Filters
total: 2062
filtered: 1590
displaying 1000 best results Help
Search results for: VIRUS-LIKE PARTICLES
-
Detection of Denatonium Benzoate (Bitrex) Remnants in Noncommercial Alcoholic Beverages by Raman Spectroscopy
PublicationIllegal alcoholic beverages are often introduced into market using cheap technical alcohol, which is contaminated by denatonium benzoate (Bitrex) of very small concentration. Bitrex is the most bitter chemical compound and has to be removed before alcohol consumption. The home-made methods utilize sodium hypochlorite to disintegrate particles of denatonium benzoate in alcohol and to remove bitter taste before trading. In this experimental...
-
Functionalization of indium-tin-oxide electrodes by laser-nanostructured gold thin films for biosensing applications
Publicationof a relatively large area formed by pulsed laser nanostructuring of thin gold films arereported and discussed. The SEM inspection of modified electrodes reveals the presence of the nearlyspherical and disc-shaped particles of dimensions in the range of 40–120 nm. The NP-array geometry canbe controlled by selection of the laser processing conditions. It is shown that particle size and packingdensity of the array are important factors...
-
Risks related to car fire on innovative Poroelastic Road Surfaces-PERS
PublicationTo reduce tyre/road noise, the concept of poroelastic road surfaces (PERS) was invented. PERS is a road surface material that is porous, and at the same time, it is flexible because of the substantial amount of rubber granulate content (from 20% to 85%). The rubber and stone particles are bound by polyurethane resin instead of bitumen. It was feared that in case of fire, because of the high content of rubber and polyurethane, there...
-
Sodium alginate decreases the permeability of intestinal mucus
PublicationIn the small intestine the nature of the environment leads to a highly heterogeneous mucus layer primarily composed of the MUC2 mucin. We set out to investigate whether the soluble dietary fibre sodium alginate could alter the permeability of the mucus layer. The alginate was shown to freely diffuse into the mucus and to have minimal effect on the bulk rheology when added at concentrations below 0.1%. Despite this lack of interaction...
-
Multisine impedimetric monitoring with an in-depth distribution of relaxation times analysis of WE43 and AZ31 magnesium alloys corrosion
PublicationThis research aims to develop and utilize an impedance-based tool for monitoring non-stationary electrochemical processes, coupling the multisinusoidal perturbation signal approach and distribution of relaxation times (DRT) analysis for the first time. The approach was used to distinguish independent processes occurring at the surface of AZ31 and WE43 Mg alloys undergoing corrosion in Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution at 37 °C. We...
-
Encapsulation of Cs3Bi2Br9 perovskite photocatalyst with polythiophene for prolonged activity in oxidizing and humid environment
PublicationDespite their growing popularity in modern technology, halide perovskites suffer from susceptibility to oxidation, limiting their applications. Our aim was to enhance Cs3Bi2Br9 perovskite's performance in humid environments through polythiophene encapsulation. This extended its lifespan while preserving photocatalytic abilities, as demonstrated in toluene decomposition experiments. We confirmed the stability of Cs3Bi2Br9 encapsulated...
-
Application of Spinel and Hexagonal Ferrites in Heterogeneous Photocatalysis
PublicationSemiconducting materials display unique features that enable their use in a variety of applications, including self-cleaning surfaces, water purification systems, hydrogen generation, solar energy conversion, etc. However, one of the major issues is separation of the used materials from the process suspension. Therefore, chemical compounds with magnetic properties have been proposed as crucial components of photocatalytic composites,...
-
Non-Coaxially Rotating Motion in Casson Martial along with Temperature and Concentration Gradients via First-Order Chemical Reaction
PublicationThe effect of non-coaxial rotation on the transport of mass subjected to first-order chemical reaction is studied analytically. The effects of thermal radiation, buoyancy, constructive and destructive chemical reactions along with Casson fluid in rotating frame are discussed. Time evolution of primary and secondary velocities, energy and solute particles are analyzed. The behavior of flow under the variation of intensity of magnetic...
-
A concept for reducing PM 10 emissions for car brakes by 50%
PublicationWith regard to airborne particles with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10 μm (PM10), in countries in the European Union, the mass of brake emissions equals approximately 8–27% of the total traffic-related emissions. Using a research methodology combining tests at different scale levels with contact mechanics simulations and PM10 chemical characterization, the REBRAKE EU-financed project had the following aims: i) to demonstrate...
