<Emphasis Type="Italic">Areca catechu</Emphasis> Assisted Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles and its Electrocatalytic Activity on Glucose Oxidation

In this work, a facile biogenic route for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is reported. The aqueous extract of Areca catechu (A. catechu) nuts are used as reducing source. The synthesized AgNPs characterized by UV–Visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) with energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) analysis. The formations of AgNPs are identified from the appearance of yellow color and the surface plasmon resonance absorbance peak between 407 and 437 nm. The FT-IR results exposed that the active biomolecules of A. catechu are responsible for capping of AgNPs. The synthesized AgNPs are distorted spherical shape with 45 nm of size, identified from the HR-TEM. In application, the electrocatalytic activity of AgNPs is analyzed towards glucose oxidation using cyclic voltammetry. The results showed that A. catechu derived AgNPs act as good electrocatalyst than bare bulk silver and glassy carbon electrodes.     

Metric Projections and Polyhedral Spaces

We prove that if X is a Banach space and Y is a proximinal subspace of finite codimension in X such that the finite dimensional annihilator of Y is polyhedral, then the metric projection from X onto Y is lower Hausdorff semi continuous. In particular this implies that if X and Y are as above, with the unit sphere of the annihilator space of Y contained in the set of quasi-polyhedral points of X ^*, then the metric projection onto Y is Hausdorff metric continuous. Partially supported under project DST/INT/US-NSF/RPO/141/2003.     

Commuting pairs and triples of matrices and related varieties

In this note, we show that the set of all commuting d-tuples of commuting n×n matrices that are contained in an n-dimensional commutative algebra is a closed set, and therefore, Gerstenhaber's theorem on commuting pairs of matrices is a consequence of the irreduciblity of the variety of commuting pairs. We show that the variety of commuting triples of 4×4 matrices is irreducible. We also study the variety of n-dimensional commutative subalgebras of M_n(F), and show that it is irreducible of dimension n²−n for n4, but reducible, of dimension greater than n²−n for n7.     

Quantum chromodynamics: Working group report

This is the report of the QCD working group at WHEPP-6. Discussions and work on heavy ion collisions, polarized scattering, and collider phenomenology are reported.     

Singularities in Gaussian random fields

This paper studies a class of Gaussian random fields defined on lattices that arise in pattern analysis. Phase transitions are shown to exist at a critical temperature for these Gaussian random fields. These are established by showing discontinuous behavior for certain field random variables as the lattice size increases to infinity. The discontinuities in the statistical behavior of these random variables occur because the growth rates of the eigenvalues of the inverse of the variance-covariance matrix at the critical temperature are different from the growth rates at noncritical temperatures. It is also shown that the limiting specific heat has a phase transition with a power law behavior. The critical temperature occurs at the end point of the available values of temperature. Thus, although the critical behavior is not extreme, caution should be exercised when using such models near critical temperatures.Research supported by AFOSR Grant No. 91-0048 and by USARO Grant No. DAAL03-90-G-0103.     

High Precision Characterisation of Semiconductor Bolometers

We describe techniques for testing and characterising semiconductor bolometers, using the bolometer model presented in Sudiwala et. al. [1]. The procedures are illustrated with results from a prototype bolometer for the high frequency instrument (HFI) in the Planck Surveyor cosmic microwave background mission. This is a bolometer using spider-web geometry and a neutron transmutation doped (NTD) germanium thermistor, designed for operation at 100 mK. Details are given of the laboratory facility used to take data at temperatures from 70 mK to 350 mK. This employs an adiabatic demagnetisation refrigerator to cool the detector and optics. The spatial and spectral properties of the optical system are controlled using feedhorns and edge filters. To characterise the bolometer, blanked and optically loaded load curves were measured over a range of temperatures, and the response to modulated radiation was measured as a function of modulation frequency, temperature and bias current. Results for the prototype bolometer show that its behaviour is well represented by an ideal thermal detector down to a temperature of approximately 100 mK. Below this, non-thermal effects such as electron-phonon decoupling or electric field dependent resistance appear to lead to departure from ideal behaviour. The performance was in good agreement with the design goals for the bolometer.     

A New Double Substrate Uncatalyzed Bromate Oscillator

A double substrate uncatalyzed bromate oscillator is reported. Oscillations occur for several minutes, the color of the solution alternating between dark brown and reddish yellow. The oscillatory wave form (Pt electrode) has a distinct pattern, with a progressive increase in the amplitude and time interval. The presence of both substrates namely 8-hydroxyquinoline and malonic acid is essential. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Growth of preferential attachment random graphs via continuous-time branching processes

Some growth asymptotics of a version of ‘preferential attachment’ random graphs are studied through an embedding into a continuous-time branching scheme. These results complement and extend previous work in the literature.