Ion-acoustic solutions and shock waves in multicomponent plasmas

The present investigation of ion-acoustic waves is based on the study of the nonlinearity of plasma waves in a dispersive medium. Here the authors study ion-acoustic solitary waves in a warm ion plasma with non-isothermal electrons and then the results for solitary waves in a plasma with isothermal electrons are obtained. Incorporating the previous results obtained from the solitary wave solutions, the authors generalize the effect of negative ions on ion-acoustic waves in plasmas consisting of either a warm or cold ion species. A reflection phenomenon of ions in these waves is also studied. These results can be generalized, but the discussion is limited to a particular model of the plasma.

Seeded-growth, nanocrystal-fusion, ion-exchange and inorganic-ligand mediated formation of semiconductor-based colloidal heterostructured nanocrystals

This article highlights different synthetic strategies for the preparation of colloidal heterostructured nanocrystals, where at least one component of the constituent nanostructure is a semiconductor. Growth of shell material on a core nanocrystal acting as a seed for heterogeneous nucleation of the shell has been discussed. This seeded-growth technique, being one of the most heavily explored mechanisms, has already been discussed in many other excellent review articles. However, here our discussion has been focused differently based on composition (semiconductor@semiconductor, magnet@semiconductor, metal@semiconductor and vice versa), shape anisotropy of the shell growth, and synthetic methodology such as one-step vs. multi-step. The relatively less explored strategy of preparing heterostructures via colloidal sintering of different nanostructures, known as nanocrystal-fusion, has been reviewed here. The ion-exchange strategy, which has recently attracted huge research interest, where compositional tuning of nanocrystals can be achieved by exchanging either the cation or anion of a nanocrystal, has also been discussed. Specifically, controlled partial ion exchange has been critically reviewed as a viable synthetic strategy for the fabrication of heterostructures. Notably, we have also included the very recent methodology of utilizing inorganic ligands for the fabrication of heterostructured colloidal nanocrystals. This unique strategy of inorganic ligands has appeared as a new frontier for the synthesis of heterostructures and is reviewed in detail here for the first time. In all these cases, recent developments have been discussed with greater detail to add upon the existing reviews on this broad topic of semiconductor-based colloidal heterostructured nanocrystals.

Medium-Coupled Bus-Based INS-GPS Sensor Fusion for Accurate and Reliable Positioning

A scheme for integration of stand-alone INS and GPS sensors is presented, with data interchange over an external bus. This ensures modularity and sensor interchangeability. Use of a medium-coupled scheme reduces data flow and computation, facilitating use in surface vehicles. Results show that the hybrid navigation system is capable of delivering high positioning accuracy.

Structural Transformations in Protein Crystals caused by controlled Dehydration

Recent experiments in this laboratory on structural transformations caused by controlled dehydration of protein crystals have been reviewed. X-ray diffraction patterns of the following crystals have been examined under varying conditions of environmental humidity in the relative humidity range of 100-75%: a new crystal form of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A grown from acetone solution in tris buffer (I), the well-known monoclinic form of the protein grown from aqueous ethanol (II), the same form grown from a solution of 2-methyl pentan-2,4-diol in phosphate buffer (III), tetragonal (IV), orthorhombic (V), monoclinic (VI) and triclinic (VII) hen egg white lysozyme, porcine 2 Zn insulin (VIII), porcine 4 Zn insulin (IX) and the crystals of concanavalin A(X). I, II, IV, V and VI undergo one or more transformations as evidenced by discontinuous changes in the unit cell dimensions, the diffraction pattern and the solvent content. Such water-mediated transformations do not appear to occur in the remaining crystals in the relative humidity range explored. The relative humidity at which the transformation occurs is reduced when 2-methyl pentan-2,4-diol is present in the mother liquor. The transformations are affected by the crystal structure but not by the amount of solvent in the crystals. The X-ray investigations reviewed here and other related investigations emphasize the probable importance of water-mediated transformations in exploring hydration of proteins and conformational transitions in them.

Composition-controlled metal-insulator transitions and minimum metallic conductivity in the oxide systems LaNi1-xMxO3 (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, or Co)

The composition-controlled metal-insulator transition in the perovskite systems LaNi1-xMxO3 (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co) has been investigated by transport measurements over the temperature range 12-300 K. These systems, which have critical electron densities (nc) in the range (1-2) -1020 electrons cm-3, exhibit sharp metal-insulator transitions at the base temperature. The corresponding minimum metallic conductivity (Ï-min), separating the localized and itinerant electronic regimes, is of the order of 102 ohm-1 cm-1. Particular attention is paid to the idea of Ï-min scaling with nc, and our present results are compared with earlier studies of the metal-insulator transition in low (e.g., Ge:Sb) and high (e.g., metal-ammonia, supercritical Hg) electron-density systems. A link is established between the transport and magnetic properties of the title systems at the metal-insulator transition.

Microprocessor-controlled automatic focusing of a lens

Maximum intensity contrast has been used as a measure of lens defocus. A photodiode array under the control of 8085 microprocessor is used to measure the maximum intensity contrast and to position the lens for best focus. The lens is moved by a stepper motor under processor control at a speed of 350 to 500 steps/s. At this speed, focusing time was found to be between 5 and 8 s. Under coherent illuminating conditions, an accuracy of ± 50 μm has been achieved.

A microprocessor-controlled programmable pulse generator

The hardware and the software details of a user-friendly, simple, flexible and inexpensive pulse programmer using programmable counters interfaced to a microprocessor are described. The control of the various parameters that are required for NMR applications is implemented using the microprocessor. The basic hardware is extendable to other applications which require programmable pulse trains.

Enhancement of organic phase controlled extraction of copper by activated carbon

The addition of activated carbon particles (Darco-G, average size 4.3,μm) is shown to enhance the initial rate of extraction of copper in a Lewis cell by a mixture of α- and β-hydroxyoximes, when the rate of extraction is controlled by resistances in the organic phase. It is likely that the copper complex is adsorbed by carbon near the interace and partially released in the bulk. The enhancing effect of carbon vanishes when toluene is used as a diluent instead of heptane, presumably because toluene preferentially adsorbs on its surface.

Improvement in Intrusion Detection With Advances in Sensor Fusion

Various intrusion detection systems (IDSs) reported in the literature have shown distinct preferences for detecting a certain class of attack with improved accuracy, while performing moderately on the other classes. In view of the enormous computing power available in the present-day processors, deploying multiple IDSs in the same network to obtain best-of-breed solutions has been attempted earlier. The paper presented here addresses the problem of optimizing the performance of IDSs using sensor fusion with multiple sensors. The trade-off between the detection rate and false alarms with multiple sensors is highlighted. It is illustrated that the performance of the detector is better when the fusion threshold is determined according to the Chebyshev inequality. In the proposed data-dependent decision ( DD) fusion method, the performance optimization of ndividual IDSs is first addressed. A neural network supervised learner has been designed to determine the weights of individual IDSs depending on their reliability in detecting a certain attack. The final stage of this DD fusion architecture is a sensor fusion unit which does the weighted aggregation in order to make an appropriate decision. This paper theoretically models the fusion of IDSs for the purpose of demonstrating the improvement in performance, supplemented with the empirical evaluation.

Topochemically controlled hydrogen reduction of scheelite-related rare-earth metal molybdates

Scheelite-related -Ln2Mo3O12(Ln = La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, or Dy) oxides are reduced by hydrogen at 780–870 K yielding molybdenum (IV) oxides of formula Ln2Mo3O9. The latter crystallize in a tetragonal scheelite (ABO4) type structure where one third of the A sites and a quarter of the anion sites are vacant: Ln2/3(cat)1/3MoO3(an). The reaction Ln2Mo3O12+ 3H2 Ln2Mo3O9(an)3+ 3H2O may be regarded as topochemically controlled, since both the parent and the product phases have scheelite-related structures. Infrared spectra and electrical and magnetic properties of these metastable defect scheelite phases are reported.