-
Studies on the utilization of post-distillation liquid from Solvay process to carbon dioxide capture and storage
PublicationIn this work, a method of precipitated calcium carbonate production from the post-distillation liquid created in the Solvay process and waste carbon dioxide was proposed and investigated. Precipitation was carried out in a model solution of calcium chloride containing ammonia at various molar ratios in relation to Ca2+ ions, while gaseous carbon dioxide was supplied to the reactor as a pure gas or as a mixture with air. It was...
-
Transdermal transport of collagen and hyaluronic acid using water in oil microemulsion
PublicationCollagen and hyaluronic acid (HA) are biopolymers that affect the appearance and condition of the skin. Delivery of these compounds into the skin is highly challenging since have a number of disadvantageous properties, such as high molecular weight and hydrophilicity. Here, we evaluated the transdermal penetration of low and high molecular weight collagen and HA from microemulsions. A number of microemulsion formulations, differing...
-
A New Microwave Ceramic – Polymer Composite with 0-3 Connectivity
PublicationGoal of the present research was to fabricate and study two-phase BiNbO4//PVDF composites with 0-3 connectivity. Such composite consists of there-dimensionally connected polymer matrix loaded with dielectric ceramic particles. In the present case BiNbO4 powder acted as an active phase (dispersed phase) whereas polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) acted as a non-active (passive) phase (matrix). BiNbO4//PVDF composites with the volume...
-
Nanodiamond phantoms mimicking human liver: perspective to calibration of T1 relaxation time in magnetic resonance imaging
PublicationPhantoms of biological tissues are materials that mimic the properties of real tissues. This study shows the development of phantoms with nanodiamond particles for calibration of T1 relaxation time in magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a commonly used and non-invasive method of detecting pathological changes inside the human body. Nevertheless, before a new MRI device is approved for use, it is necessary...
-
Reclaimed Rubber/Poly(ε‐caprolactone) Blends: Structure, Mechanical, and Thermal Properties
PublicationThe amount of elastomeric waste, especially from tires is constantly increasing on a global scale. The recycling of these residua should be considered a priority. Compounding the waste rubbers with other polymers can be an excellent alternative to reuse waste materials. This procedure requires solving the issue of the lack of compatibility between the waste rubber particles and other polymers. Simultaneously, there is a claim for...
-
RECSYS CHALLENGE 2015: a BUY EVENT PREDICTION IN THE E-COMMERCE DOMAIN
PublicationIn this paper we present our approach to RecSys Challenge 2015. Given a set of e-commerce events, the task is to predict whether a user will buy something in the current session and, if yes, which of the item will be bought. We show that the data preparation and enrichment are very important in finding the solution for the challenge and that simple ideas and intuitions could lead to satisfactory results. We also show that simple...
-
Displacement control in PWK-type pumps
PublicationThe most important, strategic goal however is creation of the variable displacement version of the new pump PWK. Thanks to full discharge of it's commutation mechanism from hydrostatic forces the variable pump can be directly controlled by low-energy actuator like proportional electromagnet or stepping motor. It means that costly and complicated hydraulic servomechanism (applied in all present variable displacement pumps) is no...
-
Genetic Programming with Negative Selection for Volunteer Computing System Optimization
PublicationVolunteer computing systems like BOINC or Comcute are strongly supported by a great number of volunteers who contribute resources of their computers via the Web. So, the high efficiency of such grid system is required, and that is why we have formulated a multi-criterion optimization problem for a volunteer grid system design. In that dilemma, both the cost of the host system and workload of a bottleneck host are minimized. On...
-
Facial data registration facility for biometric protection of electronic documents
PublicationIn modern world, information is crucial, and its leakage may lead to serious losses. Documents as the main medium of information must be therefore highly protected. Nowadays, the most common way of protecting data is using passwords, however it seems inconvenient to type complex passwords, when it is needed many times a day. For that reason a significant research has been conducted on biometric authentication...
-
A graph coloring approach to scheduling of multiprocessor tasks on dedicated machines with availability constraints
PublicationWe address a generalization of the classical 1- and 2-processor unit execution time scheduling problem on dedicated machines. In our chromatic model of scheduling machines have non-simultaneous availability times and tasks have arbitrary release times and due dates. Also, the versatility of our approach makes it possible to generalize all known classical criteria of optimality. Under these stipulations we show that the problem...
-
Time-frequency analysis of acoustic signals using concentrated spectrogram
PublicationThe paper presents improved method of time-frequency (TF) analysis of discrete-time signals. The method involves signal's local group delay (LGD) and channelized instantaneous frequency (CIF) to purposely redistribute all Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) lines. Additionally, the energy concentration index (ECI) and some histogram-like statistics are used to evaluate readability of estimated TF distributions of the energy. Recorded...
