Hand radiographs preprocessing, image representation in the finger regions and joint space width measurements for image interpretation

In this paper, the first stage of studies concerning the computer analysis of hand X-ray digital images is described. The images are preprocessed and then skeletization of the fingers is carried out. Then, the interphapangeal and metacarpophalangeal joints are detected and contoured. Joint widths are also measured. The obtained results largely concur with those obtained by other authors—see Beier et al. [Segmentation of medical images combining local, regional, global, and hierarchical distances into a bottom-up region merging scheme, Proc. SPIE 5747 (2005) 546-555], Klooster et al. [Automatic quantification of osteoarthritis in hand radiographs: validation of a new method to measure joint space width, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 16 (1) (2008) 18-25], Ogiela et al. [Image languages in intelligent radiological palm diagnostics, Pattern Recognition 39 (2006) 2157-2165] and Ogiela and Tadeusiewicz [Picture languages in automatic radiological palm interpretation, Int. J. Appl. Math. Comput. Sci. 15 (2) (2005) 305-312].     

Antimicrobial carbon materials incorporating copper nano‐crystallites and their PLA composites

In the first stage, carbon materials were manufactured from chitin and chitosan as the main precursor. Chitin and chitosan were impregnated with Cu²⁺ ions. Using heat treatment, the organic matter (biopolymers) was transformed into a porous carbon matrix, while copper ions were transformed into copper‐based nano‐crystallites containing copper atoms in a +1 and 0 oxidation state. Such synthesized carbons exhibited high contact antifungal activity, e.g., for sample, CH‐ACu0.1_Ox against R. nigricans the inhibition zone is 10.27 mm. In the second stage, composite polymer films were manufactured by mixing polylactide (PLA) and the obtained microbial carbon material (up to 3 wt % Cu‐carbon content). Despite the very low content of carbon material (3 wt %), the composite PLA films exhibited excellent microbial properties for selected bacteria and fungi, e.g., sample CuCM3%/PLA demonstrated high log₁₀ reduction values of 2.17 and 2.66 for the strains of E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. The composite films, and their components, were examined by means of diversified physicochemical methods like low temperature adsorption of nitrogen, SEM, elemental analysis, XRD, cyclic voltammetry, antifungal, and antibacterial analysis. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43429.     

Effects of feedstocks on the process integration of biohydrogen production

Future production of hydrogen must be sustainable. To obtain it, renewable resources have to be employed for its production. Fermentation of biomasses could be a viable way. The process evaluated is a two-step fermentation to produce hydrogen from biomass. Process options with barley straws, PSP, and thick juice as feedstocks have been compared on the basis of process balances. Aspen Plus has been used to calculate mass and energy balances taking into account the integration of the process. Results show that the production of hydrogen as energy carrier is technically feasible with all the considered feedstocks and thanks to heat integration, second generation biomass (PSP and barley straws) are competitive with food crops (thick juice).     

Monitoring respiration and cardiac activity using fiber Bragg grating-based sensor

This paper shows the design of a fiber-based sensor for living activities in human body and the results of a laboratory evaluation carried out on it. The authors have developed a device that allows for monitoring the vibrations of human body evoked by living activities--breathing and cardiac rhythm. The device consists of a Bragg grating inscribed into a single mode optical fiber and operating on a wavelength of around 1550?nm. The fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is mounted inside a pneumatic cushion to be placed between the backrest of the seat and the back of the monitored person. Deformations of the cushion, involving deformations of the FBG, are proportional to the vibrations of the body leaning on the cushion. Laboratory studies have shown that the sensor allows for obtaining dynamic strains on the sensing FBG in the range of 50-124 μ strain caused by breathing and approximately 8.3 μstrain induced by heartbeat, which are fully measurable by today's FBG interrogation systems. The maximum relative measurement error of the presented sensor is 12%. The sensor's simple design enables it to be easily implemented in pilot's and driver's seats for monitoring the physiological condition of pilots and drivers.     

