Effect of MnO2 additive on the dielectric and electromagnetic interference shielding properties of sintered cement-based ceramics

Cement-based ceramic pellets were prepared and their properties were studied for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding applications. The shielding materials were made of Portland cement with the addition of different concentrations of manganese oxide (MnO₂) up to 10 wt%. The pellets were sintered at 850 °C for 5 h and then polished prior to characterizations of density, porosity, microstructures, dielectric properties, and EMI shielding effectiveness (SE). Results show that the MnO₂-cement pellets have good dielectric properties, i.e. high dielectric constant (∼300) and low dielectric loss (<0.3). The dielectric constant increased with increasing MnO₂ content in the cement matrix. The SE values of the MnO₂-cements fluctuated between 2 dB and 9 dB in the frequency range of 8-13 GHz. The sample with 10 wt% MnO₂ additive had SE values of up to 9 dB. Most of the samples with high additive concentrations produced SE exceeding 7 dB.     

Melt Production and Antimicrobial Efficiency of Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)-Silver Nanocomposite Film

Colloidal silver nanoparticles with a size of 5.5 ± 1.1 nm were prepared by chemical reduction using polyethylene glycol (PEG). Silver nanoparticles were incorporated into low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by melt blending and subsequent hot pressing at 140 °C to produce nanocomposite film with an average thickness of 0.7 mm. PEG was added at 5% weight of polymer as a compatibilizer agent in order to prevent agglomeration and provide uniform distribution of nanoparticles in polymer matrix. Antimicrobial activity of silver nanocomposites against Escherichia coli ATCC 13706, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC12600, and Candida albicans ATCC10231 was evaluated by semi-qualitative agar diffusion test and quantitative dynamic shake flask test. Mechanical properties of nanocomposites were not significantly different from silver-free LDPE-containing PEG films (p > 0.05), and silver nanoparticles did not form chemical bonding with the polymer. LDPE-silver nanocomposite samples by more than 6.69 ppm silver nanoparticles showed considerable antimicrobial clear zone. LDPE-silver nanocomposite affected growth kinetic parameters of the examined bacteria and is more efficient on S. aureus than E. coli. Polyethylene-silver nanocomposites containing 22.64 ppm silver nanoparticles could reduce 57.8% growth rate and 23.3% maximum bacterial concentration and increase 35.8% lag time of S. aureus. This study shows the potential use of LDPE-silver nanocomposite as antimicrobial active film. Antimicrobial efficiency of silver nanocomposite depends on silver nanoparticles concentration; however, high level of silver nanoparticles may lead to weakening of mechanical properties.     

Superposition Coding with Unequal Error Protection for the Uplink of Overloaded DS-CDMA System

The overloaded CDMA schemes exploited in direct sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA) systems are mainly to accommodate a greater number of users than the available spreading factor N. In this paper, a superposition coding CDMA (SPC-CDMA) with unequal error protection (UEP) is proposed as one of the overloaded CDMA schemes for the next generation mobile communication systems. It exploits the available power control in most base stations to adapt the transmitted power of active users in the uplink channel. In this scheme, the active users are divided into G groups and each group consists of K users. The K users share the same spreading sequence and are distinguished by different received power levels. At the receiver side, the system first performs despreading for group detection followed by multiuser receiver to estimate the K user signals in each group. It is shown through simulations that better performance are achieved compared to the conventional DS-CDMA and existing overloaded collaborative spreading CDMA (CS-CDMA) schemes, in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and fading channels. Hence, the proposed scheme maximizes the system capacity K-fold compared to conventional DS-CDMA system without requiring extra spreading codes, with average signal to noise ratio (SNR) cost of only 1dB and 2 dB over AWGN and fading channels respectively at BER of 10^?3. On the other hand, for the same N, K and power constraints, SPC-CDMA scheme achieves twofold increase in data rate with 0.7 and 4 dB gains over AWGN and fading channels respectively, compared with overloaded CS-CDMA scheme in the same system capacity. In addition, the proposed scheme can also attain different levels of UEP for different users?? requirements by adjusting their fractions of transmitted powers.     

An Enhanced A-MSDU Frame Aggregation Scheme for 802.11n Wireless Networks

The main goal of the IEEE 802.11n standard is to achieve a minimum throughput of 100 Mbps at the MAC service access point. This high throughput has been achieved via many enhancements in both the physical and MAC layers. A key enhancement at the MAC layer is frame aggregation in which the timing and headers overheads of the legacy MAC are reduced by aggregating multiple frames into a single large frame before being transmitted. Two aggregation schemes have been defined by the 802.11n standard, aggregate MAC service data unit (A-MSDU) and aggregate MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU). As a consequence of the aggregation, new aggregation headers are introduced and become parts of the transmitted frame. Even though these headers are small compared to the legacy headers they still have a negative impact on the network performance, especially when aggregating frames of small payload. Moreover, the A-MSDU is highly influenced by the channel condition due mainly to lack of subframes sequence control and retransmission. In this paper, we have proposed an aggregation scheme (mA-MSDU) that reduces the aggregation headers and implements a retransmission control over the individual subframes at the MSDU level. The analysis and simulations results show the significance of the proposed scheme, specifically for applications that have a small frame size such as VoIP.     

