Selective double quantum resolved correlation experiment for the complete separation of entire proton NMR spectra of enantiomers

The present study reports a two dimensional NMR experiment which separates single quantum spectra of enantiomers from that of a racemic mixture. This is a blend of selective double quantum refocusing, for resolving couplings and chemical shift interactions along two dimensions followed by correlation of the selectively excited protons to the entire coupled spin network. The concept is solely based on the presence of distinct intra methyl dipolar couplings of different enantiomers when dissolved in chiral orienting media. The analysis of single enantiomer spectrum obtained from respective F-2 cross sections yield all the spectral information. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review of correlations between SPT N and shear modulus: A new correlation applicable to any region

A low strain shear modulus plays a fundamental role in earthquake geotechnical engineering to estimate the ground response parameters for seismic microzonation. A large number of site response studies are being carried out using the standard penetration test (SPT) data, considering the existing correlation between SPT N values and shear modulus. The purpose of this paper is to review the available empirical correlations between shear modulus and SPT N values and to generate a new correlation by combining the new data obtained by the author and the old available data. The review shows that only few authors have used measured density and shear wave velocity to estimate shear modulus, which were related to the SPT N values. Others have assumed a constant density for all the shear wave velocities to estimate the shear modulus. Many authors used the SPT N values of less than 1 and more than 100 to generate the correlation by extrapolation or assumption, but practically these N values have limited applications, as measuring of the SPT N values of less than 1 is not possible and more than 100 is not carried out. Most of the existing correlations were developed based on the studies carried out in Japan, where N values are measured with a hammer energy of 78%, which may not be directly applicable for other regions because of the variation in SPT hammer energy. A new correlation has been generated using the measured values in Japan and in India by eliminating the assumed and extrapolated data. This correlation has higher regression coefficient and lower standard error. Finally modification factors are suggested for other regions, where the hammer energy is different from 78%. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structure and deformation correlation of closed-cell aluminium foam subject to uniaxial compression

We report the results of an experimental and numerical study conducted on a closed-cell aluminium foam that was subjected to uniaxial compression with lateral constraint. X-ray computed tomography was utilized to gain access into the three-dimensional (3-D) structure of the foam and some aspects of the deformation mechanisms. A series of advanced 3-D image analyses are conducted on the 3-D images aimed at characterizing the strain localization regions. We identify the morphological/geometrical features that are responsible for the collapse of the cells and the strain localization. A novel mathematical approach based on a Minkowski tensor analysis along with the mean intercept length technique were utilized to search for signatures of anisotropy across the foam sample and its evolution as a function of loading. Our results show that regions with higher degrees of anisotropy in the undeformed foam have a tendency to initiate the onset of cell collapse. Furthermore, we show that strain hardening occurs predominantly in regions with large cells and high anisotropy. We combine the finite element method with the tomographic images to simulate the mechanical response of the foam. We predict further deformation in regions where the foam is already deformed. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc. All rights reserved.

Correlation of Calcification on Excised Aortic Valves by Micro-Computed Tomography with Severity of Aortic Stenosis

Background and aim of the study: The quantification of incidentally found aortic valve calcification on computed tomography (CT) is not performed routinely, as data relating to the accuracy of aortic valve calcium for estimating the severity of aortic stenosis (AS) is neither consistent nor validated. As aortic valve calcium quantification by CT is confounded by wall and coronary ostial calcification, as well as motion artifact, the ex-vivo micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) of stenotic aortic valves allows a precise measurement of the amounts of calcium present. The study aim, using excised aortic valves from patients with confirmed AS, was to determine if the amount of calcium on micro-CT correlated with the severity of AS. Methods: Each of 35 aortic valves that had been excised from patients during surgical valve replacement were examined using micro-CT imaging. The amount of calcium present was determined by absolute and proportional values of calcium volume in the specimen. Subsequently, the correlation between calcium volume and preoperative mean aortic valve gradient (MAVG), peak transaortic velocity (V-max), and aortic valve area (AVA) on echocardiography, was evaluated. Results: The mean calcium volume across all valves was 603.2 +/- 398.5 mm(3), and the mean ratio of calcium volume to total valve volume was 0.36 +/- 0.16. The mean aortic valve gradient correlated positively with both calcium volume and ratio (r = 0.72, p <0.001). V-max also correlated positively with the calcium volume and ratio (r = 0.69 and 0.76 respectively; p <0.001). A logarithmic curvilinear model proved to be the best fit to the correlation. A calcium volume of 480 mm(3) showed sensitivity and specificity of 0.76 and 0.83, respectively, for a diagnosis of severe AS, while a calcium ratio of 0.37 yielded sensitivity and specificity of 0.82 and 0.94, respectively. Conclusion: A radiological estimation of calcium amount by volume, and its proportion to the total valve volume, were shown to serve as good predictive parameters for severe AS. An estimation of the calcium volume may serve as a complementary measure for determining the severity of AS when aortic valve calcification is identified on CT imaging. The Journal of Heart Valve Disease 2012;21:320-327

