Liquid Metal Actuator for Inducing Chaotic Advection

Chaotic advection plays an important role in microplatforms for a variety of applications. Currently used mechanisms for inducing chaotic advection in small scale, however, are limited by their complicated fabrication processes and relatively high power consumption. Here, a soft actuator is reported which utilizes a droplet of Galinstan liquid metal to induce harmonic Marangoni flow at the surface of liquid metal when activated by a sinusoidal signal. This liquid metal actuator has no rigid parts and employs continuous electrowetting effect to induce chaotic advection with exceptionally low power consumption. The theory behind the operation of this actuator is developed and validated via a series of experiments. The presented actuator can be readily integrated into other microfluidic components for a wide range of applications.     

Energy transport in plasma etching of nanoporous dielectric materials

A Monte Carlo routine was developed to simulate the motion and energetics of ions in the pores of a xerogel material under plasma etching conditions. The simulation included the effects of an applied electric field and input conditions for the pore as a function of pressure and applied voltage in the plasma reactor. We were interested in the ion energy in a pore, the ion penetration depth and the effect of ion energy on etching.At low pressures the nanoporous material etches faster than dense silicon dioxide. This is to be expected given the decrease in density and increase in surface area that arises due to the porosity. However, as the pressure is increased, the etch rate decreases dramatically and, eventually, the dense oxide may etch faster than the porous material. CHF₃ was used as the etchant gas and, for this gas, we believe this behavior to be controlled by the ion energy and energy transport in the pores of the xerogel material. As the pressure in the plasma reactor is increased, the incoming ions switch over from etching activation to polymerisation activation. This agrees with the observed crossover in etch rate seen experimentally and with the cessation in etching as pressure is increased. The switch is affected by pore roughness and correlates with the average ion energy in the pore.     

新型吡咯烷键合反相高效液相色谱固定相的制备与研究（英文）

正A new ionic liquid-based high-performance liquid chromatography stationary phase is reported.A derivative of N-methyl pyrrolidinium tetrafluoroborate was covalently immobilized on the surface of silica particles to prepare silica-based N-methyl pyrrolidinium tetrafluoroborate(SilprMP BF4)stationary phase.The obtained ionic liquid-modified silica was evaluated and confirmed by elemental analysis,infrared spectroscopy,and thermogravimetric analysis.A column was packed with the modified particles.The retention behavior of aromatic compounds,alkyl benzenes,and acidic and basic compounds on the SilprMP BF4 stationary phase was studied under reversed-phase liquid chromatography conditions.The effect of the eluent pH on the separation of the acidic and basic compounds was also studied.The new stationary phase involves multiple retention mechanisms,such as electrostatic,hydrophobic,ion-dipole,and anion-exchange interactions,which might lead to multipurpose separation media.     

On the cosmological viability of the Hu-Sawicki type modified induced gravity

It has been shown recently that the normal branch of a DGP braneworld scenario self-accelerates if the induced gravity on the brane is modified in the spirit of f(R) modified gravity. Within this viewpoint, we investigate cosmological viability of the Hu-Sawicki type modified induced gravity. Firstly, we present a dynamical system analysis of a general f(R)-DGP model. We show that in the phase space of the model, there exist three standard critical points; one of which is a de Sitter point corresponding to accelerating phase of the universe expansion. The stability of this point depends on the effective equation of state parameter of the curvature fluid. If we consider the curvature fluid to be a canonical scalar field in the equivalent scalar-tensor theory, the mentioned de Sitter phase is unstable, otherwise it is an attractor, stable phase. We show that the effective equation of state parameter of the model realizes an effective phantom-like behavior. A cosmographic analysis shows that this model, which admits a stable de Sitter phase in its expansion history, is a cosmologically viable scenario.     

Dynamic manipulation of modes in an optical waveguide using dielectrophoresis

The emergence of optofluidics has brought a high degree of tuneability and reconfigurability to optical devices. These possibilities are provided by characteristics of fluids including mobility, wide range of index modulation, and abrupt interfaces that can be easily reshaped. In this work, we created a new class of optofluidic waveguides, in which suspended mesoparticles were employed to greatly enhance the flexibility of the system. We demonstrated tuneable quasi single mode waveguides using spatially controllable mesoparticles in optofluidics. The coupling of waveguiding modes into the assembly of mesoparticles produces strong interactions and resonant conditions, which promote the transitions of the waveguiding modes. The modal response of the system depends on the distribution of packed particles above the polymeric rib waveguide which can be readily controlled under the appropriate combination of dielectrophoresis and hydrodynamic forces.     

ZnO based thermopower wave sources

Exothermic chemical reactions of nitrocellulose are coupled onto thermoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO) layers to generate self-propagating thermopower waves resulting in highly oscillatory voltage output of the order of 500 mV. The peak specific power obtained from ZnO based sources is approximately 0.5 kW kg(-1).     

Thermodynamics of Viscous Dark Energy in DGP Setup

We investigate thermodynamics of viscous dark energy interacting with dark matter in a DGP braneworld. We show that the Friedmann equation in this setup can be rewritten as the first law of thermodynamics on the apparent horizon. We study the time evolution of the total entropy including the entropy of the matter fields inside the apparent horizon together with the entropy associated with the apparent horizon. Interestingly enough, we find that, in the presence of bulk viscosity, the generalized second law of thermodynamics is always preserved for both branches of the DGP braneworld. When the time varying gravitational constant is taken into account, the generalized second law of thermodynamics can be secured provided $\dot{G}_{4}<0$ , $\frac{\dot{G}_{5}}{G_{5}}>\frac{\dot{G}_{4}}{G_{4}}$ and $\omega_{de}>-1-u+\frac{3H\xi}{\rho_{de}}$ , where ξ and u are, respectively, the bulk viscosity coefficient and the energy densities ratio of the two dark components on the brane.     

Ranking all units in data envelopment analysis

The motivation of this study is to propose an equitable method for ranking decision making units (DMUs) based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) concept. For this purpose, first, the minimum and maximum efficiency values of each DMU are computed under the assumption that the sum of efficiency values of all DMUs is equal to unity. Then, the rank of each DMU is determined in proportion to a combination of its minimum and maximum efficiency values.     

On the regular cosine family of linear correspondences

In this paper, we investigate the existence of unique continuous linear extension for linear correspondences. We also give some results on cosine families of linear correspondences.