Influence of silicon on the growth of barrier-type anodic films on titanium

Amorphous anodic titania, stabilised by incorporation of silicon species, is shown to grow to high voltages on sputter-deposited, single-phase Ti-Si alloys during anodizing at a constant current density in ammonium pentaborate electrolyte. The films comprise two main layers, with silicon species confined to the inner layers. An amorphous-to-crystalline transition occurs at ∼60 V on the Ti-6 at.% Si alloy, while the transition is suppressed to voltages above 140 V on alloys with 12 and 26 at.% silicon. The crystalline oxide, nucleated at a depth of ∼40% of the film thickness, is associated with the presence of a precursor of crystalline oxide in the pre-existing air-formed oxide. The modified structure of the air-formed oxide due to increased incorporation of silicon species suppresses the amorphous-to-crystalline transition until the onset of dielectric breakdown. The transport numbers of cations and anions during growth of the anodic oxides are independent of the concentration of silicon species in the inner layer, despite the marked change in the field strength.     

KHATT: An open Arabic offline handwritten text database

A comprehensive Arabic handwritten text database is an essential resource for Arabic handwritten text recognition research. This is especially true due to the lack of such database for Arabic handwritten text. In this paper, we report our comprehensive Arabic offline Handwritten Text database (KHATT) consisting of 1000 handwritten forms written by 1000 distinct writers from different countries. The forms were scanned at 200, 300, and 600 dpi resolutions. The database contains 2000 randomly selected paragraphs from 46 sources, 2000 minimal text paragraph covering all the shapes of Arabic characters, and optionally written paragraphs on open subjects. The 2000 random text paragraphs consist of 9327 lines. The database forms were randomly divided into 70%, 15%, and 15% sets for training, testing, and verification, respectively. This enables researchers to use the database and compare their results. A formal verification procedure is implemented to align the handwritten text with its ground truth at the form, paragraph and line levels. The verified ground truth database contains meta-data describing the written text at the page, paragraph, and line levels in text and XML formats. Tools to extract paragraphs from pages and segment paragraphs into lines are developed. In addition we are presenting our experimental results on the database using two classifiers, viz. Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and our novel syntactic classifier.     

Radiation crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol/polyvinyl pyrrolidone/acrylic acid hydrogels: swelling,crosslinking and dye adsorption study

Iranian Polymer Journal - Hydrogels were produced from mixtures of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), and acrylic acid (AAc) using γ-radiation at doses of 3, 7, and...     

A specification model for context-based collaborative applications

This paper presents a model for building context-based systems in pervasive computing environments from high level specifications. A pervasive computing environment is viewed as a collaboration space consisting of mobile users, system services, and sensors and resources embedded in the physical environment. The approach presented here is developed for building collaborative activities in which users and environment services cooperate towards some shared objectives and tasks. The specification model allows expression of policies related to context-based discovery and secure access of resources, and role-based interactions among users and environmental services. Using several examples we illustrate the capabilities of our specification model for expressing various kinds of context-based requirements for resource access and user interactions.     

Partial diagonalization using Jacobi transformation for dynamic analysis

There are many numerical algorithms to find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the generalized eigenvalue problem. These eigenvalues are used in the dynamic analysis of model structures. Most of the time the stiffness and mass matrices arising from the model structures are sparse and difficult to fit into the main memory of a medium size computer. An algorithm is developed to take care of the storage problem and compute as many eigenvalues as necessary to analyse the model structures. Results are compared with the simultaneous iteration method.     

A critical review of ash slagging mechanisms and viscosity measurement for low-rank coal and bio-slags

Gasification or combustion of coal and biomass is the most important form of power generation today. However, the use of coal/biomass at high temperatures has an inherent problem related to the ash generated. The formation of ash leads to a problematic phenomenon called slagging. Slagging is the accumulation of molten ash on the walls of the furnace, gasifier, or boiler and is detrimental as it reduces the heat transfer rate, and the combustion/gasification rate of unburnt carbon, causes mechanical failure, high-temperature corrosion and on occasions, superheater explosions. To improve the gasifier/combustor facility, it is very important to understand the key ash properties, slag characteristics, viscosity and critical viscosity temperature. This paper reviews the content, compositions, and melting characteristics of ashes in differently ranked coal and biomass, and discusses the formation mechanism, characteristics, and structure of slag. In particular, this paper focuses on low-rank coal and biomass that have been receiving increased attention recently. Besides, it reviews the available methodologies and formulae for slag viscosity measurement/prediction and summarizes the current limitations and potential applications. Moreover, it discusses the slagging behavior of different ranks of coal and biomass by examining the applicability of the current viscosity measurement methods to these fuels, and the viscosity prediction models and factors that affect the slag viscosity. This review shows that the existing viscosity models and slagging indices can only satisfactorily predict the viscosity and slagging propensity of high-rank coals but cannot predict the slagging propensity and slag viscosity of low-rank coal, and especially biomass ashes, even if they are limited to a particular composition only. Thus, there is a critical need for the development of an index, or a model or even a measurement method, which can predict/measure the slagging propensity and slag viscosity correctly for all low-rank coal and biomass ashes.     

Technical appraisal of solar home systems in Bangladesh: A field investigation

Solar Home System (SHS) based rural electrification has experienced a considerable growth in Bangladesh since the start of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project (REREDP) in 2003. The initial target of 50,000 SHS installations in off-grid areas was achieved within 2.5 years, 3 years ahead of schedule. After achieving a revised target of 200,000 SHSs, ahead of schedule in early 2009, a new target of 1 million SHS installations by 2012 was set. The installation of about 0.5 million systems by March 2010 indicates that the current target may well be achieved before the deadline. The size of the SHS market and its impact on the regeneration of the rural economy make it necessary to investigate the quality and reliability of the installed SHSs, if the continued success of the initiative is to be maintained. This paper reports on the findings from a field-based technical appraisal of SHS installations in Bangladesh. Sixty geographically dispersed installation sites were visited. Physical characteristics of the SHSs and their system components were tested to ascertain compliance with and deviations from the approved specifications. Despite the overwhelming success of the REREDP project, the study revealed various shortcomings. Notable among these are: incompatible and sub-optimal component configurations, faulty installations and a lack of effective quality assurance mechanism. The findings are contextualized and the ways to address the identified shortcomings are discussed.     

Helical computed tomography of the liver: evaluation of the different circulatory phases

Perineal war wounds involve the anterior perineum or urogenital perineum and posterior perineum or ano-sphincteric perineum. They are rare in civilian practice and in war practice, as only a small and hidden surface of this anatomical region is exposed to damaging agents. An isolated wound of the perineum is rarely life-threatening, but always threatens the functional prognosis of these patients, who have a mean age less than 30 years. In war practice, these wounds are often associated with lesions of adjacent of sacral, buttock or abdomino-pelvic regions. This article is confined to perineal war wounds in men. Lesions of the urethra and anus and rectum, as well as lesions of the genital appendages and pelvic nerves, leave micturating, gastrointestinal and sexual sequelae, which are sometimes permanent. These sequelae must not be exacerbated during investigation and surgical repair, despite the unfavourable emergency context, associated lesions and the time required to repair them. The basic principles of surgical treatment remain urinary diversion by a large cystostomy tube for urogenital lesions, faecal diversion by terminal colostomy for ano-sphincteric lesions, conservative debridement of the margins of the anal or urethral wound, debridement and drainage of contaminated soft tissues and connective tissue spaces. First-line immediate suture of the urethra or edges of the anal wound must be considered according to the defect, and the septic and haemorrhagic context. When ideal repair cannot be performed, alignment over an urethral catheter, urethrostomy, fixation-identification of the urethral or anal extremities constitute intermediate procedures allowing secondary urological and proctological specialized procedures in these patients.     

An investigation of naturally ventilated teaching spaces with windcathers in secondary school where site is constrained by noise and air pollution

Built environment consumes the bulk of the UK’s fossil fuel. Schools account for 15% of the public sector’s carbon emissions. Energy efficient building design can play a vital role in achieving the national carbon emission reduction target of 80% by 2050. Natural and mixed mode ventilation is at the forefront of suggested energy efficient strategies for reducing carbon emissions from schools while maintaining good indoor air quality and thermal comfort. However, it is challenging to naturally ventilate many urban school buildings through side openings because of high noise and particulate air pollution. An alternative strategy, such as multi floor operation of windcatchers was assessed in this research as a sole source of fresh air in teaching spaces. Dynamic thermal simulation (DTS) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations assessed the performance of the adopted natural ventilation (NV) strategy in meeting the approved requirements for fresh air, indoor air quality (IAQ) and summertime overheating. Simulation results show that it is challenging to meet approved guidelines on air quality and thermal comfort, only when windcatchers are employed for ventilation purpose. However, fan assisted ventilation in conjunction with windcatchers provided satisfactory results. Detailed performance assessments using CFD seem desirable to validate DTS based findings.