Efficient microwave processing of oil–water emulsion cylinders with lateral and radial irradiations

A detailed theoretical analysis has been carried out to assess the role of lateral and radial irradiations on the microwave heating of 2D cylinders for both o/w and w/o emulsion samples. Lateral irradiation represents the sample incident at one direction with the source at infinity whereas radial irradiation represents the situation where the sample is incident with microwave radiations from the coaxial cylindrical cavity at infinity. For both of lateral and radial irradiations, the effective microwave incidence from the source is assumed to be identical. A preliminary analysis on the microwave heating of samples has been carried out via average power within a sample vs. sample diameter for emulsions with various values (volume fraction of the disperse phase). The samples with smaller diameter are found to have larger average power with radial irradiation for both o/w and w/o emulsion samples. The hot spot formation within a sample is found to be a strong function of lateral/radial irradiation for various emulsion compositions. The radial irradiation or conventional microwave heating with turntable rotation in ovens is not favorable especially for large w/o samples as the hot spot occurs at the center resulting in larger thermal gradient. The present work provides guideline on the heating policy based on either lateral or radial irradiation depending on the sample size and emulsion dielectric properties.     

In vitro assessment of antimicrobial efficacy of the D-tagatose and lactobacilli-based synbiotic preparations against the pathogenic Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium

The study aimed to investigate the utilisation of prebiotic D-tagatose by probiotic lactobacilli (L. rhamnosus GG, L. casei, L. acidophilus and L. fermentum) and enteric pathogens (E. coli and S. typhimurium) to determine synbiotic potential of D-tagatose and lactobacilli combination. The antimicrobial efficacy of the synbiotic preparations (D-tagatose with lactobacillus) was assessed against selected pathogens in co-culture assays. Evidently, D-tagatose supported growth of selected lactobacilli, especially the L. rhamnosus GG and L. casei, but not the enteric pathogens. The tested synbiotic preparations completely inhibited growth of both the pathogens, even in the presence of D-glucose in co-cultures. The well-diffusion assay demonstrated the presence of antimicrobial activity as recorded by drop of culture pH. The study substantiated that D-tagatose could be an effective prebiotic component for formulation of potential synbiotic combinations with L. rhamnosus GG or L. casei that can be used as an alternative to antibiotics against enteric pathogens.     

Mechanism of positive charge generation in the bulk of HfAlO/SiO2 stack

We have investigated electrical stress-induced positive charge buildup in a hafnium aluminate (HfAlO)/silicon dioxide (SiO₂) dielectric stack (equivalent oxide thickness = 2.63 nm) in metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitor structures with negative bias on the TaN gate. Various mechanisms of positive charge generation in the dielectric have been theoretically studied. Although, anode hole injection (AHI) and valence band hole tunneling are energetically favorable in the stress voltage range studied, the measurement results can be best explained by the dispersive proton transport model.     

Bunch graph based dimensionality reduction using auto-encoder for character recognition

Sometimes a group of similar types of dimensions is also treated as nodes. However, these groups can be considered as bunch nodes which may contain several nodes. This paper also justifies the study on bunch graphs which introduced a concept of graphs, where bunch nodes are also allowed. The auto-encoder, a specific type of feedforward neural network generally applied for encoding data in an unsupervised learning methodology to achieve good performance and better-classified data. This kind of network is composed of an encoder and decoder. The encoder compresses the data to an extent or layer, and then from that central layer decoder starts reconstructing the original data. This paper also investigates the dimensionality reduction ability of auto-encoders for character recognition and manipulates the results to accomplish better handling side of auto-encoders. This paper also focuses on the abilities of auto-encoders to reduce noise in data along with dimensionality reduction, trying to interpret the difference between results generated using bunch graph cut techniques. The dataset associated with computing for implementation purposes has been taken from MNIST dataset. Mainly, the two-dimensional plots are used in this paper for comparing results generated associated with different parameters that help in recognizing the character as partial and non-partial separabilities.

     

Influence of active steering with adaptive control law on a metro rail vehicle wheel wear and dynamic performance

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - An active steering bogie is designed to for yaw control of the wheel-sets to align the wheels with the track direction during curve negotiation....     

Distance-based weighted sparse representation to classify motor imagery EEG signals for BCI applications

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Motor imagery (MI) based brain-computer interface systems (BCIs) are highly in need for a large number of real-time applications such as hands and touch-free...     

Selective anti-inflammatory action of interleukin-11 in murine Lyme disease: arthritis decreases while carditis persists

The role of interleukin (IL)-11, a cytokine with potent anti-inflammatory properties, in murine Lyme disease was investigated. Borrelia burgdorferi-infected mice treated with IL-11 developed less arthritis than did control animals. In contrast, IL-11 blocking antibodies increased Lyme arthritis. Murine Lyme carditis was not affected by either IL-11 or IL-11 antibodies. Administration of IL-11 was associated with increased production of mRNA for IL-12 and inducible nitric oxide synthase but not interferon-gamma or IL-4 in B. burgdorferi-infected mice, suggesting a predominant effect of IL-11 on the innate immune response. These data show that IL-11 selectively reduced joint but not cardiac inflammation caused by B. burgdorferi in mice.