Radiation crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrrolidone/acrylic acid hydrogels: swelling,crosslinking and dye adsorption study

Iranian Polymer Journal - Hydrogels were produced from mixtures of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), and acrylic acid (AAc) using γ-radiation at doses of 3, 7, and...     

Microstructural and mechanical behavior of SnCu–Ge solder alloy subjected to high temperature storage

This paper addresses the effect of high temperature storage on the microstructural and mechanical behavior of novel SnCu–Ge solder alloys. Eutectic Sn99.3Cu0.7 solder was micro-alloyed with the addition of minor Ge as an anti-oxidant and to improve the wetting performance of the alloy. The addition of Ge significantly reduced the aging degradation of the alloy. The ultimate tensile strength and yield stress dropped within first few days of aging and the fracture strain increased with aging. The corresponding microstructure changed after annealing at 125 °C for 3 months; the average grain size of the β-tin portions of the microstructure increased with aging and the imbedded IMC particles segregated along and/or within the grains. Based on growth kinetics and activation energy arguments, we suggest that the addition of Ge restricts the Cu diffusion into the alloy and inhibits the IMC growth.     

Feature extraction from EEGs associated with emotions

The state of mind of a person is supported by the brain activity, and hence features of the state of mind appear in the scalp potentials, as seen on an electroencephalogram (EEG). The EEG features have been extracted into a set of 135 state variables of cross-correlation coefficients of EEGs collected with ten scalp electrodes in the θ, α, and β frequency bands corresponding toanger, sadness, joy, andrelaxation. An emotion matrix is defined which transforms the set of 135 state variables into a four-element emotion vector of which the components are indexes corresponding to the four elementary emotional states. The maximum time resolution of the emotion analysis is 0.64s and it is done in real time. This new technique has a wide variety of applications in both medical and non-medical areas, and the technology suggests the possibility of direct control of systems by the human emotional state. This work was presented in part, at the International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 18–20, 1996