Boosting the activity of FeOOH via integration of ZIF-12 and graphene to efficiently catalyze the oxygen evolution reaction

Transition metal oxyhydroxides have been used as promising electrocatalysts for water splitting however, their catalytic activity is restricted due to low surface area and poor conductivity. Herein, we report novel composite FeOOH@ZIF-12/graphene composite as electrocatalyst for water oxidation, whereby ZIF-12 provide extra surface for the FeOOH dispersion whilst graphene act as excellent electron mediator. The composite shows a low overpotential value of 291 mV to attain a current density of 10 mA cm^?2 and a low Tafel slope value of 78 mV dec^?1. The catalyst offers a maximum current density of 101 mA cm^?2, while it gives a turnover frequency (TOF) value of 0.031 s^?1 at an overpotential of 291 mV only. The excellent activity and remarkable stability of composite is attributed to highly conductive and porous support.     

Characterization of Failure Mechanisms of Duplex and Graded Thermal Barrier Coatings Exposed to Thermal Shock Test

The beginning of failure of a (ZrO2-7%Y2O3)/(Ni-22%Co-17%Cr-12.5%Al-0.6%Y) duplex andgraded coating systems on lnconel 617 and IN738LC in burner rig tests has been characterized.The test conditions are 40 s heating up to 75O℃ substrate temperature followed by 80 s aircooling. Failure is considered at the appearance of the first bright spot during heating period.Stresses due to thermal expansion mismatch strains on cooling are the probable cause of life-limiting in this conditions of testing.     

Study of Lateral Spread of Ions Emitted from 2.3 kJ Plasma Focus with Hydrogen and Nitrogen Gases

The characteristics of ion beams of hydrogen and nitrogen with different filling pressures emitted from the plasma focus device of 2.3 kJ energy are investigated. CR-39 SSNTDs are employed for the registration of tracks of ions. The exposed detectors are etched in 6N NaOH solution at 70°C and then examined with an optical microscope. The ion flux is estimated to be of the order of 10^5–6 tracks/cm². The flux with the radial position does not exhibit any regular pattern of variation.     

Thai Tea Seed Oil and Virgin Olive Oil Similarly Reduce Plasma Lipids: A Pilot Study within a Healthy Adult Male Population

The potential cardiovascular benefit of virgin olive oil (VOO) is widely recognized. However, the use of VOO at very high cooking temperatures makes these oils poorly suited for many Asian dishes. The use of tea seed oil (TSO) is increasing in Thailand, with TSO having a higher smoke point than VOO. The current study examines the effects of daily TSO intake in healthy adults. In a randomized, single-blind crossover design, 12 men consumed for 3 weeks 40 g day⁻¹ of food prepared with either TSO or VOO as a cooking oil. Plasma lipids, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and oxidant defense enzyme activities are measured before and after each 3-week intervention period. Gas chromatography analysis of TSO and VOO demonstrates that both oils are equally high in monounsaturated fatty acid. The dietary incorporation of TSO and VOO for three weeks reduces low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations by 15% and 13%, respectively; with total cholesterol (TC) levels lowered by 10% in both groups. No significant changes in TBARS or antioxidant enzyme activity is observed. These results support the concept that Thai TSO can be utilized as a suitable and healthy alternative oil for high-temperature cooking in many Thai and Asian diets. Practical Applications: Tea seed oil from Camellia oleifera grown in Thailand has been recently reported to favorably lower lipid profiles in hamsters fed a high-fat diet in a manner similar to feeding refined olive oil or grapeseed oil. A pilot crossover trial is conducted to compare the effects of three weeks of daily intake of either TSO or VOO in healthy human adults. Consumption of both oils produced significant reductions in TC and LDL-C. Thai TSO leads to favorable lipid profiles and is a reasonable choice for many Thai and Asian food recipes.     

Effect of Zn and Pb as alloying elements on the electrochemical behavior of brass in NaCl solutions

The electrochemical behavior of brasses with various Zn content (5.5–38 mass%) and brass (Cu–38Zn) with different Pb contents (1–3.4 mass%) in 0.6 M NaCl was investigated. The effects of temperature, immersion time, and concentration of chloride ions on the behavior of the different alloys were studied. The pitting corrosion behavior of Cu–Zn alloys and leaded–brass alloys in 0.6 M NaCl solution was also investigated. Open-circuit potential measurements (OCP), polarization techniques and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used. The results show that the increase in the Zn content increases the corrosion rate of the brass alloys in chloride solutions, while the increase of Pb content in Cu–38Zn–Pb decreases the corrosion rate of the alloy. Long immersion time of the alloys in the aqueous electrolyte improves their stability due to the formation of passive film on the alloy surface. The breakdown potential is shifted to more negative direction with increasing the Zn content, whereas it shifts towards positive values with increasing Pb content. Equivalent circuit model for the electrode/electrolyte interface under different conditions was proposed to illustrate the electrochemical processes taking place at the interface. The electrochemical behavior of the different alloys was discussed in view of the fitting results.     

BSLPSDN: Base station location privacy via software-defined networking (SDN) in wireless sensor networks

Base station's location privacy in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is critical for information security and operational availability of the network. A key part of securing the base station from potential compromise is to secure the information about its physical location. This paper proposes a technique called base station location privacy via software-defined networking (SDN) in wireless sensor networks (BSLPSDN). The inspiration comes from the architecture of SDN, where the control plane is separated from the data plane, and where control plane decides the policy for the data plane. BSLPSDN uses three categories of nodes, namely, a main controller to instruct the overall operations, a dedicated node to buffer and forward data, and lastly, a common node to sense and forward the packet. We employ three kinds of nodes to collaborate and achieve stealth for the base station and thus protecting it against the traffic-analysis attacks. Different traits of the WSN including energy status and traffic density can actively be monitored by BSLPSDN, which positively affects the energy goals, expected life of the network, load on common nodes, and the possibility of creating diversion in the wake of an attack on the base station. We incorporated multiple experiments to analyze and evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithm. We use single controller with multiple sensor nodes and multiple controllers with multiple sensor nodes to show the level of anonymity of BS. Experiments show that providing BS anonymity via multiple controllers is the best method both in terms of energy and privacy.     

Design of backpropagated neurocomputing paradigm for Stuxnet virus dynamics in control infrastructure

Neural Computing and Applications - In the present study, a novel application of backpropagated neurocomputing heuristics (BNCH) is presented for epidemic virus model that portrays the Stuxnet...     

Modeling and evaluating design alternatives for an on-lineinstrumentation system: a case study

This paper demonstrates the use of a model-based evaluation approach for instrumentation systems (ISs). The overall objective of this study is to provide early feedback to tool developers regarding IS overhead and performance; such feedback helps developers make appropriate design decisions about alternative system configurations and task scheduling policies. We consider three types of system architectures: network of workstations (NOW), symmetric multiprocessors (SMP), and massively parallel processing (MPP) systems. We develop a Resource OCCupancy (ROCC) model for an on-line IS for an existing tool and parameterize it for an IBM SP-2 platform. This model is simulated to answer several “what if” questions regarding two policies to schedule instrumentation data forwarding: collect-and-forward (CF) and batch-and-forward (BF). In addition, this study investigates two alternatives for forwarding the instrumentation data: direct and binary tree forwarding for an MPP system. Simulation results indicate that the BF policy can significantly reduce the overhead and that the tree forwarding configuration exhibits desirable scalability characteristics for MPP systems. Initial measurement-based testing results indicate more than 60 percent reduction in the direct IS overhead when the BF policy was added to Paradyn parallel performance measurement tool