Chemically-derived CuO/In2O3-based nanocomposite for diode applications

The potential of CuO-based nanocomposite synthesized through a facile surfactant-free wet chemical strategy has been demonstrated for photoelectronic applications.

To study the flow property of seven commercially available zinc oxide eugenol impression material at various time intervals after mixing

Aims and objective of the study was to evaluate the flow property of seven commercially available zinc oxide eugenol impression materials at various time intervals, after mixing 49 samples (seven groups) were fabricated for flow property of the material. The sample were fabricated as equal length of base and accelerator paste of the test materials was taken on the glass slab and mixed with a rigid stainless steel spatula as per manufacturers recommendation till the homogenous mix was obtained. The mix material was loaded in glass syringe and 0.5 ml material was injected on a cellophane sheet placed on marked glass plate. A cellophane sheet and glass plate 70 and 500 g weight was carefully placed on freshly dispensed zinc oxide eugenol impression paste sequentially. The diameter of the mix was noted after 30 s and 1 min of load application and also after the final set of material. The diameter gives the flow of material. The samples were stored at the room temperature. The data of the flow property was analyzed with analysis of variance, Post hoc test and t test. The flow of the zinc oxide eugenol impression paste after 30 s, 1 min and final set of load application for Group A to Group G was noted. Maximum flow was seen for Group G zinc oxide eugenol impression material followed by Group F, D, E, B, C and A in descending order respectively after 30 s, where as the flow property changed after 1 min in the sequence of maximum for Group G followed by Group E, D, B, A, C, and F. Lastly after final set of the impression material the flow maximum for Group G followed by Group E, D, C, F, A and B in descending order. Based on statistical analysis of the results and within in the limitations of this in-vitro study, the following conclusions were drawn that; the flow of zinc oxide eugenol impression material after 30 s, 1 min and that after the final set was maximum for P.S.P. (Group G) and the flow for PYREX (Group A) was minimum.

Spectroscopic (FT-IR, FT-Raman, NMR and UV-Visible) and quantum chemical studies of molecular geometry, Frontier molecular orbital, NLO, NBO and thermodynamic properties of salicylic acid

The solid phase FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra of 2-hydroxybenzoic acid (salicylic acid) have been recorded in the region 4000-400 and 4000-100 cm(-1) respectively. The optimized molecular geometry and fundamental vibrational frequencies are interpreted with the aid of structure optimizations and normal coordinate force field calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) method and a comparative study between Hartree Fork (HF) method at 6-311++G(d,p) level basis set. The calculated harmonic vibrational frequencies are scaled and they are compared with experimentally obtained FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra. A detailed interpretation of the vibrational spectra of this compound has been made on the basis of the calculated potential energy distribution (PED). The time dependent DFT method is employed to predict its absorption energy and oscillator strength. The linear polarizability (α) and the first order hyper polarizability (β) values of the investigated molecule have been computed. The electronic properties, such as HOMO and LUMO energies, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) are also performed. Stability of the molecule arising from hyper conjugative interaction, charge delocalization has been analyzed using natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis.

Studies of the molecular geometry, vibrational spectra, frontier molecular orbital, nonlinear optical and thermodynamics properties of aceclofenac by quantum chemical calculations

The solid phase FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra of 2-[2-[2-[(2,6-dichlorophenyl)amino]phenyl]acetyl] oxyacetic acid (Aceclofenac) have been recorded in the region 4000-400 and 4000-100 cm(-1) respectively. The optimized molecular geometry and fundamental vibrational frequencies are interpreted with the aid of structure optimizations and normal coordinate force field calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) method and a comparative study between Hartree Fork (HF) method 6-311++G(d,p) level basis set. The calculated harmonic vibrational frequencies were scaled and have been compared with experimental by obtained FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra. A detailed interpretation of the vibrational spectra of this compound has been made on the basis of the calculated potential energy distribution (PED). The time dependent DFT method employed to study its absorption energy and oscillator strength. The linear polarizability (α) and the first order hyper polarizability (β) values of the investigated molecule have been computed. The electronic properties, such as HOMO and LUMO energies, molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) were also performed. Stability of the molecule arising from hyper conjugative interaction, charge delocalization has been analyzed using natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis.

