Preparation and properties of cationic membranes obtained by radiation grafting of methacrylic acid onto PTFE films

Cationic membranes were prepared by direct radiation grafting of methacrylic acid (MAA) onto poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) films followed by alkaline treatment to confer ionic character in the graft copolymer. The complete inhibition of homopolymerization of MAA by using ammonium ferreous sulfate (Mohr's salt) failed. However, the addition of 0.5 wt % FeCl₃ to the monomer solution effectively inhibited the homopolymerization process and higher grafting yield was obtained. It was found that the graft polymerization proceeded successfully in presence of methanol/water mixture (30/70 wt %), and much higher degrees of grafting were obtained as compared with those in the presence of other diluents used here. The influence of irradiation atmosphere (air, N₂ gas, and vacuum) on the grafting process was investigated. The dependence of the grafting rate on MAA concentration was found to be of orders 2.9 and 0.72 in the presence of 0.5 wt % Mohr's salt or 0.5 wt % FeCl₃, respectively. This grafting system proceeds by the front mechanism. Investigation of mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and swelling behavior of the grafted films revealed that such a copolymer could be acceptable in practical use as a cation-exchange membrane.     

Development of rubber pressure molding technique using butyl rubber to fabricate fiber reinforced plastic components based on glass fiber and epoxy resin

A rubber pressure molding (RPM) technique is developed to prepare fiber reinforced plastic components (FRP) using glass fiber and epoxy resin. The technique is based on the matching die set, where the die is made of hard metal like steel and the punch from flexible rubber like materials. The use of flexible rubber punch helps to intensify and uniformly redistribute pressure (both operating pressure and developed hydrostatic pressure due to the flexible rubber punch) on the surface of the product. A split steel die and rubber punch were designed and fabricated to prepare the FRP components. The same split die was also used to cast the rubber punch. Butyl rubber was used to prepare a rubber punch in this investigation. Burn test, coin test, scanning electron microscopy and mechanical tests like interlaminar fracture toughness, interlaminar shear test, tension test, etc were carried out to know the fiber content, void content, presence of delamination, bonding between fiber and resin, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the composite materials. These properties were also compared with FRP components made by the conventional technique to evaluate its performance in the structural applications. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 1095–1102, 2006     

Consistency anomalies in multi-tier architectures: automatic detection and prevention

Modern transaction systems, consisting of an application server tier and a database tier, offer several levels of isolation providing a trade-off between performance and consistency. While it is fairly well known how to identify qualitatively the anomalies that are possible under a certain isolation level, it is much more difficult to detect and quantify such anomalies during run-time of a given application. In this paper, we present a new approach to detect and quantify consistency anomalies for arbitrary multi-tier application running under any isolation levels ensuring at least read committed. In fact, the application can run even under a mixture of isolation levels. Our detection approach can be online or off-line and for each detected anomaly, we identify exactly the transactions and data items involved. Furthermore, we classify the detected anomalies into patterns showing the business methods involved as well as analyzing the types of cycles that occur. Our approach can help designers to either choose an isolation level where the anomalies do not occur or to change the transaction design to avoid the anomalies. Furthermore, we provide an option in which the occurrence of anomalies can be automatically reduced during run-time. To test the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach, we have conducted a set of experiments using a wide range of benchmarks.     

Towards Effective Integrated Access Control Lists in Internet Networks

ACLs （access control lists） represent a traditional way in filtering packets in routers. In modern complex enterprise networks that provide a vast array of services, there is an ever increasing need for verifying the integrity of ACLs to detect any potential security holes and improve the network performance. This paper concerns the integrity of routers＇ ACLs in large enterprise networks. We first investigate the integrity of the ACLs of two touters by describing a bottom-up approach for detecting redundancies in ACLs of two routers. We then extend our study to multiple touters and provide a heuristic algorithm for detecting redundant ACLs in multiple touters. We validate the practicality of ouralgorithm through real-life and synthetic router ACL groups of large networks. Performance results show that our heuristic algorithm do not only improve the performance by reducing the number of comparisons overhead, but also helps in discovering potential security holes that can not be discovered by considering the ACLs of each router individually.     

