Influence of ionic liquid counterions on activity and selectivity of ethylene trimerization using chromium-based catalysts in biphasic media

In recent years ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted much interest because of their widespread use in various fields. Several trimerization and oligomerization catalysts have been evaluated in ILs with different organic–inorganic hybrid structures. High catalytic activity and selectivity, easy product separation, and recycling of the catalyst are the advantages of a biphasic catalyst system compared to the homogeneous catalysts. In this study, the influence of IL counter-anions on activity and selectivity of the ethylene trimerization catalysts based on Cr-SNS-R was investigated. All synthesized materials were characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, UV–Vis. spectroscopy, thin-layer chromatography, and elemental analysis (CHNS). In ethylene trimerization reaction, the dodecyl substituent in the SNS ligand exhibited better activity and selectivity than the butyl substituent. The results revealed that the presence of BF₄⁻ as a counter-anion in the IL led to an increase in activity and selectivity compared to Br⁻ and I⁻ counter-anions. It was found that the BF₄⁻ counter-anion plays a conclusive role in the development of 1-hexene activity and selectivity to a maximum amount of 71,132 g_1-C6/(g_Cr × h) and more than 99%, respectively. Finally, the catalyst was reused thrice without losing its 1-hexene selectivity.     

Acid-induced gelation behavior of sonicated casein solutions

Casein gels were made from solutions sonicated by 24 and 130 kHz ultrasounds for 0, 60 and 120 min, followed by acidification with glucono-δ-lactone at 30 °C. The dynamics of gel formation were studied using rheological methods and microstructure of gels was monitored using scanning electron microscopy. Sonication postponed the gelation point to a lower pH value and increased the elasticity of freshly formed gels. It also resulted in gels with a more interconnected structure and smaller non-distinguishable particulates. This structure was especially dominant for the gel made from the solution already sonicated for 120 min.     

Guaranteed cost nonlinear sampled-data control: applications to a class of chaotic systems

Nonlinear Dynamics - This paper addresses the guaranteed cost sampled-data controller synthesis and analysis problems with application to nonlinear chaotic systems. A linear parameter-varying (LPV)...     

