Assay of ascorbic phosphates and in-vitro availability assay of ascorbic mono-and polyphosphates

A method was devised to assay ascorbic phosphate esters in biological materials by potassium bromoxide hydrolysis followed by determination of the liberated ascorbic acid. For the differential measurement of ascorbic acid and ascorbic phosphate, a spectrophotometric method was employed to screen out the interfering substances based on studies of absorbance curves of 2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine derivatives. A variety of vertebrate tissues were examined for phosphatase activity on ascorbic phosphate esters. The results suggest that pigeon kidney, rat liver and several tissues of fishes readily hydrolyse ascorbic monophosphate but not ascorbic polyphosphate. Hydrolysis of ascorbic monophosphate is completed by both phosphatases of intestine, kidney and liver acting at neutral pH and phosphatase of stomach acting at acid pH. Thus, ascorbic monophosphate has the potential to be a source of available vitamin C in vivo, and this explains its antiscorbutic activity in scurvy-prone animals.     

Calculating the steady-state polarizations of quantum cellular automata (QCA) circuits

We present on the use of well-known stochastic methods for computing the steady-state polarizations of quantum cellular automata (QCA) circuits. Typically, a Boltzmann distribution, which requires the exploration of the complete configuration space of an \(N\) -cell QCA circuit, is used to compute the \(2^N\) steady-states of the QCA circuit. However, the exponential growth in states as the circuit size grows makes computing the Boltzmann distribution infeasible for large circuits. Thus, we approximate the Boltzmann distribution of a QCA circuit by conducting a partial exploration of the complete configuration space by means of a Monte Carlo method, simulated annealing, and a genetic algorithm. The approximated Boltzmann distribution from each method was able to compute the steady-state polarizations with a very high degree of accuracy, with the simulated annealing algorithm producing the best results.     

Measures of overall persistence and the temporal remote state

The overall persistence, Pov, has been suggested as an indicator that integrates single media half-lives and phase partitioning. However, the application of this indicator is hindered by the fact that there are different definitions of Pov and that the most common measure of Pov, the residence time at steady state, depends heavily on the release pattern. Here, different measures are compared that can be used to compute Pov from the mass of a chemical in the environment as a function of time in a dynamic multimedia model. These measures include the equivalence width, which corresponds to the residence time at steady state, the mean value of the function of mass vs time ("mean time"), and the clearance time. The temporal remote state is defined as the state of the model system long after the stop of emissions; it is independent of the release pattern of a chemical. The mean time in the temporal remote state reflects the long-term removal rate of a chemical and is used as a persistence benchmark. Correlations of the three measures of Pov to the persistence benchmark are analyzed. The maximum equivalence width, which is obtained with release to one of the media air, water, or soil, is a good approximation of the mean time in the temporal remote state. Because the maximum equivalence width is identical to the maximum residence time at steady state, the mean time in the temporal remote state can be estimated with existing steady-state models.     

Radiation- and Photo-Induced Oxidation Pathways of Methionine in Model Peptide Backbone under Anoxic Conditions

Within the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by cellular metabolisms, hydroxyl radicals (HO^•) play an important role, being the most aggressive towards biomolecules. The reactions of HO^• with methionine residues (Met) in peptides and proteins have been intensively studied, but some fundamental aspects remain unsolved. In the present study we examined the biomimetic model made of Ac-Met-OMe, as the simplest model peptide backbone, and of HO^• generated by ionizing radiation in aqueous solutions under anoxic conditions. We performed the identification and quantification of transient species by pulse radiolysis and of final products by LC-MS and high-resolution MS/MS after γ-radiolysis. By parallel photochemical experiments, using 3-carboxybenzophenone (CB) triplet with the model peptide, we compared the outcomes in terms of short-lived intermediates and stable product identification. The result is a detailed mechanistic scheme of Met oxidation by HO^•, and by CB triplets allowed for assigning transient species to the pathways of products formation.     

Chemical Stability and Hydrogen Reaction Behavior of SmCo 2:17-Type Permanent Magnets

Herein, the reaction behavior and chemical stability of two commercially available SmCo 2:17-type sintered magnets with nominal composition of Sm_23.75Co_48.67Fe_balCu_4.91Zr_2.37 and Sm_24.95Co_48.80Fe_balCu_4.46Zr_2.68 (wt%) are investigated. The magnets are placed in a hydrogen atmosphere with systematically varied pressure, exposure time, and temperature ranging from 1–11 bar, 2–10 d, and 25–500 °C, respectively. Hydrogen content, magnetic properties, microstructure, and lattice constants are characterized in detail. It is found that for short exposure times like 2 d an activation temperature of 120 °C is necessary to initiate the reaction and to increase the amount of hydrogen in the Sm–Co material. Hydrogen absorption starts at lower temperatures with longer exposure times. An increase in exposure time, temperature, or pressure leads to a higher hydrogen content and a decrease in remanence B_r, energy product (BH)_max, and coercivity H_cB. Lattice expansion, estimated by X-ray diffraction analysis, correlates with the increasing amount of hydrogen in the Sm–Co magnets. With respect to all varied parameters under investigation, the exposure temperature has the highest impact on the observed property changes followed by reaction time and H₂ pressure.     

Synthesizing verified components for cyber assured systems engineering

Software and Systems Modeling - Safety-critical systems such as avionics need to be engineered to be cyber resilient meaning that systems are able to detect and recover from attacks or safely...     

Elimination of drift-like errors in intelligent cyclic A/D converters

The paper presents a new method of elimination of influence of drift-like errors in so called intelligent cyclic A/D converters, in particular, errors caused by drifts (droops) of voltage at the output of sample-and-hold blocks. The method is based on application of the extended multi-dimensional algorithm, which estimates simultaneously values of the input sample and drift rate. Implementation of the extended algorithm in the intelligent cyclic A/D converters requires only insignificant changes in the digital part of the converter and does not increase their production costs. The motivations to these investigations resulted from practical realizations of the intelligent cyclic A/D converter in CMOS technology and difficulties in design of a precise sample-and-hold circuit. The results of selected simulation experiments related to analysis of influence of a droop rate on the final performance of the intelligent cyclic A/D converters employing the standard (one-dimensional) and extended algorithms are discussed and compared in the paper. The results of experiments show that application of the proposed solution enables efficient functioning of the converters even in the presence of relatively large drifts.     

Determination of Acoustical Parameters of Aqueous Solution of Kolliphors Binary Mixtures Using Density,Speed of Sound,Viscosity, and Surface Tension Measurements

Measurements of density, speed of sound, and surface tension as well as viscosity of aqueous Kolliphor® ELP (ELP) and Kolliphor® RH 40 (RH40) solutions as well as binary mixtures at different surfactant mole fractions were made at 293 K to investigate their aggregation behavior. The free volume, internal pressure, and molar cohesive energy were calculated and compared to the specific acoustic impedance and intermolecular free length to obtain qualitative information about the character of interactions between the surfactant molecules in the mixture through the water phase.     

Crawler robot kinematics modeling by using a two-wheeled approach

The aim of this paper is to analyze the kinematics of a small crawler robot. A mathematical model of kinematics based on a two-wheeled approach is proposed. This model is experimentally verified using vision-based motion measurements of a crawler vehicle equipped with encoders and a remote control system. It is assumed that the vehicle moves along a few curves with different angular speeds of its wheels. Based on the model of motion and the values of these speeds, numerical simulations are investigated. The results obtained from numerical and experimental validation are presented and discussed. The comparison delivered some important conclusions.