Multi-phase toughened epoxy with poly(ether sulphone) and carboxyl-terminated butadiene-acrylonitrile rubber

The structure and properties of ternary blends of epoxy with poly(ether sulphone) (PES) and carboxyl-terminated butadiene-acrylonitrile rubber (CTBN) have been investigated. In these blends, the phase separation occurs in two stages: a macrophase separation during mixing and a microphase separation during curing. At low PES compositions, the PES-rich spherical domains are dispersed. With increasing PES composition, a co-continuous structure develops and, eventually, the phases are inverted. Regardless of structure change, the modulus and yield stress changes with composition just follow the simple rule of mixtures. However, the fracture toughness of these blends exhibits a synergistic effect. Among the various compositions, 55 weight ratio of CTBN to PES exhibited the maximum toughness, which was 140% larger than that calculated from the rule of mixtures. The synergism is believed to be due to the bridging by the PES-rich phase followed by a lowering of the yield stress. The lowering of the yield stress can enlarge the process zone size and the amount of plastic dilatation of the matrix.     

Fuzzy Tree Clustering Algorithm with Mobile Data Collectors in Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, the need to deploy Wireless Sensor Networks increases in different applications. Several studies have been proposed to demonstrate the importance to use Mobile Data Collectors (MDC) in Wireless sensor Networks. The main goal of this paper is to reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes and to extend the network lifetime. In this paper, we propose to construct a Minimum Spanning tree, we design a fuzzy Cluster Head election system to elect the best sensor nodes as Cluster Heads, considering two input parameters, namely the weight of Sensor Nodes (WoSN) and the State of Sensor Node Locations (SoSNLoc). To extend the network lifetime, a subset of MDCs travels the area to gather the sensed data from nodes instead of sending them directly to the Base Station (BS) in a single hop or multi-hop manner. The BS is located at the center of the area which will be divided into sub-regions, one for each MDC. According to their positions, each CH will belong to a specific region, and then will be visited by the corresponding MDC. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm in terms of energy consumption and network lifetime in comparison with other ones.

     

The orthorhombic-to-tetragonal phase transition in YBa2(Cu1−xFex)3O7−y

The phase transition YBa₂(Cu_1–x Fe _x )₃O_7–y (0x0.05) prepared through solid-state reaction was studied with X-ray diffraction analysis and optical microscope. It was found that the orthorhombic-to-tetragonal phase change was induced between x=0.02 and x=0.03 by X-ray diffraction. The phase transition was also identified by the disappearance of striations in plate-like grains under polarized light. The microstructures of the specimens with compositions of x=0.01 and x=0.02 showed faint striation images. It is considered that a mixture of the orthorhombic and tetragonal phase exists in these compositions.     

What you like in design use to correct bad-smells

Over the past decades, many techniques and tools have been developed to support maintenance activities in order to improve software quality. One of the most efficient ones is software refactoring to eliminate bad-smells. A majority of existing work propose “standard” refactoring solutions that can be applied by hand for each kind of defect. However, it is difficult to prove or ensure the generality of these solutions to any kind of bad-smells or software codes. In this paper, we propose an approach to correct bad-smells using well-designed code. We use genetic algorithms to generate correction solutions defined as a combination of refactoring operations that maximize, as much as possible, the similarity between the corrected bad-smells and examples of well-designed code. We report the results of an evaluation of our approach using four open-source projects. Our proposal achieved high correction scores by fixing the majority of expected bad-smells.     

Novel zero-voltage and zero-current-switching full-bridge PWMconverter using a simple auxiliary circuit

A novel zero-voltage and zero-current-switching (ZVZCS) full-bridge pulsewidth modulation converter is presented to simplify the circuits of the previously presented ZVSCS converters. A simple auxiliary circuit, which consists of one small capacitor and two small diodes, is added in the secondary to provide ZVZCS conditions to primary switches, as well as to clamp secondary rectifier voltage. The additional clamp circuit for the secondary rectifier is not necessary. The auxiliary circuit includes neither lossy components nor additional active switches, which makes the proposed converter efficient and cost effective. The principle of operation, features, and design considerations are illustrated and verified on a 2.5 kW 100 kHz insulated-gate-bipolar-transistor-based experimental circuit     

