Enhanced Nucleation and Crystallization in PLA/CNT Composites via Disperse Orange 3 with Corresponding Improvement in Nanomechanical Properties

The potential for the material property improvement through the addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in composite materials is often limited due to CNT agglomeration. In this work, Disperse Orange 3 (DO3) was investigated to determine its effectiveness in dispersing CNTs in a poly (lactic acid) (PLA) matrix. First, adsorption studies of DO3 onto CNTs were performed to determine the appropriate amount of DO3 to add so that the CNT surface will be nearly saturated with DO3 while limiting the excess DO3 dissolved in the polymer. The resultant improvements in the mechanical properties were determined via nanoindentation. Highly stable dispersion of CNTs in tetrahydrofuran with DO3 was observed 72 hours after sonication. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that DO3‐functionalized CNTs were able to separate and disperse well inside of the PLA matrix. Addition of DO3 to the nanocomposite resulted in an increase in the glass transition temperature and crystallinity of the composite due to the more effective dispersion of the nanofiller which serves as a nucleation agent. The CNTs treated with DO3 also increased the elastic modulus and hardness of the composite compared to neat PLA and untreated PLA‐CNT composites. From this study, DO3 was demonstrated to be an effective dispersing agent in the solvent and the PLA matrix which allowed for enhanced crystallization and improved nanomechanical properties in the resultant composite.     

Discrete ordinates method for propagation of light in highly scattering vascular tissues

This work considers the propagation of light in a semitransparent layer of vascular tissue, submitted to radiative boundary conditions. The solution procedure must provide accurate light distribution in the layer, so a discrete ordinates method based on the exact transport theory is carried out. An advantage of this method is its ability to account easily for various boundary conditions as well as optical heterogeneity. The influences of anisotropic scattering, optical discontinuity, optical parameters of tissue and refractive index on radiant fluence rate are investigated carefully. It is shown that reflections tend to produce more uniform profiles within the tissue.     

Ionic Liquid Promoted Eco-friendly and Efficient Synthesis of 2,3-Dihydroquinazolin-4(1<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>)-ones

Summary. 2,3-Dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-ones were efficiently synthesised by the reaction of isatoic anhydride, a primary amine or ammonium acetate, and different aromatic aldehydes in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([bmim]BF₄) without using any acidic catalyst. Also a bis-derivative of the title compound as a polyheterocyclic system was synthesised successfully in high yield.     

Polypyrrole/hexagonally ordered silica nanocomposite as a novel fiber coating for solid-phase microextraction

A highly porous fiber coated polypyrrole/hexagonally ordered silica (PPy/SBA15) materials were prepared for solid-phase microextraction (SPME). The PPy/SBA15 nanocomposite was synthesized by an in situ polymerization technique. The resulting material was characterized by the scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis. The prepared nanomaterial was immobilized onto a stainless steel wire for fabrication of the SPME fiber. The fiber was evaluated for the extraction of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from aqueous sample solutions in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A one at-the-time optimization strategy was applied for optimizing the important extraction parameters such as extraction temperature, extraction time, ionic strength, stirring rate, desorption time and desorption temperature. In optimum conditions (extraction temperature 70°C, extraction time 20 min, ionic strength 20% (WV(-1)), stirring rate 500 rpm, desorption temperature 270°C, desorption time 5 min) the repeatability for one fiber (n=3), expressed as relative standard deviation (R.S.D. %), was between 5.0% and 9.3% for the tested compounds. The quantitation limit for the studied compounds were between 13.3 and 66.6 pg mL(-1). The life span and stability of the PPy/SBA15 fiber are good, and it can be used more than 50 times at 260°C without any significant change in sorption properties. The developed method offers the advantage of being simple to use, with shorter analysis times, lower cost of equipment, thermal stability of fiber and high relative recovery in comparison to conventional methods of analysis.     

Cache-Oblivious Range Reporting with Optimal Queries Requires Superlinear Space

We consider a number of range reporting problems in two and three dimensions and prove lower bounds on the amount of space used by any cache-oblivious data structure for these problems that achieves the optimal query bound of O(log  _B N+K/B) block transfers, where K is the size of the query output.     

Paired and Unpaired Deep Learning Methods for Physically Accurate Super-Resolution Carbonate Rock Images

Transport in Porous Media - X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) has been widely leveraged to characterise the pore-scale geometry of subsurface porous rocks. Recent developments in...     

Profit-maximization generation maintenance scheduling through bi-level programming

This paper addresses the generation maintenance scheduling (GMS) dilemma in a deregulated power system. At first, under a centralized cost minimization framework, a GMS is formulated and set as the benchmark (cost-minimization GMS). Then, the cost-minimization is changed into a profit-maximization problem of generation companies (GENCOs) and the GMS is developed as a bi-level optimization. Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions are applied to transform the bi-level into a single-level mixed-integer linear problem and subsequently, Nash equilibrium is obtained as the final solution for the GMS under a deregulated market (profit-maximization GMS). Moreover, to incorporate reliability and economic regulatory constraints, two rescheduling signals (incentive and penalty) are considered as coordination processes among GENCOs and independent system operators. These signals are based on energy-not-supplied and operation cost, and ensure that the result of profit-maximization GMS is in the given reliability and social cost limits, respectively. These limits are obtained from the cost-minimization GMS. Lastly, the model is evaluated on a test system. The results demonstrate applicability and challenges in GMS problems.