Analysis of drugs in the presence of serum albumin by liquid chromatography with eluents containing surfactants.

Surfactant-containing eluents are evaluated for possible application to direct serum injection using conventional reverse-phase columns. Serum albumin was quantitatively eluted at the column void volume by using surfactant concentrations below or above the critical micelle concentration, and organic solvents could be used in proportions as high as 40% (w/w). Surfactant choice, pH, and salt effects were also evaluated.     

Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) use human and conspecific social cues to locate hidden food.

Ten domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) of different breeds and ages were exposed to 2 different social cues indicating the location of hidden food, each provided by both a human informant and a conspecific informant (for a total of 4 different social cues). For the local enhancement cue, the informant approached the location where food was hidden and then stayed beside it. For the gaze and point cue, the informant stood equidistant between 2 hiding locations and bodily oriented and gazed toward the 1 in which food was hidden (the human informant also pointed). Eight of the 10 subjects, including the one 6-month-old juvenile, were above chance with 2 or more cues. Results are discussed in terms of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes by means of which dogs come to use social cues to locate food. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of phase change and solute diffusion on spreading on a dissolving substrate

Dissolutive wetting is investigated numerically using a diffuse-interface model that incorporates fluid flow, solute diffusion and phase change. A range of materials parameters are investigated: (1) permitting recovery of the hydrodynamic limit by suppressing the dissolution of the substrate and (2) evaluating the role of diffusion. The time history of droplet size, droplet concentration and angles between the interfaces are given. For cases in which convection dominates, the dynamics of spreading agrees with a known hydrodynamic model for spreading of inert fluids. A phase change increases wetting speed, due to a condensation that takes place near the triple junction. There is also a strong dependence of the wetting kinetics on the solute diffusivities. Details of composition changes during spreading are also discussed, such as the composition path of the bulk liquid probed at different locations in the drop.     

Improving the accuracy of computer-aided radiographic weld inspection by feature selection

This paper presents new results of our continuous effort to develop a computer-aided radiographic weld inspection system. The focus of this study is on improving accuracy by feature selection. To this end, we propose two versions of ant colony optimization (ACO)-based algorithms for feature selection and show their effectiveness to improve the accuracy in detecting weld flaws and the accuracy in classifying weld flaw types. The performances of ACO-based methods are compared with that of no feature selection and that of sequential forward floating selection, which is a known good feature selection method. Four different classifiers, including nearest mean, k-nearest neighbor, fuzzy k-nearest neighbor, and center-based nearest neighbor, are employed to carry out the tasks of weld flaw identification and weld flaw type classification.     

Bone cell attachment and growth on well‐characterized chitosan films

Chitosan has been widely researched for bone tissue and implant applications. While initial results are promising, there are inconsistent reports regarding the biological responses. This may be due to inadequate evaluation of chitosan material properties. This study evaluated normal human osteoblast precursor cell attachment and proliferation on a series of well‐characterized chitosan films. The chitosan films exhibited a range of properties: 76–96% degree of de‐acetylation (DDA), 2400–8200 kDa viscosity‐average molecular weight, 62–90° contact angle, 0.24–2.46% residual ash, 5.3–287 µg cm^?2 residual protein and 23–40% crystallinity. There was no trend or correlation between DDA, crystallinity, contact angle, molecular weight, residual ash or protein content and the attachment or growth of bone cells on chitosan films. All films supported higher levels of bone cell proliferation than tissue culture plastic, which supports the general hypothesis that chitosans are osteocompatible. The 78 and 92% DDA chitosan films supported the most cell proliferation, approximately 16 times that of tissue culture plastic controls, but no chitosan physiochemical property correlated with the increased cell growth. The lack of correlation is hindered since more than one physiochemical property changed for each chitosan material. Data do indicate that there may be much variability in chitosan materials, and this variability may make understanding and comparing biological performance of chitosan materials difficult. These results highlight the need for systematic characterizations of chitosan materials for predictable biomedical applications. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Classification of weld flaws with imbalanced class data

This paper presents research results of our investigation of the imbalanced data problem in the classification of different types of weld flaws, a multi-class classification problem. The one-against-all scheme is adopted to carry out multi-class classification and three algorithms including minimum distance, nearest neighbors, and fuzzy nearest neighbors are employed as the classifiers. The effectiveness of 22 data preprocessing methods for dealing with imbalanced data is evaluated in terms of eight evaluation criteria to determine whether any method would emerge to dominate the others. The test results indicate that: (1) nearest neighbor classifiers outperform the minimum distance classifier; (2) some data preprocessing methods do not improve any criterion and they vary from one classifier to another; (3) the combination of using the AHC_KM data preprocessing method with the 1-NN classifier is the best because they together produce the best performance in six of eight evaluation criteria; and (4) the most difficult weld flaw type to recognize is crack.     

Cold fusion experiments using Maxwellian plasmas and sub-atmospheric deuterium gas

Experiments are being performed to initiate the cold fusion process in Maxwellian plasmas and sub-atmospheric deuterium gas. Thus far, apparent neutron counts have been observed using a BF₃ probe and Ludlum model 2200 digital counter, and a broad 8.1 MeV peak has been observed using a 3-inch sodium iodide crystal and a Nucleus PCA II multichannel analyzer. The results appear to be dependent upon the temperature of the palladium sample, deuterium pressure, and the type of palladium sample used. The results are interesting but not sufficient for any conclusions at this point.     

Synthesis of schematic descriptions in mechanical design

This article describes a schematic synthesis problem and one of its solution techniques. The problem domain consists of devices that can be described as networks of lumped-parameter, idealized elements in the translational-mechanical, rotational-mechanical, fluidmechanical, and electrical media. Such devices include speedometers, accelerometers, pneumatic cylinders, and pressure gauges. Design problems in this domain are specified by an input quantity, an output quantity, and the desired relationship between the input and output. The solution technique is based on three steps: 1) generate a candidate design, 2) derive and classify the behavior of the candidate, 3) based on the derived behavior and domain knowledge, modify the candidate (if possible) to bring it in line with the specification. The key idea behind this techniques is that an abstract characterization of the essential properties of the candidate design expedites the analysis and modification. The results of this work are aimed at computer tools for preliminary mechanical design.