Lipoprotein(a) in patients with carotid atherosclerosis and ischemic cerebrovascular disorders

Two novel peptides, named PACAP (pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide) containing 38 (PACAP38) and 27 residues (PACAP27) were recently isolated from ovine hypothalami. In order to investigate the pituitary cell type(s) that bear a receptor for PACAP, PACAP38 was biotinylated and used for cytochemical examination of binding. The cells were also identified by immunocytochemical methods using the antisera against each of the rat anterior pituitary hormones or an antiserum against S-100 protein, a marker for pituitary folliculo-stellate (FS) cells. Biotinylated PACAP38 (biot-PACAP) exhibited adenylate cyclase stimulating activity (ACSA) comparable to PACAP38 in rat pituitary cell cultures, and displaced the bound 125I-PACAP27 to the rat pituitary membrane preparation to the same extent as PACAP38. After 2-4 days of culture, dispersed rat pituitary cells were incubated with varying concentrations of biot-PACAP at room temperature or 4 degrees C. The bound biot-PACAP38 was visualized by avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) method with nickel intensification. Biot-PACAP-positive and pituitary hormone or S-100-positive cells were counted. More than 90% of S-100-positive cells bound biot-PACAP38. A considerable number of GH and PRL cells and a lesser number of ACTH cells also bound biot-PACAP38, whereas only a few identified LH, FSH, or TSH cells bound biot-PACAP38. These results suggest that FS cells are a major target cell type for PACAP. A recent study from our laboratory demonstrated that PACAP stimulated the release of interleukin (IL)-6 in rat pituitary cell cultures. FS cells are known to produce IL-6.     

Reducing sensing error in cognitive PANs through reduction of the channel set and split sensing

Cognitive radio technology necessitates accurate and timely sensing of the primary users’ activity on the chosen set of channels. If sensing error is unacceptably high, we can reduce the number of working channels so as to improve the channels-vs.-sensing nodes ratio, and undertake differential or split sensing in which subsets of sensing nodes target idle and active channels, respectively. The paper presents a probabilistic analysis of the sensing process, including the split sensing policy, and investigates the range of values in which such, incomplete sensing is capable of maintaining an accurate view of the status of the working channel set.     

Adaptive local hyperplane algorithm for learning small medical data sets

Abstract: It is not unique that only a few samples from medical studies are available for knowledge discovery. Hence, a suitable classifier for the small data set learning problem is very interesting in medical work. In this paper, we experiment with the adaptive local hyperplane algorithm on small medical data sets. The experimental results on two cancer data sets demonstrate that the proposed classifier outperforms, on average, all the other four benchmarking classifiers for learning small data sets.     

Lifetime commissioning as a tool to achieve energy‐efficient solutions

Quality control of the complete energy system is necessary if energy‐efficient solutions are to be met. To perform good building operation and quality control of a given system, it is necessary to have information about building systems and assessment tools. The paper presents Norwegian lifetime commissioning (LTC) procedures that are enabling follow‐up of the building performance during the building lifetime by establishing a generic framework on building performance data. Further, three developed assessment tools are presented: inspection algorithm for ventilation system, mass balance inspection algorithm for consumer substation, and advanced method for improved measurement of heat pump performance based on data fusion technique. The LTC procedures were tested on two case buildings. The results showed that 20% of all the defined building performance data can be monitored by BEMS. Using the mass balance inspection algorithm, it was found that fault in mass balance prevented implantation of desired temperature control for floor heating system. For heat pump performance, measurement of differential water temperature can be very erroneous. Hence, use of compressor electrical signal can give more precise data on heat pump performance. Comparative analysis showed that detailed monitoring system helps tracking energy use and fault detection in operation. Yearly and hourly profiles of energy consumption with separated use and energy carriers are given in the paper. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of MAC parameters on the performance of 802.15.4 PAN

The operation of a personal area network, operating under the IEEE Standard 802.15.4 in the beacon enabled mode, is analyzed using the theory of discrete time Markov chains and M/G/1/K queues. The model includes the impact of different parameters such as packet arrival rate, number of stations, station’s buffer size, packet size, and inactive period between the beacons. We have derived several important performance parameters such as probability of access, probability that medium is idle, queue length distribution in the device, and probability distribution of the packet service time. Some important conclusions regarding the implementation of 802.15.4 networks and compatible network devices are outlined.     

