The nature of the charge-ordered state in Y0.5Ca0.5MnO3 with a very small average radius of the A-site cations

A detailed investigation of Y0.5Ca0.5MnO3 with a very small radius of the A-site cations ([r(A)] approximate to 1.13 Angstrom reveals the occurrence of a charge-ordering transition in the paramagnetic state, at a relatively high temperature of 260 K. The orthorhombic lattice distortion, as measured by the dimensionless index D, is large (similar to 1.75%) over the entire 300-100 K range, but the antiferromagnetic interactions become prominent only at low temperatures (< 160 K). The charge-ordering gap in Y0.5Ca0.5MnO3, measured by low-temperature vacuum tunnelling spectroscopy, is large (similar to 0.5 eV) and the charge-ordered state is unaffected by the application of a magnetic field of 6 T. The study indicates that the nature of charge-ordering in Y0.5Ca0.5MnO3 which is dominated by the cooperative Jahn-Teller effect and the associated lattice distortion is distinctly different from analogous manganates with larger [r(A)].

Precipitation In Small Systems--II. Mean Field Equations More Effective Than Population Balance

Part I (Manjunath et al., 1994, Chem. Engng Sci. 49, 1451-1463) of this paper showed that the random particle numbers and size distributions in precipitation processes in very small drops obtained by stochastic simulation techniques deviate substantially from the predictions of conventional population balance. The foregoing problem is considered in this paper in terms of a mean field approximation obtained by applying a first-order closure to an unclosed set of mean field equations presented in Part I. The mean field approximation consists of two mutually coupled partial differential equations featuring (i) the probability distribution for residual supersaturation and (ii) the mean number density of particles for each size and supersaturation from which all average properties and fluctuations can be calculated. The mean field equations have been solved by finite difference methods for (i) crystallization and (ii) precipitation of a metal hydroxide both occurring in a single drop of specified initial supersaturation. The results for the average number of particles, average residual supersaturation, the average size distribution, and fluctuations about the average values have been compared with those obtained by stochastic simulation techniques and by population balance. This comparison shows that the mean field predictions are substantially superior to those of population balance as judged by the close proximity of results from the former to those from stochastic simulations. The agreement is excellent for broad initial supersaturations at short times but deteriorates progressively at larger times. For steep initial supersaturation distributions, predictions of the mean field theory are not satisfactory thus calling for higher-order approximations. The merit of the mean field approximation over stochastic simulation lies in its potential to reduce expensive computation times involved in simulation. More effective computational techniques could not only enhance this advantage of the mean field approximation but also make it possible to use higher-order approximations eliminating the constraints under which the stochastic dynamics of the process can be predicted accurately.

Electrical and magneto-resistance of Co/CNT/epoxy thin film for strain and magnetic field sensing

Cobalt and iron nanoparticles are doped in carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer matrix composites and studied for strain and magnetic field sensing properties. Characterization of these samples is done for various volume fractions of each constituent (Co and Fe nanoparticles and CNTs) and also for cases when only either of the metallic components is present. The relation between the magnetic field and polarization-induced strain are exploited. The electronic bandgap change in the CNTs is obtained by a simplified tight-binding formulation in terms of strain and magnetic field. A nonlinear constitutive model of glassy polymer is employed to account for (1) electric bias field dependent softening/hardening (2) CNT orientations as a statistical ensemble and (3) CNT volume fraction. An effective medium theory is then employed where the CNTs and nanoparticles are treated as inclusions. The intensity of the applied magnetic field is read indirectly as the change in resistance of the sample. Very small magnetic fields can be detected using this technique since the resistance is highly sensitive to strain. Its sensitivity due to the CNT volume fraction is also discussed. The advantage of this sensor lies in the fact that it can be molded into desirable shape and can be used in fabrication of embedded sensors where the material can detect external magnetic fields on its own. Besides, the stress-controlled hysteresis of the sample can be used in designing memory devices. These composites have potential for use in magnetic encoders, which are made of a magnetic field sensor and a barcode.

