C-stop production by micro injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Islam, Aminul

of engineering micro product which integrate many features like beam snapfit, annular snapfit, hinge connection, filter grid, house, lid etc in a single product. All the features are in micro dimensional scale and manufactured by single step of injection moulding. This presentation will cover industrial...

Advancements on the simulation of the micro injection moulding process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marhöfer, David Maximilian; Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2013-01-01

injection molding, because they are developed for macro plastic parts and they are therefore limited in the capability of modeling the polymer flow in micro cavities properly. However, new opportunities for improved accuracy have opened up due to current developments of the simulation technology. Hence, new......Process simulations are applied in micro injection molding with the same purpose as in conventional injection molding: aiming at optimization and support of the design of mold, inserts, plastic products, and the process itself. Available software packages are however not well suited for micro...

High aspect ratio micro tool manufacturing for polymer replication using mu EDM of silicon, selective etching and electroforming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Bissacco, Giuliano; Tang, Peter Torben

2008-01-01

Mass fabrication of polymer micro components with high aspect ratio micro-structures requires high performance micro tools allowing the use of low cost replication processes such as micro injection moulding. In this regard an innovative process chain, based on a combination of micro electrical di...... discharge machining (mu EDM) of a silicon substrate, electroforming and selective etching was used for the manufacturing of a micro tool. The micro tool was employed for polymer replication by means of the injection moulding process....

Sequential MR images of uterus after Gd-DTPA injection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okada, Susumu; Kato, Tomoyasu; Yamada, Keiko; Sawano, Seishi; Yamashita, Takashi; Hirai, Yasuo; Hasumi, Katsuhiko

1993-01-01

To investigate the sequential changes in signal intensity (SI) of normal and abnormal uteri, T1-weighted images were taken repeatedly after the injection of Gd-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). Six volunteers and 19 patients with known uterine body malignancy (18 carcinomas, one carcinosarcoma) were examined. The results in volunteers were as follows. In the secretory phase, SI of the endometrium was stronger in the late images than in the early ones, whereas in the proliferative phase, SI was stronger in the early images. SI of the myometrium decreased rapidly and there were no differences in SI between menstrual phases. In 17 of 18 endometrial carcinomas, the tumors showed hypointensity relative to the myometrium, and the contrast between the tumor and the myometrium was better in the early images. In the remaining two cases, the tumor showed hyperintensity and the contrast was better in the late images. After the injection of Gd-DTPA, the endometrium appeared differently according to the menstrual cycle in normal volunteers, and the appearance of uterine structures and endometrial malignant tumors changed sequentially. These findings must be kept in mind when evaluating uterine diseases by Gd-DTPA enhanced MRI. (author)

Improving the accuracy of micro injection moulding process simulations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marhöfer, David Maximilian; Tosello, Guido; Islam, Aminul

and are therefore limited in the capability of modelling the polymer flow in micro cavities. Hence, new strategies for comprehensive simulation models which provide more precise results open up new opportunities and will be discussed. Modelling and meshing recommendations are presented, leading to a multi......Process simulations in micro injection moulding aim at the optimization and support of the design of the mould, mould inserts, the plastic product, and the process. Nevertheless, dedicated software packages for micro injection moulding are not available. They are developed for macro plastic parts...

Micro injection moulding process validation for high precision manufacture of thermoplastic elastomer micro suspension rings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calaon, M.; Tosello, G.; Elsborg Hansen, R.

Micro injection moulding (μIM) is one of the most suitable micro manufacturing processes for flexible mass-production of multi-material functional micro components. The technology was employed in this research used to produce thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) micro suspension rings identified...... main μIM process parameters (melt temperature, injection speed, packing pressure) using the Design of Experiment statistical technique. Measurements results demonstrated the importance of calibrating mould´s master geometries to ensure correct part production and effective quality conformance...... on the frequency in order to improve the signal quality and assure acoustic reproduction fidelity. Production quality of the TPE rings drastically influence the product functionality. In the present study, a procedure for μIM TPE micro rings production optimization has been established. The procedure entail using...

Sequential capillary electrophoresis analysis using optically gated sample injection and UV/vis detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaoxia; Tian, Miaomiao; Camara, Mohamed Amara; Guo, Liping; Yang, Li

2015-10-01

We present sequential CE analysis of amino acids and L-asparaginase-catalyzed enzyme reaction, by combing the on-line derivatization, optically gated (OG) injection and commercial-available UV-Vis detection. Various experimental conditions for sequential OG-UV/vis CE analysis were investigated and optimized by analyzing a standard mixture of amino acids. High reproducibility of the sequential CE analysis was demonstrated with RSD values (n = 20) of 2.23, 2.57, and 0.70% for peak heights, peak areas, and migration times, respectively, and the LOD of 5.0 μM (for asparagine) and 2.0 μM (for aspartic acid) were obtained. With the application of the OG-UV/vis CE analysis, sequential online CE enzyme assay of L-asparaginase-catalyzed enzyme reaction was carried out by automatically and continuously monitoring the substrate consumption and the product formation every 12 s from the beginning to the end of the reaction. The Michaelis constants for the reaction were obtained and were found to be in good agreement with the results of traditional off-line enzyme assays. The study demonstrated the feasibility and reliability of integrating the OG injection with UV/vis detection for sequential online CE analysis, which could be of potential value for online monitoring various chemical reaction and bioprocesses. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Cavity Pressure Behaviour in Micro Injection Moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Griffiths, C.A.; Dimov, S.S.; Scholz, S.

2010-01-01

as well as with the filling of the cavity by the polymer melt. In this paper, two parameters derived from cavity pressure over time (i.e. pressure work). The influence of four µIM parameters (melt temperature, mould temperature, injection speed, aand packing pressure) on the two pressure-related outputs...... has been investigated by moulding a micro fluidic component on three different polymers (PP, ABS, PC) using the design of experiment approach. Similar trends such as the effects of a higher injection speed in decreasing the pressure work and of a lower temperature in decreasing pressure rate have been......Process monitoring of micro injection moulding (µIM) is of crusial importance to analyse the effect of different parameter settings on the process and to assess its quality. Quality factors related to cavity pressure can provide useful information directly connected with the dyanmics of the process...

Additive manufacturing for the production of inserts for micro injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mischkot, Michael; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Pedersen, David Bue

2015-01-01

The production of inserts for micro injection moulding using additive manufacturing technology has the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of pilot production and reduce overall time to market. In this work, Digital Light Processing (DLP) was used to produce micro injection moulding inserts...

Micro Machining of Injection Mold Inserts for Fluidic Channel of Polymeric Biochips

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Myeong-Woo Cho

2007-08-01

Full Text Available Recently, the polymeric micro-fluidic biochip, often called LOC (lab-on-a-chip, has been focused as a cheap, rapid and simplified method to replace the existing biochemical laboratory works. It becomes possible to form miniaturized lab functionalities on a chip with the development of MEMS technologies. The micro-fluidic chips contain many micro-channels for the flow of sample and reagents, mixing, and detection tasks. Typical substrate materials for the chip are glass and polymers. Typical techniques for micro-fluidic chip fabrication are utilizing various micro pattern forming methods, such as wet-etching, micro-contact printing, and hot-embossing, micro injection molding, LIGA, and micro powder blasting processes, etc. In this study, to establish the basis of the micro pattern fabrication and mass production of polymeric micro-fluidic chips using injection molding process, micro machining method was applied to form micro-channels on the LOC molds. In the research, a series of machining experiments using micro end-mills were performed to determine optimum machining conditions to improve surface roughness and shape accuracy of designed simplified micro-channels. Obtained conditions were used to machine required mold inserts for micro-channels using micro end-mills. Test injection processes using machined molds and COC polymer were performed, and then the results were investigated.

On-line monitoring of Glucose and penicillin by sequential injection analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Min, R.W.; Nielsen, Jens Bredal; Villadsen, John

1996-01-01

and a detector. The glucose analyzer is based on an enzymatic reaction using glucose oxidase, which converts glucose to glucono-lactone with formation of hydrogen peroxide and subsequent detection of H2O2 by a chemiluminescence reaction involving luminol. The penicillin analysis is based on formation......A sequential injection analysis (SIA) system has been developed for on-line monitoring of glucose and penicillin during cultivations of the filamentous fungus Penicillium chrysogenum. The SIA system consists of a peristaltic pump, an injection valve, two piston pumps, two multi-position valves...

Investigation on the micro injection molding process of an overmolded multi-material micro component

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baruffi, Federico; Calaon, Matteo; Tosello, Guido

and difficult assembly steps, being the plastic molded directly on a metal substrate. In this scenario, an investigation on the fully automated micro overmolding manufacturing technology of a three-material micro component for acoustic applications has been carried out. Preliminary experiments allowed......Micro injection molding (μIM) is one of the few technologies capable of meeting the increasing demand of complex shaped micro plastic parts. This process, combined with the overmolding technique, allows a fast and cost-efficient production of multi-material micro components, saving numerous...

High Accuracy Three-dimensional Simulation of Micro Injection Moulded Parts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Costa, F. S.; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2011-01-01

Micro injection moulding (μIM) is the key replication technology for high precision manufacturing of polymer micro products. Data analysis and simulations on micro-moulding experiments have been conducted during the present validation study. Detailed information about the μIM process was gathered...

[Studies on a sequential injection renewable surface reflectance spectrophotometric system using a microchip flow cell].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jian-ya; Fang, Zhao-lun

2002-02-01

A microchip flow cell was developed for flow injection renewable surface assay by reflectance spectrophotometry. The flow cell was coupled to a sequential injection system and optical fiber photometric detection system. The flow cell featured a three-layer structure. The flow channel was cut into a silicone rubber membrance which formed the middle layer, and a porous filter was inlayed across a widened section of the channel to trap microbeads introduced into the flow cell. The area of the detection window of the flow cell was approximately 3.6 mm2, the volume of the bead trapped in the flow cell was 2.2 microL, the depth of the bead layer was 600 microns. A multistrand bifurcated optical fiber was coupled with incident light, detector and flow cell. The chromogenic reaction of Cr(VI) with 1,5-diphenylcarbohydrazide (DPC) which was adsorbed on trapped Polysorb C-18 beads was used as a model reaction to optimize the flow cell design and the experimental system. The reflectance of the renewable reaction surface was monitored at 540 nm. With 100 microL sample loaded and 1.0 mL.min-1 carrier flow rate, the linear response range was 0-0.6 microgram.mL-1 Cr(VI). A detection limit (3 sigma) of 6 ng.mL-1, precision of 1.5% RSD(n = 11), and a throughput of 64 samples per hour were achieved. Considerations in system and flow cell design, the influence of depth of the bead layer, weight of beads used, and the flow rates of carrier stream on the performance were discussed.

Micro Engineering: Experiments conducted on the use of polymeric materials in micro injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Griffiths, Christian; Tosello, Guido; Nestler, Joerg

2008-01-01

To advance micro injection moulding it is necessary to study systematically the factors affecting process and tooling reliability. This paper reviews the main findings of Cardiff Universities 4M and SEMOFS research in this field. In particular, the factors affecting the manufacturability of micro...

Flow Injection/Sequential Injection Analysis Systems: Potential Use as Tools for Rapid Liver Diseases Biomarker Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Supaporn Kradtap Hartwell

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Flow injection/sequential injection analysis (FIA/SIA systems are suitable for carrying out automatic wet chemical/biochemical reactions with reduced volume and time consumption. Various parts of the system such as pump, valve, and reactor may be built or adapted from available materials. Therefore the systems can be at lower cost as compared to other instrumentation-based analysis systems. Their applications for determination of biomarkers for liver diseases have been demonstrated in various formats of operation but only a few and limited types of biomarkers have been used as model analytes. This paper summarizes these applications for different types of reactions as a guide for using flow-based systems in more biomarker and/or multibiomarker studies.

Quality control and process capability assessment for injection-moulded micro mechanical parts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gasparin, Stefania; Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2013-01-01

Quality control of micro components is an increasing challenge. Smaller mechanical parts are characterized by smaller tolerance to be verified. This paper focuses on the dimensional verification of micro injection-moulded components selected from an industrial application. These parts are measured...... using an optical coordinate measuring machine, which guarantees fast surface scans suitable for inline quality control. The uncertainty assessment of the measurements is calculated and three analyses are carried out and discussed in order to investigate the influence parameters in optical coordinate...... metrology. The estimation of the total variability of the optical measurements and the instrument repeatability are reported; moreover, the measurement system capability is evaluated according to the measurement system capability indices Cg and Cgk....

Sequential-Injection Analysis: Principles, Instrument Construction, and Demonstration by a Simple Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Economou, A.; Tzanavaras, P. D.; Themelis, D. G.

2005-01-01

The sequential-injection analysis (SIA) is an approach to sample handling that enables the automation of manual wet-chemistry procedures in a rapid, precise and efficient manner. The experiments using SIA fits well in the course of Instrumental Chemical Analysis and especially in the section of Automatic Methods of analysis provided by chemistry…

High accuracy and precision micro injection moulding of thermoplastic elastomers micro ring production

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calaon, Matteo; Tosello, Guido; Elsborg, René

2016-01-01

The mass-replication nature of the process calls for fast monitoring of process parameters and product geometrical characteristics. In this direction, the present study addresses the possibility to develop a micro manufacturing platform for micro assembly injection moulding with real-time process....../product monitoring and metrology. The study represent a new concept yet to be developed with great potential for high precision mass-manufacturing of highly functional 3D multi-material (i.e. including metal/soft polymer) micro components. The activities related to HINMICO project objectives proves the importance...

Validation of three-dimensional micro injection molding simulation accuracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Costa, F.S.; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2011-01-01

length, injection pressure profile, molding mass and flow pattern. The importance of calibrated micro molding process monitoring for an accurate implementation strategy of the simulation and its validation has been demonstrated. In fact, inconsistencies and uncertainties in the experimental data must...... be minimized to avoid introducing uncertainties in the simulation calculations. Simulations of bulky sub-100 milligrams micro molded parts have been validated and a methodology for accurate micro molding simulations was established....

Dewetting based fabrication of fibrous micro-scaffolds as potential injectable cell carriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Hokyung; Yin, Liya; Chilian, William M; Zhang Newby, Bi-Min

2015-03-01

Although regenerative medicine utilizing tissue scaffolds has made enormous strides in recent years, many constraints still hamper their effectiveness. A limitation of many scaffolds is that they form surface patches, which are not particularly effective for some types of "wounds" that are deep within tissues, e.g., stroke and myocardial infarction. In this study, we reported the generation of fibrous micro-scaffolds feasible for delivering cells by injection into the tissue parenchyma. The micro-scaffolds (widthsdewetting of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) thin films containing parallel strips, and cells were seeded to form cell/polymer micro-constructs during or post the micro-scaffold fabrication process. Five types of cells including rat induced vascular progenitor cells were assessed for the formation of the micro-constructs. Critical factors in forming fibrous micro-scaffolds via dewetting of polymer thin films were found to be properties of polymers and supporting substrates, temperature, and proteins in the culture medium. Also, the ability of cells to attach to the micro-scaffolds was essential in forming cell/polymer micro-constructs. Both in vitro and in vivo assessments of injecting these micro-scaffolding constructs showed, as compared to free cells, enhanced cell retention at the injected site, which could lead to improved tissue engineering and regeneration. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a novel PTFE material for separation and preconcentration of trace levels of metal ions in sequential injection (SI) and sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) systems interfaced with detection by ETAAS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Xiangbao; Chomchoei, Roongrat; Gała, Piotr

The operational characteristics of a novel PTFE bead material, granular Algoflon®, used for separation and preconcentration of metal ions via adsorption of on-line generated non-charged metal complexes, were evaluated in a sequential injection (SI) system furnished with an external packed column...... and in a sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) system. Employed for the determination of cadmium(II), complexed with diethyldithiophosphate (DDPA), and detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS), its performance was compared to that of a previously used material, Aldrich PTFE, which had...... demonstrated that PTFE was the most promising for solid-state pretreatments. By comparing the two materials, the Algoflon® beads exhibited much higher sensitivity (1.6107 versus 0.2956 μg l-1 per integrated absorbance (s)), and better retention efficiency (82% versus 74%) and enrichment factor (20.8 versus 17...

Coupling sequential injection on-line preconcentration using a PTFE beads packed column to direct injection nebulization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2002-01-01

An automated sequential injection on-line preconcentration procedure for trace metals by using a PTFE bead-packed microcolumn coupled to ICP-MS is described, and used for simultaneous analyses of cadmium and lead. In dilute nitric acid (0.5%, v/v), neutral complexes between the analytes...

Micro injection moulding process optimization of an ultra-small POM three-dimensional component

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baruffi, Federico; Calaon, Matteo; Tosello, Guido

Replication-based manufacturing processes are a cost effective method for producing complex and net-shaped components [1]. Micro injection moulding has a prominent place among them for its capability of accurately and precisely produce micro plastic parts in large production scale [2], [3......]. In this study, the optimization of the micro injection moulding process of an ultra-small (volume: 0.07 mm3; mass: 0.1 mg) three-dimensional Polyoxymethylene (POM) micro component for medical applications (see Figure 1) is presented. Preliminary experiments highlighted the need for venting channels in order...... with respect to design specifications, the flash areal size was utilized as quality indicator. A design of the experiments approach was carried out in order to study the effects of melt temperature, mould temperature, holding pressure and injection speed. For this task, a two-level full factorial design...

Induction Heating System Applied to Injection Moulding of Micro and Nano Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Menotti, Stefano

The present Ph.D. thesis contains a study concerning induction heating system applied to injection moulding of micro and nano structures. The overall process chain was considered and investigated during the project including part design, simulation, conventional and non-conventional tooling...... part. In fact one of the main problems in micro injection moulding is the premature freezing of the polymer flow inside the cavity and often is not possible to obtain a full replica of the nano/micro structures embed on the surfaces. Some other defects that can be avoided with the use of an additional...

An on-line potentiometric sequential injection titration process analyser for the determination of acetic acid.

Science.gov (United States)

van Staden, J F; Mashamba, Mulalo G; Stefan, Raluca I

2002-09-01

An on-line potentiometric sequential injection titration process analyser for the determination of acetic acid is proposed. A solution of 0.1 mol L(-1) sodium chloride is used as carrier. Titration is achieved by aspirating acetic acid samples between two strong base-zone volumes into a holding coil and by channelling the stack of well-defined zones with flow reversal through a reaction coil to a potentiometric sensor where the peak widths were measured. A linear relationship between peak width and logarithm of the acid concentration was obtained in the range 1-9 g/100 mL. Vinegar samples were analysed without any sample pre-treatment. The method has a relative standard deviation of 0.4% with a sample frequency of 28 samples per hour. The results revealed good agreement between the proposed sequential injection and an automated batch titration method.

Vacuum injection system for hydrogen micro-spheres in the CELSIUS storage ring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tinoco, Hernan.

1990-01-01

The use of hydrogen micro-spheres as internal targets in the CELSIUS storage ring has been proposed for light meson rare decay measurements. The target generation apparatus design is based on that developed for refueling of fusion tokamak reactors. The micro-spheres are produced by acoustic excitation of a liquid hydrogen jet, and are injected into vacuum for the experiments by means of a hydrogen gas flow through an injection nozzle. The work reported here is an analysis of the gas flow in the injection nozzle, of the entrained motion of the micro-spheres considered as spherical particles, and of the heat transfer between them and the gas. The computation of the heat transfer allows the determination of the conditions under which the evaporation of the micro-spheres is negligible. It is shown that the gas must be cooled to temperatures near that of the micro-spheres for these to survive. Together with the computation of the gas flow and particle motion, the analysis includes the design of the injection nozzle. The requirements of well defined mass flow rate and low perturbation level suggest a nozzle consisting of a contraction region and a straight region with constant cross-sectional area. This nozzle is to be operated with stagnation conditions near the triple point conditions and choked flow at the exit. The condition of a limiting mass flow rate of the order of 10 -6 kg/s together with the operating conditions bound the exit diameter to values of 200-250 μm. Other geometrical parameters have only a subordinate importance on the injection nozzle design

Multi-Stage Recognition of Speech Emotion Using Sequential Forward Feature Selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liogienė Tatjana

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The intensive research of speech emotion recognition introduced a huge collection of speech emotion features. Large feature sets complicate the speech emotion recognition task. Among various feature selection and transformation techniques for one-stage classification, multiple classifier systems were proposed. The main idea of multiple classifiers is to arrange the emotion classification process in stages. Besides parallel and serial cases, the hierarchical arrangement of multi-stage classification is most widely used for speech emotion recognition. In this paper, we present a sequential-forward-feature-selection-based multi-stage classification scheme. The Sequential Forward Selection (SFS and Sequential Floating Forward Selection (SFFS techniques were employed for every stage of the multi-stage classification scheme. Experimental testing of the proposed scheme was performed using the German and Lithuanian emotional speech datasets. Sequential-feature-selection-based multi-stage classification outperformed the single-stage scheme by 12–42 % for different emotion sets. The multi-stage scheme has shown higher robustness to the growth of emotion set. The decrease in recognition rate with the increase in emotion set for multi-stage scheme was lower by 10–20 % in comparison with the single-stage case. Differences in SFS and SFFS employment for feature selection were negligible.

Replication of micro structured surface by injection moulding of PEEK

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yang; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Sørensen, Søren

A micro-structured Ni insert was investigated for PEEK injection moulding. The micro features are circular holes 4 μm in diameter and 2 μm deep, with a 2 μm edge-to-edge distance. 6000 moulding cycles was operated. Half of the insert was coated by 200nm CrN. PEEK parts produced by the coated side...

Two component micro injection molding for MID fabrication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Islam, Mohammad Aminul; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Tang, Peter Torben

2009-01-01

Molded Interconnect Devices (MIDs) are plastic substrates with electrical infrastructure. The fabrication of MIDs is usually based on injection molding and different process chains may be identified from this starting point. The use of MIDs has been driven primarily by the automotive sector......, but recently the medical sector seems more and more interested. In particular the possibility of miniaturization of 3D components with electrical infrastructure is attractive. The paper describes possible manufacturing routes and challenges of miniaturized MIDs based on two component micro injection molding...

Selective etching of injection molded zirconia-toughened alumina: Towards osseointegrated and antibacterial ceramic implants.

Science.gov (United States)

Flamant, Quentin; Caravaca, Carlos; Meille, Sylvain; Gremillard, Laurent; Chevalier, Jérôme; Biotteau-Deheuvels, Katia; Kuntz, Meinhard; Chandrawati, Rona; Herrmann, Inge K; Spicer, Christopher D; Stevens, Molly M; Anglada, Marc

2016-12-01

Due to their outstanding mechanical properties and excellent biocompatibility, zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) ceramics have become the gold standard in orthopedics for the fabrication of ceramic bearing components over the last decade. However, ZTA is bioinert, which hampers its implantation in direct contact with bone. Furthermore, periprosthetic joint infections are now the leading cause of failure for joint arthroplasty prostheses. To address both issues, an improved surface design is required: a controlled micro- and nano-roughness can promote osseointegration and limit bacterial adhesion whereas surface porosity allows loading and delivery of antibacterial compounds. In this work, we developed an integrated strategy aiming to provide both osseointegrative and antibacterial properties to ZTA surfaces. The micro-topography was controlled by injection molding. Meanwhile a novel process involving the selective dissolution of zirconia (selective etching) was used to produce nano-roughness and interconnected nanoporosity. Potential utilization of the porosity for loading and delivery of antibiotic molecules was demonstrated, and the impact of selective etching on mechanical properties and hydrothermal stability was shown to be limited. The combination of injection molding and selective etching thus appears promising for fabricating a new generation of ZTA components implantable in direct contact with bone. Zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) is the current gold standard for the fabrication of orthopedic ceramic components. In the present work, we propose an innovative strategy to provide both osseointegrative and antibacterial properties to ZTA surfaces: we demonstrate that injection molding allows a flexible design of surface micro-topography and can be combined with selective etching, a novel process that induces nano-roughness and surface interconnected porosity without the need for coating, avoiding reliability issues. These surface modifications have the

Characterization and analysis of weld lines on micro-injection moulded parts using atomic force microscopy (AFM)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Gava, Alberto; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2009-01-01

In recent years plastic moulding techniques, such as injection moulding, have been developed to fulfil the needs of micro-components fabrication. Micro-injection moulding (SLIM) is the process which enables the mass production of polymer micro-systems such as micro-mechanical parts, micro...... the two original flows will generate and a weld line is formed on the surface of the micro-moulded part. This phenomenon has to be avoided or at least reduced, since in the weld line area the mechanical properties are poorer than in the bulk part, creating strength problems on the final part. Although...... injection moulding parameters on the weld lines' dimensions is presented, using an atomic force microscope (AFM). Depth and width of weld lines were chosen as parameters to be optimized....

Micro-computer based control system and its software for carrying out the sequential acceleration on SMCAMS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Deming

2001-01-01

Micro-computer based control system and its software for carrying out the sequential acceleration on SMCAMS is described. Also, the establishment of the 14 C particle measuring device and the improvement of the original power supply system are described

Two-component injection moulding simulation of ABS-POM micro structured surfaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Islam, Aminul

2013-01-01

Multi-component micro injection moulding (μIM) processes such as two-component (2k) μIM are the key technologies for the mass fabrication of multi-material micro products. 2k-μIM experiments involving a miniaturized test component with micro features in the sub-mm dimensional range and moulding...... a pair of thermoplastic materials (ABS and POM) were conducted. Three dimensional process simulations based on the finite element method have been performed to explore the capability of predicting filling pattern shape at component-level and surface micro feature-level in a polymer/polymer overmoulding...

Experimental Studies of Diestrol-Micro Emulsion Fuel in a Direct Injection Compression Ignition Engine under Varying Injection Pressures and Timings

Science.gov (United States)

Kannan, Gopal Radhakrishnan

2018-02-01

The research work on biodiesel becomes more attractive in the context of limited availability of petroleum fuels and rapid increase of harmful emissions from diesel engine using conventional fossil fuels. The present investigation has dealt with the influence of biodiesel-diesel-ethanol (diestrol) water micro emulsion fuel (B60D20E20M) on the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine under different injection pressure and timing. The results revealed that the maximum brake thermal efficiency of 32.4% was observed at an injection pressure of 260 bar and injection timing of 25.5°bTDC. In comparison with diesel, micro emulsion fuel showed reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbon (THC) by 40 and 24%, respectively. Further, micro emulsion fuel decreased nitric oxide (NO) emission and smoke emission by 7 and 20.7%, while the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is similar to that of diesel.

Surface Micro Topography Replication in Injection Moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arlø, Uffe Rolf; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Kjær, Erik Michael

2005-01-01

The surface micro topography of injection moulded plastic parts can be important for aesthetical and technical reasons. The quality of replication of mould surface topography onto the plastic surface depends among other factors on the process conditions. A study of this relationship has been...... carried out with rough EDM (electrical discharge machining) mould surfaces, a PS grade, and by applying established three-dimensional topography parameters. Significant quantitative relationships between process parameters and topography parameters were established. It further appeared that replication...

Surface wear of TiN coated nickel tool during the injection moulding of polymer micro Fresnel lenses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Gasparin, Stefania

2012-01-01

Limited tool life of nickel mould inserts represents an issue for the mass-production of polymer optics with complex micro three-dimensional geometries by injection moulding. TiN coating was applied to a nickel insert for the injection moulding of polycarbonate micro Fresnel lenses. Surface wear...

Weld line optimization on thermoplastic elastomer micro injection moulded components using 3D focus variation optical microscopy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasnaes, F.B.; Elsborg, R.; Tosello, G.

2015-01-01

The presented study investigates weld line depth development across a micro suspension ring. A focus variation microscope was used to obtain 3D images of the weld line area. Suspension rings produced with different micro injection moulding process parameters were examined to identify the correlat......The presented study investigates weld line depth development across a micro suspension ring. A focus variation microscope was used to obtain 3D images of the weld line area. Suspension rings produced with different micro injection moulding process parameters were examined to identify...

Evaluation of optical functional surfaces on the injection moulding insert by micro milling process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Dongya; Davoudinejad, Ali; Zhang, Yang

2017-01-01

This study presents the optimization of micro milling process for manufacturing injection moulding inserts with an optical functionalsurface. The objective is the optimal surface functionality. Micro ridges were used as the microstructures to realize the function to generate contrast between...

A new approach for the validation of filling simulations in micro injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gava, Alberto; Tosello, Guido; Lucchetta, Giovanni

2007-01-01

In manufacturing polymer micro products, numerical simulations are used with the same purposes as in conventional injection moulding, mainly the optimization of micro components design, the optimization of process parameters and the decrease of production costs. Dedicated simulations softwares fail...... to be improved. The main objective of this work is to evaluate whether the present numerical codes are suitable to characterize melt flow patterns in a micro cavity. In order to test the accuracy of the software, real and simulated experiments were performed and used to investigate the filling of a micro moulded...

Exploring Liquid Sequential Injection Chromatography to Teach Fundamentals of Separation Methods: A Very Fast Analytical Chemistry Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Penteado, Jose C.; Masini, Jorge Cesar

2011-01-01

Influence of the solvent strength determined by the addition of a mobile-phase organic modifier and pH on chromatographic separation of sorbic acid and vanillin has been investigated by the relatively new technique, liquid sequential injection chromatography (SIC). This technique uses reversed-phase monolithic stationary phase to execute fast…

Mechanical properties of the weld line defect in micro injection molding for various nano filled polypropylene composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie Lei; Ziegmann, Gerhard

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → PP/CNFs and PP/TiO 2 composites with relative high loading fractions (10, 20, 30 and 35 wt%) were fabricated by inner melt mixing process. Micro tensile test samples were formed by injection molding combined with variotherm process for all composites. → The morphological properties of all nano composites were characterized by WXRD, whose results imply the adding nano fillers did not change the crystal form of PP, but the crystallites size and distance between lattices of crystals were changed with various nano fillers and loading fractions. → DSC analysis show that due to the nucleating function of nano fillers, the peak temperature of crystallization was increased and the peak temperature of crystallization melting was decreased by adding the nanofillers. → The flow ability of nano composites was tested by high pressure single capillary rheometer and the results demonstrate that nano fillers increased the viscosity of PP matrix. → Based on these significant information and analysis foundation of the nano filled composites, the micro weld line samples were formed by injection molding process and characterized by tensile test method. From the achieved results, it can be found that in general, for functional nano filled polymer composites, the mechanical property of micro weld lines were obviously influenced by nano fillers' shape and loading fractions. → The E modulus of micro weld line was increased due to loading CNFs in PP matrix, while the elongation of the micro tensile samples with weld line is considerably decreased comparing with those of unfilled PP samples. The detrimental tensile strength of micro weld lines were observed when CNFs contents increasing, except for at a 10 wt%. → For TiO 2 nano particles filled PP, due to the poor dispersion of nano particles, at low loading fraction of 10 wt%, the E modulus and tensile strength of micro weld lines were decreased by filling nano particles, but when the loading fraction

Modelling injection moulding machines for micro manufacture applications through functional analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fantoni, G.; Tosello, Guido; Gabelloni, D.

2012-01-01

The paper presents the analysis of an injection moulding machine using functional analysis to identify both its critical components and possible working problems when such a machine is employed for the production of polymer-based micro products. The step-by-step procedure starts from the study...... of the process phases of a machine and then it employs functional analysis to decompose the phases and attributes functions to part features. Part features are subsequently analyzed to understand the causal chains bringing either to the desired behaviour or to failures to avoid. The assessment of the design...... solution is finally performed by gathering quantitative data from experiments. The case study investigates the design motivations and functional drivers of a micro injection moulding machine. The analysis allows identifying the correlations between failures and advantages with the design of the machine...

Rapid and reagent-saving immunoassay using innovative stirring actions of magnetic beads in microreactors in the sequential injection mode.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, K; Imagawa, H

2005-12-15

We developed new ELISA techniques in sequential injection analysis (SIA) mode using microreactors with content of a few microliters. We immobilized antibodies on magnetic beads 1.0mum in diameter, injected the beads into microreactors and applied rotating magnetic fields of several hundred gauss. Magnetic beads, suspended in liquid in density of approximately 10(9)-10(10) particles per millilitre, form a large number of thin rod clusters, whose length-wise axes are oriented in parallel with the magnetic field. We rotate the Nd magnets below the center of the microreactor by a tiny motor at about 2000-5000rpm. These rotating clusters remarkably accelerate the binding rate of the antibodies with antigens in the liquid. The beads are trapped around the center of the rotating magnetic field even in the flowing liquid. This newly found phenomenon enables easy bead handling in microreactors. Modification of reactor walls with selected blocking reagents was essential, because protein-coated beads often stick to the wall surface and cannot move freely. Washing steps were also shortened.

Building a Lego wall: Sequential action selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Amy; Wing, Alan M; Rotshtein, Pia

2017-05-01

The present study draws together two distinct lines of enquiry into the selection and control of sequential action: motor sequence production and action selection in everyday tasks. Participants were asked to build 2 different Lego walls. The walls were designed to have hierarchical structures with shared and dissociated colors and spatial components. Participants built 1 wall at a time, under low and high load cognitive states. Selection times for correctly completed trials were measured using 3-dimensional motion tracking. The paradigm enabled precise measurement of the timing of actions, while using real objects to create an end product. The experiment demonstrated that action selection was slowed at decision boundary points, relative to boundaries where no between-wall decision was required. Decision points also affected selection time prior to the actual selection window. Dual-task conditions increased selection errors. Errors mostly occurred at boundaries between chunks and especially when these required decisions. The data support hierarchical control of sequenced behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Utilizing a sequential injection system furnished with an extraction microcolumn as a novel approach for executing sequential extractions of metal species in solid samples

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chomchoei, R.; Hansen, Elo Harald; Shiowatana, J.

2007-01-01

This communication presents a novel approach to perform sequential extraction of elements in solid samples by using a sequential injection (SI) system incorporating a specially designed extraction microcolumn. Based on the operation of the syringe pump, different modes of extraction are potentially...... that the system entails many advantages such as being fully automated, and besides being characterised by rapidity, ease of operation and robustness, it is less prone to risks of contamination and personal errors as encountered in traditional batch systems. Moreover, improvement of the precision and accuracy...... of the chemical fractionation of metal in solids as compared with previous reports are obtained. The system ensures that extraction is performed at designated pH values. Variation of sample weight to column volume ratios do not affect the amounts of extractable metals, nor do extraction flow rates ranging from 50...

Selective wetting-induced micro-electrode patterning for flexible micro-supercapacitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sung-Kon; Koo, Hyung-Jun; Lee, Aeri; Braun, Paul V

2014-08-13

Selective wetting-induced micro-electrode patterning is used to fabricate flexible micro-supercapacitors (mSCs). The resulting mSCs exhibit high performance, mechanical stability, stable cycle life, and hold great promise for facile integration into flexible devices requiring on-chip energy storage. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Comparative analysis of different process simulation settings of a micro injection molded part featuring conformal cooling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marhöfer, David Maximilian; Tosello, Guido; Islam, Aminul

2015-01-01

. In the reported work, process simulations using Autodesk Moldflow Insight 2015® are applied to a micro mechanical part to be fabricated by micro injection molding and with over-all dimensions of 12.0 × 3.0 × 0.8 mm³ and micro features (micro hole, diameter of 580 μm, and sharp radii down to 100 μm). Three...

Selected Parameters of Micro-Jet Cooling Gases in Hybrid Spraying Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szczucka-Lasota B.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The innovative technology, like thermal spraying with a micro-jet cooling is one of the important modification of classical ultrasonic spraying methods. Using of micro-stream with gases like argon or nitrogen allows to cool the coating immediately after spraying, and thereby reduce the time of transition during the injection of each layer. As a result of the process, the fine dispersive structure of coatings is obtained during the shorter time in comparable to the classical high velocity oxygen fuel process (HVOF. The parameter of process and the type of stream equipment determine the quality of the obtained structure and thermal stress in the coating. The article presents the relationship between selected parameters of hybrid process and properties of the coatings. The presented technology should be adapted to the actual production of protective coating for machines and construction working in wear conditions.

Integrating measuring uncertainty of tactile and optical coordinate measuring machines in the process capability assessment of micro injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Gasparin, Stefania

2010-01-01

Process capability of micro injection moulding was investigated in this paper by calculating the Cp and Cpk statistics. Uncertainty of both optical and tactile measuring systems employed in the quality control of micro injection moulded products was assessed and compared with the specified...... tolerances. Limits in terms of manufacturing process capability as well as of suitability of such measuring systems when employed for micro production inspection were quantitatively determined....

Study of process parameters effect on the filling phase of micro injection moulding using weld lines as flow markers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Gava, Alberto; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2010-01-01

, the relationships between the filling pattern and the different process parameter settings have to be established. In this paper, a novel approach based on the use of weld lines as flow markers to trace the development of the flow front during the filling is proposed. The effects on the filling stage of process......Micro-injection moulding (micro-moulding) is a process which enables the mass production of polymer microproducts. In order to produce high-quality injection moulded micro-parts, a crucial aspect to be fully understood and optimised is the filling of the cavity by the molten polymer. As a result...... manufactured by micro-electrodischarge machining. A commercially available polystyrene grade polymer has been moulded using a high-speed injection moulding machine. The design of experiment technique was employed to determine the effect of the process parameters on the filling phase of the micro...

Injection molding of micro pillars on vertical side walls using polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yang; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Sørensen, Søren

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the replication of microstructures on a vertical wall by PEEK injection molding. A 4-cavity insert was used in the injection molding. Pre-fabricated nickel plates with ø 4 μm micro holes on the surface were glued on vertical walls in the cavities. 3 cavities were coated by...

Influence of different process settings conditions on the accuracy of micro injection molding simulations: an experimental validation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Gava, Alberto; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2009-01-01

Currently available software packages exhibit poor results accuracy when performing micro injection molding (µIM) simulations. However, with an appropriate set-up of the processing conditions, the quality of results can be improved. The effects on the simulation results of different and alternative...... process conditions are investigated, namely the nominal injection speed, as well as the cavity filling time and the evolution of the cavity injection pressure as experimental data. In addition, the sensitivity of the results to the quality of the rheological data is analyzed. Simulated results...... are compared with experiments in terms of flow front position at part and micro features levels, as well as cavity injection filling time measurements....

Injection-depth-locking axial motion guided handheld micro-injector using CP-SSOCT.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheon, Gyeong Woo; Huang, Yong; Kwag, Hye Rin; Kim, Ki-Young; Taylor, Russell H; Gehlbach, Peter L; Kang, Jin U

2014-01-01

This paper presents a handheld micro-injector system using common-path swept source optical coherence tomography (CP-SSOCT) as a distal sensor with highly accurate injection-depth-locking. To achieve real-time, highly precise, and intuitive freehand control, the system used graphics processing unit (GPU) to process the oversampled OCT signal with high throughput and a smart customized motion monitoring control algorithm. A performance evaluation was conducted with 60-insertions and fluorescein dye injection tests to show how accurately the system can guide the needle and lock to the target depth. The evaluation tests show our system can guide the injection needle into the desired depth with 4.12 um average deviation error while injecting 50 nl of fluorescein dye.

Evaluation of a novel PTFE material for use as a means for separation and preconcentration of trace levels of metal ions in sequential injection (SI) and sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) systems. Determination of cadmium (II) with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Xiangbao; Chomchoei, Roongrat; Hansen, Elo Harald

2004-01-01

with an external packed column and in a sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) system. Employed for the determination of cadmium(II), complexed with diethyldithiophosphate (DDPA), and detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS), its performance was compared to that of a previously used...

Constrained treatment planning using sequential beam selection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woudstra, E.; Storchi, P.R.M.

2000-01-01

In this paper an algorithm is described for automated treatment plan generation. The algorithm aims at delivery of the prescribed dose to the target volume without violation of constraints for target, organs at risk and the surrounding normal tissue. Pre-calculated dose distributions for all candidate orientations are used as input. Treatment beams are selected in a sequential way. A score function designed for beam selection is used for the simultaneous selection of beam orientations and weights. In order to determine the optimum choice for the orientation and the corresponding weight of each new beam, the score function is first redefined to account for the dose distribution of the previously selected beams. Addition of more beams to the plan is stopped when the target dose is reached or when no additional dose can be delivered without violating a constraint. In the latter case the score function is modified by importance factor changes to enforce better sparing of the organ with the limiting constraint and the algorithm is run again. (author)

Micro-Injection Moulding In-Line Quality Assurance Based on Product and Process Fingerprints

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baruffi, Federico; Calaon, Matteo; Tosello, Guido

2018-01-01

significant dimensional features of the micro part were measured using a focus variation microscope. Their dependency on the variation of µIM process parameters was studied with a Design of Experiments (DoE) statistical approach. A correlation study allowed the identification of the product fingerprint, i...... of the study showed that the dimensional quality of the micro component could be effectively controlled in-line by combining the two fingerprints, thus opening the door for future µIM in-line process optimization and quality assessment.......Micro-injection moulding (μIM) is a replication-based process enabling the cost-effective production of complex and net-shaped miniaturized plastic components. The micro-scaled size of such parts poses great challenges in assessing their dimensional quality and often leads to time...

Selective Sequential Zero-Base Budgeting Procedures Based on Total Factor Productivity Indicators

OpenAIRE

A. Ishikawa; E. F. Sudit

1981-01-01

The authors' purpose in this paper is to develop productivity-based sequential budgeting procedures designed to expedite identification of major problem areas in bugetary performance, as well as to reduce the costs associated with comprehensive zero-base analyses. The concept of total factor productivity is reviewed and its relations to ordinary and zero-based budgeting are discussed in detail. An outline for a selective sequential analysis based on monitoring of three key indicators of (a) i...

Mechanism of hydrocarbon reduction using multiple injection in a natural gas fuelled/micro-pilot diesel ignition engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Micklow, G.J.; Gong, W. [University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC (United States)

2002-03-01

Research has shown that a large amount of natural gas (NG) is unburned at light loads in an NG fuelled/micro-pilot diesel compression ignition engine. A mechanism of unburned hydrocarbon (HC) reduction using multiple injections of micro-pilot diesel has been proposed in this paper. Multidimensional computations were carried out for a dual-fuel engine based on a modified CAT3401 engine configuration. The computations show that a split injection with a small percentage (e.g. 30 per cent of diesel in the second injection pulse) can significantly reduce HC, CO and NO{sub x} emissions. Based on parax metric studies to optimize the timing of both of the injection pulses, HC emissions could be reduced by 90 per cent, with a reduction in CO emissions of 50 per cent and NO{sub x} emissions of 70 per cent in comparison to a singlex injection pulse-base case configuration. (author)

Features Selection for Skin Micro-Image Symptomatic Recognition

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HUYue-li; CAOJia-lin; ZHAOQian; FENGXu

2004-01-01

Automatic recognition of skin micro-image symptom is important in skin diagnosis and treatment. Feature selection is to improve the classification performance of skin micro-image symptom.This paper proposes a hybrid approach based on the support vector machine (SVM) technique and genetic algorithm (GA) to select an optimum feature subset from the feature group extracted from the skin micro-images. An adaptive GA is introduced for maintaining the convergence rate. With the proposed method, the average cross validation accuracy is increased from 88.25% using all features to 96.92% using only selected features provided by a classifier for classification of 5 classes of skin symptoms. The experimental results are satisfactory.

Features Selection for Skin Micro-Image Symptomatic Recognition

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HU Yue-li; CAO Jia-lin; ZHAO Qian; FENG Xu

2004-01-01

Automatic recognition of skin micro-image symptom is important in skin diagnosis and treatment. Feature selection is to improve the classification performance of skin micro-image symptom.This paper proposes a hybrid approach based on the support vector machine (SVM) technique and genetic algorithm (GA) to select an optimum feature subset from the feature group extracted from the skin micro-images. An adaptive GA is introduced for maintaining the convergence rate. With the proposed method, the average cross validation accuracy is increased from 88.25% using all features to 96.92 % using only selected features provided by a classifier for classification of 5 classes of skin symptoms. The experimental results are satisfactory.

Sequential Injection Determination of D-Glucose by Chemiluminescence Using an Open Tubular Immobilised Enzyme Reactor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Xuezhu; Hansen, Elo Harald

1996-01-01

A sequential injection analysis system is described that incorporates a nylon tubular reactor containing immobilised glucose oxidase, allowing determination of D-glucose by means of subsequent luminol chemiluminescence detection of the hydrogen peroxide generated in the enzymatic reaction....... The operating parameters were optimised by fractional factorial screening and response surface modelling. The linear range of D-glucose determination was 30-600 mu M, With a detection limit of 15 mu M using a photodiode detector. The sampling frequency was 54 h(-1). Lower LOD (0.5 mu M D-glucose) could...

High-rate production of micro- and nanostructured surfaces: Injection molding and novel process for metal tooling manufacturing

Science.gov (United States)

De Jesus Vega, Marisely

rapidly processed via liquid injection molding. LSR with its excellent mechanical properties, transparency, non-toxicity and rapid molding capabilities can bring the production of micro and nanostructured surfaces from laboratory research facilities to high-rate manufacturing. However, previous research on microstructured surfaces made off LSR does not focus on the processing aspect of this material. Therefore, there is a lack of understanding of how different processing conditions affect the replication of microstructures. Additionally, there are no reports molding nanostructures of LSR. Features between 115 microm and 0.250 microm were molded in this work and the effect of different processing conditions and features sizes were studied. For the last part of this work, a novel metal additive manufacturing technique was used for the production of microstructured surfaces to be used as tooling for injection molding. The printing method consists of metal pastes printed through a tip onto a steel substrate. Prior work has shown spreading and swelling of features when metal pastes extrude out of the printing tip. PDMS was studied as a binder material to minimize spreading and swelling of the features by curing right after printing. In addition, prior work has shown durability of this metal printed tool up to 5000 injection molding cycles. This work compares this durability to durability of commercially available selective laser sintering metal tools. Furthermore, surface roughness was studied as this is one of the most important things to consider when molding microchannels for certain applications.

Process and part filling control in micro injection molding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Schoth, Andreas

2008-01-01

The influence of process parameters on μ-injection molding (μIM) and on μ-injection molded parts has been investigated using Design of Experiments. A mold with a sensor applied at injection location was used to monitor actual injection pressure and to determine the cavity filling time. Flow markers...... position was measured on the polymer μ-parts to evaluate filling behavior of the polymer melt flowing through μ-features. Experimental results obtained under different processing conditions were evaluated to correlate the process parameter levels influence on the selected responses. Results showed...... that the injection speed in one of the most influencing process parameters on the μIM process and on the μ-parts filling....

Micro Injection Molding of Thin Walled Geometries with Induction Heating System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Menotti, Stefano; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Bissacco, Giuliano

2014-01-01

To eliminate defects and improve the quality of molded parts, increasing the mold temperature is one of the applicable solutions. A high mold temperature can increase the path flow of the polymer inside the cavity allowing reduction of the number of injection points, reduction of part thickness...... and moulding of smaller and more complex geometries. The last two aspects are very important in micro injection molding. In this paper a new embedded induction heating system is proposed and validated. An experimental investigation was performed based on a test geometry integrating different aspect ratios...... of small structures. ABS was used as material and different combinations of injection velocity, pressure and mold temperature were tested. The replicated test objects were measured by means of an optical CMM machine. On the basis of the experimental investigation the efficacy of the embedded induction...

Microfluidic production of bioactive fibrin micro-beads embedded in crosslinked collagen used as an injectable bulking agent for urinary incontinence treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Vardar, E; Larsson, H M; Allazetta, S; Engelhardt, E M; Pinnagoda, K; Vythilingam, G; Hubbell, J A; Lutolf, M P; Frey, P

2018-02-01

Endoscopic injection of bulking agents has been widely used to treat urinary incontinence, often due to urethral sphincter complex insufficiency. The aim of the study was to develop a novel injectable bioactive collagen-fibrin bulking agent restoring long-term continence by functional muscle tissue regeneration. Fibrin micro-beads were engineered using a droplet microfluidic system. They had an average diameter of 140 μm and recombinant fibrin-binding insulin-like growth factor-1 (α 2 PI 1-8 -MMP-IGF-1) was covalently conjugated to the beads. A plasmin fibrin degradation assay showed that 72.5% of the initial amount of α 2 PI 1-8 -MMP-IGF-1 loaded into the micro-beads was retained within the fibrin micro-beads. In vitro, the growth factor modified fibrin micro-beads enhanced cell attachment and the migration of human urinary tract smooth muscle cells, however, no change of the cellular metabolic activity was seen. These bioactive micro-beads were mixed with genipin-crosslinked homogenized collagen, acting as a carrier. The collagen concentration, the degree of crosslinking, and the mechanical behavior of this bioactive collagen-fibrin injectable were comparable to reference samples. This novel injectable showed no burst release of the growth factor, had a positive effect on cell behavior and may therefore induce smooth muscle regeneration in vivo, necessary for the functional treatment of stress and other urinary incontinences. Urinary incontinence is involuntary urine leakage, resulting from a deficient function of the sphincter muscle complex. Yet there is no functional cure for this devastating condition using current treatment options. Applied physical and surgical therapies have limited success. In this study, a novel bioactive injectable bulking agent, triggering new muscle regeneration at the injection site, has been evaluated. This injectable consists of cross-linked collagen and fibrin micro-beads, functionalized with bound insulin-like growth factor

Investigation of process parameters influence on flash formation in injection moulding of polymer micro features through design of experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eladl, Abdelkhalik; Tosello, Guido; Mostafa, Rania

Micro injection moulding is one of the key technologies for micro manufacture due to its mass-production capability and relatively low component cost. Flash defects are among the most critical issues in the replication of micro features and constitute a manufacturing constrain in applying injecti...

Development of a sequential injection-square wave voltammetry method for determination of paraquat in water samples employing the hanging mercury drop electrode.

Science.gov (United States)

dos Santos, Luciana B O; Infante, Carlos M C; Masini, Jorge C

2010-03-01

This work describes the development and optimization of a sequential injection method to automate the determination of paraquat by square-wave voltammetry employing a hanging mercury drop electrode. Automation by sequential injection enhanced the sampling throughput, improving the sensitivity and precision of the measurements as a consequence of the highly reproducible and efficient conditions of mass transport of the analyte toward the electrode surface. For instance, 212 analyses can be made per hour if the sample/standard solution is prepared off-line and the sequential injection system is used just to inject the solution towards the flow cell. In-line sample conditioning reduces the sampling frequency to 44 h(-1). Experiments were performed in 0.10 M NaCl, which was the carrier solution, using a frequency of 200 Hz, a pulse height of 25 mV, a potential step of 2 mV, and a flow rate of 100 µL s(-1). For a concentration range between 0.010 and 0.25 mg L(-1), the current (i(p), µA) read at the potential corresponding to the peak maximum fitted the following linear equation with the paraquat concentration (mg L(-1)): i(p) = (-20.5 ± 0.3)C (paraquat) - (0.02 ± 0.03). The limits of detection and quantification were 2.0 and 7.0 µg L(-1), respectively. The accuracy of the method was evaluated by recovery studies using spiked water samples that were also analyzed by molecular absorption spectrophotometry after reduction of paraquat with sodium dithionite in an alkaline medium. No evidence of statistically significant differences between the two methods was observed at the 95% confidence level.

Investigation of Plasma Treatment on Micro-Injection Moulded Microneedle for Drug Delivery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karthik Nair

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Plasma technology has been widely used to increase the surface energy of the polymer surfaces for many industrial applications; in particular to increase in wettability. The present work was carried out to investigate how surface modification using plasma treatment modifies the surface energy of micro-injection moulded microneedles and its influence on drug delivery. Microneedles of polyether ether ketone and polycarbonate and have been manufactured using micro-injection moulding and samples from each production batch have been subsequently subjected to a range of plasma treatment. These samples were coated with bovine serum albumin to study the protein adsorption on these treated polymer surfaces. Sample surfaces structures, before and after treatment, were studied using atomic force microscope and surface energies have been obtained using contact angle measurement and calculated using the Owens-Wendt theory. Adsorption performance of bovine serum albumin and release kinetics for each sample set was assessed using a Franz diffusion cell. Results indicate that plasma treatment significantly increases the surface energy and roughness of the microneedles resulting in better adsorption and release of BSA.

Exploiting an automated microfluidic hydrodynamic sequential injection system for determination of phosphate.

Science.gov (United States)

Khongpet, Wanpen; Pencharee, Somkid; Puangpila, Chanida; Kradtap Hartwell, Supaporn; Lapanantnoppakhun, Somchai; Jakmunee, Jaroon

2018-01-15

A microfluidic hydrodynamic sequential injection (μHSI) spectrophotometric system was designed and fabricated. The system was built by laser engraving a manifold pattern on an acrylic block and sealing with another flat acrylic plate to form a microfluidic channel platform. The platform was incorporated with small solenoid valves to obtain a portable setup for programmable control of the liquid flow into the channel according to the HSI principle. The system was demonstrated for the determination of phosphate using a molybdenum blue method. An ascorbic acid, standard or sample, and acidic molybdate solutions were sequentially aspirated to fill the channel forming a stack zone before flowing to the detector. Under the optimum condition, a linear calibration graph in the range of 0.1-6mg P L -1 was obtained. The detection limit was 0.1mgL -1 . The system is compact (5.0mm thick, 80mm wide × 140mm long), durable, portable, cost-effective, and consumes little amount of chemicals (83μL each of molybdate and ascorbic acid, 133μL of the sample solution and 1.7mL of water carrier/run). It was applied for the determination of phosphate content in extracted soil samples. The percent recoveries of the analysis were obtained in the range of 91.2-107.3. The results obtained agreed well with those of the batch spectrophotometric method. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of Metal/Polymer Mixtures Dedicated to Macro and Micro powder Injection Moulding : Experiments and Simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quinard, C.; Barriere, T.; Gelin, J. C.; Song, J. P.; Cheng, Z. Q.; Liu, B. S.

2007-01-01

Important research tasks at ENSMM/LMA are concerned for the development of mixtures of fine powders associated to polymer binders dedicated to the powder injection moulding (PIM) and to the powder injection micro-moulding (μPIM) in accordance with many works already carried out with different feedstock suppliers dedicated to the macro-components. These research tasks are completed with the simulations of injection and sintering for solid state diffusion for to validate the mumerical models

Regimes of Micro-bubble Formation Using Gas Injection into Ladle Shroud

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Sheng; Cao, Xiangkun; Zou, Zongshu

2018-06-01

Gas injection into a ladle shroud is a practical approach to produce micro-bubbles in tundishes, to promote inclusion removal from liquid steel. A semi-empirical model was established to characterize the bubble formation considering the effect of shearing action combined with the non-fully bubble break-up by turbulence. The model shows a good accuracy in predicting the size of bubbles formed in complex flow within the ladle shroud.

Sequential injection approach for simultaneous determination of ultratrace plutonium and neptunium in urine with accelerator mass spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qiao, Jixin; Hou, Xiaolin; Roos, Per

2013-01-01

An analytical method was developed for simultaneous determination of ultratrace level plutonium (Pu) and neptunium (Np) using iron hydroxide coprecipitation in combination with automated sequential injection extraction chromatography separation and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement...... show that preboiling and aging are important for obtaining high chemical yields for both Pu and Np, which is possibly related to the aggregation and adsorption behavior of organic substances contained in urine. Although the optimal condition for Np and Pu simultaneous determination requires 5-day aging...

Wavelet Spatial Energy Spectrums Studies on Drag Reduction by Micro-bubble Injection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ling Zhen; Yassin Hassan

2006-01-01

In this study, continuous wavelet transforms and spatial correlation techniques are employed to determine the space-localized wavenumber energy spectrum of the velocity signals in turbulent channel flow. The flow conditions correspond to single phase flow and micro-bubbles injected two phase flow. The wavelet energy spectrums demonstrate that the wavenumber (eddy size) content of the velocity signals is not only space-dependent but also micro-bubbles can impact the eddy size content. Visual observations of the wavelet energy spectrum spatial distribution was realized by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement technique. The two phase flow condition corresponds to a drag reduction of 38.4% with void fraction of 4.9%. The present results provide evidence that micro-bubbles in the boundary layer of a turbulent channel flow can help adjust the eddy size distributions near the wall. This can assist in explaining that micro-bubbles are performing as buffers to keep the energy of fluid particles going in stream-wise direction and reducing the energy of fluid particles going in normal direction. (authors)

Double tracer autoradiographic method for sequential evaluation of regional cerebral perfusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuda, H.; Tsuji, S.; Oba, H.; Kinuya, K.; Terada, H.; Sumiya, H.; Shiba, K.; Mori, H.; Hisada, K.; Maeda, T.

