A model for evaluating physico-chemical substance properties required by consequence analysis models

Modeling systems for analyzing the consequences of chemical emergencies require as input values a number of physico-chemical substance properties, commonly as a function of temperature at atmospheric pressure. This paper presents a mathematical model "CHEMIC", which can be used for evaluating such substance properties, assuming that six basic constant quantities are available (molecular weight, freezing or melting point, normal boiling point, critical temperature, critical pressure and critical volume). The model has been designed to yield reasonably accurate numerical predictions, while at the same time keeping the amount of input data to a minimum. The model is based on molecular theory or thermodynamics, together with empirical corrections. Mostly, model equations are based on the so-called law of corresponding states. The model evaluates substance properties as a function of temperature at atmospheric pressure. These include seven properties commonly required by consequence analysis and heavy gas dispersion modeling systems: vapor pressure, vapor and liquid densities, heat of vaporization, vapor and liquid viscosities and binary diffusion coefficient. The model predictions for vapor pressure, vapor and liquid densities and heat of vaporization have been evaluated by using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. We have also compared the predictions of the CHEMIC model with those of the DATABANK database (developed by the AEA Technology, UK), which includes detailed semi-empirical correlations. The computer program CHEMIC could be easily introduced into consequence analysis modeling systems in order to extend their performance to address a wider selection of substances.     

Covalent biofunctionalization of cellulose acetate with thermostable chimeric avidin

A stable, bioactive cellulose acetate (CA) surface was developed by functionalizing the surface with highly thermostable avidin form. The CA films were first functionalized with a mixture of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane to introduce free amino groups onto the surface of CA films. Free amino groups were functionalized with glutaraldehyde to obtain an activated surface for covalent biomolecule immobilization. A genetically engineered, high-affinity biotin-binding protein chimeric avidin, ChiAVD(I117Y), was used for biofunctionalization of the surface. The chimeric avidin protein has an increased stability in chemically harsh conditions and at high temperature when compared to wt (strept)avidin. The biological activity, i.e., biotin-binding capacity, of the immobilized protein was probed by [(3)H]-biotin. The activity of the chimeric avidin on functionalized CA films was fully retained over the three months' study period. The biotin-binding capacity of the immobilized chimeric avidin was compared to that of immobilized streptavidin, chicken avidin, and rhizavidin and significant differences between proteins were detected. The developed material offers a valuable platform for the development of inexpensive in vitro diagnostics and also supports biosensing applications that are required to operate under demanding conditions.     

Solid-State Reactions between Cu(Ni) Alloys and Sn

Solid-state interfacial reactions between Sn and Cu(Ni) alloys have been investigated at the temperature of 125°C. The following results were obtained. Firstly, the addition of 0.1 at.% Ni to Cu decreased the total thickness of the intermetallic compound (IMC) layer to about half of that observed in the␣binary Cu/Sn diffusion couple; the Ni addition decreased especially the thickness of Cu₃Sn. Secondly, the addition of 1 to 2.5 at.% Ni to Cu further decreased the thickness of Cu₃Sn, increased that of Cu₆Sn₅ (compared to that in the binary Cu/Sn couple) and produced significant amount of voids at the Cu/Cu₃Sn interface. Thirdly, the addition of 5 at.% Ni to Cu increased the total thickness of the IMC layer to about two times that observed in the binary Cu/Sn diffusion couple and made the Cu₃Sn disappear. Fourthly, in contrast to the previous case, the addition of 10 at.% Ni to Cu decreased the total IMC (Cu₆Sn₅) thickness again close to that of the Cu/Sn couple. With this Ni content no voids were detected. The results are rationalized with the help of␣the thermodynamics of the Sn-Cu-Ni system as well as with kinetic considerations.     

PEM water electrolyzer model for a power-hardware-in-loop simulator

Power-electronics-based power-hardware-in-loop (PHIL) simulator for water electrolyzer emulation with a nominal current of 405 A is developed to study the electrolyzer as part of a smart grid and to analyze the characteristics of various electrolyzer power supply electronics. A simplified model of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer is implemented into the PHIL simulator to describe the voltage and current characteristics of the electrolyzer stack. The model is verified comparing the current and the estimated hydrogen production of the PHIL simulator with the measured values of the commercial PEM electrolyzer following the measured solar photovoltaic (PV) system output power.     

The effect of pre-treatment on the anthocyanin and flavonol content of black currant juice (Ribes nigrum L.) in concentration by reverse osmosis