Activation of Lattice Oxygen of TiO2 by Pd2+ Ion: Correlation of Low-Temperature CO and Hydrocarbon Oxidation with Structure of Ti1-xPdxO2-x (x=0.01-0.03)

Lattice oxygen of TiO2 is activated by the substitution of Pd ion in its lattice. Ti1-xPdxO2-x (x = 0.01-0.03) have been synthesized by solution combustion method crystallizing in anatase TiO2 structure. Pd is in +2 oxidation state and Ti is in +4 oxidation state in the catalyst. Pd is more ionic in TiO2 lattice compared to Pd in PdO. Oxygen storage capacity defined by ``amount of oxygen that is used reversibly to oxidize CO'' is as high as 5100 mu mol/g of Ti0.97Pd0.03O1.97. Oxygen is extracted by CO to CO2 in absence of feed oxygen even at room temperature which is more than 20 times compared to pure TiO2. Rate of CO oxidation is 2.75 mu mol g(-1) s(-1) at 60 degrees C over Ti0.97Pd0.03O1.97 and C2H2 gets oxidized to CO2 and H2O at room temperature. Catalyst is not poisoned on long time operation of the reactor. Such high catalytic activity is due to activated lattice oxygen created by the substitution of Pd ion as seen from first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations with 96 atom supercells of Ti32O64, Ti31Pd1O63, Ti30Pd2O62, and Ti29Pd3O61. The compounds crystallize in anatase TiO2 structure with Pd2+ ion in nearly square planar geometry and TiO6 octahedra are distorted by the creation of weakly bound oxygens. Structural analysis of Ti31Pd1O63 which is close to 3% Pd ion substituted TiO2 shows that oxygens associated with both Ti and Pd ions in the lattice show bond valence sum of 1.87, a low value characteristic of weak oxygen in the lattice compared to oxygens with valence 2 and above in the same lattice. Exact positions of activated oxygens have been identified in the lattice from DFT calculations.

Measurement and correlation of quaternary solubilities of dihydroxybenzene isomers in supercritical carbon dioxide

The equilibrium quaternary solubilities of dihydroxybenzene (resorcinol + pyrocatechol + hydroquinone + SCCO2) isomers were experimentally determined at 308, 318 and 328K over a pressure range of 9.8-15.7 MPa by using a saturation method. The effects of temperature, pressure and the components on each other have been thoroughly investigated. The selectivity of SCCO2 for ternary (resorcinol + pyrocatechol + SCCO2) and quaternary systems was discussed. A new model equation for quaternary solubilities of solids has been developed by accounting for non-idealities by combining the solution model with Wilson activity coefficient model. The model equation has five adjustable parameters and correlates the quaternary solubilities of current data along with two other quaternary data reported in the literature. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Two-Dimensional Correlation Analysis of Temperature-Dependent FT-IR Spectra of Oleic Acid

In the present study, variable temperature FT-IR spectroscopic investigations were used to characterize the spectral changes in oleic acid during heating oleic acid in the temperature range from -30 degrees;C to 22 degrees C. In order to extract more information about the spectral variations taking place during the phase transition process, 2D correlation spectroscopy (2DCOS) was employed for the stretching (C?O) and rocking (CH2) band of oleic acid. However, the interpretation of these spectral variations in the FT-IR spectra is not straightforward, because the absorption bands are heavily overlapped and change due to two processes: recrystallization of the ?-phase and melting of the oleic acid. Furthermore, the solid phase transition from the ?- to the a-phase was also observed between -4 degrees C and -2 degrees C. Thus, for a more detailed 2DCOS analysis, we have split up the spectral data set in the subsets recorded between -30 degrees C to -16 degrees C, -16 degrees C to 10 degrees C, and 10 degrees C to 22 degrees C. In the corresponding synchronous and asynchronous 2D correlation plots, absorption bands that are characteristic of the crystalline and amorphous regions of oleic acid were separated.

