Antioxidant and anti‐hypertensive activity of anthocyanin‐rich extracts from hulless pigmented barley cultivars

Anthocyanin‐rich acetone extracts of barley grain of four hulless pigmented genotypes were investigated to determine their potential as functional food ingredients. The purple barley cultivar contained 11 anthocyanins, whereas only one anthocyanin, peonidin derivative, was observed in blue, black and yellow barley. The total anthocyanin content of pigmented barley genotypes ranged from 3.2 to 678.5 mg kg^?1 in whole grain and from 4.5 to 1654.6 mg kg^?1 in bran. The purple barley bran extract gave the highest DPPH radical scavenging capacity, superoxide radical scavenging capacity and total antioxidant activity. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of angiotensin I‐converting enzyme (ACE) of anthocyanin‐rich extract of purple barley grain and bran was 8.77 and 4.54 mg mL^?1, respectively. Purple barley appears to have great potential uses for the promotion of human health and development of nutraceuticals and functional foods.     

Antibacterial mode of action of seed essential oil of Eleutherococcus senticosus against foodborne pathogens

This study investigated the antibacterial mechanism of action of the seed essential oil of Eleutherococcus senticosus (ESEO) against foodborne pathogenic bacteria. Preliminarily, the ESEO (1000 μg disc^?1) showed potential antibacterial effect as diameter of inhibition zones (12.0 ± 0.2–37.0 ± 2.0 mm) against the tested foodborne pathogens. The MIC and MBC values of ESEO against the tested bacteria were found in the range of 125–500 and 500–1000 μg mL^?1, respectively. At MIC concentration, the ESEO had potential inhibitory effect on the cell viability of the tested pathogens. In addition, SEM analysis showed the inhibitory effect of ESEO as confirmed by considerable morphological alterations on the cell wall of B. cereus ATCC 13061 and E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43889. Moreover, the ESEO revealed its mode of action against foodborne pathogens on membrane integrity as confirmed by release of extracellular ATP, 260‐nm absorbing materials and leakage of potassium ions. These findings confirm that the ESEO can be used as a potential antibacterial agent in food industry to inhibit the growth of various foodborne pathogens.     

Nanogap Array Fabrication Using Doubly Clamped Freestanding Silicon Nanowires and Angle Evaporations

We present a simple semiconductor process to fabricate nanogap arrays for application in molecular electronics and nano‐bio electronics using a combination of freestanding silicon nanowires and angle evaporation. The gap distance is modulated using the height of the silicon dioxide, the width of the Si nanowires, and the evaporation angle. In addition, we fabricate and apply the nanogap arrays in single‐electron transistors using DNA‐linked Au nanoparticles for the detection of DNA hybridization.     

Statistical modeling of electrochemical removal of sodium in fermented food composts

Electrochemical removal of sodium ion from fermented food composts was analyzed and statistically modeled by response surface methodology (RSM). Empirical models were developed to describe relationships between the operating variables (operation time, current density and water contents) and three responses (removal efficiency, energy expenditure and energy efficiency). Statistical analysis indicated that operation time and current density have significant effect on all responses. Good agreement between predicted and measured values confirmed the usefulness of the model. The models were verified by additional experimental at optimum conditions.     

Nanodosimetric measurements with an avalanche confinement TEPC

This paper illustrates a tissue-equivalent proportional counter designed to have high gas gain and good energy resolution at nanometric simulated site sizes. Microdosimetric neutron and gamma spectra were measured in dimethyl ether and in propane-based tissue-equivalent gas mixture down to 35 nm. The comparison of experimental data with the results of Monte Carlo calculations shows a satisfactory agreement.     

Web image retrieval using majority-based ranking approach

Web image retrieval has characteristics different from typical content-based image retrieval; web images have associated textual cues. However, a web image retrieval system often yields undesirable results, because it uses limited text information such as surrounding text, URLs, and image filenames. In this paper, we propose a new approach to retrieval, which uses the image content of retrieved results without relying on assistance from the user. Our basic hypothesis is that more popular images have a higher probability of being the ones that the user wishes to retrieve. According to this hypothesis, we propose a retrieval approach that is based on a majority of the images under consideration. We define four methods for finding the visual features of majority of images; (1) majority-first method, (2) centroid-of-all method, (3) centroid-of-top K method, and (4) centroid-of-largest-cluster method. In addition, we implement a graph/picture classifier for improving the effectiveness of web image retrieval. We evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of both our methods and conventional ones by using precision and recall graphs. Experimental results show that the proposed methods are more effective than conventional keyword-based retrieval methods.     

Simple and compact, all-fibre retro-reflector for cladding-pumped fibre lasers

Proposed is an all-fibre retro-reflector realised via shaping a fibre end into a right-angled cone for a pump reflector in cladding-pumped fibre lasers. The conical-shaped fibre-optic retro-reflector allows folded, total internal reflections for pump beams that propagate in the inner cladding of a double-clad fibre. The proposed scheme was applied to a cladding-pumped ytterbium-doped fibre laser and readily achieved over 55% of reflection for the unabsorbed pump throughput, thereby generating 29% more signal output power than without the pump retro-reflector     

Sensitivity analysis of ion implanted silicon wafers after rapid thermal annealing

In this study, we have investigated sensitivities of the ion implanted silicon wafers processed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA), which can reveal the variation of sheet resistance as a function of annealing temperature as well as implantation parameters. All the wafers were sequentially implanted by the arsenic or phosphorous implantations at 40, 80, and 100 keV with the dose level of 10¹⁴ to 2 × 10¹⁶ ions/cm². Rapid thermal annealing was carried out for 10 s by the infrared irradiation at a temperature between 850 and 1150°C in the nitrogen ambient. The activated wafer was characterized by the measurements of the sheet resistance and its uniformity mapping. The values of sensitivities are determined from the curve fitting of the experimental data to the fitting equation of correlation between the sheet resistance and process variables. From the sensitivity values and the deviation of sheet resistance, the optimum process conditions minimizing the effects of straggle in process parameters are obtained. As a result, a strong dependence of the sensitivity on the process variables, especially annealing temperatures and dose levels is also found. From the sensitivity analysis of the 10 s RTA process, the optimum values for the implant dose and annealing temperature are found to be in the range of 10¹⁶ ions/cm² and 1050-1100°C, respectively. The sensitivity analysis of sheet resistance will provide valuable data for accurate activation process, offering a guideline for dose monitoring and calibration of ion implantation process.     

New soft-switching current source converter for photovoltaic power system

This paper proposes a soft-switching CSI for a photovoltaic power system which has an H-type switched-capacitor module composed of two semiconductor switches, two diodes and an L-C resonant circuit. The operation of the proposed system was analyzed using a theoretical approach with equivalent circuits and verified by computer simulations using a simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis and experimental work with a hardware prototype. The proposed system could be effectively applied to the power converter of a photovoltaic power system interconnected with an a.c. power system.     

Motion retargeting and evaluation for VR-based training of free motions

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as one of the important and effective tools for education and training. Most VR-based training systems are situation based, where the trainees are trained for discrete decision making in special situations presented by the VR environments. In contrast, this paper discusses the application of VR to a different class of training, for learning free motion, often required in sports and the arts. We propose a VR-based motion-training framework that contains an intuitive motion-guiding interface, posture-oriented motion retargeting, and an evaluation and advice scheme for corrective feedback. Applications of the proposed framework to simple fencing training and a dance imitation game are demonstrated.