Copper Doped Methylene Blue Sensitized Poly(vinyl alcohol)–Acrylamide Filmsfor Stable Diffraction Efficiency

Copper doped methylene blue sensitized poly(vinyl alcohol) (MBPVA)–acrylamide films were fabricated to improve the storage life of recorded gratings. The films were fabricated using gravity settling method and the copper chloride concentration was optimized as 3:18 10 3 mol/l for a dye concentration of 6:2 10 4 mol/l. The gratings recorded on the optimized film constitution could be stored for months with stable diffraction efficiency (24%) without any chemical or thermal fixing techniques. The resolution of the material is found to be unaffected with the addition of copper chloride.

Enhanced Bandwidth Microstrip Patch Antennas Loaded with High Permittivity Dielectric Resonators

A novel technique fitr the bat dividth enhancement of conventional rectangular microstrip antenna is proposed in this paper. When a high permittivity dielectric resonator of suitable resonant frequency was loaded over the patch. the % bandwidth of the antenna was increased by more than five tunes without much affecting its gain and radiation performance. A much more improved bandwidth was obtained when the dielectric resonator was placed on the feedline. Experimental study shows a 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of more than 10% and excellent cross polarization performance with increased pass band and radiation coverage abnost the same as that of rectangular microstrip antenna

Novel Wide Band Printed Dipole Antenna

Design, development and experimental observations of a L: band printed dipole antenna is presented.Bandwidth enhancement is achieved by end-loading or the dipole arms. Using the present technique Impedance bandwidth van be enhanced up to 50% without degrading the efficiency of the antenna.

Efficiency in Central Public Sector Enterprises in Kerala

For the analysis of productivity, capacity utilisation and profitability the data relating to the manufacturing central public sector enterprises in Kerala have been collected from the published annual reports of the companies, public enterprises surveys of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Economic Review of State Planning Board (SPB) and statistical review of central government enterprises by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Primary data have been collected by conducting personal interview with the high and middle level executives.

Enhanced dopamine D2 receptor function in hypothalamus and corpus striatum: their role in liver, plasma and in vitro hepatocyte ALDH regulation in ethahol treated rats

Dopamine D2 receptors are involved in ethanol self- administration behavior and also suggested to mediate the onset and offset of ethanol drinking. In the present study, we investigated dopamine (DA) content and Dopamine D2 (DA D2) receptors in the hypothalamus and corpus striatum of ethanol treated rats and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity in the liver and plasma of ethanol treated rats and in vitro hepatocyte cultures. Hypothalamic and corpus striatal DA content decreased significantly (P\0.05, P\0.001 respectively) and homovanillic acid/ dopamine (HVA/DA) ratio increased significantly (P\0.001) in ethanol treated rats when compared to control. Scatchard analysis of [3H] YM-09151-2 binding to DA D2 receptors in hypothalamus showed a significant increase (P\0.001) in Bmax without any change in Kd in ethanol treated rats compared to control. The Kd of DA D2 receptors significantly decreased (P\0.05) in the corpus striatum of ethanol treated rats when compared to control. DA D2 receptor affinity in the hypothalamus and corpus striatum of control and ethanol treated rats fitted to a single site model with unity as Hill slope value. The in vitro studies on hepatocyte cultures showed that 10-5 M and 10-7 M DA can reverse the increased ALDH activity in 10% ethanol treated cells to near control level. Sulpiride, an antagonist of DA D2, reversed the effect of dopamine on 10% ethanol induced ALDH activity in hepatocytes. Our results showed a decreased dopamine concentration with enhanced DA D2 receptors in the hypothalamus and corpus striatum of ethanol treated rats. Also, increased ALDH was observed in the plasma and liver of ethanol treated rats and in vitro hepatocyte cultures with 10% ethanol as a compensatory mechanism for increased aldehyde production due to increased dopamine metabolism. A decrease in dopamine concentration in major brain regions is coupled with an increase in ALDH activity in liver and plasma, which contributes to the tendency for alcoholism. Since the administration of 10-5 M and 10-7 M DA can reverse the increased ALDH activity in ethanol treated cells to near control level, this has therapeutic application to correct ethanol addicts from addiction due to allergic reaction observed in aldehyde accumulation.