Improved Water Resistance and Adhesive Performance of a Commercial UF Resin Blended with Glutaraldehyde

The influence of glutaraldehyde blend on the properties of a commercially available resin in moist conditions was investigated. A UF resin with very low water resistance was blended with glutaraldehyde prior to the thermosetting step and the adhesive performance of the modified adhesive systems was studied. Experiments were performed on birch two-layer co-oriented plywood. It was shown that blending a commercial glue-mix as sold with glutaraldehyde can be an effective way to improve water resistance of the glue without introducing additional –NH₂ moiety. It was also found that glutaraldehyde does not deteriorate properties of the glue in the dry state, while glue susceptibility to boiling water is markedly reduced.     

Physicochemical properties of starches obtained from Polish potato cultivars

Selected physicochemical, thermal, and rheological properties of starches isolated from new Polish potato varieties were determined. The starches contained 25.7–30.0 g/100 g d.m. of amylose and 59.5–90.2 mg/100 g d.m. of phosphorus. Gelatinization temperatures were 62.6–64.0, 68.9–69.9, and 73.6–77.0°C for T_O, T_P, and T_E, respectively, whilst enthalpy of gelatinization amounted to 11.1–15.3 J/g. The retrogradation degree of starch was from 52.90 to 78.53%. Pasting curves showed significant differences between the starches. Peak viscosity and final viscosity ranges were 2035–4458 and 1931–2985 mPa · s, respectively. Starch pastes exhibited non‐Newtonian, shear thinning, and thixotropic behavior. After cooling they demonstrated diversified viscoelastic properties, however, all of them were classified as weak gels. Significant linear correlations among selected rheological parameters and amylose and phosphorus content were found. Results of principal component analysis demonstrated an ability to differentiate the starches isolated from different potato varieties.     

Effects of Blanching on Some Physical Properties and Processing Recovery of Sweet Corn Cobs

The effects of the blanching process of sweet corn on shearing stress, shearing energy, and processing recovery of kernels as well as weight and dry substance of kernels and cobs were studied. Sweet corn cobs were blanched in water, where blanching time ranged from 2 to 8 min and temperature ranged from 75 to 100 °C. Nonblanched cobs (fresh cobs) were used as control samples. It was found that all analyzed variables were significantly affected by blanching time and temperature. The average values of all analyzed variables, except moisture which decreased, increased with increasing of the blanching time and temperature. Changing the blanching time and temperature affected the dry substance of kernels and cobs, kernel and cob mass, recovery processing by increasing it, as well as the average values of shearing stress and shearing energy by decreasing them.     

An efficient ruthenium-vanadium catalyst for selective hydrogenation of ortho-chloronitrobenzene

An attempt has been made at obtaining a catalyst for hydrogenation of ortho-chloronitrobenzene (o-CNB) to ortho-chloroaniline (o-CAN) which would be both selective and active. Ruthenium has been used as the active phase since it is the most selective of all metals investigated in the above reaction. Catalyst precursors, RuCl₃·3H₂O and NH₄VO₃, were introduced onto an unconventional support – MgF₂ and reduced in hydrogen flow at 673 K. The catalysts obtained revealed unusually high activity and selectivity in the reaction of hydrogenation of o-CNB to o-CAN, both in the gas- and liquid phase. The structural study of the Ru-V/MgF₂ catalyst has shown that its high activity and selectivity were determined by the strong metal–support interactions and ruthenium–VO_x species electron interactions.     

Neural network system for the evaluation of side-chain packing in protein structures

An artificial neural network system is used for pattern recognitionin protein side-chain-side-chain contact maps. A back-propagationnetwork was trained on a set of patterns which are popular inside-chain contact maps of protein structures. Several neuralnetwork architectures and different training parameters weretested to decide on the best combination for the neural network.The resulting network can distinguish between original (fromprotein structures) and randomized patterns with an accuracyof 84.5% and a Matthews' coefficient of 0.72 for the testingset. Applications of this system for protein structure evaluationand refinement are also proposed. Examples include structuresobtained after the application of molecular dynamics to crystalstructures, structures obtained from X-ray crystallography atvarious stages of refinement, structures obtained from a denovo folding algorithm and deliberately misfolded structures.