Multiwalled carbon nanotubes grafted chitosan nanobiocomposite: A prosperous functional nanomaterials for glucose biosensor application

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) grafted chitosan (CS) nanowire (NW) was prepared by phase separation method. Glucose oxidase (GOx) was sequentially immobilized into MWNT-CS-NW to obtain MWNT-CS-NW/GOx biosensor. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images of MWNT-CS-NW/GOx reveals the existence of MWNT and CS. Cyclic voltammetry and amperometry were used to evaluate the electrochemical determination of glucose. The MWNT-CS-NW/GOx biosensor shows an excellent performance for glucose at +0.34 V with a high sensitivity (5.03 μA/mM) and lower response time (3 s) in a wide concentration range of 1-10 mM (correlation coefficient of 0.9988). In addition, MWNT-CS-NW/GOx biosensor possesses better reproducibility, storage stability and there is negligible interference from other electroactive components.     

Boosting social collaborations based on contextual synchronization: An empirical study

Supporting context-based collaboration among online users is an important issue to computer-mediated collaboration to fulfill specified tasks. However, several problems make it difficult to be aware of the context. The context of the user task can be (i) dynamic (i.e., changing over time), and (ii) mixed with multiple sub-contexts together. We propose a novel ontology-based platform to overcome these problems. It finds the most relevant users from a given social network, taking into account two types of context (i.e., personal and group contexts) and matching them. By measuring similarities between the personal contexts, we can dynamically organize a number of communities, so that users can be contextually synchronized. Individual users can be involved in complex collaborations related to multiple semantics. This paper demonstrates and discusses how the proposed context synchronization process is able to boost social collaborations. We show the experimental results collected from a collaborative information searching system. The main empirical issues in this work are (i) setting thresholds, (ii) searching performance, and (iii) scalability testing.     

Linkless Octree Using Multi‐Level Perfect Hashing

The standard C/C++ implementation of a spatial partitioning data structure, such as octree and quadtree, is often inefficient in terms of storage requirements particularly when the memory overhead for maintaining parent‐to‐child pointers is significant with respect to the amount of actual data in each tree node. In this work, we present a novel data structure that implements uniform spatial partitioning without storing explicit parent‐to‐child pointer links. Our linkless tree encodes the storage locations of subdivided nodes using perfect hashing while retaining important properties of uniform spatial partitioning trees, such as coarse‐to‐fine hierarchical representation, efficient storage usage, and efficient random accessibility. We demonstrate the performance of our linkless trees using image compression and path planning examples.     

A Note on the Spectral Collocation Approximation of Some Differential Equations with Singular Source Terms

The solution of differential equations with singular source terms contains the local jump discontinuity in general and its spectral approximation is oscillatory due to the Gibbs phenomenon. To minimize the Gibbs oscillations near the local jump discontinuity and improve convergence, the regularization of the approximation is needed. In this note, a simple derivative of the discrete Heaviside function H _c (x) on the collocation points is used for the approximation of singular source terms δ(x−c) or δ ⁽ⁿ⁾(x−c) without any regularization. The direct projection of H _c (x) yields highly oscillatory approximations of δ(x−c) and δ ⁽ⁿ⁾(x−c). In this note, however, it is shown that the direct projection approach can yield a non-oscillatory approximation of the solution and the error can also decay uniformly for certain types of differential equations. For some differential equations, spectral accuracy is also recovered. This method is limited to certain types of equations but can be applied when the given equation has some nice properties. Numerical examples for elliptic and hyperbolic equations are provided. The current address: Department of Mathematics, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260-2900, USA.     

Consistent color and detail transfer from multiple source images for video and images

In this paper, we propose a method to jointly transfer the color and detail of multiple source images to a target video or image. Our method is based on a probabilistic segmentation scheme using Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to divide each source image as well as the target video frames or image into soft regions and determine the relevant source regions for each target region. For detail transfer, we first decompose each image as well as the target video frames or image into base and detail components. Then histogram matching is performed for detail components to transfer the detail of matching regions from source images to the target. We propose a unified framework to perform both color and detail transforms in an integrated manner. We also propose a method to maintain consistency for video targets, by enforcing consistent region segmentations for consecutive video frames using GMM-based parameter propagation and adaptive scene change detection. Experimental results demonstrate that our method automatically produces consistent color and detail transferred videos and images from a set of source images.     

Characterization of a novel antibody immobilization combining protein G with parylene-H for surface plasmon resonance immunosensors

Here we present a method for selectively and efficiently immobilizing antibodies to enhance the detection performance of surface plasmon resonance immune-sensors (SPRIs) for diagnostic applications. To improve the performance of antibody arrays, protein G was used as antibody-selective linkage layer with aldehyde functionalized poly-(para-xylylene) film. To estimate the efficiency of antibody immobilization, immunoglobulin G (IgG) was measured using the anti-IgG immobilized SPRIs. To demonstrate the proof-of-concept validation, the signal detected from the IgG using parylene-H film was compared with that of a combination of parylene-H and protein G in SPRIs. The results showed that the detection of IgG on the immobilized anti-IgG layer using the combination of parylene-H and protein G has a larger change of signal than that of using parylene-H layer. These results also imply that the anti-IgG was densely and efficiently immobilized on the modified surface with the linkage layer in a combination with parylene-H and protein G. Therefore, we believe that this combinatorial approach could selectively immobilize the antibodies, and also be applied for detection and diagnosis of immune diseases in the field of many SPRIs applications.     

