Influence of ionic surfactant on physio-electrochemical properties and fractal dimension of poly ortho aminophenol film

We describe in detail the advantages of a novel method of electrochemical preparation of poly ortho aminophenol (POAP), based on the ability of anionic surfactants to form micelles in aqueous media. We demonstrate that the electropolymerisation process carried out in the presence of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) at an oxidation potential lower than in an aqueous media yields better organized POAP films. The improved physicochemical and structural properties of POAP obtained in these conditions can be related to the electrocatalytic effect of SDS and change fractal dimension of film. With respect to Ni–POAP/G, Ni–SDS–POAP/G electrode shows a higher catalytic performance for the electrocatalytic oxidation of saccharose.     

Formulation of elastic modulus of concrete using linear genetic programming

This paper proposes a novel approach for the formulation of elastic modulus of both normal-strength concrete (NSC) and high-strength concrete (HSC) using a variant of genetic programming (GP), namely linear genetic programming (LGP). LGP-based models relate the modulus of elasticity of NSC and HSC to the compressive strength, as similarly presented in several codes of practice. The models are developed based on experimental results collected from the literature. A subsequent parametric analysis is further carried out to evaluate the sensitivity of the elastic modulus to the compressive strength variations. The results demonstrate that the proposed formulas can predict the elastic modulus with an acceptable degree of accuracy. The LGP results are found to be more accurate than those obtained using the buildings codes and various solutions reported in the literature. The LGP-based formulas are quite simple and straightforward and can be used reliably for routine design practice.     

Investigation on performance of microbial fuel cells based on carbon sources and kinetic models

Substrate concentration has great influence on the electrical performance of a microbial fuel cell (MFC). In this study, date syrup with a high sugar content and diversified types of nutrients was used as a substrate in a dual‐chambered MFC. The results obtained were compared with glucose as a conventional substrate for power generation. A pure culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a biocatalyst in the anode chamber and potassium ferricyanide as an oxidizing agent in the cathode side. Maximum power density of 65 mW/m² was obtained in an MFC operated with date syrup at an equivalent total carbohydrate content of 6 g/l. When the electron acceptor in the cathode side was replaced with potassium permanganate, power density was increased almost 2.5‐fold and reached 234 mW/m². The system was loaded with low to high concentrations of sugar (1–7, 10, 20 and 30 g/l). However, at high concentrations of substrates, an inverse relationship with the MFC electrical performance was observed, which was most probably due to substrate inhibition in the MFC. Substrate inhibition models were applied to investigate inhibition kinetic from an electrical point of view. Tessier, Aiba and Haldane as inhibition models were well fitted with experimental data (R² = 0.98–0.99). The tested models revealed that the inhibitory effect for the substrate can be described in terms of model parameters. In order to evaluate the effect of the concentration of substrates on electrical performance, different inhibition concentrations were suggested by the models with respect to electrical responses achieved in the MFC. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermal properties and morphology of isotactic polypropylene/acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber blends in the presence and absence of a nanoclay

A thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) nanocomposite based on polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR), and a nanoclay (NC) was prepared in a laboratory mixer with a 54/40/6 weight ratio. The effects of NC on the thermal properties, crystalline structure, and phase morphology of the TPE nanocomposite were studied in this work. The results obtained from the nonisothermal crystallization of PP, PP/NBR, and PP/NBR/NC, which was carried out with differential scanning calorimetry, revealed that the overall rate of crystallization of PP decreased with the addition of NBR to PP and increased when NC was incorporated into the nanocomposite. In addition, the crystallite size distribution was more uniform for the PP phase crystallized in the nanocomposite versus the PP itself. Also, although the PP in the reference blend (PP/NBR) crystallized only in the α form, the crystalline structure of the PP incorporated into the nanocomposite was a mixture of α‐ and γ‐crystalline forms. The effects of NC on the phase morphology of PP/NBR blends prepared with three different cooling methods (quenching in liquid nitrogen, cooling between two metal plates at room temperature, and molding at a high temperature in a hot press) were studied. For the samples quenched in liquid nitrogen or cooled between metal plates, a particulate–cocontinuous morphology formed. However, for the samples prepared under a hot press, a laminar‐like morphology was observed. In all three cases, a similar particulate–cocontinuous morphology formed for the reference blend, but the rubber inclusions were always smaller than those of the TPE nanocomposite. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Novel highly swelling nanoporous hydrogel based on polysaccharide/protein hybrid backbone

A novel high capacity swelling nanoporous hydrogel (NPH) was synthesized via graft copolymerization of acrylamide (AAm) onto kappa-carrageenan (kC, as a polysaccharide) and gelatin (as a protein) hybrid backbone, after hydrolysis of this system. The Taguchi method as a strong experimental design tool was used for its optimized synthesis. The Taguchi method was applied for the experimental and standard 9 orthogonal array (OA) with four factors and three levels for each factor. A series of NPHs were synthesized by proposed conditions of Qualitek-4 Software. Considering the results of 9 trials according to analysis of variance (ANOVA), optimum conditions were proposed. The swelling behavior of optimum NPHs was measured in various solutions with pH values ranging from 1 to 13. In addition, swelling kinetics, swelling in various organic solvents and various salt solutions were investigated. The hydrogel formation was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetrical analysis (TGA). The study of the surface morphology of hydrogels using SEM showed a highly nanoporous and cellular structure for the sample obtained under optimized condition.     

