Azobenzene-functionalized polyimides as wireless actuators

Wireless transduction of light into mechanical work manifested as shape-changing surfaces, adaptive structures, or actuators is a topic of considerable recent interest. In the work reported here, the photomechanical responses of a new series of crosslinked azobenzene-functionalized polyimides prepared with increasing backbone rigidity over a range of crosslinker concentrations are examined. The baseline properties of the materials were characterized with X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, and photomechanical examination including cantilever bending experiments and tensile tests. Increasing the rigidity of the backbone repeat unit reduces the magnitude of the shape change (observed as cantilever deflection) but increases the magnitude of photogenerated stress (in tensile tests). The promise of these materials as wireless actuators was examined in photoinitiated snap-through experiments.     

Critical Evaluation and Thermodynamic Modeling of the MgO–MnO–Mn2O3–SiO2 System

A complete literature review, critical evaluation, and thermodynamic optimization of phase diagrams and thermodynamic properties of the MgO–MnO–Mn₂O₃–SiO₂ system at 1 atm pressure are presented. The molten oxide phase was described by the Modified Quasichemical Model considering the short‐range ordering in molten oxide, and the Gibbs energies of solid solutions were described using the Compound Energy Formalism considering the crystal structure of each solid solution. A set of optimized model parameters of all phases was obtained which reproduces all available and reliable thermodynamic data and phase diagrams within experimental error limits from 25°C to above the liquidus temperatures over the entire range of composition under the oxygen partial pressures from metallic saturation to 1 atm. The database of the model parameters can be used along with software for the Gibbs energy minimization to calculate any phase diagram section and thermodynamic property within the present system.     

Microwave assisted hydrothermal synthesis of well-dispersed and thermally stable Ag@SnO2 core–shell nanocomposites for propane sensing applications

A simple microwave assisted hydrothermal precipitation (M–H) technique for the synthesis of Ag@SnO₂ core–shell structure nanoparticles (NPs) is reported. Ag NPs were synthesized via chemical reduction of metal salt followed by M–H deposition of tin dioxide shell for fabrication of monodispersed core–shell particles. The phase and morphology has been investigated by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) respectively. Ag@SnO₂ core–shell nanocomposites have shown distinct surface Plasmon spectrum in the range of 407–440 nm. The core–shell morphology is confirmed from the TEM images. XRD patterns have suggested the formation of silver and tin dioxide in the face-centered cubic and Cassiterite form respectively. Our investigations suggested that the formation of core–shell structure results in the enhanced thermal stability of the system. Synthesized material is used for the detection of propane gas. To understand the multi gas sensing ability and selectivity for detection of propane gas by Ag@SnO₂ core–shell materials based devices, Sinha–Tripathy soft-sensor model has been proposed.     

(Non-)Random Sequences from (Non-)Random Permutations—Analysis of RC4 Stream Cipher

RC4 has been the most popular stream cipher in the history of symmetric key cryptography. Its internal state contains a permutation over all possible bytes from 0 to 255, and it attempts to generate a pseudo-random sequence of bytes (called keystream) by extracting elements of this permutation. Over the last twenty years, numerous cryptanalytic results on RC4 stream cipher have been published, many of which are based on non-random (biased) events involving the secret key, the state variables, and the keystream of the cipher. Though biases based on the secret key are common in RC4 literature, none of the existing ones depends on the length of the secret key. In the first part of this paper, we investigate the effect of RC4 keylength on its keystream, and report significant biases involving the length of the secret key. In the process, we prove the two known empirical biases that were experimentally reported and used in recent attacks against WEP and WPA by Sepehrdad, Vaudenay and Vuagnoux in EUROCRYPT 2011. After our current work, there remains no bias in the literature of WEP and WPA attacks without a proof. In the second part of the paper, we present theoretical proofs of some significant initial-round empirical biases observed by Sepehrdad, Vaudenay and Vuagnoux in SAC 2010. In the third part, we present the derivation of the complete probability distribution of the first byte of RC4 keystream, a problem left open for a decade since the observation by Mironov in CRYPTO 2002. Further, the existence of positive biases towards zero for all the initial bytes 3 to 255 is proved and exploited towards a generalized broadcast attack on RC4. We also investigate for long-term non-randomness in the keystream, and prove a new long-term bias of RC4.     

