Advances in interactive display technologies

How we interface and interact with computing, communications, and entertainment devices is going through revolutionary changes, with natural user inputs based on touch, gesture, and voice replacing or augmenting the use of traditional user interfaces based on the keyboard, mouse, trackballs, joysticks, and so forth. In particular, mobile devices have rapidly transitioned to adopt touch screen technologies as the primary means of user interface during recent years, enabling fun new interactive applications and experiences for the users. We have dedicated this special section of the Journal of the Society for Information Display to present an overview of recent developments and trends in the emerging field of interactive display technologies.     

An approach of clustering data with noisy or imprecise feature measurement

In this paper we considered clustering of data corrupted by noise or suffering from imprecision due to finite resolution of the feature measuring device. Our work is motivated by the fact that no measurement can be made perfect and addition of noise is not an uncommon phenomenon for telemetric data. Here we tried to show how the classical k-means algorithm should be modified to take care of the noise/imprecision. Experimental results on Fisher's Iris data and a Nutrition data are demonstrated.     

Influence of mineral on the load deformation behavior of polymer in hydroxyapatite-polyacrylic acid nanocomposite biomaterials: a steered molecular dynamics study

Composites of hydroxyapatite and polymers are widely studied for bone replacement. To perform satisfactorily in the human body, these composites need to be biocompatible and exhibit optimum mechanical properties. The load-deformation behavior of composites is often investigated using experimental techniques. However, the molecular mechanisms of load deformation behavior are not clearly understood. We have used Steered Molecular Dynamics to evaluate the load-deformation behavior at interfaces in polyacrylic acid-hydroxyapatite (HAP) composite models. The polymer is pulled at constant velocity in close proximity of HAP. On comparing the results obtained for deformation behavior of polymer in vicinity of mineral and in the absence of mineral, it was found that energy required to pull the polymer in close proximity of HAP is significantly higher. Also, structural details of the load transfer mechanisms in composite were investigated under both conditions. Our simulations indicate that there is a significant role of mineral-polymer interactions on the mechanical response of polymer.     

Chemistry of single-walled carbon nanotubes

In this Account we highlight the experimental evidence in favor of our view that carbon nanotubes should be considered as a new macromolecular form of carbon with unique properties and with great potential for practical applications. We show that carbon nanotubes may take on properties that are normally associated with molecular species, such as solubility in organic solvents, solution-based chemical transformations, chromatography, and spectroscopy. It is already clear that the nascent field of nanotube chemistry will rival that of the fullerenes.     

Novel adhesion promotion of aluminium for aerospace environments

This study focuses on analysing the durability of adhesive bonds formed in samples of Aluminium 6063, Titanium Nitride deposited Al 6063 and Anodized Al 6063 using epoxy adhesive Weicon A. Two types of studies are performed, first, samples of Aluminium 6063, Titanium Nitride deposited Al 6063 and Anodized Al 6063, are bonded by an epoxy adhesive Weicon A. Second, the samples are bonded by the adhesive with reinforcement of Ca₂SiO₄ nanoparticles in different proportions. The samples are examined using the scanning electron microscopy to study the morphology of the coating. A lap shear test is performed to determine the strength of the adhesive after the specimens were subjected to harsh chemical environments. A thermogravimetric analysis is performed on the adhesive to understand the effect of nanoparticles in the thermal stability in the Weicon A. It is understood from the tests that the titanium nitride coated Al 6063 samples bonded with Weicon A exhibited greater bond strength and also retained the strength when exposed to harsh environments. The inclusion of calcium silicate nano-particles showcased a considerable reduction in the bond strength. The thermal stability of Weicon A seems to be unaffected by the inclusion of calcium silicate nanoparticles.     

Surface modification of HDPE and PP by mechanical polishing and DC glow discharge and their adhesive joining to steel

To improve the strengths of the adhesive joints of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) to steel, the surfaces of HDPE and PP sheets have been treated by DC glow discharge to increase the polar component of surface energy significantly. Present study investigates the effect of mechanical polishing prior to surface modification of substrates of HDPE and PP sheets by exposure to DC glow discharge, on the surface energy and their adhesive joint strength to steel. The mechanical polishing has been carried out by abrading with 120, 220, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 grade emery paper of grit sizes 8.33, 4.54, 2.5, 1.67, 1.2, and 1 micron, respectively. The surface energy of a given surface has been evaluated by measuring contact angles of sessile drops of two test liquids of known surface tension components, such as deionized water and formamide. It is observed that 800‐grade emery paper of grit size 1.2 micron has been found most effective in terms of their reduction in contact angles and enhancement of their surface energies. The change in surface energy due to surface modification has also been evaluated by measuring the surface energies of unpolished sheets exposed to DC glow discharge. The surface modification of the polymers by glow discharge for 120 s at a power level of 13 W decreases the contact angle more on mechanically polished specimens than that observed on unpolished sheets. Due to glow discharge treatment, the polar component of surface energy increases significantly in HDPE and PP, especially when they are mechanically polished (800 grade) prior to glow discharge. However, in case of the HDPE sheets, the effect of glow discharge on the polar component of surface energy is significantly higher compared to that for dispersion component of surface energy, whereas the polar component of surface energy of the PP sheet is lower than the dispersion component of surface energy. But in both the cases, mechanical polishing prior to glow discharge appears to affect the polar component of surface energy. Mechanical polishing of the HDPE and PP sheets by abrading with 800‐grade emery paper prior to glow discharge treatment, increases the adhesive joint strengths over those observed in case of unpolished polymers exposed to glow discharge. However, the use of prior mechanical polishing increases the joint strength only by a little more than 10% compared to a five to seven times increase in strength observed as a consequence of exposure to glow discharge of as received samples. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 1140–1149, 2001     

Grain size dependent magnetization, electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance in mechanically milled La0.67Sr0.33MnO3

We have studied magnetization, ac susceptibility, resistivity and magnetoresistance in mechanically milled La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO₃. The material with grain size micron to nanometer scale has stabilized in rhombohedral crystal structure with space group R3C. We have found various grain size effects, e.g., decrease of ferromagnetic moment, increase of surface spin disorder, and appearance of insulator/semiconductor type resistivity. In addition to these conventional features, we have identified a magnetic anomaly at 45 K in bulk sample. Ferromagnetic to paramagnetic transition temperature (T_C) is above room temperature for all samples. The samples are typical soft ferromagnet that transformed from multi-domain state to single domain state in nanocrystalline samples. The remarkable observation is that low temperature freezing of ferromagnetic domains/clusters does not follow the conventional spin glass features. Experimental results clearly showed the enhancement of high field magnetoresistance in nanocrystalline samples below 200 K, whereas low field magnetoresistance gradually decreases above 200 K and almost absent at 300 K. We have discussed few more magnetic and electrical changes, highly relevant to the progress of nanomaterial research in ferromagnetic manganites.     

Ferromagnetism in lead graphite-pencils and magnetic composite with CoFe2O4 particles

This work has been initiated with a curiosity to investigate the elemental composition and magnetic response of different grades of lead pencils (6B, 2B, HB, 2H, 5H) that people use in daily life. Interestingly, experimental results landed with a great achievement of observing soft magnetism in lead pencils, indicating a wide scope of magnetic tuning for room temperature applications. A novel magnetic composite has been synthesized by mixing different concentration of CoFe₂O₄ (CF) nanoparticles in 5H and 6B pencils for studying the magnetic tailoring aspects using pencils. Our results showed different possibilities of controlling disorder induced ferromagnetic parameters and a simple approach of producing sufficiently high coercive magnetic composite using pencils.