1989-01-01

A new double tracer autoradiographic method for the sequential evaluation of altered regional cerebral perfusion in the same animal is presented. This method is based on the sequential injection of two tracers, 99m Tc-hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime and N-isopropyl-( 125 I)p-iodoamphetamine. This method is validated in the assessment of brovincamine effects on regional cerebral perfusion in an experimental model of chronic brain ischemia in the rat. The drug enhanced perfusion recovery in low-flow areas, selectively in surrounding areas of infarction. The results suggest that this technique is of potential use in the study of neuropharmacological effects applied during the experiment

Microfabricated thermal modulator for comprehensive two-dimensional micro gas chromatography: design, thermal modeling, and preliminary testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sung-Jin; Reidy, Shaelah M; Block, Bruce P; Wise, Kensall D; Zellers, Edward T; Kurabayashi, Katsuo

2010-07-07

In comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC), a modulator is placed at the juncture between two separation columns to focus and re-inject eluting mixture components, thereby enhancing the resolution and the selectivity of analytes. As part of an effort to develop a microGC x microGC prototype, in this report we present the design, fabrication, thermal operation, and initial testing of a two-stage microscale thermal modulator (microTM). The microTM contains two sequential serpentine Pyrex-on-Si microchannels (stages) that cryogenically trap analytes eluting from the first-dimension column and thermally inject them into the second-dimension column in a rapid, programmable manner. For each modulation cycle (typically 5 s for cooling with refrigeration work of 200 J and 100 ms for heating at 10 W), the microTM is kept approximately at -50 degrees C by a solid-state thermoelectric cooling unit placed within a few tens of micrometres of the device, and heated to 250 degrees C at 2800 degrees C s(-1) by integrated resistive microheaters and then cooled back to -50 degrees C at 250 degrees C s(-1). Thermal crosstalk between the two stages is less than 9%. A lumped heat transfer model is used to analyze the device design with respect to the rates of heating and cooling, power dissipation, and inter-stage thermal crosstalk as a function of Pyrex-membrane thickness, air-gap depth, and stage separation distance. Experimental results are in agreement with trends predicted by the model. Preliminary tests using a conventional capillary column interfaced to the microTM demonstrate the capability for enhanced sensitivity and resolution as well as the modulation of a mixture of alkanes.

Effect of process parameters on flow length and flash formation in injection moulding of high aspect ratio polymeric micro features

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eladl, Abdelkhalik; Mostafa, Rania; Islam, Aminul

2018-01-01

This paper reports an investigation of the effects of process parameters on the quality characteristics of polymeric parts produced by micro injection moulding (µIM) with two different materials. Four injection moulding process parameters (injection velocity, holding pressure, melt temperature an...

Simultaneous determination of rutin and ascorbic acid in a sequential injection lab-at-valve system.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Shwaiyat, Mohammed Khair E A; Miekh, Yuliia V; Denisenko, Tatyana A; Vishnikin, Andriy B; Andruch, Vasil; Bazel, Yaroslav R

2018-02-05

A green, simple, accurate and highly sensitive sequential injection lab-at-valve procedure has been developed for the simultaneous determination of ascorbic acid (Asc) and rutin using 18-molybdo-2-phosphate Wells-Dawson heteropoly anion (18-MPA). The method is based on the dependence of the reaction rate between 18-MPA and reducing agents on the solution pH. Only Asc is capable of interacting with 18-MPA at pH 4.7, while at pH 7.4 the reaction with both Asc and rutin proceeds simultaneously. In order to improve the precision and sensitivity of the analysis, to minimize reagent consumption and to remove the Schlieren effect, the manifold for the sequential injection analysis was supplemented with external reaction chamber, and the reaction mixture was segmented. By the reduction of 18-MPA with reducing agents one- and two-electron heteropoly blues are formed. The fraction of one-electron heteropoly blue increases at low concentrations of the reducer. Measurement of the absorbance at a wavelength corresponding to the isobestic point allows strictly linear calibration graphs to be obtained. The calibration curves were linear in the concentration ranges of 0.3-24mgL -1 and 0.2-14mgL -1 with detection limits of 0.13mgL -1 and 0.09mgL -1 for rutin and Asc, respectively. The determination of rutin was possible in the presence of up to a 20-fold molar excess of Asc. The method was applied to the determination of Asc and rutin in ascorutin tablets with acceptable accuracy and precision (1-2%). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A bio-ballistic micro-jet for drug injection into animal skin using a Nd:YAG laser

Science.gov (United States)

Yoh, J. J.; Jang, H.; Park, M.; Han, T.; Hah, J.

2016-01-01

Imaging of the abdominal skin of a guinea pig after injecting a fluorescent probe and biotin via the laser-induced ballistic technique revealed the epidermal and dermal layers which were stained well below 60 \\upmu m underneath the outer layer of the skin. An extensive network of cells was evident in the deeper layer of the stained dermis as the distributed fluorescein isothiocyanate dose was administered by repeated injection using a laser-based micro-jet. We performed optically controlled release of the drug by breaching the guinea pig's skin tissue targeting the region 10-400 \\upmu m beneath the outermost layer. Tissue damage was minimized by reducing the injection volume to approximately 100 nl per pulse. This was done using a micro-jet diameter equal to half of that of a conventional 200 \\upmu m syringe needle. Thus, the optimally controlled delivery of liquid drugs using an irradiated laser pulse was shown to be possible.

Cross correlation coefficients of turbulent boundary layer with micro-bubble injection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Claudia del Carmen Gutierrez-Torres [LABINTHAP-SEPI-ESIME, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, U.P. Adolfo Lopez Mateos Edif. 5 3er. Piso, Col Lindavista, C.P. 07738, Mexico, D. F. (Mexico); Yassin A Hassan; Jose Alfredo Jimenez-Bernal [Texas A and M University, College Station, Tx. 77843-3133 (United States)

2005-07-01

Full text of publication follows: Injection of micro-bubbles within the turbulent boundary layer has been investigated for a several years as a method to achieve drag reduction. However, the physical mechanism of this phenomenon is not fully understood yet. Experiments in a channel flow for single phase (water) and two phase (water and micro-bubbles) flows under different void fraction conditions are reported for a Reynolds number of 5128. Particle Image Velocimetry technique is used to measure instantaneous velocity fields. Consequently the cross-correlation coefficient Ruv can be calculated along the stream-wise direction for various different y{sup +} positions and along the normal direction for the fluctuating components of the velocity obtained from the instantaneous velocity fields. The experiments were carried out in a rectangular acrylic channel, whose dimensions are 4.8 m length, 20.6 cm wide and 5.6 cm height. Water was driven trough the channel by gravity from a tank, which was located 3 m above the channel. Then, water was conducted to a lower tank; from which water was pumped to the upper thank forming a closed loop. Upper tank's water level was kept constant through the tests to ensure constant flow rate trough the channel. The velocity field in the x-y plane was obtained by particle image velocimetry (PIV) at 3.15 m downstream from the channel inlet. A Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 532 nm (green light) and power of 350 mJ per pulse is utilized. The particles used for seeding have a diameter that goes from 6-9 {mu}m with a specific gravity almost identical to water s specific gravity. The laser light scattered from the seeding particles was recorded using a CCD Kodak Megaplus camera, Model ES 1.0, 1008 x 1018 pixels. The viewing area was 1.28 cm{sup 2} and was located close to the channel wall. The system recorded 30 velocity fields per second. Each velocity field was obtained from a pair of consecutive images capturing the second image of

Cross correlation coefficients of turbulent boundary layer with micro-bubble injection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Claudia del Carmen Gutierrez-Torres; Yassin A Hassan; Jose Alfredo Jimenez-Bernal

2005-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Injection of micro-bubbles within the turbulent boundary layer has been investigated for a several years as a method to achieve drag reduction. However, the physical mechanism of this phenomenon is not fully understood yet. Experiments in a channel flow for single phase (water) and two phase (water and micro-bubbles) flows under different void fraction conditions are reported for a Reynolds number of 5128. Particle Image Velocimetry technique is used to measure instantaneous velocity fields. Consequently the cross-correlation coefficient Ruv can be calculated along the stream-wise direction for various different y + positions and along the normal direction for the fluctuating components of the velocity obtained from the instantaneous velocity fields. The experiments were carried out in a rectangular acrylic channel, whose dimensions are 4.8 m length, 20.6 cm wide and 5.6 cm height. Water was driven trough the channel by gravity from a tank, which was located 3 m above the channel. Then, water was conducted to a lower tank; from which water was pumped to the upper thank forming a closed loop. Upper tank's water level was kept constant through the tests to ensure constant flow rate trough the channel. The velocity field in the x-y plane was obtained by particle image velocimetry (PIV) at 3.15 m downstream from the channel inlet. A Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 532 nm (green light) and power of 350 mJ per pulse is utilized. The particles used for seeding have a diameter that goes from 6-9 μm with a specific gravity almost identical to water s specific gravity. The laser light scattered from the seeding particles was recorded using a CCD Kodak Megaplus camera, Model ES 1.0, 1008 x 1018 pixels. The viewing area was 1.28 cm 2 and was located close to the channel wall. The system recorded 30 velocity fields per second. Each velocity field was obtained from a pair of consecutive images capturing the second image of the pair 1 ms after

Sequential and simultaneous choices: testing the diet selection and sequential choice models.

Science.gov (United States)

Freidin, Esteban; Aw, Justine; Kacelnik, Alex

2009-03-01

We investigate simultaneous and sequential choices in starlings, using Charnov's Diet Choice Model (DCM) and Shapiro, Siller and Kacelnik's Sequential Choice Model (SCM) to integrate function and mechanism. During a training phase, starlings encountered one food-related option per trial (A, B or R) in random sequence and with equal probability. A and B delivered food rewards after programmed delays (shorter for A), while R ('rejection') moved directly to the next trial without reward. In this phase we measured latencies to respond. In a later, choice, phase, birds encountered the pairs A-B, A-R and B-R, the first implementing a simultaneous choice and the second and third sequential choices. The DCM predicts when R should be chosen to maximize intake rate, and SCM uses latencies of the training phase to predict choices between any pair of options in the choice phase. The predictions of both models coincided, and both successfully predicted the birds' preferences. The DCM does not deal with partial preferences, while the SCM does, and experimental results were strongly correlated to this model's predictions. We believe that the SCM may expose a very general mechanism of animal choice, and that its wider domain of success reflects the greater ecological significance of sequential over simultaneous choices.

Investigation of direct-injection via micro-porous injector

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reijnders, J.J.E.; Boot, M.D.; Luijten, C.C.M.; Goey, de L.P.H.

2009-01-01

The possibility to reduce soot emissions by means of injecting diesel fuel through a porous injector is investigated. From literature it is known that better oxygen entrainment into the fuel spray leads to lower soot emissions. By selection of porous material properties and geometry, the spray is

Enhanced selection of micro-aerobic pentachlorophenol degrading granular sludge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lv, Yuancai, E-mail: donkey1204@hotmail.com [State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, College of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640 (China); Chen, Yuancai, E-mail: chenyc@scut.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, College of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640 (China); Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration Area, College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006 (China); Song, Wenzhe, E-mail: songwenzhe007@126.com [Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration Area, College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006 (China); Hu, Yongyou, E-mail: ppyyhu@scut.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, College of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640 (China); Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration Area, College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006 (China)

2014-09-15

Graphical abstract: In this work, an aerobic column reactor was placed before the USB to maintain micro-oxygen condition in the reactor and the micro-aerobic pentachlorophenol (PCP) degrading granular sludge under oxygen-limited conditions (0.1–0.2 mg L{sup −1}) was successfully obtained. PCP degradation by the micro-aerobic system was studied and the variance of microbial community was also discussed by using PCR-DGGE analysis. - Highlights: • Micro-aerobic granular sludge was cultivated in column-type combined reactors. • PCP biodegradation, VFA accumulation and biogas production were studied. • The function of Methanogenic archaeon in the system was investigated. • Fluctuation and diversity of microbial community were discussed by DGGE analysis. • The dominated microorganisms were identified by 16S rDNA sequences. - Abstract: Column-type combined reactors were designed to cultivate micro-aerobic pentachlorophenol (PCP) degrading granular sludge under oxygen-limited conditions (0.1–0.2 mg L{sup −1}) over 39-day experimental period. Micro-aerobic granular had both anaerobic activity (SMA: 2.34 mMCH{sub 4}/h g VSS) and aerobic activity (SOUR: 2.21 mMO{sub 2}/h g VSS). Metabolite analysis results revealed that PCP was sequentially dechlorinated to TCP, DCP, and eventually to MCP. Methanogens were not directly involved in the dechlorination of PCP, but might played a vital role in stabilizing the overall structure of the granule sludge. For Eubacteria, the Shannon Index (2.09 in inoculated granular sludge) increased both in micro-aerobic granular sludge (2.61) and PCP-degradation granular sludge (2.55). However, for Archaea, it decreased from 2.53 to 1.85 and 1.84, respectively. Although the Shannon Index demonstrated slight difference between micro-aerobic granular sludge and PCP-degradation granular sludge, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indicated obvious variance of the microbial composition, revealing significant effect of micro

Enhanced selection of micro-aerobic pentachlorophenol degrading granular sludge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lv, Yuancai; Chen, Yuancai; Song, Wenzhe; Hu, Yongyou

2014-01-01

Graphical abstract: In this work, an aerobic column reactor was placed before the USB to maintain micro-oxygen condition in the reactor and the micro-aerobic pentachlorophenol (PCP) degrading granular sludge under oxygen-limited conditions (0.1–0.2 mg L −1 ) was successfully obtained. PCP degradation by the micro-aerobic system was studied and the variance of microbial community was also discussed by using PCR-DGGE analysis. - Highlights: • Micro-aerobic granular sludge was cultivated in column-type combined reactors. • PCP biodegradation, VFA accumulation and biogas production were studied. • The function of Methanogenic archaeon in the system was investigated. • Fluctuation and diversity of microbial community were discussed by DGGE analysis. • The dominated microorganisms were identified by 16S rDNA sequences. - Abstract: Column-type combined reactors were designed to cultivate micro-aerobic pentachlorophenol (PCP) degrading granular sludge under oxygen-limited conditions (0.1–0.2 mg L −1 ) over 39-day experimental period. Micro-aerobic granular had both anaerobic activity (SMA: 2.34 mMCH 4 /h g VSS) and aerobic activity (SOUR: 2.21 mMO 2 /h g VSS). Metabolite analysis results revealed that PCP was sequentially dechlorinated to TCP, DCP, and eventually to MCP. Methanogens were not directly involved in the dechlorination of PCP, but might played a vital role in stabilizing the overall structure of the granule sludge. For Eubacteria, the Shannon Index (2.09 in inoculated granular sludge) increased both in micro-aerobic granular sludge (2.61) and PCP-degradation granular sludge (2.55). However, for Archaea, it decreased from 2.53 to 1.85 and 1.84, respectively. Although the Shannon Index demonstrated slight difference between micro-aerobic granular sludge and PCP-degradation granular sludge, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indicated obvious variance of the microbial composition, revealing significant effect of micro-aerobic condition and

Selected Topics in MicroNano-robotics for Biomedical Applications

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Selected Topics in Micro/Nano-robotics for Biomedical Applications features a system approach and incorporates modern methodologies in autonomous mobile robots for programmable and controllable micro/nano-robots aiming at biomedical applications. The book provides chapters of instructional materials and cutting-edge research results in micro/nanorobotics for biomedical applications. The book presents new sensing technology on nanofibers, new power supply techniques including miniature fuel cells and energy harvesting devices, and manipulation techniques including AFM-based nano-robotic manipulation, robot-aided optical tweezers, and robot-assisted catheter surgery systems. It also contains case studies on using micro/nano-robots in biomedical environments and in biomedicine, as well as a design example to conceptually develop a Vitamin-pill sized robot to enter human’s gastrointestinal tract. Each chapter covers a different topic of the highly interdisciplinary area. Bring together the selected topics into ...

Replication of Micro pillars by PEEK injection moulding with CrN coated Ni tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yang; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Sørensen, Søren

2015-01-01

A micro-structured nickel insert was investigatedfor polyether ether ketone (PEEK) injection moulding. Themicro-features were circular holes 4 μm in diameter and2 μm deep, with a 2-μm edge-to-edge distance. Six thousand moulding cycles were operated. Half of the insert was coatedby approximately...

Sequential injection chromatography with post-column reaction/derivatization for the determination of transition metal cations in natural water samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Horstkotte, Burkhard; Jarošová, Patrícia; Chocholouš, Petr; Sklenářová, Hana; Solich, Petr

2015-05-01

In this work, the applicability of Sequential Injection Chromatography for the determination of transition metals in water is evaluated for the separation of copper(II), zinc(II), and iron(II) cations. Separations were performed using a Dionex IonPAC™ guard column (50mm×2mm i.d., 9 µm). Mobile phase composition and post-column reaction were optimized by modified SIMPLEX method with subsequent study of the concentration of each component. The mobile phase consisted of 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid as analyte-selective compound, sodium sulfate, and formic acid/sodium formate buffer. Post-column addition of 4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol was carried out for spectrophotometric detection of the analytes׳ complexes at 530nm. Approaches to achieve higher robustness, baseline stability, and detection sensitivity by on-column stacking of the analytes and initial gradient implementation as well as air-cushion pressure damping for post-column reagent addition were studied. The method allowed the rapid separation of copper(II), zinc(II), and iron(II) within 6.5min including pump refilling and aspiration of sample and 1mmol HNO3 for analyte stacking on the separation column. High sensitivity was achieved applying an injection volume of up to 90µL. A signal repeatability of<2% RSD of peak height was found. Analyte recovery evaluated by spiking of different natural water samples was well suited for routine analysis with sub-micromolar limits of detection. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Soft Tooling process chain employing Additive Manufacturing for injection molding of a 3D component with micro pillars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yang; Pedersen, David Bue; Segebrecht Gøtje, Asger

2017-01-01

The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to investigate the capability of a soft tooling process chain employing Additive Manufacturing (AM) for preproduction of an insert with micro features by injection molding. The Soft Tooling insert was manufactured in a high temperature...... photopolymer by Digital Light Processing (vat photopolymerization). The mold cavity was formed by two insert halves, by design; both inserts have four angled tines, with micro holes (Ø200 μm, 200 μm deep) on the surface. Injection molding with polyethylene was used with the soft tool inserts to manufacture...

Sequential Injection Method for Rapid and Simultaneous Determination of 236U, 237Np, and Pu Isotopes in Seawater

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qiao, Jixin; Hou, Xiaolin; Steier, Peter

2013-01-01

An automated analytical method implemented in a novel dual-column tandem sequential injection (SI) system was developed for simultaneous determination of 236U, 237Np, 239Pu, and 240Pu in seawater samples. A combination of TEVA and UTEVA extraction chromatography was exploited to separate and purify...... target analytes, whereupon plutonium and neptunium were simultaneously isolated and purified on TEVA, while uranium was collected on UTEVA. The separation behavior of U, Np, and Pu on TEVA–UTEVA columns was investigated in detail in order to achieve high chemical yields and complete purification...

Visual detection and sequential injection determination of aluminium using a cinnamoyl derivative.

Science.gov (United States)

Elečková, Lenka; Alexovič, Michal; Kuchár, Juraj; Balogh, Ioseph S; Andruch, Vasil

2015-02-01

A cinnamoyl derivative, 3-[4-(dimethylamino)cinnamoyl]-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-3,4-2H-pyran-2-one, was used as a ligand for the determination of aluminium. Upon the addition of an acetonitrile solution of the ligand to an aqueous solution containing Al(III) and a buffer solution at pH 8, a marked change in colour from yellow to orange is observed. The colour intensity is proportional to the concentration of Al(III); thus, the 'naked-eye' detection of aluminium is possible. The reaction is also applied for sequential injection determination of aluminium. Beer׳s law is obeyed in the range from 0.055 to 0.66 mg L(-1) of Al(III). The limit of detection, calculated as three times the standard deviation of the blank test (n=10), was found to be 4 μg L(-1) for Al(III). The method was applied for the determination of aluminium in spiked water samples and pharmaceutical preparations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Time-Sequential Working Wavelength-Selective Filter for Flat Autostereoscopic Displays

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

René de la Barré

2017-02-01

Full Text Available A time-sequential working, spatially-multiplexed autostereoscopic 3D display design consisting of a fast switchable RGB-color filter array and a fast color display is presented. The newly-introduced 3D display design is usable as a multi-user display, as well as a single-user system. The wavelength-selective filter barrier emits the light from a larger aperture than common autostereoscopic barrier displays with similar barrier pitch and ascent. Measurements on a demonstrator with commercial display components, simulations and computational evaluations have been carried out to describe the proposed wavelength-selective display design in static states and to show the weak spots of display filters in commercial displays. An optical modelling of wavelength-selective barriers has been used for instance to calculate the light ray distribution properties of that arrangement. In the time-sequential implementation, it is important to avoid that quick eye or eyelid movement leads to visible color artifacts. Therefore, color filter cells, switching faster than conventional LC display cells, must distribute directed light from different primaries at the same time, to create a 3D presentation. For that, electric tunable liquid crystal Fabry–Pérot color filters are presented. They switch on-off the colors red, green and blue in the millisecond regime. Their active areas consist of a sub-micrometer-thick nematic layer sandwiched between dielectric mirrors and indium tin oxide (ITO-electrodes. These cells shall switch narrowband light of red, green or blue. A barrier filter array for a high resolution, glasses-free 3D display has to be equipped with several thousand switchable filter elements having different color apertures.

Iodine speciation in coastal and inland bathing waters and seaweeds extracts using a sequential injection standard addition flow-batch method.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Inês C; Mesquita, Raquel B R; Bordalo, Adriano A; Rangel, António O S S

2015-02-01

The present work describes the development of a sequential injection standard addition method for iodine speciation in bathing waters and seaweeds extracts without prior sample treatment. Iodine speciation was obtained by assessing the iodide and iodate content, the two inorganic forms of iodine in waters. For the determination of iodide, an iodide ion selective electrode (ISE) was used. The indirect determination of iodate was based on the spectrophotometric determination of nitrite (Griess reaction). For the iodate measurement, a mixing chamber was employed (flow batch approach) to explore the inherent efficient mixing, essential for the indirect determination of iodate. The application of the standard addition method enabled detection limits of 0.14 µM for iodide and 0.02 µM for iodate, together with the direct introduction of the target water samples, coastal and inland bathing waters. The results obtained were in agreement with those obtained by ICP-MS and a colorimetric reference procedure. Recovery tests also confirmed the accuracy of the developed method which was effectively applied to bathing waters and seaweed extracts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Immersed single-drop microextraction interfaced with sequential injection analysis for determination of Cr(VI) in natural waters by electrothermal-atomic absorption spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pena, Francisco; Lavilla, Isela; Bendicho, Carlos

2008-01-01

Single-drop microextraction (SDME) and sequential injection analysis have been hyphenated for ultratrace metal determination by Electrothermal-Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ETAAS). The novel method was targeted on extraction of the Cr(VI)-APDC chelate and encompasses the potential of SDME as a miniaturized and virtually solvent-free preconcentration technique, the ability of sequential injection analysis to handle samples and the versatility of furnace autosamplers for introducing microliter samples in ETAAS. The variables influencing the microextraction of Cr(VI) onto an organic solvent drop, i.e., type of organic solvent, microextraction time, stirring rate of the sample solution, drop volume, immersion depth of the drop, salting-out effect, temperature of the sample, concentration of the complexing agent and pH of the sample solution were fully investigated. For a 5 and 20 min microextraction time, the preconcentration factors were 20 and 70, respectively. The detection limit was 0.02 μg/L of Cr(VI) and the repeatability expressed as relative standard deviation was 7%. The SDME-SIA-ETAAS technique was validated against BCR CRM 544 (lyophilized solution) and applied to ultrasensitive determination of Cr(VI) in natural waters

Immersed single-drop microextraction interfaced with sequential injection analysis for determination of Cr(VI) in natural waters by electrothermal-atomic absorption spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pena, Francisco; Lavilla, Isela [Departamento de Quimica Analitica y Alimentaria, Area de Quimica Analitica, Facultad de Quimica, Universidad de Vigo, Campus As Lagoas-Marcosende, s/n, 36310 Vigo (Spain); Bendicho, Carlos [Departamento de Quimica Analitica y Alimentaria, Area de Quimica Analitica, Facultad de Quimica, Universidad de Vigo, Campus As Lagoas-Marcosende, s/n, 36310 Vigo (Spain)], E-mail: bendicho@uvigo.es

2008-04-15

Single-drop microextraction (SDME) and sequential injection analysis have been hyphenated for ultratrace metal determination by Electrothermal-Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ETAAS). The novel method was targeted on extraction of the Cr(VI)-APDC chelate and encompasses the potential of SDME as a miniaturized and virtually solvent-free preconcentration technique, the ability of sequential injection analysis to handle samples and the versatility of furnace autosamplers for introducing microliter samples in ETAAS. The variables influencing the microextraction of Cr(VI) onto an organic solvent drop, i.e., type of organic solvent, microextraction time, stirring rate of the sample solution, drop volume, immersion depth of the drop, salting-out effect, temperature of the sample, concentration of the complexing agent and pH of the sample solution were fully investigated. For a 5 and 20 min microextraction time, the preconcentration factors were 20 and 70, respectively. The detection limit was 0.02 {mu}g/L of Cr(VI) and the repeatability expressed as relative standard deviation was 7%. The SDME-SIA-ETAAS technique was validated against BCR CRM 544 (lyophilized solution) and applied to ultrasensitive determination of Cr(VI) in natural waters.

Determination of dasatinib in the tablet dosage form by ultra high performance liquid chromatography, capillary zone electrophoresis, and sequential injection analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Aroa Garcia; Taraba, Lukáš; Hraníček, Jakub; Kozlík, Petr; Coufal, Pavel

2017-01-01

Dasatinib is a novel oral prescription drug proposed for treating adult patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Three analytical methods, namely ultra high performance liquid chromatography, capillary zone electrophoresis, and sequential injection analysis, were developed, validated, and compared for determination of the drug in the tablet dosage form. The total analysis time of optimized ultra high performance liquid chromatography and capillary zone electrophoresis methods was 2.0 and 2.2 min, respectively. Direct ultraviolet detection with detection wavelength of 322 nm was employed in both cases. The optimized sequential injection analysis method was based on spectrophotometric detection of dasatinib after a simple colorimetric reaction with folin ciocalteau reagent forming a blue-colored complex with an absorbance maximum at 745 nm. The total analysis time was 2.5 min. The ultra high performance liquid chromatography method provided the lowest detection and quantitation limits and the most precise and accurate results. All three newly developed methods were demonstrated to be specific, linear, sensitive, precise, and accurate, providing results satisfactorily meeting the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry, and can be employed for the routine determination of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in the tablet dosage form. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Development of an automated sequential injection on-line solvent extraction-back extraction procedure as demonstrated for the determination of cadmium with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2002-01-01

An automated sequential injection (SI) on-line solvent extraction-back extraction separation/preconcentration procedure is described. Demonstrated for the assay of cadmium by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS), the analyte is initially complexed with ammonium pyrrolidinedithioc......An automated sequential injection (SI) on-line solvent extraction-back extraction separation/preconcentration procedure is described. Demonstrated for the assay of cadmium by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS), the analyte is initially complexed with ammonium....../preconcentration process of the ensuing sample. An enrichment factor of 21.4, a detection limit of 2.7 ng/l, along with a sampling frequency of 13s/h were obtained at a sample flow rate of 6.0mlmin/sup -1/. The precision (R.S.D.) at the 0.4 mug/l level was 1.8% as compared to 3.2% when quantifying the organic extractant...

Sequential extraction of heavy metals from urban dust and street sediments. Pt. 1. Sequential extraction of heavy metals in micro samples; Sequentielle Schwermetallextraktion aus Staubniederschlaegen und Strassensedimenten. T. 1. Sequentielle Schwermetallextraktion von Mikroproben

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heiser, U.; Norra, S.; Stueben, D.; Wagner, M. von [Karlsruhe Univ. (T.H.) (Germany). Inst. fuer Petrographie und Geochemie

1999-01-01

For the application of sequential extraction of heavy metals from samples that can only be obtained in amounts of a few milligrams (micro samples, e.g. airborne dust fallout), the method after Zeien and Bruemmer (1989) was progressed. A down scale to 1:100 was carried out and the accuracy of this method with variable sample amounts of about 20 mg and an extraction volume of 500 {mu}l was proofed with standard soil samples. The influence of variable extraction ratios (ratio of sample amount and volume of extraction solvent) and the influence of intensive treatment of dust sampled by the Bergerhoff-method (VDI 2119/2, 1972) prior sequential extraction, was within the precision of measurement of our method. Thus, we showed that sequential extraction can be applied for the investigation of heavy metal mobilization in micro samples with variable sample amounts. A first application of our method for microsamples was carried out to investigate airborne dust fallout and street sediments at two urban sites where different heavy metal immission rates due to traffic influence occur. These investigations will be presented in part 2 (`Sequential extraxction of heavy metals from urban dust`). (orig.) [Deutsch] Fuer die Anwendung der sequentiellen Schwermetallextraktion auf Proben, die nur im Milligramm-Bereich erhalten werden koennen (Mikroproben, wie z.B. Staubniederschlaege), wurde die Methode von Zeien und Bruemmer (1989) weiterentwickelt. Der Extraktionsmassstab wurde um den Faktor 1:100 verringert und die Reproduzierbarkeit des Verfahrens mit variablen Probenmengen um 20 mg und einem Extraktionsvolumen von 500 {mu}l mit Hilfe von Standardboeden nachgewiesen. Moegliche Einfluesse variabler Extraktionsverhaeltnisse (Verhaeltnis von Probenmenge zu Extraktionsvolumen) sowie eine aufwendige Vorbehandlung von Staubproben, die nach der Bergerhoff-Methode (VDI 2119/2, 1972) gesammelt wurden, lagen bei diesen Untersuchungen weitgehend im Variationsbereich des Verfahrens. Die

Development of a flow method for the determination of phosphate in estuarine and freshwaters-Comparison of flow cells in spectrophotometric sequential injection analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mesquita, Raquel B.R.; Ferreira, M. Teresa S.O.B.; Toth, Ildiko V.; Bordalo, Adriano A.; McKelvie, Ian D.; Rangel, Antonio O.S.S.

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Sequential injection determination of phosphate in estuarine and freshwaters. → Alternative spectrophotometric flow cells are compared. → Minimization of schlieren effect was assessed. → Proposed method can cope with wide salinity ranges. → Multi-reflective cell shows clear advantages. - Abstract: A sequential injection system with dual analytical line was developed and applied in the comparison of two different detection systems viz; a conventional spectrophotometer with a commercial flow cell, and a multi-reflective flow cell coupled with a photometric detector under the same experimental conditions. The study was based on the spectrophotometric determination of phosphate using the molybdenum-blue chemistry. The two alternative flow cells were compared in terms of their response to variation of sample salinity, susceptibility to interferences and to refractive index changes. The developed method was applied to the determination of phosphate in natural waters (estuarine, river, well and ground waters). The achieved detection limit (0.007 μM PO 4 3- ) is consistent with the requirement of the target water samples, and a wide quantification range (0.024-9.5 μM) was achieved using both detection systems.

Development of a flow method for the determination of phosphate in estuarine and freshwaters-Comparison of flow cells in spectrophotometric sequential injection analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mesquita, Raquel B.R. [CBQF/Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, R. Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto (Portugal); Laboratory of Hydrobiology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS) and Institute of Marine Research (CIIMAR), Universidade do Porto, Lg. Abel Salazar 2, 4099-003 Porto (Portugal); Ferreira, M. Teresa S.O.B. [CBQF/Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, R. Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto (Portugal); Toth, Ildiko V. [REQUIMTE, Departamento de Quimica, Faculdade de Farmacia, Universidade de Porto, Rua Anibal Cunha, 164, 4050-047 Porto (Portugal); Bordalo, Adriano A. [Laboratory of Hydrobiology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS) and Institute of Marine Research (CIIMAR), Universidade do Porto, Lg. Abel Salazar 2, 4099-003 Porto (Portugal); McKelvie, Ian D. [School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 (Australia); Rangel, Antonio O.S.S., E-mail: aorangel@esb.ucp.pt [CBQF/Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, R. Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto (Portugal)

2011-09-02

Highlights: {yields} Sequential injection determination of phosphate in estuarine and freshwaters. {yields} Alternative spectrophotometric flow cells are compared. {yields} Minimization of schlieren effect was assessed. {yields} Proposed method can cope with wide salinity ranges. {yields} Multi-reflective cell shows clear advantages. - Abstract: A sequential injection system with dual analytical line was developed and applied in the comparison of two different detection systems viz; a conventional spectrophotometer with a commercial flow cell, and a multi-reflective flow cell coupled with a photometric detector under the same experimental conditions. The study was based on the spectrophotometric determination of phosphate using the molybdenum-blue chemistry. The two alternative flow cells were compared in terms of their response to variation of sample salinity, susceptibility to interferences and to refractive index changes. The developed method was applied to the determination of phosphate in natural waters (estuarine, river, well and ground waters). The achieved detection limit (0.007 {mu}M PO{sub 4}{sup 3-}) is consistent with the requirement of the target water samples, and a wide quantification range (0.024-9.5 {mu}M) was achieved using both detection systems.

Environmental Fate of Emamectin Benzoate After Tree Micro Injection of Horse Chestnut Trees

OpenAIRE

Burkhard, Rene; Binz, Heinz; Roux, Christian A; Brunner, Matthias; Ruesch, Othmar; Wyss, Peter

2014-01-01

Emamectin benzoate, an insecticide derived from the avermectin family of natural products, has a unique translocation behavior in trees when applied by tree micro injection (TMI), which can result in protection from insect pests (foliar and borers) for several years. Active ingredient imported into leaves was measured at the end of season in the fallen leaves of treated horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) trees. The dissipation of emamectin benzoate in these leaves seems to be biphasic an...

Home-Made Micro Valve for Determining Malachite Green Dye by Flow Injection Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amal Saadoon Majeed

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The research is included studying and designing micro flow injection system which is characterized with rapidity, simplicity, and low cost for the determination of green malachite dye. The study of flow rate of carrier stream, repeatability, dispersion coefficient, and calibration graph are conducted. It is found that the optimum conditions for the determination of mentioned dye are flow rate 4.200 mL/min, sampling rate 102 sample/h, limit of detection 0.05 ppm, linear range (0.05-18.00 ppm with linearity (R2=0.9700, RSD is 0.355, the repeatability for seven successive injections is studied for the two concentrations 5 ppm and 12 ppm, and the dispersion coefficient values are 1.73 and 1.28 at the two concentrations 2 ppm and 9 ppm respectively.

In-situ sequential laser transfer and laser reduction of graphene oxide films

Science.gov (United States)

Papazoglou, S.; Petridis, C.; Kymakis, E.; Kennou, S.; Raptis, Y. S.; Chatzandroulis, S.; Zergioti, I.

2018-04-01

Achieving high quality transfer of graphene on selected substrates is a priority in device fabrication, especially where drop-on-demand applications are involved. In this work, we report an in-situ, fast, simple, and one step process that resulted in the reduction, transfer, and fabrication of reduced graphene oxide-based humidity sensors, using picosecond laser pulses. By tuning the laser illumination parameters, we managed to implement the sequential printing and reduction of graphene oxide flakes. The overall process lasted only a few seconds compared to a few hours that our group has previously published. DC current measurements, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, and Raman Spectroscopy were employed in order to assess the efficiency of our approach. To demonstrate the applicability and the potential of the technique, laser printed reduced graphene oxide humidity sensors with a limit of detection of 1700 ppm are presented. The results demonstrated in this work provide a selective, rapid, and low-cost approach for sequential transfer and photochemical reduction of graphene oxide micro-patterns onto various substrates for flexible electronics and sensor applications.

Bioremediation of PAHs contaminated river sediment by an integrated approach with sequential injection of co-substrate and electron acceptor: Lab-scale study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Tongzhou; Zhang, Zhen; Dong, Wenyi; Wu, Xiaojing; Wang, Hongjie

2017-01-01

In this study, the feasibility of employing an integrated bioremediation approach in contaminated river sediment was evaluated. Sequential addition of co-substrate (acetate) and electron acceptor (NO 3 − ) in a two-phase treatment was capable of effectively removing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in river sediment. The residual concentration of total PAHs decreased to far below effect range low (ERL) value within 91 days of incubation, at which concentration it could rarely pose biological impairment. The biodegradation of high molecular weight PAHs were found to be mainly occurred in the sediment treated with co-substrates (i.e. acetate or methanol), in which acetate was found to be more suitable for PAHs degradation. The role of co-substrates in influencing PAHs biodegradation was tentatively discussed herein. Additionally, the sediment odorous problem and blackish appearance were intensively addressed by NO 3 − injection. The results of this study demonstrated that integrating two or more approaches/processes would be a helpful option in sediment remediation. It can lead to a more effective remediation performance, handle multiple contamination issues, as well as mitigate environmental risks caused by one of the single methods. - Highlights: • Sequential addition of acetate and NO 3 − removed PAHs and mitigated sediment odor. • Acetate is a suitable co-substrate used for PAHs degradation in river sediment. • NO 3 − Injection was effective for sediment odor and blackish appearance mitigation. • Integrated method is suggested in complicated real case with multi-remedial target. - Sequential addition of co-substrate and electron acceptor was capable of effectively removing PAHs and addressing sediment odorous problem and blackish appearance.

Micro-bead injection spectroscopy for label-free automated determination of immunoglobulin G in human serum.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos, Inês I; Magalhães, Luís M; Barreiros, Luisa; Reis, Salette; Lima, José L F C; Segundo, Marcela A

2018-01-01

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) represents the major fraction of antibodies in healthy adult human serum, and deviations from physiological levels are a generic marker of disease corresponding to different pathologies. Therefore, screening methods for IgG evaluation are a valuable aid to diagnostics. The present work proposes a rapid, automatic, and miniaturized method based on UV-vis micro-bead injection spectroscopy (μ-BIS) for the real-time determination of human serum IgG with label-free detection. Relying on attachment of IgG in rec-protein G immobilized in Sepharose 4B, a bioaffinity column is automatically assembled, where IgG is selectively retained and determined by on-column optical density measurement. A "dilution-and-shoot" approach (50 to 200 times) was implemented without further sample treatment because interferences were flushed out of the column upon sample loading, with minimization of carryover and cross-contamination by automatically discarding the sorbent (0.2 mg) after each determination. No interference from human serum albumin at 60 mg mL -1 in undiluted sample was found. The method allowed IgG determination in the range 100-300 μg mL -1 (corresponding to 5.0-60 mg mL -1 in undiluted samples), with a detection limit of 33 μg mL -1 (1.7 mg mL -1 for samples, dilution factor of 50). RSD values were time-to-result decreased from several hours to times, showing the potential of the proposed approach as a point-of-care method. Graphical abstract Micro-Bead Injection Spectroscopy method for real time, automated and label-free determination of total serum human Immunoglobulin G (IgG). The method was designed for Lab-on-Valve (LOV) platforms using a miniaturised protein G bioaffinity separative approach. IgG are separated from serum matrix components upon quantification with low non-specific binding in less than 5 min.

Sequential injection on-line matrix removal and trace metal preconcentration using a PTFE beads packed column as demonstrated for the determination of cadmium by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2002-01-01

A sequential injection (SI) on-line matrix removal and trace metal preconcentration procedure by using a novel microcolumn packed with PTFE beads is described, and demonstrated for trace cadmium analysis with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The analyte...

Plasma assisted nitriding for micro-texturing onto martensitic stainless steels*

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katoh Takahisa

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Micro-texturing method has grown up to be one of the most promising procedures to form micro-lines, micro-dots and micro-grooves onto the mold-die materials and to duplicate these micro-patterns onto metallic or polymer sheets via stamping or injection molding. This related application requires for large-area, fine micro-texturing onto the martensitic stainless steel mold-die materials. A new method other than laser-machining, micro-milling or micro-EDM is awaited for further advancement of this micro-texturing. In the present paper, a new micro-texturing method is developed on the basis of the plasma assisted nitriding to transform the two-dimensionally designed micro-patterns to the three dimensional micro-textures in the martensitic stainless steels. First, original patterns are printed onto the surface of stainless steel molds by using the dispenser or the ink-jet printer. Then, the masked mold is subjected to high density plasma nitriding; the un-masked surfaces are nitrided to have higher hardness, 1400 Hv than the matrix hardness, 200 Hv of stainless steels. This nitrided mold is further treated by sand-blasting to selectively remove the soft, masked surfaces. Finally, the micro-patterned martensitic stainless steel mold is fabricated as a tool to duplicate these micro-patterns onto the plastic materials by the injection molding.

Dimensional accuracy optimization of the micro-plastic injection molding process using the Taguchi design method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chil-Chyuan KUO KUO

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Plastic injection molding is an important field in manufacturing industry because there are many plastic products that produced by injection molding. However, the time and cost required for producing a precision mold are the most troublesome problems that limit the application at the development stage of a new product in precision machinery industry. This study presents an approach of manufacturing a hard mold with microfeatures for micro-plastic injection molding. This study also focuses on Taguchi design method for investigating the effect of injection parameters on the dimensional accuracy of Fresnel lens during plastic injection molding. It was found that the dominant factor affecting the microgroove depth of Fresnel lens is packing pressure. The optimum processing parameters are packing pressure of 80 MPa, melt temperature of 240 °C, mold temperature of 90 °C and injection speed of 50 m/s. The dimensional accuracy of Fresnel lens can be controlled within ±3 µm using the optimum level of process parameters through the confirmation test. The research results of this study have industrial application values because electro-optical industries are able to significantly reduce a new optical element development cycle time.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.21.2.5864

Effect of injection molded micro-structured polystyrene surfaces on proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Lucchetta

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In this work, osteoinductive micro-pillared polystyrene surfaces were mass-produced for bone replacement applications, by means of the micro injection molding process. Firstly, the molding process parameters were optimized with a two-level, three-factor central composite face-centered plan to increase the quality of polystyrene micro pillars replication and to maximize the pillars height uniformity over the molded part. Secondly, osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells adhesion and proliferation on the replicated substrates were assessed as a function of micro topography parameters, such as pillars diameter, aspect ratio and spacing. Cell morphology and proliferation were evaluated through MTS test after 1, 3 and 7 days from seeding. The experimental results showed that cells adhesion and proliferation is more positively promoted on micro-pillared surfaces compared to flat surfaces, but no correlations were observed between cell proliferation and pillar diameter and spacing.

Injection moulding of optical functional micro structures using laser structured, PVD-coated mould inserts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hopmann, Ch.; Weber, M.; Schöngart, M.; Schäfer, C., E-mail: weber@ikv-aachen.de [Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University (Germany); Bobzin, K.; Bagcivan, N.; Brögelmann, T.; Theiß, S.; Münstermann, T. [Surface Engineering Institute (IOT), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen (Germany); Steger, M. [Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT), Aachen (Germany)

2015-05-22

Micro structured optical plastics components are intensively used i. e. in consumer electronics, for optical sensors in metrology, innovative LED-lighting or laser technology. Injection moulding has proven to be successful for the large-scale production of those parts. However, the production of those parts still causes difficulties due to challenges in the moulding and demoulding of plastics parts created with laser structured mould inserts. A complete moulding of the structures often leads to increased demoulding forces, which then cause a breaking of the structures and a clogging of the mould. An innovative approach is to combine PVD-coated (physical vapour deposition), laser structured inserts and a variothermal moulding process to create functional mic8iüro structures in a one-step process. Therefore, a PVD-coating is applied after the laser structuring process in order to improve the wear resistance and the anti-adhesive properties against the plastics melt. In a series of moulding trials with polycarbonate (PC) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) using different coated moulds, the mould temperature during injection was varied in the range of the glass transition and the melt temperature of the polymers. Subsequently, the surface topography of the moulded parts is evaluated by digital 3D laser-scanning microscopy. The influence of the moulding parameters and the coating of the mould insert on the moulding accuracy and the demoulding behaviour are being analysed. It is shown that micro structures created by ultra-short pulse laser ablation can be successfully replicated in a variothermal moulding process. Due to the mould coating, significant improvements could be achieved in producing micro structured optical plastics components.

Sub-1min separation in sequential injection chromatography for determination of synthetic water-soluble dyes in pharmaceutical formulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Davletbaeva, Polina; Chocholouš, Petr; Bulatov, Andrey; Šatínský, Dalibor; Solich, Petr

2017-09-05

Sequential Injection Chromatography (SIC) evolved from fast and automated non-separation Sequential Injection Analysis (SIA) into chromatographic separation method for multi-element analysis. However, the speed of the measurement (sample throughput) is due to chromatography significantly reduced. In this paper, a sub-1min separation using medium polar cyano monolithic column (5mm×4.6mm) resulted in fast and green separation with sample throughput comparable with non-separation flow methods The separation of three synthetic water-soluble dyes (sunset yellow FCF, carmoisine and green S) was in a gradient elution mode (0.02% ammonium acetate, pH 6.7 - water) with flow rate of 3.0mLmin -1 corresponding with sample throughput of 30h -1 . Spectrophotometric detection wavelengths were set to 480, 516 and 630nm and 10Hz data collection rate. The performance of the separation was described and discussed (peak capacities 3.48-7.67, peak symmetries 1.72-1.84 and resolutions 1.42-1.88). The method was represented by validation parameters: LODs of 0.15-0.35mgL -1 , LOQs of 0.50-1.25mgL -1 , calibration ranges 0.50-150.00mgL -1 (r>0.998) and repeatability at 10.0mgL -1 of RSD≤0.98% (n=6). The method was used for determination of the dyes in "forest berries" colored pharmaceutical cough-cold formulation. The sample matrix - pharmaceuticals and excipients were not interfering with vis determination because of no retention in the separation column and colorless nature. The results proved the concept of fast and green chromatography approach using very short medium polar monolithic column in SIC. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Intrathecal Spread of Injectate Following an Ultrasound-Guided Selective C5 Nerve Root Injection in a Human Cadaver Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Falyar, Christian R; Abercrombie, Caroline; Becker, Robert; Biddle, Chuck

2016-04-01

Ultrasound-guided selective C5 nerve root blocks have been described in several case reports as a safe and effective means to anesthetize the distal clavicle while maintaining innervation of the upper extremity and preserving diaphragmatic function. In this study, cadavers were injected with 5 mL of 0.5% methylene blue dye under ultrasound guidance to investigate possible proximal and distal spread of injectate along the brachial plexus, if any. Following the injections, the specimens were dissected and examined to determine the distribution of dye and the structures affected. One injection revealed dye extended proximally into the epidural space, which penetrated the dura mater and was present on the spinal cord and brainstem. Dye was noted distally to the divisions in 3 injections. The anterior scalene muscle and phrenic nerve were stained in all 4 injections. It appears unlikely that local anesthetic spread is limited to the nerve root following an ultrasound-guided selective C5 nerve root injection. Under certain conditions, intrathecal spread also appears possible, which has major patient safety implications. Additional safety measures, such as injection pressure monitoring, should be incorporated into this block, or approaches that are more distal should be considered for the acute pain management of distal clavicle fractures.

Double-label autoradiographic deoxyglucose method for sequential measurement of regional cerebral glucose utilization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Redies, C; Diksic, M; Evans, A C; Gjedde, A; Yamamoto, Y L

1987-08-01

A new double-label autoradiographic glucose analog method for the sequential measurement of altered regional cerebral metabolic rates for glucose in the same animal is presented. This method is based on the sequential injection of two boluses of glucose tracer labeled with two different isotopes (short-lived /sup 18/F and long-lived /sup 3/H, respectively). An operational equation is derived which allows the determination of glucose utilization for the time period before the injection of the second tracer; this equation corrects for accumulation and loss of the first tracer from the metabolic pool occurring after the injection of the second tracer. An error analysis of this operational equation is performed. The double-label deoxyglucose method is validated in the primary somatosensory (''barrel'') cortex of the anesthetized rat. Two different rows of whiskers were stimulated sequentially in each rat; the two periods of stimulation were each preceded by an injection of glucose tracer. After decapitation, dried brain slices were first exposed, in direct contact, to standard X-ray film and then to uncoated, ''tritium-sensitive'' film. Results show that the double-label deoxyglucose method proposed in this paper allows the quantification and complete separation of glucose utilization patterns elicited by two different stimulations sequentially applied in the same animal.

Laboratory scale micro-seismic monitoring of rock faulting and injection-induced fault reactivation

Science.gov (United States)

Sarout, J.; Dautriat, J.; Esteban, L.; Lumley, D. E.; King, A.

2017-12-01

The South West Hub CCS project in Western Australia aims to evaluate the feasibility and impact of geosequestration of CO2 in the Lesueur sandstone formation. Part of this evaluation focuses on the feasibility and design of a robust passive seismic monitoring array. Micro-seismicity monitoring can be used to image the injected CO2plume, or any geomechanical fracture/fault activity; and thus serve as an early warning system by measuring low-level (unfelt) seismicity that may precede potentially larger (felt) earthquakes. This paper describes laboratory deformation experiments replicating typical field scenarios of fluid injection in faulted reservoirs. Two pairs of cylindrical core specimens were recovered from the Harvey-1 well at depths of 1924 m and 2508 m. In each specimen a fault is first generated at the in situ stress, pore pressure and temperature by increasing the vertical stress beyond the peak in a triaxial stress vessel at CSIRO's Geomechanics & Geophysics Lab. The faulted specimen is then stabilized by decreasing the vertical stress. The freshly formed fault is subsequently reactivated by brine injection and increase of the pore pressure until slip occurs again. This second slip event is then controlled in displacement and allowed to develop for a few millimeters. The micro-seismic (MS) response of the rock during the initial fracturing and subsequent reactivation is monitored using an array of 16 ultrasonic sensors attached to the specimen's surface. The recorded MS events are relocated in space and time, and correlate well with the 3D X-ray CT images of the specimen obtained post-mortem. The time evolution of the structural changes induced within the triaxial stress vessel is therefore reliably inferred. The recorded MS activity shows that, as expected, the increase of the vertical stress beyond the peak led to an inclined shear fault. The injection of fluid and the resulting increase in pore pressure led first to a reactivation of the pre

Current-Voltage Characteristics of DC Discharge in Micro Gas Jet Injected into Vacuum Environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matra, K; Furuta, H; Hatta, A

2013-01-01

A current-voltage characteristic of direct current (DC) gas discharge operated in a micro gas jet injected into a secondary electron microscope (SEM) chamber is presented. Ar gas was injected through a 30 μm orifice gas nozzle (OGN) and was evacuated by an additional pump to keep the high vacuum environment. Gas discharges were ignited between the OGN as anode and a counter electrode of Si wafer. The discharge was self-pulsating in most of the cases while it was stable at lower pressure, larger gap length, and larger time averaged current. The self-pulsating discharge was oscillated by the RC circuit consisting of a stray capacitor and a large ballast resistor. The real time plots of voltage and current during the pulsating was investigated using a discharge model.

Simultaneous determination of two active components of pharmaceutical preparations by sequential injection method using heteropoly complexes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammed Khair E. A. Al-Shwaiyat

2014-12-01

Full Text Available New approach has been proposed for the simultaneous determination of two reducing agents based on the dependence of their reaction rate with 18-molybdo-2-phosphate heteropoly complex on pH. The method was automated using the manifold typical for the sequential analysis method. Ascorbic acid and rutin were determined by successive injection of two samples acidified to different pH. The linear range for rutin determination was 0.6-20 mg/L and the detection limit was 0.2 mg/L (l = 1 cm. The determination of rutin was possible in the presence of up to a 20-fold excess of ascorbic acid. The method was successfully applied to the determination of ascorbic acid and rutin in ascorutin tablets. The applicability of the proposed method for the determination of total polyphenol content in natural plant samples was shown.

Sequential injection chemiluminescence immunoassay for nonionic surfactants by using magnetic microbeads

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Ruiq; Nakajima, Hizuru; Soh, Nobuaki; Nakano, Koji; Masadome, Takashi; Nagata, Kazumi; Sakamoto, Kazuhira; Imato, Toshihiko

2007-01-01

A rapid and sensitive immunoassay based on a sequential injection analysis (SIA) using magnetic microbeads for the determination of alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APnEOs) is described. An SIA system was constructed from a syringe pump, a switching valve, a flow-through type immunoreaction cell equipped with a photon counting unit and a neodymium magnet. Magnetic beads, to which an anti-APnEOs monoclonal antibody was immobilized, were used as a solid support in an immunoassay. The introduction, trapping and release of the magnetic beads in and from the immunoreaction cell were controlled by means of a neodymium magnet and adjusting the flow of a carrier solution. The immunoassay was based on an indirect competitive immunoreaction of an anti-APnEOs monoclonal antibody immobilized on the magnetic beads with a sample APnEOs and a horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled APnEOs in the same sample solution, and was based on the subsequent chemiluminscence reaction of HRP on the magnetic microbeads with a luminol solution containing hydrogen peroxide and p-iodophenol. The anti-APnEOs antibody was immobilized on the magnetic microbeads by coupling the antibody with the magnetic beads after activation of a carboxylate moiety on the surface of the magnetic beads that had been coated with a polylactic acid film. The antibody immobilized magnetic beads were introduced in the immunoreaction cell and trapped in it by the neodymium magnet, which was equipped beneath the immunoreaction cell. An APnEOs sample solution containing the HRP-labeled APnEOs at a constant concentration, and a luminol solution containing hydrogen peroxide and p-iodophenol were sequentially introduced into the immunoreaction cell, according to an SIA programmed sequence. Chemiluminescence emission was monitored by means of a photon counting unit located at the upper side of the immunoreaction cell by collecting the emitted light with a lens. A typical sigmoidal calibration curve was obtained, when the logarithm

High Power Picosecond Laser Surface Micro-texturing of H13 Tool Steel and Pattern Replication onto ABS Plastics via Injection Moulding

Science.gov (United States)

Otanocha, Omonigho B.; Li, Lin; Zhong, Shan; Liu, Zhu

2016-03-01

H13 tool steels are often used as dies and moulds for injection moulding of plastic components. Certain injection moulded components require micro-patterns on their surfaces in order to modify the physical properties of the components or for better mould release to reduce mould contamination. With these applications it is necessary to study micro-patterning to moulds and to ensure effective pattern transfer and replication onto the plastic component during moulding. In this paper, we report an investigation into high average powered (100 W) picosecond laser interactions with H13 tool steel during surface micro-patterning (texturing) and the subsequent pattern replication on ABS plastic material through injection moulding. Design of experiments and statistical modelling were used to understand the influences of laser pulse repetition rate, laser fluence, scanning velocity, and number of scans on the depth of cut, kerf width and heat affected zones (HAZ) size. The characteristics of the surface patterns are analysed. The process parameter interactions and significance of process parameters on the processing quality and efficiency are characterised. An optimum operating window is recommended. The transferred geometry is compared with the patterns generated on the dies. A discussion is made to explain the characteristics of laser texturing and pattern replication on plastics.

