A nonlinear method of removing harmonic noise in geophysical data

A nonlinear, adaptive method to remove the harmonic noise that commonly resides in geophysical data is proposed in this study. This filtering method is based on the ensemble empirical mode decomposition algorithm in conjunction with the logarithmic transform. We present a synthetic model study to investigate the capability of signal reconstruction from the decomposed data, and compare the results with those derived from other 2-D adaptive filters. Applications to the real seismic data acquired by using an ocean bottom seismograph and to a shot gather of the ground penetrating radar demonstrate the robustness of this method. Our work proposes a concept that instead of Fourier-based approaches, the harmonic noise removal in geophysical data can be achieved effectively by using an alternative nonlinear adaptive data analysis method, which has been applied extensively in other scientific studies

Eye of horus – Erratum revealed a prescription survey

Background: The aim of this study was to survey the quality and the content of prescription of practitioners and also assess the legibility of alphabet, and short form of the drug.Methods: A survey of all prescription received by the patients that were written by general practitioners, consulting physicians and dentists in and around Virajpet and Madikeri (south Coorg) was included.The prescriptions were photocopied and returned back to the patients. The prescription was scored and analyzed by a qualified medical investigator.Results: A total of 171 prescription samples were collected. In most prescriptions, one or more aspects of patient’s personal details were missing. Concerned doctor’s details also lacked in most cases. 40.3% of the prescriptions were obtained wherein short form of the drug was used for prescribing drug. Legibility of alphabet was also evaluated and the most confusing letter noted in our study was letter “C”; followed by A, T, S, O, G, and D in this study the letter Rx was written in 7% of the prescription and in 19% prescription it was replaced by word “Adv” and 74% of prescription without symbol of Rx.Conclusions: The present data shows most prescriptions in the study was inadequate and important details were lacking, legibility of prescription was poor in rating

Dynamic mechanical behaviour of nanoparticle loaded biodegradable PVA films for vaginal drug delivery

Traore, Y. L., Fumakia, M., Gu, J., & Ho, E. A. Dynamic mechanical behaviour of nanoparticle loaded biodegradable PVA films for vaginal drug delivery, Journal of Biomaterials Applications 32(8) pp. 1119–1126. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885328217739451In this study, we investigated the viscoelastic and mechanical behaviour of polyvinyl alcohol films formulated along with carrageenan, plasticizing agents (polyethylene glycol and glycerol), and when loaded with nanoparticles as a model for potential applications as microbicides. The storage modulus, loss modulus and glass transition temperature were determined using a dynamic mechanical analyzer. Films fabricated from 2% to 5% polyvinyl alcohol containing 3 mg or 5 mg of fluorescently labeled nanoparticles were evaluated. The storage modulus and loss modulus values of blank films were shown to be higher than the nanoparticle-loaded films. Glass transition temperature determined using the storage modulus, and loss modulus was between 40–50℃ and 35–40℃, respectively. The tensile properties evaluated showed that 2% polyvinyl alcohol films were more elastic but less resistant to breaking compared to 5% polyvinyl alcohol films (2% films break around 1 N load and 5% films break around 7 N load). To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the influence of nanoparticle and film composition on the physico-mechanical properties of polymeric films for vaginal drug delivery.Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant (Grant No.: RGPIN-2015-06008) Research Manitoba Operating Grant and a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leaders Opportunity Fund Leslie F Buggey Professorship Manitoba Graduate Scholarship from the province of Manitob

Study on Heat Transfer Performance of Non-integral Capillary Core Sintered Uniform Plate

