Diffraction in a Fourier-transform spectrometer

The distortions of the line shape and the shifts of the line positions caused by diffraction in a Fourier-transform spectrometer are described. A simple rule of thumb to calculate the amount of the line-shape distortion is presented. Two methods for the determination of the shifts of the line positions are presented and compared. We also present an approximation for the dependence of the line-position shifts on the solid angle of the source and on the radius of the diffracting hole. Finally we present a method to study the shifts of the line positions experimentally, and some measured results are compared with theoretical ones.     

Drug‐Loaded Multifunctional Nanoparticles Targeted to the Endocardial Layer of the Injured Heart Modulate Hypertrophic Signaling

Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. Severe myocardial ischemia results in a massive loss of myocytes and acute myocardial infarction, the endocardium being the most vulnerable region. At present, current therapeutic lines only ameliorate modestly the quality of life of these patients. Here, an engineered nanocarrier is reported for targeted drug delivery into the endocardial layer of the left ventricle for cardiac repair. Biodegradable porous silicon (PSi) nanoparticles are functionalized with atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), which is known to be expressed predominantly in the endocardium of the failing heart. The ANP–PSi nanoparticles exhibit improved colloidal stability and enhanced cellular interactions with cardiomyocytes and non‐myocytes with minimal toxicity. After confirmation of good retention of the radioisotope 111‐Indium in relevant physiological buffers over 4 h, in vivo single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/CT) imaging and autoradiography demonstrate increased accumulation of ANP–PSi nanoparticles in the ischemic heart, particularly in the endocardial layer of the left ventricle. Moreover, ANP–PSi nanoparticles loaded with a novel cardioprotective small molecule attenuate hypertrophic signaling in the endocardium, demonstrating cardioprotective potential. These results provide unique insights into the development of nanotherapies targeted to the injured region of the myocardium.     

An Enhanced Facet Determination Scheme in 3D

An enhanced scheme for the determination of equilibrium crystal shapes is introduced. The emphasis of the present study is put on the proper detection of the facets appearing on the crystal surface. The original formulation presented in [1] employs the principle of the virtual work, and the enhanced scheme additionally makes use of a penalty formulation approach. The derivation of the penalty terms is discussed in detail. Finally, the corresponding discrete method is applied to a certain problematic example case presented in [1] resulting now in the correct crystal shape.     

Design and evaluation of mood pictures in social music discovery service

This paper describes the iterative design process and evaluation of mood pictures in a social music discovery service. The service enables users to consume and collaboratively create playlists based on the pictures. In total, 45 Finnish users took part in the qualitative evaluations. This paper presents the results regarding the preset mood picture design and introduces user-generated mood picture playlists. Based on the results, a set of design implications for mood pictures is introduced. In addition, the consistency of user responses from a quantitative picture–music association test shows the applicability of mood picture–music associations to a music discovery service.     

Distributed power allocation over indoor multi-pico stations

A low-complexity distributed power allocation algorithm is proposed to reduce the interference and improve the transmitting rate of edge users. Different scenarios are considered and user experience of indoor communication is promoted. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of our algorithm. The proposed power control scheme ensures that more users can achieve their required rate and the fairness of different users is improved. Besides, more than 50% energy can be saved without loss in outage ability, and energy efficiency is also promoted. In addition, the proposed algorithm can be extended to scenarios that the required rates of pico stations can be changed periodically.     

Plasma and lipoprotein lipid peroxidation in humans on sunflower and rapessed oil diets

The effects of natural mixed diets on lipid peroxidation were investigated in humans. In the first study, 59 subjects were fed a rapeseed oil-based diet rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and a sunflower oil-based diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in a cross-over manner for three and a half weeks. The lipid peroxidation products in plasma were determined by measuring conjugated dienes and malondialdehyde (MDA). In a second study, plasma thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), lipid hydroperoxides, and the susceptibility of very low density lipoprotein + low-density lipoprotein (LDL) toin vitro oxidation were measured from subjects fed similar MUFA and PUFA diets for six week diets. No significant differences in plasma MDA or conjugated diene concentrations were found after the rapeseed oil diet or the sunflower oil diet in Study 1. In the second study, a small but significant decrease (P<0.05) in both lipid hydroperoxides and TBARS was observed in the LDL fraction after the sunflower oil diet. Thein vitro oxidation gave opposite results, showing increased oxidation after the sunflower oil diet. Despite a high intake of α-tocopherol during the oil peroids, no increase in plasma α-tocopherol was noticed in either study. The results suggest that moderate changes in the fatty acid composition in the Western-type diet may be adequate to affect lipoprotein susceptibility to oxidationin vitro, but there is considerable disparity with some indices ofin vivo lipid peroxidation.     

Optimal power allocation for homogeneous and heterogeneous CA-MIMO systems

Carrier aggregation (CA) technique has been adopted by 3GPP LTE-Advanced due to its ability of enhancing the spectrum efficiency and peak data rates through aggregating multiple component carriers (CCs). Two main factors make power control optimization very essential for CA-MIMO radio link: the different channel characteristics in multiple CCs, and multiple power constraint conditions (per-CC, per-antenna and pertransmitter power constraints) in the actual CA system deployment. This paper firstly derives the degenerate conditions of optimal power allocation for a single-transmitter CA-MIMO system. Stemming from the derived degenerate conditions, we propose a modified hybrid gradient optimal power allocation(MHGOPA) algorithm to maximize the system performance. Simulation results verify the validity of the proposed resource allocation approach by comparing with baseline average power allocation algorithm. Finally, we extend the MHGOPA algorithm into a heterogeneous CA network with multiple transmitters working simultaneously.     

Spatial and temporal constraints in variational correspondence methods

This paper proposes a new method for optical-flow and stereo estimation based on the inclusion of both spatial and temporal constraints in a variational framework. These constraints bound the solution based on a priori information, or in other words, based on what is known of a possible solution or how it is expected to change temporally. This knowledge can be something that (a) is known since the geometrical properties of the scene are known or (b) is deduced by a higher-level algorithm capable of inferring this information. In the latter case, the constraint terms enable the exchange of information between high- and low-level vision systems: the high-level system makes a hypothesis of a possible scene setup which is then tested by the low-level one, recurrently. Since high-level vision systems incorporate knowledge of the world that surrounds us, this kind of hypothesis testing loop between the high- and low-level vision systems should converge to a more coherent solution.     

Optimizing Thermal Shock Resistance of Layered Refractories

Severe thermal shocks may cause critical thermal stresses and failure in refractories or ceramic materials. To increase the thermal shock resistance, layered material structures are suggested. In order to optimize properties of these alternative structures, thermo‐mechanical simulations are required. In this study, a finite difference method (FDM) is used for solving the partial differential equation of heat conduction with spatially varying parameters. The optimization of the strip's thermal shock resistance is exemplarily done on a 10 layered strip subjected to constant temperature jump on the top surface. Each layer can be set with different porous Al₂O₃ and MgO ceramics, whose material properties are theoretically determined. In this study, an improved optimization method is developed that consists of a combination and sequence of Monte Carlo simulations and evolution strategies to overcome certain disadvantages of both techniques.