Bacterial Cellulose Membrane Containing Epilobium angustifolium L. Extract as a Promising Material for the Topical Delivery of Antioxidants to the Skin

Bacterial cellulose membranes (BCs) are becoming useful as a drug delivery system to the skin. However, there are very few reports on their application of plant substances to the skin. Komagataeibacter xylinus was used for the production of bacterial cellulose (BC). The BC containing 5% and 10% ethanolic extract of Epilobium angustifolium (FEE) (BC-5%FEE and BC-10%FEE, respectively) were prepared. Their mechanical, structural, and antioxidant properties, as well as phenolic acid content, were evaluated. The bioavailability of BC-FESs using mouse L929 fibroblasts as model cells was tested. Moreover, In Vitro penetration through the pigskin of the selected phenolic acids contained in FEE and their accumulation in the skin after topical application of BC-FEEs was examined. The BC-FEEs were characterized by antioxidant activity. The BC-5% FEE showed relatively low toxicity to healthy mouse fibroblasts. Gallic acid (GA), chlorogenic acid (ChA), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (3,4-DHB), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HB), 3-hydroxybenzoic acid (3-HB), and caffeic acid (CA) found in FEE were also identified in the membranes. After topical application of the membranes to the pigskin penetration of some phenolic acid and other antioxidants through the skin as well as their accumulation in the skin was observed. The bacterial cellulose membrane loaded by plant extract may be an interesting solution for topical antioxidant delivery to the skin.     

A preliminary study of cushion properties of a 3D printed thermoplastic polyurethane Kelvin foam

The cells in conventional packaging foams have random size and orientation, and the energy‐absorbing behaviour of these foams is determined by the collective contribution of different sizes of cells. In contrast to the random nature of stochastic foams, 3D printing technologies allow engineers to design and produce foams having engineered cellular structures. In this study, engineered cellular structures based on the classic Kelvin 1887 model were 3D printed in 30 × 30 × 30 mm thermoplastic polyurethane cubes with a repeating size of 216 unit cells. One hundred consecutive cyclic compression tests were performed to assess the 3D printed foam's resilience and energy absorption characteristics. The stress‐strain curve of the 3D printed thermoplastic polyurethane foam indicated viscoelastic behaviour and a Mullins effect indicative of resilient rubber. A long wave buckling mode was observed during cyclic compression cycles due to the Kelvin structure. The cushion factor computed from the stress‐strain curve was close to that of a metal spring with linear elasticity. The combination of the 3D printed foam's resilience, its much lower density than rubber, and the complete geometric freedom of the engineered cellular structures offer designers the potential to create high‐performance cushion materials tailored for packaging applications.     

Stope optimization with vertical convexity constraints

A new algorithm for the optimal stope design problem is proposed. It is based on a previous methodology developed by Bai et al. (Comput Geosci 52:361–371, 2013a) where a cylindrical coordinate system is used to define geomechanical restrictions and to find the optimal stope around an initial raise. The new algorithm extends this work using an integer programming formulation and a new set of constraints, aimed to solve geomechanical issues present on the original methodology. The new formulation is tested on two synthetic and one real deposits. An economic, geomechanical and feasibility analysis is performed, comparing the new results with Bai’s methodology. This methodology achieves better stope designs in terms of geomechanical stability and wall regularity, generating feasible stopes for real use. It also allows further extensions to incorporate other geometrical constraints in order to obtain more regular stope designs.     

Robust sliding mode‐based extremum‐seeking controller for reaction systems via uncertainty estimation approach

This paper deals with the design of a robust sliding mode‐based extremum‐seeking controller aimed at the online optimization of a class of uncertain reaction systems. The design methodology is based on an input–output linearizing method with variable‐structure feedback, such that the closed‐loop system converges to a neighborhood of the optimal set point with sliding mode motion. In contrast with previous extremum‐seeking control algorithms, the control scheme includes a dynamic modelling‐error estimator to compensate for unknown terms related with model uncertainties and unmeasured disturbances. The proposed online optimization scheme does not make use of a dither signal or a gradient‐based optimization algorithm. Practical stabilizability for the closed‐loop system around to the unknown optimal set point is analyzed. Numerical experiments for two nonlinear processes illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust control scheme. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking information and people in a social system for academic conferences

This paper investigates the feasibility of maintaining a social information system to support attendees at an academic conference. The main challenge of this work was to create an infrastructure where users’ social activities, such as bookmarking, tagging, and social linking could be used to enhance user navigation and maximize the users’ ability to locate two important types of information in conference settings: presentations to attend and attendees to meet. We developed Conference Navigator 3, a social conference support system that integrates a conference schedule planner with a social linking service. We examined its potential and functions in the context of a medium-scale academic conference. In this paper, we present the design of the system’s socially enabled features and report the results of a conference-based study. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of social information systems for supporting academic conferences. Despite the low number of potential users and the short timeframe in which conferences took place, the usage of the system was high enough to provide sufficient data for social mechanisms. The study shows that most critical social features were highly appreciated and used, and provides direction for further research.     

A new cognitive filtering approach based on Freeman K3 Neural Networks

Huge volume of data over several domains demands the development of new more efficient tools for search, analysis, and interpretation. Clustering approaches represent an important step in exploring the internal structure and relationships in datasets. In this study, the cognitively motivated neural network Freeman K₃-set was applied as a filter to preprocess the data, achieving a better clustering performance. We combine K₃ with a variety of clustering algorithms commonly used, and tested its performance using standard UCI datasets and also datasets from social networks. A comprehensive evaluation using a number of cluster validation measures shows significant improvement in the overall performance of the K₃-based clustering method for social data sets, for two types of clustering validation measures. Additionally, K₃ filtering results in transparent representation of data, which leads to improved efficiency of data processing algorithms used.     

Robustness of delayed multistable systems with application to droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids

Motivated by the problem of phase-locking in droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids with delays, the recently developed theory of input-to-state stability (ISS) for multistable systems is extended to the case of multistable systems with delayed dynamics. Sufficient conditions for ISS of delayed systems are presented using Lyapunov–Razumikhin functions. It is shown that ISS multistable systems are robust with respect to delays in a feedback. The derived theory is applied to two examples. First, the ISS property is established for the model of a nonlinear pendulum and delay-dependent robustness conditions are derived. Second, it is shown that, under certain assumptions, the problem of phase-locking analysis in droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids with delays can be reduced to the stability investigation of the nonlinear pendulum. For this case, corresponding delay-dependent conditions for asymptotic phase-locking are given.     

Qualitative trust modeling in SOA

Trust among cooperating agents is an essential precondition for every e-business transaction. It is becoming increasingly vital in service oriented architectures (SOAs), where services from various administration domains are deployed. Traditional hard security mechanisms with different techniques of authorization, access control and information security services give a solid foundation, but they fail when cooperating entities act deceitfully. Trust as a soft social security mechanism can protect against such threats and consequently improves the quality of services and reliability of service providers. This paper presents an abstract trust model that applies complementary qualitative methodology which addresses the core of trust as socio-cognitive phenomenon. The model complements existing quantitative methodologies and is applied in the web services environment that enables trust management in SOAs.