Electron microscopic studies of the antiferroelectric phase in Sr0.60Ca0.40TiO3 ceramic

The structural variants and their coexistence across the antiferroelectric phase transition in Sr_0.60Ca_0.40TiO₃ ceramic has been studied through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at room temperature and ∼100 °C. A clear evidence of the presence of superlattice reflections, corresponding to the cell doubling along the c-axis of Pbnm (or b-axis along Pnma), occurring during paraelectric to antiferroelectric transition, has been obtained through selected area electron diffraction, convergent beam electron diffraction and lattice-resolution imaging. Coexistence of the Pbnm and Pbcm phases at room temperature has been observed and attributed to the strain/disorder-induced broadening of the first-order antiferroelectric phase transition. Drastic changes in the domain structure during Pbnm to Pbcm transformation have been observed. This clearly indicates that the antiferrodistortive transition responsible for the occurrence of the antiferroelectric phase is of completely different origin and it is not just an additional follow-up of the already-existing ordering due to a⁻a⁻c⁺ tilt schemes in the Pbnm domain. Thermal cycling studies on microstructural changes indicate some kind of memory mechanism, which retains the memory of the original a⁻a⁻c⁺ tilt schemes in the Pbnm phase. This has been attributed to the symmetry conforming short-range order (SC-SRO) of the point defects.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of nanoscale surface diffusion of heterogeneous adatoms clusters

Molecular dynamics simulation employing the embedded atom method potential is utilized to investigate nanoscale surface diffusion mechanisms of binary heterogeneous adatoms clusters at 300 K, 500 K, and 700 K. Surface diffusion of heterogeneous adatoms clusters can be vital for the binary island growth on the surface and can be useful for the formation of alloy-based thin film surface through atomic exchange process. The results of the diffusion process show that at 300 K, the diffusion of small adatoms clusters shows hopping, sliding, and shear motion; whereas for large adatoms clusters(hexamer and above), the diffusion is negligible. At 500 K, small adatoms clusters, i.e., dimer, show almost all possible diffusion mechanisms including the atomic exchange process; however no such exchange is observed for adatoms clusters greater than dimer. At 700 K, the exchange mechanism dominates for all types of clusters, where Zr adatoms show maximum tendency and Ag adatoms show minimum or no tendency toward the exchange process. Separation and recombination of one or more adatoms are also observed at 500 K and 700 K. The Ag adatoms also occupy pop-up positions over the adatoms clusters for short intervals. At 700 K, the vacancies are also generated in the vicinity of the adatoms cluster,vacancy formation, filling, and shifting can be observed from the results.     

Barut-Girardello Coherent States for Nonlinear Oscillator with Position-Dependent Mass

Using ladder operators for the non-linear oscillator with position-dependent effective mass, realization of the dynamic group SU(1,1) is presented. Keeping in view the algebraic structure of the non-linear oscillator, coherent states are constructed using Barut-Girardello formalism and their basic properties are discussed. Furthermore, the statistical properties of these states are investigated by means of Mandel parameter and second order correlation function. Moreover, it is shown that in the harmonic limit, all the results obtained for the non-linear oscillator with spatially varying mass reduce to corresponding results of the linear oscillator with constant mass.     

Galerkin Finite Element Study on the Effects of Variable Thermal Conductivity and Variable Mass Diffusion Conductance on Heat and Mass Transfer

This article investigates the effects of variable thermal conductivity and variable mass diffusion coefficient on the transport of heat and mass in the flow of Casson fluid. Numerical simulations for two-dimensional flow induced by stretching surface are performed by using Galerkin finite element method (GFEM) with linear shape functions. After assembly process, nonlinear algebraic equations are linearized through Picard method and resulting linear system is solved iteratively using Gauss Seidal method with simulation tolerance 10^-8. Maximum value of independent variable η is searched through numerical experiments. Grid independent study was carried out and error analysis is performed. Simulated results are validated by comparing with already published results. Parametric study is carried out to explore the physics of the flow. The concentration increases when mass diffusion coefficient is increased. The concentration and thermal boundary layer thicknesses increase when ε₁ and ε are increased. The effect of generative chemical reaction on concentration is opposite to the effect of destructive chemical reaction on the concentration.     

