Long-time Application Research Articles

Optimization of Multitask Scheduling for Swarm UAV System with Charging Platform

Swarm UAV technology have potential application in a wide range because of its ability to utilize large number, low cost and unified scheduled UAVs. Unified scheduling is tasks and resources allocation through UAV scheduling optimization, which is the key problem for swarm UAV research. Existing scheduling research mainly focuses on scheduling analysis for small-scale, short-time tasks of swarm UAVs, and rarely consider the application of charging platform. Scheduling optimization must consider the influence of charging and other factors for future UAV multi-task and long-time applications . An improved swarm UAV task scheduling method based on a unified scheduling model and improved genetic algorithms was proposed. First, the wireless charging platform resources are incorporated into the UAV working environment, and the working scenario is modeled systematically. Then, the genetic algorithm is used to optimize the task and charging platform resource assignment. Finally, the proposed method is tested and validated using simulated scenarios. Test results show that the proposed method can better adapt to changes in tasks, environment and resources, and still shows good results with relatively large swarms.

Sol-gel Pechini preparation of CuEr2TiO6 nanoparticles as highly efficient photocatalyst for visible light degradation of acid red 88

This study reports preparation of CuEr2TiO6 nanoparticles using Pechini sol-gel method. The characterization of nanoparticles was carried out using FESEM, EDX, XRD, PL, DRS, Raman, and FTIR. DRS analysis shows that the prepared nanoparticles can serve as an effective visible light photocatalyst. Photocatalytic activity of the prepared nanoparticles was investigated toward degradation of aqueous solution of acid red 88 (AR88) under visible light irradiation. The highest photoactivity (91.2 %) was achieved after 150 min illumination using 40 mg of the photocatalyst. Effect of some contributing factors was studied on degradation rate of AR 88, including amount of photocatalyst and H2O2 concentration. Also, in order to examine stability of the prepared nanoparticles for long-time applications, the recyclability experiments were conducted at 7 successive reaction cycles which confirm the great stability of the prepared nanoparticles. Also, radical scavenging experiments reveal that the dominant species in photocatalytic reactions are hydroxyl radicals.

Amygdalin/chitosan-polyvinyl alcohol/cerium-tannic acid hydrogel as biodegradable long-time implant for cancer recurrence care applications: An in vitro study

Cancer recurrence following surgery is a serious and worrying problem for the patient. Common treatment strategies, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, are restricted because of low uptake of the drugs, poor pharmacokinetic properties, and toxicity issues for healthy tissues. The development of engineering platforms for improving the postoperative treatment of cancer can help solve this problem. In this study, the ceria-tannic acid nanoparticles (CeTA-NPs) were successfully synthesized and characterized. Chitosan-polyvinyl/alcohol (CS-PVA) hydrogels containing CeTA NPs (CS-PVA/CeTA) and amygdalin as an anticancer substance were fabricated using freeze-thaw and immersion-drying techniques. The swelling and degradation behaviors, antibacterial activity, and biocompatibility of as-prepared hydrogel were done. The apoptotic effects of amygdalin/CS-PVA/CeTA hydrogel were evaluated by flow cytometry technique on a human colorectal cancer (SW-480) cell line. The CeTA-NPs were investigated as antibacterial and cross-linker agents for greater stability of the hydrogel network. The CS-PVA/CeTA hydrogel demonstrated good safety and antibacterial activity. The results of swelling and biodegradation suggest that CS-PVA/CeTA hydrogels can inspire long-time application. The anticancer effects of the amygdalin/CS-PVA/CeTA hydrogel were confirmed by apoptosis results. Hence, amygdalin/CS-PVA/CeTA hydrogel can be a promising candidate for long-time biomedical application.