Influence of surface chemistry of mesoporous alumina with wide pore distribution on controlled drug release

The crucial role of the drug carrier surface chemical moeities on the uptake and in vitro release of drug is discussed here in a systematic manner. Mesoporous alumina with a wide pore size distribution (2-7 nm) functionalized with various hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface chemical groups was employed as the carrier for delivery of the model drug ibuprofen. Surface functionalization with hydrophobic groups resulted in low degree of drug loading (approximately 20%) and fast rate of release (85% over a period of 5 h) whereas hydrophilic groups resulted in a significantly higher drug payloads (21%-45%) and slower rate of release (12%-40% over a period of 5 h). Depending on the chemical moiety, the diffusion controlled (proportional to time(-0.5)) drug release was additionally observed to be dependent on the mode of arrangement of the functional groups on the alumina surface as well as on the pore characteristics of the matrix. For all mesoporous alumina systems the drug dosages were far lower than the maximum recommended therapeutic dosages (MRTD) for oral delivery. We envisage that the present study would aid in the design of delivery systems capable of sustained release of multiple drugs.

Temperature and Stress Controlled Surface Manipulation in Ni-Al Nano-Layers

In the present paper the effects of temperature and high strain rate loading on the formation of various surface patterns in Ni-Al nano-layers are discussed. Effects of boundary conditions on the B2 -> BCT phase transformation in the nano-layer are also discussed. This study is aimed at developing several interesting patterned surface structures in Ni-Al nanolayer by controlling the phase transformation temperature and mechanical loading.

Controlled Growth of ZnO Tetrapods: Influence of Temperature and Temperature Gradient

Though it has been established that ZnO tetrapods can be synthesized by heating Zn in air, it is advantageous to grow tetrapods with legs of different morphologies with different lengths. Here, we report the large scale synthesis of ZnO tetrapods by heating Zn in air ambient. The parameters that control the diameter, length, and morphology of tetrapods are identified. It is shown that the morphology and dimensions of the tetrapods depend not only on the vaporization temperature but also on the temperature gradient of the furnace. The controlled synthesis procedure and the key parameters that influence the morphology are discussed.

A 100MHz to 1GHz, 0.35V to 1.5V supply 256 x 64 SRAM mock using symmetrized 9T SRAM cell with controlled read

In this paper, we present Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Managed 256 x 64 SRAM block in 65nm technology, for frequency ranging from 100MHz to 1GHz. The total energy is minimized for any operating frequency in the above range and leakage energy is minimized during standby mode. Since noise margin of SRAM cell deteriorates at low voltages, we propose Static Noise Margin improvement circuitry, which symmetrizes the SRAM cell by controlling the body bias of pull down NMOS transistor. We used a 9T SRAM cell that isolates Read and Hold Noise Margin and has less leakage. We have implemented an efficient technique of pushing address decoder into zigzag-super-cut-off in stand-by mode without affecting its performance in active mode of operation. The Read Bit Line (RBL) voltage drop is controlled and pre-charge of bit lines is done only when needed for reducing power wastage.

Critical test for Altshuler-Aronov theory: Evolution of the density of states singularity in double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 with controlled disorder

With high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy measurements, the density of states (DOS) near the Fermi level (E-F) of double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 having different degrees of Fe/Mo antisite disorder has been investigated with varying temperature. The DOS near E-F showed a systematic depletion with increasing degree of disorder, and recovered with increasing temperature. Altshuler-Aronov (AA) theory of disordered metals well explains the dependences of the experimental results. Scaling analysis of the spectra provides experimental indication for the functional form of the AA DOS singularity.