88 research outputs found

    Conductivity study on plasticized chitosan acetate based electrolytes doped with silver triflate salt system / A.M.M. Ali ... [et al.]

    No full text
    Plasticized polymer electrolytes composed of chitosan as the host polymer, ethylene carbonate (EC) as the plasticizer and silver triflate (AgCFjiSOj) as the doping salt were prepared by the solution cast technique. These complexes with different amounts of salts and plasticizers were investigated as possible ionic conducting polymers. This salt was chosen based on the ability of silver cation to exist as monovalent cation, which could influence the mobility of the ions in the chitosan-based electrolytes. The highest electrical conductivity, a for the chitosan-silver triflate salt at room temperature was 1.0 x 10' S cm'1. Conductivity for the plasticized AgCFjSOs (Ag Tf) doped chitosan polymer was also studied as a function of temperature between 300 K and 363 K. The plot ofln(dT) versus lCf/T for each sample obeys Arrhenius rule indicating the conductivity to be thermally assisted. The activation energy, Ea was calculated from the Arrhenius plots and the increase in conductivity can be explained in terms of the decrease in Ea and vice versa. The highest conducting CA-EC-AgCF3SOs complex has the lowest Ea of 0.60 eV. FTIR spectroscopy and XRD techniques were carried out for the complexation studies

    Stochastic characterization of geological heterogeneity and its impact on groundwater contaminant transport

    No full text
    Abstract not availableCivil Engineering and Geoscience

    Accounting for performance Case studies of relative performance evaluation in Egypt and England

    No full text
    SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN037437 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

    Fatigue and shear failure. Differences between NEN and Eurocode.

    No full text
    Within this document the differences arising from the transition of the NEN (Dutch code) to the Eurocode are studied with respect to shear failure and fatigue. These differences are investigated on a global level, where in addition the fib Model Code is taken into account. In the next part the actual differences are determined within a case study, consisting of a viaduct for road traffic build up from precast girders. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are given.Concrete StructuresStructural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience

    The effectiveness of deep brain stimulation in improving upper and lower extremity function under dual task conditions in Parkinson?’s disease patients

    No full text
    Parkinson?’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by reduced movement. Postural instability and gait dysfunction (PIGD) is one of the more debilitating symptoms of PD due to its effect on activities of daily life and increased risk for falls. In later stages of the disease, cognitive impairment affects executive functioning and working memory. Although, most activities in daily living require both motor and cognitive functioning like cycling (motor) while holding a conversation (cognitive). Bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has been shown to reduce motor deficits in advanced Parkinson?’s disease patients. However, the effectiveness of STN DBS on postural instability is less pronounced. It has been shown that bilateral STN DBS results in cognitive declines under dual-??task conditions using an upper extremity task and these declines compromise motor function. The aim of this study was to asses the effectiveness of STN DBS on cognitive-??motor performance during a lower extremity task. 15 advanced PD patients, of which seven presented PIGD symptoms, were tested under single-?? and dual-??task conditions. All patients were bilaterally implanted with STN DBS and had stable parameters as determined through typical clinical programming for at least 6 moths prior to study enrollment. Patients were assessed off anti-??parkinsonian medication under two DBS settings; Off DBS and On DBS. In each condition, patients performed a working memory task (n-??back) and a postural stability task (quiet standing). During the dual task, patients performed the working memory and postural stability tasks simultaneously. DBS was effective in improving Unified Parkinson?’s disease Rating Scale III scores relative to no stimulation. Cognitive functioning showed no difference between the two DBS conditions. Patients with PIGD symptoms were significantly less stable than patients with no PIGD symptoms for both On and Off DBS conditions. These data show that with the paradigm used in this study, PIGD symptoms continue to be refractory to DBS. Postural stability as assessed by quietly standing on a force platform may not have been challenging enough to evoke cognitive declines.BMEBioMechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

    Differences in the yeasts preferred by Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans.

    No full text
    uploaded by Plazi from Taxodro

    Challenges and opportunities in migrating to web-based information services: perspective of web-based enterprise

    No full text
    Vastly growing Web-technology has matured enough to become an attractive platform for business applications and organizational information systems. Large and small organizations are increasing their investment in Web-based Information Systems (IS) resources, such as Electronic Commerce, Intranets and Extranets. The Web technology is often presented as a 'revolution' in information system technologies in the business press which could propel change from static, hierarchical structures to more dynamic, flexible and 'knowledge-based' organizational forms. To the companies, more and more legacy information and database systems are being migrated to Web-based environments. This research aims at analyzing and advising enterprises to be Web-based enterprise with challenges and opportunities. During the research, researcher investigated a company that were using the Web-based (applications made available via the World Wide Web) information service. Various research methods were adopted by the author. Data were collected through lecture review and in-depth interviews. Undoubtedly, there are some troubles existed in migrating, such as technologies for restructure information system structure, resource distribution, benefit analysis, planning and management, operation and maintenance etc. But still obviously, as the research shows that there are many benefits can be got follows the implementation of Web-based solution

    Sustainability indicators in university campuses: The experience of Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

    No full text
    This article aims at describing the performance of sustainability indicators for Universidade de São Paulo, developed in Agência USP de Inovação/USP Recicla Program. In this context, the university's resources consumption has been assessed and indicators have been established so as to support actions, goals and sustainability policies for the institution. Generally, indicators are attributes that facilitate the understanding of a situation, by indicating - as possible - the current situation and comparing it with the desired situation. A survey performed in 2009 considered two steps: i) introduction and analysis of certain consumption indicators in 7 USP campuses, such as disposable glasses, water, electric power, built-up areas and vegetal covering, transportation and generation of waste; ii) partial data conversion into "ecological footprint". The data presented and discussed herein were raised with each campus, including colleges, schools and teaching and research institutes; in specific purchase and material distribution, water and power consumption and engineering sectors and green areas inside USP. The results achieved indicated that each member of the university community demands approximately 160m²/year of forest to absorb the impacts caused by resources consumption and waste production. The main environmental impacts noticed are related to power consumption (66%), buildings (17%) and paper consumption (13%). By considering the several challenges we faced the lack of an articulated data measurement and a control system at USP
    corecore