Cellulose acetate composite films fabricated with zero-valent iron nanoparticles and its use in the degradation of persistent organic pollutants

Cellulose acetate (CA), and CA blended with Nicotiana tabacum ash (ACA) membranes have synthesized and fabricated with zero-valent Fe NPs (ZVI) and named as CA@Fe⁰ and ACA@Fe⁰. The as-synthesized membranes were inspected for the removal and detoxification of toxic organic pollutants. Comparative studies of CA@Fe⁰ and ACA@Fe⁰ NPs were investigated for five model pollutants, such as 4-nitrophenol (4NP), methyl orange (MO), Congo red (CR), methylene blue (MB), and bromocresol green (BCG). The kinetic model indicated that the apparent rate constant K_app value of ACA@Fe⁰ was highest for all model pollutants compared to CA@Fe⁰ NPs. The K_app value is derived from pseudo-first-order kinetics. The K_app value of MO discoloration was 8.17 × 10⁻¹ min⁻¹ with ACA@Fe⁰ which is highest than CA@Fe⁰ (3.08 × 10⁻¹ min⁻¹). The turnover frequency (TOF) was highest for ACA@Fe⁰ for all the pollutants compared to CA@Fe⁰ and the highest TOF value was found for CR dye with ACA@Fe⁰ which is 0.523 h⁻¹. Both the membranes also showed promising antibacterial activity against Salmonella typhi. Furthermore, CA, ACA membrane and CA@Fe⁰ and ACA@Fe⁰ NPs were characterized through FESEM, EDS, XRD, FTIR and TGA analysis.     

Optical Versus Electrical: Performance Evaluation of Network On-Chip Topologies for UWASN Manycore Processors

Wireless Personal Communications - Optical network on chip (ONoC) has evolved as an innovative technology for on-chip interconnects that can fulfill the upcoming requirements of manycore processors...     

A novel method for the synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo[a]-xanthen-11-one derivatives using cerium(III) chloride as a highly efficient catalyst

Cerium(III) chloride is found to be an highly efficient catalyst for the addition of aldehydes, β-naphthol and cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds/Meldrum's acid via a multicomponent reaction. The easy availability of starting materials, novel and eco-friendly procedure makes this strategy more useful for the preparation of tetrahydrobenzo[a]-xanthen-11-one, and benzo[f]chromen-3-one derivatives.     

Thermal management of microelectronic devices using micro-hole cellular structure and nanofluids

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - We investigated the thermal performance of micro-hole cellular structure using Al2O3–H2O and CuO–H2O nanofluids with 0.67% and 0.4%,...     

Effect of swift heavy ion irradiation in Fe/W multilayer structures

Present study reports effect of swift heavy ion irradiation on structural and magnetic properties of sputtered Fe/W multilayer structures (MLS) having bilayer compositions of [Fe(20 Å)/W(10 Å)]_5BL and [Fe(20 Å)/W(30 Å)]_5BL. These MLS are irradiated by 120 MeV Au⁹⁺ ions up to fluence of 4 × 10¹³ ions/cm². X-ray reflectivity (XRR), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (X-TEM) and magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) techniques are used for structural and magnetic characterization of pristine and irradiated MLS. Analysis of XRR data using Parratt's formalism shows a significant increase in W/Fe interface roughness. WAXD and X-TEM studies reveals that intra-layer microstructure of Fe-layers in MLS becomes nano-crystalline on irradiation. MOKE study shows increase in coercivity at higher fluence, which may be due to increase in surface and interface roughness after recrystallization of Fe-layers.     

Bayesian methods for pharmacokinetic models in dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

This paper proposes a new method for estimating kinetic parameters of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) based on adaptive Gaussian Markov random fields. Kinetic parameter estimates using neighboring voxels reduce the observed variability in local tumor regions while preserving sharp transitions between heterogeneous tissue boundaries. Asymptotic results for standard errors from likelihood-based nonlinear regression are compared with those derived from the posterior distribution using Bayesian estimation with and without neighborhood information. Application of the method to the analysis of breast tumors based on kinetic parameters has shown that the use of Bayesian analysis combined with adaptive Gaussian Markov random fields provides improved convergence behavior and more consistent morphological and functional statistics.     

Synthesis of potential biologically active 1,2-benzothiazin-3-yl-quinazolin-4(3H)-ones

A series of potential biologically active 2-(4-hydroxy-1,1-dioxido-2H-1,2-benzothiazin-3-yl)quinazolin-4(3H)-ones was synthesized in a straight forward manner by condensation of respective 4-hydroxy-1,2-benzothiazine-1,1-dioxides with anthranilamide followed by simple and high throughput cyclization of N-[2-(aminocarbonyl)phenyl]-4-hydroxy-1,2-benzothiazine-3-carboxamide-1,1-dioxides. All the synthesized compounds were subjected to preliminary evaluation for their biological activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Some of the assayed compounds showed marked activity against Bacillus subtilis.     

Yaw stability control of a steer-by-wire equipped vehicle via active front wheel steering

A novel yaw stability control algorithm with active front wheel steering control of a vehicle equipped with a steer-by-wire system is presented in this paper. The proposed algorithm achieves the decoupling of the lateral and yaw motion of a vehicle and the vehicle’s yaw damping simultaneously by the feedback of both yaw rate and front steering angle. A trade-off is then made between the robust decoupling and yaw rate damping through the adjustment of the feedback gains with respect to vehicle speed. With this trade-off, the gain scheduled steering controller provides the desired yaw rate damping while keeping the yaw-lateral motion decoupled. The robustness of the yaw-lateral decoupling is achievable when arbitrary yaw damping is not required. The proposed control system is implemented on a steer-by-wire vehicle, and the experimental results are presented illustrating the benefits.     

Dielectric properties for the ordered-perovskite cuprate Sr2Cu(Re0.69Ca0.31)O6

Dielectric properties are reported on polycrystalline cubic ordered-perovskite cuprate Sr₂Cu(Re_0.69Ca_0.31)O₆ in the frequency range 10 Hz-100 kHz at temperature from 300 to 500 K. Both the dielectric permittivity and dielectric loss factor are found to be frequency and temperature dependent. The enhanced value of the low frequency dielectric permittivity is associated to ionic polarization and interfacial phenomena. The material is found to possess significantly high dielectric permittivity. The calculated ac conductivity suggests semiconducting behaviour for the Sr₂Cu(Re_0.69Ca_0.31)O₆.