Anticoagulant activities of goby muscle protein hydrolysates

The anticoagulant activities of protein hydrolysates prepared from goby muscle by treatment with various bacterial alkaline proteases were investigated. All proteases exhibited varying degrees of hydrolysis (DH) and all goby protein hydrolysates (GPHs) caused a significant prolongation of both the thrombin time (TT) and the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT). The hydrolysate generated by the crude protease from Bacillus licheniformis NH1 displayed the highest anticoagulant activity, and the higher TT (about 32 s) at a concentration of 5 mg/mL was obtained with hydrolysate having a DH of 8.86%. This hydrolysate was then fractionated by size exclusion chromatography on a Sephadex G-25 column into five major fractions (F1–F5). Fraction F2, which exhibited the highest anticoagulant activity, was then fractionated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The molecular masses and amino acid sequences of four peptides in peptide sub-fraction F2–6, which exhibited the highest anticoagulant activity, were determined using ESI-MS and ESI-MS/MS, respectively. The structures of these peptides were identified as Leu-Cys-Arg, His-Cys-Phe, Cys-Leu-Cys-Arg and Leu-Cys-Arg-Arg.     

FEATURE-BASED KOREAN GRAMMAR UTILIZING LEARNED CONSTRAINT RULES

In this paper, we propose a feature-based Korean grammar utilizing the learned constraint rules in order to improve parsing efficiency. The proposed grammar consists of feature structures, feature operations, and constraint rules; and it has the following characteristics. First, a feature structure includes several features to express useful linguistic information for Korean parsing. Second, a feature operation generating a new feature structure is restricted to the binary-branching form which can deal with Korean properties such as variable word order and constituent ellipsis. Third, constraint rules improve efficiency by preventing feature operations from generating spurious feature structures. Moreover, these rules are learned from a Korean treebank by a decision tree learning algorithm. The experimental results show that the feature-based Korean grammar can reduce the number of candidates by a third of candidates at most and it runs 1.5 ∼ 2 times faster than a CFG on a statistical parser.     

Electrochemical characteristics of cobalt-substituted lithium nickel oxides synthesized from lithium hydro-oxide and nickel and cobalt oxides

LiNi_1−yCo_yO₂ (y=0.1, 0.3 and 0.5) were synthesized by solid state reaction method at 800 °C and 850 °C from LiOH·H₂O, NiO and Co₃O₄ as starting materials. The electrochemical properties of the synthesized LiNi_1−yCo_yO₂ were investigated. As the content of Co decreases, particle size decreases rapidly and particle size distribution gets more homogeneous. When the particle size is compared at the same composition, the particles synthesized at 850 °C are larger than those synthesized at 800 °C. LiNi_0.7Co_0.3O₂ synthesized at 850 °C has the largest intercalated and deintercalated Li quantity Δx among LiNi_1−yCo_yO₂ (y=0.1, 0.3 and 0.5). LiNi_0.7Co_0.3O₂ synthesized at 850 °C has the largest first discharge capacity (178 mAh/g), followed by LiNi_0.7Co_0.3O₂ (162 mAh/g) synthesized at 800 °C. LiNi_0.7Co_0.3O₂ synthesized at 800 °C has discharge capacities of 162 and 125 mAh/g at n=1 and n=5, respectively.     

Reforming a conventional vehicle assembly plant for job enrichment

Although conventional conveyor-based vehicle assembly systems have proved to be very efficient in terms of plant productivity, it has also been recognized as a system which puts too much pressure on people. This paper introduces an alternative to conventional conveyor-based assembly lines, one that is designed to enrich the work environment of employees without sacrificing productivity. The reforming methodology suggested here applies the idea of cell manufacturing to the conventional conveyor-based assembly line system, but it does not require making any major changes to the existing hardware configurations of the plant. Benefits of the reformed line for workers include a longer cycle time, more balanced work loads, and greater protection against developing musculoskeletal disorders. To prove the effectiveness of the suggested methodology, we built a virtual factory model and performed simulations to assess the performance of the reformed line.