Facile design and nanostructural evaluation of silver-modified titania used as disinfectant

Fundamental research has been carried out to define optimal "green" synthesis conditions for the production of titania (TiO(2)) and silver (Ag) nanocomposites (TANCs) ranging from 12.7-22.8 nm in diameter. A bottom-up colloidal approach was employed to accurately control TANC monodispersity and composition. TANCs were found to be effective at inactivating Escherichia coli (E. coli) in water. The presence of Ag in the nanocomposites induced a decrease in TiO(2) band gap energy, which favoured valence to conduction band electron transfer and allowed for electron excitation using visible light. Aggregation of ultra-fine particles was prevented through the use of a long-chain polymer as evidenced by electrophoretic mobility studies. The TANCs catalyzed oxidation of bacterial membranes and cell death or disinfection. Theoretically, the TANC mode of E. coli disinfection is via water photolysis, which results in production of hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide. These interact with the outer membrane polysaccharides and lipids, leading to lipid peroxidation, membrane weakening and resulted in cell death. Our overarching goals were to optimize the variables involved in TANC "green" synthesis and to characterize its nanostructure. High resolution (HR) transmission and scanning electron microscopic (TEM and SEM) studies demonstrated that TANCs were highly crystalline and mono-dispersive. Elemental composition of Ag and Ti, as measured by X-ray energy dispersive (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed sample purity. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy showed that the energy band-gap of Ag modified TiO(2) was in the visible range.     

Dynamical behavior of a stochastic Nicholson’s blowflies model with distributed delay and degenerate diffusion

Nonlinear Dynamics - The mathematical model with time delay is often more practical because it is subject to current and past state. What remains unclear are the details, such as how time delay and...     

The growth of nanoscale periodic and dot-like structures on the surface of stainless steel with femtosecond laser pulses in the dry and wet ambient environment

The present work deals with growth of nanoscale periodic and dot-like structures on the surface of stainless steel (SS) by the irradiation of femtosecond laser pulses. For this purpose Ti: Sapphire femtosecond laser pulses (wavelength of 800 nm, pulse length of 25 fs and pulse repetition rate of 1 kHz) were employed in a dry (air) and liquid confined (deionized water and ethanol) environments. The targets were exposed to 1000 succeeding pulses for various fluences ranging from 50 to 150 mJ?cm^?2. Nanoscale structures including ripples, and dots were observed by SEM analysis. The growth and dependence of structure-formation on the ambient environment and laser fluence in both central as well as peripheral ablated areas is systematically investigated. The development of nanostructures and nanoripples is correlated with structural analysis carried out by micro Raman spectroscopy.     

An improved model for noise barriers in a moving fluid

We study a problem of diffraction of a cylindrical acoustic wave from an absorbing half plane in a moving fluid introducing Myers' condition [M.K. Myers, On the acoustic boundary condition in the presence of flow, J. Sound Vibration 71 (1980) 429] and present an improved form of the analytic solution for the diffracted field. The importance of the work lies in the fact that Myers' condition (a generalization of Ingard's impedance condition) is now the accepted form of the boundary condition for impedance barriers with flow and hence yields a correct form of the field. The method of solution consists of Fourier transform, Wiener-Hopf technique and the modified method of stationary phase.     

Water Pollution Threat to the Environment by a Urea Plant

Disposal of untreated industrial effluents is drastically deteriorating the quality of underground water. Research work has been conducted to analyze the effect of disposal of urea plant effluent on the quality of ground water of the District Mianwali Daudkhail, Pakistan. For this purpose the effluent and ground water samples were analyzed for pH, TDS, TSS, Cl, F, COD, BOD, Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, Cd, Mn, and As. Results obtained were compared with WHO and NEQS standards for drinking and effluent emission limits, respectively. Moreover, effluent samples were also evaluated for irrigation purposes and results compared with criteria recommended for irrigation water. Results showed though the effluents were according to the standards given by National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) for liquid emission and fit for irrigation purposes, the quality of underground water was below standard due to having a higher quantity of total dissolved solids than permissible.     

Elimination of the sidewall defects in selective epitaxial growth(SEG) of silicon for a dielectric isolation technology

Selective epitaxial growth (SEG) of silicon has not had widespread use as a dielectric isolation technology due to the near sidewall defects at the SiO₂/Si interface. These defects are located in the first 1-2 μm of the SEG/sidewall SiO₂ interface. Diode junctions intersecting the sidewall and 5 μm removed from the sidewall were fabricated in SEG material using thermally grown silicon dioxide (OX) and thermally nitrided thermal silicon dioxide (NOX) as the field insulating mask. Averaged over 16 devices of each type, diodes fabricated with NOX had much better low current I-V characteristics and minimum ideality factors (1.03) than diodes fabricated with OX field oxides (1.23). Junctions intersecting the NOX field insulator had nearly identical characteristics to bulk SEG     

The Management and Processing of Network Performance Information

The performance of communications networks can be monitored intrusively by transmitting test packets on the network links being tested. The delays experienced by these test packets and the number of test packets lost or duplicated may provide an indication of the performance of the links being monitored. Intrusive network monitoring, even at modest sampling rates, generates a significantly large amount of primitive data. This data needs to be summarised appropriately to address the required network performance analysis operations. These operations are generally iterative in nature, where the results of initial processing and analysis generate requirements for further processing and analysis. This paper describes the architecture of a database that can assist in efficient analysis of network performance by reusing the information derived at various stages.     

A simple process to produce a high quality silicon surface prior toselective epitaxial growth

A simple and low-cost process was devised to eliminate etch damage resulting from oxide etching on the seed-hole surface prior to selective epitaxial growth (SEG) of silicon. The process consists of a low power C ₂F₆ RIE step which was performed right after the oxide etch step in the same etch reactor. The use of this step excluded the need of a conventional sacrificial oxide to remove damaged silicon regions and residual polymers. The n-p diodes resulting from n-type SEG grown on p-type substrate were used to evaluate the quality of the silicon surface prior to SEG     

Mechanism and substrate stereochemistry of 2-amino-3-oxobutyrate CoA ligase: implications for 5-aminolevulinate synthase and related enzymes

The condensation process catalysed by 2-amino-3-oxobutyrate CoA ligase (KBL; also known as 2-amino-3-ketobutyrate ligase) involves the loss of the pro-R hydrogen atom of glycine and occurs with the inversion of stereochemistry; a similar scenario is envisaged for the condensation step of other alpha-oxoamine synthases.