Stabilization of 6H-Hexagonal SrMnO3 Polymorph by Al2O3 insertion

We demonstrate the structural evolution of polymorphic phases in Al₂O₃-inserted SrMnO₃ ceramics synthesized by solid state reaction. While the 4H-hexagonal phase is predominant in pure SrMnO₃ ceramics, a small amount of 6H-hexagonal polymorph is identified in addition to the primary 4H-hexagonal SrMnO₃ and the secondary hexagonal SrAl₂O₄ phases in the as-sintered ceramics, evidenced by x-ray diffraction and subsequent Rietveld refinement analyses. The existence of the 6H-hexagonal SrMnO₃ phase is corroborated using Raman spectroscopy. The chemical compositions and electronic structures of the Al₂O₃-inserted SrMnO₃ compounds are also examined using energy dispersive spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The first-principles calculations reveal that there is no clear difference between the total energies of 4H- and 6H-hexagonal polymorphs regardless of the presence/absence of Sr and oxygen vacancies. Possible origins are discussed with the estimation of actual strain based on the refined lattice parameter of 6H SrMnO₃.     

Application of GA-Optimized ANNs to Predict the Water Content,CO2 and H2S Absorption Capacity of Diethanolamine (DEA) in Khangiran Gas Sweetening Plant

Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering - In this work, with the aim of accurate prediction of water content, H2S and CO2 absorption capacity of diethanolamine (DEA) solvent in Khangiran...     

An Insight View on Synthetic Protocol,Surface Activity,and Biological Aspects of Novel Biocompatible Quaternary Ammonium Cationic Gemini Surfactants

In this study, we prepared a novel series of diester-functionalized cationic gemini surfactants (C_m-E2O2-C_m) containing ethylene oxide as a spacer with varying alkyl chain lengths and characterized by ¹H NMR, FT-IR, elemental analysis, and ESI-MS. The physicochemical properties of the geminis were explored by tensiometry, fluorescence, dye solubilization, and Krafft point. These geminis acquire superior surface activity than the conventional surfactants. Fluorescence spectroscopy analysis affirmed that the micropolarity and aggregation number of micelles diminished with increase in the alkyl chain length. These geminis represent a new group of amphiphiles of considerably high biodegradability, better cleavability, and low toxicity as assessed by BOD test, FT-IR analysis, and HC₅₀ analysis, respectively. They also showed significant level of antimicrobial activity toward some specified bacterial strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative by using agar well diffusion method. Furthermore, the thermogravimetric analysis provided information regarding thermal stabilities of the newly synthesized gemini surfactants.     

Fuzzy decision support system for fertilizer

Fuzzy geographic information systems is a newly emerging field of computational intelligence. It combines fuzzy logic with spatial context. Most of the natural phenomena are fuzzy in nature. They show a degree of uncertainty or vagueness in their extent and attribute, which cannot be expressed by a crisp value. Agriculture is one of the fields of the spatial domain that needs to be described in fuzzy terms. Fertilizer is a key input for the agriculture sector. In this article, the spatial surfaces of fertilizers are developed for the wheat crop using a fuzzy decision support system. The algorithm of our system takes soil nutrients and cropping time as input, applies fuzzy logic on the input values, defuzzifies the fuzzy output to crisp value, and generates a fertilizer surface. The resultant output surface of fertilizer describes the amount of fertilizer needed to cultivate a specific crop in a specified area. The complexity of our algorithm is \(O(mnr)\) , where \(m\) is the height of the raster, \(n\) is the width of the raster, and \(r\) is the number of expert rules.     

Alternating active-phase algorithm for multimaterial topology optimization problems: a 115-line MATLAB implementation

Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization - A new algorithm for the solution of multimaterial topology optimization problems is introduced in the present study. The presented method is based on...     

