On electrical transport in CoWO4 single crystals

CoWO₄ is a p-type semiconductor with conductivity in the range 10^–8 to 10^–3 ohm^–1 cm^–1. The solid exhibits extrinsic behaviour up to 750 K and intrinsic behaviour above 750 K. In this solid conduction by hopping of small polarons seems to be dominating up to 750 K and above 750 K conduction becomes band type. The energy band gap of the solid has been found to be 2.80 eV. The values of mobility and the mean free path are estimated. The variation of dielectric constant with temperature has been attributed to changes in atomic and ionic polarization and space charge polarization of thermally generated charge carriers.     

A sequence in the N-terminal region of human uracil-DNA glycosylase with homology to XPA interacts with the C-terminal part of the 34-kDa subunit of replication protein A

Uracil-DNA glycosylase releases free uracil from DNA and initiates base excision repair for removal of this potentially mutagenic DNA lesion. Using the yeast two-hybrid system, human uracil-DNA glycosylase encoded by the UNG gene (UNG) was found to interact with the C-terminal part of the 34-kDa subunit of replication protein A (RPA2). No interaction with RPA4 (a homolog of RPA2), RPA1, or RPA3 was observed. A sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with trimeric RPA and the two-hybrid system both demonstrated that the interaction depends on a region in UNG localized between amino acids 28 and 79 in the open reading frame. In this part of UNG a 23-amino acid sequence has a significant homology to the RPA2-binding region of XPA, a protein involved in damage recognition in nucleotide excision repair. Trimeric RPA did not enhance the activity of UNG in vitro on single- or double-stranded DNA. A part of the N-terminal region of UNG corresponding in size to the complete presequence was efficiently removed by proteinase K, leaving the proteinase K-resistant compact catalytic domain intact and fully active. These results indicate that the N-terminal part constitutes a separate structural domain required for RPA binding and suggest a possible function for RPA in base excision repair.     

The electrical properties of Fe2WO6

Fe₂WO₆ was found to be a p-type semiconductor with an energy gap of 1.68 eV. The drift mobility ( _d) and mean free path (L) of the charge carriers have been calculated by combining the electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power data. It is proposed, from the magnitude ofL and _d and the temperature dependence of _d, that the charge carriers in Fe₂WO₆ are small polarons and that the charge transport process occurs by a hopping mechanism below 800 K. Above 800 K the results are explained using a narrow d-band model. The dielectric constant as a function of temperature exhibits two stages of increase: (i) a slow rise at lower temperature which is attributed mainly to an increase in ionic polarization and (ii) a fast rise at higher temperature which is ascribed to space charge polarization.     

Cobalt Iron Hydroxide as a Precious Metal‐Free Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Efficient Overall Water Splitting

Highly efficient and stable electrocatalysts from inexpensive and earth‐abundant elements are emerging materials in the overall water splitting process. Herein, cobalt iron hydroxide nanosheets are directly deposited on nickel foam by a simple and rapid electrodeposition method. The cobalt iron hydroxide (CoFe/NF) nanosheets not only allow good exposure of the highly active surface area but also facilitate the mass and charge transport capability. As an anode, the CoFe/NF electrocatalyst displays excellent oxygen evolution reaction catalytic activity with an overpotential of 220 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^?2. As a cathode, it exhibits good performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction with an overpotential of 110 mV, reaching a current density of 10 mA cm^?2. When CoFe/NF electrodes are used as the anode and the cathode for water splitting, a low cell voltage of 1.64 V at 10 mA cm^?2 and excellent stability for 50 h are observed. The present work demonstrates a possible pathway to develop a highly active and durable substitute for noble metal electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.     

Adaptive PAPR Reduction Scheme for OFDM Using SLM with the Fusion of Proposed Clipping and Filtering Technique in Order to Diminish PAPR and Signal Distortion

One of the main disadvantages of multicarrier transmission is the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmitted signal. If the highest transmitted power is confined by the application restrictions or regulatory, the result is to decrease the average power permitted under multicarrier transmission. Selected mapping (SLM) is a standard PAPR reduction scheme that is appropriate for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme as it realizes the performance of PAPR reduction without signal distortion. This paper proposes a method in order to handle the difficulties of high PAPR in OFDM scheme. The offered system is an arrangement of two distinguished methods, such as clipping and SLM. Compared to other hybrid methods, where the individual methods are implemented sequentially, this paper integrates the clipping method in the SLM procedure. This produces a supplementary PAPR reduction associated to the serial arrangement. Simulation results specify that the offered scheme acquires the performance of appropriate PAPR reduction with low computational complexity. The PAPR reduction at different number of subcarriers is analyzed and compared with the existing research work. The performance of relative energy efficiency has also been focused on this paper.

     

Studies on a novel bioactive glass and composite coating with hydroxyapatite on titanium based alloys: Effect of γ-sterilization on coating

A novel silicate based bioactive glass coating composition containing B₂O₃ and TiO₂ having matching thermal properties with that of Ti₆Al₄ V implants was developed and characterized. A conventional vitreous enamelling technique was used for coating small flat surface and curved surface of small rods. Hydroxyapatite (HAp) micro and nano-crystalline particles were used to prepare bioactive glass-HAp composite coating. Scratch testing was used to study the coating adhesion and its fracture behaviour under simulated conditions. As observed from scratch testing results, adhesion strength of the coating improved from 21 N normal load to 27 N and 32 N on addition of micro-HAp and nano HAp powder, respectively, to bioactive glass matrix. Further, sterilization of the coated samples with 25 kGy gamma irradiation substantially enhanced the adhesion of glass coating and HAp-composite coating.     

From waste to wealth: recycling the secondary resource from steel ladle as a flux in Si-killed steelmaking process

With the regulations pertaining to the environment and waste disposal becoming stringent day by day, the steelmaking industry is being compelled to adopt a zero-waste-policy for sustainability. As a consequence, 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) technique of waste handling has become the most favoured option among the industries. This paper focuses on recycling of slag generated after secondary refining process. Trials were conducted in two stages, namely (a) prevention of dusting phenomenon of Al-killed steel ladle slag to generate lump slag by suitably selecting the ladle covering compound and chemically modifying the slag, and (b) utilisation of the lump slag as a 100% replacement of synthetic slag in Si-killed steel ladles, leading to a reduction in its specific consumption from 1.2?kg/TLS to zero. As a process requirement, specific power consumption, arcing time and degree of desulphurisation were considered as the major parameters for comparing the results using hypothesis test statistical tool.