Influence of Rare-Earth Dopants on Barium Titanate Ceramics Microstructure and Corresponding Electrical Properties

In this article, ytterbium and erbium oxides are used as doping materials for barium titanate (BaTiO₃) materials. The amphoteric behavior of these rare-earth ions leads to the increase of dielectric permittivity and decrease of dielectric losses. BaTiO₃ ceramics doped with 0.01–0.5 wt% of Yb₂O₃ and Er₂O₃ were prepared by conventional solid-state procedure and sintered at 1320°C for 4 h. In BaTiO₃ doped with a low content of rare-earth ions (0.01 wt%) the grain size ranged between 10 and 25 μm. With the higher dopant concentration of 0.5 wt%, the abnormal grain growth is inhibited and the grain size ranged between 2 and 10 μm. The measurements of capacitance and dielectric losses as a function of frequency and temperature have been carried out in order to correlate the microstructure and dielectric properties of doped BaTiO₃ ceramics. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant as a function of dopant amount has been investigated.     

Numerical Simulation of Interfacial Closures for 3D Bubble Column Flows

Numerical investigation of flow hydrodynamics in a square cross‐sectioned bubble column was conducted in a transient Euler‐Euler environment by applying the simulation tool Ansys CFX 14.0. The influence of the drag coefficient (C_D) was investigated and the results were also compared with drag force models. Furthermore, three different lift force models and a defined lift coefficient were studied. All results were compared with the available experimental data. All simulations were carried out for a single‐hole sparger with given aspect ratio (H/D) and superficial gas velocity.     

Large-scale parallel arrays of silicon nanowires via block copolymer directed self-assembly

Extending the resolution and spatial proximity of lithographic patterning below critical dimensions of 20 nm remains a key challenge with very-large-scale integration, especially if the persistent scaling of silicon electronic devices is sustained. One approach, which relies upon the directed self-assembly of block copolymers by chemical-epitaxy, is capable of achieving high density 1?:?1 patterning with critical dimensions approaching 5 nm. Herein, we outline an integration-favourable strategy for fabricating high areal density arrays of aligned silicon nanowires by directed self-assembly of a PS-b-PMMA block copolymer nanopatterns with a L(0) (pitch) of 42 nm, on chemically pre-patterned surfaces. Parallel arrays (5 × 10(6) wires per cm) of uni-directional and isolated silicon nanowires on insulator substrates with critical dimension ranging from 15 to 19 nm were fabricated by using precision plasma etch processes; with each stage monitored by electron microscopy. This step-by-step approach provides detailed information on interfacial oxide formation at the device silicon layer, the polystyrene profile during plasma etching, final critical dimension uniformity and line edge roughness variation nanowire during processing. The resulting silicon-nanowire array devices exhibit Schottky-type behaviour and a clear field-effect. The measured values for resistivity and specific contact resistance were ((2.6 ± 1.2) × 10(5)Ωcm) and ((240 ± 80) Ωcm(2)) respectively. These values are typical for intrinsic (un-doped) silicon when contacted by high work function metal albeit counterintuitive as the resistivity of the starting wafer (～10 Ωcm) is 4 orders of magnitude lower. In essence, the nanowires are so small and consist of so few atoms, that statistically, at the original doping level each nanowire contains less than a single dopant atom and consequently exhibits the electrical behaviour of the un-doped host material. Moreover this indicates that the processing successfully avoided unintentional doping. Therefore our approach permits tuning of the device steps to contact the nanowires functionality through careful selection of the initial bulk starting material and/or by means of post processing steps e.g. thermal annealing of metal contacts to produce high performance devices. We envision that such a controllable process, combined with the precision patterning of the aligned block copolymer nanopatterns, could prolong the scaling of nanoelectronics and potentially enable the fabrication of dense, parallel arrays of multi-gate field effect transistors.     

Surfactant-induced postsynthetic modulation of Pd nanoparticle crystallinity

Modulation of Pd nanoparticle (NP) crystallinity is achieved by switching the surfactants of different binding strengths. Pd NPs synthesized in the presence of weak binding surfactants such as oleylamine possess polyhedral shapes and a polycrystalline nature. When oleylamine is substituted by trioctylphosphine, a much stronger binding surfactant, the particles become spherical and their crystallinity decreases significantly. Moreover, the Pd NPs reconvert their polycrystalline structure when the surfactant is switched back to oleylamine. Through control experiments and molecular dynamics simulation, we propose that this unusual nanocrystallinity transition induced by surfactant exchange was resulted from a counterbalance between the surfactant binding energy and the nanocrystal adhesive energy. The findings represent a novel postsynthetic approach to tailoring the structure and corresponding functional performance of nanomaterials.