Compatibility of the rootstock Börner with various scion varieties

Research Note

An analytical solution for the settlement of stone columns beneath rigid footings

This paper presents a new approximate solution to study the settlement of rigid footings resting on a soft soil improved with groups of stone columns. The solution development is fully analytical, but finite element analyses are used to verify the validity of some assumptions, such as a simplified geometric model, load distribution with depth and boundary conditions. Groups of stone columns are converted to equivalent single columns with the same cross-sectional area. So, the problem becomes axially symmetric. Soft soil is assumed as linear elastic but plastic strains are considered in the column using the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion and a non-associated flow rule, with a constant dilatancy angle. Soil profile is divided into independent horizontal slices and equilibrium of stresses and compatibility of deformations are imposed in the vertical and horizontal directions. The solution is presented in a closed form and may be easily implemented in a spreadsheet. Comparisons of the proposed solution with numerical analyses show a good agreement for the whole range of common values, which confirms the validity of the solution and its hypotheses. The solution also compares well with a small scale laboratory test available in literature

Life Satisfaction and Sense of Coherence of Breast Cancer Survivors Compared to Women with Mental Depression, Arterial Hypertension and Healthy Controls

The purpose of the study was to compare the life satisfaction (LS) and sense of coherence (SOC) of women recovering from breast cancer (BC) to LS and SOC of women with depression or hypertension and of healthy controls. Finnish Health and Social Support (HeSSup) follow-up survey data in 2003 was linked with national health registries. BC patients were followed up for mortality until the end of 2012. The statistical computations were carried out with SAS (R). There were no significant differences in LS and SOC between the groups with BC, arterial hypertension or healthy controls. Women recovering from BC are as satisfied with their life as healthy controls, and their perceived LS is better and SOC is stronger compared to women with depression. SOC correlated positively (r(2) = 0.36, p <0.001) with LS. However, more studies on determinants of the LS are needed for designing and organizing health care services for BC survivors.Peer reviewe

Polypeptide-grafted macroporous polyHIPE by surface-initiated N-Carboxyanhydride (NCA) polymerization as a platform for bioconjugation

A new class of functional macroporous monoliths from polymerized high internal phase emulsion (polyHIPE) with tunable surface functional groups was developed by direct polypeptide surface grafting. In the first step, amino-functional polyHIPEs were obtained by the addition of 4-vinylbenzyl or 4-vinylbenzylphthalimide to the styrenic emulsion and thermal radical polymerization. The obtained monoliths present the expected open-cell morphology and a high surface area. The incorporated amino group was successfully utilized to initiate the ring-opening polymer- ization of benzyl-L-glutamate N-carboxyanhydride (BLG NCA) and benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine (Lys(Z)) NCA, which resulted in a dense homogeneous coating of polypeptides throughout the internal polyHIPE surfaces as confirmed by SEM and FTIR analysis. The amount of polypeptide grafted to the polyHIPE surfaces could be modulated by varying the initial ratio of amino acid NCA to amino-functional polyHIPE. Subsequent removal of the polypeptide protecting groups yielded highly functional polyHIPE-g-poly(glutamic acid) and polyHIPE-g- poly(lysine). Both types of polypeptide-grafted monoliths responded to pH by changes in their hydrohilicity. The possibility to use the high density of function (−COOH or −NH2) for secondary reaction was demonstrated by the successful bioconjugation of enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) and fluorescein isocyanate (FITC) on the polymer 3D-scaffold surface. The amount of eGFP and FITC conjugated to the polypeptide-grafted polyHIPE was significantly higher than to the amino- functional polyHIPE, signifying the advantage of polypeptide grafting to achieve highly functional polyHIPEs

Possible application of differential global positioning system (DGPS) to harvesting date and precision viticulture

From 2004 to 2008, the maturity of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) was researched on the basis of sugar content and total titratable acidity at six locations with an undulating topography in three varieties: 'Chardonnay', 'Riesling' and 'Sauvignon'. All sampling points were geo-referenced simultaneously with differential global positioning system (DGPS) for creating sugar maps. The significant influence of the varying altitude above sea level (from 389 to 462 m) on the concentration of total sugar and the total titratable acidity of grapes were estimated during the ripeness of vine berry from July to September. The results of a five-year study proved that significant improvement of the grapes quality is possible by creating site-specific maps, which enable separate begging of harvest according to the different sea level.Key words: Vineyard, sugar map, GIS, DGPS

Speechlike signal synthesis module for information security systems

A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of noise signals of different types in order to reduce the intelligibility of masked speech in the case of leakage through direct acoustic and vibro-acoustic channels. As a test signal used articulation phrase tables from the standard STB GOST R 50840-2000. A technique for testing the effectiveness of various types of noise signals is proposed. One of the results of the work is the development of a method for the formation of an effective masking signal for active protection of acoustic information, which is a correlated speech-like noise, formed directly from the masked speech signal, the level of which can be 7-9 dB below the white noise level to ensure the required value of speech intelligibility. Speech-like interference synthesis method includes the following stages: speech detection, speaker verification, speech segmentation, speech classification, speech-like interference synthesis. Synthesis of speech-like interference is based on compilation of allophones by phonemic text generated taking into account language statistics. It allows form speech-like interference in Russian, English or Arabic languages