Evaluation of geotechnical characteristics of Lasbela barite deposits of Balochistan,Pakistan, as heavyweight aggregate

A number of medium to small sized barite deposits are located within the Mor Mountain Range, Pakistan. The present study evaluated eight barite deposits from the Lasbela area, Balochistan, Pakistan, representing the different parts of the Mor Range. Evaluation of the barite content and those properties important in the production of heavyweight concrete aggregate indicated that the material would be suitable for the construction of earthquake resistant buildings and for radiation shielding.     

Exploration of CeO₂ nanoparticles as a chemi-sensor and photo-catalyst for environmental applications

CeO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized hydrothermally and utilized as redox mediator for the fabrication of efficient ethanol chemi-sensor. The developed chemi-sensor showed an excellent performance for electrocatalytic oxidization of ethanol by exhibiting higher sensitivity (0.92 μA?cm^− 2?mM^− 1) and lower limit of detection (0.124 ± 0.010 mM) with the linear dynamic range of 0.17 mM-0.17 M. CeO₂ nanoparticles have been characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrum, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and UV-visible absorption spectrum which revealed that the synthesized CeO₂ is an aggregated form of optically active spherical nanoparticles with the range of 15-36 nm (average size of ~ 25 ±10 nm) and possessing well crystalline cubic phase. Additionally, CeO₂ performed well as a photo-catalyst by degrading amido black and acridine orange.     

Circular array and nonsinusoidal waves

A theory of circular array antennas based on nonsinusoidal (rectangular) pulses, is developed. Different antenna patterns such as peak amplitude, peak power, energy, and slope pattern are derived and plotted. The antenna patterns yield the resolution angle for the circular array as a function of array radius and frequency bandwidth. The effect of additive Gaussian noise on the angular resolution capability of the circular array is analyzed. The analysis is based on calculating slope patterns by using linear regression algorithm for different signal-to-noise power ratios     

A self-steering array for nonsinusoidal waves based on arrayimpulse response measurement

An array antenna consisting of identical distortion-free sensors used for the reception of nonsinusoidal waves with finite bandwidth is modeled as a linear time-invariant causal system. It is shown that the impulse response of the array sensors is a function of the angle of incidence of the received wavefront. Based on this model, a self-steering array system for beam forming with noise-free rectangular pulses is developed. Its beam-forming mechanism determines the array impulse response to point a main beam in the direction of the source from which the waves are arriving. The array system is advanced further so that nonsinusoidal waves that suffer distortions due to scattering from a large scatterer, and/or dispersive propagation, can be processed to form a main beam in the direction of the scatterer, and to achieve classification and identification of the unknown scatterer     

Performance analysis and advancement of self-steering arrays fornonsinusoidal waves. I

The principle of a self-steering array system which has been developed in theory for beam forming with nonsinusoidal waves is analyzed and computer-simulated. A tradeoff between the maximum-scan angle of the array system, the array length, the operating frequency bandwidth, and the signal power for a small-resolution angle is established. Such a tradeoff is desirable in practice, but is not applicable to the conventional method of beam forming with zero-bandwidth sinusoidal waves. A design criterion for the optimal reception of nonsinusoidal waves by a linear array of sensors is established. The simulation results of the signal processor of the self-steering array system show that the beam-steering mechanism based on slope processing is efficient in the absence of thermal noise. The principle of the signal processor is slightly modified to enhance its performance in practice. The design of a variable-delay circuit that uses a charge-transfer device is presented. A novel mechanism of delay-time adjustment is developed for the self-steering array system to improve its response time     

