Dielectric,ferroelectric, and energy storage properties in dysprosium doped sodium bismuth titanate ceramics

In this work, Na_0.5(Bi_1-xDy_x)_0.5TiO₃ (0?≤?x?≤?15%) ceramics were prepared via solid state reaction method and were characterized. A stable and pure perovskite phase was revealed by X-ray diffraction analysis for all compositions and a symmetry change from rhombohedral to orthorhombic phase was detected beyond 10% of Dy substitution. The incorporation of Dy³⁺ into Sodium Bismuth Titanate (Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃) matrix allows a substantial decrease of the coercive field, an increase in the resistivity, and leads to a high stability of the dielectric permittivity (??/?_(150?°C) ≤?±?15%) over a wide temperature range. Furthermore, this system was found to exhibit improved energy storage properties at high temperatures with a maximum energy density of 1.2?J/cm³ obtained for 2%Dy composition at 200?°C. The obtained results are very promising for energy storage capacitors operating at high temperatures.     

Eco-friendly Geopolymer Composite Based on Non-heat-treated Phosphate Sludge Reinforced With Polypropylene Fibers

Silicon - Geopolymers produced with metakaolin (MK) and thermally untreated phosphate sludge (PS) are beneficial and environmentally advantageous materials, but their fragility limits its...     

Performance of a compact submerged membrane sequencing batch reactor (SM-SBR) for greywater treatment

A long-term study was carried out to evaluate the performance of submerged membrane sequencing batch reactors (SM-SBR) for greywater treatment. Three pilot plants were operated in three different countries with distinct wastewaters to prove that treated greywater can be used for reuse purposes.In all plants the permeate quality fulfilled in most cases the high mandatory values of different European directives. Membrane permeability declined significantly within a period of three to four months so that recovery cleanings were necessary 3 to 4 times a year. In general, the treated greywater from an SM-SBR can be reused for irrigation or cleaning purposes. SM-SBR for greywater treatment are especially interesting in cases of space limitations where the small footprint of the system can outweigh inconveniences like frequent chemical cleanings.     

Parallel c-means algorithm for image segmentation on a reconfigurable mesh computer

In this paper, we propose a parallel algorithm for data classification, and its application for Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) segmentation. The studied classification method is the well-known c-means method. The use of the parallel architecture in the classification domain is introduced in order to improve the complexities of the corresponding algorithms, so that they will be considered as a pre-processing procedure. The proposed algorithm is assigned to be implemented on a parallel machine, which is the reconfigurable mesh computer (RMC). The image of size (m × n) to be processed must be stored on the RMC of the same size, one pixel per processing element (PE).     

GPU fuzzy c-means algorithm implementations: performance analysis on medical image segmentation

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Image segmentation in the medical imagery such as MRI, is an essential step to the sensitive analysis of human tissues lesions with the objective to improve the...     

Magnesium vacancies and hydrogen doping in MgH2 for improving gravimetric capacity and desorption temperature

Performing an ab initio analysis, we inspect the effect of magnesium vacancies and hydrogen doping on the magnesium hydride (MgH₂). The Korringa – Kohn – Rostoker method integrated with the coherent potential approximation is used to perform our calculations. In particular, we find that the gravimetric capacity of MgH₂ increases from 7.658 to 9.816 wt% when the concentrations of magnesium vacancies and hydrogen dopant atoms increase from 0 to 10%. Concretely, the results reveal that the magnesium vacancies and the hydrogen doping have a beneficial effect on the hydrogen storage properties of the hydride by decreasing its desorption temperature and stability. This decrease can be explained on the one hand by the diminution of the number of Mg atoms that establish strong bonds with H atoms, and on the other hand by using the density of states, which indicates that when the concentrations increase, the Mg and H states shift to the conduction band. We also obtain that the value of the desorption temperature can be controlled by varying the concentrations of magnesium vacancies and hydrogen dopant atoms from 4.2 to 5.8% in order to reach the optimum range 289–393 K for the practical use of fuel cell vehicles.     

Assessing critical functional and non-functional requirements for web-based procurement systems: a comprehensive survey

World Wide Web (WWW)-based electronic commerce has emerged as a mean to conduct business transactions that were previously handled through traditional interorganizational systems, phone, fax, on-site visits, or mail. Today, electronic procurement (e-procurement) accounts for most of the volume and value of the business transactions conducted over the Internet. As of yet, however, little or no research has assessed the functional and non-functional requirements sought for the WWW-based systems used to support the procurement process. This paper, presents findings of a survey of 133 corporate buyers from about 130 companies on the use of readily available web-based systems for business-to-business transactions and the requirements perceived to be critical to the effective support of supply chain operations.     

Optical and magnetic properties of perovskite materials: Ba0.3La0.7Ti0.3Fe0.7O3 and Ba0.1La0.9Ti0.1Fe0.9O3

Structural, optical and magnetic properties are reported for new synthesized perovskite materials. Ba_0.3La_0.7Ti_0.3Fe_0.7O₃ and Ba_0.1La_0.9Ti_0.1Fe_0.9O₃ compositions were prepared via solid state reaction. X-ray analysis confirms that both compositions show feature of perovskite structure. Rietveld refinement method was used to confirm the phase formation and investigate the structure and space group. The study demonstrates the formation of orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group for Ba_0.3La_0.7Ti_0.3Fe_0.7O₃ while the composition Ba_0.1La_0.9Ti_0.1Fe_0.9O₃ structure adopts Pbnm symmetry. UV–vis spectroscopy measurements show very broad and intense UV–visible light absorption, the estimated band gap ranges between 2.07 and 2.15 eV. Magnetic measurements were carried out for the compositions Ba_0.3La_0.7Ti_0.3Fe_0.7O₃ and Ba_0.1La_0.9Ti_0.1Fe_0.9O₃. The hysteresis loops of both samples at 300 and 10 K show a strong ferromagnetic behavior. The temperature dependent magnetization at 0.05 T under field-cooled (FC) and zero field cooled (ZFC) modes shows magnetic frustration or spin glass-like behavior.     

Synthesis of In2S3 thin films by spray pyrolysis from precursors with different [S]/[In] ratios

Indium sulfide （InzS3） thin films were prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis technique from solutions with different [S]/[In] ratios on glass substrates at a constant temperature of 250 ~C. Thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, atomic force microscopy （AFM）, energy disper- sive X-ray spectroscopy （EDS）, Raman spectroscopy and optical transmittance spectroscopy. All samples exhibit a polycrystalline structure with a preferential orientation along （0, 0, 12）. A good stoichiometry was attained for all samples. The morphology of thin film surfaces, as seen by SEM, was dense and no cracks or pinholes were ob- served. Raman spectroscopy analysis shows active modes belonging to j3-1naS3 phase. The optical transmittance in the visible range is higher than 60% and the band gap energy slightly increases with the sulfur to indium ratio, attaining a value of 2.63 eV for [S]/[In] ： 4.5.     

The performances of iterative type-2 fuzzy C-mean on GPU for image segmentation

The Journal of Supercomputing - Fuzzy C-mean (FCM) is an algorithm for data segmentation and classification, robust and very popular within the scientific community. It is used in several fields...