Investigation of Size and Shape Dependencies of Phase Diagrams of the Ising Nanofilms and Nanotubes on the Honeycomb Lattice Using Cellular Automata Simulation Approach

Size and shape dependencies of phase diagrams of the Ising nanofilms and nanotubes on the honeycomb lattice are investigated by means of probabilistic cellular automata simulation based on Glauber algorithm. The values of reduced critical temperature, K _c = k _B T _c/J (where k _B and J are the Boltzmann constant and nearest-neighbor coupling, respectively), for both nanofilms and nanotubes, are obtained at the different sizes of the lattices and the dependency of K _c to the number of layers is studied. By increasing the number of layers K _c increases but for number of layer more than 8, the critical temperature increases very slowly. We have shown that between two isotropic nanotubes with the same number of spins, the ones with greater diameter (more spins on the edge) have larger critical temperature. For equal size of lattices, the obtained values of K _c for nanotube are greater than the nanofilm, but for large sizes, this difference disappears.     

A churn prediction model for prepaid customers in telecom using fuzzy classifiers

The incredible growth of telecom data and fierce competition among telecommunication operators for customer retention demand continues improvements, both strategically and analytically, in the current customer relationship management (CRM) systems. One of the key objectives of a typical CRM system is to classify and predict a group of potential churners form a large set of customers to devise profitable and targeted retention campaigns for keeping a long-term relationship with valued customers. For achieving the aforementioned objective, several churn prediction models have been proposed in the past for the accurate identification of the customers who are prone to churn. However, these previously proposed models suffer from a number of limitations which place strong barriers towards the direct applicability of such models for accurate prediction. Firstly, the feature selection methods adopted in majority of the past work neglected the information rich variables present in call details record for model development. Secondly, selection of important features was done through statistical methods only. Although statistical methods have been applied successfully in diverse domains, however, these methods alone without the augmentation of domain knowledge have the tendency to yield erroneous results. Thirdly, the previous models have been validated mainly with benchmark datasets which do not provide a true representation of real world telecom data consisting of noise and large number of missing values. Fourthly, the evaluation measures used in the past neglected the True Positive (TP) rate, which actually highlights the ability of a model to correctly classify the percentage of churners as compared to non-churners. Finally, the classifiers used in the previous models completely neglected the use of fuzzy classification methods which perform reasonably well for data sets with noise. In this paper, a fuzzy based churn prediction model has been proposed and validated using a real data from a telecom company in South Asia. A number of predominant classifiers namely, Neural Network, Linear regression, C4.5, SVM, AdaBoost, Gradient Boosting and Random Forest have been compared with fuzzy classifiers to highlight the superiority of fuzzy classifiers in predicting the accurate set of churners.     

Microemulsions as a Surrogate Carrier for Dermal Drug Delivery

Microemulsions are isotropic, thermodynamically stable transparent (or translucent) systems of oil, water, and surfactant, frequently in combination with a cosurfactant with a droplet size usually in the range of 20–200 nm. Since their discovery, they have attained increasing significance both in basic research and in industry. Due to their distinct advantages such as enhanced drug solubility, thermodynamic stability, facile preparation, and low cost, uses and applications of microemulsions have been numerous. Recently, there is a surge in the exploration of microemulsion for transdermal drug delivery for their ability to incorporate both hydrophilic (5-fluorouracil, apomorphine hydrochloride, diphenhydramine hydrochloride, tetracaine hydrochloride, and methotrexate) and lipophilic drugs (estradiol, finasteride, ketoprofen, meloxicam, felodipine, and triptolide) and enhance their permeation. Very low surface tension in conjunction with enormous increase in the interfacial area due to nanosized droplets of the microemulsion influences the drug permeation across the skin. A large number of oils and surfactants are available, which can be used as components of microemulsion systems for transdermal delivery but their toxicity, irritation potential, and unclear mechanism of action limit their use. Besides surfactants, oils can also act as penetration enhancers (oleic acid, linoleic acid, isopropyl myristate, isopropyl palmitate, etc.). The transdermal drug delivery potential of microemulsions is dependent not only on the applied constituents of the vehicle but also drastically on the composition/internal structure of the phases which may promote or hamper the drug distribution in the vehicles. This article explores microemulsion as transdermal drug delivery vehicles with emphasis on components selection for enhanced drug permeation and skin tolerability of these systems and further future directions.     

“Time-to-failure” prediction for a polymer-polymer swivelling joint

The growing competition in the market demands a better performance from any product in terms of availability, reliability, maintainability and failure free life. However there a number of engineering as well as environmental factor that influence the performance of a product. Wear is one of the critical factors, which influences the reliability and useful life of mechanical components. Therefore, the ability to predict wear at the development stage enables the designers to come up with a better design, longer useful life and more reliable products. Moreover, the prediction of time-to-failure for a component will lead to better maintenance helping to avoid catastrophic effects of unexpected failures. This paper presents a methodical approach for predicting sliding wear and hence the remaining useful life for a polymer-polymer sliding joint. The major stages of the approach are: tribo-system examination, experimentation, experimental wear coefficient determination and model formation.     

