distinct configurations: on the one hand radio LANs with base stations and a wired backbone, on the other hand radio LANs implementing Intra-forwarding. Adding a new node in a radio LAN with Intra-forwarding, increases the reliability, while this reliability decreases with ad hoc or hub configurations. This advantage of Intra-forwarding is quantified. Intra-forwarding, as defined in the HIPERLAN standard, is based on a hop-by-hop policy and link check procedures. It is shown how point-to-point packets and broadcast packets are forwarded. The three basic components of Intra-forwarding needed to build and update the Intra-forwarding database are described. The originality of this approach is the use of multipoint relays which enable better scalability. The correctness of the Intra-forwarding protocol is proved and its cost is evaluated.     

Nisin expression production from Lactococcus lactis in milk whey medium

BACKGROUND: Nisin is a commercially available bacteriocin produced by Lactococcus lactis ATCC 11454 and used as a natural agent in the biopreservation of food. In the current investigation, milk whey, a byproduct from dairy industries was used as a fermentation substrate for the production of nisin. Lactococcus lactis ATCC 11454 was developed in a rotary shaker (30 °C/36 h/100 rpm) using two different media with milk whey (i) without filtration, pH 6.8, adjusted with NaOH 2 mol L^?1 and without pH adjustment, both autoclaved at 121 °C for 30 min, and (ii) filtrated (1.20 µm and 0.22 µm membrane filter). These cultures were transferred five times using 5 mL aliquots of broth culture for every new volume of the respective media. RESULTS: The results showed that culture media composed of milk whey without filtration supplied L. lactis its adaptation needs better than filtrated milk whey. Nisin titers, in milk whey without filtration (pH adjusted), was 11120.13 mg L^?1 in the second transfer, and up to 1628‐fold higher than the filtrated milk whey, 6.83 mg.L^?1 obtained in the first^t transfer. CONCLUSIONS: Biological processing of milk byproducts (milk whey) can be considered a profitable alternative, generating high‐value bioproducts and contributing to decreasing river disposals by dairy industries. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Urodynamic picture in high spinal cord ischemia, induced by addictive use of cocaine. Report of a case

Since in vitro experiments had excluded interactions between Fe-gluconate (Fe-gluc) and magnesium-L-aspartate hydrochloride (MAH) in aqueous solutions the present in vivo studies seemed to be justified. Animal studies: Rats were kept on magnesium-(Mg)- and iron-(Fe)- sufficient and deficient diets. The intragastral administration of Fe-gluc significantly increased plasma Fe after 3 h, either given alone, or in combination with MAH (inducing hypermagnesemia). Same results were obtained when fortified diets were offered to Fe/Mg-deficient animals. Human studies: The combination of Fe-gluc (2 x 50 mg Fe per day, per os) plus MAH (2 x 7.5 mmol Mg per day, p.o.) was well tolerated by healthy volunteers. Single dose experiments revealed that Fe-gluc alone and in combination with MAH increased plasma Fe levels during 3 h to the same extent. Two groups of pregnant women with moderately reduced hemoglobin levels either received Fe-gluc (out-patients) or its combination with MAH (at least temporarily hospitalised because of preterm labor). Treatments were well tolerated. Hemoglobin levels did not further decrease, as expected without Fe supplements, during the course of pregnancy, thus indicating the therapeutic availability of the electrolytes in both study groups. Progesterone-induced constipation is frequently observed during pregnancy; hence stool softening reported by 50% of the women receiving Fe-gluc plus MAH (versus 33% in the Fe-gluc group) can be regarded as desirable effect. It is concluded that MAH does not interfere with the enteral absorption of Fe-gluc when both electrolytes are orally administered together. Taking both electrolytes together instead of 2 to 3 h apart from each other, as actually recommended, means a less complicated dosage regimen and probably improves compliance.     

Role of Scaffolds,Subchondral, Intra-Articular Injections of Fresh Autologous Bone Marrow Concentrate Regenerative Cells in Treating Human Knee Cartilage Lesions: Different Approaches and Different Results

The value of bone marrow aspirate concentrates for treatment of human knee cartilage lesions is unclear. Most of the studies were performed with intra-articular injections. However, subchondral bone plays an important role in the progression of osteoarthritis. We investigated by a literature review whether joint, subchondral bone, or/and scaffolds implantation of fresh autologous bone marrow aspirate concentrated (BMAC) containing mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) would improve osteoarthritis (OA). There is in vivo evidence that suggests that all these different approaches (intra-articular injections, subchondral implantation, scaffolds loaded with BMAC) can improve the patient. This review analyzes the evidence for each different approach to treat OA. We found that the use of intra-articular injections resulted in a significant relief of pain symptoms in the short term and was maintained in 12 months. However, the clinical trials indicate that the application of autologous bone marrow concentrates in combination with scaffolds or in injection in the subchondral bone was superior to intra-articular injection for long-term results. The tendency of MSCs to differentiate into fibrocartilage affecting the outcome was a common issue faced by all the studies when biopsies were performed, except for scaffolds implantation in which some hyaline cartilage was found. The review suggests also that both implantation of subchondral BMAC and scaffolds loaded with BMAC could reduce the need for further surgery.     

