Effect of R600a on tribological behavior of sintered steel under starved lubrication

This paper describes the impact of the isobutane refrigerant on the wear performance of tribopairs at hermetic compressor bearings. The tribological behavior of 100Cr6 steel pin is investigated under starved lubrication condition in air and R600a environments when running against sintered steel which was treated with and without steam. EDS and SEM are carried out on pin and plate samples after wear tests. The results indicate that wear durability is lower for the tests with R600a than those with air. The adverse effect of R600a on wear rate is linked to the change in the viscosity and foaming characteristics of the oil in the presence of R600a as well as the lack of oxides.     

Discriminating the stimulus elements during human odor–taste learning: A successful analytic stance does not eliminate learning.

Odor “sweetness” may arise from experiencing odors and tastes together, resulting in a flavor memory that is later reaccessed by the odor. Forming a flavor memory may be impaired if the taste and odor elements are apparent during exposure, suggesting that configural processing may underpin learning. Using a new procedure, participants made actual flavor discriminations for one odor–taste pair (e.g., Taste A vs. Odor X–Taste A) and mock discriminations for another (e.g., Odor Y–Taste B vs. Odor Y–Taste B). Participants, who were successful at detecting the actual flavor discriminations, demonstrated equal amounts of learning for both odor–taste pairings. These results suggest that although a capacity to discriminate flavor into its elements may be necessary to support learning, whether participants experience a configural or elemental flavor representation may not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modification of ITO surface using aromatic small molecules with carboxylic acid groups for OLED applications

4-[(3-Methylphenyl)(phenyl)amino]benzoic acid (MPPBA) was synthesized in order to facilitate the hole-injection in Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED). MPPBA was applied to form self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on indium tin oxide (ITO) anode to align energy-level at the interface between organic semiconductor material (TPD) and inorganic anode (ITO) in OLED devices. The modified surface was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). KPFM was used to measure the surface potential and work function between the tip and the ITO surface modified by SAM technique using MPPBA. The OLED devices (ITO/MPPBA/TPD/Alq₃/Al) fabricated with SAM-modified ITO substrates showed lower turn-on voltages and enhanced diode current compare to the OLED devices fabricated with bare ITO substrates.     

Application of ultra wideband RF energy harvesting by using multisection Wilkinson power combiner

In this study, an ultra‐wide band (UWB) energy harvesting circuit was proposed using the Greinacher rectifier circuit. The circuit was designed with Wilkinson power combiner (WPC) for use at two different radio frequency signal inputs. To enable broadband operation, the multisection Chebyshev impedance matching technique was applied in the branches of the WPC circuit. The center frequency was selected 2.2 GHz in the design. In terms of the parameters of reflection, transmission and isolation, the WPC circuit operates in the 0.4 GHz‐3.4 GHz range and the percentage bandwidth has been calculated as 136%. In the designed Greinacher rectifier circuit, power conversion efficiency (PCE) was analyzed for different input powers. When load resistor selected as R = 1500 Ω, the PCE for the input power of 9 dBm was about 70%. The proposed circuit, where WPC and Greinacher rectifier circuits was used together for energy harvesting; was operated in the frequency ranges BW₁ = 0.4‐0.81 GHz, BW₂ = 1.54‐1.84 GHz, and BW₃ = 2.2 GHz‐2.89 GHz. As a power combining application, dual power inputs were applied to the WPC circuit with frequencies of 540 MHz‐1800 MHz, 540 MHz‐2450 MHz, 540 MHz‐2700 MHz, 800 MHz‐1800 MHz, 800 MHz‐2450 MHz and 800 MHz‐2700 MHz. Eventually, approximately 70.5% PCE and 1.65 V output voltage were obtained.     

Optimization of Gum Combination in Prebiotic Instant Hot Chocolate Beverage Model System in Terms of Rheological Aspect: Mixture Design Approach

Mixture design was used to investigate the effects of four different gums (xanthan gum, guar gum, alginate and locust bean gum) and their combinations on the rheological properties of a prebiotic model instant hot chocolate beverage (including 3.5% inulin) and to determine their interactions in the model beverage. Simplex centroid mixture design was applied to predict the physicochemical (soluble solids, pH, colour properties) and rheological parameters (consistency index (K), flow behaviour index (n) and apparent viscosity (η ₅₀)) of the samples. In the model, the optimum gum combination was found by simplex centroid mixture design as 59% xanthan gum and 41% locust bean gum, and the highest K value was 33.56 Pa s ⁿ . The increase of guar gum and alginate in the gum mixture caused a decrease in the K value of the sample.     

Free shipping and purchasing decisions in B2B transactions: A game-theoretic analysis

Free shipping offers by eBusiness companies have become an effective means of attracting and keeping customers. Many business-to-consumer and business-to-business (B2B) companies now offer free shipping to buyers who spend more than a specific amount. In this paper we consider a B2B environment and assume that the buyer may be enticed to increase her purchase amount in order to qualify for free shipping. The seller's and the buyer's decisions (i.e., free shipping cutoff level and purchase amounts, respectively) affect each other's objective functions. Thus, we model the problem as a leader-follower game under complete information where the leader is the seller and the follower is the buyer. We assume that if the cutoff level announced by the seller is lower than the buyer's purchase amount, the seller absorbs the shipping cost. Otherwise, the buyer compares the values of two functions to determine whether she should increase her purchase amount to qualify for free shipping. We first determine the best response function for the buyer for any given value of the seller's cutoff level and present some structural results related to the response function. We then compute the Stackelberg solution for the leader-follower game and discuss the managerial implications of our findings. The results obtained are demonstrated with the help of two examples. We also present a complete sensitivity analysis for the Stackelberg solution and the objective function values for variations in the unit shipping cost.