Electrochemical and optical properties of biphenyl bridged-dicarbazole oligomer films: Electropolymerization and electrochromism

4,4′-Di(N-carbazoyl)biphenyl monomer (CBP) was synthesized and coated onto ITO–glass surface by electrochemical oxidative polymerization. Its CV shows two distinct one-electron and stepwise oxidation processes occurred at 1.29 and 1.61 V. By using this property, the monomer was electrochemically polymerized separately at these oxidation states and thus, two different oligomer films were obtained afterwards. Their spectro-electrochemical and electrochromic properties were also investigated. Switching ability of the oligomers was evaluated by kinetic studies upon measuring the percent transmittance (%T) at their maximum contrast point, indicating that these oligomers were found to be suitable material for electrochromic devices.     

Modeling and prediction of Turkey’s electricity consumption using Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial Neural Networks are proposed to model and predict electricity consumption of Turkey. Multi layer perceptron with backpropagation training algorithm is used as the neural network topology. Tangent-sigmoid and pure-linear transfer functions are selected in the hidden and output layer processing elements, respectively. These input–output network models are a result of relationships that exist among electricity consumption and several other socioeconomic variables. Electricity consumption is modeled as a function of economic indicators such as population, gross national product, imports and exports. It is also modeled using export–import ratio and time input only. Performance comparison among different models is made based on absolute and percentage mean square error. Electricity consumption of Turkey is predicted until 2027 using data from 1975 to 2006 along with other economic indicators. The results show that electricity consumption can be modeled using Artificial Neural Networks, and the models can be used to predict future electricity consumption.     

A fuzzy quality control-decision support system for improving operational reliability of liquid transfer operations in laboratory automation

Quality control in liquid transfer operations can eliminate false assay results due to transfer failures, monitor the stability of laboratory equipment, provide baselines for continuous improvement, and enable automatic recovery actions for a number of fault conditions. This paper describes the work done to add real-time quality control capability in liquid transfer operations on a closed-loop controlled MEMS based liquid transfer device.Real-time data acquisition enables the interpretation of system variables. Using fuzzy logic as a decision support tool, an overall quality metric and failure mode is deduced from these variables for each channel per operation. Detection of ordinary fault conditions like clogged tips or unexpected empty source wells can activate automatic recovery actions without human intervention, leading to 24/7 utilization of an automated laboratory system. Exported quality data can be used for bio-informatics data analysis as well as documentation for regulatory agencies.     

Trace metal content in nine species of fish from the Black and Aegean Seas,Turkey

Trace metal content of nine fish species harvested from the Black and Aegean Seas were determined by microwave digestion and atomic absorption spectroscopy (MD–AAS). Verification of the MD–AAS method was demonstrated by analysis of standard reference material (NRCC-DORM-2 dogfish muscle). Trace metal content in fish samples were 0.73–1.83 μg/g for copper, 0.45–0.90 μg/g for cadmium, 0.33–0.93 μg/g for lead, 35.4–106 μg/g for zinc, 1.28–7.40 μg/g for manganese, 68.6–163 μg/g for iron, 0.95–1.98 μg/g for chromium, and 1.92–5.68 μg/g for nickel. The levels of lead and cadmium in fish samples were higher than the recommended legal limits for human consumption.     

Determination of trace element contents of baby foods from Turkey

The levels of trace elements in different types of baby foods consumed in Turkey were determined by flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Dry, wet and microwave digestion procedures were compared and the microwave digestion method was found to be the best. The accuracy of the method was ensured by using a standard reference material (NIST-SRM 8418 Wheat Gluten). The levels of elements in analyzed samples were found to be under legal limits. The range of the investigated elements were 0.52–4.38 μg/g, 0.22–7.20 μg/g, 1.02–67.5 μg/g, 0.92–37.2 μg/g, 0.12–0.32 μg/g, 2.02–68.8 μg/kg, 10.7–66.8 μg/kg, 0.05–10.3 μg/g, 2.67–25.4 μg/kg for Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn, Se, Cr, Al, Ni and Co, respectively.     

Cadmium and lead contamination in vegetables collected from industrial, traffic and rural areas in Bursa Province, Turkey

Cadmium and lead contamination of vegetables produced in rural areas of Bursa Province, Turkey, was found to be less contaminated than vegetables grown close to heavy traffic and industrial activities. The highest levels of cadmium and lead were found in lettuce; the lowest levels in vegetables were found in leeks. The lead levels in spinach grown in traffic areas were at least twofold higher than those found in industrial areas. For other vegetables, the results from industrial and traffic areas were almost identical. Lettuce grown in traffic areas had the highest amount of cadmium (0.81 +/- 0.25 mg kg(-1)) and lead (1.59 +/- 0.45 mg kg(-1)), whilst leeks grown in rural areas had the lowest levels of lead (0.10 +/- 0.03 mg kg(-1)) and cadmium (0.05 +/- 0.01 mg kg(-1)) compared with other vegetables. This study shows that people and animals living in the same area in Bursa are always exposed to metallic pollution and in turn the consumption of contaminated vegetables could lead to increased dietary intake.     

Low Cost Scan Test by Test Correlation Utilization

Scan-based testing methodologies remedy the testability problem of sequential circuits; yet they suffer from prolonged test time and excessive test power due to numerous shift operations. The correlation among test data along with the high density of the unspecified bits in test data enables the utilization of the existing test data in the scan chain for the generation of the subsequent test stimulus, thus reducing both test time and test data volume. We propose a pair of scan approaches in this paper; in the first approach, a test stimulus partially consists of the preceding stimulus, while in the second approach, a test stimulus partially consists of the preceding test response bits. Both proposed scan-based test schemes access only a subset of scan cells for loading the subsequent test stimulus while freezing the remaining scan cells with the preceding test data, thus decreasing scan chain transitions during shift operations. The proposed scan architecture is coupled with test data manipulation techniques which include test stimuli ordering and partitioning algorithms, boosting test time reductions. The experimental results confirm that test time reductions exceeding 97%, and test power reductions exceeding 99% can be achieved by the proposed scan-based testing methodologies on larger ISCAS89 benchmark circuits.     

Effect of Microstructure on Exhaust Manifold Cracks Produced From SiMo Ductile Iron

Ductile cast irons are used as high temperature materials in internal combustion engines,because they are microstructurally stable at high operating temperatures.SiMo granular graphite cast irons contain Fe2 MoC and M6C carbide precipitates due to their higher concentration of both silicon and molybdenum.The microstructure of these cast irons consists of carbides dispersed within the ferrite matrix.The microstructural change and the crack formation mechanism in manifolds produced from SiMo ductile iron are studied.Chemical analysis,optical and scanning electron microscope studies have been completed and evaluated.