"The fruits of independence": Satyajit Ray, Indian nationhood and the spectre of empire

Challenging the longstanding consensus that Satyajit Ray's work is largely free of ideological concerns and notable only for its humanistic richness, this article shows with reference to representations of British colonialism and Indian nationhood that Ray's films and stories are marked deeply and consistently by a distinctively Bengali variety of liberalism. Drawn from an ongoing biographical project, it commences with an overview of the nationalist milieu in which Ray grew up and emphasizes the preoccupation with colonialism and nationalism that marked his earliest unfilmed scripts. It then shows with case studies of Kanchanjangha (1962), Charulata (1964), First Class Kamra (First-Class Compartment, 1981), Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1970), Shatranj ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977), Agantuk (The Stranger, 1991) and Robertsoner Ruby (Robertson's Ruby, 1992) how Ray's mature work continued to combine a strongly anti-colonial viewpoint with a shifting perspective on Indian nationhood and an unequivocal commitment to cultural cosmopolitanism. Analysing how Ray articulated his ideological positions through the quintessentially liberal device of complexly staged debates that were apparently free, but in fact closed by the scenarist/director on ideologically specific notes, this article concludes that Ray's reputation as an all-forgiving, ‘everybody-has-his-reasons’ humanist is based on simplistic or even tendentious readings of his work

Design and optimal tuning of fraction order controller for multiple stage evaporator system

The tight control of the process parameters through appropriate tuning of controllers is an art that imperatively employed to various process industries. Most of these industries are influenced by the nonlinearity that occurred due to the input parameter variation and presence of disturbances. The aim of this work is to investigate the nonlinear dynamics of a paper industry based energy intensive unit named Multiple Stage Evaporator (MSE) in presence of different Energy Reduction Schemes. MSE is used to concentrate the weak Black Liquor (BL), a biomass based byproduct. Hence, to extract the bioenergy from the BL, the quality of the product liquor needs to be appropriately controlled. The quality of BL is measured by two process parameters, product concentration and temperature. Hence, in this work, an intelligent controller Fraction Order Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller has been studied and employed to resolve the servo and the regulatory problem occurred during the process. A state-of-art metaheuristic approach, Black Widow Optimization Algorithm has been proposed here to tune the controller parameters and compared with another optimization approaches named Water Cycle Algorithm. The simulated result demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed strategy and confirm the performance improvement for the process parameters. To enlighten the advantages of the proposed control scheme, a comparative analysis have also been performed with conventional PID, 2-DOF-PID and FOPID controllers

Electrically conductive green composites based on epoxidized linseed oil and polyaniline: An insight into electrical, thermal and mechanical properties

Renewable resource based electrically conductive composites were prepared using polyaniline (PANI) as a conductive filler and epoxidized linseed oil (ELO) as the matrix. Linseed oil (LO) was epoxidized to form ELO and characterized through H-1 NMR and IR spectra. Bio-based ELO/PANI conducting composites were prepared by varying the PANI concentration with an aim of attaining the electrical conductivity in the antistatic range (10(-8) to 10(-3) S/cm) to replace its petro-based counterpart. Conductivity increased with PANI upto the order of 10(-6) S/cm with percolation threshold at around 7% of PANI. The shear stress and viscosity of the uncured ELO resin and ELO/PANI resin mixture were studied as a function of shear rate. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies showed that addition of PANI had a minimal effect on ELO curing at all concentrations. Dynamic mechanical analysis indicated that PANI as a filler provided mechanical fortification in the rubbery region and increased glass transition temperature (T-g) significantly. Thermal stability of ELO remained almost unaffected with the PANI incorporation. Microscopic observation revealed good distribution of PANI in ELO matrix even at higher loading. Interestingly, tensile strength and Young's modulus increased by similar to 8 and similar to 27 folds, respectively, at 15% PANI content

Study on the effect of carbon nanotube on the properties of electrically conductive epoxy/polyaniline adhesives

