Synthesis, Characterization, and Electrical Conductivity of Oligo[aromatic diimidoselenium(IV)]

Oligo[aromatic diimidoselenium] (PADIS) is prepared from the reaction of the disubstituted aromatic compounds, namely, 1,4-phenylenediamine, 4,4-thiodianiline, 1,1-biphenylene-4,4-diamine, and 2,2-dithiodianiline, with selenium dioxide in refluxing absolute ethanol. The four materials are investigated by elemental analysis, electronic spectra, Fourier Transform-infrared spectroscopy, and [¹H]NMR spectroscopy. The DC electrical conductivity variation with temperature in the range 300–500 K of the materials after annealing for 24 h at 100°C and after doping with 10% I₂ is determined for comparison.     

Clinical evaluation of MK-185: A new hypolipidemic drug

A double-blind crossover study in 11 patients suggests that MK-185 may be a useful drug in lowering plasma triglyceride levels, whereas it has minimal effects on cholesterol levels. A good correlation between the hypouricemic and protein bound iodine lowering effects and plasma level of MK-185 was seen. No correlation with the hypolipidemic effect was noted. One of eight papers presented at the symposium “Recent Advances in Drugs Affecting Lipid Metabolism,” AOCS Meeting, Houston, May 1971.     

Complexation of furosemide with fulvic acid extracted from shilajit: a novel approach

The aim of the present work was to complex furosemide (FSM) with fulvic acid (FA) extracted from shilajit with the hope of having a better understanding of the complexation behavior. The effect of FA on the aqueous solubility, dissolution rate, and permeability of FSM was investigated. Different techniques, such as grinding, freeze drying, solvent evaporation, and so forth, were used for the preparation of the complex. The complexes were prepared in molar ratios of 1:1 and 1:2 FSM:FA and were evaluated for drug inclusion, solubility, differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, dissolution study, and permeation study. These methods confirm the formation of an amorphous inclusion complex of FSM with FA.     

Deep leaf‐bootstrapping generative adversarial network for structural image data augmentation

Employing Deep Learning (DL) technologies to solve Civil Engineering problems is an emerging topic in recent years. However, due to the lack of labeled data, it is difficult to obtain accurate results with DL. One commonly used method to tackle this issue is to use affine transformation to augment the data set, but it can only generate new images that are highly correlated with the original ones. Moreover, unlike normal natural objects, distribution of structural images is much more complex and mixed. To address these challenges, Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) can be one feasible choice. We introduce one specific generative model, namely, Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network (DCGAN) and propose a Leaf‐Bootstrapping (LB) method to improve the performance of this DCGAN. To effectively and quantitatively evaluate the quality of the synthetic images generated by DCGAN to complement human evaluation, Self‐Inception Score (SIS) and Generalization Ability (GA) are proposed. We also propose a pipeline based on Transfer Learning (TL) using synthetic images to help enhance a weak classifier performance under the condition of low‐data regime and limited computational resources. Finally, we conduct computer experiments with the proposed methods for two scenarios (scene level identification and damage state check) and one special synthetic data aggregation case. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed methods.     

Germania-based, sol-gel hybrid organic-inorganic coatings for capillary microextraction and gas chromatography

Germania-based, sol-gel hybrid organic-inorganic coatings were developed for capillary microextraction and gas chromatography (GC). Being an isostructural analogue of SiO2, GeO2 is compatible with the silica network. Because of this similarity, germania-based materials possess great potential for being used in the areas of chromatographic separation and sample preparation. These possibilities, however, remain practically unexplored. To our knowledge, this is the first instance that a germania-based hybrid sol-gel material is used as a sorbent in analytical sample preparation or chromatographic separation. Tetramethoxygermane was used as a precursor to create a sol-gel network via hydrolytic polycondensation reactions performed within a fused-silica capillary. The growing sol-gel germania network was simultaneously reacted with an organic ligand that contained sol-gel-active sites in its chemical structure. Three different sol-gel-active ligands were used: (a) hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane), (b) hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethyldiphenylsiloxane), and (c) 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane. Sol-gel germania-coated capillaries of desired polarity and extraction selectivity were prepared by using an appropriately selected sol-gel-active ligand in the sol solution. These capillaries were further used to extract trace concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols, and free fatty acids from aqueous samples. The extracted solutes were further analyzed by GC-FID. The new germania-based coatings showed excellent stability under harsh operation conditions involving extreme pH values, high temperatures, and aggressive solvents. Our preliminary results also indicate that sol-gel hybrid germania coatings have the potential to offer great analytical performance as GC stationary phases.     

