Tuning of shear thickening behavior and elastic strength of polyvinylidene fluoride via doping of ZnO-graphene

ZnO rice like nonarchitects are grafted on the graphene carbon core via a rapid microwave synthesis route. The prepared grafted systems are characterized via XRD, SEM, RAMAN, and XPS to examined the structural and morphological parameters. Zinc oxide grafted graphene sheets (ZnO-G) are further doped in β-phase of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) via mixed solvent approach (THF/DMF). β-phase confirmation of PVDF PNCs is done by FTIR studies. It is observed that ZnO-G filler enhances the β-phase content in the PNCs. Non-doped PVDF and PNCs are further studied for rheological behavior under the shear rate of 1–100 s⁻¹. Doping of ZnO-G dopant to the PVDF matrix changes its discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior to continues shear thickening behavior (CST). Hydrocluster formation and their interaction with the dopant could be the reason for this striking DST to CST behavioral change. Strain amplitude sweep (10⁻³% -10%) oscillatory test reveals that the PNCs shows extended linear viscoelastic region with high elastic modulus and lower viscous modulus. Effective shear thickening behavior and strong elastic strength of these PNCs present their candidature for various fields including mechanical and soft body armor applications.     

Experimental investigation of Co and Fe-Doped CuO nanostructured electrode material for remarkable electrochemical performance

The current research work presents a facile and cost–effective co-precipitation method to prepare doped (Co & Fe) CuO and undoped CuO nanostructures without usage of any type of surfactant or capping agents. The structural analysis reveals monoclinic crystal structure of synthesized pure CuO and doped-CuO nanostructures. The effect of different morphologies on the performance of supercapacitors has been found in CV (cyclic voltammetry) and GCD (galvanic charge discharge) investigations. The specific capacitances have been obtained 156 (±5) Fg^?1, 168(±5) Fg^?1 and 186 (±5) Fg^?1 for CuO, Co-doped CuO and Fe-doped CuO electrodes, respectively at scan rate of 5 mVs^?1, while it is found to be 114 (±5) Fg^?1, 136 (±5) Fg^?1 and 170 (±5) Fg^?1 for CuO, Co–CuO and Fe–CuO, respectively at 0.5 Ag^-1 as calculated from the GCD. The super capacitive performance of the Fe–CuO nanorods is mainly attributed to the synergism that evolves between CuO and Fe metal ion. The Fe-doped CuO with its nanorods like morphology provides superior specific capacitance value and excellent cyclic stability among all studied nanostructured electrodes. Consequently, it motivates to the use of Fe-doped CuO nanostructures as electrode material in the next generation energy storage devices.     

Large Area Self-Assembled Ultrathin Polyimine Nanofilms Formed at the Liquid–Liquid Interface Used for Molecular Separation

Separation membranes with higher molecular weight cut-offs are needed to separate ions and small molecules from a mixed feed. The molecular sieving phenomenon can be utilized to separate smaller species with well-defined dimensions from a mixture. Here, the formation of freestanding polyimine nanofilms with thicknesses down to ≈14 nm synthesized via self-assembly of pre-synthesized imine oligomers is reported. Nanofilms are fabricated at the water–xylene interface followed by reversible condensation of polymerization according to the Pieranski theory. Polyimine nanofilm composite membranes are made via transferring the freestanding nanofilm onto ultrafiltration supports. High water permeance of 49.5 L m^-2 h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ is achieved with a complete rejection of brilliant blue-R (BBR; molecular weight = 825 g mol⁻¹) and no more than 10% rejection of monovalent and divalent salts. However, for a mixed feed of BBR dye and monovalent salt, the salt rejection is increased to ≈18%. Membranes are also capable of separating small dyes (e.g., methyl orange; MO; molecular weight = 327 g mol⁻¹) from a mixed feed of BBR and MO. Considering a thickness of ≈14 nm and its separation efficiency, the present membrane has significance in separation processes.     

Estimating confidence intervals for cost-effectiveness ratios: an example from a randomized trial

Cost-effectiveness ratios usually appear as point estimates without confidence intervals, since the numerator and denominator are both stochastic and one cannot estimate the variance of the estimator exactly. The recent literature, however, stresses the importance of presenting confidence intervals for cost-effectiveness ratios in the analysis of health care programmes. This paper compares the use of several methods to obtain confidence intervals for the cost-effectiveness of a randomized intervention to increase the use of Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) programme. Comparisons of the intervals show that methods that account for skewness in the distribution of the ratio estimator may be substantially preferable in practice to methods that assume the cost-effectiveness ratio estimator is normally distributed. We show that non-parametric bootstrap methods that are mathematically less complex but computationally more rigorous result in confidence intervals that are similar to the intervals from a parametric method that adjusts for skewness in the distribution of the ratio. The analyses also show that the modest sample sizes needed to detect statistically significant effects in a randomized trial may result in confidence intervals for estimates of cost-effectiveness that are much wider than the boundaries obtained from deterministic sensitivity analyses.     

A generalized scheme for mapping parallel algorithms

A generalized mapping strategy that uses a combination of graph theory, mathematical programming, and heuristics is proposed. The authors use the knowledge from the given algorithm and the architecture to guide the mapping. The approach begins with a graphical representation of the parallel algorithm (problem graph) and the parallel computer (host graph). Using these representations, the authors generate a new graphical representation (extended host graph) on which the problem graph is mapped. An accurate characterization of the communication overhead is used in the objective functions to evaluate the optimality of the mapping. An efficient mapping scheme is developed which uses two levels of optimization procedures. The objective functions include minimizing the communication overhead and minimizing the total execution time which includes both computation and communication times. The mapping scheme is tested by simulation and further confirmed by mapping a real world application onto actual distributed environments     

Assessment of sperm count in rural population of central India

26 clinician trainees' recollections of experiences in a diagnostic preschool program were analyzed in terms of strength and weaknesses of the program.     

Study of polyaniline polyacrylamide composites by positron annihilation technique

Polyaniline doped with nonoxidizing Bronsted acids is recognized as a conducting material, as its electrical conductivity changes with percentage of doping. In the present work, different percentages of doped polyaniline were blended with polyacrylamide and their electrical conductivities as well as the positron annihilation lifetimes were measured. Analysis of data yielded three lifetime components. It was observed that the value of the short lifetime component remained constant for doping concentration, whereas that of the intermediate component τ₂ decreased. The relative intensity pertaining to τ₂, however, increased with the increase in doped PANI concentration. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 930–933, 2003     

Automated bank cheque verification using image processing and deep learning methods

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Automated bank cheque verification using image processing is an attempt to complement the present cheque truncation system, as well as to provide an alternate...     

Target based image fusion using multi-scale feature selection in three regions

Image captured by low dynamic range (LDR) camera fails to capture entire exposure level of scene, and instead only covers certain range of exposures. In order to cover entire exposure level in single image, bracketed exposure LDR images are combined. The range of exposures in different images results in information loss in certain regions. These regions need to be addressed and based on this motive a novel methodology of layer based fusion is proposed to generate high dynamic range image. High and low-frequency layers are formed by dividing each image based on pixel intensity variations. The regions are identified based on information loss section created in differently exposed images. High-frequency layers are combined using region based fusion with Dense SIFT which is used as activity level testing measure. Low-frequency layers are combined using weighted sum. Finally combined high and low-frequency layers are merged together on pixel to pixel basis to synthesize fused image. Objective analysis is performed to compare the quality of proposed method with state-of-the-art. The measures indicate superiority of the proposed method.

     

Topography of the flank wear surface

In many applications, topography represents the main external features of a surface. This paper describes the topography of the flank wear surface and also presents the relationship between the maximum flank wear and the topography parameters (roughness parameters) of the flank wear surface during the turning operation. A modern CNC lathe machine (Okuma LH35-N) was used for the machine turning operation. Three-dimensional surface roughness parameters of the flank wear surface were measured by a surface texture instrument (from Talysurf series) using surface topography software (Talymap). Based on the resulting experimental data, it is found that as the flank wear increases, the roughness parameters (sR_a, sR_q, and sR_t) on the flank surface increase significantly. The greater the roughness value of the flank wear surface, the higher the friction of the tool on the workpiece and the greater the heat generation that will occur, thus ultimately causing tool failure. On the other hand, positive skewness (sR_sk) indicates the presence of a small number of spikes on the flank surface of the cutting tool, which could quickly wear off during the machining process.