Tuning of shear thickening behavior and elastic strength of polyvinylidene fluoride via doping of ZnO-graphene

ZnO rice like nonarchitects are grafted on the graphene carbon core via a rapid microwave synthesis route. The prepared grafted systems are characterized via XRD, SEM, RAMAN, and XPS to examined the structural and morphological parameters. Zinc oxide grafted graphene sheets (ZnO-G) are further doped in β-phase of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) via mixed solvent approach (THF/DMF). β-phase confirmation of PVDF PNCs is done by FTIR studies. It is observed that ZnO-G filler enhances the β-phase content in the PNCs. Non-doped PVDF and PNCs are further studied for rheological behavior under the shear rate of 1–100 s⁻¹. Doping of ZnO-G dopant to the PVDF matrix changes its discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior to continues shear thickening behavior (CST). Hydrocluster formation and their interaction with the dopant could be the reason for this striking DST to CST behavioral change. Strain amplitude sweep (10⁻³% -10%) oscillatory test reveals that the PNCs shows extended linear viscoelastic region with high elastic modulus and lower viscous modulus. Effective shear thickening behavior and strong elastic strength of these PNCs present their candidature for various fields including mechanical and soft body armor applications.     

Photon and vibration synergism on planar defects induced 2D-graphitic carbon nitride for ultrafast remediation of dyes and antibiotic ampicillin

Journal of Materials Science - Hybrid oxidation methodologies (HOMs) and active site enrichment of 2D nanocatalyst through defects induction are ubiquitously used for generating adequate reactive...     

Sensitivity Analysis of Calibration Methods and Factors Effecting the Statistical Nature of Radiation Measurement

The scintillator detectors are recalibrated against the datasheet given by the manufacturer. Optimal and mutual dependent values of (a) high voltage at PMT (Photomultiplier Tube), (b) amplifier gain, (c) average time to count the radiation particles (set by operator), and (d) number of instances/sample number are estimated. Total 5: two versions of Central Limit Theorem (CLT), (3) industry preferred Pulse Width Saturation, (4) calibration based on MPPC coupled Gamma-ray detector, and (5) gross method are used. It is shown that the CLT method is the most optimal method to calibrate the detector and its respective electronics couple. An inverse modeling-based Computerized Tomography method is used for verification. It is shown that statistically averaging results are more accurate and precise data than mode and median if the data is not skewed and a random number of samples are used during the calibration process. It is also shown that the average time to count the radiation particle is the most important parameter affecting the optimal calibration setting for precision and accurate measurements of gamma radiation.

     

Multi-objective particle swarm optimisation based integrated production inventory routing planning for efficient perishable food logistics operations

Sustainable and efficient food supply chain has become an essential component of one’s life. The model proposed in this paper is deeply linked to people's quality of life as a result of which there is a large incentive to fulfil customer demands through it. This proposed model can enhance food quality by making the best possible food quality accessible to customers, construct a sustainable logistics system considering its environmental impact and ensure the customer demand to be fulfilled as fast as possible. In this paper, an extended model is examined that builds a unified planning problem for efficient food logistics operations where four important objectives are viewed: minimising the total expense of the system, maximising the average food quality along with the minimisation of the amount of CO₂ emissions in transportation along with production and total weighted delivery lead time minimisation. A four objective mixed integer linear programming model for intelligent food logistics system is developed in the paper. The optimisation of the formulated mathematical model is proposed using a modified multi-objective particle swarm optimisation algorithm with multiple social structures: MO-GLNPSO (Multi-Objective Global Local Near-Neighbour Particle Swarm Optimisation). Computational results of a case study on a given dataset as well as on multiple small, medium and large-scale datasets followed by sensitivity analysis show the potency and effectiveness of the introduced method. Lastly, there has been a scope for future study displayed which would lead to the further progress of these types of models.     

Finite element analysis of femoral components paper III – hip joints

Finite element analysis of the hip implant is conducted in this paper for representative femoral cross-section geometries and development of stress in the presence of bone cement is elucidated. Differences in cement stresses generated by varying implant cross-sections were compared with conventional features derived from representative implants. The analysis was performed under idealized implant assemblies by constraining the implant movement in the assembly. The cross-sections and implant geometries used are generic and intended to be representative of available geometries. This paper is a part of student research projects, prepared from a series of activities in biomedical implant research currently underway at Ohio Northern and Arkansas Tech Universities.     

Binding free energy calculations of galectin-3-ligand interactions

Galectins show remarkable binding specificity towards ß-galactosides.A recently developed method for calculating binding free energiesbetween a protein and its substrates has been used to evaluatethe binding specificity of galectin-3. Five disaccharides anda tetrasaccharide were used as the substrates. The calculatedbinding free energies agree quite well with the experimentaldata and the ranking of binding affinities is well reproduced.For all the six protein–ligand complexes it was observedthat electrostatic interactions oppose binding whereas the non-polarcontributions drive complex formation. The observed bindingspecificity of galectin-3 for galactosides rather than glucosidesis discussed in light of our results.     

On Ultra-Fine Leak Detection of Hermetic Wafer Level Packages

Theoretical and practical ranges of leak rates measurable by the helium mass spectrometer are characterized. The effect of noise due to: 1) background helium present in the spectrometer and 2) desorption of helium that attaches itself to the specimen surface during bombing is quantified experimentally. The results guide a framework to extract the true leak rate from the measured leak rate profile. An optical interferometry based hermeticity measurement technique for ultra-fine leaks is proposed. The setup to implement the technique is described and a preliminary experimental result is reported.     

Applying the critical path method to manufacturing routing

Traditionally the critical path method (CPM) has been used primarily as an a'priori planning and scheduling device. Its applications have typically been limited to one-shot projects, usually with a long period of completion time. This paper proposes taking these ideas to continuous production systems, and to implement the CPM not just at the outset but throughout the process. The algorithm calls for repeatedly calculating the critical path through the production process and routing parts so as to remain off this path. Before the model is presented, some basic ideas are introduced from group technology (GT) and CPM. After the presentation of the model, two potential implementations with the usage of computer are proposed.     

Nonlinear electrical transport in K-TCNQ at low temperatures

A remarkable nonlinearity has been observed for electric transport in K-TCNQ (potassium tetracyanoquinodimethane) quasi-one-dimensional conductor. The negative differential resistance region appears afterV _m (turn over voltage), beyond which voltage goes down with increase of current. A possible mechanism is discussed in terms of dynamics of charged solitons and domain walls in one-dimensional molecular stacks of these types of crystals.