Soil stress distribution related to neutralizing antipersonnel landmines from human locomotion and impact mechanisms

Soil stress distribution was investigated to understand and to develop means for detonating or neutralizing antipersonnel landmines. Specifically, the loading patterns within the soil attributable to the human gait, as well as those derived from a mechanism that delivers an impact load that is being developed for neutralizing antipersonnel landmines, were studied. Experiments were conducted in the soil bin facilities in the Department of Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. Both load cells and mechanically reproduced devices (MRDs), buried at depths of 50, 100, 150 and 200 mm, were used to measure the transmitted forces through the soil. The load cells provided measurements of the temporal load patterns as transferred through the soil, whereas the MRDs indicated the ability for the person or mechanism to successfully trigger a typical antipersonnel landmine. Both forces and impulses based on the load cell data were used as measures for comparison. The key results of the investigation showed human locomotion imparted a load of longer duration than did the impact from the mechanical device; the corresponding soil stresses increased with increasing human weight and impact loads; and forces in the soil increased with higher initial soil compaction level.     

Electrochemical unzipping of multi-walled carbon nanotubes for facile synthesis of high-quality graphene nanoribbons

Here we report a remarkable transformation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to nanoribbons composed of a few layers of graphene by a two-step electrochemical approach. This consists of the oxidation of CNTs at controlled potential, followed by reduction to form graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) having smooth edges and fewer defects, as evidenced by multiple characterization techniques, including Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. This type of "unzipping" of CNTs (single-walled, multi-walled) in the presence of an interfacial electric field provides unique advantages with respect to the orientation of CNTs, which might make possible the production of GNRs with controlled widths and fewer defects.     

Ambient UVA‐Induced Expression of p53 and Apoptosis in Human Skin Melanoma A375 Cell Line by Quinine

This study aimed to analyze the phototoxic mechanism and photostability of quinine in human skin cell line A375 under ambient intensities of UVA (320–400 nm). Photosensitized quinine produced a photoproduct 6‐methoxy‐quinoline‐4‐ylmethyl‐oxonium identified through LC‐MS/MS. Generation of ¹O₂, O₂^??, and ^?OH was measured and further substantiated through their respective quenchers. Photosensitized Quinine (Q) caused degradation of 2‐deoxyguanosine, the most sensitive nucleotide to UV radiation. The intracellular ROS was increased in a concentration‐dependent manner. Significant reduction in metabolic status measured in terms of cell viability (54%) at 25 μg mL^?1 was observed through MTT assay. Results of MTT assay accord NRU assay. Single strand DNA breaks and apoptosis were increased significantly (P < 0.01) as observed through comet assay and EB/AO double staining. Photosensitized quinine caused cells to arrest in G₂ phase of cell cycle and induced apoptosis (5.08%) as revealed through FACS. Real‐Time PCR showed upregulation of p21 (4.56 folds) and p53 (2.811 folds) genes expression. Thus, our study suggests that generation of reactive oxygen species by quinine under ambient intensity of UVA may result into deleterious phototoxic effects among human population.     

Dependence of adiabatic population transfer on pulse profile

Control of population transfer by rapid adiabatic passage has been an established technique wherein the exact amplitude profile of the shaped pulse is considered to be insignificant. We study the effect of ultrafast shaped pulses for two-level systems, by density-matrix approach. However, we find that adiabaticity depends simultaneously on pulse profile as well as the frequency modulation under non-resonant conditions     

Magneto-electric resonance in antiferromagnets

An expression for antiferromagnetic resonance frequencies under the influence of simultaneous electric and magnetic fields is derived by using the Green function method in random-phase approximation. The fission of antiferromagnetic resonance is calculated in correlation with the applied fields. It is suggested that this might be utilized in estimating the spin-orbit coupling coefficients.     

