Estimation of the Sorption Activity of Silver Nanoparticles on Biodegradable Fibers of Natural and Artificial Origin

Russian Physics Journal - The specific features of the sorption activity of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on biodegradable polymers of natural (collagen) and artificial (polyamide 6.6) origin have...     

Formal proofs of operator identities by a single formal computation

A formal computation proving a new operator identity from known ones is, in principle, restricted by domains and codomains of linear operators involved, since not any two operators can be added or composed. Algebraically, identities can be modelled by noncommutative polynomials and such a formal computation proves that the polynomial corresponding to the new identity lies in the ideal generated by the polynomials corresponding to the known identities. In order to prove an operator identity, however, just proving membership of the polynomial in the ideal is not enough, since the ring of noncommutative polynomials ignores domains and codomains. We show that it suffices to additionally verify compatibility of this polynomial and of the generators of the ideal with the labelled quiver that encodes which polynomials can be realized as linear operators. Then, for every consistent representation of such a quiver in a linear category, there exists a computation in the category that proves the corresponding instance of the identity. Moreover, by assigning the same label to several edges of the quiver, the algebraic framework developed allows to model different versions of an operator by the same indeterminate in the noncommutative polynomials.     

Parametric modeling of steady-state gradient coil vibration: Resonance dynamics under variations in cylinder geometry

Gradient coil (GC) vibration is the root cause of many problems in MRI adversely affecting scanner performance, image quality, and acoustic noise levels. A critical issue is that GC vibration will be significantly increased close to any GC mechanical resonances. It is well known that altering the dimensions of a GC fundamentally affects the mechanical resonances excited by the GC windings. The precise nature of the effects (i.e., how the resonances are affected) is however not well understood. The purpose of the present paper is to study how the mechanical resonances excited by closed whole-body Z-gradient coils are affected by variations in cylinder geometry. A mathematical Z-gradient coil vibration model recently developed and validated by the authors is used to theoretically study the resonance dynamics under variation(s) in cylinder: (i) length, (ii) mean radius, and (iii) radial thickness. The forced-vibration response to Lorentz-force excitation is in each case analyzed in terms of the frequency response of the GC cylinder's displacement. In cases (i) and (ii), the qualitative dynamics are simple: reducing the cylinder length and/or mean radius causes all mechanical resonances to shift to higher frequencies. In case (iii), the qualitative dynamics are much more complicated with different resonances shifting in different directions and additional dependencies on the cylinder length. The more detailed dynamics are intricate owing to the fact that resonances shift at comparatively different rates and this leads to several novel and theoretically interesting predicted effects. Knowledge of these effects advance our understanding of the basic mechanics of GC vibration and offer practically useful insights into how such vibration may be passively reduced.     

Persistent Monitoring by Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Bernstein Polynomials

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - A framework for monitoring a target modeled as Dubins car using multiple UAVs is proposed. The UAVs are subject to minimum and maximum speed,...     

Observers Design for a Class of Nonlinear Stochastic Discrete-Time Systems

International Journal of Theoretical Physics - This paper mainly studied the observer design of Lipschitz stochastic discrete system. For the first time, generalized Lipschitz conditions are...     

Application of microcrystalline cellulose as an efficient and cheap sorbent for the extraction of metoprolol from plasma and wastewater before HPLC–MS/MS determination

A dispersive solid-phase extraction method based on a new sorbent has been performed on plasma and wastewater samples to determine metoprolol by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. In this study, the analyte was adsorbed from the samples onto microcrystalline cellulose as a green and efficient sorbent and then eluted for use in the determination step. In the mass spectrometer, the analyte was detected in the positive mode and selectivity of the analysis was increased by sequential mass analysis through multiple reaction monitoring. All of the effective parameters in the extraction of metoprolol from plasma and wastewater were optimized. Under optimal conditions the method was linear in the ranges of 1–1,000 and 0.1–1,000 ng/ml in plasma and wastewater samples, respectively. The detection limits of the method were 0.30 and 0.03 ng/ml in plasma and wastewater samples, respectively. The data showed that the method provides low detection limit, wide linear range, good precision and high extraction recovery. Finally several plasma and wastewater samples were successfully analyzed using the method. The use of a small amount of a green and inexpensive sorbent and a low volume of plasma without the need for further pretreatment steps are the main advantages of the method.     

Dark Energy with Phantom Crossing and the H0 Tension

We investigate the possibility of phantom crossing in the dark energy sector and the solution for the Hubble tension between early and late universe observations. We use robust combinations of different cosmological observations, namely the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), local measurement of Hubble constant (), Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and SnIa for this purpose. For a combination of CMB+BAO data that is related to early universe physics, phantom crossing in the dark energy sector was confirmed at a 95% confidence level and we obtained the constraint km/s/Mpc at a 68% confidence level, which is in perfect agreement with the local measurement by Riess et al. We show that constraints from different combinations of data are consistent with each other and all of them are consistent with phantom crossing in the dark energy sector. For the combination of all data considered, we obtained the constraint km/s/Mpc at a 68% confidence level and the phantom crossing happening at the scale factor at a 68% confidence level.     

Piecewise Monotonicity for Unary Functions in o-Stable Groups

Algebra and Logic - Unary functions definable in o-stable ordered groups of nonvaluational type are studied. Such functions are proved to be piecewise monotone and continuous.     

Transfer learning in deep neural network based under-sampled MR image reconstruction

In Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the success of deep learning-based under-sampled MR image reconstruction depends on: (i) size of the training dataset, (ii) generalization capabilities of the trained neural network. Whenever there is a mismatch between the training and testing data, there is a need to retrain the neural network from scratch with thousands of MR images obtained using the same protocol. This may not be possible in MRI as it is costly and time consuming to acquire data. In this research, a transfer learning approach i.e. end-to-end fine tuning is proposed for U-Net to address the data scarcity and generalization problems of deep learning-based MR image reconstruction. First the generalization capabilities of a pre-trained U-Net (initially trained on the human brain images of 1.5 T scanner) are assessed for: (a) MR images acquired from MRI scanners of different magnetic field strengths, (b) MR images of different anatomies and (c) MR images under-sampled by different acceleration factors. Later, end-to-end fine tuning of the pre-trained U-Net is proposed for the reconstruction of the above-mentioned MR images (i.e. (a), (b) and (c)). The results show successful reconstructions obtained from the proposed method as reflected by the Structural SIMilarity index, Root Mean Square Error, Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio and central line profile of the reconstructed images.