A Bone Metastasis Nude Mouse Model Created by Ultrasound Guided Intracardiac Injection of Breast Cancer Cells: the Micro-CT, MRI and Bioluminescence Imaging Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Young Jin; Song, Eun Hye; Kim, Seol Hwa; Song, Ho Taek; Suh, Jin Suck [Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Choi, Sang Hyun [Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, Heongsung (Korea, Republic of)

2011-01-15

The purpose of this study was to develop a nude mouse model of bone metastasis by performing intracardiac injection of breast cancer cells under ultrasonography guidance and we wanted to evaluate the development and the distribution of metastasis in vivo using micro-CT, MRI and bioluminescence imaging. Animal experiments were performed in 6-week-old female nude mice. The animals underwent left ventricular injection of 2x105 MDA-MB-231Bo-Luc cells. After injection of the tumor cells, serial bioluminescence imaging was performed for 7 weeks. The findings of micro-CT, MRI and the histology were correlated with the 'hot' lesions seen on the bioluminescence imaging. Metastasis was found in 62.3% of the animals. Two weeks after intracardiac injection, metastasis to the brain, spine and femur was detected with bioluminescence imaging with an increasing intensity by week 7. Micro-CT scan confirmed multiple osteolytic lesions at the femur, spine and skull. MRI and the histology were able to show metastasis in the brain and extraskeletal metastasis around the femur. The intracardiac injection of cancer cells under ultrasonography guidance is a safe and highly reproducible method to produce bone metastasis in nude mice. This bone metastasis nude mouse model will be useful to study the mechanism of bone metastasis and to validate new therapeutics

Improvement of combustion in a direct injection diesel engine by micro-hole nozzle; Micro hole nozzle wo mochiita chokusetsu funshashiki diesel kikan no nensho kaizen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murata, M. [Keio University, Tokyo (Japan); Kobori, S. [Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo (Japan); Iida, N. [Keio University, Tokyo (Japan). Faculty of Science and Technology

2000-07-25

In an attempt to promote the atomization of fuel spray and the mixing of fuel and air in diesel engines, a micro-hole nozzle which has orifices with a diameter smaller than 0.10mm was developed. In this study, the combustion tests were carried out using a single cylinder diesel engine equipped with a micro-hole nozzle and a common rail type high-pressure fuel injection system. A comparison with the results of a conventional nozzle experiment showed that the peak of initial premixed combustion increased, but the peak of diffusion combustion decreased. As a result, when nozzle orifice diameter become small from {phi} 0.15 mm to {phi} 0.10 mm, the combustion was accompanied by smokeless with the same levels of NO{sub x} emission and fuel economy. And results of a comparison the toroidal type chamber with the shallow dish type chamber revealed that the optimization of combustion chamber is necessary for the increase of the injection stage with increasing of the number of nozzle orifice. If an orifice diameter becomes {phi} 0.06 mm, the diffusion combustion can not be observed and the combustion is formed of only premixed combustion. The combustion in the case of {phi} 0.06 mm was accompanied with the drastic deterioration of fuel economy, smoke and HC with all over load. But the micro-hole nozzle has a potential for the formation of the lean and homogeneous premixed mixture until the fuel-air mixture ignites. (author)

Selective injection locking of a multi-mode semiconductor laser to a multi-frequency reference beam

Science.gov (United States)

Pramod, Mysore Srinivas; Yang, Tao; Pandey, Kanhaiya; Giudici, Massimo; Wilkowski, David

2014-07-01

Injection locking is a well known and commonly used method for coherent light amplification. Usually injection locking is obtained on a single-mode laser injected by a single-frequency seeding beam. In this work we show that selective injection locking of a single-frequency may also be achieved on a multi-mode semiconductor laser injected by a multi-frequency seeding beam, if the slave laser provides sufficient frequency filtering. This selective injection locking condition depends critically on the frequency detuning between the free-running slave emission frequency and each injected frequency component. Stable selective injection locking to a set of three seeding components separated by 1.2 GHz is obtained. This system provides an amplification up to 37 dB of each component. This result suggests that, using distinct slave lasers for each frequency line, a set of mutually coherent high-power radiation modes can be tuned in the GHz frequency domain.

Effect of Process Parameters on Flow Length and Flash Formation in Injection Moulding of High Aspect Ratio Polymeric Micro Features

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdelkhalik Eladl

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This paper reports an investigation of the effects of process parameters on the quality characteristics of polymeric parts produced by micro injection moulding (μIM with two different materials. Four injection moulding process parameters (injection velocity, holding pressure, melt temperature and mould temperature were investigated using Polypropylene (PP and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS. Three key characteristics of the mouldings were evaluated with respect to process settings and the material employed: part mass, flow length and flash formation. The experimentation employs a test part with four micro fingers with different aspect ratios (from 21 up to 150 and was carried out according to the Design of Experiments (DOE statistical technique. The results show that holding pressure and injection velocity are the most influential parameters on part mass with a direct effect for both materials. Both parameters have a similar effect on flow length for both PP and ABS at all aspect ratios and have higher effects as the feature thickness decreased below 300 μm. The study shows that for the investigated materials the injection speed and packing pressure were the most influential parameters for increasing the amount of flash formation, with relative effects consistent for both materials. Higher melt and mould temperatures settings were less influential parameters for increasing the flash amount when moulding with both materials. Of the two investigated materials, PP was the one exhibiting more flash formation as compared with ABS, when corresponding injection moulding parameters settings for both materials were considered.

Environmental fate of emamectin benzoate after tree micro injection of horse chestnut trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkhard, Rene; Binz, Heinz; Roux, Christian A; Brunner, Matthias; Ruesch, Othmar; Wyss, Peter

2015-02-01

Emamectin benzoate, an insecticide derived from the avermectin family of natural products, has a unique translocation behavior in trees when applied by tree micro injection (TMI), which can result in protection from insect pests (foliar and borers) for several years. Active ingredient imported into leaves was measured at the end of season in the fallen leaves of treated horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) trees. The dissipation of emamectin benzoate in these leaves seems to be biphasic and depends on the decomposition of the leaf. In compost piles, where decomposition of leaves was fastest, a cumulative emamectin benzoate degradation half-life time of 20 d was measured. In leaves immersed in water, where decomposition was much slower, the degradation half-life time was 94 d, and in leaves left on the ground in contact with soil, where decomposition was slowest, the degradation half-life time was 212 d. The biphasic decline and the correlation with leaf decomposition might be attributed to an extensive sorption of emamectin benzoate residues to leaf macromolecules. This may also explain why earthworms ingesting leaves from injected trees take up very little emamectin benzoate and excrete it with the feces. Furthermore, no emamectin benzoate was found in water containing decomposing leaves from injected trees. It is concluded, that emamectin benzoate present in abscised leaves from horse chestnut trees injected with the insecticide is not available to nontarget organisms present in soil or water bodies. Published 2014 SETAC.

Metamodel-based design optimization of injection molding process variables and gates of an automotive glove box for enhancing its quality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Gyung Ju; Park, Chang Hyun; Choi, Dong Hoon

2016-01-01

Injection molding process variables and gates of an automotive glove box were optimally determined to enhance its injection molding quality. We minimized warpage with satisfying constraints on clamp force, weldline, and profiles of filling and packing. Design variables concerning the injection molding process are temperatures of the mold and the resin, ram speeds, and packing pressures and durations; design variables concerning the gates are the shape of the center gate and locations of two side gates. To optimally determine the design variables in an efficient way, we adopted metamodel-based design optimization, sequentially using an optimal Latin hypercube design as a design of experiment, Kriging models as metamodels that replace time-consuming injection molding simulations, and a micro genetic algorithm as an optimization algorithm. In the optimization process, a commercial injection molding analysis software, MoldflowTM, was employed to evaluate the injection molding quality at design points specified. Using the proposed design approach, the warpage was found reduced by 20.5% compared to the initial warpage, while all the design constraints were satisfied, which clearly shows the validity of the proposed design approach

Metamodel-based design optimization of injection molding process variables and gates of an automotive glove box for enhancing its quality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Gyung Ju [Pusan National University, Busan (Korea, Republic of); Park, Chang Hyun; Choi, Dong Hoon [Hanyang University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2016-04-15

Injection molding process variables and gates of an automotive glove box were optimally determined to enhance its injection molding quality. We minimized warpage with satisfying constraints on clamp force, weldline, and profiles of filling and packing. Design variables concerning the injection molding process are temperatures of the mold and the resin, ram speeds, and packing pressures and durations; design variables concerning the gates are the shape of the center gate and locations of two side gates. To optimally determine the design variables in an efficient way, we adopted metamodel-based design optimization, sequentially using an optimal Latin hypercube design as a design of experiment, Kriging models as metamodels that replace time-consuming injection molding simulations, and a micro genetic algorithm as an optimization algorithm. In the optimization process, a commercial injection molding analysis software, MoldflowTM, was employed to evaluate the injection molding quality at design points specified. Using the proposed design approach, the warpage was found reduced by 20.5% compared to the initial warpage, while all the design constraints were satisfied, which clearly shows the validity of the proposed design approach.

Sequential micro and ultrafiltration of distillery wastewater

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasić Vesna M.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Water reuse and recycling, wastewater treatment, drinking water production and environmental protection are the key challenges for the future of our planet. Membrane separation technologies for the removal of all suspended solids and a fraction of dissolved solids from wastewaters, are becoming more and more promising. Also, these processes are playing a major role in wastewater purification systems because of their high potential for recovery of water from many industrial wastewaters. The aim of this work was to evaluate the application of micro and ultrafiltration for distillery wastewater purification in order to produce water suitable for reuse in the bioethanol industry. The results of the analyses of the permeate obtained after micro and ultrafiltration showed that the content of pollutants in distillery wastewater was significantly reduced. The removal efficiency for chemical oxygen demand, dry matter and total nitrogen was 90%, 99.2% and 99.9%, respectively. Suspended solids were completely removed from the stillage.

Sequential injection titration method using second-order signals: determination of acidity in plant oils and biodiesel samples.

Science.gov (United States)

del Río, Vanessa; Larrechi, M Soledad; Callao, M Pilar

2010-06-15

A new concept of flow titration is proposed and demonstrated for the determination of total acidity in plant oils and biodiesel. We use sequential injection analysis (SIA) with a diode array spectrophotometric detector linked to chemometric tools such as multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS). This system is based on the evolution of the basic specie of an acid-base indicator, alizarine, when it comes into contact with a sample that contains free fatty acids. The gradual pH change in the reactor coil due to diffusion and reaction phenomenona allows the sequential appearance of both species of the indicator in the detector coil, recording a data matrix for each sample. The SIA-MCR-ALS method helps to reduce the amounts of sample, the reagents and the time consumed. Each determination consumes 0.413ml of sample, 0.250ml of indicator and 3ml of carrier (ethanol) and generates 3.333ml of waste. The frequency of the analysis is high (12 samples h(-1) including all steps, i.e., cleaning, preparing and analysing). The utilized reagents are of common use in the laboratory and it is not necessary to use the reagents of perfect known concentration. The method was applied to determine acidity in plant oil and biodiesel samples. Results obtained by the proposed method compare well with those obtained by the official European Community method that is time consuming and uses large amounts of organic solvents.

Precision moulding of polymer micro components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido

2008-01-01

The present research work contains a study concerning polymer micro components manufacturing by means of the micro injection moulding (µIM) process. The overall process chain was considered and investigated during the project, including part design and simulation, tooling, process analysis, part...... optimization, quality control, multi-material solutions. A series of experimental investigations were carried out on the influence of the main µIM process factors on the polymer melt flow within micro cavities. These investigations were conducted on a conventional injection moulding machine adapted...... to the production of micro polymer components, as well as on a micro injection moulding machine. A new approach based on coordinate optical measurement of flow markers was developed during the project for the characterization of the melt flow. In-line pressure measurements were also performed to characterize...

Drug injection into fat tissue with a laser based microjet injector

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Tae-hee; Hah, Jung-moo; Yoh, Jack J.

2011-05-01

We have investigated a new micro drug jet injector using laser pulse energy. An infrared laser beam of high energy (˜3 J/pulse) is focused inside a driving fluid in a small chamber. The pulse then induces various energy releasing processes, and generates fast microjets through a micronozzle. The elastic membrane of this system plays an important role in transferring mechanical pressure and protecting drug from heat release. In this paper, we offer the sequential images of microjet generation taken by a high speed camera as an evidence of the multiple injections via single pulse. Furthermore, we test the proposed system to penetrate soft animal tissues in order to evaluate its feasibility as an advanced transdermal drug delivery method.

Sequential lineup presentation: Patterns and policy

OpenAIRE

Lindsay, R C L; Mansour, Jamal K; Beaudry, J L; Leach, A-M; Bertrand, M I

2009-01-01

Sequential lineups were offered as an alternative to the traditional simultaneous lineup. Sequential lineups reduce incorrect lineup selections; however, the accompanying loss of correct identifications has resulted in controversy regarding adoption of the technique. We discuss the procedure and research relevant to (1) the pattern of results found using sequential versus simultaneous lineups; (2) reasons (theory) for differences in witness responses; (3) two methodological issues; and (4) im...

Design of LabVIEW®-based software for the control of sequential injection analysis instrumentation for the determination of morphine

Science.gov (United States)

Lenehan, Claire E.; Lewis, Simon W.

2002-01-01

LabVIEW®-based software for the automation of a sequential injection analysis instrument for the determination of morphine is presented. Detection was based on its chemiluminescence reaction with acidic potassium permanganate in the presence of sodium polyphosphate. The calibration function approximated linearity (range 5 × 10-10 to 5 × 10-6 M) with a line of best fit of y=1.05x+8.9164 (R2 =0.9959), where y is the log10 signal (mV) and x is the log10 morphine concentration (M). Precision, as measured by relative standard deviation, was 0.7% for five replicate analyses of morphine standard (5 × 10-8 M). The limit of detection (3σ) was determined as 5 × 10-11 M morphine. PMID:18924729

Design of LabVIEW-based software for the control of sequential injection analysis instrumentation for the determination of morphine.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenehan, Claire E; Barnett, Neil W; Lewis, Simon W

2002-01-01

LabVIEW-based software for the automation of a sequential injection analysis instrument for the determination of morphine is presented. Detection was based on its chemiluminescence reaction with acidic potassium permanganate in the presence of sodium polyphosphate. The calibration function approximated linearity (range 5 x 10(-10) to 5 x 10(-6) M) with a line of best fit of y=1.05(x)+8.9164 (R(2) =0.9959), where y is the log10 signal (mV) and x is the log10 morphine concentration (M). Precision, as measured by relative standard deviation, was 0.7% for five replicate analyses of morphine standard (5 x 10(-8) M). The limit of detection (3sigma) was determined as 5 x 10(-11) M morphine.

Investigation of Direct-Injection via Micro-Porous Injector Nozzle

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reijnders, J.J.E.; Boot, M.D.; Luijten, C.C.M.; De Goey, L.P.H.

2009-02-15

The possibility to reduce soot emissions by means of injecting diesel fuel through a porous injector is investigated. From literature it is known that better oxygen entrainment into the fuel spray leads to lower soot emissions. By selection of porous material properties and geometry, the spray is tunable such that a maximum of air, present in the cylinder, is utilized. A numerical model has been created to predict the flow through the porous nozzle. Experiments are reported on the spray shape, flow rate and the durability of the porous injector under atmospheric circumstances.

Fractionation of plutonium in environmental and bio-shielding concrete samples using dynamic sequential extraction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qiao, Jixin; Hou, Xiaolin

2010-01-01

Fractionation of plutonium isotopes (238Pu, 239,240Pu) in environmental samples (i.e. soil and sediment) and bio-shielding concrete from decommissioning of nuclear reactor were carried out by dynamic sequential extraction using an on-line sequential injection (SI) system combined with a specially...

A Robust Real Time Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Method for Sequential Movement Events of Vehicles.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Huawei; Li, Baoqing; Yuan, Xiaobing; Zhou, Qianwei; Huang, Jingchang

2018-03-27

Parameters estimation of sequential movement events of vehicles is facing the challenges of noise interferences and the demands of portable implementation. In this paper, we propose a robust direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation method for the sequential movement events of vehicles based on a small Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) microphone array system. Inspired by the incoherent signal-subspace method (ISM), the method that is proposed in this work employs multiple sub-bands, which are selected from the wideband signals with high magnitude-squared coherence to track moving vehicles in the presence of wind noise. The field test results demonstrate that the proposed method has a better performance in emulating the DOA of a moving vehicle even in the case of severe wind interference than the narrowband multiple signal classification (MUSIC) method, the sub-band DOA estimation method, and the classical two-sided correlation transformation (TCT) method.

Speciation of heavy metals in garden soils. Evidences from selective and sequential chemical leaching

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheng, Zhongqi; Lee, Leda; Dayan, Sara; Grinshtein, Michael [Brooklyn College of The City Univ. of New York, Brooklyn, NY (United States). Environmental Sciences Analytical Cnter; Shaw, Richard [USDA-NRCS NYC Soil Survey, Staten Island, NY (United States)

2011-06-15

Purpose: Gardening (especially food growing) in urban areas is becoming popular, but urban soils are often very contaminated for historical reasons. There is lack of sufficient information as to the bioavailability of soil heavy metals to plants and human in urban environments. This study examines the relative leachability of Cr, Ni, As, Cd, Zn, and Pb for soils with varying characteristics. The speciation and mobility of these metals can be qualitatively inferred from the leaching experiments. The goal is to use the data to shed some light on their bioavailability to plant and human, as well as the basis for soil remediation. Materials and methods: Selective and sequential chemical leaching methods were both used to evaluate the speciation of Cr, Ni, As, Cd, Zn, and Pb in soil samples collected from New York City residential and community gardens. The sequential leaching experiment followed a standard BCR four-step procedure, while selective leaching involved seven different chemical extractants. Results and discussion: The results from selective and sequential leaching methods are consistent. In general, very little of the heavy metals were found in the easily soluble or exchangeable fractions. Larger fractions of Cd and Zn can be leached out than other metals. Lead appears predominantly in the organic or carbonate fractions, of which {proportional_to} 30-60% is in the easily soluble organic fraction. Most As cannot be leached out by any of the extractants used, but it could have been complicated by the ineffective dissolution of oxides by ammonium hydroxylamine. Ni and Cr were mostly in the residual fractions but some released in the oxidizable fractions. Therefore, the leachability of metals follow the order Cd/Zn > Pb > Ni/Cr. Conclusions: Despite of the controversy and inaccuracy surrounding chemical leaching methods for the speciation of metals, chemical leaching data provide important, general, and easy-to-access information on the mobility of heavy metals

Applications of dimensional micro metrology to the product and process quality control in manufacturing of precision polymer micro components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Gasparin, Stefania

2009-01-01

Precision manufacturing of micro injection moulded (mu IM) components presents challenges in terms of quality control due to the miniaturization of product dimensions and tolerances. This paper addresses product compliance with specifications, focusing on tolerances of dimensions and position on mu...... IM components selected from industrial production. Two systems were analysed: a tactile coordinate measuring machine (CMM) with sub-micrometer uncertainty and an optical CMM allowing fast measurements suitable for in-line quality control. Product quality control capability, measuring uncertainty...... and calibration guidelines are discussed for both systems. Finally, a new approach for the manufacturing of hybrid micro polymer-metal calibrated objects is proposed....

On-line sequential injection-capillary electrophoresis for near-real-time monitoring of extracellular lactate in cell culture flasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Alhusban, Ala A; Gaudry, Adam J; Breadmore, Michael C; Gueven, Nuri; Guijt, Rosanne M

2014-01-03

Cell culture has replaced many in vivo studies because of ethical and regulatory measures as well as the possibility of increased throughput. Analytical assays to determine (bio)chemical changes are often based on end-point measurements rather than on a series of sequential determinations. The purpose of this work is to develop an analytical system for monitoring cell culture based on sequential injection-capillary electrophoresis (SI-CE) with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D). The system was applied for monitoring lactate production, an important metabolic indicator, during mammalian cell culture. Using a background electrolyte consisting of 25mM tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, 35mM cyclohexyl-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid with 0.02% poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) at pH 8.65 and a multilayer polymer coated capillary, lactate could be resolved from other compounds present in media with relative standard deviations 0.07% for intraday electrophoretic mobility and an analysis time of less than 10min. Using the human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293, lactate concentrations in the cell culture medium were measured every 20min over 3 days, requiring only 8.73μL of sample per run. Combining simplicity, portability, automation, high sample throughput, low limits of detection, low sample consumption and the ability to up- and outscale, this new methodology represents a promising technique for near real-time monitoring of chemical changes in diverse cell culture applications. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a Sequential Injection Analysis System for the Determination of Saccharin.

Science.gov (United States)

Wibowotomo, Budi; Eun, Jong-Bang; Rhee, Jong Il

2017-12-12

Saccharin is a powerfully sweet nonnutritive sweetener that has been approved for food-processing applications within the range of 100-1200 mg/kg. A simple, rapid, and cost-effective sequential injection analysis (SIA) technique was developed to determine the saccharin level. This method is based on the reaction of saccharin with p-chloranil in an ethanol medium with a hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) acceleration, and the resultant violet-red compound was detected using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer at λ max = 420 nm. To ascertain the optimal conditions for the SIA system, several parameters were investigated, including buffer flow rate and volume, p-chloranil concentration, and reactant volumes (saccharin, p-chloranil, and H₂O₂). The optimum setup of the SIA system was achieved with a buffer flow rate, buffer volume, and draw-up time of 1.2 mL/min, 2900 µL, and ~145 s, respectively. The optimal p-chloranil concentration is 30 mM, and the best reactant volumes, presented in an ordered sequence, are as follows: 30 µL of H₂O₂, 450 µL of saccharin, and 150 µL of p-chloranil. The optimized SIA configuration produced a good linear calibration curve with a correlation coefficient (R² = 0.9812) in the concentration range of 20-140 mg/L and with a detection limit of 19.69 mg/L. Analytical applications in different food categories also showed acceptable recovery values in the range of 93.1-111.5%. This simple and rapid SIA system offers great feasibility for the saccharin quality control in food-product processing.

Sequential injection redox or acid-base titration for determination of ascorbic acid or acetic acid.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenghor, Narong; Jakmunee, Jaroon; Vilen, Michael; Sara, Rolf; Christian, Gary D; Grudpan, Kate

2002-12-06

Two sequential injection titration systems with spectrophotometric detection have been developed. The first system for determination of ascorbic acid was based on redox reaction between ascorbic acid and permanganate in an acidic medium and lead to a decrease in color intensity of permanganate, monitored at 525 nm. A linear dependence of peak area obtained with ascorbic acid concentration up to 1200 mg l(-1) was achieved. The relative standard deviation for 11 replicate determinations of 400 mg l(-1) ascorbic acid was 2.9%. The second system, for acetic acid determination, was based on acid-base titration of acetic acid with sodium hydroxide using phenolphthalein as an indicator. The decrease in color intensity of the indicator was proportional to the acid content. A linear calibration graph in the range of 2-8% w v(-1) of acetic acid with a relative standard deviation of 4.8% (5.0% w v(-1) acetic acid, n=11) was obtained. Sample throughputs of 60 h(-1) were achieved for both systems. The systems were successfully applied for the assays of ascorbic acid in vitamin C tablets and acetic acid content in vinegars, respectively.

Extraction and preconcentration of trace levels of cobalt using functionalized magnetic nanoparticles in a sequential injection lab-on-valve system with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yang; Luo Xiaoyu; Tang Jie; Hu Xiaoya; Xu Qin; Yang Chun

2012-01-01

Graphical abstract: An approach to performing extraction and preconcentration employing functionalized magnetic particles for the determination of cobalt in the sequential injection lab-on-valve system using detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Highlights: ► New SPE method for cobalt separation/preconcentration was reported. ► Functionalized magnetic nanoparticles were used as adsorbent. ► Extraction, elution, and detection procedures were performed in the LOV system. ► This automatic extraction technique provided a good platform for metal analysis. - Abstract: A new approach to performing extraction and preconcentration employing functionalized magnetic nanoparticles for the determination of trace metals is presented. Alumina-coated iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized and used as the solid support. The nanoparticles were functionalized with sodium dodecyl sulfate and used as adsorbents for solid phase extraction of the analyte. Extraction, elution, and detection procedures were performed sequentially in the sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) system followed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). Mixtures of hydrophobic analytes were successfully extracted from solution using the synthesized magnetic adsorbents. The potential use of the established scheme was demonstrated by taking cobalt as a model analyte. Under the optimal conditions, the calibration curve showed an excellent linearity in the concentration range of 0.01–5 μg L −1 , and the relative standard deviation was 2.8% at the 0.5 μg L −1 level (n = 11). The limit of detection was 6 ng L −1 with a sampling frequency of 18 h −1 . The present method has been successfully applied to cobalt determination in water samples and two certified reference materials.

Evaluation of selective arterial embolization effect by chitosan micro-hydrogels in hindlimb sarcoma rodent models using various imaging modalities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Tai Kyoung; Kwon, Jeong Il; Na, Kyung Sook [Chonbuk National University Medical School and Hospital, Jeonju (Korea, Republic of); and others

2015-09-15

Embolization is mainly used to reduce the size of locally advanced tumors. In this study, selective arterial catheterization with chitosan micro-hydrogels (CMH) into the femoral artery was performed and the therapeutic effect was validated using different imaging methods. Male SD rats (n = 18, 6 weeks old) were randomly assigned into three groups: Group 1 as control, Group 2 without any ligation of distal femoral artery, and Group 3 with temporary ligation of the distal femoral artery. RR1022 sarcoma cell lines were inoculated into thigh muscle. After 1 week, CMH was injected into the proximal femoral artery. Different imaging modalities were performed during a 3-week follow-up. The tumor size was significantly (P < 0.001) decreased in both Group 2 and Group 3 (P < 0.001) after selective arterial embolization therapy. 18F-FDG-PET/CT revealed decreased intensity of 18F-FDG uptake in tumors. The accumulation status of 125I-CMH near the tumor was verified by gamma camera. Appropriate selective arterial embolization therapy with CMH was.

Applying a foil queue micro-electrode in micro-EDM to fabricate a 3D micro-structure

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Bin; Guo, Kang; Wu, Xiao-yu; Lei, Jian-guo; Liang, Xiong; Guo, Deng-ji; Ma, Jiang; Cheng, Rong

2018-05-01

Applying a 3D micro-electrode in a micro electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) can fabricate a 3D micro-structure with an up and down reciprocating method. However, this processing method has some shortcomings, such as a low success rate and a complex process for fabrication of 3D micro-electrodes. By focusing on these shortcomings, this paper proposed a novel 3D micro-EDM process based on the foil queue micro-electrode. Firstly, a 3D micro-electrode was discretized into several foil micro-electrodes and these foil micro-electrodes constituted a foil queue micro-electrode. Then, based on the planned process path, foil micro-electrodes were applied in micro-EDM sequentially and the micro-EDM results of each foil micro-electrode were able to superimpose the 3D micro-structure. However, the step effect will occur on the 3D micro-structure surface, which has an adverse effect on the 3D micro-structure. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes to reduce this adverse effect by rounded corner wear at the end of the foil micro-electrode and studies the impact of machining parameters on rounded corner wear and the step effect on the micro-structure surface. Finally, using a wire cutting voltage of 80 V, a current of 0.5 A and a pulse width modulation ratio of 1:4, the foil queue micro-electrode was fabricated by wire electrical discharge machining. Also, using a pulse width of 100 ns, a pulse interval of 200 ns, a voltage of 100 V and workpiece material of 304# stainless steel, the foil queue micro-electrode was applied in micro-EDM for processing of a 3D micro-structure with hemispherical features, which verified the feasibility of this process.

Simultaneous versus Sequential Intratympanic Steroid Treatment for Severe-to-Profound Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoo, Myung Hoon; Lim, Won Sub; Park, Joo Hyun; Kwon, Joong Keun; Lee, Tae-Hoon; An, Yong-Hwi; Kim, Young-Jin; Kim, Jong Yang; Lim, Hyun Woo; Park, Hong Ju

2016-01-01

Severe-to-profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) has a poor prognosis. We aimed to compare the efficacy of simultaneous and sequential oral and intratympanic steroids for this condition. Fifty patients with severe-to-profound SSNHL (>70 dB HL) were included from 7 centers. The simultaneous group (27 patients) received oral and intratympanic steroid injections for 2 weeks. The sequential group (23 patients) was treated with oral steroids for 2 weeks and intratympanic steroids for the subsequent 2 weeks. Pure-tone averages (PTA) and word discrimination scores (WDS) were compared before treatment and 2 weeks and 1 and 2 months after treatment. Treatment outcomes according to the modified American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) criteria were also analyzed. The improvement in PTA and WDS at the 2-week follow-up was 23 ± 21 dB HL and 20 ± 39% in the simultaneous group and 31 ± 29 dB HL and 37 ± 42% in the sequential group; this was not statistically significant. Complete or partial recovery at the 2-week follow-up was observed in 26% of the simultaneous group and 30% of the sequential group; this was also not significant. The improvement in PTA and WDS at the 2-month follow-up was 40 ± 20 dB HL and 37 ± 35% in the simultaneous group and 41 ± 25 dB HL and 48 ± 41% in the sequential group; this was not statistically significant. Complete or partial recovery at the 2-month follow-up was observed in 33% of the simultaneous group and 35% of the sequential group; this was also not significant. Seven patients in the sequential group did not need intratympanic steroid injections for sufficient improvement after oral steroids alone. Simultaneous oral/intratympanic steroid treatment yielded a recovery similar to that produced by sequential treatment. Because the addition of intratympanic steroids can be decided upon based on the improvement after an oral steroid, the sequential regimen can be recommended to avoid unnecessary

Ultrasound - Aided ejection in micro injection molding

Science.gov (United States)

Masato, D.; Sorgato, M.; Lucchetta, G.

2018-05-01

In this work, an ultrasound-aided ejection system was designed and tested for different polymers (PS, COC and POM) and mold topographies. The proposed solution aims at reducing the ejection friction by decreasing the adhesion component of the frictional force, which is controlled by the contact area developed during the filling stage of the injection molding process. The experimental results indicate a positive effect of ultrasound vibration on the friction force values, with a maximum reduction of 16. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the ultrasound effect is strictly related to both polymer selection and mold roughness. The combined effect on the ejection force of mold surface roughness, melt viscosity during filling and polymer elastic modulus at ejection was modeled to the experimental data, in order to demonstrate that the effect of ultrasound vibration on the ejection friction reduction is due to the heating of the contact interface and the consequent reduction of the polymer elastic modulus.

Sequential Test Selection by Quantifying of the Reduction in Diagnostic Uncertainty for the Diagnosis of Proximal Caries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Umut Arslan

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Background: In order to determine the presence or absence of a certain disease, multiple diagnostic tests may be necessary. Performance of these tests can be sequentially evaluated. Aims: The aim of the study is to determine the contribution of the test in each step, in reducing diagnostic uncertainty when multiple tests are sequentially used for the diagnosis. Study Design: Diagnostic accuracy study Methods: Radiographs of seventy-three patients of the Department of Dento-Maxillofacial Radiology of Hacettepe University Faculty of Dentistry were assessed. Panoramic (PAN, full mouth intraoral (FM, and bitewing (BW radiographs were used for the diagnosis of proximal caries in the maxillary and mandibular molar regions. Diagnostic performance of radiography was sequentially evaluated by using the reduction in diagnostic uncertainty. Results: FM provided maximum diagnostic information for ruling in potential in the maxillary and mandibular molar regions in the first step. FM provided more diagnostic information than BW radiographs for ruling in the mandibular region in the second step. In the mandibular region, BW radiographs provided more diagnostic information than FM for ruling out in the first step. Conclusion: The presented method in this study provides the clinicians with a solution for the decision of the sequential selection of diagnostic tests for the correct diagnosis of the presence or absence of a certain disease.

Compression and Injection Moulding of Nano-Structured Polymer Surfaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pranov, Henrik; Rasmussen, Henrik Koblitz

2006-01-01

In our research we investigate the non-isothermal replication of complex nano and micro surface structures in injection and compression moulding.......In our research we investigate the non-isothermal replication of complex nano and micro surface structures in injection and compression moulding....

Micro powder-injection moulding of metals and ceramics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Development of micro-MIM/-CIM was started at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe with the aim of creating a process suitable for a wide range of materials as well as for medium-scale and large-scale production of micro components. Using enhanced machine technology and special tempering procedures, this process enables ...

Development of a Sequential Injection Analysis System for the Determination of Saccharin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Budi Wibowotomo

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Saccharin is a powerfully sweet nonnutritive sweetener that has been approved for food-processing applications within the range of 100–1200 mg/kg. A simple, rapid, and cost-effective sequential injection analysis (SIA technique was developed to determine the saccharin level. This method is based on the reaction of saccharin with p-chloranil in an ethanol medium with a hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 acceleration, and the resultant violet-red compound was detected using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer at λmax = 420 nm. To ascertain the optimal conditions for the SIA system, several parameters were investigated, including buffer flow rate and volume, p-chloranil concentration, and reactant volumes (saccharin, p-chloranil, and H2O2. The optimum setup of the SIA system was achieved with a buffer flow rate, buffer volume, and draw-up time of 1.2 mL/min, 2900 µL, and ~145 s, respectively. The optimal p-chloranil concentration is 30 mM, and the best reactant volumes, presented in an ordered sequence, are as follows: 30 µL of H2O2, 450 µL of saccharin, and 150 µL of p-chloranil. The optimized SIA configuration produced a good linear calibration curve with a correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9812 in the concentration range of 20–140 mg/L and with a detection limit of 19.69 mg/L. Analytical applications in different food categories also showed acceptable recovery values in the range of 93.1–111.5%. This simple and rapid SIA system offers great feasibility for the saccharin quality control in food-product processing.

Selectivity assessment of an arsenic sequential extraction procedure for evaluating mobility in mine wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drahota, Petr; Grösslová, Zuzana; Kindlová, Helena

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Extraction efficiency and selectivity of phosphate and oxalate were tested. • Pure As-bearing mineral phases and mine wastes were used. • The reagents were found to be specific and selective for most major forms of As. • An optimized sequential extraction scheme for mine wastes has been developed. • It has been tested over a model mineral mixtures and natural mine waste materials. - Abstract: An optimized sequential extraction (SE) scheme for mine waste materials has been developed and tested for As partitioning over a range of pure As-bearing mineral phases, their model mixtures, and natural mine waste materials. This optimized SE procedure employs five extraction steps: (1) nitrogen-purged deionized water, 10 h; (2) 0.01 M NH 4 H 2 PO 4 , 16 h; (3) 0.2 M NH 4 -oxalate in the dark, pH3, 2 h; (4) 0.2 M NH 4 -oxalate, pH3/80 °C, 4 h; (5) KClO 3 /HCl/HNO 3 digestion. Selectivity and specificity tests on natural mine wastes and major pure As-bearing mineral phases showed that these As fractions appear to be primarily associated with: (1) readily soluble; (2) adsorbed; (3) amorphous and poorly-crystalline arsenates, oxides and hydroxosulfates of Fe; (4) well-crystalline arsenates, oxides, and hydroxosulfates of Fe; as well as (5) sulfides and arsenides. The specificity and selectivity of extractants, and the reproducibility of the optimized SE procedure were further verified by artificial model mineral mixtures and different natural mine waste materials. Partitioning data for extraction steps 3, 4, and 5 showed good agreement with those calculated in the model mineral mixtures (<15% difference), as well as that expected in different natural mine waste materials. The sum of the As recovered in the different extractant pools was not significantly different (89–112%) than the results for acid digestion. This suggests that the optimized SE scheme can reliably be employed for As partitioning in mine waste materials

Some Reflections on Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Ebner

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Although intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI allows proper fertilization in most cases of male sub fertility, it is one of the most unphysiological techniques in assisted reproductive technologies (ART. Thus, over the last decade, researchers have tried to improve sperm observation with higher-resolution microscopy techniques such as the intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI technique. In order to identify literatures for this review, the PubMed database was searched from 2000 onwards using the terms IMSI, motile sperm organelle morphology examination (MSOME and sperm vacuole. Approximately 10 years after the introduction of the MSOME and IMSI procedures, several questions related to the prevalence, origin, location, and clinical consequences of sperm vacuoles have not yet been clarified. It seems that IMSI as a routine application is not state of the art and the only confirmed indications for IMSI are recurrent implantation failure following ICSI and severe male factor.

Determination of trace metal ions via on-line separation and preconcentration by means of chelating Sepharose beads in a sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) system coupled to electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Xiangbao; Hansen, Elo Harald; Miró, Manuel

2005-01-01

The analytical performance of an on-line sequential injection lab-on-valve (SI-LOV) system using chelating Sepharose beads as sorbent material for the determination of ultra trace levels of Cd(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) is described and discussed...

Model and simulation for melt flow in micro-injection molding based on the PTT model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cao, Wei; Kong, Lingchao; Li, Qian; Ying, Jin; Shen, Changyu

2011-01-01

Unsteady viscoelastic flows were studied using the finite element method in this work. The Phan-Thien–Tanner (PTT) model was used to represent the rheological behavior of viscoelastic fluids. To effectively describe the microscale effects, the slip boundary condition and surface tension were added to the mathematical model for melt flow in micro-injection molding. The new variational equation of pressure, including the viscoelastic parameters and slip boundary condition, was generalized using integration by parts. A computer code based on the finite element method and finite difference method was developed to solve the melt flow problem. Numerical simulation revealed that the melt viscoelasticity plays an important role in the prediction of melt pressure, temperature at the gate and the succeeding melt front advancement in the cavity. Using the viscoelastic model one can also control the rapid increase in simulated pressure, temperature, and reduce the filling difference among different cavities. The short shot experiments of micro-motor shaft showed that the predicted melt front from the viscoelastic model is in fair agreement with the corresponding experimental results

Cost-Utility of a Single-Injection Combined Corticosteroid-Hyaluronic Acid Formulation vs a 2-Injection Regimen of Sequential Corticosteroid and Hyaluronic Acid Injections.

Science.gov (United States)

Belzile, Etienne L; Deakon, Robert T; Vannabouathong, Christopher; Bhandari, Mohit; Lamontagne, Martin; McCormack, Robert

2017-01-01

Research has shown early and sustained relief with a combination therapy of a corticosteroid (CS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) in knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients. This can be administered via a single injection containing both products or as separate injections. The former may be more expensive when considering only product cost, but the latter incurs the additional costs and time of a second procedure. The purpose of this study was to compare the cost-utility of the single injection with the 2-injection regimen. The results of this analysis revealed that the single-injection formulation of a CS and HA may be cost-effective, assuming a willingness-to-pay of $50 000 per quality-adjusted life year gained, for symptomatic relief of OA symptoms. This treatment may also be more desirable to patients who find injections to be inconvenient or unpleasant.

Centrifugal sedimentation for selectively packing channels with silica microbeads in three-dimensional micro/nanofluidic devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Maojun; Bohn, Paul W; Sweedler, Jonathan V

2009-03-01

Incorporation of nanofluidic elements into microfluidic channels is one approach for adding filtration and partition functionality to planar microfluidic devices, as well as providing enhanced biomolecular separations. Here we introduce a strategy to pack microfluidic channels with silica nanoparticles and microbeads, thereby indirectly producing functional nanostructures; the method allows selected channels to be packed, here demonstrated so that a separation channel is packed while keeping an injection channel unpacked. A nanocapillary array membrane is integrated between two patterned microfluidic channels that cross each other in vertically separated layers. The membrane serves both as a frit for bead packing and as a fluid communication conduit between microfluidic channels. Centrifugal force-assisted sedimentation is then used to selectively pack the microfluidic channels using an aqueous silica bead suspension loaded into the appropriate inlet reservoirs. This packing approach may be used to simultaneously pack multiple channels with silica microbeads having different sizes and surface properties. The chip design and packing method introduced here are suitable for packing silica particles in sizes ranging from nanometers to micrometers and allow rapid (approximately 10 min) packing with high quality. The liquid/analyte transport characteristics of these packed micro/nanofluidic devices have potential utility in a wide range of applications, including electroosmotic pumping, liquid chromatographic separations, and electrochromatography.

Enhanced Silver Nanoparticle Chemiluminescence Method for the Determination of Gemifloxacin Mesylate using Sequential Injection Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alarfaj, N.A.; Aly, F.A.; Tamimi, A.A.

2013-01-01

A sequential injection analysis (SIA) with chemiluminescence detection has been proposed for the determination of the antibiotic gemifloxacin mesylate (GFX). The developed method is based on the enhancement effect of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on the chemiluminescence (CL) signal of luminol-potassium ferricyanide reaction in alkaline medium. The introduction of gemifloxacin in this system produced a significant decrease in the CL intensity in presence of (Ag NPs). The optimum conditions for CL emission were investigated. Linear relationship between the decrease in CL intensity and concentration was obtained in the range 0.01-1000 ng mL-1, (r = 0.9997) with detection limit of 2.0 pg mL-1 and quantification limit of 0.01 pg mL-1. The relative standard deviation was 1.3 %. The proposed method was employed for the determination of gemifloxacin in bulk drug, in its pharmaceutical dosage forms and biological fluids such as human serum and urine. The interference of some common additive compounds such as glucose, lactose, starch, talc and magnesium stearate was investigated, and no interference was found from these excipients. The obtained SIA results were statistically compared with those obtained from a reported method and did not show any significant difference at confidence level 95%. (author)

Highly selective micro-sequential injection lab-on-valve (μSI-LOV) method for determination of ultra trace concentrations of nickel in saline matrices using detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometr

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Xiangbao; Miró, Manuel; Jensen, Rikard

2006-01-01

of the LOV to assure sufficient reaction time for the formation of Ni(DMG)2 chelate. The non-ionic coordination compound is then collected in a renewable micro-column packed with a reversed-phase copolymeric sorbent [namely, poly(divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone)] containing a balanced ratio...... water of high hardness and local seawater. Satisfying recoveries were achieved for all spiked environmental water samples with maximum deviations of 6%. The experimental results for the standard reference material were not statistically different to the certified value at a significance level of 0.05....

Development and application of an on-line sequential injection system for the separation of artificial and natural radionuclides in environmental samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, C.-K.; Sansone, U.; Martin, P.; Kim, C.-S.

2007-02-01

The Chemistry Unit of the Physics, Chemistry and Instrumentation Laboratory in the IAEA's Seibersdorf Laboratory in Austria, has the programmatic responsibility to provide assistance to Member State laboratories in maintaining and improving the reliability of analytical measurement results, both in trace element and radionuclide determinations. This is accomplished through the provision of reference materials of terrestrial origin, validated analytical procedures, training in the implementation of internal quality control, and through the evaluation of measurement performance by organization of worldwide and regional interlaboratory comparison exercises. In this framework an on-line sequential injection (SI) system was developed, which can be widely used for the separation and preconcentration of target analytes from diverse environmental samples. The system enables the separation time to be shortened by maintaining a constant flow rate of solution and by avoiding clogging or bubbling in a chromatographic column. The SI system was successfully applied to the separation of Pu in IAEA reference material (IAEA Soil-6) and to the sequential separation of 210 Po and 210 Pb in phosphogypsum candidate reference material. The replicate analysis results of Pu in IAEA reference material (Soil-6) obtained with the SI system are in good agreement with the recommended value within 5% of standard deviation. The SI system enabled a halving in the separation time required for of radionuclides

Sequential algorithm analysis to facilitate selective biliary access for difficult biliary cannulation in ERCP: a prospective clinical study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Tae Hoon; Hwang, Soon Oh; Choi, Hyun Jong; Jung, Yunho; Cha, Sang Woo; Chung, Il-Kwun; Moon, Jong Ho; Cho, Young Deok; Park, Sang-Heum; Kim, Sun-Joo

2014-02-17

Numerous clinical trials to improve the success rate of biliary access in difficult biliary cannulation (DBC) during ERCP have been reported. However, standard guidelines or sequential protocol analysis according to different methods are limited in place. We planned to investigate a sequential protocol to facilitate selective biliary access for DBC during ERCP. This prospective clinical study enrolled 711 patients with naïve papillae at a tertiary referral center. If wire-guided cannulation was deemed to have failed due to the DBC criteria, then according to the cannulation algorithm early precut fistulotomy (EPF; cannulation time > 5 min, papillary contacts > 5 times, or hook-nose-shaped papilla), double-guidewire cannulation (DGC; unintentional pancreatic duct cannulation ≥ 3 times), and precut after placement of a pancreatic stent (PPS; if DGC was difficult or failed) were performed sequentially. The main outcome measurements were the technical success, procedure outcomes, and complications. Initially, a total of 140 (19.7%) patients with DBC underwent EPF (n = 71) and DGC (n = 69). Then, in DGC group 36 patients switched to PPS due to difficulty criteria. The successful biliary cannulation rate was 97.1% (136/140; 94.4% [67/71] with EPF, 47.8% [33/69] with DGC, and 100% [36/36] with PPS; P EPF, 314.8 (65.2) seconds in DGC, and 706.0 (469.4) seconds in PPS (P EPF, DGC, and PPS may be safe and feasible for DBC. The use of EPF in selected DBC criteria, DGC in unintentional pancreatic duct cannulations, and PPS in failed or difficult DGC may facilitate successful biliary cannulation.

Amperometric Determination of Sulfite by Gas Diffusion- Sequential Injection with Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orawon Chailapakul

2008-03-01

Full Text Available A gas diffusion sequential injection system with amperometric detection using aboron-doped diamond electrode was developed for the determination of sulfite. A gasdiffusion unit (GDU was used to prevent interference from sample matrices for theelectrochemical measurement. The sample was mixed with an acid solution to generategaseous sulfur dioxide prior to its passage through the donor channel of the GDU. Thesulfur dioxide diffused through the PTFE hydrophobic membrane into a carrier solution of 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 8/0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate in the acceptor channel of theGDU and turned to sulfite. Then the sulfite was carried to the electrochemical flow cell anddetected directly by amperometry using the boron-doped diamond electrode at 0.95 V(versus Ag/AgCl. Sodium dodecyl sulfate was added to the carrier solution to preventelectrode fouling. This method was applicable in the concentration range of 0.2-20 mgSO32−/L and a detection limit (S/N = 3 of 0.05 mg SO32−/L was achieved. This method wassuccessfully applied to the determination of sulfite in wines and the analytical resultsagreed well with those obtained by iodimetric titration. The relative standard deviations forthe analysis of sulfite in wines were in the range of 1.0-4.1 %. The sampling frequency was65 h−1.

An improved method to prepare an injectable microemulsion of the galanin-receptor 3 selective antagonist, SNAP 37889, using Kolliphor® HS 15

Science.gov (United States)

Scheller, Karlene J.; Williams, Spencer J.; Lawrence, Andrew J.; Jarrott, Bevyn; Djouma, Elvan

2014-01-01

Research into the galanin-3 (GAL3) receptor has many challenges, including the lack of commercially available selective ligands. While the identification of non-peptidergic GAL3 receptor-selective antagonists, 1-phenyl-3-[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]iminoindol-2-one (SNAP 37889) and 1-[3-(2-pyrrolidin-1-ylethoxy)phenyl]-3-[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]iminoindol-2-one (SNAP 398299) have implicated a role for GAL3 receptors in anxiety, depression and drug-seeking behaviour, a major limitation of their use is poor aqueous solubility. Previously we have used 5% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) with 1% hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose in saline to dissolve SNAP 37889 for intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of rats; however this produced a micro-suspension that was not ideal. The injectable formulation of SNAP 37889 was improved as follows:•30% (w/v) Kolliphor® HS 15 (Solutol HS® 15) and sodium phosphate buffer (0.01 M, pH 7.4) were used as vehicles.•A smooth glass mortar and pestle was used to triturate the Kolliphor® HS 15 and SNAP 37889 into a paste before addition to the sodium phosphate buffer at room temperature (RT).•The resulting mixture was vortexed until the paste was fully dissolved and the microemulsion was allowed to sit for 20 min to allow air bubbles to coalesce. PMID:26150955

Sequential injection of domain walls into ferroelectrics at different bias voltages: Paving the way for “domain wall memristors”

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Whyte, J. R.; McQuaid, R. G. P.; Einsle, J. F.; Gregg, J. M., E-mail: m.gregg@qub.ac.uk [Centre for Nanostructured Media (CNM), School of Maths and Physics, Queen' s University Belfast, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom); Ashcroft, C. M. [Centre for Nanostructured Media (CNM), School of Maths and Physics, Queen' s University Belfast, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom); Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom); Canalias, C. [Department of Applied Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, Roslagstullsbacken 21, 10691 Stockholm (Sweden); Gruverman, A. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska 68588–0299 (United States)

2014-08-14

Simple meso-scale capacitor structures have been made by incorporating thin (∼300 nm) single crystal lamellae of KTiOPO{sub 4} (KTP) between two coplanar Pt electrodes. The influence that either patterned protrusions in the electrodes or focused ion beam milled holes in the KTP have on the nucleation of reverse domains during switching was mapped using piezoresponse force microscopy imaging. The objective was to assess whether or not variations in the magnitude of field enhancement at localised “hot-spots,” caused by such patterning, could be used to both control the exact locations and bias voltages at which nucleation events occurred. It was found that both the patterning of electrodes and the milling of various hole geometries into the KTP could allow controlled sequential injection of domain wall pairs at different bias voltages; this capability could have implications for the design and operation of domain wall electronic devices, such as memristors, in the future.

MicroCHP: Overview of selected technologies, products and field test results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuhn, Vollrad [Berliner Energieagentur GmbH, Franzoesische Strasse 23, 10117 Berlin (Germany); Klemes, Jiri; Bulatov, Igor [Centre for Process Integration, CEAS, The University of Manchester, P.O. Box 88, M60 1QD Manchester (United Kingdom)

2008-11-15

This paper gives an overview on selected microCHP technologies and products with the focus on Stirling and steam machines. Field tests in Germany, the UK and some other EC countries are presented, assessed and evaluated. Test results show the overall positive performance with differences in sectors (domestic vs. small business). Some negative experiences have been received, especially from tests with the Stirling engines and the free-piston steam machine. There are still obstacles for market implementation. Further projects and tests of microCHP are starting in various countries. When positive results will prevail and deficiencies are eliminated, a way to large-scale production and market implementation could be opened. (author)

Biocontrol of Phytophthora Blight and Anthracnose in Pepper by Sequentially Selected Antagonistic Rhizobacteria against Phytophthora capsici.

Science.gov (United States)

Sang, Mee Kyung; Shrestha, Anupama; Kim, Du-Yeon; Park, Kyungseok; Pak, Chun Ho; Kim, Ki Deok

2013-06-01

We previously developed a sequential screening procedure to select antagonistic bacterial strains against Phytophthora capsici in pepper plants. In this study, we used a modified screening procedure to select effective biocontrol strains against P. capsici; we evaluated the effect of selected strains on Phytophthora blight and anthracnose occurrence and fruit yield in pepper plants under field and plastic house conditions from 2007 to 2009. We selected four potential biocontrol strains (Pseudomonas otitidis YJR27, P. putida YJR92, Tsukamurella tyrosinosolvens YJR102, and Novosphingobium capsulatum YJR107) among 239 bacterial strains. In the 3-year field tests, all the selected strains significantly (P anthracnose incidence in at least one of the test years, but their biocontrol activities were variable. In addition, strains YJR27, YJR92, and YJR102, in certain harvests, increased pepper fruit numbers in field tests and red fruit weights in plastic house tests. Taken together, these results indicate that the screening procedure is rapid and reliable for the selection of potential biocontrol strains against P. capsici in pepper plants. In addition, these selected strains exhibited biocontrol activities against anthracnose, and some of the strains showed plant growth-promotion activities on pepper fruit.

Selective segmental sclerotherapy of the liver by transportal absolute ethanol injection: an animal experimental study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan Jie; Yang Ning; Zhang Zhongzhong; Hu Libin; Chen Jie; Wu Wei; Jin Zhengyu; Liu Wei

2003-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of selective segmental sclerotherapy (SSS) of the liver by transportal absolute ethanol injection with an animal experimental study, and to discuss several technical points involved in this method. Methods: Thirty dogs received SSS of the liver by transportal absolute ethanol injection with the injection dose of 0.2-1.0 ml/kg, repeated examinations of blood ethanol level, WBC, and liver functions were done, and CT and pathological examinations of the liver were performed. Results: All dogs treated with SSS survived during the study. The maximum elevation of blood ethanol values occurred in group F. Its average value was (1.603 ± 0.083) mg/ml, which was much lower than that of death level. Transient elevations of blood WBC and ALT were seen. The average values of WBC and ALT were (46.36 ± 7.28) x 10 9 and (827.36 ± 147.25) U/L, respectively. CT and pathological examinations proved that the dogs given SSS by transportal absolute ethanol injection with the injection dose of 0.3-1.0 ml/kg had a complete wedge-shaped necrosis in the liver. Conclusion: Selective segmental sclerotherapy of the liver by transportal ethanol injection was quite safe and effective if the proper dose of ethanol was injected. SSS may be useful in the treatment of HCC

Replication of microstructures on three-dimensional geometries by injection moulding of liquid silicone rubber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yang; Mischkot, Michael; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2015-01-01

In this paper, liquid silicon rubber (LSR) parts with micro pillars are studied. The LSR parts were produced by injection moulding and are used as anchoring device for electrode implants inside humans. Micro-structures with specific dimension on implant surfaces can reduce encapsulation...... by the human body, thereby improving implant performance. This paper presents a method of applying micro structure on 3D parts. A Ni-plate with micro holes on the surface was cut into inserts and stuck in a cavity for injection moulding. 1000 injection moulding cycles were performed. Key dimensions...

Sequential and selective localized optical heating in water via on-chip dielectric nanopatterning.

Science.gov (United States)

Morsy, Ahmed M; Biswas, Roshni; Povinelli, Michelle L

2017-07-24

We study the use of nanopatterned silicon membranes to obtain optically-induced heating in water. We show that by varying the detuning between an absorptive optical resonance of the patterned membrane and an illumination laser, both the magnitude and response time of the temperature rise can be controlled. This allows for either sequential or selective heating of different patterned areas on chip. We obtain a steady-state temperature of approximately 100 °C for a 805.5nm CW laser power density of 66 µW/μm 2 and observe microbubble formation. The ability to spatially and temporally control temperature on the microscale should enable the study of heat-induced effects in a variety of chemical and biological lab-on-chip applications.

Study of Selecting on Light Source Used for Micro-algae Cultivation in Space

Science.gov (United States)

Ai, Weidang; Ai, Weidang; Guo, Shuang-Sheng; Gao, Feng; Tang, Yong-Kang; Qin, Li-Feng

To select suitable light source for micro-algae cultivation in future space station, the selected Spirulina plastensis(No.7) were cultured under different lightening qualities, including six light sources that were made up of different combinations of red and blue light-emitting diode(LED). The growth, photosynthetic efficiency and nutrition quality of the Spirulina, were analyzed. From the experiments, the red light may promote the cumulation of biomass of the Spirulina, and the cumulating rate was the highest under all red light source, but the syntheses of protein, phycobiliprotein, β-carotene, VE and other nutrients needs a certain portion of blue light; yet, the complete blue light condition is not favorable to the growth of Spirulina, and may bring pollution by chlorella and other kinds of micro-algae. It is concluded that the LEDs can be used as the light resource of micro-algae cultivation. The normal growth and development of microalgae need two light sources of both red and blue LEDs. The comprehensive analyses of the various factors that affect the growth of Spirulina, such as nutrition quality and photosynthetic activities, etc., showed that the combination of 80% red and 20% blue LED is the optimum one among those tested combinations. Key word: light-emitting diode; micro-algae; controlled ecological life support system (CELSS); space cultivation

Rapid Determination of Plutonium Isotopes in Environmental Samples Using Sequential Injection Extraction Chromatography and Detection by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qiao, Jixin; Hou, Xiaolin; Roos, Per

2009-01-01

This article presents an automated method for the rapid determination of 239Pu and 240Pu in various environmental samples. The analytical method involves the in-line separation of Pu isotopes using extraction chromatography (TEVA) implemented in a sequential injection (SI) network followed...... by detection of isolated analytes with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The method has been devised for the determination of Pu isotopes at environmentally relevant concentrations, whereby it has been successfully applied to the analyses of large volumes/amounts of samples, for example......, 100−200 g of soil and sediment, 20 g of seaweed, and 200 L of seawater following analyte preconcentration. The investigation of the separation capability of the assembled SI system revealed that up to 200 g of soil or sediment can be treated using a column containing about 0.70 g of TEVA resin...

On-line monitoring of glucose and/or lactate in a fermentation process using an expanded micro-bed flow injection analyser.

Science.gov (United States)

Nandakumar, M P; Lali, A M; Mattiasson, B

1999-01-01

A novel flow injection biosensor system for monitoring fermentation processes has been developed using an expanded micro bed as the enzyme reactor. An expanded bed reactor is capable of handling a mobile phase containing suspended matter like cells and cell debris. Thus, while the analyte is free to interact with the adsorbent, the suspended particulate matter passes through unhindered. With the use of a scaled down expanded bed in the flow injection analysis (FIA) system, it was possible to analyse samples directly from a fermentor without the pretreatment otherwise required to extract the analyte or remove the suspended cells. This technique, therefore, provides a means to determine the true concentrations of the metabolites in a fermentor, with more ease than possible with other techniques. Glucose oxidase immobilised on STREAMLINE was used to measure glucose concentration in a suspension of dead yeast cells. There was no interference from the cell particles even at high cell densities such as 15 gm dry weight per litre. The assay time was about 6 min. Accuracy and reproducibility of the system was found to be good. In another scheme, lactate oxidase was covalently coupled to STREAMLINE for expanded bed operation. With the on-line expanded micro bed FIA it was possible to follow the fermentation with Lactobacillus casei.