A robust low quiescent current power receiver for inductive power transmission in bio implants

In this paper, a robust low quiescent current complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) power receiver for wireless power transmission is presented. This power receiver consists of three main parts including rectifier, switch capacitor DC–DC converter and low-dropout regulator (LDO) without output capacitor. The switch capacitor DC–DC converter has variable conversion ratios and synchronous controller that lets the DC–DC converter to switch among five different conversion ratios to prevent output voltage drop and LDO regulator efficiency reduction. For all ranges of output current (0–10 mA), the voltage regulator is compensated and is stable. Voltage regulator stabilisation does not need the off-chip capacitor. In addition, a novel adaptive biasing frequency compensation method for low dropout voltage regulator is proposed in this paper. This method provides essential minimum current for compensation and reduces the quiescent current more effectively. The power receiver was designed in a 180-nm industrial CMOS technology, and the voltage range of the input is from 0.8 to 2 V, while the voltage range of the output is from 1.2 to 1.75 V, with a maximum load current of 10 mA, the unregulated efficiency of 79.2%, and the regulated efficiency of 64.4%.     

Combined mode of operation for thermal parametric pumping

In thermal parametric pumping, the temperature change can be imposed through the bed jacket (direct mode) or through temperature change of the fluid stream (recuperative mode). The process to be addressed here is thermal parametric pumping operating in a combined mode of operation by changing the temperature of the fluid stream before entering the packed bed through a heat exchanger (recuperative mode) at the same time as imposing a temperature change through the bed jacket (direct mode). Axial dispersion and the general non‐linear form of the equilibrium isotherm were taken into account in the mathematical model used to verify the experimental results of separating a binary liquid mixture of a benzene/n‐hexane/silica gel system. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

RQAR: Location-free reliable and QoS-aware routing protocol for mobile sink underwater wireless sensor networks

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have attracted attention from academics and industries due to many applications such as pollution monitoring, military, tsunami warning, and underwater exploration. One of the effective factors in these applications is efficient communication between underwater sensors. But this process is very challenging in UWSNs due to special conditions and underwater harsh environments. Therefore, designing routing protocols for efficient communication between sensors and sink is an important issue in UWSNs. In this context, this paper proposed a location-free Reliable and QoS-Aware Routing (RQAR) protocol for mobile sink UWSNs. RQAR designed using Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and does not require the position information of the sensor nodes, which is cumbersome and difficult to obtain. Proposed protocol considers multiple parameters including link quality, hop count, congestion, and residual energy for qos support, and reliable data delivery RQAR also minimizes the effects of hole occurrence by increasing the transmission range as much as possible and ensures communication stability. The simulation results using NS2 showed the superiority of RQAR in improving end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio, and network throughput compared to the previous methods.     

A thermo/pH/magnetic-responsive nanogel based on sodium alginate by modifying magnetic graphene oxide: Preparation,characterization, and drug delivery

A novel thermo/pH/magnetic-triple-responsive nanogel was synthesized by grafting N-isopropylacrylamide and acrylic acid onto sodium alginate to modify magnetic graphene oxide as a drug delivery system. The synthesized nanogel was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), atomic force micrographs (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The obtained nanogel displayed excellent reversible transmittance changes in response to pH, temperature, and magnetic field. The performance of the nanogels to load doxorubicin (DOX) drug and to sustain doxorubicin release was tested upon exposure to pH, temperature, and magnetic field variations. The mechanism of drug release was proposed in this paper by different kinetic models. In addition, the effects of nanogels and DOX-loaded nanogels on MCF-7 cells were examined and results were compared with free DOX drug. The in vitro results demonstrated that this triple-responsive nanogel can be an appropriate candidate for applications in cancer therapy.     

Optimizing blocking flow shop scheduling problem with total completion time criterion

The blocking flow shop scheduling problem has found many applications in manufacturing systems. There are a few exact methods for solving this problem with different criteria. In this paper, efforts will be made to optimize the total completion time criterion for this problem. We present two mixed binary integer programming models, one of which is based on the departure times of jobs from machines, and the other is based on the idle and blocking times of jobs. An initial upper bound generator and some lower bounds and dominance rules are also developed to be used in a branch and bound algorithm. The algorithm solves 17 instances of the Taillard's benchmark problem set in less than 20 min.