This paper mainly introduces the sintering process of the monolithic capillary wick and analyzes the influence of different copper powder particle size, filling rate, copper powder shape and heat source size on the heat transfer performance of the isothermal plate. The experimental results show that: (1) For the isothermal plate sintered with spherical copper powder, the capillary force of large particle size copper powder is small, but the flow resistance is also small, and the performance of the isothermal plate sintered with large particle size copper powder is better. (2) In the case of low filling rate, the isothermal plate is dried due to insufficient return fluid. In the case of high filling rate, on the one hand, the thickness of the liquid film at the evaporation end of the isothermal plate is large, resulting in additional thermal resistance. On the other hand, the thin film evaporation mode will be transformed into pool boiling mode, which will reduce the heat transfer performance. (3) Spherical copper powder sintered plate with regular shape has the best performance, while dendritic copper powder sintered plate has relatively high thermal resistance. (4) The heat source area has a great influence on the thermal resistance of the plate. Under the same heating power, the thermal resistance of the small area heat source is much higher than that of the large area heat source; The thermal resistance of sintered copper plate is lower than that of pure copper plate under two heat source areas.</jats:p

Effect of Copper Particles Shape on the Heat Transfer Characteristics of Porous Microchannels During Boiling of Working Fluid

In this paper, the heat transfer performance of porous microchannels sintered with spherical and dendritic copper particle is compared. The working fluid is deionized water. For uniform particle size sample, the dendritic-particle microchannel presents better boiling heat transfer performance than the spherical-particle one. It includes higher critical heat flux (CHF), which was related to the connected pore structure of the dendritic copper powder. For mixed particle size sample, the dendritic-particle microchannel also shows higher heat transfer coefficient and CHF. At high heat flux, the dendritic-particle microchannel can effectively suppress the pressure pulsation and maintain a relatively stable flow boiling state in the microchannel.</jats:p

Putative thioredoxin Trx1 from<i>Thermosipho africanus</i>strain TCF52B: expression, purification and structural determination using S-SAD

Thioredoxin is a small ubiquitous protein that plays a role in many biological processes. A putative thioredoxin, Trx1, fromThermosipho africanusstrain TCF52B, which has low sequence identity to its closest homologues, was successfully cloned, overexpressed and purified. The protein was crystallized using the microbatch-under-oil technique at 289 K in a variety of conditions; crystals grown in 0.2 MMgCl2, 0.1 Mbis-tris pH 6.5, 25%(w/v) PEG 3350, which grew as irregular trapezoids to maximum dimensions of 1.2 × 1.5 × 0.80 mm, were used for sulfur single-wavelength anomalous dispersion analysis. The anomalous sulfur signal could be detected to 2.83 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation on the 08B1-1 beamline at the Canadian Light Source. The crystals belonged to space groupP212121, with unit-cell parametersa= 40.6,b= 41.5,c= 56.4 Å, α = β = γ = 90.0°.</jats:p

Biodegradable Film for the Targeted Delivery of siRNA-Loaded Nanoparticles to Vaginal Immune Cells

The goal of this study was to develop and characterize a novel intravaginal film platform for targeted delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA)-loaded nanoparticles (NP) to dendritic cells as a potential gene therapy for the prevention of sexually transmitted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Poly­(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-functionalized poly­(D, L-lactic-<i>co</i>-glycolic acid) (PLGA)/polyethylenimine (PEI)/siRNA NP (siRNA-NP) were fabricated using a modified emulsion-solvent evaporation method and characterized for particle size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency (EE), and siRNA release. siRNA-NP were decorated with anti-HLA-DR antibody (siRNA-NP-Ab) for targeting delivery to HLA-DR+ dendritic cells (DCs) and homogeneously dispersed in a biodegradable film consisting of poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and λ-carrageenan. The siRNA-NP-Ab-loaded film (siRNA-NP-Ab-film) was transparent, displayed suitable physicomechanical properties, and was noncytotoxic. Targeting activity was evaluated in a mucosal coculture model consisting of a vaginal epithelial monolayer (VK2/E6E7 cells) and differentiated KG-1 cells (HLA-DR+ DCs). siRNA-NP-Ab were rapidly released from the film and were able to penetrate the epithelial layer to be taken up by differentiated KG-1 cells. siRNA-NP-Ab demonstrated higher targeting activity and significantly higher knockdown of synaptosome-associated 23-kDa protein (SNAP-23) mRNA and protein when compared to siRNA-NP without antibody conjugation. Overall, these data suggest that our novel siRNA-NP-Ab-film may be a promising platform for preventing HIV infection within the female genital tract