Impact of ferrocene on the structure of diesel exhaust soot as probed with wide-angle X-ray scattering and C(1s) NEXAFS spectroscopy

We report on the structure of a set of diesel exhaust samples that were obtained from reference diesel fuel and diesel fuel mixed with ferrocene. Characterization was carried out with X-ray absorption spectroscopy (C(1s) NEXAFS) and wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). The reference diesel soot shows a pronounced graphite-like microstructure and molecular structure, with a strong (0 0 2) graphite Bragg reflex and a strong aromatic CC resonance at 285 eV. The mineral matter in the reference soot could be identified as Fe₂O₃ hematite. The soot specimen from the diesel mixed with ferrocene has an entirely different structure and lacks significantly in graphite-like characteristics. NEXAFS spectra of such soot barely show aromatics but pronounced contributions from aliphatic structures. WAXS patterns show almost no intensity at the Bragg (0 0 2) reflection of graphite, but a strong aliphatic γ-side band. The iron from the ferrocene transforms to Fe₂O₃ maghemite.     

Inactivation by ultrahigh-pressure homogenization of Escherichia coli strains inoculated into orange juice

The aim of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of ultrahigh-pressure homogenization (UHPH) for inactivation and/or sublethal injury of two strains of Escherichia coli (O58:H21 ATCC 10536 and O157:H7 CCUG 44857) inoculated into orange juice (pH 3.6). The effects of orange juice inlet temperature (6 and 20 degrees C) on the lethality values and the capacity of these strains for survival, repair, and growth during refrigerated storage after UHPH treatment also was evaluated. Samples of orange juice that had been treated with ultrahigh temperatures were inoculated with E. coli in the stationary phase of growth until a final concentration of approximately 7.0 log CFU/ml was reached. These samples were then treated for one cycle with a double-valve UHPH machine, with 300 MPa at the primary homogenizing valve and 30 MPa at the secondary valve. Counts of viable and injured bacterial cells were obtained for samples taken 2 h after UHPH treatment and after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 27, and 33 days of storage at 4 degrees C. The inlet temperature and the strain type both influenced significantly (P < 0.05) the lethality effect on E. coli, which was higher when the inlet temperature was 20 degrees C. No sublethal injuries were detected after any treatment. The changes in viable counts over time for both strains in pressurized and control samples were similar. The viable counts remained high from day 0 to day 18 and then tended to decrease. After 27 days of storage at 4 degrees C, E. coli O157: H7 was more resistant in orange juice samples pressurized at inlet temperatures of 6 and 20 degrees C, with viable counts of 3.41 and 3.20 log CFU/ml, respectively.     

Self-Assembling Systems Based on Pillar[5]arenes and Surfactants for Encapsulation of Diagnostic Dye DAPI

In this paper, we report the development of the novel self-assembling systems based on oppositely charged Pillar[5]arenes and surfactants for encapsulation of diagnostic dye DAPI. For this purpose, the aggregation behavior of synthesized macrocycles and surfactants in the presence of Pillar[5]arenes functionalized by carboxy and ammonium terminal groups was studied. It has been demonstrated that by varying the molar ratio in Pillar[5]arene-surfactant systems, it is possible to obtain various types of supramolecular systems: host–guest complexes at equimolar ratio of Pillar[5]arene-surfactant and interpolyelectrolyte complexes (IPECs) are self-assembled materials formed in aqueous medium by two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes (macrocycle and surfactant micelles). It has been suggested that interaction of Pillar[5]arenes with surfactants is predominantly driven by cooperative electrostatic interactions. Synthesized stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric IPECs specifically interact with DAPI. UV-vis, luminescent spectroscopy and molecular docking data show the structural feature of dye-loaded IPEC and key role of the electrostatic, π–π-stacking, cation–π interactions in their formation. Such a strategy for the design of supramolecular Pillar[5]arene-surfactant systems will lead to a synergistic interaction of the two components and will allow specific interaction with the third component (drug or fluorescent tag), which will certainly be in demand in pharmaceuticals and biomedical diagnostics.     

The synthesis and spectroscopic investigation of dichromophoric hemicyanine dyes

Alkane α,γ-bis[4-methylpyridinium] diiodide and alkane α,γ-bis[4-methylquinolinium] diiodide were prepared and used as starting materials in the synthesis of dichromophoric cyanine dyes. Structural confirmation of the synthesized dyes was carried out by ¹H NMR, MS spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The electronic absorption and the emission spectra for all the hemicyanines were measured in four organic solvents of varying polarity. All derivatives absorb in the region of about 500 nm and have molar absorptivity of about 10⁴ M⁻¹ cm⁻¹. The absorption spectra of tested compounds are affected by their structure i.e. the structure of dialkyl(aryl)amino group, the electron acceptor part of the dye and the linker between two identical hemicyanine chromophores. The fluorescence bands' positions, in contrast to the absorption, are strongly affected by the solvent polarity.     

