Effect of Varying Amount of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG-600) and 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane on the Properties of Chitosan based Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Chitosan and polyethylene glycol (PEG-600) membranes were synthesized and crosslinked with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The main purpose of this research work is to synthesize RO membranes which can be used to provide desalinated water for drinking, industrial and agricultural purposes. Hydrogen bonding between chitosan and PEG was confirmed by displacement of the hydroxyl absorption peak at 3237 cm⁻¹ in pure chitosan to lower values in crosslinked membranes by using FTIR. Dynamic mechanical analysis revealed that PEG lowers Tg of the modified membranes vs. pure chitosan from 128.5 °C in control to 120 °C in CS-PEG5. SEM results highlighted porous and anisotropic structure of crosslinked membranes. As the amount of PEG was increased, hydrophilicity of membranes was increased and water absorption increased up to a maximum of 67.34%. Permeation data showed that flux and salt rejection value of the modified membranes was increased up to a maximum of 80% and 40.4%, respectively. Modified films have antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli as compared to control membranes.     

A computer-aided diagnostic system for liver tumor detection using modified U-Net architecture

The Journal of Supercomputing - A multimedia-based medical decision-making system is an ultimate requirement in the medical imaging domain. In the healthcare sector, achieving quick and efficient...     

Marangoni convective nanofluid flow over an electromagnetic actuator in the presence of first‐order chemical reaction

The present study aims to investigate Marangoni‐forced convective nanofluid flow over an electromagnetic actuator (Riga plate). A first‐order homogeneous chemical reaction is considered. The thermocapillary and solutocapillary Marangoni effect developed by the surface tension is considered as a driving force for the nanofluid. In addition, Grinberg‐term is accounted to involve the impact of Lorentz force impinged by the actuator in the model. A set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations is obtained via suitable transformations for a nonsimilar analysis. Series solutions are achieved through homotopy to discuss the behavior of the velocity field, thermal distribution, and concentration of the nanoparticles graphically. The variation in Nusselt and Sherwood numbers is discussed. The outcomes declared that the flow parallel to the surface of the plate is assisted by the Lorentz forces generated by electromagnetic bars of the actuator resulting in an enhancement in the fluid motion. Furthermore, the stronger Marangoni effect resulted in the declining trend of the temperature profile. The concentration of nanoparticles near the surface reduced intensive chemical reaction inside the nanofluid.     

Comparative Assessment of Ambient Air Quality of Major Cities of Pakistan

The deterioration of ambient air quality is one of the emerging environmental problems in developing countries of South Asia. Unplanned urbanization, population growth, degradation of vegetation cover and industrial and vehicular emissions, particularly in urban areas, have resulted in substantial rise in the level of air pollutants and emission sources. This study focused on monitoring of different cities as per traffic volume and flow. Air quality monitoring was conducted on hourly basis to determine the major parameters; i.e. PM₁₀, NO_x, SO₂, CO by using fixed station for 8 h from 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm. All the measuring values were then compared with the National Environment Quality Standards (NEQS) and Air Quality Index (AQI). Results revealed that the concentration of PM₁₀ at the selected areas of these cities ranged from 156 to 390 μg/m³, CO ranged from 1.18 to 6.01 mg/m³, and NO_x ranged from 32.65 to 129.47 μg/m³. It was evident that all these concentration had been higher than the permissible limits of NEQS, whereas only SO₂ was found within the permissible limits (15.60–110.52 μg/m³⁾. Air Quality Index (AQI) of all the designated points of cities was also assessed, and most of the vehicular and commercial areas had shown unhealthy and severe conditions ranging from 191 to 320, respectively.

     

Performance Evaluation of AOMDV on Realistic and Efficient VANet Simulations

Wireless Personal Communications - The digital transmission amongst vehicles and roadway equipment is necessary for the realization of smart transportation systems. Vehicular ad-hoc network (VANet)...     

Miniaturized humidity and temperature sensing RFID enabled tags

A compact 27‐bit linearly polarized chipless radio frequency identification tag is presented in this research. The proposed tag is designed with an overall tag dimension of 23 × 23 mm². The tag comprises of metallic (copper) rings‐based structure loaded with slots. These slots correspond to a particular sequence of bits. The circular tag is analysed using 2 different substrates, that is, Rogers RT/duroid/5870 and flexible Rogers RT/duroid/5880. The radar cross‐section response of frequency signatured tag is analysed for humidity and temperature sensor designs. Humidity sensing is achieved by deploying a DuPont Kapton HN heat resistant sheet on the shortest slot of the tag, that is, the sensing slot. Temperature sensing is attained using Rogers RT/duroid/5870 and Stanyl polyamide as a combined substrate. Hence, the miniaturized, robust, and flexible tag can be deployed over irregular surfaces for sensing purposes.     