Extended histories: improving regularity and performance in correlation prefetchers

Data Prefetchers identify and make use of any regularity present in the history/training stream to predict future references and prefetch them into the cache. The training information used is typically the primary misses seen at a particular cache level, which is a filtered version of the accesses seen by the cache. In this work we demonstrate that extending the training information to include secondary misses and hits along with primary misses helps improve the performance of prefetchers. In addition to empirical evaluation, we use the information theoretic metric entropy, to quantify the regularity present in extended histories. Entropy measurements indicate that extended histories are more regular than the default primary miss only training stream. Entropy measurements also help corroborate our empirical findings. With extended histories, further benefits can be achieved by triggering prefetches during secondary misses also. In this paper we explore the design space of extended prefetch histories and alternative prefetch trigger points for delta correlation prefetchers. We observe that different prefetch schemes benefit to a different extent with extended histories and alternative trigger points. Also the best performing design point varies on a per-benchmark basis. To meet these requirements, we propose a simple adaptive scheme that identifies the best performing design point for a benchmark-prefetcher combination at runtime. In SPEC2000 benchmarks, using all the L2 accesses as history for prefetcher improves the performance in terms of both IPC and misses reduced over techniques that use only primary misses as history. The adaptive scheme improves the performance of CZone prefetcher over Baseline by 4.6% on an average. These performance gains are accompanied by a moderate reduction in the memory traffic requirements.

Comparison of performance of OCDMA networks with correlation and chiplevel receivers

In this paper optical code-division multiple-access (O-CDMA) packet network is considered, which offers inherent security in the access networks. Two types of random access protocols are proposed for packet transmission. In protocol 1, all distinct codes and in protocol 2, distinct codes as well as shifted versions of all these codes are used. O-CDMA network performance using optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) 1-D and two-dimensional (2-D) wavelength/time single-pulse-per-row (W/T SPR) codes are analyzed. The main advantage of using 2-D codes instead of one-dimensional (1-D) codes is to reduce the errors due to multiple access interference among different users. In this paper, correlation receiver and chip-level receiver are considered in the analysis. Using analytical model, we compute packet-success probability, throughput and compare for OOC and SPR codes in an O-CDMA network and the analysis shows improved performance with SPR codes as compared to OOC codes.

Correlation between enhanced lattice polarizability and high piezoelectric response in BiScO3-PbTiO3

Piezoelectric and ex situ electric-field induced structural studies were carried out on closely spaced compositions in the morphotropic phase boundary region of (1 - x) PbTiO3-(x)BiScO3. While the common approach of zero field structural analysis failed to provide a unique relationship between the anomalous piezoresponse of x = 0.3725 and structural factor(s), ex situ study of electric-field induced structural changes revealed that the composition exhibiting the highest piezoelectric response is the one which also exhibits significantly enhanced polarizability of the lattices of both coexisting (monoclinic and tetragonal) phases. The enhanced lattice polarizability manifests as a significant fraction of the monoclinic phase transforming irreversibly to the tetragonal phase after electric poling. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.064106

Analysis of MAC protocols with correlation receiver for optical CDMA networks – part I

In this paper optical code-division multiple-access (O-CDMA) packet network is considered. Two types of random access protocols are proposed for packet transmission. In protocol 1, all distinct codes and in protocol 2, distinct codes as well as shifted versions of all these codes are used. O-CDMA network performance using optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) 1-D and twodimensional (2-D) wavelength/time single-pulse-per-row (W/TSPR) codes are analyzed. The main advantage of using 2-D codes instead of one-dimensional (1-D) codes is to reduce the errors due to multiple access interference among different users. In this paper, correlation receiver is considered in the analysis. Using analytical model, we compute and compare packet-success probability for 1-D and 2-D codes in an O-CDMA network and the analysis shows improved performance with 2-D codes as compared to 1-D codes.

