Separations of toxic metal ions using a novel polymeric composite: Synthesis,characterizations, kinetics,isotherm models and thermal degradation studies

A composite material was prepared using terpolymer and activated charcoal. The material was spectrally characterized, and the morphology and thermal stability were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. From the metal ion sorption results, it was found that the composite material had significantly removed the selected metal ions from the aqueous solution. This may be due to the highly porous nature and the larger specific surface area of the composite. The results were well fitted with the Langmuir isotherm and follow the first-order kinetics. The thermal degradation kinetics and thermodynamic parameters were also calculated from thermogravimetric data and reported.     

Uplink Resource Sharing and Power Management Scheme for an Underlay D2D Communication

Wireless Personal Communications - With the implementation of device-to-device (D2D) communication in primary cellular networks, there will be notable benefits such as increase in cellular...     

A novel approach in multimodality medical image fusion using optimal shearlet and deep learning

Multi-modality medical image fusion (MMIF) procedures have been generally utilized in different clinical applications. MMIF can furnish an image with anatomical as well as physiological data for specialists that could advance the diagnostic procedures. Various models were proposed earlier related to MMIF though there is a need still exists to enhance the efficiency of the previous techniques. In this research, the authors proposed a novel fusion model based on optimal thresholding with deep learning concepts. An enhanced monarch butterfly optimization (EMBO) is utilized to decide the optimal threshold of fusion rules in shearlet transform. Then, low and high-frequency sub-bands were fused on the basis of feature maps and were given by the extraction part of the deep learning method. Here, restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) was utilized to conduct the MMIF procedure. A benchmark dataset was utilized for training and testing purposes. The investigations were conducted utilizing a set of generally-utilized pre-enrolled CT and MR images that are publicly accessible. From the usage of fused low and high level frequency groups, the fused image can be attained. The simulation performance results were attained and the proposed model was proved to offer effective performance in terms of SD, edge quality (EQ), mutual information (MI), fusion factor (FF), entropy, correlation factor (CF), and spatial frequency (SF) with respective values being 97.78, 0.96, 5.71, 6.53, 7.43, 0.97, and 25.78 over the compared methods.     

Highly durable carbon supported Fe?N nanocrystals feature as efficient bi-functional oxygen electrocatalyst

The mesoporous carbon layers protected Fe N nanocrystals (Fe N C_syn) was successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal approach and displays an improved oxygen bi-functional performance. The high specific surface area, mesoporous and graphitic carbon with more active sites of Fe N_x and Fe₃C/Fe in Fe N C_syn favors good synergistic electrocatalytic effect toward oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions (ORR and OER) in alkaline medium. The bi-functional activity of Fe N C_syn was clearly observed from the earlier onset potential of 0.86 V and limiting current density of 5.23 mA cm⁻² for ORR, as well as the low over potential of 470 mV with small Tafel slope value of 84 mV dec⁻¹ for OER. The enhanced stability and improved oxygen bifunctional activity of Fe N C_syn catalyst was evidently demonstrated through an innovative synthesis approach for the development of earth-abundant metal catalysts for energy applications.     

Study of filament wound grid-stiffened composite cylindrical structures

Grid-stiffened composite structures are known for their very high efficiency under compressive loading environment. The grid of stiffening ribs is the primary feature in these structures and filament winding is employed as the most convenient manufacturing technique. Three different types of circular cylindrical structures – unstiffened shell (with skin only), lattice cylinder (with ribs only) and grid-stiffened shell (with skin and ribs) – are considered for experimental study and a series of these structures have been manufactured adopting a simplified and cheap manufacturing process. Different aspects of manufacturing that include tooling and other processing aspects are presented in this paper. Axial compression tests have been carried out and the results are compared with finite element analysis. Based on the test results and comparison with finite element analysis, conclusions are drawn on the efficacies of this relatively new class of structures.     

Experimental and theoretical studies on buckling of thin spherical shells under axial loads

In this paper we present experiments, simulation as well as analysis of the collapse behaviour of thin spherical shells under quasi-static loading. Various aluminium spherical shells with variation in geometrical parameters were manufactured by spinning. Experiments were performed on these shells in a universal testing machine and their load–compression histories were obtained on the machine chart recorder. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were carried out for all the specimens tested under quasi-static loading using ANSYS^®. All the stages of collapse of the shell including non-symmetrical lobe formation were simulated. Material, geometric and contact nonlinearities were incorporated in the analysis. The stress–strain curves of standard samples made from the material were used as input. Piecewise linearity was taken in the plastic region of the material curve. Results thus obtained compared with the experiments well.An analysis was also carried out to study the behaviour of shells under axial compression based on the formation of rolling and stationary plastic hinges. These hinges were also simulated numerically and results match the experiments well.     

Effect of light on growth,intracellular and extracellular pigment production by five pigment-producing filamentous fungi in synthetic medium

The competence of the living creatures to sense and respond to light is well known. The effect of darkness and different color light quality on biomass, extracellular and intracellular pigment yield of five potent pigment producers Monascus purpureus, Isaria farinosa, Emericella nidulans, Fusarium verticillioides and Penicillium purpurogenum, with different color shades such as red, pink, reddish brown and yellow, were investigated. Incubation in total darkness increased the biomass, extracellular and intracellular pigment production in all the fungi. Extracellular red pigment produced by M. purpureus resulted maximum in darkness 36.75 ± 2.1 OD and minimum in white unscreened light 5.90 ± 1.1 OD. Similarly, intracellular red pigment produced by M. purpureus resulted maximum in darkness 18.27 ± 0.9 OD/g and minimum in yellow light 8.03 ± 0.6 OD/g of substrate. The maximum biomass production was also noticed in darkness 2.51 g/L and minimum in yellow light 0.5 g/L of dry weight. In contrast, growth of fungi in green and yellow wavelengths resulted in low biomass and pigment yield. It was found that darkness, (red 780–622 nm, blue 492–455 nm) and white light influenced pigment and biomass yield.     

Synthesis, characterization and thermolysis studies on triazole and tetrazole based high nitrogen content high energy materials

This paper reports the synthesis, characterisation and thermolysis studies of hydrazinium azotetrazolate (HAZ) and 1,1'-dinitro-3,3'-azo-1,2,4-triazole (N-DNAT). TGA and DSC results suggested that HAZ decomposes in the range of 150-180 degrees C and N-DNAT in the range of 160-170 degrees C, respectively. The pattern of decomposition of HAZ dihydrate and N-DNAT has been predicted with the help of pyrolysis GC/MS technique and a probable decomposition mechanism has been proposed. The theoretically predicted performance data suggests the potential nature of HAZ and N-DNAT for their use in propellant/explosive as well as in gas generator formulations.     

Integrated performance of stepped and single basin solar stills with mini solar pond

An attempt is made to enhance the productivity of the solar stills by connecting a mini solar pond, stepped solar still and a single basin solar still in series. Experiment is also carried out by replacing the single basin solar still into a wick type solar still. For further augmentation of the yield, baffle plate, pebble, fins, wicks and sponges are added. Day and night productivity of the solar stills for these modifications is studied. Daily efficiency and percentage increase in productivity for these modifications are also studied. Industrial effluent water is used as feed. Theoretical analysis gives very good agreement with experimental results.