Effect of Binary and Ternary Combination of Metal Salt Mordants on Dyeing and Fastness Properties of Natural Protein Fibre with Juglans regia L. Dye

The present article focuses on the effect of different combinations of metal mordants on color characteristics and fastness properties of natural dye extracted from Juglan regia L bark powder. The influence of different types of mordant combinations such as alum + ferrous sulphate, alum + stannous chloride, ferrous sulphate + stannous chloride, and alum + ferrous sulphate + stannous chloride on color parameters has been investigated in terms of CIELab (L*, a*, b*, c*, and h°) and K/S values. The fastness properties with respect to light, washing, and crocking of developed shades were determined according to ISO and AATCC test methods. Based on the experimental results, it has been found that 96 shades with novel and fashionable hues were produced by the use of these metal salt combinations. It was also found that all mordanted samples had satisfactory light and wash fastness ratings. Dry rub fastness was found relatively better than wet rub fastness.     

Kinematic design of an anthropomimetic 7-DOF cable-driven robotic arm

In this paper, an anthropomimetic design of a 7-DOF dexterous robotic arm is proposed. Similar to the human arm, the arm consists of three sequentially connected modules, i.e., a 3-DOF shoulder module, a 1-DOF elbow module, and a 3-DOF wrist module. All three arm modules are also driven by cables in order to mimic the driving scheme and functionality of the human muscles. This paper addresses three critical design analysis issues, i.e., the displacement analysis, the tension-closure analysis, and the workspace analysis. A closed-form solution approach is presented for the forward displacement analysis, while the inverse displacement solution is obtained through an efficient optimization algorithm, in which both task-decomposition and dimension-reduction techniques are employed. An effective tension-closure analysis algorithm is also formulated based on the theory of convex analysis. The orientation workspace for the 3-DOF shoulder and wrist modules are then analyzed using a new equi-volumetric partition scheme based on the intuitive Tilt-and-Torsion angle parameterization. An optimization approach is then investigated for the kinematic design of the three joint modules, in which the design objective is to maximize the matched workspace of the robotic arm joints with that of the human arm joints. A research prototype of the 7-DOF cable-driven robotic arm has also been developed in order to demonstrate the anthropomimetic design concept. With a lightweight structure of 1 kg, the cable-driven robotic arm can carry a payload of 5 kg and has motion repeatability of±2.5mm.     

Kinetics of the dissolution of uranium dioxide in nitric acid. I

The kinetics of the dissolution of uranium dioxide in nitric acid have been investigated over a range of acid concentration from 0·3 to 37·0 molal. A change in the reduction mechanism for nitric acid is indicated at about 16 molal concentration. A proposed mechanism for the initial rate period of dissolution is consistent with experimental results and with the known thermodynamics of the system.     

High isolation,proximity‐fed monostatic patch antennas with integrated self‐interference cancellation‐taps for ISM band full duplex applications

This work presents two dual polarized proximity‐fed monostatic patch antennas with improved interport isolation for 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical band same frequency full duplex wireless applications. The presented antennas achieves the high interport decoupling through intrinsic isolation of the polarization diversity in conjunction with a simple single‐tap and two‐taps self‐interference cancellation (SIC) topologies. The polarization diversity isolation is achieved through two perpendicular microstrip feeds for proximity feeding to excite orthogonal polarization mode for transmit (T_x) and receive (R_x) modes. The prototype for proposed antenna with integrated single‐tap and two‐taps SIC circuit is tested to record its interport isolation, impedance bandwidths and gains for both T_x and R_x ports. The implemented antenna with single‐tap SIC circuit demonstrates 10 dB return‐loss bandwidth of ≥100 MHz for both T_x and R_x ports. The measured isolation exceeds 40 dB over the 40 MHz bandwidth. Moreover, the recorded peak isolation is better than 74 dB for implemented antenna prototype. Furthermore, the 40 MHz bandwidth with 40 dB isolation can be tuned with the help of SIC‐tap as demonstrated through the experimental results. The measured gain levels are around 4.6 dBi for both T_x and R_x port. The same antenna structure with integrated two‐taps SIC topology features better than 55 dB isolation within 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 100 MHz. The peak isolation exceeds 97 dB and isolation levels are better than 60 and 80 dB over 50 and 20 MHz bandwidths, respectively, for presented antenna with two‐taps SIC configuration. The compact antenna offers comparatively wider impedance and isolation bandwidth with improved SIC levels compared to previous designs.     

Flexible Broadband Graphene Photodetectors Enhanced by Plasmonic Cu3−xP Colloidal Nanocrystals

The integration of graphene with colloidal quantum dots (QDs) that have tunable light absorption affords new opportunities for optoelectronic applications as such a hybrid system solves the problem of both quantity and mobility of photocarriers. In this work, a hybrid system comprising of monolayer graphene and self‐doped colloidal copper phosphide (Cu_3?x P) QDs is developed for efficient broadband photodetection. Unlike conventional PbS QDs that are toxic, Cu_3?x P QDs are environmental friendly and have plasmonic resonant absorption in near‐infrared (NIR) wavelength. The half‐covered graphene with Cu_3?x P nanocrystals (NCs) behaves as a self‐driven p–n junction and shows durable photoresponse in NIR range. A comparison experiment reveals that the surface ligand attached to Cu_3?x P NCs plays a key role in determining the charge transfer efficiency from Cu_3?x P to graphene. The most efficient three‐terminal photodetectors based on graphene‐Cu_3?x P exhibit broadband photoresponse from 400 to 1550 nm with an ultrahigh responsivity (1.59 × 10⁵ A W^?1) and high photoconductive gain (6.66 × 10⁵) at visible wavelength (405 nm), and a good responsivity of 9.34 A W^?1 at 1550 nm. The demonstration of flexible graphene‐Cu_3?x P photodetectors operated at NIR wavelengths may find potential applications in optical sensing, biological imaging, and wearable devices.     

