An expert system to aid cataloging and searching electronic documents on digital libraries

This paper describes a metadata based indexing system with a built-in expert system for cataloging and searching digital libraries on the World Wide Web. The specific features of this system are the following: An expert system with a knowledge base and a subject thesaurus, a model of a reference librarian's behavior for cataloging and searching, and an intelligent user interface to provide context sensitive help to the user. At present our expert system is limited to the subjects of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. The design issues and the implementation details of the expert system to mimic a librarian's behavior for automated document searching and cataloging are discussed in detail.     

Effect of solid polymer electrolyte on the sensitization of photocurrents in solid-state electrochemical cells using conducting polypyrrole

The effect of small concentration of methylene blue dye on photocurrents was studied in the solid-state photoelectrochemical cells fabricated using conducting polypyrrole-coated electrodes sandwiched with solid-polymer electrolyte, namely, polyvinylpyrrolidone with phosphoric acid. A maximum photosensitivity factor (S=I _l/I _d, where I _l is the photocurrent and I _d is the dark current) of the order of 5 is observed. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics in such cells reveal that charge transport is mainly governed by the space charge effect. Comparison of the results presented in this paper with the ones we reported earlier [23] indicates that the matrix in which dye has been incorporated plays an important role in such sensitization processes. A matrix that can efficiently transport the photogenerated charge carriers is observed to be more suitable for such dye-sensitized devices.     

Effect of the surface roughness of conducting polypyrrole thin-film electrodes on the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrobenzene

Conducting polypyrrole (PPy) thin-film electrodes were prepared by the electropolymerization of pyrrole on gold-coated glass plates. Films of various roughnesses were obtained by the variation of the scan rates during electropolymerization. These thin films were modified by doping with 6mM of the dopant NiCl₂. The surface morphology of the films was studied by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM), which suggested films prepared with a high scan rate were rougher in nature than the films produced with a low scan rate. The electrocatalytic reduction of nitrobenzene was carried out with these electrodes with the cyclic voltammetry technique in acetonitrile containing 0.1M HClO₄ as a supporting electrolyte. The various results obtained show that the conducting PPy thin-film electrodes were catalytically active toward the electroreduction process. The modified PPy film electrodes doped with NiCl₂ were more active toward nitrobenzene electroreduction than the PPy film alone. The results indicate that the roughness of the films played a very important role in determining their catalytic activity. The PPy films that were more rough in nature were catalytically more active than the smooth films; this may have been due to the availability of more reactive sites in the case of rough films. The apparent diffusion coefficients of the PPy film electrodes were also calculated. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Modelling of packed bed adsorption columns for the separation of green tea catechins

Green tea is a rich source of catechins, which when purified have a high economic value as they can be used as a supplement in several products, to increase their health benefits. Catechins are regarded as desired components with several applications in a variety of areas such as foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. A multicomponent sorption model has been developed for the separation of catechins from liquid tea streams, with macroporous resins in a packed bed column. Two commercially available food grade resins were considered: Amberlite XADHP and Diaion HP20. For the desorption step, two food grade solvents are used: water and ethanol. The adsorption and desorption behaviour is subsequently mathematically described with one-dimensional axial dispersed plug flow model that can accurately simulate the dynamics of the solvent swing sorption columns. The model parameters were regressed from experimental data. Five components are modelled in the competitive sorption: the main four catechins present in green tea and caffeine. The model was used for the process design and optimization for the recovery of catechins from green tea.     

Oscillatory shear rheology of dilute solutions of flexible polymers interacting with oppositely charged particles

Fluids with both attractions and repulsions among its constituents can exist in multiple states depending on nature of the interactions. An external flow can induce such systems to transition between the different states, such as the globule‐stretch transition for polymers in poor solvents. Brownian dynamics simulations of a dilute solution of polymers and colloids interacting via short‐ranged potentials are presented. For some values of the strength and range of interactions, compact structures of polymers and colloids are formed. An external flow is capable of pulling these globules apart, causing the polymers to stretch at a critical shear rate. In oscillatory shear, the shear rate can cycle between being above and below this critical shear rate leading to interesting dynamics. These dynamics are quantified using the rheological response in large amplitude oscillatory shear. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 1365–1371, 2014     