Efficacy of modified distillation sludge of rose (Rosa centifolia) petals for lead(II) and zinc(II) removal from aqueous solutions

Removal of lead(II) and zinc(II) from aqueous solutions was studied using chemically modified distillation sludge of rose (Rosa centifolia) petals by pretreatment with NaOH, Ca(OH)(2), Al(OH)(3), C(6)H(6), C(6)H(5)CHO and HgCl(2). The adsorption capacity of biomass was found to be significantly improved. NaOH pretreated biomass showed remarkable increase in sorption capacity. Maximum adsorption of both metal ions was observed at pH 5. When Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms were tested, the latter had a better fit with the experimental data. The overall adsorption process was best described by pseudo second order kinetics. The thermodynamic assessment of the metal ion-Rosa centifolia biomass system indicated the feasibility and spontaneous nature of the process and DeltaG degrees was evaluated as ranging from -26.9501 to -31.652 KJmol(-1) and -24.1905 to -29.8923KJmol(-1) for lead(II) and zinc(II) sorption, respectively, in the concentration range 10-640mgL(-1). Distribution coefficient (D) showed that the concentration of metal ions at the sorbent-water interface is higher than the concentration in the continuous aqueous phase. Maximum adsorption capacity of biomass tends to be in the order Pb(II) (87.74mgg(-1))>Zn(II) (73.8mgg(-1)) by NaOH pretreated biomass.     

Reactive power transfer allocation method with the application of artificial neural network

A novel method to identify the reactive power transfer between generators and load using modified nodal equations is proposed. On the basis of the solved load flow results, the method partitions the Y-bus matrix to decompose the current of the load buses as a function of the generators' current and voltage. Then it uses the load voltages from the load flow results and decomposed load currents to determine reactive power contribution from each generator to loads. The validation of the proposed methodology is demonstrated by using a simple 3-bus system and the 25-bus equivalent system of south Malaysia. Next part here focuses on creating an appropriate artificial neural network (ANN) to solve the same problem in a simpler and faster manner. The basic idea is to use supervised learning paradigm to train the ANN. Most commonly used feedforward architecture has been chosen for the proposed ANN reactive power transfer allocation technique. Almost all system variables obtained from load flow solutions are utilised as an input to the neural network. Moreover, tan-sigmoid activation functions are incorporated in the hidden layer to realise the nonlinear nature of the reactive power transfer allocation. The targets of the ANN corresponding to the previously developed reactive power transfer allocation method. The 25-bus equivalent system of south Malaysia is utilised as a test system to illustrate the effectiveness of the ANN output compared with that of the modified nodal equations method. The ANN output provides promising results in terms of accuracy and computation time.     

The deconvolution of the thermal, dilution, and chemical effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on the reactivity of engine and flame soot

In a recent paper, we demonstrated that the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) enhanced the oxidative reactivity of diesel engine soot. In this paper, we show that simulated EGR, via carbon dioxide (CO₂) addition to the intake air to an engine at concentrations of 0, 2, 4, and 8 vol.% and to the oxidizer stream of an ethylene diffusion flame at concentrations of 0, 5, and 10 vol.%, affects the reactivity of the soot in the same manner as actual EGR. Motivated by this fact, post-flame ethylene soot was produced from a co-flow laminar diffusion flame to better understand the mechanism by which the CO₂ affects soot reactivity. This objective was accomplished by successfully isolating and examining the thermal, dilution, and chemical effects of the CO₂ on soot reactivity. These three effects account for 45%, 35%, and 20% of the total reactivity of soot respectively, with the thermal effect being the most important factor governing the soot reactivity. The results showed that all of these effects account for a measurable increase in soot reactivity.     

Direct extraction and numerical simulation of the base andcollector delay times in double heterojunction bipolar transistors

A new method is presented to evaluate the base and collector transit times, τ_B and τ_C in heterojunction bipolar transistors (BBT's) from the phase and magnitude of the common-base current gain, α(ω), which itself was directly extracted from measured S-parameter data. The method is applied to InGaP/GaAs single and double HBT's. A smaller cutoff frequency in the latter device is attributed to τ_B and τ_C due to two effects: trapping of electrons in the conduction band triangular barrier existing at the base-collector (B-C) heterojunction and smaller saturation velocity of electrons in InGaP as compared to GaAs. Finally, a new B-C design of InGaP/GaAs DNBT's is proposed to partially compensate the transit time effects. Numerical simulation of the cutoff frequency demonstrates the superiority of the proposed structure for high-frequency applications