Optical properties of gadolinia-doped cubic yttria stabilized zirconia single crystals

Cubic zirconia single crystals stabilized with yttria and doped with Gd₂O₃ (0.10–5.00 mol%) were prepared by the optical floating zone method, and characterized by a combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis), photoluminescence excitation (PLE) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopic techniques. XRD and Raman spectroscopy showed that the crystal samples were all in the cubic phase, whereas the ceramic sample consisted of a mixture of monoclinic and cubic phases. The absorption spectrum showed four peaks at 245, 273, 308, and 314 nm in the ultraviolet region, and the optical band gap differed between samples with ≤3.00 mol% and those with >3.00 mol% Gd₂O₃. The emission spectrum showed a weak peak at 308 nm and a strong peak at 314 nm, which are attributed to the ⁶P_5/2 → ⁸S_7/2 and ⁶P_7/2 → ⁸S_7/2 transitions of Gd³⁺, respectively. The intensities of the peaks in the excitation and emission spectra increased with Gd³⁺ concentration, reached a maximum at 2.00 mol%, then decreased with higher concentrations. This quenching is considered to be the result of the electric dipole-dipole interactions, and this interpretation is supported by the Gd³⁺ EPR spectra, which showed progressive broadening with increasing Gd³⁺ concentration throughout the concentration range investigated.     

Effect of Bimodal Grain Size Distribution on the Strain Hardening Behavior of a Medium-Entropy Alloy

The evolution of strain hardening behavior of the Fe_(50)(CoCrMnNi)_(50) medium-entropy alloy as a function of the fraction of recrystallized microstructure and the grain size was studied using the Hollomon and Ludwigson equations.The specimens under study were partially recrystallized,fully recrystallized with ultrafine-grained microstructure,and fully recrystallized with coarse grains.The yield strength decreases steadily as the fraction of recry stallized micro structure and grain size increases due to the recovery process and the Hall-Petch effect.Interestingly,the bimodal grain distribution was found to have a significant impact on strain hardening during plastic deformation.For instance,the highest ultimate tensile strength was exhibited by a 0.97 μm specimen,which was observed to contain a bimodal grain distribution.Furthermore,using the Ludwigson equation,the effect of the bimodal grain distribution was established from the behavior of K_2 and n1 curves.These curves tend to show very high values in the specimens with a bimodal grain distribution compared to those that show a homogenous grain distribution.Additionally,the bimodal grain distribution contributes to the extensive L(u|")ders strain observed in the 0.97 μm specimen,which induces a significant deviation of the Hollomon equation at lower strains.     

Influence of bunch maturation and chemical precursors on acrylamide formation in starchy banana chips

The present study investigated the effect of ripening stages and chemical precursors on acrylamide formation in deep-fried chips of five plantains and one cooking banana. The highest level of acrylamide was found in the cooking banana, followed by False Horn plantain and French plantain, respectively. French plantain hybrids exhibited a significantly lower (P < 0.05) level of acrylamide when compared to French plantain. The ripening stage demonstrated a positive Pearson correlation (P < 0.05, r = 0.57) with acrylamide formation. As ripening progressed, the levels of glucose and fructose significantly increased (P < 0.05) and showed a positive correlation with acrylamide formation (r = 0.85 and 0.96, respectively). The level of the amino acid asparagine during ripening was not correlated with acrylamide formation. In contrast, the level of histidine, arginine, iso-leucine and cystine during ripening was positively correlated (P < 0.05, r > 0.60) with acrylamide formation in fried chips. The higher level of TP was significantly related (P < 0.05) to the lower level of acrylamide (r = −0.62). The reduced levels of carotenoid isomers, except lutein, during fruit ripening were positively correlated (P < 0.05) with acrylamide formation, especially trans-BC (r = 0.72) and 9-cis-BC(r = 0.64).     