Sequential injection analysis for automation of the Winkler methodology, with real-time SIMPLEX optimization and shipboard application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Horstkotte, Burkhard; Tovar Sanchez, Antonio; Duarte, Carlos M. [Department of Global Change Research, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB) Institut Mediterrani d' Estudis Avancats, Miquel Marques 21, 07190 Esporles (Spain); Cerda, Victor, E-mail: Victor.Cerda@uib.es [University of the Balearic Islands, Department of Chemistry Carreterra de Valldemossa km 7.5, 07011 Palma de Mallorca (Spain)

2010-01-25

A multipurpose analyzer system based on sequential injection analysis (SIA) for the determination of dissolved oxygen (DO) in seawater is presented. Three operation modes were established and successfully applied onboard during a research cruise in the Southern ocean: 1st, in-line execution of the entire Winkler method including precipitation of manganese (II) hydroxide, fixation of DO, precipitate dissolution by confluent acidification, and spectrophotometric quantification of the generated iodine/tri-iodide (I{sub 2}/I{sub 3}{sup -}), 2nd, spectrophotometric quantification of I{sub 2}/I{sub 3}{sup -} in samples prepared according the classical Winkler protocol, and 3rd, accurate batch-wise titration of I{sub 2}/I{sub 3}{sup -} with thiosulfate using one syringe pump of the analyzer as automatic burette. In the first mode, the zone stacking principle was applied to achieve high dispersion of the reagent solutions in the sample zone. Spectrophotometric detection was done at the isobestic wavelength 466 nm of I{sub 2}/I{sub 3}{sup -}. Highly reduced consumption of reagents and sample compared to the classical Winkler protocol, linear response up to 16 mg L{sup -1} DO, and an injection frequency of 30 per hour were achieved. It is noteworthy that for the offline protocol, sample metering and quantification with a potentiometric titrator lasts in general over 5 min without counting sample fixation, incubation, and glassware cleaning. The modified SIMPLEX methodology was used for the simultaneous optimization of four volumetric and two chemical variables. Vertex calculation and consequent application including in-line preparation of one reagent was carried out in real-time using the software AutoAnalysis. The analytical system featured high signal stability, robustness, and a repeatability of 3% RSD (1st mode) and 0.8% (2nd mode) during shipboard application.

Sequential injection analysis for automation of the Winkler methodology, with real-time SIMPLEX optimization and shipboard application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horstkotte, Burkhard; Tovar Sanchez, Antonio; Duarte, Carlos M.; Cerda, Victor

2010-01-01

A multipurpose analyzer system based on sequential injection analysis (SIA) for the determination of dissolved oxygen (DO) in seawater is presented. Three operation modes were established and successfully applied onboard during a research cruise in the Southern ocean: 1st, in-line execution of the entire Winkler method including precipitation of manganese (II) hydroxide, fixation of DO, precipitate dissolution by confluent acidification, and spectrophotometric quantification of the generated iodine/tri-iodide (I 2 /I 3 - ), 2nd, spectrophotometric quantification of I 2 /I 3 - in samples prepared according the classical Winkler protocol, and 3rd, accurate batch-wise titration of I 2 /I 3 - with thiosulfate using one syringe pump of the analyzer as automatic burette. In the first mode, the zone stacking principle was applied to achieve high dispersion of the reagent solutions in the sample zone. Spectrophotometric detection was done at the isobestic wavelength 466 nm of I 2 /I 3 - . Highly reduced consumption of reagents and sample compared to the classical Winkler protocol, linear response up to 16 mg L -1 DO, and an injection frequency of 30 per hour were achieved. It is noteworthy that for the offline protocol, sample metering and quantification with a potentiometric titrator lasts in general over 5 min without counting sample fixation, incubation, and glassware cleaning. The modified SIMPLEX methodology was used for the simultaneous optimization of four volumetric and two chemical variables. Vertex calculation and consequent application including in-line preparation of one reagent was carried out in real-time using the software AutoAnalysis. The analytical system featured high signal stability, robustness, and a repeatability of 3% RSD (1st mode) and 0.8% (2nd mode) during shipboard application.

A study on replication and quality correlation of on-part and on-runner polymer injection molded micro features

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giannekas, Nikolaos; Tosello, Guido; Zhang, Yang

Injection molding is increasingly gaining place in manufacturing of polymer components as is can ensure a cost efficient production with short cycle times. To ensure the quality of the produced parts and the stability of the process it is essential to perform frequent metrological inspections....... In contrast to injection molding’s short cycle time, a metrological quality control can require a significant amount of time. The late detection of the problem can result to high losses and scrap rate. This paper presents an alternative approach to process monitoring and part quality control with fast off....../in-line metrology of physical part quality indicators (“Product Fingerprint”). The proposed approach is based on the concept of metrology applied to dedicated micro features, positioned on the runners, similar or equal to those in the part in order to access the quality of the produced plastic parts. A designed...

Are Flow Injection-based Approaches Suitable for Automated Handling of Solid Samples?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Miró, Manuel; Hansen, Elo Harald; Cerdà, Victor

Flow-based approaches were originally conceived for liquid-phase analysis, implying that constituents in solid samples generally had to be transferred into the liquid state, via appropriate batch pretreatment procedures, prior to analysis. Yet, in recent years, much effort has been focused...... electrolytic or aqueous leaching, on-line dialysis/microdialysis, in-line filtration, and pervaporation-based procedures have been successfully implemented in continuous flow/flow injection systems. In this communication, the new generation of flow analysis, including sequential injection, multicommutated flow.......g., soils, sediments, sludges), and thus, ascertaining the potential mobility, bioavailability and eventual impact of anthropogenic elements on biota [2]. In this context, the principles of sequential injection-microcolumn extraction (SI-MCE) for dynamic fractionation are explained in detail along...

Two-component micro injection moulding for hearing aid applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Islam, Aminul; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Marhöfer, David Maximilian

2012-01-01

. The moulding machine was a state-of-the-art 2k micro machine from DESMA. The fabricated micro part was a socket house integrated with a sealing ring for the receiver-in-canal hearing instrument. The test performed on the demonstrator showed the potential of the 2k moulding technology to be able to solve some...

Sequential sputtered Co-HfO{sub 2} granular films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chadha, M.; Ng, V.

2017-03-15

A systematic study of magnetic, magneto-transport and micro-structural properties of Co-HfO{sub 2} granular films fabricated by sequential sputtering is presented. We demonstrate reduction in ferromagnetic-oxide formation by using HfO{sub 2} as the insulting matrix. Microstructure evaluation of the films showed that the film structure consisted of discrete hcp-Co grains embedded in HfO{sub 2} matrix. Films with varying compositions were prepared and their macroscopic properties were studied. We correlate the variation in these properties to the variation in film microstructure. Our study shows that Co-HfO{sub 2} films with reduced cobalt oxide and varying properties can be prepared using sequential sputtering technique. - Highlights: • Co-HfO{sub 2} granular films were prepared using sequential sputtering. • A reduction in ferromagnetic-oxide formation is observed. • Co-HfO{sub 2} films display superparamagnetism and tunnelling magneto-resistance. • Varying macroscopic properties were achieved by changing film composition. • Applications can be found in moderate MR sensors and high –frequency RF devices.

Treatability Test Plan for 300 Area Uranium Stabilization through Polyphosphate Injection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vermeul, Vince R.; Williams, M. D.; Fritz, Brad G.; Mackley, Rob D.; Mendoza, Donaldo P.; Newcomer, Darrell R.; Rockhold, Mark L.; Williams, Bruce A.; Wellman, Dawn M.

2007-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy has initiated a study into possible options for stabilizing uranium at the 300 Area using polyphosphate injection. As part of this effort, PNNL will perform bench- and field-scale treatability testing designed to evaluate the efficacy of using polyphosphate injections to reduced uranium concentrations in the groundwater to meet drinking water standards (30 (micro)g/L) in situ. This technology works by forming phosphate minerals (autunite and apatite) in the aquifer that directly sequester the existing aqueous uranium in autunite minerals and precipitates apatite minerals for sorption and long term treatment of uranium migrating into the treatment zone, thus reducing current and future aqueous uranium concentrations. Polyphosphate injection was selected for testing based on technology screening as part of the 300-FF-5 Phase III Feasibility Study for treatment of uranium in the 300-Area

Two component injection moulding: an interface quality and bond strength dilemma

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Islam, Mohammad Aminul; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Tang, Peter Torben

2008-01-01

on quality parameters of the two component parts. Most engineering applications of two component injection moulding calls for high bond strength between the two polymers, on the other hand a sharp and well-defined interface between the two polymers are required for applications like selective metallization...... of polymers, parts for micro applications and also for the aesthetic purpose of the final product. The investigation presented in this paper indicates a dilemma between obtaining reasonably good bond strength and at the same time keeping the interface quality suitable for applications. The required process...... conditions for a sharp and well-defined interface are exactly the opposite of what is congenial for higher bond strength. So in the production of two component injection moulded parts, there is a compromise to make between the interface quality and the bond strength of the two polymers. Also the injection...

Influence of injection temperatures and fiberglass compositions on mechanical properties of polypropylene

Science.gov (United States)

Keey, Tony Tiew Chun; Azuddin, M.

2017-06-01

Injection molding process appears to be one of the most suitable mass and cost efficiency manufacturing processes for polymeric parts nowadays due to its high efficiency of large scale production. When down-scaling the products and components, the limits of conventional injection molding process are reached. These constraints had initiated the development of conventional injection molding process into a new era of micro injection molding technology. In this study, fiberglass reinforced polypropylenes (PP) with various glass fiber percentage materials were used. The study start with fabrication of micro tensile specimens at three different injection temperature, 260°C, 270°C and 280°C for different percentage by weight of fiberglass reinforced PP. Then evaluate the effects of various injection temperatures on the tensile properties of micro tensile specimens. Different percentage by weight of fiberglass reinforced PP were tested as well and it was found that 20% fiberglass reinforced PP possessed the greatest percentage increase of tensile strength with increasing temperatures.

Rapid isolation of plutonium in environmental solid samples using sequential injection anion exchange chromatography followed by detection with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qiao Jixin, E-mail: jixin.qiao@risoe.d [Radiation Research Division, Riso National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark, DK-4000 Roskilde (Denmark); Hou Xiaolin; Roos, Per [Radiation Research Division, Riso National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark, DK-4000 Roskilde (Denmark); Miro, Manuel [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of the Balearic Islands, Carretera de Valldemossa km. 7.5, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears (Spain)

2011-01-31

This paper reports an automated analytical method for rapid determination of plutonium isotopes ({sup 239}Pu and {sup 240}Pu) in environmental solid extracts. Anion exchange chromatographic columns were incorporated in a sequential injection (SI) system to undertake the automated separation of plutonium from matrix and interfering elements. The analytical results most distinctly demonstrated that the crosslinkage of the anion exchanger is a key parameter controlling the separation efficiency. AG 1-x4 type resin was selected as the most suitable sorbent material for analyte separation. Investigation of column size effect upon the separation efficiency revealed that small-sized (2 mL) columns sufficed to handle up to 50 g of environmental soil samples. Under the optimum conditions, chemical yields of plutonium exceeded 90% and the decontamination factors for uranium, thorium and lead ranged from 10{sup 3} to 10{sup 4}. The determination of plutonium isotopes in three standard/certified reference materials (IAEA-375 soil, IAEA-135 sediment and NIST-4359 seaweed) and two reference samples (Irish Sea sediment and Danish soil) revealed a good agreement with reference/certified values. The SI column-separation method is straightforward and less labor intensive as compared with batch-wise anion exchange chromatographic procedures. Besides, the automated method features low consumption of ion-exchanger and reagents for column washing and elution, with the consequent decrease in the generation of acidic waste, thus bearing green chemical credentials.

Challenges in high accuracy surface replication for micro optics and micro fluidics manufacture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Calaon, Matteo

2014-01-01

Patterning the surface of polymer components with microstructured geometries is employed in optical and microfluidic applications. Mass fabrication of polymer micro structured products is enabled by replication technologies such as injection moulding. Micro structured tools are also produced...... by replication technologies such as nickel electroplating. All replication steps are enabled by a high precision master and high reproduction fidelity to ensure that the functionalities associated with the design are transferred to the final component. Engineered surface micro structures can be either...

A Bayesian Theory of Sequential Causal Learning and Abstract Transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hongjing; Rojas, Randall R; Beckers, Tom; Yuille, Alan L

2016-03-01

Two key research issues in the field of causal learning are how people acquire causal knowledge when observing data that are presented sequentially, and the level of abstraction at which learning takes place. Does sequential causal learning solely involve the acquisition of specific cause-effect links, or do learners also acquire knowledge about abstract causal constraints? Recent empirical studies have revealed that experience with one set of causal cues can dramatically alter subsequent learning and performance with entirely different cues, suggesting that learning involves abstract transfer, and such transfer effects involve sequential presentation of distinct sets of causal cues. It has been demonstrated that pre-training (or even post-training) can modulate classic causal learning phenomena such as forward and backward blocking. To account for these effects, we propose a Bayesian theory of sequential causal learning. The theory assumes that humans are able to consider and use several alternative causal generative models, each instantiating a different causal integration rule. Model selection is used to decide which integration rule to use in a given learning environment in order to infer causal knowledge from sequential data. Detailed computer simulations demonstrate that humans rely on the abstract characteristics of outcome variables (e.g., binary vs. continuous) to select a causal integration rule, which in turn alters causal learning in a variety of blocking and overshadowing paradigms. When the nature of the outcome variable is ambiguous, humans select the model that yields the best fit with the recent environment, and then apply it to subsequent learning tasks. Based on sequential patterns of cue-outcome co-occurrence, the theory can account for a range of phenomena in sequential causal learning, including various blocking effects, primacy effects in some experimental conditions, and apparently abstract transfer of causal knowledge. Copyright © 2015

Sequential determination of multi-nutrient elements in natural water samples with a reverse flow injection system.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Kunning; Ma, Jian; Yuan, Dongxing; Feng, Sichao; Su, Haitao; Huang, Yongming; Shangguan, Qipei

2017-05-15

An integrated system was developed for automatic and sequential determination of NO 2 - , NO 3 - , PO 4 3- , Fe 2+ , Fe 3+ and Mn 2+ in natural waters based on reverse flow injection analysis combined with spectrophotometric detection. The system operation was controlled by a single chip microcomputer and laboratory-programmed software written in LabVIEW. The experimental parameters for each nutrient element analysis were optimized based on a univariate experimental design, and interferences from common ions were evaluated. The upper limits of the linear range (along with detection limit, µmolL -1 ) of the proposed method was 20 (0.03), 200 (0.7), 12 (0.3), 5 (0.03), 5 (0.03), 9 (0.2) µmolL -1 , for NO 2 - , NO 3 - , PO 4 3- , Fe 2+ , Fe 3+ and Mn 2+ , respectively. The relative standard deviations were below 5% (n=9-13) and the recoveries varied from 88.0±1.0% to 104.5±1.0% for spiked water samples. The sample throughput was about 20h -1 . This system has been successfully applied for the determination of multi-nutrient elements in different kinds of water samples and showed good agreement with reference methods (slope 1.0260±0.0043, R 2 =0.9991, n=50). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rapid and simultaneous determination of neptunium and plutonium isotopes in environmental samples by extraction chromatography using sequential injection analysis and ICP-MS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qiao, Jixin; Hou, Xiaolin; Roos, Per

2010-01-01

plutonium and neptunium in three reference materials were in agreement with the recommended or literature values at the 0.05 significance level. The developed method is suitable for the analysis of up to 10 g of soil and 20 g of seaweed samples. The extraction chromatographic separation within the SI system......This paper reports an automated analytical method for rapid and simultaneous determination of plutonium isotopes (239Pu and 240Pu) and neptunium (237Np) in environmental samples. An extraction chromatographic column packed with TrisKem TEVA® resin was incorporated in a sequential injection (SI...... for a single sample takes less than 1.5 h. As compared to batchwise procedures, the developed method significantly improves the analysis efficiency, reduces the labor intensity and expedites the simultaneous determination of plutonium and neptunium as demanded in emergency actions....

Highly selective solid-phase extraction and large volume injection for the robust gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of TCA and TBA in wines.

Science.gov (United States)

Insa, S; Anticó, E; Ferreira, V

2005-09-30

A reliable solid-phase extraction (SPE) method for the simultaneous determination of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) and 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA) in wines has been developed. In the proposed procedure 50 mL of wine are extracted in a 1 mL cartridge filled with 50 mg of LiChrolut EN resins. Most wine volatiles are washed up with 12.5 mL of a water:methanol solution (70%, v/v) containing 1% of NaHCO3. Analytes are further eluted with 0.6 mL of dichloromethane. A 40 microL aliquot of this extract is directly injected into a PTV injector operated in the solvent split mode, and analysed by gas chromatography (GC)-ion trap mass spectrometry using the selected ion storage mode. The solid-phase extraction, including sample volume and rinsing and elution solvents, and the large volume GC injection have been carefully evaluated and optimized. The resulting method is precise (RSD (%) TBA, respectively), robust (the absolute recoveries of both analytes are higher than 80% and consistent wine to wine) and friendly to the GC-MS system (the extract is clean, simple and free from non-volatiles).

Exploring selection and recruitment processes for newly qualified nurses: a sequential-explanatory mixed-method study.

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, Paul; Chandler, Val; Morris-Thomson, Trish; Sayer, Jane; Burke, Linda

2015-01-01

To map current selection and recruitment processes for newly qualified nurses and to explore the advantages and limitations of current selection and recruitment processes. The need to improve current selection and recruitment practices for newly qualified nurses is highlighted in health policy internationally. A cross-sectional, sequential-explanatory mixed-method design with 4 components: (1) Literature review of selection and recruitment of newly qualified nurses; and (2) Literature review of a public sector professions' selection and recruitment processes; (3) Survey mapping existing selection and recruitment processes for newly qualified nurses; and (4) Qualitative study about recruiters' selection and recruitment processes. Literature searches on the selection and recruitment of newly qualified candidates in teaching and nursing (2005-2013) were conducted. Cross-sectional, mixed-method data were collected from thirty-one (n = 31) individuals in health providers in London who had responsibility for the selection and recruitment of newly qualified nurses using a survey instrument. Of these providers who took part, six (n = 6) purposively selected to be interviewed qualitatively. Issues of supply and demand in the workforce, rather than selection and recruitment tools, predominated in the literature reviews. Examples of tools to measure values, attitudes and skills were found in the nursing literature. The mapping exercise found that providers used many selection and recruitment tools, some providers combined tools to streamline process and assure quality of candidates. Most providers had processes which addressed the issue of quality in the selection and recruitment of newly qualified nurses. The 'assessment centre model', which providers were adopting, allowed for multiple levels of assessment and streamlined recruitment. There is a need to validate the efficacy of the selection tools. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Coupling sequential injection on-line preconcentration by means of a renewable microcolumn with ion-exchange beads with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Comparing the performance of eluting the loaded beads with transporting them directly into the graphite tube

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2001-01-01

The design of a flow injection/sequential injection (FIA/SIA) on-line preconcentration system incorporating a renewable microcolumn with ion-exchange beads and interfaced with an electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) detector is described, and its practical applicability.......4% for the procedure in which the loaded beads are transported directly to the graphite furnace for pyrolysis and atomization, and even improved in comparison to the traditional unidirectional and bidirectional repetitive elution procedures which under comparable conditions yield R.S.D.-values of 5.8 and 4...

Determination of picloram in natural waters employing sequential injection square wave voltammetry using the hanging mercury drop electrode.

Science.gov (United States)

Dos Santos, Luciana B O; Masini, Jorge C

2007-05-15

This paper describes the development of a sequential injection analysis method to automate the determination of picloram by square wave voltammetry exploiting the concept of monosegmented flow analysis to perform in-line sample conditioning and standard addition. To perform these tasks, an 800muL monosegment is formed, composed by 400muL of sample and 400muL of conditioning/standard solution, in medium of 0.10molL(-1) H(2)SO(4). Homogenization of the monosegment is achieved by three flow reversals. After homogenization the mixture zone is injected toward the flow cell, which is adapted to the capillary of a hanging drop mercury electrode, at a flow rate of 50muLs(-1). After a suitable delay time, the potential is scanned from -0.5 to -1.0V versus Ag/AgCl at frequency of 300Hz and pulse height of 25mV. The linear dynamic range is observed for picloram concentrations between 0.10 and 2.50mgL(-1) fitting to the linear equation I(p)=(-2.19+/-0.03)C(picloram)+(0.096+/-0.039), with R(2)=0.9996, for which the slope is given in muALmg(-1). The detection and quantification limits are 0.036 and 0.12mgL(-1), respectively. The sampling frequency is 37h(-1) when the standard addition protocol is followed, but can be increased to 41h(-1) if the protocol to obtain in-line external calibration curve is used for quantification. The method was applied for determination of picloram in spiked water samples and the accuracy was evaluated by comparison with high performance liquid chromatography using molecular absorption at 220nm for detection. No evidences of statistically significant differences between the two methods were observed.

Micro powder-injection moulding of metals and ceramics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

Development of micro-MIM/-CIM was started at Forschungszen- ... of microsystems products not only possesses a respectable market poten- .... We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Ultrafast laser driven micro-lens to focus and energy select MeV protons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toncian, Toma

2008-05-01

A technique for simultaneous focusing and energy selection of high-current, MeV proton beams using radial, transient electric fields (10 7 -10 10 V/m) triggered on the inner wall of a hollow micro-cylinder by an intense, sub-picosecond laser-pulse is presented. Due to the transient nature of the radial focusing field, the proposed method allows selection of a desired range out of the spectrum of the poly-energetic proton beam. This technique addresses current drawbacks of laser-accelerated proton beams, i.e. their broad spectrum and divergence at the source. This thesis presents both experimental and computational studies that led to the understanding of the physical processes driving the micro-lens. After an one side irradiation of a hollow metallic cylinder a radial electric field develops inside the cylinder. Hot electrons generated by the interaction between laser pulse and cylinder wall spread inside the cylinder generating a plasma at the wall. This plasma expands into vacuum and sustains an electric field that acts as a collecting lens on a proton beam propagating axially through the cylinder. Both focusing and the reduction of the intrinsic beam divergence from 20 deg to.3 deg for a narrow spectral range was demonstrated. By sub-aperturing the beam a narrow spectral range (δε/ε < 3%) was selected from the poly-energetic beam. The micro-lens properties are tunable allowing for optimization towards applications. Optical probing techniques and proton imaging were employed to study the spacial and temporal evolution of the field and revealed a complex physical scenario of the rise and decay of the radial electric field. Each aspect studied experimentally is interpreted using 2D PIC and ray tracing simulations. A very good agreement between the experimental and computational data is found. The PIC simulations are used to upscale the demonstrated micro-lens capabilities to the focusing of a 270 MeV proton beam, an energy relevant for medical applications such

Ultrafast laser driven micro-lens to focus and energy select MeV protons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Toncian, Toma

2008-05-15

A technique for simultaneous focusing and energy selection of high-current, MeV proton beams using radial, transient electric fields (10{sup 7}-10{sup 10} V/m) triggered on the inner wall of a hollow micro-cylinder by an intense, sub-picosecond laser-pulse is presented. Due to the transient nature of the radial focusing field, the proposed method allows selection of a desired range out of the spectrum of the poly-energetic proton beam. This technique addresses current drawbacks of laser-accelerated proton beams, i.e. their broad spectrum and divergence at the source. This thesis presents both experimental and computational studies that led to the understanding of the physical processes driving the micro-lens. After an one side irradiation of a hollow metallic cylinder a radial electric field develops inside the cylinder. Hot electrons generated by the interaction between laser pulse and cylinder wall spread inside the cylinder generating a plasma at the wall. This plasma expands into vacuum and sustains an electric field that acts as a collecting lens on a proton beam propagating axially through the cylinder. Both focusing and the reduction of the intrinsic beam divergence from 20 deg to.3 deg for a narrow spectral range was demonstrated. By sub-aperturing the beam a narrow spectral range ({delta}{epsilon}/{epsilon} < 3%) was selected from the poly-energetic beam. The micro-lens properties are tunable allowing for optimization towards applications. Optical probing techniques and proton imaging were employed to study the spacial and temporal evolution of the field and revealed a complex physical scenario of the rise and decay of the radial electric field. Each aspect studied experimentally is interpreted using 2D PIC and ray tracing simulations. A very good agreement between the experimental and computational data is found. The PIC simulations are used to upscale the demonstrated micro-lens capabilities to the focusing of a 270 MeV proton beam, an energy relevant

On-line ion exchange preconcentration in a sequential injection lab-on-valve microsystem incorporating a renewable column with ETAAS for the trace-level determination of bismuth in urine and river sediment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2001-01-01

A sequential injection system for on-line ion-exchange separation and preconcentration of trace-level amounts of metal ions with ensuing detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) is described. Based on the use of a renewable microcolumn incorporated within an integrated l.......3% for the determination of 2.0 mug/l Bi (n = 7). The procedure was validated by determination of bismuth in a certified reference material CRM 320 (river sediment), and by bismuth spike recoveries in two human urine samples....

In situ nanostructure formation of (micro-hydroxo)bis(micro-carboxylato) diruthenium units in nafion membrane and its utilization for selective reduction of nitrosonium ion in aqueous medium.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Annamalai Senthil; Tanase, Tomoaki; Iida, Masayasu

2007-01-16

Nanostructured molecular film containing the (micro-hydroxo)bis(micro-carboxylato) diruthenium(III) units, [RuIII2(micro-OH)(micro-CH3COO)2(HBpz3)2]+ ({RuIII2(micro-OH)}), was prepared by an in situ conversion of its micro-oxo precursor, [RuIII2(micro-O)(micro-CH3COO)2(HBpz3)2] ({RuIII2(micro-O)}), in a Nafion membrane matrix, where HBpz3 is hydrotris(1-pyrazolyl)borate. The conversion procedure results in fine nanoparticle aggregates of the {RuIII2(micro-OH)} units in the Nafion membrane (Nf-{RuIII2(micro-OH)}), where an average particle size (4.1 +/- 2.3 nm) is close to the Nafion's cluster dimension of approximately 4 nm. Chemically modified electrodes by using the Nafion molecular membrane films (Nf-{RuIII2(micro-OH)}-MMFEs) were further developed on ITO/glass and glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surfaces, and a selective reduction of nitrosonium ion (NO+), presumably through reaction of a {RuIIRuIII(micro-OH)} mixed-valence state with HNO2, was demonstrated without interference by molecular oxygen in an acidic aqueous solution. The Nf-{RuIII2(micro-OH)}-MMFEs are stable even in a physiological condition (pH 7), where the naked {RuIII2(-OH)} complex is readily transformed into its deprotonated {RuIII2(micro-O)} form, demonstrating an unusual stabilizing effects for the {RuIII2(micro-OH)} unit by the Nafion cluster environment.

Surface micro topography replication in injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arlø, Uffe Rolf

Thermoplastic injection moulding is a widely used industrial process that involves surface generation by replication. The surface topography of injection moulded plastic parts can be important for aesthetical or technical reasons. With the emergence of microengineering and nanotechnology additional...... importance of surface topography follows. In general the replication is not perfect and the topography of the plastic part differs from the inverse topography of the mould cavity. It is desirable to be able to control the degree of replication perfection or replication quality. This requires an understanding...... of the physical mechanisms of replication. Such understanding can lead to improved process design and facilitate in-line process quality control with respect to surface properties. The purpose of the project is to identify critical factors that affect topography replication quality and to obtain an understanding...

Smart plastic functionalization by nanoimprint and injection molding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zalkovskij, Maksim; Thamdrup, Lasse Højlund; Smistrup, Kristian

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present a route for making smart functionalized plastic parts by injection molding with sub-micrometer surface structures. The method is based on combining planar processes well known and established within silicon micro and sub-micro fabrication with proven high resolution...

Measurement of micro moulded parts by Computed Tomography and comparison to optical and tactile techniques

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yagüe, J.A.; Tosello, Guido; Carmignato, S

2011-01-01

This paper focuses on dimensional verification of two micro-injection moulded components, selected from actual industrial productions, using CT metrological tools. In addition to CT scanning, also a tactile Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) with sub-micrometer uncertainty and an Optical Coordinate...... Measuring Machine (OCMM) allowing fast measurements suitable for in-line quality control were employed as validation instruments. The experimental work carried out and the analysis of the results provide valuable conclusions about the advantages and drawbacks of using CT metrology in comparison with CMM...... and OCMM when these techniques are employed for quality control of micro moulded parts....

Double-radionuclide autoradiographic method using N-isopropyl-iodoamphetamine for sequential measurements of local cerebral blood flow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obrenovitch, T.P.; Clayton, C.B.; Strong, A.J.

1987-01-01

A double-radionuclide autoradiographic method has been assessed for sequential determinations of local CBF (LCBF). It is based on two successive intravascular injections of N-isopropyl-p-iodoamphetamine (IMP) labelled with different radionuclides, whose concentrations can later be differentiated in the same tissue section using double-radionuclide autoradiography. Previous studies suggested that the distribution of IMP, up to 30 min after its administration, still represents LCBFs. Our data indicate that, provided the tracer is injected directly into the left ventricle, there is little back diffusion from normal brain to blood under physiological conditions for at least 35 min following the tracer injection and an injection of unlabelled IMP, in a dose larger than that used for blood flow determination, does not displace any labelled IMP previously taken up by the brain, nor does it displace any labelled IMP previously accumulated in the lung that would lead to secondary brain uptake. On the basis of these results, we conclude that sequential autoradiographic determinations of LCBF using IMP labelled with different radionuclides is possible. This is a promising experimental method for the simultaneous investigation of changes in LCBF in several CNS structures

Financial methods for waterflooding injectate design

Science.gov (United States)

Heneman, Helmuth J.; Brady, Patrick V.

2017-08-08

A method of selecting an injectate for recovering liquid hydrocarbons from a reservoir includes designing a plurality of injectates, calculating a net present value of each injectate, and selecting a candidate injectate based on the net present value. For example, the candidate injectate may be selected to maximize the net present value of a waterflooding operation.

The influence of selected design and operating parameters on the dynamics of the steam micro-turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Żywica, Grzegorz; Kiciński, Jan

2015-10-01

The topic of the article is the analysis of the influence of selected design parameters and operating conditions on the radial steam micro-turbine, which was adapted to operate with low-boiling agent in the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). In the following parts of this article the results of the thermal load analysis, the residual unbalance and the stiffness of bearing supports are discussed. Advanced computational methods and numerical models have been used. Computational analysis showed that the steam micro-turbine is characterized by very good dynamic properties and is resistant to extreme operating conditions. The prototype of micro-turbine has passed a series of test calculations. It has been found that it can be subjected to experimental research in the micro combined heat and power system.

Selective decay in a helicity-injected spheromak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MartInez, P L Garcia; Farengo, R

2009-01-01

The non-linear evolution of several unstable equilibria, representative of helicity-injected spheromak configurations inside a cylindrical flux conserver, is studied by means of three dimensional resistive MHD simulations. These equilibria are force-free (∇ x B = λ(ψ)B) but do not correspond to minimum energy states, having linear λ(ψ) profiles with negative slope. Several aspects of this process are studied (magnetic energy relaxation, selective helicity decay, relaxed profiles) for different initial A slopes. The stability threshold predicted by linear theory is recovered. The results show that complete plasma relaxation leading to a uniform A, is achieved only if the initial profile is hollow enough. The evolution for cases just above the stability threshold is more gentle and does not end in a Taylor state. The final state in these cases has a linear λ(ψ) profile, as the initial condition, but with a smaller slope.

Micro-battery Development for Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Honghao; Cartmell, Samuel; Wang, Qiang; Lozano, Terence; Deng, Z. Daniel; Li, Huidong; Chen, Xilin; Yuan, Yong; Gross, Mark E.; Carlson, Thomas J.; Xiao, Jie

2014-01-01

The Endangered Species Act requires actions that improve the passage and survival rates for migrating salmonoids and other fish species that sustain injury and mortality when passing through hydroelectric dams. To develop a low-cost revolutionary acoustic transmitter that may be injected instead of surgically implanted into the fish, one major challenge that needs to be addressed is the micro-battery power source. This work focuses on the design and fabrication of micro-batteries for injectable fish tags. High pulse current and required service life have both been achieved as well as doubling the gravimetric energy density of the battery. The newly designed micro-batteries have intrinsically low impedance, leading to significantly improved electrochemical performances at low temperatures as compared with commercial SR416 batteries. Successful field trial by using the micro-battery powered transmitters injected into fish has been demonstrated, providing an exemplary model of transferring fundamental research into practical devices with controlled qualities.

Fabrication of Biochips with Micro Fluidic Channels by Micro End-milling and Powder Blasting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong Sam Park

2008-02-01

Full Text Available For microfabrications of biochips with micro fluidic channels, a large number of microfabrication techniques based on silicon or glass-based Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS technologies were proposed in the last decade. In recent years, for low cost and mass production, polymer-based microfabrication techniques by microinjection molding and micro hot embossing have been proposed. These techniques, which require a proper photoresist, mask, UV light exposure, developing, and electroplating as a preprocess, are considered to have some problems. In this study, we propose a new microfabrication technology which consists of micro end-milling and powder blasting. This technique could be directly applied to fabricate the metal mold without any preprocesses. The metal mold with micro-channels is machined by micro end-milling, and then, burrs generated in the end-milling process are removed by powder blasting. From the experimental results, micro end-milling combined with powder blasting could be applied effectively for fabrication of the injection mold of biochips with micro fluidic channels.

Discrimination between sequential and simultaneous virtual channels with electrical hearing.

Science.gov (United States)

Landsberger, David; Galvin, John J

2011-09-01

In cochlear implants (CIs), simultaneous or sequential stimulation of adjacent electrodes can produce intermediate pitch percepts between those of the component electrodes. However, it is unclear whether simultaneous and sequential virtual channels (VCs) can be discriminated. In this study, CI users were asked to discriminate simultaneous and sequential VCs; discrimination was measured for monopolar (MP) and bipolar + 1 stimulation (BP + 1), i.e., relatively broad and focused stimulation modes. For sequential VCs, the interpulse interval (IPI) varied between 0.0 and 1.8 ms. All stimuli were presented at comfortably loud, loudness-balanced levels at a 250 pulse per second per electrode (ppse) stimulation rate. On average, CI subjects were able to reliably discriminate between sequential and simultaneous VCs. While there was no significant effect of IPI or stimulation mode on VC discrimination, some subjects exhibited better VC discrimination with BP + 1 stimulation. Subjects' discrimination between sequential and simultaneous VCs was correlated with electrode discrimination, suggesting that spatial selectivity may influence perception of sequential VCs. To maintain equal loudness, sequential VC amplitudes were nearly double those of simultaneous VCs, presumably resulting in a broader spread of excitation. These results suggest that perceptual differences between simultaneous and sequential VCs might be explained by differences in the spread of excitation. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America

Injection halos of hydrocarbons above oil-gas fields with super-high pressures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bakhtin, V.V.

1979-09-01

We studied the origin of injection halos of hydrocarbons above oil-gas fields with anomalously high formation pressures (AHFP). Using fields in Azerbaydzhan and Chechen-Ingushetiya as an example, we demonstrate the effect of certain factors (in particular, faults and zones of increased macro- and micro-jointing) on the morpholoy of the halos. The intensity of micro-jointing (jointing permeability, three-dimensional density of micro-jointing) is directly connected with vertical dimensions of the halos. We measured halos based on transverse profiles across the Khayan-Kort field and studied the distribution of bitumen saturation within the injection halo. Discovery of injection halos during drilling has enabled us to improve the technology of wiring deep-seated exploratory wells for oil and gas in regions with development of AHFP.

Nanostructuring steel for injection molding tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-Azawi, A; Smistrup, K; Kristensen, A

2014-01-01

The production of nanostructured plastic items by injection molding with ridges down to 400 nm in width, which is the smallest line width replicated from nanostructured steel shims, is presented. Here we detail a micro-fabrication method where electron beam lithography, nano-imprint lithography and ion beam etching are combined to nanostructure the planar surface of a steel wafer. Injection molded plastic parts with enhanced surface properties, like anti-reflective, superhydrophobic and structural colors can be achieved by micro- and nanostructuring the surface of the steel molds. We investigate the minimum line width that can be realized by our fabrication method and the influence of etching angle on the structure profile during the ion beam etching process. Trenches down to 400 nm in width have been successfully fabricated into a 316 type electro-polished steel wafer. Afterward a plastic replica has been produced by injection molding with good structure transfer fidelity. Thus we have demonstrated that by utilizing well-established fabrication techniques, nanostructured steel shims that are used in injection molding, a technique that allows low cost mass fabrication of plastic items, are produced. (paper)

Adrenal vein sampling in primary aldosteronism: concordance of simultaneous vs sequential sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Almarzooqi, Mohamed-Karji; Chagnon, Miguel; Soulez, Gilles; Giroux, Marie-France; Gilbert, Patrick; Oliva, Vincent L; Perreault, Pierre; Bouchard, Louis; Bourdeau, Isabelle; Lacroix, André; Therasse, Eric

2017-02-01

Many investigators believe that basal adrenal venous sampling (AVS) should be done simultaneously, whereas others opt for sequential AVS for simplicity and reduced cost. This study aimed to evaluate the concordance of sequential and simultaneous AVS methods. Between 1989 and 2015, bilateral simultaneous sets of basal AVS were obtained twice within 5 min, in 188 consecutive patients (59 women and 129 men; mean age: 53.4 years). Selectivity was defined by adrenal-to-peripheral cortisol ratio ≥2, and lateralization was defined as an adrenal aldosterone-to-cortisol ratio ≥2, the contralateral side. Sequential AVS was simulated using right sampling at -5 min (t = -5) and left sampling at 0 min (t = 0). There was no significant difference in mean selectivity ratio (P = 0.12 and P = 0.42 for the right and left sides respectively) and in mean lateralization ratio (P = 0.93) between t = -5 and t = 0. Kappa for selectivity between 2 simultaneous AVS was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.60-0.82), whereas it was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.76-0.92) and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.77-0.93) between sequential and simultaneous AVS at respectively -5 min and at 0 min. Kappa for lateralization between 2 simultaneous AVS was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.75-0.93), whereas it was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.78-0.94) and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.71-0.90) between sequential AVS and simultaneous AVS at respectively -5 min at 0 min. Concordance between simultaneous and sequential AVS was not different than that between 2 repeated simultaneous AVS in the same patient. Therefore, a better diagnostic performance is not a good argument to select the AVS method. © 2017 European Society of Endocrinology.

Properties of simultaneous and sequential two-nucleon transfer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinkston, W.T.; Satchler, G.R.

1982-01-01

Approximate forms of the first- and second-order distorted-wave Born amplitudes are used to study the overall structure, particularly the selection rules, of the amplitudes for simultaneous and sequential transfer of two nucleons. The role of the spin-state assumed for the intermediate deuterons in sequential (t, p) reactions is stressed. The similarity of one-step and two-step amplitudes for (α, d) reactions is exhibited, and the consequent absence of any obvious J-dependence in their interference is noted. (orig.)

Injection Moulding Pilot Production: Performance Assessment of Tooling Process Chains Based on Tool Inserts Made from Brass and A 3d Printed Photopolymer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mischkot, Michael; Tosello, Guido; Nielsen, Daniel K. Y.

2017-01-01

-cavity mold. The inserts as well as selected injection molded parts were analyzed with an optical 3D micro-coordinate measuring machine. It was found that additive manufacturing technology can lead to a significantly more cost effective pilot production, both in terms of development time and investment. DLP...

Plasma assisted nitriding for micro-texturing onto martensitic stainless steels*

OpenAIRE

Katoh Takahisa; Aizawa Tatsuhiko; Yamaguchi Tetsuya

2015-01-01

Micro-texturing method has grown up to be one of the most promising procedures to form micro-lines, micro-dots and micro-grooves onto the mold-die materials and to duplicate these micro-patterns onto metallic or polymer sheets via stamping or injection molding. This related application requires for large-area, fine micro-texturing onto the martensitic stainless steel mold-die materials. A new method other than laser-machining, micro-milling or micro-EDM is awaited for further advancement of t...

A general method for selection of riboflavin-overproducing food grade micro-organisms

OpenAIRE

Burgess, Catherine M; Smid, Eddy J; Rutten, Ger; van Sinderen, Douwe

2006-01-01

Abstract Background This study describes a strategy to select and isolate spontaneous riboflavin-overproducing strains of Lactobacillus (Lb.) plantarum, Leuconostoc (Lc.) mesenteroides and Propionibacterium (P.) freudenreichii. Results The toxic riboflavin analogue roseoflavin was used to isolate natural riboflavin-overproducing variants of the food grade micro-organisms Lb. plantarum, Lc. mesenteroides and P. freudenreichii strains. The method was successfully employed for strains of all thr...

Integration of Polymer Micro-Electrodes for Bio-Sensing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Argyraki, Aikaterini; Larsen, Simon Tylsgaard; Tanzi, Simone

We present the fabrication of PEDOT and pyrolyzed micro-electrodes for the detection of neurotransmitter exocytosis from single cells. The patterns of the electrodes are defined with photolithography. The micro-electro-fluidic-chips were fabricated by bonding two injection molded TOPAS parts. Pol...

Best practice strategies for validation of micro moulding process simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Costa, Franco; Tosello, Guido; Whiteside, Ben

2009-01-01

are the optimization of the moulding process and of the tool using simulation techniques. Therefore, in polymer micro manufacturing technology, software simulation tools adapted from conventional injection moulding can provide useful assistance for the optimization of moulding tools, mould inserts, micro component...... are discussed. Recommendations regarding sampling rate, meshing quality, filling analysis methods (micro short shots, flow visualization) and machine geometry modelling are given on the basis of the comparison between simulated and experimental results within the two considered study cases.......Simulation programs in polymer micro replication technology are used for the same reasons as in conventional injection moulding. To avoid the risks of costly re-engineering, the moulding process is simulated before starting the actual manufacturing process. Important economic factors...

Micro-MID Manufacturing By Two-Shot Injection Moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Islam, Mohammad Aminul; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Tang, Peter Torben

2008-01-01

a specific MID process chain is used for micro products, many technical challenges are encountered which would not be problems for macro scale products. This paper investigates on a specific MID process chain (two shot moulding) and discusses the technical difficulties associated with the production process...

Sequentially solution-processed, nanostructured polymer photovoltaics using selective solvents

KAUST Repository

Kim, Do Hwan; Mei, Jianguo; Ayzner, Alexander L.; Schmidt, Kristin; Giri, Gaurav; Appleton, Anthony L.; Toney, Michael F.; Bao, Zhenan

2014-01-01

We demonstrate high-performance sequentially solution-processed organic photovoltaics (OPVs) with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5% for blend films using a donor polymer based on the isoindigo-bithiophene repeat unit (PII2T-C10C8) and a fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C[71]-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). This has been accomplished by systematically controlling the swelling and intermixing processes of the layer with various processing solvents during deposition of the fullerene. We find that among the solvents used for fullerene deposition that primarily swell but do not re-dissolve the polymer underlayer, there were significant microstructural differences between chloro and o-dichlorobenzene solvents (CB and ODCB, respectively). Specifically, we show that the polymer crystallite orientation distribution in films where ODCB was used to cast the fullerene is broad. This indicates that out-of-plane charge transport through a tortuous transport network is relatively efficient due to a large density of inter-grain connections. In contrast, using CB results in primarily edge-on oriented polymer crystallites, which leads to diminished out-of-plane charge transport. We correlate these microstructural differences with photocurrent measurements, which clearly show that casting the fullerene out of ODCB leads to significantly enhanced power conversion efficiencies. Thus, we believe that tuning the processing solvents used to cast the electron acceptor in sequentially-processed devices is a viable way to controllably tune the blend film microstructure. © 2014 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Chemically Functionalized Arrays Comprising Micro and Nano-Etro-Mechanizal Systems for Reliable and Selective Characterization of Tank Waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sepaniak, Michael J.

2008-01-01

Innovative technology of sensory and selective chemical monitoring of hazardous wastes present in storage tanks are of continued importance to the environment. This multifaceted research program exploits the unique characteristics of micro and nano-fabricated cantilever-based, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMES) and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) in chemical sensing. Significant progress was made in tasks that were listed in the work plan for DOE EMSP project 'Hybrid Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems for Highly Reliable and Selective Characterization of Tank Waste'. These tasks are listed below in modified form followed by the report on progress. (1) Deposit chemically selective phases on model MEMS devices with nanostructured surface layers to identify optimal technological approaches. (2) Monitor mechanical (deflection) and optical (SERS) responses of the created MEMS to organic and inorganic species in aqueous environments. (3) Explore and compare different approaches to immobilization of selective phases on the thermal detectors. (4) Demonstrate improvements in selectivity and sensitivity to model pollutants due to implemented technologies of nanostructuring and multi-mode read-out. (5) Demonstrate detection of different analytes on a single hybrid MEMS (6) Implement the use of differential pairs of cantilever sensors (coated and reference) with the associated detector electronics which is expected to have an enhanced sensitivity with a low-noise low-drift response. (7) Development of methods to create differential arrays and test effectiveness at creating distinctive differential responses.

Acoustic trapping in bubble-bounded micro-cavities

Science.gov (United States)

O'Mahoney, P.; McDougall, C.; Glynne-Jones, P.; MacDonald, M. P.

2016-12-01

We present a method for controllably producing longitudinal acoustic trapping sites inside microfluidic channels. Air bubbles are injected into a micro-capillary to create bubble-bounded `micro-cavities'. A cavity mode is formed that shows controlled longitudinal acoustic trapping between the two air/water interfaces along with the levitation to the centre of the channel that one would expect from a lower order lateral mode. 7 μm and 10 μm microspheres are trapped at the discrete acoustic trapping sites in these micro-cavities.We show this for several lengths of micro-cavity.

Coupling on-line preconcentration by ion-exchange with ETAAS. A novel flow injection approach based on the use of a renewable microcolumn as demonstrated for the determination of nickel in environmental and biological samples

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2000-01-01

microcolumn incorporated within an integrated micro FI-system, the column is loaded with a defined volume of small beads of an SP Sephadex C-25 cation-exchange resin and subsequently exposed to a metered amount of sample solution. However, instead of eluting the retained analyte from the organic ion-exchange......A novel way of exploiting flow injection/sequential injection (FIA/SIA) on-line ion-exchange preconcentration with detection by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) is described and demonstrated for the determination of trace-levels of nickel. Based on the use of a renewable...... resin, the beads are along with 30 mul of carrier (buffer) solution transported via air segmentation directly into the graphite tube, where they are ashed during the pyrolysis and atomization process. The ETAAS determination is performed in parallel with the preconcentration process of the ensuing...

Spectral editing at ultra-fast magic-angle-spinning in solid-state NMR: facilitating protein sequential signal assignment by HIGHLIGHT approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Songlin; Matsuda, Isamu; Long, Fei; Ishii, Yoshitaka, E-mail: yishii@uic.edu [University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Chemistry (United States)

2016-02-15

This study demonstrates a novel spectral editing technique for protein solid-state NMR (SSNMR) to simplify the spectrum drastically and to reduce the ambiguity for protein main-chain signal assignments in fast magic-angle-spinning (MAS) conditions at a wide frequency range of 40–80 kHz. The approach termed HIGHLIGHT (Wang et al., in Chem Comm 51:15055–15058, 2015) combines the reverse {sup 13}C, {sup 15}N-isotope labeling strategy and selective signal quenching using the frequency-selective REDOR pulse sequence under fast MAS. The scheme allows one to selectively observe the signals of “highlighted” labeled amino-acid residues that precede or follow unlabeled residues through selectively quenching {sup 13}CO or {sup 15}N signals for a pair of consecutively labeled residues by recoupling {sup 13}CO–{sup 15}N dipolar couplings. Our numerical simulation results showed that the scheme yielded only ∼15 % loss of signals for the highlighted residues while quenching as much as ∼90 % of signals for non-highlighted residues. For lysine-reverse-labeled micro-crystalline GB1 protein, the 2D {sup 15}N/{sup 13}C{sub α} correlation and 2D {sup 13}C{sub α}/{sup 13}CO correlation SSNMR spectra by the HIGHLIGHT approach yielded signals only for six residues following and preceding the unlabeled lysine residues, respectively. The experimental dephasing curves agreed reasonably well with the corresponding simulation results for highlighted and quenched residues at spinning speeds of 40 and 60 kHz. The compatibility of the HIGHLIGHT approach with fast MAS allows for sensitivity enhancement by paramagnetic assisted data collection (PACC) and {sup 1}H detection. We also discuss how the HIGHLIGHT approach facilitates signal assignments using {sup 13}C-detected 3D SSNMR by demonstrating full sequential assignments of lysine-reverse-labeled micro-crystalline GB1 protein (∼300 nmol), for which data collection required only 11 h. The HIGHLIGHT approach offers valuable

Birefringence characteristics in sperm heads allow for the selection of reacted spermatozoa for intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Science.gov (United States)

Gianaroli, Luca; Magli, M Cristina; Ferraretti, Anna P; Crippa, Andor; Lappi, Michela; Capitani, Serena; Baccetti, Baccio

2010-02-01

To verify clinical outcome after injection of spermatozoa that have undergone the acrosome reaction (reacted spermatozoa) vs. those still having an intact acrosome (nonreacted spermatozoa). Prospective, randomized study. Reproductive Medicine Unit, Italian Society for the Study of Reproductive Medicine, Bologna, Italy. According to a prospective randomization including 71 couples with severe male factor infertility, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was performed under polarized light that permitted analysis of the pattern of birefringence in the sperm head. Twenty-three patients had their oocytes injected with reacted spermatozoa, 26 patient's oocytes were injected with nonreacted spermatozoa, and in 22 patients both reacted and nonreacted spermatozoa were injected. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection was performed under polarized light to selectively inject acrosome-reacted and acrosome-nonreacted spermatozoa. Rates of fertilization, cleavage, pregnancy, implantation, and ongoing implantation. There was no effect on the fertilizing capacity and embryo development of either type of sperm, whereas the implantation rate was higher in oocytes injected with reacted spermatozoa (39.0%) vs. those injected with nonreacted spermatozoa (8.6%). The implantation rate was 24.4% in the group injected with both reacted and nonreacted spermatozoa. The delivery rate per cycle followed the same trend. Spermatozoa that have undergone the acrosome reaction seem to be more prone to supporting the development of viable ICSI embryos. Copyright 2010 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantum dots as chemiluminescence enhancers tested by sequential injection technique: Comparison of flow and flow-batch conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sklenářová, Hana, E-mail: sklenarova@faf.cuni.cz [Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Hradec Králové (Czech Republic); Voráčová, Ivona [Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the CAS, v. v. i., Brno (Czech Republic); Chocholouš, Petr; Polášek, Miroslav [Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Hradec Králové (Czech Republic)

2017-04-15

The effect of 0.01–100 µmol L{sup −1} Quantum Dots (QDs) with different emission wavelengths (520–640 nm) and different surface modifications (mercaptopropionic, mercaptoundecanoic, thioglycolic acids and mercaptoethylamine) on permanganate-induced and luminol–hydrogen peroxide chemiluminescence (CL) was studied in detail by a sequential injection technique using a spiral detection flow cell and a flow-batch detection cell operated in flow and stop-flow modes. In permanganate CL system no significant enhancement of the CL signal was observed while for the luminol–hydrogen peroxide CL substantial increase (>100% and >90% with the spiral detection cell in flow and stop-flow modes, respectively) was attained for CdTe QDs. Enhancement exceeding 120% was observed for QDs with emissions at 520, 575 and 603 nm (sizes of 2.8 nm, 3.3 nm and 3.6 nm) using the flow-batch detection cell in the stop-flow mode. Pronounced effect was noted for surface modifications while mercaptoethylamine was the most efficient in CL enhancement compared to mercaptopropionic acid the most commonly applied coating. Significant difference between results obtained in flow and flow-batch conditions based on the entire kinetics of the extremely fast CL reaction was discussed. The increase of the CL signal was always accompanied by reduced lifetime of the CL emission thus application of QDs in flow techniques should be always coupled with the study of the CL lifetime.

Effect of Gas- and Liquid-injection Methods on Formation of Bubble and Liquid Slug at Merging Micro T-junction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jun Kyoung [Kyungnam Univ., Changwon (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Chi Young [Pukyong Nat’l Univ., Busan (Korea, Republic of)

2016-04-15

In the present experimental study, the effect of gas- and liquid-injected methods on the formation of bubble and liquid slug at the merging micro T-junction of a square microchannel with dimensions 600 μm × 600 μm was investigated. Nitrogen and water were used as test fluids. The superficial velocities of the liquid and gas were in the range of 0.05 - 1 m/s, and 0.1 - 1 m/s, respectively, where the Taylor flow was observed. The bubble length, liquid slug length, bubble velocity, and bubble generation frequency were measured by analyzing the images captured using a high-speed camera. Under similar inlet superficial velocity conditions, in the case of gas injection to the main channel at the merging T-junction (T{sub g}as-liquid), the lengths of the bubble and liquid slug were longer, and the bubble generation frequency was lower than in the case of liquid injection to the main channel at the merging T-junction (T{sub l}iquid-gas). On the other hand, in both cases, the bubble velocity was almost the same. The previous correlation proposed using experimental data for T{sub l}iquid-gas had predicted the present experimental data of bubble length, bubble velocity, liquid slug length, and bubble generation frequency for T{sub g}as-liquid to be ~24%, ~9%, ~39%, ~55%, respectively.

A sequential extraction procedure to determine Ra and U isotopes by alpha-particle spectrometry in selective leachates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aguado, J.L.; Bolivar, J.P.; San-Miguel, E.G.; Garcia-Tenorio, R.

2003-01-01

A radiochemical sequential extraction procedure has been developed in our laboratory to determine 226 Ra and 234,238 U by alpha spectrometry in environmental samples. This method has been validated for both radionuclides by comparing in selected samples the values obtained through its application with the results obtained by applying alternative procedures. Recoveries obtained, counting periods applied and background levels found in the alpha spectra give suitable detection limits to allow the Ra and U determination in operational forms defined in riverbed contaminated sediments. Results obtained in these speciation studies show that 226 Ra and 234,238 U contamination tend to be associated to precipitated forms of the sediments. (author)

MR of pituitary micro-adenomas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Marec, E.; Ait Ameur, A.; David, H.; Pharaboz, C.

1997-01-01

Most of the time, rationales to look for pituitary micro-adenomas are based on endocrinal disorder. MRI is often helpful to confirm diagnosis. It gives information about micro-adenomas size and localisation. If conventional sequence are inadequate, a dynamic sequence has then to be performed after Gadolinium injection. Any disorder observed from the pituitary gland must be correlated with the clinical observation and results from biochemistry analysis. False positive happens quite open because of gland morphological variation, incidentalomas and partial volumes. MRI offers the possibility to follow-up treated micro-adenomas evolution especially to detect recurrence. (author)

Zips : mining compressing sequential patterns in streams

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoang, T.L.; Calders, T.G.K.; Yang, J.; Mörchen, F.; Fradkin, D.; Chau, D.H.; Vreeken, J.; Leeuwen, van M.; Faloutsos, C.