Reaction of hypochlorous acid with imidazole: formation of 2-chloro- and 2-oxoimidazoles

Reaction of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) with imidazole (Im) taken as a model for the 5-membered ring of guanine, leading to the products 2-chloro- and 2-oxo-imidazoles was investigated at the B3LYP/6-31+G* and B3LYP/AUG-cc-pVDZ levels of density functional theory. For all cases, single point energy calculations were performed at the MP2/AUG-cc-pVDZ level of theory using the geometries optimised at the B3LYP/AUG-cc-pVDZ level. Intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations were performed to ensure genuineness of all the calculated transition states. Effect of aqueous media was investigated by solvating all the species involved in the reactions using the polarizable continuum model. It is found that 2-chloroimidazole (2-ClIm) can be formed following three different reaction schemes while 2-oxoimidazole (2-oxoIm) can be formed following two different reaction schemes. The calculated barrier energies show that formation of 2-oxoIm would be less favored than that of 2-ClIm, which explains the experimental observations on relative yields of 8-chlorodeoxyguanosine and 8-oxodeoxyguanosine.     

Infrared and ab initio studies of conducting molecules: 2,5-diamino-3,6-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone

2,5-Diamino-3,6-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone has been synthesized by modifying the procedure reported in literature. Its IR spectrum has been recorded in the solid phase in the range 4000-400cm(-1). Ab initio calculations have been performed using Gaussian '03 program to compute optimized geometry, harmonic vibrational frequencies along with intensities in IR and Raman spectra and atomic charges at RHF/6-31+G*, B3LYP/6-31+G* and B3LYP/6-311++G** levels. To make vibrational analysis Gaussian View software was used. The optimized molecular structure is found to possess C2h point group symmetry. The observed IR frequencies have been assigned to different modes taking C2h molecular symmetry with the help of pictorial view of normal modes. From the magnitude of the observed frequencies corresponding to the NH2 stretching motions an indication of H-bonding is noticed. From geometrical parameters of the molecule it appears that two parallel sets of conjugated strands are formed in this molecule providing a route to conduct charges. The N-H bonds facing towards chlorine atoms are found to be shorter than those facing towards oxygen atoms indicating the presence of H-bonding between hydrogen atom of an NH2 group and carbonyl (quinoid) oxygen atom.     

Using Diaminomethanal as an Entrainer for the Separation of Isopropanol + Water Mixture

Journal of Solution Chemistry - Diaminomethanal (an organic compound), was examined as entrainer for dehydration of isopropanol?water system by extractive distillation. Isobaric...     

Analysis of gaseous flow in a micropipe with second order velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions

In this paper, second order velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions are used to solve the momentum and energy equations along with isoflux thermal boundary condition at the surface of the micropipe. The flow is assumed to be hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed inside the micropipe and viscous dissipation is included in the analysis. The solution yields closed form expressions for the temperature field and Nusselt number (Nu) as a function of various modeling parameters, namely, Knudsen number and Brinkman number (Br). For the given values of Br, the maximum difference of Nu between continuum flow with first order slip model and continuum and, second order slip model is found to be 35.67 and 34.62 %, respectively. Present solution exhibits good agreement with the other theoretical models.     

Crystalline perfection, optical and dielectric studies on l-histidine nitrate: A nonlinear optical material

Single crystals of l-histidine nitrate (LHN), a recently investigated nonlinear optical material, were grown by conventional solution technique. Crystal structure and vibrational modes of the grown crystals were confirmed by powder X-ray diffractometry and FT-Raman spectrometry, respectively. Crystalline perfection of the grown crystals was evaluated by employing an in-house developed high-resolution X-ray diffractometer (HRXRD) and it was found that the grown crystals were free from structural grain boundaries and the perfection was reasonably good. However, HRXRD could reveal the fact that the crystals contain predominantly the interstitial point defects. The birefringence was measured over a range of wavelength between 5480 and 5630 Å and it was found that its value is nearly constant and 10 times higher than that of KDP. The optical band gap was found to be ∼3.73 eV. The photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra for single crystals were recorded. The SHG efficiencies of LHN samples of different particle sizes were measured by the Kurtz and Perry technique and they removed the ambiguity in the values reported differently in the literature. Dielectric properties were studied as a function of temperature over a wide range of frequency. The optical and dielectric studies along with the crystalline perfection reveal that the LHN crystal could be a good candidate for nonlinear optical devices.