One-step synthesis of platinum nanoparticles loaded in alginate bubbles

Composite particles with multifunctions have been extensively utilized for various applications. Bubble particles can be applied for ultrasound-mediated imaging, drug delivery, absorbers, cell culture, etc. This study proposes a one-step strategy to obtain Pt nanoparticles loaded in alginate bubbles. A needle-based droplet formation was used to generate uniform alginate particles about 2 mm in diameter. The hydrolysis reaction of NaBH₄ was utilized to produce gaseous hydrogen and then trapped within alginate particles to form bubbles. The Pt⁴⁺ mixed with alginate solution was dropped into the reservoir to react with reducing NaBH₄ and hardening CaCl₂ to form Pt nanoparticles-alginate composite bubbles. Results indicate that the size of bubbles decreases with the CaCl₂ concentration (1% ~ 20%), and size of bubbles increases with the NaBH₄ concentration (1 ~ 20 mM). The advantages for the present approach include low cost, easy operation, and effective production of Pt nanoparticles-alginate composite bubbles.     

Calcium carbonate and wood reinforced hybrid PVC composites

In this article, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) sandwich‐structured hybrid composites with amorphous calcium carbonate and wood‐filled cores were obtained by compression molding. It has been determined that wood addition up to a weight ratio of 33% reported to the total filler amount is beneficial in improving both the inter‐filler and filler‐matrix interfacial adhesion, which alongside with the promoting of the amorphous PVC matrix crystallization is responsible for an increase up to 34% in the flexural strength of the composites, compared to unfilled PVC. The hybrid filled composites present up to 35% lower friction coefficients and up to 20% higher Brinell hardness values than the composites filled with calcium carbonate alone. Subsequently, wood addition determines an increase in the oxidation onset temperature for PVC and an increase with up to 20% in the sound and thermal‐insulative properties of the composites, compared to unfilled PVC. The dominating dispersive part of the composites surface energy aids in improving the mass and dimensional stability of the assembly to both water and dilute hydrochloric acid aqueous solutions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46317.     

Influence of heat flux and Reynolds number on the entropy generation for different types of nanofluids in a hexagon microchannel heat sink

Based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy generation is studied for laminar forced convection flow of different nanoparticles(Al_2 O_3, CuO and SiO_2) mixed with water through a hexagon microchannel heat sink(HMCHS). The effects of different heat fluxes and Reynolds numbers on the entropy generation for different nanofluids, volume fractions and nanoparticles diameter are investigated. The heat flux is in the range of 125 to 500 kW·m~(-2) and the Reynolds numbers vary between 200 and 1500. The thermal, frictional and total entropy generations are calculated by integrating the volumetric rate components over the entire HMCHS. The results clearly show that the rise in the heat flux leads to an increase in the thermal entropy generation for nanofluids and pure water but they don't have any influence on the frictional entropy generation. Moreover, when the Reynolds number increases, the frictional entropy generation increases while the thermal entropy generation decreases. The results revealed that at low heat fluxes and high Reynolds numbers, pure water gives the lowest entropy generation, while at high heat flux the nanofluid has to be used in order to lower the overall irreversibility.     

Investigation of carbon nanofibers as support for bioactive substances

In this paper we have studied the adsorption properties of various bio-active systems onto the surface of carbon nanofibers (CNF) synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Amino acids (alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid) and glucose oxidase (GOx) were adsorbed on CNF and the results were compared with those obtained when activated carbon (AC) was used as support. CNF and AC properties (hydrophilic or hydrophobic properties) were characterized by the pH value, the concentration of acidic/basic sites and by naphthalene adsorption. CNF with immobilized GOx was additionally investigated as a highly sensitive glucose biosensor. An amperometric method was used in an original manner to detect the changes in the specific activity of GOx, immobilized longer time on CNF. The method demonstrates that not the whole enzyme adsorbed onto CNF can catalyze the oxidation of glucose from the solution.     

