Techno-economic analysis of solar distillation systems

The techno-economic analysis of a solar distillation system incorporating the effect of subsidy, rainfall water, salvage value and maintenance costs of the system is presented. The analysis is carried out by two methods, namely the marginal efficiency of capital and the average cost per year. The rate of inflation in maintenance costs is also incorporated. It is observed that the cost per kWh for producing distilled water as calculated by the average cost per year method is lower than that calculated using the marginal efficiency method. Irrespective of earlier research, it is established that the rate of increase in maintenance costs reduces the optimum lifetime of the system, and, for a practical system, the rate of increase in the maintenance costs must exceed the inflation rate and cannot be taken as constant.     

Origin of room-temperature ferromagnetism in cobalt-doped ZnO

Thin films of ZnO doped with cobalt have been grown by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique in different temperatures ranging from 500°C to 650°C. The films grown on sapphire c-plane single crystal were found to be highly epitaxial. Magnetic properties of these films were studied, and the films exhibited ferromagnetic characteristics at room temperature. Detailed structural and microstructural characterization was performed to correlate the fate of the magnetic impurities, i.e., cobalt, and the cause of magnetic properties. It is established from this work that the magnetic properties of these films are inherent to the system, and any presence of second phase/nanoclusters/precipitates are ruled out as the cause of magnetic properties. The techniques used to establish these were conventional and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) along with electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and scanning transmission electron microscopy-atomic number (STEM-Z) contrast studies.     

Analysis of a passive cooled building for the semiarid climate

The quasi-steady-state analysis of a hostel building for semiarid climatic conditions has been presented by incorporating the effectiveness of various cooling approaches in the analysis. The effect of intermittent use of an exhaust chimney, opening of windows and a desert cooler has also been incorporated in the analysis to study its performance. It is observed that there is an appreciable reduction in the room temperature by intermittent use of various cooling approaches.     

On the decidability of sparse univariate polynomial interpolation

We consider the problem of determining whether or not there exists a sparse univariate polynomial that interpolates a given setS={(x _i ,y _i )} of points. Several important cases are resolved, e.g., the case when thex _i's are all positive rational numbers. But the general problem remains open.     

Freestanding 3D Graphene–Nickel Encapsulated Nitrogen‐Rich Aligned Bamboo Like Carbon Nanotubes for High‐Performance Supercapacitors with Robust Cycle Stability

3D hierarchical structures are reported based on graphene–nickel encapsulated nitrogen‐rich aligned bamboo like carbon nanotubes, which show not only high‐performance supercapacitance behavior but also a great robust cyclic stability. A facile synthesis route is developed of 2D nickel oxide decorated functionalized graphene nanosheets (2D‐NiO‐f:GNSs) hybrids and 3D nitrogen doped bamboo‐shaped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) vertically standing on the functionalized graphene nanosheets (3D‐NCNT@f:GNSs) by using a thermal decomposition method. The chemical reduction and morphology‐dependent electrochemical response are investigated. The enhanced specific capacitance of 3D‐NCNT@f:GNSs as compared to that of 2D‐NiO‐f:GNSs suggests the synergistic effects and indicates the importance of energy storage and superior long‐term cycling performance that are achieved. This 3D‐NCNT@f:GNSs hybrid shows a remarkable cycling stability with a maximum power density of 12.32 kW kg⁻¹ and maximum energy density of 109.13 Wh kg⁻¹ due to the good connection of NCNT and f:GNSs. This unique 3D nano network architecture enables the availability of large surface areas of NCNT, thus endowing the nanohybrids with high specific capacitance and excellent reusability.     

Interplay Between Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in HoNi2B2C

A microscopic theory of interplay between superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in rare-earth nickel boride, HoNi₂B₂C is developed from first principles. Self-consistent equations for the superconducting order parameter Δ and magnetic order parameter Γ are derived using a Green’s function technique and an equation of motion method. The theory is applied to explain the experimental results in the antiferromagnetic superconductor HoNi₂B₂C. The present model explains the true coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in this system. The behavior of the superconducting order parameter (Δ), the magnetic order parameter (Γ), the specific heat, the density of states, the free energy and critical field (H _c) is also studied for the system HoNi₂B₂C. Distinct features of the coexistence region are discussed. There is the convincing evidence that the theory is fully compatible with the key experiments.     

Analyzing the Impact of Bootstrapped ADC with Augmented NMOS Sleep Transistors Configuration on Performance Parameters

This paper represents an efficient bootstrapped analog to digital converter with augmented NMOS sleep transistors. The newly designed MOS-based bootstrapped circuit is implemented to provide controlled input supply for analog to digital converter to develop the enhancing capability of circuit. This will reduce the effective leakage of the circuit. In the second stage, the NMOS sleep transistors are augmented as pull-up and pull-down transistors. Due to augmentation of transistors, controlled power supply ( \(V_{\mathrm{DD}})\) is obtained. Because of this, current driving capability in MOS transistors is improved and minimum sub-threshold leakage current is formed. Due to this, reduction of leakage power dissipation occurs much effectively. The whole simulation has been done at 45 nm (nanometer) technology. It is realized that the leakage power is reduced till 50 % approximately and delay performance is improved. It means that speed is improved using bootstrapped circuit with augmented sleep transistors NMOS. In this paper, different consecutive designs with Analog to Digital converter are represented.     

A review of information flow diagrammatic models for product–service systems

Quality of an assembly of any manufactured product is mainly based on the quality of mating components. Due to random variations in sources such as materials, machines, operators, and measurements, mating components manufactured by even the same process may vary in their dimensions. When mating components are assembled linearly, the resulting assembly tolerance will be the sum of the mating components tolerances. All precision assemblies demand for a closer assembly tolerance. A significant amount of research has already been done to minimize assembly variation using selective assembly, when the dimensions of components follow normal distribution. However, in reality, the dimensions of components produced especially in smaller to medium size batches, invariably have some skewness (non-normality), which makes the methods developed and reported in the literature, often not suitable for practice. In this work, batch selective assembly methodology is proposed for components having non-normal distributions to minimize the assembly tolerance variations. The proposed method which employs a genetic algorithm for obtaining the best combination of mating components is able to achieve minimum variations in assembly tolerances and also maximum number of acceptable assemblies. The proposed algorithm is tested with a set of experimental problem datasets and is found outperforming the other existing methods found in the literature, in producing solutions with minimum assembly variation.