Metabolism of trideuterated iso-lignoceric acid in rats in Vivo and in human fibroblasts in culture

Saturated very long chain fatty acids (fatty acids with greater than 22 carbon atoms; VLCFA) accumulate in peroxisomal disorders, but there is little information on their turnover in patients. To determine the suitability of using stable isotope-labeled VLCFA in patients with these disorders, the metabolism of 22-methyl[23,23,23-²H₃]tricosanoic (iso-lignoceric) acid was studied in rats in vivo and in human skin fibroblasts in culture. The deuterated iso-VLCFA was degraded to the corresponding 16- and 18-carbon iso-fatty acids by rats in vivo and by normal human skin fibroblasts in culture, but there was little or no degradation in peroxisome-deficient (Zellweger’s syndrome) fibroblasts, indicating that its oxidation was peroxisomal. Neither the 14-, 20-, and 22-carbon iso-fatty acids nor the corresponding odd-chain metabolites could be detected. In the rat, the organ containing most of the iso-lignoceric acid, and its breakdown products, was the liver, whereas negligible amounts were detected in the brain, suggesting that little of the fatty acid crossed the blood-brain barrier. Our data indicate that VLCFA labeled with deuterium at the ω-position of the carbon chain are suitable derivatives for the in vivo investigation of patients with defects in peroxisomal β-oxidation because they are metabolized by the same pathways as the corresponding n-VLCFA. Moreover, as iso-VLCFA and their β-oxidation products are readily separated from the corresponding n-fatty acids by normal chromatographic procedures, the turnover of VLCFA can be more precisely measured. A preliminary report of part of this work (Reference 18) was presented at the 5th International Symposium on the Synthesis and Applications of Isotopes and Isotopically Labelled Compounds, Strasbourg, France, June 20–24, 1994.     

Electrical conductivity of coal and coal char

The electrical conductivity of coal, at either 1 kHz or d.c., was measured at 24 °C on samples recovered from pyrolysis experiments aimed at modelling conditions during in situ gasification of coal. From an initial value of 10⁻³ S/m (when the coal is saturated with formation water), the conductivity decreases to 10⁻⁸ S/m when the coal is heated to 110 °C in vacuum. This low value, presumably due to dehydration of the coal, prevails for samples heated as high as 500 °C in dry argon. Samples of char recovered after pyrolysis to 800 °C or more have a conductivity of 10² S/m. Capitalizing on the large contrast between the conductivities of coal and char produced during gasification, electrical probing may be a sensitive tool for monitoring ‘burn-front’ progress during in situ coal gasification.     

High speed tensile performance and fractography of acrylic latex films

The performance of acrylic (50:50 MMA/BuA) latexes was investigated as a function of fusion level using high speed tensile testing. The structure of the copolymer was varied via the addition of molecular weight modifiers to the emulsion polymerizations. Chain transfer agent (CBr₄) was used to reduce the copolymer modulus, and crosslinker (EGDM, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) was added to increase the modulus. The resulting materials exhibited a wide range of viscoelastic behavior (G^* varied from ～ 10⁷ dyne cm^?2 to ～ 10⁹ dyne cm^?2). Fracture energy and peak force at break were measured as a function of the complex modulus. It was found that both of these parameters showed a maximum with respect to G^* that corresponded to intermediate levels of crosslinking. This observation was explained in terms of the degree of coalescence of the films. Fully fused films (excess CBr₄) were brittle and performed poorly, conceivably because of insufficient entanglement to support stress. Marginally fused films also exhibited inferior, brittle behavior. The films cast from latexes synthesized with low levels of molecular weight modifiers showed intermediate fusion levels and superior tensile performance. The quantitative results were rationalized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of both the virgin films and the fracture surfaces. For comparison, the same materials were tested in a fully fused state following hot pressing. The behavior paralleled that expected for vulcanized rubbers in which lightly crosslinked materials exhibit the highest tensile strength. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Orientation-Matching Minimization for Image Denoising and Inpainting

