Tuning of shear thickening behavior and elastic strength of polyvinylidene fluoride via doping of ZnO-graphene

ZnO rice like nonarchitects are grafted on the graphene carbon core via a rapid microwave synthesis route. The prepared grafted systems are characterized via XRD, SEM, RAMAN, and XPS to examined the structural and morphological parameters. Zinc oxide grafted graphene sheets (ZnO-G) are further doped in β-phase of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) via mixed solvent approach (THF/DMF). β-phase confirmation of PVDF PNCs is done by FTIR studies. It is observed that ZnO-G filler enhances the β-phase content in the PNCs. Non-doped PVDF and PNCs are further studied for rheological behavior under the shear rate of 1–100 s⁻¹. Doping of ZnO-G dopant to the PVDF matrix changes its discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior to continues shear thickening behavior (CST). Hydrocluster formation and their interaction with the dopant could be the reason for this striking DST to CST behavioral change. Strain amplitude sweep (10⁻³% -10%) oscillatory test reveals that the PNCs shows extended linear viscoelastic region with high elastic modulus and lower viscous modulus. Effective shear thickening behavior and strong elastic strength of these PNCs present their candidature for various fields including mechanical and soft body armor applications.     

Process Variation Study of SELBOX Inverted- T Junctionless FinFET for High-Performance Applications

This work investigates the performance of the inverted-T (IT) junctionless (JL) FinFET with selective buried oxide (SELBOX) topology. The electrical charac     

Large Area Self-Assembled Ultrathin Polyimine Nanofilms Formed at the Liquid–Liquid Interface Used for Molecular Separation

Separation membranes with higher molecular weight cut-offs are needed to separate ions and small molecules from a mixed feed. The molecular sieving phenomenon can be utilized to separate smaller species with well-defined dimensions from a mixture. Here, the formation of freestanding polyimine nanofilms with thicknesses down to ≈14 nm synthesized via self-assembly of pre-synthesized imine oligomers is reported. Nanofilms are fabricated at the water–xylene interface followed by reversible condensation of polymerization according to the Pieranski theory. Polyimine nanofilm composite membranes are made via transferring the freestanding nanofilm onto ultrafiltration supports. High water permeance of 49.5 L m^-2 h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ is achieved with a complete rejection of brilliant blue-R (BBR; molecular weight = 825 g mol⁻¹) and no more than 10% rejection of monovalent and divalent salts. However, for a mixed feed of BBR dye and monovalent salt, the salt rejection is increased to ≈18%. Membranes are also capable of separating small dyes (e.g., methyl orange; MO; molecular weight = 327 g mol⁻¹) from a mixed feed of BBR and MO. Considering a thickness of ≈14 nm and its separation efficiency, the present membrane has significance in separation processes.     

Low power and high speed design issues of CMOS Hamming code generation and error detection circuit at 22 nm and 16 nm channel length of MOS transistor

Microsystem Technologies - This paper represents low power and high speed design issues of Hamming code generation and error detection circuit using complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)...     

Assessing the sustainability of a manufacturing process using life cycle assessment technique—a case of an Indian pharmaceutical company

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Manufacturing organizations are under continuous pressure to implement sustainability in their activities. There is a need to identify the...     

Transport phenomena in laser surface alloying

A three dimensional, transient model is developed for studying heat transfer, fluid flow and mass transfer for the case of a single-pass laser surface alloying process. The numerical study is performed in a co-ordinate system fixed to the laser which moves with a constant scanning speed. The coupled momentum, energy and species conservation equations are solved using a finite volume technique. Phase change processes are modelled using a fixed-grid enthalpy-porosity technique, which is capable of predicting the continuously evolving solid-liquid interface. The three-dimensional model is able to predict the species concentration distribution inside the molten pool during alloying, as well as in the entire cross section of the solidified alloy. Corresponding experimental results show a good qualitative agreement with the numerical predictions with regard to pool shape and final composition distribution.     

The relationship between bioelectrical impedance phase angle and subjective global assessment in advanced colorectal cancer

Background  

Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) derived phase angle is increasingly being used as an objective indicator of nutritional status in advanced cancer. Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) is a subjective method of nutritional status. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between BIA derived phase angle and SGA in advanced colorectal cancer.     

Microbiological safety of kinema, a fermented soya bean food

Kinema is a fermented soya bean food of Nepal and the hilly regions of North-eastern States of India. Generally, the fermentation is dominated by Bacillus spp. that often cause alkalinity and desirable stickiness in the product. The present study was undertaken in a limited number of commercial (market) kinema samples to test for the presence of foodborne pathogens and their properties. Bacillus cereus was present in numbers exceeding 10⁴ cfu/g product in five of the tested 15 market samples. Enterobacteriaceae and coliform bacteria exceeded 10⁵ cfu/g in 10 of the 15 samples. Escherichia coli exceeding 10⁵ cfu/g was found in two samples. Staphylococcus aureus was not detected in any of the tested samples. Of 31 isolated typical and atypical strains of B. cereus, 18 representative strains were tested qualitatively for the ability to produce diarrhoeal type enterotoxin (BCET) using an Oxoid BCET-RPLA test kit. Overall, BCET was formed by 12 strains in BHIG (brain heart infusion broth +1% glucose), by seven strains on sterilized cooked rice, and by five strains on sterilized cooked soya beans. Semi-quantitative tests on BCET revealed that levels exceeding 256 ng/g soya beans, produced by single pure culture inoculation with the isolated B. cereus strains, were reduced to ≤ 8 ng/g by frying kinema in oil, a common procedure when making kinema curry. It was also shown in a mixed pure culture experiment that a kinema strain B. Subtilis DK-W1, is able to suppress growth and BCET formation by a selected toxin producing strain (BC7-5) of B. cereus. It is concluded that the traditional way of making kinema and its culinary use in curries is safe. However, for novel applications of kinema, safety precautions are advisable.