An investigation of gold/ceramic and gold/glass interfaces

This paper describes how various characterisation methods can be used to investigate the physicochemical and spectral properties of gold films in contact with glass or ceramic. The interface between the metal and substrate has been given special attention. The examples chosen to illustrate this include: liquid gold films (decorated and fired) or inlayed gold layers on ceramic wares and “sandwich” gold foils between two glass sheets for mosaic application. Characterisation methods include: microanalytical scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, ion beam analyses (PIXE: particle induced X-ray emission; RBS: Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry), photo-spectrometry and colorimetry. The adhesion mechanism and colour behaviour of the coated objects is discussed.     

Clinical trial of a new lightwand device (Trachlight) to intubate the trachea

BACKGROUND: Transillumination of the soft tissue of the neck using a lighted stylet (lightwand) is an effective and safe intubating technique. A newly designed lightwand (Trachlight) incorporates modifications to improve the brightness of the light source as well as flexibility. The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness and safety of this device in intubating the trachea of elective surgical patients. METHODS: Healthy surgical patients were studied. Patients with known or potential problems with intubation were excluded. During general anesthesia, the tracheas were intubated randomly using either the Trachlight or the laryngoscope. Failure to intubate was defined as lack of successful intubation after three attempts. The duration of each attempt was recorded as the time from insertion of the device into the oropharynx to the time of its removal. The total time to intubation (TTI), an overall measure of the ease of intubation, was defined as the sum of the durations of all (as many as three) intubation attempts. Complications, such as mucosal bleeding, lacerations, dental injury, and sore throat, were recorded. RESULTS: Nine hundred fifty patients (479 in the Trachlight group and 471 in the laryngoscope group) were studied. There was a 1% failure rate with the Trachlight, and 92% of intubations were successful on the first attempt, compared with a 3% failure rate and an 89% success rate on the first attempt with the laryngoscope (P not significant). All failures were followed by successful intubation using the alternate device. The TTI was significantly less with the Trachlight compared with the laryngoscope (15.7 +/- 10.8 vs. 19.6 +/- 23.7 s). For laryngoscopic intubation, the TTI was longer for patients with limited mandibular protrusion and mentohyoid distance, with a larger circumference of the neck, and with a high classification according to Mallampatti et al. However, there was no relation between the TTI and any of the airway parameters for Trachlight. There were significantly fewer traumatic events in the Trachlight group than in the laryngoscope group (10 vs. 37). More patients complained of sore throat in the laryngoscope group than in the Trachlight group (25.3% vs. 17.1%). CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to laryngoscopy, the ease of intubation using the Trachlight does not appear to be influenced by anatomic variations of the upper airway. Intubation occasionally failed with the Trachlight but in all cases was resolved with direct laryngoscopy. The failures of direct laryngoscopy were resolved with Trachlight. Thus the combined technique was 100% successful in intubating the tracheas of all patients.     

Study of siloxane additives migration to the surface of polyester-(melamine)-polyurethane coatings: Aging effects after ethanol cleaning

This study determines the influences of siloxane flow agents’ migration on the outermost surface composition of clearcoats, before and after ethanol cleaning. This evaluation is undertaken to improve adhesion of pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) on automotive paint systems. Most of the siloxane flow agents segregate from the bulk to the clearcoat outermost surface during curing. These additives can cover until 50% of the surface area but X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analyses indicate that they can be removed by ethanol cleaning. Composition of the cleaned clearcoats surfaces are similar as the composition of clearcoat formulated without siloxane additives: the polyester-(melamine)-polyurethane network is more detected than before cleaning. However, outermost surface analyses show that several aging weeks increase the siloxane additives segregation. This post-cleaning migration modifies the clearcoat surface composition and cancels the chemical modifications due to the ethanol cleaning. XPS analyses show that silicon concentrations after cleaning and aging are inversely proportional to the initial silicon concentrations measured after curing. It highlights that aging has to be controlled to improve adhesion of PSAs on clearcoats. A second ethanol cleaning on aged clearcoats is not effective to remove these new siloxane additives. Their formulation should be different from the flow agents and it could modify their solubility in ethanol. This result could also indicate that these new siloxane additives are not located on the last molecular layer of surface and they would not be soluble in ethanol.     

An artificial life approach to dense stereo disparity

This article presents an adaptive approach to improving the infection algorithm that we have used to solve the dense stereo matching problem. The algorithm presented here incorporates two different epidemic automata along a single execution of the infection algorithm. The new algorithm attempts to provide a general behavior of guessing the best correspondence between a pair of images. Our aim is to provide a new strategy inspired by evolutionary computation, which combines the behaviors of both automata into a single correspondence problem. The new algorithm will decide which automata will be used based on the transmission of information and mutation, as well as the attributes, texture, and geometry, of the input images. This article gives details about how the rules used in the infection algorithm are coded. Finally, we show experiments with a real stereo pair, as well as with a standard test bed, to show how the infection algorithm works.     

Thermodynamic modeling of the C–Pu–U system

The ternary C–Pu–U system is thermodynamically assessed to pursue the development of a thermodynamic database for future nuclear fuels. The substitution model was used for the liquid phase, and a two-sublattice model for the PuC–UC monocarbide, PuC₂–UC₂ dicarbide and Pu₂C₃–U₂C₃ sesquicarbide phases. Ternary interaction parameters were adjusted on the experimental information for the phase relationships. Isoplethal and isothermal ternary sections, as well as some liquidus temperatures are calculated and compared with the experimental data. The overall agreement is discussed, and shows that experimental uncertainties still remain.     

