Treatment of Aqueous Effluents Containing Phenol by the O(3), O(3)-UV, and O(3)-H(2)O(2) Processes: Experimental Study and Neural Network Modeling

In this work, the oxidation of the model pollutant phenol has been studied by means of the O(3), O(3)-UV, and O(3)-H(2)O(2) processes. Experiments were carried out in a fed-batch system to investigate the effects of initial dissolved organic carbon concentration, initial, ozone concentration in the gas phase, the presence or absence of UVC radiation, and initial hydrogen peroxide concentration. Experimental results were used in the modeling of the degradation processes by neural networks in order to simulate DOC-time profiles and evaluate the relative importance of process variables.

Performance of a solar energy powered falling film evaporator with film promoter

A solar energy powered failing film evaporator with film promoter was developed for concentrating diluted solutions (industrial effluents). The procedure proposed here does not emit CO(2), making it a viable alternative to the method of concentrating solutions that uses vapor as a heat source and releases CO(2) from burning fuel oil in a furnace, in direct opposition to the carbon reduction agreement established by the Kyoto protocol. This novel device consists of the following components: a flat plate solar collector with adjustable inclination, a film promoter (adhering to the collector), a liquid distributor, a concentrate collector. and accessories. The evaporation rate of the device was found to be affected both by the inclination of the collector and by the feed flow. The meteorological variables cannot be controlled, but were monitored constantly to ascertain the behavior of the equipment in response to the variations occurring throughout the day. Higher efficiencies were attained when the inclination of the collector was adjusted monthly, showing up to 36.4% higher values than when the collector remained in a fixed position. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improved Bioprocess with CHO-hTSH Cells on Higher Microcarrier Concentration Provides Higher Overall Biomass and Productivity for rhTSH

Since the recombinant thyroid-stimulating hormone (rhTSH) is secreted by stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-hTSH) cells, a bioprocess consisting of immobilizing the cells on a substrate allowing their multiplication is very suitable for rhTSH recovering from supernatants at relative high degree of purity. In addition, such a system has also the advantage of easily allowing delicate manipulations of culture medium replacement. In the present study, we show the development of a laboratory scale bioprocess protocol of CHO-hTSH cell cultures on cytodex microcarriers (MCs) in a 1 L bioreactor, for the preparation of rhTSH batches in view of structure/function studies. CHO-hTSH cells were cultivated on a fetal bovine serum supplemented medium during cell growth phase. For rhTSH synthesis phase, 75% of supernatant was replaced by animal protein-free medium every 24 h. Cell cultures were monitored for agitation (rpm), temperature (A degrees C), dissolved oxygen (% DO), pH, cell concentration, MCs coverage, glucose consumption, lactate production, and rhTSH expression. The results indicate that the amount of MCs in the culture and the cell concentration at the beginning of rhTSH synthesis phase were crucial parameters for improving the final rhTSH production. By cultivating the CHO-hTSH cells with an initial cell seeding of four cells/MC on 4 g/L of MCs with a repeated fed batch mode of operation at 40 rpm, 37 A degrees C, 20% DO, and pH 7.2 and starting the rhTSH synthesis phase with 3 x 10(6) cells/mL, we were able to supply the cultures with enough glucose, to maintain low levels of lactate, and to provide high percent (similar to 80%) of fully covered MCs for a long period (5 days) and attain a high cell concentration (similar to 9 x 10(5) cells/mL). The novelty of the present study is represented by the establishment of cell culture conditions allowing us to produce similar to 1.6 mg/L of rhTSH in an already suitable degree of purity. Batches of produced rhTSH were purified and showed biological activity.