Heat transfer performance of Al2O3/water nanofluids in a mini channel heat sink

The high density heat removal in electronic packaging is a challenging task of modern days. Finding compact, energy efficient and cost effective methods of heat removal is being the interest of researchers. In the present work, mini channel with forced convective heat transfer in simultaneously developing regime is investigated as the heat transfer coefficient is inversely proportional to hydraulic diameter. Mini channel heat sink is made from the aluminium plate of 30 mm square with 8 mm thickness. It has 15 mini channel of 0.9 mm width, 1.3 mm height and 0.9 mm of pitch. DI water and water based 0.1% and 0.2% volume fractions of Al2O3/water nanofluids are used as coolant. The flow rates of the coolants are maintained in such a way that it is simultaneously developing. Reynolds number is varied from 400 to 1600 and heat input is varied from 40 W to 70 W. The results showed that heat transfer coefficient is more than the heat transfer coefficient of fully developed flow. Also the heat transfer is more for nanofluids compared to DI water.

Thermal performance of ethylene glycol based nanofluids in an electronic heat sink

Heat transfer in electronic devices such as micro processors and power converters is much essential to keep these devices cool for the better functioning of the systems. Air cooled heat sinks are not able to remove the high heat flux produced by the today's electronic components. Liquids work better than air in removing heat. Thermal conductivity which is the most essential property of any heat transfer fluid can be enhanced by adding nano scale solid particles which possess higher thermal conductivity than the liquids. In this work the convective heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the water/ethylene glycol mixture based nanofluids consisting of Al2O3, CuO nanoparticles with a volume concentration of 0.1% are studied experimentally in a rectangular channel heat sink. The nano particles are characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope and the nannofluids are prepared by using an ultrasonic vibrator and Sodium Lauryl Salt surfactant. The experimental results showed that nanofluids of 0.1% volume concentration give higher convective heat transfer coefficient values than the plain water/ethylene glycol mixture which is prepared in the volume ratio of 70:30. There is no much penalty in the pressure drop values due to the inclusion of nano particles in the water/ethylene glycol mixture.

Turbulent heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of dilute water based Al2O3-Cu hybrid nanofluids

A study on fully developed turbulent convective heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of Al2O3-Cu/water hybrid nanofluid flowing through a uniformly heated circular tube is presented in this paper. For this, Al2O3-Cu nanocomposite powder was synthesized in a thermo chemical route using hydrogen reduction technique and dispersed the hybrid nano powder in deionised water to form a stable hybrid nanofluid of 0.1% volume concentration. The prepared powder was characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to confirm the chemical composition, determine the particle size and study the surface morphology. Stability of the nanofluid was ensured by pH and zeta potential measurements. The average heat transfer enhancement for Al2O3-Cu/water hybrid nanofluid is 8.02% when compared to pure water. The experimental results also showed that 0.1% Al2O3-Cu/water hybrid nanofluids have slightly higher friction factor compared to 0.1% Al2O3/water nanofluid. The empirical correlations proposed for Nusselt number and friction factor were well agreed with the experimental data.

Laminar heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of carbon nano tube/water nanofluids

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the convective heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of CNT/water nanofluid through a circular tube fitted with helical screw tape inserts with constant heat flux under laminar flow condition. Nanofluids of 0.1% and 0.2% volume fractions are prepared by two step method. Thermo-physical properties like thermal conductivity and viscosity are measured by using KD2 thermal property analyzer and Brooke field cone and plate viscometer respectively. From the measurements, it is found that the viscosity increase is substantially higher than the increase in the thermal conductivity. The helical screw tape insets with twist ratios Y = 3, 2.44 and 1.78 are used to study the convective heat transfer and friction factor characteristics under laminar flow in the Reynolds number range of 520-2500. It is observed that, in a plain tube, maximum enhancement in Nusselt number for 0.1% and 0.2% volume fractions of nanofluids compared to pure water is 15% and 32% respectively. With the use of inserts, maximum enhancement in Nusselt number corresponding to twist ratios of 1.78, 2.44 and 3 are obtained as 8%, 16% and 4.6% for 0.1% volume fraction of nanofluid and 5%, 4% and 12% for 0.2% volume fraction of nanofluid when compared with water in plain tube. Thermal performance factor evaluation revealed that the values at all Reynolds number for all twist ratios and both concentration of CNT nanofluid are greater than unity which indicates that helical screw tape inserts with twist ratios considered are feasible in terms of energy saving in laminar flow.

Applications of regional anaesthesia in paediatrics

Advances in the field of paediatric regional anaesthesia have specific applications to both acute and chronic pain management. This review summarizes data regarding the safety of paediatric regional anaesthetic techniques. Current guidelines are provided for performing paediatric regional techniques, with a focus on applications for postoperative pain management. Brief descriptions of relevant anatomy followed by indications for commonly performed blocks are highlighted along with the potential of adverse side-effects.

Zinc–bromine hybrid flow battery: effect of zinc utilization and performance characteristics

The effect of zinc utilization and the performance characteristics in a zinc–bromine redox flow cell is reported. Simultaneously changing the quality of the electrolyte and the electrode substrate material resulted in an increase in the surface coverage with randomly oriented crystallographic (101) planes and, as a result, the cell exhibited higher Faradaic efficiency.

Antitumour activity of Sargassum wightii (Greville) extracts against Dalton's ascites lymphoma

Seaweeds have been used by mankind as medicine and food for more than 13,000 years. Marine algae are considered to produce a valuable phytoconstituents characterized by a broad spectrum of antitumor activities. The aim of the present study was to explore the effect of different solvent extracts of Sargassum wightii, Greville against Dalton's Ascitic Lymphoma (DAL) in Swiss male albino mice. DAL cells were injected intraperitoneally 1 x10(6) cell to the mice. Two days after cells injection the animals were treated with different solvent extracts of Sargassum wightii at dose of 200 mg kg(-1) for 14 days. 5-fluorouracil (20 mg kg(-1)) was used as reference drug. On day 11, cancer cell number, packed cell volume, decrease in tumour weight of the mice, increase in life span and hematological parameters were evaluated and compared with the same parameters in control. A significant increase in the life span and a decrease in the cancer cell number and tumour weight were noted in the tumour-induced mice after treatment with the extract. The haematological parameters were also normalized by the ethanolic and chloroform extracts in tumour-induced mice. These observations are suggestive of the protective effect of ethanolic extract of Sargassum wightii is comparatively better than other two tested extracts against Dalton's Ascitic Lymphoma (DAL).

ARTSENS - an image-free system for noninvasive evaluation of arterial compliance

Evaluation of arterial compliance is significant in cardiovascular diagnosis for early detection of coronary heart disease. We present ARTSENS, an image-free system for non-invasive evaluation of arterial compliance in-vivo. The system utilizes a single element ultrasound probe with intelligent measurement algorithms to ensure accurate evaluation of local arterial compliance without an image. The ability of the system to detect artery anatomy and measure compliance was verified by in-vivo measurements conducted on 106 subjects. The accuracy of compliance estimates were evaluated by comparison with a state of art imaging system. The measurements made using ARTSENS showed strong correlation with those made using the imaging system. The ability of ARTSENS to detect age-related trends in arterial compliance was also investigated.

Central sleep-disordered breathing and the effects of oxygen therapy in infants with Prader-Willi syndrome

OBJECTIVES

To describe breathing patterns in infants with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), as well as the effects of supplemental oxygen (O2) on breathing patterns. Children with PWS commonly have sleep-disordered breathing, including hypersomnolence and obstructive sleep apnoea, as well as central sleep breathing abnormalities that are present from infancy.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

PATIENTS

Infants with a diagnosis of PWS.

SETTING

Tertiary children's hospital.

INTERVENTIONS

Infants with PWS underwent full polysomnography, and in those with frequent desaturations associated with central events, supplemental O2 during sleep was started and followed with regular split-night studies (periods in both air and O2).

RESULTS

Thirty split-night studies on 10 infants (8 female) aged 0.06-1.79 (median 0.68, IQR 0.45, 1.07) years were undertaken. At baseline (ie, air), children with PWS had a median (IQR) central apnoea index (CAI) of 4.7 (1.9, 10.6) per hour, with accompanying falls in oxygen saturation (SpO2). O2 therapy led to statistically significant reductions in CAI to 2.5/hour (p=0.002), as well as a reduced central event index (CEI) and improved SpO2. No change in the number of obstructive events was noted. Central events were more prevalent in rapid-eye movement/active sleep.

CONCLUSIONS

It is concluded that infants with PWS may have central sleep-disordered breathing, which, in some children, may cause frequent desaturations. Improvements in CAI and CEI as well as oxygenation were noted with O2 therapy. Longitudinal work with this patient group would help to establish the timing of onset of obstructive symptoms.

Pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy owing to antiquitin deficiency--mutation in the ALDH7A1 gene

Pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy (PDE) is an inborn error of metabolism resulting from antiquitin deficiency. There is marked elevation of α-amino adipic semi-aldehyde (αAASA), piperidine-6-carboxylate (P6C) and pipecolic acid. The diagnosis can be confirmed by identifying the mutation in the ALDH7A1 gene in chromosome 5q3l. An 8-year-old Indian girl presented with severe developmental delay and seizures and was found to have pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy owing to an antiquitin mutation. Genetic evaluation of the parents allowed antenatal diagnosis to be made during the next pregnancy.

