X-ray CT in the detection of palm weevils

Early detection of the red palm weevils (RPW) is a major challenge in agriculture among all kinds of palm trees due to the nature of the insect and the difficulty to trace them through their life stages associated with the tree life. Many methods have been applied for the weevil detection such as X-ray diffraction techniques, fluoroscopy and ultrasound. On the other hand, the idea of tomography has been used for other purposes such as the determination of the age of the tree and for applied environmental studies. Such technology can also reveal the weevil in principle. In this study, we explore the use of X-ray CT for weevil detection with the Monte Carlo method. A model of the stem of a palm tree is developed for simulations. MCNPX is chosen to carry out the simulations for the radiography tally in the code. The tally records the 2D data of the X-ray beams irradiating the tree model. An iterative reconstruction method for cone beam CT is applied to obtain the 3D slices of the tree model. We are exploring the minimum number of projection angles and the detectability of the weevil. We shall also report the sensitivity of weevil detection using X-ray CT with a large set of simulations with different weevil sizes and tree diameters.     

Inclusion complex of N-nitroso,N-(2-chloroethyl), N′, N′-dibenzylsulfamid with β-Cyclodextrin: Fluorescence and molecular modeling

The inclusion complex of N-nitroso, N-(2-chloroethyl), N′, N′-dibenzylsulfamid with β-Cyclodextrin have been investigated using the spectrofluorescence technique ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The stoichiometric ratio of the complex was found to be 1:1 and the stability constant was evaluated using the Benesi-Hildebrand equation. In order to find the most favorable structure, molecular mechanics calculations were employed to study the inclusion of CENS-Dibenz in β-CD in vacuum and in the presence of water as a solvent. The driving forces for complexation are dominated by non-bonded van der Waals host-guest interactions with very little electrostatic contribution in both environments. After this stage of calculation, both the most stable complexes obtained by MM+ were re-optimized using semi-empirical and quantum mechanical calculations. It was found that the PM3 and the hybrid method ONIOM2 calculations predict the same mode of inclusion of the drug molecule in the host cavity. In the most stable conformation (i.e. Complex A), one of the two aromatic cycles is dipped within the relatively less polar cavity of β-cyclodextrin, while the other aromatic cycle as well as the active groupings (alkylating agent and nitroso group) are directed towards the exterior through the narrow rim of β-CD. This orientation is preferred because it is the most energetically favorable structure. Moreover, statistical thermodynamic calculations demonstrate that the formation of the inclusion complex is an enthalpy-driven process. A comparison between the experimental and theoretical values of ΔG⁰ proves that simulation of the complexes without an explicit treatment of the solvent leads to dubious results.     

Convenient synthesis of alkyl thioacetate from alkyl halide using a polymer-supported sodium thioacetate

Alkyl halides are efficiently converted to their corresponding S-alkyl thioacetates under mild and nonaqueous conditions, using polymer-supported sodium thioacetate as a new polymeric reagent at room temperature in high yields and purity. The spent polymeric reagent can be removed quantitatively by filtration and pure products can be obtained by evaporation of the solvent. The spent polymeric reagent can be regenerated and reused several times without its activity changing appreciably.     

Assessment of the derivative-moment transformation method for unsteady-load estimation

It is often difficult, if not impossible, to measure the aerodynamic or hydrodynamic forces on a moving body. For this reason, a classical control-volume technique is typically applied to extract the unsteady forces. However, measuring the acceleration term within the volume of interest using particle image velocimetry (PIV) can be limited by optical access, reflections, as well as shadows. Therefore, in this study, an alternative approach, termed the derivative-moment transformation (DMT) method, is introduced and tested on a synthetic data set produced using numerical simulations. The test case involves the unsteady loading of a flat plate in a two-dimensional, laminar periodic gust. The results suggest that the DMT method can accurately predict the acceleration term so long as appropriate spatial and temporal resolutions are maintained. The major deficiency, which is more dominant for the direction of drag, was found to be the determination of pressure and unsteady terms in the wake. The effect of control-volume size was investigated, suggesting that larger domains work best by minimizing the associated error in the determination of the pressure field. When decreasing the control-volume size, wake vortices, which produce high gradients across the control surfaces, are found to substantially increase the level of error. On the other hand, it was shown that for large control volumes, and with realistic spatial resolution, the accuracy of the DMT method would also suffer. Therefore, a delicate compromise is required when selecting control-volume size in future experiments.     

An improved max-flow-based lower bound for minimizing maximum lateness on identical parallel machines

In this paper, we introduce a new concept of semi-preemptive scheduling and we show how it can be used to derive a maximum-flow-based lower bound for the P|r_j|L_max which dominates the well-known preemptive lower bound. We show that, in some cases, the proposed bound strictly dominates the preemptive one while having the same complexity.     

Some remarks on the Jensen-Hadamard inequalities and applications

We provide some inequalities and integral inequalities connected to the Jensen-Hadamard inequalities for convex functions. In particular, we give some refinements to these inequalities. Some natural applications and further extensions are given.

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Sunto Forniamo alcune diseguaglianze e diseguaglianze integrali connesse alle dise-gueglianze di Jensen-Hadamard per funzioni convesse. In particolare, diamo qualche miglioramento di queste diseguaglianze. Alcune applicazioni naturali ed ulteriori estensioni sono date.

     

LINEAR SEARCH FOR A BROWNIAN TARGET MOTION

A target is assumed to move according to a Brownian motion on the real line. The searcher starts from the origin and moves in the two directions from the starting point.The object is to detect the target. The purpose of this paper is to find the conditions under which the expected value of the first meeting time of the searcher and the target is finite,and to show the existence of a search plan which made this expected value minimum.     

On some problems of Petrich concerning Bruck and Reilly semigroups

For an inverse semigroupS with its idempotents dually well-ordered, we prove thatS is isomorphic to the semigroup of all one-to-one partial right translations ofS. Also, we prove for a Bruck semigroupS=B(T, α) thatS isE-unitary if and only ifT isE-unitary and α is an idempotent pure homomorphism. Moreover, we characterize allE-unitary covers ofB(T, α), whereT is a finite chain of groups.     

A sagittally focusing double‐multilayer monochromator for ultrafast X‐ray imaging applications

The development of a sagittally focusing double‐multilayer monochromator is reported, which produces a spatially extended wide‐bandpass X‐ray beam from an intense synchrotron bending‐magnet source at the Advanced Photon Source, for ultrafast X‐ray radiography and tomography applications. This monochromator consists of two W/B₄C multilayers with a 25 Å period coated on Si single‐crystal substrates. The second multilayer is mounted on a sagittally focusing bender, which can dynamically change the bending radius of the multilayer in order to condense and focus the beam to various points along the beamline. With this new apparatus, it becomes possible to adjust the X‐ray beam size to best match the area detector size and the object size to facilitate more efficient data collection using ultrafast X‐ray radiography and tomography.     

Vibrational spectroscopic study of budesonide

The Raman spectrum of budesonide is reported for the first time, and molecular assignments are proposed on the basis of ab initio BLYP DFT calculations with a 6‐31 G* basis set and vibrational wavenumbers predicted on a quasi‐harmonic approximation. Comparison with previously published infrared data has explained several spectral features, and the relative band intensities in the CO and CC stretching regions are interpreted. The results from this study provide data that can be used for the preparative process monitoring of budesonide, an important steroidal pharmaceutical in various dosage forms, and its interaction with excipients and other components. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.