Dielectric elastomers: Asymptotically-correct three-dimensional displacement field

Asymptotically-accurate dimensional reduction from three to two dimensions and recovery of 3-D displacement field of non-prestretched dielectric hyperelastic membranes are carried out using the Variational Asymptotic Method (VAM) with moderate strains and very small ratio of the membrane thickness to its shortest wavelength of the deformation along the plate reference surface chosen as the small parameters for asymptotic expansion. Present work incorporates large deformations (displacements and rotations), material nonlinearity (hyperelasticity), and electrical effects. It begins with 3-D nonlinear electroelastic energy and mathematically splits the analysis into a one-dimensional (1-D) through-the-thickness analysis and a 2-D nonlinear plate analysis. Major contribution of this paper is a comprehensive nonlinear through-the-thickness analysis which provides a 2-D energy asymptotically equivalent of the 3-D energy, a 2-D constitutive relation between the 2-D generalized strain and stress tensors for the plate analysis and a set of recovery relations to express the 3-D displacement field. Analytical expressions are derived for warping functions and stiffness coefficients. This is the first attempt to integrate an analytical work on asymptotically-accurate nonlinear electro-elastic constitutive relation for compressible dielectric hyperelastic model with a generalized finite element analysis of plates to provide 3-D displacement fields using VAM. A unified software package `VAMNLM' (Variational Asymptotic Method applied to Non-Linear Material models) was developed to carry out 1-D non-linear analysis (analytical), 2-D non-linear finite element analysis and 3-D recovery analysis. The applicability of the current theory is demonstrated through an actuation test case, for which distribution of 3-D displacements are provided. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A semi-automated, field-portable microscopy platform for clinical diagnostic applications

Clinical microscopy is a versatile diagnostic platform used for diagnosis of a multitude of diseases. In the recent past, many microfluidics based point-of-care diagnostic devices have been developed, which serve as alternatives to microscopy. However, these point-of-care devices are not as multi-functional and versatile as clinical microscopy. With the use of custom designed optics and microfluidics, we have developed a versatile microscopy-based cellular diagnostic platform, which can be used at the point of care. The microscopy platform presented here is capable of detecting infections of very low parasitemia level (in a very small quantity of sample), without the use of any additional computational hardware. Such a cost-effective and portable diagnostic device, would greatly impact the quality of health care available to people living in rural locations of the world. Apart from clinical diagnostics, it's applicability to field research in environmental microbiology has also been outlined. (C) 2015 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Cr3+ electron paramagnetic resonance study of Sn(1-x)CrxO(2) (0.00 <= x <= 0.10)

This paper reports on the liquid-helium-temperature (5 K) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of Cr3+ ions in the nanoparticles of SnO2 synthesized at 600 degrees C with concentrations of 0%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%, 3.0%, 5.0%, and 10%. Each spectrum may be simulated as overlap of spectra due to four magnetically inequivalent Cr3+ centers characterized by different values of the spin-Hamiltonian parameters. Three of these centers belong to Cr3+ ions in orthorhombic sites, situated near oxygen vacancies, characterized by very large zero-field splitting parameters D and E, presumably due to the presence of nanoparticles in the samples. The fourth EPR spectrum belongs to the Cr3+ ions situated at sites with tetragonal symmetry, substituting for the Sn4+ ion, characterized by a very small value of D. In addition, there appears a ferromagnetic resonance line due to oxygen defects for samples with Cr3+ concentrations of <= 2.5%. Further, in samples with Cr3+ concentrations of >2.5%, there appears an intense and wide EPR line due to the interactions among the Cr3+ ions in the clusters formed due to rather excessive doping; the intensity and width of this line increase with increasing concentration. The Cr3+ EPR spectra observed in these nanopowders very different from those in bulk SnO2 crystals.

