Exploring the electronic and optical absorption properties for homo- and hetero-pyrrole-graphene quantum dots

Journal of Computational Electronics - Density functional theory as well as molecular mechanics force field (MMFF94) techniques are used to study intermolecular/intramolecular interactions, band...     

Physicochemical investigation of the decomposition products of ammonium metal carboxylates: ammonium ferric citrate hydrate

The thermal decomposition up to 400 °C of ammonium ferric citrate hydrate, of unknown structure and formula weight, was studied by thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. The possible identities of the formula weight and the intermediate products of calcination are discussed. The results revealed that the parent material is amorphous and contains two moles of water and two moles of ammonia. Decomposition takes place via six weight-loss processes, three endothermic (90–230 °C) and three exothermic (240–298 °C), leading eventually to the formation of Fe₂O₃. The intermediate solid products are mainly unstable amorphous oxycarbonates, as indicated by X-ray and IR spectroscopies. The gas-phase decomposition products identified by IR spectroscopy are NH₃, CO₂, CO, CH₃COCH₃, CH₄ and NH₄OH. Surface area measurement and scanning electron microscopy showed that Fe₂O₃, the final product at 400 °C, hada surface area of 40 m²/g and good crystalline and porous character.     

Hybrid metaheuristics for scheduling of machines and transport robots in job shop environment

In real manufacturing environments, the control of some elements in systems based on robotic cells, such as transport robots has some difficulties when planning operations dynamically. The Job Shop scheduling Problem with Transportation times and Many Robots (JSPT-MR) is a generalization of the classical Job Shop scheduling Problem (JSP) where a set of jobs additionally have to be transported between machines by several transport robots. Hence, the JSPT-MR is more computationally difficult than the JSP presenting two NP-hard problems simultaneously: the job shop scheduling problem and the robot routing problem. This paper proposes a hybrid metaheuristic approach based on clustered holonic multiagent model for the JSPT-MR. Firstly, a scheduler agent applies a Neighborhood-based Genetic Algorithm (NGA) for a global exploration of the search space. Secondly, a set of cluster agents uses a tabu search technique to guide the research in promising regions. Computational results are presented using two sets of benchmark literature instances. New upper bounds are found, showing the effectiveness of the presented approach.     

Existence of optimal controls for systems driven by FBSDEs

We prove the existence of optimal relaxed controls as well as strict optimal controls for systems governed by non linear forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs). Our approach is based on weak convergence techniques for the associated FBSDEs in the Jakubowski S-topology and a suitable Skorokhod representation theorem.     

Infrared spectra, Raman laser, XRD, DSC/TGA and SEM investigations on the preparations of selenium metal, (Sb2O3, Ga2O3, SnO and HgO) oxides and lead carbonate with pure grade using acetamide precursors

Ga₂O₃, Se metal, SnO, Sb₂O₃, HgO and PbCO₃ are formed upon the reaction of acetamide aqueous solutions with Ga(NO₃)₃, SeO₂, SnCl₂, SbCl₃, HgCl₂ and Pb(NO₃)₂, respectively, at 90°C. Different amorphous or crystalline phases can be obtained depending upon the experimental conditions (molar ratios, metal salts and temperature). The chemical mechanisms for the formations of this metal, oxides or carbonate are discussed and the X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) are described. The type of metal ions plays an important role in the decomposition of acetamide, leading to the formation of solid stable (metal, oxides or carbonate), soluble and gases species. These new precursors are more stable preventing the rapid precipitation of metal, oxides or carbonate. Furthermore, this route allows the formation of pure compounds in solutions.     

Elastic stability analysis of loosely fitted thin liners – A proposed simplified procedure and evaluation of existing solutions

The paper reports the results of an extensive numerical simulation to estimate the elastic buckling pressure and the corresponding thrust and bending moment induced in loosely fitted thin liners. The study is conducted numerically using a two-dimensional (2D) non-linear finite element model that accounts for the effects of large deformations on the stability of loosely fitted liners. The finite element results together with a non-linear multi-variant regression analysis are used to develop simplified non-dimensional formulae that provide the critical pressure, thrust and bending moments, at buckling, based on the liner’s geometry and material properties.In addition, several other analytical and numerical solutions for the same problem are revisited and critically reviewed. For comparison purposes, two of such methods are extended to allow for the calculation of the thrust and bending moment developed at the most heavily stressed point in the loosely fitted liners at the onset of buckling. In general, the comparison reveals the appropriateness of the proposed regression models in predicting the critical pressure and the associated thrust and bending moment induced in imperfect loosely fitted liners. Developed formulae provide designers with a simple and reliable means for ensuring stability and safety of such special type of structures.     

Extraction of fetal electrocardiogram using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems

In this paper, we investigate the use of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) for fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) extraction from two ECG signals recorded at the thoracic and abdominal areas of the mother's skin. The thoracic ECG is assumed to be almost completely maternal (MECG) while the abdominal ECG is considered to be composite as it contains both the mother's and the fetus' ECG signals. The maternal component in the abdominal ECG signal is a nonlinearly transformed version of the MECG. We use an ANFIS network to identify this nonlinear relationship, and to align the MECG signal with the maternal component in the abdominal ECG signal. Thus, we extract the FECG component by subtracting the aligned version of the MECG signal from the abdominal ECG signal. We validate our technique on both real and synthetic ECG signals. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique in extracting the FECG component from abdominal signals of very low maternal to fetal signal-to-noise ratios. The results also show that the technique is capable of extracting the FECG even when it is totally embedded within the maternal QRS complex.     

A Self-powered Wearable Wireless Sensor System Powered by a Hybrid Energy Harvester for Healthcare Applications

Wireless Personal Communications - In this paper, a wearable medical sensor system is designed for long-term healthcare applications. This system is used for monitoring temperature, heartbeat,...     

Collaborative and Cognitive Network Platforms: Vision and Research Challenges

In this paper, we present a visionary concept referred to as Collaborative and Cognitive Network Platforms (CCNPs) as a future-proof solution for creating a dependable, self-organizing and self-managing communication substrate for effective ICT solutions to societal problems. CCNP creates a cooperative communication platform to support critical services across a range of business sectors. CCNP is based on the personal network (PN) technology which is an inherently cooperative environment prototyped in the Dutch Freeband PNP2008 and the European Union IST MAGNET projects. In CCNP, the cognitive control plane strives to exploit the resources to better satisfy the requirements of networked applications. CCNP facilitates collaboration inherently. Through cognition in the cognitive control plane, CCNP becomes a self-managed substrate. The self-managed substrate, in this paper, is defined as cognitive and collaborative middleware on which future applications run without user intervention. Endemic sensor networks may be incorporated into the CCNP concept to feed its cognitive control plane. In this paper, we present the CCNP concept and discuss the research challenges related to collaboration and cognition.