Frost heave in helium & other substances

A thermomolecular pressure associated with a thermal gradient produces the phenomenon known as frost heave in moisturecontaining frozen ground. Thermomolecular pressures can occur in any material. The basic requirement is a perturbed region of phase equilibrium extending to temperatures below the bulk phase boundary, such as the liquid film at an interface undergoing surface melting. Two materials that have exhibited thermomolecular pressure effects to date are ice in various porous media andHe ⁴ in Vycor glass. Thermomolecular pressures and their dynamical effects offer a unique way of studying quantum and classical liquids at interfaces.     

Effect of high pressure on mass transfer kinetics of granny smith apple

The mass transfer kinetics during osmotic dehydration of granny smith apple slices in 60 Brix fructose and sucrose solution was studied at atmospheric pressure and at elevated pressure of 200–600?MPa at 40°C. The moisture and solute fractions in apple slices during osmotic dehydration under high pressure were predicted by Weibull frequency distribution model. The calculated effective moisture diffusivity values of apple slices suspended in fructose and sucrose solution during high-pressure treatment (0.1–600?MPa) were in the range of 6.35?×?10^?10 to 3.60?×?10^?9?m²/s and 7.96?×?10^?10 to 4.32?×?10^?9?m²/s, respectively.     

A hierarchy in mutation of genetic algorithm and its application to multi-objective analog/RF circuit optimization

This paper presents a multi-objective analog circuit design optimization tool using genetic algorithm based on hierarchical mutation scheme. The idea is to improve the convergence and diversity of genetic algorithm by incorporating hierarchy during polynomial mutation operation. In this regard, a theoretical framework of proposed genetic algorithm is presented using Markov chain principle. To investigate the effectiveness of hierarchy in polynomial mutation operator, the scheme is compared with six different mutation strategies. Experiments are performed for different function evaluations to evaluate the performance of hierarchical polynomial mutation operator. Further, to showcase the improvement in genetic algorithm, numerous experiments are performed on twelve different test functions and two design examples. The proposed genetic algorithm shows competitive performance over other standard optimization techniques in terms of both convergence and diversity of solutions.     

Real-time event-driven sensor data analytics at the edge-Internet of Things for smart personal healthcare

The Journal of Supercomputing - Real-time service has become a key for efficient serving of the Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart e-Healthcare. Several orientations have tried to pave this side...     

Decoder driven side information generation using ensemble of MLP networks for distributed video coding

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper proposes an ensemble of multi-layer perceptron (MLP) networks for side information (SI) generation in distributed video coding (DVC). In the proposed...     

A state‐of‐art review on performance improvement of dielectric resonator antennas

This article outlines a compressive review on investigation carried out targeting to gain, circular polarization (CP), and mutual coupling reduction in dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). The DRA has already been created a separate position in antenna engineering domain because of its adept characteristics, such as wide bandwidth, high efficiency, low‐loss, and mainly 3D‐design flexibility which is rarely available in conventional antennas. In this context, the research on gain, circular polarization, and mutual coupling are quite interesting and being carried out from the last two decades. The ultimate aim of this article is to (i) give an overview of different techniques adopted in context to gain, CP, and mutual coupling reduction; (ii) give a compressive review of notable research carried out targeting to these three characteristics; and (iii) find out the research gap concentration for furtherance of the same.     

Mixing entropy of 3He-4He monolayers adsorbed on graphite

Calorimetric measurements on ³He-⁴He monolayers by Hickernell, McLean, and Vilches indicate that isotopic ordering takes place in both the low-density and registered lattice gas regimes. The low-density film heat capacity corresponds to imperfect 2D gas mixtures above T – 1 K. At lower temperatures the ⁴He fraction condenses to a 2D liquid, and the concurrent decrease in mixing entropy indicates concurrent isotopic separation. In the registered lattice gas mixtures the mixing entropy changes by a much smaller amount over the experimental region. It is argued that the observed changes are due to shortrange isotopic ordering tending towards segregation. From a detailed comparison with an Ising model, we estimate a transition temperature T _c 30 mK.Research supported by The National Science Foundation.     

Hybrid approach using KPSO and RLS for RBFNN design for breast cancer detection

Neural networks have been employed in many medical applications including breast cancer classification. Innovation in diagnostic features of tumors may play a central role in development of new treatment methods for earliest stage of breast cancer detection. This study proposes a new hybrid for breast cancer detection by extending the application of a variation of particle swarm optimization called K-particle swarm optimization (KPSO). In this paper, the centers and variances of radial basis functional neural network are initialized by KPSO and then updated using back propagation. The weights are updated using recursive least square instead of back propagation. The results are compared with some recently developed techniques. It is found that the proposed technique provides more accurate result and better classification as compared to some other techniques.     

Room temperature H2 sensing using functionalized GaN nanotubes with ultra low activation energy

A single-step synthesis route of square shaped wurtzite GaN nanotubes is reported by a quasi-vapor–solid process with detailed growth kinetics involving surface energies and Ga mobility along different crystalline facets. A wet chemical route is used for the functionalization of GaN nanotubes with Pt nanoclusters of average diameter ∼1.6 (0.4) nm in order to instigate the formation of localized Schottky barrier, responsible for carrier transport in the sensing process. Catalytically enhanced dissociation of molecular H₂ down to the lowest detection limit of 25 ppm at room temperature, as compared to those of reported GaN systems has been shown. We report, for the first time, a very low activation energy value of 29.4 meV which will be useful in practical sensing of H₂ at room temperature without any application of bias.     

Testing and qualification of Control & Safety Rod and its drive mechanism of Fast Breeder Reactor

Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) has two independent fast acting diverse shutdown systems. The absorber rod of the first system is called Control & Safety Rod (CSR). CSR and its Drive Mechanism (CSRDM) are used for reactor control and for safe shutdown of the reactor by scram action. In view of the safety role, the qualification of CSRDM is one of the important requirements.CSR & CSRDM were qualified in two stages by extensive testing. In the first stage, the critical subassemblies of the mechanism, such as scram release electromagnet, hydraulic dashpot & dynamic seals and CSR subassembly, were tested and qualified individually simulating the operating conditions of the reactor. Experiments were also carried out on sodium vapour deposition in the annular gaps between the stationary and mobile parts of the mechanism.In the second stage, full-scale CSRDM and CSR were subjected to all the integrated functional tests in air, hot argon and subsequently in sodium simulating the operating conditions of the reactor and finally subjected to endurance tests. Since the damage occurring in CSRDM & CSR is mainly due to fatigue cycles during scram actions, the number of test cycles was decided based on the guidelines given in ASME, Section III, Div. 1. The results show that the performance of CSRDM & CSR is satisfactory. Subsequent to the testing in sodium, the assemblies having contact with liquid sodium/sodium vapour were cleaned using CO₂ process and the total cleaning process has been established, so that the mechanism can be reused in sodium. The various stages of qualification programmes have raised the confidence level on the performance of the system as a whole for the intended and reliable operation in the reactor.