2013-01-01

We propose a streaming algorithm, based on the minimal description length (MDL) principle, for extracting non-redundant sequential patterns. For static databases, the MDL-based approach that selects patterns based on their capacity to compress data rather than their frequency, was shown to be

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence induced by sequential hot electron and hole injection into aqueous electrolyte solution

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salminen, Kalle; Kuosmanen, Päivi; Pusa, Matti [Aalto University, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto (Finland); Kulmala, Oskari [University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014 (Finland); Håkansson, Markus [Aalto University, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto (Finland); Kulmala, Sakari, E-mail: sakari.kulmala@aalto.fi [Aalto University, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, P.O. Box 16100, FI-00076 Aalto (Finland)

2016-03-17

Hole injection into aqueous electrolyte solution is proposed to occur when oxide-coated aluminum electrode is anodically pulse-polarized by a voltage pulse train containing sufficiently high-voltage anodic pulses. The effects of anodic pulses are studied by using an aromatic Tb(III) chelate as a probe known to produce intensive hot electron-induced electrochemiluminescence (HECL) with plain cathodic pulses and preoxidized electrodes. The presently studied system allows injection of hot electrons and holes successively into aqueous electrolyte solutions and can be utilized in detecting electrochemiluminescent labels in fully aqueous solutions, and actually, the system is suggested to be quite close to a pulse radiolysis system providing hydrated electrons and hydroxyl radicals as the primary radicals in aqueous solution without the problems and hazards of ionizing radiation. The analytical power of the present excitation waveforms are that they allow detection of electrochemiluminescent labels at very low detection limits in bioaffinity assays such as in immunoassays or DNA probe assays. The two important properties of the present waveforms are: (i) they provide in situ oxidation of the electrode surface resulting in the desired oxide film thickness and (ii) they can provide one-electron oxidants for the system by hole injection either via F- and F{sup +}-center band of the oxide or by direct hole injection to valence band of water at highly anodic pulse amplitudes. - Highlights: • Hot electrons injected into aqueous electrolyte solution. • Generation of hydrated electrons. • Hole injection into aqueous electrolyte solution. • Generation of hydroxyl radicals.

Immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery: advantages and disadvantages.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Ranjodh; Dohlman, Thomas H; Sun, Grace

2017-01-01

The number of cataract surgeries performed globally will continue to rise to meet the needs of an aging population. This increased demand will require healthcare systems and providers to find new surgical efficiencies while maintaining excellent surgical outcomes. Immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) has been proposed as a solution and is increasingly being performed worldwide. The purpose of this review is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of ISBCS. When appropriate patient selection occurs and guidelines are followed, ISBCS is comparable with delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery in long-term patient satisfaction, visual acuity and complication rates. In addition, the risk of bilateral postoperative endophthalmitis and concerns of poorer refractive outcomes have not been supported by the literature. ISBCS is cost-effective for the patient, healthcare payors and society, but current reimbursement models in many countries create significant financial barriers for facilities and surgeons. As demand for cataract surgery rises worldwide, ISBCS will become increasingly important as an alternative to delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery. Advantages include potentially decreased wait times for surgery, patient convenience and cost savings for healthcare payors. Although they are comparable in visual acuity and complication rates, hurdles that prevent wide adoption include liability concerns as ISBCS is not an established standard of care, economic constraints for facilities and surgeons and inability to fine-tune intraocular lens selection in the second eye. Given these considerations, an open discussion regarding the advantages and disadvantages of ISBCS is important for appropriate patient selection.

Hybrid tooling technologies and standardization for the manufacturing of inserts for micro injection molding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Fillon, Bertrand; Azcarate, Sabino

2007-01-01

This paper is based on the European Platform’s activities within the 4M Network of Excellence “Multi-Material Micro Manufacturing”. To overpass limitations of the current existing micro tooling capabilities, a new generation of micro hybrid tooling technologies for micro replication was developed....... A metrological approach was applied to standardize the employed tooling processes (micro milling, µEDM, laser micromachining, electrochemical µ-milling). The micro tools were then tested with different polymers (PP, PP + nano fillers, PC, COC). The paper provides a comparison of these technologies concerning...

The Impact of Flow Injection on Modern Chemical Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Elo Harald

and preconcentration procedures. In recent years, FIA has been supplemented by Sequential Injection Analysis (SIA) and the Lab-on-Valve (LOV) approach. Following a brief historic introduction and an account of the impact of FIA in academia, the lecture will describe these two new generations of FIA, accompanied...

A fast and accurate online sequential learning algorithm for feedforward networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Nan-Ying; Huang, Guang-Bin; Saratchandran, P; Sundararajan, N

2006-11-01

In this paper, we develop an online sequential learning algorithm for single hidden layer feedforward networks (SLFNs) with additive or radial basis function (RBF) hidden nodes in a unified framework. The algorithm is referred to as online sequential extreme learning machine (OS-ELM) and can learn data one-by-one or chunk-by-chunk (a block of data) with fixed or varying chunk size. The activation functions for additive nodes in OS-ELM can be any bounded nonconstant piecewise continuous functions and the activation functions for RBF nodes can be any integrable piecewise continuous functions. In OS-ELM, the parameters of hidden nodes (the input weights and biases of additive nodes or the centers and impact factors of RBF nodes) are randomly selected and the output weights are analytically determined based on the sequentially arriving data. The algorithm uses the ideas of ELM of Huang et al. developed for batch learning which has been shown to be extremely fast with generalization performance better than other batch training methods. Apart from selecting the number of hidden nodes, no other control parameters have to be manually chosen. Detailed performance comparison of OS-ELM is done with other popular sequential learning algorithms on benchmark problems drawn from the regression, classification and time series prediction areas. The results show that the OS-ELM is faster than the other sequential algorithms and produces better generalization performance.

Fabrication and Characterization of Micro-membrane GaN Light Emitting Diodes

KAUST Repository

Liao, Hsien-Yu

2015-05-01

Developing etching of GaN material system is the key to device fabrications. In this thesis, we report on the fabrication of high throughput lift-off of InGaN/GaN based micro-membrane light emitting diode (LED) from sapphire substrate using UV-assisted photoelectroless chemical (PEsC) etching. Unlike existing bandgap selective etching based on unconventional sacrificial layer, the current hydrofluoric acid based wet etching process enables the selective etching of undoped GaN layer already incorporated in standard commercial LED structures, thus attaining the leverage on high performance device design, and facile wet process technology. The lift-off micro-membrane LED showed 16% alleviated quantum efficiency droop under 200 mA/cm2 current injection, demonstrating the advantage of LED epitaxy exfoliation from the lattice-mismatched sapphire substrate. The origin of the performance improvement was investigated based on non-destructive characterization methods. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization showed a 7nm peak emission wavelength shift in the micro-membrane LED compared to the GaN-on-Sapphire LED. The Raman spectroscopy measurements correlate well with the PL observation that a 0.86 GPa relaxed compressive biaxial strain was achieved after the lift-off process. The micro-membrane LED technology enables further heterogeneous integration for forming pixelated red, green, blue (RGB) display on flexible and transparent substrate. The development of discrete and membrane LEDs using nano-fiber paper as the current spreading layer was also explored for such integration.

Nanostructuring steel for injection molding tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Al-Azawi, A.; Smistrup, Kristian; Kristensen, Anders

2014-01-01

The production of nanostructured plastic items by injection molding with ridges down to 400 nm in width, which is the smallest line width replicated from nanostructured steel shims, is presented. Here we detail a micro-fabrication method where electron beam lithography, nano-imprint lithography...... and ion beam etching are combined to nanostructure the planar surface of a steel wafer. Injection molded plastic parts with enhanced surface properties, like anti-reflective, superhydrophobic and structural colors can be achieved by micro-and nanostructuring the surface of the steel molds. We investigate...... the minimum line width that can be realized by our fabrication method and the influence of etching angle on the structure profile during the ion beam etching process. Trenches down to 400 nm in width have been successfully fabricated into a 316 type electro-polished steel wafer. Afterward a plastic replica...

Polyacrylonitrile-Derived Sponge-Like Micro/Macroporous Carbon for Selective CO2 Separation.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Li-Ping; Hu, Qing-Tao; Zhang, Peng; Li, Wen-Cui; Lu, An-Hui

2018-03-25

CO 2 capture under a dynamical flow situation requires adsorbents possessing balanced proportion of macropores as diffusion path and micropores as adsorption reservoir. However, the construction of interconnected micro-/macropores structure coupled with abundant nitrogen species into one carbon skeleton remains a challenge. Here, we report a new approach to prepare sponge-like carbon with a well-developed micro-/macroporous structure and enriched nitrogen species through aqueous phase polymerization of acrylonitrile in the presence of graphene oxide. The tension stress caused by the uniform thermal shrinkage of polyacrylonitrile during the pyrolysis together with the favorable flexibility of graphene oxide sheets are responsible for the formation of the sponge-like morphology. The synergistic effect of micro-/macroporous framework and rich CO 2 -philic site enables such carbon to decrease resistance to mass transfer and show high CO 2 dynamic selectivity over N 2 (454) and CH 4 (11), as well as good CO 2 capacity at 298 K under low CO 2 partial pressure (0.17 bar, a typical CO 2 partial pressure in flue gas). The above attributes make this porous carbon a promising candidate for CO 2 capture from flue gas, methane sources and other relevant applications. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Improved design and characterization of PLGA/PLA-coated Chitosan based micro-implants for controlled release of hydrophilic drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Manna, Soumyarwit; Donnell, Anna M; Kaval, Necati; Al-Rjoub, Marwan F; Augsburger, James J; Banerjee, Rupak K

2018-05-29

Repetitive intravitreal injections of Methotrexate (MTX), a hydrophilic chemotherapeutic drug, are currently used to treat selected vitreoretinal (VR) diseases, such as intraocular lymphoma. To avoid complications associated with the rapid release of MTX from the injections, a Polylactic acid (PLA) and Chitosan (CS)-based MTX micro-implant prototype was fabricated in an earlier study, which showed a sustained therapeutic release rate of 0.2-2.0 µg/day of MTX for a period ∼1 month in vitro and in vivo. In the current study, different combinations of Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA)/PLA coatings were used for lipophilic surface modification of the CS-MTX micro-implant, such as PLGA 5050, PLGA 6535 and PLGA 7525 (PLA: PGA - 50:50, 65:35, 75:25, respectively; M.W: 54,400 - 103,000) and different PLA, such as PLA 100 and PLA 250 (MW: 102,000 and 257,000, respectively). This improved the duration of total MTX release from the coated CS-MTX micro-implants to ∼3-5 months. With an increase in PLA content in PLGA and molecular weight of PLA, a) the initial burst of MTX and the mean release rate of MTX can be reduced; and b) the swelling and biodegradation of the micro-implants can be delayed. The controlled drug release mechanism is caused by a combination of diffusion process and hydrolysis of the polymer coating, which can be modulated by a) PLA content in PLGA and b) molecular weight of PLA, as inferred from Korsmeyer Peppas model, Zero order, First order and Higuchi model fits. This improved micro-implant formulation has the potential to serve as a platform for controlled release of hydrophilic drugs to treat selected VR diseases. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Determination of Strain Rate Sensitivity of Micro-struts Manufactured Using the Selective Laser Melting Method

Science.gov (United States)

Gümrük, Recep; Mines, R. A. W.; Karadeniz, Sami

2018-03-01

Micro-lattice structures manufactured using the selective laser melting (SLM) process provides the opportunity to realize optimal cellular materials for impact energy absorption. In this paper, strain rate-dependent material properties are measured for stainless steel 316L SLM micro-lattice struts in the strain rate range of 10-3 to 6000 s-1. At high strain rates, a novel version of the split Hopkinson Bar has been developed. Strain rate-dependent materials data have been used in Cowper-Symonds material model, and the scope and limit of this model in the context of SLM struts have been discussed. Strain rate material data and the Cowper-Symonds model have been applied to the finite element analysis of a micro-lattice block subjected to drop weight impact loading. The model output has been compared to experimental results, and it has been shown that the increase in crush stress due to impact loading is mainly the result of strain rate material behavior. Hence, a systematic methodology has been developed to investigate the impact energy absorption of a micro-lattice structure manufactured using additive layer manufacture (SLM). This methodology can be extended to other micro-lattice materials and configurations, and to other impact conditions.

Universal approach for selective trace metal determinations via sequential injection-bead injection-lab-on-valve using renewable hydrophobic bead surfaces as reagent carriers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Xiangbao; Miró, Manuel; Hansen, Elo Harald

2005-01-01

involves the use of poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) beads containing pendant octadecyl moieties (C18-PS/DVB), which are preimpregnated with a selective organic metal chelating agent prior to the automatic manipulation of the beads in the microbore conduits of the LOV unit. By adapting this approach...

Quality of topographical micro replication in injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arlø, Uffe Rolf; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Bariani, Paolo

2003-01-01

The quality of tool-to-part rough surface topography replication in injection moulding has been investigated. Quantitative descriptors suitable for detecting process conditions induced topography changes have been identified using a statistical criterion. The experimental work is based on a tool ...

Optimizing trial design in pharmacogenetics research: comparing a fixed parallel group, group sequential, and adaptive selection design on sample size requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

Boessen, Ruud; van der Baan, Frederieke; Groenwold, Rolf; Egberts, Antoine; Klungel, Olaf; Grobbee, Diederick; Knol, Mirjam; Roes, Kit

2013-01-01

Two-stage clinical trial designs may be efficient in pharmacogenetics research when there is some but inconclusive evidence of effect modification by a genomic marker. Two-stage designs allow to stop early for efficacy or futility and can offer the additional opportunity to enrich the study population to a specific patient subgroup after an interim analysis. This study compared sample size requirements for fixed parallel group, group sequential, and adaptive selection designs with equal overall power and control of the family-wise type I error rate. The designs were evaluated across scenarios that defined the effect sizes in the marker positive and marker negative subgroups and the prevalence of marker positive patients in the overall study population. Effect sizes were chosen to reflect realistic planning scenarios, where at least some effect is present in the marker negative subgroup. In addition, scenarios were considered in which the assumed 'true' subgroup effects (i.e., the postulated effects) differed from those hypothesized at the planning stage. As expected, both two-stage designs generally required fewer patients than a fixed parallel group design, and the advantage increased as the difference between subgroups increased. The adaptive selection design added little further reduction in sample size, as compared with the group sequential design, when the postulated effect sizes were equal to those hypothesized at the planning stage. However, when the postulated effects deviated strongly in favor of enrichment, the comparative advantage of the adaptive selection design increased, which precisely reflects the adaptive nature of the design. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sustained Inhibition of HBV Replication In Vivo after Systemic Injection of AAVs Encoding Artificial Antiviral Primary MicroRNAs.

Science.gov (United States)

Maepa, Mohube Betty; Ely, Abdullah; Grayson, Wayne; Arbuthnot, Patrick

2017-06-16

Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a problem of global significance and improving available treatment is important to prevent life-threatening complications arising in persistently infected individuals. HBV is susceptible to silencing by exogenous artificial intermediates of the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. However, toxicity of Pol III cassettes and short duration of silencing by effectors of the RNAi pathway may limit anti-HBV therapeutic utility. To advance RNAi-based HBV gene silencing, mono- and trimeric artificial primary microRNAs (pri-miRs) derived from pri-miR-31 were placed under control of the liver-specific modified murine transthyretin promoter. The sequences, which target the X sequence of HBV, were incorporated into recombinant hepatotropic self-complementary adeno-associated viruses (scAAVs). Systemic intravenous injection of the vectors into HBV transgenic mice at a dose of 1 × 10 11 per animal effected significant suppression of markers of HBV replication for at least 32 weeks. The pri-miRs were processed according to the intended design, and intrahepatic antiviral guide sequences were detectable for 40 weeks after the injection. There was no evidence of toxicity, and innate immunostimulation was not detectable following the injections. This efficacy is an improvement on previously reported RNAi-based inhibition of HBV replication and is important to clinical translation of the technology. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Experimental and numerical investigation into micro-flow cytometer with 3-D hydrodynamic focusing effect and micro-weir structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Hui-Hsiung; Tsai, Chien-Hsiung; Fu, Lung-Ming; Yang, Ruey-Jen

2009-07-01

This study presents a novel 3-D hydrodynamic focusing technique for micro-flow cytometers. In the proposed approach, the sample stream is compressed initially in the horizontal direction by a set of sheath flows such that it is constrained to the central region of the microchannel and is then focused in the vertical direction by a second pair of sheath flows. Thereafter, the focused sample stream passes over a micro-weir structure positioned directly beneath an optical detection system to capture polystyrene beads fluorescent signal. The microchannel configuration and operational parameters are optimized by performing a series of numerical simulations. An experimental investigation is then performed using a micro-flow cytometer fabricated using conventional micro-electro-mechanical systems techniques and an isotropic wet etching method. The results indicate that the two sets of sheath flows successfully constrain the sample stream within a narrow, well-defined region of the microchannel. Furthermore, the micro-weir structure prompts the separation of a mixed sample of 5 and 10 microm polystyrene beads in the vertical direction and ensures that the beads flow through the detection region of the microchannel in a sequential fashion and can therefore be reliably detected and counted.

Sequential kidney scintiscanning before and after vascular reconstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siems, H.H.; Allenberg, J.R.; Hupp, T.; Clorius, J.H.

1985-01-01

In this follow-up study sequential scintigraphy was performed on 20 of selected patients up to 3.4 years after operation, the results are compared with the pre-operative examinations and with the surgical effect on the increased blood pressure. (orig./MG) [de

Assessment of cellular viability on calcium sulphate/hydroxyapatite injectable scaffolds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randa Alfotawi

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Cements for maxillofacial reconstruction of jaw defects through calcification of rotated muscle have been tested. The objective of this study was to investigate the visibility of loading of two types of commercially available cements, Cerament™ Spine Support and Cerament Bone Void Filler with mesenchymal cells and cytokines (bone morphogenetic protein to act as a biomimetic scaffolding for future clinical application. Determination of basic biocompatibility (cell viability using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium and live/dead assay was carried out using MG-63 cells at various time points. Next, in order to inform potential subsequent in vivo experiments, a collagen tissue mimic was used for characterization of rabbit mesenchymal stromal cells using immunofluorescent cytoskeleton staining, and simultaneous and then sequential injection of Cerament Spine Support cement and cells into collagen gels. Results indicated that Cerament Spine Support was more biocompatible and that sequential injection of cement and then rabbit mesenchymal stromal cells into the tissue mimics is an optimal approach for clinical applications.

Transcription of Small Surface Structures in Injection Moulding - An Experimental Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arlø, Uffe Rolf; Kjær, Erik Michael

2000-01-01

The ability to replicate the surface roughness from mold wall to the plastic part in injection moldning has many functional and cosmetic important implications from medical use to designer products. Generally the understanding of surface transcription i.e the the replication of the surface...... structure from the mould to plastic part, also relates to micro injection moulding and moulding of parts with specific micro structures on the surface such as optical parts. The present study concerns transcription of surface roughness as a function of process parameters. The study is carried out...

Transcription of Small Surface Structures in Injection Molding - an Experimental Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arlø, Uffe Rolf; Kjær, Erik Michael

2001-01-01

The ability to replicate the surface roughness from mold wall to the plastic part in injection moldning has many functional and cosmetic important implications from medical use to designer products. Generally the understanding of surface transcription i.e the the replication of the surface...... structure from the mould to plastic part, also relates to micro injection moulding and moulding of parts with specific micro structures on the surface such as optical parts. The present study concerns transcription of surface roughness as a function of process parameters. The study is carried out...

Energetic electron injections and dipolarization events in Mercury's magnetotail: Substorm dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Dewey, R. M.; Slavin, J. A.; Raines, J. M.; Imber, S.; Baker, D. N.; Lawrence, D. J.

2017-12-01

Despite its small size, Mercury's terrestrial-like magnetosphere experiences brief, yet intense, substorm intervals characterized by features similar to at Earth: loading/unloading of the tail lobes with open magnetic flux, dipolarization of the magnetic field at the inner edge of the plasma sheet, and, the focus of this presentation, energetic electron injection. We use the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer's high-time resolution (10 ms) energetic electron measurements to determine the relationship between substorm activity and energetic electron injections coincident with dipolarization fronts in the magnetotail. These dipolarizations were detected on the basis of their rapid ( 2 s) increase in the northward component of the tail magnetic field (ΔBz 30 nT), which typically persists for 10 s. We estimate the typical flow channel to be 0.15 RM, planetary convection speed of 750 km/s, cross-tail potential drop of 7 kV, and flux transport of 0.08 MWb for each dipolarization event, suggesting multiple simultaneous and sequential dipolarizations are required to unload the >1 MWb of magnetic flux typically returned to the dayside magnetosphere during a substorm interval. Indeed, while we observe most dipolarization-injections to be isolated or in small chains of events (i.e., 1-3 events), intervals of sawtooth-like injections with >20 sequential events are also present. The typical separation between dipolarization-injection events is 10 s. Magnetotail dipolarization, in addition to being a powerful source of electron acceleration, also plays a significant role in the substorm process at Mercury.

Lab-on-Valve Micro Sequential Injection: A Versatile Approach for Implementing Integrated Sample Pre-preparations and Executing (Bio)Chemical Assays

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Elo Harald

waste generation. Most recently, the socalled third generation of FIA has emerged, that is, the Lab-on-Valve (LOV) approach, the conceptual basis of which is to incorporate all the necessary unit operational manipulations required, and, when possible, even the detection device into a single small...... integrated microconduit, or “laboratory”, placed atop a selection valve. The lecture will detail the evolution of the three generations of FIA, emphasis being placed on the LOV approach. Proven itself as a versatile front end to a variety of detection techniques, its utility will be exemplified by a series...... of the renewable microcolumn concept. Despite their excellent analytical chemical capabilities, ETAAS as well as ICPMS often require that the samples are subjected to suitable pretreatment in order to obtain the necessary sensitivity and selectivity. Either in order to separate the analyte from potentially...

'Micro-8' micro-computer system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yagi, Hideyuki; Nakahara, Yoshinori; Yamada, Takayuki; Takeuchi, Norio; Koyama, Kinji

1978-08-01

The micro-computer Micro-8 system has been developed to organize a data exchange network between various instruments and a computer group including a large computer system. Used for packet exchangers and terminal controllers, the system consists of ten kinds of standard boards including a CPU board with INTEL-8080 one-chip-processor. CPU architecture, BUS architecture, interrupt control, and standard-boards function are explained in circuit block diagrams. Operations of the basic I/O device, digital I/O board and communication adapter are described with definitions of the interrupt ramp status, I/O command, I/O mask, data register, etc. In the appendixes are circuit drawings, INTEL-8080 micro-processor specifications, BUS connections, I/O address mappings, jumper connections of address selection, and interface connections. (author)

Event-shape analysis: Sequential versus simultaneous multifragment emission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cebra, D.A.; Howden, S.; Karn, J.; Nadasen, A.; Ogilvie, C.A.; Vander Molen, A.; Westfall, G.D.; Wilson, W.K.; Winfield, J.S.; Norbeck, E.

1990-01-01

The Michigan State University 4π array has been used to select central-impact-parameter events from the reaction 40 Ar+ 51 V at incident energies from 35 to 85 MeV/nucleon. The event shape in momentum space is an observable which is shown to be sensitive to the dynamics of the fragmentation process. A comparison of the experimental event-shape distribution to sequential- and simultaneous-decay predictions suggests that a transition in the breakup process may have occurred. At 35 MeV/nucleon, a sequential-decay simulation reproduces the data. For the higher energies, the experimental distributions fall between the two contrasting predictions

Ablation of intervertebral discs in dogs using a MicroJet-assisted dye-enhanced injection device coupled with the diode laser

Science.gov (United States)

Bartels, Kenneth E.; Henry, George A.; Dickey, D. Thomas; Stair, Ernest L.; Powell, Ronald; Schafer, Steven A.; Nordquist, Robert E.; Frederickson, Christopher J.; Hayes, Donald J.; Wallace, David B.

1998-07-01

Use of holmium laser energy for vaporization/coagulation of the nucleus pulposus in canine intervertebral discs has been previously reported and is currently being applied clinically in veterinary medicine. The procedure was originally developed in the canine model and intended for potential human use. Since the pulsed (15 Hz) holmium laser energy exerts photomechanical and photothermal effects, the potential for extrusion of additional disc material to the detriment of the patient is possible using the procedure developed for the dog. To reduce this potential complication, use of diode laser (805 nm - CW mode) energy, coupled with indocyanine green (ICG) as a selective laser energy absorber, was formulated as a possible alternative. Delivery of the ICG and diode laser energy was through a MicroJet device that could dispense dye interactively between individual laser 'shots.' Results have shown that it is possible to selectively ablate nucleus pulposus in the canine model using the device described. Acute observations (gross and histopathologic) illustrate that accurate placement of the spinal needle before introduction of the MicroJet device is critically dependent on the expertise of the interventional radiologist. In addition, the success of the overall technique depends on consistent delivery of both ICG and diode laser energy. Minimizing tissue carbonization on the tip of the MicroJet device is also of crucial importance for effective application of the technique in clinical veterinary medicine.

Sequential selective same-day suture removal in the management of post-keratoplasty astigmatism.

Science.gov (United States)

Fares, U; Mokashi, A A; Elalfy, M S; Dua, H S

2013-09-01

In a previous study, we proposed that corneal topography performed 30-40 min after the initial suture removal can identify the next set of sutures requiring removal, for the treatment of post-keratoplasty astigmatism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of removing subsequent sets of sutures at the same sitting. 10/0 nylon interrupted sutures were placed, to secure the graft-host junction, at the time of keratoplasty. Topography was performed using Pentacam (Oculus) before suture removal. The sutures to be removed in the steep semi-meridians were identified and removed at the slit-lamp biomicroscope. Topography was repeated 30-40 min post suture removal, the new steep semi-meridians determined, and the next set of sutures to be removed were identified and removed accordingly. Topography was repeated 4-6 weeks later and the magnitude of topographic astigmatism was recorded. A paired-samples t-test was used to evaluate the impact of selective suture removal on reducing the magnitude of topographic and refractive astigmatism. Twenty eyes of 20 patients underwent sequential selective same-day suture removal (SSSS) after corneal transplantation. This study showed that the topographic astigmatism decreased by about 46.7% (3.68 D) and the refractive astigmatism decreased by about 37.7% (2.61 D) following SSSS. Vector calculations also show a significant reduction of both topographic and refractive astigmatism (P<0.001). SSSS may help patients to achieve satisfactory vision more quickly and reduce the number of follow-up visits required post keratoplasty.

Process Optimization for Injection Moulding of Passive Microwave Components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scholz, Steffen G.; Mueller, Tobias; Santos Machado, Leonardo

2016-01-01

The demand for micro components has increased during the last decade following the overall trend towards miniaturization. Injection moulding is the favoured technique for the mass manufacturing of micro components or larger parts with micro-structured areas due to its ability to cost effectively ...... algorithm for modelling, the influence of different moulding parameters on the final part quality was assessed. Firstly a process model and secondly a quality model has been calculated. The results shows that part quality can be controlled by monitoring characteristic numbers....

Cost-effectiveness of simultaneous versus sequential surgery in head and neck reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Kevin K; Enepekides, Danny J; Higgins, Kevin M

2011-02-01

To determine whether simultaneous (ablation and reconstruction overlaps by two teams) head and neck reconstruction is cost effective compared to sequentially (ablation followed by reconstruction) performed surgery. Case-controlled study. Tertiary care hospital. Oncology patients undergoing free flap reconstruction of the head and neck. A match paired comparison study was performed with a retrospective chart review examining the total time of surgery for sequential and simultaneous surgery. Nine patients were selected for both the sequential and simultaneous groups. Sequential head and neck reconstruction patients were pair matched with patients who had undergone similar oncologic ablative or reconstructive procedures performed in a simultaneous fashion. A detailed cost analysis using the microcosting method was then undertaken looking at the direct costs of the surgeons, anesthesiologist, operating room, and nursing. On average, simultaneous surgery required 3 hours 15 minutes less operating time, leading to a cost savings of approximately $1200/case when compared to sequential surgery. This represents approximately a 15% reduction in the cost of the entire operation. Simultaneous head and neck reconstruction is more cost effective when compared to sequential surgery.

How Flow Injection Analysis (FIA) over the past 25 years has changed our way of performing chemical analyses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Elo Harald; Miró, Manuel

2007-01-01

Briefly looking back on the impact of flow injection analysis (FIA), as reflected in the rapid growth of publications in the scientific literature, and touching upon many of the novel and unique analytical chemical possibilities that FIA and its sequels, sequential injection analysis (SIA) and La...

The short- and medium-term effectiveness of CT-guided selective cervical nerve root injection for pain and disability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Desai, Amidevi; Saha, Shouvik; Sharma, Naveen; Huckerby, Lauren; Houghton, Russell [Guy' s and St. Thomas' Hospitals, Department of Radiology, London (United Kingdom)

2014-07-15

CT-guided cervical nerve root injection with corticosteroid and/or local anesthetic is a recognized technique in the evaluation and treatment of cervical radiculopathy. There are few prospective studies on the efficacy of the various techniques employed in cervical nerve root injection. We present our results from a 1-year prospective series using a CT-guided anterolateral transforaminal approach for cervical nerve root injection of bupivacaine and dexamethasone. Pain using a numeric rating scale was assessed at pre-injection, 15 min post-injection, 1 month, and 3 months. Disability was assessed using the Oswestry Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaire at pre-injection, 1 month post-injection, and 3 months. In total, 50 patients were followed for 3 months. The mean reductions in pain were: 15 min (77 %), 1 month (39 %), and 3 months (33 %). The mean reductions in NDI were: 1 month (26 %) and 3 months (also 26 %). Results were statistically significant. CT-guided selective cervical nerve root injection in the treatment of cervical radicular pain and related disability produces statistically significant reductions in pain and disability to at least 3 months post-procedure. (orig.)

The short- and medium-term effectiveness of CT-guided selective cervical nerve root injection for pain and disability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Desai, Amidevi; Saha, Shouvik; Sharma, Naveen; Huckerby, Lauren; Houghton, Russell

2014-01-01

CT-guided cervical nerve root injection with corticosteroid and/or local anesthetic is a recognized technique in the evaluation and treatment of cervical radiculopathy. There are few prospective studies on the efficacy of the various techniques employed in cervical nerve root injection. We present our results from a 1-year prospective series using a CT-guided anterolateral transforaminal approach for cervical nerve root injection of bupivacaine and dexamethasone. Pain using a numeric rating scale was assessed at pre-injection, 15 min post-injection, 1 month, and 3 months. Disability was assessed using the Oswestry Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaire at pre-injection, 1 month post-injection, and 3 months. In total, 50 patients were followed for 3 months. The mean reductions in pain were: 15 min (77 %), 1 month (39 %), and 3 months (33 %). The mean reductions in NDI were: 1 month (26 %) and 3 months (also 26 %). Results were statistically significant. CT-guided selective cervical nerve root injection in the treatment of cervical radicular pain and related disability produces statistically significant reductions in pain and disability to at least 3 months post-procedure. (orig.)

Assessment of myocardial collateral circulation by intracoronary injection of radioactive microspheres and selective coronary angiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uhde, W.

1986-01-01

In 46 patients selective coronary angiography was performed followed by selective coronary perfusion scintigraphy and a comparative assessment was made of the contralateral coronary collateral circulation. Intracoronary injection of radioactively marked imcrospheres resulted in the detection of microcirculatory processes and made it possible to evaluate the relative efficiency of coronary collaterals. This in turn meant a low-risk supplement and extension of the findings of coronary angiography. This holds particularly true for the area of the left ventricular myocardium. (author)

Sequential Power-Dependence Theory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buskens, Vincent; Rijt, Arnout van de

2008-01-01

Existing methods for predicting resource divisions in laboratory exchange networks do not take into account the sequential nature of the experimental setting. We extend network exchange theory by considering sequential exchange. We prove that Sequential Power-Dependence Theory—unlike

Plutonium association with selected solid phases in soils of Rocky Flats, Colorado, using sequential extraction technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Litaor, M.I.; Ibrahim, S.A.

1996-01-01

Plutonium contamination in the soil environs of Rock Flats, CO, has been a potential health risk to the public since the late 1960s. Although the measurement of total activity of Pu-239 + 240 in the soil is important information in appraising this risk, total activity does not provide the information required to characterize the geochemical behavior that affects the transport of Pu from the soil and vadose zone to groundwater. A sequential extraction experiment was conducted to assess the geochemical association of Pu with selected mineralogical and chemical phases of the soil. In the surface horizons, Pu-239 + 240 was primarily associated with the organic C (45-65%), sesquioxides (20-40%), and the residual fraction (10-15%). A small portion of Pu-239+240 was associated with soluble (0.09-0.22%), exchangeable (0.04-0.08%), and carbonates (0.57-7.0%) phases. These results suggest that under the observed pH and oxic conditions, relatively little Pu-239 + 240 is available for geochemically induced transport processes. Uncommon hydrogeochemical conditions were observed during the spring of 1995, which may have facilitated a partial dissolution of sesquioxides followed by desorption of Pu resulting in increased Pu mobility. Systematic errors in the sequential extraction experiment due to postextraction readsorption were evaluated using Np-237 tracer as a surrogate to Pu-239. The results suggested that postextraction readsorption rates were insignificant during the first 30 min after extraction for most chemical and mineralogical phases under study. 50 refs., 2 figs., 5 tabs

Selective blockade of microRNA processing by Lin-28

Science.gov (United States)

Viswanathan, Srinivas R.; Daley, George Q.; Gregory, Richard I.

2012-01-01

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in development, and dysregulation of miRNA expression has been observed in human malignancies. Recent evidence suggests that the processing of several primary miRNA transcripts (pri-miRNAs) is blocked post-transcriptionally in embryonic stem (ES) cells, embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells, and primary tumors. Here we show that Lin-28, a developmentally regulated RNA-binding protein, selectively blocks the processing of pri-let-7 miRNAs in embryonic cells. Using in vitro and in vivo studies, we demonstrate that Lin-28 is necessary and sufficient for blocking Microprocessor-mediated cleavage of pri-let-7 miRNAs. Our results identify Lin-28 as a negative regulator of miRNA biogenesis and suggest that Lin-28 may play a central role in blocking miRNA-mediated differentiation in stem cells and certain cancers. PMID:18292307

Micro rapid prototyping system for micro components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Xiaochun; Choi Hongseok; Yang Yong

2002-01-01

Similarities between silicon-based micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and Shape Deposition Manufacturing (SDM) processes are obvious: both integrate additive and subtractive processes and use part and sacrificial materials to obtain functional structures. These MEMS techniques are two-dimensional (2-D) processes for a limited number of materials while SDM enables the building of parts that have traditionally been impossible to fabricate because of their complex shapes or of their variety in materials. This work presents initial results on the development of a micro rapid prototyping system that adapts SDM methodology to micro-fabrication. This system is designed to incorporate microdeposition and laser micromachining. In the hope of obtaining a precise microdeposition, an ultrasonic-based micro powder-feeding mechanism was developed in order to form thin patterns of dry powders that can be cladded or sintered onto a substrate by a micro-sized laser beam. Furthermore, experimental results on laser micromachining using a laser beam with a wavelength of 355 nm are also presented. After further improvement, the developed micro manufacturing system could take computer-aided design (CAD) output to reproduce 3-D heterogeneous micro-components from a wide selection of materials

Gas chromatography-flame ionization determination of benzaldehyde in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug injectable formulations using new ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid micro extraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mashayekhi, H.A.; Pourshamsian, K.

2012-01-01

Summary: In this study, simple and efficient ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid micro extraction combined with gas chromatography (GC) was developed for the preconcentration and determination of benzaldehyde in injectable formulations of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, diclofenac, Vitamin B-complex and Voltaren injection solutions. Fourteen microliters of toluene was injected slowly into 10 mL home-designed centrifuge glass vial containing an aqueous sample without salt addition that was located inside the ultrasonic water bath. The formed emulsion was centrifuged and 2 macro L of separated toluene was injected into a gas chromatographic system equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) for analysis. Several factors influencing the extraction efficiency as the nature and volume of organic solvent, extraction temperature, ionic strength and centrifugation time were investigated and optimized. Using optimum extraction conditions a detection limit of 0.3 macro g L/sup -1/ and a good linearity in a calibration range of 2.0-1000 macro g L/sup -1/ were achieved for analyte. This proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of benzaldehyde in three injection formulations and relative standard deviation (RSD) of analysis (n=3), before spiking with standard benzaldehyde were 3.3, 2.0 and 1.3% for Na-diclofenac, vitamin B-complex and voltaren, respectively and after spiking of standard benzaldehyde (0.3 mg L/sup -1/), the RSD were 6.5, 3.6 and 2.8% for Na-diclofenac, vitamin B-complex and voltaren, respectively. (author)

Sequential Markov chain Monte Carlo filter with simultaneous model selection for electrocardiogram signal modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Edla, Shwetha; Kovvali, Narayan; Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia

2012-01-01

Constructing statistical models of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, whose parameters can be used for automated disease classification, is of great importance in precluding manual annotation and providing prompt diagnosis of cardiac diseases. ECG signals consist of several segments with different morphologies (namely the P wave, QRS complex and the T wave) in a single heart beat, which can vary across individuals and diseases. Also, existing statistical ECG models exhibit a reliance upon obtaining a priori information from the ECG data by using preprocessing algorithms to initialize the filter parameters, or to define the user-specified model parameters. In this paper, we propose an ECG modeling technique using the sequential Markov chain Monte Carlo (SMCMC) filter that can perform simultaneous model selection, by adaptively choosing from different representations depending upon the nature of the data. Our results demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to track various types of ECG morphologies, including intermittently occurring ECG beats. In addition, we use the estimated model parameters as the feature set to classify between ECG signals with normal sinus rhythm and four different types of arrhythmia.

Biodistribution and micro PET imaging of 18F-FECNT as a dopamine transporter imaging agent

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Zhengping; Wang Songpei; Li Xiaomin; Liu Chunyi; Tang Jie; Lu Chunxiong; Pan Donghui; Xu Yuping; Yang Ming; Jiang Quanfu; Huang Hongbo; Zhou Xingqing

2009-01-01

Objective: 2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-corophenyl)-8-(2- 18 F-fluoroethyl) nortropane ( 18 F-FECNT) is a recently developed dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging agent. The aim of this study was to evaluate its brain biodistribution and to assess its usefulness in quantitation of DAT density in normal and hemiparkinsonian rats. Methods: Six groups of mice (5 mice each group) received 18 F-FECNT were sacrificed at indicated time post injection. Different brain regions (cortex, hippocampus, striatum, cerebellum) were removed, weighed, and countered. DAT blocking effect was investigated in mice pretreated with 2β-Carbomethoxy-3β-(4-fluorphenyl)tropane (β-CFT) at before 18 F-FECNT injection. MicroPET scans were performed in beth normal and unilaterally 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats. Results: The brain uptake of 18 F-FECNT was 2.22, 1.20, 1.02, 0.78, 0.71, and 0.67 percent injection dose (%ID) at 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and 180 min post injection. Radioactivity concentration of the striatum, the target region, was the highest in the brain regions and decreased quickly from 5 to 60 min and reached to background at 120 min of post injection. The striatum/cerebellum ratio was 2.56, 3.47, 2.78, 1.63, 0.97, and 0.88 at 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and 180 min, respectively, post injection. The selective striatum uptake of 1 '8F-FECNT decreased dramatically to the background when the DAT was blocked with β-CFT. The striatum of normal rats in micro-PET exhibited symmetrical (left/right = 1.00 ± 0.05) and the highest uptake of radioactivity (striatum/cerebellum =2.18 ± 0. 16 at 5- 125 min, n =3). As for the hemiparkinsonian rats, nonsymmetrical [unlesioned striatum/cerebellum vs lesioned striatum/cerebellum = 2.01 ± 0.23 (n = 3) vs 1.04 ± 0. 05] and the high-est uptake of radioactivity were also noted. Conclusions: The results suggest that 18 F-FECNT rapidly pas-ses through blood-brain barrier and locates in stiatal region with high affinity and selectivity to DAT. It is a potential

Sequential Extraction Versus Comprehensive Characterization of Heavy Metal Species in Brownfield Soils

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dahlin, Cheryl L.; Williamson, Connie A.; Collins, W. Keith; Dahlin, David C.

2002-06-01

The applicability of sequential extraction as a means to determine species of heavy-metals was examined by a study on soil samples from two Superfund sites: the National Lead Company site in Pedricktown, NJ, and the Roebling Steel, Inc., site in Florence, NJ. Data from a standard sequential extraction procedure were compared to those from a comprehensive study that combined optical- and scanning-electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and chemical analyses. The study shows that larger particles of contaminants, encapsulated contaminants, and/or man-made materials such as slags, coke, metals, and plastics are subject to incasement, non-selectivity, and redistribution in the sequential extraction process. The results indicate that standard sequential extraction procedures that were developed for characterizing species of contaminants in river sediments may be unsuitable for stand-alone determinative evaluations of contaminant species in industrial-site materials. However, if employed as part of a comprehensive, site-specific characterization study, sequential extraction could be a very useful tool.

Single peak parameters technique for simultaneous measurements: Spectrophotometric sequential injection determination of Fe(II) and Fe(III).

Science.gov (United States)

Kozak, J; Paluch, J; Węgrzecka, A; Kozak, M; Wieczorek, M; Kochana, J; Kościelniak, P

2016-02-01

Spectrophotometric sequential injection system (SI) is proposed to automate the method of simultaneous determination of Fe(II) and Fe(III) on the basis of parameters of a single peak. In the developed SI system, sample and mixture of reagents (1,10-phenanthroline and sulfosalicylic acid) are introduced into a vessel, where in an acid environment (pH≅3) appropriate compounds of Fe(II) and Fe(III) with 1,10-phenanthroline and sulfosalicylic acid are formed, respectively. Then, in turn, air, sample, EDTA and sample again, are introduced into a holding coil. After the flow reversal, a segment of air is removed from the system by an additional valve and as EDTA replaces sulfosalicylic acid forming a more stable colorless compound with Fe(III), a complex signal is registered. Measurements are performed at wavelength 530 nm. The absorbance measured at minimum of the negative peak and the area or the absorbance measured at maximum of the signal can be used as measures corresponding to Fe(II) and Fe(III) concentrations, respectively. The time of the peak registration is about 2 min. Two-component calibration has been applied to analysis. Fe(II) and Fe(III) can be determined within the concentration ranges of 0.04-4.00 and 0.1-5.00 mg L(-1), with precision less than 2.8% and 1.7% (RSD), respectively and accuracy better than 7% (RE). The detection limit is 0.04 and 0.09 mg L(-1) for Fe(II) and Fe(III), respectively. The method was applied to analysis of artesian water samples. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bioremediation of PAHs contaminated river sediment by an integrated approach with sequential injection of co-substrate and electron acceptor: Lab-scale study.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Tongzhou; Zhang, Zhen; Dong, Wenyi; Wu, Xiaojing; Wang, Hongjie

2017-11-01

In this study, the feasibility of employing an integrated bioremediation approach in contaminated river sediment was evaluated. Sequential addition of co-substrate (acetate) and electron acceptor (NO 3 - ) in a two-phase treatment was capable of effectively removing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in river sediment. The residual concentration of total PAHs decreased to far below effect range low (ERL) value within 91 days of incubation, at which concentration it could rarely pose biological impairment. The biodegradation of high molecular weight PAHs were found to be mainly occurred in the sediment treated with co-substrates (i.e. acetate or methanol), in which acetate was found to be more suitable for PAHs degradation. The role of co-substrates in influencing PAHs biodegradation was tentatively discussed herein. Additionally, the sediment odorous problem and blackish appearance were intensively addressed by NO 3 - injection. The results of this study demonstrated that integrating two or more approaches/processes would be a helpful option in sediment remediation. It can lead to a more effective remediation performance, handle multiple contamination issues, as well as mitigate environmental risks caused by one of the single methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Micro-CT in situ study of carbonate rock microstructural evolution for geologic CO2 storage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zheng, Yi; Yang, Yan; Rogowska, M.

2017-01-01

to achieve this is to find a suitable condition to create a stable 3D space in carbonate rock by injecting liquid to prepare space for the later CO2 injection. Micro-CT imaging is a non-destructive 3D method that can be used to study the property changes of carbonate rocks during and after CO2 injection....... The advance in lab source based micro-CT has made it capable of in situ experiments. We used a commercial bench top micro-CT (Zeiss Versa XRM410) to study the microstructure changes of chalk during liquid injection. Flexible temporal CT resolution is essential in this study because that the time scales...... of coupled physical and chemical processes can be very different. The results validated the feasibility of using a bench top CT system with a pressure cell to monitor the mesoscale multiphase interactions in chalk....

Dimensional accuracy of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene injection molded parts produced in a pilot produc

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mischkot, Michael; Davoudinejad, Ali; Charalambis, Alessandro

of a geometry including micro-features have been injection-molded in Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) with a single 20x20x2.5 mm^3 injection molding insert manufactured in a photopolymer composite material. This research investigates the dimensional accuracy of the injection molded parts as a function...

Injection-induced moment release can also be aseismic

Science.gov (United States)

McGarr, Arthur; Barbour, Andrew J.

2018-01-01

The cumulative seismic moment is a robust measure of the earthquake response to fluid injection for injection volumes ranging from 3100 to about 12 million m3. Over this range, the moment release is limited to twice the product of the shear modulus and the volume of injected fluid. This relation also applies at the much smaller injection volumes of the field experiment in France reported by Guglielmi, et al. (2015) and laboratory experiments to simulate hydraulic fracturing described by Goodfellow, et al. (2015). In both of these studies, the relevant moment release for comparison with the fluid injection was aseismic and consistent with the scaling that applies to the much larger volumes associated with injection-induced earthquakes with magnitudes extending up to 5.8. Neither the micro-earthquakes, at the site in France, nor the acoustic emission in the laboratory samples contributed significantly to the deformation due to fluid injection.

Selective intracoronary injection of technetium 99m-labelled microspheres (outcome of 83 examinations)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delebarre, Philippe.

1976-01-01

Coronarography supplies little information on the functional repercussions of a coronary stenosis and the state of the downstream arteriole bed. To overcome these inadequacies and to clarify the indications of aorta-coronary bridging, human albumin particles (microspheres or macro-aggregates) are injected into the coronary trunks during coronarography. The advantage of microspheres over macro-aggregates is their perfectly calibrated diameter (15+-5 microns). In the authors experience, and ours based on 83 examinations, the method presents no particular danger and adds very little to the time taken by conventional coronarography. For the method to be considered reliable it must be proved that the heterogeneities of distribution always correspond to anomalies of the coronary circulation, which seems not always to be the case. Our experience tends to show that as long as a hypoactivity zone or a scintigraphic blank cannot be referred with certainty to an actual functional or anatomical anomaly of the myocardium circulation this examination cannot be used as an argument for or against aorta-coronary bridging nor to predict its development. Where the study of angina pectoris with healthy coronaries is concerned a greater number of observations would be necessary in order to estimate, in cases of normal coronarography, to what extent anomalies of the coronary micro-circulation are responsible. In any case the difficulty of eliminating artefacts is a major obstacle to the reliability of the method. Radioelements such as 43 K or 201 Tl injected intraveinously seem to offer, more simply and without the risk of artefacts, the information looked for on labelled microsphere scintigraphs [fr

Inner centering in parting line area of injection mould using side locks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mahshid, Rasoul; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2017-01-01

Injection moulding is characterized by high precision requirements. In particular, the demands regarding the mould plates alignment are in order of few micro meters. This research introduces a methodology to measure the misalignment in injection moulding. Eddy current sensors are used in the system...

Solid reactors in sequential injection analysis: Recent trends in the environmental field

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Miró, Manuel; Hansen, Elo Harald

2006-01-01

-bead injection (SI-BI), used in either the jet-ring or lab-on-valve configurations, is presented as a front-end to many detectors. This article also outlines recent trends focused on exploiting SI as an automated tool for handling solid samples of environmental concern and accommodating dynamic fractionation...

Micro Dot Patterning on the Light Guide Panel Using Powder Blasting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong Sam Park

2008-02-01

Full Text Available This study is to develop a micromachining technology for a light guidepanel(LGP mold, whereby micro dot patterns are formed on a LGP surface by a singleinjection process instead of existing screen printing processes. The micro powder blastingtechnique is applied to form micro dot patterns on the LGP mold surface. The optimalconditions for masking, laminating, exposure, and developing processes to form the microdot patterns are first experimentally investigated. A LGP mold with masked micro patternsis then machined using the micro powder blasting method and the machinability of themicro dot patterns is verified. A prototype LGP is test- injected using the developed LGPmold and a shape analysis of the patterns and performance testing of the injected LGP arecarried out. As an additional approach, matte finishing, a special surface treatment method,is applied to the mold surface to improve the light diffusion characteristics, uniformity andbrightness of the LGP. The results of this study show that the applied powder blastingmethod can be successfully used to manufacture LGPs with micro patterns by just singleinjection using the developed mold and thereby replace existing screen printing methods.

A comparison of an algorithm for automated sequential beam orientation selection (Cycle) with simulated annealing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woudstra, Evert; Heijmen, Ben J M; Storchi, Pascal R M

2008-01-01

Some time ago we developed and published a new deterministic algorithm (called Cycle) for automatic selection of beam orientations in radiotherapy. This algorithm is a plan generation process aiming at the prescribed PTV dose within hard dose and dose-volume constraints. The algorithm allows a large number of input orientations to be used and selects only the most efficient orientations, surviving the selection process. Efficiency is determined by a score function and is more or less equal to the extent of uninhibited access to the PTV for a specific beam during the selection process. In this paper we compare the capabilities of fast-simulated annealing (FSA) and Cycle for cases where local optima are supposed to be present. Five pancreas and five oesophagus cases previously treated in our institute were selected for this comparison. Plans were generated for FSA and Cycle, using the same hard dose and dose-volume constraints, and the largest possible achieved PTV doses as obtained from these algorithms were compared. The largest achieved PTV dose values were generally very similar for the two algorithms. In some cases FSA resulted in a slightly higher PTV dose than Cycle, at the cost of switching on substantially more beam orientations than Cycle. In other cases, when Cycle generated the solution with the highest PTV dose using only a limited number of non-zero weight beams, FSA seemed to have some difficulty in switching off the unfavourable directions. Cycle was faster than FSA, especially for large-dimensional feasible spaces. In conclusion, for the cases studied in this paper, we have found that despite the inherent drawback of sequential search as used by Cycle (where Cycle could probably get trapped in a local optimum), Cycle is nevertheless able to find comparable or sometimes slightly better treatment plans in comparison with FSA (which in theory finds the global optimum) especially in large-dimensional beam weight spaces

A sequential/parallel track selector

CERN Document Server

Bertolino, F; Bressani, Tullio; Chiavassa, E; Costa, S; Dellacasa, G; Gallio, M; Musso, A

1980-01-01

A medium speed ( approximately 1 mu s) hardware pre-analyzer for the selection of events detected in four planes of drift chambers in the magnetic field of the Omicron Spectrometer at the CERN SC is described. Specific geometrical criteria determine patterns of hits in the four planes of vertical wires that have to be recognized and that are stored as patterns of '1's in random access memories. Pairs of good hits are found sequentially, then the RAMs are used as look-up tables. (6 refs).

Effects of neostriatal 6-OHDA lesion on performance in a rat sequential reaction time task.

Science.gov (United States)

Domenger, D; Schwarting, R K W

2008-10-31

Work in humans and monkeys has provided evidence that the basal ganglia, and the neurotransmitter dopamine therein, play an important role for sequential learning and performance. Compared to primates, experimental work in rodents is rather sparse, largely due to the fact that tasks comparable to the human ones, especially serial reaction time tasks (SRTT), had been lacking until recently. We have developed a rat model of the SRTT, which allows to study neural correlates of sequential performance and motor sequence execution. Here, we report the effects of dopaminergic neostriatal lesions, performed using bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine injections, on performance of well-trained rats tested in our SRTT. Sequential behavior was measured in two ways: for one, the effects of small violations of otherwise well trained sequences were examined as a measure of attention and automation. Secondly, sequential versus random performance was compared as a measure of sequential learning. Neurochemically, the lesions led to sub-total dopamine depletions in the neostriatum, which ranged around 60% in the lateral, and around 40% in the medial neostriatum. These lesions led to a general instrumental impairment in terms of reduced speed (response latencies) and response rate, and these deficits were correlated with the degree of striatal dopamine loss. Furthermore, the violation test indicated that the lesion group conducted less automated responses. The comparison of random versus sequential responding showed that the lesion group did not retain its superior sequential performance in terms of speed, whereas they did in terms of accuracy. Also, rats with lesions did not improve further in overall performance as compared to pre-lesion values, whereas controls did. These results support previous results that neostriatal dopamine is involved in instrumental behaviour in general. Also, these lesions are not sufficient to completely abolish sequential performance, at least when acquired

Random sequential adsorption: from continuum to lattice and pre-patterned substrates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cadilhe, A; Araujo, N A M; Privman, Vladimir

2007-01-01

The random sequential adsorption (RSA) model has served as a paradigm for diverse phenomena in physical chemistry, as well as in other areas such as biology, ecology, and sociology. In the present work, we survey aspects of the RSA model with emphasis on the approach to and properties of jammed states obtained for large times in continuum deposition versus that on lattice substrates, and on pre-patterned surfaces. The latter model has been of recent interest in the context of efforts to use pre-patterning as a tool to improve self-assembly in micro- and nanoscale surface structure engineering

Simultaneous and Sequential MS/MS Scan Combinations and Permutations in a Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap.

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Dalton T; Szalwinski, Lucas J; Cooks, R Graham

2017-10-17

Methods of performing precursor ion scans as well as neutral loss scans in a single linear quadrupole ion trap have recently been described. In this paper we report methodology for performing permutations of MS/MS scan modes, that is, ordered combinations of precursor, product, and neutral loss scans following a single ion injection event. Only particular permutations are allowed; the sequences demonstrated here are (1) multiple precursor ion scans, (2) precursor ion scans followed by a single neutral loss scan, (3) precursor ion scans followed by product ion scans, and (4) segmented neutral loss scans. (5) The common product ion scan can be performed earlier in these sequences, under certain conditions. Simultaneous scans can also be performed. These include multiple precursor ion scans, precursor ion scans with an accompanying neutral loss scan, and multiple neutral loss scans. We argue that the new capability to perform complex simultaneous and sequential MS n operations on single ion populations represents a significant step in increasing the selectivity of mass spectrometry.

Sequential Injection Chromatography with an Ultra-short Monolithic Column for the Low-Pressure Separation of α-Tocopherol and γ-Oryzanol in Vegetable Oils and Nutrition Supplements.

Science.gov (United States)

Thaithet, Sujitra; Kradtap Hartwell, Supaporn; Lapanantnoppakhun, Somchai

2017-01-01

A low-pressure separation procedure of α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol was developed based on a sequential injection chromatography (SIC) system coupled with an ultra-short (5 mm) C-18 monolithic column, as a lower cost and more compact alternative to the HPLC system. A green sample preparation, dilution with a small amount of hexane followed by liquid-liquid extraction with 80% ethanol, was proposed. Very good separation resolution (R s = 3.26), a satisfactory separation time (10 min) and a total run time including column equilibration (16 min) were achieved. The linear working range was found to be 0.4 - 40 μg with R 2 being more than 0.99. The detection limits of both analytes were 0.28 μg with the repeatability within 5% RSD (n = 7). Quantitative analyses of the two analytes in vegetable oil and nutrition supplement samples, using the proposed SIC method, agree well with the results from HPLC.

Efficient spin-current injection in single-molecule magnet junctions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haiqing Xie

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We study theoretically spin transport through a single-molecule magnet (SMM in the sequential and cotunneling regimes, where the SMM is weakly coupled to one ferromagnetic and one normal-metallic leads. By a master-equation approach, it is found that the spin polarization injected from the ferromagnetic lead is amplified and highly polarized spin-current can be generated, due to the exchange coupling between the transport electron and the anisotropic spin of the SMM. Moreover, the spin-current polarization can be tuned by the gate or bias voltage, and thus an efficient spin injection device based on the SMM is proposed in molecular spintronics.

Efficient spin-current injection in single-molecule magnet junctions

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Haiqing; Xu, Fuming; Jiao, Hujun; Wang, Qiang; Liang, J.-Q.

2018-01-01

We study theoretically spin transport through a single-molecule magnet (SMM) in the sequential and cotunneling regimes, where the SMM is weakly coupled to one ferromagnetic and one normal-metallic leads. By a master-equation approach, it is found that the spin polarization injected from the ferromagnetic lead is amplified and highly polarized spin-current can be generated, due to the exchange coupling between the transport electron and the anisotropic spin of the SMM. Moreover, the spin-current polarization can be tuned by the gate or bias voltage, and thus an efficient spin injection device based on the SMM is proposed in molecular spintronics.

