Color and Selected Properties of PbO─BiO1.5─GaO1.5 Glasses

The density; molar volume; thermal expansion coefficient; dissolution rate in water, HC1, and NaOH; glass transition and crystallization temperatures; and the absorption edge in the ultraviolet-visible and infrared were measured for PbO─BiO1.5─GaO1.5 glasses. The range of compositions investigated was x PbO (100 − (x + y) )BiO_1.5. yGaO_1.5 for x between 20 and 60 cat% and y of 20, 25, 30, and 35 cat%. The glass-forming tendency increased with increased GaO_1.5 and decreased with increased PbO or BiO_1.5. The compositional dependence of these properties was consistent with the weight, size, charge, and bond strength of the cations. The Ga^{3 +} ions in these glasses are believed to act primarily as network-forming cations, whereas the majority of the Bi³⁺ and Pb²⁺ ions behave as network-modifying cations. It is suggested that a small friction of the lead ions are present as Pb⁴⁺. Depending upon melting conditions, these glasses ranged in color from brown to yellow. Various attempts, including containerless melting, were made to obtain colorless glasses, but no conditions were found which totally eliminated the color. The least color (pale yellow) was obtained when the glasses were melted in an air or nitrogen atmosphere in an alumina or gold crucible.     

Interpolymer complex microparticles based on polymethacrylic acid‐chitosan for oral insulin delivery

In the present study, microparticles composed of polymethacrylic acid‐chitosan (PMAA‐CS) were prepared by a novel interionic gelation method. Free‐radical polymerization of methacrylic acid was carried out in the presence of CS, using a water‐soluble initiator, and application of these microparticles toward oral insulin delivery was evaluated. Microparticles obtained were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) studies. From SEM studies, it was observed that microparticles had an aggregated morphology with size ～20 μm, while FTIR confirmed the presence of ionic interaction between PMAA and CS chains. Protein loading was done by diffusion filling method, and from in vitro release study, it was observed that insulin‐loaded microparticles displayed a pH depended release profile at alkaline/acidic pH. Microparticles exhibited sustained release of insulin for 3–4 h at neutral pH, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) proved that encapsulated protein maintained 100% biological activity at neutral pH. Preliminary study suggests that these microparticles can serve as good candidate for oral protein delivery. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 506–512, 2006     

Retardation effect of superplasticizer on different cement fractions

Cement hydration is a complex chemical process strongly influenced by the proportions of the various minerals present in the cement, admixtures, and the size of the cement particles. In this note, it is shows that naphthalene based superplasticizer, used at high dosage, does not affect the total heat of hydration but retards the hydration process of portland cement. This retardation, however, is most effective on the medium size fraction of the cement (4 – 30 μm in our case). The superplasticizer does not affect the hydration of the fine fraction (< 4 μm) to that extent due to its richer concentration of SO₃ and alkalies. The coarse fraction of the cement (30 – 72 μm) does not participate (with or without superplasticizer) in the heat evolution process.     

Hydration/dehydration characteristics of struvite and dittmarite pertaining to magnesium ammonium phosphate cement systems

Struvite, an important reaction product in magnesium ammonium phosphate cement systems, was synthesized in the laboratory. The elevated-temperature dehydration and then roomtemperature hydration characteristics of the dehydrated products were studied by thermogravimetric analyses and X-ray diffraction techniques. From isothermal experiments, struvite is found to be thermally unstable in air at temperatures above 50 C. Struvite can lose part or all of its ammonia and water molecules depending on the time and temperature of heat treatment, ultimately forming magnesium hydrogen phosphate. This decomposed product is X-ray amorphous and upon room-temperature rehydration can form struvite, unknown hydrates or newberyite, alone or in combination with each other, depending on the amount of ammonia left in the structure. However, when struvite is heated in excess water, it only loses its water of crystallization to form the monohydrate, dittmarite. Dittmarite is thermally more stable than struvite and like struvite also forms magnesium hydrogen phosphate on decomposition. At room temperature and in the presence of excess water, dittmarite can slowly transform to the hexahydrate, struvite. The consequence of structural similarities between struvite and dittmarite and conditions under which they may be present in cured cements are described.     

