Acoustically generated flows in microchannel flexural plate wave sensors: Effects of compressibility

Acoustically generated flowfields in flexural plate wave sensors filled with a Newtonian liquid (water) are considered. A computational model based on compressible flow is developed for the sensor with a moving wall for pumping and mixing applications in microchannels. For the compressible flow formulation, an isothermal equation of state for water is employed. The velocity and pressure profiles for different parameters including flexural wall frequency, channel height, amplitude of the wave and wave length are investigated for four microchannel height/length geometries. It is found that the flowfield becomes pseudo-steady after sufficient number of flexural cycles. Both instantaneous and time averaged results show that an evanescent wave is generated in the microchannel. The predicted flows generated by the FPWs are compared with results available in the literature. The proposed device can be exploited to integrate micropumps with complex microfluidic chips improving the portability of micro-total-analysis systems.     

High performance concrete compressive strength forecasting using ensemble models based on discrete wavelet transform

This paper investigates the use of wavelet ensemble models for high performance concrete (HPC) compressive strength forecasting. More specifically, we incorporate bagging and gradient boosting methods in building artificial neural networks (ANN) ensembles (bagged artificial neural networks (BANN) and gradient boosted artificial neural networks (GBANN)), first. Coefficient of determination (R²), mean absolute error (MAE) and the root mean squared error (RMSE) statics are used for performance evaluation of proposed predictive models. Empirical results show that ensemble models (R²_BANN=0.9278, R²_GBANN=0.9270) are superior to a conventional ANN model (R²_ANN=0.9088). Then, we use the coupling of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and ANN ensembles for enhancing the prediction accuracy. The study concludes that DWT is an effective tool for increasing the accuracy of the ANN ensembles (R²_WBANN=0.9397, R²_WGBANN=0.9528).     

Shape Memory Behavior of [111]-Oriented NiTi Single Crystals After Stress-Assisted Aging

The shape memory behavior of [111]-oriented Ni_(51)Ti_(49) (at.%) single crystals was investigated after stressassisted aging at 500 °C for 1.5 h under a compressive stress of-150 MPa.It was found that a single family of Ni_4Ti_3 precipitates with two crystallographically equivalent variants was formed after aging under compressive stress.Stressassisted aging resulted in tensile two-way shape memory effect strain of 1.56% under-5 MPa.Thermal cycling under-600 MPa resulted in a transformation strain of-2.15%,while the subsequent thermal cycling under-5 MPa resulted in a tensile two-way shape memory effect strain of 2.2%.     

Effect of graphene reinforcement on hybrid bioceramic coating deposited on the produced porous Ti64 alloys

Porous-Ti64 alloys (P-Ti64), produced at various porosities by hot-pressing technique with the help of Mg spacer, were coated by hybrid-Graphene Oxide (rGO) reinforced-hydroxyapatite (HAp), using the sol–gel method. The synthesized rGO powder was used in reinforcing HAp by the Modified Hummers method having 30 µm particle size and nano (nm) scale layer thickness. Hybrid coatings were executed on Ti64 substrates in four different groups as single-HAp, HAp reinforced with 0.5 wt%, 1.0 wt% and 1.5 wt% rGO for three different porosities (41, 52, and 64%) were characterized by FT-IR, Raman, XRD and SEM. The average 21 µm coating film thicknesses were obtained and desirably, the only superficial pores of the substrates were closed by coating material rather than the inner connected open pores. It was also shown that 0.5 wt% and 1.0 wt% rGO reinforcements into HAp prevented crack formation on the Ti64 surfaces, whereas 1.5 wt% rGo reinforcement and single-HAp coatings caused. The highest adhesion strength values were achieved at low porosities (41–52%) and of 0.5–1.0 wt% rGO reinforcements through the adhesion tests.

     

锻造和热处理对Al-Si和Al-Pb轴承合金在油润滑条件下耐磨性的影响

研究了锻造态和热处理态不同成分铝基轴承合金在油润滑条件下的摩擦行为,以及材料的硬度、热处理制度和锻造对材料耐磨性的影响。所用材料是 Al-8.5Si-3.5Cu 和 Al-15Pb-3.7Cu-1.5Si-1.1Fe。在锻造过程中,应变范围为10%~20%。并对材料进行T6热处理。在销-盘式磨损试验机上对材料的摩擦性能进行测试。结果表明,锻造过程使材料的硬度得到增加;铸造应变在10%~20%的范围内对材料的摩擦磨损影响不明显。     

Nature over nurture: Temperament, personality, and life span development.

