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The present work involves a solar water de-salting system with carbon impregnated foam (CIF) with bubble-wrap (BW) insulation for fresh water productivity enhancement. The said solar water de-salting system is single slope solar still (SSSS) of area 0.50 m 2 . Four identical SSSSs were constructed and the performance was evaluated in the same climatic conditions of Chennai (13.08°N latitude, 80.27°E longitude). The CIF of diameter 0.17 m and thickness of 0.015 m was allowed to float on the water surface. Since the CIF was open pore and hydrophilic, the floating absorbers acted as thermal storage and increased the evaporative surface area of the basin. The temperature distributions on the floating absorbers are investigated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The result shows that the simulation of temperature distribution has good agreement with experimentally recorded data. Three modes of operation were tested: (i) SSSS without insulation, (ii) SSSS with BW insulation and (iii) SSSS-CIF with BW insulation. The results were compared with a conventional solar still (CSS) with sawdust insulation. The climatic parameters like wind, ambient temperature, solar radiation and internal temperatures of the SSSS were measured at frequent intervals of time. The water quality tests were carried out and their results were compared with rain water samples. The results showed that the productivity of the SSSS without insulation, SSSS with BW insulation, SSSS-CIF with BW insulation and CSS with sawdust insulation are 1.9 l/m 2 /day, 2.3 l/m 2 /day, 3.1 l/m 2 /day and 2.2 l/m 2 /day, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucose is a typical marker of diabetes mellitus but it corresponds also with metabolic syndrome, immune disorders and some types of poisoning. Hence fast, low cost and simple method for its determination is required. Bubble wrap, cheap and available material, was used for immobilization of glucose oxidase (GOx) and peroxidase (POx), the enzymes necessary for colorimetric determination of glucose. Method is based on reaction of enzymes (immobilized in sol-gel membrane inside the bubbles) with substrates glucose and o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (o-PD) providing intensive coloration. The color change can be easily tracked by phone integrated camera. Color intensity expressed in red-green-blue (RGB) color model was used for displaying of photos and for gaining numeric data representing concentrations of glucose. The assay exerted good correlation of color intensity with the concentration of glucose, adequately low limit of detection (750 mmol/l) for glucose blood assay, no influence of interferents or matrix substances and by sufficient long term stability of sol-gel membrane. The sensor was found as low-cost simple way to analyze glucose blood levels with promising prospects in the field of portable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that the gas-filled compartments in the packing material commonly called "bubble wrap" can be repurposed in resource-limited regions as containers to store liquid samples, and to perform bioanalyses. The bubbles of bubble wrap are easily filled by injecting the samples into them using a syringe with a needle or a pipet tip, and then sealing the hole with nail hardener. The bubbles are transparent in the visible range of the spectrum, and can be used as "cuvettes" for absorbance and fluorescence measurements. The interiors of these bubbles are sterile and allow storage of samples without the need for expensive sterilization equipment. The bubbles are also permeable to gases, and can be used to culture and store micro-organisms. By incorporating carbon electrodes, these bubbles can be used as electrochemical cells. This paper demonstrates the capabilities of the bubbles by culturing E. coli, growing C. elegans, measuring glucose and hemoglobin spectrophotometrically, and measuring ferrocyanide electrochemically, all within the bubbles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The robustness of the phase retrieval methods is of critical importance for limiting and reducing radiation doses involved in x-ray phase contrast imaging. This work is to compare the robustness of two phase retrieval methods by analyzing the phase maps retrieved from the experimental images of a phantom. Methods: Two phase retrieval methods were compared. One method is based on the transport of intensity equation (TIE) for phase contrast projections, and the TIE-based method is the most commonly used method for phase retrieval in the literature. The other is the recently developed attenuation-partition based (AP-based) phase retrieval method. The authors applied these two methods to experimental projection images of an air-bubble wrap phantom for retrieving the phase map of the bubble wrap. The retrieved phase maps obtained by using the two methods are compared. Results: In the wrap's phase map retrieved by using the TIE-based method, no bubble is recognizable, hence, this method failed completely for phase retrieval from these bubble wrap images. Even with the help of the Tikhonov regularization, the bubbles are still hardly visible and buried in the cluttered background in the retrieved phase map. The retrieved phase values with this method are grossly erroneous. In contrast, in the wrap's phase map retrieved by using the AP-based method, the bubbles are clearly recovered. The retrieved phase values with the AP-based method are reasonably close to the estimate based on the thickness-based measurement. The authors traced these stark performance differences of the two methods to their different techniques employed to deal with the singularity problem involved in the phase retrievals. Conclusions: This comparison shows that the conventional TIE-based phase retrieval method, regardless if Tikhonov regularization is used or not, is unstable against the noise in the wrap's projection images, while the AP-based phase retrieval method is shown in these experiments to be superior to the TIE-based method for the robustness in performing the phase retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous study@ quantitative measurement of nonlinear scattering revealed some quantitative discrepancies with a model for ultrasound scattering by a population ensemble of microbubbles. This study is designed to investigate the effect of the shell on single-pulse scattering by a population of contrast microbubbles. Nonlinear scattering was measured shortly (15 µs) after exposure to a previous ultrasound pulse with variable intensity. The short time delay eliminated the influence of gas diffusion and focused the study on the consequence of ultrasound exposure. The results suggest that single-pulse scattering is dependent on the disruption properties of the bubble shell and confirm the significance of the shell properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a fun, inexpensive laboratory experiment for students to investigate the effects of multiple layers of insulation and observe diminishing values for additional layers using bubble wrap. This experiment provides an opportunity for students to learn about heat transfer through conduction using readily available materials. A water-ice pack is placed on top of five layers of bubble wrap. The temperature is taken between each layer periodically for at least 15 min. Students determine asymptotic temperatures for varying layers. This experiment also suggests a real world application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the invention by the engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to boil water with the use of plastic bubble wrap.

The article discusses bubbles. Topics include a list of facts about Champagne, such as the number of bubbles in a standard-size Champagne bottle, a study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that suggests bubbles may help improve firefighting and bicycle helmets, and the creation of bubble wrap in 1957.

The article offers practical tips related to veterinary medicine. A layer of bubble wrap under a towel can keep caged animals warm according to veterinary assistant Christine Bell. Doctor Thomas D. Hauk said a letter opener can be an effective tool to remove clumps of matted hair from cats and minimize the risk of cutting the skin. Doctor Michelle Maine suggested that a 25-ga intravenous (IV) catheter makes a lacrimal duct cannula that is less traumatic than the usual metal type.