Sequential injection-bead injection-lab-on-valve schemes for on-line solid phase extraction and preconcentration of ultra-trace levels of heavy metals with determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald; Miro, Manuel

2003-01-01

This communication presents an overview of the state-of-the-art of the exploitation of sequential injection (SI)-bead injection (BI)-lab-on-valve (LOV) schemes for automatic on-line sample pre-treatments interfaced with ETAAS and ICPMS detection as conducted in the authors' group. The discussions are focused on the applications of SI-BI-LOV protocols for on-line microcolumn based solid phase extraction of ultra-trace levels of heavy metals, employing the so-called renewable surface separation and preconcentration manipulatory scheme. Two types of sorbents have been employed as packing material, that is, the hydrophilic SP Sephadex C-25 cation exchange and iminodiacetate based Muromac A-1 chelating resins, and the hydrophobic poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) and poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) copolymer alkylated with octadecyl groups (C 18 -PS/DVB). Using ETAAS as detection device, the easy-to-handle hydrophilic renewable reactors hold the features of improved R.S.D.s and LODs as compared to those operated in the conventional, permanent mode, in addition to the elimination of flow resistance. The hydrophobic columns fall into two categories, that is, the renewable one packed with C 18 -PS/DVB beads entails analogous R.S.D.s and LODs with respect to the conventional approach, while those with PTFE beads result in slightly inferior R.S.D.s and LODs by similar comparison, yet offering a wider dynamic range than when using an external permanent column. Moreover, the hydrophilic materials result in much higher enrichment of the analyte than the hydrophobic ones, although PTFE is the packing material that exhibits the best retention efficiency

Two-column sequential injection chromatography for fast isocratic separation of two analytes of greatly differing chemical properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Šatínský, Dalibor; Chocholouš, Petr; Válová, Olga; Hanusová, Lucia; Solich, Petr

2013-09-30

This paper deals with a novel approach to separate two analytes with different chemical properties and different lipophilicity. The newly described methodology is based on the two column system that was used for isocratic separation of two analytes with very different lipophilicity-dexamethasone and cinchocaine. Simultaneous separation of model compounds cinchocaine and dexamethasone was carried under the following conditions in two-column sequential injection chromatography system (2-C SIC). A 25×4.6 mm C-18 monolithic column was used in the first dimension for retention and separation of dexamethasone with mobile phase acetonitrile:water 30:70 (v/v), flow rate 0.9 mL min(-1) and consumption of 1.7 mL. A 10×4.6 mm C-18 monolithic column with 5×4.6 mm C-18 precolumn was used in the second dimension for retention and separation of cinchocaine using mobile phase acetonitrile:water 60:40 (v/v), flow rate 0.9 mL min(-1) and consumption 1.5 mL. Whole analysis time including both mobile phase's aspirations and both column separations was performed in less than 4 min. The method was fully validated and used for determination of cinchocaine and dexamethasone in pharmaceutical otic drops. The developed 2-C SIC method was compared with HPLC method under the isocratic conditions of separation on monolithic column (25×4.6 mm C-18). Spectrophotometric detection of both compounds was performed at wavelength 240 nm. System repeatability and method precision were found in the range (0.39-3.12%) for both compounds. Linearity of determination was evaluated in the range 50-500 μg mL(-1) and coefficients of determination were found to be r(2)=0.99912 for dexamethasone and r(2)=0.99969 for cinchocaine. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis and optimisation of vertical surface roughness in micro selective laser melting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abele, Eberhard; Kniepkamp, Michael

2015-01-01

Surface roughness is a major disadvantage of many additive manufacturing technologies like selective laser melting (SLM) compared to established processes like milling or drilling. With recent advancements the resolution of the SLM process could be increased to layer heights of less than 10 μm leading to a new process called micro selective laser melting (μSLM). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the μSLM process parameters and exposure strategies on the morphology of vertical surfaces. Contour scanning using varying process parameters was used to increase the surface quality. It is shown that it is possible to achieve average surface roughness of less than 1.7 μm using low scan speeds compared to 8–10 μm without contour scanning. Furthermore it is shown that a contour exposure prior to the core exposure leads to surface defects and thus increased roughness. (paper)

Dynamics of fatty acid vesicles in response to pH stimuli

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ikari, Keita; Sakuma, Yuka; Jimbo, Takehiro

2015-01-01

We investigate the dynamics of decanoic acid/decanoate (DA) vesicles in response to pH stimuli. Two types of dynamic processes induced by the micro injection of NaOH solutions are sequentially observed: deformations and topological transitions. In the deformation stage, DA vesicles show a series...

A new approach for the validation of filling simulations in micro injection moulding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gava, Alberto; Tosello, Guido; Lucchetta, Giovanni

2007-01-01

to be improved. The main objective of this work is to evaluate whether the present numerical codes are suitable to characterize melt flow patterns in a micro cavity. In order to test the accuracy of the software, real and simulated experiments were performed and used to investigate the filling of a micro moulded...

A new dual injection system for AMS facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Lin; Zhou Weijian; Cheng Peng; Yu Huagui; Chen Maobai

2007-01-01

In order to measure long-lived radioisotopes such as 10 Be with high sensitivity using an HVEE model 4130 AMS system, as well as to guarantee 14 C measurements of high precision, a new dual injection system for the AMS system is proposed. The proposal is to add a Wien filter located between the ion source system and the recombinator of the HVEE model 4130. When a pulsing voltage is optionally applied to the Wien filter, a sequential injection mode is turned on. The isotopes would alternately pass on different trajectories through the recombinator. When the pulsing voltage and magnetic field are turned off, the Wien filter acts as a field-free drift space and the standard simultaneous injection mode is on. Beam optics calculation show that the new dual injection system will increase the number of radio-nuclides which can be analyzed, keep the high precision capability for radiocarbon dating and achieve high sensitivity for 10 Be and 26 Al measurements, together with simplifying the layout as compared to existing dual-injector and dual high-energy beam line systems

Evaluation of Coolant Injection Procedure in the Severe Accident Management Strategy of APR1400

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Yongjin; Lim, Kukhee; Song, Sungchu; Lee, Sukho; Hwang, Taesuk

2013-01-01

A coolant injection strategy in the severe accident management guideline (SAMG) of APR1400 relates to immediate coolant injection into RCS (Reactor Coolant System) or injection following the recovery of secondary coolant inventory. This strategy could play important role in accident mitigation and radiological consequences. In this study, appropriateness of the strategy was evaluated using MELCOR1.8.6 and several sensitivity studies of the key parameters were performed. Analysis for APR1400 using MELCOR 1.8.6 was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of accident management strategies and the following conclusions were identified. Sequential operation of secondary and RCS injection may not be the best strategy and the simultaneous injection of secondary and RCS injection could be more preferable. At least, the RCS injection should start before complete drainage of water in the safety injection tank using mobile pumps. In this study, the effectiveness of timing of operator action has been examined and the amount of injection flowrate needs to be studied in the future

Application of Sperm Selection Using Hyaluronic Acid Binding in Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Cycles: A Sibling Oocyte Study

Science.gov (United States)

Choe, Seung Ah; Tae, Jin Chul; Shin, Mi Young; Kim, Hyun Jung; Kim, Chung Hyon; Lee, Joong Yeup; Hwang, Doyeong; Kim, Ki Chul; Suh, Chang Suk

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sperm selection by hyaluronic acid (HA) binding could improve fertilization rate and embryo quality in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles. Two hundred nineteen oocytes obtained from eighteen women were injected with either HA-bound (n = 107) or conventionally selected spermatozoa (n = 112) in a randomized way. All of the participants were infertile couples who had normal sperm parameters but low fertilization rate in previous in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle (n = 5) or experienced multiple IVF failures (n = 13). Lower fertilization (75.7% vs 83.0%) and cleavage rate on day 2 (72.9% vs 83.0%) was observed in oocytes injected with HA-bound spermatozoa than the conventional group, but the difference was not significant. Significantly lower cleavage rate was observed on day 3 in HA group (56.0% vs 69.6%, P = 0.038). Blastocyst formation rate and the number of transferred embryos were similar in both groups. In multiple IVF failure patients, significantly reduced fertilization rate (71.8% vs 85.3%, P = 0.046) and cleavage rate on day 2 (70.4% vs 85.3%, P = 0.029) and day 3 (53.5% vs 77.3%, P = 0.002) were noticed in HA group. Five women achieved pregnancy continuing more than 12 weeks after transfer (27.8%). Success of ICSI was not related with the number of embryos fertilized by HA-bound spermatozoa. Application of ICSI by sperm selection using HA binding is not helpful in couples with repeated poor fertilization or implantation despite normal sperm parameters. PMID:23255860

Precision manufacturing of polymer micro-nano fluidic systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garnæs, Jørgen; Calaon, Matteo; Tosello, Guido

2015-01-01

Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) technologies require the possibility of fabricating devices which include micro down to sub-micrometre features with high production rate and low cost. In the present study precision injection moulding is performed using a COC Topas 5013 L10 polymer to produce LoC devices...... in the sample. Design of experiment (DOE) was adopted to characterize the replication fidelity of produced polymer features. Results have shown the possibility of performing quality control of micro- and sub-μm features, taking into account the polymer shrinkage, depending on process conditions at both micro...

Aluminum-based one- and two-dimensional micro fin array structures: high-throughput fabrication and heat transfer testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Primeaux, Philip A; Zhang, Bin; Zhang, Xiaoman; Miller, Jacob; Meng, W J; KC, Pratik; Moore, Arden L

2017-01-01

Microscale fin array structures were replicated onto surfaces of aluminum 1100 and aluminum 6061 alloy (Al1100/Al6061) sheet metals through room-temperature instrumented roll molding. Aluminum-based micro fin arrays were replicated at room temperature, and the fabrication process is one with high throughput and low cost. One-dimensional (1D) micro fin arrays were made through one-pass rolling, while two-dimensional (2D) micro fin arrays were made by sequential 90° cross rolling with the same roller sleeve. For roll molding of 1D micro fins, fin heights greater than 600 µ m were achieved and were shown to be proportional to the normal load force per feature width. At a given normal load force, the fin height was further shown to scale inversely with the hardness of the sheet metal. For sequential 90° cross rolling, morphologies of roll molded 2D micro fin arrays were examined, which provided clues to understand how plastic deformation occurred under cross rolling conditions. A series of pool boiling experiments on low profile Al micro fin array structures were performed within Novec 7100, a widely used commercial dielectric coolant. Results for both horizontal and vertical surface orientations show that roll molded Al micro fin arrays can increase heat flux at fixed surface temperature as compared to un-patterned Al sheet. The present results further suggest that many factors beyond just increased surface area can influence heat transfer performance, including surface finish and the important multiphase transport mechanisms in and around the fin geometry. These factors must also be considered when designing and optimizing micro fin array structures for heat transfer applications. (paper)

The subtyping of primary aldosteronism by adrenal vein sampling: sequential blood sampling causes factitious lateralization.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossitto, Giacomo; Battistel, Michele; Barbiero, Giulio; Bisogni, Valeria; Maiolino, Giuseppe; Diego, Miotto; Seccia, Teresa M; Rossi, Gian Paolo

2018-02-01

The pulsatile secretion of adrenocortical hormones and a stress reaction occurring when starting adrenal vein sampling (AVS) can affect the selectivity and also the assessment of lateralization when sequential blood sampling is used. We therefore tested the hypothesis that a simulated sequential blood sampling could decrease the diagnostic accuracy of lateralization index for identification of aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA), as compared with bilaterally simultaneous AVS. In 138 consecutive patients who underwent subtyping of primary aldosteronism, we compared the results obtained simultaneously bilaterally when starting AVS (t-15) and 15 min after (t0), with those gained with a simulated sequential right-to-left AVS technique (R ⇒ L) created by combining hormonal values obtained at t-15 and at t0. The concordance between simultaneously obtained values at t-15 and t0, and between simultaneously obtained values and values gained with a sequential R ⇒ L technique, was also assessed. We found a marked interindividual variability of lateralization index values in the patients with bilaterally selective AVS at both time point. However, overall the lateralization index simultaneously determined at t0 provided a more accurate identification of APA than the simulated sequential lateralization indexR ⇒ L (P = 0.001). Moreover, regardless of which side was sampled first, the sequential AVS technique induced a sequence-dependent overestimation of lateralization index. While in APA patients the concordance between simultaneous AVS at t0 and t-15 and between simultaneous t0 and sequential technique was moderate-to-good (K = 0.55 and 0.66, respectively), in non-APA patients, it was poor (K = 0.12 and 0.13, respectively). Sequential AVS generates factitious between-sides gradients, which lower its diagnostic accuracy, likely because of the stress reaction arising upon starting AVS.

Analysis of microRNA Expression Profiles Induced by Yiqifumai Injection in Rats with Chronic Heart Failure

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Yu Zhao

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Yiqifumai Injection (YQFM is clinically used to treat various cardiovascular diseases including chronic heart failure (CHF. The efficacy of YQFM for treating heart failure has been suggested, but the mechanism of action for pharmacological effects of YQFM is unclear.Methods: Echocardiography detection, left ventricular intubation evaluation, histopathology and immunohistochemical examination were performed in CHF rats to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of YQFM. Rat miRNA microarray and bioinformatics analysis were employed to investigate the differentially expressed microRNAs. In vitro models of AngII-induced hypertrophy and t-BHP induced oxidative stress in H9c2 myocardial cells were used to validate the anti-hypertrophy and anti-apoptosis effects of YQFM. Measurement of cell surface area, ATP content and cell viability, Real-time PCR and Western blot were performed.Results: YQFM significantly improved the cardiac function of CHF rats by increasing left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening, decreasing left ventricular internal diameter and enhancing cardiac output. Seven microRNAs which have a reversible regulation by YQFM treatment were found. Among them, miR-21-3p and miR-542-3p are related to myocardial hypertrophy and cell proliferation, respectively and were further verified by RT-PCR. Target gene network was established and potential related signaling pathways were predicted. YQFM could significantly alleviate AngII induced hypertrophy in cellular model. It also significantly increased cell viabilities and ATP content in t-BHP induced apoptotic cell model. Western blot analysis showed that YQFM could increase the phosphorylation of Akt.Conclusion: Our findings provided scientific evidence to uncover the mechanism of action of YQFM on miRNAs regulation against CHF by miRNA expression profile technology. The results indicated that YQFM has a potential effect on alleviate cardiac hypertrophy and apoptosis

Improved detection limits for phthalates by selective solid-phase micro-extraction

KAUST Repository

Zia, Asif I.

2016-03-30

Presented research reports on an improved method and enhanced limits of detection for phthalates; a hazardous additive used in the production of plastics by solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) polymer in comparison to molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) polymer. The polymers were functionalized on an interdigital capacitive sensor for selective binding of phthalate molecules from a complex mixture of chemicals. Both polymers owned predetermined selectivity by formation of valuable molecular recognition sites for Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). Polymers were immobilized on planar electrochemical sensor fabricated on a single crystal silicon substrate with 500 nm sputtered gold electrodes fabricated using MEMS fabrication techniques. Impedance spectra were obtained using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to determine sample conductance for evaluation of phthalate concentration in the spiked sample solutions with various phthalate concentrations. Experimental results revealed that the ability of SPME polymer to adsorb target molecules on the sensing surface is better than that of MISPE polymer for phthalates in the sensing system. Testing the extracted samples using high performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detectors validated the results.

Evaluation of an ODS column modified with zwitterionic/nonionic mixed surfactants and its application to direct injection determination of inorganic anions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hasegawa, Takuya; Umemura, Tomonari; Koide, Akira; Chiba, Koichi; Ueki, Yuji; Tsunoda, Kin-ichi; Haraguchi, Hiroki

2005-08-01

An octadecylsilica (ODS) column modified with zwitterionic/nonionic mixed surfactants was evaluated for the direct injection determination of inorganic anions in biological fluids by ion chromatography. A zwitterionic surfactant (sulfobetaine-type) and a nonionic surfactant (polyoxyethylene-type) were used for a stationary-phase modification. When aqueous electrolyte solutions with concentrations of sub-mM to several mM were used as a mobile phase, the zwitterionic surfactant coated on the ODS surface exhibited unique separation selectivity for ionic species, while the nonionic surfactant coated on the ODS might have formed a hydrophilic network over the ODS surface and restricted matrix proteins from adsorbing on the stationary phase. Consequently, the mixed surfactant-modified column system allowed an efficient ion chromatographic separation of inorganic anions as well as a size-exclusive removal of column-fouling proteins. This separation system was applied to the direct injection determination of UV-absorbing anions in human saliva. The detection limits for nitrite, nitrate, iodide and thiocyanate were 3.1, 2.7, 4.5 and 25 microM, respectively, with UV detection at 210 nm (injection volume; 20 microl), and their relative standard deviations for 5 replicate measurements of saliva samples spiked with 100 microM each of those anions were 1.4, 0.9, 2.2 and 5.5%, respectively.

Selective condensation drives partitioning and sequential secretion of cyst wall proteins in differentiating Giardia lamblia.

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Christian Konrad

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Controlled secretion of a protective extracellular matrix is required for transmission of the infective stage of a large number of protozoan and metazoan parasites. Differentiating trophozoites of the highly minimized protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia secrete the proteinaceous portion of the cyst wall material (CWM consisting of three paralogous cyst wall proteins (CWP1-3 via organelles termed encystation-specific vesicles (ESVs. Phylogenetic and molecular data indicate that Diplomonads have lost a classical Golgi during reductive evolution. However, neogenesis of ESVs in encysting Giardia trophozoites transiently provides basic Golgi functions by accumulating presorted CWM exported from the ER for maturation. Based on this "minimal Golgi" hypothesis we predicted maturation of ESVs to a trans Golgi-like stage, which would manifest as a sorting event before regulated secretion of the CWM. Here we show that proteolytic processing of pro-CWP2 in maturing ESVs coincides with partitioning of CWM into two fractions, which are sorted and secreted sequentially with different kinetics. This novel sorting function leads to rapid assembly of a structurally defined outer cyst wall, followed by slow secretion of the remaining components. Using live cell microscopy we find direct evidence for condensed core formation in maturing ESVs. Core formation suggests that a mechanism controlled by phase transitions of the CWM from fluid to condensed and back likely drives CWM partitioning and makes sorting and sequential secretion possible. Blocking of CWP2 processing by a protease inhibitor leads to mis-sorting of a CWP2 reporter. Nevertheless, partitioning and sequential secretion of two portions of the CWM are unaffected in these cells. Although these cysts have a normal appearance they are not water resistant and therefore not infective. Our findings suggest that sequential assembly is a basic architectural principle of protective wall formation and requires

Hyaluronic acid binding ability of human sperm reflects cellular maturity and fertilizing potential: selection of sperm for intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Science.gov (United States)

Huszar, Gabor; Ozkavukcu, Sinan; Jakab, Attila; Celik-Ozenci, Ciler; Sati, G Leyla; Cayli, Sevil

2006-06-01

The current concepts of sperm biochemical markers and the central role of the HspA2 chaperone protein, a measure of sperm cellular maturity and fertilizing potential, are reviewed. Because HspA2 is a component of the synaptonemal complex, low HspA2 levels and increased frequency of chromosomal aneuploidies are related in diminished maturity sperm. We also suggest a relationship between HspA2 expression in elongating spermatids and events of late spermiogenesis, such as cytoplasmic extrusion and plasma membrane remodeling that aid the formation of the zona pellucida binding and hyaluronic acid binding sites. The presence of hyaluronic acid receptor on the plasma membrane of mature sperm, coupled with hyaluronic acid coated glass or plastic surfaces, facilitates testing of sperm function and selection of single mature sperm for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. The frequencies of sperm with chromosomal disomy are reduced approximately fourfold to fivefold in hyaluronic acid selected sperm compared with semen sperm, comparable to the increase in such abnormalities in intracytoplasmic sperm injection offspring. Hyaluronic acid binding also excludes immature sperm with cytoplasmic extrusion, persistent histones, and DNA chain breaks. Hyaluronic acid mediated sperm selection is a novel technique that is comparable to sperm zona pellucida binding. Hyaluronic acid selected sperm will also alleviate the risks related to intracytoplasmic sperm injection fertilization with sperm of diminished maturity that currently cause worldwide concern.

Successful outcome after intravenous gasoline injection.

Science.gov (United States)

Domej, Wolfgang; Mitterhammer, Heike; Stauber, Rudolf; Kaufmann, Peter; Smolle, Karl Heinz

2007-12-01

Gasoline, ingested intentionally or accidentally, is toxic. The majority of reported cases of gasoline intoxication involve oral ingestion or inhalation. Data are scarce on complications and outcomes following hydrocarbon poisoning by intravenous injection. Following a suicide attempt by intravenous self-injection of 10 ml of gasoline, a 26-year-old medical student was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with hemoptysis, symptoms of acute respiratory failure, chest pain, and severe abdominal cramps. Gas exchange was severely impaired and a chest x-ray indicated chemical pneumonitis. Initial treatment consisted of mechanical ventilation, supportive hyperventilation, administration of nitrogen oxide (NO), and prednisone. Unfortunately, the patient developed multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) complicated by life-threatening severe vasoplegia within 24 hours after gasoline injection. High doses of vasopressors along with massive amounts of parenteral fluids were necessary. Despite fluid replacement, renal function worsened and required hemofiltration on 5 sequential days. After 12 days of intensive care management, the patient recovered completely and was discharged to a psychiatric care facility. Intravenous gasoline injection causes major injury to the lungs, the organ bearing the first capillary bed encountered. Treatment of gasoline poisoning is symptomatic because no specific antidote is available. Early and aggressive supportive care may be conducive to a favorable outcome with minimal residual pulmonary sequelae.

Chemiluminescence analyzer of NOx as a high-throughput screening tool in selective catalytic reduction of NO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oh, Kwang Seok; Woo, Seong Ihl

2011-01-01

A chemiluminescence-based analyzer of NO x gas species has been applied for high-throughput screening of a library of catalytic materials. The applicability of the commercial NO x analyzer as a rapid screening tool was evaluated using selective catalytic reduction of NO gas. A library of 60 binary alloys composed of Pt and Co, Zr, La, Ce, Fe or W on Al 2 O 3 substrate was tested for the efficiency of NO x removal using a home-built 64-channel parallel and sequential tubular reactor. The NO x concentrations measured by the NO x analyzer agreed well with the results obtained using micro gas chromatography for a reference catalyst consisting of 1 wt% Pt on γ-Al 2 O 3 . Most alloys showed high efficiency at 275 °C, which is typical of Pt-based catalysts for selective catalytic reduction of NO. The screening with NO x analyzer allowed to select Pt-Ce (X) (X=1–3) and Pt–Fe (2) as the optimal catalysts for NO x removal: 73% NO x conversion was achieved with the Pt–Fe (2) alloy, which was much better than the results for the reference catalyst and the other library alloys. This study demonstrates a sequential high-throughput method of practical evaluation of catalysts for the selective reduction of NO.

A novel automatic flow method with direct-injection photometric detector for determination of dissolved reactive phosphorus in wastewater and freshwater samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Koronkiewicz, Stanislawa; Trifescu, Mihaela; Smoczynski, Lech; Ratnaweera, Harsha; Kalinowski, Slawomir

2018-02-12

The novel automatic flow system, direct-injection detector (DID) integrated with multi-pumping flow system (MPFS), dedicated for the photometric determination of orthophosphates in wastewater and freshwater samples is for the first time described. All reagents and the sample were injected simultaneously, in counter-current into the reaction-detection chamber by the system of specially selected for this purpose solenoid micro-pumps. The micro-pumps provided good precision and accuracy of the injected volumes. For the determination of orthophosphates, the molybdenum blue method was employed. The developed method can be used to detect orthophosphate in the range 0.1-12 mg L -1 , with the repeatability (RSD) about 2.2% at 4 mg L -1 and a very high injection throughput of 120 injections h -1 . It was possible to achieve a very small consumption of reagents (10 μL of ammonium molybdate and 10 μL of ascorbic acid) and sample (20 μL). The volume of generated waste was only 440 μL per analysis. The method has been successfully applied, giving a good accuracy, to determination of orthophosphates in complex matrix samples: treated wastewater, lake water and reference sample of groundwater. The developed system is compact, small in both size and weight, requires 12 V in supply voltage, which are desirable for truly portable equipment used in routine analysis. The simplicity of the system should result in its greater long-time reliability comparing to other flow methods previously described.

Long-term Risedronate Treatment Normalizes Mineralization and Continues to Preserve Trabecular Architecture: Sequential Triple Biopsy Studies with Micro-Computed Tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borah, B.; Dufresne, T.; Ritman, E.; Jorgensen, S.; Liu, S.; Chmielewski, P.; Phipps, R.; Zhou, X.; Sibonga, J.; Turner, R.

2006-01-01

The objective of the study was to assess the time course of changes in bone mineralization and architecture using sequential triple biopsies from women with postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) who received long-term treatment with risedronate. Transiliac biopsies were obtained from the same subjects (n = 7) at baseline and after 3 and 5 years of treatment with 5 mg daily risedronate. Mineralization was measured using 3-dimensional (3D) micro-computed tomography (CT) with synchrotron radiation and was compared to levels in healthy premenopausal women (n = 12). Compared to the untreated PMO women at baseline, the premenopausal women had higher average mineralization (Avg-MIN) and peak mineralization (Peak-MIN) by 5.8% (P = 0.003) and 8.0% (P = 0.003), respectively, and lower ratio of low to high-mineralized bone volume (BMR-V) and surface area (BMR-S) by 73.3% (P = 0.005) and 61.7% (P 0.003), respectively. Relative to baseline, 3 years of risedronate treatment significantly increased Avg-MIN (4.9 ± 1.1%, P = 0.016) and Peak-MIN (6.2 ± 1.5%, P = 0.016), and significantly decreased BMR-V (-68.4 ± 7.3%, P = 0.016) and BMR-S (-50.2 ± 5.7%, P = 0.016) in the PMO women. The changes were maintained at the same level when treatment was continued up to 5 years. These results are consistent with the significant reduction of turnover observed after 3 years of treatment and which was similarly maintained through 5 years of treatment. Risedronate restored the degree of mineralization and the ratios of low- to high-mineralized bone to premenopausal levels after 3 years of treatment, suggesting that treatment reduced bone turnover in PMO women to healthy premenopausal levels. Conventional micro-CT analysis further demonstrated that bone volume (BV/TV) and trabecular architecture did not change from baseline up to 5 years of treatment, suggesting that risedronate provided long-term preservation of trabecular architecture in the PMO women. Overall, risedronate provided sustained

Downregulation of selective microRNAs in trigeminal ganglion neurons following inflammatory muscle pain

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Wei Dong

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Active regulation of gene expression in the nervous system plays an important role in the development and/or maintenance of inflammatory pain. MicroRNA (miRNA negatively regulates gene expression via posttranscriptional or transcriptional inhibition of specific genes. To explore the possible involvement of miRNA in gene regulation during inflammatory pain, we injected complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA unilaterally into the rat masseter muscle and quantified changes in neuron-specific mature miRNAs in the trigeminal ganglion (TG. Real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed significant, but differential, downregulation of mature miR-10a, -29a, -98, -99a, -124a, -134, and -183 in the ipsilateral mandibular division (V3 of the TG within 4 hr after CFA. In contrast, levels of tested miRNAs did not change significantly in the contralateral V3 or the ipsilateral ophthalmic and maxillary divisions of the TG from inflamed rats, nor in the ipsilateral V3 of saline-injected animals. The downregulated miRNAs recovered differentially to a level equal to or higher than that in naive animals. Full recovery time varied with miRNA species but was at least 4 days. Expression and downregulation of some miRNAs were further confirmed by in situ hybridization of TG neurons that innervate the inflamed muscle. Although neurons of all sizes expressed these miRNAs, their signals varied between neurons. Our results indicate that miRNA species specific to neurons are quickly regulated following inflammatory muscle pain.

LabVIEW-based sequential-injection analysis system for the determination of trace metals by square-wave anodic and adsorptive stripping voltammetry on mercury-film electrodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Economou, Anastasios; Voulgaropoulos, Anastasios

2003-01-01

The development of a dedicated automated sequential-injection analysis apparatus for anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) and adsorptive stripping voltammetry (AdSV) is reported. The instrument comprised a peristaltic pump, a multiposition selector valve and a home-made potentiostat and used a mercury-film electrode as the working electrodes in a thin-layer electrochemical detector. Programming of the experimental sequence was performed in LabVIEW 5.1. The sequence of operations included formation of the mercury film, electrolytic or adsorptive accumulation of the analyte on the electrode surface, recording of the voltammetric current-potential response, and cleaning of the electrode. The stripping step was carried out by applying a square-wave (SW) potential-time excitation signal to the working electrode. The instrument allowed unattended operation since multiple-step sequences could be readily implemented through the purpose-built software. The utility of the analyser was tested for the determination of copper(II), cadmium(II), lead(II) and zinc(II) by SWASV and of nickel(II), cobalt(II) and uranium(VI) by SWAdSV.

A Universal Approach for Selective Trace Metal Determinations via Sequential Injection-Bead Injection-Lab-on-Valve (SI-BI-LOV) Using Renewable Reagent-loaded Hydrophobic Beads

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Xiangbao; Miró, Manuel; Hansen, Elo Harald

-Lab-on-Valve (SI-LOV) mode. The methodology uses poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) beads containing pendant octadecyl moieties (C18-PS/DVB), which are pre-impregnated with a selective organic metal chelating agent prior to the automatic manipulation of the beads in the microbore conduits of the LOV unit. By adapting...

Comparison of periodontal ligament injection and inferior alveolar nerve block in mandibular primary molars pulpotomy: a randomized control trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Haghgoo, Roza; Taleghani, Ferial

2015-05-01

Inferior alveolar nerve block is a common technique for anesthesia of the primary mandibular molars. A number of disadvantages have been shown to be associated with this technique. Periodontal ligament (PDL) injection could be considered as an alternative to inferior alveolar nerve block. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of PDL injection in the anesthesia of primary molar pulpotomy with mandibular block. This study was performed using a sequential double-blind randomized trial design. 80 children aged 3-7 years old who required pulpotomy in symmetrical mandibular primary molars were selected. The teeth of these children were anesthetized with periodontal injection on one side of the mandible and block on the other. Pulpotomy was performed on each patient during the same appointment. Signs of discomfort, including hand and body tension and eye movement, the verbal complaint and crying (SEM scale), were evaluated by a dental assistant who was blinded to the treatment allocation of the patients. Finally, the data were analyzed using the exact Fisher test and Pearson Chi-squared exact test. Success rate was 88/75 and 91/25 in the PDL injection and nerve block groups, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two techniques (P = 0.250). Results showed that PDL injection can be used as an alternative to nerve block in pulpotomy of the mandibular primary molars.

Determination of trace heavy metals in herbs by sequential injection analysis-anodic stripping voltammetry using screen-printed carbon nanotubes electrodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Injang, Uthaitip; Noyrod, Peeyanun; Siangproh, Weena; Dungchai, Wijitar; Motomizu, Shoji; Chailapakul, Orawon

2010-01-01

A method for the simultaneous determination of Pb(II), Cd(II), and Zn(II) at low μg L -1 concentration levels by sequential injection analysis-anodic stripping voltammetry (SIA-ASV) using screen-printed carbon nanotubes electrodes (SPCNTE) was developed. A bismuth film was prepared by in situ plating of bismuth on the screen-printed carbon nanotubes electrode. Operational parameters such as ratio of carbon nanotubes to carbon ink, bismuth concentration, deposition time and flow rate during preconcentration step were optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the linear ranges were found to be 2-100 μg L -1 for Pb(II) and Cd(II), and 12-100 μg L -1 for Zn(II). The limits of detection (S bl /S = 3) were 0.2 μg L -1 for Pb(II), 0.8 μg L -1 for Cd(II) and 11 μg L -1 for Zn(II). The measurement frequency was found to be 10-15 stripping cycle h -1 . The present method offers high sensitivity and high throughput for on-line monitoring of trace heavy metals. The practical utility of our method was also demonstrated with the determination of Pb(II), Cd(II), and Zn(II) by spiking procedure in herb samples. Our methodology produced results that were correlated with ICP-AES data. Therefore, we propose a method that can be used for the automatic and sensitive evaluation of heavy metals contaminated in herb items.

A general method for selection of riboflavin-overproducing food grade micro-organisms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rutten Ger

2006-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study describes a strategy to select and isolate spontaneous riboflavin-overproducing strains of Lactobacillus (Lb. plantarum, Leuconostoc (Lc. mesenteroides and Propionibacterium (P. freudenreichii. Results The toxic riboflavin analogue roseoflavin was used to isolate natural riboflavin-overproducing variants of the food grade micro-organisms Lb. plantarum, Lc. mesenteroides and P. freudenreichii strains. The method was successfully employed for strains of all three species. The mutation(s responsible for the observed overproduction of riboflavin were identified for isolates of two species. Conclusion Selection for spontaneous roseoflavin-resistant mutants was found to be a reliable method to obtain natural riboflavin-overproducing strains of a number of species commonly used in the food industry. This study presents a convenient method for deriving riboflavin-overproducing strains of bacterial starter cultures, which are currently used in the food industry, by a non-recombinant methodology. Use of such starter strains can be exploited to increase the vitamin content in certain food products.

Macro and micro geo-spatial environment consideration for landfill site selection in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Ruzouq, Rami; Shanableh, Abdallah; Omar, Maher; Al-Khayyat, Ghadeer

2018-02-17

Waste management involves various procedures and resources for proper handling of waste materials in compliance with health codes and environmental regulations. Landfills are one of the oldest, most convenient, and cheapest methods to deposit waste. However, landfill utilization involves social, environmental, geotechnical, cost, and restrictive regulation considerations. For instance, landfills are considered a source of hazardous air pollutants that can cause health and environmental problems related to landfill gas and non-methanic organic compounds. The increasing number of sensors and availability of remotely sensed images along with rapid development of spatial technology are helping with effective landfill site selection. The present study used fuzzy membership and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in a geo-spatial environment for landfill site selection in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Macro- and micro-level factors were considered; the macro-level contained social and economic factors, while the micro-level accounted for geo-environmental factors. The weighted spatial layers were combined to generate landfill suitability and overall suitability index maps. Sensitivity analysis was then carried out to rectify initial theoretical weights. The results showed that 30.25% of the study area had a high suitability index for landfill sites in the Sharjah, and the most suitable site was selected based on weighted factors. The developed fuzzy-AHP methodology can be applied in neighboring regions with similar geo-natural conditions.

Modelling sequentially scored item responses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Akkermans, W.

2000-01-01

The sequential model can be used to describe the variable resulting from a sequential scoring process. In this paper two more item response models are investigated with respect to their suitability for sequential scoring: the partial credit model and the graded response model. The investigation is

A Novel Bearing Lubricating Device Based on the Piezoelectric Micro-Jet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Li

2016-02-01

Full Text Available A novel bearing lubricating device, which is embedded in gyroscope’s bearing system and based on the theory of the piezoelectric micro-jet, was designed for this study. The embedded structure of a bearing lubricating system can make effective use of the limited space of bearing systems without increasing the whole mass of the system. The drop-on-demand (DOD lubrication can be realized by the piezoelectric micro-jet system to implement the long acting lubrication of the bearing system. A mathematical model of inlet boundary conditions was established to carry on the numerical simulation based on CFD. The motion states of the droplets with different voltage excitations were analyzed via numerical simulations, and the injection performances of the piezoelectric micro-jet lubricating device were tested in accordance with past experiments. The influences of different parameters of voltage excitation on injection performance were obtained, and the methods of adjusting the injection performance to meet different requirements are given according to the analyses of the results. The mathematical model and numerical simulation method were confirmed by comparing the results of past simulations and experiments.

Micro-manufacturing technologies and their applications a theoretical and practical guide

CERN Document Server

Shipley, David

2017-01-01

This book provides in-depth theoretical and practical information on recent advances in micro-manufacturing technologies and processes, covering such topics as micro-injection moulding, micro-cutting, micro-EDM, micro-assembly, micro-additive manufacturing, moulded interconnected devices, and microscale metrology. It is designed to provide complementary material for the related e-learning platform on micro-manufacturing developed within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci project 2013-3748/542424: MIMAN-T: Micro-Manufacturing Training System for SMEs. The book is mainly addressed to technicians and prospective professionals in the sector and will serve as an easily usable tool to facilitate the translation of micro-manufacturing technologies into tangible industrial benefits. Numerous examples are included to assist readers in learning and implementing the described technologies. In addition, an individual chapter is devoted to technological foresight, addressing market analysis and business models for mic...

Collaborative Filtering Based on Sequential Extraction of User-Item Clusters

Science.gov (United States)

Honda, Katsuhiro; Notsu, Akira; Ichihashi, Hidetomo

Collaborative filtering is a computational realization of “word-of-mouth” in network community, in which the items prefered by “neighbors” are recommended. This paper proposes a new item-selection model for extracting user-item clusters from rectangular relation matrices, in which mutual relations between users and items are denoted in an alternative process of “liking or not”. A technique for sequential co-cluster extraction from rectangular relational data is given by combining the structural balancing-based user-item clustering method with sequential fuzzy cluster extraction appraoch. Then, the tecunique is applied to the collaborative filtering problem, in which some items may be shared by several user clusters.

[Professor GAO Yuchun's experience on "sequential acupuncture leads to smooth movement of qi"].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yanjun; Xing, Xiao; Cui, Linhua

2016-01-01

Professor GAO Yuchun is considered as the key successor of GAO's academic school of acupuncture and moxibustion in Yanzhao region. Professor GAO's clinical experience of, "sequential acupuncture" is introduced in details in this article. In Professor GAO's opinions, appropriate acupuncture sequence is the key to satisfactory clinical effects during treatment. Based on different acupoints, sequential acupuncture can achieve the aim of qi following needles and needles leading qi; based on different symptoms, sequential acupuncture can regulate qi movement; based on different body positions, sequential acupuncture can harmonize qi-blood and reinforcing deficiency and reducing excess. In all, according to the differences of disease condition and constitution, based on the accurate acupoint selection and appropriate manipulation, it is essential to capture the nature of diseases and make the order of acupuncture, which can achieve the aim of regulating qi movement and reinforcing deficiency and reducing excess.

A study of the process of synchronisation and micronucleation in Beta vulgaris and the monitoring of an isolation procedure for micro-nuclei and micro-protoplasts by confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Famelaer, I.; Verhoeven, H.A.; Dijkhuis, P.; Ramulu, K.S.

2007-01-01

The process of synchronization and micro-nuclei induction in a suspension culture of Beta vulgaris, was induced by the sequential treatment with the DNA-synthesis inhibitor aphidicolin (30 mu M, 24 h) and the spindle-toxin amiprophos-methyl (32 mu M, 24 h). Mitotic arrest of divisions, spreading of

Multi-agent sequential hypothesis testing

KAUST Repository

Kim, Kwang-Ki K.

2014-12-15

This paper considers multi-agent sequential hypothesis testing and presents a framework for strategic learning in sequential games with explicit consideration of both temporal and spatial coordination. The associated Bayes risk functions explicitly incorporate costs of taking private/public measurements, costs of time-difference and disagreement in actions of agents, and costs of false declaration/choices in the sequential hypothesis testing. The corresponding sequential decision processes have well-defined value functions with respect to (a) the belief states for the case of conditional independent private noisy measurements that are also assumed to be independent identically distributed over time, and (b) the information states for the case of correlated private noisy measurements. A sequential investment game of strategic coordination and delay is also discussed as an application of the proposed strategic learning rules.

Synthèse bibliographique : micro-texturation et microinjection de thermoplastiques

Science.gov (United States)

Vera, Julie; Brulez, Anne-Catherine; Contraires, Elise; Larochette, Mathieu; Valette, Stéphane; Benayoun, Stéphane

2017-12-01

La fonctionnalisation de surface des matériaux et notamment des polymères fait l'objet de recherches intenses dans de nombreux secteurs tels que l'industrie du biomédical ou du transport afin de conférer aux pièces des propriétés spécifiques comme l'antibuée, la réduction du frottement ou le dégivrage… Dans le cas d'une production en grande série de pièces polymères fonctionnalisées, il est préférable, pour des questions de coûts, de générer des textures, au moyen d'une technique de reproduction d'empreinte comme l'injection plastique. Toutefois les fonctions requises nécessitent parfois la reproduction de dimensions microniques voire submicroniques poussant à ses limites la maîtrise du procédé conventionnel, avec les caractéristiques de l'injection de micro-pièces, mais aussi des spécificités propres à la micro-texturation. L'objet de cette revue bibliographique est de couvrir le large spectre des problèmes techniques et scientifiques associés à la micro-texturation des pièces plastiques. Les techniques d'usinage de ces micro-motifs sur les outillages et le rôle des revêtements est particulièrement décrit ainsi que le besoin de mettre en œuvre des approches spécifiques de caractérisation topographique des textures. L'influence des paramètres du procédé d'injection est aussi discutée, soulignant la nécessité d'appréhender la micro-texturation des pièces plastiques avec une nouvelle grille de lecture de la microinjection.

Sequential charged particle reaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hori, Jun-ichi; Ochiai, Kentaro; Sato, Satoshi; Yamauchi, Michinori; Nishitani, Takeo

2004-01-01

The effective cross sections for producing the sequential reaction products in F82H, pure vanadium and LiF with respect to the 14.9-MeV neutron were obtained and compared with the estimation ones. Since the sequential reactions depend on the secondary charged particles behavior, the effective cross sections are corresponding to the target nuclei and the material composition. The effective cross sections were also estimated by using the EAF-libraries and compared with the experimental ones. There were large discrepancies between estimated and experimental values. Additionally, we showed the contribution of the sequential reaction on the induced activity and dose rate in the boundary region with water. From the present study, it has been clarified that the sequential reactions are of great importance to evaluate the dose rates around the surface of cooling pipe and the activated corrosion products. (author)

Nutrient recovery from the dry grind process using sequential micro and ultrafiltration of thin stillage.

Science.gov (United States)

Arora, Amit; Dien, Bruce S; Belyea, Ronald L; Singh, Vijay; Tumbleson, M E; Rausch, Kent D

2010-06-01

The effectiveness of microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) for nutrient recovery from a thin stillage stream was determined. When a stainless steel MF membrane (0.1microm pore size) was used, the content of solids increased from 7.0% to 22.8% with a mean permeate flux rate of 45L/m(2)/h (LMH), fat increased and ash content decreased. UF experiments were conducted in batch mode under constant temperature and flow rate conditions. Permeate flux profiles were evaluated for regenerated cellulose membranes (YM1, YM10 and YM100) with molecular weight cut offs of 1, 10 and 100kDa. UF increased total solids, protein and fat and decreased ash in retentate stream. When permeate streams from MF were subjected to UF, retentate total solids concentrations similar to those of commercial syrup (23-28.8%) were obtained. YM100 had the highest percent permeate flux decline (70% of initial flux) followed by YM10 and YM1 membranes. Sequential filtration improved permeate flux rates of the YM100 membrane (32.6-73.4LMH) but the percent decline was also highest in a sequential MF+YM100 system. Protein recovery was the highest in YM1 retentate. Removal of solids, protein and fat from thin stillage may generate a permeate stream that may improve water removal efficiency and increase water recycling. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Process control and product evaluation in micro molding using a screwless/two-plunger injection unit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Dormann, B.

2010-01-01

A newly developed μ-injection molding machine equipped with a screwless/two-plunger injection unit has been employed to mould miniaturized dog-bone shaped specimens on polyoxymethylene and its process capability and robustness have been analyzed. The influence of process parameters on μ-injection......A newly developed μ-injection molding machine equipped with a screwless/two-plunger injection unit has been employed to mould miniaturized dog-bone shaped specimens on polyoxymethylene and its process capability and robustness have been analyzed. The influence of process parameters on μ......-injection molding was investigated using the Design of Experiments technique. Injection pressure and piston stroke speed as well as part weight and dimensions were considered as quality factors over a wide range of process parameters. Experimental results obtained under different processing conditions were...

Selective Photophysical Modification on Light-Emitting Polymer Films for Micro- and Nano-Patterning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinping Zhang

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Laser-induced cross-linking in polymeric semiconductors was utilized to achieve micro- and nano-structuring in thin films. Single- and two-photon cross-linking processes led to the reduction in both the refractive index and thickness of the polymer films. The resultant photonic structures combine the features of both relief- and phase-gratings. Selective cross-linking in polymer blend films based on different optical response of different molecular phases enabled “solidification” of the phase-separation scheme, providing a stable template for further photonic structuring. Dielectric and metallic structures are demonstrated for the fabrication methods using cross-linking in polymer films. Selective cross-linking enables direct patterning into polymer films without introducing additional fabrication procedures or additional materials. The diffraction processes of the emission of the patterned polymeric semiconductors may provide enhanced output coupling for light-emitting diodes or distributed feedback for lasers.

Optimisation of tomato Micro-tom regeneration and selection on glufosinate/Basta and dependency of gene silencing on transgene copy number.

Science.gov (United States)

Khuong, Thi Thu Huong; Crété, Patrice; Robaglia, Christophe; Caffarri, Stefano

2013-09-01

An efficient protocol of transformation and selection of transgenic lines of Micro-tom, a widespread model cultivar for tomato, is reported. RNA interference silencing efficiency and stability have been investigated and correlated with the number of insertions. Given its small size and ease of cultivation, the tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) cultivar Micro-tom is of widespread use as a model tomato plant. To create and screen transgenic plants, different selectable markers are commonly used. The bar marker carrying the resistance to the herbicide glufosinate/Basta, has many advantages, but it has been little utilised and with low efficiency for identification of tomato transgenic plants. Here we describe a procedure for accurate selection of transgenic Micro-tom both in vitro and in soil. Immunoblot, Southern blot and phenotypic analyses showed that 100 % of herbicide-resistant plants were transgenic. In addition, regeneration improvement has been obtained by using 2 mg/l Gibberellic acid in the shoot elongation medium; rooting optimisation on medium containing 1 mg/l IAA allowed up to 97 % of shoots developing strong and very healthy roots after only 10 days. Stable transformation frequency by infection of leaf explants with Agrobacterium reached 12 %. Shoots have been induced by combination of 1 mg/l zeatin-trans and 0.1 mg/l IAA. Somatic embryogenesis of cotyledon on medium containing 1 mg/l zeatin + 2 mg/l IAA is described in Micro-tom. The photosynthetic psbS gene has been used as reporter gene for RNA silencing studies. The efficiency of gene silencing has been found equivalent using three different target gene fragments of 519, 398 and 328 bp. Interestingly, silencing efficiency decreased from T0 to the T3 generation in plants containing multiple copies of the inserted T-DNA, while it was stable in plants containing a single insertion.

Mechanical properties test and microstructure analysis of polyoxymethylene (POM) micro injection moulded standard parts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Lucchetta, Giovanni; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2009-01-01

to factorial plans, in which the factors of interest were mould temperature, melt temperature and dimensional range of the specimen (i.e. macro and micro parts). Micro structure analysis was performed by means of plastography techniques and revealed that high mould and melt temperatures resulted on a thin skin...

MicroARNs: una visión molecular MicroRNA (miRNA: A molecular view

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Vladimir Pabón-Martínez

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Los microARNs son ARN pequeños de aproximadamente 22 nucleótidos de longitud que participan en la regulación de muchos procesos celulares y, su alteración está asociada con el desarrollo de diferentes patologías, especialmente cáncer. Gracias al uso de las herramientas de bioinformática es posible determinar su distribución en el genoma y sus funciones en diferentes tejidos. La mayoría de microARNs son producidos en una vía canónica a partir de un transcripto primario largo, en un proceso secuencial de dos reacciones guiadas principalmente por dos enzimas, Drosha en el núcleo y Dicer en el citoplasma. Sin embargo, actualmente han sido descritas algunas vías no canónicas de generación de microARNs. El objetivo de esta revisión es describir el proceso de generación de microARNs y la maquinaria involucrada en su generación con el propósito de lograr alcanzar un mejor entendimiento de los diferentes procesos en los cuales están involucrados. Salud UIS 2011; 43 (3: 289-297MicroRNAs are small RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides in length that participate in the regulation of many cellular processes and it alteration is associated with the development of different pathologies in particular, cancer. Using bioinformatics tools is possible determine their wide distribution in the genome and their functions in different tissues. Mostly of microRNAs are produced in a canonical way from a long primary transcript, in a sequential process of two reactions guided mostly by two enzymes: Drosha in the nucleus and Dicer in the cytoplasm. However, it has been described some pathways non-canonical for the generation of microRNAs. The aim of this review is to describe the generation process of microRNAs and the machinery involved in their generation for the purpose of achieving a better understanding of the different processes they are involved. Salud UIS 2011; 43 (3: 289-297

Sequential Therapy of Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.A. Karimdzhanov

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Aim of the study — to examine the effectiveness of sequential therapy of injectable and oral forms cephalosporins of II generation, cefuroxime sodium and cefprozil, in children with acute community-acquired pneumonia. We examined 53 child patients aged 6 months — 14 years with acute community-acquired pneumonia. Patients were divided into 2 groups: 1st group — 26 patients who treated with cefuroxime sodium intramuscularly, and 2nd — 27 patients who treated with cefuroxime sodium in first 3 days and then from the 4th day — with cefprozil suspension orally. Both groups of patients were comparable by forms and course of pneumonia. In the clinic to all patients were conducted conventional clinical and laboratory investigations. Complex therapy was not different in both groups. Efficacy of treatment was assessed in dynamics. When comparing the effectiveness of two antibiotic regimens (cefuroxime sodium parenterally and sequential regimen with replacement by cefprozil orally there were no differences in the dynamics of clinical course, laboratory and radiological data. Finding of the conducted investigations before treatment showed that majority of patients had clinical and radiological evidence of pneumonia: fever, cough, shortness of breath, tachycardia, physical and radiological changes in the lungs. Evaluation of treatment efficacy showed that by the end of treatment in both groups of patients there was a positive clinical and radiological dynamics of the disease, the body temperature returned to normal, symptoms of intoxication, physical changes in the lungs disappeared, focal and infiltrative changes disappeared completely. Thus, sequential therapy with cephalosporins of II generation, cefuroxime and cefprozil, in the treatment of acute community-acquired pneumonia in children is a quite effective and safe method with good tolerability and no side effects.

Bisphosphonate-adsorbed ceramic nanoparticles increase bone formation in an injectable carrier for bone tissue engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tegan L Cheng

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB is a sugar-based carrier. We have previously applied SAIB as a minimally invasive system for the co-delivery of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2 and found synergy when co-delivering zoledronic acid (ZA and hydroxyapatite (HA nanoparticles. Alternative bioceramics were investigated in a murine SAIB/rhBMP-2 injection model. Neither beta-tricalcium phosphate (TCP nor Bioglass (BG 45S5 had a significant effect on bone volume (BV alone or in combination with the ZA. 14C-labelled ZA binding assays showed particle size and ceramic composition affected binding with nano-HA > micro-HA > TCP > BG. Micro-HA and nano-HA increased BV in a rat model of rhBMP-2/SAIB injection (+278% and +337%, and BV was further increased with ZA–adsorbed micro-HA and nano-HA (+530% and +889%. These data support the use of ZA–adsorbed nanoparticle-sized HA as an optimal additive for the SAIB/rhBMP-2 injectable system for bone tissue engineering.

Eyewitness confidence in simultaneous and sequential lineups: a criterion shift account for sequential mistaken identification overconfidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Dobolyi, David G; Dodson, Chad S

2013-12-01

Confidence judgments for eyewitness identifications play an integral role in determining guilt during legal proceedings. Past research has shown that confidence in positive identifications is strongly associated with accuracy. Using a standard lineup recognition paradigm, we investigated accuracy using signal detection and ROC analyses, along with the tendency to choose a face with both simultaneous and sequential lineups. We replicated past findings of reduced rates of choosing with sequential as compared to simultaneous lineups, but notably found an accuracy advantage in favor of simultaneous lineups. Moreover, our analysis of the confidence-accuracy relationship revealed two key findings. First, we observed a sequential mistaken identification overconfidence effect: despite an overall reduction in false alarms, confidence for false alarms that did occur was higher with sequential lineups than with simultaneous lineups, with no differences in confidence for correct identifications. This sequential mistaken identification overconfidence effect is an expected byproduct of the use of a more conservative identification criterion with sequential than with simultaneous lineups. Second, we found a steady drop in confidence for mistaken identifications (i.e., foil identifications and false alarms) from the first to the last face in sequential lineups, whereas confidence in and accuracy of correct identifications remained relatively stable. Overall, we observed that sequential lineups are both less accurate and produce higher confidence false identifications than do simultaneous lineups. Given the increasing prominence of sequential lineups in our legal system, our data argue for increased scrutiny and possibly a wholesale reevaluation of this lineup format. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Micro manufacturing techniques and applications

CERN Document Server

Du, Ruxu; Li, Zifu

2013-01-01

Micro/meso-scale manufacturing has been developed in research fields of machining, forming, materials and others, but its potential to industries are yet to be fully realized. The theme of the current volume was to build a bridge joining academic research and industrial needs in micro manufacturing. Among the 12 papers selected for publication are three keynote addresses onmicro and desktop factories for micro/meso-scale manufacturing applicationsand future visions, tissue cutting mechanics and applications for needlecore biopsy and guidance, and micro-texturing onto amorphous carbonmaterials

Band Subset Selection for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chunyan Yu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a new approach to band subset selection (BSS for hyperspectral image classification (HSIC which selects multiple bands simultaneously as a band subset, referred to as simultaneous multiple band selection (SMMBS, rather than one band at a time sequentially, referred to as sequential multiple band selection (SQMBS, as most traditional band selection methods do. In doing so, a criterion is particularly developed for BSS that can be used for HSIC. It is a linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV derived from adaptive beamforming in array signal processing which can be used to model misclassification errors as the minimum variance. To avoid an exhaustive search for all possible band subsets, two numerical algorithms, referred to as sequential (SQ and successive (SC algorithms are also developed for LCMV-based SMMBS, called SQ LCMV-BSS and SC LCMV-BSS. Experimental results demonstrate that LCMV-based BSS has advantages over SQMBS.

β-cyclodextrin functionalized on glass micro-particles: A green catalyst for selective oxidation of toluene to benzaldehyde

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tahir, M. Nazir, E-mail: tahir.muhammad_nazir@courrier.uqam.ca [Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Frederik Bajers Vej 7H, DK-9220, Aalborg East (Denmark); Department of Chemistry, University of Quebec at Montreal, QC, H3C 3P8 (Canada); Nielsen, Thorbjørn T.; Larsen, Kim L. [Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Frederik Bajers Vej 7H, DK-9220, Aalborg East (Denmark)

2016-12-15

Highlights: • Functionalization of βCD onto glass micro-particles (GMP-βCD). • Application of GMP-βCD as a green catalyst for the oxidation of toluene. • 82% yield at room temperature. • Repeated use of the catalyst for several cycles. - Abstract: Oxidation of toluene is considered an important process which often requires high temperatures and specific conditions along with heavy-metals based catalysts. In this study, we have developed a green catalyst by functionalizing beta-cyclodextrin onto glass micro-particle surfaces. All surfaces were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and applied to catalyze the selective oxidation of toluene into benzaldehyde (82% yield) at room temperature. The catalyst was stable and could be used repeatedly for several cycles without losing efficiency.

