Improved Thermoelectric Performance of Eco‐Friendly β‐FeSi2–SiGe Nanocomposite via Synergistic Hierarchical Structuring,Phase Percolation,and Selective Doping

A β‐FeSi₂–SiGe nanocomposite is synthesized via a react/transform spark plasma sintering technique, in which eutectoid phase transformation, Ge alloying, selective doping, and sintering are completed in a single process, resulting in a greatly reduced process time and thermal budget. Hierarchical structuring of the SiGe secondary phase to achieve coexistence of a percolated network with isolated nanoscale inclusions effectively decouples the thermal and electrical transport. Combined with selective doping that reduces conduction band offsets, the percolation strategy produces overall electron mobilities 30 times higher than those of similar materials produced using typical powder‐processing routes. As a result, a maximum thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of ≈0.7 at 700 °C is achieved in the β‐FeSi₂–SiGe nanocomposite.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of change point from stationary to nonstationary in autoregressive models using dynamic linear model

Change point estimation is a useful concept in time series models that could be applied in several fields such as financing, quality control. It helps to decrease costs of decision making and production by monitoring stock market and production lines, respectively. In this paper, the maximum likelihood technique is developed to estimate change point at which the stationary AR(1) model changes to a nonstationary process. Filtering and smoothing of dynamic linear model are used to estimate unknown parameters after change point. We also assume that correlation exists between samples' statistics. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed estimators to estimate the change point of stationary. In addition based on Shewhart control chart, filtering has a better accuracy in comparison to smoothing. A real example is provided to illustrate the application.     

Incremental one-class classifier based on convex–concave hull

Pattern Analysis and Applications - One subject that has been considered less is a binary classification on data streams with concept drifting in which only information of one class (target class)...     

A Simulation-Optimization Model for Conjunctive Use of Canal and Pond in Irrigating Paddy Fields

Water Resources Management - In this study, a new methodology is presented for conjunctive use of canal and pond to assess the role of ponds in saving local water and optimizing use of them in...     

RSS Cooperative Localization in WSNs Operating in the Millimeter Bands

Wireless Personal Communications - In most scenarios of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), different traffic types have specific service requirements. None of the previous MAC schemes has been able...     

An Enhanced Cooperative Communication Scheme for Physical Uplink Shared Channel in NB-IoT

Wireless Personal Communications - Smart Home is one of the most established applications of the Internet of Things. Almost every equipment we use in our daily life—appliances, electric...     

Novel polymaleimide containing dibenzoyl hydrazine pendant group as chelating agent for antimicrobial activity

Novel polymaleimide containing dibenzoyl hydrazine pendant group, poly[N-benzoyl-4-(N-maleimido)-phenyl hydrazide], and its metal complexes have been synthesized. Their antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli bacteria and that against Aspergillus fumigatus, Syncephalastrum racemosum, Geotrichum candidum, and Candida albicans fungi were investigated. The polymer–metal complexes showed better antimicrobial activity than that of the parent polymer. The inhibition of the growth of the microbes remarkably depends on the type of the metal in the complexes. The polymer–Co(II) and the polymer–Cd(II) complexes are more potent in inhibition of the tested microbes growth than the rest of the prepared complexes.     

Performance analysis of a variable‐gain amplify‐and‐forward relayed mixed RF‐FSO system

In this work, an amplify‐and‐forward variable‐gain relayed mixed RF‐FSO system is studied. The considered dual‐hop system consists of a radio frequency (RF) link followed by a free space optical (FSO) channel. The RF link is affected by short‐term multipath fading and long‐term shadowing effects and is assumed to follow the generalized‐K fading distribution that approximates accurately several important distributions often used to model communication channels. The FSO channel experiences fading caused by atmospheric turbulence that is modeled by the gamma‐gamma distribution characterizing moderate and strong turbulence conditions. The FSO channel also suffers path loss and pointing error induced misalignment fading. The performance of the considered system is analyzed under the collective influence of distribution shaping parameters, pointing errors that result in misalignment fading, atmospheric turbulence, and path loss. The moment‐generating function of the Signal power to noise power ratio measured end‐to‐end for this system is derived. The cumulative distribution function for the Signal power to noise power ratio present between the source and destination receiver is also evaluated. Further, we investigate the error and outage performance and the average channel capacity for this system. The analytical expressions in closed form for the outage probability, symbol and bit error rate considering different modulation schemes and channel capacity are also derived. The mathematical expressions obtained are also demonstrated by numerical plots.     

Novel conductive magnetic nanocomposite based on poly (indole-co-thiophene) as a hemoglobin diagnostic biosensor: Synthesis,characterization and physical properties

The novel conductive nanocomposite has been successfully prepared by emulsion polymerization. First, magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized via coprecipitation reaction. Then, poly (indole-co-thiophene)@Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite was prepared via emulsion copolymerization of indole and thiophene monomers using sodium dodecyl sulfate as an emulsifier and ammonium persulfate as an oxidant in the presence of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. Characterization of the synthesized copolymer, Poly (In-co-T), and its magnetic nanocomposite were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetric, UV-vis spectrophotometer, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Also, the electrical conductivity of copolymer and nanocomposite were determined by four-probe instrument. Results showed a synergic effect in thermal stability by good interaction between polymer chain and magnetic nanoparticles. The conductivity of the nanocomposite was higher than bare copolymer, and increase of nanoparticles content caused an increment in the conductivity of the nanocomposites. The applicable properties of proposed conductive nanocomposite as a base at electrochemical biosensing have been investigated.     

Gas-liquid flow mass transfer in a T-shape microreactor stimulated with 1.7 MHz ultrasound waves

This paper describes the application of ultrasound waves on hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics in the gas-liquid flow in a T-shape microreactor with a diameter of 800 μm.A 1.7 MHz piezoelectric transducer (PZT) was employed to induce the vibration in this microreactor.Liquid side volumetric mass transfer coefficients were measured by physical and chemical methods of CO2 absorption into water and NaOH solution.The approach of absorption of CO2 into a 1 mol· L-1 NaOH solution was used for analysis of interfacial areas.With the help of a photography system,the fluid flow patterns inside the microreactor were analyzed.The effects of superficial liquid velocity,initial concentration of NaOH,superficial CO2 gas velocity and length of microreactor on the mass transfer rate were investigated.The comparison between sonicated and plain microreactors (microreactor with and without ultrasound) shows that the ultrasound wave irradiation has a significant effect on kLa and interfacial area at various operational conditions.For the microreactor length of 12 cm,ultrasound waves improved kLa and interfacial area about 21％ and 22％,respectively.From this study,it can be concluded that ultrasound wave irradiation in microreactor has a great effect on the mass transfer rate.This study suggests a new enhancement technique to establish high interfacial area and kLa in microreactors.