Basic Modification Research Articles

Four Voltmeter Vector Impedance Meter Based on Virtual Instrumentation

In this paper, a digital vector impedance half-bridge meter based on virtual instruments is designed, implemented and tested. Here, not only the accuracy of the magnitude of the impedance is considered but, more importantly, its phase measurement accuracy. The meter utilizes a four-voltmeter method which is a basic modification of the well-known three-voltmeter method. The half-bridge is constructed with commercially available data acquisition (DAQ) board in the form of peripheral control interconnect cards incorporated in personal computers. The DAQ board is used only to acquire the voltages instead of using four separate voltmeters, while the excitation signal is produced by an integrated circuit signal generator. The main error in this method arises from the error in measuring the voltage values. Since the resolution of the DAQ board used here is 16 bits; expect that absolute errors due to A/D conversion will be around 0.305 mV for ±10 V range. Detailed error analysis of the method is included in the context of the paper. It is found that the errors in the impedance magnitude is fairly small and relatively less sensitive on the resolution of the voltmeters because of the relative measurements in the half bridge with a precise reference resistance. The original three voltmeter vector impedance meter has relatively large error in the phase especially in the small phase angles. To decrease the phase error to an acceptable range, one has to increase the resolution of the voltmeter appreciably, which makes them expensive. The other solution to reduce the error in the phase angle with less cost is to add a fourth voltmeter which acquires directly the small phase angles. In this case, it is found that, a much lower resolution voltmeter can be utilized while achieving an acceptable measurement accuracy of the impedance.

Probabilistic temperature forecasting based on an ensemble autoregressive modification

To address the uncertainty in outputs of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, ensembles of forecasts are used. To obtain such an ensemble of forecasts, the NWP model is run multiple times, each time with variations in the mathematical representations of the model and/or initial or boundary conditions. To correct for possible biases and dispersion errors in the ensemble, statistical postprocessing models are frequently employed. These statistical models yield full predictive probability distributions for a weather quantity of interest and thus allow for a more accurate representation of forecast uncertainty. This article proposes to combine the state‐of‐the‐art Ensemble Model Output Statistics (EMOS) with an ensemble that is adjusted by an autoregressive process fitted to the respective error series by a spread‐adjusted linear pool in the case of temperature forecasts. The basic ensemble modification technique we introduce may be used to simply adjust the ensemble itself as well as to obtain a full predictive distribution for the weather quantity. As demonstrated for temperature forecasts from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts ensemble, the proposed procedure gives rise to improved results over the basic (local) EMOS method.

Investigations on the 4-Quinolone-3-carboxylic Acid Motif. 7. Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of 4-Quinolone-3-carboxamides and 4-Hydroxy-2-quinolone-3-carboxamides as High Affinity Cannabinoid Receptor 2 (CB2R) Ligands with Improved Aqueous Solubility.

4-Quinolone-3-carboxamide derivatives have long been recognized as potent and selective cannabinoid type-2 receptor (CB2R) ligands. With the aim to improve their physicochemical properties, basically aqueous solubility, two different approaches were followed, entailing the substitution of the alkyl chain with a basic replacement or scaffold modification to 4-hydroxy-2-quinolone structure. According to the first approach, compound 6d was obtained, showing slightly reduced receptor affinity (K(i) = 60 nM) compared to the lead compound 4 (0.8 nM) but greatly enhanced solubility (400-3400 times depending on the pH of the medium). On the other hand, shifting from 4-quinolone to 4-hydroxy-2-quinolone structure enabled the discovery of a novel class of CB2R ligands, such as 7b and 7c, characterized by K(i) < 1 nM and selectivity index [SI = K(i)(CB1R)/K(i)(CB2R)] > 1300. At pH 7.4, compound 7c resulted by 100-fold more soluble than 4.

Alkali hydroxide-modified Ru/γ-Al2O3 catalysts for ammonia decomposition

We herein present an easy approach to increase drastically the catalytic activity of Ru/γ-Al2O3 catalysts in ammonia decomposition by surface modification with alkali hydroxides. The best activities have been achieved by a catalyst modification with lithium hydroxide in a Li/Al ratio of 1.7. In contrast, coatings with potassium and caesium hydroxide caused mass transfer limitations in the catalytic material already at low amounts (ratios alkali/Al <0.2–0.3). MAS ssNMR and XRD studies indicate the in-situ formation of alkali aluminates resulting in a basic modification of the support.

