A process control method for the electric current-activated/assisted sintering system based on the container-consumed power and temperature estimation

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this paper, the current, voltage and temperature of the container of an electric current-activated/assisted sintering (ECAS) system are measured and...     

Ensemble Approach for Detection of Depression Using EEG Features

Depression is a public health issue that severely affects one’s well being and can cause negative social and economic effects to society. To raise awareness of these problems, this research aims at determining whether the long-lasting effects of depression can be determined from electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. The article contains an accuracy comparison for SVM, LDA, NB, kNN, and D3 binary classifiers, which were trained using linear (relative band power, alpha power variability, spectral asymmetry index) and nonlinear (Higuchi fractal dimension, Lempel–Ziv complexity, detrended fluctuation analysis) EEG features. The age- and gender-matched dataset consisted of 10 healthy subjects and 10 subjects diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime. Most of the proposed feature selection and classifier combinations achieved accuracy in the range of 80% to 95%, and all the models were evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation. The results showed that the motioned EEG features used in classifying ongoing depression also work for classifying the long-lasting effects of depression.     

Modified Burgers-Reimschuessel model for moisture-sensitive polymers

Viscoelastic properties of moisture-sensitive polymers can be significantly affected by moisture in the ambient environment, resulting in drastic changes in the properties as the absorbed moisture content increases. In this article, a simple yet important modification to the Reimschuessel model is introduced by considering both plasticization and anti-plasticization induced by water molecules. The proposed model is validated against the results of four different polymers obtained by Onogi et al., which demonstrates its capability of describing the available data. This model can be used to estimate the performance and service life of products produced using moisture-sensitive polymers. It also reveals that small amounts of diffused moisture might have a stiffening effect on the mechanical properties of hydrophilic polymers.     

Interactions of Imidazolium Based Ionic Liquids with Water Studied by Density and Speed of Sound Measurements: Effect of the Chain Length of an Alkyl Substituent on the Imidazolium Ion

Densities and speeds of sound of three ionic liquids (ILs), 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazoliumtetrafluoroborate (C₂mimBF₄), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliumtetrafluoroborate (C₄mimBF₄) and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazoliumtetrafluoroborate (C₆mimBF₄) were measured in aqueous solutions at (288.15, 293.15, 298.15, 303.15 and 308.15) K. These data were used to calculate the volumetric properties apparent molar volume and apparent molar isentropic compression as a function of molality. Infinite dilution values for these properties were evaluated by an extrapolation procedure based on Redlich–Meyer type equations. Apparent molar isobaric expansions at infinite dilution were also obtained from the slopes of the apparent molar volume at infinite dilution versus temperature. All these properties are interpreted in terms of IL–water interactions. The hydrolysis of the \( {\text{BF}}_{4}^{ - } \) anion of the ILs and its effects on the results is discussed.     

A study on theoretical predictive model and experimental findings of melt-electrospinning process

The current study extends a previous work published by the authors in which an analytical predictive model is proposed to simulate the melt-electrospinning process. The analytical model is specifically designed to predict the various behaviors of the melt-electrospun fiber under different material and processing conditions. A brief discussion of this model is presented here to establish context and help the reader capture the modeling philosophy employed. The current study complements the previous work by focusing on the experimental aspects of the research. Correlations between the independent process parameters and the topological attributes of the melt-electrospun fibers are investigated and compared with findings from the theoretical model. The effects of changes in the process parameters on average fiber diameters and the collection diameter are experimentally analyzed using the design of experiments (DOE) techniques. Toward this end, polylactic acid (PLA) is melt-electrospun at different treatment levels of the processing parameters in a controlled environment. Two regression-based models—one for predicting the collection diameter and the other for the fiber diameter—are derived from the DOE data for benchmarking and quantitative evaluation of the predictive performance of the theoretical model. The theoretical model is run based on the same treatment levels as the experiment. The elastic parameter values used in the theoretical simulation are extracted from rheological tests. Comparison between the simulated and the observed fiber characteristics revealed that the collector diameter predictions by the theoretical model exhibited approximately a 16.7% difference compared to 24.2% for the average fiber diameter. Finally, a discussion is presented on the challenges and potential factors contributing to the observed differences. Overall, given the identified challenges and gaps in material characterization, the results of the theoretical predictive model are encouraging.     

