Synthesis and dielectric properties of polystyrene‐clay nanocomposite materials

Polystyrene‐clay nanocomposite (PsCN) materials were synthesized and their properties of crystallinity, thermal behavior, and dielectric characteristics were investigated. A polymerizable cationic surfactant, [2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl]triphenylphonium bromide, was used for the intercalation of montmorillonite (MMT). The organophilic MMT was prepared by Na⁺‐exchanged MMT and ammonium cations of a cationic surfactant in an aqueous medium. Organophilic styrene monomers were intercalated into the interlayer regions of organophilic clay hosts followed by a free‐radical polymerization. Exfoliation to 2 wt % MMT in the polystyrene (PS) matrix was achieved as revealed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Thermal properties by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were also studied. The dielectric properties of PsCNs in the form of film with clay loading from 1.0 to 5.0 wt % were measured under frequencies of 100 Hz–1 MHz at 25–70°C. A decreased dielectric constant and low dielectric loss were observed for PsCN materials. The dielectric response at low frequency that originated from dipole orientation was suppressed due to the intercalation of clay materials. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1368–1373, 2004     

An efficient and secure approach for a cloud collaborative editing

The demand for cloud-based collaborative editing service is rising along with the tremendously increased popularity in cloud computing. In the cloud-based collaborative editing environment, the data are stored in the cloud and able to be accessed from everywhere through every compatible device with the Internet. The information is shared with every accredited user in a group. In other words, multiple authorized users of the group are able to work on the same document and edit the document collaboratively and synchronously online. Meanwhile, during the whole collaborative editing process, the encryption technique is eventually applied to protect and secure the data. The encryption for the collaborative editing, however, could require much time to operate. To elevate the efficiency of the encryption, this study first analyzes the text editing in the collaborative service and presents a framework of the Red–Black tree, named as rbTree-Doc. The rbTree-Doc can reduce the amount of data to be encrypted. Although the trade-off for creating the Red–Black tree introduces extra cost, the experimental results of using rbTree-Doc in text editing operations, such as insertion and removal, show improved efficiency compared with other whole-document encryption strategy. Using rbTree-Doc, the efficiency is improved by 31.04% compared to that 3DES encryption is applied and by 23.94% compared to that AES encryption is applied.     

Supervisory adaptive dynamic RBF-based neural-fuzzy control system design for unknown nonlinear systems

Many published papers show that a TSK-type fuzzy system provides more powerful representation than a Mamdani-type fuzzy system. Radial basis function (RBF) network has a similar feature to the fuzzy system. As this result, this article proposes a dynamic TSK-type RBF-based neural-fuzzy (DTRN) system, in which the learning algorithm not only online generates and prunes the fuzzy rules but also online adjusts the parameters. Then, a supervisory adaptive dynamic RBF-based neural-fuzzy control (SADRNC) system which is composed of a DTRN controller and a supervisory compensator is proposed. The DTRN controller is designed to online estimate an ideal controller based on the gradient descent method, and the supervisory compensator is designed to eliminate the effect of the approximation error introduced by the DTRN controller upon the system stability in the Lyapunov sense. Finally, the proposed SADRNC system is applied to control a chaotic system and an inverted pendulum to illustrate its effectiveness. The stability of the proposed SADRNC scheme is proved analytically and its effectiveness has been shown through some simulations.     

Droplets coalescence and mixing with identical and distinct surface tension on a wettability gradient surface

The influence of identical and distinct surface tensions on the coalescence and mixing of droplets after a direct collision on a wettability gradient surface (made from a self-assembled monolayer, SAM technique) was investigated. The results indicate that their mixing is driven sequentially by interior convection and diffusion; the convection endures less than 100 ms but dominates more than 60 % of the mixing. If the stationary droplet has a large surface tension (73.28 mN × m^?1), whether the moving droplet has a large surface tension (73.28 mN × m^?1) or a small surface tension (38.63 mN × m^?1), the mushroom-shaped mixing pattern is generated within the coalesced droplet that enhances the convective mixing and also significantly enlarges the interface for mass diffusion. The mixing index of these two cases was greater than 0.8 at 120 s after the collision. For the cases in which the stationary droplet with a small surface tension collided by the moving droplet with a large surface tension, a mixing pattern with a round-head shape developed, which was insufficient to benefit the mixing. When the stationary and moving droplets both had small surface tension, the moving droplet was unable to merge with stationary droplet and had poor mixing quality due to the small surface Gibbs energy of both stationary and moving droplets. For the collision of droplets of identical surface tension, the surface tension affects the coalescence behavior; for the collision of droplets with distinct surface tension, the coalescence behavior and mixing quality depend on the colliding arrangement of stationary and moving droplets.     

