Bivariate Flood Frequency Analysis of Upper Godavari River Flows Using Archimedean Copulas

In this paper, a copula based methodology is presented for flood frequency analysis of Upper Godavari River flows in India. By using the specific advantages of copula method in modeling the joint dependence structure of uncertain variables, this study applies Archimedean copulas for frequency analysis of flood characteristics annual peak flow, flood volume and flood duration. To determine the best fit marginal distributions for flood variables, few parametric and nonparametric probability distributions are examined and the best fit model is adopted for copula modeling. Four Archimedean family of copulas, namely Ali-Mikhail-Haq, Clayton, Gumbel-Hougaard and Frank copulas are evaluated for modeling the joint dependence of annual peak flow-volume, and flood volume-duration pairs. The performance of two parameter estimation methods, namely method-of-moments-like estimator based on inversion of Kendall??s tau and maximum pseudo-likelihood estimator for copulas are investigated. On performing Monte Carlo simulation to assess the performance of copula distributions in modeling the joint dependence structure of flood variables, it is found that the developed copula models are well representing the observed flood characteristics. From standard statistical tests, Frank copula has been identified as the best fitted copula for both bivariate models. The Frank copula function is used for obtaining joint and conditional return periods of flood characteristics, which can be useful for risk based design of water resources projects.     

Solvothermal growth of flower-like morphology from nanorods of copper sulfides

The present work reports the effect of reaction time on solvothermal synthesis of copper sulfides from CuCl2 x 2H2O and thiourea with various compositions and morphologies using ethylenediamine as solvent at 120 degrees C. X-ray diffraction patterns of the products at different durations shows the development of different stoichiometric composition of copper sulfides in where Cu:S ratio increases from 1.39 to 1.79 indicating transformation of Cu39S28 to Cu7S4. As inferred by EDX and XPS studies of the final products. SEM shows the growth of bundles of nanorods of length approximately 1 microm and diameter in nanometer range are observed after 6 h. On increasing the reaction duration to 9 h, nanorods tends to combines with each other and growth occurs in six directions and after 12 h leads to the formation of flower-like morphology of copper sulfide. The optical properties of these products also have been studied.     

Self-organized TiO2 Nanotube Arrays: Critical Effects on Morphology and Growth

TiO₂ nanotube layers possess a wide range of applications for energy conversion, environmental clean-up, and biomedical implant materials. The formation process of these tube layers is based on a simple but highly optimized anodization process of Ti in a suitable solution. The present work gives a coherent overview on the effect of the key parameters to grow these tube layers. The influence of fluoride content, anodization voltage, water content, and temperature on tube morphology is shown and discussed. The results thus provide the reader with “recipes” and understanding to grow desired TiO₂ nanotube structures, as well as show current limits and open room for improvement for the tailored growth of these structures.     

Characterization of water-soluble organic carbon in urban atmospheric aerosols using solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy

Solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been used to investigate the distribution of carbon functional groups in urban Atlanta aerosol fine (PM2.5) particles. Carbonaceous aerosol particles comprise a significant fraction of the ambient particle mass and are environmentally significant as they may influence radiative and cloud-nucleating properties and can also produce adverse health effects upon inhalation. The water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) fraction was extracted from multiple 24 h integrated high-volume quartz filter samples and further separated into recovered hydrophobic and hydrophilic fractions using an approach similar to that used to extract humic and fulvic acids from aqueous samples. Solid-state 13C NMR results indicate that WSOC in urban atmospheric aerosol particles is mostly aliphatic in nature (approximately 95% by C mass) with major contributions from alkyl and oxygenated alkyls (approximately 80%), carboxylic acid (approximately 10%), and aromatic functional groups (approximately 4%). The aromatic C is associated with the recovered hydrophobic fraction of WSOC. These spectra have been compared to the 13C NMR results obtained from Suwannee River humic acid and a fractionated biomass burning sample. WSOC, and more importantly, its recovered hydrophobic fraction, is found to be only qualitatively similar to aqueous humic material. The biomass burning sample is significantly different from urban Atlanta WSOC and is composed of substantial amounts of sugar derivatives and phenolic compounds, as expected. The NMR results demonstrate the potential of this technique to investigate aerosol WSOC composition and to study its variations with changes in parameters such aerosol sources.     

Content Independent Location Based Clustering for 5G Device to Device Communications

Wireless Personal Communications - In this paper we have addressed a content independent location based clustering technique for fifth generation device-to-device (D2D) communications. Our...     

Resonant behavior of EHV transformer windings under system originated oscillatory transient over voltages

Grid connected EHV transformers experience various terminal disturbances when in service. The present work attempts to investigate the voltage stresses that may develop on the transformer insulations under a variety of terminal disturbances. A number of standard and non-standard wave shapes like lightning impulse, chopped lightning impulse, steep-front long tail switching surge and oscillatory transient over voltages have been simulated and impressed on the terminals of a 400 kV EHV power transformer operating in the Indian power grid to ascertain how the winding insulations are stressed under these disturbances. Relevant section of the Indian power grid and the transformer has been modeled using Alternative Transient Program (ATP). It has been established that oscillatory system transients can trigger natural resonate frequencies of the transformers causing high voltage stresses on the insulations. Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) analysis of the oscillatory voltage response of the windings confirmed the presence of resonant frequencies indicating forced resonance. Some remedial measures involving winding design modifications have been suggested in the paper to overcome the problem.     

Solar Light Responsive Photocatalytic Activity of Reduced Graphene Oxide–Zinc Selenide Nanocomposite

Solution processable reduced graphene oxide–zinc selenide (RGO–ZnSe) nanocomposite has been successfully synthesized by an easy one-pot single-step solvothermal reaction. The RGO–ZnSe composite was characterized structurally and morphologically by the study of XRD analysis, SEM and TEM imaging. Reduction in graphene oxide was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy analysis. Photocatalytic efficiency of RGO–ZnSe composite was investigated toward the degradation of Rhodamine B under solar light irradiation. Our study indicates that the RGO–ZnSe composite is catalytically more active compared to the controlled-ZnSe under the solar light illumination. Here, RGO plays an important role for photoinduced charge separation and subsequently hinders the electron–hole recombination probability that consequently enhances photocatalytic degradation efficiency. We expect that this type of RGO-based optoelectronics materials opens up a new avenue in the field of photocatalytic degradation of different organic water pollutants.     

Chemical bath deposition of MoS2 thin film using ammonium tetrathiomolybdate as a single source for molybdenum and sulphur

Molybdenum disulphide, MoS₂, thin films have been deposited by chemical bath deposition method on glass and quartz substrate using ammonium tetrathiomolybdate as a single source precursor for Mo and S and subjected to vacuum heat treatment at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction of as-deposited film indicated its amorphous character and showed the development of poorly crystalline MoS₂ thin film on increasing annealing temperature. The film has been characterized by energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron micrograph and the optical properties also have been studied.     

Potential of Pyridine Amphiphiles as Staphylococcal Nuclease Inhibitor

The present study explores the potential of pyridine‐based synthetic amphiphiles C1 and C2 having 4‐carbon and 12‐carbon hydrophobic tails, respectively, as staphylococcal nuclease inhibitors. UV–visible titration with calf‐thymus DNA (CT‐DNA) revealed a hypochromic shift in the absorbance bands of C1 and C2, whereas fluorescence titration indicated a reduction in the emission intensity of the monomer bands of the amphiphiles. Interaction of deoxyribonuclease I (DNase 1) and micrococcal nuclease (MNase) with C1 or C2 led to a decrease in the emission intensity of tryptophan at λ=345 nm along with an increase in the monomer emission intensity of C1 and C2 at λ=375 nm for DNase I and excimer emission intensity at λ=470 nm for both DNase I and MNase. Scatchard's analysis indicated superior interaction of C2 with DNase I. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed major changes in the secondary structures of both DNase I and MNase upon interaction with the amphiphiles. A solution‐based nuclease assay in conjunction with gel electrophoresis indicated amphiphile‐mediated protection against nuclease‐directed DNA cleavage. Interestingly, C2 could render inhibition of nuclease present in the culture supernatant of Staphylococcus aureus MTCC 96, which highlights the therapeutic prospect of the amphiphile against S. aureus.     

Activation energy and binary chemical reaction on unsteady MHD Williamson nanofluid containing motile gyrotactic micro‐organisms

The author presents the influence of Arrhenius activation energy and binary chemical reaction on an unsteady magnetohydrodynamics Williamson nanofluid with motile gyrotactic micro‐organisms. The governing equations are converted to coupled ordinary differential equations with similarity transformations and the fifth‐order Runge‐Kutta Fehlberg method and the shooting algorithm is applied to solve these equations using the appropriate boundary conditions. A detailed investigation considering the effects of different physical parameters on the profiles like velocity, temperature, concentration, and density of motile gyrotactic micro‐organisms was done and plotted graphically. It is found that the thermal boundary layer enhances for the chemical reaction rate and the solutal boundary layer increases for activation energy. Furthermore, the nondimensional Williamson parameter reduces for the velocity profile. The author studied the wall temperature gradient of different fluids and found that temperature gradient decreased for the present study. Comparisons of the present result with published work were done to verify the present code.