Piezoelectric properties of PVDF-conjugated polymer nanofibers

This study presents the development and characterization of PVDF-conjugated polymer nanofiber-based systems. Five different conducting polymers (CPs) were synthesized successfully and used to create the nanofiber systems. The CPs used are polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPY), polyindole (PIN), polyanthranilic acid (PANA), and polycarbazole (PCZ). Nanofiber systems were produced utilizing the Forcespinning® technique. The nanofiber systems were developed by mechanical stretching. No electrical field or post-process poling was used in the nanofiber systems. The morphology, structure, electrochemical and piezoelectric performance was characterized. All of the nanofiber PVDF/CP systems displayed higher piezoelectric performance than the fine fiber PVDF systems. The PVDF/PPY nanofiber system displays the highest piezoelectric performance of 15.56 V. The piezoelectric performance of the PVDF/CP nanofiber systems favors potential for an attractive source of energy where highly flexible membranes could be used in power actuators, sensors and portable, and wireless devices to mention some.     

Analysis of energy saving in user equipment in LTE-A using stochastic modelling

Telecommunication Systems - Energy saving in User Equipment (UE) is one of the important issues for limited sources of power in the device. It is critical for the UE to maximize its energy...     

The efficiency of private and public schools in urban and rural areas: moving beyond the development goals

Data from the Young Lives study are used to evaluate the efficiency of education systems in four low and middle income countries: Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. A meta‐frontier variant of data envelopment analysis is used to assess the relative performance of each country's system, and, within each country, to evaluate the impact of public and private schooling, and of urban and rural location. Comparisons are drawn between the four countries; the results indicate that in no country does the educational system perform uniformly badly or well. Conditioning on the inputs available, rural areas are often indicative of higher levels of efficiency, thus suggesting a number of implications for policy.     

Deployment of a cloud pipeline for real-time visual inspection using fast streaming high-definition images

We investigate the challenges of building an end-to-end cloud pipeline for real-time intelligent visual inspection system for use in automotive manufacturing. Current methods of visual detection in automotive assembly are highly labor intensive, and thus prone to errors. An automated process is sought that can operate within the real-time constraints of the assembly line and can reduce errors. Components of the cloud pipeline include capture of a large set of high-definition images from a camera setup at the assembly location, transfer and storage of the images as needed, execution of object detection, and notification to a human operator when a fault is detected. The end-to-end execution must complete within a fixed time frame before the next car arrives in the assembly line. In this article, we report the design, development, and experimental evaluation of the tradeoffs of performance, accuracy, and scalability for a cloud system.     

Pull-Down of Metalloproteins in Their Native States by Using Desthiobiotin-Based Probes

One-third of all proteins are estimated to require metals for structural stability and/or catalytic activity. Desthiobiotin probes containing metal binding groups can be used to capture metalloproteins with exposed active-site metals under mild conditions so as to prevent changes in metallation state. The proof-of-concept was demonstrated with carbonic anhydrase (CA), an open active site, Zn²⁺-containing protein. CA was targeted by using sulfonamide derivatives. Linkers of various lengths and structures were screened to determine the optimal structure for capture of the native protein. The optimized probes could selectively pull down CA from red blood cell lysate and other protein mixtures. Pull-down of differently metallated CAs was also investigated.     

Effect of gamma irradiation on the optical properties of CR-39 polymer

The UV-Visible absorption spectra of virgin and gamma irradiated (20–800 kGy) CR-39 polymer have been deduced by using Shimadzu Double beam Double Monochromator UV-Visible Spectrophotometer (UV-2550). The existence of the peaks, their shifting and broadening as a result of gamma irradiation has been discussed. Finally the indirect and direct band gap in virgin and gamma irradiated CR-39 has been determined. The values of indirect band gap have been found to be lower than the corresponding values of direct band gap.     

An enhanced zone 3 algorithm of a distance relay using transient components and state diagram

Zone 3 of a distance relay is used to provide the remote backup protection in case of the failure of the primary protection. However, the risk of maloperation under stressed conditions such as heavy loading, voltage, and transient instability is quite high. Zone 3 is used in combination with the derivatives of the voltage and current, etc. to prevent maloperation. At times, the impedance characteristics that restrict the tripping area of relay are used to avoid maloperation due to load encroachment. This work presents a novel zone 3 scheme based on combining the steady-state components (i.e., 60 Hz) and the transient components (TCs) using a state diagram that visualizes the sequence of studies that emanate from the sequence of events. The simulation results show that the novel zone 3 distance relay elements using the proposed method operate correctly for the various events.     

Fabrication of low-loss IR-transmitting Ge30As10Se30Te30 glass fibers

Improved purification and processing techniques have been utilized to fabricate Ge₃₀As₁₀Se₃₀Te₃₀ glass fibers with a minimum loss of O.11 dB/m at 6.6 μm. This is the lowest loss reported for any telluride glass fiber in the infrared region. Furthermore, the fibers exhibit less than 1 dB/m loss between 5.25 and 9.5 μm     

Using constancy of distance to estimate position and displacementin space

The problem of computing structure and motion from the observation of points in two distinct images of a scene is considered. The proposed method explicitly utilizes the principle of conservation of distance during rigid-body motion. The formulation is such that it separates the problem of estimating object position from that of determining motion parameters. The equations of invariance of distance for a rigid body are solved for the points' position in space. When these coordinates in space are known, motion parameters are computed in a simple and straightforward manner. Examples are given to illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm