Hydrothermal upgrading of wood biomass: Influence of the addition of K2CO3 and cellulose/lignin ratio

The hydrothermal treatment of two different wood biomass samples such as cherry (hard wood) and cypress (soft wood), whose composition is different i.e. lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose were performed at 280 °C for 15 min with aq. K₂CO₃ with different concentrations (0–1 M). The soft wood biomass contains higher lignin content than hard wood biomass. The cellulose rich cherry wood biomass produced higher proportion of acetic acid than cypress. The lignin rich cypress produced the hydrocarbons with major portion of phenolic hydrocarbons and derivatives than cherry. The total oil yields from both cherry and cypress wood biomass produced 50 wt% of liquid hydrocarbons at 280 °C for 15 min with 0.5 M K₂CO₃ solution. The volatility distribution of liquid hydrocarbons showed the characteristic features of soft and hard wood biomasses.     

Studies on synthesis and microstructure evolution of multiphase in-situ composites based on Mo-Cr-Si system

This paper presents the results on in-situ synthesis of refractory metal-intermetallic composites (RMICs), Mo-16Cr-4Si and Mo-11Cr-9Si (wt.%) multiphase alloys and their characterization. The alloys were prepared from the oxides of molybdenum and chromium by their coreduction with Si as reductant. Exothermic nature of the synthesis reactions resulted in the formation of consolidated composite as a product in a single step. As-reduced alloys were remelted by arc melting and heat treatment was given. The evolution of phases and the microstructure were studied by XRD, SEM, and EDS analysis. The multiphase microstructure consist of the silicide phases (Mo,Cr)₃Si + (Mo,Cr)₅Si₃ for hypereutectic and (Mo,Cr)₃Si phase distributed in bcc matrix comprising essentially a solid solution of (Mo,Cr) for hypo-peritectic composition. Comparative studies of the synthesized alloys were also carried out to the composition, phases, microstructure, hardness and their oxidation behavior.     

Spectral Efficiency Evaluation for MRC Diversity Schemes Over Generalized Rician Fading Channels

In this paper, closed-form expressions for the capacities per unit bandwidth for generalized Rician fading channels are derived for power and rate adaptation, constant transmit power, channel inversion with fixed rate, and truncated channel inversion adaptation policies. The closed-form solutions are derived for the single antenna reception (without diversity combining) and maximal-ratio combining (MRC) diversity cases. Truncated channel inversion adaptation policy is the best policy for the single antenna reception case, while the channel inversion with fixed rate policy is the best policy for the MRC diversity case. Constant transmit power policy provides the lowest spectral efficiency as compared to the other policies with and without diversity.     

Spectrum Efficiency Evaluation with Diversity Combining for Fading and Branch Correlation Impairments

In this paper, closed-form expressions for capacities per unit bandwidth for fading channels with impairments due to Branch Correlation are derived for optimal power and rate adaptation, constant transmit power, channel inversion with fixed rate, and truncated channel inversion policies for maximal ratio combining diversity reception case. Closed-form expressions for system spectrum efficiency when employing different adaptation policies are derived. Analytical results show accurately that optimal power and rate adaptation policy provides the highest capacity over other adaptation policies. In the case of errors due to branch correlation, optimal power and rate adaptation policy provides the best results. All adaptation policies suffer no improvement in channel capacity as the branch correlation is increased. This fact is verified using various plots for different policies. With increase in branch correlation, capacity gains are significantly larger for optimal power and rate adaptation policy as compared to the other policies. The outage probability for branch correlation is also derived and analyzed using plots for the same.     

Performance Analysis of Rayleigh Fading Channel in the Presence of Co-channel Interference with Multiple Interferers Under Different Adaptation Policies

In this paper, an approach to performance analysis on signal-to-interference ratio operating over Rayleigh fading channels experiencing an arbitrary number of multiple, Rayleigh co-channel interferers is presented. We have presented a general analysis of selection combining, where each branch experiences an arbitrary number of multiple equal power co-channel interference. Useful closed-form expressions are derived for the probability density function and cumulative distribution function at the output of the combiner. Also, outage analysis is performed in order to show the effects of interferers and diversity order. Capacity per unit bandwidth expressions are derived for selection diversity scheme under different adaptation policies.     

Humidity Sustained Wearable Pouch‐Type Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Harvesting Mechanical Energy from Human Activities

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are gaining much research interest recently owing to their facile and cost‐effective device structure. However, the effect of relative humidity (in moisture atmosphere) on the output performance still needs to be resolved. Herein, a pouch‐type TENG is proposed to significantly reduce the effect of relative humidity on its electrical output and a stable performance is also attained in a humid environment. In this regard, a dielectric and dielectric materials‐based TENG (DD‐TENG) is first developed using nanoarchitecture polydimethylsiloxane (NA‐PDMS) and multiwalled carbon nanotube/nylon composite layers as a triboelectric material with the negative and positive tendencies, respectively. The NA‐PDMS and nylon composite layers play a key role in increasing the surface contact area and surface charge density between the dielectric/triboelectric materials as well as the output performance of DD‐TENG. However, the DD‐TENG device exhibits a stable and high output performance with the effective output power density of ≈25.35 W m^?2. Additionally, the performance of the pouch‐type DD‐TENG device is not almost affected even though the relative humidity is increased from 35 to 81%, while it is dramatically decreased for the nonpouch‐type device. Finally, the pouch‐type DD‐TENG is employed as a wearable device to effectively harvest the mechanical energy from daily human activities.     

On the Complexity of Distributed Self-Configuration in Wireless Networks

We consider three distributed configuration tasks that arise in the setup and operation of multi-hop wireless networks: partition into coordinating cliques, Hamiltonian cycle formation and conflict-free channel allocation. We show that the probabilities of accomplishing these tasks undergo zero-one phase transitions with respect to the transmission range of individual nodes. We model these tasks as distributed constraint satisfaction problems (DCSPs) and show that, even though they are NP-hard in general, these problems can be solved efficiently on average when the network is operated sufficiently far from the transition region. Phase transition analysis is shown to be a useful mechanism for quantifying the critical range of energy and bandwidth resources needed for the scalable performance of self-configuring wireless networks.     

Two new canonic single-CFOA oscillators with single resistor controls

Although a number of single current feedback op-amps (CFOA)-based single-resistance-controlled oscillators (SRCO) have appeared in earlier literature, only six of them are canonic (i.e., requiring only two capacitors and only three resistors). The object of this brief is to add to this list two new canonic single-CFOA-based SRCO configurations. An evaluation of these two new circuits has been carried out and their workability of has been confirmed by experimental results based upon AD844 CFOAs.