Oriented porous hydrogel with excellent anti-salt and antibacterial properties for high-performance interfacial solar steam generation

In recent years, solar interfacial evaporation has drawn substantial attention in wastewater and seawater treatment, but it still requires intensive development in high-performance evaporators, particularly simultaneous with high anti-salt and antibacterial abilities to supply freshwater. In this work, a directionally channeled evaporator with excellent resistance to salt crystallization and microbial was designed and synthesized by using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) / polydopamine (PDA) hydrogel via a simple freeze-dried method. The novel structure was proposed to enhance convection and accelerate water transport that prevents salt crystallization. PDA and AgNPs were deposited to achieve superb optical absorption, photothermal conversion and anti-biofouling ability. Therefore, the evaporation rate of the AgNPs-PDA hydrogel achieved 1.70 kg m−2 h−1 with a light-to-heat conversion efficiency of 90.3 %. Based on the efficient evaporation ability and especially structure of the AgNPs-PDA hydrogel, the evaporator presented a tolerance to high salt water and the stable evaporation performance of actual seawater evaporation during long-time application. Simultaneously, the addition of AgNPs endowed the AgNPs-PDA hydrogel evaporator with excellent antibacterial ability. Thus, these favorable properties endowed the special AgNPs-PDA hydrogel evaporator a great potential for obtaining efficient evaporation and simultaneously solving the fouling problem, especially to waterborne pathogens and salt crystallization in tanglesome applications.

A porous Eu-PTA/Tb-SSA/ZrO2/ZnZrO3 light color adjustable phosphor: Luminescent property and application of warm white LED

Light emitting diode (LED) is the fourth generation lighting source, but it has some shortcomings such as complex chip packaging process and the unbalanced light color of phosphor in long-time application. In this study, a kind of Eu-terephthalic acid/Tb-sulfosalicylate/ZrO2/ZnZrO3 (Eu-PTA/Tb-SSA/ZrO2/ZnZrO3) phosphor with warm white light emission properties was prepared, and the warm white light LED (w-WLEDs) was successfully prepared by encapsulating Eu-PTA/Tb-SSA/ZrO2/ZnZrO3 phosphors together with 270 nm UV-chip. The ZrO2/ZnZrO3, Tb-SSA/ZrO2/ZnZrO3 and Eu-PTA/ZrO2/ZnZrO3 samples show blue emission, green emission and red emission under deep ultraviolet (UV, 270 nm) excitation, respectively. The Tb-SSA and Eu-PTA are co-doped into ZrO2/ZnZrO3 matrix with blue emission to achieve the warm white light emission, and the light color can be adjusted by controlling the doping amount of Eu3+ and Tb3+. Through the excitation method of single-component phosphor by the single chip, the complex chip packaging process of w-LED can be solved. By doping rare earth organic complexes into porous ZrO2/ZnZrO3 matrix, the problems of the light color unbalanced of phosphor and the low luminescence intensity of rare earth doped metal oxides composites can be solved.

Gradient band gap CZTSSe prepared via sputtering from quaternary ceramic targets followed with annealing under different atmospheres

CZTSSe is a thin-film solar cell absorber material with long-time application potential, but its development is limited as its severe open-circuit voltage(Voc) deficit. To further improve the Voc, gradient band gap structure of absorber is expected to achieve this aim without large change of its overall band gap. In this work, a stack structure precursor was deposited by sputtering from quaternary ceramic targets. The top gradient band gap CZTSSe was achieved by annealing the precursor under pure Se or S/Se mix atmosphere. The effects of the atmosphere and the layers-stack precursor structure on the film properties and device performance were studied. Compared with selenization process, sulfo-selenization could effectively suppressed the severe reaction at the back contact interface. It would reduce Mo(S,Se)2 and secondary phases formation and improve solar cell efficiency. The Voc of the double-layers precursor solar cell successfully improved under both atmospheres as expected, representing this method could be a feasible direction to solve the large Voc,def problem. However, for higher efficiency sulfo-selenization cells, the Voc improvement in stack precursor samples did not bring obvious increase of efficiency due to the deterioration of fill factor, indicating that further optimization of device electrical properties should be applied in future study.