In this paper, we propose an orientation-matching functional minimization for image denoising and image inpainting. Following the two-step TV-Stokes algorithm (Rahman et al. in Scale space and variational methods in computer vision, pp. 473–482, Springer, Heidelberg, 2007; Tai et al. in Image processing based on partial differential equations, pp. 3–22, Springer, Heidelberg, 2006; Bertalmio et al. in Proc. conf. comp. vision pattern rec., pp. 355–362, 2001), a regularized tangential vector field with zero divergence condition is first obtained. Then a novel approach to reconstruct the image is proposed. Instead of finding an image that fits the regularized normal direction from the first step, we propose to minimize an orientation matching cost measuring the alignment between the image gradient and the regularized normal direction. This functional yields a new nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) for reconstructing denoised and inpainted images. The equation has an adaptive diffusivity depending on the orientation of the regularized normal vector field, providing reconstructed images which have sharp edges and smooth regions. The additive operator splitting (AOS) scheme is used for discretizing Euler-Lagrange equations. We present the results of various numerical experiments that illustrate the improvements obtained with the new functional.     

Segmentation of Rumex obtusifolius using Gaussian Markov random fields

Rumex obtusifolius is a common weed that is difficult to control. The most common way to control weeds—using herbicides—is being reconsidered because of its adverse environmental impact. Robotic systems are regarded as a viable non-chemical alternative for treating R. obtusifolius and also other weeds. Among the existing systems for weed control, only a few are applicable in real-time and operate in a controlled environment. In this study, we develop a new algorithm for segmentation of R. obtusifolius using texture features based on Markov random fields that works in real-time under natural lighting conditions. We show its performance by comparing it with an existing real-time algorithm that uses spectral power as texture feature. We show that the new algorithm is not only accurate with detection rate of 97.8 % and average error of 56 mm in estimating the location of the tap-root of the plant, but is also fast taking just 0.18 s to process an image of size $576 \times 432$ pixels making it feasible for real-time applications.     

Micro solar energy harvesting using thin film selective absorber coating and thermoelectric generators

The use of a nanometer-scale solar selective absorber coating to enhance the performance of a thermoelectric generation (TEG) module in solar thermal energy harvesting is presented. The thin film coating is fabricated by electrochemical deposition of a bimetallic layer of tin and nickel on copper substrate. The coating has a dendrite structure with grain size of 100 nm. Testing indicates the ability of these collectors to transform incident radiation into thermal energy. The collectors utilizing the selective coating achieved a final temperature 10 °C higher than the baseline copper device. More importantly, the coating demonstrates the ability to collect and transmit over 90 % of the available heat flux. The harvested thermal energy is applied to drive a TEG module for useful power generation. The device utilized with selective absorber coating shows an output power 4.5 times more than the baseline device. Overall area of the collector plate is 16 cm².     

The plane with parallel coordinates

By means ofParallel Coordinates planar “graphs” of multivariate relations are obtained. Certain properties of the relationship correspond tothe geometrical properties of its graph. On the plane a point ←→ line duality with several interesting properties is induced. A new duality betweenbounded and unbounded convex sets and hstars (a generalization of hyperbolas) and between Convex Unions and Intersections is found. This motivates some efficient Convexity algorithms and other results inComputational Geometry. There is also a suprising “cusp” ←→ “inflection point” duality. The narrative ends with a preview of the corresponding results inR ^N .     

Influence of air supply parameters on indoor air diffusion

This paper presents the field distributions of air velocity, temperature, contaminant concentration, and thermal comfort in an office with displacement ventilation for different air supply parameters such as the effective area, shape, and dimension of the diffuser and the turbulence intensity, flow rate, and temperature of the air supplied. The research is conducted numerically by using an airflow computer program based on a low-Reynolds-number k-ε model of turbulence. It can be concluded that the effective area, shape, and dimension of the diffuser and the turbulence intensity of the air supplied have little effect on the room air diffusion except at floor level. The influence of the flow rate and temperature of the air supplied is very significant on the air diffusion as well as on the thermal comfort and indoor air quality.