Group SkSP-R sampling plan for accelerated life tests

This study presents a group skip-lot sampling plan using resampling (SkSP-R) for accelerated life tests. It is assumed that the lifetime of a product follows Weibull distribution with known shape parameter under the use condition, while the scale parameter can be obtained from acceleration factor. The plan parameters are determined through a non-linear optimisation problem for fixed values of producer’s risk and consumer’s risk. The advantages of the proposed plan over the existing one are explained with some practical examples.     

Buckypapers of polyvinyl chloride/poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) blend intercalated graphene oxide-carbon nanotube nanobifiller: Physical property exploration

Novel buckypaper of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (PSMA) intercalated with carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene oxide-CNT (GO-CNT) nanobifiller was prepared using resin infiltration technique. Two series of buckypaper were prepared with varying CNT and GO-CNT contents. According to field emission scanning electron microscopy, PVC/SMA/CNT 0.1 showed porous morphology while PVC/PSMA/GO-CNT 0.1 revealed unique sort of island-nodule morphology. T_max of PVC/PSMA/GO-CNT 0.1 was 561°C while PVC/PSMA/CNT 0.1 depicted relatively lower value (552°C). T_g of PVC/PSMA/GO-CNT 0.1 was also increased to 294°C. Peak heat release rate of poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid)/polyamide 6/montmorillonite-modified GO was decreased from 322 to 209 kW/m² (65%) with 0.03–0.3 g GO-CNT loading.     

Effect of Varying Amount of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG-600) and 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane on the Properties of Chitosan based Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Chitosan and polyethylene glycol (PEG-600) membranes were synthesized and crosslinked with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The main purpose of this research work is to synthesize RO membranes which can be used to provide desalinated water for drinking, industrial and agricultural purposes. Hydrogen bonding between chitosan and PEG was confirmed by displacement of the hydroxyl absorption peak at 3237 cm⁻¹ in pure chitosan to lower values in crosslinked membranes by using FTIR. Dynamic mechanical analysis revealed that PEG lowers Tg of the modified membranes vs. pure chitosan from 128.5 °C in control to 120 °C in CS-PEG5. SEM results highlighted porous and anisotropic structure of crosslinked membranes. As the amount of PEG was increased, hydrophilicity of membranes was increased and water absorption increased up to a maximum of 67.34%. Permeation data showed that flux and salt rejection value of the modified membranes was increased up to a maximum of 80% and 40.4%, respectively. Modified films have antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli as compared to control membranes.     

Parallel query execution over encrypted data in database-as-a-service (DaaS)

The Journal of Supercomputing - The main challenge in database-as-a-service is the security and privacy of data because service providers are not usually considered as trustworthy. So, the data...     

Mass-production of flexible and transparent Te-Au nylon SERS substrate with excellent mechanical stability

Nano Research - In the past two decades, the field of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has flourished and many rational strategies have been reported for the successful construction of SERS...     

Ontology based E-learning framework: A personalized,adaptive and context aware model

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Enhancing the degree of learner productivity, one of the major challenges in E-Learning systems, may be catered through effective personalization, adaptivity and...     

Spherulitic formation and characterization of partially fluorinated copolymers and their nanohybrids with functional fillers

Poly[vinylidenefluoride‐co‐(tetrafluoroethylene)] (P(VDF‐TeFE)) exhibited clear spherulitic texture with negative birefringence. The number and growth rates of the spherulites decreased at high crystallization temperature than at low crystallization temperature. Nonetheless, overall larger spherulites were found at high crystallization temperature and the brightness of the spherulites increased very fast at low crystallization temperature, thereafter it seemed as diminution of birefringence. AFM was used to investigate the impact of organo modified nanodiamond(ND) on spherulitic textures, lamellar thickness, and thickness distribution of P(VDF‐TeFE) copolymer. Poly[ethylene‐co‐(tetrafluoroethylene)] (ETFE) also confirmed spherulites structure and the boundaries could be clearly observed. By incorporation of the organo modified nanodiamond (ND) and organo‐modified montmorillonite (MMT) in fluropolymer matrix, it was found that spherulitic texture was seriously disordered and their nanohybrids was found only to have poorly developed spherulite structure. Both of the nanohybrids samples show better crystallization temperature as compared to their neat copolymer samples. Furthermore, the incorporation of nanoparticles decreased the size of the spherulites. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 57:161–171, 2017. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Synthesis and physicochemical investigation of chitosan-built hydrogel with induced glucose sensitivity

There is an urgent need to treat diabetes, and therefore, this work reports on a chitosan-built hydrogel functionalized by a glucose sensing moiety, which simulates pancreatic activity. The effect of external stimuli on various internal properties was investigated to establish the action of the hydrogel. The model drugs, fluorescein (D1) and rhodamine (D2), with a diol architecture, were investigated spectroscopically with 75.94% loading and 65.63% release. Consequently, a ligand to glucose ratio of 2:1 in comparison with a ligand to model drug ratio of 1:1 was addressed. The system was expected to lead to findings on applications for the self-controlled release of insulin in response to blood glucose levels.     

Conducting polymers inducing catalysis: Enhanced formic acid electro-oxidation at a Pt/polyaniline nanocatalyst

Research is moving rapidly to sustain convenient energy resources fulfilling the global climate legislations. Herein, a novel catalyst of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) dispersed onto polyaniline (PANi) is recommended for formic acid electro-oxidation (FAO); the fundamental anodic reaction in direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs). The catalyst's preparation scheme allows a sequential electrodeposition of fibril PANi and spherical PtNPs (ca. 65 nm in size) on a glassy carbon (GC) substrate and permits a precise control over the deposition sequence and loading. Interestingly, incorporation of PANi into the catalyst's ingredients can significantly (ca. 16 times) improve the catalytic activity of the catalyst towards FAO by shifting the mechanism towards the desirable dehydrogenation pathway and mitigating the undesirable poisoning dehydration pathway. The catalytic efficiency is tuned by manipulating the deposition order and loading of different catalyst's ingredients. Several techniques are employed to confirm the successful deposition of the catalyst and to evaluate its morphology, composition and crystal structure. While PtNPs are essential for FA adsorption, PANi improves the dispersion of PtNPs and mediates FAO to facilitate the charge transfer and mitigate CO poisoning. A promising catalytic stability is achieved in a long continuous (150 CVs) electrolysis experiment.