Picomolar-sensitive impedimetric sensor for salivary calcium analysis at POC based on SAM of Schiff base–modified gold electrode

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Analysis of saliva is a potential diagnostic tool in the management of human diseases. Analysis of saliva in healthy individuals is vital to comparison in...     

Theoretical modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting in the system using technical textile as a support

An approach to harvesting electrical energy from a mechanically excited piezoelectric element has been described. The topic of this paper studies the most important properties of piezoelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in energy harvesting. We have chosen to develop a recovery application within the clothes. By the use of a piezoelectric energy harvester capable to convert the mechanical energy produced by the knee during walking to an electrical energy. This will be achieved by replacing the traditional textile of the kneepad with the one that is made of the technical textile based on acrylic knitted and PVDF as a patch stuck on the textile. Furthermore, PVDF has many unique features, such as excellent mechanical behavior, large strain without structure fatigue, which enables it to act strongly as the load bearing member, and corrosion resistance. The technical textile, functioning as multifunctional wearable human interfaces, is considered today as a useful tool in several energy fields. In this paper, a smart structure based on piezoelectric polymer (PVDF) has been presented, which a power analytical model, based on the frequency, the geometrical parameters and other factors were investigated. Furthermore, the set of numerical results illustrating the harvested power for a given size of the device has been performed and discussed and how this harvested power may be used as a source for a wearable device. Finally, the theory presented in this study can be used for the realization of other optimal designs, for a wearable sensor with low consumption and so on. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimization Studies of Porous Carbon Preparation from Oil Shale Using Response Surface Methodology and Its Application for Phenol Adsorption

This paper discusses the elaboration of adsorbents from oil shale. The experimental designs a response surface methodology(RSM), which has been applied to optimize the significant preparation factors, such as temperature, time, and the activating agent percentage. The results obtained from central composite design(CCD) revealed that the interaction between the factors was significant for the maximum quantity of adsorption(response). Planned results have shown that a maximum quantity of adsorption for methylene blue is 65 mg/g, which could be achieved with a temperature of 275℃ over 2 h and a percentage of the activating agent of 45%. The predicted values agreed with the experimental finding, with a determination coefficient(R²) of 0.96. The model has been validated by experiments after conditions optimization. The new material(RHO) was characterized by cation exchange capacity, zero charge pH, surface functions, X-ray fluorescence, specific surface area, and electron microscopy analysis. Phenol adsorption was determined using Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin, which were used to describe the adsorption isotherms. The adsorption capacity of the material was about 263 mg/g, and the kinetic studies showed rapid adsorption.     

Energetics of ion transport in a peptide nanotube

Ion channels constitute an important family of integral membrane proteins responsible for the regulation of ion transport across the cell membrane. Yet, the underlying energetics of the permeation events and how the latter are modulated by the environment, specifically near the mouth of the pore, remain only partially characterized. Here, a synthetic membrane channel formed by cyclic peptides of alternated d- and l-hydrophobic alpha-amino acids was considered. The free energy delineating the translocation of a sodium ion was measured along the conduction pathway by means of molecular dynamics simulations. The free-energy profiles that underly the permeation of the open-ended tubular structure are shown to not only depend on the characteristics of the latter but also inherently on the location of the mouth of the synthetic channel with respect to the membrane surface.     

A convenient synthesis of linear pyridinoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine and pyrroloimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine cores

Two new imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives, pyridinoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (10) and pyrroloimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (16), were synthesised from 2-amino-4-methyl-5-nitropyridine (1) by linear cyclisation, making use of dimethylformamide dimethylacetal (DMFDMA) as an agent of vinylamine functionalisation. This report describes first the formation of pyridine and pyrroloimidazopyridine from (1), and then the formation of pyridine-fused and pyrrolo-fused pyridine by the Friedländer method and reductive cyclisation followed by treatment of the resulting adduct with chloroacetaldehyde.     

A turbulence model for the heat transfer near stagnation point of a circular cylinder

A one-equation low-Reynolds number turbulence model has been applied successfully to the flow and heat transfer over a circular cylinder in turbulent cross flow. The turbulence length-scale was found to be equal 3.7y up to a distance 0.05 and then constant equal to 0.185 up to the edge of the boundary layer (wherey is the distance from the surface and is the boundary layer thickness).The model predictions for heat transfer coefficient, skin friction factor, velocity and kinetic energy profiles were in good agreement with the data. The model was applied for Re 250,000 and Tu0.07.Nomenclature µ,C _D Constants in the turbulence kinetic energy equation - C ₁,C ₂ Constants in the turbulence length-scale equation - Skin friction coefficient atx - D Cylinder diameter - F Dimensionless flow streamwise velocityu/u _e - k Turbulence kinetic energy =1/2 the sum of the squared three fluctuating velocities - K Dimensionless turbulence kinetic energyk/u _e ^/2 - I Dimensionless temperature (T–T _w )/(T –T _w ) - l Turbulence length-scale - l _e Turbulence length-scale at outer region - Nu _D Nusselt number - p Pressure - Pr Prandtl number - Pr _t Turbulent Prandtl number - Pr _k Constant in the turbulence kinetic energy equation - R Cylinder radius - Re _D Reynolds number u D/µ - Re _x Reynolds number u x/µ - R _K Reynolds number of turbulence - T Mean temperature - T Mean temperature at ambient - T _s Mean temperature at surface - Tu Cross flow turbulence intensity, - u Mean flow streamwise velocity - u Fluctuating streamwise velocity - u _e Mean flow velocity at far field distance - u Mean flow velocity at ambient - u* Friction velocity - v Mean velocity normal to surface - V Dimensionless mean velocity normal to surface - x,x ₁ Distance along the surface - y Distance normal to surface - Dimensionless pressure gradient parameter - Boundary layer thickness atu=0.9995u _e - Transformed coordinate iny direction - Fluid molecular viscosity - _t Turbulent viscosity - _eff + _t - µ Fluid molecular viscosity at ambient - Kinematic viscosity/ - Density - Density at ambient - _w Wall shear stress - _w,0 Wall shear stress at zero free stream turbulence     

On the invariant spectrum on

Motivated by the work of Abreu and Freitas 1 , we study the invariant spectrum of the Laplace operator associated to hermitian line bundles endowed with invariant metrics over .     

A numerical method for determining the shear stress of magnetorheological fluids using the parallel-plate measuring system

This work proposes a new numerical method for determining the shear stress, which does not need any preassumption about the exact behavior of the fluid to achieve absolute data using a parallel-plate measuring system. The ability for representing different behaviors along the entire shear-rate range makes this method particularly interesting for the study of magnetorheological (MR) fluids. In this work, the conversion factors used by the rheometer for concentric-cylinder, cone-plate, and parallel-plate measuring systems are first analyzed. This analysis shows that the software used by the rheometer is not appropriate for the quantitative characterization of non-Newtonian fluids using the parallel-plate measuring system. Therefore, a new method for conversion of the parameters measured by the rheometer to the rheological parameters of the fluid is proposed; simultaneously, this new method is compared with other correction methods proposed in the literature: the Rabinowitsch-type method and the single-point method. Finally, the proposed method is applied for the quantitative characterization of an MR fluid.