Electroactive behavior assessment of poly(acrylic acid)‐graphene oxide composite hydrogel in the detection of cadmium

Super absorbent polymers of acrylic acid‐graphene oxide (PAA‐GO) were synthesized with different percentage of chemical neutralization (0, 10, and 20%) of the acrylic acid monomer before its polymerization. The influence of their swelling and adsorption/desorption capacity of cadmium ions in aqueous solutions were studied and revealed that the GO enables greater mechanical stability in the materials. The PAA hydrogels, with the same degrees of neutralization, were also prepared without GO to compare with the composites. Additionally, carbon paste electrodes (CPE) modified with the composites PAA‐GO were used to asses and compare their adsorption properties with cadmium(II). The anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) peak, in the differential pulse voltammetry mode, for cadmium oxidation was found to be influenced by the presence of GO into the polymer, and also by their percentage of neutralization. The accumulation of cadmium(II) on the surface of the modified CPEs was performed under open‐circuit conditions taking an account the preconcentration time of the metal cation. The presence of GO enhances the electrical signal of the electrodes in short times of immersion in cadmium(II) solutions. This property contributed to get linear responses of the CPEs modified with the composites, which were influenced by their degrees of neutralization. The PAA‐GO 10N electrode with 10% of neutralization combined the influence of GO and the degree of neutralization in the same matrix, and also showed good performance in terms of its mechanical stability, it was chosen for preliminary studies on the selectivity of the electrode toward Zn(II) and Cu(II). © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40846.     

An efficient and robust method for Lagrangian magnetic particle tracking in fluid flow simulations on unstructured grids

In this paper we report on a newly developed particle tracking scheme for fluid flow simulations on 3D unstructured grids, aiming to provide detailed insights in the particle behaviour in complex geometries. A possible field of applications is the magnetic drug targeting (MDT) technique, on which this paper will be focused. MDT is a promising medical technique that uses locally applied magnetic fields to capture magnetic drug carriers at the desired locations in the human body, strongly increasing the efficiency of medical drugs. The new particle tracking scheme combines the advantages of existing methods and is easy for implementation in a generic numerical code. The scheme is tested and validated for simple MDT cases that include effects of a non-homogeneous magnetic field on deposition of magnetic particles in laminar flow. The first test case is a validation study of the magnetic particle trajectories released in a horizontal circular pipe flow with a current-carrying wire parallel to the flow, for which analytical solutions are reported in literature. The second test case involves particle capture efficiencies in a 90° bent tube for different configurations of the imposed magnetic field. This configuration corresponds more closely to the conditions inside blood vessels, because of the presence of secondary motions. These results are compared with numerical studies from literature too. The obtained results demonstrate that the developed particle tracking scheme is a very robust, efficient and accurate method, which can give detailed insights in particle behaviour in complex geometries. As such it is a good candidate for future applications and optimisations of MDT technique for loco-regional cancer treatment or treatment of cardiovascular diseases.     

Numerical study of the Stratified smoke flow in a corridor: Full-scale calculations

The two-dimensional, steady-state, turbulent flow of hot air and smoke in a corridor with an adjacent room fire is calculated numerically. Turbulence is accounted for through the k-ε model. Buoyancy efects are included in both the vertical momentum and the turbulence equations. Convective and radiative heat losses are accounted for. The simple radiation model used assumes a well-mixed, spectrally gray and optically thick smoke layer.

A full-sized corridor of 75 m length and 2.5 m height is considered. Parameter variations include inflow temperature, radiative heat losses and net mass flow. Special attention is given to the stratification of the hot smoke layer. Strong stratification is found for all situations considered. However, the hot layer thickness increases significantly in some cases. Our calculations do not support the use of a critical overall Richardson number as a criterion for the occurrence of stratification.     

Ultrastrong Anchoring Yet Barrier‐Free Adsorption of Composite Microgels at Liquid Interfaces

Microgel particles display an interesting duality with properties attributed typically both to polymeric and colloidal systems. When adsorbed at a liquid‐liquid interface, this duality becomes particularly apparent as the various phenomena at play are governed by different aspects of these soft and responsive particles. The introduction of a solid, fluorescently labeled, polystyrene core into the microgels allows direct and accurate visualization without the necessity of potential perturbing sample preparation techniques. By combining in‐situ imaging and tensiometry, we determine that composite microgels at a wide variety of oil‐water interfaces anchor strongly, with adsorption energies of approximately 10⁶ k_BT, typical for particle adsorption, yet accumulate at the interface spontaneously without any energy barrier, which is more typical for polymers. The high adsorption energies allow the particle to spontaneously form very dense crystalline packings at the liquid interface in which the microgels are significantly compressed with respect to their swollen state in bulk solutions. Finally, we demonstrate the unique nature of these particles by producing highly stable and monodisperse microgel‐stabilized droplets using microfluidics.     

