Chemical versus Electrochemical Synthesis of Carbon Nano‐onion/Polypyrrole Composites for Supercapacitor Electrodes

The development of high‐surface‐area carbon electrodes with a defined pore size distribution and the incorporation of pseudo‐active materials to optimize the overall capacitance and conductivity without destroying the stability are at present important research areas. Composite electrodes of carbon nano‐onions (CNOs) and polypyrrole (Ppy) were fabricated to improve the specific capacitance of a supercapacitor. The carbon nanostructures were uniformly coated with Ppy by chemical polymerization or by electrochemical potentiostatic deposition to form homogenous composites or bilayers. The materials were characterized by transmission‐ and scanning electron microscopy, differential thermogravimetric analyses, FTIR spectroscopy, piezoelectric microgravimetry, and cyclic voltammetry. The composites show higher mechanical and electrochemical stabilities, with high specific capacitances of up to about 800 F g^?1 for the CNOs/SDS/Ppy composites (chemical synthesis) and about 1300 F g^?1 for the CNOs/Ppy bilayer (electrochemical deposition).     

Scheduling data transfers in a network and the set scheduling problem

In this paper we consider the online ftp problem. The goal is to service a sequence of file transfer requests given bandwidth constraints of the underlying communication network. The main result of the paper is a technique that leads to algorithms that optimize several natural metrics, such as max-stretch, total flow time, max flow time, and total completion time. In particular, we show how to achieve optimum total flow time and optimum max-stretch if we increase the capacity of the underlying network by a logarithmic factor. We show that the resource augmentation is necessary by proving polynomial lower bounds on the max-stretch and total flow time for the case where online and offline algorithms are using same-capacity edges. Moreover, we also give polylogarithmic lower bounds on the resource augmentation factor necessary in order to keep the total flow time and max-stretch within a constant factor of optimum.     

Mechanisms of n‐butanol formation in butyl acrylate latexes

The mechanisms involved in the formation of n‐butanol during the synthesis of butyl acrylate containing latices were investigated. The experimental results showed that neither the hydrolysis of butyl acrylate nor of the ester bond in the butyl acrylate segments of the polymer played a major role in the formation of n‐butanol, which was mainly generated from the polymer backbone, by transfer reactions to polymer chain followed by cyclization. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 5838–5846, 2007     

The Effects of a Study‐Group Process on the Implementation of Reform in Mathematics Education

In each of three consecutive years, 16 teachers were admitted to a program in which they participated in a study group to reform their teaching practices in mathematics. The 48 (total) elementary school teachers in this program were selected to ensure diversity of setting— urban and suburban, as well as public and parochial. Teachers routinely met with the study group for 1 year, engaging in follow‐up activities after that year. Surveys, interviews, and site visits showed that teachers underwent significant changes in their knowledge, beliefs, and teaching practices and were attempting to implement reform consistent with current standards. Teachers with 11 to 25 years of experience demonstrated the greatest changes. Long‐term effects of the program and its impact on colleagues within the building and district have yet to be studied.     

Feedback stabilization of snap-through buckling in a preloaded two-bar linkage with hysteresis

We study a linearly damped preloaded two-bar linkage that exhibits hysteresis due to the presence of multiple attracting equilibria. The dynamics at the unstable equilibrium, through which a snap-through buckle occurs, are not linearizable due to a solution-dependent singularity. We stabilize the unstable equilibrium using two distinct non-linear controllers. The feedback-linearization controller requires knowledge of the linkage parameters, whereas the robust version of the intrinsic non-linear proportional-derivative controller requires only an upper bound on the stiffness.     

Ductile–brittle transitions in the fracture of plastically deforming,adhesively bonded structures. Part II: Numerical studies

To enable the effective and reliable use of structural adhesive bonding in automotive applications, the cohesive properties of a joint need to be determined over a wide range of loading rates. In this paper, a strategy for determining these properties has been described and used to analyze a set of experimental results presented in a companion paper. In the particular system studied, a crack growing in a toughened quasi-static mode could make a catastrophic transition to a brittle mode of fracture. The cohesive parameters for both the toughened and brittle modes of crack growth were determined by comparing numerical predictions from cohesive-zone simulations to the results of experimental tests performed using double-cantilever beam specimens and tensile tests. The cohesive parameters were found to be essentially rate-independent for the toughened mode, but the toughness dropped by a factor of four upon a transition to the brittle mode. The results of wedge tests were used as an independent verification of the cohesive parameters, and to verify that the quasi-static properties remained rate-independent to very high crack velocities corresponding to conditions of low-velocity impact. The effects of friction, and the use of the wedge test to determine cohesive parameters, were also explored.