N‐(hydroxymethyl) acrylamide as a multifunctional finish to cotton and a tether for grafting methacrylamide for biocidal coatings

N‐(hydroxymethyl) acrylamide (NMA) was immobilized on cotton surfaces through etherification, and then methacrylamide (MA) was grafted onto the treated surface. The coatings were characterized by ATR‐IR spectroscopy and were rendered biocidal upon exposure to dilute household bleach. The treated fabrics were challenged with Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria; both NMA and NMA/MA‐treated fabrics inactivated about 8 logs of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Staphylococcus aureus within only 5 min of contact time. The coatings were also quite stable toward ultraviolet (UVA) light exposure and repeated laundering. Moreover, a substantial improvement in wrinkle recovery angle was obtained for the NMA/MA‐treated fabrics. The new acyclic acrylamide N‐halamine coating should be less expensive to produce and use than previous cyclic N‐halamine coatings developed in these laboratories. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Academic favoritism at work: insider bias in Turkish national journals

Scientometrics - The study utilizes a unique dataset of 16,575 research papers published in 68 national Business and Economics journals to investigate editorial bias towards insiders in Turkish...     

Modeling thermal conductivity enhancement of metal and metallic oxide nanofluids using support vector regression

Enhancing thermal conductivity of nanofluids is an important objective in heat transfer applications. Experimental measurement of thermal conductivity is time consuming, laborious and expensive. One of the common ways to address these limitations involves developing theoretical models to study thermo-physical properties of nanofluid. However, most classical and empirical models fail in predicting experimental results with good precision. In this study, we developed support vector regression (SVR) models that are capable of predicting the thermal conductivity enhancement for metallic and metallic-oxide nanofluids. The accuracy and reliability of the developed models were assessed using statistical parameters such as correlation coefficient (R²), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). The models were characterized with very high correlation coefficients of 99.3 and 96.3% for the metallic and metallic oxide nanofluids, respectively. While the RMSE obtained were 1.11 and 1.33 for the metallic and metallic oxide nanofluids, respectively. In addition, the results of the models were compared with Hamilton-Crosser (HC) model and other empirical models. The SVR models performed much better than all the models examined. Furthermore, the effects of temperature, volume fractions, nanoparticle size and type, and basefluids types were correlated with experimental data in order to assess the performance of the developed models. The results indicate that SVR predictions were accurate and better than common theoretical models.     

The importance of coastal altimetry retracking and detiding: a case study around the Great Barrier Reef,Australia

A new approach for improving the accuracy of altimetry-derived sea level anomalies (SLAs) near the coast is presented. Estimation of SLAs is optimized using optimal waveform retracking through a fuzzy multiple retracking system and the most appropriate detiding method. With the retracking system, fuzzy-retracked SLAs become available within 5 km of the coast; meanwhile it becomes more important to use pointwise tide modelling rather than state-of-the-art global tidal models, as the latter leave residual ocean tide signals in retracked SLAs. These improvements are demonstrated for Jason-2 waveforms in the area of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Comparing the retrieved SLAs with in situ tide gauge data from Townsville and Bundaberg stations showed that the SLAs from this study generally outperform those from conventional methods, demonstrating that adequate waveform retracking and detiding are equally important in bringing altimetry SLAs closer to the coast.     

Economics-based NMPC strategies for the operation and control of a continuous catalytic distillation process

Process profitability is an yes or no criterion for the successful long-term operation of industrial processes. This article describes the use of dynamic online economic process optimization to improve the performance of chemical processes. Different model-predictive control techniques have progressively been applied to coupled multivariable control problems and in many cases, especially in the petrochemical industry, the reference values are adjusted infrequently by stationary optimization based upon a rigorous nonlinear stationary plant model (real-time optimization, RTO). In between these optimizations, however, the process may be operated suboptimally due to the presence of disturbances. Nonlinear dynamic model-based optimization has been proposed recently to combine optimal operation and feedback control. In this paper, a model of the complex dynamics of a pilot-scale continuous catalytic distillation process is used to explore the potential benefits of online economics optimizing control strategies. We compare the direct economic optimization scheme with a compromise scheme, the economics-oriented tracking controller. The outcome of this work indicates that by using direct economics optimizing NMPC the plant economics can be handled better while guaranteeing the product specifications which are formulated as explicit constraints.     

