Responses of plasma transaminase activity in Cyprinus carpio var. communis to mercury toxicity

The present study reports the behavioural and enzymological responses in a freshwater teleost fish, Cyprinus carpio var. communis, exposed to acute and sublethal toxicities of mercuric chloride. During acute treatment, significant behavioural changes like erratic swimming, excess mucus secretion and increased opercular movements were noticed. During acute and sublethal treatments, both aspartate amino transferase and alanine amino transferase activity increased throughout the study period. Comparing the treatments, the changes in enzyme activities were found high in acute treatment and all the values were significant at 5% level. The above findings can be used as non-specific biomarkers of environmental pollutants

Formal Design of Asynchronous Fault Detection and Identification Components using Temporal Epistemic Logic

Autonomous critical systems, such as satellites and space rovers, must be able to detect the occurrence of faults in order to ensure correct operation. This task is carried out by Fault Detection and Identification (FDI) components, that are embedded in those systems and are in charge of detecting faults in an automated and timely manner by reading data from sensors and triggering predefined alarms. The design of effective FDI components is an extremely hard problem, also due to the lack of a complete theoretical foundation, and of precise specification and validation techniques. In this paper, we present the first formal approach to the design of FDI components for discrete event systems, both in a synchronous and asynchronous setting. We propose a logical language for the specification of FDI requirements that accounts for a wide class of practical cases, and includes novel aspects such as maximality and trace-diagnosability. The language is equipped with a clear semantics based on temporal epistemic logic, and is proved to enjoy suitable properties. We discuss how to validate the requirements and how to verify that a given FDI component satisfies them. We propose an algorithm for the synthesis of correct-by-construction FDI components, and report on the applicability of the design approach on an industrial case-study coming from aerospace.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figure

Defect tolerance in as-deposited selenium-alloyed cadmium telluride solar cells

The efficiency of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells is limited primarily by voltage, which is known to depend on the carrier concentration and carrier lifetimes within the absorber layer of the cell. Here, cathodoluminescence measurements are made on an as-deposited CdSeTe/CdTe solar cell that show that selenium alloyed CdTe material luminesces much more strongly than non-alloyed CdTe. This reduction in non-radiative recombination in the CdSeTe suggests that the selenium gives it a certain defect tolerance. This has implications for carrier lifetimes and voltages in cadmium telluride solar cells

Rod photoreceptors drive circadian photoentrainment across a wide range of light intensities.

In mammals, synchronization of the circadian pacemaker in the hypothalamus is achieved through direct input from the eyes conveyed by intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). Circadian photoentrainment can be maintained by rod and cone photoreceptors, but their functional contributions and their retinal circuits that impinge on ipRGCs are not well understood. Using mice that lack functional rods or in which rods are the only functional photoreceptors, we found that rods were solely responsible for photoentrainment at scotopic light intensities. Rods were also capable of driving circadian photoentrainment at photopic intensities at which they were incapable of supporting a visually guided behavior. Using mice in which cone photoreceptors were ablated, we found that rods signal through cones at high light intensities, but not at low light intensities. Thus, rods use two distinct retinal circuits to drive ipRGC function to support circadian photoentrainment across a wide range of light intensities

Influence of moisture management finish on comfort characteristics of knitted fabrics made from different yarns

The influence of moisture management finish on comfort characteristics of knitted fabrics made from five different yarns has been studied in order to find out their level of performance. In order to study this effect, five types of yarns, namely microdenier polyester, spun polyester, polyester / cotton, filament polyester and 100% cotton, have been converted to knitted fabrics. It is observed that microdenier polyester fabrics having high wicking action and quicker moisture evaporation show superior performance with respect to comfort characteristic

Influence of moisture management finish on comfort characteristics of knitted fabrics made from different yarns

102-108The influence of moisture management finish on comfort characteristics of knitted fabrics made from five different yarns has been studied in order to find out their level of performance. In order to study this effect, five types of yarns, namely microdenier polyester, spun polyester, polyester / cotton, filament polyester and 100% cotton, have been converted to knitted fabrics. It is observed that microdenier polyester fabrics having high wicking action and quicker moisture evaporation show superior performance with respect to comfort characteristics

Selection of Mixed Sampling Plan with QSS-1(n; c\u3csub\u3eN\u3c/sub\u3e, c\u3csub\u3eT\u3c/sub\u3e) Plan as Attribute Plan Indexed Through MAPD and LQL

A procedure for the construction and selection of the mixed sampling plan using MAPD as a quality standard with the QSS-1 (n; cN, cT) plan as an attribute plan is presented. The plans indexed through MAPD and LQL are constructed and compared for efficiency. Tables are provided for selection of an appropriate sampling plan