Semiconductor‐Gold Nanocomposite Catalysts for the Efficient Three‐Component Coupling of Aldehyde,Amine and Alkyne in Water

An efficient heterogeneous lead sulfide‐gold catalyst has been successfully developed for the synthesis of propargylic amines via a three‐component coupling reaction of aldehyde, amine and alkyne in water. The process is simple and applicable to a diverse range of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes, amines and alkynes. Furthermore, the catalyst is stable to air and water, and can be easily recovered and reused.     

The first MAJC microprocessor: a dual CPU system-on-a-chip

The first implementation of MAJC architecture achieves high performance by using very long instruction word (VLIW), single instruction multiple data (SIMD), and chip multiprocessing. The chip integrates two processors, a memory controller, two high-speed parallel I/O interfaces, and a PCI controller. The chip, fabricated in a 0.22-μm CMOS process with six layers of copper interconnect, contains 13 million transistors and operates at 500 MHz. It is packaged in a 624-pin ceramic column grid array using flip-chip assembly technology     

Fractionally spaced blind equalization with low‐complexity concurrent constant modulus algorithm and soft decision‐directed scheme

The paper proposes a low‐complexity concurrent constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and soft decision‐directed (SDD) scheme for fractionally spaced blind equalization of high‐order quadrature amplitude modulation channels. We compare our proposed blind equalizer with the recently introduced state‐of‐art concurrent CMA and decision‐directed (DD) scheme. The proposed CMA+SDD blind equalizer is shown to have simpler computational complexity per weight update, faster convergence speed, and slightly improved steady‐state equalization performance, compared with the existing CMA+DD blind equalizer. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of ethnicity on disease patterns in 472 Orientals with systemic lupus erythematosus

We provide evidence for anisotropic diffusion in rat corpus callosum and hippocampus. The preferential diffusion pathway in corpus callosum is along the myelinated axon fibres; in the hippocampus diffusion is easier along the transversal axis (x) than along the sagittal (y) or vertical (z) axes. In all areas studied, i.e. in the cortex, corpus callosum and hippocampus, the mean ECS volume fraction alpha (alpha = ECS volume/total tissue volume) ranged between 0.20 and 0.22 and mean non-specific uptake k' was between 4.0 and 5.9 x 10(-3) s-1. Diffusional anisotropy in the hippocampus may be of importance for extrasynaptic transmission and in the 'cross-talk' between synapses.     

Enhanced propylene/propane separation by carbonaceous membrane derived from poly (aryl ether ketone)/2,6-bis(4-azidobenzylidene)-4-methyl-cyclohexanone interpenetrating network

An innovative combination of a photosensitive crosslinker, 2,6-bis(4-azidobenzylidene)-4-methyl-cyclohexanone (Azide) with poly (aryl ether ketone) (PAEK) is utilized to form a semi-interpenetrating network (IPN) as the precursor for carbon membranes. Low temperature pyrolysis (450-650 °C) of this precursor produces carbon membranes with excellent olefin/paraffin separation performance that surpasses the conventional trade-off line. The carbon membranes have reasonably good flexibility since excessive closure of the micropores is avoided. This is evident from the mechanical properties of the carbon membranes obtained from nanoindention to the pore size distribution derived from CO₂ adsorption. By varying the composition of Azide/PAEK and optimizing the low-temperature pyrolysis protocol, it was found that PAEK/Azide (80:20) pyrolysed at 550 °C exhibits the best propane/propylene separation performance with C₃H₆ permeability of 48 barrer and ideal C₃H₆/C₃H₈ selectivity of 44. Due to strong competitive sorption of propane and propylene molecules, the C₃H₆ permeability is lowered to 3.6 barrer and the C₃H₆/C₃H₈ selectivity to 32 in mixed gas experiments. However, this separation performance is still above the trade-off line. Even though both Azide and PAEK cannot form useful carbon membranes, their IPN is a unique precursor that can produce carbon membranes with comparable performance.     

C?C Bond Formation via C?H Activation and C?N Bond Formation via Oxidative Amination Catalyzed by Palladium‐ Polyoxometalate Nanomaterials Using Dioxygen as the Terminal Oxidant

An efficient heterogeneous palladium‐polyoxometalate catalyst with the formula Pd‐H₆PV₃Mo₉O₄₀/C has been successfully developed for carbon‐carbon (C C) bond formation via carbon‐hydrogen (C H) activation and carbon‐nitrogen (C N) bond formation via oxidative amination using oxygen as the terminal oxidant. The coupling processes are simple, and use relatively mild conditions to form the desired products. In addition, less waste is generated as no additional reagents such as organic/inorganic oxidants are required, and water is the only by‐product generated.     

The patent system in Singapore

Patent protection in Singapore was formerly only available by obtaining a UK patent grant and then registering the grant in Singapore. The patent system that was implemented in 1995, and has replaced the former procedure, is described here. Applicants can request search and examination, in which case the work is outsourced to the Austrian or Australian patent offices. Alternatively applicants can submit the results of the corresponding search and examination reports carried out by a prescribed office (the patent offices of Australia, Japan¹, New Zealand, UK, USA, Canada (This only applies to Canadian patent applications filed when in English.) and the EPO (This only applies to European patent applications filed when in English.)). A mixed mode of relying on a search from a prescribed office or under the Patent Co-operation Treaty, followed by filing a request for examination, is also possible. The ePatents system, currently providing online Singapore patent register, database, renewal and address updating facilities, is summarised, as is SurfIP, an online service providing a patent search covering many databases and countries, IP management tools, and facilities to assist the commercialization of IP.     

Use of needle track detection to quantify the displacement of stranded seeds following prostate brachytherapy

We aim to compute the movement of permanent stranded implant brachytherapy radioactive sources (seeds) in the prostate from the planned seed distribution to the intraoperative fluoroscopic distribution, and then to the postimplant computed tomography (CT) distribution. We present a novel approach to matching the seeds in these distributions to the plan by grouping the seeds into needle tracks. First, we identify the implantation axis using a sample consensus algorithm. Then, we use a network flow algorithm to group seeds into their needle tracks. Finally, we match the needles from the three stages using both their transverse plane location and the number of seeds per needle. We validated our approach on eight clinical prostate brachytherapy cases, having a total of 871 brachytherapy seeds distributed in 193 needles. For the intraoperative and postimplant data, 99.31% and 99.41% of the seeds were correctly assigned, respectively. For both the preplan to fluoroscopic and fluoroscopic to CT registrations, 100% of the needles were correctly matched. We show that there is an average intraoperative seed displacement of 4.94±2.42 mm and a further 2.97±1.81 mm of postimplant movement. This information reveals several directional trends and can be used for quality control, treatment planning, and intraoperative dosimetry that fuses ultrasound and fluoroscopy.