Luminescence tuning and enhanced nonlinear optical properties of nanocomposites of ZnO–TiO2

In this article we present the spectral and nonlinear optical properties of ZnO–TiO2 nanocomposites prepared by colloidal chemical synthesis. Emission peaks of ZnO–TiO2 nanocomposites change from 340 nm to 385 nm almost in proportion to changes in Eg. The nanocomposites show self-defocusing nonlinearity and good nonlinear absorption behaviour. The nonlinear refractive index and the nonlinear absorption increase with increasing TiO2 volume fraction at 532 nm and can be attributed to the enhancement of exciton oscillator strength. ZnO–TiO2 is a potential nanocomposite material for the tunable light emission and for the development of nonlinear optical devices with a relatively small limiting threshold

Metabolic Efficiency of Penaeus Indicus H.Milne Edwards Under Different Salinity Stress Conditions

The investigation was aimed at establishing the effect of salinity on the culture performance of Peneus Indicus in pokkali fields and also to find out the growth performance of the shrimp at varying salinities. The experiments were laid out at Rice Research Station, Vyttila of Kerala Agriculture University in three fields of area 1000 m2 each. The results of the experiment clearly establish that shrimps when stocked at higher salinity (20-25 ppt) for 45 days has given higher growth, survival and production than those stocked at lower salinity (10-15 ppt) in all the above parameters even when the culture experiment was maintained for longer periods in lower salinity. In the prolonged culture experiments conducted for 120 days in 10-25 ppt salinity, the results were poorer than the short period culture in higher salinity and the production values similar to lower saline culture. This clearly establishes the importance of salinity as an ecological factor which will have profound influence in shrimp farming operations.

Solid acid-catalyzed dehydration/Beckmann rearrangement of aldoximes: towards high atom efficiency green processes

Rare earth metal ion exchanged (La3+, Ce3+, RE3+) KFAU-Y zeolites were prepared by simple ion-exchange methods and have been characterized using different physico-chemical techniques. In this paper a novel application of solid acid catalysts in the dehydration/ Beckmann rearrangement of aldoximes; benzaldoxime and 4-methoxybenzaldoxime is reported. Dehydration/Beckmann rearrangement reactions of benzaldoxime and 4-methoxybenzaldoxime is carried out in a continuous down flow reactor at 473K. 4-Methoxybenzaldoxime gave both Beckmann rearrangement product (4-methoxyphenylformamide) and dehydration product (4-methoxybenzonitrile) in high overall yields. The difference in behavior of the aldoximes is explained in terms of electronic effects. The production of benzonitrile was near quantitative under heterogeneous reaction conditions. The optimal protocol allows nitriles to be synthesized in good yields through the dehydration of aldoximes. Time on stream studies show a fast decline in the activity of the catalyst due to neutralization of acid sites by the basic reactant and product molecules.

Enhanced pH and thermal stabilities of invertase immobilized on montmorillonite K-10

Invertase was adsorbed onto micro-porous acid-activated montmorillonite clay (K-10) by two procedures, namely adsorption and covalent binding. The immobilized enzymes were characterized by XRD, surface area measurements and 27Al NMR. XRD measurements revealed an expansion of clay layers due to immobilization which suggests that intercalation had taken place. Surface area measurements also support this observation. 27Al NMR showed that interaction of enzyme with tetrahedral and octahedral Al changes with the immobilization procedure. Sucrose hydrolysis was performed in a batch reactor. The immobilized enzymes showed enhanced pH and thermal stabilities. Optimum pH and temperature were found to increase upon immobilization. The effectiveness factor (η) and Michaelis constant (Km) suggest that diffusional resistances play a major role in the reaction. The immobilized invertase could be stored in buffer of pH 5 and 6 at 5 °C without any significant loss in activity for 20 days.

Environmental Management in the Indian Fertiliser Industry

School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Studies on Fluorescence Efficiency and Photodegradation of Rhodamine 6G Doped PMMA Using a Dual Beam Thermal Lens Technique

In this paper we report the use of the dual beam thermal lens technique as a quantitative method to determine absolute fluorescence quantum efficiency and concentration quenching of fluorescence emission from rhodamine 6G doped Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), prepared with different concentrations of the dye. A comparison of the present data with that reported in the literature indicates that the observed variation of fluorescence quantum yield with respect to the dye concentration follows a similar profile as in the earlier reported observations on rhodamine 6G in solution. The photodegradation of the dye molecules under cw laser excitation is also studied using the present method.