Effect of Partial Equilibrium and Redox Reactions in a Zirconia Solid Electrolyte on the Electromotive Force in a Zirconia Oxygen Sensor

A zirconia oxygen sensor is an electrochemical device for rapidly measuring oxygen concentrations in molten metals at high temperatures. It is desirable to make the sensors capable of continuous, long-time measurements. Here, the effect on the electromotive force of a partial equilibrium state on the surface of a zirconia solid electrolyte in a zirconia oxygen sensor was investigated to reveal the factors preventing long-time measurements. The reference electrode was a mixture of W and WO2. Continuous measurements were performed in molten iron containing carbon for deoxidization. The electromotive force between the positive reference electrode and the negative sample electrode of the sensor decreased from a positive value to zero over time. This was because a metallic tungsten layer formed on the surface of the zirconia electrolyte by the reduction of the tungsten oxide via oxygen diffusion through the zirconia tube. In addition, the equilibrium in the reference electrode was disturbed during the measurements. A direct electrical current was applied to the sensor to examine the relationship between the surface and measured values. The electromotive force during the current was maintained at a higher value than that without the current because of induced re-oxidation at the zirconia surface. However, a long-time application could cause over-oxidation and dissolution of the reference electrode surface.

All Cubic-Phase δ-TAGS Thermoelectrics Over the Entire Mid-Temperature Range.

GeTe-based pseudo-binary (GeTe)x (AgSbTe2 )100- x (TAGS-x) is recognized as a promising p-type mid-temperature thermoelectric material with outstanding thermoelectric performance; nevertheless, its intrinsic structural transition and metastable microstructure (due to Ag/Sb/Ge localization) restrict the long-time application of TAGS-x in practical thermoelectric devices. In this work, a series of non-stoichiometric (GeTe)x (Ag1- δ Sb1+ δ Te2+ δ )100- x (x= 85∼50; δ=≈0.20-0.23), referred to as δ-TAGS-x, with all cubic phase over the entire testing temperature range (300-773 K), is synthesized. Through optimization of crystal symmetry and microstructure, a state-of-the-art ZTmax of 1.86 at 673 K and average ZTavg of 1.43 at ≈323-773 K are realized in δ-TAGS-75 (δ= 0.21), which is the highest value among all reported cubic-phase GeTe-based thermoelectric systems so far. As compared with stoichiometric TAGS-x, the remarkable thermoelectric achieved in cubic δ-TAGS-x can be attributed to the alleviation of highly (electrical and thermal) resistive grain boundary Ag8 GeTe6 phase. Moreover, δ-TAGS-x exhibits much better mechanical properties than stoichiometric TAGS-x, together with the outstanding thermoelectric performance, leading to a robust single-leg thermoelectric module with ηmax of ≈10.2% and Pmax of ≈0.191W. The finding in this work indicates the great application potential of non-stoichiometric δ-TAGS-x in the field of mid-temperature waste heat harvesting.

Rice Quality and Yield at Various Application Times of Organic Rice Management System

The higher national rice demand encourages various efforts to increase rice production. This increase in rice production occurs in line with increasing public awareness of healthy foods, especially organic rice. Rice field management with an organic system is expected to provide a higher yield and quality of rice. This study aims to determine the effect of the long-time application of an organic rice management system on rice yield and quality. Descriptive exploratory research is supported by laboratory analysis of samples of organic rice plants with three periods (10 years, 7 years, and 4 years), semi-organic and conventional. The parameters observed were dry harvested grain, dry milled grain, the weight of 1000 grains, unfilled grain, protein content, amylum, amylopectin, and reducing sugar. The most prolonged organic rice field management with the application of 10 years gives better results with a protein content of 6.14%, amylum 71.71%, and amylopectin 49.35%. While the application of organic farming for 7 years gives the highest rice yield, the difference is not confirmed with the application of organic 10 years, with the weight of dry grain harvest 10.44 Mg ha-1, dry milled grain 8.15 10.44 Mg ha-1, the weight of 1000 grains 24 g, and unfilled grain 3.8%.

