Investigation of true remnant polarization response in heterostructured artificial biferroics

Epitaxial bilayered thin films composed of ferromagnetic La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 and ferroelectric 0.7Pb (Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3(PbTiO3) were fabricated on LaAlO3 (100) substrates by pulsed laser ablation. Ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and magneto-dielectric characterizations performed earlier indicated the possible existence of strain-mediated magneto-electric coupling in these biferroic heterostructures. In order to investigate their true remnant polarization characteristics, usable in devices, room-temperature polarization versus electric field, positive-up negative-down (PUND) pulse polarization studies and remnant hysteresis measurements were carried out. The PUND and remnant hysteresis measurements revealed the significant contribution of the non-remnant component in the observed polarization hysteresis response of these heterostructures. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Studies in oxasteroids—I : Synthesis of 3-cyano-3-methyl-7-methoxychroman-4-one and the structure of an “abnormal” product

A synthesis of 3-cyano-3-methyl-7-methoxychroman-4-one is reported. The structure of an “abnormal” product obtained during isomerization (III) with potassium t-butoxide in t-butanol, followed by alkylation with methyl iodide has been proved to be 3-t-butoxy-2-cyano- 2-mehthyl-2′,4′-dimethoxypropiophenone (IVa).

Structure of abnormal products isolated from the isomerization of 7-methoxychromano3,4-disoxazole - A novel synthesis of one of the products

A one-step synthesis of (IIb), an isomerization product of 7-methoxychromano3,4-disoxazole, from (III) is reported.

Studies on non-specific interference due to serum in the avidin-biotin microELISA for monkey chorionic gonadotropin and a method for its elimination

A study has been carried out on the non-specific interference due to serum in the avidin biotin micro-ELISA for monkey chorionic gonadotropin. Results suggest that it is not due to any proteolytic activity in the serum, but immunoglobulin or associated factors interfering at the level of antigen-antibody interaction. This interference was eliminated by heating samples at 60°C for 30 min.

Elimination of common mode voltage and fifth and seventh harmonics in a multilevel inverter fed IM drive using 12-sided polygonal voltage spacephasor

A multilevel inverter with 12-sided polygonal voltage space vector structure is proposed in this paper. The present scheme provides elimination of common mode voltage variation and 5(th) and 7(th) order harmonics in the entire operating range of the drive. The proposed multi level structure is achieved by cascading only the conventional two-level inverters with asymmetrical DC link voltages. The bandwidths problems associated with conventional hexagonal voltage space vector structure current controllers, due to the presence of 5(th) and 7(th) harmonics, in the over modulation region, is absent in the present 12-sided structure. So a linear voltage control up to 12-step operation is possible, from the present twelve sided scheme, with less current control complexity. An open-end winding structure is used for the induction motor drive.

Elimination of cross-talk in diffuse optical tomographic reconstructions through a weighted update procedure: results of simulation study - art. no. 61640S

Reconstructions in optical tomography involve obtaining the images of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients. The integrated intensity data has greater sensitivity to absorption coefficient variations than scattering coefficient. However, the sensitivity of intensity data to scattering coefficient is not zero. We considered an object with two inhomogeneities (one in absorption and the other in scattering coefficient). The standard iterative reconstruction techniques produced results, which were plagued by cross talk, i.e., the absorption coefficient reconstruction has a false positive corresponding to the location of scattering inhomogeneity, and vice-versa. We present a method to remove cross talk in the reconstruction, by generating a weight matrix and weighting the update vector during the iteration. The weight matrix is created by the following method: we first perform a simple backprojection of the difference between the experimental and corresponding homogeneous intensity data. The built up image has greater weightage towards absorption inhomogeneity than the scattering inhomogeneity and its appropriate inverse is weighted towards the scattering inhomogeneity. These two weight matrices are used as multiplication factors in the update vectors, normalized backprojected image of difference intensity for absorption inhomogeneity and the inverse of the above for the scattering inhomogeneity, during the image reconstruction procedure. We demonstrate through numerical simulations, that cross-talk is fully eliminated through this modified reconstruction procedure.

Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) : Diagnostic methods and molecular pathology

Myotonic dystrophies type 1 (DM1) and type 2 (DM2) are the most common forms of muscular dystrophy affecting adults. They are autosomal dominant diseases caused by microsatellite tri- or tetranucleotide repeat expansion mutations in transcribed but not translated gene regions. The mutant RNA accumulates in nuclei disturbing the expression of several genes. The more recently identified DM2 disease is less well known, yet more than 300 patients have been confirmed in Finland thus far, and the true number is believed to be much higher. DM1 and DM2 share some features in general clinical presentation and molecular pathology, yet they show distinctive differences, including disease severity and differential muscle and fiber type involvement. However, the molecular differences underlying DM1 and DM2 muscle pathology are not well understood. Although the primary tissue affected is muscle, both DMs show a multisystemic phenotype due to wide expression of the mutation-carrying genes. DM2 is particularly intriguing, as it shows an incredibly wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. For this reason, it constitutes a real diagnostic challenge. The core symptoms in DM2 include proximal muscle weakness, muscle pain, myotonia, cataracts, cardiac conduction defects and endocrinological disturbations; however, none of these is mandatory for the disease. Myalgic pains may be the most disabling symptom for decades, sometimes leading to incapacity for work. In addition, DM2 may cause major socio-economical consequences for the patient, if not diagnosed, due to misunderstanding and false stigmatization. In this thesis work, we have (I) improved DM2 differential diagnostics based on muscle biopsy, and (II) described abnormalities in mRNA and protein expression in DM1 and DM2 patient skeletal muscles, showing partial differences between the two diseases, which may contribute to muscle pathology in these diseases. This is the first description of histopathological differences between DM1 and DM2, which can be used in differential diagnostics. Two novel high-resolution applications of in situ -hybridization have been described, which can be used for direct visualization of the DM2 mutation in muscle biopsy sections, or mutation size determination on extended DNA-fibers. By measuring protein and mRNA expression in the samples, differential changes in expression patterns affecting contractile proteins, other structural proteins and calcium handling proteins in DM2 compared to DM1 were found. The dysregulation at mRNA level was caused by altered transciption and abnormal splicing. The findings reported here indicate that the extent of aberrant splicing is higher in DM2 compared to DM1. In addition, the described abnormalities to some extent correlate to the differences in fiber type involvement in the two disorders.

