Effects of selenium supplementation on rat heart apex and right ventricle myocardia by using FTIR spectroscopy: A cluster analysis and neural network approach

The effects of selenium supplementation on apex and right ventricle myocardia of the rat heart were investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy by examining the changes in the frequency values of major absorptions arising from lipids and proteins. Cluster analysis was used to discriminate the selenium treated group from the control by utilizing two distinct spectral regions, belonging to absorptions arising from lipids and proteins, respectively. In addition, protein secondary structures were predicted using neural network analysis. The results suggest that selenium treatment at a non-toxic dose causes some significant structural alterations in lipids and proteins of rat heart apex and right ventricle myocardia, which might be revealing a slight deleterious effect of selenium supplementation.     

Novel approach with polyfluorene/polydisulfide copolymer binder for high-capacity silicon anode in lithium-ion batteries

In this study, as a novel design with the collaboration of a fluorene and sulfide-based copolymer for Li-ion battery application is presented. Polyfluorene-co-polydisulfide is prepared with desired functional groups to yield a conductivity and good adhesion. These critical and important features are performed by preparing polymers with proper functional groups. The preparation process is accomplished via Suzuki coupling process under Pd catalyst by combining separately synthesized 4,4′-dibromodiphenyl disulfide in combination with 9,9-dioctylfluorene-2,7-bis(trimethylborate). The fully obtained capacity of the silicon particles, that is, at C/10 with the capacity of 1250 mAh g⁻¹ after the 500th cycle, approves the good performance by preserving capacity stability till 600th cycles. The designed and synthesized polymer binder with different functionalities and carbon nanotube additive show better characteristics such as conductivity, high polarity, and binding adhesion. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48303.     

Mask spoofing in face recognition and countermeasures

In this paper, initially, the impact of mask spoofing on face recognition is analyzed. For this purpose, one baseline technique is selected for both 2D and 3D face recognition. Next, novel countermeasures, which are based on the analysis of different shape, texture and reflectance characteristics of real faces and mask faces, are proposed to detect mask spoofing. In this paper, countermeasures are developed using both 2D data (texture images) and 3D data (3D scans) available in the mask database. The results show that each of the proposed countermeasures is successful in detecting mask spoofing, and the fusion of these countermeasures further improves the results compared to using a single countermeasure. Since there is no publicly available mask database, studies on mask spoofing are limited. This paper provides significant results by proposing novel countermeasures to protect face recognition systems against mask spoofing.     

Antibacterial activities of essential oils and extracts of Turkish Achillea,Satureja and Thymus species against plant pathogenic bacteria

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to examine the chemical composition of the essential oils and hexane extracts of the aerial parts of Satureja spicigera (C. Koch) Boiss., Thymus fallax Fisch. & CA Mey, Achillea biebersteinii Afan, and Achillea millefolium L. by GC and GC–MS, and to test antibacterial efficacy of essential oils and n‐hexane, chloroform, acetone and methanol extracts as an antibacterial and seed disinfectant against 25 agricultural plant pathogens. RESULTS: Thymol, carvacrol, p‐cymene, thymol methyl ether and γ‐terpinene were the main constituents of S. spicigera and T. fallax oils and hexane extracts. The main components of the oil of Achillea millefolium were 1,8‐cineole, δ‐cadinol and caryophyllene oxide, whereas the hexane extract of this species contained mainly n‐hexacosane, n‐tricosane and n‐heneicosane. The oils and hexane extracts of S. spicigera and T. fallax exhibited potent antibacterial activity over a broad spectrum against 25 phytopathogenic bacterial strains. Carvacrol and thymol, the major constituents of S. spicigera and T. fallax oils, also showed potent antibacterial effect against the bacteria tested. The oils of Achillea species showed weak antibacterial activity. Our results also revealed that the essential oil of S. spicigera, thymol and carvacrol could be used as potential disinfection agents against seed‐borne bacteria. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that S. spicigera, T. fallax oils, carvacrol and thymol could become potentials for controlling certain important agricultural plant pathogenic bacteria and seed disinfectant. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Inhibitory effects of Cu,Zn, Ni and Co on nitrification and relevance of speciation

