Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using Amygdalus scoparia Spach stem bark extract and their applications as an alternative antimicrobial,anticancer, and anti-diabetic agent

For the first time in this study, Zinc oxide nanoparticles were biosynthesized by the eco-friendly and cost-effective procedure using Amygdalus scoparia stem bark extract then used as antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and anti-diabetic agents. The characterization techniques confirmed the biosynthesis, crystalline nature, structure, size, elemental composition of ZnO NPs and bioactive compounds that exist in A. scoparia extract accounting for Zn²⁺ ion reduction, capping and stabilization of ZnO NPs. The ZnO NPs displayed remarkable inhibitory activity against E. coli, E. aerigenes, S. aureus, P. oryzae, F. thapsinum, and F. semitectum compared to antibiotic standards. The ZnO NPs showed significant inhibitory effects on cancer cell lines, while it had no toxic effect on Vero normal cell line. The ZnO NPs (30 mg/kg)-treated diabetic rats showed significantly higher levels of insulin and lower AST, ALT and blood glucose compared with the STZ induced diabetic group and other treated groups (P < 0.05). The ZnO NPs- and extract-treated rats showed significantly higher levels of IR, GluT2, and GCK expression and lower TNFα expression compared with the STZ induced diabetic rats. Our findings showed that ZnO NPs represented an outstanding performance for biological applications.     

Closed-Form Analysis of Various Diversity Techniques for Multiband OFDM UWB System Over Log-Normal Fading Channels

Wireless Personal Communications - In this paper, we investigate the effect of multipath fading on the combined signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in conjunction with multiband orthogonal frequency...     

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.     

Calf massager: Intervention for body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing

Many occupations require workers to stand for long periods of time without proper interventions, which causes discomfort in the back and lower limbs. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness in alleviating body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing through the use of a calf massager. This study was conducted among male workers at a manufacturer with production line workers and the list was obtained from the HR Department and simple random sampling was done by number categorization. A total of 100 respondents (50 respondents for both the control and the experimental groups) participated in this study. The experiment took place in a room with a similar setup for the production line. Each respondent was requested to perform the simulated task for 2 hr. For the experimental group, the calf massager was turned on every 15 min. At every 15‐min interval after turning on the calf massager, respondents from both groups were required to evaluate their discomfort level on a Borg's scale CR‐10 questionnaire. The results showed that the level of body discomfort among respondents in the experimental group reduced (20–30%) compared with that of the control group. Multivariate analysis results revealed that the discomfort rating for the lower back, knees, thighs, calves, and feet was significantly lower (p < .05) among the experimental group compared with the control group. For lower body parts, the lower back region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 90th, 105th, and 120th min; the thigh region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 120th min; the knee region was statistically significant (p < .05) at the 105th and 120th min; the calf region was statistically significant (p < .05) at all minute intervals except the 15th and 45th min, while the feet region, was statistically significant at the 105th and 120th min. Therefore, this study indicates that calf massage treatment is capable of reducing body muscle discomfort during prolonged standing and highlights the significance of calf massage.     

Deionization shocks in crossflow

Shock electrodialysis is a recently developed electrochemical water treatment method that shows promise for water deionization and ionic separations. Although simple models and scaling laws have been proposed, a predictive theory has not yet emerged to fit experimental data and enable system design. Here, we extend and analyze existing “leaky membrane” models for the canonical case of a steady shock in crossflow, as in recent experimental prototypes. Two-dimensional numerical solutions are compared with analytical boundary-layer approximations and experimental data. The boundary-layer theory accurately reproduces the simulation results for desalination, and both models predict the data collapse of the desalination factor with dimensionless current, scaled to the incoming convective flux of cations. The numerical simulation also predicts the water recovery increase with current. Nevertheless, neither approach can quantitatively fit the transition from normal to over-limiting current, which suggests gaps in our understanding of extreme electrokinetic phenomena in porous media.     

Facile synthesis and characterization of ZnO NPs,ZnO/CdO and ZnO/SnO2 nanocomposites for photocatalytic degradation of Eosin Yellow and Direct Blue 15 under UV light irradiation

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In the present report, the synthesis of ZnO NPs, ZnO/CdO NCs, and ZnO/SnO2 NCs was successfully achieved by co-precipitation technique. The...     

The impact of baking conditions on physico-chemical characteristics influencing topography and appearance aspects of polyurethane coatings

The appearance aspects of an electrodeposited polyurethane-based coating as a function of baking condition were investigated. Specular gloss and color was measured as a mean to trace the changes of the surface topography due to baking conditions. Atomic force microscopy combined with FTIR spectroscopic investigations showed that the shrinkage occurred due to the high baking temperature results in surface roughness. Films baked at higher temperature form higher-T_g networks. The color was changed to yellow as the baking temperature was raised.     

Synthesis and characterization of functionalized carbon nanotubes with different wetting behaviors and their influence on the wetting properties of carbon nanotubes/polymethylmethacrylate coatings

The synthesis and characterization of hydrophobic functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were investigated and their influence on the wetting properties of organic coatings and composites was studied. Functionalization was performed using oxidation, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, and silanization. Silanization was conducted using three hydrophobic silane precursors: 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrimethoxysilane, 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltrimethoxysilane, and triethoxyoctylsilane. Functionalization was directly confirmed and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The water contact angle of the functionalized MWCNTs was 40–142° for different surface functionalities and the functionalized MWCNTs were incorporated into an acidic solution of polymethylmethacrylate. The effect of surface functionality and the concentration of the functionalized MWCNTs on the wetting properties of these composites were studied by measuring the water contact angle. Under optimum conditions, composite surfaces with water contact angles greater than 110° were obtained. Atomic force microscopy was used to determine the topography of the surface and energy dispersion spectroscopy was used to determine the distribution of the functionalized MWCNTs in the composite film. It was shown that the hydrophobic functionalized MWCNTs migrated to the surface; this was more pronounced for the more hydrophobic MWCNTs.