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Spatial organization of chromatin plays a critical role in genome regulation. Previously, various types of affinity mediators and enzymes have been attributed to regulate spatial organization of chromatin from a thermodynamics perspective. However, at the mechanistic level, enzymes act in their unique ways and perturb the chromatin. Here, we construct a polymer physics model following the mechanistic scheme of Topoisomerase-II, an enzyme resolving topological constraints of chromatin, and investigate how it affects interphase chromatin organization. Our computer simulations demonstrate Topoisomerase-II's ability to phase separate chromatin into eu- and heterochromatic regions with a characteristic wall-like organization of the euchromatic regions. We realized that the ability of the euchromatic regions to cross each other due to enzymatic activity of Topoisomerase-II induces this phase separation. This realization is based on the physical fact that partial absence of self-avoiding interaction can induce phase separation of a system into its self-avoiding and non-self-avoiding parts, which we reveal using a mean-field argument. Furthermore, motivated from recent experimental observations, we extend our model to a bidisperse setting and show that the characteristic features of the enzymatic activity-driven phase separation survive there. The existence of these robust characteristic features, even under the non-localized action of the enzyme, highlights the critical role of enzymatic activity in chromatin organization., eLife, 11, ISSN:2050-084X

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the key step involved both in water splitting devices as well as in rechargeable metal-air batteries and there is an urgent requirement for a highly stable and low-cost material for efficient OER. In this article, for the first time, electrocatalyst based on high entropy alloy (HEA) of FeCoNiZnGa has been reported for OER. Nano-crystalline high entropy alloys materials withdrew the attention of the research academia due to their emerging unique properties due to the cocktail effect and synergetic effect between the constituent elements. The existing materials (IrO2, RuO2, etc.) being utilized in the OER reaction contain precious metals. Thus, high entropy alloy made up of low-cost elements has been formulated and tested for the OER, which is found to be highly stable and more efficient. The formulation of nanocrystalline HEA (FeCoNiZnGa) utilized a unique recipe casting-cum-comminution (CCC). After electrochemical CV activation, transition metal oxides formation at the HEA surface helps in OER activities. HEA exhibits a low overpotential of 370 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm-2 with a very small Tafel slope of 71 mV dec-1 and exceptional long term stability of electrolysis for over 10 h in 1 M KOH alkaline solution, which is extremely stable in comparison to the state-of-the-art OER electrocatalyst RuO2. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) studies after 10 h of long term chronoamperometry testing confirmed high stability of HEA as no change in the crystal structure observed. Our work highlights the great potential of HEA towards oxygen evolution reaction which is primary reaction involved in water splitting.

Here, we report on the fabrication of flame retardant hydrophobic cotton fabrics based on the coating with two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (2D hBN) nanosheets. A simple one-step solution dipping process was used to coat the fabrics by taking advantage of the strong bonding between diethylenetriamine and hBN on the cotton surface. Exposure to direct flame confirmed the improvement of the flame retardant properties of the coated cotton fabrics. In turn, removal of the flame source revealed self-extinguishing properties. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that hBN hinders combustion by reducing the rate at which oxygen molecules reach the cotton surface. This time-saving and one-step approach for the fabrication of flame-retardant cotton fabrics offers significant advantages over other, less efficient production methods.

Background: de Quervain’s stenosing tenosynovitis (dQSTS) is a tenosynovial disorder which is characterized by impaired gliding of the tendons of the abductor pollicis longus (APL) and extensor pollicis brevis (EPB) muscles over the tendon sheath covering these tendons. The most sensitive clinical test to diagnose dQSTS is Finkelstein's manoeuvre. The management of the disease differs based on the severity of the condition. Objectives: To prospectively review and compare the efficacy, feasibility and durability of conservative & physical therapy, corticosteroid therapy and platelet rich plasma therapy in the view of (1) symptomatic pain relief, (2) improved the visual analogue scale (VAS) score and functional Mayo’s wrist scores, (3) durability of treatment given and (4) alleviation of need of surgery in patients with de Quervain’s tenosynovitis. Materials and Methods: After screening of cases, 217 cases entered into the study and the cases were randomized into three groups according to our study protocol. Group a cases were treated with conservative & physical therapy, Group B cases were treated with corticosteroid therapy and Group C cases were treated with autologous platelet rich plasma injection with due pre and post procedural care. The cases were followed up on day 0, at the end of 1st week, 1st and 6th month for pain and range of movements. The patients were followed up for complications and the data were analysed statistically. Results: A total of 25 (30.06%) cases in group A, 48 (69.56%) cases in group B and 64 (95.52%) cases in group C had recovered from disease at the end of 2nd dose of treatment. At the end of 6th month follow up, a total of 39 (60.93%) cases in group A, 21 (30.43%) cases in group B and 3 (4.47%) cases in group C had recurrence. All these patients were followed up for 1 year which showed a statistical difference with P value of