Effects of nerve growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor dual gene modification on rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell differentiation into neuron-like cells in vitro.

Recent studies regarding regenerative medicine have focused on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), which have the potential to undergo neural differentiation, and may be transfected with specific genes. BMSCs can differentiate into neuron-like cells in certain neurotropic circumstances in vitro. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) are often used to induce neural differentiation in BMSCs in vitro. However, previous studies regarding their combined actions are insufficient. The present study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to thoroughly assess the enhancement of neural differentiation of BMSCs following transfection with bFGF and NGF. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat BMSCs were separated through whole bone marrow adherence, and were then passaged to the third generation. The cells were subsequently divided into five groups: The control group, which consisted of untransfected BMSCs; the plv-blank-transfected BMSCs group; the plv-bFGF-trans-fected BMSCs group; the plv-NGF-transfected BMSCs group; and the plv-NGF-bFGF co-transfected BMSCs group. Cell neural differentiation was characterized in terms of stem cell molecular expression, and the neuronal morphology and expression of neural-like molecules was detected in each of the groups. A total of 72 h post-transfection, the expression levels of neuron-specific enolase, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and nestin protein, were higher in the co-transfected group, as compared with the other groups, the expression levels of β-tubulin III were also increased in the co-transfected cells, thus suggesting the maturation of differentiated neuron-like cells. Furthermore, higher neuronal proliferation was observed in the co-transfected group, as compared with the other groups at passages 2, 4, 6 and 8. Western blotting demonstrated that the transfected groups exhibited a simultaneous increase in phosphorylation of the AKT and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) signaling pathway. These results suggested that manipulation of the ERK and AKT signaling pathway may be associated with the differentiation of transfected BMSCs.

고속통신을 위한 FM-QCSK 카오스 통신 시스템

The FM-QCSK(: Frequency Modulated Quadrature Chaos Shift Keying) system is one of the most efficient systems in chaotic literature. One of the problems in this system is that half the bit duration is used for sending a chaotic reference signal which leads to increase the energy losses and reduces the data rate. In this paper, a novel scheme to enhance the performance of FM-QCSK system has been proposed. With the proposed scheme, FM-QCSK would be able to operate at higher data rates with reduced BER(: Bit Error Rate) and energy consumption. The basic modification introduced by the proposed scheme is the use one reference chaotic signal to transmit multi information signals in both in-phase and quadrature-phase channels. The results showed that the proposed scheme have achieved more than 3 dB gains in SNR for AWGN channels respectively at $BER

Synthesis and characterization of bifunctional mesoporous silica adsorbent for simultaneous removal of lead and nitrate ions

A novel acid-base bifunctional adsorbent was synthesized using a three-stage process involving (i) synthesis of MCM-41 mesoporous silica (MS) carrier, (ii) acidic modification of the carrier by aluminum isopropoxide dosing (Al-MS), and (iii) basic modification by amino groups post-grafting (Al-MS2). Large spatial hindrance amino groups were selected for the basic modification step to avoid spontaneous recombination and neutralization reactions between the two antagonist functional groups. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, NH3-based temperature-programmed desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and N2 adsorption–desorption techniques were used to characterize the samples obtained at each step. Then, the simultaneous adsorption capacities of lead (Pb(II)) and nitrate (NO3−) ions were investigated and compared. The results revealed that Al-MS2 had good adsorption efficiency for Pb(II) and NO3−, achieving maximum adsorption capacities of 712μmol/g for Pb(II) and 1120μmol/g for NO3− at pH 5.0. The proposed mechanism for the simultaneous removal of Pb(II) and NO3− by the adsorbents were also discussed. The results showed that Al-MS2 was successfully modified with two antagonist adsorption groups, thus providing a new strategy for designing multifunctional adsorbents for the simultaneous removal of toxic metal cations and anions from wastewater.

