The effects of relaxation training with cognitive or nondirective therapy and the role of relaxation-induced anxiety in the treatment of generalized anxiety.

Thirty volunteers who met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder received 12 sessions of training in progressive muscular relaxation. Sixteen of the clients also were given cognitive therapy during 10 of those sessions, and the remaining 14 received nondirective therapy. Therapy was provided by 16 graduate student clinicians. The group as a whole showed substantial reductions in anxiety as measured by psychiatric assessor ratings, questionnaires, and daily self-monitoring, although relaxation plus cognitive therapy produced significantly greater improvement than relaxation plus nondirective therapy on several pretherapy-posttherapy questionnaires. Relaxation-induced anxiety, as measured by a questionnaire after each relaxation session, was significantly related to improvement in the total group: Clients who became anxious during relaxation training showed the least improvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Requirements engineering within a large-scale security-oriented research project: lessons learned

Requirements engineering has been recognized as a fundamental phase of the software engineering process. Nevertheless, the elicitation and analysis of requirements are often left aside in favor of architecture-driven software development. This tendency, however, can lead to issues that may affect the success of a project. This paper presents our experience gained in the elicitation and analysis of requirements in a large-scale security-oriented European research project, which was originally conceived as an architecture-driven project. In particular, we illustrate the challenges that can be faced in large-scale research projects and consider the applicability of existing best practices and off-the-shelf methodologies with respect to the needs of such projects. We then discuss how those practices and methods can be integrated into the requirements engineering process and possibly improved to address the identified challenges. Finally, we summarize the lessons learned from our experience and the benefits that a proper requirements analysis can bring to a project.     

Anytime diagnosis for reconfiguration

Many domains require scalable algorithms that help to determine diagnoses efficiently and often within predefined time limits. Anytime diagnosis is able to determine solutions in such a way and thus is especially useful in real-time scenarios such as production scheduling, robot control, and communication networks management where diagnosis and corresponding reconfiguration capabilities play a major role. Anytime diagnosis in many cases comes along with a trade-off between diagnosis quality and the efficiency of diagnostic reasoning. In this paper we introduce and analyze FlexDiag which is an anytime direct diagnosis approach. We evaluate the algorithm with regard to performance and diagnosis quality using a configuration benchmark from the domain of feature models and an industrial configuration knowledge base from the automotive domain. Results show that FlexDiag helps to significantly increase the performance of direct diagnosis search with corresponding quality tradeoffs in terms of minimality and accuracy.     

Electrospun plasma‐modified chitosan/poly(ethylene terephthalate)/ferrocenyl‐substituted N‐acetyl‐2‐pyrazoline fibers for phosphate anion sensing

Two ferrocenyl‐substituted N‐acetyl‐2‐pyrazolines, N‐acetyl‐3‐(2‐furyl)‐5‐ferrocenyl‐2‐pyrazoline (Fc‐1) and N‐acetyl‐3‐(2‐thienyl)‐5‐ferrocenyl‐2‐pyrazoline (Fc‐2) electrospun fibers, were produced in the presence of plasma‐modified chitosan (PMCh)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) supporting polymers with an electrospinning method. The morphological and chemical characterizations of the PMCh/PET/Fc‐1 and PMCh/PET/Fc‐2 electrospun fibers were determined by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis results indicated the presence of ferrocene within the PMCh/PET nanofibers. The electrochemical behavior of the PMCh/PET/Fc‐1 and PMCh/PET/Fc‐2 electrospun fibers were investigated by cyclic voltammetry measurements based on the ferrocene/ferrocenium redox couple. The new PMCh/PET/Fc‐1 and PMCh/PET/Fc‐2 electrospun fibers aggregated on the indium tin oxide were used for phosphate anion sensing. The highest oxidation peak currents were observed for the PMCh/PET/Fc‐1 electrospun fibers at about 0.56 V in 0.1M phosphate buffer. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43344.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Acrylonitrile-co-Divinylbenzene (AN/DVB) Polymeric Resins for the Isolation of Aroma Compounds and Anthocyanins from Strawberry

In this study, the aroma compounds and anthocyanins were recovered from strawberry by using crosslinked acrylonitrile-co-divinylbenzene (AN/DVB) adsorbent. Suspension polymerization technique was utilized for the synthesis of adsorbent resins with a porous character, and the optimal AN/DVB and diluent/DVB ratios of the adsorbent were determined as 0.5 and 1.5, respectively. After that, packed bed applications were carried out using this adsorbent resin. The adsorption process was accomplished by passing 240 ml strawberry juice through the column, and the desorption process was completed by obtaining the eluate from the column in 20 ml methanol. Aroma compounds analyses were applied to the six samples of the column output and eluate which desorbed from the columns. All experiments were carried out in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. It was determined from the total peak areas that 90 % of the aroma components of the strawberry juice were isolated by the packed bed column. Total monomeric anthocyanins were determined via the pH differential method, and 279.5 and 256.58 mg Pg-3-glu/kg strawberry were found in the strawberry juice and eluate, respectively. Approximately, 92?±?1 % of the total monomeric anthocyanins were isolated from the sample. Finally, the prepared column system was reused six times by regeneration and each use gave a similar performance.     