Structural,electronic, and optical properties of ZnO_(1-x)Se_x alloys using first-principles calculations

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of binary ZnO, ZnSe compounds, and their ternary ZnO 1-x Se x alloys are computed using the accurate full potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital (FP-LAPW + lo) method in the rocksalt (B1) and zincblende (B3) crystallographic phases. The electronic band structures, fundamental energy band gaps, and densities of states for ZnO 1-x Se x are evaluated in the range 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 using Wu-Cohen (WC) generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation potential. Our calculated results of lattice parameters and bulk modulus reveal a nonlinear variation for pseudo-binary and their ternary alloys in both phases and show a considerable deviation from Vegard's law. It is observed that the predicted lattice parameter and bulk modulus are in good agreement with the available experimental and theoretical data. We establish that the composition dependence of band gap is semi-metallic in B1 phase, while a direct band gap is observed in B3 phase. The calculated density of states is described by taking into account the contribution of Zn 3d, O2p, and Se 4s, and the optical properties are studied in terms of dielectric functions, refractive index, reflectivity, and energy loss function for the B3 phase and are compared with the available experimental data.     

On the unsteady rotational flow of a fractional second grade fluid through a circular cylinder

Here the velocity field and the associated tangential stress corresponding to the rotational flow of a generalized second grade fluid within an infinite circular cylinder are determined by means of the Laplace and finite Hankel transforms. At time t=0 the fluid is at rest and the motion is produced by the rotation of the cylinder around its axis. The solutions that have been obtained are presented under series form in terms of the generalized G-functions. The similar solutions for ordinary second grade and Newtonian fluids are obtained from general solution for β→1, respectively, β→1 and α ₁→0. Finally, the influences of the pertinent parameters on the fluid motion, as well as a comparison between models, is underlined by graphical illustrations.     

On the stability and extension of reduced-order Galerkin models in incompressible flows

Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) has been used to develop a reduced-order model of the hydrodynamic forces acting on a circular cylinder. Direct numerical simulations of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations have been performed using a parallel computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to simulate the flow past a circular cylinder. Snapshots of the velocity and pressure fields are used to calculate the divergence-free velocity and pressure modes, respectively. We use the dominant of these velocity POD modes (a small number of eigenfunctions or modes) in a Galerkin procedure to project the Navier–Stokes equations onto a low-dimensional space, thereby reducing the distributed-parameter problem into a finite-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system in time. The solution of the reduced dynamical system is a limit cycle corresponding to vortex shedding. We investigate the stability of the limit cycle by using long-time integration and propose to use a shooting technique to home on the system limit cycle. We obtain the pressure-Poisson equation by taking the divergence of the Navier–Stokes equation and then projecting it onto the pressure POD modes. The pressure is then decomposed into lift and drag components and compared with the CFD results.     

Jasminum sambac: A Potential Candidate for Drug Development to Cure Cardiovascular Ailments

Jasminum sambac (L.) is a South Asian folkloric medicinal plant that has traditionally been used to treat cardiovascular problems. The current investigation was meticulously organized to explore the pharmacological foundation for the medicinal uses of J. sambac pertaining to cardiovascular ailments and to investigate the core mechanisms. Mechanistic investigation revealed that crude leaf extract of J. sambac produced ex-vivo vasorelaxant effects in endotheliumintact aorta ring preparation and hypotensive effect was recorded via pressure and force transducers coupled to the Power Lab Data Acquisition System. Moreover; J. sambac showed cardioprotective effects against adrenaline -induced left ventricular hypertrophy in rabbits observed hemodynamic. CK-MB, LDH, troponin, CRP, ALT, AST, ALP levels were shown to be lower in the myocardial infarction model, as were necrosis, oedema, and inflammatory cell recruitment in comparison to control. J. sambac has shown good antioxidant potential as well as prolonged the noradrenaline induced platelet adhesion. The vasorelaxant and cardioprotective effects in both in vivo and ex vivo experiments, which are enabled by activation of muscarinic receptor and/or releasing the nitric oxide and by reducing the adrenaline, induced oxidative stress, justifying its usage in cardiovascular disorders.     

Two-point method for T1 estimation with optimized gradient-echo sequence

Relaxation times estimation methods play a central role in various problems, such as magnetic resonance (MR) hardware calibration, tissue characterization, or temperature measurement. Previous studies have proposed optimization criteria to estimate the relaxation time T1 faster than with a multipoint method leading to two-point methods. In this paper, the class of optimized two-point methods is extended to gradient-echo (GE) sequence offering new advantages over spin-echo (SE) or inversion recovery (IR) sequences. Two GE acquisitions, with optimal flip angles theta1 and theta2 minimizing both the total scan time and the variance in the computed T1 image were applied to estimate T1, and the results were compared with those of SE sequence with optimized paired repetition times T(R1) and T(R2). First, phantom studies were carried out with five tissue-like samples on a 0.5T scanner. Then in vivo, human brain T1 image were calculated using both optimized GE and SE two-point methods. More precise T1 GE estimates than those for SE were found thanks to high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per unit of time, but with a small bias. These results also concern the temperature variation measurement methods, based on T1 estimation. Preliminary experimental data for temperature measurement are given.