Estimation of polyvinyl alcohol cryogel mechanical properties with four ultrasound elastography methods and comparison with gold standard testings

Tissue-mimicking phantoms are very useful in the field of tissue characterization and essential in elastography for the purpose of validating motion estimators. This study is dedicated to the characterization of polyvinyl alcohol cryogel (PVA-C) for these types of applications. A strict fabrication procedure was defined to optimize the reproducibility of phantoms having a similar elasticity. Following mechanical stretching tests, the phantoms were used to compare the accuracy of four different elastography methods. The four methods were based on a one-dimensional (1-D) scaling factor estimation, on two different implementations of a 2-D Lagrangian speckle model estimator (quasistatic elastography methods), and on a 1-D shear wave transient elastography technique (dynamic method). Young's modulus was investigated as a function of the number of freeze-thaw cycles of PVA-C, and of the concentration of acoustic scatterers. Other mechanical and acoustic parameters-such as the speed of sound, shear wave velocity, mass density, and Poisson's ratio-also were assessed. The Poisson's ratio was estimated with good precision at 0.499 for all samples, and the Young's moduli varied in a range of 20 kPa for one freeze-thaw cycle to 600 kPa for 10 cycles. Nevertheless, above six freeze-thaw cycles, the results were less reliable because of sample geometry artifacts. However, for the samples that underwent less than seven freeze-thaw cycles, the Young's moduli estimated with the four elastography methods showed good matching with the mechanical tensile tests with a regression coefficient varying from 0.97 to 1.07, and correlations R2 varying from 0.93 to 0.99, depending on the method.     

Hole-vibronic coupling in oligothiophenes: impact of backbone torsional flexibility on relaxation energies

Density functional theory calculations together with highly resolved gas-phase ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy have been applied to oligothiophene chains with up to eight thiophene rings. One of the important parameters governing the charge transport properties in the condensed phase is the amount of energy relaxation upon ionization. Here, we investigate the impact on this parameter of the backbone flexibility present in oligothiophenes as a result of inter-ring torsional motions. With respect to oligoacenes that are characterized by a coplanar and rigid backbone, the torsional flexibility in oligothiophenes adds to the relaxation energy and leads to the broadening of the first ionization peak, making its analysis more complex.     

Near optimal interval observers bundle for uncertain bioreactors

In this paper we design an interval observer for the estimation of unmeasured variables of uncertain bioreactors. The observer is based on a bounded error observer, as proposed in [Lemesle, V., & Gouzé, J.-L. (2005). Hybrid bounded error observers for uncertain bioreactor models. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, 27, 311-318], that makes use of a loose approximation of the bacterial kinetics. We first show how to generate guaranteed upper and lower bounds on the state, provided that known intervals for the initial condition and the uncertainties are available. These so-called framers depend on a tuning gain. They can be run in parallel and the envelope provides the best estimate. An optimality criterion is introduced leading to the definition of an optimal observer. We show that this criterion provides directly a gain set containing the best framers. The method is applied to the estimation of the total biomass of an industrial wastewater treatment plant, demonstrating its efficiency.     

Distributed Coordination and Workflow on the World Wide Web

This paper describes WebFlow, an environment thatsupports distributed coordination services on theWorld Wide Web. WebFlow leverages the HTTP Webtransport protocol and consists of a number of toolsfor the development of applications that require thecoordination of multiple, distributed servers.Typical applications of WebFlow include distributeddocument workspaces, inter/intra-enterprise workflow,and electronic commerce. In this paper we describe thegeneral WebFlow architecture for distributedcoordination, and then focus on the environment fordistributed workflow.     

Binding of the tautomeric forms of isoniazid-NAD adducts to the active site of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis enoyl-ACP reductase (InhA): a theoretical approach

The front-line antituberculosis drug isoniazid (INH) inhibits InhA, the NADH-dependent fatty acid biosynthesis enoyl ACP-reductase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, via formation of covalent adducts with NAD (INH-NAD adducts). While ring tautomers were found the main species formed in solution, only the 4S chain INH-NAD tautomer was evidenced in the crystallized InhA:INH-NAD complex. In this study we attempted to explore the modes of interaction and energy binding of the different isomers placed in the active site of InhA with the help of various molecular modelling techniques. Ligand and enzyme models were generated with the help of the Vega ZZ program package. Resulting ligands were then docked into the InhA active site individually using computational automated docking package AUTODOCK 3.0.5. The more relevant docked conformations were then used to compute the interaction energy between the ligands and the InhA cavity. The AM1 Hamiltonian and the QM/MM ONIOM methodologies were used and the results compared. The various tautomers were found docked in almost the same place where INH-NAD was present as predicted by earlier X-ray crystallographic studies. However, some changes of ligand conformation and of the interactions ligand-protein were evidenced. The lower binding energy was observed for the 4S chain adduct that probably represents the effective active form of the INH-NAD adducts, as compared to the 4R epimer. The two 4S,7R and 4R,7S ring tautomers show intermediate and similar binding energies contrasting with their different experimental inhibitory potency on InhA. As a possible explanation based on calculated conformations, we formulated the hypothesis of an initial binding of the two ring tautomers to InhA followed by opening of only the ring hemiamidal 4S,7R tautomer (possibly catalyzed by Tyr158 phenolate basic group) to give the 4S chain INH-NAD tight-binding inhibitor. The predictions of ligand-protein interactions at the molecular level can be of primary importance in elucidating the mechanisms of action of isoniazid and InhA-related resistances, in identifying the effective mycobactericidal entities and, in further step, in the design of a new generation of antitubercular drugs.     