The Role of Cytochrome P450 1B1 in Dibenzo[ a,l ]pyrene-induced Carcinogenesis

In human cells, the most carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon dibenzo[ a,l ]pyrene (DB[ a,l ]P) forms high levels of DNA adducts through formation of the ( m )- anti -(11 R ,12 S )-diol (13 S ,14 R )-epoxide (DB[ a,l ]PDE) and its metabolic precursor, the ( m )-(11 R ,12 R )-diol. Generation of these adducts results from the catalytic activity of cytochrome P450 (P450) 1A1 and 1B1. Additional adducts such as (+)- syn -DB[ a,l ]PDE-DNA or more polar DNA adducts were detected only after increasing exposure doses of the parent compound or in cells that express P450 1A1. At low concentrations (·;100 nM) exclusively ( m )- anti -DB[ a,l ]PDE-DNA adducts were formed by P450 1B1, which is constitutively expressed in many mammalian tissues. Measurement of DNA binding and mutagenicity of DB[ a,l ]P in V79 cells expressing human P450 enzymes revealed a higher activity of P450 1B1 compared to 1A1 at low concentrations. Treatment of P450 1B1 knockout mice and DNA binding studies with fibroblasts isolated from these animals provided further evidence for the central role of P450 1B1-catalyzed formation of ( m )- anti -DB[ a,l ]PDE-DNA adducts in DB[ a,l ]P-induced carcinogenesis.     

Model validation under epistemic uncertainty

This paper develops a methodology to assess the validity of computational models when some quantities may be affected by epistemic uncertainty. Three types of epistemic uncertainty regarding input random variables - interval data, sparse point data, and probability distributions with parameter uncertainty - are considered. When the model inputs are described using sparse point data and/or interval data, a likelihood-based methodology is used to represent these variables as probability distributions. Two approaches - a parametric approach and a non-parametric approach - are pursued for this purpose. While the parametric approach leads to a family of distributions due to distribution parameter uncertainty, the principles of conditional probability and total probability can be used to integrate the family of distributions into a single distribution. The non-parametric approach directly yields a single probability distribution. The probabilistic model predictions are compared against experimental observations, which may again be point data or interval data. A generalized likelihood function is constructed for Bayesian updating, and the posterior distribution of the model output is estimated. The Bayes factor metric is extended to assess the validity of the model under both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty and to estimate the confidence in the model prediction. The proposed method is illustrated using a numerical example.     

Inclusion of fatigue effects in human reliability analysis

The effect of fatigue on human performance has been observed to be an important factor in many industrial accidents. However, defining and measuring fatigue is not easily accomplished. This creates difficulties in including fatigue effects in probabilistic risk assessments (PRA) of complex engineering systems that seek to include human reliability analysis (HRA). Thus the objectives of this paper are to discuss (1) the importance of the effects of fatigue on performance, (2) the difficulties associated with defining and measuring fatigue, (3) the current status of inclusion of fatigue in HRA methods, and (4) the future directions and challenges for the inclusion of fatigue, specifically sleep deprivation, in HRA.     

Pyrochlore type semiconducting ceramic oxides in Ca-Ce-Ti-M-O system (M = Nb or Ta)—Structure, microstructure and electrical properties

A new series of pyrochlore type ceramic semiconducting oxides in Ca-Ce-Ti-M-O (M = Nb or Ta) system has been synthesized by the conventional ceramic route. The electrical conductivity measurements show that these oxides exhibit semiconducting behavior and the conductivity increases with the Ce content in the compound. Activation energy of the current carriers is in the range of 0.5-1.6 eV. The electrical conductivity in these oxides is due to the presence of Ce³⁺, which remains in the reduced state without being oxidized to Ce⁴⁺ by structural stabilization. The photoluminescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis corroborate the presence of Ce in the 3+ state. Impedance spectral analysis is carried out to evaluate the transport properties and indicates that the conduction in these compounds is mainly due to electronic contribution. The X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analysis establishes that these oxides belong to a cubic pyrochlore type structure.