Synthesis of ZnO nanorods on a flexible Phynox alloy substrate: influence of growth temperature on their properties

A novel flexible alloy substrate (Phynox, 50 mm thick) was used for the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods via a low-temperature solution growth method. The growth of ZnO nanorods was observed over a low temperature range of 60-90 degrees C for a growth duration of 4 hours. The as-synthesized nanorods were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for their morphology, crystallinity, microstructure and composition. The as-grown ZnO nanorods were observed to be relatively vertical to the substrate. However, the morphology of the ZnO nanorods in terms of their length, diameter and aspect ratio was found to vary with the growth temperature. The morphological variation was mainly due to the effects of the various relative growth rates observed at the different growth temperatures. The growth temperature influenced ZnO nanorods were also analyzed for their wetting (either hydrophobic or hydrophilic) properties. After carrying out multiple wetting behaviour analyses, it has been found that the as-synthesized ZnO nanorods are hydrophobic in nature. The ZnO nanorods have potential application possibilities in self-cleaning devices, sensors and actuators as well as energy harvesters such as nanogenerators.

Volume change behavior of lime treated gypseous soil - influence of mineralogy and microstructure

Series of oedometer tests and micro-analytical studies (XRD, SEM and EDAX) have been carried out to investigate the influence of varying gypsum content on swell, compressibility and permeability of lime treated montmorillonitic soil after curing for different period. Immediate swell is observed on inundation of compacted samples with water and continuously increased with gypsum content. However, changes in swell are found to be marginal with curing. This is attributed to the formation and growth of ettringite crystals by ionic reactions of aluminum calcium-sulfate in the presence of water which is confirmed through detailed micro-analysis. The higher swell in uncured specimens and gradual reduction in swell with increase in curing periods are due to relative dominance of formation and growth of ettringite and cementitious compounds, respectively. Also, the ionic reaction products are found to bear a significant influence on the compressibility and permeability behavior. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of Anisotropy on Pavement Responses Using Adaptive Sparse Polynomial Chaos Expansion

Modeling the spatial variability that exists in pavement systems can be conveniently represented by means of random fields; in this study, a probabilistic analysis that considers the spatial variability, including the anisotropic nature of the pavement layer properties, is presented. The integration of the spatially varying log-normal random fields into a linear-elastic finite difference analysis has been achieved through the expansion optimal linear estimation method. For the estimation of the critical pavement responses, metamodels based on polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) are developed to replace the computationally expensive finite-difference model. The sparse polynomial chaos expansion based on an adaptive regression-based algorithm, and enhanced by the combined use of the global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is used, with significant savings in computational effort. The effect of anisotropy in each layer on the pavement responses was studied separately, and an effort is made to identify the pavement layer wherein the introduction of anisotropic characteristics results in the most significant impact on the critical strains. It is observed that the anisotropy in the base layer has a significant but diverse effect on both critical strains. While the compressive strain tends to be considerably higher than that observed for the isotropic section, the tensile strains show a decrease in the mean value with the introduction of base-layer anisotropy. Furthermore, asphalt-layer anisotropy also tends to decrease the critical tensile strain while having little effect on the critical compressive strain. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Influence of the upwelling events on the delta C-13 and delta O-18 of the benthic bivalve shells of the South Western Continental Margin of India

In this study, the influence of the spatial and temporal variability of upwelling intensity and the associated biological productivity observed during different phases of summer monsoon along the southwestern continental margin of India (SWCMI) on the delta C-13 and delta O-18 of the inorganic biogenic carbonate shells was investigated. Multispecies benthic bivalve shells (1-5 mm) separated from ten surface sediment samples of SWCMI (off 12 degrees N, 10 degrees N and 9 degrees N) collected during the onset (OSM) and peak (PSM) phase of the summer monsoon of 2009 were analysed for delta C-13 and delta O-18. Sea surface temperature along the study region indicates prominent upwelling in PSM than in OSM. A comparison of analytical and predicted values for delta O-18 in the bivalve shells confirmed their in situ origin during both the sampling periods. During PSM, the delta C-13 values in the benthic bivalve shells were more depleted in C-13 than during OSM which recorded lower values of delta C-13 in dissolved inorganic carbon of bottom waters expected in the study region in PSM due to the upwelled waters, high surface productivity and the associated high degradation of the organic matter in the subsurface and bottom waters. However, this depletion of delta C-13 was not observed in benthic bivalve shells obtained from 10 degrees N, since it is influenced by high export fluxes of carbon from the Cochin estuary since early monsoon months.

