Properties of blends of sulfonic acids doped polyaniline and polyester-polyether block copolymer

Blends of polyaniline protonated with functionalized sulfonic acids dopant and various block copolymers of poly (1,4-butylene terephthalate)-co-polytetramethylene oxide having variable proportion of hard to soft segment can be cast as freestanding films from hexafluoro-2-propanol solution. The electrical conductivity of these blends showed percolation threshold values below 1%, a behavior which is indicative of a fibrillar network phase-separated morphology. A significant effect of the counter-ion of the functionalized acid dopant was noted. Polyaniline doped with camphor sulfonic acid or with methane sulfonic acid produced higher conductivity values than polyaniline doped with dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid. The hard segment in the insulating copolymer was found to suppress the electrical conductivity of the resulting compositions. The phase-separated morphology in these blends was confirmed from the observed approximate linear relation of the specific volume on the composition of the blend. Received: 25 August 2000 / Reviewed and accepted: 28 August 2000     

A re-organizing biosurveillance framework based on fog and mobile edge computing

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Biological threats are becoming a serious security issue for many countries across the world. Effective biosurveillance systems can primarily support appropriate...     

Polyphenolic and phytochemical content of Cucumis sativus seeds and study on mechanism of preservation of nutritional and quality outcomes in enriched mayonnaise

Oxidative rancidity in food emulsions leads to a reduction in shelf life. Synthetic antioxidants are widely used in food industry to prevent the development of rancidity. The present study was focussed on investigating the antioxidant potential of Cucumis sativus seeds (CSS) and correlates these findings with mayonnaise enrichment and extends its shelf life. CSS exhibited the highest abundance in phenolic compounds (93.5 ± 0.1 mgGAE g^?1), flavonoids (57.4 ± 0.1 mgQE g^?1), β‐carotene (19.46 ± 0.4 mg carotenoids per 100 g) and high free radical scavenging activity. CSS (200 ppm) and butylated hydroxyanisole (200 ppm) were incorporated in mayonnaise and the oxidative stability was evaluated by peroxide, p‐anisidine and TBARS values during storage at different temperatures. Organoleptic evaluations indicated that CSS enriched sample was recorded the highest overall acceptability. The results from our study will provide scientific basis for CSS as natural preservative against lipid oxidation or food enrichment while developing functional foods.     

Surface treatments for concrete: assessmentmethods and reported performance

Several products for surface treatment are available on the market to enhance durability characteristicsof concrete. For each of these materials a certain level of protection is claimed. However, there is no commonly accepted procedure to assess the effectiveness of these treatments. The inherent generic properties may be of use to the manufacturers and those responsible for specifications, however, practising engineers are interested in knowing how they improve the performance of their structures. Thus in this review an attempt is made to assess the engineering aspects of the various surface treatments so that a procedure for their selection can be proposed.     

Effects of sleep on wake-induced c-fos expression

We investigated the effects of sleep on wake-induced c-fos expression in the cerebral cortex of rats and c-fos-lacZ transgenic mice. In the cortex of rats, the levels of c-Fos, detected both by immunocytochemistry and Western blot, remained high during 6 or 12 hr of enforced wakefulness but declined rapidly (within 1 hr) with increasing time of recovery sleep. Similarly, in the transgenic mice in which lacZ expression is driven from the c-fos promoter, beta-galactosidase activity was high after enforced wakefulness and declined with increasing amounts of sleep. These results suggest that the decrease in c-Fos protein in cortical neurons during sleep may be attributable to cessation of c-fos expression, activation of a process that degrades the wake-induced c-Fos, or both.     

Multiple Resource-Constrained Scheduling Using Branch and Bound

This paper focuses upon the problem of assigning feasible start times to a set of activities making up a project, static job shop, or static flowship type schedules under two constraint sets: (1) no activity may be started until all activities technologically established as its predecessor set have been completed, and (2) the total resource requirements of all activities in process at any time in the schedule must not exceed the level of availability for each of the multiple resource classes. The solution procedure used for these problems is branch and bound, and the resulting complete schedules are optimized with an objective of minimizing the completion time of the entire set of activities. Computational results on tests conducted on a number of randomly generated problem sets with up to 60 activities and six resource classes are presented.     

