Articles
-
Effect of honey and L–cysteine as antioxidants on the quality attributes of fresh–cut carambola (Averrhoa carambola L.) stored at two different temperatures
The present study was carried out to understand the anti–browning effect of L–cysteine (0.125%, 0.25%, and 0.5%) and honey (10%) through visualisation of PPO activity and total phenolic content in carambola slices. Besides, the influence of honey (10%) supplemented with L–cysteine (0.5%) was also tested on the quality and shelf–life extension of fresh–cut carambola while maintaining at 4°C±1°C ...
-
A bi-national examination of gender and IT adoption
Innovation diffusion theory indicates that cultural and economic factors, affect the adoption and diffusion of information technology. This research examines demographic factors for two populations on either side of an international border, to compare IT penetration. A border region was chosen to ensure that differences in technology availability, shipping costs and other factors were minimised. ...
-
How to boost the performance of Pressure Reducing Valves without breaking the budget.
Pressure Management has become a very useful tool around the world for controlling leakage in piping networks. This has primarily been achieved by utilities forming DMA’s (District metered Areas) and pressure zones in their systems. Typically, pressure is managed by utilizing a pressure reducing valve that can either have a single fixed pressure reducing pilot set point or pressure flow ...
-
Katrina revisited: recovery strategies – redevelopment vs. relocation
This paper assesses the policy choice to redevelop all the neighbourhoods of New Orleans Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. This choice was a political choice made against the recommendations of some of the city's development consultants. The research at the time on recovery from major disasters showed the difficulties of cities, like New Orleans, that were losing population before the event, ...
-
Review of emergency management related to the Wenchuan earthquake: a special section
Earthquakes are among the most terrifying and destructive natural disasters threatening humans. As the Wenchuan earthquake in China of May 2008 turned out to be one of the most severe threats to people's lives, with the number of dead being more than 80,000, we have to study the lessons from the earthquake disaster as an opportunity to better prepare ourselves for future disasters. This paper ...
-
Incremental seismic rehabilitation concept for Romanian civil buildings integrated in natural hazards prevention management
A recent study in Bucharest emphasised the need to rehabilitate 392 vulnerable buildings, but when investing in seismic strengthening, the authorities are facing both financial and technical obstacles. For this reason the present paper is studying the possibility to use the incremental seismic rehabilitation (ISR) method to Romanian damaged and/or vulnerable buildings that present a higher risk ...
-
Fuselage metal fatigue in large commercial aircraft
Details of a recent aircraft fuselage metal fatigue forensic analysis are presented. Different methods for determining total fatigue cycles are given and compared. The results of this investigation are placed in context with respect to all known catastrophic fatigue failures of commercial aircraft fuselages in the modern era. Keywords: metal fatigue, commercial aircraft, fatigue striations, ...
-
Forensic evaluation of a large reinforced concrete specimen using radar and ultrasonic pulse echo
Non–destructive techniques play an important role in the condition assessment and evaluation of reinforced and pre–stressed concrete structures and also serve as a forensic tool in identifying various parameters such as thickness, presence of reinforcement, spacing, cover thickness, presence of other elements such as PVC pipes, steel embedment, honeycombs and voids. For exploring the ...
-
Consideration of human factors in investigations of structural failures
Investigations of claimed structural failures often lead to conclusions based on structural factors including strength and serviceability. Typically, these conclusions are absolute, since they result from objective comparisons of results to limits prescribed by owners and/or governing agencies. Occasionally, however, the failure of a structure may be defined by human factors, which are more ...
-
Prediction of meteorological variables using artificial neural networks
In the present study, artificial neural network (ANN) models are developed to predict seven meteorological parameters such as maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, sunshine hours, dew point and evaporation individually. To predict each of the meteorological parameters, recurrent MISO-ANN network is used. Totally seven ANN models are developed and the development ...
-
Nano-scale manipulation of silicate-substituted apatite chemistry impacts surface charge, hydrophilicity, protein adsorption and cell attachment
This study characterised the effect of nano-scale variation in hydroxyapatite (HA) surface-chemistry, by manipulation of silicate substitution level, on surface charge, hydrophilicity, protein adsorption and cell attachment. Substitution with 0.4 wt% Si (SA04) had a significant impact on surface charge, but did not affect hydrophilicity as compared to stoichiometric HA. Increasing silicon content ...
-
Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO structures containing the nanoscale regime
Synthesis of ZnO nanorods assembled in flower-shaped spherical morphologies have been grown via solution process by using zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Zn(NO3)2. 6H2O) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at low-temperature of 100°C in eight hours. The grown ZnO structures were characterised in terms of their structural and optical properties. The detailed structural characterisations demonstrated that the ...
-
An improved method for predicting microfabrication influence in atomic force microscopy performances
This paper presents the application of the concept of boundary conditioning to the prediction of spring constant of atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers after considering the inherent microfabrication limitations. The boundary support conditions of micromechanical structures such as AFM probes are non-classical in nature, and they influence the modal response and natural frequencies of the ...
-
Synthesis and properties of π conjugated organic molecular one-dimensional nanomaterials
Much attention is turning to nanoscale organic materials, due to many unique properties such as flexibility, high photoconductivity, and nonlinear optical effects that may offer novel applications in nano-optoelectronic devices. We have synthesised new π conjugated organic molecular aggregates using various methods, including template, solid phase organic reaction, thermal evaporation method ...
-
Band structure investigation of strained Si1-xGex/Si coupled quantum wells
The band structure of Si1-xGex/Si coupled quantum wells (CQW) was calculated with the 8-band k p method. Both strain and spin-orbit split-off band effect were taken into account. The subband energy of the Si0.6Ge0.4/Si quantum well as a function of barrier width and well width was calculated. Barrier width varies between 20~60 while well width varies between 30~110 . Finally, the relationship ...
-
Molecular nanoscience and engineering on surfaces
Molecular engineering of low-dimensional materials exploiting controlled self-assembly and positioning of individual atoms or molecules at surfaces opens up new pathways to control matter at the nanoscale. Our research thus focuses on the study of functional molecules and supramolecular architectures on metal substrates. As principal experimental tools we employ low-temperature scanning ...
-
Masked ion beam irradiation of high-temperature superconductors: patterning of nano-size regions with high point-defect density
Ion-beam irradiation of high-temperature superconductors creates different types of defects depending on ion mass, energy and dose. Computer simulations reveal the diversity of the ion-target interactions with YBa2Cu3O7 and are compared to previous experimental results from transmission electron microscopy and electrical transport properties. While protons have a very low efficiency to create ...
-
Structure and properties of pure and mixed transition metal dimers on graphene
Small Fe, Co and Ni clusters are known to exhibit high magnetic moments and are therefore investigated rather intensely for the purpose of developing novel magnetic materials with high magnetisation densities. The reduced bond density of these clusters compared to their respective bulk states, results in them being particularly sensitive to their environment. The choice of a substrate for these ...
-
Near field optical microscopy: a brief review
Near Field Optical Microscopy (NSOM) has evolved into a mature member of the family of scanning probe microscopy. In this article, we briefly go over the principle of NSOM, its breakthroughs and setbacks. We will describe some of the most commonly used NSOM modalities and conclude with the recent advances based on optical nanoantennas. We will then highlight the potential of this high–resolution ...
-
Ultrafast laser spectroscopy of semiconductor nanocrystals
Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is an efficient tool for investigation of ultrafast processes in nanostructures. We have been involved in the picosecond and femtosecond laser spectroscopy of semiconductor nanocrystals since the mid–1990s. This paper aims to review some of our results and to illustrate the potential of ultrafast laser spectroscopy in the research of semiconductor ...
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you