Purity of crosslinkers for polymeric hydrogel preparation

Chromatographic procedures are described for purifying and assessing the purity of two crosslinking agents commonly used in the preparation of polymeric hydrogels. Densities and refractive indices at different temperatures are reported for these materials.     

COMPUTING PERFECT AND STABLE MODELS USING ORDERED MODEL TREES

Ordered model trees were introduced as a normal form for disjunctive deductive databases. They were also used to facilitate the computation of minimal models for disjunctive theories by exploiting the order imposed on the Herbrand base of the theory. In this work we show how the order on the Herbrand base can be used to compute perfect models of a disjunctive stratified finite theory. We are able to compute the stable models of a general finite theory by combining the order on the elements of the Herbrand base with previous results that had shown that the stable models of a theory T can be computed as the perfect models of a corresponding disjunctive theory ɛ T resulting from applying the so called evidential transformation to T. While other methods consider many models that are rejected at the end, the use of atom ordering allows us to guarantee that every model generated belongs to the class of models being computed. As for negation-free databases, the ordered tree serves as the canonical representation of the database.     

Microscopic techniques for characterization and authentication of oil-yielding seeds

Investigation of alternative energy sources is need of current time due to growing power crisis and associated environmental issues. Biodiesel is considered as sustainable power source and promising alternative to fossil fuels. Therefore, our current investigation aimed to identify micromorphological characters of 10 novel nonedible oil-yielding seeds through scanning electron microscopy. It was revealed from light microscopic study that there is variation in seed size from 3 to 15 mm in length and 2 to 11 mm in width. Likewise, a huge variation in color was observed such as light green, greenish yellow, blackish brown, and various shades of brown. Presence and absence of Hilum was observed, and compression of seeds varied from depressed, lateral, and dorsoventral. Seed's shape differs from ovate, clavate, triangular ovate, cuneiform, ovoid, and elliptical shape. Seed oil content fall in range of 18–58% (wt/wt). Free fatty acid content of the seeds varies from 0.3 to 3.1 mg KOH/g. Ultrastructure of seeds exhibited huge variation in shape, size, periclinal wall, anticlinal wall, and surface ornamentation. Nonedible seeds varied in wall structure from angular, wavy, dentate entire, irregular, puzzled, elongated, even, and polygonal. The periclinal wall arrangements show alteration from flat, looped, raised, depressed, lofty, even, pentagonal, polygonal, and undulate seed margins. Outcomes of this investigation recommended that scanning electron microscopy could act as a helpful tool in disclosing the hidden micromorphological characters among nonedible oil-yielding seeds and subsequently helping in correct, authentic seed identification and classification as potential feedstock for biodiesel.     

Cyberattack Detection Framework Using Machine Learning and User Behavior Analytics

This paper proposes a novel framework to detect cyber-attacks using Machine Learning coupled with User Behavior Analytics. The framework models the user behavior as sequences of events representing the user activities at such a network. The represented sequences are then fitted into a recurrent neural network model to extract features that draw distinctive behavior for individual users. Thus, the model can recognize frequencies of regular behavior to profile the user manner in the network. The subsequent procedure is that the recurrent neural network would detect abnormal behavior by classifying unknown behavior to either regular or irregular behavior. The importance of the proposed framework is due to the increase of cyber-attacks especially when the attack is triggered from such sources inside the network. Typically detecting inside attacks are much more challenging in that the security protocols can barely recognize attacks from trustful resources at the network, including users. Therefore, the user behavior can be extracted and ultimately learned to recognize insightful patterns in which the regular patterns reflect a normal network workflow. In contrast, the irregular patterns can trigger an alert for a potential cyber-attack. The framework has been fully described where the evaluation metrics have also been introduced. The experimental results show that the approach performed better compared to other approaches and AUC 0.97 was achieved using RNN-LSTM 1. The paper has been concluded with providing the potential directions for future improvements.     

Tracing the development of teacher knowledge in a design seminar: Integrating content,pedagogy and technology

Effective technology integration for teaching subject matter requires knowledge not just of content, technology and pedagogy, but also of their relationship to each other. Building on Schulman’s [Schulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: foundations for a new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22] concept of pedagogical content knowledge, we introduce a framework for conceptualizing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge—TPCK [Mishra, P., Koehler, M.J., (in press). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A new framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record]. We report the results of a semester-long investigation of the development of TPCK during a faculty development design seminar, whereby faculty members worked together with masters students to develop online courses. Quantitative discourse analysis of 15 weeks of field notes for two of the design teams show participants moved from considering technology, pedagogy and content as being independent constructs towards a richer conception that emphasized connections among the three knowledge bases. Our analyses suggests that developing TPCK is a multigenerational process, involving the development of deeper understandings of the complex web of relationships between content, pedagogy and technology and the contexts in which they function. Pedagogic, pragmatic, theoretical, and methodological contributions are discussed.     

