Search results for: nano membrane toilet

Authors: A. D'Alessandro, F. Ubertini, A. L. Materazzi

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In the field of civil engineering, Structural Health Monitoring is a topic of growing interest. Effective monitoring instruments permit the control of the working conditions of structures and infrastructures, through the identification of behavioral anomalies due to incipient damages, especially in areas of high environmental hazards as earthquakes. While traditional sensors can be applied only in a limited number of points, providing a partial information for a structural diagnosis, novel transducers may allow a diffuse sensing. Thanks to the new tools and materials provided by nanotechnology, new types of multifunctional sensors are developing in the scientific panorama. In particular, cement-matrix composite materials capable of diagnosing their own state of strain and tension, could be originated by the addition of specific conductive nanofillers. Because of the nature of the material they are made of, these new cementitious nano-modified transducers can be inserted within the concrete elements, transforming the same structures in sets of widespread sensors. This paper is aimed at presenting the results of a research about a new self-sensing nanocomposite and about the implementation of smart sensors for Structural Health Monitoring. The developed nanocomposite has been obtained by inserting multi walled carbon nanotubes within a cementitious matrix. The insertion of such conductive carbon nanofillers provides the base material with piezoresistive characteristics and peculiar sensitivity to mechanical modifications. The self-sensing ability is achieved by correlating the variation of the external stress or strain with the variation of some electrical properties, such as the electrical resistance or conductivity. Through the measurement of such electrical characteristics, the performance and the working conditions of an element or a structure can be monitored. Among conductive carbon nanofillers, carbon nanotubes seem to be particularly promising for the realization of self-sensing cement-matrix materials. Some issues related to the nanofiller dispersion or to the influence of the nano-inclusions amount in the cement matrix need to be carefully investigated: the strain sensitivity of the resulting sensors is influenced by such factors. This work analyzes the dispersion of the carbon nanofillers, the physical properties of the fresh dough, the electrical properties of the hardened composites and the sensing properties of the realized sensors. The experimental campaign focuses specifically on their dynamic characterization and their applicability to the monitoring of full-scale elements. The results of the electromechanical tests with both slow varying and dynamic loads show that the developed nanocomposite sensors can be effectively used for the health monitoring of structures.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes, self-sensing nanocomposites, smart cement-matrix sensors, structural health monitoring.

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Authors: Kai-Ti Hsu, Hui-Ling Huang, Chun-Wei Tung, Yi-Hsiung Chen, Shinn-Ying Ho

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Bioinformatics methods for predicting the T cell coreceptor usage from the array of membrane protein of HIV-1 are investigated. In this study, we aim to propose an effective prediction method for dealing with the three-class classification problem of CXCR4 (X4), CCR5 (R5) and CCR5/CXCR4 (R5X4). We made efforts in investigating the coreceptor prediction problem as follows: 1) proposing a feature set of informative physicochemical properties which is cooperated with SVM to achieve high prediction test accuracy of 81.48%, compared with the existing method with accuracy of 70.00%; 2) establishing a large up-to-date data set by increasing the size from 159 to 1225 sequences to verify the proposed prediction method where the mean test accuracy is 88.59%, and 3) analyzing the set of 14 informative physicochemical properties to further understand the characteristics of HIV-1coreceptors.

Keywords: Coreceptor, genetic algorithm, HIV-1, SVM, physicochemical properties, prediction.

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Authors: May Thant Zin, Josephine Borja, Hirofumi Hinode, Winarto Kurniawan

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Nanotechnology has multiple and enormous advantages for all application. Therefore, this research is carried out to synthesize and characterize bimetallic iron with copper nanoparticles. After synthesizing nano zero valent iron by reduction of ferric chloride by sodium borohydride under nitrogen purging environment, bimetallic iron with copper nanoparticles are synthesized by varying different loads of copper chloride. Due to different standard potential (E⁰) values of copper and iron, copper is coupled with iron at (Cu to Fe ratio of 1:5, 1:6.7, 1:10, 1:20). It is found that the resulted bimetallic Fe/Cu nanoparticles are composing phases of iron and copper. According to the diffraction patterns indicating the state of chemical combination of the bimetallic nanoparticles, the particles are well-combined and crystalline sizes are less than 1000A^o (or 100nm). Specifically, particle sizes of synthesized bimetallic Fe/Cu nanoparticles are ranging from 44.583 nm to 85.149 nm.