Since last decade, optical computing has emerged as one of the promising computing paradigm in the field of ultra-fast computations and the recent advancements of fabrication technology in photonic industry has further boosted research interests to investigate in this field. In this conjuncture, strategies for designing efficient optical circuits bear much significance toward building cost efficient logic circuits. Not only synthesis schemes but manual designs for logic components are found very effective in way to produce optimal designs. In this work, we present the optical domain designs of an important logic module of ALU—adder circuit. Not only we have made the adder circuit optical domain supporting one but also we have ensured that the designs are optimized too. Here we have worked with two types of adder circuits Carry-Lookahead Adder and Carry-Skip Adder. All the designs are made using Mach–Zehnder interferometers based optical components and interconnect. For both the adder types, two different designs are shown and in each of these designs both the circuit cost parameters and response time is improved. Design overhead and hardware complexities for all the circuits are computed and have compared with related work’s design, where we have found that our designs are having less delay and cost efficient compared to the existing ones.

We present a brief review and perspective on the development of eutectic alloys, emphasizing the emergence of complex microstructures during eutectic solidification of ternary and higher-order multicomponent alloys. Such alloys' abundant existence promises a large domain in the alloy development space for newer materials suitable for high-temperature applications. Hence the review explores these developments in eutectic alloys based on aluminum, titanium, nickel, intermetallics, and recently developed high entropy alloys. While the importance of fundamental understanding and various functional properties of the eutectic alloys cannot be ignored, this paper focuses primarily on the microstructure and their mechanical properties. The possibilities of ultrafine eutectics and multiscale variation of length scale and morphologies are emphasized. It highlights the potential for the future emergence of these alloys as high-strength structural materials for engineering applications.

We report a study on the competition between soft ferromagnetism (FM) and enhanced Pauli paramagnetism (PM) in Ce(Fe 1− x Ni x ) 2 ( x =0.0, 0.5, 0.8) compounds under doping. We provide convincing experimental evidence for the occurrence of a ferromagnetic (FM) phase and a paramagnetic (PM) phase at different concentrations. The quality of the samples was established by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Quantification of f - d hybridization was made from high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A proportionality was found between ‘ x ' dependencies of fall of f - d hybridization strength and magnetic order. A prediction that a quantum critical point may exist at a nickel concentration x close to 0.69 can be made from the extrapolation of x dependent Curie temperature (T c ) plot.

Hybridization between Ce $f$ and conduction $d$ states has been speculatively known to be one of the mechanisms responsible for magnetic instability of the ferromagnetic ground state of CeFe$_2$. Substituting Fe by small amounts of certain elements stabilizes it to an antiferromagnetic state below the Curie temperature via a first-order second phase transition. In the present work, we seek any direct relation between the $f-d$ hybridization and the second transition by measuring primarily dc magnetization and Ce M$_{4,5}$ edge x-ray absorption spectra of Ce(Fe$_{1-x}$M$_x$)$_2$ pseudobinaries, with M = Cr, Ag and Au. X-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements are also performed essentially to monitor the quality of the samples. Whereas Cr impurity is found to cause the second transition, Ag and Au apparently do not induce any. In the former, the Curie and second transition temperatures vary systematically, but differently, with $x$. Our results imply that there is a definite proportionality between the $x$ dependences of the second transition temperature and the $f-d$ hybridization strength estimated qualitatively from the absorption spectra., 15 pages, 9 figures

We introduce a minimal model for a two-dimensional polar flock with nonquenched rotators, and show that the rotators make the usual macroscopic long-range order of the flock more robust than the clean system. The rotators memorise the flock-information which helps in establishing the robustness. Moreover, the memory of the rotators assists in probing the moving flock. We also formulate a hydrodynamic framework for the microscopic model that makes our study comprehensive. Using linearised hydrodynamics, it is shown that the presence of such nonquenched heterogeneities increases the sound speeds of the flock. The enhanced sound speeds lead to faster convection of information and consequently the robust ordering in the system. We argue that similar nonquenched heterogeneities may be useful in monitoring and controlling large crowds.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal food-producing sector, growing at nearly a rate of 7% annually. However, rapid aquaculture growth has been accompanied by increased incidences of occurrence of infectious diseases, causing severe economic loss to the farming community. Aquaculture needs innovative biotechnological interventions to overcome challenges in terms of rapid disease diagnosis, production of disease-free or high health broodstock for seed production, suitable preventive and therapeutic measures to control disease outbreaks. During the last few years, molecular techniques have been increasingly employed to diagnose fish disease. These techniques are potentially faster and more sensitive than traditional culture, serology, and histology methods. DNA-based techniques like polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real-time-PCR (qPCR), multiplex PCR, DNA probe-based in situ hybridization, and microarray, etc. have a wide scope of application in fish disease diagnosis. Again, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, amplified fragment length polymorphism, ribotyping, repetitive element sequence-based PCR, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction, and multilocus sequence typing -based genomic fingerprinting methods, combined with computer-assisted pattern analysis have been useful in typing and characterization of fish pathogens. qPCR assays are also helpful to determine the presence of specific genes and alleles, typing of strains and isolates, antimicrobial resistance profiling, and toxin production. As in other animal sectors, probiotic and bioremediation products have scope of application in aquaculture for disease and environmental management and are being used in fish and shrimp farming to control disease outbreaks and upkeep of culture environment. There is an urgent need for development of suitable prophylactic measures in terms of single or multivalent vaccines, DNA vaccines, immunostimulants, organic products, nanotechnology-based products, etc. to control disease outbreaks. These biotechnological tools can be used as a routine tool for rapid diagnosis of fish pathogens in filed diagnosis besides their use in epidemiological studies of infectious fish diseases.

This paper describes a state-of-the-art development of energy monitoring system (EMS) to store the energy related information in a remote server. The energy flow in a battery energy storage (BESS) based grid tied solar photo-voltaic supply system in measured with multi-function metering (MFM) arrangements in a substation. The measured data from the MFMs are communicated to a remote central server with Zigbee based networking arrangement. The Zigbee mesh networking is made based on neighborhood area networking (NAN) protocol in order to provide sufficient redundant path. The AODV based networking algorithm is used and is implemented using a dedicated Microcontroller based system. The algorithm is tested with the malfunctioning of one node and to search for an alternate path so that the data can reach to the server without any loss of frame.

In this work, novel Cu-Ga-In alloys are designed with systematic variation in the liquid and solid solution phases to mimic the nature-inspired structures and their properties. A combination of characterization techniques such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 3D X-ray tomography along with thermodynamic calculations confirm the presence of liquid and solid solution phases in the microstructure. The effect of the liquid phase in increasing the ductility and toughness is clearly demonstrated in the present study. It is shown that the liquid phase can arrest the crack movement during the fracture that leads to improved toughness in the Cu-Ga-In based alloys. Moreover, the presence of the liquid phase also improves the wear properties of these alloys. The present alloys exhibited better hardness and reasonable yield strength compared to the existing Cu alloys in the literature. Especially Cu65In20Ga15 alloy exhibits the hardness of 660Hv and the yield strength of 335.49 MPa which is higher than conventional copper alloys.

The elastomeric nanocomposites having high mechanical stability and shape memory property were fabricated via in situ cationic polymerization of vegetable oil (linseed oil) in the presence of nano fly ash (NFA). The enhanced dynamic moduli and Young's modulus of nanocomposites with respect to matrix elastomers were witnessed. The vibration damping behavior of nanocomposites in wide frequency region, observed under a laboratory fabricated machine reveals their effectiveness to attenuate hazardous vibration in broad application regions. Under thermally stimulated shape memory test, the nanocomposites exhibit 100% shape recovery, and the shape recovery time improves when the content of NFA filler increases.

