Kinetics of volume expansion during infusion of Ringer’s solution based on two volume model

In this work mathematical models were developed to represent the kinetics of volume changes of fluid spaces associated with infusion of Ringer’s solution. During infusion of Ringer’s solution, the human body is assumed to be characterized by the two-fluid space model which has second volume space in addition to the first volume so that fluid exchanges between these two spaces are possible. Various infusion types were tested to accommodate different medical situations. Volunteers were given Ringer’s solution and the changes in blood hemoglobin were detected. From the comparison with experimental data, the two-fluid space model was found to represent adequately the kinetics of human volume expansion during infusion of Ringer’s solution.     

A technique for extracting behavioral sequence patterns from GPS recorded data

The mobile wireless market has been attracting many customers. Technically, the paradigm of anytime-anywhere connectivity raises previously unthinkable challenges, including the management of million of mobile customers, their profiles, the profiles-based selective information dissemination, and server-side computing infrastructure design issues to support such a large pool of users automatically and intelligently. In this paper, we propose a data mining technique for discovering frequent behavioral patterns from a collection of trajectories gathered by Global Positioning System. Although the search space for spatiotemporal knowledge is extremely challenging, imposing spatial and temporal constraints on spatiotemporal sequences makes the computation feasible. Specifically, the mined patterns are incorporated with synthetic constraints, namely spatiotemporal sequence length restriction, minimum and maximum timing gap between events, time window of occurrence of the whole pattern, inclusion or exclusion event constraints, and frequent movement patterns predictive of one ore more classes. The algorithm for mining all frequent constrained patterns is named cAllMOP. Moreover, to control the density of pattern regions a clustering algorithm is exploited. The proposed method is efficient and scalable. Its efficiency is better than that of the previous algorithms AllMOP and GSP with respect to the compactness of discovered knowledge, execution time, and memory requirement.     

Crystallization and dissolution behavior of l(+) calcium and zinc lactate in ethanol-water solvent

Crystallization and dissolution behavior of L(+) calcium and zinc lactate in 50% ethanol-water solution was studied. The effects of stirring, standing, ultrasonic wave, and temperature on the crystallization of L(+) calcium and zinc lactate were evaluated. It was found that standing had a positive effect on crystallization of L(+) calcium and zinc lactate, while stirring promoted dissolution of crystallized particles and resulted in high residual concentration in mother liquor. The application of ultrasonic wave did not influence much on crystallization process. L(+) calcium and zinc lactate crystallized easily at 5 ‡C; however, complete crystallization took more than 72 hours. These two salts dissolved rapidly and reached equilibrium within 1 hour.     

Influence of ionic liquids on the growth ofEscherichia coli

Ionic liquids are compounds that composed only of ions and are liquid at room temperature. Thus, it is normally named room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL). In this study, the application of RTILs to the extractive fermentation of biomaterials was investigated as a substitute of organic solvents. The relative toxicity of the RTILs on the growth ofE. coli was tested. The inhibition of cell growth in the presence of various ionic liquids was measured using solid and liquid culture, and EC₅₀ of each RTILs was calculated. The number of viable and total cells was measured by the number of colonies and optical density, respectively. Effective concentrations of toxicity (EC₅₀) in these tested systems were similar with conventional solvents, such as acetone, acetonitrile, and ethanol. The viability ofE. coli was affected by the polarity and ionic properties of ionic liquids. The resistance of the microorganisms against ionic liquids was different with the cations and anions composing ionic liquids. No general influence of the anionic compound of the ionic liquids was found on toxicity comparing with distinctive influence of cationic moiety.     

Growth and formation mechanism of sea urchin-like ZnO nanostructures on Si

Sea urchin-like nanostructures of ZnO consisting of ZnO nanowires with blunt faceted ends were grown on Si (100) substrates by oxidation of metallic Zn at 600 °C. ZnO nanowires having a diameter of 30–60 nm and length of 2–4 Μm were in similar shape with uniform diameter along its entire length with well faceted blunt ends. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope analysis showed that the as-grown nanostructures were highly crystalline with wurtzite hexagonal structure having lattice constants of a=b=3.25 å and c=5.21 å. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed a weak near band-edge emission at 380 nm, but a strong green emission at 500–530 nm. A model for vapor-solid (VS) growth mechanism of ZnO nanowires was presented, in which nucleation of ZnO is crucial for the growth of the nanostructures.     

Converting random bits into random numbers

Converting random bits into random numbers is necessary for cryptographic protocols such as key agreements, public key encryptions, digital signatures and so on. In this paper, we propose the simple partial discard method and the complex partial discard method that convert random bits into random numbers. They are up to two times more efficient than standardized techniques.     

Poly(trimethylene terephthalate) nanocomposite fibers comprising different organoclays: Thermomechanical properties and morphology

Poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) nano composites were synthesized by in situ polymerization at high temperature with two thermally stable organoclays: 1,2‐dimethylhexadecylimidazolium‐montmorillonite (IMD‐MMT) and dodecyltriphenyl phosphonium‐MMT (C₁₂PPh‐MMT). PTT hybrid fibers with various organoclay contents were melt‐spun at various draw ratios (DRs) to produce monofilaments. The thermomechanical properties and morphologies of the PTT hybrid fibers were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and mechanical tensile properties analysis. The nanostructure of the hybrid fibers was observed by both scanning and transmission electron microscopy, which showed that the clay layers were well dispersed into the matrix polymer, although some clusters or agglomerated particles were also detected. Unlike the hybrids containing IMD‐MMT, the clay layers of the C₁₂PPh‐MMT hybrid fiber were more dispersed into the matrix polymer. The thermal stability and tensile properties of the hybrid fibers increased with increasing clay content for DR = 1. However, as DR increased from 1 to 9 the ultimate strength and initial modulus of the hybrid fibers with IMD‐MMT increased slightly whereas those of C₁₂PPh‐MMT hybrid fibers decreased slightly. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 4535–4545, 2006     

Effect of test frequency and water content on localized crack-tip heating in nylon-6,6

Fatigue crack propagation (FCP) tests were conducted at various frequencies on nylon-6,6 specimens equilibrated over a range of moisture levels to determine the crack growth rates and the crack-tip temperatures as a function of water content. Frequency-sensitivity was correlated with the amount of crack-tip heating taking place, with crack-tip temperature being found to depend strongly on the estimated loss compliance, D″, of the material. The frequency-sensitivity of FCP in nylon was seen also to be affected by mean stress, suggesting that creep processes are often significant in FCP of nylon.