Flame retardancy of ceramic-based rigid polyurethane foam composites

In this work, ceramic fillers zirconia and alumina powder were incorporated in the rigid polyurethane foams derived from modified castor oil and their impact on the mechanical, thermal, and fire performances of composite foams have been analyzed. It was observed that the addition of ceramic filler showed improved mechanical and thermal properties and best properties were shown by 6% zirconia with compressive strength of 6.61 MPa and flexural strength of 5.72 MPa. Zirconia also demonstrated an increase in T_5% up to 260 °C. Cone calorimetry shows a decrease in peak of heat release from 118 to 84 kW m⁻² and 94 kW m⁻² by the incorporation of alumina and zirconia powder, respectively. Furthermore, total heat release (THR), smoke production rate (SPR), and total smoke release (TSR) were also found to decrease remarkably on the incorporation of ceramic fillers. So, these fillers have a great potential as an additive to incorporate good mechanical, thermal, and fire properties in bio-based rigid PU foams. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48250.     

Fibrous raw material of bamboo origin with improved fibrillation and spinnability

For making use of the natural biomass, the textile features of the bamboo fibres were optimized. Since lignin content of the fibres is responsible for its textile properties, the alkali-treated bamboo fibres were bleached with peracetic acid that resulted into the desired removal of lignin content of the fibres. As evident from the scanning electron microscopic images, the morphology of the fibres was much improved over the control samples. The resulting fibre possesses desirable tenacity, colouring properties and strength. Overall, an improved method for chemical treatment of bamboo fibres is developed so that this natural biomass is used for textile purpose.     

Quantification of trans fatty acid content in French fries of local food service retailers using attenuated total reflection – Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The contents of trans fatty acids in French fries served at the local food service retailers in Honolulu were determined by simple Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic technique without the pretreatment of fatty acid extraction. A horizontal attenuated total reflection (ATR) crystal made of zinc selenide (ZnSe) was used to obtain FTIR spectra of French fries with and without fatty acid extraction. Residual oil films obtained by pressing French fries directly on the ATR crystal surface without removal of any solid particles or air bubbles were scanned for the spectral measurement. The calibration set consisted of triolein (C18:1, 9-cis) and trielaidin (C18:1, 9-trans) mixed in varying ratios. All spectral data were averaged and converted into GRAMS format. The peak heights of each spectrum at 966 cm⁻¹ were found to be linearly correlated with the contents of trans fatty acids in the validation set (n = 8, R² = 0.9835). The developed calibration model was validated by comparing the results obtained from the ATR-FTIR with Mojonnier extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS).     

Apple pomace ultrafiltration sludge – A novel substrate for fungal bioproduction of citric acid: Optimisation studies

Ever-growing demand for citric acid (CA) and urgent need for alternative sources has served as a driving force for workers to search for novel and economical substrates. Submerged fermentation was conducted using apple (Malus domestica) pomace ultrafiltration sludge as an inexpensive substrate for CA bioproduction, using Aspergillus niger NRRL567. The crucial parameters, such as total suspended solids and inducer concentration, were optimised by response surface methodology for higher CA production. The optimal CA concentrations of 44.9 g/100 g and 37.9 g/100 g dry substrate were obtained with 25 g/l of initial total solids and 3% (v/v) methanol and 25 g/l of total solids and 3% (v/v) ethanol concentration, respectively, after the 144 h of fermentation. Results indicated that total solids concentration, and methanol as an inducer, were effective with respect to higher CA yield and also indicated the possibility of using apple pomace sludge as a potential substrate for economical production of CA.     

An Expert Approach for Data Flow Prediction: Case Study of Wireless Sensor Networks

The data flow is an important parameter used in the optimization problem of Wireless Sensor Networks. This paper presents an expert approach for improved data flow prediction based on data discretization and artificial intelligence. The proposed approach has been implemented on various machine learning methods (a total of 17 methods). This data flow prediction is based on the dataset generated from the simulations with NS-2.35 for multiple Wireless Sensor Networks (5- to -50 nodes). The performance comparison of different machine learning models with continuous data and discretized data is also presented. The proposed approach considerably reduces the execution time of the machine learning models for training purposes and also enhances the accuracy of prediction. The result analysis shows that the proposed approach is better compared to various machine learning methods. Also, the proposed approach is able to handle both continuous and discrete data. The datasets used in this work are available as a supplement at NDS and DDS link.

     

Compact high isolation and improved bandwidth hybrid RF MEMS SPDT switch for 5G applications

Microsystem Technologies - Fifth generation (5G) communication system enables the pathway for a higher data transfer rate. The frequency bands used for 5G communication system are distributed from...     

A hybrid edge-based technique for segmentation of renal lesions in CT images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The entire community of medical experts uses various imaging techniques as the precursor for disease diagnosis with the assistance of computer-aided diagnosis...     

Centralized sliding mode frequency regulation approach for an uncertain islanded micro grid integrated with disturbance observer

This paper proposes a novel secondary frequency regulation technique for an uncertain islanded micro grid (MG). The major motivation of the work is to integrate the intrinsic robustness of the sliding mode control scheme with the disturbance observer to estimate and alleviate the unknown mismatched uncertainties caused by renewable resources and load variations. To this end, a dynamical sliding manifold is first utilized and then a control law is derived with Lyapunov's method which stabilizes the MG dynamics. Moreover, in order to ensure faster time domain responses of the closed‐loop system, we employ a power rate reaching law in our proposed control design. Thereafter, the performances of the introduced control strategy are tested on an islanded MG using MATLAB/Simulink, and robustness analysis is also carried out by considering five different case studies. Further, in contrast to the existing approaches such as robust H _∞ and robust PID control, the proposed strategy renders appealing time domain characteristics such as settling time, peak overshoot, and integral absolute frequency error.