New-generation structural materials with superior properties are a constant demand in applications involving extreme environments. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a high-strength, high-dense W-TaC-Ta2O5 nanocomposite for such applications on a large scale by a simple, cost-effective, scalable, bottom-up powder metallurgy approach using plasma sintering. The first clear microstructural evidence of the scavenging effect of carbide particles in the W-MC composites (M = Ta, Zr, Hf, Ti) is demonstrated through atom probe studies. Localized plastic deformation and the unique stress-induced amorphization in tungsten are observed due to dislocation activities, and these phenomena are corroborated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Optimized composition and processing conditions yield high Vickers hardness ~540 HV10 and super-high transverse rupture strength (TRS) ~ 1650 MPa, in upscaled components of 100 mm diameter. The enhanced mechanical properties are attributed to the cumulative effect of the grain boundary strengthening and dispersion strengthening from the refined tungsten grains and the second phase intragranular nanocrystalline particles, respectively, the coherent particle-matrix interfaces, the low oxygen-segregation at grain boundaries and the ‘dual nanocrystalline-amorphous’ microstructure present in the matrix.

Background: Lateral epicondylitis is a tendinopathy characterized by pain around the lateral aspect of the elbow occuring more frequently in nonathletes than athletes significantly affecting the patient’s life in terms of the quantity and quality of work done. In resistant cases of tennis elbow, a number of treatment options have been tried including extracorporeal shockwave therapy, autologous blood injections and surgery as last resort but none of them has proved to be superior over another. Recent studies show that 25% dextrose prolotherapy which induces an inflammatory reaction at site of administration would be a better treatment option in resistant cases.Methods: A prospective randomized controlled trial was done in Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal to compare the effectiveness of 25% dextrose prolotherapy injection and extracorporeal shockwave therapy in management of pain and improvement of functional outcome in patients suffering from chronic lateral epicondylitis.Results: The outcome variables VAS for pain and Grip strength for function were measured at baseline, 1 month, 3 months and 6months. Data collected were analysed using SPSS version 21. For analytical purpose, description statistics like mean and standard deviation were used. Statistical tests like t-test, Chi square test, Fisher’s exact test were used for intra group and inter group analysis. P-value

Background: Adhesive capsulitis of shoulder is characterized by pain and restricted range of motion and has a wide variety of treatment options without any substantial evidence. Platelet rich plasma (PRP) is one of the newer treatment modalities and its efficacy needs to be compared with other routine treatment modalities.Method: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal for a period of 1-year February 2019 to January 2020. One hundred ninety-five patients with adhesive capsulitis recruited and randomized, patients received single PRP injection (2 ml) or corticosteroid (80 mg methyl prednisolone) or shortwave diathermy (10 settings continuous mode using 27.12 MHz).Results: The primary outcome measure was active range of motion of the shoulder and the secondary outcome measures included Visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and a shortened version of Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (Quick DASH) for function. Patients were evaluated at 0, 3, 6 and 12 weeks. Chi-square test and ANOVA were used to determine significant differences. PRP treatment resulted in statistically significant improvement over corticosteroid at 12 weeks and over short-wave diathermy therapy at 6 weeks.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that single injection of PRP is more effective than corticosteroid or short-wave diathermy in the treatment of adhesive capsulitis of shoulder.

Reversible logic synthesis is one of the best suited ways which act as the intermediate step for synthesising Boolean functions on quantum technologies. For a given Boolean function, there are multiple possible intermediate representations (IRs), based on functional abstraction, e.g. truth table, decision diagrams or circuit abstraction, e.g. binary decision diagram (BDD), and-inverter graph (AIG) and majority inverter graph (MIG). These IRs play an important role in building circuits as the choice of an IR directly impacts on cost parameters of the design. In the authors' work, they are analysing the effects of different graph-based IRs (BDD, AIG and MIG) and their usability in making efficient circuit realisations. Although applications of BDDs as an IR to represent large functions has already been studied, here they are demonstrating a synthesis scheme by taking AIG and MIG as IRs and making a comprehensive comparative analysis over all these three graph-based IRs. In experimental evaluation, it is being observed that for small functions BDD gives more compact circuits than the other two IRs but when the input size increases, then MIG as IR makes substantial improvements in cost parameters as compared with BDD by reducing quantum cost by 39% on an average. Along with the experimental results, a detailed analysis over the different IRs is also included to find their easiness in designing circuits.

