Preparation of silver nanostructure from silver(I) coordination polymer and fabrication of nano silver(I) bromide by reverse micelles technique

A new one-dimensional silver(I) coordination polymer, [Ag(μ-bpfb)(NO₃)]_n (1); bpfb = N,N′-bis(4-pyridylformamide)-1,4-benzene, has been synthesized and characterized by IR, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. The single crystal X-ray data show that the silver(I) 1D coordination polymer grows into a three-dimensional network by hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking interactions. Compound 1 with nanorod morphology was also prepared by sonochemical method. The cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a cationic surfactant was used in reverse micelles technique to obtain spongy silver(I) bromide nanoparticles from compound 1. Also, different silver nanoparticles have been prepared via direct calcination at 673 K and thermal decomposition in oleic acid from compound 1. The nanostructures of [Ag(μ-bpfb)(NO₃)]_n (1), silver and silver(I) bromide were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDAX) analysis. Thermal stability of compound 1 in both bulk and nano-sized form was studied by thermal gravimetric (TG) and differential thermal (DT) analyses.     

Synthesis of colloidal nanosilica from waste glass powder as a low cost precursor

Waste glass powder was used as a low cost precursor for production of colloidal nanosilica for the first time. The process includes production of wet silica gel and thermal peptization of the wet gel. Purification of the glass powder and wet gel production were initiated by acid washing. The obtained powder was reacted with sodium hydroxide to produce wet silica gel. Type of the applied acid was examined in one factor at a time route. Temperature of the alkaline step and concentrations of the applied acid and base were investigated using Taguchi design of experiments. After finding the best combination of the investigated factor levels in production of the wet gel, time of the stabilization in thermal peptization was studied. Characterizations of the wet gel and colloidal silica were performed by XRF, DLS, FESEM, TEM, FTIR and N₂ sorption evaluation. Accordingly pure and stable colloidal nanosilica (98.50%) with average particle size of 21.9?nm was produced from the glass powder successfully. Specific surface area of the dried porous optimum sample was 83.63?m²/g.     

Investigation of the Temperature and Density Dependences of the Effective Pair Potential Parameters Using Variational Theory

A variational theory (VT), in which the potential energy of a real system is evaluated relative to the hard-sphere system, has been used to investigate the medium's effects on the pair potential parameters. By adding the medium's effects to the isolated pair potential, the concept of an effective pair potential (EPP) has been introduced. The advantage of such a potential (EPP) over the isolated pair potential is that the configurational energy can exactly be written as the sum of all EPP of all pairs available in the system. The parameters of such a pair potential will then show state dependence. The EPP parameters for different dense fluids at various temperatures have been obtained via the VT, and they have been shown to be density independent for densities greater than the Boyle density, _B 1.8 _c , (where _c is the critical density), while at lower densities the parameters depend on density as well as temperature. For any dense fluid, the depth of the EPP, , is found to be larger than its corresponding isolated pair. When the EPP parameters are used to reduce temperature and density, the cut-off parameter, C=d/ depends only on the reduced density, and this parameter shows a strong principle of corresponding states for different fluids. The resulting expression for the cut-off parameter has then been used to accurately predict the internal energy. Finally, the EPP parameters are compared with those of the average effective pair potential (AEPP) for Ar, to show the importance of the medium effects and the long-range interactions of the AEPP in dense fluids, individually. This comparison shows that the depth parameter of the AEPP is much larger than that of the EPP. Since the long-range interactions are mainly attractive, such a conclusion is reasonable.     

Weighting fuzzy classification rules using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis

In fuzzy rule-based classification systems, rule weight has often been used to improve the classification accuracy. In past research, a number of heuristic methods for rule weight specification have been proposed. In this paper, a method of fuzzy rule weight specification using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis is proposed. In order to specify the weight of a fuzzy rule, using 2-class ROC analysis, the threshold that the rule achieves its maximum accuracy is found. This threshold is used as the weight of the rule. The proposed method is compared with existing ones through computer simulations on some well-known classification problems with continuous attributes. Simulation results show that the proposed method performs better than existing methods of fuzzy rule weight specification.     

