Differentiation of Corynebacterium amycolatum, C. minutissimum, and C. striatum by carbon substrate assimilation tests

We tested the carbon substrate assimilation patterns of 40 Corynebacterium amycolatum strains, 19 C. minutissimum strains, 50 C. striatum strains, and 1 C. xerosis strain with the Biotype 100 system (bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France). Twelve carbon substrates of 99 allowed discrimination among the species tested. Additionally, assimilation of 3 of these 12 carbon substrates (maltose, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and phenylacetate) was tested with the API 20 NE identification system (bioMérieux). Since concordant results were observed with the two systems for these three carbon substrates, either identification system can be used as a supplementary tool to achieve phenotypic differential identification of C. amycolatum, C. minutissimum, and C. striatum in the clinical microbiology laboratory.     

Challenges of Personal Environments Mobility in Heterogeneous Networks

Mobile Networks and Applications -     

Schiff bases of polyvinylbenzaldehyde and chemical release of amines

Summary Polyvinylbezaldehyde reacts with primary amines with an acidic catalyst to give polymeric Schiff bases. The hydrolyses of these imines have been studied in acidic medium at pH=1,2 or in pure water at pH=6.5.     

Correlation Between Band Structure and Magneto- Transport Properties in HgTe/CdTe Two-Dimensional Far-Infrared Detector Superlattice

Theoretical calculations of the electronic properties of n-type HgTe/CdTe superlattices (SLs) have provided an agreement with the experimental data on the magneto-transport behaviour. We have measured the conductivity, Hall mobility, Seebeck and Shubnikov-de Haas effects and angular dependence of the magneto-resistance. Our sample, grown by MBE, had a period d=d ₁+d ₂ (124 layers) of $d_{1}=8.6~\mathrm{nm}~\mathrm{(HgTe)} /d_{2}=3.2~\mathrm{nm}~\mathrm{(CdTe)}$ . Calculations of the spectras of energy E(d ₂), E(k _z ) and E(k _p ), respectively, in the direction of growth and in plane of the superlattice; were performed in the envelope function formalism. The energy E(d ₂,Γ,4.2 K), shown that when d ₂ increase the gap E _g decrease to zero at the transition semiconductor to semimetal conductivity behaviour and become negative accusing a semimetallic conduction. At 4.2 K, the sample exhibits n type conductivity, confirmed by Hall and Seebeck effects, with a Hall mobility of $2.5 \times 10^{5}~\mathrm{cm}^{2}/ \mathrm{V\,s}$ . This allowed us to observe the Shubnikov-de Haas effect with n=3.20×10¹² cm^?2. Using the calculated effective mass ( $m^{*}_{E1}(E_{F}) = 0.05 m_{0}$ ) of the degenerated electrons gas, the Fermi energy (2D) was E _F =88 meV in agreement with 91 meV of thermoelectric power α. In intrinsic regime, α～T ^?3/2 and R _H T ^3/2 indicates a gap E _g =E ₁?HH ₁=101 meV in agreement with calculated E _g (Γ,300 K)=105 meV. The formalism used here predicts that the system is semiconductor for d ₁/d ₂=2.69 and d ₂<100 nm. Here, d ₂=3.2 nm and E _g (Γ,4.2 K)=48 meV so this sample is a two-dimensional modulated nano-semiconductor and far-infrared detector (12 μm<λ _c <28 μm).     

Selecting machines and buffers in unreliable series-parallel production lines

This article formulates a new optimal design problem of a series-parallel manufacturing production line, where parallel machines and in-process buffers are included to achieve a greater production rate. The objective is to maximise production rate subject to a total cost constraint. Machines and buffers are chosen from a list of products available in the market. The buffers are characterised by their cost and size. The machines are characterised by their cost, failure rate, repair rate and processing time. To estimate series-parallel production line performance, an analytical decomposition-type approximation is proposed. Simulation results show that this approximate technique is very accurate. The optimal design problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimisation one where the decision variables are buffers and types of machines, as well as the number of parallel machines. To solve this problem, ant colony optimisation and simulated annealing are compared empirically through several test problems.     

Ethical Observations on the Choice of Parenteral Solvents

The parenteral administration of insoluble drugs leads to the use of biologically active solvents inducing effects associated with ethical cause of concern including pain and pharmacological interactions. Selected vehicles currently used were ethically and scientifically reviewed. Our investigations allowed reinforcing the formulation decision tree with an ethical point of view. The last generation of cyclodextrin appears to be the safest solvent. Second choice could be lipidic emulsions, third choice being co-solvents, and finally non-ionic surfactants because of their hypersensitivity reactions. Screening tests including pH, osmolality measurements, cytotoxicity, and hemotoxicity, should allow to check the formulation tolerance before the animals' administration.     

Investigation of Strongly Hydrophobic and Thick Porous Silicon Stain Films Properties

Silicon - Porous silicon (PSi) structures with strong hydrophobicity have been achieved by chemical etching of p-type silicon substrates in a solution based on hydrofluoric acid solution (HF) and...     

Computational models of distributed aberration in ultrasound breast imaging

Two methods for simulation of ultrasound wavefront distortion are introduced and compared with aberration produced in simulations using digitized breast tissue specimens and a conventional multiple time-shift screen model. In the first method, aberrators are generated using a computational model of breast anatomy. In the second method, 10 to 12 irregularly shaped, strongly scattering inclusions are superimposed on the multiple-screen model to create a screen-inclusion model. Linear 2-D propagation of a 7.5-MHz planar, pulsed wavefront through each aberrator is computed using a first-order k-space method. The anatomical and screen-inclusion models reproduce two characteristics of arrival-time fluctuations observed in simulations using the digitized specimens that are not represented in simulations using the multiple-screen model: non-Gaussian first-order statistics and sharp changes in the rms arrival-time fluctuation as a function of propagation distance. The anatomical and screen-inclusion models both produce energy- level fluctuations similar to the digitized specimens, but the anatomical model more closely matches the pulse-shape distortion produced by the specimens. Both aberration models can readily be extended to 3-D, and the screen-inclusion model has the advantage of simplicity of implementation. Both models should enable more rigorous evaluation of adaptive focusing algorithms than is possible using conventional time-shift screen models.     

The DVB-H Mobile Broadcast Standard

The digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) standard is one of the latest transmission standards developed by the digital video broadcasting (DVB) Project. DVB-H, which is based on the standard for digital terrestrial television (DVB-T), offers mobile television and other broadcasting services on small portable devices such as mobile phones. This article presents an overview of the DVB-H standard with respect to structure, features, technology, performance, and resources.