Highly Efficient Zirconium Based Carbonaceous Solid Acid Catalyst for Selective Synthesis of 5-HMF from Fructose and Glucose in Isopropanol as a Solvent

Catalysis Letters - A new zirconium based carbonaceous solid acid catalyst Zr@CC-PA with both Lewis and Bronsted acidic sites was prepared by simultaneous carbonization and phosphonation of glucose...     

A novel technique to prepare LiNbO3 at low temperature

Fresh niobium hydroxide was first precipitated from NbF₅ solution using an aqueous ammonium hydroxide under basic conditions. Then a simple procedure of mixing lithium and niobium hydroxides together and heating at a low temperature (400 °C) produced pure ultrafine single phase LiNbO₃ (LN). In the literature, this is the lowest temperature so far reported on the formation of LN. The phase content and lattice parameters are determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The average particle size and morphology were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).     

Structural and magnetic properties of Co1+ySnyFe2-2y-xCrxO4 ferrite system

The samples of the series Co_1+ySn_yFe_{2- 2y- x}Cr_xO₄ ferrites with x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and y = 0.05, were prepared by the usual double sintering ceramic technique. The single- phase spinel structure of the samples was confirmed by using X- ray diffractometry technique. The lattice parameter ’a’ with an accuracy of ± 0.002 Å were determined using Bragg peaks of XRD pattern. The lattice parameter ’a’ decreases with concentration, x, which is due to the difference in the ionic radii of Cr³⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions. The X- ray intensity calculations were carried out in order to determine the possible cation distribution amongst tetrahedral (A) and octahedral [B] sites. The X- ray intensity calculations show Cr³⁺ ions occupying B site. The saturation magnetization, σ_s, and magneton number, n_B (the saturation magnetization per formula unit), measured at 300 K determined from high field hysteresis loop technique decrease with increase in concentration, x, suggesting a decrease in ferrimagnetic behaviour. Thermal variation of low field a.c. susceptibility measurements from room temperature to about 800 K exhibits almost normal ferrimagnetic behaviour and the Curie temperature, T_C determined from a.c. susceptibility data decreases with increase in x.

     

A quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of laparascopy and endoscopy virtual reality simulators

The increasing use of virtual reality (VR) simulators in surgical training makes it imperative that definitive studies be performed to assess their training effectiveness. Indeed in this paper we report the meta-analysis of the efficacy of virtual reality simulators in (1) the transference of skills from the simulator training environment to the operating room and (2) their ability to discriminate between the experience levels of its users. The task completion time and the error score were the two study outcomes collated and analyzed in this meta-analysis. Sixteen studies were identified from a computer-based literature search (1996-2004). The meta-analysis of the random-effects model (because of the heterogeneity of the data) revealed that training on virtual reality simulators did lessen the time taken to complete a given surgical task as also clearly differentiate between the experienced and the novice trainees. Meta-analytic studies such as the one reported here would be very helpful in the planning and setting up of surgical training programs and for the establishment of reference ‘learning curves’ for a specific simulator and surgical task. If any such programs already exist they can then indicate the improvements to be made in the simulator used such as providing for more variety in their case scenarios based on the state and/or rate of learning of the trainee.     

The synthesis of symmetrical and unsymmetrical P1/P1' cyclic ureas as HIV protease inhibitors

Cyclic urea SD146, a potent HIV protease inhibitor bearing a flat resistance profile, possessed poor solubility and bioavailability, which precluded further development of the compound. In an effort to improve upon the pharmacokinetic profile of the compound, several analogs modified at the P1/P1' residues were prepared and evaluated. Several of those compounds displayed significant improvement of physical properties.     

