A Modified Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Spoofing Attack Detection in Single-Frequency GPS Receivers

Wireless Personal Communications - A GPS spoofing attack broadcasts counterfeit signals to resemble standard GPS satellite signals to take control of the correlation peaks of GPS signals to force...     

Simulation and energy optimization of the stabilizer tower of a pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation unit

Energy optimization of second distillation tower of a pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation unit has been studied by the thermal cycle of vapor recompression method. The mentioned cycle is connected to the second distillation tower of the stabilizer of pyrolysis gasoline, and the results are found promising. The composite pinch curve for both the current and the optimized methods are shown. Moreover, an increase in the heat transfer rate in heat exchanger E-1014 causes energy recovery in reboiler. According to simulation results, by vapor recompression to 1970 kPa and using this heat source for thermal integration, condenser and reboiler’s energies are decreased by 56.93 and 30.4 percentage, respectively.     

Solution combustion synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles as corrosion inhibitor

In this study, combustion synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles was reported using cerium nitrate hexahydrate as starting material as well as urea, glycine, glucose, and citric acid as fuels. The influence of fuel type on structure, microstructure, band gap, and corrosion inhibition was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and scanning electron microscopy micrographs showed that CeO₂ nanoparticles with different morphologies were obtained depending on the fuel type. Microstructural changes from unreacted gel to sponge-like morphologies were resulted by varying the fuel type from urea, glycine, and glucose to citric acid. In addition to Ce–O bonds, Fourier transform infrared analysis showed carbon bonds of carbonaceous compositions from incomplete combustion which were declined during combustion reaction. Furthermore, corrosion analyses showed that samples synthesized using urea fuel released the most Ce⁺⁴ ions and could have better protection than other samples.     

Mechanisms of orientational and photoelastic birefringence generation of methacrylates for the design of zero–zero‐birefringence polymers

The intrinsic birefringence Δn⁰ and photoelastic coefficient C of poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(2,2,2‐trifluroethyl methacrylate), poly(phenyl methacrylate), and poly(2,2,3,3,3‐pentafluorophenyl methacrylate) were determined. We categorized these methacrylate polymers into four birefringence‐types, even though their molecular structures differed only by the substituents on the side chains. Based on the results of Δn⁰ and C, novel polymers that exhibit neither orientational nor photoelastic birefringence, i.e., zero–zero‐birefringence polymers, were designed and synthesized by quaternary copolymerization system. Furthermore, we confirmed that the mechanisms of orientational birefringence and photoelastic birefringence generation were different in these methacrylate polymers. The conformation of the repeat unit of the polymers was nearly constant during the generation of orientational birefringence. In contrast, the conformation of the repeat unit of the polymers changed during the generation of photoelastic birefringence in the glassy state. These findings demonstrated the reasonability of evaluating orientational and photoelastic birefringence separately, as well as the adequacy of the classification of polymers into four birefringence‐types. Given these results and the fact that zero–zero‐birefringence polymers could be prepared successfully by four‐birefringence type monomers, we demonstrated the reasonability of the method for designing the zero–zero‐birefringence polymers. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:1330–1338, 2015. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) using commercially available unglazed ceramic wares: Low-cost ceramic separators suitable for scale-up

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of commercially available unglazed wall ceramic (UGWC) and unglazed floor ceramic (UGFC) separators with different thickness and porosity on the performance of dual-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). These MFCs were operated under continuous condition using domestic wastewater. The UGWC-based MFC produced higher maximum power density (321 mW/m² with a thickness of 9 mm) than UGFC-based MFC (106.89 mW/m² with a thickness of 3 mm) due to lower internal resistance. Power generation using both types of separators was lower than that of obtained using the Nafion 117 membrane as control (602 mW/m²). The maximum average coulombic efficiencies (CE) of the UGWC-based MFCs (with thickness levels of 6 and 9 mm) were 58% and 68%, respectively, which was more than that of UGFC-based MFCs and also control MFC (53%). Voltammetric analysis revealed that the maximum peak current of 6 mA was obtained for UGWC-based MFC which was in the order of control MFC (5.9 mA). The UGWC separators exhibited smaller ohmic and diffusion resistances of 57, 65 and 87 Ω in MFCs at the thickness levels of 3, 6 and 9 mm, respectively, compared to the UGFC separators with that of 164.27 and 366.23 Ω in MFCs at the thickness levels of 3 and 6 mm, respectively. UGWC separators because of their low production cost, high mechanical strength and increased output power density of the MFC proved to be a suitable alternative to replace with a costly polymeric membrane such as Nafion 117.     

