Contact lenses and the rate of evaporation measured in vitro; the influence of wear,squalene and wax

Accelerated evaporation of tears may contribute to dry eye symptoms. It is not clear whether contact lenses decrease or increase the rate of evaporation of tears. In this study, the rates of evaporation through contact lenses (ERTCL) were measured in vitro to gain insight to this question. Contact lenses were equilibrated with various solutions to determine if they influenced ERTCL in vitro. ERTCL was measured gravimetrically. ERTCL measured in vitro for used contact lenses was about 20% faster than for buffer alone suggesting that natural tear components bound to the lenses changed the ERTCL. One natural tear component that binds to contact lenses is waxes. Equilibration of contact lenses with wax increased the ERTCL by about 30% suggesting that waxes might potentially increase ERTCL in vivo. Squalene, found in sebum and possibly meibum was infused into the contact lenses as a step toward decreasing the ERTCL. Squalene decreased ERTCL by over 60% in vitro. Soaking a contact lens in DuraSite^® with benzalkonium chloride (BAK) did not alter the ERTCL. ERTCL were about 40% higher than the evaporation rate of DuraSite^® alone or without BAK.In addition to lowering the ERTCL, the squalene in contact lenses could be a source of terpenoids to replace the terpenoids deficient in patients with MGD. If the ERTCL could be minimized in vivo, contact lenses could potentially be used to relieve dry eye symptoms in patients with evaporative dry eye.     

Global‐view coefficients: a data management solution for parallel quantum Monte Carlo applications

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) applications perform simulation with respect to an initial state of the quantum mechanical system, which is often captured by using a cubic B‐spline basis. This representation is stored as a read‐only table of coefficients and accesses to the table are generated at random as part of the Monte Carlo simulation. Current QMC applications, such as QWalk and QMCPACK, replicate this table at every process or node, which limits scalability because increasing the number of processors does not enable larger systems to be run. We present a partitioned global address space approach to transparently managing this data using Global Arrays in a manner that allows the memory of multiple nodes to be aggregated. We develop an automated data management system that significantly reduces communication overheads, enabling new capabilities for QMC codes. Experimental results with QWalk and QMCPACK demonstrate the effectiveness of the data management system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigations of Wear Response of Pure Mg and Mg-0.4 Ce-Y2O3/ZnO Nanocomposites Using a Single and Repeated Scratch Tests

ABSTRACT

This work examines the micrometer-scale wear behavior of pure Mg and its composites at various loads (100–500 mN) under single and multiple scratch conditions. The Mg-0.4Ce alloy reinforced with nanoparticles of zinc oxide (ZnO) and yttrium oxide (Y₂O₃) is investigated. The effect of reinforcement addition on wear characteristics and the coefficient of friction (COF) was evaluated. Moreover, the influence of number of scratches on wear quantification and wear mechanism was deduced at different loads. The results suggest that both the mechanical and tribological performance of ZnO-reinforced composite is significantly better than that of the Y₂O₃-reinforced composite, which can be attributed to a low COF and higher strengthening due to ZnO addition.     

Gain and isolation enhancement of patch antenna using L‐slotted mushroom electromagnetic bandgap

In this paper, the application of the L‐slotted mushroom electromagnetic bandgap (LMEBG) structure to patch antenna and antenna array is investigated. A coaxial fed patch antenna and antenna array are designed at 5.8 GHz, center frequency for ISM band (5.725‐5.875 GHz). Two layers of LMEBG are placed around the patch to achieve a gain enhancement of 1.9 dB. Measured results show a bandwidth enhancement of 300 MHz with an additional resonant frequency at 5.6 GHz with 4.5 dB of gain. A 5 × 2 array of LMEBG is used to achieve a 2 dB mutual coupling reduction and 2 dB gain enhancement for a two‐element H‐coupled patch antenna array.     

A novel approach to validate online signature using machine learning based on dynamic features

Neural Computing and Applications - This paper presents a new and mathematical method for online signature validation based on machine learning. In this way, the average values of the factors are...     

Impacts of Cellulose Fiber Particle Size and Starch Type on Expansion During Extrusion Processing

Objective of this study was to understand the impacts of cellulose fiber with different particle size distributions, and starches with different molecular weights, on the expansion of direct expanded products. Fiber with 3 different particle size distributions (<125, 150 to 250, 300 to 425 μm) and 4 types of starches representing different amylose contents (0%, 23%, 50%, and 70%) were investigated. Feed moisture content (18 ± 0.5 % w.b) and extruder temperature (140 °C) were kept constant and only the extruder screw speed was varied (100, 175, and 250 rpm) to achieve different specific mechanical energy inputs. Fiber particle size and starch type significantly influenced the various product parameters. In general, the smaller fiber particle size resulted in extrudate with higher expansion ratio. Starch with an amylose: amylopectin ratio of 23:77 resulted in highest expansion compared to the other starches, when no fiber was added. Interestingly, starch with 50:50, amylose: amylopectin ratio in combination with smaller fiber particles resulted in product with significantly greater expansion than the control starch extrudates. Aggregation of fiber and shrinkage of surface was observed in the Scanning Electron Microscope images at 10% fiber level. The results suggest the presence of active interactions between the cellulose fiber particles and corn starch molecules during the expansion process. A better understanding of these interactions can help in the development of high fiber extruded products with better expansion.     

Preprocessing of powder to enhance mechanical and thermal response of bulk magnesium

This article investigates the effect of preprocessing of powders on improving the properties of pure bulk magnesium synthesized via microwave assisted powder metallurgy method. Preprocessing was done by compacting the powder prior to primary processing (cold compaction & microwave sintering) and secondary processing (hot extrusion). Various characterization studies were conducted to determine the microstructural features, temperature governed properties and mechanical properties. Results revealed that preprocessing (compaction) led to improved properties i.e. higher yield strength, better grain refinement and higher resistance to ignition.