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Porous PZT-PCN ceramics were fabricated with this formula, “0.8 Pb(Zr1/2Ti1/2)O3-0.2 Pb(Co1/3Nb2/3)O3”, abbreviated as “PZTPCN” by introducing Polyvinyl chloride(PVC) and stearic acid (SA) as pore forming agents (PFA) with varied percentages (5, 10 and 15 wt%). The optimum sintering procedure was designed according to the thermogravimetric analysis of pore formers. XRD and FESEM were applied to study the formed phase and the microstructure of the system. Electrical Characterization was conducted using Piezo meter. A decrease in density reduced longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient (d33) and relative dielectric constant (ε) and enhanced hydrostatic figure of merit (dhgh) of PZTPCN ceramics.... 

Abstract Porous lead zirconate titanate-lead cobalt niobate 0.8Pb(Zr1/2Ti1/2)O3-0.2Pb(Co1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PZT-PCN) piezoelectric ceramics were fabricated by introducing pore-forming agent polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and the effect of sintering behavior on their microstructure, dielectric, and piezoelectric properties were investigated. The optimum sintering procedure was designed according to the thermogravimetric analysis of pore former. Finally the electrical properties were measured. The porosity of PZT-PCN ceramics decreased and the grain size increased with an increase in the sintering temperature at a fixed PMMA addition. "An increase in density with sintering temperature from 1050 to... 

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the simulation and analysis of piezoelectric transducers with the he help of equivalent electrical circuit simulations (EECS). This paper has been devoted to study of such approach for two designed and fabricated ultrasonic sandwich transducers. By using analytical analysis, the dimensions of components of the two piezoelectric transducers were determined for the assumed resonance frequencies of 30 kHz and 40 kHz. Then, by using a two dimensional finite element model, and regarding two different modeling techniques for the transducers and by application of a current source which was connected directly to the piezoelectric pieces of the... 

Constant volume transparent test combustion chambers are extensively used for investigating injection and fuel burning properties of various combustion engines. Their configuration depends on the engine type and the research purpose. Material of components, shape and dimensions of the chamber and its parts, ease of use, accessibility, sealing and safety of the assembly are the parameters needed to be considered in designing the test cell. This paper explains, structural design of a test combustion chamber and its optical windows using finite element analysis of ANSYS 12.0 software for bearing high pressure variations and thermal shocks of combustion. It was designed for conducting CNG direct... 

Purpose: Intensive actions implemented to alleviate poverty created many challenges. Millions of people face acute food insecurity; hence, food production needs to be increased to feed the existing and increasing population through sustainable agricultural practices. Sustainable agricultural development is the only way forward to assist humanity. Research Method: TExisting literature on sustainable agriculture was reviewed, explored, understood, described, evaluated, and synthesized and their relationships to sustain smallholder farmers were analyzed. Findings: Technological innovations in increasing resource use efficiency, modern breeding techniques, and renewable energy sources aid in... 

Nanofluids play an important role in order to augment of the heat transfer characteristics in many energy systems. As compared to usual fluids, nanofluids comprise better physical strength and thermal conductivity. Our aim in studying this work is to numerically interpret the flow and heat transfer features of copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles in the coexistence of thermal radiation and inclined magnetic fields. The model equations are first simplified by the similarity transformations and then finite difference discretization is used to apply the numerical technique known as the successive over-relaxation method. We have mainly examined that how much the thermal radiation and inclined... 

Multiple blood collection from an adult Danio rerio is important in most of metabolic studies. The method allows researcher to profile the metabolic dynamic from an individual fishes, which contribute to a high resolution of dataset. Currently, several devices have been developed for the purpose of blood withdrawal from Danio rerio. Limited accessibility to it hindering the log phase development of Danio rerio based studies. This study shows that the multiple blood collection from an adult Danio rerio can be achieved to the highest survival rate (94.75 %) using the in-house fabricated Z-fish needle. The fabricated device is cheaper and can be accessible in any developing Danio rerio... 

Macrobenthos animals are an architect of a variety of roles including as a part of the food web of aquatic ecosystem and improve the structure of the sediment and can determine the quality of the water. Macrobenthos communities have shown their potential role in biomonitoring to analyze contaminant loads due to high sensitivity to organic pollutants along the coastal water area. Besides, it is also used to determine heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons in coastal water due to their long sustainability with chemicals are primarily related with industrial calamities and occupational activities. Based on above perspectives, this systematic review has shown interesting findings about the... 

The nanotubular arrays of titanium dioxide (TiO2 NTs) have recently received considerable interest for fabrication of dental and orthopedic implants. However, their antibacterial activity requires substantial improvement for the potential infections minimization, without compromise of their biocompatibility. In this work, TiO2 NTs were developed on Ti6Al4V substrates via anodization at a constant potential of 60 V for 60 min, followed by heat treatment at 500 °C for 90 min. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) was further employed to decorate silver oxide nanoparticles (Ag2O NPs) on the nanotubular edges. The results indicated that the highly-ordered TiO2 NTs with decorated Ag2O NPs could promote... 

