Palladium Nanoparticles Supported on Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)/KIT-6 Composite as an Efficient and Reusable Catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura Reaction in Water

Pd nanoparticle-poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)/KIT-6 (Pd-PHEMA/KIT-6) composite was fabricated through in situ polymerization method and was evaluated as a novel heterogeneous catalyst in Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling reactions of aryl halides and phenylboronic acid in an aqueous medium. The catalyst was characterized by XRD, FT-IR, UV–Vis, TG, BET, and TEM techniques. The results revealed that the supported catalyst Pd-PHEMA/KIT-6 exhibited excellent catalytic activity for the coupling of aryl iodides, aryl bromides, and aryl chlorides. This heterogeneous catalyst could be reused at least nine times without any decrease in activity.     

The effect of natural antioxidants extracted from plant and animal resources on the oxidative stability of soybean oil

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the antioxidant activity of protein hydrolyzates isolate (PHI) from Crucian carp (Carassius carassius) fish and cow's intestine along with microwave-assisted olive leaf extract (OLE) encapsulated by Arabic gum and maltodextrin, in soybean oil. The antioxidant activity of PHIs at three concentrations of 200, 500 and 1000 mg/kg and OLE samples containing 70 mg/kg total phenolics during 20 days storage was evaluated by peroxide value, TBA value, p-anisidine value and Rancimat stability test. The fish PHI at concentration of 1000 mg/kg, cow's intestine PHI at 500 and 1000 mg/kg and OLE encapsulated with Arabic gum showed best oxidative protection activity (more than BHT at 100 and 200 mg/kg). OLE had a suitable antioxidant activity in soybean oil and encapsulation improved the thermal stability of phenolic compounds, but on the other hand, it decreased the antioxidant efficiency of OLE.     

A highly linear CMOS low noise amplifier for K-band applications

This paper describes a highly linear low noise amplifier (LNA) for K-band applications in a 0.18 µm RF CMOS technology. The core of the circuit is a two-stage LNA consisting of a common-source and a cascode stage. By adopting an improved post-linearisation technique at the common-source transistor of the second stage, more than 5 dB improvement in IIP3 is achieved with a minor effect on noise figure and input matching. The circuit level analysis and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.     

Structural,magnetic and microwave absorption characteristics of BaCoxMnxTi2xFe12 − 4xO19

The effect of Mn⁺²Co⁺²Ti⁺⁴ substitution on microwave absorption has been studied for BaCo_xMn_xTi_2xFe_12 ? 4xO₁₉ ferrite–acrylic resin composites, where x varies from 0.3 to 0.5 in steps of 0.1, in frequency range from 12 to 20 GHz. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer, and vector network analyzer were used to analyze the structures, electromagnetic and microwave absorption properties. The results showed that, the magnetoplumbite structures for all samples have been formed. Based on microwave measurement on reflectivity, BaCo_xMn_xTi_2xFe_12 ? 4xO₁₉ may be a good candidate for electromagnetic compatibility and other practical applications at high frequency.     

A selective encryption for H.264/AVC videos based on scrambling

H.264/Advanced Video Coding (H.264/AVC) is one of the video compression standards that is 50% more efficient than previously introduced standards. Given that the H.264/AVC standard is considered and used in a variety of video applications, it is essential to provide a suitable solution for video encryption with good security, high encryption speed, and to prevent bitrate increases. In this paper, we propose a method selective encryption of H.264/AVC for the digital rights management (DRM) applications. In this method, discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients, which affect the texture and content of the H.264/AVC video during compression, are encrypted after the zigzag scanning and based on Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC). The experimental results and encryption efficiency analysis demonstrate that the proposed method with the format compliance has good security and high encryption speed and it can prevent the bitrate from rising and is thus usable in industrial and the DRM applications.

     

Designing river commissions to implement treaties and manage water disputes: the story of the Joint Water Committee and Permanent Indus Commission

States have signed hundreds of treaties and protocols over their shared rivers. Many of these agreements established commissions to implement the accords and maintain cooperation. Consistent with this expectation, the Israeli–Jordanian Peace Treaty established the Joint Water Committee (JWC). Through a comparison of the JWC with the Permanent Indus Commission, established to manage the Indus River between India and Pakistan, the paper argues that the JWC has been only somewhat effective. To account for the source of effectiveness it is necessary to consider the capabilities vested in commissions. Commissioners can fulfil their tasks when they communicate directly, hold regular meetings, monitor the river's development and possess conflict resolution mechanism.     

Average-case improvements when integrating ML and KA

In this paper we develop a mathematical analysis, based on empirical measurements, of expected average improvements when integrating Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition systems in real-life domains. The analysis is based on the characteristics of component systems and combining techniques. Important characteristics include the accuracy of component systems, the degree to which component systems complement each other's weaknesses, and the ability of the combining mechanism to make good choices among competing component systems. Empirical measurements in a real-life application, in the Sendzimir rolling mill, have shown that integrating both approaches enables significant improvements. Improvements when combining systems in two oncological domains were smaller, yet positive again. Analytical average-case integrated models consisting of two systems are introduced. Conditions for improvements over the best, average and the worst system are established and the expected gains are analytically computed based on expected performances. Models strongly suggest that a reasonable integration of two systems offers significant improvements over the best single system in many or even most real-life domains.     

A 110–140 GHz Millimeter-Wave VCO Using Varactor and Bulk Effective Technique in 65 nm CMOS Process

In this paper, an enhanced voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) at center frequency 125 GHz with tuning rang of 24% is presented. The proposed idea is based on the tuning capacitance using MOS varactor. The structure is consisted of applying an MOS varactor capacitor to the drain and bulk (in parallel) of NMOS transistor in 65 nm CMOS standard technology. The obtained output of the proposed VCO at 2nd harmonic is tunable at 110–140 GHz frequency with applying?±?1.2 input tuning voltage. Simulation results of the proposed circuit are obtained after extracting post layout (with total chip size of 0.07 mm²) and confirm theoretical results. Compared to the resent designs, the obtained results indicate that the proposed circuit has high tuning range, low die area and a good figure of merit @ 1.2 power supply voltage.