This study presents a vibration control using actively tunable vibration absorbers (ATVA) to suppress vibration of a thin plate. The ATVA’s is made of a sandwich hollow structure embedded with the electrorheological fluid (ERF). ERF is considered to be one of the most important smart fluids and it is suitable to be embedded in a smart structure due to its controllable viscosity property. ERF’s apparent viscosity can be controlled in response to the electric field and the change is reversible in 10 microseconds. Therefore, the physical properties of the ERF-embedded smart structure, such as the stiffness and damping coefficients, can be changed in response to the applied electric field. A mathematical model is difficult to be obtained to describe the exact characteristics of the ERF embedded ATVA because of the nonlinearity of ERF’s viscosity. Therefore, a fuzzy modeling and experimental validations of ERF-based ATVA from stationary random vibrations of thin plates are presented in this study. Because Type-2 fuzzy sets generalize Type-1 fuzzy sets so that more modelling uncertainties can be handled, a semi-active vibration controller is proposed based on Type-2 fuzzy sets. To investigate the different performances by using different types of fuzzy controllers, the experimental measurements employing type-1 fuzzy and interval type-2 fuzzy controllers are implemented by the Compact RIO embedded system. The fuzzy modeling framework and solution methods presented in this work can be used for design, performance analysis, and optimization of ATVA from stationary random vibration of thin plates.

In this study, rheological properties of the bread wheat flour dough from 6 wheat genotypes were determined. For the pereparation of flour, 3 red bread (Pandas, Sagitorya, Pehlivan) and 3 white bread (Kaşifbey, Göktan, Ceyhan-99) were selected as wheat genotype. To determine the rheological properties of the wheat flour dough, farinograph, extensograph, mixolab and glutograph devices were used. According to the results of the Farinograph analysis, the average development time of wheat White and red genotypes were 1.95 minutes and 8.96 minutes, respectively. According to the extensograph results of the flour samples, the most extended stability value was determined with 7.47 min in Ceyhan-99 cultivar. As a result of the research, it was determined that flour yields of red bread varieties were higher other genotypes, gas retention capacities of white bread flours were showed high result in extensograph application and resistance of dough to elongation was higher. In the Mixolab analysis, it determined that white bread wheat varieties have higher values in terms of kneading properties and gluten properties, and red bread wheat varieties have higher values in values of viscosity, amylase value and starch retrogradation.

The current study emphasizes on optimizing a suitable ratio of enzymatically hydrolyzed potato powder (EHPP) and whole milk powder (WMP) to produce a quality yogurt by evaluating the physicochemical and rheological properties. The results showed that the addition of EHPP decreased the pH towards acidic conditions which resulted in the high acidity of yoghurt. The proximate composition showed that EHPP increased the ash, protein, water holding capacity (WHC) while fat, synersis, color parameters and total solid were decreased when compared to control yoghurt (CY) sample. Moreover, texture profile (TPA) analysis showed that the addition of EHPP decreased the hardness and cohesiveness while springiness did not show significant difference. Furthermore, rheological properties revealed that EHPP decreased the storage modulus (G’) and loss modulus (G”) when compared with control. In addition to this, sensory analysis revealed that the treatment P4M (1:3) was found as optimum ratio regarding taste, flavor, and aroma. Besides this, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirms that the high amount of EHPP resulted in the void holes while CY showed dense gel structure. The prepared yogurt with EHPP provides an excellent flavor, satisfying sweetness and homogeneous texture. These findings suggest the optimum formulation ratio of prepared yogurt was found to be P4M (1:3) for desirable attributes and consumer acceptance. The prepared yogurt from the EHPP presents the potential industrial applications.

Silicone RTV-based engineering rubber composite products have been widely used for several applications in various fields as a major component such as structure, automotive, and medical. In its application, the rubber composite product is placed in an open area that is directly exposed to sunlight and rain. It has a significant negative impact on changes in chemical and rheological properties, making the product life of rubber composite products shorter. Therefore, in this study, changes in the chemical and rheological properties of both isotropic and anisotropic magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) treated with accelerated weathering were studied compared to untreated specimens with specimens that had been treated. MRE specimens with 40% by weight CIP were prepared with no current excitation and another sample were made under 1.5 T of magnetic flux density. Each specimen was treated in an accelerated weathering machine Q-Sun Xe-1 Xenon Test Chamber with a UV light exposure cycle for 102 minutes and 18 minutes of UV light combined with water spray for 24 hours followed by a condensation cycle of 4 hours in a dark period. Material characterization was carried out using FTIR and Rheometer to determine the changes in chemical and rheological properties. The morphological analysis results showed that the surface was rough and more cavities occurred after being given weather treatment. Rheometer test results showed a decrease in storage modulus in each MRE specimen that had been treated compared to untreated MRE specimens. Meanwhile, FTIR testing showed a change in wave peak between untreated and treated MRE specimens.

