You've Got Mail! Calendar, Weather and More: Customizable Phone Access to Personal Information

We present a design and a prototype of a system that provides access to calendar, email, weather, and news information over a phone using a VoiceXML interface. The system provides quick access to personal information, while enabling but not requiring interactivity. As one major application, we envision the system being used while commuting to work. At home, users define their preferences regarding content and order of presentation using a website. On the road, the personalized audio feed plays like a radio news show. Instead of commercials, the user is reminded of today's meetings, deadlines and listens to the email inbox

IT Infrastructures in Manufacturing: Insights from Seven Case Studies

IT solutions in manufacturing support the execution as well as the monitoring of production operations. Fast reaction to exceptions, detailed documentation of operations, and the detection of inefficiencies in the production are among the benefits of a tight IT integration of shop-floor processes. Several dedicated software solutions and standards exist for the manufacturing domain. However, each manufacturer must tailor the IT to the special requirements of its processes and infrastructure. We found that real-world installations show considerable variations. In this paper we present the results of seven case studies on IT infrastructures in manufacturing. For each case we portray the employed architecture and the main factor that influenced the design. From this analysis we derive reoccurring patterns on the structure of IT solutions in manufacturing and relate them to existing standards. Our results provide system architects with guidance for picking the right architectural choices in different manufacturing environments

The Challenges of Web Engineering and Requirements for Better Tool Support

We report the experiences of semi-professional developers regarding the challenges, tools, and processes within the domain of web application development. The paper summarizes the main problems in web development, characterizes the habits of programmers and concludes with a "developer's wish list" for improvements to web technologies and tools. The report is based on two independent sources - a survey of 31 web developers and an in-depth interview study with 10 participants

Visualizing aerosol-particle injection for diffractive-imaging experiments

Delivering sub-micrometer particles to an intense x-ray focus is a crucial aspect of single-particle diffractive-imaging experiments at x-ray free-electron lasers. Enabling direct visualization of sub-micrometer aerosol particle streams without interfering with the operation of the particle injector can greatly improve the overall efficiency of single-particle imaging experiments by reducing the amount of time and sample consumed during measurements. We have developed in-situ non-destructive imaging diagnostics to aid real-time particle injector optimization and x-ray/particle-beam alignment, based on laser illumination schemes and fast imaging detectors. Our diagnostics are constructed to provide a non-invasive rapid feedback on injector performance during measurements, and have been demonstrated during diffraction measurements at the FLASH free-electron laser.Comment: 15 page

An End-User Development Perspective on State-of-the-Art Web Development Tools

We reviewed and analyzed nine commercially available web development tools from the perspective of suitability for end-user development to compare and contrast alternative and best-of-breed approaches for particular problem areas within web application development (Getting Started, Workflow, Level of Abstraction, Layout, Database, Application Logic, Testing and Debugging, Learning and Scaling, Security, Collaboration, and Deployment). End-user development involves the creation of dynamic websites with support for features like authentication, conditional display, and searching/sorting by casual web developers who have some experience creating static websites but little or no programming knowledge. We found that current tools do not lack functionality, but rather have a variety of problems in ease of use for end users who are nonprogrammers. In particular, while many tools offer wizards and other features designed to facilitate specific aspects of end-user development, none of the tools that we reviewed supports a holistic approach to web application development. We discuss the implications of these problems and conclude with recommendations for the design of improved web development tools that would lower the entry barrier into web programming

Oxidative destruction of organic pollutants on modified polypropylene fiber

The paper shows the prospects of using composites based on polypropylene fiber with embedded particles of metal Fe{0} and Al{0}. Samples were used for oxidative destruction of organic compounds under conditions of the Fenton-like system and visible radiation

Femtosecond x-ray diffraction from an aerosolized beam of protein nanocrystals

We demonstrate near-atomic-resolution Bragg diffraction from aerosolized single granulovirus crystals using an x-ray free-electron laser. The form of the aerosol injector is nearly identical to conventional liquid-microjet nozzles, but the x-ray-scattering background is reduced by several orders of magnitude by the use of helium carrier gas rather than liquid. This approach provides a route to study the weak diffuse or lattice-transform signal arising from small crystals. The high speed of the particles is particularly well suited to upcoming MHz-repetition-rate x-ray free-electron lasers

Analysis of connexin 43, connexin 45 and N-cadherin in the human sertoli cell line FS1 and the human seminoma-like cell line TCam-2 in comparison with human testicular biopsies

Background: Germ cell tumors are relatively common in young men. They derive from a non-invasive precursor, called germ cell neoplasia in situ, but the exact pathogenesis is still unknown. Thus, further understanding provides the basis for diagnostics, prognostics and therapy and is therefore paramount. A recently developed cell culture model consisting of human FS1 Sertoli cells and human TCam-2 seminoma-like cells offers new opportunities for research on seminoma. Since junctional proteins within the seminiferous epithelium are involved in cell organization, differentiation and proliferation, they represent interesting candidates for investigations on intercellular adhesion and communication in context with neoplastic progression. Methods: FS1 and TCam-2 cells were characterized regarding gap-junction-related connexin 43 (Cx43) and connexin 45 (Cx45), and adherens-junction-related N-cadherin using microarray, PCR, Western blot, immunocytochemistry and immunofluorescence. Results were compared to human testicular biopsies at different stages of seminoma development via immunohistochemistry to confirm the cell lines’ representativeness. Furthermore, dye-transfer measurements were performed to investigate functional cell coupling. Results: Cx43, Cx45 and N-cadherin mRNA and protein were generally detectable in both cell lines via qualitative RT-PCR and Western blot. Immunocytochemistry and immunofluorescence revealed a mainly membrane-associated expression of N-cadherin in both cell lines, but gene expression values were higher in FS1 cells. Cx43 expression was also membrane-associated in FS1 cells but barely detectable in TCam-2 cells. Accordingly, a high gene expression value of Cx43 was measured for FS1 and a low value for TCam-2 cells. Cx45 was primary located in the cytoplasm of FS1 and TCam-2 cells and revealed similar low to medium gene expression values in both cell lines. Overall, results were comparable with corresponding biopsies. Additionally, both FS1 and TCam-2 cells showed dye diffusion into neighboring cells. Conclusion: The junctional proteins Cx43, Cx45 and N-cadherin are expressed in FS1 and TCam-2 cells at mRNA and/or protein level in different amounts and localizations, and cells of both lines are functionally coupled among each other. Concerning the expression of these junctional proteins, FS1 and TCam-2 cells are largely representative for Sertoli and seminoma cells, respectively. Thus, these results provide the basis for further coculture experiments evaluating the role of junctional proteins in context with seminoma progression

Моделирование процесса синтеза в воздушной плазме оксидных композиций для дисперсионного плутоний-ториевого ядерного топлива

Целью работы являлось исследование процесса плазмохимического синтеза наноразмерных оксидных композиций для дисперсионного плутоний-ториевого ядерного топлива из водно-органических нитратных растворов (ВОНР). В результате было показано, что плазменная переработка диспергированных растворов ВОНР в воздушно-плазменном потоке позволяет осуществлять плазмохимический синтез наноразмерных порошков оксидных композиций с высокими физико-химическими и технологическими свойствами.The aim of this paper was to study the process of plasma-chemical synthesis of nanosized oxide compositions for dispersive plutonium-thorium nuclear fuel from water-organic nitrate solutions (WONS). As a result, it was shown that the plasma processing of dispersed WONS solutions in an air-plasma flow allows plasma-chemical synthesis of nanosized powders of oxide compositions with high physical, chemical and technological properties