Low intensity visual data improvement using DWT and LWT based regularizer

Image Completion plays a vital role in compressed sensing, machine learning, and computer vision applications. The Rank Minimization algorithms are used to perform the image completion. The major problem with rank minimization algorithms is the loss of information in the recovered image at high corruption ratios. To overcome this problem Lifting wavelet transform based Rank Minimization (LwRM), and Discrete wavelet transform based Rank Minimization (DwRM) methods are proposed, which can recover the image, if the corrupted observations are more than 80%. The evaluation of the proposed methods are accomplished by Full Reference Image Quality Assessment (FRIQA) and No Reference Image Quality Assessment (NR-IQA) metrics. The simulation results of proposed methods are superior to state-of-the-art methods.

     

DeepRan: Attention-based BiLSTM and CRF for Ransomware Early Detection and Classification

Information Systems Frontiers - Ransomware is a self-propagating malware encrypting file systems of the compromised computers to extort victims for financial gains. Hundreds of schools, hospitals,...     

Generalizing Multi-agent Graph Exploration Techniques

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - The system of multiple agents working in coordination for a given task has several advantages on faster completion, fault-tolerance, etc....     

Evaluating the role of composition and local structure on alkali out-diffusion in glasses for thin-film solar cells

The presence of alkali ions has reportedly improved the performance of CIGS/CZTS–based thin-film solar cells. The out-diffusion of the alkali ion, in particular, Na, from the glass substrate offers a facile scalable route of supplying the alkali ions during the growth of the absorber layer. In this work, we demonstrate the diffusion of different alkali ions (Li/Na/K) from composition tuned glasses with intentionally incorporated excess alkali ions into a thin Mo film, typically used as a bottom electrode in solar cells. We also evaluate the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the glasses for suitability as a substrate in thin-film deposition. The out-diffusion of alkali ions to the overlayer is found to be critically influenced by the composition and the local structure of the glasses. The Na ions exhibit the highest extent of diffusion among the alkali ions present in glass substrates, while that for the K-ions is the lowest. For the glasses with mixed alkali ions, the presence of Li facilitated the out-diffusion of Na, whereas K ions appear to inhibit the same. Differently with the existing reports, we show that the activation energy and the presence of Ca ions as additional modifiers play a crucial role in the transport mechanism of the ions. In addition, the synthesized glasses exhibit hardness of the order 5-7 GPa, density ~2.55 g cm^-3. The glass transition temperature lies between 535 and 580°C and the coefficient of thermal expansion 8.5-10 ppm/K, which is highly suitable for use as substrates in thin-film solar cells.     

Improving delamination resistance of carbon fiber reinforced polymeric composite by interface engineering using carbonaceous nanofillers through electrophoretic deposition: An assessment at different in-service temperatures

In this article, modification of carbon fiber surface by carbon based nanofillers (multi-walled carbon nanotubes [CNT], carbon nanofibers, and multi-layered graphene) has been achieved by electrophoretic deposition technique to improve its interfacial bonding with epoxy matrix, with a target to improve the mechanical performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites. Flexural and short beam shear properties of the composites were studied at extreme temperature conditions; in-situ cryo, room and elevated temperature (−196, 30, and 120°C respectively). Laminate reinforced with CNT grafted carbon fibers exhibited highest delamination resistance with maximum improvement in flexural strength as well as in inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) among all the carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (CE) composites at all in-situ temperatures. CNT modified CE composite showed increment of 9% in flexural strength and 17.43% in ILSS when compared to that of unmodified CE composite at room temperature (30°C). Thermomechanical properties were investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis. Fractography was also carried out to study different modes of failure of the composites.     

Effects of fiber surface grafting by functionalized carbon nanotubes on the interfacial durability during cryogenic testing and conditioning of CFRP composites

Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (CE) composite is ideal for a cryogenic fuel storage tank in space applications due to its unmatched specific strength and modulus. In this article, inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) of carbon fiber/epoxy (CE) composite is shown to be considerably improved by engineering the interface with carboxyl functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube (FCNT) using electrophoretic deposition technique. FCNT deposited fibers from different bath concentrations (0.3, 0.5, and 1.0 g/L) were used to fabricate the laminates, which were then tested at room (30°C) and in-situ liquid nitrogen (LN) (−196°C) temperature as well as conditioning for different time durations (0.25, 0.5, 1, 6, and 12 h) followed by immediate RT testing to study the applicability of these engineered materials at the cryogenic environment. A maximum increment in ILSS was noticed at bath concentration of 0.5 g/L, which was ~21% and ~ 17% higher than neat composite at 30°C and − 196°C, respectively. Short-term LN conditioning was found to be detrimental due to developed cryogenic shock, which was further found to be compensated by cryogenic interfacial clamping upon long-term exposure.