Flow‐based electromagnetic‐type energy harvester using microplanar coil for IoT sensors application

Battery is the sole power source for Internet of thing (IoT) sensors. Due to limited shelf life, the batteries are required to be replaced intermittently. This periodic replacement of batteries is inflated in terms of both logistics and time. This article illustrates conceptual design, development, and characterization of a flow‐based electromagnetic‐type energy harvester (F‐EH) using microplanar coil for IoT sensors application. The F‐EH converts hydro energy into useful electrical energy utilizing electromagnetic transduction mechanism. The microfabrication and macrofabrication techniques adopted to manufacture harvester's components are presented. The F‐EH has been successfully characterized by laboratory scale experimental flow test loop commissioned for this work. Experimentation with associated uncertainty analysis prevails that at a matching impedance, the F‐EH can generate a 686 μW of maximum power at an operating flow rate of 12 L/min with an uncertainty of 8.1%.     

Fabrication of Mn–ZnO photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting applications

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting ability of pure ZnO and manganese-incorporated ZnO thin films fabricated via a simple...     

Cognitive Mapping and Planning for Visual Navigation

International Journal of Computer Vision - We introduce a neural architecture for navigation in novel environments. Our proposed architecture learns to map from first-person views and plans a...     

Novel anhydrous composite membranes based on sulfonated poly (ether ketone) and aprotic ionic liquids for high temperature polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cell applications

Novel composite membranes were prepared using imidazolium type aprotic ionic liquids and sulfonated poly (ether ketone) (SPEK) as polymer matrix by solution casting process. All the prepared membranes were characterized for their thermal stability, mechanical properties, ion exchange capacity, proton conductivity and leaching out of ionic liquids in presence of water. Ionic liquid based membranes were more flexible than neat SPEK membrane due to the plasticization effect of ionic liquids. The interactions and compatibility occurring among components were investigated by vibration spectroscopy (FTIR ATR) and scanning electron microscopy respectively. The thermal stability of composite membranes was higher than unmodified membranes. The ion conductivity of composite membranes under anhydrous conditions was found to be dependent on temperature, type and concentration of ionic liquid in SPEK matrix. Ion conductivities of composite membranes under anhydrous condition were found to be up to two orders (∼100 times) higher than neat SPEK membrane and it was found to be ∼5 mS/cm at 140 °C for SPEK/OTf-70. These composite membranes can be successfully operated at temperatures ranging from 40 °C to 140 °C under anhydrous conditions.     

Meta-learning for evolutionary parameter optimization of classifiers

The performance of most of the classification algorithms on a particular dataset is highly dependent on the learning parameters used for training them. Different approaches like grid search or genetic algorithms are frequently employed to find suitable parameter values for a given dataset. Grid search has the advantage of finding more accurate solutions in general at the cost of higher computation time. Genetic algorithms, on the other hand, are able to find good solutions in less time, but the accuracy of these solutions is usually lower than those of grid search.     

Modification of glass ionomer cement by incorporating hydroxyapatite-silica nano-powder composite: Sol–gel synthesis and characterization

A nanohydroxyapatite–silica powder was synthesized using an ethanol based sol–gel technique. The synthesized powder was incorporated into commercial glass ionomer powder (Fuji II GC) and characterized using FTIR, ²⁹Si CP/MAS NMR, EDX and XRD spectroscopy. ²⁹Si CP/MAS NMR results showed the presence of higher degree of cross-linking of silyl species between silica and GIC, which makes the Nano-HA–Silica–GIC composite much stronger. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (TEM) was employed to investigate the morphology of the synthesized powder. Results revealed that higher content of nanosilica produced a denser and stronger GIC. Thus, the application of nanohydroxyapatite–silica–GIC with improved properties are envisioned to be of great clinical importance, especially in stress bearing areas.     

Molecular Characterization of α- and β-Thalassaemia among Malay Patients

Both α- and β-thalassaemia syndromes are public health problems in the multi-ethnic population of Malaysia. To molecularly characterise the α- and β-thalassaemia deletions and mutations among Malays from Penang, Gap-PCR and multiplexed amplification refractory mutation systems were used to study 13 α-thalassaemia determinants and 20 β-thalassaemia mutations in 28 and 40 unrelated Malays, respectively. Four α-thalassaemia deletions and mutations were demonstrated. −−^SEA deletion and α^CSα accounted for more than 70% of the α-thalassaemia alleles. Out of the 20 β-thalassaemia alleles studied, nine different β-thalassaemia mutations were identified of which β^E accounted for more than 40%. We concluded that the highest prevalence of (α- and β-thalassaemia alleles in the Malays from Penang are −−^SEA deletion and β^E mutation, respectively.     

New ternary Yb5Sb3-type R5T1−x{Sb,Bi}2+x phases (R = Y,Dy, Ho,T = Co,Ru, Rh,Pd) and their magnetic properties

Several novel R₅T_1?x{Sb,Bi}_2+x phases having the Yb₅Sb₃-type structure (space group Pnma) have been synthesized. The cell parameters are: a = 1.20668(9), b = 0.88396(7), c = 0.78745(7) nm for Y₅CoSb₂; a = 1.19939(7), b = 0.88364(5), c = 0.78283(5) nm for Dy₅CoSb₂; a = 1.19633(8), b = 0.89231(6), c = 0.78450(6) nm for Ho₅RhSb₂; a = 1.18650(6), b = 0.90455(4), c = 0.79260(4) nm for Ho₅PdSb₂; a = 1.2215(3), b = 0.8948(2), c = 0.7977(2) nm for Y₅CoBi₂; a = 1.1781(8), b = 0.9071(7), c = 0.7936(6) nm for Tm₅Co_0.5Bi_2.5; a = 1.1972(1), b = 0.92096(9), c = 0.80048(9) nm for Ho₅RuBi₂; a = 1.2082(1), b = 0.90346(9), c = 0.79413(8) nm for Ho₅RhBi₂ and a = 1.20374(5), b = 0.91076(4), c = 0.80135(4) nm for Ho₅PdBi₂, respectively. Magnetization measurements indicate ferromagnetic transitions for Dy₅CoBi₂, Ho₅RhSb₂, Ho₅RhBi₂, Ho₅PdSb₂ and Ho₅PdBi₂ at T_C = 34, 38, 28, 42 and 38 K, respectively. The Ho₅RhSb₂ and Ho₅PdBi₂ compounds show additional magnetic transitions at about 18 K, probably associated with a spin reorientation. The magnetocaloric effect of Dy₅CoBi₂ in terms of the isothermal entropy change, ΔS_m, is ?6.2 J/(kg/K) at 38 K and in terms of the adiabatic temperature change, ΔT_ad, is 2.2 K for a 5 T field change.