Inhibitory effect of the essential oil of Curcuma longa L. and curcumin on aflatoxin production by Aspergillus flavus Link

Aflatoxins are highly toxic, mutagenic, teratogenic and carcinogenic mycotoxins. Consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated food and commodities poses serious hazards to the health of humans and animals. Turmeric, Curcuma longa L., is a native plant of Southeast Asia and has antimicrobial, antioxidant and antifungal properties. This paper reports the antiaflatoxigenic activities of the essential oil of C. longa and curcumin. The medium tests were prepared with the oil of C. longa, and the curcumin standard at concentrations varied from 0.01% to 5.0%. All doses of the essential oil of the plant and the curcumin standard interfered with mycotoxin production. Both the essential oil and curcumin significantly inhibited the production of aflatoxins; the 0.5% level had a greater than 96% inhibitory effect. The levels of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) production were 1.0 and 42.7 μg/mL, respectively, for the samples treated with the essential oil of C. longa L. and curcumin at a concentration of 0.5%.     

Material flow and mechanical behaviour of dissimilar AA2024-T3 and AA7075-T6 aluminium alloys friction stir welds

The scope of this investigation is to evaluate the effect of joining parameters on the mechanical properties, microstructural features and material flow of dissimilar aluminium alloys (3 mm-thick AA2024-T3 and AA7075-T6 sheets) joints produced by friction stir welding. Mechanical performance has been investigated in terms of hardness and tensile testing. Material flow using the stop action technique has also been investigated in order to understand the main features of the mixing process. No onion ring formation has been observed; the boundary between both base materials at the stir zone is clearly delineated, i.e., no material mixing is observed. A non-stable rotational flow inside the threads has been identified due to the formation of a cavity on the rear of the pin. Microstructural observation has revealed the development of a recrystallised fine-grained stir zone, with two different grain sizes resulting from the two different base materials.     

Gene expression programming for automatic circuit model identification in impedance spectroscopy: Performance evaluation

Circuit/model identification is applied to impedance spectroscopy when there is no prior knowledge of the inner workings of the sensor or process under analysis. This paper presents a performance assessment of gene expression programming for automatic circuit model identification in impedance spectroscopy. The main objective of this work is to improve gene expression programming specific implementation details, with pre-embedding knowledge regarding circuit simplification rules, in order to improve its performance for circuit identification in impedance spectroscopy. Three different versions of gene expression programming are presented, discussed and analyzed. Insight is given into the inner workings of gene expression programming while highlighting the proposed changes in the three versions. The performance of the improved algorithm is analyzed through numerical simulated impedance data. It is further validated by the successful application to measurements of a real sensor along with a study of its performance on measured data.     

Aryne-Based Synthesis of Cyclobutadiene-Containing Oligoacenes and Related Extended Biphenylene Derivatives

A previously undescribed aryne derived from a π-extended biphenylene, 2,3-didehydrobenzo[b]biphenylene, has been developed. The participation of this new aryne building block in [4+2] and palladium-catalyzed [2+2+2] cycloaddition reactions has been applied to the synthesis of a variety of polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons (PCHs) with appealing structures which combine (aromatic) benzene and (antiaromatic) cyclobutadiene (CBD) rings. Among them, a family of unsubstituted (or barely substituted) CBD-oligoacenes has been accessed by iterative Diels-Alder reactions of the new aryne with furans and/or isobenzofurans, followed by deoxygenative aromatization of the resulting epoxy-derivatives. The experimental and computational studies of the newly synthesized PCHs suggest an important degree of electron delocalization along the polycyclic skeleton, more pronounced in the linearly fused derivatives. The computed ACID plots reveal clockwise current density vectors at the peripheral bonds, originating from the σ contributions of the antiaromatic cyclobutadiene rings.     

Developments of low-cost procedure to estimate cloud base height based on a digital camera

Cloud height, wind speed and direction at cloud height play an important role in air safety. This paper presents a low-cost system based on digital cameras to estimate cloud base height. It is shown that both wind speed and direction can also be obtained with this system. The method is based on triangulation and uses image registration to identify common cloud features in photographs taken from different positions. The wind speed and direction is obtained from two time-lapsed pictures taken from the same position. The measurement results are compared with LIDAR measurements performed on site.     

Experimental study of the cracking behavior of specimens containing inclusions (under uniaxial compression)

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the cracking behavior of brittle heterogeneous materials. Unconfined, uniaxial compression tests were conducted on prismatic gypsum specimens containing either one, or two, inclusions. These inclusions were of different strengths, stiffnesses shapes, and sizes. Emphasis was placed on crack coalescence processes associated with specimens containing an inclusion pair, as this was the primary objective of the research. Some observations reported in this study compare well with those of other researchers as the overall cracking sequences are similar. On the other hand, the amount of debonding observed in this study at the inclusion interface is significantly less than what was previously observed. Moreover, the extent of shear crack growth at an inclusion boundary increased substantially in specimens containing two inclusions, compared to those with single inclusions.     

Impedance Measurements Using Genetic Algorithms and Multiharmonic Signals

In this paper, a procedure to measure impedances using data-acquisition boards and genetic algorithms is developed. This approach to impedance measurements has the advantage of being low cost. The multiharmonic acquired waveforms are characterized using a genetic algorithm that finds the frequency of the signal, which, in turn, is used in a multiple linear least-squares (LS) waveform-fitting algorithm. The magnitude and phase of the unknown impedance can then be evaluated. A multiharmonic signal is used so that the frequency dependence of the impedance can be obtained from a single measurement. The measurement results are validated by measurements made with an impedance analyzer. The main advantage of the genetic algorithm over traditional search methods is its robustness to convergence problems.