-
Optimization of Self-Organized TiO2 Nanotube Geometry on Ti and Ti Alloys Using Fuzzy Logic Reasoning
PublicationThe geometry of self-organized TiO2 nanotubes, obtained by electrochemicalanodization, has been determined by using fuzzy reasoning approach. The efficiency of TiO2nanotubular layer in biomedical applications depends on geometry and available surface area ofnanotubes, which can be determined by their diameter and length. The structure of nanotubesdepends on processing parameters of electrochemical anodization, like applied potential,anodization...
-
approximation of photonic crystal fibres with large air holes by the step index fibre model
PublicationAn equivalent step index fibre with a silica core and air cladding is used to model photonic crystal fibres with large air holes. We model this fibre for linear polarisation (we focus on the lowest few transverse modes of the electromagnetic field). The equivalent step index radius is obtained by equating the lowest two eigenvalues of the model to those calculated numerically for the photonic crystal fibres. The step index parameters...
-
Disturbances of magnetic field in surrounding of mobile, metalic plate
PublicationThe uniform magnetic field of the Earth in the surrounding of a mobile, metalic object undergoes deformation by eddy currents. The influence of the moving conducting object on total magnetic field of the Earth depends on the object's shape, position and speed of the changes relative to the magnetic field's vector of the Earth as well as the electric conductivity and the relative magnetic permeability of the material. The disturbances...
-
Gaseous products from scrap tires pyrolisis
PublicationIn European Union 75% of used tires should be recycled. The most common method of used tires disposal, is burning in cement kilns, which does not solve the problem. Pyrolysis process can be an alternative way of utilization of tires. The aim of the researches was to check the influence of pyrolysis products (gas and oil fractions) on environment. Samples from pyrolysis process, like light oil fractions or pyrolysis gases were analyzed...
-
Underwater Wet Repair Welding of API 5L X65M Pipeline Steel
PublicationThis paper presents results of the research of effect of polymer insulation of pipeline made of API 5L X65M steel as well as underwater wet welding parameters on properties of joints made by covered electrodes. Effect of heat input on structure and hardness of joints during repair of underwater pipeline was analyzed. Welding defects like microcracks, micro-lacks of fusion, slag inclusions, as well as HAZ hardness increase over...
-
Differentiating patients with obstructive sleep apnea from healthy controls based on heart rate-blood pressure coupling quantified by entropy-based indices
PublicationWe introduce an entropy-based classification method for pairs of sequences (ECPS) for quantifying mutual dependencies in heart rate and beat-to-beat blood pressure recordings. The purpose of the method is to build a classifier for data in which each item consists of two intertwined data series taken for each subject. The method is based on ordinal patterns and uses entropy-like indices. Machine learning is used to select a subset...
-
Quenching of bright and dark excitons via deep states in the presence of SRH recombination in 2D monolayer materials
PublicationTwo-dimensional (2D) monolayer materials are interesting systems due to an existence of optically non-active dark excitonic states. In this work, we formulate a theoretical model of an excitonic Auger process which can occur together with the trap-assisted recombination in such 2D structures. The interactions of intravalley excitons (bright and spin-dark ones) and intervalley excitons (momentum-dark ones) with deep states located...
-
Band engineering of BiOBr based materials for photocatalytic wastewater treatment via advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) – A review
PublicationSemiconductor based photocatalysts have been an efficient technology for water and wastewater remediation, addressing the concepts of green chemistry and sustainable development. Owing to narrow and suitable band structure, BiOBr is a promising candidate for efficient wastewater treatment via photocatalysis. Enhancement of photocatalytic properties can be obtained by various techniques like doping, element rich strategy, facet...
-
Vibrational excitation of acetylene by positron impact
PublicationVibrationally inelastic quantum calculations are carried out at low collision energies for the scattering of a beam of positrons off acetylene gaseous molecules. The normal mode analysis is assumed to be valid and the relative fluxes into the C–C and C–H symmetric vibrational modes are computed within a Body-Fixed (BF) formulation of the dynamics by solving the relevant vibrational Coupled Channels (VCC) equations. The clear dominance...
-
The Imaging of Gdansk Bay Seabed by Using Side Sonar
PublicationThis paper is mainly aimed at presentation of an impact of environmental conditions on imaging accuracy by using hydro-acoustic systems in waters of a high non-uniformity of spatial distribution of hydrological parameters. Impact of refraction on erroneous estimation of range, in case of wave radiation into water under a large angle, like in side sonars or multi-beam echo-sounders, is especially important. In this paper seasonal...
-
Mobile satellite measurements on the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway
PublicationThis paper presents the process of organization and execution of the mobile satellite measurements conducted on the tracks of the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway before officially entry the line into operation. These measurements allowed for the accurate identification of the actual geometric shape of the line. In the paper the issues of both design and construction phase of this railway line has been described. Moreover, the geodetic...
