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The aim of this study is to develop a light-emitting diode- (LED-) based illumination system that can be used as an alternative light source for in vitro photodynamic therapy (PDT). This illumination system includes a red LED array composed of 70 LEDs centered at 643 nm, an air-cooling unit, and a specific-designed case. The irradiance as a function of the irradiation distance between the LED array and the sample, the homogeneity and stability of irradiation, and the effect of long-time irradiation on culture medium temperature were characterized. Furthermore, the survival rate of the CNE1 cells that sensitized with 5-aminolevulinic acid after PDT treatment was evaluated to demonstrate the efficiency of the new LED-based illumination system. The obtained results show that the LED-based illumination system is a promising light source for in vitro PDT that performed in standard multiwell plate.

Doppler distortion and background noise can reduce the effectiveness of wayside acoustic train bearing monitoring and fault diagnosis. This paper proposes a method of combining a microphone array and matching pursuit algorithm to overcome these difficulties. First, a dictionary is constructed based on the characteristics and mechanism of a far-field assumption. Then, the angle of arrival of the train bearing is acquired when applying matching pursuit to analyze the acoustic array signals. Finally, after obtaining the resampling time series, the Doppler distortion can be corrected, which is convenient for further diagnostic work. Compared with traditional single-microphone Doppler correction methods, the advantages of the presented array method are its robustness to background noise and its barely requiring pre-measuring parameters. Simulation and experimental study show that the proposed method is effective in performing wayside acoustic bearing fault diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the viscosity of viscous crude oil and flow resistance, the effect of a ternary compound system including organic alkali, n-alkanol, and nonionic surfactants on viscous crude oil viscosity reduction was studied. The results showed that n-alkanol effectively reduced the droplet size of an emulsion and the viscosity of viscous crude oil and improved the fluidity of viscous crude oil. Of the low-carbon n-alkanols, n-pentanol has the best viscosity-reducing effect. The organic alkali avoids the phenomenon of fouling and corrosion caused by inorganic alkali and reacts with the acidic macromolecular components in viscous crude oil to generate alkanolamides, which produce synergistic effects with nonionic surfactants and reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water. In the ternary compound of organic alkali, n-alkanol, and nonionic surfactant, the viscosity reduction effect of viscous crude oil is significantly enhanced compared with that of a single reagent. The viscosity reduction rate of viscous crude oil of the diethanolamine ternary compound system reached 98.1% and was the best choice by experimental validation. It is shown that a reasonable formula of compound system and dosage can significantly reduce the viscosity of viscous crude oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cationic palladium(II) complex catalyzed reductive coupling of N-tosyl-tethered alkynones for the synthesis of functionalized piperidines was successfully developed. This reaction was initiated by hydropalladation of the alkyne and quenched by addition to the intramolecular carbonyl group. The substituent on the alkyne is key to the reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the multiscale kernel principal component analysis (MSKPCA) based on sliding median filter (SFM) is proposed for fault detection in nonlinear system with outliers. The MSKPCA based on SFM (SFM-MSKPCA) algorithm is first proposed and applied to process monitoring. The advantages of SFM-MSKPCA are: (1) the dynamical multiscale monitoring method is proposed which combining the Kronecker production, the wavelet decomposition technique, the sliding median filter technique and KPCA. The Kronecker production is first used to build the dynamical model; (2) there are more disturbances and noises in dynamical processes compared to static processes. The sliding median filter technique is used to remove the disturbances and noises; (3) SFM-MSKPCA gives nonlinear dynamic interpretation compared to MSPCA; (4) by decomposing the original data into multiple scales, SFM-MSKPCA analyze the dynamical data at different scales, reconstruct scales contained important information by IDWT, eliminate the effects of the noises in the original data compared to kernel principal component analysis (KPCA). To demonstrate the feasibility of the SFM-MSKPCA method, its process monitoring abilities are tested by simulation examples, and compared with the monitoring abilities of the KPCA and MSPCA method on the quantitative basis. The fault detection results and the comparison show the superiority of SFM-MSKPCA in fault detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this work is on the problem of the low efficiency and high pollution caused by the poor quality of coal, unstable loads and other factors in the pulverised coal combustion process. For this reason, a cyclone is installed at the second outlet of pulverised coal combustion devices. Multi-parameter and multi-objective optimizations were involved in the design of the cyclone. The influences of the structural parameters on the evaluation index have been rigorously analysed through the evaluation index of the internal flow field of the burner. Further, the genetic algorithm NSGA-II was applied to optimise the structural parameters of the cyclone based on Response Surface Model. The results showed that the outer diameter of the cyclone, the installation angle of the swirl vanes, and the number of swirl vanes had a significant impact on the combustion, as well as the NOX emission characteristics of pulverised coal. When the outer diameter of the cyclone was 500 mm, the number of swirl vanes was 12, and the installation angle of the swirl vanes was 48 degrees, the combustion efficiency of the pulverised coal burner was increased by 47.3%, and the NOX emissions were decreased by 19.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both over- and undercorrection can occur in up to 10-15% of strabismus surgeries. Use of adjustable suture technique and an intraoperative awake test may decrease the incidence of over- or undercorrection. In this study, we investigated the ability to provide optimal conditions for intraoperative awake strabismus suture adjustment in children by means of target-controlled infusions (TCI) of propofol and remifentanil propofol compared with propofol and sufentanil., Methods: Forty-six ASA I-II patients undergoing strabismus surgery with intraoperative awakening were randomly assigned to anesthesia by TCI of propofol + sufentanil group (group SF) or propofol + remifentanil spontaneous breathing. Propofol was discontinued, and concentrations of the opioid TCIs were reduced to enable awake assessment of the mobility and position of the eye. Changes in intraocular pressure, respiratory function, hemodynamics, awakening time, and awaking quality were compared between the two groups. The degrees of sedation and analgesia were evaluated through the assessment of alertness and sedation scores (OAA/S) and visual analog scale scores (VAS)., Results: There was no significant difference in intraocular pressure at three sampling points between two groups (P > 0.05). The heart rate (HR) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) in group SF were significantly lower than group RF during laryngeal mask insertion (P < 0.05) as well as during the wake-up test (P < 0.05). Spontaneous breathing was maintained in all patients, and there was no significant difference in RR and Sp02 at T1-T11 between the groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the target effect-site concentration of propofol at T1-T10 between the groups (P > 0.05). The wake-up times in group SF were significantly longer than in group RF (P < 0.05). In contrast, the quality of wake-up test and the degree of consciousness after the patients were awakened were significantly better (19 good and 4 satisfactory vs 15 good, 2 satisfactory, and 6 poor) in SF group than RF group. The VAS was significantly lower at T6-T9 in SF group than in RF group (P < 0.05). The incidence of untoward events during and after surgery, such as respiratory depression and apnea, oculocardiac reflex, coughing, groan and nausea, and vomiting was not significantly different between the groups (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: Propofol combined with sufentanil or remifentanil can be suitable for planned intraoperative awakening for an adjustable suture technique in pediatric patients during strabismus surgery. Remifentanil has quicker wake-up time; however, sufentanil demonstrated an advantage in terms of better analgesia, more stable hemodynamics, and improved qualify of awakening., (© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)