Structural Evolution of Q-Carbon and Nanodiamonds

This article provides insights pertaining to the first-order phase transformation involved in the growth of densely packed Q-carbon and nanodiamonds by nanosecond laser melting and quenching of diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films. DLC films with different sp³ content were melted rapidly in a controlled way in super-undercooled state and quenched, leading to formation of distinct nanostructures, i.e., nanodiamonds, Q-carbon, and Q-carbon nanocomposites. This analysis provides direct evidence of the dependence of the super-undercooling on the structural evolution of Q-carbon. Finite element heat flow calculations showed that the super-undercooling varies monotonically with the sp³ content. The phenomenon of solid–liquid interfacial instability during directional solidification from the melt state is studied in detail. The resulting lateral segregation leads to formation of cellular filamentary Q-carbon nanostructures. The dependence of the cell size and wavelength at the onset of instability on the sp³ content of DLC thin films was modeled based on perturbation theory.     

Carbohydrate crosslinked biocompatible polyurethanes: Synthesis,characterization, and drug delivery studies

A series of novel polyurethanes (PUs) with carbohydrate crosslinkers was synthesized. The drug loading and release kinetics were studied by using lamotrigine as a model drug. The polymers were designed in such a way that the drug release was tailored by differences in the stoichiometry of polymers. All the PUs were characterized for thermal and morphological properties by using differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscope , respectively. The encapsulation of drug inside PU matrix was confirmed via Fourier transform ‐ infrared (FT‐IR) spectra and scanning electron microscope . The kinetics and release mechanisms were observed to be a function of stoichiometric parameters such as type of crosslinker, polyol/crosslinker ratio and polyol/chain extender ratio. All the PUs were observed to be non‐cytotoxic in normal lung cell line L132. The synthesized PUs exhibited good mechanical strength, tunable release rates and biocompatibility that can be utilized in biomedical applications like wound dressing, biomedical implants , and drug delivery carriers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42223.     

Protein degradation by ERp72 from rat and mouse liver endoplasmic reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident protein, ER60, is a member of the protein disulfide-isomerase family and contains two copies of the internal thioredoxin motif, CGHC. Previously, ER60 was identified as a cysteine protease and named ER-60 protease (Urade, R., Nasu, M., Moriyama, T., Wada, K., and Kito, M. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 15152-15159; Urade, R., and Kito, M. (1992) FEBS Lett. 312, 83-86). Here, ERp72, the other member of the protein disulfide-isomerase family containing three CGHC motifs, was isolated from ER of rat and mouse livers through four sequential chromatographies on DEAE-Toyopearl 650, AF-heparin Toyopearl 650M, and TSK gel G3000SW twice. The purified rat protein was found to be homogeneous on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, not being contaminated by ER-60 protease, as judged on immunoblot analysis using an anti-ER-60 protease antibody. The partial amino acid sequence of rat ERp72 was 93% homologous to that of mouse ERp72. The purified rat ERp72 degraded other ER resident proteins such as protein disulfide-isomerase and calreticulin. The purified mouse ERp72 also degraded those proteins. Though rat ERp72 did not basically require Ca2+ for the reaction, the degradation of protein disulfide-isomerase was enhanced, but the degradation of calreticulin was inhibited in the presence of Ca2+. The proteolytic activity of rat ERp72 was inhibited by cysteine protease inhibitors. Its sensitivity to protease inhibitors was the same as that of ER-60 protease. In addition, the proteolytic activity of rat ERp72 was inhibited by acidic phospholipids, also similar to ER-60 protease. Therefore, we propose that ERp72 be named ER-72 protease.     

A Hybrid Fractal Metamaterial Inspired Multiband Antenna for Wireless Applications

Wireless Personal Communications - In this paper a multiband (hepta-band) antenna loaded with hybrid fractal structures and metamaterial cell (SRR/CSRR) is proposed to cover the wireless...     

Sequency codes for palmprint recognition

This paper presents a new palmprint scheme named as Sequency code (SeqC) which exploits symmetric and asymmetric Gabor filtered responses at different orientations. Concatenation of the zero crossings of these symmetric and asymmetric Gabor responses is performed, and bit transition among concatenated zero crossings is counted at corresponding locations to compute Sequency plane, Seq. Finally, Seq is encoded into Sequency code bit plane features SeqC. The Sequency code requires less computations and time in feature extraction process because of its simple fusion strategy. Performance of Sequency code is validated by carrying out large number of experiments with three different standard databases, i.e., PolyU 2D, PolyU 2nd version, IITD, and Multispectral databases.     

Tunable Emission in Heteroepitaxial Ln‐SURMOFs

By using a layer‐by‐layer (LbL) approach, lanthanide‐based, monolithic metal–organic framework (MOF) thin films are fabricated for optical applications. In particular, the LbL approach allows manufacturing of heteroepitaxial Tb(III)‐Eu(III)(BTC) coatings with precise thickness control. Adjusting the Tb(III)‐to‐Eu(III) ratio allows tuning of the emission color. The hetero‐multilayer architecture makes it possible to suppress the direct Tb(III)‐to‐Eu(III) energy transfer, an unwanted phenomenon present in the corresponding mixed‐metal bulk MOF structures. The resulting Ln‐MOF thin films, or Ln‐surface‐anchored MOFs (SURMOFs), are characterized by X‐ray diffraction, infra‐red reflection absorption spectroscopy, UV–vis, and photoluminescence measurements. The results demonstrate that the heteroepitaxial SURMOF architectures carry huge potential for fabricating optical coatings for a wide range of applications.     

A vertex‐fed hexa‐band frequency reconfigurable antenna for wireless applications

Present article embodies the design and analysis of an octagonal shaped split ring resonator based multiband antenna fed at vertex for wireless applications with frequency‐band reconfigurable characteristics. The proposed antenna is printed on FR4 substrate with electrical dimension of 0.4884 λ × 0.4329 λ × 0.0178 λ (44 × 39 × 1.6 mm³), at lower frequency of 3.33 GHz. The antenna consists of SRR based vertex fed octagonal ring as the radiation element and switchable reclined L‐shaped slotted ground plane. Antenna achieves six bands for wireless standards viz: upper WLAN (5.0/5.8 GHz), lower WiMAX (3.3 GHz), super extended C‐band (6.6 GHz), middle X band (9.9 GHz—for space communication), and lower K_U band (15.9 GHz—for satellite communication systems operating band). Stable radiation patterns are observed for the operating bands with low cross polarization. The proposed design achieves hexa band characteristics during switching ON state of PIN diode located at reclined L‐shaped slot in the ground plane. Experimental characteristic of antenna shows close agreement with those obtained by simulation of the proposed antenna.     

Predictive modeling of multi-track laser hardening of AISI 4140 steel

Laser hardening provides benefits over the conventional hardening processes, including minimum distortion in the parts and the absence of a quenchant. This process is also faster than conventional hardening processes and can be used for selective hardening of specific areas of components. One known problem with laser hardening in steels, however, is back tempering when a large area is hardened by multiple, overlapping passes. This study focused on the development of a numerical model to predict the back tempering in multi-track laser hardening. A tempering model was combined with existing models of thermal behavior and phase change kinetics, which were developed earlier in the authors’ group, to predict three-dimensional hardness profiles after multiple track laser hardening. The combined model was first validated through multi-track laser hardening tests and then used to predict and optimize the laser hardened case depth in multi-track laser hardening of AISI 4140 steel. The predictions and parameters optimized to obtain maximum case depth with the least variation along width of the hardened zone were experimentally verified. Case depths up to 2 mm were obtained with 5 mm overlapping of laser tracks.