Quantifying unfrozen water in frozen soil by high-field 2H NMR

To understand wintertime controls of biogeochemical processes in high latitude soils it is essential to distinguish between direct temperature effects and the effects of changes in water availability mediated by freezing. Efforts to separate these controls are hampered by a lack of adequate methods to determine the proportion of unfrozen water. In this study we present a high-field 2H2O NMR method for quantifying unfrozen water content in frozen soil. The experimental material consisted of the humic layer of a boreal spruce forest soil mixed with varying proportions of quartz sand and humidified with deuterium-enriched water. The relative standard deviation of unfrozen water content (measured as NMR signal integral) was less than 2% for repeated measurements on a given sample and 3.5% among all samples, based on a total of 16 measurements. As compared to 1H NMR, this 2H NMR method was found to be superior for several reasons: it is less sensitive to field inhomogeneity and paramagnetic impurities, it gives a bigger line shape difference between the ice and liquid signal, it shows a sharper response to water fusion, and it excludes the possibility of hydrogen in the organic material interfering with the measurement.     

Effects of phosphate on uranium(VI) adsorption to goethite-coated sand

U(VI)-phosphate interactions are important in governing the subsurface mobility of U(VI) in both natural and contaminated environments. We studied U(VI) adsorption on goethite-coated sand (to mimic natural Fe-coated subsurface materials) as a function of pH in systems closed to the atmosphere, in both the presence and the absence of phosphate. Our results indicate that phosphate strongly affects U(VI) adsorption. The effect of phosphate on U(VI) adsorption was dependent on solution pH. At low pH, the adsorption of U(VI) increased in the presence of phosphate, and higher phosphate concentration caused a larger extent of increase in U(VI) adsorption. Phosphate was strongly bound by the goethite surface in the low pH range, and the increased adsorption of U(VI) at low pH was attributed to the formation of ternary surface complexes involving both U(VI) and phosphate. In the high pH range, the adsorption of U(VI) decreased in the presence of phosphate at low total Fe concentration, and higher phosphate concentration caused a larger extent of decrease in U(VI) adsorption. This decrease in U(VI) adsorption was attributed to the formation of soluble uranium-phosphate complexes. A surface complexation model (SCM) was proposed to describe the effect of phosphate on U(VI) adsorption to goethite. This proposed model was based on previous models that predict U(VI) adsorption to iron oxides in the absence of phosphate and previous models developed to predict phosphate adsorption on goethite. A postulated ternary surface complex of the form of (>FePO4UO2) was included in our model to account for the interactions between U(VI) and phosphate. The model we established can successfully predict U(VI) adsorption in the presence of phosphate under a range of conditions (i.e., pH, total phosphate concentration, and total Fe concentration).     

Activities of the enzymes of hepatic gluconeogenesis in periparturient dairy cows with induced fatty liver

The objective was to measure the activities of all the enzymes essential for hepatic gluconeogenesis in dairy cows with induced fatty liver. We aimed to induce severe fatty liver in ten experimental cows by overfeeding them during the dry period while seven control cows were maintained on a restricted diet. To induce a marked negative energy balance, the experimental cows were deprived of feed for 8 h immediately after parturition. In addition, the experimental cows were given a restricted amount of diet during the first 5 d of lactation. Liver samples were collected 1 week before and 1, 2 and 4 weeks after parturition. Before parturition, liver triacylglycerol concentrations did not differ between the two groups. After parturition, the experimental cows developed marked fatty liver as indicated by a higher level of triacylglycerols in the liver compared with the control cows. Before parturition, all gluconeogenic enzymes in the liver were lower in experimental cows than in control cows. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, pyruvate carboxylase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase were significantly lower and fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase and glucose 6-phosphatase tended to be lower in the experimental cows. The activities of two crucial enzymes for gluconeogenesis in ruminants, i.e., phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase, remained low throughout the sampling period post partum. Activities of pyruvate carboxylase and glucose 6-phosphatase in the experimental cows post partum were upgraded to values similar to those of the control cows. The results showed that the capacity for hepatic gluconeogenesis before parturition was lower in cows with induced fatty liver than in control cows. After parturition, the low activities of crucial gluconeogenic enzymes indicated insufficient production of glucose. It is suggested that the low gluconeogenic capacity leads successively to low blood glucose concentrations, low insulin levels and high rates of mobilization of fatty acid, causing severe hepatic lipidosis.     

Support vector machine-based expert system for reliable heartbeat recognition

This paper presents a new solution to the expert system for reliable heartbeat recognition. The recognition system uses the support vector machine (SVM) working in the classification mode. Two different preprocessing methods for generation of features are applied. One method involves the higher order statistics (HOS) while the second the Hermite characterization of QRS complex of the registered electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform. Combining the SVM network with these preprocessing methods yields two neural classifiers, which have been combined into one final expert system. The combination of classifiers utilizes the least mean square method to optimize the weights of the weighted voting integrating scheme. The results of the performed numerical experiments for the recognition of 13 heart rhythm types on the basis of ECG waveforms confirmed the reliability and advantage of the proposed approach.     