Keywords: Bimetallic Fe/Cu nanoparticles, Loading ratio, Synthesis.

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Authors: Guojia Ma, Guoqiang Lin, Shuili Gong, Gang Sun, Dawang Wang

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A diamond-like carbon (DLC) based solid-lubricant film was designed and DLC films were successfully prepared using a microwave plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering deposition technology. Post-test characterizations including Raman spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, nano-indentation test, adhesion test, friction coefficient test were performed to study the influence of substrate bias voltage on the mechanical properties of the W- and S-doped DLC films. The results indicated that the W- and S-doped DLC films also had the typical structure of DLC films and a better mechanical performance achieved by the application of a substrate bias of -200V.

Keywords: Adhesive Strength, Coefficient of Friction, Substrate Bias, W- and S-doped DLC film

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Authors: Hanane Ondella, Pierre Ladet, David Ferrand, Pat Sloan

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In the micro and nano-technology industry, the «clean-rooms» dedicated to manufacturing chip, are equipped with the most sophisticated equipment-tools. There use a large number of resources in according to strict specifications for an optimum working and result. The distribution of «utilities» to the production is assured by teams who use a supervision tool. The studies show the interest to control the various parameters of production or/and distribution, in real time, through a reliable and effective supervision tool. This document looks at a large part of the functions that the supervisor must assure, with complementary functionalities to help the diagnosis and simulation that prove very useful in our case where the supervised installations are complexed and in constant evolution.

Keywords: Control-Command, evolution, non regression, performances, real time, simulation, supervision.

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Authors: Jaromír Marek, Jakub Wiener, Yan Wang

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The main goal of this study was to find simple and industrially applicable production of ion exchangers based on nanofibrous polystyrene matrix and characterization of prepared material. Starting polystyrene nanofibers were sulfonated and crosslinked under appropriate conditions at the same time by sulfuric acid. Strongly acidic cation exchanger was obtained in such a way. The polymer matrix was made from polystyrene nanofibers prepared by Nanospider^TM technology.

Various types postpolymerization reactions and other methods of crosslinking were studied. Greatly different behavior between nano- and microsize materials was observed. The final nanofibrous material was characterized and compared to common granular ion exchangers and available microfibrous ion exchangers. The sorption properties of nanofibrous ion exchangers were compared with the granular ion exchangers. For nanofibrous ion exchangers of comparable ion exchange capacity was observed considerably faster adsorption kinetics.

Keywords: Electrospinning, ion exchangers, nanofibers, polystyrene.

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Authors: Andrew Randles, Ilker Ocak, Cheam Daw Don, Navab Singh, Alex Gu

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Nine Degrees of Freedom (9 DOF) systems are already in development in many areas. In this paper, an integrated pressure sensor is proposed that will make use of an already existing monolithic 9 DOF inertial MEMS platform. Capacitive pressure sensors can suffer from limited sensitivity for a given size of membrane. This novel pressure sensor design increases the sensitivity by over 5 times compared to a traditional array of square diaphragms while still fitting within a 2 mm x 2 mm chip and maintaining a fixed static capacitance. The improved design uses one large diaphragm supported by pillars with fixed electrodes placed above the areas of maximum deflection. The design optimization increases the sensitivity from 0.22 fF/kPa to 1.16 fF/kPa. Temperature sensitivity was also examined through simulation.

Keywords: Capacitive pressure sensor, 9 DOF, 10 DOF, sensor, capacitive, inertial measurement unit, IMU, inertial navigation system, INS.

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Authors: Kureshi Abdul Kadir, Mohd. Hasan

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Each new semiconductor technology node brings smaller transistors and wires. Although this makes transistors faster, wires get slower. In nano-scale regime, the standard copper (Cu) interconnect will become a major hurdle for FPGA interconnect due to their high resistivity and electromigration. This paper presents the comprehensive evaluation of mixed CNT bundle interconnects and investigates their prospects as energy efficient and high speed interconnect for future FPGA routing architecture. All HSPICE simulations are carried out at operating frequency of 1GHz and it is found that mixed CNT bundle implemented in FPGAs as interconnect can potentially provide a substantial delay and energy reduction over traditional interconnects at 32nm process technology.

