Preparation of antimicrobial poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers containing silver nanoparticles

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers containing Ag nanoparticles were prepared by electrospinning PVA/silver nitrate (AgNO₃) aqueous solutions, followed by short heat treatment, and their antimicrobial activity was investigated for wound dressing applications. Since PVA is a water soluble and biocompatible polymer, it is one of the best materials for the preparation of wound dressing nanofibers. After heat treatment at 155 °C for 3 min, the PVA/AgNO₃ nanofibers became insoluble, while the Ag⁺ ions therein were reduced so as to produce a large number of Ag nanoparticles situated preferentially on their surface. The residual Ag⁺ ions were reduced by subsequent UV irradiation for 3 h. The average diameter of the Ag nanoparticles after the heat treatment was 5.9 nm and this value increased slightly to 6.3 nm after UV irradiation. It was found that most of the Ag⁺ ions were reduced by the simple heat treatment. The PVA nanofibers containing Ag nanoparticles showed very strong antimicrobial activity. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2468–2474, 2006     

Dispersion Compensation in Externally Modulated Transmission System Using Chirped Fiber Grating

We present an externally modulated NTSC AM-VSB erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)-repeated system in the 1550 nm region which uses a chirped fiber grating (CFG) as a dispersion compensation device. In contrast to the conventional externally modulated fiber optical CATV systems, either with or without dispersion compensation fiber (DCF), good performances of carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) ≥50 dB, composite second order (CSO) ≥74 dB, and composite triple beat (CTB) ≥65 dB were achieved for the full channel band after a 100-km single-mode fiber (SMF) transmission.     

Design and Experimental Characterization of Low‐Volume PM10/2.5/1.0 Trichotomous Sampler Inlet

This paper presents the development and laboratory evaluation of a PM10/2.5/1.0 trichotomous sampling inlet that consists of two main parts: a previously designed PM10 size‐selective inlet part and a PM2.5/1.0 two‐stage virtual impactor, which was newly fabricated and attached serially to the PM10 size selective inlet part. Particles are collected in three locations through the trichotomous sampling inlet to provide for not only particle concentration measurements of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0, but also those of PM2.5–10 and PM1.0–2.5.     

A Lagrangean heuristic algorithm for disassembly scheduling with capacity constraints

This paper considers the problem of determining the disassembly schedule (quantity and timing) of products in order to satisfy the demand of their parts or components over a finite planning horizon. The objective is to minimize the sum of set-up, disassembly operation, and inventory holding costs. As an extension of the uncapacitated versions of the problem, we consider the resource capacity restrictions over the planning horizon. An integer program is suggested to describe the problem mathematically, and to solve the problem, a heuristic is developed using a Lagrangean relaxation technique together with a method to find a good feasible solution while considering the trade-offs among different costs. The effectiveness of the algorithm is tested on a number of randomly generated problems and the test results show that the heuristic suggested in this paper can give near optimal solutions within a short amount of computation time.     

Theoretical STM images of alkaline-earth metal adsorbed Si(1 1 1)3 × 2 surfaces

We have performed total-energy calculations to study theoretical scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of the Si(1 1 1)3 × 2 surfaces induced by the adsorption of alkaline-earth metals (AEMs). Previously, in a series of works on Ba/Si(1 1 1) system, we have found that the observed Si(1 1 1)3 × 1-Ba LEED phase indeed has a 3 × 2 periodicity with a Ba coverage of 1/6 ML and the HCC substrate structure. Based on results of the Ba case, we proposed that the HCC structure is also adopted for other AEM atoms, which was confirmed by our recent work. In this paper, we mainly report the STM simulations for different AEM systems to compare with existing experimental data. We discuss the difference in the detailed STM images for different AEM adsorbates. Especially, the difference in filled-state images between Mg and other AEM atoms is attributed to the strong Mg-Si interaction.     

Structural and electrical properties of core–shell structured GaP nanowires with outer Ga2O3 oxide layers

This paper presents a review of our current experimental research on GaP nanowires grown by a vapor deposition method. Their structural, electrical, opto-electric transport, and gas-adsorption properties are reviewed. Our structural studies showed that a GaP nanowire consisted of a core–shell structure with a single-crystalline GaP core and an outer Ga₂O₃ layer. The individual GaP nanowires exhibited n-type field effects. Their electron mobilities were in the range of about 6 to 22 cm²/V s at room temperature. When the nanowires were illuminated with an ultraviolet light source, an abrupt increase of conductance occurred resulting from carrier generation in the nanowire and de-adsorption of adsorbed OH^- or O₂ ^- ions on the Ga₂O₃ surface shell. Using an intrinsic Ga₂O₃ shell layer as a gate dielectric, top-gated GaP nanowire field-effect transistors were fabricated and characterized. Like other metal oxide nanowires, the carrier concentration and mobility of GaP nanowires were significantly affected by the surface molecular adsorption of OH or O₂. The GaP nanowire devices were fabricated as sensors for NO₂, NH₃, and H₂ gases by using a simple metal decoration technique. PACS 73.63.-b; 72.80.Ey; 85.35.-p     

