Effect of Nb doping on structural and electric properties of PZT (65/35) ceramic

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of Nb⁵⁺ doping on PZT (65/35) based bulk materials in their structure, micro structure and electrical properties. The Nb content was chosen 0-9 mole%. These materials were prepared by conventional mixed oxide method. X ray diffraction studies suggest the compound to be of rhombohedral perovskite phase. Excess addition of Nb result in pyrochlore and fluorite phase develops in PZT (65/35) sample. Detailed studies of dielectric constant as a function of temperature (40degC to 500degC) and frequency (100 Hz to 1 MHz) suggest that the compounds undergo diffuse type of phase transition. Maximum dielectric constant and resistivity were found to be strongly dependent on doping and measuring frequencies. Using complex impedance analysis micro structural parameters such as bulk and grain boundary resistance, bulk charge carrier concentration and relaxation time were determined     

Proposal for st-Routing Protocol

A routing protocol chooses one of the several paths (routes) from a source node to a destination node in the computer network, to send a packet of information. In this paper, we propose a new routing protocol, which we call st-routing protocol, based on st-numbering of a graph. The protocol fits well in noisy environments where robustness of routing using alternative paths is a major issue. The proposed routing protocol provides a systematic way to retry alternative paths without generating any duplicate packets. The protocol works for only those networks that can be represented by biconnected graphs.     

Catalytic decomposition of biomass tars with iron oxide catalysts

Catalytic gasification of wood (Cedar) biomass was carried out using a specially designed flow-type double beds micro reactor in a two step process: temperature programmed non-catalytic steam gasification of biomass was performed in the first (top) bed at 200–850 °C followed by catalytic decomposition gasification of volatile matters (including tars) in the second (bottom) bed at a constant temperature, mainly 600 °C. Iron oxide catalysts, which transformed to Fe₃O₄ after use possessed catalytic activity in biomass tar decomposition. Above 90% of the volatile matters was gasified by the use of iron oxide catalyst (prepared from FeCl₃ and NH_3aq) at SV of 4.5 × 10³ h^?1. Tar was decomposed over the iron oxide catalysts followed by water gas shift reaction. Surface area of the iron oxide seemed to be an important factor for the catalytic tar decomposition. The activity of the iron oxide catalysts for tar decomposition seemed stable with cyclic use but the activity of the catalysts for the water gas shift reaction decreased with repeated use.     

A systematic review on emperor penguin optimizer

Neural Computing and Applications - Emperor Penguin Optimizer (EPO) is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm to solve general optimization problems. The main strength of EPO is twofold....     

Activation of Nrf2/HO-1 by Peptide YD1 Attenuates Inflammatory Symptoms through Suppression of TLR4/MYyD88/NF-κB Signaling Cascade

In this study, we investigate the immunomodulatory effects of a novel antimicrobial peptide, YD1, isolated from Kimchi, in both in vitro and in vivo models. We establish that YD1 exerts its anti-inflammatory effects via up-regulation of the Nrf2 pathway, resulting in the production of HO-1, which suppresses activation of the NF-κB pathway, including the subsequent proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α. We also found that YD1 robustly suppresses nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE₂) production by down-regulating the expression of the upstream genes, iNOS and COX-2, acting as a strong antioxidant. Collectively, YD1 exhibits vigorous anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity, presenting it as an interesting potential therapeutic agent.     

A polar-based guided multi-objective evolutionary algorithm to search for optimal solutions interested by decision-makers in a logistics network design problem

In practical multi-objective optimization problems, respective decision-makers might be interested in some optimal solutions that have objective values closer to their specified values. Guided multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (guided MOEAs) have been significantly used to guide their evolutionary search direction toward these optimal solutions using by decision makers. However, most guided MOEAs need to be iteratively and interactively evaluated and then guided by decision-makers through re-formulating or re-weighting objectives, and it might negatively affect the algorithms performance. In this paper, a novel guided MOEA that uses a dynamic polar-based region around a particular point in objective space is proposed. Based on the region, new selection operations are designed such that the algorithm can guide the evolutionary search toward optimal solutions that are close to the particular point in objective space without the iterative and interactive efforts. The proposed guided MOEA is tested on the multi-criteria decision-making problem of flexible logistics network design with different desired points. Experimental results show that the proposed guided MOEA outperforms two most effective guided and non-guided MOEAs, R-NSGA-II and NSGA-II.     

Development of GEP-based functional relationship for sediment transport in tropical rivers

This study presents gene expression programming (GEP), which is an extension to genetic programming (GP), as an alternative approach to modeling the functional relationships for the River Kurau, River Langat, and River Muda of the Malaysia. A functional relation has been developed using GEP with non-dimensional variables. The development of a GEP non-dimensional model is described. This paper compares current prediction equation with the existing GEP model for the same rivers (Zakaria et al. in Sci Total Environ 408:5078–5085, (2010). The presented model in this study is a less input GEP model and that predicts good performance. The proposed GEP approach gives satisfactory results compared to existing predictors.     

Some effects of silt contents on the strength of all-in-aggregate concrete

The paper briefly reviews the concepts of dry lean concrete (DLC), roller compacted concrete (RCC) and Econocrete and their possible applications for the construction of subbase in pavement, concrete gravity dam and fill etc. The effects of differing quantities of fraction passing 75 μm on the strength and workability of concrete are reported. The 28 days compressive strength of all-in-aggregate concrete decreased at 1 and 5% silt contents whereas it increased at 10% silt as compared to the silt free concrete exposed to continuous air curing. It was observed that the water curing of all-in-aggregate concrete dramatically improved the compressive strength of the concrete as compared to the air curing. It is also reported that the variations in the pulse velocity on the concrete with differing silt content and curing regimes followed similar pattern of that of the variations in the compressive strength.     

Carbon fiber from natural biopolymer Bombyx mori silk fibroin with iodine treatment

Carbon fibers were prepared from silk fibers after an iodine treatment and the carbon yield, fiber morphology, structure and mechanical properties were investigated. A single or multi-step carbonization process was used for the preparation. In the single step process, silk fibroin (SF) fibers were heated from 25 to 800 °C with a heating rate of 5 °C min⁻¹ under Ar atmosphere. However, the carbon fiber obtained was partially melted and was too fragile to handle. For better performance, SF fibers were treated with iodine vapor at 100 °C for 12 h and untreated and iodinated SF fibers were heated from 25 to 800 °C by a multi-step carbonization process, which was defined based on the optimum thermal degradation rate of silk. In this multi-step process, the carbon fibers obtained from iodinated SF were structurally intact and stable in appearance, and the carbon yield achieved was ca. 36 wt.%, much higher than the value for untreated SF. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopic observation revealed that the obtained carbon fibers from both untreated and iodinated SFs had a basically amorphous structure. The strength of carbon fibers prepared from iodinated SF using the multi-step carbonization was considerably increased compared to that of untreated SF. According to viscoelastic measurement, by heating above 280 °C the iodine introduced intermolecular cross-linking of the SF, and its melt flow was inhibited which produced a higher yield and better performance of the carbon fiber.