Design of a digital compression technique for shuttle television

The determination of the performance and hardware complexity of data compression algorithms applicable to color television signals, were studied to assess the feasibility of digital compression techniques for shuttle communications applications. For return link communications, it is shown that a nonadaptive two dimensional DPCM technique compresses the bandwidth of field-sequential color TV to about 13 MBPS and requires less than 60 watts of secondary power. For forward link communications, a facsimile coding technique is recommended which provides high resolution slow scan television on a 144 KBPS channel. The onboard decoder requires about 19 watts of secondary power

Are you in or are you out? The importance of group saliency in own-group biases in face recognition

Previous research has demonstrated several own-group biases (OGBs) in face recognition, but why they occur is unclear. Social–cognitive accounts suggest they stem from differential attention and facial processing, following the categorisation of a face as belonging to an “in” or “out” group. Three studies explored whether OGBs can be produced by mere categorisation at encoding and investigated the role of in-group membership saliency on face recognition. Participants saw 40 facial images fictionally grouped according to in-/out-group status. Studies 1 and 2 used university membership as the grouping variable and found no evidence of an OGB, and no relationship between OGB magnitude and salience of group membership. Study 3 used the same design as Study 2, but with a highly salient group characteristic: participants’ stance on the U.K. Referendum (i.e., whether they were “Leave” or “Remain” supporters). In this case, an asymmetrical OGB was found, with only Remain voters demonstrating an OGB. Furthermore, a relationship between OGB magnitude and attitude toward the Referendum result was found. Overall, our results suggest that social categorisation and membership saliency alone may not be enough to moderate in- and out-group face recognition. However, when sufficiently polarised groups are used as in-/out-group categories, OGBs may occur

Efficacy of esterified glucomannan, sodium bentonite and humic acid to counteract experimental aflatoxicosis on antibody titers against Newcastle disease in broilers

A study was conducted on the impact of aflatoxin (AF) and sodium bentonite, esterified glucomannan and humic acid, on immunization against Newcastle disease (ND) in broiler feed with naturallycontaminated diet with aflatoxin. Seven-day-old chicks were randomly assigned to nine dietary treatments in four replicates of 12 chicks. Treatments were 1) Control; 2) naturally contaminated diet with aflatoxin; 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) naturally contaminated diet with aflatoxin supplemented with 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0% humic acid, respectively; 8 and 9) naturally contaminated diet supplemented with 0.5% sodium bentonite and 0.1% esterified glucomannan, respectively. The measured aflatoxin incontaminated diet, confirmed by thin layer chromatography (TLC), was 254 ppb. Blood sample was taken from each bird and the titers of antibody against ND were measured by haemagglutinationinhibition test. Compared to the control diet, the antibody titers against ND was significantly (P < 0.01) lower in 254 ppb aflatoxin fed chicks from 28 to 35 days of age. The addition of esterified glucomannan, sodium bentonite and humic acid to the AF-containing diet ameliorated the adverse effects of aflatoxinon ND antibody titers, but humic acid proved to be more effective in the amelioration of the adverse effect of AF on humeral immunity against ND

Sebaran Logam Berat Cadmium (Cd) Dan Timbal (Pb) Pada Air Sungai Dan Sumur Di Daerah Sekitar Tempat Pembuangan Akhir (Tpa) Wukirsari Gunung Kidul, YOGYAKARTA

Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb) are heavy metal which is very harmful for human being even though in low concentration. Leachate from municipal landfill is one of heavy metals source and its presence often caused environmental contamination in Indonesia and also many countries. Therefore, study on the distribution of Cd and Pb around landfill area is important to be conducted. Based on the distance between location of Wukirsari landfill and sampling points, samples were taken from river and ground water and then analyzed by using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) instrument in order to know the concentration of Cd and Pb ions in water. In order to know the effect of weather, samples from 10 different sampling points were taken during dry and rainy seasons (two times sampling for each season). The concentration of Cd in the river and ground water is in the range of 0.001-0.03 mg/l and 0.01-0.53 mg/l for Pb (higher than the government standard). The concentration of Cd and Pb decreased during rainy season because of dilution from rain water. The results of this study show that treatment of leachate is urgent to minimize the contamination of heavy metals and negative impact to human being. Constructed wetland could be considered as an appropriate treatment for effluent of leachate treatment plant at landfill

Effect of medium and aggregation on antibacterial activity of nanodiamonds

Fluorescent nanodiamonds are widely used as abrasives, optical or magnetic labels, in drug delivery or nanoscale sensing. They are considered very biocompatible in mammalian cells. However, in bacteria the situation looks different and results are highly controversial. This article presents a short review of the published literature and a systematic experimental study of different strains, nanoparticle sizes and surface chemistries. Most notably, particle aggregation behaviour and bacterial clumping are taken into consideration to explain reduced colony counts, which can be wrongly interpreted as a bactericidal effect. The experiments show no mechanism can be linked to a specific material property, but prove that aggregation and bacteriostatic effect of nanodiamond attachment play a significant role in the reported results

Model for coiling and meandering instability of viscous threads

A numerical model is presented to describe both the transient and steady-state dynamics of viscous threads falling onto a plane. The steady-state coiling frequency w is calculated as a function of fall height H. In the case of weak gravity, w ~ H^{-1} and w ~ H are obtained for lower and higher fall heights respectively. When the effect of gravity is significant, the relation w ~ H^2 is observed. These results agree with the scaling laws previously predicted. The critical Reynolds number for coil-uncoil transition is discussed. When the gravity is weak, the transition occurs with hysteresis effects. If the plane moves horizontally at a constant speed, a variety of meandering oscillation modes can be observed experimentally. The present model also can describe this phenomenon. The numerically obtained state diagram for the meandering modes qualitatively agrees with the experiment.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure