Electronic properties of nanotube-ribbon hybrid systems.

In this work we use the tight-binding model to study the electronic properties of nanotube-ribbon hybrid systems. The nanotube-ribbon interactions will modify state energies, alter energy gaps, destroy state degeneracy, and create additional band-edge states. The bandstructures are asymmetric and symmetric about the Fermi energy when the interactions are turned on and off, respectively.

Coupled lateral bending-torsional vibration sensitivity of atomic force microscope cantilever.

We study the influence of the contact stiffness and the ration between cantilever and tip lengths on the resonance frequencies and sensitivities of lateral cantilever modes. We derive expressions to determine both the effective resonance frequency and the mode sensitivity of an atomic force microscope (AFM) rectangular cantilever. Once the contact stiffness is given, the resonance frequency and the sensitivity of the vibration modes can be obtained from the expression.

Study of the sensitivity of the first four flexural modes of an AFM cantilever with a sidewall probe.

The resonant frequency and sensitivity of flexural vibration for an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever with a sidewall probe have been analyzed. A closed-form expression for the sensitivity of vibration modes has been obtained using the relationship between the resonant frequency and contact stiffness of cantilever and sample. The results show that a sidewall scanning AFM is more sensitive when the contact stiffness is lower and that the first mode is the most sensitive.

Significance of biomass open burning on the levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans in the ambient air.

In southern Taiwan, two areas (L- and Y-) with/without biomass open burning were selected to compare the PCDD/F concentrations and their congener profiles in the ambient air. The results of this study indicate that biomass (rice straw) open burning exhibited a significant impact on the PCDD/F concentration level in the ambient air. During the biomass burning season, the total PCDD/F I-TEQ concentrations in the ambient air of L- and Y-areas were approximately 4 and 17 times higher than those without biomass open burning, respectively.

An empirical investigation of the influence of safety climate on organizational citizenship behavior in Taiwan's facilities.

Although the social exchange relationships between employers and employees are increasingly important to the performance of safety management systems, the psychological effects of work attitudes on this relationship have been less studied. Using a sample of first-line operators and their supervisors from 188 facilities in Taiwan which had Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18000 (OHSAS 18000) certification, the current research conducted an empirical investigation of the influence of safety climate on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Work attitude was used to disclose the psychological effect.

Influencing effect of intra-granule mass transfer in expanded granular sludge-bed reactors treating an inhibitory substrate.

Two expanded granular sludge-bed (EGSB) reactors (superficial velocity u s=6.0 and 9.0m/h) were used to treat an inhibitory substrate phenol.

Determination of volatile organic profiles and photochemical potentials from chemical manufacture process vents.

The main objective of this study was to monitor the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the stack gas released from organic chemical industrial plants to determine emission factors. Samples from 52 stacks, with or without air pollution control devices (APCDs), from seven industrial processes were taken and VOCs measured using U.S.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in aqueous solution at a nickel electrode.

This study utilized the electrocatalytic characteristics of nickel electrode to perform degradation of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in aqueous solution. Lab experiments were conducted in a spiltless bath type cell equipped with a nickel electrode as working electrode, a platinum wire as counter electrode, and an Ag/AgCl electrode as reference electrode. Effects of controlled potential, supporting electrolyte, and solution pH on the efficiency of MTBE removal were examined under the control of the constant-potential conditions.

Characterization and inventory of PCDD/F emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources in Taiwan.

The objectives of the present study were to quantify (1) the emission factors of a variety of dioxin emission sources; (2) the overall dioxin emission inventory in Taiwan as well as in a major metropolitan (KC area); and (3) the contribution of power plants to the overall PCDD/F emission. To achieve these goals, a total of 95 flue gas samples were collected and analyzed for 17 PCDD/Fs from 20 sources to develop emission factors. The emission factor of PCDD/Fs from coal-fired power plants (0.

Effect of recycle-to-influent ratio on activities of nitrifiers and denitrifiers in a combined UASB-activated sludge reactor system.

A laboratory study using a combined upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB)-activated sludge (AS) reactor system was undertaken to explore the effect of recycle-to-influent ratio (R(e)=1, 2, and 3) on the activities of nitrifiers and denitrifiers. Suspended-solids pre-settled piggery wastewater was used as the substrate-feed wastewater. At the R(e) of 1-3, the combined reactor system achieved efficient removal of COD (96-97%), TKN (100%) and total nitrogen TN (54-77%).

An inverse problem of estimating the heat source in tapered optical fibers for scanning near-field optical microscopy.

A conjugate gradient method based on inverse algorithm is applied in this study to estimate the unknown space- and time-dependent heat source in aluminum-coated tapered optical fibers for scanning near-field optical microscopy, by reading the transient temperature data at the measurement positions. No prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown heat source in the present study; thus, it is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The accuracy of the inverse analysis is examined by using the simulated exact and inexact temperature measurements.

Adsorption of paraquat using methacrylic acid-modified rice husk.

This work investigates the adsorption of paraquat from aqueous medium using a methacrylic acid (MAA)-modified rice husk. The carboxyl groups were chemically bound to the surface of the rice husk by graft copolymerization using Fenton's reagent as a redox initiator. The graft copolymerization was examined to determine the H(2)O(2) concentration and the amount of MAA monomer used.

CSAM: using clustering-hashing-signal anchoring method to explore human novel genes.

The expression of genes in mammalian cells can be constitutive, transient, or inducible. Transcripts of transient and inducible genes are difficult to discover using the EST approach. Transiently expressed genes, however, are crucial to embryo development and the pathogenesis of disease because they determine the outcome of disease.

Conductance of carbon nanotubes in a transverse electric field and an arbitrary magnetic field.

The electronic and transport properties of carbon nanotubes subject to the influences of a transverse electric field and an arbitrary magnetic field are studied by the tight-binding model. The external fields would modify the energy dispersions, destroy the state degeneracy, change the symmetry characteristics, alter the energy gap, modulate the electron effective mass, and create extra band-edge states. The energy gap and the electron effective mass exhibit a rich dependence on the field strength, the magnetic field direction, and the types of carbon nanotubes.

Energy dissipation and dynamic response of an amplitude-modulation atomic-force microscopy subjected to a tip-sample viscous force.

In a common environment of atomic force microscopy (AFM), a damping force occurs between a tip and a sample. The influence of damping on the dynamic response of a cantilever must be significant. Moreover, accurate theory is very helpful for the interpretation of a sample's topography and properties.

Consecutive reaction kinetics involving a layered structure of the granule in UASB reactors.

A consecutive-reaction kinetic model for the sucrose-fed upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor that accounts for a layered structure of the granule and the mass fraction of methanogens (f) is proposed. When the UASB reactor was maintained at the volumetric loading rates (VLR) of 7.9-13.

Comparisons of levels of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans in the surrounding environment and workplace of two municipal solid waste incinerators.

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in the surrounding environment (outdoor) and workplace air of two municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs, T and M) were characterized and compared. T and M represented two typical municipal solid waste incinerators in the north of Taiwan, which have different processes for controlling the PCDD/F emissions. The results of this study are summarized as follows.

Influence of mass transfer resistance on overall nitrate removal rate in upflow sludge bed reactors.

A kinetic model with intrinsic reaction kinetics and a simplified model with apparent reaction kinetics for denitrification in upflow sludge bed (USB) reactors were proposed. USB-reactor performance data with and without sludge wasting were also obtained for model verification. An independent batch study showed that the apparent kinetic constants k' did not differ from the intrinsic k but the apparent Ks' was significantly larger than the intrinsic Ks suggesting that the intra-granule mass transfer resistance can be modeled by changes in Ks.

Analytical solutions of the first three frequency shifts of AFM non-uniform probe subjected to the Lennard-Jones force.

The role of higher cantilever modes is important to obtain some material contrast. The analysis of AFM subjected to a short-range force can improve greatly the studies of surface topography and interaction energies and interaction forces, especially for chemical and biological materials. When the tip-sample distance is in the order of inter-atomic spacing, the short-range tip-sample force is usually simulated by the Lennard-Jones model.

Energy dissipation and frequency shift of a damped dynamic force microscopy.

The closed-form solution of the transient response of damped dynamic force microscopy subjected to the nonlinear interatomic force is derived. The frequency shift and the decay rate of a V-typed probe can be determined easily and precisely by the proposed method. If the taper ratio is zero, a uniform cantilever is obtained.

Intelligent robust control for uncertain nonlinear time-varying systems and its application to robotic systems.

This paper addresses the problem of designing adaptive fuzzy-based (or neural network-based) robust controls for a large class of uncertain nonlinear time-varying systems. This class of systems can be perturbed by plant uncertainties, unmodeled perturbations, and external disturbances. Nonlinear H(infinity) control technique incorporated with adaptive control technique and VSC technique is employed to construct the intelligent robust stabilization controller such that an H(infinity) control is achieved.

Effects of helium-neon laser on the mucopolysaccharide induction in experimental osteoarthritic cartilage.

Objective: To investigate the effects of mucopolysaccharide induction after treatment by low power laser for experimental osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Seventy-two rats with three different degrees of papain induced OA over right knee joints were collected for helium-neon (He-Ne) laser treatment. The severity of induced arthritis was measured by 99mTc bone scan and classified into three groups (I-III) by their radioactivity ratios (right to left knee joints).

Microbial activity in a combined UASB-activated sludge reactor system.

A combined upflow anaerobic sludge bed-activated sludge (UASB-AS) reactor system with consistently wasting of excess biomass was used to treat suspended-solids pre-settled piggery wastewater (COD=2000 mg l(-1), total Kjeldahl nitrogen TKN=400 mg l(-1), suspended solids=250-400 mg l(-1)). Thus, the activity of nitrogen-related microbial groups in each individual bioreactor was investigated. When the granules retention time (GRT) of 20-50 d in the UASB reactor, the solids retention time (SRT) of 10-25 d in the AS reactor and the recycle-to-influent ratio (Re) of 1 were maintained, the combined system removed 95-97% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 100% of TKN and 54-55% of total nitrogen (TN).

Model for the distributions of k-mers in DNA sequences.

The evolutionary features based on the distributions of k-mers in the DNA sequences of various organisms are studied. The organisms are classified into three groups based on their evolutionary periods: (a) E. coli and T.

Quick determination of malodor-causing fatty acids in manure by capillary electrophoresis.

The analysis of odor components in livestock waste has been extensively studied. Past research has identified volatile fatty acids, especially from C3 to C6, as indicators of malodor. Originally, the odorous components were analyzed by gas chromatography after a tedious absorption and troublesome extraction procedure or by a subjectively olfactory system or sense of smell.