Effect of different drying methods on the mechanical behavior and the microstructure of an Algerian compacted limestone crust

This experimental work aims to better understand the hardening process of limestone tuff after compaction when water content varies. Indeed, the pavements built with wet calcareous crust or tuff are hardened by the effect of compaction followed by water evaporation but this cohesion after compaction disappears completely by total saturation. In order to classify the materials according to geotechnical specifications related to limestone crusts, tuff from Faidh el Botma area was studied by following the change of compressive strength measured on specimens prepared at different water contents and stored for several days either under air (for fast drying) or in non-hermetic bags (for slow drying). The first series of specimens appeared more resistant than the second one. As explanation of the hardening, the possible precipitation of new phases such as carbonate during the fast drying is discussed based on chemical and microstructural observations as well as the effect of suction than could change the microstructural arrangement of tuff particles when the moisture content varies.     

Structure functions in turbulence for incidence with arbitrary-field distribution

In a turbulent atmosphere, the log-amplitude, phase-correlation, and structure functions are formulated for light sources exhibiting arbitrary-field distribution. This is done by extending the formulations of the correlation and structure functions for the known general-type beam sources to cover any type of source having arbitrary-field distribution. To introduce the arbitrary field, the source is presented by an incidence that is a function of transverse source coordinates. The received field in the random medium is found by employing the Rytov method, which is a single-scattering solution obtained by the first-order approximation; thus our results are valid in weak turbulence. All the existing results can be correctly reproduced from our formulations when the corresponding source-field distributions are inserted into our presented correlation and structure-function expressions. Our results for the arbitrary-source field profiles can be utilized in finding the scintillation index and the angle-of-arrival fluctuations of any type of incidence in optical atmospheric links. Additionally, our formulations can find applications in reflection from rough surfaces and imaging in turbulence.     

Observation of a cubical-like microstructure of strontium iron garnet and yttrium iron garnet prepared via sol-gel technique

This is our initial response towards preparation of nano-inductors garnet for high operating frequencies strontium iron garnet (Sr3Fe5O12) denoted as SrIG and yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12) denoted as YIG. The garnet nano crystals were prepared by novel sol-gel technique. The phase and crystal structure of the prepared samples were identified by using X-ray diffraction analysis. SEM images were done to reveal the surface morphology of the samples. Raman spectra was taken for yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12). The magnetic properties of the samples namely initial permeability (micro), relative loss factor (RLF) and quality factor (Q-Factor) were done by using LCR meter. From the XRD profile, both of the Y3Fe5O12 and Sr3Fe5O12 samples showed single phase garnet and crystallization had completely occurred at 900 degrees C for the SrIG and 950 degrees C for the YIG samples. The YIG sample showed extremely low RLF value (0.0082) and high density 4.623 g/cm3. Interesting however is the high Q factor (20-60) shown by the Sr3Fe5O12 sample from 20-100 MHz. This high performance magnetic property is attributed to the homogenous and cubical-like microstructure. The YIG particles were used as magnetic feeder for EM transmitter. It was observed that YIG magnetic feeder with the EM transmitter gave 39% higher magnetic field than without YIG magnetic feeder.     

Engineering properties of tuffs in the Sandikli region (Afyon—Turkey) and their possible use as concrete aggregates

Sandikli is located in the western part of Central Anatolia in Turkey. Middle to Upper Miocene trachyandesitic, andesitic and phonolitic lavas, tuffs and tuffites are found in the study area. The tuffs are essentially vitritic and vitritic-crystal tuffs with varying proportions of pyroclasts, pyrogenetic and secondary minerals. In this study the engineering properties of Sandikli zeolithic tuffs and their possible use as concrete aggregate have been investigated. The 28 samples were examined to determine their physico-mechanical properties and their suitability as lightweight concrete. In particular, two materials were tested—with maximum size aggregates of 4 and 8 mm. The results indicate that tuffs from the Ballik, Soucak and Sütlüce region can be used as light-weight concrete aggregates. Other tuffs can satisfactorily be used as plaster, while all the materials form acceptable building stone.