Boost antimicrobial effect of CTAB-capped NixCu1−xO (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.05) nanoparticles by reformed optical and dielectric characters

Chemical doping and coating have been considered as efficient semiconductor physics strategies to modulate the physical, chemical, and biological properties of materials for the required applications. In this study, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) stabilizer-capped nickel-doped cupric oxide (Ni_xCu_1?xO) nanoparticles (NPs) with different doping concentrations (0.0?≤?x?≤?0.05) were synthesized via a one-step rapid and low-cost solvothermal synthesis route. The as-synthesized CTAB-capped Ni_xCu_1?xO NPs have been sightseen for their structural/morphological, optical/dielectric, and antimicrobial properties using XRD/SEM/TEM, FT-IR/UV–visible/Impedance spectroscopies, and Agar well diffusion method, respectively. Relevant results show enhanced optical, dielectric and antimicrobial properties with Ni doping due to the smaller size effect. Importantly, in vitro examination, the antimicrobial activity of the grown NPs was evaluated against four microbial species, exhibits that the CTAB-capped Ni-doped CuO NPs possess a command antimicrobial toxicity to Staphylococcus aureus (25923-ATCC), Klebsiella pneumoniae (700603-ATCC), and Escherichia coli (25922-ATCC) and an intermediate performance towards Candida albicans (24433-ATCC). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay for the obtained CTAB-Ni_0.05Cu_0.95O sample upon S. aureus or K. pneumoniae pathogens reaches extremely as low as 5 μg ml^?1 for all reported CuO NPs. The improved dose-dependent antimicrobial effect has been found to be strongly dependent on the particle size, surface morphology, elemental compositions, and surface bio-functionality of the catalytic nanomaterials. Additionally, Ni-dopant, CTAB-stabilizer, and binding of Cu⁺/Cu²⁺ ions with respiratory enzymes collectively produce an excess amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the bacterial culture medium, which determines a predominant antibacterial mechanism for bacterial cells damage. Overall, these inorganic (Ni_xCu_1?xO) NPs with antimicrobial cationic surfactant (CTAB) have advantages to use as a functionalized disinfection nanoagent to control the microbial infections in the healthcare sector together with various electronic and photonic medical diagnoses.

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Parameter Optimization of Rotary Ultrasonic Machining on Quartz Glass Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

In the current research, rotary ultrasonic machining was used to drill holes in quartz material. The effect of different RUM parameters namely tool feed rate, tool rotational speed and ultrasonic power on material removal rate and surface roughness has been studied experimentally. The response surface methodology with central composite design has been used to design the experiments. From the desirability approach, the optimum setting of the rotary ultrasonic machining parameters was found to be the tool rotational speed of 4968 rpm, feed rate of 0.55 mm/min, and ultrasonic power of 80% for achieving the maximum MRR of 0.2135 mm3/s and minimum SR of 0.3685 μm. Microstructure analysis of the machined surface was performed by using scanning electron microscopy in order to study the mechanisms of material removal under the different settings of RUM parameters. It was observed that at very low feed (0.08 mm/min) and high rpm (5681) the material is predominantly removed by plastic deformation whereas at high feed (0.92 mm/min) and low rpm (2318) the material is removed by brittle fracture.     

Optimization of arsenite removal by adsorption onto organically modified montmorillonite clay: Experimental & theoretical approaches

Arsenic is a critical contaminant for aqueous environments as it poses harmful health risks. To meet the stringent regulations regarding the presence of arsenic in aqueous solutions, the feasibility of montmorillonite clay modified with hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride as the adsorbent was tested for the removal of arsenic ions from aqueous solutions. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study confirmed that the organically modified nanoclay (ONC) adsorbent had a porous structure with a vast adsorbent surface.The x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis proved the presence of carbon in the structure of the modified nanoclay that can be evidence for the creation of ONC. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results confirm the existence of four main groups of minerals, carbonate (Calcite), clay (Askmtyt and Kandyt), silicate (Quartz), and phyllosilicate (Kaolinite), in the ONC structure.The influence of various parameters such as solution pH, adsorbent dosage, initial arsenite concentration, and contact time on arsenic adsorption onto ONC was investigated. A 2⁵ full factorial central composite experimental design was applied. A central composite design under response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the effects of independent variables on arsenite removal and to determine the optimum condition. The experimental values were in a good fit with the ones predicted by the model. The optimal operating points (adsorbent dosage: 3.7 g L^?1, surfactant dosage: 3 g L^?1 and the contact time: 37.2min) giving maximum arsenite removal (95.95%) were found using Solver “Add-ins” in Microsoft Excel 2010.     

Automating test oracles from restricted natural language agile requirements

Manual testing of software requirements written in natural language for agile or any other methodology requires more time and human resources. This leaves the testing process error prone and time consuming. For satisfied end users with bug‐free software delivered on time, there is a need to automate the test oracle process for natural language or informal requirements. The automation of the test oracle is relatively easier with formal requirements, but this task is difficult to achieve with natural language requirements. This study proposes an approach called Restricted Natural Language Agile Requirements Testing (ReNaLART) to automate the test oracle from restricted natural language agile requirements. For this purpose, it uses an existing user story template with some modifications for writing user stories. This helps in identifying test input and expected output for a user story. For comparison of expected and observed outputs it makes use of a regex pattern and string distance functions. It is capable of assigning different types of verdicts automatically depending upon the similarity/dissimilarity between observed and expected outputs of user stories. ReNaLART is validated using several case studies of different domains, namely, OLX Pakistan, Mental Health Tests, McDelivery Pakistan, BlueStacks, Power Searching with Google, TensorFlow Playground, w3Schools 2018 offline and Touch'D. It revealed several faults in five of the above listed eight applications. Plus, the proposed test oracle on an average took 0.02 s for test data generation, expected output generation and verdict assignment. Both these facts show the fault revealing effectiveness and efficiency of ReNaLART.     

