Applied whispering gallery modes on ZnO nanorods coated glass for humidity sensing application

In this letter, a humidity sensor is demonstrated by applying a whispering gallery mode (WGM) from a microsphere resonator onto the ZnO nanorods coated glass surface. The diameter of the microsphere was 234 µm and the glass surface was coated with ZnO nanorods using the hydrothermal method at growth duration of 12 h. A significant response to humidity level ranging from 35%RH to 85%RH has been observed with the sensitivity of 0.014 2 nm/%RH. The proposed humidity sensor has successfully employed to enhance interaction between the whispering gallery mode evanescent and surrounds analyte with the assistance of ZnO nanorods coated glass.     

Hybrid multi-verse optimizer with grey wolf optimizer for power scheduling problem in smart home using IoT

The Journal of Supercomputing - The power scheduling problem in smart home (PSPSH) is one of the complex NP-hard scheduling problems, where it has a deep and rugged search space due to the high...     

Electrical conductivity in hot-pressed nitrogen ceramics

The a.c. and d.c. electrical conductivities of some hot-pressed polycrystalline nitrogen ceramics have been measured between 400 and 1000° C. The materials examined were Si₃N₄, 5.0% MgO/Si₃N₄ and two sialons, Si_(6–z) · Al _z · O _z · N_(8–z) having z 3.2 and z 4.0 respectively. The electrical behaviour of all the materials showed similar general features. The d.c. conductivities were about 10^{–10 –1} cm^–1 at 400° C and rose to between 10^–6 and 10^{–5 –1} cm^–1 at 1000° C. The a.c. Data, taken over the frequency range 15 Hz to 5 kHz showed that below about 500° C the a.c. conductivity ( _a.c.) varied with frequency as _a.c. ^s where 0.7 _d.c.) agreed well with the relation _d.c. = A exp(–B/T ^1/4). Above 700° C both the a.c. and d.c. conductivities followed log T ^–1. Hall effect and thermoelectric power measurements enabled the Hall mobility to be estimated as less than 10^–4 cm² V^–1 sec^–1 at 400° C and showed that the materials were all p-type below 900° C and n-type above 900° C. The electrical properties of all four materials are consistent with the presence of a glassy phase.     

Some electrical characteristics of lithium and yttrium sialons

Some electrical properties of hot-pressed lithium sialons, Li _x/8Si_6–3x/4Al_5x/8O _x N_8–x havingx<5 and an yttrium sialon were measured between 291 and 775 K; the former consisted essentially of a single crystalline phase whereas the latter contained 98% glassy phase. For lithium sialons, the charging and discharging current followed al(t) t ^–nlaw withn=0.8 at room temperature. The d.c. conductivities were about 10^–13 ohm^–1 cm^–1 at 291 K and rose to 5×10^–7 ohm^–1 cm^–1 at 775 K. At high temperatures electrode polarization effects were observed in d.c. measurements. The variation of the conductivity over the frequency range 200 Hz to 9.3 GHz followed the () ⁿ law. The data also fitted the Universal dielectric law,() ^n–1 well, and approximately fitted the Kramers-Kronig relation()/()– =cot (n/2) withn decreasing from 0.95 at 291 K to 0.4 at 775 K. The temperature variations of conductivities did not fit linearly in Arrhenius plots. Very similar behaviour was observed for yttrium sialon except that no electrode polarization was observed. The results have been compared with those obtained previously for pure sialon; the most striking feature revealed being that _d.c. for lithium sialon can be at least 10³ times higher than that of pure sialon. Interpretation of the data in terms of hopping conduction suggests that very similar processes are involved in all three classes of sialon.     

Studies on miscibility of dehydrated castor oil epoxy blend with poly(methyl methacrylate)

Oil epoxies can be used as plasticizers in the processing of hard polymers. For this purpose dehydrated castor oil epoxy (DCOE), a product from sustainable resource, has been chosen for blending with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to investigate the compatibility of this blend pair. Blends of DCOE/PMMA were prepared in the weight ratios 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, and 20/80 through solution method by mixing in dimethylsulphoxide. Free‐standing films of the blend were cast and the miscibility of the two components was investigated by viscosity and ultrasonic measurements, which provided valuable information on the degree of compatibility of the pairs of blends in solution. The compatibility was also examined by differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy. All the studies revealed that DCOE was immiscible with PMMA. However, the appearance and texture of the films were not found to show any visible change over several months, which indicates stability of this blend system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 3094–3100, 2006     

Location Prediction Based on a Sector Snapshot for Location-Based Services

In location-based services (LBSs), the service is provided based on the users’ locations through location determination and mobility realization. Most of the current location prediction research is focused on generalized location models, where the geographic extent is divided into regular-shaped cells. These models are not suitable for certain LBSs where the objectives are to compute and present on-road services. Such techniques are the new Markov-based mobility prediction (NMMP) and prediction location model (PLM) that deal with inner cell structure and different levels of prediction, respectively. The NMMP and PLM techniques suffer from complex computation, accuracy rate regression, and insufficient accuracy. In this paper, a novel cell splitting algorithm is proposed. Also, a new prediction technique is introduced. The cell splitting is universal so it can be applied to all types of cells. Meanwhile, this algorithm is implemented to the Micro cell in parallel with the new prediction technique. The prediction technique, compared with two classic prediction techniques and the experimental results, show the effectiveness and robustness of the new splitting algorithm and prediction technique.     

Epoxidation,hydroxylation, acrylation and urethanation of Linum usitatissimum seed oil and its derivatives

Some preliminary studies on epoxidation, hydroxylation, acrylation and urethanation of Linum usitatissimum seed oil (LO) and its derivatives have been carried out. Epoxidation and hydroxylation were performed in situ using H₂O₂ and acetic acid to develop epoxidized oil (LOE) and epoxy polyol (EP). EP was modified with synthetic monomers, viz. acrylonitrile (AN) and methylmethacrylate (MMA), in the presence of benzoyl peroxide in an inert environment to develop acrylic grafted epoxy polyols (AEPs). EP and AEPs were further treated with an isocyanate, resulting in the formation of plain and acrylic grafted epoxy polyurethanes (EPU and AEPUs). The mechanism of the reaction as well as the structural aspects of LO, LOE, EP, AEPs, EPU and AEPUs were investigated by ¹H‐NMR and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopic techniques, which also confirmed the incorporation of the acrylic monomers – AN and MMA – on the EP backbone Spectral analyses further demonstrated that, depending on its structure (substituent), each acrylic monomer follows a different grafting mechanism. Physico‐chemical characterization of AEPs and AEPUs was carried out by standard laboratory methods, and thermal analyses were accomplished by TGA and DSC. Physico‐mechanical characterization of AEPUs coatings further showed considerable improvement compared to the pristine (EPU) resin, due to the introduction of stiff acrylic moieties. The aforementioned studies as well as the coating characteristics of AEPU confirmed that AN and MMA have been incorporated in the EP backbone. These systems can be safely employed at up to 210–220 °C.