6. Conductivity effects in amorphous chalcogenide films

Thin amorphous films of chalcogenide Te₄₈As₁₈Ge₆Si₂₈ were prepared and their current-voltage (I–V) characteristics were examined. Memory switching effects were observed which were stable and reproducible, but the switching voltage was found to depend on the restoring voltage in a regular way for cyclic switching. Furthermore, the time delay for an applied voltage pulse to cause switching may be related to the I–V curve prior the switching. This dependence seems to support an electronic mechanism of switching.     

RADE: resource-efficient supervised anomaly detection using decision tree-based ensemble methods

Machine Learning - The capability to perform anomaly detection in a resource-constrained setting, such as an edge device or a loaded server, is of increasing need due to emerging on-premises...     

Mandarin fruit quality: a review

During the last decade, there has been a continuous rise in consumption and global marketing of fresh, easy‐to‐peel mandarins, with current annual production of nearly 29 million tons. Nevertheless, most of the existing knowledge on quality traits of citrus fruit comes from research conducted on oranges and grapefruit, which are the main products for the citrus juice manufacturing industry; relatively little is yet known regarding the unique fruit quality traits of mandarins, nor about the great diversity in these traits among the various natural sub‐groups and varieties of mandarins. In the present review we discuss the physiological, biochemical, and molecular factors governing key fruit quality attributes of mandarins, including fruit colour, size and shape, ease of peeling, seedlessness, flavour, and nutritional quality. Fruit colour, size, and shape contribute to external appearance; peelability and seedlessness to ease of consumption; and flavour and nutritional quality to internal quality. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

Automatic detection of obstructive sleep apnea using speech signals

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder associated with anatomical abnormalities of the upper airways that affects 5% of the population. Acoustic parameters may be influenced by the vocal tract structure and soft tissue properties. We hypothesize that speech signal properties of OSA patients will be different than those of control subjects not having OSA. Using speech signal processing techniques, we explored acoustic speech features of 93 subjects who were recorded using a text-dependent speech protocol and a digital audio recorder immediately prior to polysomnography study. Following analysis of the study, subjects were divided into OSA (n=67) and non-OSA (n=26) groups. A Gaussian mixture model-based system was developed to model and classify between the groups; discriminative features such as vocal tract length and linear prediction coefficients were selected using feature selection technique. Specificity and sensitivity of 83% and 79% were achieved for the male OSA and 86% and 84% for the female OSA patients, respectively. We conclude that acoustic features from speech signals during wakefulness can detect OSA patients with good specificity and sensitivity. Such a system can be used as a basis for future development of a tool for OSA screening.     

Cover Image,Volume 98, Issue 1

The cover image, by Livnat Goldenberg et al., is based on the Review Mandarin fruit quality: a review, DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.8495 .

     

Stress-activated protein kinases are negatively regulated by cell density

Stimulation by UV irradiation, TNFalpha, as well as PDGF or EGF activates the JNK/SAPK signalling pathway in mouse fibroblasts. This results in the phosphorylation of the N-terminal domain of c-Jun, increasing its transactivation potency. Using an antibody that specifically recognizes c-Jun phosphorylated at Ser63, we show that culture confluency drastically inhibited c-Jun N-terminal phosphorylation due to the inhibition of the JNK/SAPK pathway. Transfection experiments demonstrate that the inhibition occurs at the same level as, or upstream of, the small G-proteins cdc42 and Rac1. In contrast, the classical MAPK pathway was insensitive to confluency. The inhibition of JNK/SAPK activation depended on the integrity of the actin microfilament network. These results were confirmed and extended in monolayer wounding experiments. After PDGF, EGF or UV stimulation, c-Jun was predominantly phosphorylated in cells bordering the wound, which are the cells that move to occupy the wounded area. Thus, modulation of the stress-dependent signal cascade by confluency will restrict c-Jun N-terminal phosphorylation in response to mitogenic or chemotactic agents to cells that border a wounded area.     

Physical,Mechanical, and Structural Properties of Highly Efficient Nanostructured n- and p-Silicides for Practical Thermoelectric Applications

Cost-effective highly efficient nanostructured n-type Mg₂Si_1?x Sn _x and p-type higher manganese silicide (HMS) compositions were prepared for the development of practical waste heat generators for automotive and marine thermoelectric applications, in the frame of the European Commission (EC)-funded PowerDriver project. The physical, mechanical, and structural properties were fully characterized as part of a database-generation exercise required for the thermoelectric converter design. A combination of high maximal ZT values of ～0.6 and ～1.1 for the HMS and Mg₂Si_1?x Sn _x compositions, respectively, and adequate mechanical properties was obtained.     

Creep and Creep Recovery Response of Load Cells Tested According to U.S. and International Evaluation Procedures

The 60 min creep data from National Type Evaluation Procedure (NTEP) tests performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on 65 load cells have been analyzed in order to compare their creep and creep recovery responses, and to compare the 60 min creep with creep over shorter time periods. To facilitate this comparison the data were fitted to a multiple-term exponential equation, which adequately describes the creep and creep recovery responses of load cells. The use of such a curve fit reduces the effect of the random error in the indicator readings on the calculated values of the load cell creep. Examination of the fitted curves show that the creep recovery responses, after inversion by a change in sign, are generally similar in shape to the creep response, but smaller in magnitude. The average ratio of the absolute value of the maximum creep recovery to the maximum creep is 0.86; however, no reliable correlation between creep and creep recovery can be drawn from the data. The fitted curves were also used to compare the 60 min creep of the NTEP analysis with the 30 min creep and other parameters calculated according to the Organization Internationale de Métrologie Légale (OIML) R 60 analysis. The average ratio of the 30 min creep value to the 60 min value is 0.84. The OIML class C creep tolerance is less than 0.5 of the NTEP tolerance for classes III and III L.