-
Early Stages of RNA-Mediated Conversion of Human Prions
PublicationPrion diseases are characterized by the conversion of prion proteins from a PrPC fold into a disease-causing PrPSC form that is self-replicating. A possible agent to trigger this conversion is polyadenosine RNA, but both mechanism and pathways of the conversion are poorly understood. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulations we study the time evolution of PrPC over 600 μs. We find that both the D178N mutation and interacting...
-
Bioaccumulation of Metals in Tissues of Marine Animals, Part I: the Role and Impact of Heavy Metals on Organisms
PublicationHeavy metals contribute to the anthropogenic contamination of marine ecosystems. Some of them are essential to the life processes of organisms; others are toxic, even at low concentrations. They penetrate organisms via food, respiratory pathways or the skin. The extent to which metals penetrate organisms is measured by the bioconcentration and bioaccumulation factors and also by their transport between organisms at different trophic...
-
Credibility of Business Operations via Internet: Customer Perspective
PublicationTourism plays an important role in economy of Mediterranean countries. Year after year, more and more people spend or like to spend their vacations (and money) in the Mediterranean region. Hiring private apartments or houses by individual persons for themselves and their families becomes more and more popular way of vacation arrangement and, in the result, constitutes an important factor of the countries' incomes. Versatile and...
-
Advanced polarization sensitive analysis in optical coherence tomography
PublicationThe optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical imaging method, which is widely applied in variety applications. This technology is used to cross-sectional or surface imaging with high resolution in non-contact and non-destructive way. OCT is very useful in medical applications like ophthalmology, dermatology or dentistry, as well as beyond biomedical fields like stress mapping in polymers or protective coatings defects detection....
-
Amplifying the Randomness of Weak Sources Correlated With Devices
PublicationThe problem of device-independent randomness amplification against no-signaling adversaries has so far been studied under the assumption that the weak source of randomness is uncorrelated with the (quantum) devices used in the amplification procedure. In this paper, we relax this assumption, and reconsider the original protocol of Colbeck and Renner using a Santha-Vazirani (SV) source. To do so, we introduce an SV-like condition...
-
Role of the disulfide bond in stabilizing and folding of the fimbrial protein DraE from uropathogenic Escherichia coli
PublicationDr fimbriae are homopolymeric adhesive organelles of uropathogenic Escherichia coli composed of DraE subunits, responsible for the attachment to host cells. These structures are characterized by enormously high stability resulting from the structural properties of an Ig-like fold of DraE. One feature of DraE and other fimbrial subunits that makes them peculiar among Ig-like domain-containing proteins is a conserved disulfide bond...
-
Degradation of cefadroxil drug by newly designed solar light responsive alcoholic template-based lanthanum ferrite nanoparticles
PublicationIn this work, lanthanum ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized via a simple co-precipitation method. Two different templates, namely sorbitol and mannitol, were used in this synthesis to tune the optical, structural, morphological, and photocatalytic properties of lanthanum ferrite. The synthesized lanthanum ferrite-sorbitol (LFOCo-So) and lanthanum ferrite-mannitol (LFOCo-Mo) were investigated through Ultraviolet–Visible (UV–Vis),...
-
Proton Conducting Ceramic Powder Synthesis by a Low Temperature Method
PublicationMolten salt synthesis (MSS) is a simple method for the preparation of ceramic powders with specific morphology. The main role of the molten salts is to increase the reaction rate and lower the reaction temperature. It occurs because of much higher mobility of reactants in the liquid medium than in the solid state. In this work the molten salt synthesis was applied to produce ceramic powders of La0995Ca0005NbO4 and BaCe09−xZrxY01O3....
-
π-Stacking attraction vs. electrostatic repulsion: competing supramolecular interactions in a tpphz-bridged Ru(ii)/Au(iii) complex
PublicationThe synthesis and characterization of a mixed metal ruthenium(II)/gold(III) complex bridged by tetrapyridophenazine (tpphz) are described. It is isostructural and isoelectronic to the well-known photocatalysts with palladium(II) or platinum(II). Concentration dependent 1H-NMR spectroscopy and XRD studies show that the electrostatic repulsion between the gold(III) moieties exceeds the attractive π-stacking interaction. Theoretical...
