pH sensing by single and multi-layer hydrogel coated Fiber Bragg Grating

In this paper we show a novel chemo-mechanical-optical sensing mechanism in single and multi-layer hydrogel coated Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) and demonstrate specific application in pH activated processes. The sensing device is based on the ionizable monomers inside the hydrogel which reversibly dissociates as a function of the pH and consequently resulting in osmotic pressure difference between the gel and the solution. This pressure gradient causes the hydrogel to deform which in turn induces secondary strain on the FBG sensor resulting in shift in the Bragg wavelength. We also report on the sensitivity factor of single and multilayer hydrogel coated FBG at various different pH.

Micropillar and macropillar compression responses of magnesium single crystals oriented for single slip or extension twinning

Uniaxial compression experiments were conducted on two magnesium (Mg) single crystals whose crystallographic orientations facilitate the deformation either by basal slip or by extension twinning. Specimen size effects were examined by conducting experiments on mu m- and mm-sized samples. A marked specimen size effect was noticed, with micropillars exhibiting significantly higher flow stress than bulk samples. Further, it is observed that the twin nucleation stress exerts strong size dependence, with micropillars requiring substantially higher stress than the bulk samples. The flow curves obtained on the bulk samples are smooth whereas those obtained from micropillars exhibit intermittent and precipitous stress drops. Electron backscattered diffraction and microstructural analyses of the deformed samples reveal that the plastic deformation in basal slip oriented crystals occurs only by slip while twin oriented crystals deform by both slip and twinning modes. The twin oriented crystals exhibit a higher strain hardening during plastic deformation when compared to the single slip oriented crystals. The strain hardening rate, theta, of twin oriented crystals is considerably greater in micropillars compared to the bulk single crystals, suggesting the prevalence of different work hardening mechanisms at these different sample sizes. (C) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Seventeen-level Inverter With a Single DC-link For Motor Drives

In the present paper, a novel topology for generating a 17-level inverter using three-level flying capacitor inverter and cascaded H-bridge modules with floating capacitors. The proposed circuit is analyzed and various aspects of it are presented in the paper. This circuit is experimentally verified and the results are shown. The stability of the capacitor balancing algorithm has been verified during sudden acceleration. This circuit has many pole voltage redundancies. This circuit has an advantage of balancing all the capacitor voltages instantaneously by switching through the redundancies. Another advantage of this topology is its ability to generate all the 17 pole voltages from a single DC link which enables back to back converter operation. Also, the proposed inverter can be operated at all load power factors and modulation indices. Another advantage is, if one of the H-bridges fail, the inverter can still be operated at full load with reduced number of levels.

Harmonic Current Injection based Powerline Communication Method for Grid Connected Single Phase Inverters in Domestic Microgrids

The following paper presents a Powerline Communication (PLC) Method for Single Phase interfaced inverters in domestic microgrids. The PLC method is based on the injection of a repeating sequence of a specific harmonic, which is then modulated on the fundamental component of the grid current supplied by the inverters to the microgrid. The power flow and information exchange are simultaneously accomplished by the grid interacting inverters based on current programmed vector control, hence there is no need for dedicated hardware. Simulation results have been shown for inter-inverter communication under different operating conditions to propose the viability. These simulations have been experimentally validated and the corresponding results have also been presented in the paper.

Chirality dependent elastic properties of single-walled boron nitride nanotubes under uniaxial and torsional loading

The elastic behavior of single-walled boron nitride nanotubes is studied under axial and torsional loading. Molecular dynamics simulation is carried out with a tersoff potential for modeling the interatomic interactions. Different chiral configurations with similar diameter are considered to study the effect of chirality on the elastic and shear moduli. Furthermore, the effects of tube length on elastic modulus are also studied by considering different aspects ratios. It is observed that both elastic and shear moduli depend upon the chirality of a nanotube. For aspect ratios less than 15, the elastic modulus reduces monotonically with an increase in the chiral angle. For chiral nanotubes, the torsional response shows a dependence on the direction of loading. The difference between the shear moduli against and along the chiral twist directions is maximum for chiral angle of 15 degrees, and zero for zigzag (0 degrees) and armchair (30 degrees) configurations. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Role of pH controlled DNA secondary structures in the reversible dispersion/precipitation and separation of metallic and semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes

Single-stranded DNA (ss-DNA) oligomers (dA(20), d(C(3)TA(2))(3)C-3] or dT(20)) are able to disperse single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in water at pH 7 through non-covalent wrapping on the nanotube surface. At lower pH, an alteration of the DNA secondary structure leads to precipitation of the SWNTs from the dispersion. The structural change of dA(20) takes place from the single-stranded to the A-motif form at pH 3.5 while in case of d(C(3)TA(2))(3)C-3] the change occurs from the single-stranded to the i-motif form at pH 5. Due to this structural change, the DNA is no longer able to bind the nanotube and hence the SWNT precipitates from its well-dispersed state. However, this could be reversed on restoring the pH to 7, where the DNA again relaxes in the single-stranded form. In this way the dispersion and precipitation process could be repeated over and over again. Variable temperature UV-Vis-NIR and CD spectroscopy studies showed that the DNA-SWNT complexes were thermally stable even at similar to 90 degrees C at pH 7. Broadband NIR laser (1064 nm) irradiation also demonstrated the stability of the DNA-SWNT complex against local heating introduced through excitation of the carbon nanotubes. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay confirmed the formation of a stable DNA-SWNT complex at pH 7 and also the generation of DNA secondary structures (A/i-motif) upon acidification. The interactions of ss-DNA with SWNTs cause debundling of the nanotubes from its assembly. Selective affinity of the semiconducting SWNTs towards DNA than the metallic ones enables separation of the two as evident from spectroscopic as well as electrical conductivity studies.

Analysis of composite single lap joints using numerical and experimental approach

Adhesives are widely used to execute the assembly of aerospace and automotive structures due to their ability to join dissimilar materials, reduced stress concentration, and improved fatigue resistance. The mechanical behavior of adhesive joints can be studied either using analytical models or by conducting mechanical tests. However, the complexity owing to multiple interfaces, layers with different properties, material and geometric nonlinearity and its three-dimensional nature combine to increase the difficulty in obtaining an overall system of governing equations to predict the joint behavior. On the other hand, experiments are often time consuming and expensive due to a number of parameters involved. Finite element analysis (FEA) is profoundly used in recent years to overcome these limitations. The work presented in this paper involves the finite element modeling and analysis of a composite single lap joint where the adhesive-adherend interface region was modeled using connector elements. The computed stresses were compared with the experimental stresses obtained using digital image correlation technique. The results showed an agreement. Further, the failure load predicted using FEA was found to be closer to the actual failure load obtained by mechanical tests.

A Thiol- ene Clickable Hyperbranched Polyester via a Simple Single- Step Melt Trans- Esterification Process

Self-condensation of AB(2) type monomers (containing one A-type and two B-type functional groups) generates hyperbranched (HB) polymers that carry numerous B-type end-groups at their molecular periphery; thus, development of synthetic methods that directly provide quantitatively transformable peripheral B groups would be of immense value as this would provide easy access to multiply functionalized HB systems. A readily accessible AB(2) monomer, namely diallyl, 5-(4-hydroxybutoxy)isophthalate was synthesized, which on polymerization under standard melt-transesterfication conditions yielded a peripherally clickable HB polyester in a single step; the allyl groups were quantitatively reacted with a variety of thiols using the facile photoinitiated thiol-ene reaction to generate a wide range of derivatives, with varying solubility and thermal properties. Furthermore, it is shown that the peripheral allyl double bonds can also be readily epoxidized using meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid to yield interesting HB systems, which could potentially serve as a multifunctional cross-linking agent in epoxy formulations. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40248.

