Characterisation of some exotic fruits (Morus nigra, Morus alba, Salvadora persica and Carissa opaca) used as herbal medicines by neutron activation analysis and estimation of their nutritional value

In the under developed countries, the people of far-flung rural areas still depend to a large extent upon herbal medicines. At the foundation of usage of herbal medicine is the experience of thousands of years. The present paper deals with the characterisation of exotic fruits for essential and toxic elements. The samples include Morus nigra, Morus alba, Salvadora persica and Carissa opaca (from low and high altitude). Two standardizations of neutron activation analysis, that is, semi-absolute k ₀-instrumental neutron activation analysis (k ₀-INAA) and epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA) were employed for the quantification of elements. The analysis methodologies were validated by analyzing the IAEA-336 (lichen) and NIST-SRM-1572 (citrus leaves). Sixteen elements including Br, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Fe, I, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc Sr, and Zn were determined in all samples. Daily intakes of various elements from the samples were measured and compared with the dietary reference intakes. Additionally, principal component analysis was performed to extract information regarding samples and elements.     

Solid-state pseudocapacitors based on MnO2-nanorod-electrodes and plastic crystal incorporated gel polymer electrolyte: synergistic effect of Li-salt addition in electrolyte and morphology of electrodes

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - We present a novel configuration of high-performance solid-state pseudocapacitors, fabricated with symmetric MnO2-nanorod-electrodes, prepared via chemical...     

Super-Enhancement Focusing of Teflon Spheres

A Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) sphere can be used as a focusing lens in the applications of imaging and sensing due to its low-loss property in the terahertz band. Herein, field intensities and focusing parameters are analytically calculated for Teflon spheres at different low-loss levels and then a super-enhancement focusing effect in the spheres with particular size parameters was discovered, which can stimulate about 4000 times stronger field intensity than that for incident radiation as well as the great potential of overcoming diffraction limit despite high sensitivity to the magnitude of Teflon loss. A subsequent analysis of scattering amplitudes proves that the strong scattering of a single-order mode in the internal electric or magnetic field is the main factor causing this phenomenon.     

Transverse Momentum Distributions of Pions,Kaons and Protons in p − p Interactions at 2.76 TeV

The spectra and particle yield ratios of π^±, K^± meson, protons and anti-protons in proton-proton (p − p) interactions at \( \sqrt{s}=2.76 \) TeV are presented. CRMC generators: EPOS-LHC, EPOS1.99 and QGSJETII-04, are used for simulations and the results are compared with LHC-CMS experimental data. The particles are identified in the transverse momentum range of p_T ≈ 0.1 − 1.7 GeV/c and absolute rapidity, ∣y∣ < 1. In simulation, same cuts in p_T and y are used as in the experiment. The EPOS1.99 model predicts the data well as compared to the other two models, which predict in some of the p_T regions only. The different models used could not effectively describe the experimental data in all p_T range.

     

Common fixed point results for new Ciric-type rational multivalued <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>-contraction with an application

In this article, common fixed point theorems for a pair of multivalued mappings satisfying a new Ciric-type rational F-contraction condition in complete dislocated metric spaces are established. An example is constructed to illustrate our results. An application to the system of integral equations is presented to support the usability of proved results. Our results combine, extend and infer several comparable results in the existing literature.     

Extended-ion approximation and pressure shifts inF-band energies

Pressure variation of maximumF-band absorption energies in the halides of lithium, sodium and potassium has been investigated employing the extended-ion approximation for the calculation of theF-electron energy eigenvalues and using values of local compressibility in the neighbourhood of theF-centres which include the effect of vacancy and pressure. The results obtained agree with the experimental results.     

Effect of pressure on F-band energies in alkali halides

Variation of peak F-band absorption energy and lattice distortion with pressure has been calculated for lithium halides employing extended ion model and using values of local compressibility in the neighbourhood of the F-centres which include the effect of vacancy and pressure. The calculated results are in very good agreement with experimental results.     

The convergence ball and error analysis of the two-step Secant method

Under the assumption that the nonlinear operator has Lipschitz continuous divided differences for the first order, we obtain an estimate of the radius of the convergence ball for the two-step secant method. Moreover, we also provide an error estimate that matches the convergence order of the two-step secant method. At last, we give an application of the proposed theorem.     

Radiological hazard analysis of Malaysia’s ceramic materials using generic and RESRAD-BUILD computer code approach

In this study, 52 samples of ceramic materials were studied for ²²⁶Ra, ²²²Rn, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K natural radionuclides using high-purity germanium detector and relevant radiological hazards parameters were also appraised. Furthermore, the long-term variations of the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) and effects of wall thickness on TEDE were established and analyzed using RESRAD-BUILD computer code. The observed percentage variations of TEDE are 2% and 8% for ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th, respectively, while no variation observed for external dose due to ⁴⁰K. The estimated indoor doses from the studied ceramic materials are all below the recommended maximum limit.