Analytical determination of intrinsic permeability of synthetic nonwoven filter fabrics

In this paper an analytical method for determining the permeability of nonwoven filter fabrics is presented. The derived formula shows that the intrinsic permeability, fully characterizing the porous medium, depends on fabric porosity, n, fibre diameter, d, and a shape factor determined experimentally.     

Defect structure and chemical diffusion in nickel sulfide β-Ni3S2

The chemical composition, defect structure, and diffusion in nickel sulfide -Ni₃S₂ have been investigated in H₂S-H₂ mixtures containing between 1 and 65% H₂S between 560 and 700°C. Gravimetric, density, and X-ray studies were carried out. In the thermodynamically stable compound the ratio of Ni/S varied between 1.3 and 1.75. The X-ray examination showed a step change in the lattice parameter at the Ni/S ratio 1.4. A linear dependence of the density values (between 5.5 and 6.2 g/cm³) on the composition was observed. On the basis of the chemical composition and density measurements the number of nickel and sulfur atoms in 1 cm³ were determined. It has been shown that the Ni₃S₂ phase is defected in both anion and cation sublattices and that its chemical formula may be described as follows: Ni_3±yS_2x, where y 2x. It has been found that in the mixture containing 10% H₂S the process of defect formation is determined by their diffusion in the sulfide. The temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient is described by the equation D = 13.15 exp(-30,000/RT) cm²/sec. No dependence of D on the sulfur partial pressure was observed, but this may be due to the relatively large uncertainties in the measurement of the diffusion coefficients.     

A learning-based colour image segmentation with extended and compact structural tensor feature representation

In this paper a novel Tensor-Based Image Segmentation Algorithm (TBISA) is presented, which is dedicated for segmentation of colour images. A purpose of TBISA is to distinguish specific objects based on their characteristics, i.e. shape, colour, texture, or a mixture of these features. All of those information are available in colour channel data. Nonetheless, performing image analysis on the pixel level using RGB values, does not allow to access information on texture which is hidden in relation between neighbouring pixels. Therefore, to take full advantage of all available information, we propose to incorporate the Structural Tensors as a feature extraction method. It forms enriched feature set which, apart from colour and intensity, conveys also information of texture. This set is next processed by different classification algorithms for image segmentation. Quality of TBISA is evaluated in a series of experiments carried on benchmark images. Obtained results prove that the proposed method allows accurate and fast image segmentation.     

Nominal Monoids

We develop an algebraic theory for languages of data words. We prove that, under certain conditions, a language of data words is definable in first-order logic if and only if its syntactic monoid is aperiodic.     

Modification of Fe and Al elemental powders’ sintering with addition of magnesium and magnesium hydride

An attempt to modify sintering of iron and aluminium elemental powders with use of small additions of Mg and MgH₂ was presented in this paper. The kinetics of such modified sintering was investigated using DSC technique, XRD analysis and SEM observations. Significant changes in the mechanism of exothermal formation reaction of Fe–Al intermetallic phases in compositions doped with magnesium and its hydride was observed. Initiation temperature of Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis (SHS) reaction was pronouncedly shifted to lower value as compared with undoped composition. Influence of additions on the SHS reaction kinetics parameters was also calculated with use of the JMA model and changes of the Avrami exponent value of specific phase formation was noticed. Positive effect of MgH₂ addition on partial homogeneity of final product was also studied.     

Vibrational spectra of functionalized fullerenes containing amide

The set of three new hydrogen bonding functionalized fullerenes containing amide (PCB-t-BA, PCB-n-BA, and MPCB-t-BA) was investigated using the infrared absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopies. Additionally, the quantum chemical calculations of the equilibrium geometry and normal mode vibrations of the molecules were performed. Role of hydrogen bonds (HB) in the investigated samples was under our particular attention. Bifurcated HB was suggested.     

Vacuum-processed polyethylene as a dielectric for low operating voltage organic field effect transistors

We report on the fabrication and performance of vacuum-processed organic field effect transistors utilizing evaporated low-density polyethylene (LD-PE) as a dielectric layer. With C₆₀ as the organic semiconductor, we demonstrate low operating voltage transistors with field effect mobilities in excess of 4 cm²/Vs. Devices with pentacene showed a mobility of 0.16 cm²/Vs. Devices using tyrian Purple as semiconductor show low-voltage ambipolar operation with equal electron and hole mobilities of ～0.3 cm²/Vs. These devices demonstrate low hysteresis and operational stability over at least several months. Grazing-angle infrared spectroscopy of evaporated thin films shows that the structure of the polyethylene is similar to solution-cast films. We report also on the morphological and dielectric properties of these films. Our experiments demonstrate that polyethylene is a stable dielectric supporting both hole and electron channels.     

A generalization of the octonion Fourier transform to 3-D octonion-valued signals: properties and possible applications to 3-D LTI partial differential systems

Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing - The paper is devoted to the development of the octonion Fourier transform (OFT) theory initiated in 2011 in articles by Hahn and Snopek. It is also...     

Hydrogen-bonded diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) pigments as organic semiconductors

Diketopyrrolopyrroles (DPPs) have recently gained attention as building-blocks for organic semiconducting polymers and small molecules, however the semiconducting properties of their hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) pigment forms have not been explored. Herein we report on the performance of three archetypical H-bonded DPP pigments, which show ambipolar carrier mobilities in the range 0.01–0.06 cm²/V s in organic field-effect transistors. Their semiconducting properties are correlated with crystal structure, where an H-bonded crystal lattice supports close and relatively cofacial π–π stacking. To better understand transport in these systems, density functional theory calculations were carried out, indicating theoretical maximum ambipolar mobility values of ∼0.3 cm²/V s. Based on these experimental and theoretical results, H-bonded DPPs represent a viable alternative to more established DPP-containing polymers and small molecules where H-bonding is blocked by N-alkylation.