A passive-heated building for a cool,humid climate in India

This paper describes the design and thermal performance of a passive-heated building for the cool, humid climatic conditions of Srinagar, India. The annual climatic variations of Srinagar are from a cold and very humid winter to a temperate, humid late summer. Thus, the major trend is creating comfort conditions by appropriate heating. The design discussed here therefore uses passive heating concepts. Special care is taken to prevent wasteful heat losses during the winter and unwanted heat gains in the summer. In order to ascertain the performance of the design, a thermal analysis has been carried out. The performance was found to be satisfactory.     

CO2 laser annealing of plasma-deposited high-T c superconducting thick films

Recent advances in the fabrication of high-T _c superconducting thick films demand processing techniques which can eliminate film/substrate interdifiusion that occurs during subsequent post-annealing heat treatment after the film is deposited, thereby limiting the application of the thick films for devices. The present study evaluates laser annealing techniques for plasma-deposited Y-Ba-Cu-O thick films using a high-energy CO₂ laser (10.6Μm) in a continuous wave mode. The results are compared with those obtained by conventional furnace annealing techniques necessary for post-heat treatment of as-deposited superconducting thick films. The high-T _c superconducting phase is recovered by cationic diffusion during subsequent post-annealing heat treatment. Crystallographic phases and microstructural characterization have been performed using XRD, SEM, and EPMA analytical techniques. The significance of the technology lies in the elimination of film/substrate interdiffusion problems, thereby resulting in high-quality superconducting thick films. The technology will significantly reduce the post-annealing times usually required by conventional furnace annealing techniques.     

Improved chimneyless fuelwood cookstoves (Pondicherry region)

This paper reports the results of an experimental study designed to improve the thermal efficiency of existing two-holed chimneyless fuelwood cookstoves sold by potters around Pondicherry. User and potter acceptability were treated as decisive and the price increase was limited to 20% for the minimal modification made. Net efficiency increased from 10·1% to 12·5% for the most commonly used clay pot (with lids on) in the laboratory water-boiling tests. Field users’ survey revealed a score of 77% satisfaction on all counts and long term fuel savings of 28–38%, depending upon the mix of agricultural wastes and fuelwood used.     

Minimizing convective heat losses in flat plate solar collectors

Based on available correlations relations are found for the local maxima's and minima's in heat transfer as the gap spacing is varied in flat plate solar collectors. These relations can shorten the task of selecting an optimum gap. A criterion is proposed for evaluating the use of alternate mediums in the enclosed space. It is shown that the use of heavy gases such as Argon can result in a 34 per cent reduction in heat losses. Nusselt number correlations of a single gap are extended to a two-cover system. It is found that by using two-covers there is an overall saving of more than 50 per cent in convection losses. It is also found that heat transfer rates in the laminar and turbulent regions are relatively insensitive to the internal spacing of the covers but reduces on changing from the mid-way position in the initial regime. A new type of two cover system is proposed in which the upper space is partially evacuated and it is shown that heat losses can be reduced by 85 per cent on a one-tenth reduction of pressure. Design relations for calculating cover spacings and heat transfer coefficients in this system are derived.     

Design and Synthesis of DNA‐Interactive β‐Carboline–Oxindole Hybrids as Cytotoxic and Apoptosis‐Inducing Agents

A new series of (E)‐3‐[(1‐aryl‐9H‐pyrido[3,4‐b]indol‐3‐yl)methylene]indolin‐2‐one hybrids were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against a panel of selected human cancer cell lines, namely, HCT‐15, HCT‐116, A549, NCI‐H460, and MCF‐7, including HFL. Among the tested compounds, (E)‐1‐benzyl‐5‐bromo‐3‐{[1‐(2,5‐dimethoxyphenyl)‐9H‐pyrido[3,4‐b]indol‐3‐yl]methylene}indolin‐2‐one ( 10 s ) showed potent cytotoxicity against HCT‐15 cancer cells with an IC₅₀ value of 1.43±0.26 μm and a GI₅₀ value of 0.89±0.06 μm . Notably, induction of apoptosis by 10 s on the HCT‐15 cell line was characterized by using different staining techniques, such as acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) and DAPI. Further, to understand the mechanism of anticancer effects, various assays such as annexin V‐FITC/PI, DCFDA, and JC‐1were performed. The flow cytometric analysis revealed that compound 10 s arrests the HCT‐15 cancer cells at the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Additionally, western blot analysis indicated that treatment of 10 s on HCT‐15 cancer cells led to decreased expression of anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐2 and increased protein expression of both pro‐apoptotic Bax and caspase‐3, ‐8, and ‐9, and cleaved PARP with reference to actin. Next, a clonogenic assay revealed the inhibition of colony formation in HCT‐15 cancer cells by 10 s in a dose‐dependent manner. Moreover, upon testing on normal human lung cells (HFL), the compounds were observed to be safer with a low toxicity profile. In addition, viscosity and molecular‐docking studies showed that compound 10 s has typical intercalation with DNA.     