A facile synthesis, in vitro and in vivo MR studies of d-glucuronic acid-coated ultrasmall Ln₂O₃ (Ln = Eu, Gd, Dy, Ho, and Er) nanoparticles as a new potential MRI contrast agent

A facile one-pot synthesis of d-glucuronic acid-coated ultrasmall Ln(2)O(3) (Ln = Eu, Gd, Dy, Ho, and Er) nanoparticles is presented. Their water proton relaxivities were studied to address their possibility as a new potential MRI contrast agent. We focused on the d-glucuronic acid-coated ultrasmall Dy(2)O(3) nanoparticle because it showed the highest r(2) relaxivity among studied nanoparticles. Its performance as a T(2) MRI contrast agent was for the first time proved in vivo through its 3 T T(2) MR images of a mouse, showing that it can be further exploited for the rational design of a new T(2) MRI contrast agent at high MR fields.     

Evaluation of shortenings based on various palm oil products

Several formulations based on blends of hydrogenated palm oil (MP 41·5°C) and palm stearin (IV 44) with other liquid oils, on direct blends of palm stearin with other liquid oils, and on 100% inter-esterified palm olein, were used as feedstocks in shortening production. The shortenings were stored at 20°C over a period of one month. Physicochemical characteristics, creaming properties and baking performance of the shortenings were evaluated and compared with the best shortening on the market. Slip melting point of the shortenings ranged from 41·5 to 46·4°C. Palm-cottonseed oil shortenings had higher solid fat contents at all temperatures than palm-soya bean or palm-low erucic acid rapeseed oil shortenings. The shortenings were rich in C₅₀, C₅₂and C₅₄ glycerides. Creaming power after 12 min of beating ranged from 1·55 to 1·77 cm³ g^?1. Palm stearin-cottonseed (3:2) oil shortening showed the best creaming performance. The specific volume of cakes ranged, for the experimental shortening, from 90% to 101% from the control, with low erucic acid-palm blends showing the best performance. In applications for both aerated cream and cakes, inter-esterified palm olein was excellent.     

MHD flow of a micropolar fluid towards a vertical permeable plate with prescribed surface heat flux

The problem of a steady mixed convection stagnation point flow towards a permeable vertical plate with prescribed surface heat flux immersed in an incompressible micropolar fluid is studied numerically. The governing partial differential equations are first transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations using a similarity transformation, before being solved numerically by a finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method and the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method with shooting technique. The effects of the material parameter, buoyancy parameter, suction/injection parameter and the Prandtl number on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are discussed. It is found that dual solutions exist for both assisting and opposing flows. The skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increase in the presence of suction and magnetic field. Moreover, suction as well as fluids with larger Prandtl number widens the range of the buoyancy parameter for which the solution exists.     

Corrosion of high purity Mg, Mg2Zn0.2Mn, ZE41 and AZ91 in Hank’s solution at 37 °C

The CO₂ partial pressure required to maintain a synthetic body fluid (SBF) at a constant pH, based on the initial bicarbonate concentration, was evaluated to be 0.013 atm for Hank’s solution and 0.083 atm for SBF27. Corrosion of high purity Mg and three Mg alloys in Hank’s solution was studied using hydrogen evolution, weight loss and Tafel extrapolation. The solution pH was maintained constant by CO₂. There was initially an incubation period with a low corrosion rate, a period of increasing corrosion rate, and subsequently steady state corrosion. Some hydrogen dissolved in the Mg metal.     

Direct Growth and Photoluminescence of SiO<Subscript>x</Subscript> Nanowires and Aligned Nanocakes by Simple Carbothermal Evaporation

The growth of SiO_x nanowires and nanocakes on an Au-coated n-type-Silicon (100) substrate was achieved via carbothermal evaporation. The effects of the Au layer thickness and the rapid heating rate on the morphology of obtained SiO_x nanowires were investigated. A broad emission band from 290 to 600 nm was observed in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of these nanowires. There are four PL peaks: one blue emission peak 485 nm (2.56 eV) two green bands centered at 502 nm (2.47 eV) and 524 nm (2.37 eV) for nanocakes and one ultraviolet emission peak at 350 nm (3.54 eV) and a hemisphere curve over the bluish green area taken for SiO_x nanowires. These emissions may be related to the various oxygen defects and twofold coordinated silicon lone pair centers.     

Preparation and characterization of gelatin mediated silver nanoparticles by laser ablation

We successfully prepared colloidal silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) using a nanosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser, λ = 532 nm, with laser fluence of approximately about 0.6 J/pulse, in an aqueous gelatin solution. The size and optical absorption properties of samples were studied as a function of the laser repetition rates. The results from the UV-vis spectroscopy demonstrated that the mean diameter of Ag-NPs increase with the laser repetition rate increases. The Ag-NPs have mean diameters ranging from approximately 9 nm to 15 nm. Compared with other preparation methods, this work is clean, rapid, and simple to use.