In power systems there are complex transformer structures, whose accurate analysis is not possible using the techniques available today. This paper presents a systematic data driven analysis method for coupled inductors of arbitrary complexity. The method first establishes a winding matrix N mapping the windings to the limbs of the transformer. A permeance matrix P is created from the reluctance network of the magnetic core. A generalized inductance matrix L mapping currents in the transformer windings to the induced voltages is generated based on the winding (N) and permeance (P) matrices. The inductance matrix representation of a coupled inductor is then transformed to an admittance matrix, which can be integrated to the nodal analysis of the electrical circuit surrounding the coupled inductor. The method presented is validated by simulations with real transformer structures using electromagnetic transient program (EMTP/ATP).

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), C7F15COOH, has been widely employed over the past fifty years, causing an environmental problem due to its dispersion and low biodegradability. Furthermore, the high stability of this molecule, conferred by the high strength of the C-F bond makes it very difficult to remove. In this work, electrochemical techniques are applied for PFOA degradation in view to study the influence of the cathode on defluorination. For this purpose, boron doped diamond (BDD), Pt, Zr and stainless steel have been tested as cathodes working with BDD anode at low electrolyte concentration (3.5 mM) to degrade PFOA at 100 mg/L. Among these cathodic materials, Pt improves the defluorination reaction. The electro-degradation of a PFOA molecule starts by a direct exchange of one electron at the anode and then follows a complex mechanism involving reaction with hydroxyl radicals and adsorbed hydrogen on the cathode. It is assumed that Pt acts as an electrocatalyst, enhancing PFOA defluorination by the reduction reaction of perfluorinated carbonyl intermediates on the cathode. The defluorinated intermediates are then more easily oxidized by HO• radicals. Hence, high mineralization (xTOC: 76.1%) and defluorination degrees (xF-: 58.6%) were reached with Pt working at current density j = 7.9 mA/cm2. This BDD-Pt system reaches a higher efficiency in terms of defluorination for a given electrical charge than previous works reported in literature. Influence of the electrolyte composition and initial pH are also explored.

This work involves results of research on short-term and long-term DC-drifts in electro-optical modulators based on annealed proton exchange waveguides in LiNbO3 crystals after wafer pre-annealing. The relaxation time of the DC-drift of the operating point for a short-term drift is minutes, and for a long-term drift, hours and days. DC-drift was measured by applying bias voltage and changing crystal temperature. Obtained results shows significant impact on stability of operating point in EO-modulators after treatment of defective structure of the near-surface layer of a LiNbO3 crystal. Treatment of the disturbed near-surface layer of a LiNbO3 crystal results in twice reduction of short-term DC-drift and increase of operation stability of electro-optical modulators during long-term measurement of temperature by activation energy calculation.

Metal/metal composites represent a particular class of materials showing innovative mechanical and electrical properties. Conventionally, such materials are produced by severely plastically deforming two ductile phases via rolling or extruding, swaging, and wire drawing. This study presents the feasibility of producing metal/metal composites via a capacitive discharge-assisted sintering process named electro-sinter-forging. Two different metal/metal composites with CP-Ti/AlSi10Mg ratios (20/80 and 80/20 %vol) are evaluated, and the effects of the starting compositions on the microstructural and compositional properties of the materials are presented. Bi-phasic metal/metal composites constituted by isolated α-Ti and AlSi10Mg domains with a microhardness of 113 ± 13 HV_0.025 for the Ti20-AlSi and 244 ± 35 HV_0.025 for the Ti80-AlSi are produced. The effect of the applied current is crucial to obtain high theoretical density, but too high currents may result in Ti dissolution in the Ti80-AlSi composite. Massive phase transformations due to the formation of AlTiSi based intermetallic compounds are observed through thermal analysis and confirmed by morphological and compositional observation. Finally, a possible explanation for the mechanisms regulating densification is proposed accounting for current and pressure synergistic effects.

