MHD boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a stretching sheet with induced magnetic field

In this paper, the problem of steady magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a viscous and electrically conducting fluid over a stretching sheet is studied. The effect of the induced magnetic field is taken into account. The transformed ordinary differential equations are solved numerically using the finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. Numerical results are obtained for various values of the magnetic parameter, the reciprocal magnetic Prandtl number and the Prandtl number. The effects of these parameters on the flow and heat transfer characteristics are determined and discussed in detail. When the magnetic field is absent, the closed analytical results for the skin friction are compared with the exact numerical results. Also the numerical results for the heat flux from the stretching surface are compared with the results reported by other authors when the magnetic field is absent. It is found that very good agreement exists.     

Vertical distribution of <Superscript>210</Superscript>Pb and <Superscript>226</Superscript>Ra and their activity ratio in marine sediment core of the East Malaysia coastal waters

Marine sediment cores were collected from two stations at East Malaysia coastal waters on June 2004. Activity concentrations of ²¹⁰Pb in sediment core were ranged from 11 Bqkg⁻¹ to 84 Bqkg⁻¹ dry wt. for SR 01 and 4 Bqkg⁻¹ to 66 Bqkg⁻¹ dry wt. for SB 03. Meanwhile, activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra in sediment core were varied significantly depending on the sampling location of SR 01 and SB 03 with ranged 17–26 Bqkg⁻¹ dry wt. and 8–11 Bqkg⁻¹ dry wt., respectively. The activity ratios of ²¹⁰Pb/²²⁶Ra were no significantly different at all sampling stations with an average of 1.78. Refer to the entire results; the activities of ²¹⁰Pb and ²²⁶Ra were higher at station SR 01 than station SB 03, but contrast with ratio of ²¹⁰Pb/²²⁶Ra. The reasons of different ²¹⁰Pb and ²²⁶Ra activity concentration and distribution of their ratios were strictly related to their half lives, environment origin, potential sources and behavior.     

Effect of surface modification of indium tin oxide by nanoparticles on the electrochemical determination of tryptophan

The effect of surface modification of indium tin oxide (ITO) by multi wall carbon nanotube (MWNT) and gold nanoparticles attached multi wall carbon nanotube (AuNP-MWNT) has been studied to determine tryptophan, an important and essential amino acid for humans and herbivores. A detailed comparison has been made among the voltammetric response of bare ITO, MWNT/ITO and AuNP-MWNT/ITO in respects of several essential analytical parameters viz. sensitivity, detection limit, peak current and peak potential of tryptophan. The AuNP-MWNT/ITO exhibited a well defined anodic peak at pH 7.2 at a potential of ∼669 mV for the oxidation of tryptophan as compared to 760 mV at MWNT/ITO electrode. Under optimum conditions linear calibration curve was obtained over tryptophan concentration range 0.5-90.0 μM in phosphate buffer solution of pH 7.2 with detection limit and sensitivity of 0.025 μM and 0.12 μA μM⁻¹, respectively. The oxidation of tryptophan occurred in a pH dependent, 2e⁻ and 2H⁺ process and the electrode reaction followed adsorption controlled pathway. The method has been found selective and successfully implemented for the determination of tryptophan in human urine and plasma samples using standard addition method. The electrode exhibited an efficient catalytic response with good reproducibility and stability.     

Regioselective synthesis of 3,3-bis(indolyl)propanoic acid derivatives by iron(III)-catalyzed hydroarylation of propynoic acid derivatives with indoles

Intermolecular hydroarylation of propynoic acid and its esters with indoles proceeded efficiently in acetic acid under a catalytic system of FeCl₃/3AgOTf and afforded the corresponding 3,3-bis(indol-3yl)propanoic acids and their esters in high yields. In the case of 2-methylindole, 3-indolylacrylic acid and its ethyl ester were obtained in high yields. This iron-catalyzed hydroarylation showed a high regioselectivity at the 3-position of indoles and a high utility for the synthesis of bis(indol-3-yl) compounds, which are important for biological and pharmaceutical fields.     

Copper-mediated synthesis of substituted 2-aryl-N-benzylbenzimidazoles and 2-arylbenzoxazoles via C-H functionalization/C-N/C-O bond formation

An efficient method for the transformation of N-benzyl bisarylhydrazones and bisaryloxime ethers to functionalized 2-aryl-N-benzylbenzimidazoles and 2-arylbenzoxazoles is described. The protocol involves a copper(II)-mediated cascade C-H functionalization/C-N/C-O bond formation under neutral conditions. Substrates having either electron-donating or -withdrawing substituents undergo the cyclization to afford the target heterocycles at moderate temperature.     

Bridging allyl ligands upon allene insertion into electron-deficient triosmium-hydride clusters [Os3(CO)9(μ3-NSC7H3R)(μ-H)] (R = H, Me)

Allene reacts with the benzothiazolide clusters [Os₃(CO)₉(μ₃-NSC₇H₃R)(μ-H)] (R = H, Me) to afford the bridging allyl complexes [Os₃(CO)₇(μ-CO)₂(μ-NSC₇H₃R)(μ-η¹:η²:η¹-CH₂CHCH₂)] resulting from insertion of allene into the metal-hydride. Both have been crystallographically characterized and differ with respect to the relative arrangement of allyl and benzothiazolide at the triosmium centre.     

Fabrication of 2D photonic crystals using block copolymer patterns on as grown LEDs

Di-block copolymer polystyrene-block-polymethyl methacrylate (PS-b-PMMA) was used to make patterns over a large area of as grown LEDs. The polymer patterns on LEDs surface could be transferred to the underlying p-GaN, the topmost layer of as grown LEDs by both reactive ion etching (RIE) and photo-enhanced chemical (PEC) etching. Removal of remaining polymer chains results in patterned LEDs which shows higher light extraction efficiency. In our experiment, much higher intensity for patterned LEDs in both photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) data plot were found. Similar improvements were found in I-V and L-I curves for patterned LEDs.     

Visibility Drawings of Plane 3-Trees with Minimum Area

A visibility drawing of a plane graph G is a drawing of G where each vertex is drawn as a horizontal line segment and each edge is drawn as a vertical line segment such that the line segments use only grid points as their endpoints. The area of a visibility drawing is the area of the smallest rectangle on the grid which encloses the drawing. A minimum-area visibility drawing of a plane graph G is a visibility drawing of G where the area is the minimum among all possible visibility drawings of G. The area minimization for grid visibility representation of planar graphs is NP-hard. However, the problem can be solved for a fixed planar embedding of a hierarchically planar graph in quadratic time. In this paper, we give a polynomial-time algorithm to obtain minimum-area visibility drawings of plane 3-trees.     

A comparative study of the effects of different buffer gases on the line shape of water vapour rovibronic transition

The line shape parameters of water vapour rovibrational transition at 12145.444 cm⁻¹ belonging to the (2ν₁ + ν₂ + ν₃) overtone band in the presence of three buffer gases He, N₂ and CO₂ are studied by high resolution near infrared (NIR) diode laser spectrometer. The wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) is adopted to probe buffer gas broadened first derivative (1f) signal of water vapour transition. The simulation of the experimental signals based on Voigt profile provides the collisional broadening coefficients and line strength parameters. The comparison is made between the broadening effects on water vapour transition induced by He, N₂ and CO₂.