Epistemic Actions as Resources

We provide an algebraic semantics together with a sound andcomplete sequent calculus for information update due to epistemicactions. This semantics is flexible enough to accommodate incompleteas well as wrong information e.g. due to secrecy and deceit,as well as nested knowledge. We give a purely algebraic treatmentof the muddy children puzzle, which moreover extends to situationswhere the children are allowed to lie and cheat. Epistemic actions,that is, information exchanges between agents , are modeled as elements of a quantale. The quantale acts on an underlying Q-rightmodule of epistemic propositions and facts. The epistemic content is encoded by appearance maps,one pair and of (lax) morphisms for each agent , which preserve the module and quantale structurerespectively. By adjunction, they give rise to epistemic modalities,capturing the agents' knowledge on propositions and actions.The module action is epistemic update and gives rise to dynamicmodalities—cf. weakest precondition. This model subsumesthe crucial fragment of Baltag, Moss and Solecki's dynamic epistemiclogic, abstracting it in a constructive fashion while introducingresource-sensitive structure on the epistemic actions.     

Visual Analysis of Multi‐Dimensional Categorical Data Sets

We present a set of interactive techniques for the visual analysis of multi‐dimensional categorical data. Our approach is based on multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), which allows one to analyse relationships, patterns, trends and outliers among dependent categorical variables. We use MCA as a dimensionality reduction technique to project both observations and their attributes in the same 2D space. We use a treeview to show attributes and their domains, a histogram of their representativity in the data set and as a compact overview of attribute‐related facts. A second view shows both attributes and observations. We use a Voronoi diagram whose cells can be interactively merged to discover salient attributes, cluster values and bin categories. Bar chart legends help assigning meaning to the 2D view axes and 2D point clusters. We illustrate our techniques with real‐world application data.     

IMS10-image-based milling toolpaths with tool engagement control for complex geometry

This paper presents a NC toolpath generation strategy with tool engagement control for arbitrarily complex discrete part geometry, which reduces machining time and tool wear and can be used in high speed machining. The toolpath computation is based on image models for design part, raw stock and cutting tool, and involves pixel-based simulation of the milling process. Simulation results and comparison with existing methods are presented.     

Surface processing methods for point sets using finite elements

We present a framework for processing point-based surfaces via partial differential equations (PDEs). Our framework efficiently and effectively brings well-known PDE-based processing techniques to the field of point-based surfaces. At the core of our method is a finite element discretization of PDEs on point surfaces. This discretization is based on the local assembly of PDE-specific mass and stiffness matrices, using a local point coupling computation. Point couplings are computed using a local tangent plane construction and a local Delaunay triangulation of point neighborhoods. The definition of tangent planes relies on moment-based computation with proven scaling and stability properties. Once local stiffness matrices are obtained, we are able to easily assemble global matrices and efficiently solve the corresponding linear systems by standard iterative solvers. We demonstrate our framework by several types of PDE-based surface processing applications, such as segmentation, texture synthesis, bump mapping, and geometric fairing.     

Optimizing at the end-points the Akima's interpolation method of smooth curve fitting

In this paper we propose an optimized version, at the end-points, of the Akima's interpolation method for experimental data fitting. Comparing with the Akima's procedure, the error estimate, in terms of the modulus of continuity, is improved. Similarly, we optimize at the end points the Catmull–Rom's cubic spline. The properties of the obtained splines are illustrated on a numerical experiment.     

Patch‐type Segmentation of Voxel Shapes using Simplified Surface Skeletons

We present a new method for decomposing a 3D voxel shape into disjoint segments using the shape's simplified surface‐skeleton. The surface skeleton of a shape consists of 2D manifolds inside its volume. Each skeleton point has a maximally inscribed ball that touches the boundary in at least two contact points. A key observation is that the boundaries of the simplified fore‐ and background skeletons map one‐to‐one to increasingly fuzzy, soft convex, respectively concave, edges of the shape. Using this property, we build a method for segmentation of 3D shapes which has several desirable properties. Our method segments both noisy shapes and shapes with soft edges which vanish over low‐curvature regions. Multiscale segmentations can be obtained by varying the simplification level of the skeleton. We present a voxel‐based implementation of our approach and illustrate it on several realistic examples.