Denoising in digital speckle pattern interferometry using wave atoms

We present an effective method for speckle noise removal in digital speckle pattern interferometry, which is based on a wave-atom thresholding technique. Wave atoms are a variant of 2D wavelet packets with a parabolic scaling relation and improve the sparse representation of fringe patterns when compared with traditional expansions. The performance of the denoising method is analyzed by using computer-simulated fringes, and the results are compared with those produced by wavelet and curvelet thresholding techniques. An application of the proposed method to reduce speckle noise in experimental data is also presented.     

Polymeric Gene Carriers Bearing Pendant β‐Cyclodextrin: The Relevance of Glycoside Permethylation on the “In Vitro” Cell Response

The incorporation of cyclodextrins (CDs) to nonviral cationic polymer vectors is very attractive due to recent studies that report a clear improvement of their cytocompatibility and transfection efficiency. However, a systematic study on the influence of the CD derivatization is still lacking. In this work, the relevance of β‐CD permethylation has been addressed by preparing and evaluating two series of copolymers of the cationic N‐ethyl pyrrolidine methacrylamide (EPA) and styrenic units bearing pendant hydroxylated and permethylated β‐CDs (HCDSt and MeCDSt, respectively). For both cell lines, CDs permethylation shows a strong influence on plasmid DNA complexation, “in vitro” cytocompatibility and transfection efficiency of the resulting copolymers over two murine cell lines. While the incorporation of the hydroxylated CD moiety increased the cytotoxicity of the copolymers in comparison with their homopolycationic counterpart, the permethylated copolymers have shown full cytocompatibility as well as superior transfection efficiency than the controls. This behavior has been related to the different chemical nature of both units and tentatively to a different distribution of units along the polymeric chains. Cellular internalization analysis with fluorescent copo­lymers supports this behavior.

     

The Log-Linear Birnbaum-Saunders Power Model

In this paper the sinh-power model is developed as a natural follow up to the log-linear Birnbaum-Saunders power model. The class of models resulting, incorporates the sinh-power-normal model, the ordinary sinh-normal model and the log-linear Birnbaum-Saunders model (Rieck and Nedelman, Technometrics 33:51–60, 1991). Maximum likelihood estimation is developed with the Hessian matrix used for standard error estimation. An application is reported for the data set on lung cancer studied in Kalbfleisch and Prentice (2002), where it is shown that the log-linear Birnbaum-Saunders power-normal model presents better fit than the log-linear Birnbaum-Saunders model. Another application is devoted to a fatigue data set previously analyzed in the literature. A nonlinear Birnbaum-Saunders power-normal model is fitted to the data set, with satisfactory performance.     

Efficient synthesis of fluorinated α- and β-amino nitriles from fluoroalkylated α,β-unsaturated imines

A simple and efficient synthesis of fluoroalkylated α-amino nitrile (4) derivatives by regioselective 1,2-addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to fluoroalkylated α,β-unsaturated imines (1) is described. Fluoroalkylated β-amino nitriles (7) are also prepared by regioselective 1,2-addition of α-carbanions derived from acetonitrile to fluoroalkylated α,β-unsaturated imines (1). Fluoroalkylated α-(4) and β-amino nitriles (7) are also prepared through an ‘one pot’ procedure by reaction of enaminophosphonate 2 with BuLi, addition of aldehydes and subsequent addition of either trimethylsilyl cyanide or α-carbanion derived from acetonitrile. Basic hydrolysis of α-(4) and β-amino nitriles (7) gives fluoroalkylated α-(5) and β-amino acids (8).     

The formation of non-soluble complexes between polyethyleneimine-anions and their potential use to isolate enzymes

The aqueous solution behavior of polyethyleneimine (a synthetic cationic polymer) in the presence of anions with two or more electrical charges (citrate, phosphate, sulphate, malate, malonate and succinate) was studied by means of turbidimetry and light scattering. Polyethyleneimine forms non-soluble complexes with these anions, which behave as a pseudo-polyampholyte with an isoelectrical pH value dependent on the type of anion. The effect of pH, polymer concentration and ionic strength on the non-soluble complexes formation was examined. The complex precipitation pH range was between 3.5 and 8.0 and also depended on the type of anion. The complex formation was inhibited by the ionic strength in agreement with the electrostatic mechanism of the non-soluble complex formation. Model proteins with isoelectric pH from 1 to 10 were assayed in orden to be precipitated by these complexes. It was found that the non-soluble polyethyleneimine-anion complexes have the property to precipitate macromolecules charged with an opposite electrical charge.     

Studies on Immobilization and Partial Characterization of Lipases from Wheat Seeds (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum aestivum</Emphasis>)

The objective of this study was to provide some features on immobilization and partial characterization of lipases from wheat seeds. The optimum pH and temperature were found to be 5.5 and 32–37 °C, respectively. The stability of the concentrated enzymatic extract to high temperatures (25, 35, 45, and 55 °C) showed that the incubation of the extract at 55 °C led to its complete inactivation. The concentrated enzymatic extract kept 90% of its hydrolytic and esterification activities until 70 and 40 days of storage at 4 °C, respectively. The extract presented higher hydrolytic specificity to substrates of medium and long chains and higher esterification affinity to fatty acids of short and medium chains and alcohols with two and three carbon atoms. After the immobilization process using activated coal and sodium alginate as supports, an enhancement of about threefold in lipase activity was observed. The development of the present work permitted us to point out some characteristics of lipases from wheat seeds necessary for the proposition of new future industrial applications for this important biocatalyst.     

Improved high-efficiency organic solar cells via incorporation of a conjugated polyelectrolyte interlayer

The power conversion efficiencies of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells can be increased from 5 to 6.5% by incorporating an ultrathin conjugated polyelectrolyte (CPE) layer between the active layer and the metal cathode. Poly[N-9'-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4',7'-di-2-thienyl-2',1',3'-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) and [6,6]-phenyl C(71) butyric acid methyl ester (PC(71)BM) were chosen for the photoactive layer. CPEs with cationic polythiophenes, in both homopolymer and block copolymer configurations, were used to improve the electronic characteristics. The significant improvement in device performance and the simplicity of fabrication by solution processing suggest a promising and practical pathway for improving polymer solar cells with high efficiencies.     

Use of triacylglycerol profiles established by high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet-visible detection to predict the botanical origin of vegetable oils

A method for the determination of triacylglycerols (TAGs) in vegetable oils from different botanical origins by HPLC with UV-vis detection has been developed. Using a core-shell particle packed column (C18, 2.6 μm), TAG separation was optimized in terms of mobile phase composition and column temperature. Using isocratic elution with acetonitrile/n-pentanol at 10 °C, excellent efficiency with good resolution between most of the TAG peak pairs, within a total analysis time of 15 min, was achieved. Using mass spectrometry detection, a total of 15 peaks, which were common to oils of six different botanical origins (corn, extra virgin olive, grapeseed, hazelnut, peanut and soybean) were identified. These peaks were used to construct linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models for botanical origin prediction. Ratios of the peak areas selected by pairs were used as predictors. All the oils were correctly classified with assignment probabilities higher than 95%.