Determination of the Thermal Decomposition Products of Terephthalic Acid by Using Curie-Point Pyrolyzer

The thermal decomposition behavior of terephthalic acid (TA) was investigated by thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) and Curie-point pyrolysis. TG/DTA analysis showed that TA is sublimed at 276°C prior to decomposition. Pyrolysis studies were carried out at various temperatures ranging from 160 to 764°C. Decomposition products were analyzed and their structures were determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 11 degradation products were identified at 764°C, whereas no peak was observed below 445°C. Benzene, benzoic acid, and 1,1′-biphenyl were identified as the major decomposition products, and other degradation products such as toluene, benzophenone, diphenylmethane, styrene, benzaldehyde, phenol, 9H-fluorene, and 9-phenyl 9H-fluorene were also detected. A pyrolysis mechanism was proposed based on the findings.     

Soil structure changes during drained and undrained triaxial shear of a clayey soil

Orientations during drained and undrained triaxial shear tests on an artificially made clayey soil were studied. The results show that the orientation pattern before shearing is nearly random, although there may be some degree of preferred orientation caused by the overburden pressure. Becoming higher towards the failure plane, the degree of preferred orientation sharply increases in both tests as the compression increases until failure. It was discovered that in the consolidated undrained tests, failure occurs at higher levels of strain than previously believed, while in the consolidated drained tests, failure occurs at much lower levels of strain than previously believed.The results indicate the formation of a wider deformation zone towards and at failure in the drained tests. This is probably because particles in the drained tests have enough time to respond to the applied shear stress and change their orientation accordingly. This may explain the formation of wider deformation zones along creeping (aseismic) faults and narrow zones along seismic faults whose mechanisms are analogous to the drained and undrained tests, respectively.     

An analysis of Hall mobility in as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells

In this study, we investigate the effect of annealing and nitrogen amount on electronic transport properties in n- and p-type-doped Ga_0.68In_0.32N_yAs_{1 − y}/GaAs quantum well (QW) structures with y = 0%, 0.9%, 1.2%, 1.7%. The samples are thermal annealed at 700°C for 60 and 600 s, and Hall effect measurements have been performed between 10 and 300 K. Drastic decrease is observed in the electron mobility of n-type N-containing samples due to the possible N-induced scattering mechanisms and increasing effect mass of the alloy. The temperature dependence of electron mobility has an almost temperature insensitive characteristic, whereas for p-type samples hole mobility is decreased drastically at T > 120 K. As N concentration is increased, the hole mobility also increased as a reason of decreasing lattice mismatch. Screening effect of N-related alloy scattering over phonon scattering in n-type samples may be the reason of the temperature-insensitive electron mobility. At low temperature regime, hole mobility is higher than electron mobility by a factor of 3 to 4. However, at high temperatures (T > 120 K), the mobility of p-type samples is restricted by the scattering of the optical phonons. Because the valance band discontinuity is smaller compared to the conduction band, thermionic transport of holes from QW to the barrier material, GaAs, also contributes to the mobility at high temperatures that results in a decrease in mobility. The hole mobility results of as-grown samples do not show a systematic behavior, while annealed samples do, depending on N concentration. Thermal annealing does not show a significant improvement of electron mobility.     

Effects of an intense,high-frequency laser field on bound states in Ga1 ? xInxNyAs1 ? y/GaAs double quantum well

Within the envelope function approach and the effective-mass approximation, we have investigated theoretically the effect of an intense, high-frequency laser field on the bound states in a Ga_xIn_{1 − x}N_yAs_{1 − y}/GaAs double quantum well for different nitrogen and indium mole concentrations. The laser-dressed potential, bound states, and squared wave functions related to these bound states in Ga_{1 − x}In_xN_yAs_{1 − y}/GaAs double quantum well are investigated as a function of the position and laser-dressing parameter. Our numerical results show that both intense laser field and nitrogen (indium) incorporation into the GaInNAs have strong influences on carrier localization.     

Variational approaches on discontinuity localization and field estimation in sea surface temperature and soil moisture

Some applications in remote sensing require estimating a field containing a discontinuity whose exact location is a priori unknown. Such fields of interest include sea surface temperature in oceanography and soil moisture in hydrology. For the former, oceanic fronts form a temperature discontinuity, while in the latter sharp changes exist across the interface between soil types. To complicate the estimation process, remotely sensed measurements often exhibit regions of missing observations due to occlusions such as cloud cover. Similarly, water surface and ground-based sensors usually provide only an incomplete set of measurements. Traditional methods of interpolation and smoothing for estimating the fields from such potentially sparse measurements often blur across the discontinuities in the field.     

Distributed fusion in sensor networks

This paper presents an overview of research conducted to bridge the rich field of graphical models with the emerging field of data fusion for sensor networks. Both theoretical issues and prototyping applications are discussed in addition to suggesting new lines of reasoning.     

Determination of antibacterial effects and total phenolic contents of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) seed extracts

In the study, antibacterial activities of the seed extracts of three different grapes were examined against fifteen bacteria, and total phenolic contents of the extracts were additionally determined. The contents of total phenolic compounds of the grape seed extracts were 589.09 (Hasandede), 506.60 (Emir) and 549.54 (Kalecik Karasi) mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) per gram with acetone:water:acetic acid (90:9.5:0.5). These extracts at 1%, 2.5%, 5% and 10% concentrations were tested for their antibacterial effects by using the agar diffusion method against some pathogenic and spoilage bacteria including Aeromonas hydrophila, Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, E. coli O157:H7, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus and Yersinia enterocolitica. All tested bacteria were inhibited by the grape seed extracts using agar well diffusion method. The most sensitive of the bacteria was A. hydrophila while Hasandede grape seed extract was the most inhibitive extract on test bacteria. Hasandede seed extract at 10% concentration gave the largest inhibition zone diameter (30.67 mm) against A. hydrophila. According to serial dilution method, while all the grape seed extracts at 0.5% and 1% concentrations had generally bacteriostatic activities against E. coli O157:H7, the same extracts appeared to have bactericidal effects at concentrations above 2.5%. In addition, the extracts at all concentrations had bactericidal activities against S. aureus at the end of 48 h. and A. hydrophila at the end of 1 h.     

Body dysmorphic disorder in patients with acne

There is growing evidence that the prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is significantly higher in specially selected populations as compared to the general population. The goal of the current study was to evaluate prevalence of BDD in Turkish patients with mild acne presenting to a dermatologist for treatment. This study was the first empirical investigation of BDD in acne patients in Turkey. One hundred fifty-nine outpatients diagnosed with acne who consulted to the dermatology clinic were included in the study. The diagnosis of BDD was based on DSM-IV criteria and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I). A study-specific questionnaire was administered to document and investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of the cases. Fourteen (8.8%) patients were diagnosed with BDD. Three (21.4%) patients with acne and BDD also had concomitant psychiatric diagnoses. All of the patients were psychiatric management-naive, never received any psychological or physical treatments. BDD was a common psychiatric condition in acne cases. We suggest that dermatologists should routinely explore symptoms and screen such patients for BDD.     

Autonomous Vehicle Control Using Lidar and Camera with CAN Network

An autonomous vehicle operates in a dynamically changing environment,where multiple sensors must work in a cooperative mode. In these scenarios reliability of t...