Novel thermally and mechanically stable hydrogel for enzyme immobilization of penicillin G acylase via covalent technique

κ‐Carrageenan hydrogel crosslinked with protonated polyethyleneimine (PEI⁺) and glutaraldehyde (GA) was prepared and evaluated as a novel biocatalytic support for covalent immobilization of penicillin G acylase (PGA). The method of modification of the carrageenan biopolymer is clearly illustrated using a schematic diagram and was verified by FTIR, elemental analysis, DSC, and INSTRON using the compression mode. Results showed that the gels' mechanical strength was greatly enhanced from 3.9 kg/cm² to 16.8 kg/cm² with an outstanding improvement in the gels thermal stability. It was proven that, the control gels were completely dissolved at 35°C, whereas the modified gels remained intact at 90°C. The DSC thermogram revealed a shift in the endothermic band of water from 62 to 93°C showing more gel‐crosslinking. FTIR revealed the presence of the new functionality, aldehydic carbonyl group, at 1710 cm^?1 for covalent PGA immobilization. PGA was successfully immobilized as a model industrial enzyme retaining 71% of its activity. The enzyme loading increased from 2.2 U/g (control gel) to 10 U/g using the covalent technique. The operational stability showed no loss of activity after 20 cycles. The present support could be a good candidate for the immobilization of industrial enzymes rich in amino groups, especially the thermophilic ones. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Low‐complexity robust adaptive generalized sidelobe canceller detector for DS/CDMA systems

A novel low computational complexity robust adaptive blind multiuser detector, based on the minimum output energy (MOE) detector with multiple constraints and a quadratic inequality (QI) constraint is developed in this paper. Quadratic constraint has been a widespread approach to improve robustness against mismatch errors, uncertainties in estimating the data covariance matrix, and random perturbations in detector parameters. A diagonal loading technique is compulsory to achieve the quadratic constraint where the diagonal loading level is adjusted to satisfy the constrained value. Integrating the quadratic constraint into recursive algorithms seems to be a moot point since there is no closed‐form solution for the diagonal loading term. In this paper, the MOE detector of DS/CDMA system is implemented using a fast recursive steepest descent adaptive algorithm anchored in the generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) structure with multiple constraints and a QI constraint on the adaptive portion of the GSC structure. The Lagrange multiplier method is exploited to solve the QI constraint. An optimal variable loading technique, which is capable of providing robustness against uncertainties and mismatch errors with low computational complexity is adopted. Simulations for several mismatch and random perturbations scenarios are conducted in a rich multipath environment with near–far effect to explore the robustness of the proposed detector. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of Plackett–Burman screening design to the modeling of grafted alginate–carrageenan beads for the immobilization of penicillin G acylase

Grafted alginate–carrageenan beads were used to immobilize the industrial enzyme penicillin G acylase (PGA). Sixteen factors were screened with the Plackett–Burman design (PBD) to test their significance on the gel beads formation and enzyme immobilization process. The results of PBD showed a wide variation of 30‐fold in the amount of immobilized penicillin G acylase (iPGA) from 11.9 to 354.16 U/g of beads; this reflected the importance of the optimizing process. Among the 16 tested factors, only 3 were proven to be significant. These factors were the enzyme buffer pH (N), enzyme soaking time (Q) with the gel beads, and enzyme concentration (P). The Pareto chart revealed that both Q and P exerted significant positive effects on the amount of iPGA, whereas N had a negative effect. We recommend further study to optimize only these three significant, distinctive enzyme factors. The PGA covalent attachment to the gel beads were proven by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and NaCl and reusability tests. The best gel bead formula succeeded in the immobilization of 354.16 U/g of beads and proved to be reusable 14 times, retaining 84% of the initial enzyme activity. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40295.     

Modeling and dynamic analysis of a vehicle-flexible pavement coupled system subjected to road surface excitation

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Increased road traffic combined with heavy vehicle loads leads to deterioration of pavements and reduces the life span of the paved roads. As a...     

Performance Analysis of Blind Adaptive MOE Multiuser Receivers Using Inverse QRD-RLS Algorithm

The inverse QR (IQRD) recursive least-squares (RLS) algorithm (IQRD-RLS) is very popular because it has good numerical stability and can be mapped onto COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) processor-based systolic arrays, which are suitable for very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) architecture and real-time applications. In this paper, the blind optimal minimum output energy (MOE) detector which is developed for multiuser detection (MUD) in direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems is implemented using the linearly constrained IQRD-RLS algorithm. Specifically, the max/min approach is combined with subspace tracking for producing the optimal MOE multiuser detector. A new fast subspace tracking algorithm based on Lagrange multiplier methodology and the IQRD-RLS algorithm is developed. A comparative analysis among the recently emerged channel-estimation techniques is conducted using the IQRD-RLS algorithm. The corresponding robust MOE receivers at low SNR are implemented using the IQRD method, and their performances are assessed in terms of SINR, BER, and computational complexity. A robust multiuser receiver is developed by adding a quadratic inequality constraint to the optimal max/min MOE detector. The feasibility of systolic array implementation of the IQRD-based optimal MOE detector is explored. Several simulation experiments are conducted in a severe near–far environment to analyze the IQRD-based receivers and the subspace tracking algorithms.      

