LIBS-an efficient approach for the determination of Cr in industrial wastewater

In the present paper, LIB spectra of different water samples having varying concentration of Cr (certified reference material, CRM) have been recorded by using liquid jet (fabricated in our laboratory) configuration. Calibration curves for different atomic lines of Cr are compared and it is found that calibration curve for Cr II (283.5 nm) atomic line is the best in terms of the Limit of detection (LOD) which is found to be 30 ppm. This calibration curve has been used for quantification of Cr in wastewater collected from Cr-electroplating industry where the concentration of Cr is found to be 1500 ppm. Its removal can be planned by biological system, which is in progress.     

Polyelectrolyte mediated scalable synthesis of highly stable silver nanocubes in less than a minute using microwave irradiation

Silver nanocubes were synthesized for the first time in large quantities on gold seed in the presence of a polyelectrolyte using microwave heating for 60-120?s. Our experiment indicates that the polyelectrolyte directs the growth of the particle in a specified crystallographic direction resulting in the faceted particle, i.e.?a nanocube. The nanocubes are stable for at least 2 months in ambient conditions.     

Designing a green optical network unit using ARMA-based traffic prediction for quality of service-aware traffic

The optical access networks (OANs) provide an attractive solution to the bandwidth bottleneck problem of the last mile. However, it has been proved (Baliga et al. in J Lightwave Technol 27(13):2391–2403, 2009; Baliga et al. in IEEE Commun Mag 49(6):70–77, 2011) that the OAN consumes a significant ratio of the total energy consumed in an optical networking scenario. This has provided incentive for inspection of energy-efficient schemes for OANs. It has been demonstrated in the literature that energy consumption figures of an OAN can be improved by either designing efficient hardware or employing better media access control (MAC) protocols. In this paper, we design a MAC protocol for OANs to ensure energy-efficiency in the presence of quality of service (QoS)-aware traffic. The proposed scheme incorporates traffic prediction-based selection of different sleep (energy-efficient) modes of operation, of the optical network units—ONUs (OAN end units). It also implements switching between different sleep modes to maintain high QoS with significant energy-efficiency figures. The discussed scheme requires processing at the ONU only and can work independent of the entire OAN (ONU assisted). Thus, our proposal is an attractive solution for the already deployed networks or even in green field deployment.     

Scheduling Algorithms for Star-Coupled WDM Networks with Tunable Transmitter and Tunable Receiver Architecture

This paper presents the design and analysis of two scheduling algorithms for a reservation-based medium access control (MAC) protocol for wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) multi-channel optical networks. The network architecture is based on a passive star topology with one tunable transmitter and receiver (TT-TR) per node. The main objective of scheduling algorithm design is to reduce the computation time while maximizing the utilization of the network resources. In this paper, we propose two scheduling schemes called SEQSAM (SEQuential Scheduling AlgorithM) and BALSAM (BALanced Scheduling AlgorithM). Let M denote the number of nodes, C the number of channels, and K the maximum number of packets transmitted by one node to another. SEQSAM uses the M × M traffic demand matrix--obtained during the reservation phase of the MAC protocol--to compute a collision-free schedule for the nodes of the network. BALSAM uses the modified MULTI-FIT algorithm (MMFT) [1] to convert the M × M matrix into a corresponding M × C matrix, which is input to the IBS (Interval Based Scheduling) algorithm [2] that schedules the requests of the nodes. The overall time complexity of SEQSAM is O(M ³) compared to BALSAM algorithm's time complexity of O(M ² CK + M ² + MlogM). Note that the lower bound for any scheduling algorithm operating on a M × M matrix is O(M ²). A simulation-based performance study that considers network utilization, computation time, tuning latency, average packet latency and throughput for 1.2 Gbps and 2.4 Gbps data streams is presented.     

Numerical modelling of isothermal release and distribution of helium and hydrogen gases inside the AIHMS cylindrical enclosure

Hydrogen is a highly flammable gas and accidental release in confined space can pose serious combustion hazards. Numerical studies are required to assess the formation of flammable hydrogen cloud within confined spaces. In the present study, numerical investigations on the release of helium and hydrogen gases as high-velocity jets and their subsequent distribution inside an unventilated cylindrical enclosure (AIHMS facility) has been carried out as a first step towards numerical studies on hydrogen distribution in confined spaces for safety assessments. Experimental data for jet release of helium at volume Richardson number 0.1 and subsequent distribution has been used as benchmark data. Sensitivity studies on the influence of grid sizes, time-steps and turbulence models are performed. The performance of the validated numerical model is evaluated using statistical performance parameters. Similarity relations are used to determine input parameters for hydrogen jet for corresponding experimental data with helium jets. Finally, the mixing and flammability aspects of hydrogen distribution inside the enclosure are studied using four numerical indices that quantify mixing and deflagration potential of a distribution. It is concluded that the helium experiments can be used for validation of numerical models for hydrogen safety studies and any one of the similarity relationships, viz., equal buoyancy, equal volumetric flow, or equal concentration can be used for assessing the behaviour of hydrogen release and distribution within confined spaces.     

