Modeling of Diffusion in Capillary Porous Materials During the Drying Process

This paper presents a model of heterogenous diffusion in capillary porous materials during the process of drying. The governing heat and mass transfer equations have been established using the liquid as well as vapor flow. Two models have been presented. Model 1 does not consider the heat conduction while the model 2 has been established by considering the conduction. The developed models and the numerical solutions of the resulting differential equations can take into account the moisture and temperature dependent thermophysical properties of the product. All equations have been established in spherical coordinates but the programme written for the purpose of calculations can be used for other geometries also. Numerical calculations have been performed for gas concrete and tiles using model 1, while model 2 has been used for gas concrete only because of the lack of data for thermophysical properties of the tile. For gas concrete it was seen that conduction has only marginal effect on the drying process and the numerical predictions of the drying process were reasonably accurate.     

Reaction of zirconium fluoride glass with water: kinetics of dissolution

When liquid water contacts a zirconium-barium-lanthanum fluoride glass, at least three different processes occur. Barium and zirconium fluoride dissolve into the water, water penetrates into the glass, and zirconium fluoride crystals grow on the glass surface, in static solution. The rate of dissolution, as measured by solution analysis, is possibly controlled by diffusion in the solid surface; surface blockage and surface reactions are other possible kinetic steps involved. Diffusion in solution is not the controlling mechanism. Hydrogen profiles in the glass surface suggest that the penetration rate of water into the glass is controlled by diffusion and a surface reaction.     

Geometrical and sequence characteristics of alpha-helices in globular proteins

Understanding the sequence-structure relationships in globular proteins is important for reliable protein structure prediction and de novo design. Using a database of 1131 alpha-helices with nonidentical sequences from 205 nonhomologous globular protein chains, we have analyzed structural and sequence characteristics of alpha-helices. We find that geometries of more than 99% of all the alpha-helices can be simply characterised as being linear, curved, or kinked. Only a small number of alpha-helices ( approximately 4%) show sharp localized bends in their middle regions, and thus are classified as kinked. Approximately three-fourths (approximately 73%) of the alpha-helices in globular proteins show varying degrees of smooth curvature, with a mean radius of curvature of 65 +/- 33 A; longer helices are less curved. Computation of helix accessibility to the solvent indicates that nearly two-thirds of the helices ( approximately 66%) are largely buried in the protein core, and the length and geometry of the helices are not correlated with their location in the protein globule. However, the amino acid compositions and propensities of individual amino acids to occur in alpha-helices vary with their location in the protein globule, their geometries, and their lengths. In particular, Gln, Glu, Lys, and Arg are found more often in helices near the surface of globular proteins. Interestingly, kinks often seem to occur in regions where amino acids with low helix propensities (e.g., beta-branched and aromatic residues) cluster together, in addition to those associated with the occurrence of proline residues. Hence the propensities of individual amino acids to occur in a given secondary structure depend not only on conformation but also on its length, geometry, and location in the protein globule.     

Design of novel compact anti-stiction and low insertion loss RF MEMS switch

A novel torsional RF MEMS capacitive switch design on silicon substrate is presented. The optimized switch topology such as reduction in up-state capacitance results in insertion loss better than ?0.1 dB till 20 GHz. Off to on state capacitance ratio is also improved by 18 fold and isolation is better than ?43 dB at 9.5 GHz. The achieved on state return loss is ?38 dB as compared to ?21 dB at 9.5 GHz. An optimized reduction in contact area and use of floating metal layer increases the switching speed from 56 to 46 μsec. It also increases the switch reliability by alleviating the stiction.     

Studies on chemical resistance of polyesters

Chlorendic anhydride based polyester ( I ,) tetrachlorophthalic anhydride based polyester ( II ), dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester ( III ,) general purpose polyester ( IV ,) blend of dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester with general purpose polyester ( V ,) chlorendic anhydride and dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester ( VI ), and a blend of chlorendic anhydride based polyester and dibromoneopentyl glycol based polyester ( VII ) were prepared and their chemical resistance and moisture absorption studied in various reagents, acid, alkali, and water, at 25 and 65°C. It is found that the polyester ( III ) is the least affected in the presence of the acids. In 20% NaOH, there was a decrease in weight for all polyesters at both the temperatures compared to the control except the polyester ( VII ). Increase in weight of all the polyesters was observed during the absorption of moisture both at 25 and 65°C. The increase was higher at higher temperature. Polyester ( III ) thus shows the least absorption of moisture.     