The Persuasive Influence of Emotion in Cancer Prevention and Detection Messages

This paper reviews and summarizes the literature on the relationship between emotion and persuasion as it bears on the production of cancer prevention and detection messages. A series of propositions are presented that serve to illustrate the intricacies of the emotion–persuasion relationship. These propositions deal with the necessary conditions for emotional arousal, individual differences in emotional reactivity to cancer messages, the potential for emotion-inducing messages to produce persuasive and counterpersuasive effects, the conditions that circumscribe the influence of emotions on persuasion, and the mechanisms by which that influence is achieved. To the extent that the literature permits, advice on message design is offered.     

Effect of various surface preparation techniques on the delamination properties of vacuum infused Carbon fiber reinforced aluminum laminates (CARALL): Experimentation and numerical simulation

Carbon fiber reinforced aluminum laminates (CARALL) are one of the aluminum based Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) which, due to their high strength to weight ratio and good impact resistance are greatly replacing aluminum alloys in aircraft structures. In this research work, interlaminate shear strength of Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) manufactured CARALL has been investigated. Numerical simulation model incorporated with real time material data has been developed to predict the delamination behavior of CARALL laminates. Standard CARALL specimens with different surface morphologies were prepared by electric discharge machining, mechanical, chemical and electrochemical surface treatments. T-peel tests were carried out according to standard ASTM D1876-08 to find out inter laminate shear strength. FMLs made out of mechanically, chemically and electrochemically cleaned metal sheets depicted high interlaminate shear strength. SEM micrographs of failed surfaces verify the high adhesive strength of epoxy. Developed numerical simulation model accurately predicts the delamination behavior of CARALL as observed during experimentation.     

Thermo-oxidative decomposition of multi-walled carbon nanotubes: Kinetics and thermodynamics

Abstract

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are familiar well owing to their capability of finding wide-reaching applications based on their fascinating properties. Kinetics of thermally activated processes in MWCNTs can help in understanding and controlling those processes which might eventually lead to develop materials with optimized efficiencies. Even though, inadequate information on the kinetics of thermal decomposition of WMCNTs has been reported in the literature, and its thermodynamics is yet to be addressed. In this regard, the present study deals with a detailed kinetic investigation on the thermo-oxidative decomposition of MWCNTs by employing advanced kinetic approaches. Kinetic analysis of MWCNTs decomposition reveals that although the kinetic triplets remain comparable, reaction model under isothermal condition is not the same as under non-isothermal conditions. It alters from contracting cylinder (non-isothermal) to random nucleation followed by isotropic growth of particles (isothermal). Thermodynamics of MWCNTs thermal decomposition points out that the process is non-spontaneous with enhanced endothermicity. In addition, the structure of activated complex is found to be relatively more organized in comparison with the reactant. An account of the interpretations of the obtained kinetic and thermodynamic parameters is also given and discussed in this study.     

The Persuasive Effect of Host and Audience Reaction Shots in Television Talk Shows

Conceptualizing talk shows as persuasive messages and based on dual-processing models of persuasion, we explored the effects of nonverbal reactions of a talk show host and studio audience members to arguments presented by a talk show guest on a low-involvement topic. Participants viewed 1 of 4 versions of a talk show segment in which host and studio audience reactions shots were manipulated to be either neutral or positive. Results suggested that positive audience or host reactions can enhance persuasive influence; however, if those cues are incongruent, persuasive influence may be negated. Path analysis suggested that the host reaction's impact on attitude was indirectly experienced through both its interaction with audience response valence and its impact on perceptions of source trustworthiness. The article also addresses implications for the impact of multiple cues in persuasive messages.     

Ultra-Low Power 1 Volt Small Size 2.4 GHz CMOS RF Transceiver Design for Wireless Sensor Node

Ultra-low power transceiver design is proposed for wireless sensor node used in the wireless sensor network (WSN). Typically, each sensor node contains a transceiver so it is required that both hardware and software designs of WSN node must take care of energy consumption during all modes of operation including active/sleep modes so that the operational life of each node can be increased in order to increase the lifetime of network. The current declared size of the wireless sensor node is of millimeter order, excluding the power source and crystal oscillator. We have proposed a new 2.4 GHz transceiver that has five blocks namely XO, PLL, PA, LNA and IF. The proposed transceiver incorporates less number of low-drop outs (LDOs) regulators. The size of the transceiver is reduced by decreasing the area of beneficiary components up to 0.41 mm² of core area in such a way that some functions are optimally distributed among other components. The proposed design is smaller in size and consumes less power, <1 mW, compared to other transceivers. The operating voltage has also been reduced to 1 V. This transceiver is most efficient and will be fruitful for the wireless networks as it has been designed by considering modern requirements.