K-DDoS-SDN: A distributed DDoS attacks detection approach for protecting SDN environment

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an advanced networking paradigm that decouples forwarding control logic from the data plane. Therefore, it provides a loosely-coupled architecture between the control and data plane. This separation provides flexibility in the SDN environment for addressing any transformations. Further, it delivers a centralized way of managing networks due to control logic embedded in the SDN controller. However, this advanced networking paradigm has been facing several security issues, such as topology spoofing, exhausting bandwidth, flow table updating, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A DDoS attack is one of the most powerful menaces to the SDN environment. Further, the central data controller of SDN becomes the primary target of DDoS attacks. In this article, we propose a Kafka-based distributed DDoS attacks detection approach for protecting the SDN environment named K-DDoS-SDN. The K-DDoS-SDN consists of two modules: (i) Network traffic classification (NTClassification) module and (ii) Network traffic storage (NTStorage) module. The NTClassification module is the detection approach designed using scalable H2O ML techniques in a distributed manner and deployed an efficient model on the two-nodes Kafka Streams cluster to classify incoming network traces in real-time. The NTStorage module collects raw packets, network flows, and 21 essential attributes and then systematically stores them in the HDFS to re-train existing models. The proposed K-DDoS-SDN designed and evaluated using the recent and publically available CICDDoS2019 dataset. The average classification accuracy of the proposed distributed K-DDoS-SDN for classifying network traces into legitimate and one of the most popular attacks, such as DDoS_UDP is 99.22%. Further, the outcomes demonstrate that proposed distributed K-DDoS-SDN classifies traffic traces into five categories with at least 81% classification accuracy.     

Effect of ferulic acid on inhibition of polyphenoloxidase and quality changes of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) during iced storage

Effects of ferulic acid (FA) on polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and the quality changes of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) during iced storage for 10 days were investigated. Both FA and oxygenated FA (OFA) with different concentrations (0.1%, 0.5%, 1% and 2% (w/v)) showed PPO inhibitory activity in a dose dependent manner. FA was generally more effective in PPO inhibition than was OFA. Based on activity staining, white shrimp PPO with an apparent molecular weight of 210 kDa was inhibited by FA. When whole shrimps were treated with FA solution with concentrations of 1% or 2% and stored in ice for up to 10 days, the increase in psychrophilic and mesophilic bacterial count were retarded, in comparison with the control and those treated with 1.25% sodium metabisulphite (SMS). The coincidental lower rates of increase in pH and total volatile base content were obtained. Additionally, shrimps treated with 2% FA possessed the lowest peroxide value and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value during the storage. After 10 days of storage, shrimps treated with 2% FA had the lower melanosis score and higher score for colour, flavour and overall likeness, compared with the control and SMS treated shrimps (P < 0.05).     

Influence of annealing on p-type Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film by dip coating solution growth technique for the application of solar cell

Thin films of Cu₂ZnSnS₄ have been deposited by solution growth dip coating method. Different Cu/Zn/Sn/S molar ratios were applied, which tells the properties of copper, Zinc, Tin, and Sulfide using X-ray diffraction, UV–vis, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and scanning electron spectroscopy. The pure CZTS thin film showed the phase transformation from Kesterite (tetragonal) to Kesterite (orthorhombic) crystal structure. Optical measurement analysis reveals that layers have relatively high absorption coefficient in the visible spectrum with a band gap reduction of 1.51–1.49?eV with an increase in the annealing temperature from room temperature to 300?°C for 1?h in hot air furnace without any presence of an inert gas. Optical conductivity was observed to increase from 10¹² to 10¹³ (sec)^?1 and electrical conductivity was of the order of 10² (Ω?cm)^?1.     

Electroanalytical studies on cadmium(II) selective potentiometric sensors based on t-butyl thiacalix[4]arene and thiacalix[4]arene in poly(vinyl chloride)

Cd²⁺-selective sensors have been fabricated from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) matrix membranes containing t-butyl thiacalix[4]arene (I) and thiacalix[4]arene (II) as electroactive materials. The addition of sodium tetraphenylborate and the plasticizer 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether has been found to improve the performance of the sensors substantially. The membranes of various compositions of the two thiacalixarenes have been investigated and it was found that the best performance was obtained for the membrane of composition II:PVC:NaTPB:NPOE in the ratio 5:120:3:150. The sensor shows a linear potential response for Cd²⁺ over a wide activity range 3.2 × 10⁻⁶ to 1.0 × 10⁻¹ M with Nernstian compliance (29.5 mV decade⁻¹ of activity) in pH range 4.5-6.5 and a fast response time of ∼8 s. The potentiometric selectivity coefficient values determined by matched potential method indicate excellent selectivity for Cd²⁺ ions over mono-, di- and trivalent interfering cations. The sensor exhibits adequate shelf life (∼3 months) with good reproducibility (S.D. ±0.2 mV) and can also be used in partially non-aqueous media having up to 20% (v/v) methanol, ethanol or acetone content with no significant change in the value of slope or working activity range. The sensor has been used in the potentiometric titration of Cd²⁺ with EDTA. The sensor could be successfully used for the quantification of cadmium in river water samples.