Antiandrogen and Antimicrobial Aspects of Coordination Compounds of Palladium(II), Platinum(II) and Lead(II)

Synthesis, characterization and antimicrobial activities of an interesting class of biologically potent macrocyclic complexes have been carried out. All the complexes have been evaluated for their antimicrobial effects on different species of pathogenic fungi and bacteria. The testicular sperm density, testicular sperm morphology, sperm motility, density of cauda epididymal spermatozoa and fertility in mating trails and biochemical parameters of reproductive organs have been examined and discussed. The resulting biologically active [M(MaL(n))(R(2))]Cl(2) and [Pb(MaL(n))(R(2))X(2)] (where, M = Pd(II) or Pt(II) and X = Cl or NO(3)) type of complexes have been synthesized by the reactions of macrocyclic ligands (MaL(n)) with metal salts and different diamines in 1:1:1 molar ratio in methanol. Initially the complexes were characterized by elemental analyses, molecular weight determinations and conductivity measurements. The mode of bonding was established on the basis of IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, (195)Pt NMR, (207)Pb NMR, XRD and electronic spectral studies. The macrocyclic ligand coordinates through the four azomethine nitrogen atoms which are bridged by benzil moieties. IR spectra suggest that the pyridine nitrogen is not coordinating. The palladium and platinum complexes exhibit tetracoordinated square-planar geometry, whereas a hexacoordinated octahedral geometry is suggested for lead complexes.     

A method for automatic classification of gender based on text- independent handwriting

Handwriting recognition is used for the prediction of various demographic traits such as age, gender, nationality, etc. Out of all the applications gender prediction is mainly admired topic among researchers. The relation between gender and handwriting can be seen from the physical appearance of the handwriting. This research work predicts gender from handwriting using the landmarks of differences between the two genders. We use the shape or visual appearance of the handwriting for extracting features of the handwriting such as slanteness (direction), area (no of pixels occupied by text), perimeter (length of edges), etc. Classification is carried out using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) as a classifier which transforms the nonlinear problem into linear using its kernel trick, logistic regression, KNN and at the end to enhance the classification rates we use Majority Voting. The experimental results obtained on a dataset of 282 writers with 2 samples per writer shows that the proposed method attains appealing performance on writer detection and text-independent environment.

     

Evaluating the role of composition and local structure on alkali out-diffusion in glasses for thin-film solar cells

The presence of alkali ions has reportedly improved the performance of CIGS/CZTS–based thin-film solar cells. The out-diffusion of the alkali ion, in particular, Na, from the glass substrate offers a facile scalable route of supplying the alkali ions during the growth of the absorber layer. In this work, we demonstrate the diffusion of different alkali ions (Li/Na/K) from composition tuned glasses with intentionally incorporated excess alkali ions into a thin Mo film, typically used as a bottom electrode in solar cells. We also evaluate the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the glasses for suitability as a substrate in thin-film deposition. The out-diffusion of alkali ions to the overlayer is found to be critically influenced by the composition and the local structure of the glasses. The Na ions exhibit the highest extent of diffusion among the alkali ions present in glass substrates, while that for the K-ions is the lowest. For the glasses with mixed alkali ions, the presence of Li facilitated the out-diffusion of Na, whereas K ions appear to inhibit the same. Differently with the existing reports, we show that the activation energy and the presence of Ca ions as additional modifiers play a crucial role in the transport mechanism of the ions. In addition, the synthesized glasses exhibit hardness of the order 5-7 GPa, density ~2.55 g cm^-3. The glass transition temperature lies between 535 and 580°C and the coefficient of thermal expansion 8.5-10 ppm/K, which is highly suitable for use as substrates in thin-film solar cells.