Implementation Issues in Turbo Decoding for 3GPP FDD Receiver

In the Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard, implementation of the turbo decoder, especially for the mobile equipments, faces design decisions related to computational complexity, power efficiency, and memory requirements. In this paper we compare different approaches of low complexity implementation of the turbo decoder, with emphasis on the issues of signal scaling and quantization, the sliding window operation for memory size reduction and the iteration stopping algorithms. The demodulated signal at the output of the RAKE receiver may have a wide dynamic range and it may require many bits of precision. In order to overcome the numerical precision problem and to prevent Log Likelihood ratio (LLR) metric overflow, a scaling algorithm must be used. Our simulation results indicate that the Average Absolute (AA) algorithm using dynamic scaling outperforms other scaling schemes and it is less sensitive to the channel conditions. One of the major challenges in the implementation of a practical turbo decoder is optimization of memory requirements. In this paper we evaluate the performance of the sliding window algorithm using different main and guard window sizes. We show that the bit and block error rate performance of the sliding window scheme mainly depend on the guard window size rather than the main window size. The simulation results indicate that small guard window sizes can significantly decrease the iteration gain for large frames in fast fading channels. Iteration stopping algorithms reduce the power consumption and the latency of the decoder and help to dedicate more resources to other functions of the receiver. The block error distribution in the fading channels makes it even more essential to use an iteration stopping rule. Our simulations conclude that a rule called the minimum absolute value appears to be a very effective, low complexity and robust algorithm. Mohamadreza Marandian Hagh was born in Tabriz, Iran on January 1974. He received the B.S. and the M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Tehran University with honors in 1996 and 1999, respectively. He is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at Northeastern University, Boston. His research interests includes information theory, channel coding and iterative techniques for wireless communication systems. His current research is focused on low complexity designs for iterative receivers using Space-Time coding in time-dispersive channels. He is also interested in Exit-Chart analysis of iterative receivers. From 1996 to 1999, he was with Sana Pro Inc. as a system engineer, developing simulation tools for OFDM, WCDMA, CDMA2000. He is currently with Airvana Inc. in Chelmsford, MA and working on 1xEVDO wireless systems. Masoud Salehi received BS degree (Summa Cum Laude) from Tehran University and MS and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University all in Electrical Engineering. Before joining Northeastern, he was with the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology and Tehran University. From February 1988 to May 1989 Dr. Salehi was a visiting professor at the Information Theory Research Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, where he did research in network information theory and coding for storage media.In 1989 Dr. Salehi joined Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University. Professor Salehi is a member of the CDSP (Communication and Digital Signal Processing) Center. His main areas of research interest are network information theory, source-channel matching problems in single and multiple user systems, data compression, turbo coding, coding for fading channels, and digital watermarking. Professor Salehi’s research has been supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), GTE, NUWC, CenSSIS, and Analog Devices. Professor Salehi has also done consulting to the industry including Teleco Oilfield Services and AT&T. Professor Salehi is currently a member of the Editorial Board of The International Journal of Electronics and Communications.Professor Salehi is the coauthor of the textbooks “Communication Systems Engineering”, Prentice-Hall 1994, 2002, “Contemporary Communication Systems Using MATLAB and Simulink” Thomson 1998, 2000, 2004, and “Fundamentals of Communication Systems”, Prentice-Hall 2005. Abhay Sharma received B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India in 1996 and M.S. Electrical Engineering degree from Ohio State University, Columbus in 2000. From 2000 to 2005 he was working with Analog Devices, RF and Wireless Systems Group, Wilmington, USA, where he was working on design and implementation of algorithms for the emerging cellular communication standards. Currently he is working with Allgo Embedded Systems, Bangalore, India, in the area of wireless networks and systems based on the emerging W-PAN wireless technologies. Zoran Zvonar received the Dipl. Ing. degree in 1986 and the M.S. degree in 1989, both from the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Northeastern University, Boston, in 1993.From 1986 to 1989 he was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where he conducted research in the area of telecommunications. 1993 to 1994 he was a Post-Doctoral investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, anconducted research on multiple-access communications for underwater acoustic networks. Since 1994 he has been with the Analog Devices, Communications Division, Wilmington, USA. He is the Manager of the Systems Engineering Group focusing on the design of algorithms and architectures for wireless communications, with emphasis on integrated solutions and real-time software.He was a Guest Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, the International Journal of Wireless Information Networks and the ACM/Baltzer Wireless Networks, Associate Editor of the IEEE Communications Letters and a co-editor of the books GSM: Evolution Towards Third Generation Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, Wireless Multimedia Networks Technologies, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999 and Software Radio Technologies: Selected Reading, IEEE Press, 2001. Dr. Zvonar is currently Co-Editor of the Radio Communication Series in the IEEE Communications Magazine.     

Determination of polarity parameters for liquid crystals using solvatochromic method in anisotropic and isotropic phases

The use of liquid crystals (LCs) as anisotropic solvents is desired for various potential applications and usually for other organic and inorganic compounds. In this work, solvent polarity parameters are obtained using a spectroscopic method for four LCs with a range of high and low dielectric anisotropy (?ε). Solvatochromic polarity parameters for these LCs were defined via Kamlet–Abboud–Taft polarity functions characterizing different temperatures and phases, isotropic and anisotropic, and using the Reichardt’s dye and 2,6-diphenyl-4-(2,4,6-triphenyl-1-pyridinio) phenolate standard probe. The investigated polarity parameters reveal the effects of LC media on the photo-physical behaviour of solute molecules in isotropic and anisotropic media. Subsequently, a new LC polarity parameter (Z_o) is introduced as an overall matrix anisotropy polarity parameter to characterize variation between isotropic and anisotropic phases. The values of Z_o are sorted from higher to lower dielectric anisotropies (?ε).     

The direct effect of ultrasound on the extraction of date syrup and its micro-organisms

In the date syrup industry, date fruits are mixed with a suitable amount of water at a temperature greater than 50 °C for about 1 h. This condition is not sufficient for killing the micro-organisms present in the fruit. In addition, Overheating for a long time can damages nutritious materials and also changes the final product's color. Ultrasound was applied for improving the quantity and quality of the extraction, and also to overcome the health problem. In this research, the following variables were examined: date fruit/water ratio, ultrasonic intensity and temperature. The results showed that sonication under the proper conditions can lead to a higher extraction in a shorter time with a better physical quality of the product. Most importantly, the sonication significantly decreased the microbial count in comparison to the classical method. This study also confirmed the presence of anti-microbial substances in date fruit, and that ultrasonic waves can accelerate their effects.     