Influence of recombination on acquisition and reversion of immune escape and compensatory mutations in HIV-1

Following transmission, HIV-1 adapts in the new host by acquiring mutations that allow it to escape from the host immune response at multiple epitopes. It also reverts mutations associated with epitopes targeted in the transmitting host but not in the new host. Moreover, escape mutations are often associated with additional compensatory mutations that partially recover fitness costs. It is unclear whether recombination expedites this process of multi-locus adaptation. To elucidate the role of recombination, we constructed a detailed population dynamics model that integrates viral dynamics, host immune response at multiple epitopes through cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and viral evolution driven by mutation, recombination, and selection. Using this model, we compute the expected waiting time until the emergence of the strain that has gained escape and compensatory mutations against the new host's immune response, and reverted these mutations at epitopes no longer targeted. We find that depending on the underlying fitness landscape, shaped by both costs and benefits of mutations, adaptation proceeds via distinct dominant pathways with different effects of recombination, in particular distinguishing escape and reversion. When adaptation at a single epitope is involved, recombination can substantially accelerate immune escape but minimally affects reversion. When multiple epitopes are involved, recombination can accelerate or inhibit adaptation depending on the fitness landscape. Specifically, recombination tends to delay adaptation when a purely uphill fitness landscape is accessible at each epitope, and accelerate it when a fitness valley is associated with each epitope. Our study points to the importance of recombination in shaping the adaptation of HIV-1 following its transmission to new hosts, a process central to T cell-based vaccine strategies. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

The influence of current density on the morphology and corrosion properties of MAO coatings on AZ31B magnesium alloy

Micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coatings were prepared on AZ31B magnesium alloy using alkaline silicate electrolyte at different current densities (0.026, 0.046 and 0.067 A/cm(2)). Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) analysis of the coating revealed an irregular porous structure with cracked morphology. Compositional analysis carried out for MAO coating showed the presence of almost an equal amount of Mg and 0 (34 wt.%) apart from other elements such as F, Si and AI. The cross-sectional FESEM images clearly portrayed that the MAO coating was dense along with the presence of very few fine pores. The surface roughness (R-a) of the coatings increased with an increase in the current density. Potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) studies were carried out for both the bare and MAO coated AZ31B Mg alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution. The corrosion potential (E-corr) and corrosion current density (i(corr)) values obtained for the bare substrate were -1.49 V and 46 mu A/cm(2), respectively. The coating prepared at 0.046 A/cm(2) exhibited the lowest i(corr) value of 7.79 x 10(-10) A/cm(2) and highest polarization resistance (41.6 M Omega cm(2)) attesting to the better corrosion resistance of the coating compared to other samples. EIS results also indicated almost similar corrosion behavior for the MAO coatings. Mott-Schottky analysis showed n-type and p-type semiconductor behavior for the oxide layer present on the bare magnesium alloy and MAO coatings respectively. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Comments on ``Influence of chemical reaction and viscous dissipation on MHD mixed convection flow'' by K. Das JMST 28 (5) (2014) 1881 similar to 1885] and ``Cu-water nanofluid flow and heat transfer over a shrinking sheet'' by K. Das JMST 28 (12) 5089 similar to 5094]

In this letter, we submit our comment on the following recently published papers by Kalidas Das: (1) ``Influence of chemical reaction and viscous dissipation on MHD mixed convection flow,'' Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (5) (2014) 1881-1885; and (2) ``Cu-water nanofluid flow and heat transfer over a shrinking sheet,'' Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (12) (2014) 5089-5094. The authors attempt to present the similarity solutions in both papers. We comment that the similarity transformations considered in Refs. 1, 2] are incorrect. Thus, the results presented by Kalidas Das lead to invalid conclusions.