Driver fatigue and intoxication is evident from facial features such as eye and head movement. A driver impairment monitoring system has been designed, constructed and tested by monitoring characteristics like face angle, head movement, and blinking eye. The alcohol sensor (MQ3), the tilt sensor, IR sensor, a camera, GSM module and microcontroller were used this system. When the driver’s closed eyes, head tilt for drowsiness, or alcohol consumption were detected for a certain time, the buzzer alerted the driver, and an SMS was sent to the vehicle owners. The deviations of the face angle were measured with 10 participants and the average accuracy was found to be high.

We study the motion of an active Brownian particle (ABP) using the overdamped Langevin dynamics on a two-dimensional substrate with periodic array of obstacles and in a quasi-one-dimensional corrugated channel comprised of periodically arrayed obstacles. The periodic arrangement of the obstacles enhances the persistent motion of the ABP in comparison to its motion in the free space. Persistent motion increases with the activity of the ABP. We note that the periodic arrangement induces directionality in ABP motion at late time, and it increases with the size of the obstacles. We also note that the ABP exhibits a super-diffusive dynamics in the corrugated channel. The transport property is independent of the shape of the channel; rather it depends on the packing fraction of the obstacles in the system. However, the ABP shows the usual diffusive dynamics in the quasi-one-dimensional channel with flat boundary.

Nowadays, the research on design of optical circuits and devices has received wide attention among the researchers due to ultra-high speed and low-power consumption properties in the optical devices and interconnects. In this conjuncture, optical design of combinational and sequential elements is given the great priorities in optical circuit research arena. Previously, we have investigated how to design optical memory elements with minimum optical components. Here, we propose optical implementation of universal shift register. The design is made using Terahertz Optical Asymmetric Demultiplexer(TOAD)based optical devices. Our proposed design is the generalized one as it includes all the behavior of four typical shift registers. To reduce the design complexity, we have used minimum numbers of TOADs, beam combiners and beam splitters and also our design confirms zero overhead in terms of number of ancilla inputs and garbage outputs.

Nowadays, rapid advancement in quantum algorithm towards achieving so-called quantum supremacy, calls for the design of high scalable quantum circuit. Quantum computers are very sensitive towards noise. To suppress inherent noise, the fault tolerant quantum circuit becomes desirable feature which can be achieved by using quantum error correction code. Surface code is one of the promising error correction code that addresses this issue. The Clifford+T group is one universal gates set which is used with surface code. In VLSI, multiplier circuit has very crucial role in the design of digital computer and becomes a pivotal in the application of DSP. Here, we have implemented a high speed quantum multiplier circuit using Clifford+T. At the end of this work, we evaluated some cost parameters like T-depth associated with the performance of quantum circuit as shown in the result section.

Polymeric nanocomposites have been fabricated via in situ cationic polymerization of linseed oil in the presence of surface-modified graphene oxide (SGO). The interfacial interactions between SGO nanoplatelets and the polymer matrix were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which revealed a uniform distribution of SGO throughout the polymer matrix at a lower concentration (

Results of temperature dependent perturbed angular correlation (PAC) measurements in the equiatomic ZrNi alloy have been reported for the first time using 181 Hf probe. At room temperature, values of quadrupole frequency and asymmetry parameter for the major component (~80%) are found to be ω Q =26.8(4) Mrad/s, and η =0.413(7). The resulting electric field gradient comes out to be V zz =2.99 ×10 17 V/cm 2 and this corresponds to the probe nuclei occupying the regular substitutional Zr sites. In ZrNi system, no magnetic interaction is observed down to 77 K indicating absence of any magnetism in this material. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies on an inactive but similarly prepared sample confirm the dominant presence of the orthorhombic ZrNi phase in the sample. A complementary density functional theory (DFT) calculation results in V zz =−2.35×10 17 V/cm 2 , η =0.46 at the 181 Ta probe impurity site and zero magnetic moment on each atomic site, in close agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, it is found that electric field gradient for the regular component follows a T 3/2 temperature dependence between 77 and 353 K, beyond which it varies linearly with temperature.

