On the J-intergral blunting line applied to linear amorphous polymers

Summary The development of crazes of linear amorphous polymers competes with the occurrence of general yielding in the plastic zone in tensile deformation. For toughened semi-ductile linear amorphous polymers, general yielding in the plastic zone is suppressed by the development of crazes. This suppresion prevents the crack tip from being blunt. Therefore it is recommended that the blunting line be neglected for the evaluation of Jic. For semi-ductile linear amorphous polymers, general yielding in the plastic zone takes place and blunts the crack tip. Thus the blunting line cannot be neglected for the evaluation of Jic.     

Dual-specificity interaction of HIV-1 TAR RNA with Tat peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates

An oligonucleotide-peptide conjugate, having dual binding capability for a designated RNA, was designed. The peptide portion of the conjugate interacts with a folded domain in the RNA, whereas the oligonucleotide portion hybridizes with a nearby single-stranded region in the RNA. The dual specificity was proven in a model HIV-1 TAR RNA system using an RNase H cleavage assay to assess antisense binding to this RNA. The peptide portion of the conjugate was shown to confer increased specificity on the oligonucleotide.     

Design and Implementation of a Reconfigurable Mobile Game Controller on Smartphone

Expansion of games industry came in modern life, accompanied with innovative features in a game controller. Nowadays mobile industry is booming with the expansion of the variety of novel technologies, such as the use of 3D accelerometer sensors, high resolution cameras, the capability of connecting to wireless networks and so on. Therefore, a smartphone can be added with the game control functions to become a mobile game controller. In this paper, we propose the design and implementation of making a mobile phone as a game controller using User Datagram Protocol socket programming. This system is developed by Java 2 Standard Edition and Google Android Software Development Kits which has already provided sensor and multi-touch APIs. We successfully realize a reconfigurable mobile game controller on a mobile smartphone to interact with the existing digital games by mapping control functions on the server. Acceptable performance is shown to validate the effectiveness of our solution.     

Study and fabrication of ZnNb2O6 thin films by sol-gel method

Zinc niobium oxide (ZnNb₂O₆) thin films were grown on ITO/glass substrate by sol-gel process. Microstructure and surface morphology of the ZnNb₂O₆ thin films have been studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Optical properties of the ZnNb₂O₆ thin films were obtained by UV-visible recording spectrophotometer. The dependence of the microstructure, optical transmittance spectra, optical band gap on annealing temperature was also investigated.     

Direct and seamless coupling of TiO2 nanotube photonic crystal to dye-sensitized solar cell: a single-step approach

A TiO(2) nanotube layer with a periodic structure is used as a photonic crystal to greatly enhance light harvesting in TiO(2) nanotube-based dye-sensitized solar cells. Such a tube-on-tube structure fabricated by a single-step approach facilitates good physical contact, easy electrolyte infiltration, and efficient charge transport. An increase of over 50% in power conversion efficiency is obtained in comparison to reference cells without a photonic crystal layer (under similar total thickness and dye loading).     

Performance of a solar dryer using hot air from roof-integrated solar collectors for drying herbs and spices

A solar dryer for drying herbs and spices using hot air from roof-integrated solar collectors was developed. The dryer is a bin type with a rectangular perforated floor. The bin has a dimension of 1.0 m×2.0 m×0.7 m. Hot air is supplied to the dryer from fiberglass-covered solar collectors, which also function as the roof of a farmhouse. The total area of the solar collectors is 72 m². To investigate its performance, the dryer was used to dry four batches of rosella flowers and three batches of lemon-grasses during the year 2002–2003. The dryer can be used to dry 200 kg of rosella flowers and lemon-grasses within 4 and 3 days, respectively. The products being dried in the dryer were completely protected from rains and insects and the dried products are of high quality. The solar air heater has an average daily efficiency of 35% and it performs well both as a solar collector and a roof of a farmhouse.     

Multi-objective stochastic groundwater management of nonuniform,homogeneous aquifers

Like any other resources planning and management, groundwater management is performed in a stochastic environment in which the system itself involves a number of random elements. Consequences as a result of decisions made based on analyses are not certain. This paper presents a management model using the chance-constrained framework which explicitly considers the random nature of aquifer properties. The model enables the derivation of an optimal groundwater management policy that would satisfy required operation performance reliability. Furthermore, the chance-constrained model is extended to the multi-objective optimization framework in which a tradeoff between total water supply pumpage and system performance reliability is explicitly considered. The models are applied to a hypothetical example of a steady, nonuniform, homogeneous confined aquifer.