K–La–MgO as heterogeneous catalyst for synthesis of 3-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one from diethanol amine and carbon dioxide

Cost-effective valorization of carbon dioxide into bulk and specialty chemicals using catalysis will be attractive in the foreseeable future. 1,3-Oxazolidin-2-one derivatives are one of the important classes of heterocyclic compounds which have wide applications in pharmaceutical industries due to their biological activities such as antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiseptic. Various synthetic routes are employed to prepare these compounds which include phosgenation, oxidative carbonylation, etc., which make use of polluting chemicals and homogeneous catalysts. The heterogeneous catalytic processes to synthesize these derivatives are quite limited. Thus, developing a green route which is environmental friendly is highly desirable. The current work deals with development of a heterogeneous reusable catalyst and its application to synthesize 1,3-oxazolidin-2-one derivatives using carbon dioxide as a C1 source. The fact that no use of promoter or organic co-catalyst is made in the current process makes the synthesis route more favorable. Pure La–MgO and K–La–MgO with different K loading (1, 3, 5, and 7 wt%) synthesized by combustion route were screened for carbonylation of diethanol amine. 5% K–La–MgO was found to be the best catalyst. The catalyst was well characterized in virgin form and after use by various analytical techniques like TEM, SEM, XRD, CO₂ and NH₃-TPD, BET surface area analysis. With 5% K–La/MgO, 72% conversion of diethanol amine was achieved with 100% selectivity of the desired product at optimum conditions, i.e., 150 °C, 5 wt% K–La/MgO catalyst loading of 0.02 g/cm³ and 2.0 MPa CO₂ pressure. Reaction mechanism was proposed and kinetic model developed. The apparent activation energy was calculated as 18.76 kcal/mol. The catalyst was robust and recyclable. The process is clean and green.     

Development of Cu particles and Cu core-shell particles reinforced Al composite

Copper particles were incorporated and retained in elemental state in an aluminium matrix by friction stir processing thereby producing a non-equilibrium particulate composite. The processed Al–Cu_p composite exhibited improved strength with significantly high ductility. The composite was stable up to a temperature of more than 300°C. Thermal exposure at 350°C for more than 10 min led to diffusion of Cu atoms into the Al matrix forming a core-shell type structure in the Cu particles and thus producing an Al–Cu core-shell composite. The shell consists of multiple layers, the thickness of which was controllable.     

A methodology to model the information structure of an organization

The Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) program of the U.S. Air Force identified a need to better communicate and analyze manufacturing for the people involved in improving productivity. To satisfy that need, the ICAM program developed the IDEF (ICAM Definition) method to address particular characteristics of manufacturing. This IDEF method is equally applicable in analyzing other types of organizations. IDEF comprises three modeling methodologies: function model methodology (IDEF₀), information model methodology (IDEF₁) and dynamics model methodology (IDEF₂). This paper reports on the Information model methodology only. This methodology is used to construct an information model that helps in understanding the structure of information needed to support the functions of an organization.     

Photoreceptor Cells Constitutively Express IL-35 and Promote Ocular Immune Privilege

Interleukin-27 is constitutively secreted by microglia in the retina or brain, and upregulation of IL-27 during neuroinflammation suppresses encephalomyelitis and autoimmune uveitis. However, while IL-35 is structurally and functionally similar to IL-27, the intrinsic roles of IL-35 in CNS tissues are unknown. Thus, we generated IL-35/YFP-knock-in reporter mice (p35-KI) and demonstrated that photoreceptor neurons constitutively secrete IL-35, which might protect the retina from persistent low-grade inflammation that can impair photoreceptor functions. Furthermore, the p35-KI mouse, which is hemizygous at the il12a locus, develops more severe uveitis because of reduced IL-35 expression. Interestingly, onset and exacerbation of uveitis in p35-KI mice caused by extravasation of proinflammatory Th1/Th17 lymphocytes into the retina were preceded by a dramatic decrease of IL-35, attributable to massive death of photoreceptor cells. Thus, while inflammation-induced death of photoreceptors and loss of protective effects of IL-35 exacerbated uveitis, our data also suggest that constitutive production of IL-35 in the retina might have housekeeping functions that promote sterilization immunity in the neuroretina and maintain ocular immune privilege.     

Thermal instability of rotating nanofluid layer

In the present paper we have considered thermal instability of rotating nanofluids heated from below. Linear stability analysis has been made to investigate analytically the effect of rotation. The more important effect of Brownian motion and thermophoresis has been included in the model of nanofluid. Galerkin method is used to obtain the analytical expression for both non-oscillatory and oscillatory cases, when boundaries surfaces are free–free. The influence of various nanofluids parameters and rotation on the onset of convection has been analysed. It has been shown that the rotation has a stabilizing effect depending upon the values of various nanofluid parameters. The critical Rayleigh number for the onset of instability is determined numerically and results are depicted graphically. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of over stability are also obtained.     

