Preliminary observations of the thermodynamic predictions of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys in coal gasifier environments

The construction of thermodynamic stability diagrams for the Fe-Cr-Ni systems is discussed. The constructed diagrams are used to predict materials behavior at coal gasifier oxygen and sulfur potentials. Some preliminary experiments are run to compare predicted results with experimental observations. Powder mixtures of FeS, NiS, and Cr ₂ O ₃ are used to observe the formation of the iron-chromia and nickel-chromia spinels at 871° C. Only the iron-chromia spinel was observed. No spinels were observed on 310 stainless steel samples exposed to the same environment.Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract W-7405-ENG-48.     

Performance of an MEG adaptive-beamformer source reconstruction technique in the presence of additive low-rank interference

The influence of external interference on neuromagnetic source reconstruction by adaptive beamformer techniques was investigated. In our analysis, we assume that the interference has the following two properties: First, it is additive and uncorrelated with brain activity. Second, its temporal behavior can be characterized by a few distinct activities, and as a result, the spatio-temporal matrix of the interference has a few distinctly large singular values. Namely, the interference can be modeled as a low-rank signal. Under these assumptions, our analysis shows that the adaptive beamformer techniques are insensitive to interference when its spatial singular vectors are so different from a lead field vector of a brain source that the generalized cosine between these two vectors is much smaller than unity. Four types of numerical examples verifying this conclusion are presented.     

Landslide hazard susceptibility mapping based on terrain and climatic factors for tropical monsoon regions

 Deep weathering, residual material (colluvium) and random rainfall intensity are mainly responsible for landslides in tropical monsoon regions. These parameters are often not taken into consideration in a landslide susceptibility assessment. Sustainable resources development in this region requires information on the spatial distribution of areas susceptible to landslides. This study highlights various aspects of the landslides that take place on the west coast of India and a methodology developed for landslide susceptibility mapping. Received: 12 August 1998 · Accepted: 15 August 1999     

Antioxidant activity of lettuce tree (Pisonia morindifolia R.Br.) and tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica L.) and their efficacy in peanut oil stability

Different solvent extracts of lettuce tree (Pisonia morindifolia R. Br.) and tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica L.) were tested for antioxidant activities. The extracts exhibited effective reducing power and higher radical scavenging efficacy against DPPH and hydroxyl radicals. They also showed metal chelating ability and inhibited peroxidation in the β-carotene/linoleic acid emulsion system. The extracts contained considerable levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, total phenolics, tannins, and total flavonoids estimated through standard spectrophotometric methods. As the acetone and methanol extracts of lettuce and tamarind tree recorded pronounced activities, their protective effects in stabilizing peanut oil were tested in terms of their peroxide value, free fatty acid contents, and p-anisidine values in comparison with the synthetic antioxidants butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene. Additionally, the antioxidant activity of the extract-treated oil samples and their phenolic contents were monitored to obtain a complete perspective of the influence of the phenolic compounds in oil stability. Results indicated that the selected leafy vegetables, besides acting as good sources of antioxidants, may serve as substitute for synthetic antioxidants in the stabilization of peanut oil.     

Dual tree fractional quaternion wavelet transform for disparity estimation

This paper proposes a novel phase based approach for computing disparity as the optical flow from the given pair of consecutive images. A new dual tree fractional quaternion wavelet transform (FrQWT) is proposed by defining the 2D Fourier spectrum upto a single quadrant. In the proposed FrQWT, each quaternion wavelet consists of a real part (a real DWT wavelet) and three imaginary parts that are organized according to the quaternion algebra. First two FrQWT phases encode the shifts of image features in the absolute horizontal and vertical coordinate system, while the third phase has the texture information. The FrQWT allowed a multi-scale framework for calculating and adjusting local disparities and executing phase unwrapping from coarse to fine scales with linear computational efficiency.     

CO Adsorption Characteristics on Impurity Substituted In<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Nanostructures: A Density Functional Theory Investigation

The structural stability, adsorption characteristics of CO on In₂O₃ base material and electronic properties of pure, N and Ga substituted cubic In₂O₃ nanostructures are optimized and simulated successfully using density functional theory with B3LYP/LanL2DZ basis set. The structural stabilities of In₂O₃ nanostructures are discussed using calculated energy. The electronic properties of In₂O₃ nanostructures are studied in terms of HOMO–LUMO gap, electron affinity and ionization potential. Point symmetry and dipole moment of In₂O₃ nanostructures are also reported. Adsorption characteristics of CO can be fine-tuned with proper substitution impurities such as N and Ga on In₂O₃ nanostructure. The adsorption characteristics of CO are explored with density of states and Mulliken population analysis. Moreover, nitrogen substituted In₂O₃ nanostructure enhances CO adsorption characteristics on In₂O₃ nanostructures. The proper adsorption sites of CO on cubic In₂O₃ nanostructures are identified and reported. The results of the present work give a clear vision on the adsorption characteristics of CO on In₂O₃ nanostructures.     

