Roughness measurement by electronic speckle correlation and mechanical profilometry

A practical optical sensor for rough surface diagnostics has been developed for applications in mechanical engineering. The principle of the sensor is based on digital speckle correlation. First, the measuring principle and the optical system arrangement are described, then optical measurements on different rough surfaces are compared with mechanical stylus measurements and the results are discussed with consideration of the advantages and differences of the two methods.     

Retrieval of lexical–syntactic features in tip-of-the tongue states.

Italian speakers who signaled that they were in a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state were asked to recognize the grammatical gender and the initial and the final phonemes of the unavailable word. The proportions of gender and phoneme hits that occurred with "don't know" (DK) responses were adopted as baselines for chance-level performance. Participants were more accurate in recognizing the grammatical gender and the initial but not the final phoneme of target words when they were in TOT than in DK states. The availability of gender in TOT states suggests the independence of syntactic from phonological information in lexical access. However, the retrieval of gender was far from perfect for TOT words, and it was no better than recognition of the initial phoneme. These results are problematic for the notion that the selection of a lemma is synonymous with the retrieval of the word's syntactic features. The implications of these results for the distinction between lemma and lexeme levels of representation in lexical access are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agent‐oriented activity recognition in the event calculus: An application for diabetic patients

We present a knowledge representation framework on the basis of the Event Calculus that allows an agent to recognize complex activities from low‐level observations received by multiple sensors, reason about the life cycle of such activities, and take action to support their successful completion. Activities are multivalue fluents that change according to events that occur in the environment. The parameters of an activity consist of a unique label, a set of participants involved in the performing of the activity, and a unique goal associated with the activity revealing the activity's desired outcome. Our contribution is the identification of an activity life cycle describing how activities can be started, interrupted, suspended, resumed, or completed over time, as well as how these can be represented. The framework also specifies activity goals, their associated life cycle, and their relation with the activity life cycle. We provide the complete implementation of the framework, which includes an activity generator that automatically creates synthetic sensor data in the form of event streams that represent the everyday lifestyle of a type 1 diabetic patient. Moreover, we test the framework by generating very large activity streams that we use to evaluate the performance of the recognition capability and study its relative merits.     

Comparison of rancimat evaluation modes to assess oxidative stability of fish oils

Two Rancimat evaluation modes, the induction period (IP), and the time needed to achieve a selected difference in conductivity (tΔK) were compared for assessing relative stability of anchovy, sardine, and hake liver oils. Mean coefficients of variation were 2.5 and 2.4% for IP and tΔK values, respectively, for oils oxidized in the range 55–90°C. Natural logarithms of IP and tΔK values varied linearly with temperature (P<0.001). A linear relationship (r=0.999) was established between the IP and tΔK values (P<0.001). Relative oxidative stability of fish oils was determined with the same degree of confidence by either IP or tΔK values.     

Inhibitory effect of boldine on fish oil oxidation

The antioxidative effect of boldine, an alkaloid extracted fromPeumus boldus Mol. (boldo), was assayed on the spontaneous and on the metal-induced oxidation of fish oil. The inhibitory effect of boldine was compared to those of dl-α tocopherol, the flavonoid quercetin and the synthetic antioxidants butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole. Boldine, in all assays, showed a good antioxidative effect, which was comparable to that of quercetin and even better than that of dl-α tocopherol and the synthetic antioxidants. Additive effects were observed when mixtures of boldine and quercetin or dl-α tocopherol were assayed. The present study supports the potential use of boldine as a novel natural antioxidant for fish oil.     

Cytotoxic Activity and Structure–Activity Relationship of Triazole‐Containing Bis(Aryl Ether) Macrocycles

Cancer continues to be a worldwide health problem. Certain macrocyclic molecules have become attractive therapeutic alternatives for this disease because of their efficacy and, frequently, their novel mechanisms of action. Herein, we report the synthesis of a series of 20‐, 21‐, and 22‐membered macrocycles containing triazole and bis(aryl ether) moieties. The compounds were prepared by a multicomponent approach from readily available commercial substrates. Notably, some of the compounds displayed interesting cytotoxicity against cancer (PC‐3) and breast (MCF‐7) cell lines, especially those bearing an aliphatic or a trifluoromethyl substituent on the N‐phenyl moiety (IC₅₀<13 μm ). Additionally, some of the compounds were able to induce apoptosis relative to the solvent control; in particular, (Z)‐N‐cyclohexyl‐7‐oxo‐6‐[4‐(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]‐1¹H‐3,10‐dioxa‐6‐aza‐1(4,1)‐triazola‐4(1,3),9(1,4)‐dibenzenacyclotridecaphane‐5‐carboxamide ( 12 f ) was the most potent in this regard (22.7 % of apoptosis).     

Hydrodynamically Guided Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Peptide–Protein Bioinks

Effective integration of molecular self‐assembly and additive manufacturing would provide a technological leap in bioprinting. This article reports on a biofabrication system based on the hydrodynamically guided co‐assembly of peptide amphiphiles (PAs) with naturally occurring biomolecules and proteins to generate hierarchical constructs with tuneable molecular composition and structural control. The system takes advantage of droplet‐on‐demand inkjet printing to exploit interfacial fluid forces and guide molecular self‐assembly into aligned or disordered nanofibers, hydrogel structures of different geometries and sizes, surface topographies, and higher‐ordered constructs bound by molecular diffusion. PAs are designed to co‐assemble during printing in cell diluent conditions with a range of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and biomolecules including fibronectin, collagen, keratin, elastin‐like proteins, and hyaluronic acid. Using combinations of these molecules, NIH‐3T3 and adipose derived stem cells are bioprinted within complex structures while exhibiting high cell viability (>88%). By integrating self‐assembly with 3D‐bioprinting, the study introduces a novel biofabrication platform capable of encapsulating and spatially distributing multiple cell types within tuneable pericellular environments. In this way, the work demonstrates the potential of the approach to generate complex bioactive scaffolds for applications such as tissue engineering, in vitro models, and drug screening.