Graft Copolymerization of Acrylamide onto Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) Fiber

Grafting of acrylamide (AAm) onto oil palm empty fruits bunch fiber using hydrogen peroxide as initiator and methyl acrylate as comonomer was investigated. The amount of comonomer needed to make grafting of acrylamide possible was determined. The percentage of poly(acrylamide) and the comonomer in the final graft copolymer was estimated by elemental analysis. Results obtained indicated that methyl acrylate facilitated the incorporation of acrylamide monomer onto OPEFB. The reactivity ratios for both monomers were determined by using Fineman–Ross plot. The effects of reaction temperature and period as well as amount of the initiator, solvent, monomer and comonomer on the percentage of grafting at fixed amount of comonomer (11 mmol) were studied. Maximum percentage of grafting was achieved when the amount of initiator and solvent 3.98×10⁻³ mol and 50 mL respectively. The optimum reaction temperature was 50 ^○C and the reaction period was 90 min. Highest percentage of grafting was 232% when 25.6 mmol of acrylamide was used under these optimum conditions. The presence of functional group in the grafted polymer is characterized by infrared spectroscopy and the surface morphology is observed by scanning electron microscopy. Thermoanalytic investigation on OPEFB and OPEFB-g-PAAM were carried out to evaluate the thermal stability and respective activation energy of the materials.     

Synthesis of nitrogen incorporated diamond-like carbon thin films using microwave surface-wave plasma CVD

Nitrogenated diamond-like (DLC:N) carbon thin films have been deposited by microwave surface wave plasma chemical vapor deposition on silicon and quartz substrates, using argon gas, camphor dissolved in ethyl alcohol composition and nitrogen as plasma source. The deposited DLC:N films were characterized for their chemical, optical, structural and electrical properties through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV/VIS/NIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscope and current–voltage characteristics. Optical band gap decreased (2.7 to 2.4 eV) with increasing Ar gas flow rate. The photovoltaic measurements of DLC:N / p-Si structure show that the open-circuit voltage (V_oc) of 168.8 mV and a short-circuit current density (J_sc) of 8.4 μA/cm² under light illumination (AM 1.5 100 mW/cm²). The energy conversion efficiency and fill factor were found to be 3.4 × 10^{− 4}% and 0.238 respectively.     

Robust Unknown Input Observer Design for Linear Uncertain Time Delay Systems with Application to Fault Detection

In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to design a robust fault detection observer for uncertain linear time delay systems. The system is composed of both norm‐bounded uncertainties and exogenous signals (noise, disturbance, and fault) which are considered to be unknown. The main contribution of this paper is to present unknown input observer (UIO)‐based fault detection system which shows the maximum sensitivity to fault signals and the minimum sensitivity to other signals. Since the system contains uncertainty terms, an H_∞ model‐matching approach is used in design procedure. The reference residual signal generator system is designed so that the fault signal has maximum sensitivity while the exogenous signals have minimum sensitivity on the residual signal. Then, the fault detection system is designed by minimizing the estimation error between the reference residual signal and the UIO residual signal in the sense of H_∞ norm. A sufficient condition for the existence of such a filter is exploited in terms of certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Application of the proposed method in a numerical example and an engineering process are simulated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show the validity of the proposed approach to detect the occurrence of faults in the presence of modeling errors, disturbances, and noise.     

Stabilization of positive switched systems with time-varying delays under asynchronous switching

This paper investigates the state feedback stabilization problem for a class of positive switched systems with time-varying delays under asynchronous switching in the frameworks of continuous-time and discrete-time dynamics. The so-called asynchronous switching means that the switches between the candidate controllers and system modes are asynchronous. By constructing an appropriate co-positive type Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and further allowing the functional to increase during the running time of active subsystems, sufficient conditions are provided to guarantee the exponential stability of the resulting closed-loop systems, and the corresponding controller gain matrices and admissible switching signals are presented. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

The effect of the N-linked glycans on structural features and physicochemical functions of soybean β-conglycinin homotrimers

β-Conglycinin is a trimeric protein consisting of three subunits, α,α′,and β, which are N-glycosylated. The α and α′ subunits contain extension regions in addition to core regions common to all subunits. We purified homogeneous trimers consisting of only α, α′, or β from mutant soybean cultivars containing β-conglycinin lacking one or two subunits: α homotrimers from an α′-lacking mutant, α′ homotrimers from an α-lacking mutant, and β homotrimers from an α-and α′-lacking mutant. Structural features and physicochemical functions of the three homotrimers were examined and compared with those of recombinant homotrimers having no N-linked glycans. The native homotrimers have secondary structures very similar to those of the recombinant ones. In analogy with the recombinant homotrimers, the native ones exhibit different thermal stabilities from one another (β>α′>α), and the native α and α′ homotrimers exhibit better solubility, emulsifying ability, and heat-induced association than the native β homotrimer. Further, the N-linked glycans contribute to solubilities of the three subunits at low ionic strength (μ=0.08) and to the emulsifying ability of the native β homotrimer. N-Linked glycans also prevent heat-induced associations of the native α and α′ homotrimers but do not contribute to the secondary structure and the thermal stability of β-conglycinin.     

Use of polymeric nitrosation reagents for the N‐nitrosation of secondary amines under mild and heterogeneous conditions

A combination of crosslinked poly(4‐vinylpyridinium)chloride [P₄‐H]Cl ( I ) and sodium nitrite or quaternized crosslinked poly(N‐methyl‐4‐vinylpyridinium)nitrite [P₄‐Me]NO₂ ( II ) was used as effective nitrosating agents for the N‐nitrosation of secondary amines under mild and heterogeneous conditions in moderate to excellent yields. The spent polymeric reagents can usually be removed quantitatively and regenerated. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 1064–1067, 2007     

Non‐fragile H ∞ control for switched stochastic delay systems with application to water quality process

In this paper, the problem of non‐fragile observer‐based H _∞ control for discrete‐time switched delay systems is investigated. Both data missing and time delays are taken into account in the links from sensors to observers and from controllers to actuators. Because data missing satisfies the Bernoulli distribution, such problem is transformed into an H _∞ control problem for stochastic switched delay systems. Average dwell time approach is used to obtain sufficient conditions on the solvability of such problems. A numerical example and a real example for water quality control are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and potential applications of the proposed techniques. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fault detection for continuous‐time switched systems under asynchronous switching

In this paper, the problem of fault detection for continuous‐time switched systems under asynchronous switching is investigated. The designed fault detection filter is assumed to be asynchronous with the original systems. Attention is focused on designing a fault detection filter such that the estimation error between the residual and the fault is minimized in the sense of H _∞ norm. By employing piecewise Lyapunov function and average dwell time techniques, a sufficient condition for the existence of such a filter is exploited in terms of certain linear matrix inequalities. Finally, an example of a switched electrical circuit is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Context-aware saliency detection for image retargeting using convolutional neural networks

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Image retargeting is the task of making images capable of being displayed on screens with different sizes. This work should be done so that high-level visual...