Mining analysis and experience summary for chronic atrophic gastritis cases treated by Professor LIU Feng-bin

To summarize Professor LIU Feng-bin's clinical experience and theoretical thoughts on chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), the study group designed a retrospective study on his case series and expert interview. First of all, the data of CAG patients treated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine between 2009 and 2013, e. g. herbs, diseases, syndrome type, prescription amount and number of herbs, was collected and processed. The statistical description and binary logistic regression were used to determined the syndrome type, initial basic remedy and modification. During the statistics, a complete and sub-group analysis was performed simultaneously. After the expert interview, the syndrome type and medication were finalized. As a result, a total of 228 CAG patients aged at (50.30 ± 10.18) were collected, including 151 males (66.23%). Of them, the TCM diagnosis and syndrome type were extracted from the information of 157 patients, including 115 cases with gastric stuffiness, 23 cases with gastric pain, 19 missing cases, 2 cases with spleen-stomach weakness syndrome, 57 cases with spleen deficiency and dampness-heat syndrome, 18 cases with spleen-stomach disharmony syndrome, 23 cases with syndrome of liver depression syndrome, 21 cases with liver qi invading stomach syndrome and 26 qi and yin deficiency syndrome, respectively. All of the 228 patients used totally 104 herbs, while the subgroups with 157 patients used 94 herbs. The most frequently used 15 herbs used in each groups were analyzed to determine the initial basic remedy and modification. Subsequently, based on the information of the sub-groups with 157 patients, with the syndrome type as the dependent variable, the logistic regression analysis was made on the most frequently used 32 herbs, in order to determined the modification in herbs for different syndrome types. After experts reviewed and modified, they believed the main causes of CAG were dietary irregularities, moodiness and weak constitution; the pathogenesis of CAG was spleen deficiency with qi stagnation, heat depression and blood stasis in the stomach meridian. The above six syndrome types and 12 herbs were determined, including Pseudostellariae Radix, Poria, Atractylodismacrocephalae Rhizoma, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Fritillariae Thunbergii Bulbus, Sepiae Endoconcha, Arecae Pericarpium, Aurantii Fructus, Perillae Caulis, Herba Hedyotis Diffusae, Scutellariae Barbatae Herba, Curcumae Rhizoma. This study summarized Professor LIU Feng-bin's clinical experience and theoretical thoughts of chronic atrophic gastritis based on clinical practice data and expert interview, with a rigorous design and good scientificity and practicability.

Text Line Segmentation With Water Flow Algorithm Based on Power Function

Abstarct This manuscript proposes an extension to the water flow algorithm for text line segmentation. Basic algorithm assumes hypothetical water flows under few specified angles of the document image frame from left to right and vice versa. As a result, unwetted image regions that incorporate text are extracted. These regions are of the major importance for text line segmentation. The extension of the basic algorithm means modification of water flow function that creates the unwetted region. Hence, the linear water flow function used in the basic algorithm is changed with its power function counterpart. Extended method was tested, examined and evaluated under different text samples. Results are encouraging due to improving text line segmentation which is a key process stage.

Network completion for static gene expression data.

We tackle the problem of completing and inferring genetic networks under stationary conditions from static data, where network completion is to make the minimum amount of modifications to an initial network so that the completed network is most consistent with the expression data in which addition of edges and deletion of edges are basic modification operations. For this problem, we present a new method for network completion using dynamic programming and least-squares fitting. This method can find an optimal solution in polynomial time if the maximum indegree of the network is bounded by a constant. We evaluate the effectiveness of our method through computational experiments using synthetic data. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our proposed method can distinguish the differences between two types of genetic networks under stationary conditions from lung cancer and normal gene expression data.

The impact of aerobic exercise on blood pressure variability

There is increasing evidence that blood pressure variability (BPV, variation of blood pressure over time) constitutes a strong and independent marker of cardiovascular risk. The all-cause mortality is >50% greater in subjects with a standard deviation of inter-visit blood pressure >5 mm Hg. Regular aerobic exercise reduces blood pressure and is recommended by current hypertension guidelines as a basic lifestyle modification. It remains elusive, however, whether aerobic exercise is able to reduce BPV as well. In total, 72 hypertensive subjects were randomly assigned to an 8-12-week treadmill exercise program (target lactate 2.0±0.5 mmol l(-1)) or sedentary control. Blood pressure was measured by 24 h-ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABP). Two aspects of BPV were assessed: the variability of ABP and the variability of blood pressure on exertion. The coefficient of variation (CV) was used as a statistical measure of BPV. The CV of systolic daytime ABP was defined as primary outcome. The exercise program significantly decreased systolic and diastolic daytime ABP by 6.2±10.2 mm Hg (P<0.01) and 3.0±6.3 mm Hg (P=0.04), respectively. Moreover, it reduced blood pressure on exertion and increased physical performance (P<0.05 each). Exercise had no impact, however, on the CV of daytime (10.2±2.7 vs. 9.8±2.6%, P=0.30) and night-time systolic (8.9±3.2 vs. 10.5±4.1%, P=0.10) and diastolic ABP (daytime 11.5±3.3 vs. 11.5±3.1%, night-time 12.0±4.3 vs. 13.8±5.2%; P>0.05 each). Regular aerobic exercise is a helpful adjunct to control blood pressure in hypertension, but it has no effect on 24 h- BPV, an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk.

