The contraction of lattice constant and the reduction of growth rate in p-InGaAs grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy

We have investigated the effect of diethylzinc (DEZn) on the lattice constant and the growth rate of InGaAs. Introducing DEZn for p-type doping induces the contraction of lattice constant and the reduction of growth rate compared to undoped InGaAs. Depletion of indium is responsible for these effects. These effects are reduced at lower growth temperatures or at lower growth pressures. From the observed effects of the growth temperatures and the growth pressures on the contraction of the lattice constant, it is concluded that depletion of indium occurs in the gas phase.     

Loss of parathyroid hormone-stimulated 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 production in aging does not involve protein kinase A or C pathways

Intestinal calcium absorption declines with aging as a result of decreased renal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1,25-(OH)2D3] biosynthesis. At least part of the decline in 1,25-(OH)2D3 may be due to acquired resistance to parathyroid hormone (PTH) stimulation of renal 25-hydroxyvitamin D1-hydroxylase (1-OHase) activity. To test whether aging rats can increase 1,25-(OH)2D3 production in response to PTH, male rats of the same litter were fed a normal Ca diet and were sacrificed at 175-225 g (young rats) or 3 months later at 350-425 g (aging rats). At sacrifice, basal serum 1,25-(OH)2D3 levels (88 +/- 16 versus 49 +/- 8 pg/ml, P < 0.05) and in vitro renal proximal tubule 1-OHase activity (178 +/- 15 versus 77 +/- 5 pmol/mg protein/5 minutes, n = 6, P < 0.001) were lower in aging animals. rPTH-(1-34) (10(-11) or 10(-7) M) increased in vitro 1,25-(OH)2D3 secretion by perifused renal proximal tubules from young but not aging rats. For young and aging rats, rPTH-(1-34) (10(-7) M) increased proximal tubule cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) activity, and lower concentrations (10(-11) M) stimulated translocation of protein kinase C (PKC) activity from cytosolic to soluble membrane proximal tubule cell fractions. The results of this study show that PTH activation of 1,25-(OH)2D3 production may involve both signaling pathways, with the PKC pathway responsive to lower concentrations of the hormone. The acquired resistance to PTH stimulation of 1,25-(OH)2D3 production in aging appears not to involve the hormonal activation of PKA or PKC.     

Functionalized Cellulose for Water Purification,Antimicrobial Applications,and Sensors

As the most abundant natural polymer, cellulose presents a unique advantage for large‐scale applications. To fully unlock its potential, the introduction of desired functional groups onto the cellulose backbone is required, which can be realized by either chemical bonding or physical surface interactions. This review gives an overview of the chemistry behind the state‐of‐the‐art functionalization methods (e.g., oxidation, esterification, grafting) for cellulose in its various forms, from nanocrystals to bacterial cellulose. The existing and foreseeable applications of the obtained products are presented in detail, spanning from water purification and antibacterial action, to sensing, energy harvesting, and catalysis. A special emphasis is put on the interactions of functionalized cellulose with heavy metals, focusing on copper as a prime example. For the latter, its toxicity can either have a harmful influence on aquatic life, or it can be conveniently employed for microbial disinfection. The reader is further introduced to recent sensing technologies based on functionalized cellulose, which are becoming crucial for the near future especially with the emergence of the internet of things. By revealing the potential of water filters and conductive clothing for mass implementation, the near future of cellulose‐based technologies is also discussed.     

Solubilities of carbon in CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 slags saturated with liquid iron

By equilibrating the CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂ slags with Fe - 0.0003～0.07% Al - 0.002～3.5% Si - 0.9～2.0% C alloys (mass contents in %) at 1873 K, the solubilities of carbon were measured as a function of Si contents in metal, using an alumina or lime crucible. The distribution ratios of carbon as a C^2- -ion were found to be linearly related to Si contents with a slope of 1/2 at a given slag composition. The carbide capacity, , defined by (% C) , increased with increasing SiO₂ contents at a given CaO/AlO_1.5 molar ratio in the CaO-AlO_1.5SiO₂ system.     

Boosting CUDA Applications with CPU–GPU Hybrid Computing

This paper presents a cooperative heterogeneous computing framework which enables the efficient utilization of available computing resources of host CPU cores for CUDA kernels, which are designed to run only on GPU. The proposed system exploits at runtime the coarse-grain thread-level parallelism across CPU and GPU, without any source recompilation. To this end, three features including a work distribution module, a transparent memory space, and a global scheduling queue are described in this paper. With a completely automatic runtime workload distribution, the proposed framework achieves speedups of 3.08 $\times $ in the best case and 1.42 $\times $ on average compared to the baseline GPU-only processing.     