An Efficient Shewhart‐Type Control Chart to Monitor Moderate Size Shifts in the Process Mean in Phase II

According to Shewhart, control charts are not very sensitive to small and moderate size process shifts that is why those are less likely to be effective in Phase II. So to monitor small or moderate size process shifts in Phase II, cumulative sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts are considered as alternate of Shewhart control charts. In this paper, a Shewhart‐type control chart is proposed by using difference‐in‐difference estimator in order to detect moderate size shifts in process mean in Phase II. The performance of the proposed control chart is studied for known and unknown cases separately through a detailed simulation study. For the unknown case, instead of using reference samples of small sizes, large size reference sample(s) is used as we can see in some of nonparametric control chart articles. In an illustrative example, the proposed control charts are constructed for both known and unknown cases along with Shewhart ‐chart, classical EWMA, and CUSUM control charts. In this application, the proposed chart is found comprehensively better than not only Shewhart ‐chart but also EWMA and CUSUM control charts. By comparing average run length, the proposed control chart is found always better than Shewhart ‐chart and in general better than classical EWMA and CUSUM control charts when we have relatively higher values of correlation coefficients and detection of the moderate shifts in the process mean is concerned. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On Modified Successive Sampling Based Control Charting Schemes

The presence of variation cannot be avoided in different kinds of manufacturing and non‐manufacturing processes. A better understanding of the causes of variability in any process is necessary to improve the process. Control chart is a very frequently used tool for checking whether the process parameters are stable or not. The current study devises a sampling technique, named as modified successive sampling scheme, that is not only cost‐effective but also efficient as compared with the simple random sampling scheme. A number of Shewhart‐type control charts are proposed based on the said sampling scheme, and average run length is used as a performance indicator. Based on the average run length values, all the proposed charts are compared with existing Shewhart control chart for both positive and negative shifts in the process. Finally, the new proposals are applied to a real dataset where the variable of interest is an inner diameter of automobile engine piston rings made of steel. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of HHO gas enrichment and high purity biodiesel on the performance of a 315 cc diesel engine

Biodiesel and oxyhydrogen (HHO) gas have shown promising results in improving engine performance and emissions. In this work, the effects of HHO gas and 5% biodiesel blends (B5) and their combined use in a 315 cc diesel engine have been analyzed. Biodiesel is produced by base catalyzed transesterification and cleaned by emulsification. Its calculated cetane index (CCI) was 61.4. HHO gas is produced from electrolysis of concentrated potassium hydroxide solution. The use of 5% biodiesel blend resulted in a significant rise of 9.4% in the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and a maximum reduction of 8.19% in the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). HHO enrichment of diesel and biodiesel at 2.81 L/min through the intake manifold improved the torque and power by an average of over 3%. HHO addition also improved the BTE of diesel by a maximum of 3.67%. The combination of high CCI biodiesel fuel and HHO creates a mixture that has shortened the ignition delay (ID) to the point that adverse effects were observed due to the premature combustion as shown by the average decrease in the BTE of 2.97% compared to B5. Thus, B5, on its own, is found to be the optimum fuel under these conditions.     

A non-parametric double homogeneously weighted moving average control chart under sign statistic

In practical situations, the underlying process distribution sometimes deviates from normality and their distribution is partially or completely unknown. In that instance, rather than staying with/depending on the conventional parametric control charts, we consider non-parametric control charts due to their exceptional performance. In this paper, a new non-parametric double homogeneously weighted moving average sign control chart is proposed with the least assumptions. This chart is based on a sign test statistic for catching the smaller deviations in the process location. Run-length (RL) properties of the proposed chart are studied with the help of Monte Carlo simulations. Both in-control and out-of-control RL properties show that the proposed chart is a better contender as compared to some existing charts from the literature. A real-life application for practical consideration of the proposed chart is also provided.     

Principal component analysis and correlation studies of spring wheats in relation to cookie making quality

Quality of cookies is profoundly influenced by the physicochemical and rheological properties of wheat grains. Therefore, it is pivotal to explore right choice of wheat cultivar. Current study was designed to gauge the relationship between wheat grain physiognomies and flour rheological behaviour with cookie characteristics. The outcomes depicted that selected wheat varieties varied significantly (p < 0.01) in various parameters like thousand kernel weight, test weight, pearling value, Pelshenke and zeleny value. In correlation, particle size index correlated negatively (r = ?0.67) with protein content and positively with water absorption. Spread factor of cookies was influenced by particle size index (r = ?0.63), Pelshenke (r = ?0.62), water absorption (r = ?0.60), and mixographic peak height (r = 0.85). Principal component analysis illustrated that thousand kernel weight, grain length, and width were major components in determining the water absorption of wheat flour. However, spread factor of cookies was partly depicted from Pelshenke value and partly from particle size index.