Harmonic distortion of 2-MOS structures for MOSFET-C filters implemented with n-type unstrained and strained FINFETS

This work investigates the harmonic distortion (HD) in 2-MOS balanced structures composed of triple gate FinFETs. HD has been evaluated through the determination of the third-order harmonic distortion (HD3), since this represents the major non-linearity source in balanced structures. The 2-MOS structures with devices of different channel lengths (L) and fin widths (W(fin)) have been studied operating in the linear region as tunable resistors. The analysis was performed as a function of the gate voltage, aiming to verify the correlation between operation bias and HD3. The physical origins of the non-linearities have been investigated and are pointed out. Being a resistive circuit, the 2-MOS structure is generally projected for a targeted on-resistance, which has also been evaluated in terms of HD3. The impact of the application of biaxial strain has been studied for FinFETs of different dimensions. It has been noted that HD3 reduces with the increase of the gate bias for all the devices and this reduction is more pronounced both in narrower and in longer devices. Also, the presence of strain slightly diminishes the non-linearity at a similar bias. However, a drawback associated with the use of strain engineering consists in a significant reduction of the on-resistance with respect to unstrained devices. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Frequency Domain Connectivity Identification: An Application of Partial Directed Coherence in fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become an important tool in Neuroscience due to its noninvasive and high spatial resolution properties compared to other methods like PET or EEG. Characterization of the neural connectivity has been the aim of several cognitive researches, as the interactions among cortical areas lie at the heart of many brain dysfunctions and mental disorders. Several methods like correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and dynamic causal models have been proposed to quantify connectivity strength. An important concept related to connectivity modeling is Granger causality, which is one of the most popular definitions for the measure of directional dependence between time series. In this article, we propose the application of the partial directed coherence (PDC) for the connectivity analysis of multisubject fMRI data using multivariate bootstrap. PDC is a frequency domain counterpart of Granger causality and has become a very prominent tool in EEG studies. The achieved frequency decomposition of connectivity is useful in separating interactions from neural modules from those originating in scanner noise, breath, and heart beating. Real fMRI dataset of six subjects executing a language processing protocol was used for the analysis of connectivity. Hum Brain Mapp 30:452-461, 2009. (C) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Influence of the heat treatment on the nucleation of silver nanoparticles in Tm(3+) doped PbO-GeO(2) glasses

Nucleation of silver nanoparticles (NPs) in Tm(3+) doped PbO-GeO(2) (PGO) glass is reported. The influence of the heat treatment on the nucleation of silver NPs is studied by means of transmission electron microscopy and optical spectroscopy. Two heat treatment procedures were applied in order to compare their performance. Observation of infrared-to-visible frequency upconversion (UC) luminescence of Tm(3+) ions is reported and correlated with the heat-treatment procedure. Enhancement of the UC emission for samples heat treated during various time intervals is attributed to the increased local field in the vicinity of the NPs. Quenching of the UC signal was also observed and correlated with the growth of NPs amount and size.

Production and characterization of RF-sputtered PbO-GeO(2) amorphous thin films containing silver and gold nanoparticles

In the present work we report the characterization of PbO-GeO(2) films containing silver nanoparticles (NPs). Radio Frequency (RF) co-sputtering was used for deposition of amorphous films on glass substrates. Targets of 60PbO-40GeO(2) (in wt%) and bulk silver with purity of 99.99% were RF-sputtered using 3.5 m Torr of argon. The concentration of silver and gold NPs in the films was controlled varying the RF-power applied to the targets (40-50W for the PbO-GeO(2) target; 6-8 W for the metallic target). The films obtained were annealed in air at different temperatures and various periods of time. Absorption measurements have shown strong NPs surface plasmon bands. Different widths and peak wavelengths were observed, indicating that size, shape and distribution of the silver NPs are dependent on the deposition process parameters and on the annealing of the samples. X-Ray Fluorescence and Transmission Electron Microscopy were also used to characterize the samples. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of gold nanoparticles on optically stimulated effects in TeO(2)-ZnO and GeO(2)-PbO amorphous thin films

