Introduction: Proton exchange membrane (or polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cells (PEMFCs) are attracting enormous research activities because they a new power source for applications in different industrial sectors, such as transportation, stationaries, and portable devices. Nafion is the available commercial material PEMs, but it has high production cost, leading to strong demand alternativ...

Periodic nanostructures of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (pGMA) were grafted onto poly(ethylenealt-tetrafluorethylene) (ETFE) films by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. ETFE samples were first irradiated in an interference lithographic setup using EUV (extreme ultraviolet) light followed by exposure to air to introduce surface peroxide groups serving as therm...

Optical fibers with different types of polymer coatings were exposed to three sterilization conditions: multiple autoclaving, treatment with ethylene oxide and treatment with gamma rays. Effects of different sterilization techniques on key optical and mechanical properties of the fibers are reported. The primary attention is given to behavior of the coatings in harsh sterilization environments....

Particles in protein therapeutics, composed of aggregated protein monomers, may cause an immunogenic response in patients. Consequently, industry and the FDA desire more accurate methods for counting and characterizing particles. Unlike many manufacturing impurities, protein particles have a refractive index very close to that of the matrix solution. In this paper, we describe some of the measu...

• A class of identifiable frequency response function models is developed for linear parameter-varying systems. closed-form Jacobian the weighted nonlinear least-squares estimator derived. An experimental LPV FRF model a flexible beam system estimated. The estimate shows high simulation performance on validation data sets. For Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems, Frequency Response Functions (F...

The Water Cube National Swimming Centre designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been hailed as a highly innovative post-millennial sports facility. Conceptually, its architecture is a cube, carved from a random, organic and homogeneous cluster of foam bubbles. Structurally, it is a mathematically rigorous steel space frame, primarily of pentagonal and hexagonal cells. Materially, it is clad ...