Study on the Capture Effect of Particle Trap in 1000 kV AC GIL

In this paper, a 1000 kV gas insulated transmission line (GIL) prototype with a basin insulator and a three-post insulator structure was designed and developed to study the particle motion behavior in an ultra high voltage (UHV) GIL. Particle traps were arranged on the convex side of the basin insulator and near the three-post insulator. Aluminum and copper particles were arranged in front of and on the surface of the traps. A short-time voltage application procedure and a graded long-time voltage application procedure were designed to investigate the difference in the capture effect of the traps on the two types of particles when the test voltage was applied to the prototype through these two voltage application procedures. The results of the study show that the particle motion behavior is complex under AC voltage. The placement of the particles, their own properties and the voltage application procedure all affect the motion behavior of the particles. The trap with the grid structure is effective in capturing particles near both the convex side of the basin insulator and the three-post insulator. At the end of the test, some of the particles went inside the trap and some of them gathered at the edge of the trap. The graded long-time voltage application procedure with a small voltage application gradient and a long duration enables the particles to move sufficiently at a lower voltage to be trapped.

Setting Development Targets for Fuel Cells and Systems for Heavy-Duty Trucks Using a Comprehensive Model-Based Approach

For a carbon-neutral society to be realized, widespread use of fuel cells for transportation applications would be effective. The widespread use of fuel cells, in turn, requires improvements in the durability and energy conversion efficiency when fuel cells are used in high-load, long-time use applications, such as heavy-duty trucks (HDTs), construction machinery, railroads, and ships. Enhancing their durability and efficiency would require improving the performance of fuel cells and appropriately assigning performance targets to the hybrid system configuration, including batteries and radiators, and the control system. However, the performance target for each component remains unclear. This is due to the lack of a comprehensive study to reasonably assign the requisites for each component to achieve the system requirement, such as the durability and fuel economy targets of HDTs.Few studies have comprehensively proposed how individual components should be developed to satisfy the fuel cell system requirements. Cullen et al [1] discussed the development targets of fuel cell materials from the HDT requirements. Additionally, performance targets of individual components must be set to minimize the total cost, including durability and replacement, total fuel, and initial costs. Furthermore, a comprehensive model that can calculate the total cost of HDTs while accounting for the efficiency degradation due to long time use of fuel cells is also required.In this study, we propose a procedure to set the development targets of individual components by minimizing the total cost of HDTs. A mathematical model that combines a fuel cell performance model, degradation models, and a power management control model is employed to bridge the gap between the components’ properties and the system performance. Optimization using this model allows candidates to be found for the optimal I-V polarization curve, the system configuration of fuel cell stacks, batteries, and radiators, and their control algorithms. In the presentation, after showing the proposed procedure and the model, the development targets of the polarization curves, system configurations, and control specifications will be discussed. Reference [1] D. A. Cullen, et.al, NATURE ENERGY. 6, pp.462-474 (2021).

Flame-Assisted Synthesis of O-Coordinated Single-Atom Catalysts for Efficient Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) exhibit intriguing performance in electrocatalysis owing to their maximized atom utilizations and unique electronic structures, but effective anchoring metal atoms with defined coordination structure on hierarchical integrated electrode remain a challenge. Herein, a fast and facial flame-assisted strategy is developed to construct oxygen-coordinated SACs on integrated carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays with promising applications in electrocatalysis. Density functional theory calculations show that oxygen in carbon substrate imparts homogeneous sites for the efficient anchoring of metal atoms, thereby enabling SACs to disperse uniformly and firmly and thus bringing optimized activities. Moreover, the integrated CNT array with abundant oxygen-containing groups is constructed and has been used as an efficient matrix for anchoring metal atoms (CNT-O@M) via a flame-assisted method. The as-prepared CNT-O@M (M = Co and Pt as typical examples) shows excellent activities in electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction with utilization of active site as high as 75.7%, which is superior to the reported SACs. Particularly, the performance of CNT-O@M can maintain stably under various harsh conditions, showing a promising prospect in the long-time applications. The methodology and concept proposed in this work could be extended to the synthesis of a variety of integrated SACs for efficient electrocatalysis.

