New demodulation filter in digital phase rotation beamforming

In this paper, we present a new quadrature demodulation filter to reduce hardware complexity in digital phase rotation beamforming. Due to its low sensitivity to phase delay errors, digital quadrature demodulation is commonly used in ultrasound machines. However, since it requires two lowpass filters for each channel to remove harmonics, the direct use of conventional finite impulse response (FIR) filters in ultrasound machines is computationally expensive and burdensome. In our new method, an efficient multi-stage uniform coefficient (MSUC) filter is utilized to remove harmonic components in phase rotation beamforming. In comparison with the directly implemented FIR (DI-FIR) and the previously-proposed signed-power-of-two FIR (SPOT-FIR) lowpass filters, the proposed MSUC filter reduces the necessary hardware resources by 93.9% and 83.9%, respectively. In simulation, the MSUC filter shows a negligible degradation in image quality. The proposed method resulted in comparable spatial and contrast resolution to the DI-FIR approach in the phantom study. These preliminary results indicate that the proposed quadrature demodulation filtering method could significantly reduce the hardware complexity in phase rotation beamforming while maintaining comparable image quality.     

Au/CdS Hybrid Nanoparticles in Block Copolymer Micellar Shells

A polystyrene‐block‐poly(2‐vinylpyridine) (PS‐b‐P2VP) micellar structure with a P2VP core containing 5 nm CdS nanoparticles (NPs) and a PS shell formed in toluene that is a good solvent for PS block undergoes the core‐shell inversion by excess addition of methanol that is a good solvent for P2VP block. It leads to the formation of micellar shell‐embedded CdS NPs in the methanol major phase. The spontaneous crystalline growth of Au NPs on the CdS surfaces positioned at micellar shells without a further reduction process is newly demonstrated. The nanostructure of Au/CdS/PS‐b‐P2VP hybrid NPs is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, energy‐dispersive X‐ray, and UV‐Vis absorption.

     

Identification of active compounds from medicinal plant extracts using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and multivariate data analysis

Conventional methods of drug discovery from natural products include bioassay-guided fractionation, which is tedious and has low efficiency. The aim of this work is to develop a platform method to rapidly identify bioactive compounds from crude plant extracts and their partially purified fractions using multivariate data analysis (MVDA). Soxhlet extraction and liquid-liquid fractionation were used to prepare different extracts and fractions from the leaves of a medicinal plant, Ardisia elliptica. The extracts and fractions were analysed chemically using GC-MS, and their ability to inhibit platelet aggregation was investigated. Two MVDA methods were developed and optimised to analyse the results. In the first method, compounds with the highest contribution scores for biological activity calculated by different models were listed as potential antiplatelet compounds. For the second MVDA method, a correlation of the concentrations of constituents and biological activities in the various extracts and fractions for each compound was done. Compounds with the highest correlation coefficients were identified as potential antiplatelet compounds. One of the predicted components was isolated, purified and confirmed to possess antiplatelet effects. This platform method can be developed and optimised for other plant extracts and biological activities, thus reducing time and cost of drug discovery while improving efficiency.     

Comparison of magnetic properties of DNA-cetyltrimethyl ammonium complex with those of natural DNA

We prepared the DNA-cetyltrimethyl ammonium complex, as well as the same complex intercalated with stable organic free radicals, and studied their magnetic properties by electron magnetic resonance (EMR) spectroscopy and by measuring the magnetization on a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The UV-vis and CD spectra of DNA-quaternary alkyl ammonium complex (DNA--Q+) in organic solvent clearly demonstrated that it retained the double helical B-form conformation. The interhelical spacing of double strand DNA (dsDNA) increased when the counter ions (Na+) of phosphate groups of the natural DNA were replaced with the long alkyl quaternary ammonium groups. The inter-helical distance of DNA-cetyltrimethyl ammonium (CTMA) was 39.1  as confirmed by X-ray diffractometry. In general, the magnetization of the DNA-CTMA complex solid was found to be significantly lower than that of natural DNA. Moreover, intercalation of the complex with stable organic free radicals did not improve magnetization, which again was in marked contrast to natural DNA. EMR spectroscopic behavior of the complex in the solid state also was quite different from that of natural DNA: The unique broad EMR signal of natural DNA in the low field region with g-value greater than 10 disappeared in the DNA-CTMA complex.     

Nanopatterning of mesoporous inorganic oxide films for efficient light harvesting of dye-sensitized solar cells

Nanopatterning provides facile process to well-arrayed mesoporous inorganic oxide films at low cost by using readily available pastes and elastomeric nanostamps. The fabricated nanopattern boosted the light-harvesting efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by a light-trapping technique. The iodine-free solid-state DSSCs showed a 40 % increase in the current density and high efficiency (7.03 %).     

Inclusion and dielectric properties of a vinylidene fluoride oligomer in coordination nanochannels

The dynamics of oligo(vinylidene fluoride) (OVDF) confined in regular nanochannels of a porous coordination polymer (PCP) was studied by means of dielectric spectroscopy. The OVDF chains in the PCP nanopores showed two Arrhenius-type relaxation processes at lower temperatures than the relaxation temperature observed for the neat OVDF, showing the enhanced mobility of the confined OVDF.     

Thermal decomposition mechanism of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ionic liquid

In order to better understand the volatilization process for ionic liquids, the vapor evolved from heating the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide (EMIM(+)Br(-)) was analyzed via tunable vacuum ultraviolet photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (VUV-PI-TOFMS) and thermogravimetric analysis mass spectrometry (TGA-MS). For this ionic liquid, the experimental results indicate that vaporization takes place via the evolution of alkyl bromides and alkylimidazoles, presumably through alkyl abstraction via an S(N)2 type mechanism, and that vaporization of intact ion pairs or the formation of carbenes is negligible. Activation enthalpies for the formation of the methyl and ethyl bromides were evaluated experimentally, ΔH(?)(CH(3)Br) = 116.1 ± 6.6 kJ/mol and ΔH(?)(CH(3)CH(2)Br) = 122.9 ± 7.2 kJ/mol, and the results are found to be in agreement with calculated values for the S(N)2 reactions. Comparisons of product photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves with literature data are in good agreement, and ab initio thermodynamics calculations are presented as further evidence for the proposed thermal decomposition mechanism. Estimates for the enthalpy of vaporization of EMIM(+)Br(-) and, by comparison, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide (BMIM(+)Br(-)) from molecular dynamics calculations and their gas phase enthalpies of formation obtained by G4 calculations yield estimates for the ionic liquids' enthalpies of formation in the liquid phase: ΔH(vap)(298 K) (EMIM(+)Br(-)) = 168 ± 20 kJ/mol, ΔH(f,?gas)(298 K) (EMIM(+)Br(-)) = 38.4 ± 10 kJ/mol, ΔH(f,?liq)(298 K) (EMIM(+)Br(-)) = -130 ± 22 kJ/mol, ΔH(f,?gas)(298 K) (BMIM(+)Br(-)) = -5.6 ± 10 kJ/mol, and ΔH(f,?liq)(298 K) (BMIM(+)Br(-)) = -180 ± 20 kJ/mol.     

Designed cyanide- and phenoxide-bridged Fe(III)Mn(III) single-molecule magnet constructed by highly blocked paramagnetic precursors

A tetranuclear Fe(III)(2)Mn(III)(2) compound was prepared using highly blocked precursors. The well-isolated molecular entity associated with appropriate magnetic anisotropy allows for single-molecule magnet behavior.