Translocation dynamics of a semiflexible chain under a bias: Comparison with tension propagation theory

We study translocation dynamics of a semi-flexible polymer through a nanoscopic pore in two dimensions (2D) using Langevin dynamics simulation in presence of an external force inside the pore. We observe that for a given chain length N the mean first passage time (MFPT)〈τ〉 increases for a stiffer chain. By repeating the calculation for various chain lengths N and bending rigidity parameter κ _b we calculate the translocation exponent α (〈τ〉 ～ N ^α). For chain lengths N and bending rigidity κ _b considered in this paper we find that the translocation exponent satisfies the inequality α < 1 + ν, where is the equilibrium Flory exponent for a given chain stiffness, as previously observed in various simulation studies for fully flexible chains. We observe that the peak position of the residence time W(s) as a function of the monomer index s shifts at a lower s-value with increasing chain stiffness κ _b . We also monitor segmental gyration 〈R _g (s)〉 both at the cis and trans side during the translocation process and find that for κ _b ≠ 0 the late time cis conformations are nearly identical to the early time trans conformations, and this overlap continues to increase for stiffer chains. Finally, we try to rationalize dependence of various quantities on chain stiffness κ _b using Sakaue’s tension propagation (TP) theory [Phys. Rev. E 76, 021803 (2007)] and Brownian Dynamics Tension Propagation (BDTP) theory due to Ikonen et al. [Phys. Rev. E 85 051803 (2012); J. Chem. Phys. 137 085101 (2012)] originally developed for a fully flexible chain to a semi-flexible chain.     

Anaerobic treatability of selected organic toxicants in petrochemical wastes

The objective of this research was to study the biodegradability of ethylene glycol, acrylic acid, acrolein and allyl alcohol using a methanogenic acetate enrichment culture. Anaerobic Toxicity Assays (ATA) and Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) studies were performed with serum bottles. Ethylene glycol was found to be degraded to less than 5 mg/l with spikes up to 10,000 mg/l. Higher concentrations led to pH inhibition even with a design initial bicarbonate alkalinity of 6000 mg/l as CaCO₃. Acrylic acid was degraded with almost no effect on methanogens with spikes up to 100 mg/l. However, concentrations of 500, 1000 and 1500 mg/l were found to inhibit the methanogens for several days before recovery. Acrylic acid was eventually degraded to less than 1 mg/l in all cases. Acrolein was inhibitory at concentrations as low as 10 mg/l. However, recovery of the culture was observed at concentrations up to 150 mg/l. Allyl alcohol was cometabolized when acetate was supplied to the bottles in the ATA; it was not degraded well when supplied as the sole carbon source in the BMP study. Ethylene glycol and acrylic acid were found to be suitable for anaerobic treatment whereas allyl alcohol and acrolein were not suitable at the selected concentrations using a methanogenic culture.     

Optimization of laccase mediated biodegradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol using genetic algorithm

The present investigation focuses on the development of an effective strategy to determine the optimum environmental conditions leading to the maximum rate of biodegradation of 2,4-DCP by coupling response surface methodology (RSM) with a developed genetic algorithm (GA) thereby ensuring minimum contact time. RSM is utilized to create an efficient analytical model for biodegradation of 2,4-DCP in terms of environmental parameters: pH, temperature, enzyme activity and time of incubation. For this purpose, a number of degradation experiments based on statistical three-level Box Behnken design methods were carried out. An effective response surface (RS) model is developed by carrying out experiments designed using the Box Behnken method. The RS model thus developed is further interfaced with the GA to optimize the degradation conditions for optimum degradation with minimum contact time. The GA increases the biodegradation conditions to >99% within a time period of 8 h within the given range of experimental conditions. The conditions obtained from GA were verified experimentally.     

Compositional and optoelectronic properties of CIS and CIGS thin films formed by electrodeposition

CuInSe₂ (CIS) and Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) thin films were prepared by electrodeposition and processing. The influence of film deposition parameters such as bath composition, pH, deposition potential and material purity on film properties was studied. The structural, morphological, compositional and opto-electronic properties of electrodeposited and selenized CIS and CIGS thin films were characterized using various techniques. As-deposited as well as selenized films exhibited a compact or a granular morphology depending on the composition. The film stoichiometry was improved after selenization at 550°C in a tubular furnace. The films are formed with a mixed phase composition of CuInSe₂ and CuIn₂Se_3.5 ternary phases.     

Hot Pressing of Annular Alumina–Zirconia Composites

An analysis is performed to predict the densification during and the state of residual stress after hot pressing of annular alumina/zirconia (3Y-TZP) composites. The objective of the analysis was to study the residual stresses resulting from stress gradients during pressing and those from thermal expansion mismatch during the cooling of the compact from the pressing temperature to room temperature. It is predicted that the residual stresses are affected by the respective densification rates of the core and the annulus, their elastic modulus, and thermal expansion coefficient. For the system analyzed in this study, it is predicted that hot pressing reduces the residual stresses that result from the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients. This is due in part to the high densification rate and in part to the high elastic modulus of the alumina annulus compared to the zirconia core. For surface compression strengthening, a system where the annulus would have similar elastic modulus but lower densification rate and lower thermal expansion coefficient than the core would be more beneficial.     

Thermal Degradation of Starch in Parboiled Rice

Raw and variously parboiled Intan rice (intermediate-amylose variety) starch was fractionated in Sepharose CL-2B column into a larger-molecule (Fr I) and a smaller-molecule (Fr II) fraction. The amount of Fr I decreased and that of Fr II increased in parboiled as compared to raw rice, the extent of change increasing with increasing severity of processing. The proportion of polysaccharide and “amylose” in Fr I decreased from 70% and 40% of total, respectively, in raw rice to 16% in parboiled rice prepared by 3 kg/cm² gauge steam pressure. Simultaneously, the λ_max of its iodine complex increased from 570 to 588 nm in Fr I and decreased from 635 to 620 nm in Fr II. The change was marginal or low after steaming at ambient pressure or after sand roasting. The data show that thermal degradation of starch must be considered as another contributor, in addition to starch gelatinization and reassociation, to the peculiar properties of parboiled rice.     

Automotive applications of thermoplastic vulcanizates

Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) are special classes of thermoplastic elastomers, in which dynamic vulcanization of the rubber phase takes place during melt mixing with a semicrystalline thermoplastic matrix phase at elevated temperature. This review article focus on the different types of thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) from various elastomer and thermoplastic blends that are suitable for the automotive applications purpose. A detailed study of the various TPVs based on polypropylene-ethylene propylene diene rubber (PP-EPDM) and polypropylene-ethylene α-olefin has been focused and their application in the automobile sector has been summarized. Most of the commercially available TPVs are PP-EPDM based. Limited applications of that TPVs in high heat and oil resistant application purposes requires new generation of TPVs. High performance TPVs or super TPVs are new generation TPVs that exhibit high heat resistance as well as excellent oil resistance property suitable for automotive under-the-hood applications. Therefore TPVs based on XNBR-PA12, HNBR-PA12 and FKM-PA6 system has also been explored in details in this study and the possibility of the use of those TPV system has been focused for the high temperature application purpose in the automobile sector where high and oil resistant application properties is the prime concern.     

GDM: A New Graph Based Data Model Using Functional Abstractionx

In this paper, a Graph-based semantic Data Model (GDM) is proposed with the primary objective of bridging the gap between the human perception of an enterprise and the needs of computing infrastructure to organize information in some particular manner for efficient storage and retrieval. The Graph. Data Model (GDM) has been proposed as an alternative data model to combine the advantages of the relational model with the positive features of semantic data models. The proposed GDM offers a structural representation for interacting to the designer, making it always easy to comprehend the complex relations amongst basic data items. GDM allows an entire database to be viewed as a Graph (V, E) in a layered organization. Here, a graph is created in a bottom up fashion where V represents the basic instances of data or a functionally abstracted module, called primary semantic group (PSG) and secondary semantic group (SSG). An edge in the model implies the relationship among the secondary semantic groups. The contents of the lowest layer are the semantically grouped data values in the form of primary semantic groups. The SSGs are nothing but the higher-level abstraction and are created by the method of encapsulation of various PSGs, SSGs and basic data elements. This encapsulation methodology to provide a higher-level abstraction continues generating various secondary semantic groups until the designer thinks that it is sufficient to declare the actual problem domain. GDM, thus, uses standard abstractions available in a semantic data model with a structural representation in terms of a graph. The operations on the data model are formalized in the proposed graph algebra. A Graph Query Language (GQL) is also developed, maintaining similarity with the widely accepted user-friendly SQL. Finally, the paper also presents the methodology to make this GDM compatible with the distributed environment, and a corresponding query processing technique for distributed environment is also suggested for the sake of completeness.     

Characteristics of Gel-chromatographic Fractions of Starch in Relation to Rice and Expanded Rice-Product Qualities

Starch from waxy and nonwaxy rices was separated on Sepharose. In nonwaxy rice, the major (void volume) fraction stained a varying shade of blue with iodine depending on the sample. The water-insoluble amyolose content as estimated in milled rice flour was highly positively correlated with the λ_max of the iodine colour as well as with the „amylose”︁ content of the fraction. Debranching with pullulanase showed that the fraction had the dual character of being both amylopectin and amylose. A second fraction was for the most part true amylose. The volume of expanded rice product seemed to increase with average molecular weight of starch. The highest average molecular weight of starch corresponded to analytical values of water-insoluble amylose as estimated in rice flour and the same corresponded to the greatest expansion volume.     

On the analysis of microwave power and heating characteristics for food processing: Asymptotes and resonances

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis on microwave power absorption and associated heating characteristics for various food materials. The analysis is based on a closed form solution, which is derived from the first principle. It has been shown that both absorbed power distributions and average absorbed power exhibit three distinct behaviors as sample length (2L) is varied from 2L ≪ λ_m/2π to 2L ≫ D_p, where λ_m and D_p are wavelength and penetration depth within the material, respectively. These three regimes are termed as thin (2L ≪ λ_m/2π), resonating (λ_m/2π 

 2L 

 D_p) and thick (2L ≫ D_p) samples. A complete characterization of absorbed power has been established in all the three regimes. This work also provides a correlation for the prediction of resonating sample lengths, which for the first time takes into account the effect of dielectric properties (λ_m and D_p) of the material and free space and also the influence of various distributions of microwave incidence. It has been shown that the closed form analysis on absorbed power presented in this work can be used to forecast the heating characteristics and various distributions of microwave incidence may be used to suitably alter the heating characteristics. Overall, the analysis presented in this work can be used as a guideline to predict optimal heating strategy for microwave assisted food processing.