Efficient implementation of robust adaptive beamforming based on worst-case performance optimisation

Traditional adaptive beamforming methods undergo serious performance degradation when a mismatch between the presumed and the actual array responses to the desired source occurs. Such a mismatch can be caused by desired look direction errors, distortion of antenna shape, scattering due to multipath, signal fading as well as other errors. This mismatch entails robust design of the adaptive beamforming methods. Here, the robust minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamforming based on worst-case (WC) performance optimisation is efficiently implemented using a novel ad hoc adaptive technique. A new efficient implementation of the robust MVDR beamformer with a single WC constraint is developed. Additionally, the WC optimisation formulation is generalised to include multiple WC constraints which engender a robust linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamformer with multiple-beam WC (MBWC) constraints. Moreover, the developed LCMV beamformer with MBWC constraints is converted to a system of nonlinear equations and is efficiently solved using a Newton-like method. The first proposed implementation requires low computational complexity compared with the existing techniques. Furthermore, the weight vectors of the two developed adaptive beamformers are iteratively updated using iterative gradient minimisation algorithms which eliminate the estimation of the sample matrix inversion. Several scenarios including angle-of-incidence mismatch and multipath scattering with small and large angular spreads are simulated to study the robustness of the developed algorithms.     

Further Study on Robust Adaptive Beamforming With Optimum Diagonal Loading

Significant effort has gone into designing robust adaptive beamforming algorithms to improve robustness against uncertainties in array manifold. These uncertainties may be caused by uncertainty in direction-of-arrival (DOA), imperfect array calibration, near-far effect, mutual coupling, and other mismatch and modeling errors. A diagonal loading technique is obligatory to fulfil the uncertainty constraint where the diagonal loading level is amended to satisfy the constrained value. The major drawback of diagonal loading techniques is that it is not clear how to get the optimum value of diagonal loading level based on the recognized level of uncertainty constraint. In this paper, an alternative realization of the robust adaptive linearly constrained minimum variance beamforming with ellipsoidal uncertainty constraint on the steering vector is developed. The diagonal loading technique is integrated into the adaptive update schemes by means of optimum variable loading technique which provides loading-on-demand mechanism rather than fixed, continuous or ad hoc loading. We additionally enrich the proposed robust adaptive beamformers by imposing a cooperative quadratic constraint on the weight vector norm to overcome noise enhancement at low SNR. Several numerical simulations with DOA mismatch, moving jamming, and mutual coupling are carried out to explore the performance of the proposed schemes and compare their performance with other traditional and robust beamformers     

Optimum siting and sizing of a large distributed generator in a mesh connected system

This paper proposes a new approach to optimally determine the appropriate size and location of the distributed generator (DG) in a large mesh connected system. This paper presents a visual optimization approach in which the planner plays an important role in determining the optimal siting and sizing of the DG through the choice of the appropriate weight factors of the parameters included in the optimization technique according to the system deficiencies. Losses, voltage profile and short circuit level are used in the algorithm to determine the optimum sizes and locations of the DG. The short circuit level parameter is introduced to represent the protective device requirements in the selection of the size and location of the DG. The proposed technique has been tested on the IEEE 24—bus mesh connected test system. The obtained results showed clearly that the optimal size and location can be simply determined through the proposed approach.     

Amphoteric hydrogels for immobilization of enzymes using template polymerization technique

Novel ionizable amphoteric hydrogels were prepared from poly(acrylic acid) and dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate monomer, employing template polymerization technique. The mode of interaction, as proved by FTIR, was multiple H‐bonding between the tertiary amino group of the monomer and the carboxylic groups of the polymer. The impact of varying equal polymer–monomer feed ratios from 0.1 to 1.1 on the swelling dynamics was examined. Penetrant sorption experiments demonstrated that the swelling behavior depends strongly on the polymer complex composition. The polymer complex of feed ratio 0.5 : 0.5 (polymer : monomer) showed maximum swelling percentage. The mechanism of the polymer complexes swelling was probably a non‐Fickian with n values approaching Fickian behavior. The hydrogels showed maximum swelling efficiencies of 27 folds and 13.5 folds in drastic acidic and basic medium, respectively, using polymer complex of 0.5 : 0.5 feed ratio. Because of reversibility and rapidity of swelling, the gel could be considered as a mechanochemical system. The prepared hydrogel successfully immobilized the industrially used β‐galactosidase as an acidic model enzyme. The novel immobilized enzyme showed a remarkable improvement in its activity (13.8 μmol min^?1 mg^?1) compared to the free enzyme (3.2 μmol min^?1 mg^?1). The optimum pH values for free and immobilized enzyme were 4.5–5 and 4, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007