Evaluation of the intrinsic magneto-dielectric coupling in LaMn0.5Co0.5O3 single crystals

The magneto-dielectric coupling in (l00) oriented LaMn0.5Co0.5O3 single crystals has been investigated using temperature, frequency, and magnetic field dependent dielectric response. Electronic transport data divulges that polaronic hopping arises due to Emin-Holstein adiabatic small polarons. Spin realignment through external magnetic field favors faster polaronic hopping by lowering activation energy for dielectric relaxation. Finally, positive magneto-dielectricity and magnetoloss under increasing magnetic field at high frequency of the exciting ac field confirms intrinsic magneto-dielectric effect in disordered ferromagnetic-insulator LaMn0.5Co0.5O3. This study also emphasizes the need to use single crystals as well as the frequencies higher than the corresponding inverse relaxation time. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

A Genetic Analysis of the Functional Interactions within Mycobacterium tuberculosis Single-Stranded DNA Binding Protein

Single-stranded DNA binding proteins (SSBs) are vital in all organisms. SSBs of Escherichia coli (EcoSSB) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtuSSB) are homotetrameric. The N-terminal domains (NTD) of these SSBs (responsible for their tetramerization and DNA binding) are structurally well defined. However, their C-terminal domains (CTD) possess undefined structures. EcoSSB NTD consists of beta 1-beta 1'-beta 2-beta 3-alpha-beta 4-beta 45(1)-beta 45(2)-beta 5 secondary structure elements. MtuSSB NTD includes an additional beta-strand (beta 6) forming a novel hook-like structure. Recently, we observed that MtuSSB complemented an E. coli Delta ssb strain. However, a chimeric SSB (m beta 4-beta 5), wherein only the terminal part of NTD (beta 4-beta 5 region possessing L-45 loop) of EcoSSB was substituted with that from MtuSSB, failed to function in E. coli in spite of its normal DNA binding and oligomerization properties. Here, we designed new chimeras by transplanting selected regions of MtuSSB into EcoSSB to understand the functional significance of the various secondary structure elements within SSB. All chimeric SSBs formed homotetramers and showed normal DNA binding. The m beta 4-beta 6 construct obtained by substitution of the region downstream of beta 5 in m beta 4-beta 5 SSB with the corresponding region (beta 6) of MtuSSB complemented the E. coli strain indicating a functional interaction between the L-45 loop and the beta 6 strand of MtuSSB.

A MICROMACHINED WIDE-BAND IN-PLANE SINGLE-AXIS CAPACITIVE ACCELEROMETER WITH A DISPLACEMENT-AMPLIFYING COMPLIANT MECHANISM

With the premise that electronic noise dominates mechanical noise in micromachined accelerometers, we present here a method to enhance the sensitivity and resolution at kHz bandwidth using mechanical amplification. This is achieved by means of a Displacement-amplifying Compliant Mechanism (DaCM) that is appended to the usual sensing element comprising a proof-mass and a suspension. Differential comb-drive arrangement is used for capacitive-sensing. The DaCM is designed to match the stiffness of the suspension so that there is substantial net amplification without compromising the bandwidth. A spring-mass-lever model is used to estimate the lumped parameters of the system. A DaCM-aided accelerometer and another without a DaCM-both occupying the same footprint-are compared to show that the former gives enhanced sensitivity: 8.7 nm/g vs. 1.4 nm/g displacement at the sensing-combs under static conditions. A prototype of the DaCM-aided micromachined acclerometer was fabricated using bulk-micromachining. It was tested at the die-level and then packaged on a printed circuit board with an off-the-shelf integrated chip for measuring change in capacitance. Under dynamic conditions, the measured amplification factor at the output of the DaCM was observed to be about 11 times larger than the displacement of the proof-mass and thus validating the concept of enhancing the sensitivity of accelerometers using mechanical amplifiers. The measured first in-plane natural frequency of the fabricated accelerometer was 6.25 kHz. The packaged accelerometer with the DaCM was measured to have 26.7 mV/g sensitivity at 40 Hz.

