Enhanced Distillation Under Infrared Characteristic Radiation

This chapter introduces quasi-steady water vaporization under mid-infrared (IR) radiation and the IR absorption of characteristic radiation associated with the first-kind liquid-gaseous phase transition of water. When characteristic radiation in the mid-IR spectral range is applied to water surface, the strong volumetric absorption of radiation energy in the liquid-phase causes water to be nearly isothermal. In addition to volumetric absorption, surface absorption of characteristic radiation induces vaporization of water. The complete mechanism of liquid-gaseous phase-transition radiation involves the direct surface absorption/emission of infrared energy accompanied by evaporation/condensation of water. A direct consequence of excess characteristic radiation upon water surface is the induced supersaturation. This mechanism opens up a door for enhanced distillation under characteristic radiation. Blackbody-like materials such as black anodized aluminum surfaces and metal surfaces painted in black are recommended to be heated to ~250°C to serve as economical radiation sources. For isothermal water at room temperatures, ~20% supersaturation can be induced by hemispherical Blackbody radiation with temperature ~11°C higher than the water temperature. In this situation, energy extracted from the ambient for water vaporization can be as much as 80% of latent heat. With radiation-enhanced evaporation, the production cost for distilled water is significantly reduced as compared to distillation at the boiling point

Dynamic Finite Element Analysis on Underlay Microstructure of Cu/low-k Wafer during Wirebonding

The aim of present research is to investigate dynamic stress analysis for microstructure of Cu/Low-K wafer subjected to wirebonding predicted by finite element software ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Two major analyses are conducted in the present research. In the first, the characteristic of heat affected zone (HAZ) and free air ball (FAB) on ultra thin Au wire have been carefully experimental measured. Secondary, the dynamic response on Al pad/beneath the pad of Cu/low-K wafer during wirebonding process has been successfully predicted by finite element analysis (FEA). Tensile mechanical properties of ultra thin wire before/after electric flame-off (EFO) process have been investigated by self-design pull test fixture. The experimental obtained hardening value has significantly influence on localize stressed area on Al pad. This would result in Al pad squeezing around the smashed FAB during impact stage and the consequent thermosonic vibration stage. Microstructure of FAB and HAZ are also carefully measured by micro/nano indentation instruments. All the measured data serves as material inputs for the FEA explicit software ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Because the crack of low-k layer and delamination of copper via are observed, dynamic transient analysis is performed to inspect the overall stress/strain distributions on the microstructure of Cu/low-k wafer. Special emphasizes are focused on the copper via layout and optimal design of Cu/low-k microstructure. It is also shown that the Al pad can be replaced by Al-Cu alloy pad or Cu pad to avoid large deformation on pad and cracking beneath the surface. A series of comprehensive experimental works and FEA predictions have been performed to increase bondability and reliability in this study

Fabrication of multianalyte CeO2 nanograin electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor biosensors by using CF4 plasma treatment

Multianalyte CeO2 biosensors have been demonstrated to detect pH, glucose, and urine concentrations. To enhance the multianalyte sensing capability of these biosensors, CF4 plasma treatment was applied to create nanograin structures on the CeO2 membrane surface and thereby increase the contact surface area. Multiple material analyses indicated that crystallization or grainization caused by the incorporation of flourine atoms during plasma treatment might be related to the formation of the nanograins. Because of the changes in surface morphology and crystalline structures, the multianalyte sensing performance was considerably enhanced. Multianalyte CeO2 nanograin electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor biosensors exhibit potential for use in future biomedical sensing device applications

VRDMG: Vocal Restoration via Diffusion Posterior Sampling with Multiple Guidance

Restoring degraded music signals is essential to enhance audio quality for downstream music manipulation. Recent diffusion-based music restoration methods have demonstrated impressive performance, and among them, diffusion posterior sampling (DPS) stands out given its intrinsic properties, making it versatile across various restoration tasks. In this paper, we identify that there are potential issues which will degrade current DPS-based methods' performance and introduce the way to mitigate the issues inspired by diverse diffusion guidance techniques including the RePaint (RP) strategy and the Pseudoinverse-Guided Diffusion Models ($\Pi$GDM). We demonstrate our methods for the vocal declipping and bandwidth extension tasks under various levels of distortion and cutoff frequency, respectively. In both tasks, our methods outperform the current DPS-based music restoration benchmarks. We refer to \url{http://carlosholivan.github.io/demos/audio-restoration-2023.html} for examples of the restored audio samples