Enhanced luminescence and nonlinear optical properties of nanocomposites of ZnO–Cu

In this article, we present the spectral and nonlinear optical properties of ZnOCu nanocomposites prepared by colloidal chemical synthesis. The emission consisted of two peaks. The 385-nm ultraviolet (UV) peak is attributed to ZnO and the 550-nm visible peak is attributed to Cu nanocolloids. Obvious enhancement of UV and visible emission of the samples is observed and the strongest UV emission of a typical ZnOCu nanocomposite is over three times stronger than that of pure ZnO. Cu acts as a sensitizer and the enhancement of UV emission are caused by excitons formed at the interface between Cu and ZnO. As the volume fraction of Cu increases beyond a particular value, the intensity of the UV peak decreases while the intensity of the visible peak increases, and the strongest visible emission of a typical ZnOCu nanocomposite is over ten times stronger than that of pure Cu. The emission mechanism is discussed. Nonlinear optical response of these samples is studied using nanosecond laser pulses from a tunable laser in the wavelength range of 450650 nm, which includes the surface plasmon absorption (SPA) band. The nonlinear response is wavelength dependent and switching from reverse saturable absorption (RSA) to saturable absorption (SA) has been observed for Cu nanocolloids as the excitation wavelength changes from the low absorption window region to higher absorption regime near the SPA band. However, ZnO colloids and ZnOCu nanocomposites exhibit induced absorption at this wavelength. Such a changeover in the sign of the nonlinearity of ZnOCu nanocomposites, with respect to Cu nanocolloids, is related to the interplay of plasmon band bleach and optical limiting mechanisms. The SA again changes back to RSA when we move over to the infrared region. The ZnOCu nanocomposites show self-defocusing nonlinearity and good nonlinear absorption behavior. The nonlinear refractive index and the nonlinear absorption increases with increasing Cu volume fraction at 532 nm. The observed nonlinear absorption is explained through two-photon absorption followed by weak free-carrier absorption and interband absorption mechanisms. This study is important in identifying the spectral range and composition over which the nonlinear material acts as a RSA-based optical limiter. ZnOCu is a potential nanocomposite material for the light emission and for the development of nonlinear optical devices with a relatively small limiting threshold.

A Study on the Efficiency of Islamic Economic Instruments in Selected Islamic Countries

Department of Applied Economics,Cochin University of Science and Technology

Energy-Efficient Cluster based Routing Schemes for Static and Mobile Sensor Networks

The theme of the thesis is centred around one important aspect of wireless sensor networks; the energy-efficiency.The limited energy source of the sensor nodes calls for design of energy-efficient routing protocols. The schemes for protocol design should try to minimize the number of communications among the nodes to save energy. Cluster based techniques were found energy-efficient. In this method clusters are formed and data from different nodes are collected under a cluster head belonging to each clusters and then forwarded it to the base station.Appropriate cluster head selection process and generation of desirable distribution of the clusters can reduce energy consumption of the network and prolong the network lifetime. In this work two such schemes were developed for static wireless sensor networks.In the first scheme, the energy wastage due to cluster rebuilding incorporating all the nodes were addressed. A tree based scheme is presented to alleviate this problem by rebuilding only sub clusters of the network. An analytical model of energy consumption of proposed scheme is developed and the scheme is compared with existing cluster based scheme. The simulation study proved the energy savings observed.The second scheme concentrated to build load-balanced energy efficient clusters to prolong the lifetime of the network. A voting based approach to utilise the neighbor node information in the cluster head selection process is proposed. The number of nodes joining a cluster is restricted to have equal sized optimum clusters. Multi-hop communication among the cluster heads is also introduced to reduce the energy consumption. The simulation study has shown that the scheme results in balanced clusters and the network achieves reduction in energy consumption.The main conclusion from the study was the routing scheme should pay attention on successful data delivery from node to base station in addition to the energy-efficiency. The cluster based protocols are extended from static scenario to mobile scenario by various authors. None of the proposals addresses cluster head election appropriately in view of mobility. An elegant scheme for electing cluster heads is presented to meet the challenge of handling cluster durability when all the nodes in the network are moving. The scheme has been simulated and compared with a similar approach.The proliferation of sensor networks enables users with large set of sensor information to utilise them in various applications. The sensor network programming is inherently difficult due to various reasons. There must be an elegant way to collect the data gathered by sensor networks with out worrying about the underlying structure of the network. The final work presented addresses a way to collect data from a sensor network and present it to the users in a flexible way.A service oriented architecture based application is built and data collection task is presented as a web service. This will enable composition of sensor data from different sensor networks to build interesting applications. The main objective of the thesis was to design energy-efficient routing schemes for both static as well as mobile sensor networks. A progressive approach was followed to achieve this goal.