Seismic site classification and correlation between standard penetration test N value and shear wave velocity for Lucknow city in Indo-Gangetic basin

Subsurface lithology and seismic site classification of Lucknow urban center located in the central part of the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) are presented based on detailed shallow subsurface investigations and borehole analysis. These are done by carrying out 47 seismic surface wave tests using multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) and 23 boreholes drilled up to 30 m with standard penetration test (SPT) N values. Subsurface lithology profiles drawn from the drilled boreholes show low- to medium-compressibility clay and silty to poorly graded sand available till depth of 30 m. In addition, deeper boreholes (depth >150 m) were collected from the Lucknow Jal Nigam (Water Corporation), Government of Uttar Pradesh to understand deeper subsoil stratification. Deeper boreholes in this paper refer to those with depth over 150 m. These reports show the presence of clay mix with sand and Kankar at some locations till a depth of 150 m, followed by layers of sand, clay, and Kankar up to 400 m. Based on the available details, shallow and deeper cross-sections through Lucknow are presented. Shear wave velocity (SWV) and N-SPT values were measured for the study area using MASW and SPT testing. Measured SWV and N-SPT values for the same locations were found to be comparable. These values were used to estimate 30 m average values of N-SPT (N-30) and SWV (V-s(30)) for seismic site classification of the study area as per the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) soil classification system. Based on the NEHRP classification, the entire study area is classified into site class C and D based on V-s(30) and site class D and E based on N-30. The issue of larger amplification during future seismic events is highlighted for a major part of the study area which comes under site class D and E. Also, the mismatch of site classes based on N-30 and V-s(30) raises the question of the suitability of the NEHRP classification system for the study region. Further, 17 sets of SPT and SWV data are used to develop a correlation between N-SPT and SWV. This represents a first attempt of seismic site classification and correlation between N-SPT and SWV in the Indo-Gangetic Basin.

Improved Detection of Remote Homologues Using Cascade PSI-BLAST: Influence of Neighbouring Protein Families on Sequence Coverage

Background: Development of sensitive sequence search procedures for the detection of distant relationships between proteins at superfamily/fold level is still a big challenge. The intermediate sequence search approach is the most frequently employed manner of identifying remote homologues effectively. In this study, examination of serine proteases of prolyl oligopeptidase, rhomboid and subtilisin protein families were carried out using plant serine proteases as queries from two genomes including A. thaliana and O. sativa and 13 other families of unrelated folds to identify the distant homologues which could not be obtained using PSI-BLAST. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have proposed to start with multiple queries of classical serine protease members to identify remote homologues in families, using a rigorous approach like Cascade PSI-BLAST. We found that classical sequence based approaches, like PSI-BLAST, showed very low sequence coverage in identifying plant serine proteases. The algorithm was applied on enriched sequence database of homologous domains and we obtained overall average coverage of 88% at family, 77% at superfamily or fold level along with specificity of similar to 100% and Mathew's correlation coefficient of 0.91. Similar approach was also implemented on 13 other protein families representing every structural class in SCOP database. Further investigation with statistical tests, like jackknifing, helped us to better understand the influence of neighbouring protein families. Conclusions/Significance: Our study suggests that employment of multiple queries of a family for the Cascade PSI-BLAST searches is useful for predicting distant relationships effectively even at superfamily level. We have proposed a generalized strategy to cover all the distant members of a particular family using multiple query sequences. Our findings reveal that prior selection of sequences as query and the presence of neighbouring families can be important for covering the search space effectively in minimal computational time. This study also provides an understanding of the `bridging' role of related families.

Supersymmetry of classical solutions in Chern-Simons higher spin supergravity

We construct and study classical solutions in Chern-Simons supergravity based on the superalgebra sl(N vertical bar N = 1). The algebra for the N = 3 case is written down explicitly using the fact that it arises as the global part of the super conformal W-3 superalgebra. For this case we construct new classical solutions and study their supersymmetry. Using the algebra we write down the Killing spinor equations and explicitly construct the Killing spinor for conical defects and black holes in this theory. We show that for the general sl(N|N - 1) theory the condition for the periodicity of the Killing spinor can be written in terms of the products of the odd roots of the super algebra and the eigenvalues of the holonomy matrix of the background. Thus the supersymmetry of a given background can be stated in terms of gauge invariant and well defined physical observables of the Chern-Simons theory. We then show that for N >= 4, the sl(N|N - 1) theory admits smooth supersymmetric conical defects.