Comparison of uranium(VI) removal by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 in flow and batch reactors

To better understand the interactions among metal contaminants, nutrients, and microorganisms in subsurface fracture-flow systems, biofilms of pure culture of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 were grown in six fracture-flow reactors (FFRs) of different geometries. The spatial and temporal distribution of uranium and bacteria were examined using a tracer dye (brilliant blue FCF) and microscopy. The results showed that plugging by bacterial cells was dependent on the geometry of the reactor and that biofilms grown in FFRs had a limited U(VI)-reduction capacity. To quantify the U(VI)-reduction capacity of biofilms, batch experiments for U(VI) reduction were performed with repetitive U(VI) additions. U(VI)-reduction rates of stationary phase cultures decreased after each U(VI) addition. After the fourth U(VI) addition, stationary phase cultures treated with U(VI) with and without spent medium yielded gray and black precipitates, respectively. These gray and black U precipitates were analyzed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Data for randomly selected areas of black precipitates showed that reduced U particles (3-6 nm) were crystalline, whereas gray precipitates were a mixture of crystalline and amorphous solids. Results obtained in this study, including a dramatic limitation of S. oneidensis MR-1 and its biofilms to reduce U(VI) and plugging of FFRs, suggest that alternative organisms should be targeted for stimulation for metal immobilization in subsurface fracture-flow systems.     

Systematic Approach for Design of Broadband,High Efficiency,High Power RF Amplifiers

This paper demonstrates a systematic approach for the design of broadband, high efficiency, high power, Class‐AB RF amplifiers with high gain flatness. It is usually difficult to simultaneously achieve a high gain flatness and high efficiency in a broadband RF power amplifier, especially in a high power design. As a result, the use of a computer‐aided simulation is most often the best way to achieve these goals; however, an appropriate initial value and a systematic approach are necessary for the simulation results to rapidly converge. These objectives can be accomplished with a minimum of trial and error through the following techniques. First, signal gain variations are reduced over a wide bandwidth using a proper pre‐matching network. Then, the source and load impedances are satisfactorily obtained from small‐signal and load‐pull simulations, respectively. Finally, two high‐order Chebyshev low‐pass filters are employed to provide optimum input and output impedance matching networks over a bandwidth of 100 MHz–500 MHz. By using an EM simulation for the substrate, the simulation results were observed to be in close agreement with the measured results.     

Examination of alkali-activated material nanostructure during thermal treatment

The key nanostructural changes occurring in a series of alkali-activated materials (AAM) based on blends of slag and fly ash precursors during exposure to temperatures up to 1000 °C are investigated. The main reaction product in each AAM is a crosslinked sodium- and aluminium-substituted calcium silicate hydrate (C-(N)-A-S-H)-type gel. Increased alkali content promotes the formation of an additional sodium aluminosilicate hydrate (N-A-S-(H)) gel reaction product due to the structural limitations on Al substitution within the C-(N)-A-S-H gel. Heating each AAM to 1000 °C results in the crystallisation of the disordered gels and formation of sodalite, nepheline and wollastonite. Increased formation of N-A-S-(H) reduces binder structural water content after thermal treatment and correlates closely with previous observations of improved strength retention and reduced microcracking in these AAM after heating to 1000 °C. This provides new insight into thermally induced changes to gel atomic structure and thermal durability of C-(N)-A-S-H/N-A-S-H gel blends which are fundamental for the development of new fire-resistant construction materials.     

Nonnegative matrix factorization and metamorphic malware detection

Metamorphic malware change their internal code structure by adopting code obfuscation technique while maintaining their malicious functionality during each infection. This causes change of their signature pattern across each infection and makes signature based detection particularly difficult. In this paper, through static analysis, we use similarity score from matrix factorization technique called Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for detecting challenging metamorphic malware. We apply this technique using structural compression ratio and entropy features and compare our results with previous eigenvector-based techniques. Experimental results from three malware datasets show this is a promising technique as the accuracy detection is more than 95%.

     

Optimal Spectrum Allocation Based on Primary User Activity Model in Cognitive Radio Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - In Cognitive Radio Wireless Sensor Networks, the licensed spectrum bands are highly dynamic, and their status varies overtime. With the expansion of these...     

Asymmetric circularly polarized open‐slot antenna

A circularly polarized printed antenna using an asymmetric open‐slot is designed in this paper. The presented antenna consists of conducting ground plane with open wide‐slot, fed electromagnetically by a microstrip feedline. The slot and feedline are positioned at the edge of the ground plane and substrate, hence making the antenna asymmetric. The measured results show that the |S₁₁| < ?10 dB impedance bandwidth is 125% (3.2‐14 GHz) and the broadband axial ratio bandwidth is 61% (3.2‐6 GHz). The antenna is very simple and has a small size of 25 mm × 25 mm, making it attractive for compact wireless WLAN, ISM, WiMAX, and C‐band applications.     

Hybrid wideband dual‐cylindrical circularly polarized dielectric resonator antennas excited with S‐shaped microstrip feed for sub‐6 GHz frequency range

In this article, a hybrid microstrip fed dual‐cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (dual‐CDRA) has been proposed for the sub‐6 GHz band application with a wide circular polarization band. The proposed hybrid microstrip feed cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna utilizes an S‐shaped microstrip feed line to excite fundamental HE_11δ like mode and hybrid mode in dual‐CDRAs. The presented antenna structures are acting as monopole antenna separately with 48.75% (3.88‐6.38 GHz) bandwidth whereas both radiators called dual‐CDRAs enhances the bandwidth up to 93.06% (2.16‐5.92 GHz) in addition with an axial ratio bandwidth of 15.2% (3.52‐4.1 GHz). The proposed antenna is applicable for WiMAX (3.4‐3.69 GHz), and WLAN application of 802.11d and 8.02.11e IEEE standard. For validation of simulated results, an antenna prototype has been fabricated and experimentally verified. A good agreement between simulation and measured results are obtained. The simulation results have been carried out by using Ansys HFSS 14.0 version software.     

Analysis and improvement of PSRR in an envelope‐tracking power amplifier using a common‐drain amplifier topology

A common‐drain power amplifier (PA) for envelope tracking systems is presented. In envelope tracking, the main PA operates mostly in compression and the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) is not high. Furthermore, the output noise of the supply modulator can be mixed with the RF signal and generates out‐of‐band emissions. In this article, instead of using a common‐source topology, the PSRR of the envelope tracking PA is inherently improved by utilizing a common‐drain topology. A comprehensive analysis shows that the common‐drain topology is less sensitive to the supply noise, as compared to the conventional common‐source topology. The proposed common‐drain PA is implemented using a discrete LDMOS PD20010‐E RF transistor. Measurement results show that the PSRR of the proposed common‐drain PA is improved by up to 7 dB as compared to that of the common‐source PA. For a two‐tone input with 10 MHz bandwidth at the center frequency of 700 MHz, the power added efficiency (PAE) and IM3 of the envelope tracking common‐drain PA are 20% and ? 28 dBc, respectively, at an average output power of 33.4 dBm. The amplifier also shows a 12.4 dB power gain. Moreover, by utilizing the envelope tracking, the PAE is improved by more than 5%.     

Designing and analyzing of a piezoelectric energy harvester with tunable system natural frequency for WSN and biosensing applications

A new structure for PEH with actuation piezoelectric layer for shifting natural frequency of the system is proposed. Beams are consisted to be Si and AlN piezoelectric which is deposited on fixed–fixed beams that produces high stress points and generates more power in comparison to the other cantilever beam PEHs. This PEH with ability of shifting system natural frequency is designed to the size of 0.25 cm² using optimum available space. Actuation piezoelectric layers added on both sides of the beams provides possibility of continues reducing systems natural frequency to less than 10 Hz. Accomplished simulation also confirms theoretical calculation done by PDE method to estimate natural frequency of the system. The natural frequency of the system without actuation voltage is 58 Hz that with 1 g acceleration generated 4.27 V and 71 µW electrical power which can be used in WSN and biosensing applications.

     

Poly(hydroxamic acid) ligand from palm-based waste materials for removal of heavy metals from electroplating wastewater

Heavy metals pollutants are nonbiodegradable and their bioaccumulation results in detrimental environmental consequences. Therefore, it is important to effectively remove toxic heavy metal waste from industrial sewage. Thus, the main goal of this research is to synthesize an ideal cellulose-based adsorbent from palm-based waste materials (agro waste) in order to be utilized in real-life practical applications with low cost as such removing common toxic heavy metals from industrial effluents. A poly(methyl acrylate) grafted palm cellulose was synthesized via a free-radical initiation process, followed by an oximation reaction to yield poly(hydroxamic acid) ligands. The adsorption capacity (q_e) of poly(hydroxamic acid) ligands for metal ions such as copper (Cu²⁺), iron (Fe³⁺), and lead (Pb²⁺) were 325, 220, and 300 mg g⁻¹, respectively at pH 6. In addition, the X-ray photoelectron spectrometry results are to be proved the binding of metal ions, for instance, Cu(II) ions showed typically significant BEs of 932.7 and 952.0 eV corresponding to the Cu2p3/2 and Cu2p1/2 species. The heavy metal ions adsorption followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic model pathway. The adsorption capacity (q_m) is also derived from the Langmuir isotherm linear plot, which does not showed good correction coefficients. However, the results were correlated to the Freundlich isotherm model, where the R² value showed significance (>0.98), indicating that multiple layer adsorption occurs on the synthesized ligand. The synthesized polymeric ligand is an excellent adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals from the industrial wastewater. In addition, the metal analysis results showed that about 98% removal of copper and iron ions from electroplating wastewater including lead, nickel, and chromium can be removed up to 85–97%.