High-pressure effect on the crystal and magnetic structure of LuMnO3: Correlation between a distortion of the triangular lattice and the symmetry of the magnetic state in hexagonal frustrated manganites

The effect of a high pressure (up to 6 GPa) on the crystal and magnetic structure of the hexagonal manganite LuMnO₃ is studied by neutron diffraction in the temperature range 10–295 K. It is found that, as the pressure increases, the ordered magnetic moment of Mn ions at T = 10 K decreases noticeably from 2.48 (0 GPa) to 1.98 μ_B (6 GPa). This decrease is due to an enhancement of the geometrical frustration effects on the triangular lattice. At the same time, the symmetry of the triangular antiferromagnetic state (the irreducible representation Γ₂) remains unchanged. A correlation is revealed between the distortion parameter of the triangular lattice formed by Mn ions and the symmetry of the antiferromagnetic state of hexagonal manganites RMnO₃. Based on this correlation, a generalized magnetic phase diagram of these compounds is constructed. The obtained phase diagram provides an explanation for the changes observed in the magnetic state of hexagonal manganites caused by high pressure and chemical substitution.     

Surface free energy of CrNx films deposited using closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering

CrN_x thin films have attracted much attention for semiconductor IC packaging molding dies and forming tools due to their excellent hardness, thermal stability and non-sticking properties (low surface free energy). However, few data has been published on the surface free energy (SFE) of CrN_x films at temperatures in the range 20-170 °C. In this study CrN_x thin films with CrN, Cr(N), Cr₂N (and mixture of these phases) were prepared using closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering at a wide range of Cr⁺² emission intensity. The contact angles of water, di-iodomethane and ethylene glycol on the coated surfaces were measured at temperatures in the range 20-170 °C using a Dataphysics OCA-20 contact angle analyzer. The surface free energy of the CrN_x films and their components (e.g., dispersion, polar) were calculated using the Owens-Wendt geometric mean approach. The influences of CrN_x film surface roughness and microstructure on the surface free energy were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The experimental results showed that the lowest total SFE was obtained corresponding to CrN at temperature in 20 °C. This is lower than that of Cr(N), Cr₂N (and mixture of these phases). The total SFE, dispersive SFE and polar SFE of CrN_x films decreased with increasing surface temperature. The film roughness has an obvious effect on the SFE and there is tendency for the SFE to increase with increasing film surface roughness.     

Fluorescence anisotropy decay study of self-association of bacterial luciferase intermediates

The fluorescence dynamics parameters of the fluorescent transient flavin-luciferase species from the typesVibrio fischeri andPhotobacterium leiognathi are presented. The fluorescence anisotropy decay is a single exponential function for both types. The correlation time is 70 ns for theP. leiognathi fluorescent transient intermediate (2°C, aqueous buffer, pH 7.0), consistent with the rotational correlation time of the luciferase macromolecule (77 kD) to which the flavin fluorophore is rigidly attached. In contrast, for theV. fischeri species the observed correlation time for the anisotropy decay function is 133 ns. This suggests that protein self-association occurs in theV. fischeri case and this is confirmed by filtration, where the fluorescent transient fromV. fischeri does not pass through a 100,000 molecular weight cutoff membrane, whereas theP. leiognathi species does. The filtration method also demonstrates self-association in the luciferase peroxyflavin and photoflavin fromV. fischeri. A monomer-dimer equilibrium also explains the previously reported high correlation times for theV. harveyi luciferase-flavin species. It is proposed that the self-association competes with the lumazine protein interaction in the bioluminescence reaction.     

The Recognition of Double Euler Trails in Series-Parallel Networks

Given a series-parallel network (network, for short)N, its dual networkN′ is given by interchanging the series connection and the parallel connection of networkN. We usually use a series-parallel graph to represent a network. LetG[N] andG[N′] be graph representations ofNandN′, respectively. A sequence of edgese₁, e₂,…,e_kis said to form a common trail on (G[N], G[N′]) if it is a trail on bothG[N] andG[N′]. If a common trail covers all of the edges inG[N] andG[N′], it is called adouble Euler trail.However, there are many different graph representations for a network. We say that a networkNhas a double Euler trail (DET) if there is a common Euler trail for someG[N] and someG[N′]. Finding a DET in a network is essential for optimizing the layout area of a complementary CMOS functional cell. Maziasz and Hayes (IEEE Trans. Computer-Aided Design9(1990), 708–719) gave a linear time algorithm for solving the layout problem in fixedG[N] andG[N′] and an exponential algorithm for finding the optimal cover in a network without fixing graph representations. In this paper, we study properties of subnetworks of a DET network. According to these properties, we propose an algorithm that automatically generates the rules for composition of trail cover classes. On the basis of these rules, a linear time algorithm for recognizing DET networks is presented. Furthermore, we also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a double Euler circuit in a network.