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This paper reports on the use of cellulose paper simultaneously as electrolyte, separation of electrodes, and physical support of a rechargeable battery. The deposition on both faces of a paper sheet of metal or metal oxides thin layers with different electrochemical potentials, respectively as anode and cathode, such as Cu and Al, lead to an output voltage of 0.70 V and a current density that varies between 150 nA/cm2 and 0.5 mA/cm2, subject to the paper composition, thickness and the degree of OHx species adsorbed in the paper matrix. The electrical output of the paper battery is independent of the electrodes thickness but strongly depends on the atmospheric relative humidity (RH), with a current density enhancement by more than 3 orders of magnitude when RH changes from 60% to 85%. Besides flexibility, low cost, low material consumption, environmental friendly, the power output of paper batteries can be adapted to the desired voltagecurrent needed, by proper integration. A 3-V prototype was fabricated to control the ON/OFF state of a paper transistor. © 2006 IEEE.

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The effect of kefir grains on the proteolysis of major milk proteins in milk kefir and in a culture of kefir grains in pasteurized cheese whey was followed by reverse phase-HPLC analysis. The reduction of kappa-, alpha-, and beta-caseins (CN), alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-LA), and beta-lactoglobulin (beta-LG) contents during 48 and 90 h of incubation of pasteurized milk (100 mL) and respective cheese whey with kefir grains (6 and 12 g) at 20 degrees C was monitored. Significant proteolysis of alpha-LA and kappa-, alpha-, and beta-caseins was observed. The effect of kefir amount (6 and 12 g/100 mL) was significant for alpha-LA and alpha- and beta-CN. alpha-Lactalbumin and beta-CN were more easily hydrolyzed than alpha-CN. No significant reduction was observed with respect to beta-LG concentration for 6 and 12 g of kefir in 100 mL of milk over 48 h, indicating that no significant proteolysis was carried out. Similar results were observed when the experiment was conducted over 90 h. Regarding the cheese whey kefir samples, similar behavior was observed for the proteolysis of alpha-LA and beta-LG: alpha-LA was hydrolyzed between 60 and 90% after 12 h (for 6 and 12 g of kefir) and no significant beta-LG proteolysis occurred. The proteolytic activity of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts in kefir community was evaluated. Kefir milk prepared under normal conditions contained peptides from proteolysis of alpha-LA and kappa-, alpha-, and beta-caseins. Hydrolysis is dependent on the kefir: milk ratio and incubation time. beta-Lactoglobulin is not hydrolyzed even when higher hydrolysis time is used. Kefir grains are not appropriate as adjunct cultures to increase beta-LG digestibility in whey-based or whey-containing foods.

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SmART (Smart Application Reconfiguration Tool) is a framework for the automatic configuration of systems and applications. The tool implements an application configuration workflow that resorts to the similarities between configuration files (i.e., patterns such as parameters, comments and blocks) to allow a syntax independent manipulation and transformation of system and application configuration files.Without compromising its generality, SmART targets virtualized IT infrastructures, configuring virtual appliances and its applications. SmART reduces the time required to (re)configure a set of applications by automating time-consuming steps of the process, independently of the nature of the application to be configured. Industrial experimentation and utilization of SmART show that the framework is able to correctly transform a large amount of configuration files into a generic syntax and back to their original syntax. They also show that the elapsed time in that process is adequate to what would be expected of an interactive tool. SmART is currently being integrated into the VIRTU bundle, whose trial version is available for download from the project’s web page.

Some performance issues of transactional memory are caused by unnecessary abort situations where non serializable and yet non conflicting transactions are scheduled to execute concurrently. Smartly relaxing the isolation properties of transactions may overcome these issues and attain considerable performance improvements. However, it is known that relaxing isolation restrictions may lead to runtime anomalies. In some situations, like database management systems, developers may choose that compromise, hence avoiding anomalies explicitly. Memory transactions protect the state of the program, therefore execution anomalies may have more severe consequences in the semantics of programs. So, the compromise between a relaxed isolation strategy and enforcing the necessary program correctness is harder to setup. The solution we devise is to statically analyse programs to detect the kind of anomalies that emerge under snapshot isolation. Our approach allows a compiler to either warn the developer about the possible snapshot isolation anomalies in a given program, or possibly inform automatic correctness strategies to ensure Serializability.