Multiple Missing Cell Defect Modeling for QCA Devices

Considering the limitations of CMOS technology, the Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is emerging as one of the alternatives for Integrated Circuit (IC) Technology. A lot of work is being carried out for design, fabrication and testing of QCA circuits. In this paper, we have worked on defect analysis, fault models development and deriving various properties for QCA Majority Voter (MV) to effectively generate the test patterns for QCA circuits. It has been shown that unlike CMOS technology, single missing cell consideration is not enough for QCA technology. We have presented that the Multiple Missing Cell (MMC) defect, which is very natural at nanoscale, causes the sizable difference in functionality compared to Single Missing Cell consideration described in literature, and hence, must be considered while test generation. The proposed MMC is supported by exhaustive simulation results as well as kink energy based mathematical analysis. Further, Verilog fault models are proposed which can be used for the functional, timing verification and activation of faults caused by MMC defect. The effect of MMC on output is analyzed in stand-alone MV as well as when MV is a part of circuit. At the end, we have proposed the test properties of MV when being used as MV itself, as AND gate or OR gate. These properties may be further helpful in development of test generation algorithms.     

Production of Canolol from Canola Meal Phenolics via Hydrolysis and Microwave-Induced Decarboxylation

A potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-mutagenic agent; 4-vinyl-2,6-dimethoxyphenol (canolol) was obtained from canola meal in a significant yield via alkaline (NaOH)/enzymatic (ferulic acid esterase) hydrolysis followed by microwave-assisted decarboxylation. The hydrolysis was carried out either through using canola meal directly as a substrate or by using the 70 % aqueous methanolic extract filtrates. The hydrolyzed extracts underwent RP-HPLC analysis which showed that 81.0 and 94.8 % of the total phenolics were hydrolyzed to sinapic acid after the alkaline hydrolysis of the meal and the methanolic extracts, respectively. The enzymatic hydrolysis showed lower conversion rates (49.5 and 58.3 %). The hydrolyzed extracts were consequently decarboxylated using 8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene under microwave irradiation at different conditions. The HPLC profiling of decarboxylated extracts showed that using microwave at 300 W of microwave power for 12 min brought the highest sinapic acid conversion to canolol (58.3 %) yielding 4.2 mg canolol from each gram of canola meal suggesting that the process could be commercially economical.     

Fenton-enhanced gamma-radiolysis of cyanuric acid

Degradation of cyanuric acid (OOOT), a stable end product of oxidative decomposition of atrazine, is investigated in a combined field of gamma radiolysis and fenton reaction. The reaction of hydroxyl radical (OH) at pH 6 was carried out by irradiating N(2)O saturated aqueous solutions containing OOOT (1 x 10(-3) mol dm(-3)), and this resulted only a marginal degradation (20%). However, when the same reaction was carried out in the presence of varying concentrations of ferrous sulfate ((5-10)x10(-5) mol dm(-3)), the decay of OOOT has been enhanced to more than 80%. This decay followed a first order kinetics. Nearly similar effects were observed with another triazine derivative, 2,4-dioxohexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (DHT). Two major reaction mechanisms are proposed for the enhanced decay of OOOT. The formation of unstable hydroxyl radical adducts from the reaction of .OH which is the result of gamma radiolysis and the Fenton reaction (resulting from the reaction of the added Fe(II) and of the H(2)O(2) from the radiolysis of water), is proposed as the first mechanism. The second mechanism, which is likely the major contributor to degradation, is proposed as the reaction of a nucleophilic adduct, Fe(II)OOH, which could directly react with the electron deficient triazine ring. It is highlighted that such degradation reactions must be explored for the complete degradation of the byproducts of the oxidative decomposition of atrazine.