The Electromechanical Behavior of a Micro-Ring Driven by Traveling Electrostatic Force

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Xiuqian; Chen, Yibao; Chen, Da-Chih; Huang, Kuo-Yi; Hu, Yuh-Chung

2012-01-01

There is no literature mentioning the electromechanical behavior of micro structures driven by traveling electrostatic forces. This article is thus the first to present the dynamics and stabilities of a micro-ring subjected to a traveling electrostatic force. The traveling electrostatic force may be induced by sequentially actuated electrodes which are arranged around the flexible micro-ring. The analysis is based on a linearized distributed model considering the electromechanical coupling effects between electrostatic force and structure. The micro-ring will resonate when the traveling speeds of the electrostatic force approach some critical speeds. The critical speeds are equal to the ratio of the natural frequencies to the wave number of the correlative natural mode of the ring. Apart from resonance, the ring may be unstable at some unstable traveling speeds. The unstable regions appear not only near the critical speeds, but also near some fractions of some critical speeds differences. Furthermore the unstable regions expand with increasing driving voltage. This article may lead to a new research branch on electrostatic-driven micro devices. PMID:22438705

Preconcentration and speciation of chromium in a sequential injection system incorporating dual mini-columns coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zou Aimei; Tang Xiaoyan; Chen Mingli [Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, Box 332, Shenyang 110004 (China); Wang Jianhua [Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Northeastern University, Box 332, Shenyang 110004 (China)], E-mail: jianhuajrz@mail.neu.edu.cn

2008-05-15

A procedure for chromium preconcentration and speciation with a dual mini-column sequential injection system coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) was developed. At pH 6, the sample solution was firstly aspirated to flow through a Chlorella vulgaris cell mini-column on which the Cr(III) was retained. The effluent was afterwards directed to flow through a 717 anion exchange resin mini-column accompanied by the retention of Cr(VI). Thereafter, Cr(III) and Cr(VI) were eluted by 0.04 mol L{sup -1} and 1.0 mol L{sup -1} nitric acid, respectively, and the eluates were quantified with ETAAS. Chemical and flow variables governing the performance of the system were investigated. By using a sampling volume of 600 {mu}L, sorption efficiencies of 99.7% for Cr(III) and 99% for Cr(VI) were achieved along with enrichment factors of 10.5 for Cr(III) and 11.6 for Cr(VI), within linear ranges of 0.1-2.5 {mu}g L{sup -1} for Cr(III) and 0.12-2.0 {mu}g L{sup -1} for Cr(VI). Detection limits of 0.02 {mu}g L{sup -1} for Cr(III) and 0.03 {mu}g L{sup -1} for Cr(VI) along with RSD values of 1.9% for Cr(III) and 2.5% for Cr(VI) (1.0 {mu}g L{sup -1}, n = 11) were obtained. The procedure was validated by analyzing a certified reference material of GBW08608 and further demonstrated by chromium speciation in river and tap water samples.

Surface Replication of Molded Products with Microneedle Features in Injection Molding

Science.gov (United States)

Uchiumi, Kazuyasu; Takayama, Tetsuo; Ito, Hiroshi; Inou, Akinori

Micro-molding of microneedle features was conducted using several injection-molding techniques. Injection compression molding and injection molding were performed with supercritical carbon dioxide fluid and with or without vacuum processing inside the mold cavity. Effects of process parameters on processability and surface replication of the molded parts were evaluated. The height replication ratio for microneedles was improved using injection compression molding. At a shorter compression stroke, the needle height was improved, and the influence of compression delay time was also small. Moreover, the effects of vacuum processing inside the mold cavity under the filling process were slight. The height replication ratio for microneedles showed the highest values using injection molding using supercritical carbon dioxide fluid with vacuum inside the mold cavity.

Micro Injection Moulding High Accuracy Three-Dimensional Simulations and Process Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Costa, F.S.; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2011-01-01

Data analysis and simulations of micro‐moulding experiments have been conducted. Micro moulding simulations have been executed by implementing in the software the actual processing conditions. Various aspects of the simulation set‐up have been considered in order to improve the simulation accurac...

Selected examples of intelligent (micro) sensor systems: state-of-the-art and tendencies

Science.gov (United States)

Hauptmann, Peter R.

2006-03-01

The capability of intelligent sensors to have more intelligence built into them continues to drive their application in areas including automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial, intelligent house and wear, medical and homeland security. In principle it is difficult to overestimate the importance of intelligent (micro) sensors or sensor systems within advanced societies but one characteristic feature is the global market for sensors, which is now about 20 billion annually. Therefore sensors or sensor systems play a dominant role in many fields from the macro sensor in manufacturing industry down to the miniaturized sensor for medical applications. The diversity of sensors precludes a complete description of the state-of-the-art; selected examples will illustrate the current situation. MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices are of special interest in the context of micro sensor systems. In past the main requirements of a sensor were in terms of metrological performance. The electrical (or optical) signal produced by the sensor needed to match the measure relatively accurately. Such basic functionality is no longer sufficient. Data processing near the sensor, the extraction of more information than just the direct sensor information by signal analysis, system aspects and multi-sensor information are the new demands. A shifting can be observed away from aiming to design perfect single-function transducers and towards the utilization of system-based sensors as system components. In the ideal case such systems contain sensors, actuators and electronics. They can be realized in monolithic, hybrid or discrete form—which kind is used depends on the application. In this article the state-of-the-art of intelligent sensors or sensor systems is reviewed using selected examples. Future trends are deduced.

PET imaging of TSPO in a rat model of local neuroinflammation induced by intracerebral injection of lipopolysaccharide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ory, Dieter; Planas, Anna; Dresselaers, Tom; Gsell, Willy; Postnov, Andrey; Celen, Sofie; Casteels, Cindy; Himmelreich, Uwe; Debyser, Zeger; Van Laere, Koen; Verbruggen, Alfons; Bormans, Guy

2015-01-01

Objective: The goal of this study was to measure functional and structural aspects of local neuroinflammation induced by intracerebral injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in rats using TSPO microPET imaging with [ 18 F]DPA-714, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in vitro autoradiography and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in order to characterize a small animal model for screening of new PET tracers targeting neuroinflammation. Methods: Rats were injected stereotactically with LPS (50 μg) in the right striatum and with saline in the left striatum. [ 18 F]DPA-714 microPET, MRI, in vitro autoradiography and IHC studies were performed at different time points after LPS injection for 1 month. Results: Analysis of the microPET data demonstrated high uptake of the tracer in the LPS injected site with an affected-to-non-affected side-binding potential ratio (BP right-to-left ) of 3.0 at 3 days after LPS injection. This BP ratio decreased gradually over time to 0.9 at 30 days after LPS injection. In vitro autoradiography ([ 18 F]DPA-714) and IHC (CD68, GFAP and TSPO) confirmed local neuroinflammation in this model. Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI demonstrated BBB breakdown near the LPS injection site at day 1, which gradually resolved over time and was absent at 1 month after LPS injection. Conclusion: The LPS model is useful for first screening of newly developed tracers because of the easy design and the robust, unilateral inflammatory reaction allowing the use of the contralateral region as control. Additionally, this model can be used to test and follow up the benefits of anti-inflammatory therapies by non-invasive imaging

Dimensional metrology for process and part quality control in micro manufacturing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Tosello, Guido; Gasparin, Stefania

2011-01-01

dimensions are scaled down and geometrical complexity of objects is increased, the available measurement technologies appear not sufficient. New solutions for measuring principles and instrumentation, tolerancing rules and procedures as well as traceability and calibration are necessary if micro......Micro manufacturing has gained interest over the last decade as the demand for micro mechanical components has increased. The need for dimensional metrology at micro scale is evident both in terms of quality assurance of components and products and in terms of process control. As critical...... manufacturing is to develop into industrial manufacturing solutions. In this paper the application of dimensional precision metrology to both component and process quality control will be demonstrated. The parts investigated are micro injection moulded polymer parts, typical for the field of micro manufacturing....

Polyion selective polymeric membrane-based pulstrode as a detector in flow-injection analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell-Vlasov, Andrea K; Zajda, Joanna; Eldourghamy, Ayman; Malinowska, Elzbieta; Meyerhoff, Mark E

2014-04-15

A method for the detection of polyions using fully reversible polyion selective polymeric membrane type pulstrodes as detectors in a flow-injection analysis (FIA) system is examined. The detection electrode consists of a plasticized polymeric membrane doped with 10 wt % of tridodecylmethylammonium-dinonylnaphthalene sulfonate (TDMA/DNNS) ion-exchanger salt. The pulse sequence used involves a short (1 s) galvanostatic pulse, an open-circuit pulse (0.5 s) during which the EMF of the cell is measured, and a longer (15 s) potentiostatic pulse to return the membrane to its original chemical composition. It is shown that total pulse sequence times can be optimized to yield reproducible real-time detection of injected samples of protamine and heparin at up to 20 samples/h. Further, it is shown that the same membrane detector can be employed for FIA detection of both polycations at levels ≥10 μg/mL and polyanions at levels of ≥40 μg/mL by changing the direction of the galvanostatic pulse. The methodology described may also be applicable in the detection of polyionic species at low levels in other flowing configurations, such as in liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis.

Development of a fully automated sequential injection solid-phase extraction procedure coupled to liquid chromatography to determine free 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone and 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-5-sulphonic acid in human urine.

Science.gov (United States)

León, Zacarías; Chisvert, Alberto; Balaguer, Angel; Salvador, Amparo

2010-04-07

2-Hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone and 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-5-sulphonic acid, commonly known as benzophenone-3 (BZ3) and benzophenone-4 (BZ4), respectively, are substances widely used as UV filters in cosmetic products in order to absorb UV radiation and protect human skin from direct exposure to the deleterious wavelengths of sunlight. As with other UV filters, there is evidence of their percutaneous absorption. This work describes an analytical method developed to determine trace levels of free BZ3 and BZ4 in human urine. The methodology is based on a solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure for clean-up and pre-concentration, followed by the monitoring of the UV filters by liquid chromatography-ultraviolet spectrophotometry detection (LC-UV). In order to improve not only the sensitivity and selectivity, but also the precision of the method, the principle of sequential injection analysis was used to automate the SPE process and to transfer the eluates from the SPE to the LC system. The application of a six-channel valve as an interface for the switching arrangements successfully allowed the on-line connection of SPE sample processing with LC analysis. The SPE process for BZ3 and BZ4 was performed using octadecyl (C18) and diethylaminopropyl (DEA) modified silica microcolumns, respectively, in which the analytes were retained and eluted selectively. Due to the matrix effects, the determination was based on standard addition quantification and was fully validated. The relative standard deviations of the results were 13% and 6% for BZ3 and BZ4, respectively, whereas the limits of detection were 60 and 30 ng mL(-1), respectively. The method was satisfactorily applied to determine BZ3 and BZ4 in urine from volunteers that had applied a sunscreen cosmetic containing both UV filters. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a fully automated sequential injection solid-phase extraction procedure coupled to liquid chromatography to determine free 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone and 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-5-sulphonic acid in human urine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leon, Zacarias; Chisvert, Alberto; Balaguer, Angel; Salvador, Amparo

2010-01-01

2-Hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone and 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone-5-sulphonic acid, commonly known as benzophenone-3 (BZ3) and benzophenone-4 (BZ4), respectively, are substances widely used as UV filters in cosmetic products in order to absorb UV radiation and protect human skin from direct exposure to the deleterious wavelengths of sunlight. As with other UV filters, there is evidence of their percutaneous absorption. This work describes an analytical method developed to determine trace levels of free BZ3 and BZ4 in human urine. The methodology is based on a solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure for clean-up and pre-concentration, followed by the monitoring of the UV filters by liquid chromatography-ultraviolet spectrophotometry detection (LC-UV). In order to improve not only the sensitivity and selectivity, but also the precision of the method, the principle of sequential injection analysis was used to automate the SPE process and to transfer the eluates from the SPE to the LC system. The application of a six-channel valve as an interface for the switching arrangements successfully allowed the on-line connection of SPE sample processing with LC analysis. The SPE process for BZ3 and BZ4 was performed using octadecyl (C18) and diethylaminopropyl (DEA) modified silica microcolumns, respectively, in which the analytes were retained and eluted selectively. Due to the matrix effects, the determination was based on standard addition quantification and was fully validated. The relative standard deviations of the results were 13% and 6% for BZ3 and BZ4, respectively, whereas the limits of detection were 60 and 30 ng mL -1 , respectively. The method was satisfactorily applied to determine BZ3 and BZ4 in urine from volunteers that had applied a sunscreen cosmetic containing both UV filters.

Nanostructured conducting molecularly imprinted polymer for selective extraction of salicylate from urine and serum samples by electrochemically controlled solid-phase micro-extraction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ameli, Akram [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-175, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Alizadeh, Naader, E-mail: alizaden@modares.ac.ir [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box 14115-175, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2011-11-30

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Overoxidized polypyrrole templated with salicylate has been utilized as conducting molecular imprinted polymer for EC-SPME. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This first study reported on conducting molecular imprinted polymer was used to EC-SPME of salicylate. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Proposed method, is particularly effective in sample clean-up and selective monitoring of salicylate in physiological samples. - Abstract: Overoxidized polypyrrole (OPPy) films templated with salicylate (SA) have been utilized as conducting molecular imprinted polymers (CMIPs) for potential-induced selective solid-phase micro-extraction processes. Various important fabrication factors for controlling the performance of the OPPy films have been investigated using fluorescence spectrometry. Several key parameters such as applied potential for uptake, release, pH of uptake and release solution were varied to achieve the optimum micro-extraction procedure. The film template with SA exhibited excellent selectivity over some interference. The calibration graphs were linear in the ranges of 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -8} to 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} and 1.2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -6} to 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} mol mL{sup -1} and the detection limit was 4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -8} mol L{sup -1}. The OPPy film as the solid-phase micro-extraction absorbent has been applied for the selective clean-up and quantification of trace amounts of SA from physiological samples. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have confirmed the nano-structure morphologies of the films.

Nanostructured conducting molecularly imprinted polymer for selective extraction of salicylate from urine and serum samples by electrochemically controlled solid-phase micro-extraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ameli, Akram; Alizadeh, Naader

2011-01-01

Highlights: ► Overoxidized polypyrrole templated with salicylate has been utilized as conducting molecular imprinted polymer for EC-SPME. ► This first study reported on conducting molecular imprinted polymer was used to EC-SPME of salicylate. ► Proposed method, is particularly effective in sample clean-up and selective monitoring of salicylate in physiological samples. - Abstract: Overoxidized polypyrrole (OPPy) films templated with salicylate (SA) have been utilized as conducting molecular imprinted polymers (CMIPs) for potential-induced selective solid-phase micro-extraction processes. Various important fabrication factors for controlling the performance of the OPPy films have been investigated using fluorescence spectrometry. Several key parameters such as applied potential for uptake, release, pH of uptake and release solution were varied to achieve the optimum micro-extraction procedure. The film template with SA exhibited excellent selectivity over some interference. The calibration graphs were linear in the ranges of 5 × 10 −8 to 5 × 10 −4 and 1.2 × 10 −6 to 5 × 10 −4 mol mL −1 and the detection limit was 4 × 10 −8 mol L −1 . The OPPy film as the solid-phase micro-extraction absorbent has been applied for the selective clean-up and quantification of trace amounts of SA from physiological samples. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have confirmed the nano-structure morphologies of the films.

A wide variety of injection molding technologies is now applicable to small series and mass production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bloß, P.; Jüttner, G.; Jacob, S.; Löser, C.; Michaelis, J.; Krajewsky, P.

2014-01-01

Micro plastic parts open new fields for application, e. g., to electronics, sensor technologies, optics, and medical engineering. Before micro parts can go to mass production, there is a strong need of having the possibility for testing different designs and materials including material combinations. Hence, flexible individual technical and technological solutions for processing are necessary. To manufacture high quality micro parts, a micro injection moulding machine named formicaPlast based on a two-step plunger injection technology was developed. Resulting from its design, the residence time and the accuracy problems for managing small shot volumes with reproducible high accuracy are uncompromisingly solved. Due to their simple geometry possessing smooth transitions and non adherent inner surfaces, the plunger units allow to process 'all' thermoplastics from polyolefines to high performance polymers, optical clear polymers, thermally sensitive bioresorbables, highly filled systems (the so-called powder injection molding PIM), and liquid silicon rubber (LSR, here with a special kit). The applied platform strategy in the 1K and 2K version allows integrating automation for assembling, handling and packaging. A perpendicular arrangement allows encapsulation of inserts, also partially, and integration of this machine into process chains. Considering a wide variety of different parts consisting of different materials, the high potential of the technology is demonstrated. Based on challenging industrial parts from electronic applications (2K micro MID and bump mat, where both are highly structured parts), the technological solutions are presented in more detail

The Oenological Potential of Hanseniaspora uvarum in Simultaneous and Sequential Co-fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae for Industrial Wine Production.

Science.gov (United States)

Tristezza, Mariana; Tufariello, Maria; Capozzi, Vittorio; Spano, Giuseppe; Mita, Giovanni; Grieco, Francesco

2016-01-01

In oenology, the utilization of mixed starter cultures composed by Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces yeasts is an approach of growing importance for winemakers in order to enhance sensory quality and complexity of the final product without compromising the general quality and safety of the oenological products. In fact, several non-Saccharomyces yeasts are already commercialized as oenological starter cultures to be used in combination with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, while several others are the subject of various studies to evaluate their application. Our aim, in this study was to assess, for the first time, the oenological potential of H. uvarum in mixed cultures (co-inoculation) and sequential inoculation with S. cerevisiae for industrial wine production. Three previously characterized H. uvarum strains were separately used as multi-starter together with an autochthonous S. cerevisiae starter culture in lab-scale micro-vinification trials. On the basis of microbial development, fermentation kinetics and secondary compounds formation, the strain H. uvarum ITEM8795 was further selected and it was co- and sequentially inoculated, jointly with the S. cerevisiae starter, in a pilot scale wine production. The fermentation course and the quality of final product indicated that the co-inoculation was the better performing modality of inoculum. The above results were finally validated by performing an industrial scale vinification The mixed starter was able to successfully dominate the different stages of the fermentation process and the H. uvarum strain ITEM8795 contributed to increasing the wine organoleptic quality and to simultaneously reduce the volatile acidity. At the best of our knowledge, the present report is the first study regarding the utilization of a selected H. uvarum strain in multi-starter inoculation with S. cerevisiae for the industrial production of a wine. In addition, we demonstrated, at an industrial scale, the importance of non-Saccharomyces in

Catalysis of Silver catfish Major Hepatic Glutathione Transferase proceeds via rapid equilibrium sequential random Mechanism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayodele O. Kolawole

Full Text Available Fish hepatic glutathione transferases are connected with the elimination of intracellular pollutants and detoxification of organic micro-pollutants in their aquatic ecosystem. The two-substrate steady state kinetic mechanism of Silver catfish (Synodontis eupterus major hepatic glutathione transferases purified to apparent homogeneity was explored. The enzyme was dimeric enzyme with a monomeric size of 25.6 kDa. Initial-velocity studies and Product inhibition patterns by methyl glutathione and chloride with respect to GSH-CDNB; GSH-ρ-nitrophenylacetate; and GSH-Ethacrynic acid all conforms to a rapid equilibrium sequential random Bi Bi kinetic mechanism rather than steady state sequential random Bi Bi kinetic. α was 2.96 ± 0.35 for the model. The pH profile of Vmax/KM (with saturating 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene and variable GSH concentrations showed apparent pKa value of 6.88 and 9.86. Inhibition studies as a function of inhibitor concentration show that the enzyme is a homodimer and near neutral GST. The enzyme poorly conjugates 4-hydroxylnonenal and cumene hydroperoxide and may not be involved in oxidative stress protection. The seGST is unique and overwhelmingly shows characteristics similar to those of homodimeric class Pi GSTs, as was indicated by its kinetic mechanism, substrate specificity and inhibition studies. The rate- limiting step, probably the product release, of the reaction is viscosity-dependent and is consequential if macro-viscosogen or micro-viscosogen. Keywords: Silver catfish, Glutathione transferase, Steady-state, Kinetic mechanism, Inhibition

Recovery of Cobalt as Cobalt Oxalate from Cobalt Tailings Using Moderately Thermophilic Bioleaching Technology and Selective Sequential Extraction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guobao Chen

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Cobalt is a very important metal which is widely applied in various critical areas, however, it is difficult to recover cobalt from minerals since there is a lack of independent cobalt deposits in nature. This work is to provide a complete process to recover cobalt from cobalt tailings using the moderately thermophilic bioleaching technology and selective sequential extraction. It is found that 96.51% Co and 26.32% Cu were extracted after bioleaching for four days at 10% pulp density. The mean compositions of the leach solutions contain 0.98 g·L−1 of Co, 6.52 g·L−1 of Cu, and 24.57 g·L−1 of Fe (III. The copper ion was then recovered by a solvent extraction process and the ferric ions were selectively removed by applying a goethite deironization process. The technological conditions of the above purification procedures were deliberately discussed. Over 98.6% of copper and 99.9% of ferric ions were eliminated from the leaching liquor. Cobalt was finally produced as cobalt oxalate and its overall recovery during the whole process was greater than 95%. The present bioleaching process of cobalt is worth using for reference to deal with low-grade cobalt ores.

Remarks on sequential designs in risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seidenfeld, T.

1982-01-01

The special merits of sequential designs are reviewed in light of particular challenges that attend risk assessment for human population. The kinds of ''statistical inference'' are distinguished and the problem of design which is pursued is the clash between Neyman-Pearson and Bayesian programs of sequential design. The value of sequential designs is discussed and the Neyman-Pearson vs. Bayesian sequential designs are probed in particular. Finally, warnings with sequential designs are considered, especially in relation to utilitarianism

Lab-on-Valve Micro Sequential Injection: A Versatile Approach for Implementing Integrated Sample Pre-preparations and Executing (Bio)Chemical Assays

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Elo Harald

waste generation. Most recently, the Lab-on-Valve (LOV) approach has emerged. Termed the third generation of FIA, the conceptual basis of the LOV is to incorporate all the necessary unit operational manipulations required in a chemical assay, and, when possible, even the detection device, into a single...... small integrated microconduit, or “laboratory”, placed atop a selection valve. In the lecture emphasis will be placed on the LOV approach. Proven itself as a versatile front end to a variety of detection techniques, its utility will be exemplified by various applications. Particular focus......-phase microcolumn concept utilising hydrophobic as well as hydrophilic bead materials. Although ETAAS and ICPMS both are characterised by excellent analytical chemical capabilities, they nevertheless often require that the samples be subjected to suitable pretreatment in order to obtain the necessary sensitivity...

MELCOR assessment of sequential severe accident mitigation actions under SGTR accident

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Wonjun; Jeon, Joongoo; Kim, Nam Kyung; Kim, Sung Joong

2017-01-01

The representative example of the severe accident studies using the severe accident code is investigation of effectiveness of developed severe accident management (SAM) strategy considering the positive and adverse effects. In Korea, some numerical studies were performed to investigate the SAM strategy using various severe accident codes. Seo et.al performed validation of RCS depressurization strategy and investigated the effect of severe accident management guidance (SAMG) entry condition under small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA) without safety injection (SI), station blackout (SBO), and total loss of feed water (TLOFW) scenarios. The SGTR accident with the sequential mitigation actions according to the flow chart of SAMG was simulated by the MELCOR 1.8.6 code. Three scenariospreventing the RPV failure were investigated in terms of fission product release, hydrogen risk, and the containment pressure. Major conclusions can be summarized as follows: (1) According to the flow chart of SAMG, RPV failure can be prevented depending on the method of RCS depressurization. (2) To reduce the release of fission product during the injecting into SGs, a temporary opening of SDS before the injecting into SGs was suggested. These modified sequences of mitigation actions can reduce the release of fission product and the adverse effect of SDS.

Sequential lineup laps and eyewitness accuracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Steblay, Nancy K; Dietrich, Hannah L; Ryan, Shannon L; Raczynski, Jeanette L; James, Kali A

2011-08-01

Police practice of double-blind sequential lineups prompts a question about the efficacy of repeated viewings (laps) of the sequential lineup. Two laboratory experiments confirmed the presence of a sequential lap effect: an increase in witness lineup picks from first to second lap, when the culprit was a stranger. The second lap produced more errors than correct identifications. In Experiment 2, lineup diagnosticity was significantly higher for sequential lineup procedures that employed a single versus double laps. Witnesses who elected to view a second lap made significantly more errors than witnesses who chose to stop after one lap or those who were required to view two laps. Witnesses with prior exposure to the culprit did not exhibit a sequential lap effect.

Robustness of the Sequential Lineup Advantage

Science.gov (United States)

Gronlund, Scott D.; Carlson, Curt A.; Dailey, Sarah B.; Goodsell, Charles A.

2009-01-01

A growing movement in the United States and around the world involves promoting the advantages of conducting an eyewitness lineup in a sequential manner. We conducted a large study (N = 2,529) that included 24 comparisons of sequential versus simultaneous lineups. A liberal statistical criterion revealed only 2 significant sequential lineup…

Reduction of the Adhesive Friction of Elastomers through Laser Texturing of Injection Molds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joel Voyer

2017-11-01

Full Text Available It is well known that elastomers usually possess poor dry sliding friction properties due to their highly adhesive character. In order to overcome this problematic behavior in industrial applications, interfacial materials such as oils, greases, coatings, or lacks are normally used in order to separate or to functionalize the contact surfaces of elastomers. Alternatively, the high adhesion tendency of elastomers may be explicitly reduced by modifying the elastomer composition itself or by enabling a reduction of its effective contact area through, for example, surface laser texturing. This second approach, i.e., the reduction of the adhesive character of elastomers through laser structuring, will be the main topic of the present study. For this purpose, different micro-sized grooved structures were produced on flat injection molds using an ultra-short pulsed laser. The micro-structured molds were then used to produce injection molded micro-ridged Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR sample pads. The investigations consisted firstly of determining the degree of replication of the mold micro-structures onto the surface of the LSR pads and secondly, to ascertain the degree of reduction of the friction force (or coefficient of friction of these micro-ridged LSR pads in comparison to the benchmark (unstructured LSR pads when tested under dry conditions against Aluminum alloy (Al-6082 or PA6.6-GF30 plates. For this second part of the investigation, the normal force (or contact pressure dependency of the coefficient of friction was determined through stepwise load increasing friction tests. The results of these investigations have shown that the production of micro-ridged surfaces on LSR pads through laser structuring of the injection molds could be successfully achieved and that it enables a significant reduction of the friction force for low normal forces (or contact pressures, where the component of adhesion friction is playing an important and determining

Repository for high level radioactive wastes in Brazil: the importance of geochemical (Micro thermometric) studies and fluid migration in potential host rocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rios, Francisco Javier; Fuzikawa, Kazuo; Alves, James Vieira; Neves, Jose Marques Correia

2003-01-01

A detailed fluid inclusion study of host rocks, is of fundamental importance in the selection of geologically suitable areas for high level nuclear waste repository constructions (HLRW). The LIFM-CDTN is enabled to develop studies that confirm: the presence or not, of corrosive fluid in minerals from host rocks of the repository and the possible presence of micro fractures (and fluid leakage) when these rocks are submitted to high temperatures. These fluid geochemistry studies, with permeability determinations by means of pressurized air injection must be carried out in rocks hosting nuclear waste. Micro fracture determination is of vital importance since many naturally corrosive solutions, present in the mineral rocks, could flow out through these plans affecting the walls of the repository. (author)

Percutaneous spine injection: considerations for improving treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Joon Woo; Kim, Sung Hyun; Lee, In Sook; Choi, Jung Ah; Yoon, Chang Jin; Hwang, Sung Il; Kang, Heung Sik; Choi, Ja Young; Koh, Young Hwan; Hong, Sung Hwan

2005-01-01

To discuss the causes of treatment failure in percutaneous spine injections for low back pain or radiculopathy by analyzing patients who have experienced negative treatment effect on their first visit and a positive treatment effect on their second visit. The authors reviewed the cases of 24 patients who visited the pain intervention outpatient department in our hospital due to back pain or radiculopathy. All patients reviewed experienced a negative treatment effect following their first spine injection, but a positive treatment effect following the second injection. The dates of the cases range from June 2003 to May 2004. Two radiologists analyzed the possible causes of the negative treatment effect following the first injection therapies by considering clinical aspects as well as reviewing radiological images. The most common condition was the presence of the change in the level of the second selective nerve root block (n=13). In seven cases, the methods for administering the injections were changed to facet block (n=2), midline epidural block (n=1), selective nerve root block (n=3) and caudal epidural block (n=1). In four cases, there were no changes in the methods for administering the injections nor were there any changes in the level of the selective nerve root block between first and second visit. In those cases, after reviewing spot radiographs performed during injection, we attributed the causes of failure of injection therapy to an inappropriate distribution of drugs. We can improve the effect of percutaneous spine injections for low back pain or radioculopathy by determining the exact level of perineural root block, trying alternative methods, and insuring a good distribution of the injected drugs

Microcellular injection molding process for producing lightweight thermoplastic polyurethane with customizable properties

Science.gov (United States)

Ellingham, Thomas; Kharbas, Hrishikesh; Manitiu, Mihai; Scholz, Guenter; Turng, Lih-Sheng

2018-03-01

A three-stage molding process involving microcellular injection molding with core retraction and an "out-of-mold" expansion was developed to manufacture thermoplastic polyurethane into lightweight foams of varying local densities, microstructures, and mechanical properties in the same microcellular injection molded part. Two stages of cavity expansion through sequential core retractions and a third expansion in a separate mold at an elevated temperature were carried out. The densities varied from 0.25 to 0.42 g/cm3 (77% to 62% weight reduction). The mechanical properties varied as well. Cyclic compressive strengths and hysteresis loss ratios, together with the microstructures, were characterized and reported.

Durability 2007. Injection grout investigations. Background description

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orantie, K.; Kuosa, H.

2008-12-01

The aim of this project was to evaluate the durability risks of injection grouts. The investigations were done with respect to the application conditions, materials and service life requirements at the ONKALO underground research facility. The study encompassed injection grout mixtures made of ultrafine cement with and without silica fume. Some of the mixtures hade a low pH and thus a high silica fume content. The project includes a background description on durability literature, laboratory testing programme, detailed analysis of results and recommendations for selecting of ideal grout mixtures. The background description was made for the experimental study of low-pH and reference rock injection grouts as regards pore- and microstructure, strength, shrinkage/swelling and thus versatile durability properties. A summary of test methods is presented as well as examples, i.e. literature information or former test results, of expected range of results from the tests. Also background information about how the test results correlate to other material properties and mix designs is presented. Besides the report provides basic information on the pore structure of cement based materials. Also the correlation between the pore structure of cement based materials and permeability is shortly discussed. The test methods included in the background description are compressive strength, measurement of bulk drying, autogenous and chemical shrinkage and swelling, hydraulic conductivity / permeability, capillary water uptake test, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and thin section analysis. Three main mixtures with water-binder ratio of 0.8, 1.0 and 1.4 and silica fume content of 0, 15 and 40% were studied in the laboratory. Besides two extra mixtures were studied to provide additional information about the effect of varying water-dry-material ratio and silica fume content on durability. The evaluation of water tightness based on water permeability coefficient and micro cracking was

Study of a fuel injection quantity sensor in diesel engine. Part 3. Experimental evaluation of the improved type micro turbine sensor; Diesel kikan ni okeru nenryo funsharyo sensor no kenkyu. 3. Funsharyo keisoku no seido kojo ni kansuru jikken hyoka

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maehara, H; Iwasaki, T; Kobayashi, T [Zexel Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1997-10-01

A Micro Turbine Sensor has been developed to measure fuel injection quantity and injection rate. Previous reports described results of experiments on the MTS which were carried out under steady and unsteady flow conditions. The MTS has been improved in shape of a holder tip and a detecting procedure for rotating speed of a turbine. As a result revolution speed of the turbine increased 18% over the conventional type holder under steady flow condition. Furthermore the measurement resolution of the MTS came up to about 2(mm{sup 3}/pulse) at 20(mm{sup 3}/stroke) under intermittent spray conditions using fuel injection pump. 11 refs., 11 figs., 1 tab.

Selective intra-arterial administration of 18F-FDG to the rat brain - effects on hemispheric uptake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arnberg, Fabian; Samen, Erik; Lundberg, Johan; Grafstroem, Jonas; Soederman, Michael; Stone-Elander, Sharon; Holmin, Staffan; Lu, Li

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the radioligand uptake and iodine contrast distribution in the intra- and extracranial circulation of the rat, after intra-arterial injections to the common carotid artery and different parts of the internal carotid artery. All animal experiments were carried out in accordance with Karolinska Institutet's guidelines and were approved by the local laboratory animal ethics committee. We used clinical neurointerventional systems to place microcatheters in the extra- or intracranial carotid artery of 15 Sprague-Dawley rats. Here, injection dynamics of iodine contrast was assessed using digital subtraction angiography. Maintaining the catheter position, the animals were placed in a micro PET and small-animal positron emission tomography (PET) was used to analyze injections [2- 18 F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ( 18 F-FDG). Microcatheters had to be placed in the intracranial carotid artery (iICA) for the infusate to distribute to the brain. Selective injection via the iICA resulted in a 9-fold higher uptake of 18 F-FDG in the injected hemisphere (p < 0.005) compared to both intravenous and more proximal carotid artery injections. Furthermore, selective injection gave a dramatically improved contrast between the brain and extracranial tissue. Intra-arterial injection increases the cerebral uptake of a radiotracer dramatically compared to systemic injection. This technique has potential applications for endovascular treatment of malignancies allowing intra-interventional modifications of injection strategy, based on information on tumor perfusion and risk to surrounding normal parenchyma. Furthermore the technique may increase diagnostic sensitivity and avoid problems due to peripheral pharmacological barriers and first passage metabolism of labile tracers. (orig.)

Multi-agent sequential hypothesis testing

KAUST Repository

Kim, Kwang-Ki K.; Shamma, Jeff S.

2014-01-01

incorporate costs of taking private/public measurements, costs of time-difference and disagreement in actions of agents, and costs of false declaration/choices in the sequential hypothesis testing. The corresponding sequential decision processes have well

EDITORIAL: Selected papers from the 11th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2011) Selected papers from the 11th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2011)

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Young-Ho

2012-09-01

This special section of Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering features papers selected from the 11th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2011), held at Sejong Hotel in Seoul, Korea during 15-18 November 2011. Since the first PowerMEMS workshop held in Sendai, Japan in 2000, the workshop has developed as the premier forum for reporting research results in micro and nanotechnology for power generation, energy conversion, harvesting and processing applications, including in-depth technical issues on nanostructures and materials for small-scale high-density energy and thermal management. Potential PowerMEMS applications cover not only portable power devices for consumer electronics and remote sensors, but also micro engines, impulsive thrusters and fuel cells for systems ranging from the nanometer to the millimeter scale. The 2011 technical program consists of 1 plenary talk, 4 invited talks and 118 contributed presentations. The 48 oral and 70 poster presentations, selected by 27 Technical Program Committee Members from 131 submitted abstracts, have stimulated lively discussion maximizing the interaction between participants. Among them, this special section includes 9 papers covering micro-scale power generators, energy converters, harvesters, thrusters and thermal coolers. Finally, we are grateful to the members of the International Steering Committee, the Technical Program Committee, and the Local Organizing Committee for their efforts and contributions to PowerMEMS 2011. We also thank the two companies Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Elite for technical tour arrangements. Special thanks go to Dr Ian Forbes, the editorial staff of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, as well as to the staff of IOP Publishing for making this special section possible.

Extra- and intramuscular nerve supply of the muscles of the anterior antebrachial compartment: applications for selective neurotomy and for botulinum toxin injection.

Science.gov (United States)

Lepage, D; Parratte, B; Tatu, L; Vuiller, F; Monnier, G

2005-12-01

Hypertonia of the upper limb due to spasticity causes pronation of the forearm and flexion of wrist and fingers. Nowadays this spasticity is often treated with injections of botulinum toxin and sometimes with selective fascicular neurotomy. To correctly perform this microsurgical technique, it is necessary to get precise knowledge of the extramuscular nerve branching in order to be better able to select the motor branches which supply the muscles involved in spasticity. The same knowledge is required for botulinum toxin injections which must be made as near as possible to the zones where intramuscular nerve endings are the densest, which is also where neuromuscular junctions are the most numerous. Thus, it is necessary to better know these zones, but their knowledge remains today imprecise. The muscles of the anterior compartment of 30 forearms were dissected, first macroscopically, then microscopically, to study the extra- and intramuscular nerve supply and the distribution of terminal nerve ramifications. The results were then linked to surface topographical landmarks to indicate the precise location of motor branches for each muscle with the aim of proposing appropriate surgical approaches for selective neurotomies. Then for each muscle, the zones with the highest density of nerve endings were divided into segments, thus determining the optimal zones for botulinim toxin injections.

Tolerance and biochemical effects from intravenous injection of ioxaglate in healthy volunteers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nilsson, P.E.; Aspelin, P.; Nyman, U.; Hedner, U.; Malmoe Allmaenna Sjukhus

1984-01-01

The influence of intravenous injection of ioxaglate (Hexabrix, 320 mg I/ml) on various biochemical, coagulation and fibrinolytic parameters, fractionated plasma proteins, precordial ECG and blood pressure was prospectively and sequentially studied in 9 healthy volunteers. One ml/kg body weight of the contrast medium was injected within one minute into an antecubital vein. Small, but statistically significant, changes in some of the biochemical parameters were found during the observation period, 2 to 4 days. All values of the biochemical parameters were, however, within the normal reference range for each parameter. No significant alterations were seen in the coagulation parameters. Increased fibrinolysis was recorded in some subjects both before and after the injection. No fibrinolytic degradation products were found indicating that the fibrinolysis was nominal. No significant changes were observed in the fractionated plasma proteins. The heart rate decreased significantly 15 seconds after commencing the injection. No significant changes in blood pressure were recorded. Two participants became nauseated and one of them vomited during the injection. Apart from this, no adverse effects were noted. No clinically significant changes following the injections were found. (orig.)

Method development for the determination of arsenic by sequential injection/anodic stripping voltammetry using long-lasting gold-modified screen-printed carbon electrode.

Science.gov (United States)

Punrat, Eakkasit; Chuanuwatanakul, Suchada; Kaneta, Takashi; Motomizu, Shoji; Chailapakul, Orawon

2013-11-15

An automated method has been developed for determining the concentration of inorganic arsenic. The technique uses sequential injection/anodic stripping voltammetry with a long-lasting gold-modified screen-printed carbon electrode. The long-lasting gold electrode was electrochemically deposited onto a screen-printed carbon electrode at a potential of -0.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl in a supporting electrolyte solution of 1M hydrochloric acid. Under optimal conditions and the applied potentials, the electrode demonstrated that it can be used for a long time without a renewal process. The linear range for the determination of arsenic(III) was 1-100 μg L(-1), and the limit of detection (LOD) in standard solutions was as low as 0.03 μg L(-1) for a deposition time of 120 s and sample volume of 1 mL. This method was used to determine the concentration of arsenic(III) in water samples with satisfactory results. The LOD in real samples was found to be 0.5 μg L(-1). In addition, speciation between arsenic(III) and arsenic(V) has been achieved with the proposed method using deposition potentials of -0.5 V and -1.5 V for the determination of the arsenic(III) concentration and the total arsenic concentration, respectively; the results were acceptable. The proposed method is an automated system that offers a less expensive alternative for determining trace amounts of inorganic arsenic. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The oenological potential of Hanseniaspora uvarum in simultaneous and sequential co-fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the industrial wine production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana eTristezza

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In oenology, the utilization of mixed starter cultures composed by Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces yeasts is an approach of growing importance for winemakers in order to enhance sensory quality and complexity of the final product without compromising the general quality and safety of the oenological products. In fact, several non-Saccharomyces yeasts are already commercialized as oenological starter cultures to be used in combination with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, while several others are the subject of various studies to evaluate their application. Our aim, in this study was to assess, for the first time, the oenological potential of H. uvarum in mixed cultures (co-inoculation and sequential inoculation with S. cerevisiae for industrial wine production. Three previously characterized H. uvarum strains were separately used as multi-starter together with an autochthonous S. cerevisiae starter culture in lab-scale micro-vinification trials. On the basis of microbial development, fermentation kinetics and secondary compounds formation, the strain H. uvarum ITEM8795 was further selected and it was co- and sequentially inoculated, jointly with the S. cerevisiae starter, in a pilot scale wine production. The fermentation course and the quality of final product indicated that the co-inoculation was the better performing modality of inoculum. The above results were finally validated by performing an industrial scale vinification The mixed starter was able to successfully dominate the different stages of the fermentation process and the H. uvarum strain ITEM8795 contributed to increasing the wine organoleptic quality and to simultaneously reduce the volatile acidity. At the best of our knowledge, the present report is the first study regarding the utilization of a selected H. uvarum strain in multi-starter inoculation with S. cerevisiae for the industrial production of a wine. In addition, we demonstrated, at an industrial scale, the importance of

Models of sequential decision making in consumer lending

OpenAIRE

Kanshukan Rajaratnam; Peter A. Beling; George A. Overstreet

2016-01-01

Abstract In this paper, we introduce models of sequential decision making in consumer lending. From the definition of adverse selection in static lending models, we show that homogenous borrowers take-up offers at different instances of time when faced with a sequence of loan offers. We postulate that bounded rationality and diverse decision heuristics used by consumers drive the decisions they make about credit offers. Under that postulate, we show how observation of early decisions in a seq...

Sequential stochastic optimization

CERN Document Server

Cairoli, Renzo

1996-01-01

Sequential Stochastic Optimization provides mathematicians and applied researchers with a well-developed framework in which stochastic optimization problems can be formulated and solved. Offering much material that is either new or has never before appeared in book form, it lucidly presents a unified theory of optimal stopping and optimal sequential control of stochastic processes. This book has been carefully organized so that little prior knowledge of the subject is assumed; its only prerequisites are a standard graduate course in probability theory and some familiarity with discrete-paramet

Comparison of first pass bolus AIFs extracted from sequential 18F-FDG PET and DSC-MRI of mice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, Eleanor; Sawiak, Stephen J.; Ward, Alexander O.; Buonincontri, Guido; Hawkes, Robert C.; Adrian Carpenter, T.

2014-01-01

Accurate kinetic modelling of in vivo physiological function using positron emission tomography (PET) requires determination of the tracer time–activity curve in plasma, known as the arterial input function (AIF). The AIF is usually determined by invasive blood sampling methods, which are prohibitive in murine studies due to low total blood volumes. Extracting AIFs from PET images is also challenging due to large partial volume effects (PVE). We hypothesise that in combined PET with magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MR), a co-injected bolus of MR contrast agent and PET ligand can be tracked using fast MR acquisitions. This protocol would allow extraction of a MR AIF from MR contrast agent concentration–time curves, at higher spatial and temporal resolution than an image-derived PET AIF. A conversion factor could then be applied to the MR AIF for use in PET kinetic analysis. This work has compared AIFs obtained from sequential DSC-MRI and PET with separate injections of gadolinium contrast agent and 18 F-FDG respectively to ascertain the technique′s validity. An automated voxel selection algorithm was employed to improve MR AIF reproducibility. We found that MR and PET AIFs displayed similar character in the first pass, confirmed by gamma variate fits (p<0.02). MR AIFs displayed reduced PVE compared to PET AIFs, indicating their potential use in PET/MR studies

Micro-surgical endodontics.

Science.gov (United States)

Eliyas, S; Vere, J; Ali, Z; Harris, I

2014-02-01

Non-surgical endodontic retreatment is the treatment of choice for endodontically treated teeth with recurrent or residual disease in the majority of cases. In some cases, surgical endodontic treatment is indicated. Successful micro-surgical endodontic treatment depends on the accuracy of diagnosis, appropriate case selection, the quality of the surgical skills, and the application of the most appropriate haemostatic agents and biomaterials. This article describes the armamentarium and technical procedures involved in performing micro-surgical endodontics to a high standard.

Characterization of a sequential pipeline approach to automatic tissue segmentation from brain MR Images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hou, Zujun; Huang, Su

2008-01-01

Quantitative analysis of gray matter and white matter in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is valuable for neuroradiology and clinical practice. Submission of large collections of MRI scans to pipeline processing is increasingly important. We characterized this process and suggest several improvements. To investigate tissue segmentation from brain MR images through a sequential approach, a pipeline that consecutively executes denoising, skull/scalp removal, intensity inhomogeneity correction and intensity-based classification was developed. The denoising phase employs a 3D-extension of the Bayes-Shrink method. The inhomogeneity is corrected by an improvement of the Dawant et al.'s method with automatic generation of reference points. The N3 method has also been evaluated. Subsequently the brain tissue is segmented into cerebrospinal fluid, gray matter and white matter by a generalized Otsu thresholding technique. Intensive comparisons with other sequential or iterative methods have been carried out using simulated and real images. The sequential approach with judicious selection on the algorithm selection in each stage is not only advantageous in speed, but also can attain at least as accurate segmentation as iterative methods under a variety of noise or inhomogeneity levels. A sequential approach to tissue segmentation, which consecutively executes the wavelet shrinkage denoising, scalp/skull removal, inhomogeneity correction and intensity-based classification was developed to automatically segment the brain tissue into CSF, GM and WM from brain MR images. This approach is advantageous in several common applications, compared with other pipeline methods. (orig.)

Exploring the sequential lineup advantage using WITNESS.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodsell, Charles A; Gronlund, Scott D; Carlson, Curt A

2010-12-01

Advocates claim that the sequential lineup is an improvement over simultaneous lineup procedures, but no formal (quantitatively specified) explanation exists for why it is better. The computational model WITNESS (Clark, Appl Cogn Psychol 17:629-654, 2003) was used to develop theoretical explanations for the sequential lineup advantage. In its current form, WITNESS produced a sequential advantage only by pairing conservative sequential choosing with liberal simultaneous choosing. However, this combination failed to approximate four extant experiments that exhibited large sequential advantages. Two of these experiments became the focus of our efforts because the data were uncontaminated by likely suspect position effects. Decision-based and memory-based modifications to WITNESS approximated the data and produced a sequential advantage. The next step is to evaluate the proposed explanations and modify public policy recommendations accordingly.

Pregnancy outcomes in women with repeated implantation failures after intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mauri Ana L

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to compare laboratory and clinical outcomes of intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI and conventional intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI in couples with repeated implantation failures. Methods A total of 200 couples with at least two prior unsuccessful ICSI cycles were enrolled: 100 couples were submitted to IMSI and 100 were submitted to routine ICSI. For IMSI, spermatozoa were selected at 8400× magnification using an inverted microscope equipped with Nomarski (differential interference contrast optics. For conventional ICSI, spermatozoa were selected at 400× magnification. Clinical outcomes were evaluated between the two groups. Results Study patients were comparable in age, number of treatment failures, aetiology of infertility, percentage of normal form assessed by MSOME (motile sperm organelle morphology examination, semen parameters, total number of oocytes collected, number of mature oocytes collected, total number of embryos transferred and number of high-quality embryos transferred. No statistically significant differences between the two groups were observed with regard to rates of fertilisation, implantation and pregnancy/cycle. Although not statistically significant, rates of miscarriage (IMSI:15.3% vs ICSI:31.7%, ongoing pregnancy (IMSI:22% vs ICSI:13% and live births (IMSI:21% vs ICSI:12% showed a trend towards better outcomes in the IMSI group. In addition, analysis of subpopulations with or without male factor showed similar results. Conclusions Our results suggest that IMSI does not provide a significant improvement in clinical outcome compared to ICSI, at least in couples with repeated implantation failures after conventional ICSI. However, it should be noted that there were clear trends for lower miscarriage rates (≈50% reduced and higher rates of ongoing pregnancy and live births (both nearly doubled within the IMSI group. Further confirmation

Prevalence of injections and knowledge of safe injections among rural residents in Central China.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Y W; Yan, J; Zhang, G P; Gao, Z L; Jian, H X

2007-08-01

Abuse of the injection services, namely unnecessary injections and unsafe injections, exists extensively in developing countries. Unsafe injection practices contribute to the transmission of blood-borne pathogens. The aims of this study were to survey the prevalence of injections and knowledge of injection safety among the rural residents in Jingzhou district, Hubei, China and to provide scientific data for developing a health educational programme. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in 12 villages, which were selected from the Jingzhou district by the random sampling method. 50 rural residents were interviewed per village using a questionnaire. Among the 595 residents studied, 192 had received at least one injection in the past three months, with an injection prevalence of 32.3 percent and an average of 0.93 injections. 90.3 percent of the rural residents knew that unsafe injections could transmit the following blood-borne pathogens: human immunodeficiency virus (74.4 percent), hepatitis B virus (55.8 percent) and hepatitis C virus (22.9 percent). Logistic regression analysis showed that the residents' age, educational level and residential area were important factors in influencing their knowledge about injection safety. The results indicated that the injection prevalence was high among rural residents in the study area, and their knowledge regarding injection safety should be further improved.

Self-regulated learning of important information under sequential and simultaneous encoding conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Middlebrooks, Catherine D; Castel, Alan D

2018-05-01

Learners make a number of decisions when attempting to study efficiently: they must choose which information to study, for how long to study it, and whether to restudy it later. The current experiments examine whether documented impairments to self-regulated learning when studying information sequentially, as opposed to simultaneously, extend to the learning of and memory for valuable information. In Experiment 1, participants studied lists of words ranging in value from 1-10 points sequentially or simultaneously at a preset presentation rate; in Experiment 2, study was self-paced and participants could choose to restudy. Although participants prioritized high-value over low-value information, irrespective of presentation, those who studied the items simultaneously demonstrated superior value-based prioritization with respect to recall, study selections, and self-pacing. The results of the present experiments support the theory that devising, maintaining, and executing efficient study agendas is inherently different under sequential formatting than simultaneous. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Turn-on fluorescent sensor for Zinc and Cadmium ions based on quinolone and its sequential response to phosphate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Peng; Fu, Jiaxin; Yao, Kun; Xue, Kun; Xu, Kuoxi

2017-01-01

Sequential fluorescence sensing of Zn 2+ /Cd 2+ ions and phosphate anion by new quinoline based sensors(L1 and L2) have been presented. Sensors exhibit highly selective fluorescence “turn-on” sensing properties to Zn 2+ /Cd 2+ ions in CH 3 OH/H 2 O(1/1, v/v, Tris, 10 mol·L −1 , pH 7.4) solution with a 1:1 binding stoichiometry. The complexes display high selectivity to H 2 PO 4 - and HPO 4 2- anions through fluorescence “turn-off” respond. The results of Zn 2+ /Cd 2+ ions and phosphate anion sequential recognition via fluorescence changes make sensors L1 and L2 have potential utility for Zn 2+ / Cd 2+ ions and phosphate anion detection in aqueous media. - Graphical abstract: Sequential fluorescence sensing of Zn 2+ /Cd 2+ ions and phosphate anion by new quinoline based sensors (L1 and L2) have been presented. Sensors exhibit highly selective and sensitive fluorescence “turn-on” sensing properties to Zn 2+ /Cd 2+ ions in CH 3 OH/H 2 O(1/1, v/v, Tris, 10 mM, pH 7.4) solution with a 1:1 binding stoichiometry. The complexes display high selectivity to H 2 PO 4 - and HPO 4 2- anions through fluorescence “turn-off” respond. Zn 2+ /Cd 2+ ions and phosphate anion sequential recognition via fluorescence changes make sensors L1 and L2 have potential utility for Zn 2+ / Cd 2+ ions and phosphate anion detection in aqueous media.

Injection moulding and selective metallisation technologies for polymer Microsystems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tenchine, L.; Gout, S.; Dessors, S.

2016-01-01

The present paper describes how developing and optimizing high-throughput integrated technologies for theproduction of miniaturised multi-material and multi-functional components at industrial scale. Based on 2 industrialdemonstrators (a band diplexer and a micro aeraulic device), the paper shows...

Determination of drugs in biological fluids by direct injection of samples for liquid-chromatographic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Mullett, Wayne M

2007-03-10

The analysis of drugs in various biological fluids is an important criterion for the determination of the physiological performance of a drug. After sampling of the biological fluid, the next step in the analytical process is sample preparation. The complexity of biological fluids adds to the challenge of direct determination of the drug by chromatographic analysis, therefore demanding a sample preparation step that is often time-consuming, tedious, and frequently overlooked. However, direct on-line injection methods offer the advantage of reducing sample preparation steps and enabling effective pre-concentration and clean-up of biological fluids. These procedures can be automated and therefore reduce the requirements for handling potentially infectious biomaterial, improve reproducibility, and minimize sample manipulations and potential contamination. The objective of this review is to present an overview of the existing literature with emphasis on advances in automated sample preparation methods for liquid-chromatographic methods. More specifically, this review concentrates on the use of direct injection techniques, such as restricted-access materials, turbulent-flow chromatography and other automated on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedures. It also includes short overviews of emerging automated extraction-phase technologies, such as molecularly imprinted polymers, in-tube solid-phase micro-extraction, and micro-extraction in a packed syringe for a more selective extraction of analytes from complex samples, providing further improvements in the analysis of biological materials. Lastly, the outlook for these methods and potential new applications for these technologies are briefly discussed.

EXPERIMENTAL TARGET INJECTION AND TRACKING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION AND SINGLE SHOT TESTING

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

PETZOLDT, R.W.; ALEXANDER, N.B.; DRAKE, T.J.; GOODIN, D.T; JONESTRACK, K; VERMILLION, B.A

2003-01-01

Targets must be injected into an IFE power plant at a rate of approximately 5 to 10 Hz. Targets must be tracked very accurately to allow driver beams to be aligned with defined points on the targets with accuracy ± 150 (micro)m for indirect drive and ± 20 (micro)m for direct drive. An experimental target injection and tracking system has been constructed at General Atomics. The injector system will be used as a tool for testing the survivability of various target designs and provide feedback to the target designers. Helium gas propels the targets down an 8 m gun barrel up to 400 m/s. Direct-drive targets are protected in the barrel by sabots that are spring loaded to separate into two halves after acceleration. A sabot deflector directs the sabot halves away from the target injection path. Targets will be optically tracked with laser beams and line-scan cameras. Target position and arrival time will be predicted in real time based on early target position measurements. The system installation will be described. System testing to overcome excessive projectile wear and debris in the gun barrel is presented

A continuous-time neural model for sequential action.

Science.gov (United States)

Kachergis, George; Wyatte, Dean; O'Reilly, Randall C; de Kleijn, Roy; Hommel, Bernhard

2014-11-05

Action selection, planning and execution are continuous processes that evolve over time, responding to perceptual feedback as well as evolving top-down constraints. Existing models of routine sequential action (e.g. coffee- or pancake-making) generally fall into one of two classes: hierarchical models that include hand-built task representations, or heterarchical models that must learn to represent hierarchy via temporal context, but thus far lack goal-orientedness. We present a biologically motivated model of the latter class that, because it is situated in the Leabra neural architecture, affords an opportunity to include both unsupervised and goal-directed learning mechanisms. Moreover, we embed this neurocomputational model in the theoretical framework of the theory of event coding (TEC), which posits that actions and perceptions share a common representation with bidirectional associations between the two. Thus, in this view, not only does perception select actions (along with task context), but actions are also used to generate perceptions (i.e. intended effects). We propose a neural model that implements TEC to carry out sequential action control in hierarchically structured tasks such as coffee-making. Unlike traditional feedforward discrete-time neural network models, which use static percepts to generate static outputs, our biological model accepts continuous-time inputs and likewise generates non-stationary outputs, making short-timescale dynamic predictions. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Sequential memory: Binding dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Afraimovich, Valentin; Gong, Xue; Rabinovich, Mikhail

2015-10-01

Temporal order memories are critical for everyday animal and human functioning. Experiments and our own experience show that the binding or association of various features of an event together and the maintaining of multimodality events in sequential order are the key components of any sequential memories—episodic, semantic, working, etc. We study a robustness of binding sequential dynamics based on our previously introduced model in the form of generalized Lotka-Volterra equations. In the phase space of the model, there exists a multi-dimensional binding heteroclinic network consisting of saddle equilibrium points and heteroclinic trajectories joining them. We prove here the robustness of the binding sequential dynamics, i.e., the feasibility phenomenon for coupled heteroclinic networks: for each collection of successive heteroclinic trajectories inside the unified networks, there is an open set of initial points such that the trajectory going through each of them follows the prescribed collection staying in a small neighborhood of it. We show also that the symbolic complexity function of the system restricted to this neighborhood is a polynomial of degree L - 1, where L is the number of modalities.

Selective intra-arterial administration of {sup 18}F-FDG to the rat brain - effects on hemispheric uptake

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arnberg, Fabian; Samen, Erik; Lundberg, Johan; Grafstroem, Jonas; Soederman, Michael; Stone-Elander, Sharon; Holmin, Staffan [Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Stockholm (Sweden); Karolinska University Hospital-Solna, Department of Neuroradiology, Stockholm (Sweden); Lu, Li [Karolinska University Hospital-Solna, KERIC, Stockholm (Sweden)

2014-05-15

The purpose of this study was to investigate the radioligand uptake and iodine contrast distribution in the intra- and extracranial circulation of the rat, after intra-arterial injections to the common carotid artery and different parts of the internal carotid artery. All animal experiments were carried out in accordance with Karolinska Institutet's guidelines and were approved by the local laboratory animal ethics committee. We used clinical neurointerventional systems to place microcatheters in the extra- or intracranial carotid artery of 15 Sprague-Dawley rats. Here, injection dynamics of iodine contrast was assessed using digital subtraction angiography. Maintaining the catheter position, the animals were placed in a micro PET and small-animal positron emission tomography (PET) was used to analyze injections [2-{sup 18}F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ({sup 18}F-FDG). Microcatheters had to be placed in the intracranial carotid artery (iICA) for the infusate to distribute to the brain. Selective injection via the iICA resulted in a 9-fold higher uptake of {sup 18}F-FDG in the injected hemisphere (p < 0.005) compared to both intravenous and more proximal carotid artery injections. Furthermore, selective injection gave a dramatically improved contrast between the brain and extracranial tissue. Intra-arterial injection increases the cerebral uptake of a radiotracer dramatically compared to systemic injection. This technique has potential applications for endovascular treatment of malignancies allowing intra-interventional modifications of injection strategy, based on information on tumor perfusion and risk to surrounding normal parenchyma. Furthermore the technique may increase diagnostic sensitivity and avoid problems due to peripheral pharmacological barriers and first passage metabolism of labile tracers. (orig.)