Design and implementation of a same-user identification system in invoked reality space

The objective of this study is to solve the problem of user data not being precisely received from sensors because of sensing region limitations in invoked reality (IR) space, distortion of colors or patterns by lighting, and blocking or overlapping of a user by other users. The sensing scope range is thus expanded using multiple sensors in the IR space. Moreover, user feature data are accurately identified by user sensing. Specifically, multiple sensors are employed when not all of user data are sensed because they overlap with data of other users. In the proposed approach, all clients share the user feature data from multiple sensors. Accordingly, each client recognizes that the user is the same individual on the basis of the shared data. Furthermore, the identification accuracy is improved by identifying the user features based on colors and patterns that are less affected by lighting. Therefore, accurate identification of the user feature data is enabled, even under lighting changes. The proposed system was implemented based on system performance analysis standards. The practicality and system performance in identifying the same person using the proposed method were verified through an experiment.     

Individual finger contribution in submaximal voluntary contraction of gripping

The objective of this study was to evaluate individual finger force and contribution to a gripping force, the difference between actual and expected finger forces and subjective discomfort rating at 10 different submaximal voluntary contraction (%MVC) levels (10-100% in 10 increments). Seventy-two participants randomly exerted gripping force with a multi-finger force measurement system. The individual finger force, gripping force and discomfort increased as %MVC levels increased. The middle and ring fingers exerted more force and contributed to a gripping force more than the index and little fingers due to their larger mass fractions of the digit flexor muscles. It was apparent at <50% MVC; however, the index finger increased its contribution and exerted even more force than expected at more than 50% MVC. Subjective discomfort supported the results of the objective measures. This could explain the conflicting findings between index and ring fingers in previous finger contribution studies. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Hand tool design is of special interest in ergonomics due to its association with musculoskeletal disorders in the hand. This study reveals a different contribution pattern of the fingers in submaximal voluntary contraction of gripping exertion.     

Characterization of terrestrial water dynamics in the Congo Basin using GRACE and satellite radar altimetry

The Congo Basin is the world's third largest in size (~ 3.7 million km²), and second only to the Amazon River in discharge (~ 40,200 m³ s^− 1 annual average). However, the hydrological dynamics of seasonally flooded wetlands and floodplains remains poorly quantified. Here, we separate the Congo wetland into four 3° × 3° regions, and use remote sensing measurements (i.e., GRACE, satellite radar altimeter, GPCP, JERS-1, SRTM, and MODIS) to estimate the amounts of water filling and draining from the Congo wetland, and to determine the source of the water. We find that the amount of water annually filling and draining the Congo wetlands is 111 km³, which is about one-third the size of the water volumes found on the mainstem Amazon floodplain. Based on amplitude comparisons among the water volume changes and timing comparisons among their fluxes, we conclude that the local upland runoff is the main source of the Congo wetland water, not the fluvial process of river-floodplain water exchange as in the Amazon. Our hydraulic analysis using altimeter measurements also supports our conclusion by demonstrating that water surface elevations in the wetlands are consistently higher than the adjacent river water levels. Our research highlights differences in the hydrology and hydrodynamics between the Congo wetland and the mainstem Amazon floodplain.     

Evaluation of the JRC-TIP 0.01° products over a mid-latitude deciduous forest site

The Joint Research Centre Two-stream Inversion Package (JRC-TIP) makes use of white sky albedo products—derived from MODIS and MISR observations in the visible and near-infrared domain—to deliver consistent sets of information about the terrestrial environments that gave rise to these data. The baseline version of the JRC-TIP operates at a spatial resolution of 0.01° and yields estimates of the Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the effective canopy Leaf Area Index (LAI), the canopy background albedo, the vegetation scattering properties, as well as, the absorbed, reflected and transmitted fluxes of the vegetation canopy. In this contribution the evaluation efforts of the JRC-TIP products are extended to the deciduous forest site of Hainich (Germany) where multiannual datasets of in-situ estimates of canopy transmission—derived from LAI-2000 observations—are available. As a Fluxnet site, Hainich offers access to camera acquisitions from fixed locations in and above the canopy that are being used in phenological studies. These images qualitatively confirm the seasonal patterns of the effective LAI, canopy transmission and canopy absorption products (in the visible range of the solar spectrum) derived with the JRC-TIP. Making use of the LAI-2000 observations it is found that 3/4 of the JRC-TIP products lie within a ± 0.15 interval around the in-situ estimates of canopy transmission and absorption. The largest discrepancies occur at the end of the senescence phase when the scattering properties of the vegetation (evidenced by the pictures) and the images qualitatively confirm the seasonal patterns of the effective LAI, canopy transmission and canopy absorption products (in the visible range of the solar spectrum) derived with the JRC-TIP. Making use of the LAI-2000 observations it is found that 3/4 of the JRC-TIP products lie within a ± 0.15 interval around the in-situ estimates of canopy transmission and absorption. The largest discrepancies occur at the end of the senescence phase when the scattering properties of the vegetation (evidenced by the pictures) and the effective LAI (also derived from LAI-2000 measurements) are experiencing large simultaneous changes. It was also found that the seasonal pattern of vegetation scattering properties derived from MISR observations in the near-infrared varies together with the Excess Green index computed from the various channels of the camera data acquired at the top of the canopy.