Fabrication of co-PVDF/modacrylic/SiO2 nanofibrous membrane: Composite separator for safe and high performance lithium-ion batteries

Highly porous free-standing co-poly(vinylidene fluoride)/modacrylic/SiO₂ nanofibrous membrane was developed using electrically-assisted solution blow spinning method. The performance and the potential of the membrane as a lithium-ion battery separator were investigated. The addition of modacrylic enhanced the solution spinnability that resulted in defect-free membranes. Moreover, the presence of modacrylic enhanced the dimensional and thermal stabilities, while the addition of hydrophilic SiO₂ nanoparticle enhanced both mechanical property and ionic conductivity. Combustion test results illustrated that the presence of modacrylic provide flame retarding property over a set of different polymeric-based membranes. Electrochemical performance results showed that the developed membrane can increase the battery capacity compared with the commercial separator.     

Exploring the Belief Systems of Software Development Professionals

It is commonly accepted that an individual's beliefs and actions are based on his or her assessment and perceptions of the world. In order to determine what practices an individual is likely to follow at any given time, it is necessary to understand the individual's behavioral intention in a given circumstance. From an Information Technology perspective, a software development professional's belief systems are potentially the basis for the adoption and implementation of new and innovative work practices and processes. In this article, we explore the belief systems of software development professionals in order to understand the beliefs underlying intention and practice, and we seek answers about how they adopt or reject new and innovative software development processes and practices. The results point out a strong influence of past experiences, personality types, and repeated behavior on current software development processes and practices in industrial settings.     

Vegetation water content during SMEX04 from ground data and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery

Vegetation water content is an important parameter for retrieval of soil moisture from microwave data and for other remote sensing applications. Because liquid water absorbs in the shortwave infrared, the normalized difference infrared index (NDII), calculated from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper band 4 (0.76-0.90 μm wavelength) and band 5 (1.55-1.65 μm wavelength), can be used to determine canopy equivalent water thickness (EWT), which is defined as the water volume per leaf area times the leaf area index (LAI). Alternatively, average canopy EWT can be determined using a landcover classification, because different vegetation types have different average LAI at the peak of the growing season. The primary contribution of this study for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 was to sample vegetation for the Arizona and Sonora study areas. Vegetation was sampled to achieve a range of canopy EWT; LAI was measured using a plant canopy analyzer and digital hemispherical (fisheye) photographs. NDII was linearly related to measured canopy EWT with an R² of 0.601. Landcover of the Arizona, USA, and Sonora, Mexico, study areas were classified with an overall accuracy of 70% using a rule-based decision tree using three dates of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery and digital elevation data. There was a large range of NDII per landcover class at the peak of the growing season, indicating that canopy EWT should be estimated directly using NDII or other shortwave-infrared vegetation indices. However, landcover classifications will still be necessary to obtain total vegetation water content from canopy EWT and other data, because considerable liquid water is contained in the non-foliar components of vegetation.     

Biodegradable Microparticles for Simultaneous Detection of Counterfeit and Deteriorated Edible Products

In an era of globalized trade relations where food and pharmaceutical products cross borders effortlessly, consumers face counterfeit and deteriorated products at elevated rates. This paper presents multifunctional, biodegradable hydrogel microparticles that can provide information on the authenticity and the potential deterioration of the tagged food or pharmaceutical formulations. These microparticles integrate spatially patterned authenticity code with two sensors—the first one detects possible presence of pathogenic microbes through monitoring pH while the second one identifies products stored above optimal temperatures via optical monitoring of the microparticle degradation. Particles are synthesized from a biocompatible polymer and a photoinitiator, dextran modified with 2‐hydroxyethylmethacrylate and riboflavin, respectively, using a continuous, high throughput method stop‐flow lithography. The proposed synthesis approach also enables crosslinking with visible light bringing about additional flexibility to flow lithography. Model liquid and solid food and pharmaceutical products are successfully labeled with microparticles and the functionality of the sensors in aqueous solutions is demonstrated.     

Stability under vacuum of silicon trap detectors and their use as transfer instruments in cryogenic radiometry

The stability of the responsivity of trap detectors under vacuum has been studied by means of a special chamber designed for the test of photodetectors at low pressure. The first experiments at a wavelength of 647 nm show that the responsivity variations are smaller than the uncertainties of the measurements, approximately 3 parts in 10(5), when the detector operates successively in air, under vacuum, and then again in air. Calculations based on experiments with single windowless photodiodes indicate that the change in trap responsivity that is due to vacuum effects should be smaller than 1 part in 10(5), at least in the visible part of the wavelength range. This stability makes trap detectors suitable for cryogenic radiometry when one uses transfer detectors under vacuum.     

