A novel ratiometric fluorescent Yb3+ sensor based on a N′-(1-oxoacenaphthylen-2(1H)-ylidene)furan-2-carbohydrazide as a suitable fluorophore

N′-(1-oxoacenaphthylen-2(1H)-ylidene)furan-2-carbohydrazide (L) was synthesized for the first time and used as a ratiometric fluorescent chemosensor for high selective recognition of Yb³⁺ ions in acetonitrile (MeCN) solution. The L–Yb³⁺ complexation quench the fluorescence of L at 420 nm and induces new fluorescent enhancement at 516 nm. Due to the formation of a 2:1 metal ligand complex in acetonitrile solution, the red shift of fluorescent emission spectrum occurred. The sensor shows a linear response toward Yb³⁺ ion concentration in the range of 3.3 × 10^? 7 M to 1.0 × 10^? 4 M with detection limit of 1.2 × 10^? 7 M. The fluorescent probe exhibits high selectivity for Yb³⁺ ion over the other common mono-, di-, and trivalent cations.     

Privacy-preserving biometric verification with outsourced correlation filter computation

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In traditional biometric verification systems, personal computer stores biometric database and performs verification process. Because of limited storage,...     

Cyclic scheduling of a robotic flexible cell with load lock and swap

In this paper, we study the problem of robotic cell scheduling with m machines with flexibility, load lock and swap assumptions. The robotic cell repetitively produces parts of identical types. We determine the cycle time of all 1-unit cycles in this type of robotic cell and present two new lower bounds for robot move cycles with load lock and swap, either there is flexibility or inflexibility. We also provide a new robot move cycle and prove that it dominates all classical robot move cycles considered in the existing literature of m-machine robotic cells.     

Fabrication and electrical characterization of integrated nano-scale fluidic channels

We present the fabrication and characterization of nanoscale fluidic channels with embedded electrodes. Arrays of 2.25 μm long and 60 nm tall nanochannels with widths ranging from 60 to 500 nm were microfabricated in SiO₂ with Au electrodes embedded inside and outside of the nanochannels. The built-in electrodes were able to probe nanochannel conductance via a redox reaction of \textFe(\textCN)₆^{3 - /4 -} {\text{Fe}}({\text{CN}})_{6}^{3 - /4 - } . Amperometric characterization showed that conductance of nanochannel arrays varied linearly both with the width and number of nanochannels and was in the 10–100 pS range. Further, we show that electrical current was largely diffusion based and could be predicted from channel geometry using standard diffusion equations. We also discuss the potential of such nanochannel arrays as electronic biomolecular sensors and show preliminary streptavidin detection results.     

Nano levels detection of beryllium by a novel beryllium PVC-based membrane sensor based on 2,3,5,6,8,9-hexahydro-1,4,7,10-benzotetra oxacyclododecine-12-carbaldehyde-12-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)hy

A novel poly(vinyl chloride)-based 2,3,5,6,8,9-hexahydro-1,4,7,10-benzotetra oxacyclododecine-12-carbaldehyde-12-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)hy (PBC) with sodium tetraphenyl borate (NaTPB) as an anion excluder, benzyl acetate (BA), acetophenon (AP) and o-nitrophenyloctyl ether (NPOE) as plasticizing solvent mediators was prepared and investigated as a beryllium selective sensor. The best performance was observed with the membrane having the PVC–NaTPB–NPOE–PBC composition 30%:3%:62%:5%, which worked well over a very wide concentration range (1.0×10⁻⁷ M to 1.0×10⁻¹ M). The sensor exhibits a Nernstian slope of 29.9 mV per decade of Be²⁺ activity. The detection limit of the sensor is 7.0×10⁻⁸ M (630 ppt). The proposed electrode shows excellent discriminating ability toward Be²⁺ ion with regard to alkali, alkaline earth, transition and heavy metal ions. It was successfully applied to the determination of beryllium in a mineral sample.     

A mathematical model and ant colony algorithm for multi-manned assembly line balancing problem

In real-world assembly lines, that the size of the product is large (e.g., automotive industry), usually there are multi-manned workstations where a group of workers simultaneously perform different operations on the same individual product. This paper presents a mixed integer programming model to solve the balancing problem of the multi-manned assembly lines optimally. This model minimizes the total number of workers on the line as the first objective and the number of opened multi-manned workstations as the second one. Since this problem is well known as NP (nondeterministic polynomial-time)-hard, a heuristic approach based on the ant colony optimization approach is developed to solve the medium- and large-size scales of this problem. In the proposed algorithm, each ant tries to allocate given tasks to multi-manned workstations in order to build a balancing solution for the assembly line balancing problems by considering the precedence relations, multi-manned assembly line configuration, task times, and cycle time constraints. Through computational experiments, the performance of the proposed ACO is compared with some existing heuristic on various problem instances. The experimental results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

Changes in the structure of hematite by extended dry grinding in relation to imposed stress energy

The effect of extended dry milling in different mills on the structural changes of hematite concentrate has been investigated using a combination analysis of XRD line broadening, BET and particle size measurements. Structural changes were followed by XRD line broadening analysis using integral breadth method and Warren-Averbach approach. For analysis, the stress energy was estimated by considering different grinding variables in different mills and changes in the structure discussed in terms of stress energy.Within comparable range of stress energy, lower BET surface area was produced by grinding in the vibratory mill. The maximum surface area increased to 18,400 m²/kg in the vibratory mill after releasing 51,300 kJ/kg energy. The conversion of the 80% of initial hematite to amorphous phase during extended dry grinding by tumbling, planetary and vibratory mills, needs 4000, 8500 and 50,000 kJ/kg energy respectively. It was understood that vibratory mill introduces the minimum lattice strain and gives the largest crystallites when applying the same level of stress energy. The smallest crystallites with grinding in tumbling, vibratory and planetary mills were obtained about 17.3, 13.5 and 5.6 nm after releasing 5230, 51,300 and 15,600 kJ/kg respectively. For these levels of stress energy, in turn, the microstrain <ε_L=10 nm²>^1/2 exceeds 4.4 × 10^− 3, 3.9 × 10^− 3 and 5.3 × 10^− 3.It was further revealed that higher concentrations of defects (Amorphization and excess energy) per unit surface area were induced by grinding in the planetary and tumbling mills. A theoretical calculation of the energy contribution to the long-lived defects indicated that products from tumbling and planetary mills have higher excess energy compared to the products from vibratory mill for the same stress energy. The maximum theoretical excess energy was estimated about 75.4, 80.0 and 81.3 kJ per mole of the ground hematite with tumbling, vibratory and planetary mills after releasing 5230, 51,300 and 15,600 kJ/kg of stress energy respectively. Grinding in vibratory mill needs much more energy to reach the same effect as the other used mills. A comparison of specific energy input and stress energy among the used mills points out that for generation of the same levels of stress energy, the planetary mill consumes more energy than the other used mills.     

Rapid determination of soil unconfined compressive strength using reflectance spectroscopy

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Understanding the physical and especially mechanical properties of forest soils is very important in forest engineering operations including...