Keywords: CMOS, Copper Interconnect, Mixed CNT Bundle Interconnect, FPGAs.

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Authors: Onuma Ruangwong, Wen-Jinn Liang

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Bacillus subtilis strain LB5 produced lipopeptide antibiotic iturin A-2 in liquid medium. Crude extract from cell-free supernatant of B. subtilis cultivated broth extracted with n-butanol showed antifungal activity to conidial germination of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. The germination of conidia was completely inhibited by crude extract. The ultrastructure of conidia after treated with crude extract was found an accumulation of vesiclelike material between cell wall and plasma membrane while this accumulation was not observed in untreated and germinated conidia. Besides, the cell wall was not affected by crude extract.

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis strain LB5, iturin A-2, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, TEM, vesicle-like material.

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Authors: D. Önen, N. Kızılcan, B. Yıldız, A. Akar

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In situ modified cyclohexanone-formaldehyde resins were prepared by addition of alendronic acid during resin preparation. Clay nanocomposites in ketonic resins were achieved by adding clay into the flask at the beginning of the resin preparation. The prepared resins were used for the synthesis of fire resistant polyurethanes foam. Both phosphorous containing modifier compound alendronic acid and nanoclay increases fire resistance of the cyclohexanone-formaldehyde resin thus polyurethane produced from these resins. The effect of the concentrations of alendronic acid and clay on the fire resistance and physical properties of polyurethanes was studied.

Keywords: Alendronic acid, clay, ketonic resin, polyurethane.

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Authors: Rachid El Aidani, Phuong Nguyen-Tri, Toan Vu-Khanh

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This study intends to show the influence of the hydrolytic degradation on the properties of the e-PTFE/NOMEX® membranes used in fire-protective clothing. The modification of water vapour permeability, morphology and chemical structure was examined by MOCON Permatran, electron microscopy scanning (SEM), and ATR-FTIR, respectively. A decrease in permeability to water vapour of the aged samples was observed following closure of transpiration pores. Analysis of fiber morphology indicates the appearance of defects at the fibers surface with the presence of micro cavities. ATR-FTIR analysis reveals the presence of a new absorption band attributed to carboxylic acid terminal groups generated during the amide bond hydrolysis.

Keywords: Hydrolytic ageing, moisture membrane; water vapor permeability, morphology.

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Authors: Subir Das, Tuhin Subhra Sarkar, Badal Chakraborty

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Differing from the structure of traditional parallel plate capacitive sensor a semi cylindrical capacitive sensor has been introduced in this present work to measure the soil moisture conveniently. Here, the numerical analysis method to evaluate the capacitance from the semi-cylindrical capacitive sensor is analyzed and discussed. The changes of capacitance with the variation of soil moisture obtained linear in the nano farad range (nF) and which converted into voltage variation by using proper signal conditioning circuit. Experimental results depict the satisfactory performance of the sensor for measurement of soil moisture in the range of 0 to 70%. We investigated the linearity of 4% of FSO and sensitivity of 70 mV/unit percentage changes in soil moisture level (DB).

Keywords: Semi cylindrical Capacitive Sensor, Capacitance to Voltage converter Circuit, Soil Moisture.

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Authors: Barun Chakrabarti, Dan Nir, Vladimir Yufit, P. V. Aravind, Nigel Brandon

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Fuel cell grade gas-diffusion layer carbon paper (CP) electrodes are subjected to electrophoresis in N,N’-dimethylformamide (DMF) consisting of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The rGO modified electrodes are compared with CP in a single asymmetric all-vanadium redox battery system (employing a double serpentine flow channel for each half-cell). Peak power densities improved by 4% when the rGO deposits were facing the ion-exchange membrane (cell performance was poorer when the rGO was facing the flow field). Cycling of the cells showed least degradation of the CP electrodes that were coated with rGO in comparison to pristine samples.