We study a collection of polar self-propelled particles (SPPs) on a two-dimensional substrate in the presence of random quenched rotators. These rotators act like obstacles which rotate the orientation of the SPPs by an angle determined by their intrinsic orientations. In the zero self-propulsion limit, our model reduces to the equilibrium $XY$ model with quenched disorder, while for the clean system, it is similar to the Vicsek model for polar flock. We note that a small amount of the quenched rotators destroys the long-range order usually noted in the clean SPPs. The system shows a quasi-long range order state upto some moderate density of the rotators. On further increment in the density of rotators, the system shows a continuous transition from the quasi-long-range order to disorder state at some critical density of rotators. Our linearized hydrodynamic calculation predicts anisotropic higher order fluctuation in two-point structure factors for density and velocity fields of the SPPs. We argue that nonlinear terms probably suppress this fluctuation such that no long-range order but only a quasi-long-range order prevails in the system.

In this work we present an efficient multiplication technique using terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD) in all optical domain. Two approaches are presented here. The first model is a hierarchical design where we have shown a pipelined implementation of array multiplier for unsigned numbers. The second design is the improved design of the first one as it can work for both signed and unsigned numbers. Initially we have shown an n-bit model and afterwards illustrated it for a 4-bit circuit. In terms of design overhead, the second design is more than 50 percent cost efficient than the first one. Design analysis for both the models is presented in the later part of the work.

A detailed survey was carried out at Purulia and Bankura districts of West Bengal to study the nesting habitat and comb geometry of stingless bee Tetragonula bengalensis Cameron. A total of 55 colonies were found to nest in different habitats, out of which 31 colonies were studied. Among them eleven colonies were found in tree nesting habitat and 20 in wall nesting. A colony nested in wall cavity at Bankura district was found to build their nest in that of swarmed wasp. The tree and wall nested colonies were observed having the mean height of 179.57, 173.25 and 99.71, 79.15 cm in the two respective districts. The mean dimensions of cavity and entrance tube nested in tree cavities of both the districts were 60.57 × 22.29 cm; 4.21 × 2.90 mm, and 35 × 17.75 cm; 3.75 × 3.5 mm; whereas for wall nested colonies it was 21.21 × 30.00 cm, 3.90 × 3.71 mm; and 20.87 × 28.69 cm, 3.98 × 3.60 mm, respectively. The brood cells, honey and pollen pots were brown to dark brown, oval and, arranged in clusters. The mean dimensions of brood cells, pollen and honey pots in tree nested combs were 2.26 × 1.66, 7.42 × 5.18, 7.60 × 4.77 and 2.26 × 2.00, 7.44 × 5.16, 7.80 × 4.99 mm; while for wall nested combs it was 2.28 × 1.57, 7.44 × 4.99, 7.57 × 4.71 and 2.13 × 1.77, 7.30 × 4.85, 7.77 × 4.65 mm in length and width, respectively.

The microbial degradation of elastomers synthesized through the cationic polymerization reaction of linseed oil, styrene, and divinylbenzene was investigated by using the Alkaliphilus oremlandii OhILAs strain. In Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, the bound oil content in the elastomers was found to vary from 29.63 to 45.5 wt%, whereas the percentage of unreacted oil in the elastomers were in the range of 12.9–38 wt%. In 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum analysis, the unreacted oil and unreacted aromatic components in the elastomers were obtained in the ranges of 13.2–39 wt% and 6.8–16 wt%, respectively. The amount of unreacted oil in the elastomers enhanced the percentage of biodegradation, which varied from 26 to 51 wt%. The biodegradation of elastomers was also confirmed by FTIR and scanning electron micrograph analyses.

