Growth, optical, mechanical and dielectric studies on NLO active pure and metal ion doped single crystals of bis-thiourea zinc chloride

Good quality single crystals of pure and metal ion (Ni²⁺) doped bis-thiourea zinc chloride (BTZC) possessing excellent nonlinear optical properties have been grown from aqueous solution by the slow solvent evaporation technique. The lattice parameters of the grown crystals are determined by single crystal X-ray analysis. The well defined sharp peaks in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern reveals the crystalline perfection and the EDAX spectrum confirms the presence of dopant in the lattice of the parent crystal. The DRS UV-visible spectral study reveals improved transparency for the doped crystal, ascertaining the inclusion of metal ion in the lattice. The optical band gap of the pure and doped crystals was calculated to be 4.8 and 5.2 eV respectively from the UV transmission spectrum. The vickers hardness test brings forth higher hardness value for Ni²⁺doped BTZC as compared to pure BTZC crystal. The dielectric measurement exhibits very low dielectric constant and dielectric loss at higher frequencies for both the pure and Ni²⁺doped BTZC. The existence of second harmonic generation signals in the crystal also has been confirmed by performing the Kurtz powder test.     

Contributions to the analytical chemistry of osmium and ruthenium-IX: the dimercapto derivatives of asymmetric triazine as colour reagents for osmium

The parameters of the reaction of osmium with 3,5-dimercapto-6-(ethylcarboxy)-1,2,4-triazine have been studied and the optimum conditions for the spectrophotometric determination of osmium over the range 0.5-18.0 ppm determined. The coloured product contains the components in the ratio 1:2 metal:ligand.     

Preparation and Characterization of Semi-IPN Cryogels Based on Polyacrylamide and Poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate); Functionalization of Carrier with Monochlorotriazinyl-β-cyclodextrin and Release Kinetics of Curcumin

Curcumin (CCM) is a natural hydrophobic polyphenol known for its numerous applications in the food industry as a colorant or jelly stabilizer, and in the pharmaceutical industry due to its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-Alzheimer properties. However, the large application of CCM is limited by its poor solubility in water and low stability. To enhance the bioavailability of CCM, and to protect it against the external degradation agents, a novel strategy, which consists in the preparation of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks, (s-IPNs) based on poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) entrapped in poly(acrylamide) networks, by a cryogelation technique, was developed in this work. All s-IPN cryogels were characterized by SEM, EDX, FTIR, and swelling at equilibrium as a function of pH. Functionalization of semi-IPN cryogel with monochlorotriazinyl-β-cyclodextrin (MCT-β-CD) led to IPN cryogel. The release profile of CCM from the composite cryogels was investigated at 37 °C, in pH 3. It was found that the cumulative release increased with the increase of the carrier hydrophobicity, as a result of increasing the cross-linking degree, the content and the molar mass of PDMAEMA. Fitting Higuchi, Korsmeyer–Peppas, and first order kinetic models on the CCM release profiles indicated the diffusion as the main driving force of drug release from the composite cryogels.     

The effect of reverberation on the performance of cepstral mean subtraction in speaker verification

Speaker verification (SVR) performance is degraded under reverberation conditions. Cepstral mean subtraction (CMS) is often applied to the feature vectors in order to compensate for convolutive effects of transmission channels, which are considered to have a short-duration impulse response. The effect of reverberation on the performance of CMS applied to the feature vectors in SVR is investigated. Although CMS was found effective in reducing the effect of reverberation for short reverberation time (RT), in cases of long RT, it is shown that CMS may degrade SVR performance rather than improve it. Hence, CMS should not to be used in these cases. In addition, the effect of the room volume was tested and found less critical than the effect of long RT.     

High-resolution plane-wave decomposition in an auditorium using a dual-radius scanning spherical microphone array

The spatial and temporal distribution of early reflections in an auditorium is considered important for sound perception. Previous studies presented measurement and analysis methods based on spherical microphone arrays and plane-wave decomposition that could provide information on the direction and time of arrival of early reflections. This paper presents recent results of room acoustics analysis based on a spherical microphone array, which employs high spherical harmonics order for improved spatial resolution, and a dual-radius spherical measurement array to avoid ill-conditioning at the null frequencies of the spherical Bessel function. Spatial-temporal analysis is performed to produce directional impulse responses, while analysis based on the windowed Fourier transform is employed to detect direction of arrival of individual reflections at selected frequencies. Experimental results of sound-field analysis in a real auditorium are also presented.     

Coarsening in one dimension: invariant and asymptotic states

We study a coarsening process of one-dimensional cell complexes. We show that if cell boundaries move with velocities proportional to the difference in size of neighboring cells, then the average cell size grows at a prescribed exponential rate and the Poisson distribution is precisely invariant for the distribution of the whole process, rescaled in space by its average growth rate. We present numerical evidence toward the following universality conjecture: starting from any finite mean stationary renewal process, the system when rescaled by e ^?2t converges to a Poisson point process. For a limited case, this makes precise what has been observed previously in experiments and simulations, and lays the foundation for a theory of universal asymptotic states of dynamical cell complexes.     

A note on line forces in gradient elasticity

The theory of gradient elasticity is applied to line forces. Line forces acting on a point within the body and a concentrated normal force (Flamant problem) which acts on a half plane are studied. Closed analytical solutions which have a simple form are obtained for displacement fields of these forces. The gradient elasticity solutions are free from undesirable displacement singularities predicted by classical elasticity.     

Recent advances in the MS analysis of glycoproteins: Capillary and microfluidic workflows

Recent developments in bioanalytical instrumentation, MS detection, and computational data analysis approaches have provided researchers with capabilities for interrogating the complex cellular glycoproteome, to help gain a better insight into the cellular and physiological processes that are associated with a disease and to facilitate the efforts centered on identifying disease-specific biomarkers. This review describes the progress achieved in the characterization of protein glycosylation by using advanced capillary and microfluidic MS technologies. The major steps involved in large-scale glycoproteomic analysis approaches are discussed, with special emphasis given to workflows that have evolved around complex MS detection functions. In addition, quantitative analysis strategies are assessed, and the bioinformatics aspects of glycoproteomic data processing are summarized. The developments in commercial and custom fabricated microfluidic front-end platforms to ESI- and MALDI-MS instrumentation, for addressing major challenges in carbohydrate analysis such as sensitivity, throughput, and ability to perform structural characterization, are further evaluated and illustrated with relevant examples.