We have found photoinduced second harmonic generation at wavelength 1064 nm during bicolor Nd:YAG laser coherent treatment of TeO(2)-ZnO and GeO(2)-PbO amorphous films. The maximally achieved second order susceptibility was equal to about 1.02 pm/V. Correlation of the induced second order susceptibility with local sample heating and induced birefringence may indicate an occurrence of local phase transitions from amorphous glass-like phase to non-centrosymmetry metastable phases. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transport Barkhausen-like noise in uniaxially pressed Bi(1.65)Pb(0.35)Sr(2)Ca(2)Cu(3)O(10+delta) ceramic samples

We report on the detection of the transport Barkhausen-like noise (TBN) in polycrystalline samples of Bi(1.65)Pb(0.35)Sr(2)Ca(2) Cu(3)O(10+delta) (Bi-2223) which were subjected to different uniaxial compacting pressures. The transport Barkhausen-like noise was measured when the sample was subjected to an ac triangular-shape magnetic field (f similar to 1 Hz) with maximum amplitude B(max) approximate to 5.5 mT, in order to avoid the flux penetration within the superconducting grains. Analysis of the TBN signal, measured for several values of excitation current density, indicated that the applied magnetic field in which the noise signal first appears, B(a)(t(i)), is closely related to the magnetic-flux pinning capability of the material. The combined results are consistent with the existence of three different superconducting levels within the samples: (i) the superconducting grains; (ii) the superconducting clusters; and (iii) the weak-links. We finally argue that TBN measurements constitute a powerful tool for probing features of the intergranular transport properties in polycrystalline samples of high-T(c) superconductors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental and theoretical study of transport properties in uniaxially pressed (Bi, Pb)(2)Sr(2)Ca(2)Cu(3)O(10+delta) ceramic samples

Experimental and theoretical studies on the magnetic field dependence of the electrical resistance R(B(a)) and the transport noise (TN) in polycrystalline high-T(c) superconductors subjected to different uniaxial compacting pressures were conducted. X-ray diffraction rocking curves were performed in different surfaces of the samples in order to investigated the degree of texture The results indicated an improvement of the degree of texture with increasing the uniaxial compacting pressure In theoretical simulations of the data, the polycrystalline superconductors were described as a series-parallel array of Josephson devices The intergranular magnetic field is described within the framework of the intragranular flux-trapping model and the distribution of the grain-boundary angles is assumed to follow the Rayleigh statistical function The proposed model describes well the experimental magnetoresistance R(B(a)) data We have found that the behavior of the R(B(a)) curves changes appreciably when different uniaxially compacting pressures are applied to the sample and such a changes are reproduced by the model when different grain-boundary angles distributions are used In addition, changes in the R(B(a)) dependence have their counterparts in the experimental transport noise signals (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Thermodynamic modelling of an Al(2)O(3)-MnO system using the ionic model

The thermodynamic assessment of an Al(2)O(3)-MnO pseudo-binary system has been carried out with the use of an ionic model. The use of the electro-neutrality principles in addition to the constitutive relations, between site fractions of the species on each sub-lattice, the thermodynamics descriptions of each solid phase has been determined to make possible the solubility description. Based on the thermodynamics descriptions of each phase in addition to thermo-chemical data obtained from the literature, the Gibbs energy functions were optimized for each phase of the Al(2)O(3)-MnO system with the support of PARROT(R) module from ThemoCalc(R) package. A thermodynamic database was obtained, in agreement with the thermo-chemical data extracted from the literature, to describe the Al(2)O(3)-MnO system including the solubility description of solid phases. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electron beam induced second-harmonic generation in Er(3+) doped PbO-GeO(2) glasses containing silver nanoparticles

Electron beam induced second harmonic generation (SHG) is studied in Er(3+) doped PbO-GeO(2) glasses containing silver nanoparticles with concentrations that are controlled by the heat-treatment of the samples. The SHG is observed at T = 4.2 K using a p-polarized laser beam at 1064 nm. Enhancement of the SHG is observed in the samples that are submitted to electron beam incidence. The highest value of the nonlinear susceptibility, 2.08 pm/V, is achieved for the sample heat-treated during 72 h and submitted to an electron beam current of 15 nA. The samples that were not exposed to the electron beam present a susceptibility of a parts per thousand 0.5 pm/V.

