Complexity Measures of Heart-Rate Variability in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with Alternative Pulmonary Capacities

Objective: the complexity of heart-rate variability (HRV) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients with different pulmonary capacities was evaluated. Methods: We set these according to their pulmonary capacity, and specifically forced vital capacity (FVC). We split the groups according to FVC (FVC > 50% (n = 29) and FVC < 50% (n = 28)). In ALS, the presence of an FVC below 50% is indicative of noninvasive ventilation with two pressure levels and with the absence of other respiratory symptoms. As the number of subjects per group was different, we applied the unbalanced one-way analysis of variance (uANOVA1) test after three tests of normality, and effect size by Cohen’s d to assess parameter significance. Results: with regard to chaotic global analysis, CFP4 (p < 0.001; d = 0.91), CFP5 (p = 0.0022; d = 0.85), and CFP6 (p = 0.0009; d = 0.92) were enlarged. All entropies significantly increased. Shannon (p = 0.0005; d = 0.98), Renyi (p = 0.0002; d = 1.02), Tsallis (p = 0.0004; d = 0.99), approximate (p = 0.0005; d = 0.97), and sample (p < 0.0001; d = 1.22). Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) (p = 0.0358) and Higuchi fractal dimension (HFD) (p = 0.15) were statistically inconsequential between the two groups. Conclusions: HRV complexity in ALS subjects with different pulmonary capacities increased via chaotic global analysis, especially CFP5 and 3 out of 5 entropies.     

Thermoluminescence mechanism of Mn, Mg and Sr doped calcite

In this work, the thermoluminescence properties of synthetic crystals of doped calcite were studied. Samples were doped with Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺ or Sr²⁺, either individually or simultaneously with more than one of these impurities. TL glow curves, partial heating measurements, isometric curves, emission spectra and thermal treatment were performed, in order to investigate the role played by the impurities in the TL glow peaks of calcite. We conclude that the crystals doped with Mn²⁺ show five TL peaks with emission spectra due only to the Mn²⁺. The relative intensity of these peaks is closely related to the other divalent dopant added in the solution (Sr²⁺ or Mg²⁺). These results suggest that although Sr²⁺ and Mg²⁺ act as TL activators stabilising slightly different electron traps, they are not directly connected to the Mn²⁺ luminescence centre.     

Towards Minimal Addition Chains Using Ant Colony Optimisation

Modular exponentiation is one of the most important operations in almost all modern cryptosystems. It is performed using a series of modular multiplications. This operation is time consuming for large operands as is always the case in cryptography. Hence fast public-key cryptography software or hardware requires optimisation of the time consumed by a single modular multiplication and/or the reduction of the total number of modular multiplications required. This paper introduces a novel idea based on the principles of ant colony optimisation for finding a minimal addition chain that allows one to reduce the number of modular multiplications so that modular exponentiation can be implemented efficiently. The best addition chain reached by the ant system is compared to the one used in the m-ary and sliding window methods as well as with the best addition chain evolved by genetic algorithms. We demonstrate that the ant system significantly outperforms all these methods for any exponent size. ^★★ Research supported by FAPERJ () and CNPq ().     

Mössbauer spectroscopical investigation of the exchange biased Fe/MnF2 interface

Two different Fe/MnF₂ samples have been prepared by e-beam evaporation on MgO(001) substrates. The Fe layer in the samples includes a 10 Å thick ⁵⁷Fe probe layer either at the Fe/MnF₂ interface (interface sample) or 35 Å away from the interface (center sample). The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) and SQUID magnetometry. ⁵⁷Fe CEMS has been employed to study the depth dependent hyperfine interactions in Fe/MnF₂ as a function of temperature between 18 K to 300 K. The hyperfine field B _hf has been obtained for the interfacial and off-interfacial ⁵⁷Fe layers. At the interface, besides B _hf of bcc-Fe, the presence of a component with a distribution P(B _hf ) is observed. The latter is assigned to interfacial ⁵⁷Fe atoms, indicating some (～15%, equivalent to ～1 Fe atomic layer) intermixing at the Fe/MnF₂ interface and a decrease of the average hf > by 21%. The influence of the interface disappears as the ⁵⁷Fe probe layer is placed away from the interface. The temperature dependence of the average hf > of the interface has been measured. The Fe spins, at remanence, are found to lie in the film plane.     

Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion Extraction for Analysis of Cypermethrin Residue in Cows’ Milk

A method of extraction based on matrix solid-phase dispersion has been developed, optimized, and validated by chromatographic analysis of cypermethrin pesticide residues in samples of cows’ milk. Milk (0.25 g) was fortified with cypermethrin and blended with 1 g each of C₁₈ (octadecylsilane) silica and Na₂SO₄ (anhydrous sodium sulfate), used to trap fats and water, respectively. The homogenized material was transferred to a commercial SPE cartridge containing 1 g activated Florisil with 5 mL acetonitrile. Cypermethrin was eluted under vacuum with 5 × 2 mL acetonitrile and the extract was concentrated to 1 mL and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The limits of detection and quantification of the method were 0.025 and 0.08 mg kg⁻¹, respectively.

     

Total structural assignment and absolute configuration of terreinol by 13C and 1H NMR

The carbon-carbon connectivity of terreinol, a new metabolite isolated from Aspergillus terreus, and its previous (13)C assignments were confirmed by a two-dimensional INADEQUATE experiment using a few milligrams of the compound with natural (13)C abundance. The carbon-carbon correlations were determined by computational analysis (with >99% probability) of this experiment. Additionally, the absolute configuration of terreinol was achieved indirectly via its corresponding secondary alcohol by the modified Mosher method allied to conformational analysis. The shielding effect of the phenyl group of methoxytrifluoromethylphenylacetic acid (MTPA) on the substituents of the carbonylic centre gave a fully regular Deltadelta(SR) sign distribution, allowing reliable assignment of the R configuration for terreinol.     

A novel type of bis-quinolizidine alkaloid from the sponge: Petrosia seriata

The structure of petrosin, the major alkaloid isolated from the sponge Petrosia seriata, has been determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. Petrosin is the first member of a new class of bis-quinolizidine alkaloids containing a C-16 macrocycle.     

Second order resonance Raman scattering in As2S3 glass

First and second order resonance enhanced Raman scattering has been observed for As₂S₃ glass. First order scattering is dominated by a peak at 340 cm^-1 due to the symmetric stretch of the AsS₃ pyramidal group. Two partially resolved second order peaks are observed at about 630 and 710 cm^-1 whose relative intensities are highly temperature dependent and which are due respectively to overtones of the antisymmetric and symmetric AsS₃ stretching modes.     

Solving the vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple routes exactly using a pseudo-polynomial model

In this paper, we address a variant of the vehicle routing problem called the vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple routes. It considers that a given vehicle can be assigned to more than one route per planning period. We propose a new exact algorithm for this problem. Our algorithm is iterative and it relies on a pseudo-polynomial network flow model whose nodes represent time instants, and whose arcs represent feasible vehicle routes. This algorithm was tested on a set of benchmark instances from the literature. The computational results show that our method is able to solve more instances than the only other exact method described so far in the literature, and it clearly outperforms this method in terms of computing time.     

Can soaked‐in scavengers protect metalloprotein active sites from reduction during data collection?

One of the first events taking place when a crystal of a metalloprotein is exposed to X‐ray radiation is photoreduction of the metal centres. The oxidation state of a metal cannot always be determined from routine X‐ray diffraction experiments alone, but it may have a crucial impact on the metal's environment and on the analysis of the structural data when considering the functional mechanism of a metalloenzyme. Here, UV–Vis microspectrophotometry is used to test the efficacy of selected scavengers in reducing the undesirable photoreduction of the iron and copper centres in myoglobin and azurin, respectively, and X‐ray crystallography to assess their capacity of mitigating global and specific radiation damage effects. UV–Vis absorption spectra of native crystals, as well as those soaked in 18 different radioprotectants, show dramatic metal reduction occurring in the first 60 s of irradiation with an X‐ray beam from a third‐generation synchrotron source. Among the tested radioprotectants only potassium hexacyanoferrate(III) seems to be capable of partially mitigating the rate of metal photoreduction at the concentrations used, but not to a sufficient extent that would allow a complete data set to be recorded from a fully oxidized crystal. On the other hand, analysis of the X‐ray crystallographic data confirms ascorbate as an efficient protecting agent against radiation damage, other than metal centre reduction, and suggests further testing of HEPES and 2,3‐dichloro‐1,4‐naphtoquinone as potential scavengers.