A cost-effective method for resolution increase of a two-stage piecewise linear analog-to-digital converter used for sensor linearization is proposed in this paper. In both conversion stages flash analog-to-digital converters are employed. Resolution increase by one bit per conversion stage is performed by introducing one additional comparator in front of each of two flash analog-to-digital converters, while the converters’ resolutions remain the same. As a result, the number of employed comparators, as well as the circuit complexity and the power consumption originating from employed comparators are for almost 50 % lower in comparison to the same parameters referring to the linearization circuit of the conventional design and of the same resolution. Since the number of employed comparators is significantly reduced according to the proposed method, special modifications of the linearization circuit are needed in order to properly adjust reference voltages of employed comparators.

Pt100 is a resistance temperature detector characterized by a relatively linear resistance/temperature relationship in a narrow temperature range. However, the Pt100 sensor shows a certain degree of static transfer function nonlinearity of 4.42 % in the range between −200 °C and 850 °C, which is unacceptable for some applications. As a solution to this problem, a mixed-mode linearization method based on a special dual-stage piecewise linear ADC design is proposed in this paper. The first stage of the proposed dual-stage piecewise linear ADC is performed with a low-complex and low-power flash ADC of a novel sequential design. The novelty of the proposed sequential design is reflected in the fact that the number of employed comparators is equal to the flash ADC resolution. The second stage is performed with a delta-sigma ADC with a differential input and differential reference. Using the 6-bit flash ADC of novel design and the 24-bit delta-sigma ADC, the nonlinearity error is reduced to 2.6·10−3 %, in the range between −200 °C and 850 °C. Two more ranges are examined, and the following results are obtained: in the range between 0 °C and 500 °C, the nonlinearity error is reduced from 1.99 % to 5·10−4 %, while in the range between −50 °C and 150 °C, the nonlinearity error is reduced from 0.755 % to 2.15·10−4 %.

Optical rotary encoders generate nonlinear sine and cosine signals in response to a change of angular position that is being measured. Due to the nonlinear shape of encoder output signals, encoder sensitivity to very small changes of angular position is low, causing a poor measurement accuracy level. To improve the optical encoder sensitivity and to increase its accuracy, an improved linearization circuit based on pseudo-linear signal generation and its further linearization with the two-stage piecewise linear analog-to-digital converter is presented in this paper. The proposed linearization circuit is composed of a mixed-signal circuit, which generates analog pseudo-linear signal and determines the first four bits of the final digital result, and the two-stage piecewise linear analog-to-digital converter, which performs simultaneous linearization and digitalization of the pseudo-linear signal. As a result, the maximal value of the absolute measurement error equals to 3.77168·10 -5 [rad] (0.00216°) over the full measurement range of 2π [rad].

The operative mechanism of the antioxidative action of 1,2,4-trihydroxythioxanthone (TX) is investigated in this contribution. Conclusions are made based on enthalpy values, as thermodynamical parameters. All calculations are done using the M06-2X/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. To imitate polar and non-polar environments, calculations are done in water and benzene as the medium. It is found that, among three possible radicals that TX can generate, the most stable is the one obtained by homolytic cleavage of the O-H group in position 4. It was found that HAT (Hydrogen Atom Transfer) is the most plausible mechanism for that purpose in benzene. On the other hand, the most favorable mechanism in water is SPLET (Sequential Proton Loss Electron Transfer). Here is estimated the capacity of TX to deactivate hydroxyl (HO●), hydroperoxyl (HOO●) and methylperoxyl radical (CH3OO●). It is found that TX can deactivate all three free radicals following HAT and SPLET reaction mechanisms competitively, in the polar and non-polar environment. SET-PT (Single-Electron Transfer followed by Proton Transfer) is the inoperative mechanism for radicals scavenging, in the polar and non-polar environment.

In the present manuscript, the cytotoxic activity of flavylium cation substituted at 4- position with phenyl (FC-4Ph) was tested to two cells lines (human colorectal carcinoma, HCT-116, and human fibroblast lung, MRC-5). In vitro cytotoxicity experiments were performed to elucidate the possible anticancer activity of tested substance. Investigated compound did not show cytotoxic effect on HCT-116 after 24 h, while after 72 h exerted significant effect. A significant selectivity towards colorectal carcinoma cells was observed. On the other hand, this compound did not show any effect on MRC-5 cell line. The molecular interactions between receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) and title compound was examined. The crystal structure of investigated receptor RTK was downloaded from Protein Data Bank. The native bound ligand ((E)-[4-(3,5-difluorophenyl)-3H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridin-3-ylidene](3- methoxyphenyl)methanol was extracted from receptor and binding pocket analysis was performed. Re-docking was carried out with the FC-4Ph in order to generate the same docking pose as found in co-crystallized form of receptor. The obtained results of revealed that investigated compound binds at the same binding pockets to RTK, as well as native bound ligand, by weak non-covalent interactions. The most prominent interactions are hydrogen bonds, π-alkyl, and π-π interactions. The preliminary results suggest that investigated compound showed good binding affinity against RTK, as evident from the free binding energy (ΔGbind in kJ/mol).