Electrically conductive hybrid epoxy (EP) adhesives filled with p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) doped polyaniline (PANI) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) were prepared and their electrical, thermal and morphological properties were investigated. The CNT was incorporated in EP/PANI (1, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 15 wt%) to obtain hybrid composites aiming to achieve better conductivity. Percolation threshold in EP/PANI and EP/CNT binary composites achieved was at around 5% of PANI and 0.2% CNT, respectively. It was observed that the addition of 0.1% CNT in EP/PANI (5%) composites improved the electrical conductivity of composites with a minimal effect on lap shear strength. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies revealed that while 0.1% CNT addition had an insignificant retardation effect on the curing of EP/PANI (5%), it increased the glass transition temperature (T (g) ) of cured sample significantly. Although, incorporation of PANI increased the thermal stability of epoxy significantly, addition of CNT further enhanced it marginally in the temperature range of 200-400 A degrees C. FT-IR and XRD spectra of PANI/CNT hybrid fillers system showed molecular level interaction and good dispersing ability of CNT with PANI, respectively. Interestingly, morphological studies showed good dispersion of PANI and CNT in epoxy matrix in binary composites as well as in hybrid composites with no phase separation between PANI and CNT. Optical micrographs showed better dispersion of hybrid PANI/CNT filler system within epoxy matrix compared to PANI only

Microgel/silica hybrid colloids: Bioinspired synthesis and controlled release application

In the present work, we demonstrate that polymer based functional microgels can be used as autocatalytic template for the bioinspired deposition of silica nanoparticles inside the microgel network under ambient conditions. Temperature responsive poly(N-vinyl caprolactam) based microgels were synthesized by precipitation polymerization using glycidyl methacrylate as a comonomer. These microgels were further reacted with aminoethanthiol to develop amine functional groups inside the microgels. A water soluble silica precursor (PEGPEOS) was developed by modification of hyperbranched polyethoxysiloxane with polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether. Microgel/silica hybrid colloids were prepared by simultaneous PEGPEOS conversion and silica deposition in the microgels. TEM studies showed that silica nanoparticles of approximately 10 nm in size were deposited inside the microgel network owing to the strong acidbase interaction between the acidic silica and basic amine groups. DLS results indicated that the incorporation of silica nanoparticles reduced the thermal sensitivity of microgels. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the interaction between silica precursor and microgels based on radial distribution function and interaction energy. The developed hybrid microgels were further explored for controlled release of aspirin used as a model drug. The preliminary results indicated that the presence of silica rich domains in the microgel network remarkably retarded aspirin release

Construction of hydrophobic fire retardant coating on cotton fabric using a layer-by-layer spray coating method.

Multifunctional cotton fabric was prepared through a two-step layer-by-layer spray coating method, where the first layer of the coating comprising chitosan and ammonium phytate provided fire retardancy, and the second one with PDMS-ZnO composite imparted hydrophobicity to the fabric. A molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study was carried out to calculate interfacial adhesion of different components of the coating, based on which the sequencing of the coating layers was determined and used to prepare coated samples. The coated fabric demonstrated a significant improvement in fire retardancy through an increase in LOI from 18 % in control to 30 %, a reduction in char length from 30 cm to 7 cm, and a decrease in peak and total heat release rate values by 75 % and 33 %, respectively. The hydrophobicity of coated fabric was tested via water drop test where coated sample maintained a contact angle of 148° for up to 120 s, while the control sample showed 0°. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Construction of hydrophobic fire retardant coating on cotton fabric using a layer-by-layer spray coating method.

Multifunctional cotton fabric was prepared through a two-step layer-by-layer spray coating method, where the first layer of the coating comprising chitosan and ammonium phytate provided fire retardancy, and the second one with PDMS-ZnO composite imparted hydrophobicity to the fabric. A molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study was carried out to calculate interfacial adhesion of different components of the coating, based on which the sequencing of the coating layers was determined and used to prepare coated samples. The coated fabric demonstrated a significant improvement in fire retardancy through an increase in LOI from 18 % in control to 30 %, a reduction in char length from 30 cm to 7 cm, and a decrease in peak and total heat release rate values by 75 % and 33 %, respectively. The hydrophobicity of coated fabric was tested via water drop test where coated sample maintained a contact angle of 148° for up to 120 s, while the control sample showed 0°. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Memory of Chirality Concept in Asymmetric Intermolecular Michael Addition of α‑Amino Ester Enolates to Enones and Nitroalkenes

A highly stereoselective asymmetric intermolecular conjugate addition of α-amino ester derivatives to cyclic enones via the memory of chirality (MOC) concept in high yields with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivity (dr >99:1, up to 99% ee) is reported. The applicability and the generality of the strategy was demonstrated by its further exploration to acyclic α,β-unsaturated ketone and aromatic nitroalkenes, resulting in the formation of δ-keto-α-amino ester derivative and γ-nitro-α-amino ester derivatives, respectively, with excellent ee and dr