Potential genomic biomarkers of obesity and its comorbidities for phthalates and bisphenol A mixture: <i>In silico</i> toxicogenomic approach

This in silico toxicogenomic study aims to explore the relationship between phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) co-exposure and obesity, as well as its comorbid conditions, in order to construct a possible set of genomic biomarkers. The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; http://ctd.mdibl.org) was used as the main data mining tool, along with GeneMania (https://genemania.org), ToppGene Suite (https://toppgene.cchmc.org) and DisGeNET (http://www.disgenet.org). Among the phthalates, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were chosen as the most frequently curated phthalates in CTD, which also share similar mechanisms of toxicity. DEHP, DBP and BPA interacted with 84, 90 and 194 obesity-related genes/proteins, involved in 67, 65 and 116 pathways, respectively. Among these, 53 genes/proteins and 42 pathways were common to all three substances. 31 genes/proteins had matching interactions for all three investigated substances, while more than half of these genes/proteins (56.49%) were in co-expression. 7 of the common genes/proteins (6 relevant to humans: CCL2, IL6, LPL, PPARG, SERPINE1, and TNF) were identified in all the investigated obesity comorbidities, while PPARG and LPL were most closely linked to obesity. These genes/proteins could serve as a target for further in vitro and in vivo studies of molecular mechanisms of DEHP, DBP and BPA mixture obesogenic properties. Analysis reported here should be applicable to any mixture of environmental chemicals and any disease present in CTD.     

Application of Non-Destructive Testing for Condition Analysis,Repair of Damages and Integrity Assessment of Vital Steel Structures

Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing - Loads at vital steel structures occur during their production and assembly (residual stresses), during the execution of functional tasks in exploitation...     

Fragmentation and film growth in supersonic nanoaggregate aerosol deposition

Aerosol deposition with gas phase-synthesized chain-like nanoaggregates can yield dense coatings from the impaction of particles on a substrate; however, dense coating formation is not well understood. Here, we study coating consolidation at the single nanoaggregate level. Flame spray pyrolysis-made tin oxide nanoaggregates are mobility (size) filtered, accelerated through a de Laval nozzle, and impacted on alumina substrates. TEM images obtained from low velocity collection and supersonic deposition are compared via quantitative image analysis, which reveals that upon supersonic impact nanoaggregates fragment into smaller aggregates. This suggests that fragmentation is a key step in producing coatings denser than the depositing nanoaggregates themselves. We supplement experiments with detailed particle trajectory calculations, which show that the impact energies per atom during nanoaggregate deposition are below 0.2 eV/molecule. These results suggest that fragmentation can only occur at locations where nanoaggregates bonded by van der Waals and capillary interactions.     

Wind tunnel-based testing of a photoelectrochemical oxidative filter-based air purification unit in coronavirus and influenza aerosol removal and inactivation

Recirculating air purification technologies are employed as potential means of reducing exposure to aerosol particles and airborne viruses. Toward improved testing of recirculating air purification units, we developed and applied a medium-scale single-pass wind tunnel test to examine the size-dependent collection of particles and the collection and inactivation of viable bovine coronavirus (BCoV, a betacoronavirus), porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV, an alphacoronavirus), and influenza A virus (IAV), by a commercial air purification unit. The tested unit, the Molekule Air Mini, incorporates a MERV 16 filter as well as a photoelectrochemical oxidating layer. It was found to have a collection efficiency above 95.8% for all tested particle diameters and flow rates, with collection efficiencies above 99% for supermicrometer particles with the minimum collection efficiency for particles smaller than 100 nm. For all three tested viruses, the physical tracer-based log reduction was near 2.0 (99% removal). Conversely, the viable virus log reductions were found to be near 4.0 for IAV, 3.0 for BCoV, and 2.5 for PRCV, suggesting additional inactivation in a virus family- and genus-specific manner. In total, this work describes a suite of test methods which can be used to rigorously evaluate the efficacy of recirculating air purification technologies.     

Kinetic and mechanistic investigations of progesterone reaction with ozone

The removal of progesterone by ozone in aqueous solution was studied in this work. The absolute rate constant was evaluated and first by-products were identified. The reaction was studied in the 2.0-8.0 pH range and was found to be a second-order reaction, first-order relative to each compound concentration. The rate constant, determined by kinetic experiments in presence of an OH radical scavenger (tert-butanol), was independent of pH. The value was evaluated to be equal to 480+/-30 M(-1)s(-1) by two kinetic methods. Mass spectrometry analyses were performed to investigate primary degradation products generated by the reaction of ozone with progesterone. Two by-products were evidenced. According to these results, a degradation pathway of progesterone reacting with ozone was proposed.