Neutrophils as one of the major haptoglobin sources in mastitis affected milk

The antioxidant haptoglobin (Hp) is an acute-phase protein responsive to infectious and inflammatory diseases. Hp and somatic cell counts (SCC) are sharply elevated in bovine milk following intramammary administration of endotoxin or bacteria. However, the sources of milk Hp responsible for such increases are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to define the source of milk Hp from dairy cows with naturally occurring mastitis. Quarter milk samples selected from 50 dairy cows were separated into four groups according to SCC as group A: < 100 (n = 19); B: 100–200 (n = 10); C: 201–500 (n = 10); and D: > 500 × 103 (n = 11) cells/mL. Our results reveal that milk Hp concentrations were correlated with SCC (r = 0.742; P < 0.01), and concentrations in group D were ~10-fold higher than in group A. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis indicates that the milk somatic cells from group D were not only capable of synthesizing Hp but could also markedly increase Hp mRNA expression. Western blot, immunocytochemistry, double confocal immunofluorescence, and Hp releasing experiments demonstrate that neutrophils were associated with the biosynthesis and release of Hp in milk. It further shows that Hp was significantly elevated in the epithelium of mammary gland tissue with mastitis and was also expressed in the cultured mammary epithelial cells. We propose that neutrophils and epithelial cells may play an essential role in elevating milk Hp in addition to previous suggestions that Hp may be derived from mammary tissues and circulation

Bacteremic pneumonia caused by Nocardia veterana in an HIV-infected patient

SummaryDisseminated Nocardia veterana infection has rarely been reported. We describe the first reported case of N. veterana bacteremic pneumonia in an HIV-infected patient. The isolate was confirmed by 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. The patient initially responded well to trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole treatment (minimum inhibitory concentration 0.25μg/ml), but died of ventilator-associated pneumonia

Mechanical punctate pain threshold is associated with headache frequency and phase in patients with migraine

Objective: Previous studies regarding the quantitative sensory testing are inconsistent in migraine. We hypothesized that the quantitative sensory testing results were influenced by headache frequency or migraine phase. Methods: This study recruited chronic and episodic migraine patients as well as healthy controls. Participants underwent quantitative sensory testing, including heat, cold, and mechanical punctate pain thresholds at the supraorbital area (V1 dermatome) and the forearm (T1 dermatome). Prospective headache diaries were used for headache frequency and migraine phase when quantitative sensory testing was performed. Results: Twenty-eight chronic migraine, 64 episodic migraine and 32 healthy controls completed the study. Significant higher mechanical punctate pain thresholds were found in episodic migraine but not chronic migraine when compared with healthy controls. The mechanical punctate pain thresholds decreased as headache frequency increased then nadired. In episodic migraine, mechanical punctate pain thresholds were highest (p<0.05) in those in the interictal phase and declined when approaching the ictal phase in both V1 and T1 dermatomes. Linear regression analyses showed that in those with episodic migraine, headache frequency and phase were independently associated with mechanical punctate pain thresholds and accounted for 29.7% and 38.9% of the variance in V1 (p¼0.003) and T1 (p<0.001) respectively. Of note, unlike mechanical punctate pain thresholds, our study did not demonstrate similar findings for heat pain thresholds and cold pain thresholds in migraine. Conclusion: Our study provides new insights into the dynamic changes of quantitative sensory testing, especially mechanical punctate pain thresholds in patients with migraine. Mechanical punctate pain thresholds vary depending on headache frequency and migraine phase, providing an explanation for the inconsistency across studies

Trypsin-induced proteome alteration during cell subculture in mammalian cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is essential to subculture the cells once cultured cells reach confluence. For this, trypsin is frequently applied to dissociate adhesive cells from the substratum. However, due to the proteolytic activity of trypsin, cell surface proteins are often cleaved, which leads to dysregulation of the cell functions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, a triplicate 2D-DIGE strategy has been performed to monitor trypsin-induced proteome alterations. The differentially expressed spots were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and validated by immunoblotting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>36 proteins are found to be differentially expressed in cells treated with trypsin, and proteins that are known to regulate cell metabolism, growth regulation, mitochondrial electron transportation and cell adhesion are down-regulated and proteins that regulate cell apoptosis are up-regulated after trypsin treatment. Further study shows that bcl-2 is down-regulated, p53 and p21 are both up-regulated after trypsinization.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In summary, this is the first report that uses the proteomic approach to thoroughly study trypsin-induced cell physiological changes and provides researchers in carrying out their experimental design.</p