A unified electro-gravity (UEG) theory, which has been successfully used for modeling an elementary particle, is applied in this paper to model gravitation in spiral galaxies. The new UEG model would explain the "flat rotation curves'' commonly observed in the spiral galaxies, without need for any hypothetical dark matter. The UEG theory is implemented in a somewhat different manner for a spiral galaxy, as compared to the simple application of the UEG theory to an elementary particle. This is because the spiral galaxy, unlike the elementary particle, is not spherically symmetric. The UEG constant $\gamma$, required in the new model to support the galaxies' flat rotation speeds, is estimated using measured data from a galaxy survey, as well as for a selected galaxy for illustration. The estimates are compared with the $\gamma$ derived from the UEG model of an elementary particle. The UEG model for the galaxy is shown to explain the empirical Tully-Fisher Relationship (TFR), is consistent with the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), and is also independently supported by measured trends of galaxy thickness with surface brightness and rotation speed. The UEG theory may similarly be extended to emulate the hypothetical dark matter in galaxy clusters as well as in cosmology.

In this study one of the most innovative sintering techniques up to date was evaluated: Electro-Sinter-Forging (ESF). Despite it has been proved to be effective in densifying several different metallic materials and composites, bearing steels such as 100Cr6 have never been processed so far. Pre-alloyed Astaloy CrM powders have been ad-mixed with either graphite or graphene and then processed by ESF to produce a 100Cr6 equivalent composition. Porosity has been evaluated by optical microscopy and compared to that one of 100Cr6 commercial samples. Mechanical properties such as hardness and transverse rupture strength were tested on samples produced by employing different process parameters and then submitted to different treatments (machining, heat treatment). The experimental characterization highlighted that porosity is the factor mostly affecting mechanical resistance of the samples, correlating linearly to the transverse rupture strength. Hardness on the other side does not correlate to the mechanical resistance because process related cracking has a higher effect on the final properties. Promising results were obtained that give room to the sinterability by ESF of materials difficult to sinter by conventional press and sinter techniques.

We demonstrate high quality (intrinsic Q factor ~2.8×106) racetrack microresonators fabricated on lithium niobate (LN) thin film with a free spectral range (FSR) of ~86.38 pm. By integrating microelectrodes alongside the two straight arms of the racetrack resonator, the resonance wavelength around the 1550 nm can be red shifted by 92 pm when the electric voltage is raised from -100 V to 100 V. The microresonators of the tuning range spanning over a full FSR is fabricated using photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching (photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching, PLACE).

In 1895, Korteweg and de Vries (KdV), derived their celebrated equation describing the motion of waves of long wavelength in shallow water. In doing so they made a number of quite reasonable assumptions, incompressibility of the water and irrotational fluid. The resulting equation, the celebrated KdV equation, has been shown to be a very reasonable description of real water waves. However there are other phenomena which have an impact on the shape of the wave, that of vorticity and viscosity. This paper examines how a constant vorticity affects the shape of waves in electrohydrodynamics. For constant vorticity, the vertical component of the velocity obeys a Laplace equation and also has the usual lower boundary condition. In making the vertical component of the velocity take central stage, the Burns condition can be thus bypassed.

One of the major limitations of the current 3D-concrete-printing technology is incorporation of reinforcement. Furthermore, there is a need to decrease the ecological footprint of printable concrete. As a possible solution for these challenges, this paper presents a 3D-printable strain-hardening geopolymer composite (3DP-SHGC) that shows pseudo-ductile behaviour under direct tension. The developed 3DP-SHGC is composed of one-part (just-add-water) geopolymer binder made of slag (GGBFS), fly ash (FA) and solid activator. The one-part geopolymer binder eliminates the need for elevated temperature curing and handling of corrosive alkaline liquids. At first, an optimum matrix was identified by studying the effects of FA to GGBFS ratio on the rheological properties and compressive strength. Subsequently the optimum matrix was reinforced by PVA fibres to make the 3DP-SHGC, which printing performance and rheological properties were evaluated. In addition, the influences of curing temperature on the compressive, flexural and tensile performances of the printed specimens were also investigated. The results were compared with those obtained for the mould-cast specimens. The 3DP-SHGC exhibited superior flexural performance, higher tensile strength, and comparable tensile strain capacity to the mould-cast counterpart. Further, the curing temperature had influence on the mechanical properties of both 3D-printed and mould-cast SHGCs. The underlying reasons for the differences are discussed.

High molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) and Low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) in mature grains play important roles in the formation of glutenin macropolymer and gluten quality. To characterize the expressed glutenin genes of the bread wheat variety Xinmai 26 during seed development, in this study, we measured the dough rheological properties of mature grains through farinograph and gluten testing system, and revealed its strong gluten quality. The compositions of HMW-GS and LMW-GS were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). Further, a total of 18 full-length transcripts were obtained by third-generation RNA sequencing, including 5 transcripts of HMW-GS genes and 13 transcripts of LMW-GS genes (8 intact genes and 5 pseudogenes). The deduced protein structures of transcript sequences exhibit the typical HMW-GS and LMW-GS structural characteristics. Moreover, a specific functional marker was developed to make better use of the extra cysteine residue of 1Dx5 subunit. This study provides an efficient method to accurately identify glutenin genes in bread wheat through matching full-length transcripts to their spectrum of glutenin, which will be helpful to understand the contributions of glutenin genes to wheat quality.

Materials characterised by magnetorheological properties are non-classic engineering materials. A significant increase in the interest of scientific community in materials from this group can be observed over the recent several years. The results of research presented in this article are oriented on the examination of said materials’ mechanical properties. In order to do so, stress relaxation tests were conducted on cylindrical samples of magnetorheological elastomers loaded with compressive stress for various values of magnetic induction (B1 = 0 mT, B2 = 32 mT, B3 = 48 mT, and B4 = 64 mT) and temperature (T1 = 25° C, T2 = 30° C, and T3 = 40° C). The results of these tests indicate that the stiffness of examined samples increases along with the increase of magnetic field induction and decreases along with the increase of temperature. On this basis, it has been determined that: the biggest stress amplitude change caused by the influence of magnetic field was σ0ΔB = 12.7% and the biggest stress amplitude change caused by the influence of temperature was σ0ΔT = 11.3%. As a result of applying a mathematical model, it has been indicated that the stress relaxation in the examined magnetorheological elastomer for the adopted time range (t = 3600 s) has a hyperbolic decline nature. The collected test results point to examined materials being characterised by extensive rheological properties, which leads to a conclusion that it is necessary to conduct further tests in this scope.

Arthrospira platensis, commercially known as Spirulina, is a fresh-water cyanobacterium that is gaining even more attention in the last years due to its high biological and nutritional value. For this reason, it has been employed in several food applications, to obtain or enhance functional and technological properties of cheese, yogurt, bread, cookies or pasta. The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential boosting effect of two different concentrations (0.25% and 0.50%) of Arthrospira platensis on the fermentation capability of several starter LAB strains, 1 probiotic and 4 commercial mix culture. These strains were used to ferment three different substrates and their fermentation behaviors were evaluated by impedance analyses together with rheological and color measurements. It was demonstrated that the booster effect took place, but it was variable and dependent not only on the strain or mix culture used, but also on the substrate and Arthrospira platensis concentration. Also, rheological and color modifications were found to be dependent of these factors.

Electrospinning polymer fibers for is a well-understood process, primarily resulting in random mats or single strands. More recent systems and methods have allowed for the production of nanofiber yarns (NFY) for ease of use in textiles. This paper presents a method of NFY manufacture using a simplified dry electrospinning system to produce self-assembling functional NFY capable of conducting electrical charge. The polymer is a mixture of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), polyvinyl acrylate (PVA) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). When treated with Ethylene Glycol (EG) to enhance conductivity, fibers touching the collector plate align to the applied electrostatic field and grow, twisting together as additional nanofiber polymer is added by the jet. The longer the electrospinning continues, the longer and more uniformly twisted the NFY becomes. This process has the added benefit of reducing the electric field required for NFY production from >2.43 kV cm-1 to 1.875 kV cm-1.

Proper management of water is a challenge for every individual but especially for companies. Nowadays also legislation obliges companies to clean the wastewater before being discharged into municipal public sewer especially if they use some chemicals or oily elements in their production process. Construction of the wastewater cleaner depends directly on the way of pollution, the amount of contaminated water and the energy demand of the cleaning process. The paper deals with the construction of the wastewater cleaner, which is based on the technology of electro-flotation for the treatment of water contaminated with disperse colorants. The experimental work as well as the modelling using the statistical methods proved the suitability of the chosen technology. Also, each colour combination requires a specific time period for the water treatment. The authors determined the time interval for cleaning the wastewater that was polluted with yellow colour to 33 minutes. Finally, the wastewater cleaner that is based on the electro-flotation technology was included in the company’s reverse logistics system.

To improve the interfacial bonding of sisal fiber reinforced polylactide biocomposites, polylactide (PLA) and sisal fibers (SF) were melt-blended to fabricate bio-based composites via in situ reactive interfacial compatibilization with the addition of an epoxy-functionalized oligomer (ADR). The FTIR analysis and SEM characterization demonstrated that PLA molecular chain was bonded to the fiber surface and epoxy-functionalized oligomer played a hinge-like role between sisal fibers and PLA matrix, which resulted in improved interfacial adhesion between fibers and PLA matrix. The interfacial reaction and microstructures of composites were further investigated by thermal and rheological analyses, which indicated that the mobility of the PLA molecular chain in composites was restricted because of the introduction of ADR oligomer, which in turn reflected the improved interfacial interaction between SF and PLA matrix. These conclusions were further investigated by the calculated activation energies of glass transition relaxation (△Ea) of composites via dynamic mechanical analysis. The mechanical properties of PLA/SF composites were simultaneously reinforced and toughened via addition of ADR oligomer. The interfacial interaction and structure-properties relationship of composites are key points of this study.

An approximation-free and fully quantum optic formalism for parametric processes is presented. Phase-dependent gain coefficients and related phase-pulling effects are identified for quantum Rayleigh emission and the electro-optic conversion of photons providing parametric amplification in small scale integration of photonic devices. These mechanisms can be manipulated to deliver, simultaneously, sub-Poissonian distributions of photons as well as phase-dependent amplification in the same optical quadrature of a signal field.

Lightning strike can cause a considerable damage in aircraft parts made from semiconducting materials such as Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRPs). Therefore, in recent years, the lightning strike phenomenon has attracted the interest of the academic community and the aircraft industry. Until now, the problem has been addressed mainly experimentally, while the reported numerical works are very limited. In the present work, a coupled electro-thermal FE model has been developed using the ANSYS commercial FE code to simulate the lightning strike damage in unidirectional CFRP laminates due to the Joule heat flux phenomenon. The model is based on the SOLID69 thermoelectric element and applies a non-linear, time-transient analysis. The main input to the model is the thermal-electrical properties of the composite material which vary with temperature. Using the model, a parametric study on the effect of mesh density and peak intensity on the thermal damage has been performed. Three electrical lightning strikes of low (10 kA), medium (30 kA) and high peak intensity (40 kA) have been applied according to the SAE ARP 5412 standard. The electro-thermal model has been validated against a numerical model from the literature. The numerical results reveal that the increase of peak intensity leads to the increase of the area and penetration depth of matrix thermal damage (pyrolysis) as well as to the increase of the area of fiber damage (deterioration and ablation). Through progressive damage modeling, the residual tensile strength of the CFRP plate after being subjected to lightning strike of different peak intensity has been predicted. Lightning strike initial damage has been simulated by translating the thermal field into degradation of elastic properties of the lamina. The results show an increase in the accumulated matrix damage and a decrease of tensile strength due to the initial lightning strike damage. For the maximum peak intensity of 40 kA, a decrease in tensile strength of 4.8% has been predicted

Null-flux Electro-dynamic suspension (EDS) system promises to be one of the feasible high-speed maglev systems above 600 km/h. On account of its greater current-carrying capacity, superconducting magnet can provide super-magnetomotive force that is required for null-flux EDS system and cannot be provided by electromagnets and permanent magnets. There is already a relatively mature high-speed maglev technology with low temperature superconducting (LTS) magnets as the core, which works in the liquid helium temperature region (T≤4.2 K). 2-Generation high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet winded by REBa2Cu3O7−δ (REBCO, RE=rare earth) tapes works above 20 K region and do not need to count on liquid helium which is rare on earth. This paper designed HTS no-insulation closed-loop coils applied for EDS system and energized with persistent current switch. The coils can work at persistent current model and has premier thermal quench self-protection. Besides, a full size double-pancake module was designed and manufactured in this paper, and it was tested in liquid nitrogen. The double-pancake module’s critical current is about 54 A and it is capable of working at persistent current model, whose average decay rate measured in 12 hours is 0.58%/day.

