Electrochemical deposition of a carbon nanotube-poly(o-phenylenediamine) composite on a stainless steel surface

Electrodeposition of a nano-composite made of oxidized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and a conductive polymer such as poly(o-phenylenediamine) (PoPD) on a stainless steel surface from aqueous solution was carried out by cyclic voltammetry. The presence of the CNTs enhanced the deposition of the PoPD and this enhancement was more significant in the presence of single walled carbon nanotubes (sCNT) by comparison to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (mCNT). Scanning electron microscope images indicated the incorporation of the CNTs in the PoPD layer. The nano-composite layer as well as the pure PoPD layer keeps the stainless steel in a passive state in acidic solution. The oxide film underneath the nano-composite layer is unique and showed high corrosion resistance in concentrated chloride solutions, which was confirmed by the presence of high contents of iron and chromium components. These findings suggest that the CNTs indirectly assist the passivation of the stainless steel by catalyic oxygen reduction and polymer oxidation process.     

Antimicrobial activity of lactic acid and copper on growth of Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in laboratory medium and carrot juice

Outbreaks of food-borne pathogens, such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, continue to draw public attention to food safety. Several reports have demonstrated the efficacy of using natural ingredients to control the growth of food-borne pathogens. The objective of this study was to investigate antimicrobial effects of lactic acid and copper, alone and in combination, on the survival and growth of Salmonella spp. and E. coli O157:H7 in laboratory medium and carrot juice. Survival and growth of 38 Salmonella spp. and six E. coli O157:H7 strains were compared when grown in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth and carrot juice under conditions including either lactic acid (0.2%) alone, copper sulfate (50 ppm) alone or the combination of the two. The growth inhibition was negligible when copper sulfate was added to BHI broth and carrot juice. Lactic acid (0.2%) retarded the growth of bacterial strains. However, the growth of bacterial strains was significantly inhibited when both lactic acid and copper were in BHI broth and carrot juice within the time frame of this study. These findings indicated that lactic acid, in combination with copper sulfate, could be used to inhibit the growth of pathogens. Natural ingredients, such as lactic acid and low dose of copper ions, can be used to improve the safety of food products.     

Disturbance-generated bifurcations in a simple adaptive system: Simulation evidence

We present complete characterization based on computer simulation of the possible dynamics exhibited by an adaptive control system where the (first order) plant with a single unknown pole has constant disturbance at the input. The adaptive system is taken from the current adaptive control systems literature. Here we show that the system in fact undergoes bifurcations and exhibits rich dynamics. As the constant disturbance is varied, the system undergoes saddle-node bifurcation, (subcritical) Hopf bifurcation, and a saddle connection bifurcation. The last bifurcation means that the system acquires a homoclinic orbit for a specific disturbance. While the first two bifurcations are local, the presence of the homoclinic orbit has the potential, when periodically disturbed, to generate nonlocal complicated behavior. This latter behavior is often referred to as ‘horseshoe chaos’.     

Organisational adaptation of multi-agent systems in a peer-to-peer scenario

Organisations in multi-agent systems (MAS) have proven to be successful in regulating agent societies. Nevertheless, changes in agents’ behaviour or in the dynamics of the environment may lead to a poor fulfilment of the system’s purposes, and so the entire organisation needs to be adapted. In this paper we focus on endowing the organisation with adaptation capabilities, instead of expecting agents to be capable of adapting the organisation by themselves. We regard this organisational adaptation as an assisting service provided by what we call the Assistance Layer. Our generic Two Level Assisted MAS Architecture (2-LAMA) incorporates such a layer. We empirically evaluate this approach by means of an agent-based simulator we have developed for the P2P sharing network domain. This simulator implements 2-LAMA architecture and supports the comparison between different adaptation methods, as well as, with the standard BitTorrent protocol. In particular, we present two alternatives to perform norm adaptation and one method to adapt agents’ relationships. The results show improved performance and demonstrate that the cost of introducing an additional layer in charge of the system’s adaptation is lower than its benefits.     

