A GUI for Jess

The paper describes JessGUI, a graphical user interface developed on top of the Jess expert system shell. The central idea of the JessGUI project was to make building, revising, updating, and testing Jess-based expert systems easier, more flexible, and more user friendly. There are many other expert system building tools providing a rich and comfortable integrated development environment to expert system builders. However, they are all either commercial or proprietary products. Jess and JessGUI are open-source freeware, and yet they are well suited for building even complex expert system applications, both stand-alone and Web-based ones. An important feature of JessGUI is its capability of saving knowledge bases in XML format (in addition to the original Jess format), thus making them potentially easy to interoperate with other knowledge bases on the Internet. Jess and JessGUI are also used as practical knowledge engineering tools to support both introductory and advanced university courses on expert systems. The paper presents design details of JessGUI, explains its links with the underlying Jess knowledge representation and reasoning tools, and shows examples of using JessGUI in expert system development. It also discusses some of the current efforts in extending Jess/JessGUI in order to provide intelligent features originally not supported in Jess.     

Introducing Enantioselective Ultrahigh-Pressure Liquid Chromatography (eUHPLC): Theoretical Inspections and Ultrafast Separations on a New Sub-2-μm Whelk-O1 Stationary Phase

A new chiral stationary phase for ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) applications was prepared by covalent attachment of the Whelk-O1 selector to spherical, high-surface-area 1.7-μm porous silica particles. Columns of varying dimensions (lengths of 50, 75, 100, and 150 mm and internal diameters of 3.0 or 4.6 mm) were packed and characterized in terms of permeability, efficiency, retention, and enantioselectivity, using both organic and water-rich mobile phases. A conventional HPLC Whelk-O1 column based on 5.0-μm porous silica particles and packed in a 250 mm × 4.6 mm column was used as a reference. Van Deemter curves, generated with low-molecular-weight solutes on a 100 mm × 4.6 mm column packed with the 1.7-μm particles, showed H(min) (μm) and μ(opt) (mm/s) values of 4.10 and 5.22 under normal-phase and 3.74 and 4.34 under reversed-phase elution conditions. The flat C term of the van Deemter curves observed with the 1.7-μm particles allowed the use of higher-than-optimal flow rates without significant efficiency loss. Kinetic plots constructed from van Deemter data confirmed the ability of the column packed with the 1.7-μm particles to afford subminute separations with good efficiency and its superior performances in the high-speed regime, compared to the column packed with 5.0-μm particles. Resolutions in the time scale of seconds were obtained using a 50-mm-long column in the normal phase or polar organic mode. The intrinsic kinetic performances of 1.7-μm silica particles are retained in the Whelk-O1 chiral stationary phase, clearly demonstrating the potentials of enantioselective UHPLC in terms of high speed, throughput, and resolution.     

Ultrastructural changes in the cemento‐enamel junction caused by acidic beverages: An in vitro study

The present in vitro study was aimed at evaluating the morphological changes in the cemento‐enamel junction (CEJ) after exposure to acidic beverages using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The initial pH and titratable acidity (TA) was analyzed from follow groups: (I) Coca cola, (II) orange juice, (III) Cedevita, (IV) Red Bull, (V) Somersby cider, and (VI) white wine. The CEJ samples (n = 64), obtained from unerupted third molars, were allocated to one control (artificial saliva, n = 16) and six experimental groups (n = 8). The experimental samples were immersed in beverages (50 ml) for 15 min, three times daily, 10 days, and in artificial saliva between immersions. SEM analysis was performed in a blind manner, according to scoring scale. One‐way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc tests, as well as Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U test used for statistical analysis. The pH values of the acidic beverages ranged from 2.65 (Coca cola) to 3.73 (orange juice), and TA ranged from 1.90 ml (Coca cola) to 5.70 ml (orange juice) of NaOH to reach pH 7.0. The SEM analysis indicated statistically significant differences between the control samples and those immersed in acidic beverages. The Groups IV, I, and II, showed the highest CEJ damage grade while those of the Group VI were the lowest. All the tested acidic beverages caused morphological changes in the CEJ with a smaller or larger exposure of dentine surface, and were not always related to the pH or TA of acidic beverages.     

Continuous-wave operation of singlemode GaInAsSb lasers emittingnear 2.2 μm at Peltier temperatures

A continuous-wave regime, lasing near 2.2 μm, has been achieved for single longitudinal mode GaInAsSb double heterostructure lasers mounted on a Peltier cooler. In the pulsed regime the lasers exhibited a characteristic temperature of the threshold current as high as 132 K at heatsink temperatures up to 60°C     

Outage performance of dual‐hop relaying systems over extended generalized‐K fading channels

The outage performance of the amplify‐and‐forward relaying strategies over mutually uncorrelated extended generalized‐K fading channels is addressed in this paper. The attention is dedicated to the analyses of the noise‐limited and also interference‐limited environment. The new analytical expression for outage probability of observed relaying system in the presence of thermal noise is derived using the method for approximating equivalent signal‐to‐noise ratio. In addition, the outage performance is studied for the dual‐hop system when only the single dominant co‐channel interference is inherent at the relay and destination node. The correctness of the proposed mathematical derivations is verified by simulations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Straining Conditions on Structural Characteristics of Pressed Shape Memory Alloy 45% Ti – 45% Ni – 10% Nb

Metal Science and Heat Treatment - The effect of the temperature-and-rate conditions of straining on the structural characteristics of pressed alloy 45% Ti – 45% Ni – 10% Nb is studied....     

Immature Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells in Healthy Murine Arteries and Atherosclerotic Plaques: Localization and Activity

The local development of atherosclerotic lesions may, at least partly, be associated with the specific cellular composition of atherosclerosis-prone regions. Previously, it was demonstrated that a small population of immature vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) expressing both CD146 and neuron-glial antigen 2 is postnatally sustained in atherosclerosis-prone sites. We supposed that these cells may be involved in atherogenesis and can continuously respond to angiotensin II, which is an atherogenic factor. Using immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, wound migration assay xCELLigence system, and calcium imaging, we studied the functional activities of immature VSMCs in vitro and in vivo. According to our data, these cells do not express nestin, CD105, and the leptin receptor. They are localized in atherosclerosis-prone regions, and their number increases with age, from 5.7% to 23%. Immature VSMCs do not migrate to low shear stress areas and atherosclerotic lesions. They also do not have any unique response to angiotensin II. Thus, despite the localization of immature VSMCs and the presence of the link between their number and age, our study did not support the hypothesis that immature VSMCs are directly involved in the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Additional lineage tracing studies can clarify the fate of these cells during atherogenesis.