Contrapose the highly integrated, multiple types of faults and complex working conditions of aircraft Electro Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA), to effectively identify its typical faults, we propose a fault diagnosis method based on the fusion convolutional neural networks (FCNN). First, the aircraft EHA fault data is encoded by GADF to obtain the fault feature images. Then we build an FCNN model that integrates the 1DCNN and 2DCNN, where the original 1D fault data is the input of the 1DCNN model, and the feature images obtained by GADF transformation are used as the input of 2DCNN. Multiple convolution and pooling operations are performed on each of these inputs to extract the features, next these feature vectors are spliced in the convergence layer, and the fully connected layers and the Softmax layers are finally used to attain the classification of aircraft EHA faults. Furthermore, the multi-strategy hybrid particle swarm optimization (MSPSO) algorithm is applied to optimize the FCNN to obtain a better combination of FCNN hyperparameters; MSPSO incorporates various strategies, including an initialization strategy based on homogenization and randomization, and an adaptive inertia weighting strategy, etc. The experimental result indicates that the FCNN model optimized by MSPSO achieves an accuracy of 96.86% for identifying typical faults of the aircraft EHA, respectively higher than the 1DCNN and the 2DCNN about 16.5% and 5.7%. Additionally, the FCNN model improved by MSPSO has a higher accuracy rate when compared to PSO.

We report the effect of doping Cd1-xZnxS/ZnS core/shell quantum dot (CSQDs) in nematic liquid crystal p-methoxybenzylidene p-decylaniline (MBDA) at 0.05 wt/wt%, 0.1 wt/wt%, 0.15 wt/wt%, 0.2 wt/wt%, 0.25 wt/wt% and 0.3 wt/wt% concentrations of CSQDs in MBDA. Dielectric parameters with and without bias with respect to frequency has been investigated. The change in electro - optical parameters with temperature has also been demonstrated. The increase in the mean dielectric permittivity has been found due to large dipole moment of CSQDs which impose stronger interactions with the liquid crystal molecules. The dielectric anisotropy changes sign on doping CSQDs in MBDA liquid crystal. It was concluded that the CSQDs doping noticeably increases the dielectric permittivity of nematic MBDA in the presence of electric field. The doping of CSQDs in nematic MBDA liquid crystal reduces the ion screening effect effectively. This phenomenon is attributed to the competition between the generated ionic impurities during assembling process and the ion trapping effect of the CSQDs. The rotational viscosity of nematic liquid crystal decreases with increasing concentration of the CSQDs with faster response time observed for 0.05 wt/wt% concentration. The birefringence of the doped system increases with the inclusion of CSQDs in MBDA. These results find application in the field of display devices, phase shifters, industries and projectors.

A rigorous model for the electron is presented by generalizing the Coulomb's Law or Gauss's Law of electrostatics, using a unified theory of electricity and gravity. The permittivity of the free-space is allowed to be variable, dependent on the energy density associated with the electric field at a given location, employing generalized concepts of gravity and mass/energy density. The electric field becomes a non-linear function of the source charge, where concept of the energy density needs to be properly defined. Stable solutions are derived for a spherically symmetric, surface-charge distribution of an elementary charge. This is implemented by assuming that the gravitational field and its equivalent permittivity function is proportional to the energy density, as a simple first-order approximation, with the constant of proportionality referred to as the Unifield Electro-Gravity (UEG) constant. The stable solution with the lowest mass/energy is assumed to represent a ``static'' electron without any spin. Further, assuming that the mass/energy of a static electron is half of the total mass/energy of an electron including its spin contribution, the required UEG constant is estimated. More fundamentally, the lowest stable mass of a static elementary charged particle, its associated classical radius, and the UEG constant are related to each other by a dimensionless constant, independent of any specific value of the charge or mass of the particle. This dimensionless constant is numerologically found to be closely related to the the fine structure constant. This possible origin of the fine structure constant is further strengthened by applying the proposed theory to successfully model the Casimir effect, from which approximately the same above relationship between the UEG constant, electron's mass and classical radius, and the fine structure constant, emerges.