Chemical Assessment of Bottled Drinking Waters by IC,GC, and ICP‐MS

Abstract

Bottled water brands, consisting of both local and imported types, collected from Doha city, Qatar, were evaluated for their suitability for human consumption. Water quality constituents that were analyzed include trihalomethanes (THM) by GC‐ECD, turbidity, TDS, total hardness, total alkalinity, pH, EC, major anions by IC, and major cations and trace metals by ICP‐MS. The data obtained were compared with the WHO and the USEPA drinking water standards. As, Se, Ba, and Cu were undetected in all water samples. The levels of potential toxic metals in the studied brands were generally low, except for three brands that had Cd and Pb which exceeded the WHO limits. Fluoride was generally present in all bottled water brands at levels less than the lower optimum level. The reported data for pH, turbidity, TDS, EC, alkalinity, hardness, major anions, and major cations were generally in compliance with the WHO and the USEPA standards, with exception of five brands, where the levels of TDS, EC, F, and NO₃ exceeded the WHO recommended limits. Also, it was found that the concentrations of NO₃ F, Fe, Cr, Zn, and Pb were higher in the local brands. The levels of Cd, Mn, Ca, Mg, EC, alkalinity, SO₄, TDS, THM, and hardness were higher in the domestic brands, when compared to the imported ones. The levels of Cl, pH, turbidity, and Na in the domestic brands were comparable to imported ones. Three THM were found in 29% of water samples with three brands having CHCl₂Br and CHCl₃ levels exceeding the WHO standards.

Comparison of the results of this study with the reported label values of both domestic and imported bottled water showed good agreement with pH and K values, but significant variation for Ca, Mg, F, NO₃, and SO₄ in the imported brands and relatively low variation in the domestic brands. The results of chemical analysis of SRM 1460, trace elements in water, were generally in good agreement with NIST certified values.     

Macromechanical behaviour of composite laminates

An improved higher order transverse shear deformation theory is employed to arrive at modified constitutive relations which can be used in the flexural, buckling and vibration analysis of laminated plates and shells. The strain energy for such systems is then expressed in terms of the displacements and the rotations for ready reference and use. Numerical values of vibration frequencies are obtained using this formulation employing Ritz's method of analysis. The results are compared with those available in the literature to validate the analysis presented.     

Joint subcarrier and power allocation for downlink cellular OFDMA systems by intercell interference limitation

This paper addresses resource allocation for sum throughput maximization in a sectorized two-cell downlink orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA) system impaired by multicell interference. It is well known that the optimization problem for this scenario is NP-hard and combinational, which is here converted to a novel sum throughput maximization problem in cellular OFDMA systems based on the intercell interference limitation. Then, three subclasses of this new problem are solved. By the first subclass, on the assumption that subcarrier allocation parameters are fixed, an algorithm for optimal power allocation is obtained. However, the optimal resource allocation requires an exhaustive search, including the optimal power allocation which cannot be implemented in practice due to its high complexity. By the second subclass, the problem is reduced to a single cell case where the intercell interference in each subcarrier is limited to a certain threshold. Based on the solution of the single cell problem, a distributed resource allocation scheme with the aim of small information exchange between the coordinated base stations is proposed. By the third subclass, the centralized resource allocation for two adjacent cells as a general problem is solved. Here, the algorithm allocates simultaneously the subcarriers and the power of the considered two cells while the resource allocation parameters of both cells are coupled mutually. The present study shows that distributed and centralized resource allocation algorithms have much less complexity than the algorithm used in the exhaustive search and can be used in practice as efficient multicell resource allocation algorithms. Simulation results illustrate the performance improvements of the proposed schemes in comparison to the schemes with no intercell interference consideration.     

Fault diagnosis and classification based on wavelet transform and neural network

In this paper we present a novel method in fault recognition and classification in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) using wavelet transform based Artificial Neural Network (ANN). We first simulate 10 design basis accidents (DBA) of a VVER-1000 using 15 input parameters with employing a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Network with Resilient Backpropagation (RBP) algorithm. Afterwards we present the application of wavelet transform for its temporal shift property and multiresolution analysis characteristics to reduce disturbing perturbations in input training set data. Simulation of Artificial Neural Network and wavelet transform was performed using MATLAB software. The results show an enhanced accuracy and speed in fault recognition and high degree of robustness.     

Dissolved gas method of generating bubbles for potential use in ore flotation

Production and use of dissolved air bubbles were investigated with the purpose of improving the recovery of fine particles in ore flotation processes.The rate and extent of air dissolution were studied under different conditions of pressure, temperature, liquid volume, and gas-solid contact. The process of bubble formation by pressure release was also examined. Assessments made through dissolved oxygen measurements indicated that dissolution of air and the release of dissolved air could be achieved within a 1-minute period. Flotation tests carried out on a ?37 μm magnetite ore sample demonstrated superior results with dissolved gas bubbles compared to conventional bubbles.