Keywords: All-vanadium redox flow batteries, carbon paper electrodes, electrophoretic deposition, reduced graphene oxide.

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Authors: Barzin Gavtash, Khalid Hussain, Mohammad Layeghi, Saeed Sadeghi Lafmejani

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This research aims at modeling and simulating the effects of nanofluids on cylindrical heat pipes thermal performance using the ANSYS-FLUENT CFD commercial software. The heat pipe outer wall temperature distribution, thermal resistance, liquid pressure and axial velocity in presence of suspended nano-scaled solid particle (i.e. Cu, Al2O3 and TiO2) within the fluid (water) were investigated. The effect of particle concentration and size were explored and it is concluded that the thermal performance of the heat pipe is improved when using nanofluid as the system working fluid. Additionally, it was observed that the thermal resistance of the heat pipe drops as the particle concentration level increases and particle radius decreases.

Keywords: CFD, Heat Pipe, Nanofluid, Thermal resistance

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Authors: Liberty L Mguni, Reinout Meijboom, Kalala Jalama

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The effect of calcination temperature and MgO crystallite sizes on the structure and catalytic performance of TiO2 supported nano-MgO catalyst for the trans-esterification of soybean oil has been studied. The catalyst has been prepared by deposition precipitation method, characterised by XRD and FTIR and tested in an autoclave at 225oC. The soybean oil conversion after 15 minutes of the trans-esterification reaction increased when the calcination temperature was increased from 500 to 600oC and decreased with further increase in calcination temperature. Some glycerolysis activity was also detected on catalysts calcined at 600 and 700oC after 45 minutes of reaction. The trans-esterification reaction rate increased with the decrease in MgO crystallite size for the first 30 min.

Keywords: Calcination temperature, crystallite size, MgO/TiO2, transesterification

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Authors: Zina Saheb, Ezz El-Masry

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As the Silicon oxide scaled down in MOSFET technology to few nanometers, gate Direct Tunneling (DT) in Floating gate (FGMOSFET) devices has become a major concern for analog designers. FGMOSFET has been used in many low-voltage and low-power applications, however, there is no accurate model that account for DT gate leakage in nano-scale. This paper studied and analyzed different simulation models for FGMOSFET using TSMC 90-nm technology. The simulation results for FGMOSFET cascade current mirror shows the impact of DT on circuit performance in terms of current and voltage without the need for fabrication. This works shows the significance of using an accurate model for FGMOSFET in nan-scale technologies.

Keywords: CMOS transistor, direct-tunneling current, floatinggate, gate-leakage current, simulation model.

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Authors: Aysin Sev, Meltem Ezel

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Sustainability, being the urgent issue of our time, is closely related with the innovations in technology. Nanotechnology (NT), although not a new science, can be regarded relatively a new science for buildings with brand new materials and applications. This paper tends to give a research review of current and near future applications of nanotechnology (NT) for achieving high-performance and healthy buildings for a sustainable future. In the introduction, the driving forces for the sustainability of construction industry are explained. Then, the term NT is defined, and significance of innovations in NT for a sustainable construction industry is revealed. After presenting the application areas of NT and nanomaterials for buildings with a number of cases, challenges in the adoption of this technology are put forward, and finally the impacts of nanoparticles and nanomaterials on human health and environment are discussed.

Keywords: Nanomaterial, self-healing concrete, self-cleaning sensor, nano sensor, steel, wood, aerogel, flexible solar panel.

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Authors: Arash Azizi Mazreah, Mohammad Reza Sahebi, Mohammad T. Manzuri Shalmani

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To help overcome limits to the density of conventional SRAMs and leakage current of SRAM cell in nanoscaled CMOS technology, we have developed a four-transistor SRAM cell. The newly developed CMOS four-transistor SRAM cell uses one word-line and one bit-line during read/write operation. This cell retains its data with leakage current and positive feedback without refresh cycle. The new cell size is 19% smaller than a conventional six-transistor cell using same design rules. Also the leakage current of new cell is 60% smaller than a conventional sixtransistor SRAM cell. Simulation result in 65nm CMOS technology shows new cell has correct operation during read/write operation and idle mode.