Synchronizations in Team Automata for Groupware Systems

Team automata have been proposed in Ellis (1997) as a formal framework for modeling both the conceptual and the architectural level of groupware systems. Here we define team automata in a mathematically precise way in terms of component automata which synchronizeon certain executions of actions.At the conceptual level, our model serves as a formal framework in whichbasic groupware notions can be rigorously defined and studied.At the architectural level, team automata can be used as building blocksin the design of groupware systems.     

Attenuation of the polypeptide 7B2, prohormone convertase PC2, and vasopressin in the hypothalamus of some Prader-Willi patients: indications for a processing defect

7B2 is a neuroendocrine chaperone interacting with the prohormone convertase PC2 in the regulated secretory pathway. Its gene is located near the Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) region on chromosome 15. In a previous study we were able to show 7B2 immunoreactivity in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) or the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in only three of five PWS patients. Here we report that in contrast with five other PWS patients, the neurons in the hypothalamic SON and PVN of the two 7B2-immunonegative PWS patients also failed to show any reaction using two antibodies directed against processed vasopressin (VP). On the other hand, even these two cases reacted normally with five antibodies that recognize different parts of the VP precursor. This finding pointed to a processing defect. Indeed, the same patients had no PC2 immunoreactivity in the SON or PVN, whereas PC1 immunoreactivity was only slightly diminished. In conclusion, in the VP neurons of two PWS patients, greatly reduced amounts of 7B2 and PC2 are present, resulting in diminished VP precursor processing.     

Utility of scintigraphic methods in patients with fever of unknown origin

BACKGROUND: We assessed the utility of scintigraphy with indium 111-labeled polyclonal human IgG scintigraphy in patients with fever of unknown origin that fulfilled the criteria of temperature of 38.3 degrees C or more for at least 3 weeks and no diagnosis during 1 week of hospital admission. We compared the utility of this technique with results of scintigraphic techniques reported in the literature. METHODS: Data for all patients seen at our university hospital in whom 111In-IgG scanning was performed were analyzed and checked for the criteria for fever of unknown origin. The literature on the utility of scintigraphic techniques in patients with fever of unknown origin was reviewed. RESULTS: We studied 24 patients with fever of unknown origin. In 13 patients, focal 111In-IgG accumulation was observed. In nine (38%) of those, the positive 111In-IgG scintigram led to the final diagnosis; in the other four patients (17%), the scintigraphic findings were not helpful. In the 11 patients with negative 111In-IgG scans, extensive diagnostic workup produced no infection as the final diagnosis in nine patients (38%), one had an abscess in a renal cyst that was detected several months later, and in the other the cause of fever was an infected intravenous line. The overall sensitivity and specificity of 111In-IgG scintigraphy were 81% and 69%, respectively. The positive predictive value was 69% and the negative predictive value was 82%. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that 111In-IgG scintigraphy significantly contributed to the diagnostic process in patients with fever of unknown origin. A positive scan increased the likelihood of finding the cause of the fever, and a negative scan ruled out an inflammatory component with a high degree of certainty. These data compare favorably with data in the literature concerning other radiopharmaceuticals; a larger prospective evaluation of this technique is indicated.     

Laminar forced convection heat transfer to ordered and disordered single rows of cylinders

We study laminar forced convection heat transfer to or from a single row of equidistantly and non-equidistantly spaced parallel cylindrical wires, perpendicular to the flow direction. We report average Nusselt numbers as a function of geometry and flow conditions, for open frontal area fractions between 0.04 and 0.95, Prandtl numbers between 0.7 and 10, and Reynolds numbers (based on the wire diameter and the free stream velocity) between 0.001 and 600. For equidistantly spaced rows of cylindrical wires we propose a general analytical expression for the average Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds number, Prandtl number and the open frontal area fraction, as well as asymptotic scaling rules for small and large Reynolds. For all studied Prandtl numbers, equidistant rows exhibit decreasing average Nusselt numbers for decreasing open frontal area fractions at low Reynolds numbers. For high Reynolds numbers, the Nusselt number approaches that of a single cylinder in cross-flow, independent of the open frontal area fraction. For equal open frontal area fractions, the Nusselt number in non-equidistant rows is lower than in equidistant rows for intermediate Reynolds numbers. For very low and high Reynolds numbers, non-uniformity does not influence heat transfer.     

Estimation of the short-term predictor parameters of speech under noisy conditions

Speech coding algorithms that have been developed for clean speech are often used in a noisy environment. We describe maximum a posteriori (MAP) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) techniques to estimate the clean-speech short-term predictor (STP) parameters from noisy speech. The MAP and MMSE estimates are obtained using a likelihood function computed by means of the DFT or Kalman filtering and empirical probability distributions based on multidimensional histograms. The method is assessed in terms of the resulting root mean spectral distortion between the "clean" speech STP parameters and the STP parameters computed with the proposed method from noisy speech. The estimated parameters are also applied to obtain clean speech estimates by means of a Kalman filter. The quality of the estimated speech as compared to the "clean" speech is assessed by means of subjective tests, signal-to-noise ratio improvement, and the perceptual speech quality measurement method.