NON-GLYCINE RESIDUES IN THE DISALLOWED REGIONS OF THE RAMACHANDRAN MAP AND THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD PREFERENCES

The allowed and the ``disallowed'' regions in the celebrated Ramachandran map (phi-psi] map) was elegantly deduced by Ramachandran, Ramakrishnan and Sasisekharan even before the protein crystal structures became available. This powerful map was derived based on rigid geometry of the peptide group and later several investigations on protein crystal structures reported the occurrence of a small fraction of the phi-psi] torsion angles in the disallowed region. The question is what factors make these residues adopt disallowed conformations? Is it driven by the necessity to maintain the overall topology or is it associated with function or is it just that the disallowed conformations are extreme limits of the allowed conformations? Today, with the availability of a large number of high resolution crystal structures, we have revisited this problem. Apart from validating some of the earlier findings such as residue propensities, preferred location in the secondary structure, we have explored their spatial neighborhood preferences using the protein structure network PSN] approach developed in our lab. Finally, the structural and functional implications of the disallowed conformations are examined.

Fermi-Edge Transmission Resonance in Graphene Driven by a Single Coulomb Impurity

The interaction between the Fermi sea of conduction electrons and a nonadiabatic attractive impurity potential can lead to a power-law divergence in the tunneling probability of charge through the impurity. The resulting effect, known as the Fermi edge singularity (FES), constitutes one of the most fundamental many-body phenomena in quantum solid state physics. Here we report the first observation of FES for Dirac fermions in graphene driven by isolated Coulomb impurities in the conduction channel. In high-mobility graphene devices on hexagonal boron nitride substrates, the FES manifests in abrupt changes in conductance with a large magnitude approximate to e(2)/h at resonance, indicating total many-body screening of a local Coulomb impurity with fluctuating charge occupancy. Furthermore, we exploit the extreme sensitivity of graphene to individual Coulomb impurities and demonstrate a new defect-spectroscopy tool to investigate strongly correlated phases in graphene in the quantum Hall regime.

Substituent effect on fluorescence signaling of the cell permeable HSO4- receptors through single point to ratiometric response in green solvent

Two new 2-(2-aminophenyl)benzimidazole-based HSO4- ion selective receptors, 6-(4-nitrophenyl)-5,6-dihydrobenzo4,5]imidazo1,2-c]quinazoline (L1H) and 6-(4-methoxyphenyl)-5,6-dihydrobenzo4,5]imidazo1,2-c] quinazoline (L2H), and their 1 : 1 molecular complexes with HSO4- were prepared in a facile synthetic method and characterized by physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques along with the detailed structural analysis of L1H by single crystal X-ray crystallography. Both receptors (L1H and L2H) behave as highly selective chemosensor for HSO4- ions at biological pH in ethanol-water HEPES buffer (1/5) (v/v) medium over other anions such as F-, Cl-, Br-, I-, AcO-, H2PO4-, N-3(-) and ClO4-. Theoretical and experimental studies showed that the emission efficiency of the receptors (L1H and L2H) was tuned successfully through single point to ratiometric detection by employing the substituent effects. Using 3 sigma method the LOD for HSO4- ions were found to be 18.08 nM and 14.11 nM for L1H and L2H, respectively, within a very short responsive time (15-20 s) in 100 mM HEPES buffer (ethanol-water: 1/5, v/v). Comparison of the utility of the probes (L1H and L2H) as biomarkers for the detection of intracellular HSO4- ions concentrations under a fluorescence microscope has also been included and both probes showed no cytotoxic effect.

Magnetism and superconductivity in Sb-doped binary and ternary iron chalcogenide single crystals

We report the single crystal growth of antimony doped Fe1+yTe and Fe1+yTe0.5Se0.5 (Fe1+ySbxTe1-x (x=0, 2%, 5%) and Fe1+yTe0.49Se0.49Sb0.02) by a modified horizontal Bridgman method. Growth parameters are optimized to obtain high quality single crystals. The antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition at T-N = 62.2 K which is a first order transition, shifts to lower temperature on doping in Fe1+yTe. Alternately when the chalcogen site of the ternary compound Fe1+yTe0.5Se0.5 is doped with Sb, superconductivity is preserved albeit the superconducting transition temperature (T-C) falls slightly and a concomitant reduction occurs in superconducting volume fraction. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved,