Effect of Addition of PET in the Thermal Properties of Polymer-Mortar Composite Materials

The polymer-mortar composites are often used as low-cost promising materials for preventing or repairing various reinforced concrete structures. The Thermal behavior of the ¶building materials ¶is relevant to any use of concrete or composite, especially in relation to structures where it is desirable to have low thermal conductivity, dimensional stability, high specific heat and little or no decrease of stiffness upon heating. Although much work has been done on the effect of admixture and the mechanical properties of concrete or composite, relatively little work has been done on the thermal conductivity. So, Thermal conductivity (l), thermal resistance (R) and the surface coefficients of transmission (U) of polymer-mortar composites made up of mixtures of polyethylene terephthalate PET waste were measured. To determine the effect of the PET on the thermal conductivity of PET-mortar composites, PET was added as replacement for cement by decreasing the cement weights in the ratios of 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% by weight. The highest thermal conductivity of 1.45 W/mK was observed with the samples containing only plain cement. It decreased with the increase of PET as replacement for cement. The lowest value of thermal conductivity and the surface coefficient of transmission were obtained with the samples prepared with PET waste polymer at 7.5 % replacement of cement. The composites were also observed by DTA, MOP led to the positive identification of the products’. In this way, the results obtained highlight the beneficial effect of waste PET as thermal insulation in comparison with other insulation materials. In addition, the obtained PET-mortar composites would appear to be low-cost materials which would contribute to resolving some of the solid waste problems in addition to conserving energy

Wavelet analysis of epileptic spikes

Interictal spikes and sharp waves in human EEG are characteristic signatures of epilepsy. These potentials originate as a result of synchronous, pathological discharge of many neurons. The reliable detection of such potentials has been the long standing problem in EEG analysis, especially after long-term monitoring became common in investigation of epileptic patients. The traditional definition of a spike is based on its amplitude, duration, sharpness, and emergence from its background. However, spike detection systems built solely around this definition are not reliable due to the presence of numerous transients and artifacts. We use wavelet transform to analyze the properties of EEG manifestations of epilepsy. We demonstrate that the behavior of wavelet transform of epileptic spikes across scales can constitute the foundation of a relatively simple yet effective detection algorithm.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Investigating neuromagnetic brain responses against chromatic flickering stimuli by wavelet entropies

BACKGROUND: Photosensitive epilepsy is a type of reflexive epilepsy triggered by various visual stimuli including colourful ones. Despite the ubiquitous presence of colorful displays, brain responses against different colour combinations are not properly studied. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we studied the photosensitivity of the human brain against three types of chromatic flickering stimuli by recording neuromagnetic brain responses (magnetoencephalogram, MEG) from nine adult controls, an unmedicated patient, a medicated patient, and two controls age-matched with patients. Dynamical complexities of MEG signals were investigated by a family of wavelet entropies. Wavelet entropy is a newly proposed measure to characterize large scale brain responses, which quantifies the degree of order/disorder associated with a multi-frequency signal response. In particular, we found that as compared to the unmedicated patient, controls showed significantly larger wavelet entropy values. We also found that Renyi entropy is the most powerful feature for the participant classification. Finally, we also demonstrated the effect of combinational chromatic sensitivity on the underlying order/disorder in MEG signals. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that when perturbed by potentially epileptic-triggering stimulus, healthy human brain manages to maintain a non-deterministic, possibly nonlinear state, with high degree of disorder, but an epileptic brain represents a highly ordered state which making it prone to hyper-excitation. Further, certain colour combination was found to be more threatening than other combinations