Fuel cycles of WWER-440: results of basic design modification

Abstract This paper presents the current status of works performed to date to further upgrade fuel assemblies and fuel cycle of WWER-440 reactors, and also considers some innovations – both envisaged and implemented in practice – intended to improve their neutronic and operating parameters. Reactors were assumed to operate at 100% power in a steady-state refueling mode. Trial operation of third-generation fuel assemblies (FA-3), including a comparison between some calculated and measured results, is described as an example illustrating these new developments.

Modeling of alkyl quaternary ammonium cations intercalated into montmorillonite lattice

The objective of this work was to study the conformation of the quaternary ammonium cations viz., octadecyl trimethyl ammonium (ODTMA), dioctadecyl dimethyl ammonium (DMDOA) and trioctadecyl methyl ammonium (TOMA) intercalated within montmorillonite.The modified montmorillonite was characterized by X-ray diffraction in small angle (SAXS), thermal analysis (TGA) and infrared spectroscopy of attenuated total reflection (ATR).The modification of organophilic montmorillonites by the three surfactants ODTMA, DMDOA and TOMA increases the basal spacing from their respective intercalated distances of 1.9nm, 2.6nm and 3.4nm respectively.The increase in the spacing due to the basic organic modification was confirmed by the results of thermal analysis (TGA) and infrared spectroscopy (ATR), and also supported by theoretical calculations of longitudinal and transversal chain sizes of these alkyl quaternary ammonium cations.

Electrochemical Study of the Corrosion Behavior of Zinc Surface Treated with a New Organic Chelating Inhibitor

The effect of a new organic compound (N-[(1E)-(4 methoxy phenyl)methylene]hydrazinecarbothioamide), called ATSC, with chelating groups, on the corrosion behavior of zinc was investigated. Electrochemical study of the zinc specimens was carried out in aqueous electrolyte containing 0.2 M Na2SO4 and 0.2 M NaCl maintained at pH 5 using galvanostatic polarization curves. The surface treatment of zinc was achieved by immersion in solutions of different concentrations of ATSC and for different immersion time and bath temperatures. The zinc metal treated with ATSC at 5% has showed good corrosion resistance and maximum protection efficiency of about 84% at 300 K. Moreover, the treatment induced a basic modification of the cathodic nature of zinc and controls the corrosion by decreasing the electron transfer rate. The corrosion protection could be explained by the formation of a protective organometallic layer on the zinc surface due to the chelation reaction between zinc and inhibitor molecules. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were applied to study the protective layer.

Design of High data Rate FM-QCSK Chaotic Communication System

The frequency modulated quadrature chaos shift keying FM-QCSK system is one of the most efficient sys- tems in chaotic literature. One of the problems in this system is that half the bit duration is used for sending a chaotic ref- erence signal which leads to increase the energy losses and reduces the data rate. In this paper, a novel scheme to enhance the performance of FM-QCSK system has been proposed. With the proposed scheme, FM-QCSK would be able to operate at higher data rates with reduced bit-error probability BER and energy consumption. The basic modification introduced by the proposed scheme is the use one reference chaotic chip to transmit mu lti informat ion-bearing ch ips in both in-phase and quadrature-phase channels. The results showed that the proposed scheme have achieved more than 3 dB and 5 dB gains in SNR fo r AWGN and Ray leigh mult ipath fading channels respectively at BER=10 -3 over the conventional one. The results also showed that the optimu m nu mber in formation-bearing chip can be send per reference is 8. The theoretical expression of BER in AW GN channel has also been derived for the proposed scheme.