Thermal Degradation Kinetics and Modeling Study of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWP)/Graphene Nanocomposite

The incorporation of nanofillers such as graphene into polymers has shown significant improvements in mechanical characteristics, thermal stability, and conductivity of resulting polymeric nanocomposites. To this aim, the influence of incorporation of graphene nanosheets into ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) on the thermal behavior and degradation kinetics of UHMWPE/graphene nanocomposites was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that graphene nanosheets were uniformly spread throughout the UHMWPE’s molecular chains. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) data posited that the morphology of dispersed graphene sheets in UHMWPE was exfoliated. Non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies identified a more pronounced increase in melting temperatures and latent heat of fusions in nanocomposites compared to UHMWPE at lower concentrations of graphene. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) revealed that UHMWPE’s thermal stability has been improved via incorporating graphene nanosheets. Further, degradation kinetics of neat polymer and nanocomposites have been modeled using equations such as Friedman, Ozawa–Flynn–Wall (OFW), Kissinger, and Augis and Bennett’s. The "Model-Fitting Method” showed that the auto-catalytic nth-order mechanism provided a highly consistent and appropriate fit to describe the degradation mechanism of UHMWPE and its graphene nanocomposites. In addition, the calculated activation energy (E_a) of thermal degradation was enhanced by an increase in graphene concentration up to 2.1 wt.%, followed by a decrease in higher graphene content.     

Design and Implementation of a Novel HomePlug-Based Solution for Low Cost and High Performance Smart Home Networking

As the smart home is the end-point power consumer, it is the major part to be controlled in a smart micro grid. There are so many challenges for implementing a smart home system in which the most important ones are the cost and simplicity of the implementation method. It is clear that the major share of the total cost is referred to the internal controlling system network; although there are too many methods proposed but still there is not any satisfying method at the consumers’ point of view. In this paper, a novel solution for this demand is proposed, which not only minimizes the implementation cost, but also provides a high level of reliability and simplicity of operation; feasibility, extendibility, and flexibility are other leading properties of the design.     

Current Source Inverter Based Grid Connected Hybrid PV-Wind Power Generation Unit

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a current source inverter (CSI)-based hybrid power generation system, which uses wind turbine and photovoltaic cells (PVs). A permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is connected to the CSI using a diode rectifier and a buck converter that is used to control the speed of the rotor. Another buck converter is used to control the maximum power point tracking of PVs. The operation of proposed system is studied under normal and grid voltage dip conditions. According to new grid codes, most power generating units are supposed to remain connected to the grid during voltage sag conditions and inject reactive current to grid as defined by grid codes. The CSI has fault current limiting capability that makes it appropriate to use in grid-connected applications and during voltage sag conditions in particular. The proposed system tracks the maximum power point of wind turbine and PVs under normal mode and injects required reactive current to the grid during voltage drop. However, incorporation of CSI with the inherent behaviour of wind turbine and PVs causes fault current to be within the tolerable range for power electronic devices. Simulations are carried out by using PSCAD/EMTDC software to verify the proposed system.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Tin Oxide Nanoparticles by Solid State Chemical Reaction Method

High purity tin oxide nanopowders have been synthesized by using a solid-state chemical reaction technique with annealing at elevated temperature. The effects of two parameters, specifically by controlling the annealing temperature and kind of alkaline chlorides as precursors, the effect on particle size, morphology and IR spectra of synthesized tin oxide nanopowder were investigated. From the X-ray pattern, the crystal structure of the synthesized powders was confirmed as a tetragonal structure. Based on the recorded FTIR spectrum of SnO₂, the IR bands due to SnO₂ vibrations and its lattice modes were observed at 625 and 690 cm⁻¹, respectively. In addition, an important characterization peak has been identified at 1,450 cm⁻¹ due to Sn–O–Sn bridges observed only when LiCl was used as precursor. The formation of Sn–O–Sn bridges was confirmed by TGA–DTA analysis. According to the SEM images, it is obvious to notice that the kind of alkaline chlorides as precursors play a dominant role in controlling the morphology of tin oxide nanopowders.