Drive current boosting of n-type tunnel FET with strained SiGe layer at source

Though silicon tunnel field effect transistor (TFET) has attracted attention for sub-60 mV/decade subthreshold swing and very small OFF current (IOFF), its practical application is questionable due to low ON current (ION) and complicated fabrication process steps. In this paper, a new n-type classical-MOSFET-alike tunnel FET architecture is proposed, which offers sub-60 mV/decade subthreshold swing along with a significant improvement in ION. The enhancement in ION is achieved by introducing a thin strained SiGe layer on top of the silicon source. Through 2D simulations it is observed that the device is nearly free from short channel effect (SCE) and its immunity towards drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) increases with increasing germanium mole fraction. It is also found that the body bias does not change the drive current but after body current gets affected. An ION of View the MathML source and a minimum average subthreshold swing of 13 mV/decade is achieved for 100 nm channel length device with 1.2 V supply voltage and 0.7 Ge mole fraction, while maintaining the IOFF in fA range.

Manifestation of geometric frustration on magnetic and thermodynamic properties of the pyrochlores Sm2X2O7 (X=Ti,Zr)

We present here magnetization, specific heat, and Raman studies on single-crystalline specimens of the first pyrochlore member Sm2Ti2O7 of the rare-earth titanate series. Its analogous compound Sm2Zr2O7 in the rare-earth zirconate series is also investigated in the polycrystalline form. The Sm spins in Sm2Ti2O7 remain unordered down to at least T=0.5 K. The absence of magnetic ordering is attributed to very small values of exchange (θcw∼−0.26 K) and dipolar interaction (μeff∼0.15 μB) between the Sm3+ spins in this pyrochlore. In contrast, the pyrochlore Sm2Zr2O7 is characterized by a relatively large value of Sm-Sm spin exchange (θcw∼−10 K); however, long-range ordering of the Sm3+ spins is not established at least down to T=0.67 K due to frustration of the Sm3+ spins on the pyrochlore lattice. The ground state of Sm3+ ions in both pyrochlores is a well-isolated Kramers doublet. The higher-lying crystal field excitations are observed in the low-frequency region of the Raman spectra of the two compounds recorded at T=10 K. At higher temperatures, the magnetic susceptibility of Sm2Ti2O7 shows a broad maximum at T=140 K, while that of Sm2Zr2O7 changes monotonically. Whereas Sm2Ti2O7 is a promising candidate for investigating spin fluctuations on a frustrated lattice, as indicated by our data, the properties of Sm2Zr2O7 seem to conform to a conventional scenario where geometrical frustration of the spin excludes their long-range ordering.

Optical, Field-Emission, and Antimicrobial Properties of ZnO Nanostructured Films Deposited at Room Temperature by Activated Reactive Evaporation

ZnO nanostructures were deposited on flexible polymer sheet and cotton fabrics at room temperature by activated reactive evaporation. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectrum of ZnO nanostructured film exhibited a week intrinsic UV emission and a strong broad yellow-orange visible emission. TEM and HRTEM studies show that the grown nanostructures are crystalline in nature and their growth direction was indentified to be along [002]. ZnO nanostructures grown on the copper-coated flexible polymer sheets exhibited stable field-emissio characteristics with a threshold voltage of 2.74 V/mu m (250 mu A) and a very large field enhancement factor (beta) of 23,213. Cotton fabric coated with ZnO nanostructures show an excellent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (Gram positive), and similar to 73% reduction in the bacterial population is achieved compared to uncoated fabrics after 4 h in viability. Using a shadow mask technique, we also selectively deposited the nanostructures at room temperature on polymer substrates.