Typology of teacher perception toward distance education issues – A study of college information department teachers in Taiwan

The popularity of distance education has grown rapidly over the last decade in Taiwan’s higher education, yet many fundamental teaching–learning issues are still in debate. While teacher–student interaction is a key success factor in distance education, little work has been done on the teachers. The intent of this research was to clarify teacher’s perceptions on key distance education issues and to develop a discernible typology of different groups of teachers based on their perceptions. Because there may be a gulf between teachers and the technology used in distance education, the target of this study was teachers in information related departments in Taiwan’s colleges, who were more familiar with current technology. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to derive the typology. Five higher-level issue constructs emerged from the factor analysis: learning effect, customization, administrative challenges, geographic and resource integration, and instructional design challenges. Four groups of teachers, namely the skeptics, the optimists, the mild-promising group, and the outlier, were identified using cluster analysis of teachers’ perceptions on these five higher-level issue constructs. The profiles of the four groups of teachers were summarized and implications were discussed, which should provide useful insights to the policy makers of higher education on distance education decisions.     

Using a cross-flow microfluidic chip for monodisperse UV-photopolymerized microparticles

In this paper, we report a microfluidic chip containing a cross-junction channel for the manipulation of UV-photopolymerized microparticles. Hydrodynamic-focusing is used to form a series of using 365 nm UV light to solidify the hydrogel droplets. We were able to control the size of the hydrogel droplets from 75 to 300 μm in diameter by altering the sample and by changing the flow rate ratio of the mineral oil in the center inlet channel to that of the side inlet channels. We found that the size of the emulsions increases with an increase in average velocity of the dispersed phase flow (polymer solution flow). The size of the emulsions decreases with an average velocity increase of the continuous phase flow (mineral oil flow). Experimental data show that the emulsions are very uniform. The developed microfluidic chip has the advantages of ease of fabrication, low cost, and high throughput. The emulsions generated are very uniform and have good regularity.     

Fatigue-fracture mechanism of slowly notched poly(ethylene terephthalate) polymers

Summary Fatigue fracture behavior of slowly notched polyethylene terephathalate (PET) polymers were investigated at temperatures close to their transition temperatures up to well above their glass transition temperatures. Detailed characterization on the morphology of the notched roots showed that the crack tip during crack propagation became more dull with increasing testing temperature. The failure cycle (N_f) of these samples increased with increasing temperatures until it reached the transition temperatures of PET polymers, and most of the increase in N_f is due to the increased time consumed in the initiation period. On the other hand, the initial crack growth rate increased significantly and N_f of these samples decreased dramatically as the temperature increased well above the glass transition temperature. This interesting temperature dependence of fatigue behavior is explained due to the change of molecular motion of PET polymers at this temperature range.     

Impact properties of carbon fiber reinforced linear and short-chain branched polyethylenes

Summary An investigation of the influence of short-chain branched length on impact behavior of linear high density polyethylene (HDPE), short-chain branched polyethylenes (SBPEs) and their fiber reinforced samples is reported. The result shows that the total impact energies (E_t) increased with increasing branch length at any given temperature used in this study. Similar trend was found for their fiber reinforced samples. For a given polyethylene resin, E_t increased with fiber content up to 5%, and then decreased consistently with further increase of fiber content. The amount of E_t improved due to the presence of 5% carbon fibers increased significantly with the branch length at temperatures higher than 25°C. In addition, the fracture surface morphology indicated that the adhesion between carbon fibers and PE resins increased with the branch length. However, the adhesion and the amount of E_t improved due to the presence of 5% carbon fibers reduced significantly with decreasing temperature. Finally, it was found that E_t decreased slightly with rising temperature until the temperature reached around 40°C, and then increased sharply with increasing temperature. It is suggested that this transition behavior is related to the molecular motion accounting for the transition of PE resins.     

An evaluation of the algorithms for determining local cerebral metabolic rates of glucose using positron emission tomography dynamic data

Measurement of the local cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (LCMRGlc) and the individual rate constant parameters of the [(18 )F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) model can provide a clearer understanding and insight to the physiological processes in the human brain, and a quicker and more accurate means of diagnosis in clinical applications. A systematic study using simulated and clinical tissue time activity data is presented to evaluate several existing and newly developed major algorithms used for determining LCMRGlc and the individual rate constants from positron emission tomography dynamic data. The computational and statistical properties of the autoradiographic approach, weighted and unweighted nonlinear least squares methods, Patlak graphic approach, weighted integration method, linear least squares and generalized linear least squares methods are investigated and discussed in this paper.