A novel artificial film of lithiophilic polyethersulfone for inhibiting lithium dendrite

• PES is first time used to modify the li electrode which shows excellent lithium affinity. • PES film with polar functional groups ( O = S = O ) can realize the redistribution of the lithium ion flow and a uniform nano-columnar lithium layer can be obtained even in the high current density of 5 mA cm −2 . • (3) the PES film prolongs the half-cell life three times than control group with higher coulombic efficiency. The dendrite problem and low Coulombic efficiency of lithium anode have hindered its commercial application for long time. In this paper, the Polyethersulfone (PES) film is spin-coated to construct a composite lithium anode. With the polar functional groups of PES, the lithiophilicity of the anode is greatly improved. Non-conductive uniform structure with polar functional groups ( O = S = O ) constructed on the lithium metal anode can realize the redistribution of the lithium ion flow and reduce the probability of dendrite formation in the “hot spot” area. A uniform nano-columnar lithium layer can be obtained even in the high current density of 5 mA cm −2 . Electrochemical interface studies have illustrated that PES film can increase the migration speed of lithium ion among the electrodes, increase the reduction reaction rate of lithium ion. Finite element simulation calculations show that the PES film can effectively reduce the concentration of lithium ion near the dendrite tip. In addition, with the Cu-PES structure modified by 3.3 mg mL −1 PES, the average Coulombic efficiency of half-cell reaches 90%, and the cell can run for 220 cycles stably which is three times than control group in 0.5 mA cm −2 .

Programmable Asymmetric Nanofluidic Photothermal Textile Umbrella for Concurrent Salt Management and In Situ Power Generation During Long-Time Solar Steam Generation.

Although solar-driven seawater desalination affords a highly promising strategy for freshwater-electricity harvesting by employing abundant solar energy and ocean resources, the inevitable salt crystallization on the surface of evaporators causes a sharp decline in evaporation performance and the poor electricity output of most coupled inflexible evaporation-power generation devices limits the scalability and durability in long-time practical applications. Herein, we report a simple programmable nanofluidic photothermal textile umbrella by asymmetrically depositing MoS2 nanosheets on cotton textiles, which allows for controllable gravity-assisted edge-preferential salt crystallization/harvesting via self-manipulated saline solution transportation in the wet umbrella and simultaneous drenching-induced electrokinetic voltage generation (0.535 V)/storage (charging a capacitor to 12.2 V) in over 120 h of the nonstop solar desalination process (with 7.5 wt % saline solution). Notably, the morphology and salt crystallization areas can be managed via the programmed umbrellas. Moreover, the asymmetric textile umbrellas possess admirable sewable features for large-scale integration to enhance the evaporation and voltage output efficiency. Importantly, this textile umbrella evaporator shows excellent output stability and durability even after 40 times of washing. This work may pave a scalable way to design programmable solar evaporators for sustainable seawater desalination with scalabilities of zero-waste discharge, valuable resource recovery, and energy harvesting.

Bulk and nanoparticles of zinc oxide exerted their beneficial effects by conferring modifications in transcription factors, histone deacetylase, carbon and nitrogen assimilation, antioxidant biomarkers, and secondary metabolism in soybean.