Gut Microbial Metabolites of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Correlate with Specific Fecal Bacteria and Serum Markers of Metabolic Syndrome in Obese Women

The aim of this human study was to assess the influence of prebiotic-induced gut microbiota modulation on PUFA-derived bacterial metabolites production. Therefore, we analyzed the circulating fatty acid profile including CLA/CLnA in obese women treated during 3 months with inulin-type fructan prebiotics. In these patients, we had already determined gut microbiota composition by phylogenetic microarray and qPCR analysis of 16S rDNA. Some PUFA-derived bacterial metabolites were detected in the serum of obese patients. Despite the prebiotic-induced modulation of gut microbiota, including changes in CLA/CLnA-producing bacteria, the treatment did not impact significantly on the circulating level of these metabolites. However, some PUFA-derived bacterial metabolites were positively correlated with specific fecal bacteria (Bifidobacterium spp., Eubacterium ventriosum and Lactobacillus spp.) and inversely correlated with serum cholesterol (total, LDL, HDL). These correlations suggest a potential beneficial effect of some of these metabolites but this remains to be confirmed by further investigation.     

Update on optimized purification and characterization of natural milk allergens

Highly purified allergens namely cow's milk alpha-lactalbumin (ALA). (Bos d 4), beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) (Bos d 5) and casein (Bos d 8) and goat's milk casein were prepared from the raw milk from a single animal with a known genetic background. Consequently the natural isoforms are limited, constant and characterized. Purification included selective precipitations and chromatographical steps. Characterization of structure and allergenic activity assessment of milk allergens were carried out using physicochemical and immunochemical methods. Taken together data demonstrated the absence of impurities and of contamination by other milk allergens in each preparation. NMR and circular dichroism analyses confirmed the native conformation and proper folding of ALA and BLG and the expected absence of folding of bovine and caprine casein. Enzyme immuno assays confirmed the native conformation of BLG and the purity and immunoreactivity of all the proteins. The allergenic activity, e. g. the IgE binding capacity, of purified proteins was identical as that of those proteins when present in milk. The purified proteins also demonstrated the ability to provoke the degranulation of humanized rat basophilic leukaemia cells. All the data thus confirm the purity, identity, structural conformation and functionality of the prepared milk allergens.     

Nanofiltration for the recovery of caustic cleaning-in-place solutions: robustness towards large variations of composition

In the dairy industry re-use and multi-use cleaning-in-place (CIP) systems are operated by circulating chemicals and water without taking the equipment apart. The solutions, which become polluted due to the removal of fouling compounds, are drained periodically when they are considered to be too polluted. This work shows the large variations in composition (pollution, surface tension, etc) of the industrial caustic solutions coming from milk standardization and pasteurization plant CIP throughout their life time (7 days) and from 1 week to another. The work is also intended to show how nanofiltration (1 kg mol(-1) molecular weight cut-off) was robust and performed well, with good recovery of caustic solutions, even when faced with large variations of solutions composition: high caustic yield, permeation flux (J) in the range 42-110 l h(-1) m(-2), average chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction equal to 0.58 and low surface tension change. Equations have been established for the prediction of J as a function of initial membrane hydraulic resistance (Rm) caustic concentration, volume reduction ratio (VRR) and initial soluble COD. When VRR increased, both J and pollution retention decreased despite the increase in irreversible fouling induced by the increase of soluble pollution concentration in retentate. The higher the initial soluble COD, the sharper the decrease in J vs. VRR. Since irreversible fouling was usually small (0.1-3.4 x 10(13) m(-1), that is to say of the same order of magnitude as Rm), the membrane cleaning could be efficiently performed by using single phase sodium hypochlorite alternately with a more expensive acid-base cleaning sequence. The obtained permeate was a clear regenerated cleaning solution with low soluble COD (0.2-3.5 g/l) and surface tension (56-30 mJ m(-2)) which could be successfully exploited owing to its cleaning potential.     

Characterization of Campylobacter isolates recovered from clinically healthy pigs and from sporadic cases of campylobacteriosis in humans

Campylobacter spp. were recovered from 660 (77.6%) of 850 swine cecal contents at the abattoir and from 24 (8.6%) of 278 specimens from sporadic cases of human diarrhea during the same period in the same geographical area. Campylobacter coli represented 95.7% of Campylobacter isolates recovered from pigs and 8.3% of those isolated from humans. Genetic profiles were determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using KpnI enzyme to characterize the isolates in combination with phenotypic assays to detect production of cytotoxins, enterotoxins, and hemolysins. Among a subset of isolates (n = 10), up to five colonies from the same animal were characterized by PFGE. In 5 (50%) of 10 of the isolates, more than one genetic profile was observed per pig. Among the 100 isolates from pigs selected for further analysis, 81 different genetic profiles were observed, whereas 20 different genetic profiles were found among the 24 isolates of human origin. Cytotoxicity on Chinese hamster ovary cells was observed in 11 (11%) of 98 isolates from pigs and in 5 (21%) of 24 Campylobacter isolates from humans. No enterotoxin production was detected in Campylobacter isolates in this study, but 17 (71%) of 24 human and 61 (63%) of 97 pig isolates showed hemolytic activity. The study of genotypic and phenotypic profiles of swine and human isolates revealed no epidemiological relationship between isolates. The low genomic relatedness observed between groups of isolates and the weak toxicity level of swine isolates suggest that the hazard of contamination of humans by Campylobacter associated with swine production is low.