Fabrication of cobalt-nickel binary nanowires in a highly ordered alumina template via AC electrodeposition

Cobalt-nickel (Co-Ni) binary alloy nanowires of different compositions were co-deposited in the nanopores of highly ordered anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates from a single sulfate bath using alternating current (AC) electrodeposition. AC electrodeposition was accomplished without modifying or removing the barrier layer. Field emission scanning electron microscope was used to study the morphology of templates and alloy nanowires. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the deposition of Co-Ni alloy nanowires in the AAO templates. Average diameter of the alloy nanowires was approximately 40 nm which is equal to the diameter of nanopore. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the alloy nanowires consisted of both hexagonal close-packed and face-centered cubic phases. Magnetic measurements showed that the easy x-axis of magnetization is parallel to the nanowires with coercivity of approximately 706 Oe. AC electrodeposition is very simple, fast, and is useful for the homogenous deposition of various secondary nanostuctured materials into the nanopores of AAO.     

Putative virulence factors of the Aeromonas spp. isolated from food and environment in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Thirty randomly selected Aeromonas isolates from food and the environment in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, were characterized for putative virulence determinants, such as production of cytotoxin, cytotonic toxin, and hemolysin and their capacity to adhere to and invade Henle 407 cells in vitro. Seventy percent of the tested isolates were cytotoxin producers, and 80% were hemolytic. Cytotoxin was produced by 6 of 7 A. hydrophila strains, 6 of 13 A. caviae strains, and 6 of 7 A. veronii bv. sobria strains, mostly from food sources. A. schubertii, A. jandaei, and A. trota also produced both cytotoxin and hemolysin. All of the 30 isolates tested adhered to Henle 407 cells, but none were able to invade the cells, as determined with the in vitro assay. However, no significant correlation of the presence of these putative virulence factors was found among these aeromonad food isolates.     

Smart Innovation Engineering: Toward Intelligent Industries of the Future

ABSTRACT

Knowledge-based engineering systems are founded upon integration of knowledge into computer systems and are one of the core requirements for the future Industry 4.0. This paper presents a system called smart innovation engineering (SIE) capable of facilitating product innovation process semi-automatically. It enhances decision-making processes using the explicit knowledge of formal decision events. The SIE system carries the promise to support the innovation processes of manufactured products in a quick and efficient way. It stores and reuses past decisional events or sets of experiences related to innovation issues, which significantly enhances innovation progression. The analysis of basic concepts and implementation method proves that SIE system is an advanced form of cyber physical systems. It is flexible, systematic, fast, and supports customization. It can play a vital role toward Industry 4.0 development.     

Synthesis,Characterization, Antibacterial Properties,and In Vitro Studies of Selenium and Strontium Co-Substituted Hydroxyapatite

In this study, as a measure to enhance the antimicrobial activity of biomaterials, the selenium ions have been substituted into hydroxyapatite (HA) at different concentration levels. To balance the potential cytotoxic effects of selenite ions (SeO₃²⁻) in HA, strontium (Sr²⁺) was co-substituted at the same concentration. Selenium and strontium-substituted hydroxyapatites (Se-Sr-HA) at equal molar ratios of x Se/(Se + P) and x Sr/(Sr + Ca) at (x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2) were synthesized via the wet precipitation route and sintered at 900 °C. The effect of the two-ion concentration on morphology, surface charge, composition, antibacterial ability, and cell viability were studied. X-ray diffraction verified the phase purity and confirmed the substitution of selenium and strontium ions. Acellular in vitro bioactivity tests revealed that Se-Sr-HA was highly bioactive compared to pure HA. Se-Sr-HA samples showed excellent antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus carnosus) bacterial strains. In vitro cell–material interaction, using human osteosarcoma cells MG-63 studied by WST-8 assay, showed that Se-HA has a cytotoxic effect; however, the co-substitution of strontium in Se-HA offsets the negative impact of selenium and enhanced the biological properties of HA. Hence, the prepared samples are a suitable choice for antibacterial coatings and bone filler applications.     

Functional Analysis of Autophagy-Related Gene ATG12 in Potato Dry Rot Fungus Fusarium oxysporum

Autophagy is an intracellular process in all eukaryotes which is responsible for the degradation of cytoplasmic constituents, recycling of organelles, and recycling of proteins. It is an important cellular process responsible for the effective virulence of several pathogenic plant fungal strains, having critical impacts on important crop plants including potatoes. However, the detailed physiological mechanisms of autophagy involved in the infection biology of soil-borne pathogens in the potato crop needs to be investigated further. In this study, the autophagy-related gene, FoATG12, in potato dry rot fungus Fusarium oxysporum was investigated by means of target gene replacement and overexpression. The deletion mutant ∆FoATG12 showed reduction in conidial formation and exhibited impaired aerial hyphae. The FoATG12 affected the expression of genes involved in pathogenicity and vegetative growth, as well as on morphology features of the colony under stressors. It was found that the disease symptoms were delayed upon being inoculated by the deletion mutant of FoATG12 compared to the wild-type (WT) and overexpression (OE), while the deletion mutant showed the disease symptoms on tomato plants. The results confirmed the significant role of the autophagy-related ATG12 gene in the production of aerial hyphae and the effective virulence of F. oxysporum in the potato crop. The current findings provid an enhanced gene-level understanding of the autophagy-related virulence of F. oxysporum, which could be helpful in pathogen control research and could have vital impacts on the potato crop.     