Thermal performance of higher aspect ratio microchannels using TiO2-water nanofluids

An experimental setup was developed to study the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in rectangular copper microchannels with hydraulic diameter 29.4 microm using TiO2-Water nanofluids. The experimental facility is validated using existing correlations and subsequently tested with 0.1% and 0.3% concentrations of TiO2 nanofluids. The thermal resistance of heat sink with nanofluids is compared with the base fluid. It is inferred that 0.3% TiO2-Water nanofluids have 18% lower thermal resistance as compared to base fluid having for the same operating conditions.

Sequential projection-based metacognitive learning in a radial basis function network for classification problems

In this paper, we present a sequential projection-based metacognitive learning algorithm in a radial basis function network (PBL-McRBFN) for classification problems. The algorithm is inspired by human metacognitive learning principles and has two components: a cognitive component and a metacognitive component. The cognitive component is a single-hidden-layer radial basis function network with evolving architecture. The metacognitive component controls the learning process in the cognitive component by choosing the best learning strategy for the current sample and adapts the learning strategies by implementing self-regulation. In addition, sample overlapping conditions and past knowledge of the samples in the form of pseudosamples are used for proper initialization of new hidden neurons to minimize the misclassification. The parameter update strategy uses projection-based direct minimization of hinge loss error. The interaction of the cognitive component and the metacognitive component addresses the what-to-learn, when-to-learn, and how-to-learn human learning principles efficiently. The performance of the PBL-McRBFN is evaluated using a set of benchmark classification problems from the University of California Irvine machine learning repository. The statistical performance evaluation on these problems proves the superior performance of the PBL-McRBFN classifier over results reported in the literature. Also, we evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm on a practical Alzheimer's disease detection problem. The performance results on open access series of imaging studies and Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative datasets, which are obtained from different demographic regions, clearly show that PBL-McRBFN can handle a problem with change in distribution.

Nanometer-scale, quantitative composition mappings of InGaN layers from a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy

Using elastic scattering theory we show that a small set of energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurements is sufficient to experimentally evaluate the scattering function of electrons in high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission microscopy (HAADF-STEM). We then demonstrate how to use this function to transform qualitative HAADF-STEM images of InGaN layers into precise, quantitative chemical maps of the indium composition. The maps obtained in this way combine the resolution of HAADF-STEM and the chemical precision of EDX. We illustrate the potential of such chemical maps by using them to investigate nanometer-scale fluctuations in the indium composition and their impact on the growth of epitaxial InGaN layers.

Automated region mask for four-chamber fetal heart biometry

This letter proposes an automated region mask for the detection of cardiac chambers from ultrasonic fetal heart biometry. The fetal biometry consists of two dimensional ultrasonic cine-loop sequences of apical four chamber view of fetal heart, which are comparatively The clinical motion information of individual frame is extracted by keeping a constant frame rate of 25 frames per second (fps). The region mask is designed based on the superimposition of motion information from a set of consecutive frames that belong to one cardiac cycle followed by connected component labelling. The borders and edges of all four chambers are thus recognized leading to formation of binary region mask. Experimental study based on second trimester cine-loop sequences confirms the suitability of the proposed technique for detection of heart chambers.

Prosthetic rehabilitation of a patient with enucleated eye - a case report

BACKGROUND

The loss of an eye has a crippling effect on the psychology of the patient, making rehabilitation process challenging for both doctor and patient.

OBJECTIVE

To report a case of anophthalmic socket with prosthetic rehabilitation in a cost effective manner.

CASE

A 32-year-old female presented with anophthalmic socket for prosthetic rehabilitation. A custom made ocular prosthesis was implanted successfully.

CONCLUSION

The custom made ocular prosthesis is simple, affordable and can be carried out in a small clinical set-up and provides a superior natural appearance.

Metacognitive Learning in a Fully Complex-Valued Radial Basis Function Neural Network

Recent studies on human learning reveal that self-regulated learning in a metacognitive framework is the best strategy for efficient learning. As the machine learning algorithms are inspired by the principles of human learning, one needs to incorporate the concept of metacognition to develop efficient machine learning algorithms. In this letter we present a metacognitive learning framework that controls the learning process of a fully complex-valued radial basis function network and is referred to as a metacognitive fully complex-valued radial basis function (Mc-FCRBF) network. Mc-FCRBF has two components: a cognitive component containing the FC-RBF network and a metacognitive component, which regulates the learning process of FC-RBF. In every epoch, when a sample is presented to Mc-FCRBF, the metacognitive component decides what to learn, when to learn, and how to learn based on the knowledge acquired by the FC-RBF network and the new information contained in the sample. The Mc-FCRBF learning algorithm is described in detail, and both its approximation and classification abilities are evaluated using a set of benchmark and practical problems. Performance results indicate the superior approximation and classification performance of Mc-FCRBF compared to existing methods in the literature.