A comparative study of preprocessing mismatch effects in color image based face recognition

Face color information can play an important role in face recognition (FR) and it can be used to considerably improve FR performance obtained using only grayscale images. The color-based FR methods involve a preprocessing step where a color image is converted into either a monochromatic image or an image having a different color representation. In practical FR systems, the recording or transmission format of the testing images may be arbitrary or inconsistent depending on the application (e.g., face images could consist of grayscale or color pixels either in compressed or uncompressed form). Further, a wide variety of grayscale and color conversions can be used in the preprocessing step. This could lead to a so-called preprocessing mismatch in color-based FR methods: the training and testing face images, generated after preprocessing, do not match in terms of their degree of compression or in terms of their grayscale or color representations. In contrast to grayscale-based FR, a practical color-based FR system has a higher chance of being confronted with a preprocessing mismatch. The aim of this paper is to present a comparative study that addresses the impact of a preprocessing mismatch on color-image based FR methods. We explore three different types of preprocessing mismatches, which practical color-based FR system are highly likely to encounter. In addition, comparative and extensive experiments have been carried out to analyze the effects of the preprocessing mismatches on an FR performance, using Color FRETET, CMU-PIE, AR, and SCface public face databases. The important conclusions drawn from our experiments include: (1) of all color-based FR methods under consideration, color-based FR using feature-level fusion is the most robust approach to preprocessing mismatches; (2) the preprocessing mismatch caused by the use of compressed color images can significantly deteriorate FR performance of color-based FR methods; (3) grayscale testing images can be critical for the feasibility of color-based FR using an input-level fusion; (4) the preprocessing mismatch in terms of grayscale representation has little effect on the FR performances of color-based FR methods.     

Gestufte Kontrolle bei Videoüberwachungsanlagen

Moderne Videoüberwachungssysteme k?nnen über die übertragung und Aufnahme von Videobildern hinaus diese auch auswerten. Sie k?nnen dadurch zum einen die Gefahrenabwehr verbessern, sie greifen dadurch zum anderen aber auch tiefer in die Grundrechte der Betroffenen ein. Um hier zu einem neuen, angemessenen Ausgleich zwischen Sicherheit und Freiheit zu gelangen, wird für Gestaltung und Einsatz der modernen Videoüberwachungssysteme (1.) ein Drei-Stufen-Modell vorgestellt (2.). Dieses wird sodann verfassungs- und datenschutzrechtlich hergeleitet (3.) und in seiner Ausgestaltung rechtlich begründet (4.). Schlie?lich wird er?rtert, wie das Drei-Stufen-Modell im Rahmen von Erlaubnistatbest?nden zur Anwendung gebracht werden kann (5.).     

High pressure and high temperature annealing on nitrogen aggregation in lab-grown diamonds

Diamond single crystals were grown by a high-pressure high-temperature gradient method using a molten Fe–Ni catalyst in a split-sphere apparatus at a pressure of 5.5 GPa and a temperature of 1473–1873 K. The as-grown crystals, ranging in size from 0.2 to 0.6 g, were generally deep yellow in color because of intake of nitrogen impurity during the process. Two different annealing methods were used to change their color to light and vivid yellow. One method involved annealing at 5.5 GPa and 2193–2473 K within the split-sphere apparatus. The other involved annealing of E-beam irradiated crystals at 1773 K in a high-vacuum furnace at 10⁻⁶ Torr. Distribution of C-center nitrogen, single substitutional nitrogen, and A-center nitrogen defects, a pair of nearest-neighbor nitrogen, were thoroughly studied by FT–IR spectroscopy. Upon annealing, C-center nitrogen defects decreased by 10–60%, while A-center nitrogen defects increased by 5–70%. It was confirmed that the irradiation process and intake of nickel impurity enhanced the nitrogen aggregation rate, which followed the second order kinetics. Measured activation energies were in the range of 2.88–3.01 eV, which were not strongly affected by the irradiation process. The results indicate that the nitrogen aggregation rate was enhanced by vacancies and interstitials introduced by E-beam irradiation.     

Feasibility of contact and noncontact material handling using traveling waves and transition characteristics

The feasibility of using traveling waves as a mechanism for industrial material handling is examined. A prototype was constructed to experimentally investigate the feasibility of the proposed method. Two kinds of transport methods are investigated: frictional drive and acoustic levitation. Experimental transport speed characteristics are presented. The transition characteristics from acoustic levitation to frictional drive are also experimentally examined.