Substrate-dependent structure, microstructure, composition and properties of nanostructured TiN films

Titanium nitride films of a thickness of ∼1.5 μm were deposited on amorphous and crystalline substrates by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at ambient temperature with 100% nitrogen in the sputter gas. The growth of nanostructured, i.e. crystalline nano-grain sized, films at ambient temperature is demonstrated. The microstructure of the films grown on crystalline substrates reveals a larger grain size/crystallite size than that of the films deposited on amorphous substrates. Specular reflectance measurements on films deposited on different substrates indicate that the position of the Ti-N 2s band at 2.33 eV is substrate-dependent, indicating substrate-mediated stoichiometry. This clearly demonstrates that not only structure and microstructure, but also chemical composition of the films is substrate-influenced. The films deposited on amorphous substrates display lower hardness and modulus values than the films deposited on crystalline substrates, with the highest value of hardness being 19 GPa on a lanthanum aluminate substrate.     

Turbulent time-events in channel with rough walls

This brief communication quantifies the time-events that contribute to the dynamics of wall-bounded flows with rough walls. Lumley’s Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) methodology has been used to extract the energetic modes of the flow. We have used the concept of entropy, a representation of lack of organization in the flow, to represent the extent of spread of turbulent kinetic energy to higher modes. The rough-wall dynamics is dominated by fast activity (short time period) propagating modes and slow activity (long time period) roll modes. A single dominant timescale has been captured for all the propagating modes in flows over smooth walls; multiple dominant timescales representing various vortex shedding events are captured for rough walls. Variable-interval time averaging technique has been used to obtain the bursting frequency. The bursting frequency of rough-wall turbulence is higher compared to smooth-wall turbulence, suggesting that roughness enhances turbulence production activity. Another insightful observation for rough walls revealed by our study is that the vortex shedding frequency of roughness elements is much higher compared to the bursting frequency of rough-wall turbulence. POD provides a straightforward method to extract the natural frequency of shed vortices due to roughness, an important dynamical activity in rough-wall turbulent boundary layers.     

Coherent States and Modified de Broglie-Bohm Complex Quantum Trajectories

This paper examines the nature of classical correspondence in the case of coherent states at the level of quantum trajectories. We first show that for a harmonic oscillator, the coherent state complex quantum trajectories and the complex classical trajectories are identical to each other. This congruence in the complex plane, not restricted to high quantum numbers alone, illustrates that the harmonic oscillator in a coherent state executes classical motion. The quantum trajectories we consider are those conceived in a modified de Broglie-Bohm scheme. Though quantum trajectory representations are widely discussed in recent years, identical classical and quantum trajectories for coherent states are obtained only in the present approach. We may note that this result for standard harmonic oscillator coherent states is not totally unexpected because of their holomorphic nature. The study is extended to coherent states of a particle in an infinite potential well and that in a symmetric Poschl-Teller potential by solving for the trajectories numerically. For the Gazeau-Klauder coherent state of the infinite potential well, almost identical classical and quantum trajectories are obtained whereas for the Poschl-Teller potential, though classical trajectories are not regained, a periodic motion results as t→∞. Similar features were found for the SUSY quantum mechanics-based coherent states of the Poschl-Teller potential too, but this time the pattern of complex trajectories is quite different from that of the previous case. Thus we find that the method is a potential tool in analyzing the properties of generalized coherent states.     

Rapid TLC Method for Estimation of Mevalonic Acid in the Leaves of Medicinal Plants

A simple, rapid, specific and sensitive thin layer chromatographic (TLC) method has been developed for the quantitative estimation of mevalonic acid (MVA) in leaves of medicinal plants; Artemisia annua, Psorelia corylifolia, Vinca rosea, Withania somnifera and Barleria proinites. The assay procedure involved conversion of MVA to its lactone, mevalonolactone (MVAL). Mevalonic acid was extracted from the leaf tissues of plants. Separation of MVAL was carried out on silica gel 60 F₂₅₄ TLC plates using benzene:acetone (3:2) as the mobile phase. The densitometric determination of MVAL was performed at 600 nm after derivatization with anisaldehyde reagent in absorption–reflectance mode. The method was validated over the linearity range of 100–500 ng spot^?1 and correlation coefficient for the calibration curve was >0.99. The average recovery of MVAL, used as internal standard, was higher than 98%. The lower limit of detection was found to be 50 ng spot^?1.     

Significance of plaque morphology in modifying flow characteristics in a diseased coronary artery: Numerical simulation using plaque measurements from intravascular ultrasound imaging

The paper deals with numerical investigation of the effect of plaque morphology on the flow characteristics in a diseased coronary artery using realistic plaque morphology. The morphological information of the lumen and the plaque is obtained from intravascular ultrasound imaging measurements of 42 patients performed at Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio. For this data, study of Bhaganagar et al. (2010) [1] has revealed the stenosis for 42 patients can be categorized into four types – type I (peak-valley), type II (ascending), type III (descending), and type IV (diffuse). The aim of the present study is to isolate the effect of shape of the stenosis on the flow characteristics for a given degree of the stenosis. In this study, we conduct fluid dynamic simulations for the four stenosis types (type I–IV) and analyze the differences in the flow characteristics between these types. Finely refined tetrahedral mesh for the 3-D solid model of the artery with plaques has been generated. The 3-D steady flow simulations were performed using the turbulence (k–ε) model in a finite volume based computational fluid dynamics solver. The axial velocity, the radial velocity, turbulence kinetic energy and wall shear stress profiles of the plaque have been analyzed. From the axial and radial velocity profiles results the differences in the velocity patterns are significantly visible at proximal as well as distal to the throat, region of maximum stenosis. Turbulent kinetic energy and wall shear stress profiles have revealed significant differences in the vicinity of the plaque. Additional unsteady flow simulations have been performed to validate the hypothesis of the significance of plaque morphology in flow alterations in diseased coronary artery. The results revealed the importance of accounting for plaque morphology in addition to plaque height to accurately characterize the turbulent flow in a diseased coronary artery.     

The Ulam number of infinite graphs

The following is a conjecture of Ulam: In any partition of the integer lattice on the plane into uniformly bounded sets, there exists a set that is adjacent to at least six other sets. Two sets are adjacent if each contain a vertex of the same unit square. This problem is generalized as follows. Given any uniformly bounded partitionP of the vertex set of an infinite graphG with finite maximum degree, letP (G) denote the graph obtained by letting each set of the partition be a vertex ofP (G) where two vertices ofP (G) are adjacent if and only if the corresponding sets have an edge between them. The Ulam number ofG is defined as the minimum of the maximum degree ofP (G) where the minimum is taken over all uniformly bounded partitionsP. We have characterized the graphs with Ulam number 0, 1, and 2. Restricting the partitions of the vertex set to connected subsets, we obtain the connected Ulam number ofG. We have evaluated the connected Ulam numbers for several infinite graphs. For instance we have shown that the connected Ulam number is 4 ifG is an infinite grid graph. We have settled the Ulam conjecture for the connected case by proving that the connected Ulam number is 6 for an infinite triangular grid graph. The general Ulam conjecture is equivalent to proving that the Ulam number of the infinite triangular grid graph equals 6. We also describe some interesting geometric consequences of the Ulam number, mainly concerning good drawings of infinite graphs.     

A simple and rapid spectrophotometric determination of thallium(III) with trifluoperazine hydrochloride.

A simple, sensitive and rapid spectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of thallium(III) using trifluoperazine hydrochloride (TFPH). The method is based on the oxidation of TFPH by thallium(III) in a phosphoric acid medium to form a red-colored radical cation with an absorption maximum at 505 nm. Beer's law is valid over the concentration range of 0.5 - 6.5 microg ml(-1) of thallium(III). The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity of the color system are 2.14 x 10(4) l mol(-1) cm(-1) and 0.0095 microg cm(-2), respectively. The optimum reaction conditions and other analytical parameters were evaluated. The tolerance limit of the method towards various ions usually associated with thallium has been studied. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the analysis of thallium in alloys, minerals, standard reference material, water, and urine samples.     

Deuteron size effects on its elastic scattering from1H and4He

The effect of change in deuteron size on its elastic scattering from protons and alphas is investigated by varying the Hulthen parameters of the deuteron wave function in the scattering process. The cross sections forp-d scattering, calculated in the Born approximation, are found to increase substantially at backward angles even when the deuteron size is reduced by a small amount, whereas the shape of the angular distribution does not change significantly. For theα-d elastic scattering, interaction potential is obtained by folding the deuteron wave function and the optical potential for nucleon-scattering. The cross sections calculated atE _d = 13·7 MeV, shows that the first minimum around Θ_cm = 60° is deepend as the deuteron size is reduced, while at 52 MeV bombarding energy, the size effects are not very distinct. These observations are useful in the interpretation of deuteron cluster knockout reactions.