Identifying crop water stress using deep learning models

Neural Computing and Applications - The identification of water stress is a major challenge for timely and effective irrigation to ensure global food security and sustainable agriculture. Several...     

Analytical Modeling of Surface Potential and Drain Current of Hetero-Dielectric DG TFET and Its Analog and Radio-Frequency Performance Evaluation

Semiconductors - In the present paper, analytical modeling of surface potential and drain current for hetero-dielectric double gate tunnel FET (HDG-TFET) has been done. The two dimensional (2D)...     

Analytical Modeling of a Triple Material Double Gate TFET with Hetero-Dielectric Gate Stack

Silicon - In this paper, we propose and develop an analytical model of a Triple material double gate Tunnel Field Effect Transistor (TM-DG TFET) with hetero-dielectric gate oxide stack comprising...     

Escherichia coli,Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus susceptibility to antimicrobials of human and veterinary importance in poultry sector of India

In India, little attention has been paid on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the context of developing “One Health” approach. Hence, utilizing multi-disciplinary approach, we assess the AMR level and dynamics/pattern of multi-drug resistance (MDR) in Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus circulating over the different stages of poultry in India. A total of 342 isolates including E. coli (n = 143), Salmonella spp. (n = 104), and S. aureus (n = 95) were recovered from fecal (n = 80) and cecal (n = 80) samples of chicken, collected across the different poultry-retail shops and poultry-farms located at urban and rural areas of Rajasthan, India, respectively. High rates of AMR to drugs that are critically/highly important both in human and veterinary medicine were observed among all the isolates. Upward trends in AMR prevalence was observed in poultry-retail shops than in poultry-farms. Notably, >90% of all the isolates were MDR, of particular, pattern/prevalence of MDR was substantially varied across the poultry-farms vs. poultry-retail shops. Our results indicate AMR including MDR to be common in E. coli, Salmonella spp., and S. aureus distributed frequently in poultry. The study encourages the formulation of national policy, programmes and further research with a “One Health” approach that can benefits to the human/animal and the environment.     

High‐performance thermosets with tailored properties derived from methacrylated eugenol and epoxy‐based vinyl ester

A renewable chemical, eugenol, is methacrylated to produce methacrylated eugenol (ME) employing the Steglich esterification reaction without any solvent. The resulting ME is used as a low‐viscosity co‐monomer to replace styrene in a commercial epoxy‐based vinyl ester resin (VE). The volatility and viscosity of ME and styrene are compared. The effect of ME loading and temperature on the viscosity of the VE–ME resin is investigated. Moreover, the thermomechanical properties, curing extent and thermal stability of the fully cured VE–ME thermosets are systematically examined. The results indicate that ME is a monomer with low volatility and low viscosity, and therefore the incorporation of ME monomer in VE resins allows significant reduction of viscosity. Moreover, the viscosity of the VE–ME resin can be tailored by adjusting the ME loadings and processing temperature to meet commercial liquid molding technology requirements. The glass transition temperatures of VE–ME thermosets range from 139 to 199 °C. In addition, more than 95% of the monomer is incorporated and fixed in the crosslinked network structure of VE–ME thermosets. Overall, the developed ME monomer exhibits promising potential for replacing styrene as an effective low‐viscosity co‐monomer. The VE–ME resins show great advantages for use in polymer matrices for high‐performance fiber‐reinforced composites. This work is of great significance to the vinyl ester industry by providing detailed experimental support. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

Large Area Self-Assembled Ultrathin Polyimine Nanofilms Formed at the Liquid–Liquid Interface Used for Molecular Separation

Separation membranes with higher molecular weight cut-offs are needed to separate ions and small molecules from a mixed feed. The molecular sieving phenomenon can be utilized to separate smaller species with well-defined dimensions from a mixture. Here, the formation of freestanding polyimine nanofilms with thicknesses down to ≈14 nm synthesized via self-assembly of pre-synthesized imine oligomers is reported. Nanofilms are fabricated at the water–xylene interface followed by reversible condensation of polymerization according to the Pieranski theory. Polyimine nanofilm composite membranes are made via transferring the freestanding nanofilm onto ultrafiltration supports. High water permeance of 49.5 L m^-2 h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ is achieved with a complete rejection of brilliant blue-R (BBR; molecular weight = 825 g mol⁻¹) and no more than 10% rejection of monovalent and divalent salts. However, for a mixed feed of BBR dye and monovalent salt, the salt rejection is increased to ≈18%. Membranes are also capable of separating small dyes (e.g., methyl orange; MO; molecular weight = 327 g mol⁻¹) from a mixed feed of BBR and MO. Considering a thickness of ≈14 nm and its separation efficiency, the present membrane has significance in separation processes.     

Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 to Ethylene by Molecular Cu‐Complex Immobilized on Graphitized Mesoporous Carbon

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to hydrocarbons is a challenging task because of the issues in controlling the efficiency and selectivity of the products. Among the various transition metals, copper has attracted attention as it yields more reduced and C2 products even while using mononuclear copper center as catalysts. In addition, it is found that reversible formation of copper nanoparticle acts as the real catalytically active site for the conversion of CO₂ to reduced products. Here, it is demonstrated that the dinuclear molecular copper complex immobilized over graphitized mesoporous carbon can act as catalysts for the conversion of CO₂ to hydrocarbons (methane and ethylene) up to 60%. Interestingly, high selectivity toward C2 product (40% faradaic efficiency) is achieved by a molecular complex based hybrid material from CO₂ in 0.1 m KCl. In addition, the role of local pH, porous structure, and carbon support in limiting the mass transport to achieve the highly reduced products is demonstrated. Although the spectroscopic analysis of the catalysts exhibits molecular nature of the complex after 2 h bulk electrolysis, morphological study reveals that the newly generated copper cluster is the real active site during the catalytic reactions.