Domination Number of Graphs Without Small Cycles

It has been shown (J. Harant and D. Rautenbach, Domination in bipartite graphs. Discrete Math. 309:113–122, 2009) that the domination number of a graph of order n and minimum degree at least 2 that does not contain cycles of length 4, 5, 7, 10 nor 13 is at most \frac3n8{\frac{3n}{8}}. They believed that the assumption that the graphs do not contain cycles of length 10 might be replaced by the exclusion of finitely many exceptional graphs. In this paper, we positively answer that if G is a connected graph of order n and minimum degree at least 2 that does not contain cycles of length 4, 5 nor 7 and is not one of three exceptional graphs, then the domination number of G is at most \frac3n8{\frac{3n}{8}}.     

Parallel ripple formation during femtosecond laser grooving of ceramic

The self-organized formation of ripples in the direction parallel to the groove during the femtosecond laser machining of microgrooves on aluminum nitride ceramic at laser fluences much higher than the single-pulse ablation threshold is reported. These parallel ripples are notably different from the commonly observed polarization-perpendicular ripples and are produced in grooves having an appropriate width and depth, irrespective of laser polarization. From subsequent experiments with narrow and wide groove widths, it could be considered that the groove walls play an important role in the formation of these parallel ripples, possibly by confining the laser-induced plasma.     

Enhanced bipolar resistive switching of HfO2 with a Ti interlayer

The characteristics of resistive switching of TiN/HfO₂/Ti/HfO₂/Pt/Ti stacks on SiO₂/Si substrates were investigated and compared to TiN/HfO₂/Pt/Ti stacks in order to study Ti interlayer effects on resistive switching. The Ti interlayers were deposited in situ during the reactive sputtering of HfO₂ films. The current–voltage measurements showed that the Ti interlayers enhanced the memory window but reduced the endurance of SET/RESET operations. The energy filtered images by TEM showed asymmetric oxygen accumulation at the Ti/HfO _x interfaces. Subsequent heat treatment improved the endurance of SET/RESET operation of TiN/HfO₂/Ti/HfO₂/Pt/Ti stacks.     

Molecular surface structure of comb-like polyoxyethylene with alkyl sulfonyl side-chains studied by sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

The orientation of alkyl sulfonyl side-chains on a series of polyoxyethylenes, CH₃–nSE (n?=?6, 8 or 10), and the effect of annealing and rubbing on the molecular orientation of the alkyl side-chains at the substrate surface, were investigated using sum-frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. Based on the SFG spectra and their quantitative interpretation, we deduced that the alkyl chains of CH₃–10SE are almost vertically oriented at the surface and that the terminal methyl groups of the alkyl chains are tilted from the surface normal as much as θ ≈ 40?±?5°, with a broad distribution of tilt angles. We also found that rubbing treatment induced the anisotropic orientation of the alkyl side-chains perpendicular to the rubbing direction, but their orientation was unchanged by annealing.     

Antiviral and Antibacterial Polyurethanes of Various Modalities

We have prepared and characterized a new polyurethane-based antimicrobial material, N,N-dodecyl,methyl-polyurethane (Quat-12-PU). It exhibits strong antiviral and antibacterial activities when coated (as an organic solution or an aqueous nanosuspension) onto surfaces and antibacterial activity when electrospun into nanofibers. Quat-12-PU surfaces are able to kill airborne Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria, as well as inactivate the enveloped influenza virus (but not the non-enveloped poliovirus).     

Efficient Production of Ethanol from Empty Palm Fruit Bunch Fibers by Fed-Batch Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The concentration of ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass should be at least 40 g l^?1 [about 5 % (v/v)] to minimize the cost of distillation process. In this study, the conditions for the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) at fed-batch mode for the production of ethanol from alkali-pretreated empty palm fruit bunch fibers (EFB) were investigated. Optimal conditions for the production of ethanol were identified as temperature, 30 °C; enzyme loading, 15 filter paper unit g^?1 biomass; and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) loading, 5 g l^?1 of dry cell weight. Under these conditions, an economical ethanol concentration was achieved within 17 h, which further increased up to 62.5 g l^?1 after 95 h with 70.6 % of the theoretical yield. To our knowledge, this is the first report to evaluate the economic ethanol production from alkali-pretreated EFB in fed-batch SSF using S. cerevisiae.     

Coarsening Nature of Liquid-Ordered Domain in Model Membrane

We present the coarsening dynamics of a liquid-ordered (Lo) domain in a supported lipid membrane under an electric field. In a relatively small nanosmooth region surrounded by geometrical walls of nanocorrugated regions, full coarsening of the Lo domain was produced while in a large nanosmooth region, an intermediate, less-ordered Lo domain was developed so that the diffusion of charged phospholipids in the liquid-disordered (Ld) domain was allowed across the geometrical walls in the presence of an electric field. No appreciable diffusion of the charged lipids into a fully coarsened Lo domain by the electric field implies that the structural ordering of the membrane components plays a significant role on the formation of lipid rafts for biological processes.     

Nonlinear ultrasonic wave modulation for online fatigue crack detection

This study presents a fatigue crack detection technique using nonlinear ultrasonic wave modulation. Ultrasonic waves at two distinctive driving frequencies are generated and corresponding ultrasonic responses are measured using permanently installed lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers with a potential for continuous monitoring. Here, the input signal at the lower driving frequency is often referred to as a ‘pumping’ signal, and the higher frequency input is referred to as a ‘probing’ signal. The presence of a system nonlinearity, such as a crack formation, can provide a mechanism for nonlinear wave modulation, and create spectral sidebands around the frequency of the probing signal. A signal processing technique combining linear response subtraction (LRS) and synchronous demodulation (SD) is developed specifically to extract the crack-induced spectral sidebands. The proposed crack detection method is successfully applied to identify actual fatigue cracks grown in metallic plate and complex fitting-lug specimens. Finally, the effect of pumping and probing frequencies on the amplitude of the first spectral sideband is investigated using the first sideband spectrogram (FSS) obtained by sweeping both pumping and probing signals over specified frequency ranges.