Effect of surface charge on the cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of fluorescent labeled cellulose nanocrystals

Probing of cellular uptake and cytotoxicity was conducted for two fluorescent cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs): CNC-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and newly synthesized CNC-rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RBITC). The positively charged CNC-RBITC was uptaken by human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) and Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cells without affecting the cell membrane integrity. The cell viability assay and cell-based impedance spectroscopy revealed no noticeably cytotoxic effect of the CNC-RBITC conjugate. However, no significant internalization of negatively charged CNC-FITC was observed at physiological pH. Indeed, the effector cells were surrounded by CNC-FITC, leading to eventual cell rupture. As the surface charge of CNC played an important role in cellular uptake and cytotoxicity, facile surface functionalization together with observed noncytotoxicity rendered modified CNC as a promising candidate for bioimaging and drug delivery systems.     

Electrochemistry and safety of Li4Ti5O12 and graphite anodes paired with LiMn2O4 for hybrid electric vehicle Li-ion battery applications

A promising anode material for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) is Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO). LTO intercalates lithium at a voltage of ∼1.5 V relative to lithium metal, and thus this material has a lower energy compared to a graphite anode for a given cathode material. However, LTO has promising safety and cycle life characteristics relative to graphite anodes. Herein, we describe electrochemical and safety characterizations of LTO and graphite anodes paired with LiMn₂O₄ cathodes in pouch cells. The LTO anode outperformed graphite with regards to capacity retention on extended cycling, pulsing impedance, and calendar life and was found to be more stable to thermal abuse from analysis of gases generated at elevated temperatures and calorimetric data. The safety, calendar life, and pulsing performance of LTO make it an attractive alternative to graphite for high power automotive applications, in particular when paired with LiMn₂O₄ cathode materials.     

Noise in AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs from 10 Hz to 18GHz

Noise properties of AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs (PHEMTs) have been investigated simultaneously in the low and intermediate frequency range (10 Hz to 150 MHz) and in the microwave range (4 to 18 GHz) and compared to the noise of more classical devices such as MESFETs and GaAlAs/GaAs HEMTs. Unlike the other commercially available devices, PHEMTs exhibit the unique capability of providing simultaneously state-of-the-art microwave noise performance and a reasonable low-frequency excess noise     

Dissolving pulps from Egyptian bagasse I. Effect of depithing on the chemical,physical and sub-microscopic characteristics of viscose pulps

Egyptian bagasse was pulped by the prehydrolysis-sulphate process. The effects of depithing on certain chemical, physical and sub-microscopic characteristics of the pulp, in particular its reactivity towards xanthation, were investigated. Depithing before and after prehydrolysis was compared. Pulps with a higher degree of chemical purity and higher degree of whiteness showed better reactivity towards xanthation. However, the most important factor affecting the reactivity was the accessibility of the cellulose hydroxyls to reactant molecules.     

A lossless DWT-SVD domain watermarking for medical information security

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The goal of this work is to protect as much as possible the images exchanged in telemedicine, to avoid any confusion between the patient’s radiographs,...     

Formal verification of a new authenticated and optimized version of AOMDV for WSN

In this paper, we propose a formal study based on model checking to formally verify an enhancement authenticated version of ad hoc on‐demand multipath distance vector (AOMDV) called authenticated optimized AOMDV (AO‐AOMDV). In this new version, we have added new functionalities in route discovery and route maintenance processes combined with the advantages of μTESLA. This contribution allows a transmitter to compute multiple authenticated routing paths toward the destination. The result of the formal verification study, under UPPAAL and SPIN, shows the behavior of the protocol that may not be revealed by simulation.     

Green software requirements and measurement: random decision forests-based software energy consumption profiling

This paper proposes an explicit definition of green software requirements and a tool to support their evaluation. The proposed evaluation tool describes the green efficiency by considering the energy consumption as the main aspect to be studied during the development stage. This approach consists of building a multiple regression model, by using a supervised learning algorithm, in order to reproduce the energy consumption pattern of devices at different workload circumstances. The energy consumption model is then deployed to estimate the impact of software applications based on their resource usage. Our work has been validated on desktop and mobile devices. The experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed energy profiling tool that provided relevant information on the energy consumption of software applications.     

An adaptive approach for decision making tactics in automated negotiation

In this paper, an adaptive decision making approach of three families of tactics has been proposed for bilateral negotiation: the time dependent tactics, behavior dependent tactics, and time independent tactics. These tactics are more adaptive to the environment’s changes (reservation interval, time deadline, opponent behavior). The suggested time dependent tactics take advantage from round based time continuity and dynamics aspects (features) integrated in their modelling. For suggested behavior dependent tactics, a new formalization based on the percentage of change was introduced, which helps agents to be more prudent in the environments with incomplete information comparing to previous behavior dependent tactics suggested by Faratin et al. (Int. J. Robotics Auton. Syst. 24(3–4):159–182, 1998). Concerning the new family of tactics which are completely independent from time, the agents compute their offers based on their reservation interval. These tactics are useful when there is no time deadline and, in addition, when the behavior of opponent agents doesn’t follow any negotiation equilibrium. Moreover, new experimental measures are suggested which are more useful for final evaluation. The experiments conducted in this paper, prove the applicability of all three families of tactic.