Reverse osmosis process for the concentration of black currant juice was carried using AFC-99 tubular membrane at 30 °C and 45 bar. The contents of selected flavonols and anthocyanins were analyzed after centrifugation; enzyme treatment by Panzym Super E and by Rohapect berry followed by centrifugation; and ultrafiltration black currant juices and juice concentrates. The total soluble solid (TSS) content of the juices increased from the initial 17.6–17.9 °Brix to 24–24.8 °Brix in the case of the centrifuged juice in the concentration process. Similarly, it increased from 14.5–15.5 °Brix to 23.1–23.4 °Brix for the Panzym Super E treated juice, and from 16.1–16.9 °Brix to 22.5–23.1 °Brix for the Rohapect berry treated black currant juices. The ultrafiltered juice had the lowest initial TSS content between 14.1 and 14.9 °Brix and it increased to 22.1–23.1 °Brix. The average permeate fluxes during the concentration process were 7.3 L m⁻² h⁻¹ for the centrifuged juice, 11.9 L m⁻² h⁻¹ for the Panzym Super E treated juice, 9.2 and 13.1 L m⁻² h⁻¹ for the Rohapect berry treated and ultrafiltered juice, respectively. Analysis indicated that the enzymatic treatment resulted in the increase of anthocyanin and flavonol content of the juices. The centrifugation process decreased the amount of anthocyanins and flavonols to some extent. The juice clarified by ultrafiltration had significantly lower concentrations of anthocyanins and flavonols, while the juices treated by Panzym Super E had the highest levels of these flavonoids. This study recommends enzymatic pre-treatment by Panzym Super E, since it improves the permeate flux in reverse osmosis during the concentration process, and results in a juice concentrates highest in anthocyanins and flavonols.     

Bioactivity of Greek honey extracts on breast cancer (MCF-7), prostate cancer (PC-3) and endometrial cancer (Ishikawa) cells: Profile analysis of extracts

Historically, honey has been important in Greek culture. The chemical composition and the potential of Greek honey extracts (thyme, pine and fir honey) to influence the oestrogenic activity and the cell viability of breast (MCF-7), endometrial (Ishikawa) and prostate (PC-3) cancer cells were investigated. All honeys contained total phenolics, phenolic acids and hydroxymethylfurfural, the levels being highest in thyme honey. Sugars and volatile compounds, but not fatty acids, were detected in all honey extracts. Thyme, pine and fir honey showed both antioestrogenic and a weak oestrogenic effect at low and high concentration, respectively, in MCF-7 cells. Thyme honey reduced the viability of Ishikawa and PC-3 cells, whereas fir honey stimulated the viability of MCF-7 cells. In conclusion, Greek honeys are rich in phenolic compounds, they modulate oestrogenic activity whereas a thyme honey-enriched diet may prevent cancer-related processes in breast, prostate and endometrial cancer cells.     

New proof for the undecidability of the circular PCP

We give simpler proof for the undecidability of the circular Post Correspondence Problem that was originally proved undecidable by Ruohonen (Acta Informatica 19:357–367, 1983). The key feature of our proof is the undecidability of the word problem of special semi-Thue systems where derivations are deterministic and reversible for words containing a single occurrence of a letter from a given set.     

The Structure of Infinite Solutions of Marked and Binary Post Correspondence Problems

In the infinite Post Correspondence Problem an instance (h,g) consists of two morphisms h and g, and the problem is to determine whether or not there exists an infinite word ω such that h(ω) = g(ω). This problem is undecidable in general, but it is known to be decidable for binary and marked instances. A morphism is binary if the domain alphabet is of size 2, and marked if each image of a letter begins with a different letter. We prove that the solutions of a marked instance form a set E^ω ⋃ E^* (P ⋃ F), where P is a finite set of ultimately periodic words, E is a finite set of solutions of the PCP, and F is a finite set of morphic images of fixed points of D0L systems. We also establish the structure of infinite solutions of the binary PCP.     

Multicore implementation of a multichannel parallel graphic equalizer

Numerous signal processing applications are emerging on mobile computing systems. These applications are subject to responsiveness constraints for user interactivity and, at the same time, must be optimized for energy efficiency. Many current embedded devices are composed of low-power multicore processors that offer a good trade-off between computational capacity and low power consumption. In this context, equalizers are widely used in multiple mobile-based applications such as “Music streaming” to adjust the levels of bass and treble in sound reproduction. In this study, we evaluate a graphic equalizer from audio, computational capacity, and energy efficiency perspectives, as well as the execution of multiple real-time equalizers running on an embedded quad-core processor of a mobile device. To this end, we experiment with the working frequencies as well as the parallelism that can be extracted from a quad-core ARM Cortex-A57. Results show that using high CPU frequencies and three or four cores, our parallel algorithm is able to equalize more than five channels per watt in real time with an audio buffer of 4096 samples, which implies a latency of 92.8 ms at the standard sample rate of 44.1 kHz.

     

Unobtrusive stress detection on the basis of smartphone usage data

Stress has become an important health problem, but existing stress detectors are inconvenient in long-term real-life use because users either have to wear dedicated devices or expend notable interaction efforts in system adaptation to specifics of each person. Adaptation is necessary because individuals significantly differ in their perception of stress and stress responses, but typical adaptation employs supervised learning methods and hence requires fairly large sets of labelled data (i.e. information on whether each reporting period was stressful or not) from every user. To address these problems, we propose a novel unsupervised stress detector, based on using a smartphone as the only device and using discrete hidden Markov models (HMM) with maximum posterior marginal (MPM) decisions for analysis of phone data. Our detector requires neither additional hardware nor data labelling and hence is truly unobtrusive and suitable for lifelong use. Its accuracy was evaluated using two real-life datasets: in the first case, adaptation was based on very short (a few days) phone interaction histories of each individual, and in the second case—on longer histories. In these tests, the proposed HMM-MPM achieved 59 and 70% accuracies, respectively, which is comparable with results of fully supervised methods, reported by other works.