Nanoscience paves the way for producing highly potent fertilizers and pesticides to meet farmer’s expectations. This study investigated the physiological and molecular responses of soybean seedlings to the long-time application of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and their bulk type (BZnO) at 5 mg L-1 under the two application methods (I- foliar application; II- soil method). The ZnO NPs/BZnO treatments in a substance type- and method-dependent manner improved plant growth performance and yield. ZnO NPs transactionally upregulated the EREB gene. However, the expression of the bHLH gene displayed a contrary downward trend in response to the supplements. ZnO NPs moderately stimulated the transcription of R2R3MYB. The HSF-34 gene was also exhibited a similar upward trend in response to the nano-supplements. Moreover, the ZnONP treatments mediated significant upregulation in the WRKY1 transcription factor. Furthermore, the MAPK1 gene displayed a similar upregulation trend in response to the supplements. The foliar application of ZnONP slightly upregulated transcription of the HDA3 gene, while this gene showed a contrary slight downregulation trend in response to the supplementation of nutrient solution. The upregulation in the CAT gene also resulted from the nano-supplements. The concentrations of photosynthetic pigments exhibited an increasing trend in the ZnONP-treated seedlings. The applied treatments contributed to the upregulation in the activity of nitrate reductase and the increase in the proline concentrations. ZnO NPs induced the activity of antioxidant enzymes, including peroxidase and catalase by averages of 48.3% and 41%, respectively. The utilization of ZnO NPs mediated stimulation in the activity of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and increase in soluble phenols. The findings further underline this view that the long-time application of ZnO NPs at low concentrations is a safe low-risk approach to meet agricultural requirements.

The Implementation of Sheltered Instructional Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model in Saudi Schools: A Study of EFL Teachers’ Perspectives

The Sheltered Instructional Observation Protocol SIOP is a model designed to assist teachers in organizing and planning the lessons delivery through different stages. This model is also useful in enhancing the students’ achievement and minimizing any chance of educational failure. However, EFL teachers need to be trained in order to guarantee successful implementation of this model. This study examined the implementation of the SIOP model from teachers’ perspectives after they attended an introductory workshop in a private school in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. The study adopted the qualitative approach for collecting and analyzing the data. The sample of the study consisted of seven English language teachers (4 females & 3 males). Two data collection instruments were used, namely, observational sessions and a semi-structured interview. Most of the researcher interaction with the sample was done online due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. The workshop and the interviews were done through Zoom video communication. The central findings of this study reveal that the majority of the teachers have covered all SIOP components during their lessons. Moreover, it was found that there is a relationship between the implementation of the SIOP model and the students' learning motivation. Furthermore, the results showed that the SIOP implementation might help in enhancing the teachers’ proficiency. Besides, it was revealed that most of the teachers had a positive attitude towards the implementation of the SIOP model. However, they claimed that time and place might hinder any future implementation of the SIOP model. This study recommends a larger sample size, longtime study application and a life sample workshop to guarantee better results. It also provides significant implications which might be useful for EFL teachers, policy makers and interested researchers. 

An accurate and distraction-free vision-based structural displacement measurement method integrating Siamese network based tracker and correlation-based template matching

Vision-based displacement measurement receives increasing attention on non-contact bridge monitoring while it faces challenges in long-time field applications due to the presence of environmental variations. To overcome this issue, this study proposes a novel distraction-free displacement measurement approach by integrating deep learning-based Siamese tracker with correlation-based template matching. The Siamese tracker used applies deep feature representations and learned similarity measures for image matching and also considers adaptive template update with time. Since the estimated bounding boxes by the Siamese tracker have size changes within frame sequences, a correction step is added to remove the centroid drifts between the template and the predicted target regions using correlation-based template matching. The proposed method is validated first in an indoor test and then implemented in monitoring tests on a short-span footbridge and a long-span road bridge, demonstrating its potential to handle challenging scenarios including partial occlusion, illumination changes, background variations and shade effects.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles mediated substantial physiological and molecular changes in tomato.

