Gait analysis of low-cost flexible-shank transtibial prostheses.

The latest lower-limb prosthetic designs have been incorporated with dynamic elastic response (DER) components to enhance prosthesis flexibility, which are suggested to be beneficial to gait. Although DER prosthetic. feet are preferred by most transtibial amputees and their benefits to gait are supported by some biomechanical studies, many are still utilizing the simple conventional solid ankle cushioned heel (SACH) designs because of the lower cost. The monolimb, a transtibial prosthesis with the socket and the shank molded from a single piece of thermoplastic material, perhaps is an alternative to DER feet for providing flexibility at the shank. In addition to shank flexibility, low cost and light weight are other characteristics of monolimbs. In spite of the potential benefits, little analysis has been done to examine the simple-structured monolimb prosthesis. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the gait and perception of unilateral transtibial amputees using a flexible elliptical-shank monolimb as compared to a thicker circular-shank monolimb and a conventional rigid-shank prosthesis. Results suggested that a properly designed monolimb may potentially offer similar functional advantages to the relatively expensive DER feet.     

Chitinolytic activity in Chromobacterium violaceum: substrate analysis and regulation by quorum sensing

Quorum sensing control mediated by N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) signaling molecules has been established as a key feature of the regulation of exoenzyme production in many gram-negative bacteria. In Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 31532 a number of phenotypic characteristics, including production of the purple pigment violacein, hydrogen cyanide, antibiotics, and exoproteases are known to be regulated by the endogenous AHL N-hexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (HHL). In this study we show that C. violaceum produces a set of chitinolytic enzymes whose production is regulated by HHL. The chitinolytic activity was induced in strains grown in the presence of chitin as the sole carbon source and quantitated in the secreted proteins by using p-nitrophenol analogs of disaccharide, trisaccharide, and tetrasaccharide oligomers of N-acetylglucosamine. By using 4-methylumbelliferyl analogs of the same oligomers of N-acetylglucosamine as substrates for proteins separated and renatured by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, at least six enzymes were detected: a chitobiase with high specificity to a dimeric substrate of 87 kDa, two N-acetylglucosaminidases with apparent molecular masses of 162 and 133 kDa, two endochitinases of 108 and 67 kDa, and a chitobiosidase of 56 kDa. In addition, two unidentified bands of >205 kDa were found where a tetrameric chitin derivative was used as a substrate. A pleiotropic mini-Tn5 mutant of C. violaceum (CV026) that is defective in HHL production and other quorum-sensing-regulated factors was also found to be completely deficient in chitinolytic activity. Growth of this mutant on minimal medium with chitin supplemented with culture supernatant from the C. violaceum wild-type strain or 10 microM synthetic HHL restored chitinase production to the level shown by the parental strain. These results constitute the most complete evidence so far for regulation of chitinolytic activity by AHL signaling in a gram-negative bacterium.     

An argumentation-oriented multi-agent system for automating the freight planning process

This paper advocates the use of multi-agent systems in the freight forwarding industry. We propose an intelligent mobile agent system to cope with a dynamic freight forwarding environment where up-to-date information is crucial but time-consuming to obtain. A key component of our system is an agent argumentation mechanism that allows decision support agents to discuss, argue, and come to a compromise in order to derive well-explained freight planning solutions. A number of artificial intelligence mechanisms are implemented, namely: (1) a mobile-agent-based automated information gathering mechanism, where designated mobile agents access various websites automatically to gather information (e.g., weather conditions on a candidate route) critical for cargo consolidation and route planning, (2) a fuzzy logics engine for risk evaluation, and (3) a simulated annealing engine for optimizing cargo consolidation. A system prototype is developed and the feasibility of our approach is demonstrated in a case study. A series of experiments are also conducted to evaluate the system’s performance.     

Inhibition and recovery in a fixed microbial film leachate treatment system subject to shock loading of copper and zinc

The impacts of shock loadings of copper and zinc (up to 50 mg l(-1)) on the treatment efficiency of a mesoscale-fixed microbial film landfill leachate treatment system were investigated. Treatment inhibition and recovery were monitored in sequence over two 36 h experimental runs. The fate of added metals was also investigated. Copper, and to a lesser extent zinc, added to the treatment systems accumulated on the biofilm media. Increasing copper inputs (>10 mg l(-1)) progressively inhibited biological treatment of ammoniacal-nitrogen and carbon; this inhibition persisted into the recovery phase for nitrogen but not for carbon. Only the highest input of zinc affected media metal contents and carbon treatment rates; the latter inhibitory effect did not persist into the recovery phase. A small proportion of the metals accumulated on the biofilm media during the inhibition phase was released into the bulk leachate during the recovery experiment. These findings suggest a need to manage metal inputs into leachate treatment systems in order to ensure their continued efficacy.     

A generalized Dirichlet principle for smoothing small-signalmeasurements [MESFET]

We report the theory, implementation, and results of using a Poisson solver to compensate the measured values of drain conductance and transconductance in a nonlinear metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor so as to render them compatible with a large-signal model. The consequent restructuring of the I-V curves is exhibited     

Atomic-Precision Tailoring of Au–Ag Core–Shell Composite Nanoparticles for Direct Electrochemical-Plasmonic Hydrogen Evolution in Water Splitting

Traditionally, bandgap materials are a prerequisite to photocatalysis since they can harness a reasonable range of the solar spectrum. However, the high impedance across the bandgap and the low concentration of intrinsic charge carriers have limited their energy conversion. By contrast, metallic nanoparticles possess a sea of free electrons that can effectively promote the transition to the excited state for reactions. Here, an atomic layer of a bimetallic concoction of silver–gold shells is precisely fabricated onto an Au core via a sonochemical dispersion approach to form a core–shell of Au–Ag that exploits the wide availability of excited states of Ag while maintaining an efficient localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Au. Catalytic results demonstrate that this mix of Ag and Au can convert solar energy to hydrogen at high efficiency with an increase of 112.5% at an optimized potential of −0.5 V when compared to light-off conditions under the electrochemical LSPR. This outperforms the commercial Pt catalysts by 62.1% with a hydrogen production rate of 1870 µmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ at room temperature. This study opens a new route for tuning the range of light capture of hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts using fabricated core–shell material through the combination of LSPR with electrochemical means.     

Explanatory Analysis of the Metabolome Using Genetic Programming of Simple, Interpretable Rules

Genetic programming, in conjunction with advanced analytical instruments, is a novel tool for the investigation of complex biological systems at the whole-tissue level. In this study, samples from tomato fruit grown hydroponically under both high- and low-salt conditions were analysed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), with the aim of identifying spectral and biochemical features linked to salinity in the growth environment. FTIR spectra of whole tissue extracts are not amenable to direct visual analysis, so numerical modelling methods were used to generate models capable of classifying the samples based on their spectral characteristics. Genetic programming (GP) provided models with a better prediction accuracy to the conventional data modelling methods used, whilst being much easier to interpret in terms of the variables used. Examination of the GP-derived models showed that there were a small number of spectral regions that were consistently being used. In particular, the spectral region containing absorbances potentially due to a cyanide/nitrile functional group was identified as discriminatory. The explanatory power of the GP models enabled a chemical interpretation of the biochemical differences to be proposed. The combination of FTIR and GP is therefore a powerful and novel analytical tool that, in this study, improves our understanding of the biochemistry of salt tolerance in tomato plants.