Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Applications Of Controllable Smart Fluids To Mechanical Systems, Seung-Bok Choi, Norman Wereley, Weihua Li, Miao Yu, Jeong-Hoi Koo

Miao Yu

For this special issue, 20 papers have been received, and three of which have been withdrawn. After strict review processes by the world-wide experts on the smart fluids technology, 10 papers have been accepted and are published here.The published papers cover various application devices and systems, which can be controllable to achieve desired performances by applying the external fields to the smart fluid domains. A brief summary of each application item proposed in the published papers is given as follows.

Graphene Cryogel Papers With Enhanced Mechanical Strength For High Performance Lithium Battery Anodes, Kewei Shu, Caiyun Wang, Meng Wang, Chen Zhao, Gordon G. Wallace

Gordon Wallace

A porous graphene paper was prepared by pressing a graphene cryogel, followed by thermal reduction at 220 °C. The cryogel was formed by freeze-drying a solution containing chemically reduced graphene and graphene oxide (CRG/GO). The formed graphene cryogel papers deliver a much higher discharge capacity and rate capability than that from conventional graphene papers fabricated by filtration. These new structures have a discharge capacity higher than 400 mA h g−1 at a current density of 2000 mA g−1 in sharp contrast to 229 mA h g−1 at 50 mA g−1 obtained from conventional graphene papers. These greatly improved electrochemical properties …

Catalytic Solar Water Splitting Inspired By Photosynthesis. Homogeneous Catalysts With A Mechanical ("Machine-Like") Action, Gerhard F. Swiegers, G Charles Dismukes, Leone Spiccia, Robin Brimblecombe, Annette Koo, Jun Chen, Gordon G. Wallace

Gordon Wallace

Chemical reactions may be controlled by either: the minimum threshold energy that must be overcome during collisions between reactant molecules / atoms (the Activation Energy, Ea), or: the rate at which reactant collisions occur (the Collision Frequency, A) (for reactions with low Ea). Reactions of type (2) are governed by the physical, mechanical interaction of the reactants. Such mechanical processes are unusual, but not unknown in molecular catalysts. We examine the catalytic action and macroscopic properties of several abiological mechanical catalysts and show that they display distinct similarities to enzymes in general. An abiological model of the Photosystem II Water …

Lifting Without Seeing: The Role Of Vision In Perceiving And Acting Upon The Size Weight Illusion, Gavin Buckingham, Melvyn Goodale

Gavin Buckingham

BACKGROUND: Our expectations of an object's heaviness not only drive our fingertip forces, but also our perception of heaviness. This effect is highlighted by the classic size-weight illusion (SWI), where different-sized objects of identical mass feel different weights. Here, we examined whether these expectations are sufficient to induce the SWI in a single wooden cube when lifted without visual feedback, by varying the size of the object seen prior to the lift.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants, who believed that they were lifting the same object that they had just seen, reported that the weight of the single, standard-sized cube that they …