Cross-linked polyvinyl amidoxime fiber: a highly selective and recyclable adsorbent of gallium from Bayer liquor

Gallium, a scarce metal produced mainly from Bayer liquor, is widely used in semiconductors. Ion-exchange method is currently considered as the most effective method to recover gallium from Bayer liquor. In this article, fibrous amidoxime adsorbents are introduced to recover gallium from Bayer liquor. In addition, hydrazine cross-linked polyvinyl amidoxime (HPAO) fibers have been prepared. The structure of the as-prepared fibers was ascertained by FTIR, elemental analysis and weight gain rate. The adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherm and recycling performance were investigated by batch method. Cross-linking duration was studied and it turned out to be an important factor to optimize the adsorption capacity and recycling performance. After 1.5 h cross-linking time, the fiber showed the highest gallium adsorption capacity of 14.83 mg/g in Bayer liquor. After 3 h cross-linking time, the fiber showed the best recycling performance, which retained 82.9% of the initial adsorption ability after four cycles. Adsorption capacity of vanadium was lower than 1 mg/g for all samples. HPAO displayed very fast adsorption kinetics with an equilibrium at 60 min. The EDS results confirmed the low extraction of aluminum and vanadium provided by HPAO fibers. The gallium-loaded fiber could be effectively eluted by acidified thiourea. With proper control of the cross-linking duration by hydrazine, HPAO fiber with high selectivity towards gallium, high adsorption capacity and good recycle performance could be obtained, which is promising for recovering gallium needed for industrial applications.     

Path Representation in Circuit Netlists Using Linear-Sized ZDDs with Optimal Variable Ordering

The efficient representation and manipulation of a large number of paths in a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) requires the usage of special data structures that may become of exponential size with respect to the size of the graph. Several methodologies targeting Electronic Design Automation problems such as timing analysis, physical design, verification and testing involve path representation and necessary manipulation. Previous works proposed an encoding using Zero-suppressed Binary Decision Diagrams (ZDDs), which has been shown experimentally to cope well when representing structural or logical paths in VLSI circuits. However, it is well known that the ordering of the variables in a ZDD highly affects its size and, therefore, the efficiency of the methodologies utilizing these data structures. In this work, we show that using a reverse topological order for the ZDD variables bounds the number of nodes in the ZDD representing structural paths to the number of edges in the DAG considered, hence, making the ZDD size linear to the DAG’s size. This result, supported here both theoretically and experimentally, is very important as it can render methodologies with questionable scalability applicable to larger industrial designs. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed variable ordering in one such methodology which utilizes ZDDs to grade the Path Delay Fault coverage of a given test set.     

Robust Encryption

We provide a provable-security treatment of “robust” encryption. Robustness means it is hard to produce a ciphertext that is valid for two different users. Robustness makes explicit a property that has been implicitly assumed in the past. We argue that it is an essential conjunct of anonymous encryption. We show that natural anonymity-preserving ways to achieve it, such as adding recipient identification information before encrypting, fail. We provide transforms that do achieve it, efficiently and provably. We assess the robustness of specific encryption schemes in the literature, providing simple patches for some that lack the property. We explain that robustness of the underlying anonymous IBE scheme is essential for public-key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) to be consistent (meaning, not have false positives), and our work provides the first generic conversions of anonymous IBE schemes to consistent (and secure) PEKS schemes. Overall, our work enables safer and simpler use of encryption.     

Isolation and identification of two major acylated anthocyanins from purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L. cultivar Eshu No. 8) by UPLC‐QTOF‐MS/MS and NMR

In recent years, researches on the isolation and preparation of monomeric anthocyanins have intensified because of the requirements of quantitative and structure–bioactivity relationship analyses. However, simple and effective methods about the scale of monomeric anthocyanins from the natural purple sweet potato powder are rarely reported. In this study, high molecular weight acylated monomeric anthocyanins were isolated from purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L. cultivar Eshu No. 8) via the combination of column chromatography and semi‐preparative HPLC technology and identified mainly by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (UPLC‐QTOF‐MS/MS) and ¹H and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Two major acylated anthocyanins were unambiguously determined as peonidin 3‐O‐(6‐O‐(E)‐caffeoyl‐(2‐O‐(6‐O‐p‐hydroxybenzoyl)‐β‐D‐glucopyranosyl)‐β‐D‐glucopyranoside)‐5‐O‐(β‐D‐glucopyranoside) and peonidin 3‐O‐(6‐O‐(E)‐caffeoyl‐(2‐O‐(6‐O‐(E)‐feruloyl)‐β‐D‐ glucopyranosyl)‐β‐D‐glucopyranoside)‐5‐O‐(β‐D‐glucopyranoside). The results of this study may help promote the purification of high molecular weight acylated anthocyanins from purple sweet potato as well as from other plant materials in nature.     

A minimum projected-distance test for parametric single-index Berkson models

In this paper, we propose a minimum projected-distance test for parametric single-index regression models when the predictors are measured with Berkson errors. This test asymptotically behaves like a locally smoothing test as if the null model were with one-dimensional predictor, and is omnibus to detect all global alternative models. The test can also detect local alternative models that converge to the null model at the fastest rate that the existing locally smoothing tests with one-dimensional predictor can achieve. Therefore, the proposed test has potential for alleviating the curse of dimensionality in this field. We also give two bias-correction methods to center the test statistic. Numerical studies are conducted to examine the performance of the proposed test.