Regulation of ventilatory muscle blood flow

The ventilatory muscles perform various functions such as ventilation of the lungs, postural stabilization, and expulsive maneuvers (e.g., coughing). They are classified in functional terms as inspiratory muscles, which include the diaphragm, parasternal intercostal, external intercostal, scalene, and sternocleidomastoid muscles; and expiratory muscles, which include the abdominal muscles, internal intercostal, and triangularis sterni. The ventilatory muscles require high-energy phosphate compounds such as ATP to fuel the biochemical and physical processes of contraction and relaxation. Maintaining adequate intracellular concentrations of these compounds depends on adequate intracellular substrate levels and delivery of these substrates by arterial blood flow. In addition to the delivery of substrates, blood flow influences muscle function through the removal of metabolic by-products, which, if accumulated, could exert negative effects on several excitatory and contractile processes. Skeletal muscle substrate utilization is also dependent on the ability to extract substrates from arterial blood, which, in turn, is accomplished by increasing the total number of perfused capillaries. It follows that matching perfusion to metabolic demands is critical for the maintenance of normal muscle contractile function. In this article, I review the factors that influence ventilatory muscle blood flow. Major emphasis is placed on the diaphragm because a large number of published reports deal with diaphragmatic blood flow. The second reason for focusing on the diaphragm is because it is the largest and most important inspiratory muscle.     

Effects of 160 MeV Ni ion irradiation on polypyrrole conducting polymer electrode materials for all polymer redox supercapacitor

Electronically conducting polymers are suitable electrode materials for high performance supercapacitors, for their high specific capacitance and high dc conductivity in the charged state. Supercapacitors and batteries are energy storage and conversion systems which satisfies the requirements of high specific power and energy in a complementary way. Ion beam {energy > 1 MeV} irradiation on the polymer is a novel technique to enhance or alter the properties like conductivity, density, chain length and solubility.

Conducting polymer polypyrrole thin films doped with LiClO₄ are synthesized electrochemically on ITO coated glass substrate and are irradiated with 160 MeV Ni¹²⁺ ions at different fluence 5 × 10¹⁰, 5 × 10¹¹ and 3 × 10¹² ions cm⁻². Dc conductivity measurement of the irradiated films showed 50–60% increase in conductivity which is may be due to increase of carrier concentration in the polymer film as observed in UV–Vis spectroscopy and other effects like cross-linking of polymer chain, bond breaking and creation of defects sites. X-ray diffractogram study shows that the degree of crystallinity of polypyrrole increases in SHI irradiation and is proportionate to ion fluence. The capacitance of the irradiated films is lowered but the capacitance of the supercapacitors with irradiated films showed enhanced stability compared to the devices with unirradiated films while characterized for cycle life up to 10,000 cycles.     

Performance evaluation/analysis of Pakistan Research Reactor-1 (PARR-1) current core configuration

Neutronic and thermal hydraulic analyses have been carried out for current core of Pakistan Research Reactor-1 (PARR-1). Comparison was made between calculated and measured key neutronic parameters. Reactor core parameters important for reactor operation and safety have been calculated. Calculated neutronic parameters include: excess reactivity, shut down margin, control rod worth, peak power density location, criticality position, peaking factors, neutron flux in fuel elements and neutron flux at irradiation sites in the core. Calculated thermal hydraulic parameters include: steady-state temperatures and peak temperatures at fuel centerline, clad surface and in water coolant. In order to determine safety margins, heat fluxes at Onset of Nucleate Boiling (ONB), Onset of Flow Instability (OFI) and Departure from Nucleate Boiling (DNB) were determined using standard correlations. After assembling the core, performance of the core was also evaluated by experimentation. The core was assembled and some of the core parameters namely: excess reactivity, shut down margin, control rod worth and flux profile at in-core irradiation sites have been measured. On comparison with experimental data, reasonable agreement has been found between the calculated and the measured parameters.     

Triple-probe Diagnostic Measurements in Plasma of GLAST Spherical Tokamak

Triple-probe has been developed and operated successfully to characterize ECRH-assisted argon as well as hydrogen microwave plasmas in GLAST Spherical Tokamak. This technique enables to determine transient plasma parameters such as floating potential, electron temperature and electron number density in rapidly time-varying plasmas. An effective electron heating mechanism is applied to produce microwave plasma by injecting radiofrequency (RF) radiation at a frequency of 2.45 GHz in the presence of resonant toroidal magnetic field. Plasma parameters and corresponding fluctuations are measured as a function of time in different gas fill pressures for various applied magnetic fields. The results demonstrate the dependence of plasma parameters such as V _f , T _e , n _e and their fluctuations on gas fill pressure during the pre-ionization phase of the GLAST operation. Plasma behavior is observed to be closely depending on the coupling of RF power during microwave discharge. Additionally, the hydrogen plasma shows pronounced fluctuations in comparison with argon plasma with some decrease in electron temperature and densities.