Design and Implementation of an Agent Home Scheme Strategy for Prefetch-Based DSM Systems

In recent years, cluster computing has been widely investigated and there is no doubt that it can provide a cost-effective computing infrastructure by aggregating computational power, communication, and storage resources. Moreover, it is also considered to be a very attractive platform for low-cost supercomputing. Distributed shared memory (DSM) systems utilize the physical memory of each computing node interconnected in a private network to form a global virtual shared memory. Since this global shared memory is distributed among the computing nodes, accessing the data located in remote computing nodes is an absolute necessity. However, this action will result in significant remote memory access latencies which are major sources of overhead in DSM systems. For these reasons, in order to increase overall system performance and decrease this overhead, a number of strategies have been devised. Prefetching is one such approach which can reduce latencies, although it always increases the workload in the home nodes. In this paper, we propose a scheme named Agent Home Scheme. Its most noticeable feature, when compared to other schemes, is that the agent home distributes the workloads of each computing nodes when sending data. By doing this, we can reduce not only the workload of the home nodes by balancing the workload for each node, but also the waiting time. Experimental results show that the proposed method can obtain about 20% higher performance than the original JIAJIA, about 18% more than History Prefetching Strategy (HPS), and about 10% higher than Effective Prefetch Strategy (EPS).     

3种锆合金的高温氧化行为

对Zr-A和Zr-B锆合金在700-1200℃的O_2中进行了等温氧化实验,观察了合金的氧化动力学行为和基体微观结构演变,并与低Sn的Zr-4合金作了对比.结果表明,700—1200℃氧化时,3种锆合金的动力学曲线基本服从抛物线规律,Zr-B合金在700℃氧化1200 s后速率出现转折;800℃时Zr-A和Zr-B合金的氧化速率出现转折;1000℃时3种合金动力学曲线由抛物线变为近似直线;1100℃以上氧化时,动力学曲线呈抛物线规律,未出现转折.在1100℃以上氧化时,合金成分对3种合金的高温氧化性能影响甚微.依据氧化增重数据得到了3种合金在700—1200℃氧化反应的抛物线速率常数K_p的表达式.     

VUV spectroscopy and low temperature thermoluminescence of LSO:Ce and YSO:Ce

Radioluminescence and UV-excited photoluminescence spectra, photoluminescence time profiles, thermoluminescence glow curves and gamma-excited energy spectra (determining scintillation light yields) of several Lu₂SiO₅:Ce and Y₂SiO₅:Ce samples were recorded. The results are analyzed with attention focused on possible correlations between trap distributions, VUV responses, and light yields. The aspect of two distinct sites occupied by Ce³⁺ ions is also discussed.     

Behavior of RC columns strengthened with different CFRP systems under eccentric loading

The present study investigates the performance of eccentrically loaded columns externally strengthened with different carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) systems. The 10 specimens were representative-scale square columns made of normal-strength concrete with substandard (internal) reinforcement details that were designed to represent old building structural columns. Eight columns were upgraded by four types of commercially available systems of external reinforcement, using plates, unidirectional or bi-directional composite fabrics. It was considered necessary to get information on a wide spectrum of carbon fiber-reinforcement systems in order to provide a satisfactory set of experimental data for validating future suitable retrofitting design methods. Experimental results presented in this paper show that a significant improvement of the strength capacity, deformation capacity and ductility of columns can result of the CFRP application, but the observed gains strongly depend on the reinforcement systems.     

Early use of PbS nanotechnology for an ancient hair dyeing formula

Lead-based chemistry was initiated in ancient Egypt for cosmetic preparation more than 4000 years ago. Here, we study a hair-dyeing recipe using lead salts described in text since Greco-Roman times. We report direct evidence about the shape and distribution of PbS nanocrystals that form within the hair during blackening. It is remarkable that the composition and supramolecular organization of keratins can control PbS nanocrystal growth inside a hair.