Temperature and power consumption measurements as a means for evaluating building thermal performance

A simple methodology is introduced to obtain an empirical relation between power consumption and indoor–outdoor temperature variations for a small residential building. The effects of house occupants, air/moisture leakage, material deterioration, etc. were not considered in the analysis. The Tuskegee Healthy House was used as a test building for the experiment. Empirical equations for power consumption as a function of temperature area differences were obtained from the measured data of winter 2009 with and without mechanically-induced ventilation fresh air, i.e. using fan “ON” and fan “OFF” condition, respectively. The equations were applied to the measured temperature data of winter 2002 to compare and evaluate the thermal performance of the test house. The equations agree favorably with the winter 2002 data revealing that there is no significant difference in power consumption values of winter 2002 and winter 2009 and, hence, no appreciable change in the thermal performance of the house. The methodology presented in the work can be utilized to compare and evaluate the thermal performance of a given building envelope from season to season and between the same seasons in different years.     

Design and Synthesis of DNA‐Interactive β‐Carboline–Oxindole Hybrids as Cytotoxic and Apoptosis‐Inducing Agents

A new series of (E)‐3‐[(1‐aryl‐9H‐pyrido[3,4‐b]indol‐3‐yl)methylene]indolin‐2‐one hybrids were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against a panel of selected human cancer cell lines, namely, HCT‐15, HCT‐116, A549, NCI‐H460, and MCF‐7, including HFL. Among the tested compounds, (E)‐1‐benzyl‐5‐bromo‐3‐{[1‐(2,5‐dimethoxyphenyl)‐9H‐pyrido[3,4‐b]indol‐3‐yl]methylene}indolin‐2‐one ( 10 s ) showed potent cytotoxicity against HCT‐15 cancer cells with an IC₅₀ value of 1.43±0.26 μm and a GI₅₀ value of 0.89±0.06 μm . Notably, induction of apoptosis by 10 s on the HCT‐15 cell line was characterized by using different staining techniques, such as acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) and DAPI. Further, to understand the mechanism of anticancer effects, various assays such as annexin V‐FITC/PI, DCFDA, and JC‐1were performed. The flow cytometric analysis revealed that compound 10 s arrests the HCT‐15 cancer cells at the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Additionally, western blot analysis indicated that treatment of 10 s on HCT‐15 cancer cells led to decreased expression of anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐2 and increased protein expression of both pro‐apoptotic Bax and caspase‐3, ‐8, and ‐9, and cleaved PARP with reference to actin. Next, a clonogenic assay revealed the inhibition of colony formation in HCT‐15 cancer cells by 10 s in a dose‐dependent manner. Moreover, upon testing on normal human lung cells (HFL), the compounds were observed to be safer with a low toxicity profile. In addition, viscosity and molecular‐docking studies showed that compound 10 s has typical intercalation with DNA.     

Effect of Glass Addition on the Microwave Dielectric Properties of CaMgSi2O6 Ceramics

CaMgSi₂O₆ (CMS) ceramics prepared by the solid-state ceramic route have a sintering temperature of 1300°C/2 h. The sintering temperature of CMS was reduced below the melting point of Ag using low-melting LBS and LMZBS glasses. In the case of CMS+15 wt% LMZBS sintered at 900°C/2 h, the dielectric properties obtained were ɛ_r=8.2, Q_u×f=32,000 GHz (10.15 GHz), and τ_f=–48 ppm/°C. The CMS+15 wt% LBS composite, sintered at 925°C/2 h, showed ɛ_r=8, Q_u×f=15,000 GHz (10.17 GHz), and τ_f=–49 ppm/°C. The chemical compatibility of Ag with the ceramic–glass composites was also investigated for low-temperature co-fired ceramic applications.     

Precipitation kinetics in Al-Si-Mg/TiB2 in-situ composites

Al-7Si-0.3Mg-TiB₂ in-situ composites were made by the salt-metal reaction i.e., the reaction of K₂TiF₆ and KBF₄ salts with the molten alloy. The kinetics of the formation of intermediate metastable precipitates in the process of Mg₂Si formation in Al-7Si-0.3Mg-TiB₂ in-situ composites with three different amounts of TiB₂ particles (2.5, 5 and 10 wt.%) were studied using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and also compared with the Al-7Si-0.3Mg base alloy. Kissinger analysis of non-isothermal DSC scans at various heating rates was carried out to evaluate the activation energies associated with the precipitation processes. The metastable precipitates were characterized by taking the solutionized samples to their respective DSC peak temperatures at a particular heating rate and the samples were then observed under a transmission electron microscopy. It was found that there is a decrease in the activation energies of the GP zones with increase in TiB₂ content.     

