Design of a strain-gage probe

Strain-gage spacer probe uses the deflection of a leaf spring to measure strain in a long, slender beam nondestructively. The selected gage is of the smallest practical size, as thin as possible and yet of a standard type

Chemical composition of the mushroom Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull.) Murill.

Laetiporus sulphureus (chicken of the woods) is a wood decaying mushroom with positive medicinal and biological effects. The aim of this study was to determine its chemical composition including the main organic components (protein, fat, fibre, and ash contents, different protein fractions, the free amino acid level, soluble oligo- and polysaccharides, phenolics), the in vitro digestibility, the free radical scavenging activity, and twenty mineral elements.Our data demonstrate the characteristic in general valuable chemical composition of the mushroom Laetiporus sulphureus. Protein content in fruiting bodies is not too high (10.6% d.m.), but the biological value (in vitro digestibility, rate of protein fractions, free amino acid content, etc.) is good (including fat and energy levels). Occurrence of “bioactive” components (phenolics, soluble oligo- and polysaccharides) and the measured free radical scavenging activity are similar to these parameters in Pleurotus (oyster) species. Potassium and phosphorus contents are remarkable (28 940 mg kg−1 d.m. and 4890 mg kg−1 d.m., respectively); levels of some poisonous microelements (As, Cd, Cr) are very low or undetectable. Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) is not only a suitable species for human consumption, but can be a new cultivable mushroom of valuable bioactive substances

Chemical analysis of king oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) fruitbodies

King oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) is a worldwide cultivated mushroom of appreciated nutritional and medicinal quality. Aims of these investigations were to give new comparative data for the better evaluation of P. eryngii. Results of our investigations can be summarized as follows: P. eryngii has higher (crude protein, crude fat) or at least the same concentrations (chitin and total carbohydrate) of organic nutritive components than the common cultivated Pleurotus hybrid (‘HK-35’). Regarding the classical protein fractions: albumins are the highest content in both mushrooms, but the quantity and the proportion in P. eryngii is better than in ‘HK-35’ hybrid. Occurrence and proportion of protein fractions is more valuable in P. eryngii, while the NPN contents of both mushrooms are the same. The investigated soluble oligo- and polysaccharides were present in high amounts in both mushrooms, but the free radical scavenging activity seems to be markedly higher in king oyster mushroom, making it more valuable. Mineral compositions of both species are similarly beneficial, but P. eryngii has basically higher P and lower K levels. More intensive cultivation and use of P. eryngii is clearly recommended

TensorFlow Doing HPC

TensorFlow is a popular emerging open-source programming framework supporting the execution of distributed applications on heterogeneous hardware. While TensorFlow has been initially designed for developing Machine Learning (ML) applications, in fact TensorFlow aims at supporting the development of a much broader range of application kinds that are outside the ML domain and can possibly include HPC applications. However, very few experiments have been conducted to evaluate TensorFlow performance when running HPC workloads on supercomputers. This work addresses this lack by designing four traditional HPC benchmark applications: STREAM, matrix-matrix multiply, Conjugate Gradient (CG) solver and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). We analyze their performance on two supercomputers with accelerators and evaluate the potential of TensorFlow for developing HPC applications. Our tests show that TensorFlow can fully take advantage of high performance networks and accelerators on supercomputers. Running our TensorFlow STREAM benchmark, we obtain over 50% of theoretical communication bandwidth on our testing platform. We find an approximately 2x, 1.7x and 1.8x performance improvement when increasing the number of GPUs from two to four in the matrix-matrix multiply, CG and FFT applications respectively. All our performance results demonstrate that TensorFlow has high potential of emerging also as HPC programming framework for heterogeneous supercomputers.Comment: Accepted for publication at The Ninth International Workshop on Accelerators and Hybrid Exascale Systems (AsHES'19

Pulse shape analysis in segmented detectors as a technique for background reduction in Ge double-beta decay experiments

The need to understand and reject backgrounds in Ge-diode detector double-beta decay experiments has given rise to the development of pulse shape analysis in such detectors to discern single-site energy deposits from multiple-site deposits. Here, we extend this analysis to segmented Ge detectors to study the effectiveness of combining segmentation with pulse shape analysis to identify the multiplicity of the energy deposits.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, will be submitted to NI

Respect for Form as Substance in U.S. Taxation of International Trusts

...we might decide that the attribution rule should not be applied so broadly, or so automatically. But how would such a system be devised by regulation? The attribution rule could be applied to trusts in which the discretion of the trustee is very limited and the beneficial interests so clearly ascertainable that the trust is, for all practicable purposes, transparent. That is, however, only a small universe of cases. This leads to the further conclusion that the attribution rule has to be applied based on a facts and circumstances determination of the beneficial interest in each case. Yet that seems the antithesis of an attribution rule, and the factual inquiry would necessarily require a thorough examination of governing trust law and corporate law in almost every case. That process would be difficult enough if it were Delaware law at issue. Applying non-U.S. trust law and non-U.S. corporate law would be much more cumbersome. Assessing the element of tax avoidance motivation in the structure in order to test the bona fide nature of the trustee\u27s role would further add to the burden of the inquiry. The search for a satisfactory system seems fruitless

Crafting Communities of Writers: Advice from Teens

The authors interviewed teens in five states to catalog their ideas about how teachers can build communities of writers