ZnO/WO3 nanostructure as an efficient visible light catalyst

Highly photosensitive ZnO/WO₃ photocatalysts were fabricated by wet impregnation of zinc oxide (ZnO) in different contents. Tungsten trioxide (WO₃) was synthesized by hydrothermal route. The presence of ZnO inhibited the crystallization of WO₃ and caused agglomeration of WO₃ nanoparticles surface. The formation of Zn-O-W linkage was studied by X-ray photoelectron emission (XPS) and Fourier transforms Infra-red spectra (FTIR). These linkages were responsible for red shift of absorption peak of composites as compared to individual ZnO and WO₃. The band gap was decreased due to incorporation of ZnO in WO₃ which promoted the separation of photo-generated carriers. As a result, ZnO/WO₃ composite showed extremely high efficiency for MO degradation in comparison with Degussa P25, pure ZnO and WO₃. 2.0% ZnO/WO₃ composite displayed the highest activity in photocatalytic decomposition of methyl orange (MO) dye.     

Synergistic evaluation of AgO2 nanoparticles with ceftriaxone against CTXM and blaSHV genes positive ESBL producing clinical strains of Uro‐pathogenic E. coli

The silver oxide nanoparticles (AgO₂ ‐NPs) were synthesised using silver foil as a new precursor in wet chemical method. X‐ray diffraction analysis shows crystallographic structures of AgO₂ ‐NPs with crystallite size of 35.54 nm well‐matched with standard cubic structure. Scanning electron microscopy analysis clearly shows the random distribution of spherical‐shaped nanoparticles. Energy dispersive X‐ray analysis confirmed the purity of the samples as it shows no impurity element. Fourier transforms infra‐red analysis confirmed the formation of AgO₂ ‐NPs with the presence of Ag‐O‐Ag stretching bond. All the techniques also confirmed the loading of ceftriaxone drug on the surface of AgO₂ ‐NPs. This study also described the effect of AgO₂ ‐NPs having synergistic activity with β lactam antibiotic i.e. ceftriaxone against ESBL generating Escherichia coli (E. coli). Among isolated strains of E. coli, 60.0% were found to be ESBL producer. The synergistic activities of AgO₂ ‐NPs with ceftriaxone suggest that these combinations are effective against MDR‐ESBL E. coli strains as evident by increase in zone sizes. The present study observed rise in MDR‐ESBL E. coli with polymorphism of blaCTXM and blaSHV causing UTI infections in Pakistani population. The antibiotic and AgO₂ ‐NPs synergistic effect can be used as an efficient approach to combat uro‐pathogenic infections.Inspec keywords: antibacterial activity, nanofabrication, nanomedicine, drugs, nanoparticles, microorganisms, crystallites, scanning electron microscopy, silver compounds, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray chemical analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra, organic compounds, geneticsOther keywords: synergistic evaluation, clinical strains, silver oxide nanoparticles, silver foil, wet chemical method, X‐ray diffraction analysis, crystallographic structures, standard cubic structure, spherical‐shaped nanoparticles, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis, ceftriaxone drug, synergistic activity, ESBL producer, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared analysis, Escherichia coli, blaSHV gene positive ESBL, crystallite size, random distribution, β lactam antibiotics, MDR‐ESBL E. coli strains, polymorphism, blaCTXM, uro‐pathogenic infections, uro‐pathogenic E. coli, AgO₂      

New CUSUM and dual CUSUM mean charts

The CUSUM (C) charts are well recognized as a potentially advanced process monitoring tools because of their sensitivity against small and moderate shifts. In this paper, we first improve the sensitivity of the Brownian motion–based C (BC) chart with an appropriate transformation, named new BC (NBC) chart, for monitoring moderate and large shifts in the mean of a normal process. Then, using the control charting structure of the Crosier C (CC) chart, we propose the NBCC (NBC with CC structure) chart. In addition, for efficiently detecting a mean shift within an interval, dual version of these control charts are also proposed, named the dual NBC (DNBC) and dual NBCC (DNBCC) charts. Moreover, the fast initial response feature is also incorporated into the proposed charts. Using the Monte Carlo simulation, the run length properties of the proposed charts are computed. The run length performances of the existing and proposed charts are compared using the extra quadratic loss and integral relative average run length as performance criterion. It turns out that the NBC and NBCC (DNBC and DNBCC) charts are uniformly more sensitive than the C, CC, and NBC (dual C and dual CC) charts when detecting the mean shifts in small, moderate, and large intervals, where the DNBCC chart outperforms all considered charts. The proposed charts are also applied on real data sets to support the proposed theory.     

Application of fluorescence spectroscopy for rapid and noninvasive quality determination of yoghurt ice cream using chemometrics

The aim of this study was to explore the potential of fluorescence spectroscopy to determine the quality of yoghurt ice cream, prepared by adding different concentrations of yoghurt (10, 20, 30, 40, 50%). The addition of 50% of yoghurt showed the lowest pH and meltdown values, whereas the highest acidity and overrun rates were observed at the same concentration. Additionally, fluorescence spectra taken at varied emission and excitation ranges were preprocessed for baseline correction. The partial least square regression analysis on proposed excitation wavelengths (270 nm, 280 nm, 290 nm and 315 nm) showed effective prediction of various quality parameters of yoghurt ice cream.