Evolution axiale du coefficient de transfert de matière en colonne à bulles et en lit fluidisé triphasique

Liquid phase volumetric mass transfer coefficients for oxygen are determined in a three-phase fluidized bed and in a bubble column. The concept of exponential decreasing axial variation of volumetric mass transfer coefficient leads to a better representation of oxygen concentration profiles inside the column. Compared to the bubble column, k_la axial variations are more important in the lower part of the fluidized bed column, where solid particles increase the coalescence phenomenum, particularly with viscous liquids.     

Long Duration Persistent Photocurrent in 3 nm Thin Doped Indium Oxide for Integrated Light Sensing and In-Sensor Neuromorphic Computation

Miniaturization and energy consumption by computational systems remain major challenges to address. Optoelectronics based synaptic and light sensing provide an exciting platform for neuromorphic processing and vision applications offering several advantages. It is highly desirable to achieve single-element image sensors that allow reception of information and execution of in-memory computing processes while maintaining memory for much longer durations without the need for frequent electrical or optical rehearsals. In this work, ultra-thin (<3 nm) doped indium oxide (In₂O₃) layers are engineered to demonstrate a monolithic two-terminal ultraviolet (UV) sensing and processing system with long optical state retention operating at 50 mV. This endows features of several conductance states within the persistent photocurrent window that are harnessed to show learning capabilities and significantly reduce the number of rehearsals. The atomically thin sheets are implemented as a focal plane array (FPA) for UV spectrum based proof-of-concept vision system capable of pattern recognition and memorization required for imaging and detection applications. This integrated light sensing and memory system is deployed to illustrate capabilities for real-time, in-sensor memorization, and recognition tasks. This study provides an important template to engineer miniaturized and low operating voltage neuromorphic platforms across the light spectrum based on application demand.     

Aqueous solution of Oxone as new oxidizing agent for multi-walled carbon nanotube functionalization

In this work, multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) was successfully modified using aqueous solution of Oxone as a new oxidant. The effect of oxidation temperature on various characteristics of the treated MWCNTs was also investigated. FTIR and titration analysis proved the formation of carboxyl, carbonyl and epoxide groups at the surface of MWCNTs. The concentration of the functional groups increased as the modification temperature increased. The presence of such oxygen containing groups at the surface of MWCNTs justified the long time stability of the treated MWCNTs suspensions in water and methanol. The modified MWCNTs showed higher entanglement compared to row MWCNT due to the cross-links adjacent effect of pendant functional groups. Finally, it was concluded that Oxone oxidation process destroys the structure of the MWCNTs, but not severe enough to unzip the MWCNTs.     

An Optimal Solution for Test Case Generation Using ROBDD Graph and PSO Algorithm

Software testing is one of the most important techniques to examine the behavior of the software products to assure their quality. An effective and efficient testing approach must balance two important but conflicting requirements. One of them is the accuracy that needs a large number of test cases for testing, and the second one is reducing the time and cost, which requires a few test cases. Even for small software, the number of possible test cases is typically very large, and exhaustive testing is impractical. Hence, selecting appropriate test suite is necessary. Cause–effect graph testing is a common black‐box testing technique, which is equivalently representing Boolean relations between input parameters. However, the other traditional black‐box strategies cannot identify the relations that it may result in loss of some of the important test cases. Although the cause–effect graph is regarded very promising in specification testing, it is observed that most of the proposed approaches using the graph are complex or generate impossible and a large number of test cases. This observation has motivated our research to propose an efficient strategy to generate minimal test suite that simultaneously achieves high coverage of input parameters. To do so, at first, we identify major effects from the cause–effect graph using reduced ordered binary decision diagram (ROBDD). ROBDD makes the related Boolean expression of the graph concise and obtains a unique representation of the expression. Using the ROBDD, it is possible to reduce the size of the generated test suite and to perform testing faster. After that, our proposed method utilizes particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to select the optimal test suite, which covers all pairwise combinations of input parameters. The experimental results show that our approach simultaneously achieves high efficacy and reduces cost of testing by selecting appropriate test cases, respectively, to both test size and coverage size. Also, it outperforms some existing state‐of‐the‐art strategies in the black‐box testing. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.