This paper presents low-profile torsional actuators applicable for mesoscale and microscale robots. The primary actuator material is thermally activated Ni–Ti shape memory alloy (SMA), which exhibits remarkably high torque density. Despite the advantages of SMAs for actuator applications—high strain, silent operation, and mechanical simplicity—the response time and energy efficiency limit overa...

A major problem in the production, storage and marketing of nuts is the infestation of insect pests such as codling moth, naval orangeworm and Indian meal moth. Present and potential quarantine treatments for both domestic and international nut markets include chemical fumigation, ionizing radiation, controlled atmosphere, cold treatment, conventional hot air or water heating and dielectric hea...

Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) are parts of the major energy consumption in a building. Conventional heating and cooling systems are having an impact on carbon dioxide emissions, as well as on security of energy supply. In this regard, one of the attempts taken by researchers is the development of solar heating and cooling technologies. The objective of this paper is to revie...

We consider non-gravitational heating effects on galaxy clusters on the basis of the Monte-Carlo modeling of merging trees of dark matter halos combined with the thermal evolution of gas inside each halo. Under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium and the isothermal gas profiles, our model takes account of the metallicity evolution, metallicity-dependent cooling of gas, supernova energy fe...

Aluminium dihydroxyterephthalate [Al(8)(OH)(4)(OCH(3))(8)(BDC(OH)(2))(6)]⋅x H(2)O (denoted CAU-1-(OH)(2)) was synthesized under solvothermal conditions and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, IR spectroscopy, sorption measurements, as well as thermogravimetric and elemental analysis. CAU-1-(OH)(2) is isoreticular to CAU-1 and its pores are lined with OH groups. It is stable under ambient...

Based on energy-relatedmeasurements,this articleevaluates the thermalperformance, energy-saving, indirect emissions and financial feasibilityof using heat pumps for hotel out-door swimming pools in subtropical climates. A rooftop pool of a city-centre hotel was investigated. It was found that the average coefficient of performance (COP) was around 2.0. The measured electricity consumption was 2...

a powerful and convenient reaction procedure for the c-n coupling reaction (the buchwald-hartwig reaction), yielding products of n-arylanilines and n-arylamines in both conventional heating and microwave irradiation has been reported. the protocol utilizes a stable and new supper ferromagnetic nanoparticle chelating n-heterocyclic dicarbene palladium(ii) complex (pd-nhc) as catalyst which helps...

Blending a shape-memory polymer (SMP) (e.g., thermoplastic polyurethane) with an immiscible carrier polymer (e.g., poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) or poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)) containing dispersed metal nanoparticles (AuNPs) is a simple approach to enable actuation via photothermal heating. For blends containing up to 90% carrier polymer, the shape-memory capability can be thermally triggered eithe...

A comparative study of biodiesel production from waste cooking oil using sulfuric acid (Two-step) and microwaveassisted transesterification (One-step) was carried out. A two-step transesterification process was used to produce biodiesel (alkyl ester) from high free fatty acid (FFA) waste cooking oil. Microwave-assisted catalytic transesterification using BaO and KOH was evaluated for the effica...

This paper describes a kinetic study of the decomposition of waste printed circuit boards (WPCB) under conventional and microwave-induced pyrolysis conditions. We discuss the heating rates and the influence of the pyrolysis on the thermal decomposition kinetics of WPCB. We find that the thermal degradation of WPCB in a controlled conventional thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) occurred in the tem...