Uniformly valid analytical solution to the problem of a decaying shock wave

An explicit representation of an analytical solution to the problem of decay of a plane shock wave of arbitrary strength is proposed. The solution satisfies the basic equations exactly. The approximation lies in the (approximate) satisfaction of two of the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions. The error incurred is shown to be very small even for strong shocks. This solution analyses the interaction of a shock of arbitrary strength with a centred simple wave overtaking it, and describes a complete history of decay with a remarkable accuracy even for strong shocks. For a weak shock, the limiting law of motion obtained from the solution is shown to be in complete agreement with the Friedrichs theory. The propagation law of the non-uniform shock wave is determined, and the equations for shock and particle paths in the (x, t)-plane are obtained. The analytic solution presented here is uniformly valid for the entire flow field behind the decaying shock wave.

Geometry and quadratic nonlinearity of charge transfer complexes in solution using depolarized hyper-Rayleigh scattering

We report large quadratic nonlinearity in a series of 1:1 molecular complexes between methyl substituted benzene donors and quinone acceptors in solution. The first hyperpolarizability, beta(HRS), which is very small for the individual components, becomes large by intermolecular charge transfer (CT) interaction between the donor and the acceptor in the complex. In addition, we have investigated the geometry of these CT complexes in solution using polarization resolved hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS). Using linearly (electric field vector along X direction) and circularly polarized incident light, respectively, we have measured two macroscopic depolarization ratios D = I-2 omega,I-X,I-X/I-2 omega,I-Z,I-X and D' = I-2 omega,I-X,I-C/I-2 omega,I-Z,I-C in the laboratory fixed XYZ frame by detecting the second harmonic scattered light in a polarization resolved fashion. The experimentally obtained first hyperpolarizability, beta(HRS), and the value of macroscopic depolarization ratios, D and D', are then matched with the theoretically deduced values from single and double configuration interaction calculations performed using the Zerner's intermediate neglect of differential overlap self-consistent reaction field technique. In solution, since several geometries are possible, we have carried out calculations by rotating the acceptor moiety around three different axes keeping the donor molecule fixed at an optimized geometry. These rotations give us the theoretical beta(HRS), D and D' values as a function of the geometry of the complex. The calculated beta(HRS), D, and D' values that closely match with the experimental values, give the dominant equilibrium geometry in solution. All the CT complexes between methyl benzenes and chloranil or 1,2-dichloro-4,5-dicyano-p-benzoquinone investigated here are found to have a slipped parallel stacking of the donors and the acceptors. Furthermore, the geometries are staggered and in some pairs, a twist angle as high as 30 degrees is observed. Thus, we have demonstrated in this paper that the polarization resolved HRS technique along with theoretical calculations can unravel the geometry of CT complexes in solution. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3514922]

Parameter estimation of a two-horizon soil profile by combining crop canopy and surface soil moisture observations using GLUE

Estimation of soil parameters by inverse modeling using observations on either surface soil moisture or crop variables has been successfully attempted in many studies, but difficulties to estimate root zone properties arise when heterogeneous layered soils are considered. The objective of this study was to explore the potential of combining observations on surface soil moisture and crop variables - leaf area index (LAI) and above-ground biomass for estimating soil parameters (water holding capacity and soil depth) in a two-layered soil system using inversion of the crop model STICS. This was performed using GLUE method on a synthetic data set on varying soil types and on a data set from a field experiment carried out in two maize plots in South India. The main results were (i) combination of surface soil moisture and above-ground biomass provided consistently good estimates with small uncertainity of soil properties for the two soil layers, for a wide range of soil paramater values, both in the synthetic and the field experiment, (ii) above-ground biomass was found to give relatively better estimates and lower uncertainty than LAI when combined with surface soil moisture, especially for estimation of soil depth, (iii) surface soil moisture data, either alone or combined with crop variables, provided a very good estimate of the water holding capacity of the upper soil layer with very small uncertainty whereas using the surface soil moisture alone gave very poor estimates of the soil properties of the deeper layer, and (iv) using crop variables alone (else above-ground biomass or LAI) provided reasonable estimates of the deeper layer properties depending on the soil type but provided poor estimates of the first layer properties. The robustness of combining observations of the surface soil moisture and the above-ground biomass for estimating two layer soil properties, which was demonstrated using both synthetic and field experiments in this study, needs now to be tested for a broader range of climatic conditions and crop types, to assess its potential for spatial applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Network-error correcting codes using small fields

