Organic semiconductor-based photonic crystals for solar cell arrays: band gap and optical properties

Photonic crystals (PCs) hold great potential for designing new optical devices because of the possibility of the manipulation of light with PCs. There has been an increase in research on tuning the optical properties of PCs to design devices. We design organic semiconductor-based PC structures and calculate optical properties using the plane wave expansion method and finite-difference time-domain method in an air background for a hexagonal lattice. We showed the possibility of the solar cell arrays for a 2D PC cavity on an organic semiconductor base infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal. E7 type has been used as a nematic liquid crystal and 4,4′-Bis[4-(diphenylamino) styryl]biphenyl as an organic semiconductor material.     

Detection of C-reactive protein utilizing magnetic permeability detection based immunoassays

A new sensing technology platform integrating magnetic permeability detection and a two-site heterogeneous immunoassay in a one-step analysis is described. As a platform model, measurements of C-reactive protein (CRP), a cardiac and inflammation marker, were performed in a rapid (11.5 min) high-sensitivity (hs) procedure with a low detection limit (0.2 mg/L) and accuracy (CV = 11%). The two-site heterogeneous immunoassay was performed in 1.2-mL disposable reagents vials containing solid phase (polyclonal anti-CRP conjugated silica microparticles), labeling agent (monoclonal anti-CRP conjugated superparamagnetic nanoparticles), and reaction buffer. Whole blood (20 muL) was assayed by introducing the sample into a reagent vial using a glass capillary and mixing its contents by hand for 30 s. After a 11-min sedimentation step, the vial was placed into the coil of the magnetic permeability detector, which measured the enrichment of superparamagnetic nanoparticles in the solid-phase sediment. Magnetic permeability detection and quantification is based on the principle that when paramagnetic materials are placed inside a coil, the inductance of the coil is influenced. Screening of CRP on whole blood patient samples showed good correlation with central hospital measurements for hsCRP (y = 1.018x - 0.021, R(2) = 0.980, n = 103) and normal range CRP (y = 1.02x + 2.53, R(2)= 0.991, n = 33) analyses. The mean differences of the two methods according to the Bland and Altman plots were -0.03 +/- 1.12 mg/L for hsCRP analysis and -3.4 +/- 8.64 mg/L for normal range CRP analysis.     

Ohmic Heating of Liquid Whole Egg: Rheological Behaviour and Fluid Dynamics

Although ohmic heating is used as an alternative heating method for liquid egg products commercially, there is a lack of information on the change of rheological properties and fluid dynamics characteristics of ohmically heated liquid whole egg in the literature. The change of rheological behaviour of the ohmically heated liquid whole egg, across a temperature range of 4–60 °C, was determined by using a concentric rotational viscometer. The ohmic heating was conducted by applying the voltage gradient (20 V/cm) at 50 Hz. The temperature dependency of the electrical conductivity of liquid egg was linear (R ² = 0.999). The rheological behaviour was found to be shear thinning since power law model had higher regression coefficient and lower χ ² and root mean square error values than Newtonian model. Ohmically heated liquid whole egg exhibited higher degree of thixotropic index indicating the occurrence of the protein denaturation at 60 °C. The flow behaviour of liquid whole egg in the continuous ohmic heating system was predicted as laminar (GRe range of 87.59–538.87) for the mass flow rate range of 0.0056–0.0166 kg/s. The friction factors and pressure losses in the system in those mass flow rates were also assessed. The result of this study will give necessary information on flow characteristics of liquid whole egg for the modelling, designing and the scaling up of the continuous ohmic heating systems for pasteurisation of liquid egg products.     

Aloe vera-based antibacterial porous sponges for wound dressing applications

Journal of Porous Materials - The antibacterial sponges with high macroporosity, high interconnectivity and high biocompatibility is a significant concern for wound healing applications. In this...     

Upregulated Expression of Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase in Ocular Adnexal Marginal Zone Lymphoma with IgG4-Positive Cells

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a systemic disorder characterized by tissue fibrosis and intense lymphoplasmacytic infiltration, causing progressive organ dysfunction. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), a deaminase normally expressed in activated B-cells in germinal centers, edits ribonucleotides to induce somatic hypermutation and class switching of immunoglobulin. While AID expression is strictly controlled under physiological conditions, chronic inflammation has been noted to induce its upregulation to propel oncogenesis. We examined AID expression in IgG4-related ophthalmic disease (IgG4-ROD; n = 16), marginal zone lymphoma with IgG4-positive cells (IgG4+ MZL; n = 11), and marginal zone lymphoma without IgG4-positive cells (IgG4- MZL; n = 12) of ocular adnexa using immunohistochemical staining. Immunohistochemistry revealed significantly higher AID-intensity index in IgG4-ROD and IgG4+ MZL than IgG4- MZL (p < 0.001 and = 0.001, respectively). The present results suggest that IgG4-RD has several specific causes of AID up-regulation in addition to inflammation, and AID may be a driver of oncogenesis in IgG4-ROD to IgG4+ MZL.     

Synthesis and investigation of new cholesteryl carbamate-based liquid crystals

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Cholesteryl chloroformate which is known liquid crystal material was modified to give the new molecules a long-lasting LC phases with the...     

Clinical evidence framework for Bayesian networks

There is poor uptake of prognostic decision support models by clinicians regardless of their accuracy. There is evidence that this results from doubts about the basis of the model as the evidence behind clinical models is often not clear to anyone other than their developers. In this paper, we propose a framework for representing the evidence-base of a Bayesian network (BN) decision support model. The aim of this evidence framework is to be able to present all the clinical evidence alongside the BN itself. The evidence framework is capable of presenting supporting and conflicting evidence, and evidence associated with relevant but excluded factors. It also allows the completeness of the evidence to be queried. We illustrate this framework using a BN that has been previously developed to predict acute traumatic coagulopathy, a potentially fatal disorder of blood clotting, at early stages of trauma care.     

Equilibrium and kinetic mechanism for Reactive Black 5 sorption onto high lime Soma fly ash

Batch adsorption studies were carried out for the sorption of C.I. Reactive Black 5, a reactive dye, onto high lime fly ash, obtained from Soma Thermal Power Plant (Turkey), to be low cost adsorbent. The effect of various experimental parameters such as contact time, adsorbent dose and initial dye concentration were investigated. Determination of the adsorption equilibrium concentrations was determined by UV-vis spectrophotometry analytical method. Equilibrium data were fitted to the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm equations and the equilibrium data were found to be well represented by the Freundlich isotherm equation. The adsorption kinetics of C.I. Reactive Black 5 onto high lime fly ash were also studied to characterize of the surface complexation reaction. A pseudo-second-order mechanism has been developed to predict the rate constant of the adsorption, the equilibrium capacity and initial adsorption rate with the effect of initial concentration. A single-stage batch adsorber design of the adsorption of C.I. Reactive Black 5 onto high lime fly ash has been studied based on the Freundlich isotherm equation.