A Direct Proof of the Gale–Nikaido–Debreu Lemma Using Sperner’s Lemma

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - The Gale–Nikaido–Debreu lemma plays an important role in establishing the existence of competitive equilibrium. In this paper, we use...     

Amplitude and phase of light scattered by micro-scale aggregates of dielectric spheres: Comparison between theory and microwave analogy experiments

Light scattering is a useful diagnostic tool for characterization of particles. Direct scattering measurements for arbitrarily shaped micro-scale particles is difficult due to small-scale limitations. Microwave analogy is a convenient approach to realize such measurements as it enables realization of analogous experiments with larger model particles in a spectral domain where wavelengths are on centimeter scale. In the present study a test model analogous to light scattering by a micro-scale aggregate of dielectric spheres was constructed and experimentally characterized in the microwave regime. Measured amplitude and phase of the scattered field were compared with theoretical predictions obtained from quasi-exact multiple-scattering T-matrix method and discrete dipole approximation (DDA). Excellent agreement demonstrates the validities of both the experiment and the models.     

In Situ Electrochemical Production of Metal-organic Hybrid Composite Film from Nickel Containing Polyoxometalate and 3,4-Ethylenedioxy-thiophene for Sensor Application

In situ electrochemical synthesis of an organic-inorganic hybrid material composed of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and nickel-based Keggin type polyoxometalate, K₇[Ni^IIINi^II(H₂O)W₁₁O₃₉].15H₂O(NiPOM), has been proposed here. The remarkable optical and electrical properties of the PEDOT and the unique redox properties of NiPOM have synergistically combined to make the hybrid structure highly desired multi-functional materials for a myriad of applications. The driving force for the formation of hybrid structure is thought to be electrostatic interactions between POM anions and cationic polaron/bipolaron structures that in the PEDOT. PEDOT/NiPOM based hybrid composite modified graphite electrode has been used for non-enzymatic glucose sensor platform as a sample of applications. Furthermore, PEDOT/NiPOM based sensor platform was successfully utilized for detection of glucose content with the lowest detection limit in real samples like honey and milk. These results suggest that PEDOT/NiPOM metal-organic hybrid composite could be utilized as multi-functional material for a myriad of applications.     

Effects of structural isomerism on solution behaviour of solutes: Apparent molar volumes and isentropic compression of catechol,resorcinal, and hydroquinone in aqueous solution at T = (283.15, 293.15, 298.15, 303.15, and 313.15) K

Effects of structural isomerism on solution behaviour of dihydroxybenzenes were examined through the determination of volumetric properties such as apparent molar volumes, apparent molar isentropic compressions, and isobaric expansions. The isomers were 1,2-dihydroxybenzene (catechol), 1,3-dihydroxybenzene (resorcinol), and 1,4-dihydroxybenzene (hydroquinone). The volumetric properties were determined from accurate density and speed of sound measurements at T = (283.15, 293.15, 298.15, 303.15, and 313.15) K and at various concentrations. Values at infinite dilution of these parameters were obtained by suitable extrapolation procedures. The results are discussed in terms of hydrophobic, hydrogen bonding, and dipole–dipole interactions between the three isomers and water. Catechol was found to have the strongest hydrophilic and the weakest hydrophobic interactions with water among the three isomers.     

Ribozyme-mediated signal augmentation on a mass-sensitive biosensor

Mass-based detection methods such as the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) offer an attractive option to label-based methods; however the sensitivity is generally lower by comparison. In particular, low-molecular-weight analytes can be difficult to detect based on mass addition alone. In this communication, we present the use of effector-dependent ribozymes (aptazymes) as reagents for augmenting small ligand detection on a mass-sensitive device. Two distinct aptazymes were chosen: an L1-ligase-based aptazyme (L1-Rev), which is activated by a small peptide (MW approximately 2.4 kDa) from the HIV-1 Rev protein, and a hammerhead cleavase-based aptazyme (HH-theo3) activated by theophylline (MW = 180 Da). Aptazyme activity was observed in real time, and low-molecular-weight analyte detection has been successfully demonstrated with both aptazymes.