Temperature‐Insensitive High Strain in Lead‐Free Bi0.5(Na0.84K0.16)0.5TiO3–0.04SrTiO3 Ceramics for Actuator Applications

Lead‐free piezoelectric ceramics, 0.96[{Bi_0.5 (Na_0.84K_0.16)_0.5}_1?xLi_x(Ti_1?yNb_y)O₃]–0.04SrTiO₃ (BNKLiTN–ST) with x, y = 0–0.030, were synthesized by solid‐state reaction method. X‐ray diffraction patterns indicated that Li and Nb successfully diffused into the BNKT–ST lattice and formed a pure perovskite structure with x, y ≤ 0.025. Increasing the Li and Nb contents (x, y = 0.020) induced a phase transformation from the coexistent rhombohedral–tetragonal phases for pure BNKT–ST ceramics to a pseudocubic phase, resulting in degradation of the remnant polarization and coercive field. However, the field‐induced strain was markedly enhanced at x, y = 0.020, giving rise to a giant dynamic piezoelectric constant (d₃₃* = S_max/E_max = 800 pm/V). Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the field‐induced strain response showed temperature‐insensitivity up to 120°C. To explore its potential for device applications, a 10‐layered stack‐type multilayer actuator was fabricated from the optimal composition (x, y = 0.020). This actuator showed a large S_max/E_max of 600 pm/V at a relatively low driving field of 4.5 kV/mm suggesting highly promising results in lead‐free BNT‐based ceramics.     

Optimised synthesis of ZnO‐nano‐fertiliser through green chemistry: boosted growth dynamics of economically important L. esculentum

Mounting‐up economic losses to annual crops yield due to micronutrient deficiency, fertiliser inefficiency and increasing microbial invasions (e.g. Xanthomonas cempestri attack on tomatoes) are needed to be solved via nano‐biotechnology. So keeping this in view, the authors’ current study presents the new horizon in the field of nano‐fertiliser with highly nutritive and preservative effect of green fabricated zinc oxide‐nanostructures (ZnO‐NSs) during Lycopersicum esculentum (tomato) growth dynamics. ZnO‐NS prepared via green chemistry possesses highly homogenous crystalline structures well‐characterised through ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope. The ZnO‐NS average size was found as small as 18 nm having a crystallite size of 5 nm. L. esculentum were grown in different concentrations of ZnO‐NS to examine the different morphological parameters includes time of seed germination, germination percentage, the number of plant leaves, the height of the plant, average number of branches, days count for flowering and fruiting time period along with fruit quantity. Promising results clearly predict that bio‐fabricated ZnO‐NS at optimum concentration resulted as growth booster and dramatically triggered the plant yield.Inspec keywords: zinc compounds, II‐VI semiconductors, wide band gap semiconductors, nanostructured materials, nanofabrication, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, crystallites, biomedical materials, nanomedicineOther keywords: ZnO‐nanofertiliser, green chemistry, boosted growth dynamics, L. esculentum, mounting‐up economic losses, micronutrient deficiency, fertiliser inefficiency, microbial invasions, Xanthomonas cempestri, nanobiotechnology, zinc oxide‐nanostructures, Lycopersicum esculentum, high‐homogenous crystalline structures, ultraviolet spectroscopy, visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, crystallite size, morphological parameters, seed germination, germination percentage, plant leaves, ZnO     

Libra: a computational economy‐based job scheduling system for clusters

Clusters of computers have emerged as mainstream parallel and distributed platforms for high‐performance, high‐throughput and high‐availability computing. To enable effective resource management on clusters, numerous cluster management systems and schedulers have been designed. However, their focus has essentially been on maximizing CPU performance, but not on improving the value of utility delivered to the user and quality of services. This paper presents a new computational economy driven scheduling system called Libra, which has been designed to support allocation of resources based on the users' quality of service requirements. It is intended to work as an add‐on to the existing queuing and resource management system. The first version has been implemented as a plugin scheduler to the Portable Batch System. The scheduler offers market‐based economy driven service for managing batch jobs on clusters by scheduling CPU time according to user‐perceived value (utility), determined by their budget and deadline rather than system performance considerations. The Libra scheduler has been simulated using the GridSim toolkit to carry out a detailed performance analysis. Results show that the deadline and budget based proportional resource allocation strategy improves the utility of the system and user satisfaction as compared with system‐centric scheduling strategies. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic and equilibrium swelling studies: crosslinked pH sensitive methyl methacrylate-co-itaconic acid (MMA-co-IA) hydrogels

In the present work crosslinked methyl methacrylate-co-itaconic acid (MMA-co-IA) hydrogels were prepared by free radical copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with itaconic acid (IA) using ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and N, N methylene bisacrylamide (MBAAm) as crosslinkers and benzoyl peroxide as initiator. Prepared hydrogels were investigated for dynamic and equilibrium swelling studies. For swelling behaviour, effect of pH, monomeric compositions, degree of crosslinking and type of crosslinking agent were investigated. Swelling studies were performed in the USP phosphate buffer solutions of varying pH 1.2, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5 and 7.0. Results showed that swelling increased by increasing IA content in hydrogels structure. This may be due to the presence of more carboxylic groups available for ionization. Swelling was decreased with increase in crosslinking ratio owing to tighter hydrogel structure. Hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Polymer-solvent interaction parameters (χ) of hydrogels were determined by using Flory–Rehner theory of equilibrium swelling values. The analysis of diffusion mechanism from gels using Peppas model showed that all monomeric compositions and degrees of crosslinking followed Fickian diffusion.