Portability of three consumer products

Three consumer products (a television set, a personal computer and a typewriter), all considered portable by their respective manufacturers, were evaluated experimentally for portability. Products were not considered portable if the physical and subjective workloads resulting from carrying them over specified distances were excessive. Twenty-two males and six females participated in the experimental investigation and carried the three products for distances of 45·72, 91·44. 137·16 and 182·88 m. Their pulse and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) of the arms and whole body were recorded and used as measures of physical and perceived workloads. Both physiological and subjective responses to carrying products were significantly influenced by the type of product and carrying distance, regardless of the gender of the person performing the carrying. The results of this study and the design guidelines provided in the literature for one-handed and two-handed carrying tasks led to the conclusion that, of the three products, only the television set could be considered portable.     

Effect of body posture and common hand tools on peak torque exertion capabilities

An experimental investigation was conducted to investigate the effects of body posture and of different types of common non-powered hand tools on maximum volitional torque exertion capabilities of males and females. Thirty-six males and 14 females applied peak torque in 21 different body postures while using nine different hand tools. The data analysis indicated that, for both males and females, the magnitude of volitional torque is strongly influenced by the type of tool used and the posture assumed. Between the two, however, the effect of hand tool is more profound. The correlation between the tool type and volitional torque was of the order of 0.71. No other variable was as strongly correlated with volitional torque. Maximum volitional torque profiles, as a function of posture and tool type, are provided for males and females.     

Synthesis,characterization, and cell viability of bifunctional medical-grade polyurethane nanofiber: Functionalization by bone inducing and bacteria ablating materials

There is an extensive possibility of improving characteristics of fibers used in hard tissue engineering, being hydrophobic and less osteoconductive, resulting in the dynamic growth of new tissues. The current work focuses on the fabrication of nanofibers incorporated with titanium dioxide (TiO₂) ''as osteoconductive'' and silver (Ag) ''as self-healing'' nanoparticles (NPs). The incorporation of AgNO₃ by in situ method not only helped to impart the antibacterial activity but also changed the contact angle from 81 ± 03° in the case of pristine nanofibers to 74 ± 03°, 61 ± 03°, 50 ± 08°, and 39 ± 1.1°, in the composite scaffolds containing 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.07 M of Ag salts. The incubation in simulated body fluid at 37°C to induce mineralization on nanofiber scaffolds indicated Ca and P crystals' formation. The antibacterial activity showed significantly more toxicity toward E. coli (8.3 ± 0.9 mm) than S. aureus (1.2 ± 0.1 mm). Biocompatibility studies using MTT assay on the pre-osteoblasts showed that both TiO₂ and Ag NPs present in the nanofibers are non-toxic to the bone-like cells. However, results show that a higher concentration of Ag NPs (i.e., 0.07 M) is toxic to cells growing. Finally, all the results suggest that the nanofiber scaffolds have considerable scope for future bone tissue engineering materials.     

A Comparative Investigation of Optical and Structural Properties of Cu-Doped CdO-Derived Nanostructures

In this report, we studied various structural and optical properties of pure and copper-doped cadmium oxide (CdO) thin films. Nanostructured Cu-doped CdO films were deposited using sol–gel spin-coating technique. The structural and morphological changes have been observed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies. The optical and electrical properties of the pure and Cu-doped CdO thin films were studied by UV–vis spectroscopy and four-point probe method, respectively. The XRD peaks show the formation of nanocrystalline CdO with cubic face-centered crystal structure. The band gaps of the as deposited films were found in the range of 2.32–2.73 eV, while after doping, it decreases due to structural deformation. The electrical resitivity was found to decrease approximately ～10 in Cu-doped CdO thin films.     

Gait recognition based on curvelet transform and PCANet

Conventional gait recognition schemes has poor recognition accuracies in presence of covariates. It is mainly due to ineffective and inefficient representation and discriminative feature extraction schemes. The paper presents new technique to extract discriminative features from masked gait energy image based on curvelet transform and PCANet. The binary gait silhouette video sequence obtained from pre-processing of video sequence is converted in to masked gait energy image and then direction and edge representation ability of fast discrete curvelet transform is employed. Nonlinear and non invertible, image space to feature space mapping scheme of PCANet is used to extract discriminative robust features. The suitability and effectiveness of newly proposed scheme is demonstrated by experimentation on standard publicly available benchmark USF HumanID database.