Determination of Electrical and Photoelectrical Properties of Schottky Diodes Made Using New Chitin Derivatives Synthesized as Interface Layer

Silicon - 5-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-2-furoic acid and anthraquinone-2-carboxylic acid were reacted separately with chitin. The synthesized products were characterized by various spectroscopic methods...     

Performance comparison of masking models based on a new psychovisual test method with natural scenery stimuli

Various image processing applications exploit a model of the human visual system (HVS). One element of HVS-models describes the masking-effect, which is typically parameterized by psycho-visual experiments that employ superimposed sinusoidal stimuli. Those stimuli are oversimplified with respect to real images and can capture only very elementary masking-effects. To overcome these limitations a new psycho-visual test method is proposed. It is based on natural scenery stimuli and operates in the wavelet domain. The collected psycho-visual data is finally used to evaluate the performance of various masking models under conditions as found in real image processing applications like compression.     

Lifting-based wavelet domain adaptive Wiener filter for image enhancement

A method of applying lifting-based wavelet domain Wiener filter (LBWDMF) in image enhancement is proposed. Lifting schemes have emerged as a powerful method for implementing biorthogonal wavelet filters. They exploit the similarity of the filter coefficients between the low-pass and high-pass filters to provide a higher speed of execution, compared to classical wavelet transforms. LBWDMF not only helps in reducing the number of computations but also achieves lossy to lossless performance with finite precision. The proposed method utilises the multi-scale characteristics of the wavelet transform and the local statistics of each subband. The proposed method transforms an image into the wavelet domain using lifting-based wavelet filters and then applies a Wiener filter in the wavelet domain and finally transforms the result into the spatial domain. When the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is low, transforming an image to the lifting-based wavelet domain and applying the Wiener filter in the wavelet domain produces better results than directly applying Wiener filter in spatial domain. In other words each subband is processed independently in the wavelet domain by a Wiener filter. Moreover, in order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method the result obtained using the proposed method is compared to those using the spatial domain Wiener filter (SDWF) and classical wavelet domain Wiener filter (CWDWF). Experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance over SDWF and CWDWF both visually and in terms of PSNR.     

Feedback tuning of bifurcations

The present paper studies a feedback regulation problem that arises in at least two different biological applications. The feedback regulation problem under consideration may be interpreted as an adaptive control problem for tuning bifurcation parameters, and it has not been studied in the control literature. The goal of the paper is to formulate this problem and to present some preliminary results.     

Regional chemotherapy of liver tumors

In the absence of adequate autogenous vein for tibial artery bypass in limb salvage surgery, the use of prosthetic grafts with a distal anastomotic vein cuff or patch has shown promising results. Here, we describe how the Florester Internal Vessel Occluder (Meadox UK, Bedfordshire, UK) can facilitate the construction of a distal anastomotic vein cuff.     

Characterization of rheological properties of systems containing sugar substitutes and carrageenan

The effects of addition of κ-carrageenan to solutions containing 40% (w/w) sugar substitute on the rheological properties of these systems were investigated at 25 °C using a rotational viscometer at rotational speeds of 6, 12, 30, and 60 rev min⁻¹. The flow behaviour of the solutions was adequately described by the power law model with or without yield stress. The consistency index ( K ) and the flow behaviour index ( n ) were determined from shear stress vs. shear rate data. The flow parameters of the solutions depended on the carrageenan concentration. The apparent viscosities of the systems decreased with increasing shear rate, indicating pseudoplastic behaviour. The final carrageenan concentration was found to be an effective factor controlling the degree of sliminess of the model food systems studied.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) grafted sodium alginate hydrogel beads for the controlled release of indomethacin

Graft copolymers of sodium alginate (NaAlg) with N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone were prepared using azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. The graft copolymers (NaAlg‐g‐PVP) were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. Polymeric hydrogel beads of NaAlg and NaAlg‐g‐PVP were prepared by crosslinking method using glutaraldehyde (GA) as a crosslinker in the hydrochloric acid catalyst (HCl) and these beads were used to deliver anti‐inflammatory drug, indomethacin (IM). Chemical stability of the IM after encapsulation into beads was confirmed by FTIR. Preparation conditions of the NaAlg‐g‐PVP beads were optimized by considering the percentage entrapment efficiency, particle size, swelling capacity and their release data. In vitro release studies were performed in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2) for the initial 2 h, followed by simulated intestinal fluid (pH 7.4) for 4 h. Effects of GA concentration, exposure time to GA, drug/polymer (d/p) ratio, and concentration of HCl on the release of IM were discussed. It was observed that IM release from the beads decreased with increasing GA concentration and exposure time. IM release also decreases with increasing d/p ratio and HCl concentration. The highest IM release was obtained to be 77% for beads crosslinked with 0.027M GA. Swelling experiments were also performed to compute molecular mass between crosslinks of the beads. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Numerical simulation of developing natural convection in an enclosure due to rapid heating

Effects of thermoacoustic wave motion on the developing natural convection process in a compressible gas-filled square enclosure were investigated numerically. In the cases considered, the left wall temperature is raised rapidly (impulsively or gradually) while the right wall is held at a specified temperature. The top and the bottom walls of the enclosure considered are thermally insulated. The numerical solutions of the full Navier-Stokes equations were obtained by employing a highly accurate flux-corrected transport algorithm for the convection terms and by a central differencing scheme for the viscous and diffusive terms. The strength of the pressure waves associated with the thermoacoustic effect and resulting flow patterns are found to be strongly correlated to the rapidity of the wall heating process. Fluid thermal diffusivity was found to affect the strength of the thermoacoustic waves and the resulting interaction with the buoyancy-induced flow.     

Methacrylic acid–acrylamide-g-poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibres for urea hydrolysis

This paper presents the results of urease immobilization onto methacrylic acid–acrylamide grafted poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibres. The graft yield strongly affected the maximum activity of the immobilized enzyme up to a value of 70·2%. Higher grafting caused a decline in urease activity and led to the degradation of the fibres. The minor changes observed in K_m and V_max demonstrated that the conformational changes existed during immobilization were not extensive. However, 70·2% methacrylic acid–acrylamide-g-fibres containing urease were more stable towards acidic and alkaline pH, high temperature and storage conditions compared with free enzyme. Apart from the increase in stability to heat inactivation, the initial enzymatic activity of the urease–fibre system remained almost unchanged even after 40 repeated assays corresponding to 10 h of operation in 4 months, indicating the excellent durability of the system.