Zataria multiflora Boiss essential oil and sodium acetate: how they affect shelf life of vacuum‐packaged trout burgers

The preservative effects of Zataria multiflora Boiss essential oil (ZEO) at 0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1%, sodium acetate (SA) at 2% and their combination on the quality changes of vacuum‐packaged trout burgers during 21‐day refrigerated storage (4 ± 1°C) were investigated. Results showed that control and ZEO‐treated samples reached undesirable levels of rancidity (P < 0.05) at 15th day, whereas samples with the combined effect of SA and ZEOs, especially at higher concentrations, proved to be more stable in sensory, biochemical (PV, TBA, FFA and pH) and microbiological analyses (P < 0.05). Therefore, ZEO+SA‐treated samples showed good overall acceptability even until 21st day. Regarding the results obtained from ZEO‐treated samples, it becomes apparent that combined application of SA and ZEO extended the shelf life of fish burgers during cold storage to 21 days, 1.4‐fold longer than other treatments, which indicates the potential application of synergistic activity of these agents in vacuum‐packaged fishburgers.     

GLINT: GlucoCEST in neoplastic tumors at 3 T—clinical results of GlucoCEST in gliomas

Objective

Clinical relevance of dynamic glucose enhanced (DGE) chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging has mostly been demonstrated at ultra-high field (UHF) due to low effect size. Results of a cohort study at clinical field strength are shown herein.

Materials and methods

Motion and field inhomogeneity corrected T1ρ‐based DGE (DGE⍴) images were acquired before, during and after a d-glucose injection with 6.3 s temporal resolution to detect accumulation in the brain. Six glioma patients with clear blood–brain barrier (BBB) leakage, two glioma patients with suspected BBB leakage, and three glioma patients without BBB leakage were scanned at 3 T.

Results

In high-grade gliomas with BBB leakage, d-glucose uptake could be detected in the gadolinium (Gd) enhancing region as well as in the tumor necrosis with a maximum increase of ∆DGE⍴ around 0.25%, whereas unaffected white matter did not show any significant DGE⍴ increase. Glioma patients without Gd enhancement showed no detectable DGE⍴ effect within the tumor.

Conclusion

First application of DGE⍴ in a patient cohort shows an association between BBB leakage and DGE signal irrespective of the tumor grade. This indicates that glucoCEST corresponds more to the disruptions of BBB with Gd uptake than to the molecular tumor profile or tumor grading.

     

Preparation of SrBi2(Ta,Nb)2O9 thin films by rf sputtering for ferroelectric memory production

Abstract

Ferroelectric SrBi₂(Ta, Nb)₂O₉ (SBTN) thin films were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering utilizing a multi-chamber type production tool (ULVAC CERAUS ZX1000). Accurate and dynamic compositional control results in excellent ferroelectric performances such as large 2Pr up to 15μC/cm², fatigue free at least 10⁹ cycles as well as good uniformity and process repeatability. These results indicate that the SBTN sputtering process is promising for ferroelectric memory production.     

Ultra-wide-band tellurite-based fiber Raman amplifier

We describe the first wide-band tellurite-based fiber Raman amplifier (T-FRA) for application to seamless ultra-large-capacity dense wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) systems. First, we confirmed that the Raman scattering characteristics of the tellurite-based fiber has so large a gain coefficient and Stokes shift that we can achieve a wide-band tellurite-based fiber Raman amplifier with a shorter fiber length than when using silica-based fiber. Second, we investigated the small signal gain and the signal transmission characteristics for a high gain and high output power operation with a single-stage amplifier. Focusing on double Rayleigh scattering, we compared the high gain limit of tellurite- and silica-based fibers. We then studied the impact of nonlinear effects by measuring the bit error rate (BER) when using a two-stage amplifier with a high output power of 18.8 dBm in which we simultaneously amplified eight channel signals in the L-band located on the ITU 100-GHz grid. Finally, we designed a wide-band tellurite-based fiber Raman amplifier with a multiwavelength band pumping scheme. We constructed this amplifier with a tellurite-based fiber only 250 m in length pumped by four-wavelength-channel laser diodes, and it provided a 160-nm bandwidth with a gain of over 10 dB and a noise figure below 10 dB from 1490 to 1650 nm. We also measured the BER to confirm the transmission characteristics of the amplifier for single channel operation over the whole signal wavelength range of 160 nm. We thus confirmed that the amplifier could be employed in ultra-high-capacity WDM systems.     

