Abstract: Disclosed herein is a fast method that locates nearby sources based solely on the time-of-flight of a signal across an array of sensors. The time delay for signal passage between all pairs of sensors is determined using cross-correlation estimates and a vector of time delays, ?, is constructed from the results. In the noise free case, each point in the plane is associated with a unique value of the ? vector. The plane is searched for a source location by minimizing the difference between the value of ? associated with the candidate location on the plane and the value estimated from cross-correlations. The search takes place over the three dimensional space that includes two coordinates in the plane and the propagation speed. The starting point for the search is constructed from an analytic fit of circular wave fronts to groups of sensors within the array.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided herein for signal source tracking. A signal emitted over time from a moving source is a collection of small sub-signals that were emitted by the source at different positions along its path. If the source is traveling at a slower speed than the signal, the sub-signals will arrive at a given sensor in the same order that they were released. By identifying the locations and times of the releases of several of these sub-signals, the path and velocity of the moving source can be estimated.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods and systems for dynamic color equalization that can be used for image viewer applications. The methods and systems described involve linking enhancement parameters to a changing viewport. When a large image is being viewed, only a portion of the image can fit in a viewer window at a time. A viewport can be defined as the portion of image data that is displayed on a screen. Scrolling or zooming the image can be described as moving the viewport.

Abstract: A composition including a vegetable oil and a structural material selected from a group comprising soil, sand, bitumen, asphalt, and concrete. The polymerized vegetable oil being substantially within a range of 2%-20% by weight of the structural material.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for removing a pin bone or pin bones from a fillet of fish. The apparatus of the present invention uses a rotating stack of individual disks that are engaged by a shaft, oscillate axially and are timed to alternately tilt in a rapid fashion so as to effect the action of multiple pairs of tweezers. The pin bone is disposed between a pair of tweezer or two adjacent rotating disks and pulled out of the fillet by the rotating disks. The rotating stack of individual disks operates at different speeds in an operation circle to enhance the operational efficiency.

Abstract: An ultrasonic computed tomography tree or log scanner has a plurality of ultrasonic transceivers carried on a belt (102) sized to encircle a tree (100). The belt includes an apparatus for engaging is tightly around the tree (104). The transceivers are strapped around the tree, and their mutual relative distances are known. Electronic circuitry energizes the transmitters in a known sequence. The signals received at each of the receivers are also collected and analyzed. Computed tomographic techniques analyze the time of arrival of the acoustic pulse that is first to arrive at each receiver. A signal processor generates a two-dimensional image of a slice of the tree (110) at the locus of the belt.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for removing pin bones from a fillet of fish. The apparatus of the present invention uses a plurality of spring-tempered sheet metal disks that each has a periphery that can be either non-linear or linear. The disks are assembled to form a stack of the disks aligned so that the peripheries form at least one "pinch-point," in which the periphery of two disks contact each other, to grip a pin bone. The stack of the disks is rotated and moved over the fillet. The pill bone is disposed between two adjacent rotating disks. As the gap between the disks closes to the pinch-point, the pin bone becomes wedged and is plucked out of the fillet as the wedged pin bone is pulled by the rotating disks.

Abstract: A roadway for use on permafrost terrain is described together with methods of construction, the roadway generally including a porous embankment and a pavement structure disposed on the top of the embankment. The embankment has a desired vertical separation between the bottom and the top of the embankment and comprises material of sufficient permeability to allow buoyancy-driven pore air convection to occur within the embankment when an unstable density stratification exists therein. This unstable density stratification occurs in the winter months when a temperature differential between the top of the embankment and the ground adjacent the bottom of the embankment exists, whereby the roadway promotes natural convection within the porous embankment which enhances heat removal from the embankment and underlying ground to preserve the permafrost layer throughout the year.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for proteolytic degradation of fish muscle having protease enzyme which includes distributing the enzyme uniformly throughout the fish muscle and drying the fish muscle thereafter. The present invention also relates to a method of making a food product and includes reducing hydrolyzed fish muscle to a powdered form, and then mixing the fish muscle in powder form with a starchy and/or proteinaceous material to form a mixture which is subsequently subjected to high temperature extrusion processing to form a desired food product. The present invention further relates to processes for tenderizing or causing substantial or complete proteolytic degradation of animal muscle by applying onto the animal muscle, protease enzyme obtained from fish having the enzyme present therein. Also disclosed is the resulting food products resulting from these processes.

Abstract: Inclusions such as encysted parasites and spoilage in food products such as fish fillets are detected by immersing the food products in a bath of an electrolyte, such as a saline solution, having substantially the same electrical conductivity as the uncontaminated food product. An electrical current passed through the electrolyte also passes through the food product. Perturbations in the resulting magnetic field produced by the discontinuities in conductivity at the boundaries of the inclusions or of the spoiled article which have substantially different conductivities from that of the electrolyte and unspoiled food products, provide an indication of the presence of the contamination. Production line inspection rates are achieved by conveying the food products through a container filled with electrolyte and past an array of stationary magnetometers.

Abstract: A method is disclosed which inactivates protease enzyme in fish, such as arrowtooth flounder, having this enzyme in a portion thereof. In the process, the fish are minced and then subsequently mixed with a starchy and/or proteinaceous material to form a mixture which is then subjected to high-temperature, short-time processing in a screw extruder containing a reaction zone. Also disclosed is the resulting food product resulting from this process.