Hydrophobicity Tuning by the Fast Evolution of Mold Temperature during Injection Molding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Liparoti

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The surface topography of a molded part strongly affects its functional properties, such as hydrophobicity, cleaning capabilities, adhesion, biological defense and frictional resistance. In this paper, the possibility to tune and increase the hydrophobicity of a molded polymeric part was explored. An isotactic polypropylene was injection molded with fast cavity surface temperature evolutions, obtained adopting a specifically designed heating system layered below the cavity surface. The surface topology was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM and, concerning of hydrophobicity, by measuring the water static contact angle. Results show that the hydrophobicity increases with both the temperature level and the time the cavity surface temperature was kept high. In particular, the contact angle of the molded sample was found to increase from 90°, with conventional molding conditions, up to 113° with 160 °C of cavity surface temperature kept for 18 s. This increase was found to be due to the presence of sub-micro and nano-structures characterized by high values of spatial frequencies which could be more accurately replicated by adopting high heating temperatures and times. The surface topography and the hydrophobicity resulted therefore tunable by selecting appropriate injection molding conditions.

Effects of Injection Rate Profile on Combustion Process and Emissions in a Diesel Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fuqiang Bai

2017-01-01

Full Text Available When multi-injection is implemented in diesel engine via high pressure common rail injection system, changed interval between injection pulses can induce variation of injection rate profile for sequential injection pulse, though other control parameters are the same. Variations of injection rate shape which influence the air-fuel mixing and combustion process will be important for designing injection strategy. In this research, CFD numerical simulations using KIVA-3V were conducted for examining the effects of injection rate shape on diesel combustion and emissions. After the model was validated by experimental results, five different shapes (including rectangle, slope, triangle, trapezoid, and wedge of injection rate profiles were investigated. Modeling results demonstrate that injection rate shape can have obvious influence on heat release process and heat release traces which cause different combustion process and emissions. It is observed that the baseline, rectangle (flat, shape of injection rate can have better balance between NOx and soot emissions than the other investigated shapes. As wedge shape brings about the lowest NOx emissions due to retarded heat release, it produces the highest soot emissions among the five shapes. Trapezoid shape has the lowest soot emissions, while its NOx is not the highest one. The highest NOx emissions were produced by triangle shape due to higher peak injection rate.

Comparison of two setups for induction heating in injection molding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Menotti, Stefano; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Bissacco, Giuliano

2015-01-01

To eliminate defects and improve the quality of molded parts, increasing the mold temperature is one of the applicable solutions. A high mold temperature can increase the path flow of the polymer inside the cavity allowing reduction of the number of injection points, reduction of part thickness......, and moulding of smaller and more complex geometries. The last two aspects are very important in micro injection molding. In this paper, a new embedded induction heating system is proposed and validated and two different coil setups were tested and compared. An experimental investigation was performed based...

Comparison of simultaneous and sequential administration of fentanyl-propofol for surgical abortion: a randomized single-blinded controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Wei; Sha, Baoyong; Zhao, Yuan; Fan, Zhe; Liu, Lin; Shen, Xin

2017-08-01

Propofol lipid emulsion (PLE) is a nanosized sedative, and it is used with a combination of salted antalgic prodrug, fentanyl citrate (FC). To illustrate the synergistic effect of mixing, we compared the sedation/analgesia resulting from simultaneous and sequential administration in surgically induced abortion (No. ChiCTR-IPC-15006153). Simultaneous group showed lower bispectral index, blood pressure, and heart rate, when cannula was inserted into the uterus. It also showed less frequency of hypertension, sinus tachycardia, movement, pain at the injection site, and additional FC. Therefore, premixing of PLE and FC enhanced the sedation and analgesia; stabilized the hemodynamics; lessened the incidence of movement and injection pain; and reduced the requirement of drugs.

Sequential Probability Ration Tests : Conservative and Robust

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kleijnen, J.P.C.; Shi, Wen

2017-01-01

In practice, most computers generate simulation outputs sequentially, so it is attractive to analyze these outputs through sequential statistical methods such as sequential probability ratio tests (SPRTs). We investigate several SPRTs for choosing between two hypothesized values for the mean output

WGA-Alexa transsynaptic labeling in the phrenic motor system of adult rats: Intrapleural injection versus intradiaphragmatic injection.

Science.gov (United States)

Buttry, Janelle L; Goshgarian, Harry G

2015-02-15

Intrapleural injection of CTB-Alexa 488, a retrograde tracer, provides an alternative labeling technique to the surgically invasive laparotomy required for intradiaphragmatic injection. However, CTB-Alexa 488 is incapable of crossing synapses restricting the tracer to the phrenic nuclei and the intercostal motor nuclei in the spinal cord. Intrapleural injection of WGA-Alexa 488, a transsynaptic tracer, provides a method to label the respiratory motor pathway in both the spinal cord and medulla. Intradiaphragmatic injection of WGA-Alexa 594 and vagal nerve injections of True blue were used to confirm the phrenic nuclei and to differentiate between the rVRG and the NA in the medulla. Following intrapleural injection, WGA-Alexa 488 was retrogradely transported to the phrenic nuclei and to the intercostal motor nuclei. Subsequently WGA-Alexa 488 was transsynaptically transported from the phrenic motoneurons to the pre-motor neurons in the rVRG that provide the descending drive to the phrenic neurons during inspiration. In addition WGA-Alexa 488 was identified in select cells of the NA confirmed by a dual label of both WGA-Alexa 488 and True blue. WGA-Alexa 488 demonstrates retrograde transsynaptic labeling following intrapleural injection whereas the previous method of injecting CTB-Alexa 488 only demonstrates retrograde labeling. Intrapleural injection of WGA-Alexa fluor conjugates is an effective method to transsynaptically label the phrenic motor system providing an alternative for the invasive laparotomy required for intradiaphragmatic injections. Furthermore, the study provides the first anatomical evidence of a direct synaptic relationship between rVRG and select NA cells. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advancing three-dimensional MEMS by complimentary laser micro manufacturing

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, Jeremy A.; Williams, John D.; Lemp, Tom; Lehecka, Tom M.; Medina, Francisco; Wicker, Ryan B.

2006-01-01

This paper describes improvements that enable engineers to create three-dimensional MEMS in a variety of materials. It also provides a means for selectively adding three-dimensional, high aspect ratio features to pre-existing PMMA micro molds for subsequent LIGA processing. This complimentary method involves in situ construction of three-dimensional micro molds in a stand-alone configuration or directly adjacent to features formed by x-ray lithography. Three-dimensional micro molds are created by micro stereolithography (MSL), an additive rapid prototyping technology. Alternatively, three-dimensional features may be added by direct femtosecond laser micro machining. Parameters for optimal femtosecond laser micro machining of PMMA at 800 nanometers are presented. The technical discussion also includes strategies for enhancements in the context of material selection and post-process surface finish. This approach may lead to practical, cost-effective 3-D MEMS with the surface finish and throughput advantages of x-ray lithography. Accurate three-dimensional metal microstructures are demonstrated. Challenges remain in process planning for micro stereolithography and development of buried features following femtosecond laser micro machining.

Selective deposition of nanostructured ruthenium oxide using Tobacco mosaic virus for micro-supercapacitors in solid Nafion electrolyte

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gnerlich, Markus; Ben-Yoav, Hadar; Culver, James N.; Ketchum, Douglas R.; Ghodssi, Reza

2015-10-01

A three-dimensional micro-supercapacitor has been developed using a novel bottom-up assembly method combining genetically modified Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV-1Cys), photolithographically defined micropillars and selective deposition of ruthenium oxide on multi-metallic microelectrodes. The three-dimensional microelectrodes consist of a titanium nitride current collector with two functionalized areas: (1) gold coating on the active electrode area promotes TMV-1Cys adhesion, and (2) sacrificial nickel pads dissolve in ruthenium tetroxide plating solution to produce ruthenium oxide on all electrically connected areas. The microfabricated electrodes are arranged in an interdigitated pattern, and the capacitance per electrode has been measured as high as 203 mF cm-2 with solid Nafion electrolyte. The process integration of bio-templated ruthenium oxide with microfabricated electrodes and solid electrolyte is an important advance towards the energy storage needs of mass produced self-sufficient micro-devices.

On-line sample-pre-treatment schemes for trace-level determinations of metals by coupling flow injection or sequential injection with ICP-MS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Jianhua; Hansen, Elo Harald

2003-01-01

a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) knotted reactor (KR), solvent extraction-back extraction and hydride/vapor generation. It also addresses a novel, robust approach, whereby the protocol of SI-LOV-bead injection (BI) on-line separation and pre-concentration of ultra-trace levels of metals by a renewable microcolumn...

Sequential Product of Quantum Effects: An Overview

Science.gov (United States)

Gudder, Stan

2010-12-01

This article presents an overview for the theory of sequential products of quantum effects. We first summarize some of the highlights of this relatively recent field of investigation and then provide some new results. We begin by discussing sequential effect algebras which are effect algebras endowed with a sequential product satisfying certain basic conditions. We then consider sequential products of (discrete) quantum measurements. We next treat transition effect matrices (TEMs) and their associated sequential product. A TEM is a matrix whose entries are effects and whose rows form quantum measurements. We show that TEMs can be employed for the study of quantum Markov chains. Finally, we prove some new results concerning TEMs and vector densities.

Comparison of first pass bolus AIFs extracted from sequential {sup 18}F-FDG PET and DSC-MRI of mice

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Evans, Eleanor, E-mail: ee244@cam.ac.uk [Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ (United Kingdom); Sawiak, Stephen J. [Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ (United Kingdom); Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB (United Kingdom); Ward, Alexander O.; Buonincontri, Guido; Hawkes, Robert C.; Adrian Carpenter, T. [Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ (United Kingdom)

2014-01-11

Accurate kinetic modelling of in vivo physiological function using positron emission tomography (PET) requires determination of the tracer time–activity curve in plasma, known as the arterial input function (AIF). The AIF is usually determined by invasive blood sampling methods, which are prohibitive in murine studies due to low total blood volumes. Extracting AIFs from PET images is also challenging due to large partial volume effects (PVE). We hypothesise that in combined PET with magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MR), a co-injected bolus of MR contrast agent and PET ligand can be tracked using fast MR acquisitions. This protocol would allow extraction of a MR AIF from MR contrast agent concentration–time curves, at higher spatial and temporal resolution than an image-derived PET AIF. A conversion factor could then be applied to the MR AIF for use in PET kinetic analysis. This work has compared AIFs obtained from sequential DSC-MRI and PET with separate injections of gadolinium contrast agent and {sup 18}F-FDG respectively to ascertain the technique′s validity. An automated voxel selection algorithm was employed to improve MR AIF reproducibility. We found that MR and PET AIFs displayed similar character in the first pass, confirmed by gamma variate fits (p<0.02). MR AIFs displayed reduced PVE compared to PET AIFs, indicating their potential use in PET/MR studies.

Optimal Sequential Rules for Computer-Based Instruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Vos, Hans J.

1998-01-01

Formulates sequential rules for adapting the appropriate amount of instruction to learning needs in the context of computer-based instruction. Topics include Bayesian decision theory, threshold and linear-utility structure, psychometric model, optimal sequential number of test questions, and an empirical example of sequential instructional…

Thermodynamic analysis of steam-injected advanced gas turbine cycles

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, Devendra; Bade, Mukund H.

2017-12-01

This paper deals with thermodynamic analysis of steam-injected gas turbine (STIGT) cycle. To analyse the thermodynamic performance of steam-injected gas turbine (STIGT) cycles, a methodology based on pinch analysis is proposed. This graphical methodology is a systematic approach proposed for a selection of gas turbine with steam injection. The developed graphs are useful for selection of steam-injected gas turbine (STIGT) for optimal operation of it and helps designer to take appropriate decision. The selection of steam-injected gas turbine (STIGT) cycle can be done either at minimum steam ratio (ratio of mass flow rate of steam to air) with maximum efficiency or at maximum steam ratio with maximum net work conditions based on the objective of plants designer. Operating the steam injection based advanced gas turbine plant at minimum steam ratio improves efficiency, resulting in reduction of pollution caused by the emission of flue gases. On the other hand, operating plant at maximum steam ratio can result in maximum work output and hence higher available power.

Glucose Injections into the Dorsal Hippocampus or Dorsolateral Striatum of Rats Prior to T-Maze Training: Modulation of Learning Rates and Strategy Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Canal, Clinton E.; Stutz, Sonja J.; Gold, Paul E.

2005-01-01

The present experiments examined the effects of injecting glucose into the dorsal hippocampus or dorsolateral striatum on learning rates and on strategy selection in rats trained on a T-maze that can be solved by using either a hippocampus-sensitive place or striatum-sensitive response strategy. Percentage strategy selection on a probe trial…

Shoulder pain: the role of diagnostic injections.

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, H M; O'Connor, F G; Nirschl, R P

1996-04-01

Many different shoulder disorders cause similar symptoms and pain patterns. An accurate diagnosis can generally be made by obtaining a detailed history, performing a comprehensive, directed physical examination and obtaining selected radiographs. Occasionally, shoulder injections can be of great assistance in establishing a clear diagnosis and providing relief of symptoms. Subacromial space injection, acromioclavicular joint injection, intra-articular injection and injection of the biceps tendon are helpful in identifying such disorders as subacromial bursitis, acromioclavicular arthritis, injury to the glenohumeral joint and bicipital tendinitis.

Influence of process parameters on the weld lines of a micro injection molded component

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tosello, Guido; Gava, Alberto; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2007-01-01

The insufficient entanglement of the molecular chains and the stress amplification at the v-notch of a weld line compromise the mechanical strength of a plastic product, also in the micro scale. To investigate the influence of process parameters on the weld lines formation, a special micro cavity...... was designed and manufactured by µEDM (Electro Discharge Machining). Weld lines were quantitatively characterized both in the two-dimensional (direction and position) and three-dimensional range (surface topography characterization). Results showed that shape and position of weld lines are mainly influenced...

Respiratory function after selective respiratory motor neuron death from intrapleural CTB-saporin injections.

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, Nicole L; Vinit, Stéphane; Bauernschmidt, Lorene; Mitchell, Gordon S

2015-05-01

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) causes progressive motor neuron degeneration, paralysis and death by ventilatory failure. In rodent ALS models: 1) breathing capacity is preserved until late in disease progression despite major respiratory motor neuron death, suggesting unknown forms of compensatory respiratory plasticity; and 2) spinal microglia become activated in association with motor neuron cell death. Here, we report a novel experimental model to study the impact of respiratory motor neuron death on compensatory responses without many complications attendant to spontaneous motor neuron disease. In specific, we used intrapleural injections of cholera toxin B fragment conjugated to saporin (CTB-SAP) to selectively kill motor neurons with access to the pleural space. Motor neuron survival, CD11b labeling (microglia), ventilatory capacity and phrenic motor output were assessed in rats 3-28days after intrapleural injections of: 1) CTB-SAP (25 and 50μg), or 2) unconjugated CTB and SAP (i.e. control; (CTB+SAP). CTB-SAP elicited dose-dependent phrenic and intercostal motor neuron death; 7days post-25μg CTB-SAP, motor neuron survival approximated that in end-stage ALS rats (phrenic: 36±7%; intercostal: 56±10% of controls; n=9; pneuron death and provides an opportunity to study compensation for respiratory motor neuron loss. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In Vivo Over-expression of Circulating Dlk1/Pref-1 Protein Using Hydrodynamic-based Gene Transfer Leads to Lower Bone mass With Marked Effects on Trabecular Bone Micro-architecture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ding, Ming

determined by PIXImus (LunarR) and micro-CT (ScancoR) respectively. We could only localize the plasmid in the liver and no complications were detected due to transgene expression. Serum levels of FA1 in Dlk1 injected mice (Dlk1+mice) was elevated by more than 15 folds compared to control saline injected mice...... and BMD was negatively correlated with the circulating levels of FA1. Micro-CT analysis revealed significantly decreased micro-architectural parameters of trabecular bone in the distal femur and proximal tibia of the Dlk1+mice compared to controls (see table). Naked DNA delivery by hydrodynamic injection...

Quantum Inequalities and Sequential Measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Candelpergher, B.; Grandouz, T.; Rubinx, J.L.

2011-01-01

In this article, the peculiar context of sequential measurements is chosen in order to analyze the quantum specificity in the two most famous examples of Heisenberg and Bell inequalities: Results are found at some interesting variance with customary textbook materials, where the context of initial state re-initialization is described. A key-point of the analysis is the possibility of defining Joint Probability Distributions for sequential random variables associated to quantum operators. Within the sequential context, it is shown that Joint Probability Distributions can be defined in situations where not all of the quantum operators (corresponding to random variables) do commute two by two. (authors)

Gas Mixtures for Welding with Micro-Jet Cooling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Węgrzyn T.

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Welding with micro-jet cooling after was tested only for MIG and MAG processes. For micro-jet gases was tested only argon, helium and nitrogen. A paper presents a piece of information about gas mixtures for micro-jet cooling after in welding. There are put down information about gas mixtures that could be chosen both for MAG welding and for micro-jet process. There were given main information about influence of various micro-jet gas mixtures on metallographic structure of steel welds. Mechanical properties of weld was presented in terms of various gas mixtures selection for micro-jet cooling.

Transfer printing of 3D hierarchical gold structures using a sequentially imprinted polymer stamp

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Fengxiang; Low, Hong Yee

2008-01-01

Complex three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structures on polymeric materials are fabricated through a process referred to as sequential imprinting. In this work, the sequentially imprinted polystyrene film is used as a soft stamp to replicate hierarchical structures onto gold (Au) films, and the Au structures are then transferred to a substrate by transfer printing at an elevated temperature and pressure. Continuous and isolated 3D structures can be selectively fabricated with the assistance of thermo-mechanical deformation of the polymer stamp. Hierarchical Au structures are achieved without the need for a corresponding three-dimensionally patterned mold

Selective intra-coronary injection of sup(99m)Tc-labelled microspheres

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Degeorges, M; Roucayrol, J C; Comet, M; Sol, C; Devaux, J Y; Delebarre, P; d' Izarn, J J [Hopital Cochin, 75 - Paris (France)

1977-02-01

A technique of myocardial perfusion imaging and a clinical experience with this technique in 83 patients with coronary artery disease are described. sup(99m)Tc-labelled microspheres were injected directly into one or both major coronary arteries, at the time of coronary arteriography. Microspheres with a mean diameter of 15..mu.. were used. Myocardial infarcts resulting from small vessel occlusions were detected by this technique. The results were compared to those obtained with coronary arteriography and with scintigraphy using /sup 201/Tl or /sup 131/Cs administered intravenously. Certain conclusions regarding coronary arterial injection can be drawn from this comparison. The possibility of irregularities of microsphere distribution after intra-coronary injection must be considered.

mESAdb: microRNA expression and sequence analysis database.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaya, Koray D; Karakülah, Gökhan; Yakicier, Cengiz M; Acar, Aybar C; Konu, Ozlen

2011-01-01

microRNA expression and sequence analysis database (http://konulab.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/mirna/) (mESAdb) is a regularly updated database for the multivariate analysis of sequences and expression of microRNAs from multiple taxa. mESAdb is modular and has a user interface implemented in PHP and JavaScript and coupled with statistical analysis and visualization packages written for the R language. The database primarily comprises mature microRNA sequences and their target data, along with selected human, mouse and zebrafish expression data sets. mESAdb analysis modules allow (i) mining of microRNA expression data sets for subsets of microRNAs selected manually or by motif; (ii) pair-wise multivariate analysis of expression data sets within and between taxa; and (iii) association of microRNA subsets with annotation databases, HUGE Navigator, KEGG and GO. The use of existing and customized R packages facilitates future addition of data sets and analysis tools. Furthermore, the ability to upload and analyze user-specified data sets makes mESAdb an interactive and expandable analysis tool for microRNA sequence and expression data.

ParSel: Parallel Selection of Micro-RNAs for Survival Classification in Cancers.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinha, Debajyoti; Sengupta, Debarka; Bandyopadhyay, Sanghamitra

2017-07-01

It is known that tumor micro-RNAs (miRNA) can define patient survival and treatment response. We present a framework to identify miRNAs which are predictive of cancer survival. The framework attempts to rank the miRNAs by exploring their collaborative role in gene regulation. Our approach tests a significantly large number of combinatorial cases leveraging parallel computation. We carefully avoided parametric assumptions involved in evaluations of miRNA expressions but used rigorous statistical computation to assign an importance score to a miRNA. Experimental results on three cancer types namely, KIRC, OV and GBM verify that the top ranked miRNAs obtained using the proposed framework produce better classification accuracy as compared to some best practice variable selection methods. Some of these top ranked miRNA are also known to be associated with related diseases. © 2017 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Gate design in injection molding of microfluidic components using process simulations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marhöfer, David Maximilian; Tosello, Guido; Islam, Aminul

2015-01-01

to moulding process window, polymer flow, and part quality. This finally led to an optimization of the design and the realization as actual steel mold. Additionally, the simulation results were critically discussed and possible improvements and limitations of the gained results and the deployed software......Process simulations are an effective design and optimization tool in conventional as well as micro injection molding (μIM). They can be applied to optimize and assist the design of the micro part, the mold, the micro cavity and the μIM process. Available simulation software is however developed...... for macroscopic plastic parts. By using the correct implementation and careful modelling though, it can also be applied to micro parts. In the present work, process simulations were applied to a microfluidic distributor and a microfluidic mixer of which features were in the 100 μm dimensional range. The meshing...

Micro-angiographic system using synchrotron radiation and conventional x-ray source for visualizing angiogenic vessels induced by cardiovascular regeneration therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mori, H.; Chiku, M.; Nishigami, K.; Tanaka, E.; Kimura, K.; Kawai, T.; Suzuki, K.; Mochizuki, R.; Okawa, Y.

2004-01-01

Therapeutic angiogenesis improved critical limb and myocardial ischemia in human, however, angiogenic vessels were not visualized well by conventional angiography, because of its limited spatial resolution of 200 μm. Recently, synchrotron radiation system characterized by high brightness, monochromatic and collimated nature revealed the micro-vessels of heart and lower limb in situ. We developed also an in-house microangiographic system with a relatively low cost. Limb ischemia models were made by ligature of femoral artery and treated by angiogenic growth factor genes and so on. One month after the treatment, we evaluated collateral micro-vessels by using the conventional and micro-angiographic systems. The approach was left femoral artery, and catheter was located in abdominal aorta. Iodine contrast (300 mg/ml) was injected 5 ml by 3 ml/sec with auto-injection system. The imaging was recorded by digital source in 1000 x 1000 pixels. The micro-angiographic system could detect the micro-vessels more precisely than conventional angiographic system and evaluate their function. (author)

MicroPRIS user's guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

MicroPRIS is a new service of the IAEA Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) for the Member States of IAEA. MicroPRIS makes the IAEA database on nuclear power plants and their operating experience available to Member States on computer diskettes in a form readily accessible by standard commercially available personal computer packages. The aim of this publication is to provide the users of the PC version of PRIS data with description of the subset of the full PRIS database contained in MicroPRIS (release 1990), description of files and file structures, field descriptions and definitions, extraction and selection guide and with the method of calculation of a number of important performance indicators used by the IAEA

Subdural spread of injected local anesthetic in a selective transforaminal cervical nerve root block: a case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tofuku Katsuhiro

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction Although uncommon, selective cervical nerve root blocks can have serious complications. The most serious complications that have been reported include cerebral infarction, spinal cord infarction, transient quadriplegia and death. Case presentation A 40-year-old Japanese woman with a history of severe right-sided cervical radicular pain was scheduled to undergo a right-sided C6 selective cervical nerve root block using a transforaminal approach under fluoroscopic guidance. An anterior oblique view of the C5-C6 intervertebral foramen was obtained, and a 23-gauge spinal needle, connected to the normal extension tube with a syringe filled with contrast medium, was introduced into the posterior-caudal aspect of the C5-C6 intervertebral foramen on the right side. In the anteroposterior view, the placement of the needle was considered satisfactory when it was placed no more medial than halfway across the width of the articular pillar. Although the spread of the contrast medium along the C6 nerve root was observed with right-sided C6 radiculography, the subdural flow of the contrast medium was not observed with real-time fluoroscopy. The extension tube used for the radiculography was removed from the spinal needle and a normal extension tube with a syringe filled with lidocaine connected in its place. We performed a negative aspiration test and then injected 1.5 mL of 1.0% lidocaine slowly around the C6 nerve root. Immediately after the injection of the local anesthetic, our patient developed acute flaccid paralysis, complained of breathing difficulties and became unresponsive; her respiratory pattern was uncoordinated. After 20 minutes, she regained consciousness and became alert, and her muscle strength in all four limbs returned to normal without any sensory deficits after receiving emergent cardiorespiratory support. Conclusions We believe that confirming maintenance of the appropriate needle position in the anteroposterior

Exploiting the Lab-on-Valve Concept for Determination of Trace Levels of Metals in Complex Matrices with Detection by ETAAS and ICPMS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Elo Harald; Wang, Jianhua

approach [1,2]. Coupled to detection by ETAAS and ICPMS, and illustrated by recent exploits in the authors’ laboratory, it is shown that this methodology eliminates the problems encountered in conventional on-line column preconcentration systems and at the same time improves the overall operational......Termed the third generation of flow injection analysis, the Sequential Injection (SI)-Lab-on-Valve (LOV) concept has proven to entail specific advantages and to allow novel and unique applications. Both in term of its use in the automation and micro-miniaturization of suitable on-line sample...

A new pair of hard-soft plastic combination for precision manufacturing of two component plastic parts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Islam, Aminul; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; Marhöfer, David Maximilian

2011-01-01

the pressure developed inside the socket house and finally could detect the leak of the fluid due to the sealing ring leakage. All the test procedures and results presented in this paper can be a valuable source of information for researchers and scientists who work with two component micro injection moulding....... sequential and simultaneous injection of two materials and afterwards by using a precision tensile testing machine. To characterize the sealing properties of the sealing ring material, a sealing test device was developed. It could provide hydraulic pressure inside the socket house and precisely detect...

Selective extraction of phospholipids from dairy products by micro-solid phase extraction based on titanium dioxide microcolumns followed by MALDI-TOF-MS analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calvano, Cosima; Jensen, Ole; Zambonin, Carlo

2009-01-01

A new micro-solid phase extraction (micro-SPE) procedure based on titanium dioxide microcolumns was developed for the selective extraction of phospholipids (PLs) from dairy products before matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) analysis. All...... the extraction steps (loading, washing, and elution) have been optimized using a synthetic mixture of PLs standard and the procedure was subsequently applied to food samples such as milk, chocolate milk and butter. The whole method demonstrated to be simpler than traditional approaches and it appears very...

Using phylogenetic analysis to trace HIV-1 migration among western European injecting drug users seroconverting from 1984 to 1997

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Op de Coul, E. L.; Prins, M. [= Maria; Cornelissen, M.; van der Schoot, A.; Boufassa, F.; Brettle, R. P.; Hernández-Aguado, L.; Schiffer, V.; McMenamin, J.; Rezza, G.; Robertson, R.; Zangerle, R.; Goudsmit, J.; Coutinho, R. A.; Lukashov, V. V.

2001-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To reconstruct the epidemiological relationships of the HIV epidemics among injecting drug users (IDU) in western Europe. METHODS: HIV env V3 sequences of and epidemiological data were obtained from 145 IDU who seroconverted in three sequential periods: 1984-1988, 1989-1992 and 1993-1997.

Sequential Generalized Transforms on Function Space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jae Gil Choi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We define two sequential transforms on a function space Ca,b[0,T] induced by generalized Brownian motion process. We then establish the existence of the sequential transforms for functionals in a Banach algebra of functionals on Ca,b[0,T]. We also establish that any one of these transforms acts like an inverse transform of the other transform. Finally, we give some remarks about certain relations between our sequential transforms and other well-known transforms on Ca,b[0,T].

Ambient radiation levels in a microPET/CT research laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sarmento, D.M.; Rodrigues, D.L.; Sanches, M.P.; Carneiro, J.C.G.G., E-mail: janetegc@ipen.br [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleres (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

2015-07-01

This study focuses on initial radiological evaluation and the exposure situation related to the worker task in a micro-positron emission tomography/computed tomography laboratory (microPET/CT). Selected and calibrated thermoluminescent dosimeters, TLD, of CaSO{sub 4}:Dy were used to measure room radiation levels. The detectors were placed in several selected points inside the microPET/CT laboratory and adjacent rooms. In addition, the occupationally exposed workers were monthly evaluated for external and internal exposures. In none of the selected points the dose values exceeded the radiation dose limit established for supervised area, as well as the values obtained in individual monitoring. (author)

Ambient radiation levels in a microPET/CT research laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sarmento, D.M.; Rodrigues, D.L.; Sanches, M.P.; Carneiro, J.C.G.G.

2015-01-01

This study focuses on initial radiological evaluation and the exposure situation related to the worker task in a micro-positron emission tomography/computed tomography laboratory (microPET/CT). Selected and calibrated thermoluminescent dosimeters, TLD, of CaSO 4 :Dy were used to measure room radiation levels. The detectors were placed in several selected points inside the microPET/CT laboratory and adjacent rooms. In addition, the occupationally exposed workers were monthly evaluated for external and internal exposures. In none of the selected points the dose values exceeded the radiation dose limit established for supervised area, as well as the values obtained in individual monitoring. (author)

Effect of cryoablation sequential chemotherapy on patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shu-Hui Yao

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: To evaluate the effect of cryoablation sequential chemotherapy on patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Methods: A total of 39 cases with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who received cryoablation sequential chemotherapy and 39 cases with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who received chemotherapy alone were selected and enrolled in sequential group and control group, disease progression and survival of two groups were followed up, and contents of tumor markers and angiogenesis molecules in serum as well as contents of T-lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood were detected. Results: Progressionfree survival and median overall survival (mOS of sequential group were longer than those of control group, and cumulative cases of tumor progression at various points in time were significantly less than those of control group (P<0.05; 1 month after treatment, serum tumor markers CEA, CYFRA21-1 and NSE contents, serum angiogenesis molecules PCDGF, VEGF and HDGF contents as well as CD3+CD4-CD8+CD28-T cell content in peripheral blood of sequential group were significantly lower than those of control group (P<0.05, and contents of CD3+CD4+CD8-T cell and CD3+CD4-CD8+CD28+T cell in peripheral blood were higher than those of control group (P<0.05. Conclusions: Cryoablation sequential chemotherapy can improve the prognosis of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, delay disease progression, prolong survival time, inhibit angiogenesis and improve immune function.

Monitoring of morphology and physical properties of cultured cells using a micro camera and a quartz crystal with transparent indium tin oxide electrodes after injections of glutaraldehyde and trypsin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Hyen-Wook; Ida, Kazumi; Yamamoto, Yuji; Muramatsu, Hiroshi

2008-01-01

For investigating the effects of chemical stimulation to cultured cells, we have developed a quartz crystal sensor system with a micro charge-coupled device (CCD) camera that enables microphotograph imaging simultaneously with quartz crystal measurement. Human hepatoma cell line (HepG2) cells were cultured on the quartz crystal through a collagen film. The electrode of the quartz crystal was made of indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent electrodes that enable to obtain a transparent mode photograph. Glutaraldehyde and trypsin were injected to the chamber of the cells, respectively. The response of the quartz crystal was monitored and microphotographs were recorded, and the resonance frequency and resonance resistance were analyzed with an F-R diagram that plotted the resonance frequency and resonance resistance. In the case of the glutaraldehyde injection, the cells responded in two steps that included the fast response of the cross-linking reaction and the successive internal change in the cells. In the case of the trypsin injection, the responses included two processes. In the first step, cell adhesion factors were cleaved and the cell structure became round, and in the next step, the cells were deposited on the quartz crystal surface and the surface of the cells was directly in contact with the quartz crystal surface

Rituals in nursing: intramuscular injections.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenway, Kathleen

2014-12-01

To consider to what extent intramuscular injection technique can be described to remain entrenched in ritualistic practice and how evidence-based practice should be considered and applied to the nursing practice of this essential skill. The notion of rituals within nursing and the value or futile impact they afford to this essential nursing skill will be critically reviewed. Discursive paper. Literature review from 2002-2013 to review the current position of intramuscular injection injections. Within the literature review, it became clear that there are several actions within the administration of an intramuscular injection that could be perceived as ritualistic and require consideration for contemporary nursing practice. The essential nursing skill of intramuscular injection often appears to fit into the description of a ritualised practice. By providing evidence-based care, nurses will find themselves empowered to make informed decisions based on clinical need and using their clinical judgement. For key learning, it will outline with rationale how site selection, needle selection, insertion technique and aspiration can be cited as examples of routinised or ritualistic practice and why these should be rejected in favour of an evidence-based approach. The effect on some student nurses of experiencing differing practices between what is taught at university and what is often seen in clinical practice will also be discussed. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Forced Sequence Sequential Decoding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Ole Riis; Paaske, Erik

1998-01-01

We describe a new concatenated decoding scheme based on iterations between an inner sequentially decoded convolutional code of rate R=1/4 and memory M=23, and block interleaved outer Reed-Solomon (RS) codes with nonuniform profile. With this scheme decoding with good performance is possible as low...... as Eb/N0=0.6 dB, which is about 1.25 dB below the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that marks the cutoff rate for the full system. Accounting for about 0.45 dB due to the outer codes, sequential decoding takes place at about 1.7 dB below the SNR cutoff rate for the convolutional code. This is possible since...... the iteration process provides the sequential decoders with side information that allows a smaller average load and minimizes the probability of computational overflow. Analytical results for the probability that the first RS word is decoded after C computations are presented. These results are supported...

Simultaneous optimization of sequential IMRT plans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popple, Richard A.; Prellop, Perri B.; Spencer, Sharon A.; Santos, Jennifer F. de los; Duan, Jun; Fiveash, John B.; Brezovich, Ivan A.

2005-01-01

Radiotherapy often comprises two phases, in which irradiation of a volume at risk for microscopic disease is followed by a sequential dose escalation to a smaller volume either at a higher risk for microscopic disease or containing only gross disease. This technique is difficult to implement with intensity modulated radiotherapy, as the tolerance doses of critical structures must be respected over the sum of the two plans. Techniques that include an integrated boost have been proposed to address this problem. However, clinical experience with such techniques is limited, and many clinicians are uncomfortable prescribing nonconventional fractionation schemes. To solve this problem, we developed an optimization technique that simultaneously generates sequential initial and boost IMRT plans. We have developed an optimization tool that uses a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) and a high level programming language for technical computing. The tool uses the TPS to calculate the dose deposition coefficients (DDCs) for optimization. The DDCs were imported into external software and the treatment ports duplicated to create the boost plan. The initial, boost, and tolerance doses were specified and used to construct cost functions. The initial and boost plans were optimized simultaneously using a gradient search technique. Following optimization, the fluence maps were exported to the TPS for dose calculation. Seven patients treated using sequential techniques were selected from our clinical database. The initial and boost plans used to treat these patients were developed independently of each other by dividing the tolerance doses proportionally between the initial and boost plans and then iteratively optimizing the plans until a summation that met the treatment goals was obtained. We used the simultaneous optimization technique to generate plans that met the original planning goals. The coverage of the initial and boost target volumes in the simultaneously optimized

Sequential probability ratio controllers for safeguards radiation monitors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fehlau, P.E.; Coop, K.L.; Nixon, K.V.

1984-01-01

Sequential hypothesis tests applied to nuclear safeguards accounting methods make the methods more sensitive to detecting diversion. The sequential tests also improve transient signal detection in safeguards radiation monitors. This paper describes three microprocessor control units with sequential probability-ratio tests for detecting transient increases in radiation intensity. The control units are designed for three specific applications: low-intensity monitoring with Poisson probability ratios, higher intensity gamma-ray monitoring where fixed counting intervals are shortened by sequential testing, and monitoring moving traffic where the sequential technique responds to variable-duration signals. The fixed-interval controller shortens a customary 50-s monitoring time to an average of 18 s, making the monitoring delay less bothersome. The controller for monitoring moving vehicles benefits from the sequential technique by maintaining more than half its sensitivity when the normal passage speed doubles

Turn-on fluorescent sensor for Zinc and Cadmium ions based on quinolone and its sequential response to phosphate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Xiaoyan; Wang, Peng; Fu, Jiaxin; Yao, Kun; Xue, Kun [Engineering Laboratory for Flame Retardant and Functional Materials of Hennan Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004 (China); Xu, Kuoxi, E-mail: xukx@henu.edu.cn [Engineering Laboratory for Flame Retardant and Functional Materials of Hennan Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004 (China); Institute of Environmental and Analytical Sciences, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004 (China)

2017-06-15

Sequential fluorescence sensing of Zn{sup 2+}/Cd{sup 2+} ions and phosphate anion by new quinoline based sensors(L1 and L2) have been presented. Sensors exhibit highly selective fluorescence “turn-on” sensing properties to Zn{sup 2+}/Cd{sup 2+} ions in CH{sub 3}OH/H{sub 2}O(1/1, v/v, Tris, 10 mol·L{sup −1}, pH 7.4) solution with a 1:1 binding stoichiometry. The complexes display high selectivity to H{sub 2}PO{sub 4}{sup -} and HPO{sub 4}{sup 2-} anions through fluorescence “turn-off” respond. The results of Zn{sup 2+}/Cd{sup 2+} ions and phosphate anion sequential recognition via fluorescence changes make sensors L1 and L2 have potential utility for Zn{sup 2+}/ Cd{sup 2+} ions and phosphate anion detection in aqueous media. - Graphical abstract: Sequential fluorescence sensing of Zn{sup 2+}/Cd{sup 2+} ions and phosphate anion by new quinoline based sensors (L1 and L2) have been presented. Sensors exhibit highly selective and sensitive fluorescence “turn-on” sensing properties to Zn{sup 2+}/Cd{sup 2+} ions in CH{sub 3}OH/H{sub 2}O(1/1, v/v, Tris, 10 mM, pH 7.4) solution with a 1:1 binding stoichiometry. The complexes display high selectivity to H{sub 2}PO{sub 4}{sup -} and HPO{sub 4}{sup 2-} anions through fluorescence “turn-off” respond. Zn{sup 2+}/Cd{sup 2+} ions and phosphate anion sequential recognition via fluorescence changes make sensors L1 and L2 have potential utility for Zn{sup 2+}/ Cd{sup 2+} ions and phosphate anion detection in aqueous media.

Automated magnetic sorbent extraction based on octadecylsilane functionalized maghemite magnetic particles in a sequential injection system coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for metal determination.

Science.gov (United States)

Giakisikli, Georgia; Anthemidis, Aristidis N

2013-06-15

A new automatic sequential injection (SI) system for on-line magnetic sorbent extraction coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) has been successfully developed for metal determination. In this work, we reported effective on-line immobilization of magnetic silica particles into a microcolumn by the external force of two strong neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets across it, avoiding the use of frits. Octadecylsilane functionalized maghemite magnetic particles were used as sorbent material. The potentials of the system were demonstrated for trace cadmium determination in water samples. The method was based on the on-line complex formation with diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC), retention of Cd-DDTC on the surface of the MPs and elution with isobutyl methyl ketone (IBMK). The formation mechanism of the magnetic solid phase packed column and all critical parameters (chemical, flow, graphite furnace) influencing the performance of the system were optimized and offered good analytical characteristics. For 5 mL sample volume, a detection limit of 3 ng L(-1), a relative standard deviation of 3.9% at 50 ng L(-1) level (n=11) and a linear range of 9-350 ng L(-1) were obtained. The column remained stable for more than 600 cycles keeping the cost down in routine analysis. The proposed method was evaluated by analyzing certified reference materials and natural waters. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cushing's Syndrome caused by pigmented adrenocortical micro nodular dysplasia - A familial case

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gomez-Segovia, I; Gallowitsch, H J; Kresnik, E; Kumnig, G; Mikosch, P; Lind, P [Dept.of Nuclear Medicine and Endocrinology, LKH Klagenfurt (Austria)

2002-09-01

Introduction: We present a Case of Cushing's syndrome (CS) in a 16 year old male adolescent. Adrenocortical micro nodular dysplasia is a rare cause of CS. It mostly develops in the first two decades of life. In pathogenesis a stimulatory effect of circulating Immunoglobulins on adrenal steroidogenesis has been postulated. Familial cases have been reported in relation to Carney's Syndrome. We report the clinical case at first diagnosis and preoperative follow up of 1 year prior to treatment. The leading symptoms were severe bilateral (fibrotic) gynaecomastia, weight gain and growth retardation, without hypertension,but osteoporosis, secondary hypogonadism and glucose intolerance. Laboratory findings and the results of functional tests were diagnostic for CS. In addition LDH (I-131 Isotopes), CK, Lipoproteins, GPT, Androstendion, Prolactin were elevated. MRI abdomen revealed a slight enlargement of the adrenals, and suspected a bilateral micro nodular dysplasia. Iodo-cholesterol-scan under dexamethason suppression showed a diffuse bilateral Iodo-cholesterol uptake confirming the autonomous production of cortisol bilateral in the adrenals.Whole body bone scan showed a diffuse reduced diphosphonate uptake in the skeleton and the growth plates. The bone mineral density was significantly reduced.Radiologically osteoporosis was overt. The rapid increase of free urinary cortisol excretion/24h within one year of observation led to a total bilateral adrenalectomy. Postoperative 5 year follow up examinations. Documentation of the outcome and recovery of clinical signs,symptoms and laboratory findings, discussion about the most appropriate long-term substitution therapy. Familial anamnesis:affected family member was the father (micro nodular bilateral adrenocortical dysplasia), the aunt (pararenal incidentaloma, histologically lipoma) and a cousin (micro nodular adrenocortical dysplasia). Sequential analysis of the menin gene from the patient was negative.The detection of

Cushing's Syndrome caused by pigmented adrenocortical micro nodular dysplasia - A familial case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomez-Segovia, I.; Gallowitsch, H.J.; Kresnik, E.; Kumnig, G.; Mikosch, P.; Lind, P.

2002-01-01

Introduction: We present a Case of Cushing's syndrome (CS) in a 16 year old male adolescent. Adrenocortical micro nodular dysplasia is a rare cause of CS. It mostly develops in the first two decades of life. In pathogenesis a stimulatory effect of circulating Immunoglobulins on adrenal steroidogenesis has been postulated. Familial cases have been reported in relation to Carney's Syndrome. We report the clinical case at first diagnosis and preoperative follow up of 1 year prior to treatment. The leading symptoms were severe bilateral (fibrotic) gynaecomastia, weight gain and growth retardation, without hypertension,but osteoporosis, secondary hypogonadism and glucose intolerance. Laboratory findings and the results of functional tests were diagnostic for CS. In addition LDH (I-131 Isotopes), CK, Lipoproteins, GPT, Androstendion, Prolactin were elevated. MRI abdomen revealed a slight enlargement of the adrenals, and suspected a bilateral micro nodular dysplasia. Iodo-cholesterol-scan under dexamethason suppression showed a diffuse bilateral Iodo-cholesterol uptake confirming the autonomous production of cortisol bilateral in the adrenals.Whole body bone scan showed a diffuse reduced diphosphonate uptake in the skeleton and the growth plates. The bone mineral density was significantly reduced.Radiologically osteoporosis was overt. The rapid increase of free urinary cortisol excretion/24h within one year of observation led to a total bilateral adrenalectomy. Postoperative 5 year follow up examinations. Documentation of the outcome and recovery of clinical signs,symptoms and laboratory findings, discussion about the most appropriate long-term substitution therapy. Familial anamnesis:affected family member was the father (micro nodular bilateral adrenocortical dysplasia), the aunt (pararenal incidentaloma, histologically lipoma) and a cousin (micro nodular adrenocortical dysplasia). Sequential analysis of the menin gene from the patient was negative.The detection of

A new rat model of portal hypertension induced by intraportal injection of microspheres

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiang-Nong; Benjamin, IS; Alexander, B

1998-01-01

AIM: To produce a new rat model of portal hypertension by intraportal injection of microspheres. METHODS: Measured aliquots of single or different-sized microspheres (15, 40, 80μm) were injected into the portal vein to block intrahepatic portal radicals. The resultant changes in arterial,portal,hepatic venous and splenic pulp pressures were monitored. The liver and lungs were excised for histological examination. RESULTS: Portal venous pressure was elevated from basal value of 0.89-1.02 kPa to a steady-state of 1.98-3.19 kPa following the sequential injections of single- or different-sized microspheres, with a markedly lowered mean arterial pressure. However, a small-dose injection of 80 μm microspheres (1.8 × 105) produced a steady-state portal venous pressure of 2.53 × 0.17 kPa, and all rats showed normal arterial pressures. In addition, numerous microspheres were found in the lungs in all experimental groups. CONCLUSION: Portal hypertension can be reproduced in rats by intraportal injection of microspheres at a small dose of 80 μm (1.8 × 105). Intrahepatic portal-systemic shunts probably exist in the normal rat liver. PMID:11819236

Micro-CT in situ study of carbonate rock microstructural evolution for geologic CO2 storage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zheng, Yi; Yang, Yan; Rogowska, M.

2017-01-01

settings such as the carbonate reservoirs in the North Sea. The final aim of our project is to find out how to control the evolution of petrophysical parameters during CO2 injection using an optimal combination of flow rate, injection pressure and chemical composition of the influent. The first step...... to achieve this is to find a suitable condition to create a stable 3D space in carbonate rock by injecting liquid to prepare space for the later CO2 injection. Micro-CT imaging is a non-destructive 3D method that can be used to study the property changes of carbonate rocks during and after CO2 injection...

Biased lineups: sequential presentation reduces the problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsay, R C; Lea, J A; Nosworthy, G J; Fulford, J A; Hector, J; LeVan, V; Seabrook, C

1991-12-01

Biased lineups have been shown to increase significantly false, but not correct, identification rates (Lindsay, Wallbridge, & Drennan, 1987; Lindsay & Wells, 1980; Malpass & Devine, 1981). Lindsay and Wells (1985) found that sequential lineup presentation reduced false identification rates, presumably by reducing reliance on relative judgment processes. Five staged-crime experiments were conducted to examine the effect of lineup biases and sequential presentation on eyewitness recognition accuracy. Sequential lineup presentation significantly reduced false identification rates from fair lineups as well as from lineups biased with regard to foil similarity, instructions, or witness attire, and from lineups biased in all of these ways. The results support recommendations that police present lineups sequentially.

Study of thermo-fluidic behavior of micro-droplet in inkjet-based micro manufacturing processes

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Raju; Mahapatra, Abhijit; Ball, Amit Kumar; Roy, Shibendu Shekhar; Murmu, Naresh Chandra

2017-06-01

Inkjet printing technology, a maskless, non-contact patterning operation, which has been a revelation in the field of micro and nano manufacturing for its use in the selective deposition of desired materials. It is becoming an exciting alternative technology such as lithography to print functional material on to a substrate. Selective deposition of functional materials on desired substrates is a basic requirement in many of the printing based micro and nano manufacturing operations like the fabrication of microelectronic devices, solar cell, Light-emitting Diode (LED) research fields like pharmaceutical industries for drug discovery purposes and in biotechnology to make DNA microarrays. In this paper, an attempt has been made to design and develop an indigenous Electrohydrodynamic Inkjet printing system for micro fabrication and to study the interrelationships between various thermos-fluidic parameters of the ink material in the printing process. The effect of printing process parameters on printing performance characteristics has also been studied. And the applicability of the process has also been experimentally demonstrated. The experimentally found results were quite satisfactory and accordance to its applicability.

Active Fail-Safe Micro-Array Flow Control for Advanced Embedded Propulsion Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Bernhard H.; Mace, James L.; Mani, Mori

2009-01-01

The primary objective of this research effort was to develop and analytically demonstrate enhanced first generation active "fail-safe" hybrid flow-control techniques to simultaneously manage the boundary layer on the vehicle fore-body and to control the secondary flow generated within modern serpentine or embedded inlet S-duct configurations. The enhanced first-generation technique focused on both micro-vanes and micro-ramps highly-integrated with micro -jets to provide nonlinear augmentation for the "strength' or effectiveness of highly-integrated flow control systems. The study focused on the micro -jet mass flow ratio (Wjet/Waip) range from 0.10 to 0.30 percent and jet total pressure ratios (Pjet/Po) from 1.0 to 3.0. The engine bleed airflow range under study represents about a 10 fold decrease in micro -jet airflow than previously required. Therefore, by pre-conditioning, or injecting a very small amount of high-pressure jet flow into the vortex generated by the micro-vane and/or micro-ramp, active flow control is achieved and substantial augmentation of the controlling flow is realized.

Refining processes of selected copper alloys

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Rzadkosz

2009-04-01

Full Text Available The analysis of the refining effectiveness of the liquid copper and selected copper alloys by various micro additions and special refiningsubstances – was performed. Examinations of an influence of purifying, modifying and deoxidation operations performed in a metal bath on the properties of certain selected alloys based on copper matrix - were made. Refining substances, protecting-purifying slag, deoxidation and modifying substances containing micro additions of such elements as: zirconium, boron, phosphor, sodium, lithium, or their compounds introduced in order to change micro structures and properties of alloys, were applied in examinations. A special attention was directed to macro and micro structures of alloys, their tensile and elongation strength and hot-cracks sensitivity. Refining effects were estimated by comparing the effectiveness of micro structure changes with property changes of copper and its selected alloys from the group of tin bronzes.

Lineup composition, suspect position, and the sequential lineup advantage.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlson, Curt A; Gronlund, Scott D; Clark, Steven E

2008-06-01

N. M. Steblay, J. Dysart, S. Fulero, and R. C. L. Lindsay (2001) argued that sequential lineups reduce the likelihood of mistaken eyewitness identification. Experiment 1 replicated the design of R. C. L. Lindsay and G. L. Wells (1985), the first study to show the sequential lineup advantage. However, the innocent suspect was chosen at a lower rate in the simultaneous lineup, and no sequential lineup advantage was found. This led the authors to hypothesize that protection from a sequential lineup might emerge only when an innocent suspect stands out from the other lineup members. In Experiment 2, participants viewed a simultaneous or sequential lineup with either the guilty suspect or 1 of 3 innocent suspects. Lineup fairness was varied to influence the degree to which a suspect stood out. A sequential lineup advantage was found only for the unfair lineups. Additional analyses of suspect position in the sequential lineups showed an increase in the diagnosticity of suspect identifications as the suspect was placed later in the sequential lineup. These results suggest that the sequential lineup advantage is dependent on lineup composition and suspect position. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

A detailed cost analysis of in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouwmans, C.A.; Lintsen, A.M.E.; Eijkemans, M.J.; Habbema, J.D.F.; Braat, D.D.M.; Hakkaart, L.

2008-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To provide detailed information about costs of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment stages and to estimate the cost per IVF and ICSI treatment cycle and ongoing pregnancy. DESIGN: Descriptive micro-costing study. SETTING: Four Dutch IVF

Microbially Enhanced Oil Recovery by Sequential Injection of Light Hydrocarbon and Nitrate in Low- And High-Pressure Bioreactors.

Science.gov (United States)

Gassara, Fatma; Suri, Navreet; Stanislav, Paul; Voordouw, Gerrit

2015-10-20

Microbially enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) often involves injection of aqueous molasses and nitrate to stimulate resident or introduced bacteria. Use of light oil components like toluene, as electron donor for nitrate-reducing bacteria (NRB), offers advantages but at 1-2 mM toluene is limiting in many heavy oils. Because addition of toluene to the oil increased reduction of nitrate by NRB, we propose an MEOR technology, in which water amended with light hydrocarbon below the solubility limit (5.6 mM for toluene) is injected to improve the nitrate reduction capacity of the oil along the water flow path, followed by injection of nitrate, other nutrients (e.g., phosphate) and a consortium of NRB, if necessary. Hydrocarbon- and nitrate-mediated MEOR was tested in low- and high-pressure, water-wet sandpack bioreactors with 0.5 pore volumes of residual oil in place (ROIP). Compared to control bioreactors, those with 11-12 mM of toluene in the oil (gained by direct addition or by aqueous injection) and 80 mM of nitrate in the aqueous phase produced 16.5 ± 4.4% of additional ROIP (N = 10). Because toluene is a cheap commodity chemical, HN-MEOR has the potential to be a cost-effective method for additional oil production even in the current low oil price environment.

Skin pre-ablation and laser assisted microjet injection for deep tissue penetration.

Science.gov (United States)

Jang, Hun-Jae; Yeo, Seonggu; Yoh, Jack J

2017-04-01

For conventional needless injection, there still remain many unresolved issues such as the potential for cross-contamination, poor reliability of targeted delivery dose, and significantly painstaking procedures. As an alternative, the use of microjets generated with Er:YAG laser for delivering small doses with controlled penetration depths has been reported. In this study, a new system with two stages is evaluated for effective transdermal drug delivery. First, the skin is pre-ablated to eliminate the hard outer layer and second, laser-driven microjet penetrates the relatively weaker and freshly exposed epidermis. Each stage of operation shares a single Er:YAG laser that is suitable for skin ablation as well as for the generation of a microjet. In this study, pig skin is selected for quantification of the injection depth based on the two-stage procedure, namely pre-ablation and microjet injection. The three types of pre-ablation devised here consists of bulk ablation, fractional ablation, and fractional-rotational ablation. The number of laser pulses are 12, 18, and 24 for each ablation type. For fractional-rotational ablation, the fractional beams are rotated by 11.25° at each pulse. The drug permeation in the skin is evaluated using tissue marking dyes. The depth of penetration is quantified by a cross sectional view of the single spot injections. Multi-spot injections are also carried out to control the dose and spread of the drug. The benefits of a pre-ablation procedure prior to the actual microjet injection to the penetration is verified. The four possible combinations of injection are (a) microjet only; (b) bulk ablation and microjet injection; (c) fractional ablation and microjet injection; and (d) fractional-rotational ablation and microjet injection. Accordingly, the total depth increases with injection time for all cases. In particular, the total depth of penetration attained via fractional pre-ablation increased by 8 ∼ 11% and that of fractional

Surface and bulk 3D analysis of natural and processed ruby using electron probe micro analyzer and X-ray micro CT scan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sahoo, Rakesh K., E-mail: rakesh.materialscience@gmail.com; Singh, Saroj K.; Mishra, B.K.

2016-08-15

Highlights: • Firm linking between two advance techniques: Micro-CT and EPMA for mineral analysis. • Attempt to identify and differentiate the treated gem stone from natural counterpart. • 3D structural and surface elemental analysis of the natural gem stone. - Abstract: The change in surface compositional and bulk structural characteristics of the natural ruby stone, before and after heat treatment with lead oxide has been analyzed using two advance characterization techniques like: X-ray micro CT scan (μ-CT) and electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA). The analytical correlation between these two techniques in identification as well as in depth study of the ores and minerals before and after processing has been presented. Also, we describe the aesthetic enhancement of a low quality defective ruby stone by lead oxide filling and the sequential analysis of this ruby stone before and after treatment using these two advanced techniques to identify and to confirm the change in its aesthetic value. The cracks healing and pores filling by the metal oxide on the surface of the ruby have been analyzed using μ-CT and EPMA. Moreover, in this work we describe the advance characterization of the repaired gem stones especially ruby stones. This work will light up the path for in-depth understanding of diffusion mechanism and abstract information of impurity particles inside the minerals. Based on these observations, EPMA and micro CT are shown to be powerful tools for the identification as well as research in gem stones.

Tradable permit allocations and sequential choice