Chemical composition,and antibacterial and antioxidant activities of essential oils from Laggera tomentosa Sch. Bip. ex Oliv. et Hiern (Asteraceae)

Laggera tomentosa Sch. Bip. ex Oliv. et Hiern (Asteraceae), an endemic Ethiopian medicinal plant, is traditionally used to treat various ailments. Previously, the chemical constituents of the essential oil (EO) of its leaves and inflorescence were documented. However, no data about the chemical compositions of other parts of the EOs of the plant have been reported to date. Moreover, there are no previous biological activity reports on any parts of the EOs of this plant. Thus, in this study, the EOs were isolated from the stem bark and roots of this plant by hydrodistillation and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify their components. In addition, antibacterial potentials of the oils were evaluated using the disc diffusion and minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydrogen peroxide methods were also employed to assess their antioxidant properties. Oxygenated monoterpenes (71.82% and 77.51%), of which 2,5-dimethoxy- p -cymene (57.28% and 64.76%) and thymol methyl ether (9.51% and 8.93%) were identified as major components in the EOs of stem bark and roots of L. tomentosa and the oils, were the most potent in the DPPH (IC50, 0.33 ± 1.10 and 0.39 ± 0.97 mg/mL) assay, respectively. Moreover, the EOs demonstrated appreciable activity towards the gram+ ( S. aureus and B. cereus ) bacteria. Among these oils, the oil of the stem bark showed the greatest activity to the gram+ (MIC = 0.625 mg/mL) bacteria. Therefore, the overall results suggested that the EOs of L. tomentosa may be a promising prospect for pharmaceutical, food, and other industrial applications.     

Variation of interface trap level charge density within the bandgap of 4H-SiC with varying oxide thickness

Interfacial characteristics of metal oxide-silicon carbide (MOSiC) structure with different thickness of SiO₂, thermally grown in steam ambient on Si-face of 4H-SiC (0 0 0 1) substrate were investigated. Variations in interface trapped level density (D _it) was systematically studied employing high-low (H-L) frequency C–V method. It was found that the distribution of D _it within the bandgap of 4H-SiC varied with oxide thickness. The calculated D _it value near the midgap of 4H-SiC remained almost stable for all oxide thicknesses in the range of 10⁹–10¹⁰ cm⁻² eV⁻¹. The D _it near the conduction band edge had been found to be of the order of 10¹¹ cm⁻² eV⁻¹ for thicker oxides and for thinner oxides D _it was found to be the range of 10¹⁰ cm⁻² eV⁻¹. The process had direct relevance in the fabrication of MOS-based device structures.     

Electric field enhancement at multiple densities in laser-irradiated nanotube plasma

The electric field enhancement inside a nanotube irradiated by intense ultrashort laser pulse (?1?ps) is calculated. The hollowness of the nanotubes determines the field enhancement and the electron density at which such structures exhibit resonance. The electric field in a nanotube plasma is shown to be resonantly enhanced at multiple densities during the two phases of interaction: the ionization phase and the hydrodynamic expansion phase. It is further shown that by a proper choice of hollowness of the nanotubes, a continued occurrence of the resonance over a longer time can be achieved. These properties make nanotubes efficient absorbers of intense ultrashort laser pulses.     

Switching behaviour of nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on photonic crystal geometry

Nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer (NMZI) created with photonic crystal waveguides (PCW) and with Kerr-type nonlinearity has been investigated in this paper. The NMZI has been simulated using two-dimensional finite difference time domain (2D-FDTD) method. Input verses output (I /O) characteristics have been obtained for different lengths of the nonlinear arm, nonlinear coefficients of the nonlinear arm, wavelengths of the input beam, sizes of defect rods and NMZI offset. The results obtained are compared with earlier published results of NMZI created with conventional step index waveguides (SIW). It is shown that all useful features of light switching offered by SIW-based NMZIs are also possible with PCW-based NMZIs of extremely small dimensions. Moreover, PCW-based NMZIs offer additional useful feature not available with SIW-based NMZIs.     

Drift wave in pair-ion plasma

The conditions for the existence of low-frequency electrostatic drift wave in pair-ion plasma are discussed. It is shown that the temperature and/or mass difference of both species could produce drift wave in a pair-ion plasma. The results are discussed in the context of the fullerene pair-ion plasma experiment.     

VISCOELASTIC MODELLING OF ENTRANCE FLOW USING MULTIMODE LEONOV MODEL

A simulation of planar 2D flow of a viscoelastic fluid employing the Leonov constitutive equation has been presented. Triangular finite elements with lower-order interpolations have been employed for velocity and pressure as well as the extra stress tensor arising from the constitutive equation. A generalized Lesaint–Raviart method has been used for an upwind discretization of the material derivative of the extra stress tensor in the constitutive equation. The upwind scheme has been further strengthened in our code by also introducing a non-consistent streamline upwind Petrov–Galerkin method to modify the weighting function of the material derivative term in the variational form of the constitutive equation. A variational equation for configurational incompressibility of the Leonov model has also been satisfied explicitly. The corresponding software has been used to simulate planar 2D entrance flow for a 4:1 abrupt contraction up to a Deborah number of 670 (Weissenberg number of 6·71) for a rubber compound using a three-mode Leonov model. The predicted entrance loss is found to be in good agreement with experimental results from the literature. Corresponding comparisons for a commercial-grade polystyrene, however, indicate that the predicted entrance loss is low by a factor of about four, indicating a need for further investigation. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

RITZ VECTOR APPROACH FOR STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF PLATES WITH EDGE BEAMS

A Ritz vector approach is used to develop new formulations for evaluating the static and the dynamic characteristics of rectangular plates with edge beams. Unlike previous studies in which stiffness coefficients with specified distributions along the plate edges are used to represent the effect of edge restraints, the effect of elastic edge restraints is accounted for by including appropriate integrals for edge beams in the expressions for total kinetic and potential energies in a Rayleigh-Ritz approach. The effect of various types of boundary conditions at the beam ends is accounted for by considering the corresponding Ritz vectors. The contribution of beam mass to the total kinetic energy is also considered in the proposed approach. This effect has often been neglected in the previous studies but can be significant in some applications. The results obtained from the application of the proposed approach to a variety of examples are compared with the corresponding results obtained from the finite element analysis.     

Optical probing of Eu ions confined in an RF trap

The Eu ions confined in an RF quadrupole trap, has been optically detected. Using a tunable dye laser which is pumped by a Nd-YAG pulsed laser system, the resonance ⁹S₄^9S_4–6p _3/2, J = 5 transition of the Eu ions have been excited and the resulting fluorescence to the metastable ⁹D_4-6^9D_{4-6} state has been detected. In preparation to determine the ground-state hyperfine splitting of the odd isotopes we found the optimum trapping operating point. We have also observed a number of instabilities inside the region of the stability for an ideal trap. These non-linear resonances arise from higher-order contributions to the ideal quadrupole potential.     

ANALYSIS OF THE RESPONSE OF A CRACKED JEFFCOTT ROTOR TO AXIAL EXCITATION

The coupling of lateral and longitudinal vibrations due to the presence of transverse surface crack in a rotor is explored. Steady state unbalance response of a Jeffcott rotor with a single centrally situated crack subjected to periodic axial impulses is studied. Partial opening of crack is considered and the stress intensity factor at the crack tip is used to decide the extent of crack opening. A crack in a rotor is known to introduce coupling between lateral and longitudinal vibrations. Therefore, lateral vibration response of a cracked rotor to axial impulses is studied in detail. Spectral analysis of response to periodic multiple axial impulses shows the presence of rotor bending natural frequency as well as side bands around impulse excitation frequency and its harmonics due to modulations caused by rotor running frequency. It is concluded that the above approach can prove to be a useful tool in detecting cracks in rotors.     

Spectroscopy and laser characterization of synthesized supramolecular host cucurbit[7]uril using aqueous Rhodamine B dye

Recent demonstration in augmenting the efficiency of aqueous Rhodamine dye lasers using cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]), a deaggregating and photostabilizing host, has drawn interest in the synthesis and characterization of spectroscopic grade CB[7] in larger quantities. Synthesis of cucurbituril group of macrocycles always leads to the formation of various homologues of CB[n]s (n=5–7) with CB[7] as the minor product. The literature procedure has been optimized to get pure CB[7] in 12–14% yield by fractional crystallization and the purity was checked by NMR, MS and spectrophotometric titration. Laser performances of the synthesized and commercial CB[7] sample as an additive were evaluated using Nd-YAG (532 nm) pumped Rhodamine B aqueous dye lasers and comparable results were obtained.