Novel Nanorod Precipitate Formation in Neodymium and Titanium Codoped Bismuth Ferrite

The discovery of unusual nanorod precipitates in bismuth ferrite doped with Nd and Ti is reported. The atomic structure and chemistry of the nanorods are determined using a combination of high angle annular dark field imaging, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and density functional calculations. It is found that the structure of the BiFeO₃ matrix is strongly modified adjacent to the precipitates; the readiness of BiFeO₃ to adopt different structural allotropes in turn explains why such a large axial ratio, uncommon in precipitates, is stabilized. In addition, a correlation is found between the alignment of the rods and the orientation of ferroelastic domains in the matrix, which is consistent with the system's attempt to minimize its internal strain. Density functional calculations indicate a finite density of electronic states at the Fermi energy within the rods, suggesting enhanced electrical conductivity along the rod axes, and motivating future investigations of nanorod functionalities.     

Formulation Optimization of a Palm-Based Nanoemulsion System Containing Levodopa

Response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to investigate the influence of the main emulsion composition; mixture of palm and medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil (6%–12% w/w), lecithin (1%–3% w/w), and Cremophor EL (0.5%–1.5% w/w) as well as the preparation method; addition rate (2–20 mL/min), on the physicochemical properties of palm-based nanoemulsions. The response variables were the three main emulsion properties; particle size, zeta potential and polydispersity index. Optimization of the four independent variables was carried out to obtain an optimum level palm-based nanoemulsion with desirable characteristics. The response surface analysis showed that the variation in the three responses could be depicted as a quadratic function of the main composition of the emulsion and the preparation method. The experimental data could be fitted sufficiently well into a second-order polynomial model. The optimized formulation was stable for six months at 4 °C.     

Fuzzy logic based static VAR compensators for enhancing the performance of synchronous and asynchronous motor loads

The paper presents a simple yet powerful fuzzy logic based static VAR compensator (FLSVC) applied to an industrial power network consisting of three phase synchronous and asynchronous motor loads. In the proposed fuzzy logic controller (FLC), the speed and acceleration variations of a specific machine are taken as the inputs. To demonstrate the effectiveness and capabilities of the employed FLSVC, several non-linear time-domain digital simulation tests are performed. The results show that over a wide range of operating conditions and disturbances, the FLSVC improves remarkably the voltage profile and the overall dynamic performance.     

Rapid microfluidic thermal cycler for polymerase chain reaction nucleic acid amplification

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is widely used in biochemical analysis to amplify DNA and RNA in vitro. The PCR process is highly temperature sensitive, and thermal management has an important role in PCR operation in reaching the required temperature set points at each step of the process. The goal of this research is to achieve a thermal technique to rapidly increase the heating/cooling thermal cycling speed while maintaining a uniform temperature distribution throughout the substrate containing the aqueous nucleic acid sample. In this work, an innovative microfluidic PCR thermal cycler, which utilizes a properly arranged configuration filled with a porous medium, is investigated. Various effective parameters that are relevant in optimizing this flexible heat exchanger are investigated such as heat exchanger geometry, flow rate, conductive plate, the porous matrix material, and utilization of thermal grease. An optimized case is established based on the effects of the cited parameters on the temperature distribution and the required power for circulating the fluid in the heat exchanger. The results indicate that the heating/cooling temperature ramp of the proposed PCR heat exchanger is considerably higher (150.82 °C/s) than those in the literature. In addition, the proposed PCR offers a very uniform temperature in the substrate while utilizing a low power.     

An investigation into the mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution of the accumulative roll bonded AZ31 Mg alloy upon annealing

The effect of annealing treatments on the room temperature mechanical properties (in the range of 23–27 °C) of an AZ31 magnesium alloy processed by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) have been investigated. The evaluation of mechanical properties was carried out using shear punch testing (SPT) method. The reliability of the method was verified through application of a well calibrated uniaxial tensile testing machine and the related correlation factors were adapted. The texture evolution was also studied upon annealing. The results showed that the room temperature strength of the ARB processed AZ31 alloy is increased by increasing the annealing temperature up to 350 °C. At temperatures above 350 °C, the deterioration of mechanical properties was taken place as a result of rapid grain growth.     