Recently, Ebrahimi and Fragouli proposed an algorithm to construct scalar network codes using small fields (and vector network codes of small lengths) satisfying multicast constraints in a given single-source, acyclic network. The contribution of this paper is two fold. Primarily, we extend the scalar network coding algorithm of Ebrahimi and Fragouli (henceforth referred to as the EF algorithm) to block network-error correction. Existing construction algorithms of block network-error correcting codes require a rather large field size, which grows with the size of the network and the number of sinks, and thereby can be prohibitive in large networks. We give an algorithm which, starting from a given network-error correcting code, can obtain another network code using a small field, with the same error correcting capability as the original code. Our secondary contribution is to improve the EF Algorithm itself. The major step in the EF algorithm is to find a least degree irreducible polynomial which is coprime to another large degree polynomial. We suggest an alternate method to compute this coprime polynomial, which is faster than the brute force method in the work of Ebrahimi and Fragouli.

Dispersible crystalline nanobundles of YPO4 and Ln (Eu, Tb)-doped YPO4: rapid synthesis, optical properties and bio-probe applications

Undoped and Ln(3+) (Eu and Tb)-doped crystalline nanobundles of YPO4 were prepared by a facile microwave-assisted route with water as a solvent and without using any surfactant. TEM investigations reveal that the as-prepared powder consists of lenticular-shaped nanobundles (similar to 100 nm in diameter) made of very small nanorods with diameter less than 10 nm and length varying from 20 to 50 nm. Each nanorod in turn is single crystalline, as revealed by HRTEM imaging. The as-prepared nanobundles are easily dispersible in various solvents, especially water, without any surface functionalization, which is critical for various bio-probe applications like cell and tissue imaging. The Eu- and Tb-doped YPO4 nanobundles show good photoluminescence properties and were further evaluated for their use as fluorescent biolabels. Our results show that HeLa cells labelled with Eu- and Tb-doped YPO4 nanobundles show bright red (Eu) and green (Tb) intracellular luminescence under a confocal microscope. Concentration-and time-dependent MTT cell viability assays show that the nanobundles show low toxicity towards cells which makes them promising in bioimaging field.

Site-Specific Functionalization of Hyperbranched Polymers Using ``Click'' Chemistry

Different strategies for functionalization of the core region and periphery of core-shell type hyperbranched polymers (HBP) using the ``click'' reaction have been explored. For achieving periphera functionalization, an AB(2) + A-R-1 + A-R-2 type copolymerization approach was used, where A-R-1 is heptaethylene glycol monomethyl ether (HPEG-M) and A-R-2 is tetraethylene glycol monopropargyl ether (TEG-P). A very small mole fraction of the propargyl containing monomer, TEG-P, was used to ensure that the water-solubility of the hyperbranched polymer is minimally affected. Similarly, to incorporate propargyl groups in the core region, a new propargyl group bearing B-2-typ monomer was designed and utilized in an AB(2) + A(2) + B-2 + A-R-1 type copolymerization, such that the total mole fraction of B-2 + A(2) is small and their mole-ratio is 1: 1. Further, using a combination of both the above approaches, namely AB(2) + A(2) + B-2 + A-R-1 + A-R-2, hyperbranched structures that incorporate propargyl groups both at theperiphery and within the core were synthesized. Since the AB(2) monomer carries a hexamethylene spacer (C-6) and the periphery is PEGylated all the derivatized polymers form core-shell type structures in aqueous solutions. Attempts were made to ascertain and probe the location of the propargyl groups in these HBP's, by ``clicking'' azidomethylpyrene, onto them. However, the fluorescence spectra of aqueous solutions of the pyrene derivatized polymers were unable to discriminate between the various locations, possibly because the relatively hydrophobic pyrene units insert themselves into the core region to minimize exposure to water.