Temperaments are often regarded as biologically based psychological tendencies with intrinsic paths of development. It is argued that this definition applies to the personality traits of the five-factor model. Evidence for the endogenous nature of traits is summarized from studies of behavior genetics, parent–child relations, personality structure, animal personality, and the longitudinal stability of individual differences. New evidence for intrinsic maturation is offered from analyses of NEO Five-Factor Inventory scores for men and women age 14 and over in German, British, Spanish, Czech, and Turkish samples (N?=?5,085). These data support strong conceptual links to child temperament despite modest empirical associations. The intrinsic maturation of personality is complemented by the culturally conditioned development of characteristic adaptations that express personality; interventions in human development are best addressed to these. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis of triglyceride-based urethane macromers and their use in copolymerization

Triglyceride oil-based urethane macromer (TGU) containing vinyl double bond was synthesized by the reaction of partial glyceride mixture (PGM) and methyl vinyl isocyanate (MVI). Free radical polymerization and copolymerization of TGU was studied. The structure of the TGU and polymers were elucidated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectral measurements. The film properties of polymers were investigated by water resistance, alkali and acid resistance and contact angle measurements.     

Binding of xanthine oxidase to vascular endothelium. Kinetic characterization and oxidative impairment of nitric oxide-dependent signaling

Concentrations of up to 1.5 milliunits/ml xanthine oxidase (XO) (1.1 micrograms/ml) are found circulating in plasma during diverse inflammatory events. The saturable, high affinity binding of extracellular XO to vascular endothelium and the effects of cell binding on both XO catalytic activity and differentiated vascular cell function are reported herein. Xanthine oxidase purified from bovine cream bound specifically and with high affinity (Kd = 6 nM) at 4 degreesC to bovine aortic endothelial cells, increasing cell XO specific activity up to 10-fold. Xanthine oxidase-cell binding was not inhibited by serum or albumin and was partially inhibited by the addition of heparin. Pretreatment of endothelial cells with chondroitinase, but not heparinase or heparitinase, diminished endothelial binding by approximately 50%, suggesting association with chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans. Analysis of rates of superoxide production by soluble and cell-bound XO revealed that endothelial binding did not alter the percentage of univalent reduction of oxygen to superoxide. Comparison of the extent of CuZn-SOD inhibition of native and succinoylated cytochrome c reduction by cell-bound XO indicated that XO-dependent superoxide production was occurring in a cell compartment inaccessible to CuZn-SOD. This was further supported by the observation of a shift of exogenously added XO from extracellular binding sites to intracellular compartments, as indicated by both protease-reversible cell binding and immunocytochemical localization studies. Endothelium-bound XO also inhibited nitric oxide-dependent cGMP production by smooth muscle cell co-cultures in an SOD-resistant manner. This data supports the concept that circulating XO can bind to vascular cells, impairing cell function via oxidative mechanisms, and explains how vascular XO activity diminishes vasodilatory responses to acetylcholine in hypercholesterolemic rabbits and atherosclerotic humans. The ubiquity of cell-XO binding and endocytosis as a fundamental mechanism of oxidative tissue injury is also affirmed by the significant extent of XO binding to human vascular endothelial cells, rat lung type 2 alveolar epthelial cells, and fibroblasts.     

Biosorption of copper(II) by nonliving lichen biomass of Cladonia rangiformis hoffm

Biosorption of heavy metals can be an effective process for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. In this study, the adsorption properties of lichen biomass of Cladonia rangiformis hoffm. for copper(II) were investigated by using batch adsorption techniques. The effects of initial metal ion concentration, initial pH, biosorbent concentration, stirring speed and contact time on biosorption efficiency were studied. In the experiments the optimum pH value was found out 5.0 which was the native pH value of solution. The experimental adsorption data were fitted to the Langmuir adsorption model. The highest metal uptake was calculated from Langmuir isotherm and found to be 7.6923 mg Cu(II)/g inactivated lichen at 15 degrees C. The results indicated that the biomass of C. rangiformis is a suitable biosorbent for removing Cu(II) from aqueous solutions.