Malaysian secondary schools are facing a shortage of male teachers. Almost 70% of the teaching profession is dominated by female teachers. There is an obvious gap in the reason why teaching is not preferred by the male gender. This study intends to find the determinants of career success among male teachers with the hope of revealing the career success factors that are associated with male teachers. A survey was done among 140 male teachers in secondary schools in the state of Malacca, Malaysia. Results showed that 4out of 5 of the determinants factors are significantly explaining career success among the teachers (Emotional Intelligence, Person-Job-Fit, Career Adaptability & Work-Life... 

A multiplexing technique, which is based on duty-cycle division, is proposed. The channel multiplexing and demultiplexing are performed electrically at the single user bit rate, which is very economic. In a three-user system (3×10 Gb/s), the simulation results show that the best receiver sensitivity value achieved is -30.1 dBm with an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of 22.3 dB, while the chromatic dispersion tolerance ranges from 192 to 280 ps/nm. Migration from 30 to 120 Gb/s is achieved with the penalty of 6.4 and 5.2 dB in the receiver sensitivity and OSNR, respectively, for the worst user  

Background: Diesel mainly consists of paraffin and thio-aromatic compounds. Sulfur present in diesel exhaust is the major challenge for oil refineries. Sulfur is an oxidizing element that discharges as acute pollutant in the environment, having adverse effects on human and animal life. Introduction: The scope of this review paper is to discuss and highlight the recent advancements in the process of desulfurization of diesel oil to explore the less energy-intensive and more economical process. Methods: Recently, different techniques are widely used for desulfurization of diesel oil to remove sulfur containing compounds from diesel. These techniques mainly involve hydrodesulfurzation,... 

Background: Water contamination by noxious heavy metals due to urbanization is a global environmental problem. Heavy metal ions pollution makes the water unsuitable for drinking and is also highly toxic to human beings and eco-system. The remediation of heavy metals is therefore very crucial. Methods: Adsorbents based on biopolymer and eco-friendly polymer composites have been developed and fabricated to remediate and remove heavy metals from the ecosystem. Results: In recent years biocomposites have been successful as cost-effective adsorbents for the remediation of various contaminants with their eco-friendly nature and sustainability. Conclusion: This review article gives an overview on... 

Adding value to agricultural leftovers and turning them into biochar is a viable way to replenish soil nutrients and boost crop productivity. To further validate the efficacy of enriched rice husk biochar, an incubation study and a pot experiment were conducted: (1) to describe the effect of enriched rice husk biochar addition on soil total N, soil exchangeable NH4+ and available NO3− and (2) to describe the effect of enriched rice husk biochar on improving N, P, K, Ca, and Mg uptake, use efficiency, and dry matter production of rice plants. The amount of NH3 loss that was considerably reduced by rice husk biochar at 5 and 10 t ha−1 was 34 % lower than the control. The availability of soil... 

Modeling and analysis of information system vulnerabilities helps us to predict possible attacks to networks using the network configuration and vulnerabilities information. As a fact, exploiting most of vulnerabilities result in access rights alteration. In this paper, we propose a new vulnerability analysis method based on the Take-Grant protection model. We extend the initial Take-Grant model to address the notion of vulnerabilities and introduce the vulnerabilities rewriting rules to specify how the protection state of the system can be changed by exploiting vulnerabilities. Our analysis is based on a bounded polynomial algorithm, which generates the closure of the Take-Grant graph... 

We study the translocation of stiff polymers through a nanopore, driven by the chemical-potential gradient exerted by binding proteins (chaperones) on the trans side of the pore. Bound chaperones prevent backsliding through the pore and, therefore, partially rectify the polymer passage. We show that the sequence of chain monomers with different binding affinity for the chaperones significantly affects the translocation dynamics. In particular, we investigate the effect of the nearest-neighbor adjacency probability of the two monomer types. Depending on the magnitude of the involved binding energies, the translocation speed may either increase or decrease with the adjacency probability. We... 

Combining the advection-diffusion equation approach with Monte Carlo simulations we study chaperone driven polymer translocation of a stiff polymer through a nanopore. We demonstrate that the probability density function of first passage times across the pore depends solely on the Péclet number, a dimensionless parameter comparing drift strength and diffusivity. Moreover it is shown that the characteristic exponent in the power-law dependence of the translocation time on the chain length, a function of the chaperone-polymer binding energy, the chaperone concentration, and the chain length, is also effectively determined by the Péclet number. We investigate the effect of the chaperone size on...