Transient stability analysis of a power system with one generator connected to an infinite bus system

This paper presents a novel method to identify the fault that would affect the transient stability of one machine to an infinite bus. Here, the swing equation of each machine is expressed in the form of a closed-loop transfer function in Laplace ss-domain. In the transfer function, the duration of the fault and the changes in maximum electrical power output of the machine during and after the fault are considered. Then, the real value of the dominant root of each machine's characteristic equation is identified on the real axis of the s-plane. In this method, the generator has been considered unstable based on the position of the real value of the dominant root in the left half or very close to the imaginary axis or in the right half of the s-plane. The results obtained by the proposed method are compared with those of the conventional step-by-step method on the basis of different fault clearing times, and good agreements have been demonstrated.     

Non-baseline Damage Detection Based on the Deviation of Displacement Mode Shape Data

The early detection of damage and structural health monitoring should be an important process for structural maintenance. The baseline information of the structural reference state is not available since the structure was not instrumented prior to the damage. This work offers a global-deviation approach to detect damage by measured data only without available data at the intact state. This work shows that the damage exists at the measurement locations to represent large and abrupt variation deviated from global mode shape curve. The proposed method is compared with the GSM (Gapped-Smoothing Method) provided by Ratcliffe and Bagaria and its superiority and effectiveness are illustrated in a numerical simulation and an experiment.     

Vertical Transport in GaN/AlGaN Resonant Tunneling Diodes and Superlattices

Using the transfer matrix formalism, we have theoretically studied the vertical ballistic transport in GaN/AlGaN resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) and superlattices with a small number of periods. We have calculated the transmission probability versus the longitudinal electron energy (T–E) and the current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics. Calculations of both T–E and J–V characteristics have been performed for different Al contents in the barriers. The asymmetry effects due to the internal electric field in the barriers are discussed. Applied to the RTD structure, our calculations demonstrate: (i) the increase of the peak-to-valley ratio of the negative differential resistance (NDR) with increasing Al content in the barriers, (ii) the dependence of the J–V resonance values on the current direction, and (iii) the asymmetry of the NDR with respect to the current direction due to the huge internal electric field in the structure. In the case of multiple quantum well structure (MQWS), the calculation results confirm the same trends as in the RTD case when the Al content is varied. In spite of the fact that it is more difficult to analyze the results in the case of MQWS, the obtained calculations demonstrate the applicability of the used model and of the numerical method to study GaN/AlGaN devices based on quantum well (QW) heterostructures. Furthermore, a design of an optimized 7QW structure operating symmetrically whatever the direction of the applied voltage is presented.     

Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in a Parallelogrammic Enclosure Containing Volumetric Heat Source with Non‐uniformly Heated Left Sidewall

The influence of the external Rayleigh number, inclination angle, and internal Rayleigh number on natural convection within an air‐filled parallelogrammic enclosure containing a volumetric source has been investigated numerically. The left sidewall of the enclosure is subjected to a non‐uniformly hot temperature and the right sidewall experiences a uniform cold temperature while the remaining top and bottom walls are kept adiabatic. The physical problems are represented mathematically by various sets of governing equations along with the corresponding boundary conditions. Buoyancy forces are taken into account during the analysis of the present investigation. By using the finite volume method, the dimensionless governing equations are discretized numerically based on a non‐uniform collocated grid system. Results are obtained for a wide range of external Rayleigh numbers varying from 10³ to 10⁶ with internal Rayleigh numbers varying from (0) to (10⁸) while the left sidewall from vertical is varied as 0, 30, –30, 60, and ?60^°, respectively. In the present study, the obtained results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, and average Nusselt number along the hot and cold sidewalls. Two pairs of rotating vortices are observed due to the non‐uniform heating process while the shape of this rotating vortices is sensitive to the inclination angle. Furthermore, the flow field circulation and the average Nusselt number increase remarkably with the increase in the external Rayleigh number. The results of the present work are compared with other published results and give excellent agreement. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 43(6): 542–560, 2014; Published online 11 November 2013 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21096