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Programs containing concurrency anomalies will most probably exhibit harmful erroneous and unpredictable behaviors. To ensure program correctness, the sources of those anomalies must be located and corrected. Concurrency anomalies in Transactional Memory (TM) programs should also be diagnosed and fixed. In this paper we propose a framework to deal with two different categories of concurrency anomalies in TM. First, we will address low-level TM anomalies, also called dataraces, which arise from executing programs in weak isolation. Secondly, we will address high-level TM anomalies, also called high-level dataraces, bringing the programmer’s attention to pairs of transactions that the programmer has misspecified, and should have been combined into a single transaction. Our framework was validated against a set of programs with well known anomalies and demonstrated high accuracy and effectiveness, thus contributing for improving the correctness of TM programs

This study deals with SiO2-P2O5 powders obtained by sol-gel process, starting from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as precursor for SiO2 and either triethylphosphate (TEP) or phosphoric acid (H3PO4) as precursors for P2O5. In the case of samples prepared with H3PO4, TG-DTA data showed an accentuated weight loss associated to an endothermic effect up to about 140 °C, specific for the evaporation of water and ethylic alcohol from structural pores, and also due to alkyl-amines evaporation. Sol-gel samples prepared with TEP exhibited different thermal effects, depending on the type of atmosphere used in the experiments, i.e. argon or air. XRD analysis revealed that annealed sol-gel samples prepared with H3PO4 showed specific peaks for silicophosphate compounds such as Si3(PO4)4, Si2P2O9, and SiP2O7. XRD results for annealed sol-gel samples prepared with TEP indicated mainly the presence of a vitreous (amorphous) phase, which could be correlated with SEM images. The presence of SiO2 in the sample might be expected. Thus, we have searched for any SiO2 polymorph possible to crystallize. Only potential peaks of cristobalite were identified but some of them are overlapping with peaks of other crystalline phosphates. SEM analysis indicated a decrease of the amount of crystalline phases with the increase in the annealing temperature. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Molybdenum doped indium oxide (IO) thin films were deposited on the Coring F1737 glass substrates at 400 °C by spray pyrolysis technique. TheModoping was varied between 0 and 4 at.%. The films were characterized by their structural, electrical and optical properties. The films are confirmed to be cubic bixbyite In 2O 3 with a strongest orientation along (222) for 0.5 at.% Mo, which is shifted to (400) plane when the Mo doping is increased to ≥1.2 at.%. The films deposited with 0.5 at.% Mo showed high mobility of ̃90 cm 2/Vs, resistivity of ̃6.8×10 -4ωcm and carrier concentration of ̃1.01× 1020 cm -3 with >̃73% transmittance in the visible range between 500 and 800 nm. The transmittance is well extended into near infrared region.

Cobalt oxide doped silica films were synthesized by a dip-coating technique. Initial compounds were cobalt acetate Co(CH3COO)2-4H 2O and tetraethoxysilane Si(OC2H5)4. The chemical composition was studied by X-ray diffraction and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The morphology analyses were carried out by means of atomic force microscopy. The average diameter of cobalt oxide dispersed particles increases with the molar ratio Co:Si and with the aging time of the initial colloidal solution. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

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Benzyl azide and the three methylbenzyl azides were synthesized and characterized by mass spectrometry (MS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UVPES). The electron ionization fragmentation mechanisms for benzyl azide and their methyl derivatives were studied by accurate mass measurements and linked scans at constant B/E. For benzyl azide, in order to clarify the fragmentation mechanism, labelling experiments were performed. From the mass analysis of methylbenzyl azides isomers it was possible to differentiate the isomers ortho, meta and para. The abundance and nature of the ions resulting from the molecular ion fragmentation, for the three distinct isomers of substituted benzyl azides, were rationalized in terms of the electronic properties of the substituent. Concerning the para-isomer, IRC calculations were performed at UHF/6-31G(d) level. The photoionization study of benzyl azide, with He(I) radiation, revealed five bands in the 8-21 eV ionization energies region. From every photoelectron spectrum of methylbenzyl azides isomers it has been identified seven bands, on the same range as the benzyl azide. Interpretation of the photoelectron spectra was accomplished applying Koopmans' theorem to the SCF orbital energies obtained at HF/6-311++G(d, p) level.

Benzyl azide and the three methylbenzyl azides were synthesized and characterized by mass spectrometry (MS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UVPES). The electron ionization fragmentation mechanisms for benzyl azide and their methyl derivatives were studied by accurate mass measurements and linked scans at constant B/E. For benzyl azide, in order to clarify the fragmentation mechanism, labelling experiments were performed. From the mass analysis of methylbenzyl azides isomers it was possible to differentiate the isomers ortho, meta and para. The abundance and nature of the ions resulting from the molecular ion fragmentation, for the three distinct isomers of substituted benzyl azides, were rationalized in terms of the electronic properties of the substituent. Concerning the para-isomer, IRC calculations were performed at UHF/6-31G(d) level. The photoionization study of benzyl azide, with He(I) radiation, revealed five bands in the 8-21 eV ionization energies region. From every photoelectron spectrum of methylbenzyl azides isomers it has been identified seven bands, on the same range as the benzyl azide. Interpretation of the photoelectron spectra was accomplished applying Koopmans' theorem to the SCF orbital energies obtained at HF/6-311++G(d, p) level.

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