The influence of different single dietary sources on moult induction in laying hens

An investigation was carried out to assess the possibility of using single dietary sources as alternatives to feed deprivation for the induction of moult in commercial laying hens. The study involved six dietary groups of 29 laying hens: unmoulted, dried tomato pomace, alfalfa meal, rice bran, cumin seed meal and feed withdrawal. The birds received the above diets during the moulting period (11 days), and body weight loss and ovary weight regression were measured. Post‐moult production parameters (number of eggs produced per hen per day, egg weight, shell weight, yolk colour and Haugh unit) were measured for 12 weeks. Results showed that all dietary sources were as effective as feed withdrawal in causing ovary weight regression in birds. Birds provided with tomato pomace or alfalfa showed lower weight losses than feed‐deprived birds at the end of the moulting period. Hens moulted by tomato pomace or alfalfa exhibited post‐moult levels of egg production over a 12 week period that were superior to those of hens moulted by feed withdrawal. Post‐moult eggs laid by hens moulted by all dietary sources were of comparable quality to eggs from feed‐deprived hens and superior to those from unmoulted hens. As fibrous feeds with low metabolisable energy and an appreciable amount of protein, dried tomato pomace and alfalfa meal may be fed to hens on an ad libitum basis for effective moult induction while reducing the stress of severe starvation and retaining comparable egg quality and production. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Identification and measurement of petroleum precipitates

A number of procedures to identify and measure the precipitates that result from petroleum fluids are presented. The fractions considered in this study include those in the categories of asphaltenes, resins, saturates (paraffin/wax), aromatics, inorganic minerals and diamondoids. A combination of deposition techniques, separation by centrifuge, filtration, gas chromatography, gel-permeation chromatography, and SARA (LC-HPLC) separations, and a number of other techniques are utilized to identify each fraction and quantify their concentrations. These procedures provide an understanding of the overall behavior of the species that precipitate as well as of the interactions among them. The results of such analysis are the cornerstone of any predictive and preventive measures for heavy organics deposition from petroleum fluids.     

Carbon/PbO2 asymmetric electrochemical capacitor based on methanesulfonic acid electrolyte

A new hybrid electrochemical capacitor based on an activated carbon negative electrode, lead dioxide thin film and nanowire array positive electrode with an electrolyte made of a lead salt dissolved in methanesulfonic acid was investigated. It is shown that the maximum energy density and specific capacity of the C/PbO₂ nanowire system increase during the first 50 cycles before reaching their maximum values, which are 29 Wh kg⁻¹ and 34 F g⁻¹, respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² and a depth of discharge (positive active electrode material) of 3.8%, that corresponds to a 22C rate. This is 7–8 times higher than the corresponding maximum values reached with a C/PbO₂ thin film cell operated in the same conditions. After an initial activation period, the performances of the C/PbO₂ nanowire system stay constant and do not show any sign of degradation during more than 5000 cycles. For comparison, the C/PbO₂ thin film system exhibits a 50% decrease of its performances in similar conditions.     

Flow over trapezoidal side weir

In this paper, the hydraulic characteristics of a sharp crested trapezoidal side weir have been experimentally and theoretically investigated. It was found that the DeMarchi coefficient of discharge for a sharp crested trapezoidal side weir in subcritical flow is related to the main channel Froude number, the side slope of weir, ratio of weir height to upstream depth of flow and ratio of weir length to upstream depth of flow. Suitable equations for the discharge coefficient are also obtained.     

An extended discrete autoregressive model for variable bit rate video traffic encoded by scalable video codec

Designing an effective and high performance network requires accurate characterization and modeling of network traffic. This paper provides a study of the transmission, modeling, and analysis of variable bit rate (VBR) video, which is fundamental for designing protocols and for effective utilization of networks in video transmission. To meet the specified requirements of future networks, the scalable video codec (SVC) was chosen as the video compression standard. The main objective of this work was to propose a statistical model that will allow better coordination between generated SVC video traffic and original video traffic. The performance of the proposed model was evaluated by comparing the model with three existing low‐complex statistical models using graphical and statistical measurements as well as cross‐validation. For all evaluation techniques, the accuracy of the proposed model was evaluated, and the frame size distribution of the modeled traffic was found to match that of the original video traffic better than other existing models. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Electrochemical Behavior of Au/AuNPs/PNA/ZnSe-QD/ACA Electrode Towards CySH Oxidation

Nano-Micro Letters - This work describes the electrochemical behavior of azodicarboxamide (ACA) film immobilized on the surface of penicillamine (PNA)/ZnSe-quantum dot (ZnSe-QD) gold nanoparticle...