Keywords: SRAM Cell, leakage current, cell area.

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Authors: Silvana R.F. Moreno, Jorge J. Carvalho, Ana L. Nascimento, Mario Pereira, Luiz Q. A. Caldas, Mário Bernardo-Filho

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The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the possible interference of a Nectandra membranacea extract (i) on the labeling of blood cells (BC), (ii) on the labeling process of BC and plasma (P) proteins with technetium-99m (Tc-99m) and (iii) on the morphology of red blood cells (RBC). Blood samples were incubated with a Nectandra membranacea crude extract, stannous chloride, Tc- 99m (sodium pertechnetate) was added, and soluble (SF) and insoluble (IF) fractions were isolated. Morphometry studies were performed with blood samples incubated with Nectandra membranacea extract. The results show that the Nectandra membranacea extract does not promote significant alteration of the labeling of BC, IF-P and IF-BC. The Nectandra membranacea extract was able to alter the erythrocyte membrane morphology, but these morphological changes were not capable to interfere on the labeling of blood constituents with Tc-99m.

Keywords: in vitro study, Nectandra membranacea, red bloodcell, technetium-99m

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Authors: Parisa Tajer-Mohammad-Ghazvini, Rouha Kasra-Kermanshahi, Ahmad Nozad-Golikand, Majid Sadeghizadeh

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Bacterial magnetic nanoparticles have great useful potential in biotechnological and biomedical applications. In this study, a liquid growth medium was modified for cultivation a fastidious magnetotactic bacterium that has been isolated from Anzali lagoon, Iran in our previous research. These modifications include change in vitamin, mineral, carbon sources and etcetera. In our experience, the serum bottles and designed air-tight laboratory bottles were used to create microaerobic conditions in order to development of a method for scale-up experiment. This information may serve as a guide to green chemistry based biological protocols for the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles with control over the chemical composition, morphology and size.

Keywords: Green chemistry, Magnetosome, Magnetotactic bacteria, Magnetic nanoparticles, Nano-Biotechnology.

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Authors: G. Momen, R. Jafari, M. Farzaneh

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Two different superhydrophobic surfaces were elaborated and their oil repellency behavior was evaluated using several liquid with different surface tension. A silicone rubber/SiO2 nanocomposite coated (A) on aluminum substrate by “spin-coating" and the sample B was an anodized aluminum surface covered by Teflon-like coating. A high static contact angle about ∼162° was measured for two prepared surfaces on which the water droplet rolloff. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the presence of micro/nanostructures for both sample A and B similar to that of lotus leaf. However the sample A presented significantly different behaviour of wettability against the low surface tension liquid. Sample A has been wetted totally by oil (dodecan) droplet while sample B showed oleophobic behaviour. Oleophobic property of Teflon like coating can be contributed to the presence of CF2 and CF3 functional group which was shown by XPS analysis.

Keywords: Oleophobic, Superhydrophobic, Aluminum surface, Nano-texture.

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Authors: Saravana Kannan Thangavelu

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Fuel and oxidant gas delivery plate, or fuel cell plate, is a key component of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell. To manufacture low-cost and high performance fuel cell plates, advanced computer modeling and finite element structure analysis are used as virtual prototyping tools for the optimization of the plates at the early design stage. The present study examines thermal stress analysis of the fuel cell plates that are produced using a patented, low-cost fuel cell plate production technique based on screen-printing. Design optimization is applied to minimize the maximum stress within the plate, subject to strain constraint with both geometry and material parameters as design variables. The study reveals the characteristics of the printed plates, and provides guidelines for the structure and material design of the fuel cell plate.

Keywords: Design optimization, FEA, PEM fuel cell, Thermal stress

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Authors: N. Das, N. Samanta, L. Pandey, C. Roy Chaudhuri

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Early diagnosis of infection like Hep-B virus in blood is important for low cost medical treatment. For this purpose, it is desirable to develop a point of care device which should be able to detect trace quantities of the target molecule in blood. In this paper, we report a nanoporous silicon oxide sensor which is capable of detecting down to 1fM concentration of Hep-B surface antigen in blood without the requirement of any centrifuge or pre-concentration. This has been made possible by the presence of resonant peak in the sensitivity characteristics. This peak is observed to be dependent only on the concentration of the specific antigen and not on the interfering species in blood serum. The occurrence of opposite impedance change within the pores and at the bottom of the pore is responsible for this effect. An electronic interface has also been designed to provide a display of the virus concentration.

