Influence of Time Dependent Factors To The Phases and Poisson's Ratio of Cholesteryl Ester liquid crystals

Liquid crystal based biosensors detect physical restructuring of cells via changes in the birefringence property or orientation order of the liquid crystal molecules. The strain induced in the liquid crystal molecules is closely associated with the liquid crystalline phases and Poisson’s ratio of the liquid crystals. Cholesteryl ester liquid crystals (CELC) and CELC based lyotropic liquid crystals (LLC) that were regarded as viscoelastic materials are subjected to time-dependent factors (a fluidic environment, incubation time, and temperature). The effects of these factors, qualitatively and quantitatively, were investigated by using cross-polarising microscopy and a uniaxial micro-tensile technique. More lyotropic phases were observed in the liquid crystals as the incubation time in cell culture media was increased. Poisson’s ratio of approximately 0.58 and 0.6 were determined for CELC and LLC, respectively, at room (25 oC) and incubation (37 oC) temperatures over a period of 3 days

Position Tracking Performance for ElectroHydraulic Actuator System with the Presence of Actuator Internal Leakage

Electro-hydraulic actuator (EHA) system is known as one of the highly nonlinear systems due to its parameters uncertainties. Many types of robust controller had been studied and proposed to control the nonlinear EHA system. Different parameters uncertainties test is needed in the procedure to evaluate the controller robustness. In this paper, the effect of the actuator internal leakage to the output actuator displacement is studied. The actuator output displacement is analyzed using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) by means of giving sinusoidal input reference. The results show that as the actuator internal leakage increases, the RMSE will increase and the actuator will start to vibrate or show damping characteristics

Instantonic approach to triple well potential

By using a usual instanton method we obtain the energy splitting due to quantum tunneling through the triple well barrier. It is shown that the term related to the midpoint of the energy splitting in propagator is quite different from that of double well case, in that it is proportional to the algebraic average of the frequencies of the left and central wells.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages, Included one eps figur

A case study of green building in Malaysia: cost saving analysis

The building sector consumes about forty percent of world energy, making energy efficiency in existing buildings an important issue. This study has been undertaken to investigate energy consumption of a building that has been redesigned to incorporate energy efficient features. It was found that the introduction of energy efficient features has helped to achieve savings up to 46% of the total spent on energy particularly based on electricity bills

Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Using Size-Controlled Synthesis of TiO2 Nanostructure

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) or titania shows a great interest in solar cell application due to its morphology and crystalline structure. Moreover, it is an affordable compound that could make solar cells more cost economical than traditional silicon solar cells. In this study, one-step hydrothermal method is demonstrated to synthesis rutile TiO2 nanorods and nanoflowers morphology in nanoscale dimension on different hydrothermal reaction times for Dye-sensitized solar cells application. Increasing the reaction time could influence in formation of higher crystalline rutile phase titania nanostructure before abruptly decreases as the prolong hydrothermal process carry out. The length of the nanorods produced shows increasing behaviour and the growth of nanoflowers are become denser obviously. Band gap estimation is 2.75 eV slightly lower than bulk rutile TiO2. It shows that the growth mechanism under different reaction times has great influences on the morphologies and alignment of the nanostructure. Further, the DSSCs fabricated using 15 hours reaction time exhibited the best photovoltaic performance with highest efficiency of 3.42% and highest short-circuit photocurrent of 0.7097V

Fabrication Rutile-Phased TiO2 Film with Different Concentration of Hydrochloric Acid Towards the Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

In this study, one-step hydrothermal method is demonstrated to synthesis TiO2 double-layer structure by modifying the concentration of hydrochloric acid (HCl). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern analysis suggested that the dominant peak is rutile phase. Interesting morphologies such as cauliflower, chrysanthemum flower or dandelion structures over the nanorods layer were revealed by FE-SEM images and showed substantial effects to the thin film performance. UV-vis absorption spectra of prepared TiO2 film is in UV limitation with band gap energy (Eg) range from 2.57eV to 3.0eV. The optimum photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSC is 42.5% that exhibited the efficiency of 6.41% for the sample synthesized using equal proportion of de-ionized water and HCl amount or in another word in accordance of ratio 1:1. These results serve as a guidance principle for preparing high quality DSSC thin film