Position-based routing in vehicular networks: A survey

Routing in vehicular network is a challenging task due to network partitioning, high vehicular speed, and city environment characteristics. These characteristics results in degraded performance in traditional routing protocols. Traditional routing protocols, addressing the issues of mobile ad hoc network, are applicable for MANET applications. Position-based routing protocols, which are mostly based on greedy routing, are more suited to highly dynamic and mobile network. In this paper, we survey state of art routing protocols previously used in vehicular networks, present open research challenges and possible future direction. We categorize protocols into two categories based on their communicating mode (vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure) irrespective of their simulating environment (highway, urban). Both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication provides connectivity based on multi-hop paradigm in a seamless way. We discuss pros and cons for routing protocols belonging to each category. By doing qualitative comparison of routing protocols, it is observed that hybrid communication would be the better choice for both communication mode operable in either a city environment or an open environment.     

High temperature pretreatment and hydrolysis of cotton stalk for producing sugars for bioethanol production

The aim of this work was to evaluate cotton stalk (waste plant material after harvesting the cotton) as feedstock for bioethanol production. Different pretreatment strategies were tried using sodium hydroxide in a high pressure reactor equipped with a pitch blade turbine stirrer, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulases; the process optimization was carried out using Taguchi experimental design. Best results were achieved when the pretreatment was carried out at 180 °C for 45 min with mixing of substrate at 100 rpm. The sugar yield was evaluated based on pretreatment severity. The hydrolysis efficiency of pretreated cotton plant waste was very good (96%), showing the excellent efficiency of the method in removing the lignin. The material balance in each stage of the process was estimated and the total process efficiency was found to be 53% based on glucose conversion.     

Mathematical Study of A Memory Induced Biochemical System

In this work, to study the effect of memory on a bi-substrate enzyme kinetic reaction, we have introduced an approach to fractionalize the system, considering it as a threecompartmental model. Solutions of the fractionalized system are compared with the corresponding integer-order model. The equilibrium points of the fractionalized system are derived analytically. Their stability properties are discussed from numerical aspect. We determine the changes of the substances due to the changes of "memory effect". The effect is discussed critically from the perspective of product formation. We have also analyzed the memory induced system with a control measure in view of optimizing the product. Our numerical result reveals that the solutions of the fractionalized system, when it is free from memory, are in good agreement with the integer-order system. It is noticed that the effect of memory influences the reaction in the forward direction and assists in yielding the product more quickly. However, an extensive use of memory makes the system slower, but introduction of a control input makes the reaction faster. It is possible to overcome the slowness of the reaction due to the undue effect of memory by appropriate use of a control measure.      

Catalytic activity of aryl alcohol oxidase immobilized in 3D-mesoporous silicates

Aryl alcohol oxidase was immobilized on two mesoporous materials, MS-A and MS-B. The immobilization rate for the larger pore material MS-A (11.5 nm) was higher than for the smaller pore material MS-B (4.2 nm). Furthermore, the sol–gel silica encapsulation of MS-immobilized enzymes improved thermal stability.     

Characterization of wax esters,free fatty alcohols and free fatty acids of crude wax from sunflower seed oil refineries

The sunflower seed wax (10–12%) from oil refineries was purified through two steps, namely, extraction using solvents and precipitation with chilled acetone. Fatty esters, free fatty alcohols and free fatty acids were separated by thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The fractions of fatty esters and free fatty alcohols were separated and identified by gas chromatography (GC) using a Dexil-300 column and OV-101 column, respectively, at temperatures from 150–290 °C and were further confirmed by Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), using a capillary silica column SPB™-1 coated with polydimethyl siloxane. Among the long chain fatty esters (C₃₈–C₅₄), comprised of one unit of fatty alcohol and one unit of fatty acid through an ester linkage, the major esters were C₄₀–C_44, of which C₄₂ was predominant. These fatty esters, upon hydrolysis, followed by methylation and subsequent GC–MS analysis, showed the presence of C₁₆–C₃₀ fatty acids in the bound form, whereas methylation of native wax indicated the presence of C₁₈–C₃₀ fatty acids in the free form. Acetylation of hydrolysis product showed the presence of C₁₈–C₃₀ fatty alcohols in the bound form, where as acetylation of native wax indicated that the C₁₈–C₃₂ fatty alcohols were in the free form. n-Triacontanol (C₃₀), a plant growth regulator, was found in both free and bound forms.     

Epoxy Resin (DGEBA/TETA) Exposed to Water: a Spectroscopic Investigation to Determine Water-Epoxy Interactions

Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves - Epoxy resin, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and triethylenetetramine (TETA), is known to be hygroscopic in nature, which eventually...