Gravitational wave signal templates,pattern recognition,and reciprocal Eulerian gamma functions

The direct   detection of Gravitational Waves (GWs) is one of the most challenging problems in experimental gravitation today. It necessitates the use of highly advanced large laser interferometers such as LIGO, VIRGO, LISA, TAMA 300, GEO 600 and AIGO. The analysis of the data from such instruments requires and combines the expertise from a multitude of scientific disciplines. The verification of a detected signal demands an effective way to distinguish the source signal from the background noise. Such a study is required for an all-sky search to determine the ?$?$ and θ$\theta$ angles on the sky of gravitational wave sources and their frequencies. In this paper, we present analytical solutions and associated numerical approximations for the inner products employed in matched filtering a GW signal using templates. An exact closed-form expression for the inner products is rigourously derived using the special functions of mathematical physics. The inner products involve reciprocal Eulerian gamma functions, which occur in the study of many diverse phenomena. The spectral noise density of the VIRGO GW detector is shown to be amenable to our analysis. Spectral noise densities like those for LIGO and GEO 600, although different and in a slightly more restricted frequency band, are likewise amenable. We study numerical computation of the inner products, estimate the computational time of the solution on serial and parallel computers, and show the efficiency of the resulting algorithms. The fitting factor that indicates the goodness of fit between a signal and a template is given in closed-form and computed numerically. The numerical plots display an approximate symmetry in the template ?$?$ and θ$\theta$ domain.     

An intelligent biological inspired evolutionary algorithm for the suppression of incubator interference in premature infants ECG

Electromagnetic interference produced by the incubator medical equipments may interrupt or degrade the premature infant’s electrocardiography (ECG) signal. The premature infant’s ECG is usually contaminated by an interference caused by the incubator devices. The interference cancellation system is designed using an adaptive learning ability of artificial neural network Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm. In this paper the swarm intelligent-LM algorithm is used for the electromagnetic interference cancellation in infant ECG signal. The swarm intelligent algorithm is used for the optimization by selecting the optimized number of neurons in the hidden layer, learning rate and momentum factor of the neural network. Also, this paper presents a comparison of residual mean square error (RMSE) values for neural network trained by LM algorithm, hybrid genetic-LM algorithm and hybrid swarm intelligent-LM algorithm. The LM algorithm is used for the weight updating and reducing the content of electromagnetic interference noise present in the signal. The performance analysis of the proposed noise cancellation approach is compared with gradient based and evolutionary based algorithms. The result analysis shows that the interferences in infant ECG signal is removed successfully using the proposed approach.     

Coupled effects of gold electroplating and electrochemical discharge machining processes on the performance improvement of a capacitive accelerometer

Coupled effects of an electroplated gold layer and damper holes drilled by Electro Chemical Discharge Machining (ECDM) process on the performance improvement of a quad beam capacitive accelerometer is presented in this paper. A simple quad beam-proof mass configuration with its beams located symmetrically at the centre of all the edges of the proof mass and connected to an outer supporting frame is considered in the present study. For a fixed damping ratio, prime-axis sensitivity of the sensor is increased by the damper holes whereas an electroplated gold layer improves the prime-axis sensitivity, cross-axis sensitivity, and Brownian Noise Equivalent Acceleration (BNEA). Moreover, the increased weight of the proof mass due to an electroplated gold layer further reduces the damping of the device which in turn helps to increase the prime-axis sensitivity more. A new figure of merit called Performance Factor (PF), defined as the ratio of the product of the prime-axis sensitivity and resonant frequency to the cross-axis sensitivity at a fixed damping ratio of 0.7 is used as a quantitative index to evaluate the performance improvement caused by the coupled effects of gold electroplating and ECDM processes. Simulation results show that for a device with damper holes of 8???m diameter and electroplated gold layer of dimensions 3,000???m × 3,000???m × 20???m, the prime-axis sensitivity is increased by more than 500 times, rotational cross-axis sensitivity and BNEA are reduced by around 10 and 30%, respectively and the PF is improved by around 482 times at a fixed damping ratio of 0.7.