-
Synthesis and structural properties of (Y, Sr)(Ti, Fe, Nb)O3−δ perovskite nanoparticles fabricated by modified polymer precursor method
PublicationThe yttrium, iron and niobium doped-SrTiO3 powders have been successfully fabricated by a modified low–temperature synthesis method from a polymer complex. The usage of strontium hydroxide precursor instead of conventional strontium nitrate or strontium carbonate provides to the possibility of significant decrease of annealing temperature. It allows to prepare a material with sphere-shape grains of nanometric size (15–70 nm). The...
-
Characterization and properties of LDPE/(ground tire rubber)/crosslinked butyl rubber blends
PublicationIn recent years, interest in used rubber recycling, mainly focusing on the utilization of end-of-life tires, has heightened. This interest, is owing to the activities related to environmental protection and economic factors, which both stimulate companies to reuse the high-quality rubber present in ground rubber scrap. In this study, the application of crosslinked butyl rubber in thermoplastic compositions of low-density polyethylene...
-
Reactive deposition of TiNx layers in a DC-magnetron discharge
PublicationTiNx layers have been deposited in 'balanced mode' and 'unbalanced mode' of a reactive DC-magnetron plasma (carrier gas argon, reactive gas nitrogen) under different conditions. Discharge power and reactive gas flow have been varied. The layers have been examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray reflectometry (XR), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The results of the layer analyses were combined with plasma investigations...
-
Tuning of the plasmon resonance location in Au nanostructures coated with a ultrathin film of Al2O3 – Optical measurements and FDTD simulations
PublicationThe Au nanostructures have been coated with an ultra-thin films of amorphous aluminium oxide. Optical absorption spectra show the influence of the thickness of Al2O3 on plasmon resonance wavelength. The observed red-shift of the resonance location with the increase of the thickness of the Al2O3 film, can be explained by the change in the dielectric function of this film. It allows control of the optical spectra of the coated particles....
-
Effect of TiO2 Concentration on Microstructure and Properties of Composite Cu–Sn–TiO2 Coatings Obtained by Electrodeposition
PublicationIn this work, Cu–Sn–TiO2 composite coatings were electrochemically obtained from a sulfate bath containing 0–10 g/L of TiO2 nanoparticles. The effect of TiO2 particles on kinetics of cathodic electrodeposition has been studied by linear sweep voltammetry and chronopotentiometry. As compared to the Cu–Sn alloy, the Cu–Sn–TiO2 composite coatings show rougher surfaces with TiO2 agglomerates embedded in the metal matrix. The highest...
-
Multimodal Particle Swarm Optimization with Phase Analysis to Solve Complex Equations of Electromagnetic Analysis
PublicationIn this paper, a new meta-heuristic method of finding roots and poles of a complex function of a complex variable is presented. The algorithm combines an efficient space exploration provided by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the classification of root and pole occurrences based on the phase analysis of the complex function. The method initially generates two uniformly distributed populations of particles on the complex...
-
Tribological Properties of Ni-P/Si3N4 Nanocomposite Layers Deposited by Chemical Reduction Method on Aluminum Alloy AW-7075
PublicationThe article presents the results of tribological tests of Ni-P/Si3N4 nanocomposite and Ni-P nickel layers deposited on the AW-7075 aluminum alloy by chemical reduction method, and the AW-7075 alloy without coating. Nanocomposite layers were produced using Si3N4 siliconnitride in the form of a polydisperse powder whose particle sizes ranged from 20 to 25 nm. The influence of the content of the dispersion phase layer material on...
-
Antibacterial evaluation of bioactive modifiers of bone cements: antibiotics, nanometals and chitosan
PublicationModern biomaterials in addition to their basic tasks, can serve as carriers of active substance. The release of a bioactive particles allows to locally fight infection or its prevent it. Bone cements additionally to their basic applications in orthopedic surgery can also serve to deliver locally active substances. Currently, only antibiotics are routinely used as modifiers for bone cements. Bioactive bone cements constitute...
-
Synthesis, microstructure and electrical properties of nanocrystalline calcium doped lanthanum orthoniobate
PublicationThe single phase lanthanum orthoniobate with tetragonal structure has been synthesized by the means of mechanosynthesis method. The studies have shown the crystal structure of La0.98Ca0.02NbO4 depends on the synthesis stage. The samples were predominantly in the tetragonal phase with a trace amount of the monoclinic phase. The SEM studies of morphology and microstructure have shown nanocrystallinity of the materials. The Raman...
-
Nickel-nanodiamond coatings electrodeposited from tartrate electrolyte at ambient temperature
PublicationIn this study, nanocrystalline Ni and Ni-diamond coatings were obtained by electrodeposition from tartrate electrolyte at ambient temperature aiming at improving corrosion and wear properties of the material. The created surfaces were investigated with regard to microhardness, adhesion, wear- and corrosion-resistance. The various methods such as atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy...