Spectroscopic EPR and IR studies of monomeric and dimeric species formed upon adsorption of nitric oxide on Ce0.75Zr0.25O2 and their reactivity with dioxygen

The interaction of nitric oxide with Ce_0.75Zr_0.25O₂ solid solution were investigated by means of EPR and IR spectroscopies. The influence of adsorption parameters such as adsorption temperature and pressure, presence of the O₂ co-reactant on the nature and relative surface abundance of the resultant mono- and dimeric NO species was elucidated. The thermal stability of the surface nitrosyl complexes and their reactivity toward dioxygen were also examined.     

Alteration of substrate specificity of cholesterol oxidase from Streptomyces sp. by site-directed mutagenesis

Despite the structural similarities between cholesterol oxidasefrom Streptomyces and that from Brevibacterium, both enzymesexhibit different characteristics, such as catalytic activity,optimum pH and temperature. In attempts to define the molecularbasis of differences in catalytic activity or stability, substitutionsat six amino acid residues were introduced into cholesteroloxidase using site-directed mutagenesis of its gene. The aminoacid substitutions chosen were based on structural comparisonsof cholesterol oxidases from Streptomyces and Brevibacterium.Seven mutant enzymes were constructed with the following aminoacid substitutions: L117P, L119A, L119F, V145Q, Q286R, P357Nand S379T. All the mutant enzymes exhibited activity with theexception of that with the L117P mutation. The resulting V145Qmutant enzyme has low activities for all substrates examinedand the S379T mutant enzyme showed markedly altered substratespecificity compared with the wild-type enzyme. To evaluatethe role of V145 and S379 residues in the reaction, mutantswith two additional substitutions in V145 and four in S379 wereconstructed. The mutant enzymes created by the replacement ofV145 by Asp and Glu had much lower catalytic efficiency forcholesterol and pregnenolone as substrates than the wild-typeenzyme. From previous studies and this study, the V145 residueseems to be important for the stability and substrate bindingof the cholesterol oxidase. In contrast, the catalytic efficiencies(k_cat/K_m) of the S379T mutant enzyme for cholesterol and pregnenolonewere 1.8- and 6.0-fold higher, respectively, than those of thewild-type enzyme. The enhanced catalytic efficiency of the S379Tmutant enzyme for pregnenolone was due to a slightly high k_catvalue and a low K_m value. These findings will provide severalideas for the design of more powerful enzymes that can be appliedto clinical determination of serum cholesterol levels and assterol probes.     

Monte Carlo simulation of radiation-induced solid state polymerization

A Monte Carlo method was used for a computer simulation of radiation-induced solid state polymerization. The propagation of polymer chains was simulated by means of self-avoiding random walks on a tetrahedral lattice. The initiation and termination of the chains were modelled by pseudorandom processes. The influence of conditions of the in-source process on the post-polymerization kinetics and on the degree of polymerization of the polymers was studied.     

Quality assessment for a visual and automatic license plate recognition

Video transmission and analysis is often utilized in applications outside of the entertainment sector, and generally speaking this class of video is used to perform specific tasks. Examples of these applications include security and public safety. The Quality of Experience (QoE) concept for video content used for entertainment differs significantly from the QoE of surveillance video used for recognition tasks. This is because, in the latter case, the subjective satisfaction of the user depends on achieving a given functionality. Recognizing the growing importance of video in delivering a range of public safety services, we focused on developing critical quality thresholds in license plate recognition tasks based on videos streamed in constrained networking conditions. Since the number of surveillance cameras is still growing it is obvious that automatic systems will be used to do the tasks. Therefore, the presented research includes also analysis of automatic recognition algorithms.     

Profiling selected paths with loops

Path profiling records the frequency of each path in an executed program.To accomplish profiling,probes are instrumented in the program and executed as the program runs.So,the number of probes has a significant impact on the efficiency of a profiling technique.By profiling only the interesting paths,existing techniques try to improve the profiling efficiency by reducing the number of probes and optimize path encodings for efficient storage.However,they lack accuracy,waste time on running uninteresting paths,and can mainly deal with acyclic paths.In this article,a novel technique called Profiling Selected Paths(PSP)is introduced to profile selected paths,which enables custom selection for both acyclic and cyclic paths and increases the execution efficiency by early termination on uninteresting paths.Theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation indicate that PSP performs better than existing techniques.     

Metalloorganic solution deposition of ferroelectric PZT films

The metallo-organic solution deposition (MOSD or sol-gel) technique can be used for preparing lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics with a wide range of compositions and crystal structures for electrooptical applications. Film morphology is affected by the stoichiometry of the film, hydrolysis and polymerization of the sol-gel solution, and thermal treatment of the deposited material. The lattice parameter decreases with the amount of titanium in the PZT, in agreement with ceramic data. A slight initial excess of lead in the coating solution is found to improve film morphology. Unlike traditional powder ceramic processing techniques, MOSD permits the growth of small uniform grains that are conducive to achieving consistent electronic and optical properties. Results show that the properties of films prepared by the MOSD process can be tailored to meet the needs of device applications.     

Open-cell polyvinylidene fluoride foams as carriers to promote biofilm growth for biological wastewater treatment

This article reports the design and fabrication of open-cell polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) foams as carriers that can promote biofilm growth and organic removal efficiency for biological wastewater treatment in attached growth bioreactors. Open-cell PVDF foams were fabricated by a manufacturing approach that integrated compression molding and particulate leaching. PVDF carriers were structured with two governing factors of leaching agent types (e.g., sodium chloride [NaCl] and sodium acetate [NaOAc]) and contents (e.g., 80 and 90 wt%). Open-cell PVDF foams possessed high porosity and high protected surface area (i.e., more than ×10 to ×20 of the areas of commercialized carriers), which promoted biofilm growth in these carriers. As a successful advantage, PVDF carriers used in the moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBR) were entirely covered by biofilm in both interior and exterior parts without clogging. This provides strong evidence of the bacterial compatibility of the fabricated open-cell PVDF foam carriers. Moreover, the specific morphology of the PVDF carriers in this article provided superior biofilm protection from the detachment in MBBR. Experimental results revealed that PVDF open-cell foams fabricated by 80 wt% of NaCl demonstrated higher mechanical strength with an organic removal efficiency of 77% ± 7% in the corresponding bioreactor containing them.     

Eliminability of cut in hypersequent calculi for some modal logics of linear frames

Hypersequent calculi, introduced independently by Pottinger and Avron, provide a powerful generalization of ordinary sequent calculi. In the paper we present a proof of eliminability of cut in hypersequent calculi for three modal logics of linear frames: K4.3, KD4.3 and S4.3. Our cut-free calculus is based on Avron's HC formalization for Gödel–Dummett's logic. The presented proof of eliminability of cut is purely syntactical and based on Ciabattoni, Metcalfe, Montagna's proof of eliminability of cut for hypersequent calculi for some fuzzy logics with modalities.