Keywords: Impedance spectroscopy, Ultrasensitive detection in blood, Peak frequency, Electronic interface.

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Authors: Mohie Eldin Mohamed Afifiy Elmashad

Abstract:

Desert regions around the Nile valley in Upper Egypt contain great extent of swelling soil. Many different comment procedures of treatment of the swelling soils for construction such as pre-swelling, load balance OR soil replacement. One of the measure factors which affect the level of the aggressiveness of the swelling soil is the direction of the infiltration water directions within the swelling soils. In this paper a physical model was installed to measure the effect of water on the swelling soil with replacement using fatty acid distillation residuals (FADR) mixed with sand as thick sand-FADR mixture to prevent the water pathway arrive to the swelling soil. Testing program have been conducted on different artificial samples with different sand to FADR contents ratios (4%, 6%, and 9%) to get the optimum value fulfilling the impermeable replacement. The tests show that a FADR content of 9% is sufficient to produce impermeable replacement.

Keywords: Swelling soil, FADR, soil improvement, permeability

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Authors: Hsuan-Ming S Hu, Jolanta A Watson, Bronwen W Cribb, Gregory S Watson

Abstract:

Biomimicry has many potential benefits as many technologies found in nature are superior to their man-made counterparts. As technological device components approach the micro and nanoscale, surface properties such as surface adhesion and friction may need to be taken into account. Lowering surface adhesion by manipulating chemistry alone might no longer be sufficient for such components and thus physical manipulation may be required. Adhesion reduction is only one of the many surface functions displayed by micro/nano-structured cuticles of insects. Here, we present a mini review of our understanding of insect cuticle structures and the relationship between the structure dimensions and the corresponding functional mechanisms. It may be possible to introduce additional properties to material surfaces (indeed multi-functional properties) based on the design of natural surfaces.

Keywords: Biomimicry, micro/nanostructures, self-cleaning surfaces, superhydrophobicity

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Authors: U. K. Sahin, N. Erdumlu, C. Saricam, I. Gocek, M. H. Arslan, H. Acikgoz-Tufan, B. Kalav

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Finishing is an important part of fabric processing with which a wide range of features are imparted to greige or colored fabrics for various end-uses. Especially, by the addition or impartation of nano-scaled particles to the fabric structure composite fabrics, a kind of composite materials can be acquired. Composite materials, generally shortened as composites or in other words composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more component materials with significantly different physical, mechanical or chemical characteristics remaining separate and distinctive at the macroscopic or microscopic scale within the end product structure. Therefore, the technique finishing which is one of the fundamental methods to be applied on fabrics for obtainment of composite fabrics with many functionalities was used in the current study with the same purpose. However, regardless of the finishing materials applied, the efficient life of finished product on offering desired feature is low, since the durability of finishes on the material is limited. Any increase in durability of these finishes on textiles would enhance the life of use for textiles, which will result in happier users. Therefore, in this study, since higher durability was desired for the finishing materials fixed on the fabrics, nano-scaled hollow structured cyclodextrins were chemically imparted by grafting to the structure of conventional cotton fabrics by the help of finishing technique in order to be fixed permanently. By this way, a processed and functionalized base fabric having potential to be treated in the subsequent processes with many different finishing agents and nanomaterials could be obtained. Henceforth, this fabric can be used as a multi-functional fabric due to the encapturing ability of cyclodextrins to molecules/particles via physical/chemical means. In this study, scoured and rinsed woven bleached plain weave 100% cotton fabrics were utilized because textiles made of cotton are the most demanded textile products in the textile market by the textile consumers in daily life. Cotton fabric samples were immersed in treating baths containing β-cyclodextrin and 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid and to reduce the curing temperature the catalyst sodium hypophosphite monohydrate was used. All impregnated fabric samples were pre-dried. The reaction of grafting was performed in dry state. The treated and cured fabric samples were rinsed with warm distilled water and dried. The samples were dried for 4 h and weighed before and after finishing and rinsing. Stability and durability of β-cyclodextrins on fabric surface against external factors such as washing as well as strength of functionalized fabric in terms of tensile and tear strength were tested. Presence and homogeneity of distribution of β-cyclodextrins on fabric surface were characterized.