Micro-technology has played a substantial role in bioscience, biomedical and biotechnological research due to its core advantages in modern science and engineering. It has created unique development in various sectors of bio-research and upsurges the efficacy of research at the molecular level in recent years. Microfluidic technology makes it possible to manipulate sample volumes at the micro- and nano-level (called nanofluidics) with terrific control outside in vivo cellular microenvironment, enabling the reduction of discrepancies between in vivo and in vitro environments as well as reducing reaction time and cost. In this review, we discuss various effective integrations of microfluidic technologies into biotechnology and its paradigmatic significance in bio-research, supporting mechanical and chemical in vitro cellular micro-environment. Specific innovations relating to the application of microfluidics to advance microbial life, solitary and co-cultures along with a multiple-type cell culturing, cellular communications, cellular interactions and population dynamics are discussed.

During HVDC earth return operation systems, a high magnitude current will be injected into soil through earth electrode, the potential on the surface would change widely and produce unfavorable effects on the AC systems around. This paper presents an effective finite element method (FEM) coupling electric field with thermal field to evaluate the electrical field induced by the injected DC current. Firstly, owe to the characteristic of FEM, this method can consider arbitrary soil and earth electrode structure. Secondly, by setting the electrical and thermal parameters of soil as a function of temperature at the same time, the dynamic coupling process of electric field and thermal field is simulated accurately. Thirdly, to deal with the singular point in FEM subdivision and the huge computation in traditional three-dimensional FEM, the FEM coupling 2-D earth electrode with 3-D soil based on "shell" theory is introduced. Finally, based on the suggested method, the effect of abnormal resistance region (ARR) near DC earth electrode on electric field distribution is analyzed.

γδT have functions of innate and adaptive immunity, with the potential to induce durable responses while being well-tolerated, with limited adverse effects, making it attractive as a tool for immunotherapy. γδT faces challenges as a frontline tool in clinical oncology, with limited response rates due to difficulties in reaching tumor sites with consistent cytotoxic activity and strength. Modulated Electro-hyperthermia (mEHT) is a loco-regional treatment, whereby energy-transmission from an electromagnetic field selectively targets the plasma membrane of tumor cells, inducing apoptosis and activating immune cells. We hypothesized that mEHT could enhance therapeutic effects by drawing γδT to tumor cells, while also rendering tumor cells to be more susceptible to cytotoxic effects. In this study, NOD/SCID mice harboring subcutaneous human HepG2 tumors were treated with intravenous injections of γδT after mEHT treatment. This method increased infiltration of γδT into the tumor site, significantly inhibiting tumor growth as compared to monotherapy with either modality. These data suggest that γδT could mediate a potent anti-tumor effect when combined with mEHT, and provide a strong rationale for combining these modalities in clinical application for cancer treatment.

During mechanical ventilation, a disparity between flow, pressure or volume demands of the patient and the assistance delivered by the mechanical ventilator often occurs. Asynchrony effect and ventilator performance are frequently studied from ICU datasets or using commercially available lung simulators and test lungs. This paper introduces an alternative approach of simulating and evaluating patient-ventilator interactions with high fidelity using the electro-mechanical lung simulator xPULM™ under selected conditions. The xPULM™ approximates respiratory activities of a patient during alternating phases of spontaneous breathing and apnoea intervals while connected to a mechanical ventilator. Focusing on different triggering events, volume assist-controlled (V/A-C) and pressure support ventilation (PSV) modes were chosen to test patient-ventilator interactions. In V/A-C mode a double-triggering was detected every third breathing cycle leading to an asynchrony index of 16.67%, being classified as severe. This asynchrony causes a major increase of Peak Inspiratory Pressure PIP = 12.80 ± 1.39 cmH2O and Peak Expiratory Flow PEF = -18.33 ± 1.13 L/min when compared to synchronous phases of the breathing simulation. Additionally, events of premature cycling were observed during PSV mode. In this mode, the peak delivered volume during simulated spontaneous breathing phases almost doubles compared to apnoea phases. The presented approach demonstrates the possibility of simulating and evaluating disparities in fundamental ventilation characteristics caused by double-triggering and premature cycling under V/A-C and PSV ventilation modes. Various dynamic clinical situations can be approximated and could help to identify undesired patient-ventilation interactions in the future. Rapidly manufactured ventilator systems could also be tested using this approach.

