Selective Al-Ti reactivity in laser-processed Al/Ti multilayers

Multilayers consisting of five (Al/Ti) bilayers were deposited on (100) silicon wafers. On top was deposited the Ti layer, aimed at preventing Al from diffusing to the surface upon laser treatment. The total thickness of the thin-film structure was 200?nm. Laser irradiations with Nd:YAG picoseconds laser pulses in the defocused regime were performed in air. Laser beam energy was 4?mJ and laser spot diameter on the sample surface was 3?mm (fluence 0.057?J?cm^?2). The samples were treated with different numbers of laser pulses. Structural characterizations were performed by different analytical methods and nano-hardness was also measured. Laser processing induced layer intermixing, formation of titanium aluminides, oxidation of the surface titanium layer and enhanced surface roughness. Aluminum appears at the sample surface only for the highest density of laser irradiation. Laser processing induces increment of nano-hardness by approximately 20% and decrease of residual Young’s modulus for a few percentages from the starting value of the untreated samples. These results can be interesting toward achieving structures with a selective extent of Al-Ti reactivity in this multilayered system, within the development of biocompatible materials.     

Determination of the Optimal Fourier Number on the Dynamic Thermal Transmission

This article represents the result of experimental research on transient heat transfer in a multilayered (heterogeneous) wall. Our non-steady thermal transmission simulation is based on a finite-difference calculation method. The value of a Fourier number shows the similarity of thermal variation in conditional layers of an enclosure. Most scientists recommend using no more than a value of 0.5 for the Fourier number when performing calculations on dynamic (transient) heat transfer. The value of the Fourier number is determined in order to acquire reliable calculation results with optimal accuracy. To compare the results of simulation with experimental research, a transient heat transfer calculation spreadsheet was created. Our research has shown that a Fourier number of around 0.5 or even 0.32 is not sufficient (\({\approx }17\,\%\) of oscillation amplitude) for calculations of transient heat transfer in a multilayered wall. The least distorted calculation results were obtained when the multilayered enclosure was divided into conditional layers with almost equal Fourier number values and when the value of the Fourier number was around 1/6, i.e., approximately 0.17. Statistical deviation analysis using the Statistical Analysis System was applied to assess the accuracy of the spreadsheet calculation and was developed on the basis of our established methodology. The mean and median absolute error as well as their confidence intervals has been estimated by the two methods with optimal accuracy (\({F}_{\mathrm{oMDF}}= 0.177\) and \(F_{\mathrm{oEPS}}= 0.1633\) values).     

Defining the e-learner’s security profile: Towards awareness improvement

The paper presents an improved e-learner model that supports monitoring of user behavior related to information security. The model is built upon standardized IMS specification, according to literature research and survey conducted among e-learners. It is positioned as key part of an extended LTSA architecture in which the learner data is used to improve learner security position by continuous delivery of important information and adapting security mechanisms. The implementation is considered in Moodle LMS.     

The influence of bile salts on the distribution of simvastatin in the octanol/buffer system

Abstract

Introduction: Distribution coefficient (D) is useful parameter for evaluating drugs permeability properties across biological membranes, which are of importance for drugs bioavailability. Given that bile acids are intensively studied as drug permeation-modifying and -solubilizing agents, the aim of this study was to estimate the influence of sodium salts of cholic (CA), deoxycholic (DCA) and 12-monoketocholic acids (MKC) on distribution coefficient of simvastatin (SV) (lactone [SVL] and acid form [SVA]) which is a highly lipophilic compound with extremely low water solubility and bioavailability.

Methods: LogD values of SVA and SVL with or without bile salts were measured by liquid–liquid extraction in n-octanol/buffer systems at pH 5 and 7.4. SV concentrations in aqueous phase were determined by HPLC-DAD. Chem3D Ultra program was applied for computation of physico-chemical properties of analyzed compounds and their complexes.

Results: Statistically significant decrease in both SVA and SVL logD was observed for all three studied bile salts at both selected pH. MKC exerted the most pronounced effect in the case of SVA while there were no statistically significant differences between observed bile salts for SVL. The calculated physico-chemical properties of analyzed compounds and their complexes supported experimental results.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that the addition of bile salts into the n-octanol/buffer system decreases the values of SV distribution coefficient at both studied pH values. This may be the result of the formation of hydrophilic complexes increasing the solubility of SV that could consequently impact the pharmacokinetic parameters of SV and the final drug response in patients.     

An adaptive method based on the improved LPA-ICI algorithm for MRI enhancement

Various diseases are diagnosed using medical imaging used for analysing internal anatomical structures. However, medical images are susceptible to noise introduced in both acquisition and transmission processes. We propose an adaptive data-driven image denoising algorithm based on an improvement of the intersection of confidence intervals (ICI), called relative ICI (RICI) algorithm. The 2D mask of the adaptive size and shape is calculated for each image pixel independently, and utilized in the design of the 2D local polynomial approximation (LPA) filters. Denoising performances, in terms of the PSNR, are compared to the original ICI-based method, as well as to the fixed sized filtering. The proposed adaptive RICI-based denoising outperformed the original ICI-based method by up to 1.32 dB, and the fixed size filtering by up to 6.48 dB. Furthermore, since the denoising of each image pixel is done locally and independently, the method is easy to parallelize.