Enzyme immobilization on polyglycidylmethacrylate graft-copolymer of different polysaccharides

Comparative results obtained in preparing and characterizing samples of enzymes immobilized by reaction with polyglycidylmethacrylate (PGMA) copolymers with different polysaccharide matrices are reported. Sepharose copolymers having between 25 and 50% synthetic polymer were used to find the best immobilization conditions of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and glucose-oxidase (GOD) (pH, time, temperature, enzyme cncentration). Activity, enzyme loading and coupling efficiency of immobilized HRP and GOD are greatly dependent on the type of matrix while the polymer content is less important. Coupling efficiencies between 0.8 and 1.5% have been obtained for HRP samples, whereas for GOD samples coupling efficiencies three times greater were obtained. HRP and GOD immobilized samples show K_m′ values greater than those of corresponding free enzymes and this indicates diffusion limitation phenomena. Storage, thermal and operational stability were also studied. In general the storage stability could be considered satisfactory (50% residual activity after 360 days). Sepharose and starch HRP-copolymers had an improved thermal stability compared with that of free enzyme. Residual activity found in continuous operation tests carried out on HRP-immobilized samples turned out to be dependent on support. HRP-PGMA-Cellulose sample gave the best results (50% residual activity after 16 days). PGMA-graft-copolymers have also been used to immobilize other enzymes such as α-amylase, α-chymotrypsin and cellulase.     

Offset printing inks based on rapeseed and sunflower oil. Part I: Synthesis and characterization of rapeseed oil-and sunflower oil-modified alkyd resins

Two sets of alkyd resins of variable oil lengths with the required properties for offset printing ink formulations, modified by sunflower and rapeseed oil, were synthetized according to the “monoglyceride” process. The influence of the acyl composition of the modifying vegetable oil and of the oil content on alkyds’ properties was determined by detailed chemical and rheological characterization. Molecular structure, size, and molecule size distribution appeared to be linked to these two factors. A comparative study with two usual linseed oil-modified alkyds led to determination of the more appropriate alkyds for applications in offset varnishes.     

Evaluation of Localized Semantics: Data, Methodology, and Experiments

We present a new data set of 1014 images with manual segmentations and semantic labels for each segment, together with a methodology for using this kind of data for recognition evaluation. The images and segmentations are from the UCB segmentation benchmark database (Martin et al., in International conference on computer vision, vol. II, pp. 416–421, 2001). The database is extended by manually labeling each segment with its most specific semantic concept in WordNet (Miller et al., in Int. J. Lexicogr. 3(4):235–244, 1990). The evaluation methodology establishes protocols for mapping algorithm specific localization (e.g., segmentations) to our data, handling synonyms, scoring matches at different levels of specificity, dealing with vocabularies with sense ambiguity (the usual case), and handling ground truth regions with multiple labels. Given these protocols, we develop two evaluation approaches. The first measures the range of semantics that an algorithm can recognize, and the second measures the frequency that an algorithm recognizes semantics correctly. The data, the image labeling tool, and programs implementing our evaluation strategy are all available on-line (kobus.ca//research/data/IJCV_2007). We apply this infrastructure to evaluate four algorithms which learn to label image regions from weakly labeled data. The algorithms tested include two variants of multiple instance learning (MIL), and two generative multi-modal mixture models. These experiments are on a significantly larger scale than previously reported, especially in the case of MIL methods. More specifically, we used training data sets up to 37,000 images and training vocabularies of up to 650 words. We found that one of the mixture models performed best on image annotation and the frequency correct measure, and that variants of MIL gave the best semantic range performance. We were able to substantively improve the performance of MIL methods on the other tasks (image annotation and frequency correct region labeling) by providing an appropriate prior.     

A search space “cartography” for guiding graph coloring heuristics

We present a search space analysis and its application in improving local search algorithms for the graph coloring problem. Using a classical distance measure between colorings, we introduce the following clustering hypothesis: the high quality solutions are not randomly scattered in the search space, but rather grouped in clusters within spheres of specific diameter. We first provide intuitive evidence for this hypothesis by presenting a projection of a large set of local minima in the 3D space. An experimental confirmation is also presented: we introduce two algorithms that exploit the hypothesis by guiding an underlying Tabu Search (TS) process. The first algorithm (TS-Div) uses a learning process to guide the basic TS process toward as-yet-unvisited spheres. The second algorithm (TS-Int) makes deep investigations within a bounded region by organizing it as a tree-like structure of connected spheres. We experimentally demonstrate that if such a region contains a global optimum, TS-Int does not fail in eventually finding it. This pair of algorithms significantly outperforms the underlying basic TS algorithm; it can even improve some of the best-known solutions ever reported in the literature (e.g. for dsjc1000.9).     

Sociotechnical issues in the implementation of imaging technology

This study examined the implementation of imaging technology into two public sector organizations in the Midwest in the USA. The aims of the study were to analyze the impact of imaging technology on job characteristics and quality of working life, and the influence of the technological change process on employees and organizations. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaire surveys and structured and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that imaging users reported more problems with technology and less job satisfaction than employees who were still using their 'old' computer systems. In addition, imaging users in the organization that utilized end user participation in the implementation of their imaging system rated their imaging systems better and reported higher job satisfaction than imaging users in the organization that did not incorporate end user participation in the implementation of the system. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of the technology implementation/ change process, and future directions for research are provided.