A simple and sensitive LC/MS/MS method validation was developed for the quantification of Mevalonate (MVA), a endogenous compound responsible for synthesis of cholesterol in Human Plasma. The method was validated and impended for application on human to study the concentration of Mevalonate in plasma level after administration of Atorvastatin (ATVS) individually and with combination to Olmesartan (OLM). The assay procedure involved the isolation of MVA from plasma samples using solid-phase extraction, preconditioned cartridge, washed with methanol followed by 0.1 N HCI. The analytes were eluted with3x 0.5 ml of methanol and evaporated to dryness Nitrogen stream. The residue was reconstitute for LCMS/MS analysis, were chromatographic separation was carried on a HyPurity Advance, 50X4.6mm column with a mobile phase 10mM Ammonium formate ( pH=8) and Acetonitrile. The flow rate was 0.8 ml/min throughout the process. The liquid Chromatography, Agilent 1290 coupled to electrospray ion (ESI) Mass Spectrometer (MS QQQ). The developed method was validated for specificity, accuracy, precision, stability, linearity, sensitivity and recovery. The method was linear and found to be acceptable over the range of 50–1000 ng/ml. The method was successfully applied for the drug interaction study of ATVS + OLM by quantifying changes in levels of MVA in hypertensive patients. The study revealed concentration levels of MVA in ATVS + OLM compared to ATVS as single treated condition are nearly equal. This conclude that, MVA synthesize equal level of blood cholesterol on both the stage but failed to reduce BP synergistically, that associate with vascular plague formation. Key words: Mevalonate, LC/MS/MS, human plasma level, Olmesartan, Atorvastatin.

The flapping of the dragonfly forewing underin vivocondition has been analysed by image correlation technique to get an insight of its structural dynamics. The modal parameters such as flapping frequency, natural frequencies, mode shapes and modal strain have been obtained that will facilitate the biomimetic design of wings for micro air vehicles. The stigma, which is a pigmented spot at the leading edge of the wing near the tip having heavier mass, takes an active role in the real-time flapping by shaping its trajectory as eight-shaped, which enhances the drag coefficient and stroke efficiency. The extra mass on it and its removal transformed the trajectory into two different elliptical and oval shapes, respectively, which reduced the drag coefficient and stroke efficiency of the flapping wing by altering the flapping kinematics.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bioinspired materials and surfaces for green science and technology (part 2)’.

A low cost experimental setup has been fabricated for evaluation of vibration damping properties of a variety of elastomers developed from linseed oil. Free and forced vibration principles were utilized in this experimental setup. Under forced vibration, the shear loss factor varies from 0.37 to 1.03 at 2nd bending vibration mode and 0.43 to 0.99 at 3rd bending vibration mode for different elastomers. The loss factor varies from 0.52 to 0.94 under free vibration. The loss factors determined by both forced and free vibration techniques are in good agreement with the loss factors obtained from dynamic mechanical analysis. The ultimate tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the elastomers vary from 0.37 to 3.71 MPa and 0.27 to 10.27 MPa, respectively, whereas these properties in compression are in the range of 3.1 to 72.9 MPa and 1.5 to 30.1 MPa, respectively. Thus, these elastomers are mechanically stable for vibration damping applications.

This study deals with the preparation and characterization of elastomeric nanocomposites from renewable resources for vibration damping applications. The nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ cationic polymerization technique in the presence of organophilic montmorillonite (modified nanoclay) filler. The clay filled nanocomposites showed superior dynamic moduli in comparison with the pure elastomers. The storage modulus at room temperature (25 °C) was improved by 1.56 to 2 times with respect to pure elastomers with an increase in the filler content from 1 to 4 %. A good and stable vibration damping is observed in a wide temperature and frequency region (1–50 Hz). The loss factor, tan δmax obtained from dynamic mechanical analysis varies from 0.58 to 0.87. Under laboratory fabricated testing systems, the transient attenuation with the complete decay of applied vibration within nanocomposites demonstrates that the elastomeric nanocomposites have potential as effective damping materials.

A 60 days study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of water extract of Ocimum sanctum Linn. leaf on the immune response and disease resistance of Labeo rohita fingerlings against the Aeromonas hydrophila infection. Ocimum sanctum extract was incorporated in the diets (at 0.0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5% and 1%) of Labeo rohita, rohu fingerlings (6.6 � 0.013 g). After 42 days blood, plasma and serum were sampled to determine super oxide anion production, lysozyme activity, total immunoglobulin in plasma, blood glucose, serum total protein, albumin, globulin, albumin:globulin ratio, WBC, RBC, haemoglobin content. Fish were challenged with A. hydrophila after 42 days and mortalities were recorded over 18 days post infection. The results demonstrate enhanced super oxide anion production, lysozyme activity, total immunoglobulin in plasma, serum total protein, globulin, total RBC counts, total WBC counts and haemoglobin content (P < 0.05) in treatments group compared with control group. Dietary O. sanctum extracts of 0.2% showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher protection relative percentage survival (RPS 40.00 � 5.773%) against A. hydrophila infection than control. These results indicate that O. sanctum leaf extract stimulates the immunity and makes L. rohita more resistant to bacterial infection (A. hydrophila).

