Development of La-impregnated TiO2 based ethanol sensors for next generation automobile application

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Bio-fuel, a blend of ethanol (~?10 to 85%) and gasoline with various compositions, is one of the promising next generation energy...     

Hand Gesture Recognition Based Omnidirectional Wheelchair Control Using IMU and EMG Sensors

This paper presents a hand gesture based control of an omnidirectional wheelchair using inertial measurement unit (IMU) and myoelectric units as wearable sensors. Seven common gestures are recognized and classified using shape based feature extraction and Dendogram Support Vector Machine (DSVM) classifier. The dynamic gestures are mapped to the omnidirectional motion commands to navigate the wheelchair. A single IMU is used to measure the wrist tilt angle and acceleration in three axis. EMG signals are extracted from two forearm muscles namely Extensor Carpi Radialis and Flexor Carpi Radialis and processed to provide Root Mean Square (RMS) signal. Initiation and termination of dynamic activities are based on autonomous identification of static to dynamic or dynamic to static transition by setting static thresholds on processed IMU and myoelectric sensor data. Classification involves recognizing the activity pattern based on periodic shape of trajectories of the triaxial wrist tilt angle and EMG-RMS from the two selected muscles. Second order Polynomial coefficients extracted from the sensor trajectory templates during specific dynamic activity cycles are used as features to classify dynamic activities. Classification algorithm and real time navigation of the wheelchair using the proposed algorithm has been tested by five healthy subjects. Classification accuracy of 94% was achieved by DSVM classifier on ‘k’ fold cross validation data of 5 users. Classification accuracy while operating the wheelchair was 90.5%.     

Cellular Automata based Cryptography Model for Reliable Encryption Using State Transition in Wireless Network Optimizing Data Security

Wireless Personal Communications - Authors propose a hardware based approach for reliable encryption in wireless network using Cellular Automata (CA). Distinct layers of encryption have been...     

Standard potentials of the silver/silver-iodide electrode in aqueous mixtures of ethylene glycol at different temperatures and the thermodynamics of transfer of hydrogen halides from water to glycolic media

The standard potentials (E°) of the silver/silver-iodide electrode in aqueous mixtures of ethylene glycol (containing 10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 wt-% glycol) have been determined from emf measurements of the cell Pt, H₂(g, 1 atm)/HOAc(m₁), NaOAc(m₂), Kl(m₃), solvent/AgI/Ag at nine temperatures ranging from 5 to 45°C. These E° values have been utilized to compute free energy (Δt_t°), entropy (ΔS_t°) and enthalpy (ΔH_t°) changes accompanying the transfer of HI from water to each of the solvents. These values as well as those for HCl and HBr and obtained earlier have also been utilized to evaluate ΔS_t°(i) for individual ions by a method of ‘simultaneous extrapolation,’ which in turn furnished the values of ΔH_t°(i) for these ions. These quantities and also the ‘chemical’ contributions for the halide ions as obtained by subtracting the ‘electrostatic’ contribution computed with the Born equation, have been examined in the light of ion—solvent interactions as well as the structural changes of the solvents. The observed results conform with what is expected from the competitive effects of the preferential solvating capacities of water towards halide ions and that of other solvents towards hydrogen ions, and also of the effects arising from the structural changes of the solvents that are likely to occur in the over-all transfer process.     

Standard potentials of the silver-silver iodide electrode in aqueous mixtures of ethanol and propan-2-ol at different temperatures. Free energies and entropies of transfer of hydroiodic acid at 25°

Standard potentials of E^θ of the silver-silver iodide electrode in ethanol + water and propan-2-ol + water mixtures have been determined from the emf of the cell Pt, H₂ (g, 1 atm)|HI(itm), solvent| Agl-Ag at seven temperatures ranging from 10 to 40° for ethanol and from 5 to 35° for propan-2-ol. Free energies ΔS^gq_itt of transfer HI obtained therefrom have been briefly discussed in the light of ion-solvent interactions and solvent structure.     

Immobilization and leaching characteristics of arsenic from cement and/or lime solidified/stabilized spent adsorbent containing arsenic

Solidification/stabilization (S/S) of hazardous iron oxide coated cement (IOCC) spent adsorbent containing arsenic (As(III)) was investigated in the present study. Cement and lime-based S/S effectiveness was evaluated by performing semi-dynamic leach tests. The S/S effectiveness was evaluated by measuring effective diffusion coefficients (D(e)) and leachability indices (LX). It was found that though cement or lime alone were efficient in preventing arsenic leaching (D(e) being in range of 10(-10) to 10(-12) for all the matrices) from the solidified matrices, the best combination for arsenic containment in the matrix was obtained when a mixture of cement and lime was used. The LX values for all the matrices were higher than 10, suggesting that the S/S treated arsenic sludge are acceptable for "controlled utilization". Calcite formation along with precipitation and conversion into non-soluble forms (calcium arsenite, calcium hydrogen arsenate hydrates, calcium hydrogen arsenates, etc.) were found to be the responsible mechanism for low leaching of arsenic from the solidified/stabilized samples. A linear relationship between cumulative fraction (CFR) of arsenic leached and square root of leach time (R(2) ranging from 0.90 to 0.94) suggested that the diffusion is the responsible mechanism for arsenic leaching. Thus, cement and lime show effective containment of the As(III) within the matrix thus indicating S/S by cement and lime, which is also a low-cost option, as a suitable management option for the toxic As(III) sludge.     

Design,fabrication and characterization of silk fibroin-HPMC-PEG blended films as vehicle for transmucosal delivery

This study illustrates the fabrication of stable mucoadhesive films of silk protein fibroin as potential vehicle for transmucosal delivery by blending fibroin with hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and poly ethylene glycol 400 (PEG). Investigations on mechanical properties, swelling ability in simulated saliva, bioadhesive strength by a specially designed instrument and study of in vitro stability in simulated saliva of goat buccal mucosa as model membrane was undertaken. Molecular interaction between blended materials was evaluated by FTIR spectroscopy. Increase in fibroin content of the blended films not only increased the mechanical properties and water stability but also the degree of swelling and stability of the films in simulated saliva. The FTIR spectrum shows an increase in water stability of the fibroin-HPMC blended films due to the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the HPMC and fibroin. The conformational transition of the silk fibroin molecule from the amorphous and random coil to β sheet structure has been observed. Fibroin-HPMC-PEG blended films can be used as a vehicle for transmucosal delivery by virtue of its good mechanical strength, water stability, ex vivo bioadhesive strength and ideal swellability as such characteristics are essential for rapid mucoadhesion.     

Polyelectrolyte mediated scalable synthesis of highly stable silver nanocubes in less than a minute using microwave irradiation

Silver nanocubes were synthesized for the first time in large quantities on gold seed in the presence of a polyelectrolyte using microwave heating for 60-120?s. Our experiment indicates that the polyelectrolyte directs the growth of the particle in a specified crystallographic direction resulting in the faceted particle, i.e.?a nanocube. The nanocubes are stable for at least 2 months in ambient conditions.     

Hierarchical assembly of carbon nanotubes-liquid crystal nanocomposite

Fabrication of liquid crystalline (LC) nanomaterials in an aligned pattern along the multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) has been reported here. The nanocomposite was prepared by sonicating esterified CNTs and the ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) in chloroform. The nanohybrid shish kebab (NHSK) like pattern was observed in SEM analysis. The nanocomposite materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), polarizing optical microscopy and electron microscopy. The DC and AC electrical properties of the composite materials were investigated. The DC conductivity of the nanocomposite increased by 2 order from the FLC materials and AC relaxation has been observed, in the nanocomposite, which was totally absent in the FLC materials.