Multi-objective decision support system in numerical reliability optimization of modern electronic packaging

Nowadays, numerical prototyping methods in electronic packaging are widely used. This is mainly due to cost and time reduction and improved functionality and reliability of final products. Recently, there has been a lot of interest and work conducted on advanced numerical optimization, which can be directly applied to prototyping. So far, the optimization is focused on one criteria while neglecting problem of multi-objectivity, which is not the best approach from practical point of view. Nevertheless, such an approach is jusitified from the point of view of complex analysis, interdisciplinary issues and reduced accuracy of numerical models. In reality, there are usually many criteria which, in order to solve the problem, have to be taken into consideration. There are many multi-objective methods, of which the Pareto set approach is mostly cited in the literature. The “problem” of multi-objective optimization is that not a single optimal solution has resulted but the set of equivalent optimal solutions. This set of equivalent optimal solutions is referenced as “the Pareto set”. From the mathematical point of view, every value from this set can be treated as optimal for certain assumed constraints. However, there could be some additional conditions which cannot be applied to optimization process and some of the results from the Pareto set are more likely (i.e., the fabrication process will be more repeatable) then the others. So, the question is: which value from the Pareto set should be taken to further processing? There are two possibilities: asking an expert for the advice or use the decision making system. Decision making methods based on multi-objective optimization could be referenced as “Multiple criteria decision making” (MCDM) or “Multiple criterial decision aid” (MCDA) systems. There are several groups of these methods: (a) mathematical multi-objective programming, (b) artificial intelligence methods, (c) simple arithmetic methods, and (d) advanced mathematical methods. The current paper will focus on designing and application of the decision support system for multi-objective numerical reliability optimization of electronic packaging. The work will be based on the self developed numerical tool based on Python Scrippting language and will present its application to selected microelectronic packages based on its numerical model elaborated in ABAQUS.     

Distributing the personal digital environment throughout your entertainment environment: handling personal metadata across domains

It is a fact, that we are surrounded by more and more ubiquitous services in entertainment computation. All sorts of devices are more and more connected, and personalization becomes more and more a major issue. We are living in a world with two layers: the real physical layer being our real-world, and its synthetic overlay consisting of location-based services, chatting applications, or Web 2.0 offers. In the real-world, communication between humans is a matter of personality of different persons: exchanging information about each other, finding common interests, or finding common conversation themes. In the synthetic overlay, communication becomes a matter of distribution of personal profiles or automating profile matching. The open-source platform Portable Personality (P2) () faces this challenge, and provides a platform for cross-service interchange of personal context information based on any generic metadata type. P2’s software architecture is designed for mining, enriching, and exchanging personal profiles between arbitrary multimedia services. The long-term vision of P2 is to provide a personality profile rather than a personal context information profile to enable communication between human and device as a matter of personalities, rather than automated matching of profiles. Two different scenarios, the Smart Social Network (SSN), and the personalization of audio-visual data are presented as practical use-case for P2.     

On Rewriting Rules in Mizar

This paper presents some tentative experiments in using a special case of rewriting rules in Mizar (Mizar homepage: http://www.mizar.org/): rewriting a term as its subterm. A similar technique, but based on another Mizar mechanism called functor identification (Korni?owicz 2009) was used by Caminati, in his paper on basic first-order model theory in Mizar (Caminati, J Form Reason 3(1):49–77, 2010, Form Math 19(3):157–169, 2011). However for this purpose he was obligated to introduce some artificial functors. The mechanism presented in the present paper looks promising and fits the Mizar paradigm.     

A connectionist computational model for epistemic and temporal reasoning

The importance of the efforts to bridge the gap between the connectionist and symbolic paradigms of artificial intelligence has been widely recognized. The merging of theory (background knowledge) and data learning (learning from examples) into neural-symbolic systems has indicated that such a learning system is more effective than purely symbolic or purely connectionist systems. Until recently, however, neural-symbolic systems were not able to fully represent, reason, and learn expressive languages other than classical propositional and fragments of first-order logic. In this article, we show that nonclassical logics, in particular propositional temporal logic and combinations of temporal and epistemic (modal) reasoning, can be effectively computed by artificial neural networks. We present the language of a connectionist temporal logic of knowledge (CTLK). We then present a temporal algorithm that translates CTLK theories into ensembles of neural networks and prove that the translation is correct. Finally, we apply CTLK to the muddy children puzzle, which has been widely used as a test-bed for distributed knowledge representation. We provide a complete solution to the puzzle with the use of simple neural networks, capable of reasoning about knowledge evolution in time and of knowledge acquisition through learning.     

Secure Electronic Payments Based on Mobile Agents

The SET protocol for secure electronic payments, in particular its purchasing phase, is intended for users connected to the Internet during the entire transaction. This requirement cannot be easily met in high communication costs and/or low bandwidth settings, typically found in mobile computing environments.In this paper we describe SET/A, a system that works according to the SET rules for purchasing operations without forcing the user to be connected during the entire transaction. This is achieved by sending an agent to the merchant's server carrying all the data necessary to order and pay the goods (products, services or information). The paper shows that this can be achieved safely and efficiently, providing an alternative way for Internet payments using the SET protocol. We give our first impressions on SET/A usage by describing a prototype implementation based on a mobile agent system called AgentSpace, as well as a detailed example of what we consider a realistic application of the system.