Multicentre observational study of adherence to Sepsis Six guidelines in emergency general surgery

Background Evidence-based interventions may reduce mortality in surgical patients. This study documented the prevalence of sepsis, adherence to guidelines in its management, and timing of source control in general surgical patients presenting as an emergency. Methods Patients aged 16 years or more presenting with emergency general surgery problems were identified over a 7-day period and then screened for sepsis compliance (using the Sepsis Six standards, devised for severe sepsis) and the timing of source control (whether radiological or surgical). Exploratory analyses examined associations between the mode (emergency department or general practitioner) and time of admission, adherence to the sepsis guidelines, and outcomes (complications or death within 30 days). Results Of a total of 5067 patients from 97 hospitals across the UK, 911 (18·0 per cent) fulfilled the criteria for sepsis, 165 (3·3 per cent) for severe sepsis and 24 (0·5 per cent) for septic shock. Timely delivery of all Sepsis Six guidelines for patients with severe sepsis was achieved in four patients. For patients with severe sepsis, 17·6–94·5 per cent of individual guidelines within the Sepsis Six were delivered. Oxygen was the criterion most likely to be missed, followed by blood cultures in all sepsis severity categories. Surgery for source control occurred a median of 19·8 (i.q.r. 10·0–35·4) h after diagnosis. Omission of Sepsis Six parameters did not appear to be associated with an increase in morbidity or mortality. Conclusion Although sepsis was common in general surgical patients presenting as an emergency, adherence to severe sepsis guidelines was incomplete in the majority. Despite this, no evidence of harm was apparent

Tapered microchannel for multi-particles passive separation based on hydrodynamic resistance

Researches on separation of multi-particles utilizing microfluidic have been flourishing in recent years with the aid from advancements in microfabrication design and technology. Generally, separation is beneficial for biomedical application especially involving heterogeneous samples. Due to inherent problems of samples isolation, a simple and efficient separation device is required. Here, we present a passive tapered microchannel for multi-particles separation using hydrodynamic principle. Our emphasis is on the effect of hydrodynamic resistance coupled with tapered microchannel design. In the experiment, successful multi-particles samples separation was observed. The results were further analyzed and were in agreement with the proposed concept. This method opens the route toward robust, low-cost and high-throughput, thus it may holds potential to be integrated as one functional module in Micro Total Analysis System (µTAS)

Fabrication Of TiOâ‚‚ Nanoflowers Powder with Various Concentration Of CTAB

Nanostructures titanium dioxide (TiOâ‚‚) such as nanoflowers and nanorods have contribute in many application. Among TiOâ‚‚ nanostructures, TiOâ‚‚ nanoflowers gives high surface area that contribute in good binding properties and reducing internal stress and increasing strength of the ceramics.This paper presents fabrication of TiOâ‚‚ nanoflowers powder to overcome the cracking problem in ceramic industry. In this study, fabricated rutile-phased TiOâ‚‚ nanoflower powder has been successfully synthesized by using hydrothermal method and the surface morphology, structural properties, and the composition of TiOâ‚‚ nanoflower powder also identified. The fabricated TiOâ‚‚ are characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) to observe the surface morphology of TiOâ‚‚, X-ray Dispersion (XRD) was used to determine the crystallite phase and EDX for element composition in fabricated TiOâ‚‚ powder. The synthesized TiOâ‚‚ powder was obtained from the reaction between deionized water (DI), hydrochloric acid (HCl), Titanium Butoxide (TBOT) and Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide (CTAB). The hydrothermal temperature is 150  ÌŠC with fixed hydrothermal time of 10 hours. The parameters varied is the mass of surfactant used, CTAB. The hydrothermal method is proven suitable to fabricate semiconductor materials due to its advantages that parameters are easily modified and can be performed under closed system with low operational temperature. Increased amount of CTAB used make the gap between the nanorod become closer and stronger. The diffraction peaks of all sample hardly changed, but the intensity for each sample was enhanced as the mass of CTAB used increased. The structure also become well crystallined in rutile phase structure