Sliding mode closed-loop control of FES: controlling the shank movement

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) enables restoration of movement in individuals with spinal cord injury. FES-based devices use electric current pulses to stimulate and excite the intact peripheral nerves. They produce muscle contractions, generate joint torques, and thus, joint movements. Since the underlying neuromuscular-skeletal system is highly nonlinear and time-varying, feedback control is necessary for accurate control of the generated movement. However, classical feedback/closed-loop control algorithms have so far failed to provide satisfactory performance and were not able to guarantee stability of the closed-loop system. Because of this, only open-loop controlled FES devices are in clinical use in spite of their limitations. The purpose of the reported research was to design a novel closed-loop FES controller that achieves good tracking performance and guarantees closed-loop stability. Such a controller was designed based on a mathematical neuromuscular-skeletal model and is founded on a sliding mode control theory. The controller was used to control shank movement and was tested in computer simulations as well as in actual experiments on healthy and spinal cord injured subjects. It demonstrated good robustness, stability, and tracking performance properties.     

Enhancing interference rejection of preamplified electrodes by automated gain adaption

The use of preamplified electrodes in electrocardiography (ECG) or electroencephalography (EEG) has a numbe of benefits, most importantly, the noise reduction through preamplification and the interference reduction through buffering (Fernandez and Pallas-Areny, 1997). Normally, preamplified electrodes are not used because the mismatch in amplification due to component tolerances leads to a reduced common mode rejection ration (CMRR) (Pallas-Areny and Webster, 1991). In this paper, we introduce a new technique to restore the CMRR. We do this by adapting the gain of the differential amplifier (DA) following the preamplified electrodes. The technique is based on measuring the transfer function of a chosen common mode signal. The gain of the DA is adjusted by a closed loop controller to maximize the CMRR. With this technique, there is no adverse effect on the ECG or EEG. In this way, the control loop can be operated continuously if needed.     

Lattice parameter determination of a strained area of an InAs layer on a GaAs substrate using CBED

All the six lattice parameters (a, b, c, alpha, beta and gamma) of a strained area of an InAs layer grown on a GaAs substrate were determined without any assumption of the crystal lattice symmetry from the higher-order Laue zone (HOLZ) lines appearing in one convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) pattern. The analysis was performed with three steps. Firstly, the parameters alpha and beta were determined from the deviations of the HOLZ lines from the mirror symmetry perpendicular to the [001] direction. Secondly, the parameter c was determined from the distance between the intersections of the HOLZ lines, which have the same h and k indices but different l indices. Finally, the parameters a, b and gamma were determined simultaneously from several distances between the intersections of the HOLZ lines. The lattice parameters determined for the strained area were a = 0.611(2) nm, b = 0.615(1) nm, c = 0.6119(7) nm, alpha = 89.5(1) degrees, beta = 89.0(2) degrees and gamma = 89.1(2) degrees. This result implies that the cubic lattice of InAs is elongated approximately in the [111] direction and the exact lattice symmetry is triclinic. The same analysis procedure was applied to another two specimen areas. It was found that the areas have orthorhombic distortions with lattice parameters a = 0.607(2) nm, b = 0.604(1) nm and c = 0.6085(7) nm for one area, and with a = 0.607(2) nm, b = 0.605(1) nm and c = 0.6065(7) nm for the other area. It is should be emphasized that the present analysis of lattice distortions is immediately applicable to the other semiconductors, such as Si, SiGe or GaAs layers, without assuming any crystal system.     

Observation of polarization property in near-field optical imaging by a polarization-maintaining fiber probe

We fabricated an original near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) fiber probe made of polarization-maintaining and attenuation-reducing (PANDA)-type polarization-maintaining optical fiber, and observed the polarization property of propagation light in a polymer optical waveguide. The distribution of the transmission coefficient in polarization angles through this NSOM probe showed that the linear polarization is maintained in the two crossing directions: the fast and slow axes. The polarization degree parallel to the slow axis decreases from 1000:1 to 2:1 by bending the fiber probe and the decrease is independent of the bending direction. Using this PANDA-type NSOM probe, we investigated the polarization property of periodic intensity modulation. It was found that the intensity modulation was observed clearly with the electric vector parallel to the radius direction of the waveguide, but was observed vaguely with the electric vector perpendicular to the radius direction.     

Observation of iron silicide formation by plan-view transmission electron microscopy

The formation and the phase transitions of iron silicide by solid-phase epitaxy have been investigated by means of plan-view transmission electron microscopy, which enables us to observe a clean interface between Fe and Si. Layers of Fe were deposited on Si (100) at room temperature in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber. The sample was annealed in the electron microscope at a temperature between 673 and 1073 K. After annealing at 673 K, FeSi crystallites were formed with various orientations. When the annealing temperature was increased to 973 K, we found that the crystallites suddenly started to coalesce into grains of several hundreds of nanometers in size and polycrystalline beta-FeSi2 was formed. These phase transitions were also confirmed with electron energy-loss spectroscopy.     

BCI Competition 2003--Data set IIb: support vector machines for the P300 speller paradigm

We propose an approach to analyze data from the P300 speller paradigm using the machine-learning technique support vector machines. In a conservative classification scheme, we found the correct solution after five repetitions. While the classification within the competition is designed for offline analysis, our approach is also well-suited for a real-world online solution: It is fast, requires only 10 electrode positions and demands only a small amount of preprocessing.