There has long been debate about how nanoproducts meet agricultural requirements. This study aimed to investigate tomato responses to the long-time foliar application of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NP; 0 and 3 mgl-1) or bulk type (BZnO). Both ZnO-NP and BZnO treatments, especially the nanoform, were significantly capable of improving growth, biomass, and yield. The ZnO-NP treatment upregulated the expression of the R2R3MYB transcription factor by 2.6 folds. The BZnO and ZnO-NP treatments transcriptionally up-regulated WRKY1 gene by 2.5 and 6.4 folds, respectively. The bHLH gene was also upregulated in response to BZnO (2.3-fold) or ZnO-NP (4.7-fold). Moreover, the ZnO-NP application made a contribution to upregulation in the EREB gene whereas the bulk compound did not make a significant change. Upregulation in the HsfA1a gene also resulted from the ZnO-NP (2.8-fold) or BZnO (1.6-fold) supplementation. The MKK2 and CAT genes displayed a similar upregulation trend in response to the supplements by an average of 3-folds. While the application of ZnO-NP slightly down-regulated the histone deacetylases (HDA3) gene by 1.9-fold, indicating epigenetic modification. The supplements, especially the nano-product, enhanced concentrations of K, Fe, and Zn in both leaves and fruits. The concentrations of Chla, Chlb, and carotenoids were increased in response to the BZnO or ZnO-NP treatments. Likewise, BZnO or ZnO-NP mediated an increase in activity of nitrate reductase and proline content in leaves. These treatments increased soluble phenols and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity. With a similar trend, the BZnO or ZnO-NP application improved the activities of catalase and peroxidase enzymes. The reinforcement in metaxylem and secondary tissues resulted from the applied supplements. This study provides comprehensive comparative evidence on how ZnO-NPs may remodel the chromatin ultrastructure and transcription program, and confer stress tolerance in crops. This study also underlines the necessity of providing integrated transcriptome and proteome data in future studies.

Electrically-assisted skin delivery of buspirone submicron emulsions

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the potential application of electrically-assisted methods, including iontophoresis and electroporation, on the transdermal delivery of buspirone hydrochloride from a submicron emulsion-based system. The results showed that by applied iontophoresis at 0.5 mA/cm2 for 3 h or electroporation at 1 pulse, 300 V, 200 ms, 0.5 min spacing for 10 min, increased the cumulative amount of buspirone at 10 h by 2.4 and 2.1 folds, respectively, compared to passive diffusion. The combination of iontophoresis and electroporation did not show synergistic effects. For long-time application of iontophoresis, the enhancement effect decreased in the later stage due to skin polarization. The duty cycle of current applied was found to increase iontophoretic efficiency. When compared to passive diffusion, the lag time of buspirone-loaded submicron emulsion permeated through skin was shortened from 3 h to 0.5 h with the use of both electrically-assisted methods, indicating that more rapid onset of buspirone could be obtained by using electrically-assisted methods.

On the wavelet-based compressibility of continuous-time sampled ECG signal for e-health applications.

This paper presents a compression study of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals for e-Health cardiac online diagnostic systems. The study uses 75 real electrocardiogram records sampled with continuous-time level-crossing (LC) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This signal-dependent LC-ADC compresses signals compared to conventional ADC but further compression is needed especially for long-time monitoring applications. The orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm is simulated to evaluate ECG compression with 54 orthogonal and biorthogonal wavelets. For LC-ADC amplitude output compression, Biorthogonal3.1 (bior3.1) wavelet achieves optimal performances in terms of compression ratio (CR) while ensuring 2-% percentage root-mean-square difference (PRD). The PRD must be limited to this value to ensure a very good quality signals after decompression. For circuit implementation purposes, bior3.1 wavelet is proposed as a multiplier-free decomposition step and a noncomplex global and hard thresholding process is achieved. The average CR is 63% and PRD varies between 0.1 and 2.1% leading to a very good diagnostic quality.