Surface Modification of Zinc with an Oxime for Corrosion Protection in Chloride Medium

The surface treatment of zinc was done with different concentrations of an oxime (2E)‐2‐(hydroxylamino)‐1,2‐diphenylethanol molecule by the immersion method. The electrochemical corrosion studies of surface‐treated zinc specimens were performed in aqueous sodium chloride solution (1 M, pH 5.0) at different temperatures in order to study the corrosion mechanism. The recorded electrochemical data indicated a basic modification of the cathodic corrosion behavior of the treated zinc resulting in a decrease of the electron transfer rate. The zinc samples treated by immersion in the inhibiting organic solution presented good corrosion resistance. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was found that a protective film was formed on the surface of zinc.

Metol as Corrosion Inhibitor for zinc

The inhibition behavior of metol (N-methyl-p-aminophenol sulphate) on zinc in different corrosive solutions at room temperature was investigated by various techniques such as weight loss, polarization and linear polarization methods. The percentage inhibition efficiencies were evaluated at different concentrations of the inhibitors. The corrosion rate, inhibition efficiency and surface coverage were dependent on metol concentration. The electrochemical data indicated a basic modification of zinc surface resulting in a decrease in the corrosion rate. Corrosion inhibition was explained by considering an interaction between metal surface and the inhibitor. SEM images and FT-IR profiles confirmed the formation of passive film on the metal surface.

Network Completion Using Dynamic Programming and Least-Squares Fitting

We consider the problem of network completion, which is to make the minimum amount of modifications to a given network so that the resulting network is most consistent with the observed data. We employ here a certain type of differential equations as gene regulation rules in a genetic network, gene expression time series data as observed data, and deletions and additions of edges as basic modification operations. In addition, we assume that the numbers of deleted and added edges are specified. For this problem, we present a novel method using dynamic programming and least-squares fitting and show that it outputs a network with the minimum sum squared error in polynomial time if the maximum indegree of the network is bounded by a constant. We also perform computational experiments using both artificially generated and real gene expression time series data.

An evaluation of owner expectation on apparent treatment effect in a blinded comparison of 2 homeopathic remedies for firework noise sensitivity in dogs

Abstract A blinded and randomized study was carried out to investigate whether dog owners would report different treatment effects depending on whether they knew they might be administering a placebo, versus if they knew they were definitely administering a homeopathic remedy. A secondary aim was to determine the consistency of owner reports of treatment effect across multiple trial periods. A total of 73 dogs with a stable, predictable, and easily assessable response to firework noises were enrolled and randomly allocated to receive 1 of the 2 homeopathic preparations along with a basic behavior modification program. Treatment A was a homeopathic treatment formulated for firework noise sensitivity that had previously been tested in a placebo-controlled study by the authors, and Treatment B was a different formulation for the same condition. The same allocated treatment was trialed on 2 occasions by all participants to allow assessment of owner-report reliability. It was found that knowledge of participating in a placebo-controlled trial had no effect on the owners' perception of treatment effect, and that their reports of effect were consistent across both trial periods. No specific effect of homeopathic treatment was found in this study; however, it was observed that the reported behavioral effects that followed each treatment were similar across the 2 firework periods, but that there was a consistently different pattern of behavioral effects reported between Treatment groups A and B. These results might be ascribed to either a treatment or population effect. We suggest that examination of the consistency of owner-reported effects within and between treatments may be used as part of the suite of methodologies available to investigate whether any specific effect can be ascribed to homeopathic interventions.

Measurement and Enhancement of Plasticity Indices of some Extruded Ghanaian Clays

The use of simple equipment that can reliably calculate plasticity indices of three local clays (Cape Coast, Fosu and Teleku Bokazzo) in both aqueous and organic media by extrusion method was studied. Experimental procedures were followed and one basic modification was made to Worrall and Khan measurement of rate of flow of plastic clays in order to prevent sud-den rush of compressed air. Results indicate that plasticity brought about by ageing can be measured for clays in aqueous and organic medium. Clays aged for a further period of six months in aqueous medium showed greater plasticity index values confirming the reliability of the measuring instrument. The study revealed that Teleku Bokazzo Kaolin in organic medium has high plasticity that can be exploited in various product developments especially in refractory production where low iron content clays are usually needed. Plasticity of local clays can be measured accurately and reliable plasticity indices can be controlled by the length of ageing time for consistent manufacturing results.