Influence of Local Magnetic Fields on P-Doped Si Floating Zone Melting Crystal Growth in Microgravity

A two-dimensional axisymmetric numerical model is presented to study the influence of local magnetic fields on P-doped Si floating zone melting crystal growth in microgravity. The model is developed based on the finite difference method in a boundary-fitted curvilinear coordinate system. Extensive numerical simulations are carried out, and parameters studied include the curved growth interface shape and the magnetic field configurations. Computed results show that the local magnetic field is more effective in reducing the impurity concentration nonuniformity at the growth interface in comparison with the longitudinal magnetic field. Moreover, the curved growth interface causes more serious impurity concentration nonuniformity at the growth interface than the case with a planar growth interface.

Non-Gravitational Effects with Density-Matching in Evaluating the Influence of Sedimentation on Colloidal Coagulation

The method of density matching between the solid and liquid phases is often adopted to effectively eliminate the effect of sedimentation of suspensions in studies on dynamic behaviour of a colloidal system. However, the associated changes in the solvent composition may bring side effects to the properties investigated and therefore might lead to a faulty conclusion if the relevant correction is not made. To illustrate the importance of this side effect, we present an example of the sedimentation influence on the coagulation rate of suspensions of 2 μm (diameter) polystyrene. The liquid mixtures, in the proper proportions of water (H2O), deuterium oxide (D2O) and methanol (MeOH) as the liquid phase, density-matched and unmatched experiments are performed. Besides the influence of viscosity, the presence of methanol in solvent media, used to enhance the sedimentation effect, causes significant changes (reduction) in rapid coagulation rates compared to that in pure water. Without the relevant corrections for those non-gravitational factors it seems that gravitational sedimentation would retard the coagulation. The magnitude of the contribution from the non-gravitational factor is quantitatively determined, making the relevant correction possible. After necessary corrections for all factors, our experiments show that the influence of the sedimentation on coagulation rates at the initial stage of the coagulation is not observable.

Influence of the Configuration of Obstacles on Premixed Flame Acceleration in a Tube

在一端封闭、一端开口的火焰传播管中均匀布置障碍物,研究了障碍物结构对管道中预混火焰传播的影 响。结果表明,由于障碍物的扰动,火焰不断加速,在阻塞比相同的条件下,最终的火焰稳态速度与障碍物的形状 和间距基本无关,其中障碍物间距仅仅影响火焰的加速速率,在障碍物间距约等于火焰传播管内径( W/ D≈1. 0) 时,平均火焰速度达到最大值,火焰到达稳态传播的距离最短。同时,本文用一维简化模型模拟了火焰在障碍物管 道中的加速过程,计算结果与实验测试结果在定性上比较吻合,说明在管内火焰速度较低的情况下,用一维可压缩 流动近似处理能初步揭示管内火焰的加速机制。

Pull-in Instability Study of Carbon Nanotube Tweezers Under the Influence of Van der Waals Forces

The pull-in instability of two nanotubes under van der Waals force is studied. The cantilever beam with large deformation model is used. The influence of nanotube parameters such as the interior radius, the gap distance between the two nanotubes, etc, on the pull-in instability is studied. The critical nanotube length is determined for each specific set of nanotube parameters. The Galerkin method is applied to discretize the governing equations, and it shows good convergence.

Influence of grain boundary on melting

The temperature behaviour of an Al bicrystal with surfaces consisting of (110) and (111) crystals is simulated using molecular dynamics. The result shows that the (110) crystal losses its crystalline order at 820K, whereas the disorder does not propagate through the (111) crystal at this temperature. Instead, some disordered atoms are recrystallized into the (111) crystal and the initial grain boundary changes into a stable order-disorder interface. Thus, it was discovered that at a temperature near its melting point, the (111) crystal grew and obstructed the propagation of disorder. Such an obstruction is helpful for understanding melting.