Comparison of experimental designs for simulation-based symbolic regression of manufacturing systems

In this article, an empirical analysis of experimental design approaches in simulation-based metamodelling of manufacturing systems with genetic programming (GP) is presented. An advantage of using GP is that prior assumptions on the structure of the metamodels are not required. On the other hand, having an unknown structure necessitates an analysis of the experimental design techniques used to sample the problem domain and capture its characteristics. Therefore, the study presents an empirical analysis of experimental design methods while developing GP metamodels to predict throughput rates in a common industrial system, serial production lines. The objective is to identify a robust sampling approach suitable for GP in simulation-based metamodelling. Experiments on different sizes of production lines are presented to demonstrate the effects of the experimental designs on the complexity and quality of approximations as well as their variance. The analysis showed that GP delivered system-wide metamodels with good predictive characteristics even with the limited sample data.     

Contribution of laser microdissection-based technology to proteomic analysis in hepatocellular carcinoma developing on cirrhosis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer worldwide. Proteomic studies provide opportunities to uncover targets for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. However, in HCC developing in a setting of cirrhosis, the detection of proteome alterations may be hampered by the increased cellular heterogeneity of tissue when analysing global liver homogenates. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the identification of proteome alterations in these HCC cases was improved when the differential protein profile between tumour and non-tumour areas of liver was determined using hepatocytes isolated by laser microdissection (LM). Differential profiles established with LM-hepatocytes and liver section homogenates using 2-DE and MS exhibited noticeable differences: 30% of the protein spots with deregulated expression in tumorous LM-samples did not display any modification in homogenates; conversely 15% of proteins altered in tumorous homogenates were not impaired in LM-hepatocytes. These alterations resulted from the presence in cirrhotic liver of fibrotic stroma which displayed a protein pattern different from that determined in LM-hepatocytes. In conclusion, our data demonstrate the interest of LM in distinguishing between fibrotic and hepatocyte proteome alterations and thus the benefit of LM to proteome studies of HCC developing in a context of cirrhosis.     

Characteristics of CFRP retrofitted hollow brick infill walls of reinforced concrete frames

The mechanical characteristics of infill walls retrofitted with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets are really important for the realistic prediction of seismic performance of the vulnerable reinforced concrete (RC) frames retrofitted through CFRP strengthened infill walls. In this study, 36 hollow brick wall specimens were tested either under uniaxial compression or diagonal tension before and after retrofitting externally with CFRP sheets. The test parameters are the dimensions of the walls, the orientation of holes of bricks, the type of mortar, the amount of CFRP sheets and the details of strengthening application. At the end of the tests, a significant contribution of CFRP sheets on the mechanical characteristics of hollow brick walls was observed in terms of several important structural design parameters such as Young and shears moduli, axial and shears strengths as well as the deformation capacity. Finally, the strength and deformability characteristics of the walls and frames retrofitted with CFRP sheets were predicted analytically. The predictions were in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Swage casting of A380 alloy

Swage casting is a new casting technique which combines the advantages of squeeze, centrifugal and semi-solid casting methods. In this new casting method, components with one rotating axis can be produced on a swage casting machine from molten metal in a one-step operation. A shape like a “bomb-body” is chosen to demonstrate the advantages of this new method by using A380 Al–Si–Cu alloy. The same alloy is also cast with centrifugal and squeeze casting methods. In this study, the swage casting method and its features are briefly described. The final microstructures, mechanical properties and amount of porosity of the cast pieces produced by squeeze, centrifugal and swage casting methods are compared. Swage cast pieces showed a different composition of microstructure that consists of fine dendritic particles at the chill ends and a mixture of spherical and rosette shaped particles at the core. The swage cast pieces also have a slightly higher mechanical strength as indicated by tensile strength and Brinell hardness values.     

Effect of single and multi-channel electrodes application on EDM fast hole drilling performance

In diesel engines, it is inevitable that the torsional vibration is produced by the fluctuation of engine torque. Therefore, it is necessary to establish preventive measures to diminish the torsional vibration. A sleeve spring damper is one such measure to reduce the torsional vibration. In this study, the closed form equations to predict the spring constant of a sleeve spring and the dynamic characteristics of the torsional vibration damper are proposed to calculate stiffness of the damper, and verified their availability through the finite element analysis. Our theoretical values are in good agreement with results obtained from finite element analysis and experiments. Results obtained from the derived equation enable designers to be more efficient.