Keywords: Cotton fabric, cyclodextrin, improved durability, multifunctional composite textile.

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Authors: Shan-Jen Cheng, Te-Jen Chang, Kuang-Hsiung Tan, Shou-Ling Kuo

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Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is such a time-vary nonlinear dynamic system. The traditional linear modeling approach is hard to estimate structure correctly of PEMFC system. From this reason, this paper presents a nonlinear modeling of the PEMFC using Neural Network Auto-regressive model with eXogenous inputs (NNARX) approach. The multilayer perception (MLP) network is applied to evaluate the structure of the NNARX model of PEMFC. The validity and accuracy of NNARX model are tested by one step ahead relating output voltage to input current from measured experimental of PEMFC. The results show that the obtained nonlinear NNARX model can efficiently approximate the dynamic mode of the PEMFC and model output and system measured output consistently.

Keywords: PEMFC, neural network, nonlinear identification, NNARX.

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Authors: Janet Amiri, Shekoofeh Entesari, Kourosh Delavar, Mahshid Saadatmand, Nasrin Aghamohammad Rafie

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The beneficial effects of Si are mainly associated with its high deposition in plant tissue and enhancing their strength and rigidity. We investigated the role of Si against cadmium stress in (Echium C) in house green condition. When the seventh leaves was be appeared, plants were pretreated with five levels of Si: 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.7and 1.5 mM Si (as sodium trisilicate, Na2(SiO2)3) and after that plants were treated with two levels of Cd (30 and 90 mM). The effects of Silicon and Cd were investigated on some physiological and biochemical parameters such as: lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde (MDA) and other aldehydes, antocyanin and flavonoid content. Our results showed that Cd significantly increased MDA, other aldehydes, antocyanin and flavonoids content in Echium and silicon offset the negative effect and increased tolerance of Echium against Cd stress. From this results we concluded that Si increase membrane integrity and antioxidative ability in this plant against cd stress.

Keywords: Silicon, Cadmium, Echium, MDA, antocyanin, flavonoid

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Authors: Shiuh-Jer Huang, Shin-Ham Lee, Sheam-Chyun Lin

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A two wheel inverted pendulum (TWIP) vehicle is built with two hub DC motors for motion control evaluation. Arduino Nano micro-processor is chosen as the control kernel for this electric test plant. Accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are built in to measure the tilt angle and angular velocity of the inverted pendulum vehicle. Since the TWIP has significantly hub motor dead zone and nonlinear system dynamics characteristics, the vehicle system is difficult to control by traditional model based controller. The intelligent model-free fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC) was employed as the main control algorithm. Then, intelligent controllers are designed for TWIP balance control, and two wheels synchronization control purposes.

Keywords: Balance control, synchronization control, two wheel inverted pendulum, TWIP.

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Authors: M. S. Kilic, S. Korkut, B. Hazer

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Newly synthesized Polypropylene-g-Polyethylene glycol polymer was first time used for a compartment-less enzymatic fuel cell. Working electrodes based on Polypropylene-g-Polyethylene glycol were operated as unmediated and mediated system (with ferrocene and gold/cobalt oxide nanoparticles). Glucose oxidase and bilirubin oxidase was selected as anodic and cathodic enzyme, respectively. Glucose was used as fuel in a single-compartment and membrane-less cell. Maximum power density was obtained as 0.65 nW cm-2, 65 nW cm-2 and 23500 nW cm-2 from the unmediated, ferrocene and gold/cobalt oxide modified polymeric film, respectively. Power density was calculated to be ~16000 nW cm-2 for undiluted wastewater sample with gold/cobalt oxide nanoparticles including system.

Keywords: Bilirubin oxidase, Enzymatic fuel cell, Glucose oxidase, Nanoparticles.

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