Operation of quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers under nonuniform current injection

The influence of nonuniform current injection along the active region, on the linear operation of a quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA) is investigated. For this purpose, we have utilized some functions to generate various nonuniform current injection profiles. These profiles have been considered in our numerical calculations, where the rate equation model is employed to construct different characteristics of the QD-SOA. We have found that the gain, as well as the crosstalk, of a QD-SOA is closely associated to the variance of the carrier density along the cavity. Simulation results show that nonuniform current injection can be used as a technique for gain enhancement as well as crosstalk suppression.     

Development of a new high‐efficiency simple structure cyclone

A novel uniflow cyclone design was evaluated using three prototype cyclones. For the first two, the efficiency and Euler number were determined using airborne solid particles with a number mean diameter of 12.5 µm. Then a larger scale prototype based on the optimized geometry was compared with an existing conventional high efficiency cyclone and a vane‐induced uniflow cyclone, using mineral oil droplets with a number mean diameter of 8.9 µm. Both sets of experiments showed that the newly designed cyclone had a higher efficiency at a higher pressure requirement, in addition to the feature of a small footprint.     

Security anomaly detection in software‐defined networking based on a prediction technique

Nowadays, software‐defined networking (SDN) is regarded as the best solution for the centralized handling and monitoring of large networks. However, it should be noted that SDN architecture suffers from the same security issues, which are the case with common networks. As a case in point, one of the shortcomings of SDNs is related to its high vulnerability to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other similar ones. Indeed, anomaly detection systems have been considered to deal with these attacks. The challenges are related to designing these systems including gathering data, extracting effective features, and selecting the best model for anomaly detection. In this paper, a novel combined approach is proposed; this method uses NetFlow protocol for gathering information and generating dataset, information gain ratio (IGR), in order to select the effective and relevant features and ensemble learning scheme (Stacking) for developing a structure with desirable performance and efficiency for detecting anomaly in SDN environment. The results obtained from the experiments revealed that the proposed method performs better than other methods in terms of enhancing accuracy (AC) and detection rate (DR) and reducing classification error (CE) and false alarm rate (FAR). The AC, DR, CE, and FAR of the proposed model were measured as 99.92%, 99.83%, 0.08%, and 0.03%, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed method prevents the occurrence of excessive overload on the controller and OpenFlow.     

A novel super compact half‐mode substrate‐integrated waveguide filter using modified complementary split‐ring resonator

A novel super compact filter based on half‐mode substrate‐integrated waveguide (HMSIW) technology loaded by the modified complementary split‐ring resonator (MCSRR) is proposed. The working principle of the proposed filter is based on the evanescent‐mode propagation technique. According to this technique, by loading the complementary split‐ring resonator (CSRR) on the metal surface of the substrate‐integrated waveguide (SIW) structure, an additional passband below the SIW cutoff frequency can be obtained. In order to miniaturize the physical size of the conventional CSRR, a new method is introduced. In the proposed MCSRR unit‐cell, the meander slots are carved inside all of the interior space of the ring. Accordingly, the length of the slot is increased which leads to an increase in the inductor and capacitor of the proposed structure without occupying the extra space. Therefore, the electrical size of the proposed MCSRR unit‐cell is reduced. Consequently, the resonance frequency of the proposed MCSRR unit‐cell is decreased compared to the conventional CSRR with the same sizes. Namely, the lower resonance frequencies can be achieved by using this technique without increasing the size of the unit‐cell. In order to confirm the miniaturization technique, two HMSIW filters loaded by the proposed MCSRR unit‐cell are designed, fabricated, and experimental verifications are provided. The results show that a miniaturization about 67% is achieved.