Electrooxidation of formaldehyde as a fuel for fuel cells using Fe2+-nano-zeolite modified carbon paste electrode

This study aimed to investigate the application of nano ZSM-5 zeolite for preparation of modified carbone paste electrode for electrocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde. The electrochemical behavior of modified carbon paste electrodes in the forms of Fe/FeZSM-5CPE and unmodified carbon paste electrode were studied using cyclic voltammetric and chronoamprometric techniques. The obtained results show that the modified carbon paste electrode (Fe/FeZSM-5CPE) is the suitable electrode for electrooxidation of formaldehyde in the acidic solution. The transfer coefficient and current density for formaldehyde were calculated 0.23 and 19.8 mA/cm², respectively. The rate constant for catalytic reaction was calculated as 3.6 × 10³ cm³ s^?1 mol^?1 via Cottrell equation.     

Moisture and heat transfer in hybrid weft knitted fabric with artificial intelligence

One of the most important properties of clothes is their ability to help the body's thermal system to keep the body temperature in its natural range, even if the environmental conditions or physical activities are outside the body's ideal range. Perspiring is one of the most important effects of physical activities in warm weather for shedding the body's excessive heat. Therefore, the basic requirement of a fabric worn next to the skin is to transfer this moisture to the atmosphere to reach comfort through the avoidance of a feeling of wetness and clamminess and also through the generation of a situation for the best surface evaporation of moisture. The main goal of this study was to achieve a kind of fabric that guarantees comfort for the body by good heat and moisture transport. To achieve this goal, a group of double‐surface fabrics containing hydrophilic and hydrophobe fibers were knitted, and their simultaneous heat and moisture transport was evaluated with the help of a perspiration‐simulation machine; the results were analyzed as transfer process plots. Also, the transmission of heat and moisture was evaluated for all of the samples by differential modeling as an artificial neural network. Effective parameters on heat and moisture transfer were taken into consideration with modeling and statistical methods. The results were analyzed to find a suitable fabric with optimum comfort. The final results showed that a fabric made of micropolyester filaments and cotton yarns on the bottom and top surfaces, respectively, had the best heat and moisture transfer. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Privacy-preserving biometric verification with outsourced correlation filter computation

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In traditional biometric verification systems, personal computer stores biometric database and performs verification process. Because of limited storage,...     

Strategies in Structure and Electrolyte Design for High-Performance Lithium Metal Batteries

Lithium metal is the “holy grail” anode for next-generation high-energy rechargeable batteries due to its high capacity and lowest redox potential among all reported anodes. However, the practical application of lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is hindered by safety concerns arising from uncontrollable Li dendrite growth and infinite volume change during the lithium plating and stripping process. The formation of stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and the construction of robust 3D porous current collectors are effective approaches to overcoming the challenges of Li metal anode and promoting the practical application of LMBs. In this review, four strategies in structure and electrolyte design for high-performance Li metal anode, including surface coating, porous current collector, liquid electrolyte, and solid-state electrolyte are summarized. The challenges, opportunities, perspectives on future directions, and outlook for practical applications of Li metal anode, are also discussed.     

Personal cooling garments: a review

Personal cooling garments have been developed to reduce the risk of heat stress and heat-related injuries in hot environments. The human body can suffer from a kind of heat stress resulting in reduced working endurance and performance and an increased risk of heat illness when exposed to hot climates. This gets worse when combined with physical work, such as firefighting, military drills, special work situations, and sports. The use of protective clothing which limits the sweat evaporation of the body can also make the situation worse. This review includes a brief look at the human thermoregulation and its relation with the cooling garments, classification of the personal cooling garments, testing procedures, and parameters affecting the efficiency of the cooling garments.     

Fuzzy TOPSIS Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Applied to Karun Reservoirs System

Water resource systems, with an abundance of project purposes and resource values, are subject to conflicting policy, planning, and management decisions. Multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) provide a framework to help water managers identify critical issues, attach relative priorities to those issues, select best compromise alternatives, and facilitate communication to gain general acceptance. This paper addresses a method that incorporates several system factors/components within a general framework for providing a holistic analysis of the problems and comprehensive evaluation of the related mitigation/adaptation measures and policy responses. The method accounts for uncertainties in both the quantification and importance of objectives in the ranking process. The proposed fuzzy multi-criteria decision making process uses the well known Technique for Order Preference by Similarity of Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method in both deterministic and uncertain environments. The performance of the proposed approach to a real water resource management problem in Iran is illustrated. Results show that the model may be used in a large-scale multi-level assessment process. Ranks of the alternatives are presented using deterministic and fuzzy based models.     

Effect of Doped Transition Metal Atoms on Structure and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Decaborane

In this study, electrical and nonlinear optical properties of decaborane (B₁₀H₁₄) were investigated using the density functional theory method when transition metal atoms (scandium, titanium and vanadium) were doped on the structure. Hydrogen and boron atoms in B₁₀H₁₄ were substituted by the transition metals. This doping process resulted in a drastic reduction in the energy gap of decaborane. First, the hyperpolarizability (β ₀) of B₁₀H₁₄ dramatically increased in the presence of titanium (Ti) in the place of hydrogen atoms. The highest value of β ₀ (≈ 98,387.90 a.u.) was obtained for B₁₀TiH₁₃ (in the S₃ position) and calculated to be 1700 times larger than the β ₀ value for B₁₀H₁₄ (≈57.82 a.u.). Therefore, the Ti-doped systems showed a significantly larger non-linear optical (NLO) response than the other studied transition metals, suggesting that its system might be useful as a promising NLO material.     

Face authentication in encrypted domain based on correlation filters

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Privacy and security are main concerns in face authentication by cloud or semi-honest server. To deal with this problem, a face authentication method based on...     

Multi Objective Simulation-Optimization Approach in Pollution Spill Response Management Model in Reservoirs

In this study, a Pollution Spill Response Management Model (PSRMM) is developed to provide an emergency response on reservoir operation during accidental injection of hazardous material to reservoirs. PSRMM consist of spatial system analyzing (SSA) model, 2D hydrodynamic and water quality simulation model (CE-QUAL-W2), and multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm. CE-QUAL-W2 model is applied for spatial and temporal analysis of water body in simulation routine of PSRMM. Also, in an advanced modeling framework, CE-QUAL-W2 is coupled with MOPSO algorithm to obtain desirable near optimal reservoir operation strategy and/or emergency planning in selective withdrawal framework. The simulation-optimization (SO) routine of PSRMM provides pareto optimum reservoir operation strategy in selective scheme to minimize reservoir cleanup time and to reduce the magnitude and frequency of water quality standard violations. The proposed tool is applied in Ilam reservoir in Iran, as a multipurpose hydraulic project providing water for drinking, irrigation, and flood control during an accident spill of conservative hazardous material. Different scenarios are defined and tested employing the proposed PSRMM for managing accidental spill of conservative pollutant into the reservoir.