An improved GaAs device model for the simulation of analog integrated circuit

This paper describes an improved device model of GaAs MESFETs and heterojunction FETs for the design and analysis of analog integrated circuits. The proposed device model provides a new expression for the current and the capacitance of the device,which gives excellent agreements with experimental data for all regions of device operation. For the expression of the low frequency anomalies of GaAs devices, an improved technique with an equivalent circuit are presented to model the frequency dispersion of the transconductance and the drain conductance of the device, which give a good agreement with the experimental data of both the frequency dispersion and the lag effect of the device. The new device model proposed here clearly provides a superior prediction of the performance of GaAs analog integrated circuit.     

Phase Change Materials for Life Science Applications

Phase change materials (PCMs) are a class of thermo-responsive materials that can be utilized to trigger a phase transition which gives them thermal energy storage capacity. Any material with a high heat of fusion is referred to as a PCM that is able to provide cutting-edge thermal storage. PCMs are commercially used in many applications like textile industry, coating, and cold storage typically for heat control. These intriguing substances have recently been rediscovered and employed in a broad range of life science applications, including biological, human body, biomedical, pharmaceutical, food, and agricultural applications. Benefiting from the changes in physicochemical properties during the phase transition makes PCMs also functional for barcoding, detection, and storage. Paraffin wax and polyethylene glycol are the most commonly studied PCMs due to their low toxicity, biocompatibility, high thermal stability, high latent enthalpy, relatively wide transition temperature range, and ease of chemical modification. Current challenges in employing PCMs for life science applications include biosafety and/or engineering difficulties. The focus of this review article is on the life science applications, evaluation, and safety aspects of PCMs. Herein, the advances and the potential of employing PCMs as a versatile platform for various types of life science applications are highlighted.     

Charge transport at the interface of <Emphasis Type=Italic>n</Emphasis>-GaAs (100) with an aqueous HCl solution: Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study

Charge transport processes at the interface of n-GaAs (100) with an aqueous HCl solution are studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It is found that when open-circuit potential and anodic potentials are applied to the semiconductor the impedance spectra contain two capacitive semicircles corresponding to the capacitances of the space charge layer and surface states. In the case of open-circuit potential, semiconductor band bending at the interface with the solution is about 0.7 eV and the density of occupied surface states in the dark and under daylight conditions is 1.6 and 2.8 × 10¹² cm² eV⁻¹, respectively. When cathode potentials are applied to GaAs, hydrogen evolution begins at the semiconductor/electrolyte interface and an additional inductive loop appears in the impedance spectra. At the same time, the density of occupied surface states increases considerably both due to a straightening of the semiconductor bands and to the appearance of As-H bonds. Thus, charge transport through the n-GaAs (100)/aqueous HCl solution interface is always mediated by semiconductor surface states.     

Design of a 300 GHz Band TWT with a Folded Waveguide Fabricated by Microelectromechanical Systems

For future broadband wireless links, we have designed a 300 GHz band traveling wave tube (TWT) with a folded waveguide fabricated by microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The TWT operates at a beam voltage of 12 kV and a beam current of 8.3 mA. The classical large signal simulation code predicts the output power greater than 1 W and gain larger than 20 dB over the bandwidth from 280 to 300 GHz.     

Joint spectrum load balancing and handoff management in cognitive radio networks: a non-cooperative game approach

We propose a non-cooperative game theory based algorithm for spectrum management problem in cognitive radio networks taking into account the spectrum handoff effects. The objective is to minimize the spectrum access time of Secondary Users (SUs) which are competing for spectrum opportunities in heterogeneous environment. In this paper, the preemptive resume priority (PRP) M/G/1 queuing model is used to characterize the multiple handoff and data delivery time of SUs. Also an explicit solution for channels selection probabilities of each SU is extracted for PRP M/M/1 model specifically. The effect of handoffs is considered as the interrupted packets which return to the SUs’ low priority queue when the high priority Primary User’s packets are arrived to take service. The queuing delay of SUs’ and the effect of these returned packets are considered in order to balance the load of SUs on channels so that the minimum spectrum access time is sensed by each SU. The non-cooperative spectrum load balancing with handoff management game is proposed to find a distributed solution for each SU. It is shown that this game has a unique Nash equilibrium point which can be achieved by SUs as decision makers. At this equilibrium, each SU incurs the minimum delay on all channels while the free spectrum holes of channels are utilized efficiently. Simulation results are provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of spectrum access delay, fairness, and channels spectrum holes utilization.