Prediction of radial stresses due to prestressing in PSC shells

Large prestressed concrete (PSC) shells, such as silos, containment structures are prestressed along their principal curvatures. Prestressing cables are provided in the thickness of the shell either in one or two directions. The stresses normal to the middle surface are generally neglected in the design of such shell structures. However, the development of radial tensile stresses at the time of prestressing can lead to possible delamination failure, if these stresses are excessive. This paper presents simple procedures to estimate the radial stress distribution due to prestressing. Two methods are presented: ‘equilibrium of slice’ and ‘modified Lamé,’ the latter being more rigorous and applicable to both singly and doubly curved shells. The solutions obtained are in conformity with the results of finite element analysis published earlier. Finally, an attempt is made to determine the local tensile stress distribution at the periphery of the prestressing duct hole, which also contributed to the problem of delamination.     

Development of a new algorithm for power flow analysis

This paper presents a new iterative solution technique for power flow analysis to reduce the computation complexity, hence time of the conventional solution techniques. In the proposed method, the impedance matrix has been used instead of admittance matrix. This method does not involve any other jacobian matrix or any other inversion of matrix, hence there is no problem of singularity. Memory requirement of the proposed method is also less. The new method has been tested on IEEE standard 5-bus, 14-bus, 30-bus, 57-bus, 118-bus and 300-bus test systems with high precession. The test results have been compared with the same of popular conventional solution methods. The method has also been tested under different practical security constraints. The test results presented reveal the superiority of the proposed method.     

Photoelectrochemical splitting of water with nanocrystalline Zn1−xMnxO thin films: First-principle DFT computations supporting the systematic experimental endeavor

Photoelectrochemical splitting of water with nanocrystalline Zn_1−xMn_xO thin films was investigated. ZnO thin films with 1, 3, 5 and 7% at. Mn incorporation were synthesized by sol–gel method and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM) and UV–Vis spectroscopy. Mn incorporation coupled with variation in sintering temperature led to significant microstructural changes, which tentatively influenced the magnitude of optical absorption and charge carrier mobility, thereby impacting the performance of such systems towards photoelectrochemical splitting of water. Electronic structure computations based on first principle density functional theory (DFT) revealed electronic states of Mn being responsible for the marginally recorded red shift in bandgap energy. Photoelectrochemical measurements using thin films of 1% at. Mn:ZnO sintered at 600 °C yielded 3 times enhanced photocurrent at zero bias due to improved optical absorption. Plausible explanations for the effect have also been offered.     

Continuously Cooled Ultrafine Bainitic Steel with Excellent Strength–Elongation Combination

Serious efforts have been made to simultaneously improve the strength and ductility of steels for different applications. However, steel with the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) above 1200 MPa with minimum elongation of 20 pct is still difficult to produce. In the current work, an effort has been made to design such a steel that could be directly produced in any hot strip mill, after accelerated cooling on the runout table followed by coiling. Basically this steel consisted of C, Mn, Si, and Cr and the intended final microstructure at room temperature was about 80 pct carbide-free bainite and 20 pct retained austenite. The steel was exposed to a thermal treatment which is generally experienced by a hot strip coil. This newly developed steel possesses an UTS of minimum ~1370 MPa with minimum ~21 pct elongation. The combination of such encouraging mechanical properties can be primarily attributed to the formation of ultrafine bainite plates (~100 to 130 nm) and a high density of dislocations arising out of the bainitic transformation. The presence of sufficient quantity of retained austenite (minimum 21 pct) in the final microstructure could be the reason for the attainment of outstanding ductility values at such a high strength level.     

An approach toward design and development of an energy-aware VM selection policy with improved SLA violation in the domain of green cloud computing

The Journal of Supercomputing - With the rapid demand for service-oriented computing in association with the growth of cloud computing technologies, large-scale virtualized data centers have been...