Abstract: A method for proteolytic degradation of fish muscle having protease enzyme which includes distributing the enzyme uniformly throughout the fish muscle and drying the fish muscle thereafter. The present invention also relates to a method of making a food product and includes reducing hydrolyzed fish muscle to a powdered form, and then mixing the fish muscle in powder form with a starchy and/or proteinaceous material to form a mixture which is subsequently subjected to high temperature extrusion processing to form a desired food product.

Abstract: The invention provides a bioreactor for culturing living cells, particularly shear sensitive cells, wherein the bioreactor is composed of a stationary vessel with opposite spaced walls inclined at an angle to form upper and lower walls. Liquid culture medium and cell culture, such as hybridoma cells, are introduced into the vessel and gas is introduced at the lower end of the vessel to form gas bubbles which travel upward along the upper wall of the bioreactor to disengage from a small portion of the gas liquid interface. The gas bubbles circulate the cells and liquid medium, maintaining the cells in suspension and lifting them in a circulating path upwardly parallel to the upper wall and downward along the lower wall. The bioreactor design thus achieves bulk mixing and aeration by maintaining a significant degree of segregation between the upwardly travelling bubbles and the cells in the liquid medium avoiding unnecessary cell damage by fluid-mechanical shear or by bubble bursting events.

Abstract: The invention includes a new, cold tolerant strain of mycoparasite Trichoderma and mutants that are resistant to a pesticide to which the Trichoderma isolate is sensitive. These novel Trichoderma are capable of parasitizing fungi which are pathogenic to plants. They are also capable of producing proteinaceous, antimycotic substances which can inhibit the growth of plant pathogenic fungi. Cold tolerant Trichoderma and its biotypes can be used in, but not limited to, controlling fungal plant disease.

Abstract: An electrical apparatus is provided for the conversion of compounds, elements, or mixtures which are in particulate form, into new compounds, elements or mixtures in gaseous, liquid, or particulate form. In a reaction chamber, particulates are mechanically transported into a first region of high electric field, where they acquire a charge and are projected into a second region in which a low-density plasma is maintained. Energetic plasma ions strike the surfaces of the particulates, causing chemical reactions and release of both neutral and ionic products species. Charge exchange on particulates causes the reduced-size particles to fall back into the first region, where the charging recurs and the cycle is repeated. Gaseous and particulate products are removed from the chamber. In one application, naturally-occurring ores may be reduced by a methane plasma; in another, coal may be converted in a methane plasma to intermediate range hydrocarbons.

Abstract: An electrical apparatus is provided for the conversion of compounds, elements, or mixtures which are in particulate form, into new compounds, elements or mixtures in gaseous, liquid, or particulate form. In a reaction chamber, particulates are mechanically transported into a first region of high electric field, where they acquire a charge and are projected into a second region in which a low-density plasma is maintained. Energetic plasma ions strike the surfaces of the particulates, causing chemical reactions and release of both neutral and ionic products species. Charge exchange on particulates causes the reduced-size particles to fall back into the first region, where the charging recurs and the cycle is repeated. Gaseous and particulate products are removed from the chamber. In one application, naturally-occurring ores may be reduced by a methane plasma; in another, coal may be converted in a methane plasma to intermediate range hydrocarbons.

Abstract: A nucleotide sequence coding for a repressor protein for regulating gene expression that comprises about a 687 bp nucleotide region beginning about 81 bases upstream from the 2,2-dialkylglycine decarboxylase structural gene shown in FIG. 3. The repressor protein comprises about 229 amino acids. The nucleotide sequence is useful for regulating gene expression in recombinant expression vectors. The vectors and E. coli cells transformed with the vectors are useful for preparing Pseudomonas cepacia 2,2-dialkylglycine decarboxylase.

Abstract: A method for examining an edible product, such as fresh fish flesh, for dielectric inclusions, such as encysted parasites. The product is subjected to a current flow, which may be perturbed or deviated by any hidden inclusions. An electromagnetic effect of perturbed current flow is detected. In a preferred implementation, one or more scans of the external magnetic consequences of the effect of an inclusion allows the discovery and removal of the inclusion.

Abstract: A nucleotide sequence coding for a repressor protein for regulating gene expression comprises about a 687 bp nucleotide region beginning about 81 bases upstream from the 2,2-dialkylglycine decarboxylase structural gene shown in FIG. 3. The repressor protein comprises about 229 amino acids. The nucleotide sequence is useful for regulating gene expression in recombinant expression vectors. The vectors and E. coli cells transformed with the vectors are useful for preparing Pseudomonas cepacia 2,2-dialkylglycine decarboxylase.

Abstract: An electrical device is provided for the conversion of molecules of one molecular weight into molecules of another molecular weight. A reaction chamber comprises an array of dynodes, each of which possesses a plurality of apertures. External voltages are available which are applied between dynodes, producing an electric field. During operation, electrons and ions strike the interior surfaces of the dynode apertures, ionizing neutral molecules absorbed on the surfaces, which are desorbed by the energy of the impact, and which are accelerated by the electric field to a new dynode surface location, where they combine with absorbed molecules there to form a variety of new, larger molecules, or different, smaller molecules. Certain ones of the ions created are repetitively moved to one end of the device, where they may be pumped away separately.