On the elimination of DC in reconstructed wavefronts from in-line holograms

New experimental results to demonstrate that the annoying DC in the reconstructed wavefronts from in-line holograms could be successfully eliminated are presented in this paper. The complete elimination of DC has been achieved by making proper use of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The results for an in-line hololens and an in-line Fourier transform hologram are discussed.

Tumorigenesis in celiac disease

Celiac disease is life-long autoimmune disorder of the small intestine, which is caused by a reaction to gliadin found in wheat, rye and barley in genetically predisposed individuals. Proline- and glutamine -rich proteins cause villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia with extensive inflammation in the epithelium and lamina propria. Symptoms of celiac disease vary considerably and elimination of gluten from diet is the only way to treat disease. In small intestine of celiac disease patient transglutaminase 2 (TG2) modifies gluten peptides, which causes T-cell activation and inflammation in the epithelium of mucosa. T-cell activation induces development of celiac disease specific antibodies. These celiac disease specific antibodies recognise TG2 and interfere in vitro and in vivo in angiogenesis. Abnormal angiogenesis is typical in many disorders, such in cancer, in which TG2 has a crucial role in the development and growth of tumor. Overexpression of TG2 has been shown to correlate with accelerated growth of tumor. TG2-specific antibodies are suggested to inhibit differentation of epithelial cell, increase their proliferation, decrease their barrier-function and increase the permeability of blood vessels. The aims of the pilot study were to establish whether celiac disease TG2 antibodies affect in vivo tumorigenesis and tumorangiogenesis as well as to try to clarify the mechanism behind the phenomenon. Tumor xenograft model was used in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. Human oesophageal carcinoma (OE-19) cancer cells were incubated with celiacs TG2 miniautoantibody (mini 2.8), non-celiac miniautoantibody (mini 6.2) or PBS before cancer cells were injected to mice subcutaneously. During the experiment mice were weighted and tumor size was measured couple of times per week. To estimate the volumes of tumors the following formula was used: π/6 * L* W* H. Experiment lasted for four weeks after which the mice were euthanized, cardiac blood and tissue samples taken and tumours were excised and weighted. Sections were made from tumors and immunohistochemical stainings were done to compare blood vessel areas and to study general tumors´morphology and other parameters. Western blot -analyse were performed to cancer cells. The masses and volumes were clearly smaller in mini 2.8-group compared to control groups and the necrotic area of tumor in mini 2.8 was smallest as percentage compared to control groups. Blood vessel area were smallest in mini 2.8 group. Results suggest that celiac disease anti-TG2-autoantibodies inhibit tumor growth, but the number of animals is insufficient to give an accurate outcome.

V-CE Sensing for IGBT Protection in NPC Three Level Converters-Causes For Spurious Trippings and Their Elimination

Neutral point clamped (NPC), three level converters with insulated gate bipolar transistor devices are very popular in medium voltage, high power applications. DC bus short circuit protection is usually done, using the sensed voltage across collector and emitter (i.e., V-CE sensing), of all the devices in a leg. This feature is accommodated with the conventional gate drive circuits used in the two level converters. The similar gate drive circuit, when adopted for NPC three level converter protection, leads to false V-CE fault signals for inner devices of the leg. The paper explains the detailed circuit behavior and reasons, which result in the occurrence of such false V-CE fault signals. This paper also illustrates that such a phenomenon shows dependence on the power factor of the supplied three-phase load. Finally, experimental results are presented to support the analysis. It is shown that the problem can be avoided by blocking out the V-CE sense fault signals of the inner devices of the leg.

Variable Elimination in Linear Constraints

Gauss and Fourier have together provided us with the essential techniques for symbolic computation with linear arithmetic constraints over the reals and the rationals. These variable elimination techniques for linear constraints have particular significance in the context of constraint logic programming languages that have been developed in recent years. Variable elimination in linear equations (Guassian Elimination) is a fundamental technique in computational linear algebra and is therefore quite familiar to most of us. Elimination in linear inequalities (Fourier Elimination), on the other hand, is intimately related to polyhedral theory and aspects of linear programming that are not quite as familiar. In addition, the high complexity of elimination in inequalities has forces the consideration of intricate specializations of Fourier's original method. The intent of this survey article is to acquaint the reader with these connections and developments. The latter part of the article dwells on the thesis that variable elimination in linear constraints over the reals extends quite naturally to constraints in certain discrete domains.