Determination of membrane integrity in onion tissues treated by pulsed electric fields: Use of microscopic images and ion leakage measurements

The influence of electrical field strength and number of pulses on cell rupture of onion tissues was investigated by two different methods to understand the changes in cell viability of plant tissues after pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment. The impact of pulsed electric field parameters on cell integrity of 20 mm diameter, 4 mm thick disks of Sabroso onions (Allium cepa L.) was determined by ion leakage measurements and microscopic method. The effect of treatments on cellular integrity was visualized by neutral red staining of the onion cells. Cell rupture is essential for optimal process design before extraction of desirable compounds and/or drying of plant tissues. Experimental results were obtained for onion disks treated with electrical pulses at field strengths of E ≈ 167 V/cm and 333 V/cm, pulse width of ti = 100 μs, frequency of f = 1 Hz and the number of pulses, n = 1 to 100. At 167 V/cm electric field strength treatment cell rupture was not observed however ion leakage increased and air spaces around cell walls disappeared, most likely due to changes in cell membrane permeability. Irreversible cell rupture occurred at 333 V/cm. Ion leakage values and ruptured cells count were increased with increasing pulse number. 92.2 ± 5.9 % of the onion cells were ruptured after 333 V/cm and 100 pulse treatment. Small plant cells that are located near vascular bundles and upper epidermis showed higher resistance to pulsed electric field treatments.Industrial RelevanceThe aim of this study was to determine the response of plant tissues with different cell type to the pulse electric field treatment. Two different methods, neutral red staining and ion leakage, were used to visualize and determine the cell rupture on onion tissues. Industry may choose one of these methods to evaluate treatment efficiency on the basis of cell rupture; especially ion leakage measurements which require lower investment cost and easy to apply or microscopic method for visualize the cells layer by layer. The paper stresses the importance of cell type, size and distribution of cells were found to the ability to resist cell rupture during pulsed electric field treatment. It is critical to explain overall changes caused by PEF on the structure of plant tissue at a cellular level in order to optimize the quality of PEF processed foods.     

Preparation and properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube/poly(organophosphazene) composites

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising materials because of their unique properties. However, the poor solubility in solvents limits the function of CNTs and hinders their applications in many fields. Surface modification of CNTs with polymers is an efficient method to solve this problem. Several polymers were tested for the preparation of CNT dispersions. In comparison with organic polymers, poly(organophosphazenes) are highly stable macromolecules with adjustable properties which depend on the side groups. This article is to describe the synthesis of thermally stable and soluble multi-walled CNT/poly(organophosphazene) composites. The poly(organophosphazene)s substituted with (a) 100 % quaternary protonated pyridinoxy (PPY), (b) 50 % quaternary protonated pyridinoxy and 50 % a long aliphatic chain alcohol (1-dodecanol) (PDK), and (c) 50 % quaternary protonated pyridinoxy and 50 % a glycol ether [(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethanol] (PET) have been synthesized. f-MWCNT/poly(organophosphazene) composites have been prepared by the treatment of the functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNT) with the protonated polyphosphazenes (PPY, PDK, and PET) using different feed ratios [R _feed = 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:10 (w:w)]. The thermal stability of prepared composites (f-MWCNT/PPY, f-MWCNT/PDK, and f-MWCNT/PET) have been investigated by TGA. By considering thermal stabilities and solubility of all prepared composites, f-MWCNT/PPY_1:5, f-MWCNT/PDK_1:5, and f-MWCNT/PET_1:5 have been chosen as optimum composite composition and characterized by ³¹P NMR, ¹H NMR, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and EDX analysis. The morphologic characterizations of the f-MWCNT/PPY_1:5, f-MWCNT/PDK_1:5, f-MWCNT/PET_1:5 nanocomposites have been carried out by HRTEM. Excellent dispersions of the nanocomposites in water and common organic solvents have been achieved. The solubility and thermal stability of nanocomposites depend on the side groups on poly(organophosphazene).     

High-modulus steels reinforced with ceramic particles through ingot casting process

High Young's modulus steels can be fabricated based on the concept of metal matrix composites. In this paper, a number of reinforcing ceramic phases with high Young's modulus are assessed and selected to design compositions for high-modulus steels based on thermodynamic calculations. The steel matrix composites reinforced with boride and carbide phases are produced through ingot casting and are processed thermomechanically to strips following standard processing routes for automotive products. The results show that the Young's modulus of steels in the as-cast condition can be increased using borides and carbides. However, further down-stream processing via conventional thermomechanical processing leads to a gradual degradation of the Young's modulus due to extensive void formation. The opportunities and challenges of ceramic-reinforced high-modulus steels produced via conventional ingot casting and thermomechanical processing for the automotive market are discussed.