Reemergence of deep Neural Networks (CNNs) has lead to high-performance supervised learning algorithms for the Electro-Optical (EO) domain classification and detection problems. This success is possible because generating huge labeled datasets has become possible using modern crowdsourcing labeling platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk that recruit ordinary people to label data. Unlike the EO domain, labeling the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) domain data can be a lot more challenging and for various reasons using crowdsourcing platforms is not feasible for labeling the SAR domain data. As a result, training deep networks using supervised learning is more challenging in the SAR domain. In the paper,we present a new framework to train a deep neural network for classifying Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images by eliminating the need for huge labeled dataset. Our idea is based on transferring knowledge from a related EO domain problem, where labeled data is easy to obtain. We transfer knowledge from the EO domain through learning a shared invariant cross-domain embedding space that is also discriminative for classification. To this end, we train two deep encoders that are coupled through their last year to map data points from the EO and the SAR domains to the shared embedding space such that the distance between the distributions of the two domains is minimized in the latent embedding space. We use the Sliced Wasserstein Distance (SWD) to measure and minimize the distance between these two distributions and use a limited number of SAR label data points to match the distributions class-conditionally. As a result of this training procedure, a classifier trained from the embedding space to the label space using mostly the EO data would generalize well on the SAR domain. We provide theoretical analysis to demonstrate why our approach is effective and validate our algorithm on the problem of ship classification in the SAR domain by comparing against several other learning competing approaches.

For many years, the programmable positioners have been widely applied in structures of modern electro-pneumatic final control elements. The positioner consists of an electro-pneumatic transducer, embedded controller and measuring instrumentation. Electro-pneumatic transducers that are used in positioners are characterized by a relatively short mean time-to-failure. The practical and economical method of a reasonable prolongation of this time is proposed in this paper. It is principally based on assessment and minimizing the effort of the embedded controller. For this purpose, were introduced: the control value variability, mean-time and the cumulative controller's effort. The diminishing of controller effort has significant practical repercussions, because it reduces the intensity of mechanical wear of the final control element components. On the other hand, the reduction of the cumulative effort is important in the context of process economy due to limitation of the consumption of energy of compressed air supplying the final control element. Therefore, the minimization of introduced effort factors has an impact on increasing the functional safety and economics of the controlled process. As a result of the performed simulations, the recommendations regarding the selection of the structure and tuning of positioner controller were elaborated. The simulations were performed in the Matlab-Simulink environment with the use of the liquid level control system in which a phenomenological model of a final control element was deployed. It has been proven that under appropriate conditions, it is possible to extend significantly the lifetime of the final control element and simultaneously enhance the control quality factors.

Since the electro-hydraulic servo shaking table exists many nonlinear elements, such as, dead zone, friction and blacklash, its acceleration response has higher harmonics which result in acceleration harmonic distortion, when the electro-hydraulic system is excited by sinusoidal signal. For suppressing the harmonic distortion and precisely identify harmonics, a combination of the adaptive linear neural network and least mean M-estimate (ADALINE-LMM), is proposed to identify the amplitude and phase of each harmonic component. Namely, the Hampel’s three-part M-estimator is applied to provide thresholds for detecting and suppressing the error signal. Harmonic generators are used by this harmonic identification scheme to create input vectors and the value of the identified acceleration signal is subtracted from the true value of the system acceleration response to construct the criterion function. The weight vector of the ADALINE is updated iteratively by the LMM algorithm, and the amplitude and phase of each harmonic, even the results of harmonic components, can be computed directly online. The simulation and experiment are performed to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm. According to the experiment result, the above method of harmonic identification possesses great real-time performance and it has not only good convergence performance but also high identification precision.

One of the rapidly developing research areas is the creation of systems. which are commonly referred to as cyberphysical complexes. In such systems, devices and complexes interact with a completely different physical nature. The role of a person in such systems usually consists in the formation of final tasks for “artificial intelligence” and executive mechanisms. The functioning of actuators is controlled by accurate information systems.