PbO-GeO(2) rib waveguides for photonic applications

This work presents for the first time to our knowledge the fabrication and characterization of rib waveguides produced with PbO-GeO(2) (PGO) thin films. The target was manufactured using pure oxides ( 60 PbO-40 GeO(2), in wt%) and amorphous thin films were produced with the RF sputtering technique. PGO thin films present small absorption in the visible and in the near infrared and refractive index of similar to 2.0. The definition of the rib waveguide structure was made using conventional optical lithography followed by plasma etching, performed in a Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) reactor. Light propagation mode in the waveguide structure was analyzed using integrated optic simulation software. Optical loss measurements were performed to determine the propagation loss at 633 nm, for ribs with height of 70 nm and width of 3-5 mu m; experimental values around 2 dB/cm were found for the propagation loss and confirmed the theoretical calculations. The results obtained demonstrate that PGO thin films are potential candidates for application in integrated optics. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Tabasco pepper production with CO(2) application using drip irrigation

Tabasco pepper production with CO(2) application using drip irrigation. Application of CO(2) through water reduces the soil solution pH, causing variations in nutrient mobility and consequent effects on the absorption. The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of carbon dioxide rates supplied by drip irrigation in the production of Capsicum frutescens L. crop. A randomized block design with four treatments and eight replications was used. The treatments were four rates of CO(2): 0 (T1), 451.95 (T2); 677.93 (T3) and 903.92 (T4) kg ha(-1). The fruits were counted and weighed; the length and the diameter were obtained from an average of 20 fruits per plant, randomly taken, from each treatment in the plot. The quadratic effect (p < 0.01) occurred for CO(2) on the yield and there was quadratic effect (p < 0.05) of the rates on the number of fruits. There were no effects of CO(2) rates on the green matter, dry matter and fruit length and diameter. The T2 treatment provided greater yield and higher number of fruits per plant with an increase of 16 and 26%, respectively in relation to T1 (without CO(2)). CO(2) application favored the increase in the yield because of the greater number of fruits per plant in the Tabasco pepper crop.

A Brazilian registry of juvenile dermatomyositis: onset features and classification of 189 cases

Objective To describe onset features, classification and treatment of juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) and juvenile polymyositis (JPM) from a multicentre registry. Methods Inclusion criteria were onset age lower than 18 years and a diagnosis of any idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) by attending physician. Bohan & Peter (1975) criteria categorisation was established by a scoring algorithm to define JDM and JPM based oil clinical protocol data. Results Of the 189 cases included, 178 were classified as JDM, 9 as JPM (19.8: 1) and 2 did not fit the criteria; 6.9% had features of chronic arthritis and connective tissue disease overlap. Diagnosis classification agreement occurred in 66.1%. Medial? onset age was 7 years, median follow-up duration was 3.6 years. Malignancy was described in 2 (1.1%) cases. Muscle weakness occurred in 95.8%; heliotrope rash 83.5%; Gottron plaques 83.1%; 92% had at least one abnormal muscle enzyme result. Muscle biopsy performed in 74.6% was abnormal in 91.5% and electromyogram performed in 39.2% resulted abnormal in 93.2%. Logistic regression analysis was done in 66 cases with all parameters assessed and only aldolase resulted significant, as independent variable for definite JDM (OR=5.4, 95%CI 1.2-24.4, p=0.03). Regarding treatment, 97.9% received steroids; 72% had in addition at least one: methotrexate (75.7%), hydroxychloroquine (64.7%), cyclosporine A (20.6%), IV immunoglobulin (20.6%), azathioprine (10.3%) or cyclophosphamide (9.6%). In this series 24.3% developed calcinosis and mortality rate was 4.2%. Conclusion Evaluation of predefined criteria set for a valid diagnosis indicated aldolase as the most important parameter associated with de, methotrexate combination, was the most indicated treatment.