Vibration damping properties of elastomers prepared from linseed oil were characterized by dynamic mechanical analyzer in a temperature range of 250 to 100 � C and frequency range of 5 Hz to 1 kHz. The maximum damping loss factor, tan d ðÞ max varies from 0.78 to 1.32, the room temperature (25 � C) loss factor, tan d ðÞ rt in the range of 0.56-1.08 and the temperature range (DT) for effective damping tan d � 0:3 ðÞ varies from 63 � C to 74.4 � C in different elastomers. The elastomers behave as a good vibra- tion damper both in lower and higher frequency range. Thus these elastomers exhibit good damping behavior in a wide range of temperature and frequency, a primary requirement for practical damping applications. A modal constrained layer damping system constructed utilizing these elastomers exhibits its potentiality to attenuate structural vibrations with respect to mild steel bare plate resonator under laboratory fabricated testing methodology. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3611-3623, 2013

In light of recent focus on the behaviour of the natural structures for revolutionary technological growth, spider web seems to have seized considerable attention of product designer due to its amazing behaviour. In present work, mechanism behind the structural integrity of the spider web along with the materialistic analysis of its constituent silk threads has been extensively investigated. The nanoindentation tool both in static and dynamic mode has been utilized for complete analysis of the mechanical behaviour of the spiral and radial threads separately. Both the average elastic modulus and hardness of the radial silk thread is higher than the spiral silk thread which reveals the radial silk thread is the major structural component of the web. The sustainability of spider webs under storm, windy conditions and during the impact of pray has been investigated under dynamic conditions. The radial silk thread exhibits elastic like response and the spiral silk thread exhibits viscous like response in a wide frequency range (1–200 Hz). The damping characteristic of the radial and spiral silk threads, an important parameter to investigate the energy dissipation properties of the materials has also been investigated in windy conditions.

Nowadays, the design of optical circuits and devices is receiving wide attention among the researchers due to ultra-high speed and low-power consumption properties in the optical devices and interconnects. Chip level implementation of such optical circuits is under intense investigation by the research community. This work proposes an optical implementation of functionally reversible Carry-Skip Adder (CSA) circuit. Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) based Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) have been used to design the CSA circuit. Two separate designs of CSA are demonstrated. In the first design, a n-bit optical CSA is designed by considering 2-bit CSA module as a basic building block, whereas in the second design, multiple 4-bit CSA blocks are integrated to design the same n-bit optical CSA circuit. Comparative analysis with existing optical adder circuits shows that both the designs are cost and delay efficient compared to the existing designs.

Recently, a passive device — memristor has received wide attention in nano-scale design due to its applications in the area of nanoelectronic memory design, neuromorphic computing and logic design. This passive element is non-volatile in nature and has dual properties of memory and resistor. In recent time, the application of this device in designing high speed logic circuits has now opened a new research domain in nano-scale design. This work presents an efficient design technique implementing logic functions using memristor. The proposed design methodology not only speed-up the response time of the circuits but can also deal with functions with larger input size (beyond 100 variables). Our entire design scheme is divided in two phases. In the first phase, we use Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) to represent input logic functions and in second phase, a technology mapping is performed that generates memristor based circuits corresponding to this BDD graphs. Comparative analysis with existing works is given and we find that our design steadily improves the average performance of circuits.

A series of nearly monodispersed poly(styrene–methyl acrylate) (SMA) copolymer latex particles were coated with polypyrrole having different graphite contents. The composite particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The d.c. conductivity and the electrochemical behaviour of the particles were studied by using a standard four-probe method and a cyclic voltameter respectively. The dependence of electrical conductivity of the composites on the concentration of graphite in the polypyrrole shell, the methyl acrylate content in SMA copolymer and the temperature was also investigated. The electrical conductivity of the samples can be tuned by varying the graphite content in the polypyrrole shell phase. The d.c. conductivity decreases with increasing methyl acrylate content in the core particles. Electrochemical study (at a scan rate of 50 mV s−1) reveals that the particles are sufficiently stable under redox potential and should find potential applications in various optoelectronic devices.