An improved stator flux estimation in steady-state operation fordirect torque control of induction machines

This paper presents an improved stator flux estimation technique based on a voltage model with some form of low-pass (LP) filtering. In voltage-model-based stator flux estimation, an LP filter is normally used instead of a pure integrator to avoid integration drift problem due to DC offset, noise, or measurement error present in the back electromotive force. In steady-state condition, the LP filter estimator will degrade the performance and efficiency of the direct torque control (DTC) drive system since it introduced magnitude and phase errors, thus resulting in an incorrect voltage vector selection. The stator flux steady-state error between the LP filter and a pure integrator estimator technique is derived and its effect on the steady-state DTC drive performance is analyzed. A simple method is proposed to compensate for this error which results in a significant improvement in the steady-state drive performance. Simulation based on this technique is given and it is verified by experimental results     

Predictions of elemental composition of coal and biomass from their proximate analyses using ANFIS,ANN and MLR

The elemental composition of coal and biomass provides significant parameters used in the design of almost all energy conversion systems and projects.The labora...     

DSC study on the melting properties of palm oil, sunflower oil, and palm kernel olein blends before and after chemical interesterification

Changes in DSC melting properties of palm oil (PO), sunflower oil (SFO), palm kernel olein (PKOo), and their belends in various ratios were studied by using a combination of blending, and chemical interesterification (CIE) techniques and determining total melting (ΔH _f ) and partial melting (ΔH _i°C ) enthalpies. Blending and CIE significantly modified the DSC melting properties of the PO/SFO/PKOo blends. PO and blends containing substantial amounts of PO and PKOo experienced an increase in their DSC ΔH _f and ΔH _i°C following CIE. The DSC ΔH _f and ΔH _i°C of PKOo, blends of PO/SFO at 1∶1 and 1∶3 ratios, and all blends of PKOo/SFO significantly decreased after CIE. The DSC ΔH _f and ΔH _i°C of SFO changed little following CIE. Randomization of FA distribution within and among TAG molecules of PO and PKOo led to modification in TAG composition of the PO/PKOo blends and improved miscibility between the two fats and consequently diminished the eutectic interaction that occurred between PO and PKOo.     

A co-processor design to accelerate sequential monocular SLAM EKF process

Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is a non-linear state estimation technique which is used to produce values that close to the true value when given with measurement containing noise and other inaccuracies. In Monocular Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), EKF is used to estimate position and motion information. In this paper, Monocular SLAM software implementation on a general purpose computer is studied to find the most time consuming part of the estimation program. The analysis concentrates on the Monocular SLAM EKF estimation process which involves prediction, measurement prediction, matching and update. For this purpose, a form of dynamic programming analysis tool called software profiling is utilized to determine which section of the estimation program demands the highest processing time. Based on the analysis, it is found that EKF “matching” process contribute to the highest computation time. The reason behind the time-consuming process is because for every predicted feature in the matching stage, the acceptance region and their cross correlation have to be calculated. In a typical general purpose computer software implementation, the processing is limited to sequences of operations (i.e. sequential processing). Such implementation will delay the next process until the prior process completed. However, further analysis conducted in this paper shows that each feature does not depend on the prior process and can be processed individually. This would allow several features to be processed simultaneously to improve the execution speed. Therefore, an FPGA pipelined and parallel processing architecture is proposed.     

Numerical modelling and mechanical behaviour analysis of ancient tunnel masonry structures

As with all older construction, ancient tunnels feature particular characteristics, especially as regards past construction methods, geometrical design considerations and the set of construction materials used. Old tunnels usually display a unique vaulted section shape built with masonry. The present paper proposes two numerical models of an old tunnel supported by masonry; these models were developed by the well-known Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC). A masonry mechanical behaviour analysis and numerical simulation of the masonry ageing phenomenon will also be addressed by means of an experimental design to study the influence of masonry block physical properties on the mechanical behaviour of masonry structures in old tunnels.