BACKGROUND: The speciation of metals is often overlooked in understanding their observed inhibitory effect in biological systems, in particular in nitrification systems. This study examines the effects of Cu, Zn, Ni and Co on a nitrifying sludge, where the aim is to relate inhibition to speciation. RESULTS: Nitrification inhibition was monitored by O₂ and CO₂ measurements, an approach rarely followed to date. The IC₅₀ value of each metal was expressed in terms of total, free and labile metal. Zn and Cu formed similar species, but had different free and labile fractions. Although free and labile fractions of Cu were much lower than the others, it was the most inhibitory metal. Ni and Co exhibited quite different inhibitory effects on nitrification despite the formation of similar metal species. Co was the least inhibitory metal and exhibited its effect very slowly. CONCLUSION: The study is among the few which examine inhibition and speciation of several metals in a comparative way. In the same nitrification medium each metal formed different species, which is a factor to be considered in interpretation of inhibition. The results may be projected to nitrifying systems to clarify the underlying factors in inhibition. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Enhancement of hybrid sol–gel coating and industrial application on polished porcelain stoneware tiles and investigation of the performance

The aim of this study was to improve stain resistance and cleanability of polished porcelain tiles by sealing the micro-pores on the tile surface with hybrid sol–gel solution. For this purpose, solutions of a hybrid system based on sol–gel technology were prepared. The obtained solution were applied to polished unglazed tiles and subsequently spread with soft tissue thereon. To achieve complete sealing, both organic and inorganic particles of different sizes were mixed with obtained sol–gel hybrid systems. Coated surfaces were investigated by means of a scanning electron microscope. The stain resistance and the cleanability of the tile surface were tested according to ISO-10545-2014 standard. It has been shown that prepared sealing material permanently prevents formation of stains such as olive oil, green staining paste, iodine solution on the surface of polished porcelain tiles. The remains of stains on the surface can easily be removed from it with a cleaning agent.     

Production of oil-based binder by RAFT polymerization technique

In this study, air-blown linseed oil was styrenated by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT). For this purpose, hydroperoxide groups were formed in the structure of linseed oil by blowing air through it. The oxidized oil was used as a macroinitiator in the styrenation process by RAFT technique using phenacyl morpholine dithiocarbamate (PMDC) as a RAFT agent. The obtained samples were characterized by GPC and FT-IR measurements. The effects of various parameters, such as the amount of PMDC, the number of peroxide groups, and the reaction time were investigated on polydispersity and molecular weight. For comparison, a copolymer sample was also prepared in the absence of PMDC. The film properties of all the samples were determined according to the related standards and compared. The sample obtained by the RAFT technique exhibited better film properties and a relatively narrow polydispersity, showing that the RAFT technique provides good control over the polymerization system in this study.     

Performance evaluation of a triple‐effect evaporator with forward feed using exergy analysis

The present study evaluates the performance of a triple‐effect evaporator with forward feed (TEEFF) system by using exergy analysis based on actual operational data. The orange juice with a capacity of about 1.222 kg s^?1 is concentrated from a dry matter (DM) content of 12 to 65% in this TEEFF, which is situated in an orange juice concentrate line installed in a factory, located in Denizli, Turkey. A Visual Basic 6.0 program was also developed to show how the exergetic performance characteristics of the system vary with the feed flow rates ranging from 1.222 to 1.667 kg s^?1. The total exergy efficiency of the TEEEFF is found to be on average 0.85. The largest exergy destruction occurs in the first‐effect of the TEEFF system with 48.2% of total, followed by the third and second effects with 32.04 and 19.76% of that. Evaporator performance is also rated on the basis of steam economy, which is obtained to be in the range of 2.05–2.14 under the operation conditions. It is expected that the analysis presented here should provide a designer with a better, quantitative grasp of the inefficiencies and their relative magnitudes in the design, simulation and operation of multiple‐effect evaporators. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of voltage and frequency-dependent series resistance and interface states of Al/ZnCo2O4: Gelatin/n-Si diode

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In this work, which aims to investigate the capacitance and conductance properties of ZnCo2O4-doped Gelatin, 5% ZnCo2O4-doped Gelatin film...     

Incremental construction of classifier and discriminant ensembles

We discuss approaches to incrementally construct an ensemble. The first constructs an ensemble of classifiers choosing a subset from a larger set, and the second constructs an ensemble of discriminants, where a classifier is used for some classes only. We investigate criteria including accuracy, significant improvement, diversity, correlation, and the role of search direction. For discriminant ensembles, we test subset selection and trees. Fusion is by voting or by a linear model. Using 14 classifiers on 38 data sets, incremental search finds small, accurate ensembles in polynomial time. The discriminant ensemble uses a subset of discriminants and is simpler, interpretable, and accurate. We see that an incremental ensemble has higher accuracy than bagging and random subspace method; and it has a comparable accuracy to AdaBoost, but fewer classifiers.