The impact of process variations on input impedance and mitigation using a circuit technique in FinFET-based LNA

The effect of process variations of a FinFET-based low noise amplifier (LNA) are mitigated by using the device in an independently driven mode, i.e. an independently driven double gate (IDDG) FinFET. A 45 nm gate length IDDG FinFET-based cascoded LNA, operating at 5 GHz, is designed and studied to assess the impact of process variation on the LNA performance metrics such as input impedance, gain and noise figure. Four geometrical parameters, gate length, channel width, gate oxide thickness and fin width, and one non-geometrical parameter, channel doping concentration, are considered in the study. The effect of these variations on the input impedance (the desired value is 50 Ω purely real) of the LNA is compensated by the second gate bias of the IDDG FinFET.     

Assessment of crtRB1 Polymorphism Associated with Increased β-Carotene Content in Maize (Zea mays L.) Seeds

Breeding for increasing β-carotene levels in maize (Zea mays L.) kernel aims to address the dietary vitamin A deficiency. Due to 3’TE polymorphism, the crtRB1gene (that encodes β -carotene hydroxylase 1) exists in the three allelic forms, viz., 3’TE allele 1 (termed favorable allele, for it favors higher β-carotene accumulation in kernels), 3’TE allele 2 and 3’TE allele 3 (both termed unfavorable alleles, for they do not favor β-carotene accumulation). Here, we aimed to identify maize lines with favorable allele. First, 3’TE polymorphism assay in 210 inbreds revealed that only “UMI 176” had the favorable allele while the rest had the unfavorable alleles, confirming the previous finding that favorable allele is rare in frequency. Second, β-carotene content analysis in 24 inbreds revealed that it varied from 4.5 to 7.92 (μg/g), 0.23 to 2, and 0.42 to 4.22 for lines with allele 1, 2, and 3 respectively, corroborating the previous findings that the presence of favorable allele correlates with higher β-carotene content. In summary, UMI 176 has the favorable allele and had the highest amount of β-carotene content (7.92 μg/g), indicating that it is a promising donor line that can be utilized in β-carotene biofortification breeding.     

Measuring elastic constants of Hevea brasiliensis using compression and Iosipescu shear test

The increasing demand and widespread utility of wood composite products necessitate the knowledge of the orthotropic engineering and strength properties of the raw wood used for its safe design and effective performance. This research study aimed at finding the orthotropic elastic parameters of a sustainable timber in India, namely rubber wood (Hevea brasiliensis) with respect to the material axes longitudinal (L), radial (R) and tangential (T), which is a potential raw material for laminated products as verified. This study evaluated the three Young’s moduli, the three shear moduli and the six Poisson’s ratios of the wood species, unavailable in literature. Compression test in rectangular prism was used for the determination of the Young’s moduli and Poisson’s ratios. Shear characterization in the three material planes was done using the Iosipescu test. The highest value of normal stiffness of the material in compression was obtained in the longitudinal direction followed by radial stiffness and tangential stiffness. The shear stiffness was largest in the LR plane followed by LT and RT planes. RT plane exhibited the highest Poisson’s ratio and TL plane the lowest. Significant difference was noted in the shear strength of LR planes between block shear test and Iosipescu test but not with the LT planes.     

Sunscreen Ingredient Octocrylene’s Potency to Disrupt Vitamin D Synthesis

Octocrylene is a widely used ingredient in sunscreen products, and it has been observed that the use of sunscreen has been increasing over the last few decades. In this paper, we investigated the way in which sunscreen’s ingredient octocrylene may disrupt normal vitamin D synthesis pathway, resulting in an imbalance in vitamin D levels in the body. The key techniques used for this insilico investigation were molecular docking, molecular dynamic (MD) simulation, and MMPBSA-based assessment. Vitamin D abnormalities have become very common in human health. Unknown exposure to chemicals may be one of the important risk factors. In molecular docking analysis, octocrylene exhibited a binding energy of −11.52 kcal/mol with vitamin D binding protein (1KXP) and −11.71 for the calcitriol native ligand. Octocrylene had a binding potency of −11.152 kcal/mol with the vitamin D receptor (1DB1), and calcitriol had a binding potency of −8.73 kcal/mol. In addition, octocrylene has shown binding energy of −8.96 kcal/mol with CYP2R1, and the calcitriol binding energy was −10.36 kcal/mol. Regarding stability, the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD), the root-mean-square fluctuation (RMSF), the radius of gyration, hydrogen bonding, and the solvent-accessible surface area (SASA) exhibited that octocrylene has a stable binding pattern similar to calcitriol. These findings revealed that incessant exposure to octocrylene may disrupt normal vitamin D synthesis.