Preparation and Characterization of Novel Polyimides from 2,6-bis[1-(p-dimethylaminophenylimino)ethyl] pyridine for the Selective Extraction of some Metals

Summary A group of new polyimides has been prepared by solution condensation of 2,6-bis[1-(p-dimethylaminophenylimino)ethyl] pyridine containing pendant NMe₂ units and various dianhyrides in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). The tridentate (N-N′-N) pydim ligands were prepared by Schiff-base condensation of 2,6-diacetylpyridine and 4-dimethylaminoaniline in the presence of formic acid as catalyst. These polymers were investigated for their extraction capabilities for Zn(II), Mn(II), Cu(II), Cd (II) and Ni(II) and at different pH. Under different conditions enhanced selectivity was observed. Up to 98% quantitative recoveries were observed for all metals.     

Comparison of OR and AI methods in discrete manufacturing using fuzzy logic

Since 1950s the techniques of Operations Research (OR) and Optimization have been utilized to increase the efficiency of the production systems. With the widespread use of computers, it has even become easier to deal with industrial problems. However the complexity of the problems still reveals the difficulty in providing solutions. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) seems to attract the attention of the researcher to overcome to the difficulties. This has already been realized with several successful applications. In this study, the use of AI and OR techniques is compared using fuzzy logic. The progress of manufacturing systems, characteristics of production processes, system managements and system behavior are taken into account. The study is focussed on only discrete manufacturing.     

Uncertainty Analysis of Four-Terminal-Pair Capacitance Characterization up 30 MHz

The Impedance Group Laboratories of National Metrology Institute of Turkey previously developed a new method for the characterization of Agilent 16380A-type four-terminal-pair air dielectric capacitance standards ranged from 1 to 1,000 pF up to 30 MHz. This method is based on obtaining all resonance frequencies of standard capacitors using a vector network analyzer in order to calculate inductive residual parameters of the standards. As a continuation of the study, this paper gives a detailed uncertainty analysis for the method.     

Preparation and properties of selective polyurethane films and their use for the development of biomedical dopamine sensor

Polyurethane films were synthesized by 3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran and different diisocyanates. These prepared polyurethanes were characterized by FT-IR, DSC, DTA, and TGA techniques. For the amperometric applications, synthesized polyurethanes exhibited suitable T_g (°C), good thermal stability and good adhesive properties. In addition, because of their interesting film properties, attempts were made to prepare dopamine-sensing electrode. For this reason, selectivity of film-coated electrodes obtained from the chemically prepared polyurethanes toward electroactive and nonelectroactive species were examined by means of DPV technique. From the electrochemical results obtained, it has been demonstrated that the PU-1-coated electrode can be used for the development of biomedical sensor.     

Metallo‐supramolecular materials based on terpyridine‐functionalized polyhedral silsesquioxane

In this study, novel metallo‐supramolecular materials based on terpyridine‐functionalized polyhedral silsesquioxane were synthesized from 4′‐chloro‐2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine and amino‐group‐functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane. The obtained terpyridine‐functionalized polyhedral silsesquioxanes were converted to metallo‐supramolecular hybrid materials by coordination polycondensation reaction with Co(II) or Cu(II) ions. The supramolecular polymers created were characterized by means of structure, morphology and stimuli‐responsive performance employing scanning electron microscopy, amperometric techniques and UV–visible and Fourier transform IR spectroscopy. UV?visible and cyclic voltammetry studies showed that both the optical and electrochemical properties of metallo‐supramolecular materials are affected by the substituent at the pyridine periphery. The supramolecular polymers obtained exhibited electrochromism during the oxidation processes of cyclic voltammogram studies. As a result, these terpyridine‐functionalized polyhedral silsesquioxanes are good candidates for electronic, opto‐electronic and photovoltaic applications as smart stimuli‐responsive materials. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

Fire detection in video sequences using a generic color model

In this paper, a rule-based generic color model for flame pixel classification is proposed. The proposed algorithm uses YCbCr color space to separate the luminance from the chrominance more effectively than color spaces such as RGB or rgb. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on two sets of images, one of which contains fire, the other containing fire-like regions. The proposed method achieves up to 99% fire detection rate. The results are compared with two other methods in the literature and the proposed method is shown to have both a higher detection rate and a lower false alarm rate. Furthermore the proposed color model can be used for real-time fire detection in color video sequences, and we also present results for segmentation of fire in video using only the color model proposed in this paper.     

Monte Carlo Simulations of 17.9–22.3 MeV Energetic Proton Irradiation Effects on bcc-Zirconium Fusionic Materials

Advanced fusion structural materials (FSMs) have impact role in terms of efficiency of nuclear energy production. Besides engineering and design of fusion reactors, radiation durability of FSMs is another valuable issue that cannot be ignored. 17.9–22.3 MeV proton irradiation of bcc-Zirconium Fusion Structural Material was evaluated by using Monte Carlo based simulation tools. Total binary reaction cross sections were respectively calculated as 1167.6 and 1273.92 mb for 17.3- and 22.3 MeV proton energies via TALYS-1.6 version. Additionally, residual production cross sections and total particle production cross sections were obtained and analyzed by the TALYS code. Radiation damage parameters as Displacement Per Atom (DPA) and Stopping Power (SP) were studied by SRIM-2013 version. FLUKA 2011.1 used for only DPA calculations and making a complete comparison with the other calculation results. SP and Number of Secondaries were found by using GEANT4.10.p.04 version simulations. Natural Zr(p,x) reactions were studied in the given energy values in the plane of reaction probability and radiation damage calculations.