Isaacs syndrome: long-term improvement with intravenous polyvalent immunoglobulins

A 35 year-old man developed a syndrome with muscle cramp, myokimia, generalized, fasciculations, excessive sweating, sleep disorders and severe impairment. It was a syndrome of continuous muscle fiber activity--or Isaacs syndrome--with central disorders (this may be called "Maladie de Morvan"). Previous reports have suggested that Isaac's syndrome might be an autoimmune disorder. Moreover, high doses intravenous immunoglobulins were given resulting in a substantial improvement six months after the onset of this treatment.     

A cluster prediction model-based data collection for energy efficient wireless sensor network

The Journal of Supercomputing - Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are expected to cover the major portion of the earth’s surface in the coming years. In the era of IoT, the WSN is the major data...     

Enhancing multi-document summarization using concepts

In this paper we propose a methodology to mine concepts from documents and use these concepts to generate an objective summary of all relevant documents. We use the conceptual graph (CG) formalism as proposed by Sowa to represent the concepts and their relationships in the documents. In the present work we have modified and extended the definition of the concept given by Sowa. The modified and extended definition is discussed in detail in section 2 of this paper. A CG of a set of relevant documents can be considered as a semantic network. The semantic network is generated by automatically extracting CG for each document and merging them into one. We discuss (i) generation of semantic network using CGs and (ii) generation of multi-document summary. Here we use restricted Boltzmann machines, a deep learning technique, for automatically extracting CGs. We have tested our methodology using MultiLing 2015 corpus. We have obtained encouraging results, which are comparable to those from the state of the art systems.     

Synthesis and characterization of polymer supported vitamin B12 model compounds

A series of polymer supported cobalt complexes have been synthesized by the reaction of Co(II)‐SALEN (salicylaldehyde ethylenediimine) and other variations thereof with the chelating resin containing vinyl pyridine. The polymer supported complexes have been characterized by electronic and infrared spectra. The presence of polymer supports has a marked influence on the UV–visible bands observed in the electronic spectra of cobalt complexes. These polymer supported complexes are also investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The electronic spectral data and cyclic voltammetric data for free complexes and polymer supported complexes are compared. The discernible differences in the spectral and electrochemical data suggest the presence of pentacoordinate cobalt in the polymer matrix. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

Modification of cement mortars by polymer latex

The polymer systems of vinyl latex, epoxy latex/resin, and phenol formaldehyde were used to modify sand-cement mortar at room temperature. The compressive strength increased with an increase of the latex/resin concentration, with the addition of CaCl₂ or CaCO₃, and with the addition of superplasticizer. Tensile and flexural strengths also increased with polymer incorporation. The porosity of the modified mortar decreased with the addition of resin. The percentage of water absorption and acid solubility were found to decrease for the latex/resin modified samples. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 63: 1251–1257, 1997     

Immobilization of β-galactosidase onto polymeric supports

Poly(vinyl alcohol) cross-linked with para-formaldehyde (PVA–F) and natural polysaccharide–chitosan in bead form and salicylic acid–resorcinol–formaldehyde polymeric resin (SRF) in powder form were used for immobilization of β-galactosidase through covalent linkages. Various activation processes and conditions were optimized. Immobilized enzyme showed very good storage stability at room temperature. Durability of the enzyme was also improved on immobilization. On repeated use of enzyme immobilized on chitosan beads, no loss was observed in enzyme activity even after 10 batches. Michaelis constant K_m and maximum reaction velocity V_m were calculated for free and immobilized enzyme systems. Effect of pH and temperature on enzyme activity was estimated and energy of activation (E_a) and inactivation constant (K_i) for free and immobilized enzyme were calculated. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Synthesis and characterization of moisture‐cured polyurethane membranes and their applications in pervaporation separation of ethyl acetate/water azeotrope at 30°C

NCO‐terminated polyurethane membranes were prepared using diisocyanate, diol, and trimethylolpropane (TMP) using an NCO/OH ratio of 1.6 : 1. Prepolymer was chain‐extended using cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) in the ratios of 2 : 1, 4 : 1, and 3 : 1 of NCO/OH. Polyurethane (PU) membranes were characterized by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TGA) to investigate their thermal properties. Equilibrium sorption studies were carried out at 30°C in water and ethyl acetate media as well as in their binary mixtures. The influence of CAB on pervaporation (PV) separation of an ethyl acetate/water (92/8, w/w, i.e., azeotropic composition) mixture was investigated. Membranes in this study showed a selectivity of 42.42 with a flux value of 0.187 kg/m/h for 3 : 1% NCO/OH containing PU membrane. In order to gain a more detailed picture of the molecular transport phenomenon, we performed the sorption gravimetric experiments at 30°, 35°, 40°, and 50°C to compute diffusion, swelling, sorption, and permeability coefficients of PU membranes in the azeotropic mixture of ethyl acetate and water. Activation parameters for diffusion and permeation were computed from the Arrhenius equation to understand the polymer/solvent interactions. Sorption trends and diffusion anomalies were established through an empirical equation after estimating the diffusion parameters. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 3405–3414, 2007     

Effect of glycidyl methacrylate on the physical properties of wood–polymer composites

Chemical modification of pinewood was carried out by impregnating the wood with styrene as the impregnating monomer and in combination with a crosslinking monomer glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). Polymerization was carried out by catalyst heat treatment. Dimensional stability in terms of antiswell efficiency was determined and improved on treatment with polymer. Water uptake percentage was also improved for styrene‐GMA treated wood samples over styrene treated or untreated wood samples. Mechanical properties such as bending strength measured in terms of modulus of elasticity and modulus of rupture of polymer‐treated samples showed an improvement over untreated ones. Treatment also resulted an improvement in compressive strengths. Thermal properties of the wood samples were evaluated by thermogravimetric analyzer and differential scanning calorimeter. Biodegradability of the treated and untreated wood samples was determined and improvement was obtained on treatment. As a whole, styrene‐GMA treated wood samples showed more improvement over untreated or styrene‐treated samples. POLYM. COMPOS., 28:1–5, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Orientation of aqueous stretched cottons as measured by X-ray diffraction

The structural changes produced by aqueous swelling and stretching in cotton is found to be irreversible. This article present the X-ray angle data of six varieties of cotton that belong to Gossypium hirsutum. A marked decrease in X-ray angles was found in all treated samples, thereby indicating better orientation. Improvement in the orientation is associated with ncrease in the stretch. The improvement is high in all tension-dried cottons, showing the impact of the tension drying. Similar improved orientation is found in all varieties, indicating the varietal response of G. hirsutum. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.