Structural,thermal, spectral,optical and surface analysis of rare earth metal ion (Gd3+) doped mixed Zn–Mg nano-spinel ferrites

The present work reports the structural, thermal, spectral, optical and surface analysis of rare earth metal ion (Gd³⁺) doped mixed Zn–Mg nano-spinel ferrites. The samples of Gd³⁺ doped Zn–Mg nano ferrites with equi-amount chemical composition i.e. Zn_0.5Mg_0.5Fe_2-xGd_xO₄ (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.10 in step of 0.02) were prepared by self-ignited sol-gel route. The variance in the thermal behaviour and spinel phase development with weight loss percentage in the prepared samples was investigated by TG-DTA technique. The powder X-ray diffraction (P-XRD) patterns ensured the nanocrystalline mono-phasic formation and spinel-cubic structure of all the samples. The trend of increment in lattice constant (a) and decrement in crystallite (t) size was observed with the doping of Gd³⁺ ions. The appearance of two requisite vibrational stretching modes was affirmed by the FT-IR spectral studies. The UV–Vis optical analysis displayed the augmentation in absorbance and drastic decrement in energy band gap value (1.96 eV–1.83 eV) with Gd³⁺ doping. The photo-luminescent (PL) studies revealed the broad near band-edge emission in visible wavelength range (523 nm–528 nm) for all the samples. The surface parameters investigation was undertaken with the help of BET isotherms recorded by the N₂-physisorption and BJH model. The various surface parameters such as BET surface area, volume and radius of the pores, distribution of the pore sizes etc were construed from the BET data. The enhancement in these surface parameters via Gd³⁺ doping was noted for all the samples. The outcomes of the present work reflects the influential doping of Gd³⁺ ions in Zn–Mg nano ferrites, which can be implementable for bio-applications as thermal seeds in magnetic hyperthermia or as contrast enhancer in medical MRI imaging.     

Comparative evaluation of the mesophilic and thermophilic biohydrogen production at optimized conditions using tequila vinasses as substrate

The objective of this work was to comparatively evaluate the production of biohydrogen (bio-H₂) from tequila vinasses at optimized mesophilic and thermophilic conditions and to elucidate the main metabolic routes involved. Optimal temperatures of 35 °C and 55 °C, and pH of 5.5 maximized the bio-H₂ production rates, 25.5 ± 0.01 NmL h⁻¹ and 169.9 ± 8.9 NmL h⁻¹ in the mesophilic and thermophilic regimens, respectively. During the operation of anaerobic sequencing batch reactors, the thermophilic process allowed a volumetric bio-H₂ production rate of 519 ± 13 NmL-H₂ L⁻¹ d⁻¹ equivalent to 750 ± 19 NmL-H₂ L_vinasse⁻¹, while the mesophilic one 448 ± 23 NmL-H₂ L⁻¹ d⁻¹ and 647 ± 33 NmL-H₂ L_vinasse⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, the gas produced under thermophilic conditions showed high hydrogen content (86.5%). Finally, formate degradation and glucose fermentation to acetic and butyric acids were the main metabolic routes involved in bio-H₂ production under thermophilic conditions, while at mesophilic conditions, the lactate and formate degradation pathways governed.     

Morphological edge detection and brain tumor segmentation in Magnetic Resonance (MR) images based on region growing and performance evaluation of modified Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The medical image processing has become indispensable with an increased demand for systematic and efficient detection of brain tumor in a short period of time....     

Estimating posterior inference quality of the relational infinite latent feature model for overlapping community detection

Overlapping community detection has become a very hot research topic in recent decades, and a plethora of methods have been proposed. But, a common challenge in many existing overlapping community detection approaches is that the number of communities K must be predefinedmanually. We propose a flexible nonparametric Bayesian generative model for count-value networks, which can allow K to increase as more and more data are encountered instead of to be fixed in advance. The Indian buffet process was used to model the community assignment matrix Z, and an uncollapsed Gibbs sampler has been derived.However, as the community assignment matrix Z is a structured multi-variable parameter, how to summarize the posterior inference results and estimate the inference quality about Z, is still a considerable challenge in the literature. In this paper, a graph convolutional neural network based graph classifier was utilized to help to summarize the results and to estimate the inference quality about Z. We conduct extensive experiments on synthetic data and real data, and find that empirically, the traditional posterior summarization strategy is reliable.     

An airlight estimation method for image dehazing based on gray projection

Multimedia Tools and Applications - As the key parameter of dehazing algorithms, airlight value directly affect the calculation accuracy of sky region, and any deviation will lead to the chromatic...     

Nickel foam-supported Fe,Ni-Polyporphyrin microparticles: Efficient bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting in alkaline media

Developing highly active, stable and sustainable electrocatalysts for overall water splitting is of great importance to generate renewable H₂ for fuel cells. Herein, we report the synthesis of electrocatalytically active, nickel foam-supported, spherical core-shell Fe-poly(tetraphenylporphyrin)/Ni-poly(tetraphenylporphyrin) microparticles (FeTPP@NiTPP/NF). We also show that FeTPP@NiTPP/NF exhibits efficient bifunctional electrocatalytic properties toward both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Electrochemical tests in KOH solution (1 M) reveal that FeTPP@NiTPP/NF electrocatalyzes the OER with 100 mA cm⁻² at an overpotential of 302 mV and the HER with 10 mA cm⁻² at an overpotential of 170 mV. Notably also, its catalytic performance for OER is better than that of RuO₂, the benchmark OER catalyst. Although its catalytic activity for HER is slightly lower than that of Pt/C (the benchmark HER electrocatalyst), it shows greater stability than the latter during the reaction. The material also exhibits electrocatalytic activity for overall water splitting reaction at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² with a cell voltage of 1.58 V, along with a good recovery property. Additionally, the work demonstrates a new synthetic strategy to an efficient, noble metal-free-coordinated covalent organic framework (COF)-based, bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting.