Interaction of Inorganic Nanoparticles with Graphene

The changes in the electronic and magnetic properties of graphene induced by interaction with semiconducting oxide nanoparticles such as ZnO and TiO₂ and with magnetic nanoparticles such as Fe₃O₄, CoFe₂O₄, and Ni are investigated by using Raman spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and first‐principles calculations. Significant electronic and magnetic interactions between the nanoparticles and graphene are found. The findings suggest that changes in magnetization as well as the Raman shifts are directly linked to charge transfer between the deposited nanoparticles and graphene. The study thus demonstrates significant effects in tailoring the electronic structure of graphene for applications in futuristic electronic devices.     

Oxyhemoglobin photodissociation efficiency in biological tissue exposed to laser radiation

We have obtained quantitative data on the differential (with respect to depth) and the integrated oxyhemoglobin photodissociation efficiency in the dermis when the skin surface is exposed to a light beam in the wavelength range 300–650 nm. With this aim, we have used our own previously developed optical model for skin tissue and analytical procedure for calculating the characteristics of optical fields in a medium. We have estimated the number of oxygen molecules formed at different depths in the medium, and also their integrated number over the entire thickness of the dermis as a function of the irradiation wavelength. We consider models for a dermis that is homogeneous with respect to depth and a dermis that has a layered structure. We show that the spectral photodissociation efficiency has a number of maxima associated with the absorption spectrum of oxyhemoglobin and the optical properties of all the layers of skin tissue. We discuss the effect of the epidermis on these maxima.     

Component rationing for available-to-promise scheduling in configure-to-order systems

We address the problem of rationing common components among multiple products in a configure-to-order system with order configuration uncertainty. The objective of this problem is to maximize expected revenue by implementing a threshold rationing policy. Under this policy, a product is available to promise if fulfilling the order for the product will not cause the inventory of any one of its required components to fall below the component’s threshold level for that product. The problem is modeled as a two-stage stochastic integer program and solved using the sample average approximation approach. A heuristic is developed to generate good feasible solutions and lower bound estimates. Using industry data, we examine the benefit of component rationing as compared to a First-Come-First-Served policy and show that this benefit is correlated to the average revenue per product and the variability in the revenue across products whose components are constrained.     

The influence of the packing density of absorbing inclusions into a dispersive medium on its absorption coefficient

Using an approach that is similar to the approximation of anomalous diffraction of physical optics, we have obtained analytical relations for the absorption coefficients of homogeneous and dispersive media that contain equal amounts of light absorbing matter. We show that these relations depend on the packing density of inclusions, which is characterized by the fraction of the area or volume that they occupy. It has been found quantitatively that differences between absorption coefficients of the homogeneous and dispersive media increase with increasing optical size of inclusions and decrease at large packing densities. We note that it is important to take into account the obtained dependences in spectroscopic investigation of the dispersive medium near intense absorption bands of its components. Theoretical and experimental results are compared with each other, and it is shown that they reasonably agree with each other qualitatively and quantitatively. Our study may be useful for specialists in biomedical optics, ocean physics, physics of the Earth’s surface, and scientific and applied photography.     

Enhanced Hydrodynamic Radius of AOT/n-heptane/Water Reverse Micellar System Through Altered Electrostatic Interactions and Molecular Self-Assemblies

We have demonstrated a unique approach to alter the aqueous pool size of an AOT/n-heptane/water reverse micellar system. A positively charged dye Rhodamine B (RhB) and negatively charged Rose Bengal (RB) were incorporated in the reverse micellar pool to investigate the effect of electrostatic interactions and stacking effects among the dye molecules on the AOT/n-heptane/water interface. Dynamic light scattering revealed increase in reverse micellar pool size in presence of positively charged dye aggregates at the oil–water interface. However, less expansion was observed in presence of negatively charged dye aggregates (RB). This confirms the role of electrostatic interaction in modulating the hydrodynamic radius. A head-to-tail type of stacking of RhB molecules at the interface favors this expansion. The differences in stacking of the two dyes inside the reverse micelles and their torsional mobility indicated the role of the reverse micellar interface and H-bonding ability of the microenvironment on dye aggregation. Conductivity measurements demonstrated a significant drop in percolation temperature of the reverse micellar system in presence of dye aggregates. This confirms the effect of dye aggregation and electrostatic interaction on such expansion. This strategy can be exploited for solubilizing greater amounts and a wider variety of drug molecules in microemulsions.

Graphical abstract

     

Nonlinear analysis of skewed sandwich plates

Nonlinear static and dynamic behaviours of freely supported Rhombic sandwich plates have been studied following Banerjee's hypothesis. Numerical results for 0° skew angle are compared with other known results. Results for other skew angles are believed to be new.

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Sommario Si studia, seguendo l'ipotesi di Banerjee, il comportamento nonlineare statico e dinamico di piastre rombiche semplicemente appoggiate. Si presentano risultati numerici relativi a piastre rombiche e rettangolari: questi ultimi vengono paragonati a risultati già noti, mentre i primi si ritengono nuovi.

     

Non-linear dynamics of a flexible single link Cartesian manipulator

The present work deals with the non-linear vibration of a harmonically excited single link roller-supported flexible Cartesian manipulator with a payload. The governing equation of motion of this system is developed using extended Hamilton's principle, which is reduced to the second-order temporal differential equation of motion, by using generalized Galerkin's method. This equation of motion contains both cubic non-linearities of geometric and inertial type in addition to linear forced and non-linear parametric excitation terms. Method of multiple scales is used to solve this non-linear equation and study the stability and bifurcations of the system. Influence of amplitude of the base excitation and mass ratio on the steady state response of the system is investigated for both simple and subharmonic resonance conditions. Critical bifurcation points are determined from the fixed-point responses and periodic, quasi-periodic responses are also found for different system parameters. The results obtained using the perturbation analysis are compared with the previously published experimental work and are found to be in good agreement. This work will be useful for the designer of a flexible manipulator.     

Free‐standing and flexible nano‐ZnO/PVDF composite thin films: impedance spectroscopic studies

Nanocrystalline ZnO‐impregnated polyvinylidene fluoride (nano‐ZnO/PVDF) composite films were prepared by sol‐gel technique. Free‐standing and flexible films with different nano‐ZnO loadings were synthesized. Addition of ZnO in PVDF host matrix modulated the impedance and dielectric properties. The composite films thus obtained were characterized by microstructural, XPS, and impedance spectroscopic measurements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development and applications of a relaxation-inducing cluster expansion theory for treating strong relaxation and differential correlation effects

We present in this paper a multi-reference coupled cluster (MRCC) formulation for energy differences which treats orbital relaxation and correlation effects on the same footing, by invoking a novel cluster ansatz of the valence portion of the wave operator Ω_v. Unlike in the traditional normal-ordered exponential representation of Ω_v, our new relaxation-inducing ansatz, represented symbolically as E _r(S), allows contractions between the spectator lines and also certain other special contractions. By an extensive theoretical analysis, taking as an example the case of one-hole model space (the IP problem), we demonstrate that our ansatz incorporates in a manifestly spin-free form the orbital relaxation to all orders. The traditional Thouless-type of exponential transformation via one-body excitations can induce the same effect, as is done in the valence-specific or the quasi-valence-specific MRCC formalisms, but they have to be done in the spin-orbital basis – making the spin adaptation of the problem a complicated exercise. In contrast, we use a spin-free representation of the cluster operators right from start, but expand the rank of the cluster operators by involving spectator orbitals to distinguish the various spin possibilities. The combinatorial factors entering the contracted power series in E _r(S) are chosen in such a way that they correspond to what we would have obtained if we had used a Thouless-like transformation to induce the orbital relaxation. Our working equations generally have only finite powers of the cluster operators S, resulting in a very compact formulation of the relaxation problem. Pilot numerical applications for the IP computations of HF and H₂O in the core, the inner valence and the outer valence regions show very good performance of the method vis-a-vis those obtained using the traditional normal ordered ansatz for Ω_v. The improvement in the core IP value is particularly impressive, although even for the valence regions there is an overall improvement of the IP values. Received: 3 August 1998 / Accepted: 30 September 1998 / Published online: 15 February 1999     

Approximation Algorithms for Dispersion Problems

Given a collection of weighted sets, each containing at most k elements drawn from a finite base set, the k-set packing problem is to find a maximum weight sub-collection of disjoint sets. A greedy algorithm for this problem approximates it to within a factor of k, and a natural local search has been shown to approximate it to within a factor of roughly k − 1. However, neither paradigm can yield approximations that improve on this.We present an approximation algorithm for the weighted k-set packing problem that combines the two paradigms by starting with an initial greedy solution and then repeatedly choosing the best possible local improvement. The algorithm has a performance ratio of 2(k + 1)/3, which we show is asymptotically tight. This is the first asymptotic improvement over the straightforward ratio of k.