N ‐acetylcysteine–PLGA nano‐conjugate: effects on cellular toxicity and uptake of gadopentate dimeglumine

Gadolinium as a contrast agent in MRI technique combined with DTPA causes contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) which can reduce by usage of antioxidants such as N‐acetyl cysteine by increasing the membrane''s permeability leads to lower cytotoxicity. In this study, N ‐acetyl cysteine‐PLGA Nano‐conjugate was synthesized according to stoichiometric rules of molar ratios andafter assessment by FTIR, NMR spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging was combined with Magnevist® (gadopentetate dimeglumine) and its effects on the renal cells were evaluated. MTT [3‐(4,5‐Dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide] and cellular uptake assays have indicated relatively significant toxicity of magnevist (P  < 0.05) on three cell lines including HEK293, MCF7 and L929 compared to other synthesized ligands that shown no toxicity. Moreover, systemic evaluation has shown no notable changes of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine in kidney of mice. In consequence, antioxidant effect was increased as well as the renal toxicity of the contrast agent reduced at the cell level. As a result, PLGA‐NAC nano‐conjugate can be a promising choice for decreasing the magnevist toxicity for treatment and prevention of CIN and will be able to open a new horizon to research on reduction of toxicity of contrast agents by using nanoparticles.Inspec keywords: blood, toxicology, nanofabrication, cellular biophysics, biomedical materials, nanoparticles, chromatography, cancer, biodegradable materials, biomedical MRI, kidney, pH, nanomedicine, patient treatment, diseases, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectraOther keywords: cellular toxicity, gadopentate dimeglumine, contrast agent, magnetic resonance imaging technique, diethylenetriamine pentaacetate, contrast‐induced nephropathy, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, stoichiometric rules, molar ratios, dimethyl sulphoxide solution, chromatography techniques, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy imaging, Magnevist®, gadopentetate dimeglumine, renal cells, MTT cytotoxicity, human embryonic kidney‐293, L929 cell lines, in vitro conditions, cellular uptake assays, Magnevist uptake, antioxidant effect, renal toxicity, cell level, PLGA nanocarrier, acetylcysteine nanoconjugate, Magnevist toxicity, N‐acetylcysteine–PLGA nano‐conjugate, N‐acetyl cysteine‐poly‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid nanoconjugate     

Hybrid Paper–Plastic Microchip for Flexible and High‐Performance Point‐of‐Care Diagnostics

A low‐cost and easy‐to‐fabricate microchip remains a key challenge for the development of true point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostics. Cellulose paper and plastic are thin, light, flexible, and abundant raw materials, which make them excellent substrates for mass production of POC devices. Herein, a hybrid paper–plastic microchip (PPMC) is developed, which can be used for both single and multiplexed detection of different targets, providing flexibility in the design and fabrication of the microchip. The developed PPMC with printed electronics is evaluated for sensitive and reliable detection of a broad range of targets, such as liver and colon cancer protein biomarkers, intact Zika virus, and human papillomavirus nucleic acid amplicons. The presented approach allows a highly specific detection of the tested targets with detection limits as low as 10² ng mL^?1 for protein biomarkers, 10³ particle per milliliter for virus particles, and 10² copies per microliter for a target nucleic acid. This approach can potentially be considered for the development of inexpensive and stable POC microchip diagnostics and is suitable for the detection of a wide range of microbial infections and cancer biomarkers.     

In-plane and out-of-plane buckling of arches made of FGM

The mechanical buckling of curved beams made of functionally graded materials is studies in this paper. The equilibrium and stability equations of curved beams under mechanical loads are derived. Using proper approximate functions for the displacement components, the stability equations are employed to obtain the related eigenvalues associated with the buckling load of the curved beam. Closed-form solutions are obtained for mechanical buckling of curved beams with doubly symmetric cross section subjected to uniform distributed radial load and pure bending moment. The results are validated with the known data in the literature for beams with isotropic materials.