Synthesis of N‐polyethereal polypyrroles and their application for the preconcentration of rare earth ions

Conducting polymers containing polyether pseudocages (P I , P II , P III ) have been synthesized via chemical oxidation of 1,5‐bis(1,1‐pyrrole)‐3‐oxabutane (M I ), 1,8‐bis(1,1‐pyrrole)‐3,6‐dioxahexane (M II ), and 1,11‐bis(1,1‐pyrrole)‐3,6,9‐trioxaundecane (M III ) using anhydrous FeCl₃ in CHCl₃. Because as obtained polymer resins did not give any response toward any cations, they were reduced (undoped) using chemical reducing agents. Tetrabutylammonium hydroxide was found to be more effective in undoping to obtain more reproducible and reusable polymer resins. The undoped polymer resins were tried in the extraction of rare earth metal ions from the aqueous medium. Among them, only P III resin removes La(III), Eu(III) and Yb(III) and can be employed for the preconcentration of these metal ions. For batch extraction of La(III), Eu(III) and Yb(III) at neutral pH values, percent recoveries of 98.0 ± 1.0, 90.7 ± 1.4, 87.3 ± 4.0, respectively, has been obtained. The sorption capacity is found as 1.3 mg of La(III) per gram of P III resin. The P III resin could be reused at least five times without significant change in its sorption capacity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Flexible poly(styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene) hybrid nanofibers for bioengineering and water filtration applications

Among the thermoplastic elastomers that play important roles in the polymer industry due to their superior properties, styrene-based species and polyurethane block copolymers are of great interest. Poly(styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene) (SEBS) as a triblock copolymer seems to have the potential to meet many demands in different applications due to various industrial requirements where durability, biocompatibility, breaking elongation, and interfacial adhesion are important. In this study, the SEBS triblock copolymer was functionalized with natural (Satureja hortensis, SH) and synthetic (nanopowder, TiO₂) agents to obtain composite nanofibers by electrospinning and electrospraying methods for use in biomedical and water filtration applications. The results were compared with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composite nanofibers, which are commonly used in these fields. Here, functionalized SEBS nanofibers exhibited antibacterial effect while at the same time improving cell viability. In addition, because of successful water filtration by using the SEBS composite nanofibers, the material may have a good potential to be used comparably to TPU for the application.     

Exploring network-level performances of wireless nanonetworks utilizing gains of different types of nano-antennas with different materials

Wireless nanonetworks are not a simple extension of traditional communication networks at the nano-scale. Owing to being a completely new communication paradigm, existing research in this field is still at an embryonic stage. Furthermore, most of the existing studies focus on performance enhancement of nanonetworks via designing new channel models and routing protocols. However, the impacts of different types of nano-antennas on the network-level performances of the wireless nanonetworks remain still unexplored in the literature. Therefore, in this paper, we explore the impacts of different well-known types of antennas such as patch, dipole, and loop nano-antennas on the network-level performances of wireless nanonetworks. We also investigate the performances of nanonetworks for different types of traditional materials (e.g., copper) and for nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes and graphene). We perform rigorous simulation using our customized ns-2 simulation to evaluate the network-level performances of nanonetworks exploiting different types of nano-antennas using different materials. Our evaluation reveals a number of novel findings pertinent to finding an efficient nano-antenna from its several alternatives for enhancing network-level performances of nanonetworks. Our evaluation demonstrates that a dipole nano-antenna using copper material exhibits around 51% better throughput and about 33% better end-to-end delay compared to other alternatives for large-size nanonetworks. Furthermore, our results are expected to exhibit high impacts on the future design of wireless nanonetworks through facilitating the process of finding the suitable type of nano-antenna and suitable material for the nano-antennas.

     

A 100-MHz macropipelined VAX microprocessor

A macropipelined CISC microprocessor was implemented in a 0.75-μm CMOS 3.3-V technology. The 1.3-million-transistor custom chip measures 1.62×1.46 cm² and dissipates 16.3 W. The 100-MHz parts were benchmarked at 50 SPEC marks. The on-chip clocking system and several high-performance logic and circuit techniques are described. Macroinstruction handling, micropipeline management, and control store structures highlight the design architecture. The hierarchical array organization and fast tag comparison technique of the primary cache are discussed. Power estimation procedures are outlined, and the results are compared to measurements. Physical design and verification methods, and CAD tools are also described. After extensive functional verification efforts are described, chip and system test results are presented     

Full-wave solutions for the depolarization of the scattered radiation fields by rough surfaces of arbitrary slope

Employing a variable coordinate system associated with the local features of two-dimensionally rough surfaces with arbitrary slope, full-wave solutions are derived for the depolarization of the scattered radiation fields. An outline of the analytical procedures used in the derivations of the solutions are presented. Furthermore, the engineer who is not familiar with them can also use the final result which is expressed as a definite integral whose integrand is given explicitly and in closed form. These full-wave solutions are compared with the quasi-optics solution and the iterative or perturbational solutions for slightly rough surfaces, and they are shown to bridge the wide gap that exists between them. The full-wave solutions are consistent with energy conservation, duality, and reciprocity relationships in electromagnetic theory. These solutions account for upward and downward scattering of the incident waves with respect to the horizontal reference plane, thus shadowing and multiple scattering are considered. Applications to two-dimensionally periodic structures and random rough surfaces are also presented. The fullwave solutions are examined for Brewster, grazing, and specular angles and backscatter. Special consideration is also given to good conducting boundaries.     

Rough surface scattering using specular point theory

The expression for the average scattering cross section for a random surface is derived using the stationary phase approximation for the scattered field due to specular points on a finitely conducting rough surface. A previous error in the literature is corrected by showing that the proper result is proportional to the average value of the product of the number of specular points per unit area and the principal radii of curvature at the specular point, rather than the product of the average value of the number of specular points and the average value of the radii of curvature. When the correct expression for the average value of the product is inserted in the expression for the scattering cross section, the result is in total agreement with the answers obtained when the averaging and stationary phase processes are interchanged. This analysis explicitly accounts for shadowing.     

Effect of wastewater composition on archaeal population diversity

Distribution and occurrence of Archaea and methanogenic activity in a laboratory scale, completely mixed anaerobic reactor treating pharmaceutical wastewaters were investigated and associated with reactor performance. The reactor was initially seeded with anaerobic digester sludge from an alcohol distillery wastewater treatment plant and was subjected to a three step feeding strategy. The feeding procedure involved gradual transition from a glucose containing feed to a solvent stripped pharmaceutical wastewater and then raw pharmaceutical wastewater. During the start-up period, over 90% COD removal efficiency at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 6 kg COD m(-3)d(-1) was achieved with glucose feeding, and acetoclastic methanogenic activity was 336 ml CH4 gTVS(-1)d(-1). At the end of the primary loading, when the feed contained solvent stripped pharmaceutical wastewater at full composition, 71% soluble COD removal efficiency was obtained and acetoclastic methanogenic activity decreased to half of the rate under glucose feed (166 ml CH4 gTVS(-1)d(-1)). At the end of secondary loading with 60% (w/v) raw pharmaceutical wastewater, COD removal dropped to zero and acetoclastic methanogenic activity fell to less than 10 ml CH4 gTVS(-1)d(-1). Throughout the course of the experiment, microbial community structure was monitored by DGGE analysis of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Five different archaeal taxa were identified and the predominant archaeal sequences belonged to methanogenic Archaea. Two of these showed greatest sequence identity with Methanobacterium formicicum and Methanosaeta concilii. The types of Archaea present changed little in response to changing feed composition but the relative contribution of different organisms identified in the archaeal DGGE profiles did change.     

Analyse numérique et expérimentale du comportement des ouvrages fondés sur un sol mou renforcé par des colonnes ballastées flottantes

This paper work is in the frame of the study about the reduction of settlements in the case of floating columns. The prediction of a settlement remains a prickly problem to which geotechnical engineer is confronted. Experience has shown that structural pathologies are caused by the effects of excessive differential settlements before reaching soil bearing capacity. To palliate this problems in the case of soft and compressible soils, we advocate, as an alternative solution, piles or the reinforcement of the soils with stone columns. This strengthening method, introduced in Algeria in 1999, is economical. However, it does not inihilate settlements but it speeds up the time factor. Numerical modelings by finite element method (FEM) have been carried out through interest into all mechanical and geometrical aspects that are inherent in the meshing of floating stone columns. An analytical formulation of a correction coefficent (μβ) and an abacus of the settlement reduction factor (β) has been suggested. On the other way, the monitoring instrumentation of experimental site since 2008 to 2017 at the level of the harbour lowland of Bejaia has been carried out. It concerns important storage structures fonded on a very compressible ground reinforced by floating stone columns. The records of the settlements at the scale of the structures, according to variable loads recorded in real time, have revealed excessive settlements under the effects of variable stresses from 1 to 3 bars. An exhaustive geological, geotechnical and geomechanical analysis has been carried out for the characterization of the grounds, and numerical modelling by finite element method (FEM) has been carried out. The experimental and numerical investigation of the concerned structures at issue allowed us to confront the results with regard to settlement prediction of an environment reinforced with floating stone columns. The result is a perfect matching in relation to the suggested formula.

     

Characterization and antibacterial properties of nanoboron powders and nanoboron powder coated textiles

The antibacterial properties of boron-containing compounds are well known although there are limited studies available on the pure boron nanoparticles. In this paper, nanoboron particles are characterized in terms of their particle size, shape, stability and surface charge before and after their application onto textile surfaces to study their impact on bacterial activity. It was observed that the boron nanoparticles are effective in limiting the bacterial growth of both Gram-negative and positive species without requiring any stimulation to initiate the antibacterial action. In addition to the antibacterial functionality evaluation of the free boron nanoparticles, nanoboron coated textiles were also characterized and determined to change the wettability and surface charge of the textiles with a variable antimicrobial response to the different species. Consequently, we propose pure nanoboron as a new anti-bacterial agent that can function without external stimulation.