Thermal-Lens Study on the Distance-Dependent Energy Transfer from Rhodamine 6G to Gold Nanoparticles

A study on energy transfer from the Rhodamine 6G (donor) to gold nanoparticles (acceptor) is investigated using a laser-based dual-beam thermal-lens technique. The nanoparticles are observed to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of the dye molecule via a nonradiative energy transfer mechanism. The influence of nanoparticle concentration $(0.09\,\hbox {nM}\,\hbox {to}\,0.24\,\hbox {nM})$ on the energy transfer mechanism with Rhodamine 6G $(1\;\upmu \hbox {M})$ is investigated. Analysis of the results indicates that the energy transfer efficiency is high (more than 50 %) in the presence of nanoparticles and the efficiency is enhanced with an increase in the nanoparticle concentration. The distance between the nanoparticle and dye molecule is evaluated on the basis of the nanomaterial surface energy transfer model. The thermal-lens studies probe the nonradiative path of de-excitation of the excited molecule, and the comparison between this technique and the conventional fluorescence method in measuring the distance as well as the energy-transfer efficiency clearly indicates that the thermal-lens technique is a complementary approach to study the energy-transfer mechanism between a donor and an acceptor.     

Design of PSO‐based fuzzy logic controller for single axis magnetic levitation system

In this paper, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) method is proposed to design an optimal robust fuzzy logic controller (FLC). The objective of this paper is to design a nonlinear optimal robust controller for the single axis magnetic levitation system with high accuracy. PSO algorithm is applied to search globally optimal parameters of FLCs. Three different FLCs are designed. First, proportional derivative (PD)‐like FLC. Second, the FLC is based on the PSO algorithm to find the optimal range of the eight linguistic membership functions (FLC1 with PSO algorithm). Finally, the FLC is based on the PSO algorithm to find the optimal range and shape of the four linguistic membership functions (FLC2 with PSO algorithm). The performances of three different FLCs are compared. Simulation results show that PSO‐based optimal FLCs find the optimal range and shape of the four linguistic membership functions and achieved better performance than the other proposed controllers, minimizing 48 fuzzy rules. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

In situ ultrasound enhancement of octanoic acid directional solvent extraction for seawater desalination

The low yield and high salinity of the water product have limited the use of directional solvent extraction desalination method to the treatment of only low salinity water. In this research, in situ ultrasound enhancement of octanoic acid solvent extraction desalination is reported. The pre-prepared 3.5% (w/w) of saltwater solution and octanoic acid were mixed at five different temperatures which resulted in two phases. The performance of extraction for each set was evaluated based on salinity, yield of the recovered water, and solvent residual in the product water. The calculated yield of pure water under the ultrasound effects was higher than that without the ultrasound. This is due to the role of ultrasound in weakening the intermolecular interaction to dissociate water from salt, increasing the solvent efficiency in extracting water. The recovered water salinity was lower by using the ultrasound which can be explained as result of increasing the water yield.     

Biodegradation of o-nitrophenol by aerobic granules with glucose as co-substrate

Aerobic granules to treat wastewater containing o-nitrophenol were successfully developed in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) using activated sludge as inoculum. Stable aerobic granules were obtained with a clearly defined shape and diameters ranging from 2 to 6 mm after 122 days of operation. The integrity coefficient (IC) and granules density was found to be 98% and 1,054 kg m(-3) respectively. After development of aerobic granules, o-nitrophenols were successfully degraded to an efficiency of 78% at a concentration of 70 mg L(-1). GC-MS study revealed that the biodegradation of o-nitrophenol occurred via catechol via nitrobenzene pathway. Specific o-nitrophenol biodegradation rates followed the Haldane model and the associated kinetic parameters were found as follows: V(max) = 3.96 g o-nitrophenol g(-1)VSS(-1)d(-1), K(s) = 198.12 mg L(-1), and K(i) = 31.16 mg L(-1). The aerobic granules proved to be a feasible and effective way to degrade o-nitrophenol containing wastewater.