Amperometric determination of tyramine in sauce and beer by epoxy resin biocomposite membrane bound tyramine oxidase

A method is described for construction of an amperometric biosensor for specific determination of tyramine, using black gram tyramine oxidase immobilized covalently on an epoxy resin membrane. The biosensor had optimum response within 10 s at pH 8.5 and 35 °C. A linear relationship was observed between tyramine concentrations and current (mA) in the range of 0.24 to 3.47 mg/dL. The biosensor was employed for determination of tyramine in beer and sauce. The detection limit of sensor was 0.24 mg/dL. The mean analytical recovery of added tyramine (0.5 and 1.0 mg/dL) was 97.3 ± 2.3 and 95.9 ± 3.4%. Within and between batch coefficient of variation were 5.1 and 5.34%, respectively. Enzyme electrode showed 35% loss in its initial activity after its regular use over a period of 2 months. The biosensor has the advantage that it does not suffer from leaching of enzyme and measures tyramine specifically.     

Determination of the flow stress of five AHSS sheet materials (DP 600, DP 780, DP 780-CR,DP 780-HY and TRIP 780) using the uniaxial tensile and the biaxial Viscous Pressure Bulge (VPB) tests

Room temperature uniaxial tensile and biaxial Viscous Pressure Bulge (VPB) tests were conducted for five Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) sheet materials, and the resulting flow stress curves were compared. Strain ratios (R-values) were also determined in the tensile test and used to correct the biaxial flow stress curves for anisotropy. The pressure vs. dome height raw data in the VPB test was extrapolated to the burst pressure to obtain the flow stress curve until fracture. Results of this work show that the flow stress data can be obtained to higher strain values under biaxial state of stress. Moreover, it was observed that some materials behave differently if subjected to different state of stress. These two conclusions, and the fact that the state of stress in actual stamping processes is almost always biaxial, suggest that the bulge test is a more suitable test for obtaining the flow stress of AHSS sheet materials for use as an input to Finite Element (FE) simulation models.     

Resolving Deep Sub-Wavelength Scattering of Nanoscale Sidewalls Using Parametric Microscopy

The quantitative optical measurement of deep sub-wavelength features with sub-nanometer sensitivity addresses the measurement challenge in the semiconductor fabrication process. Optical scatterings from the sidewalls of patterned devices reveal abundant structural and material information. We demonstrated a parametric indirect microscopic imaging (PIMI) technique that enables recovery of the profile of wavelength-scale objects with deep sub-wavelength resolution, based on measuring and filtering the variations of far-field scattering intensities when the illumination was modulated. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical simulation was performed, and the experimental results were compared with atomic force microscopic (AFM) images to verify the resolution improvement achieved with PIMI. This work may provide a new approach to exploring the detailed structure and material properties of sidewalls and edges in semiconductor-patterned devices with enhanced contrast and resolution, compared with using the conventional optical microscopy, while retaining its advantage of a wide field of view and relatively low cost.     

Considering the fault dependency concept with debugging time lag in software reliability growth modeling using a power function of testing time

Since the early 1970s tremendous growth has been seen in the research of software reliability growth modeling.In general, software reliability growth models (SRGMs) are applicable to the late stages of testing in software development and they can provide useful information about how to improve the reliability of software products.A number of SRGMs have been proposed in the literature to represent time-dependent fault identification/removal phenomenon;still new models are being proposed that could fit a greater number of reliability growth curves.Often,it is assumed that detected faults axe immediately corrected when mathematical models are developed.This assumption may not be realistic in practice because the time to remove a detected fault depends on the complexity of the fault,the skill and experience of the personnel,the size of the debugging team,the technique,and so on.Thus,the detected fault need not be immediately removed,and it may lag the fault detection process by a delay effect factor.In this paper,we first review how different software reliability growth models have been developed,where fault detection process is dependent not only on the number of residual fault content but also on the testing time,and see how these models can be reinterpreted as the delayed fault detection model by using a delay effect factor.Based on the power function of the testing time concept,we propose four new SRGMs that assume the presence of two types of faults in the software:leading and dependent faults.Leading faults are those that can be removed upon a failure being observed.However,dependent faults are masked by leading faults and can only be removed after the corresponding leading fault has been removed with a debugging time lag.These models have been tested on real software error data to show its goodness of fit,predictive validity and applicability.