Effect of Gadolinium on the properties and photo-catalytic applications of ZnO nanocrystals

Various weight % of Gadolinium doped ZnO nanocrystals were prepared by using simple co-precipitation method. All the prepared Gd doped ZnO nanocrystals are annealed at 450°C. The synthesized nanocrystals are characterized by using various techniques like X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The influence of various weight % of Gadolinium doping on structural, optical and photo-catalytic performance of the ZnO nanocrystals has been investigated. Photo-catalytic decolourization was analysed for Gadolinium doped ZnO nanocrystals by using Methylene blue as model dye. It has been found that 0.075% Gd doped ZnO nanocrystals shows enhanced catalytic performance

Shape memory thermal conduction switch

A thermal conduction switch includes a thermally-conductive first member having a first thermal contacting structure for securing the first member as a stationary member to a thermally regulated body or a body requiring thermal regulation. A movable thermally-conductive second member has a second thermal contacting surface. A thermally conductive coupler is interposed between the first member and the second member for thermally coupling the first member to the second member. At least one control spring is coupled between the first member and the second member. The control spring includes a NiTiFe comprising shape memory (SM) material that provides a phase change temperature <273 K, a transformation range <40 K, and a hysteresis of <10 K. A bias spring is between the first member and the second member. At the phase change the switch provides a distance change (displacement) between first and second member by at least 1 mm, such as 2 to 4 mm

Is current forest landscape research approaches providing the right insights? Observations from India context

One of the major challenges in the current scenario for ecological conservation is to quantify the forest landscape in its spatio-temporal domain and understand further implications of those. While the detailed study of the forest ecosystems may provide insights into biodiversity, carrying capacity and productive nature, most of the studies are restricted to single time/event inventory and focused on assessment of tree diversity patterns. Through the adoption of geospatial technologies like remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS), though forest monitoring has been possible, the linkages to the biodiversity distribution and its patterns are still at an empirical level, thus supporting broad measures of protection and preservation without accounting for the local/regional variability.Towards this the paper discusses the lacuna in the current landscape research approaches in Indian scenario. Presents a framework to analyze the landscape structure at the, micro, meso and macro levels. Emphasize the need for the collection of spatio-temporal field data to analyze the change in biodiversity and their linked entities. The paper suggests the need for development of long term ecological area networks to understand the ecological processes, making the data open and improve collaborations among the organizations working in the similar domain to enhance the impact of the research works

Combinatorial Multi-Access Coded Caching: Improved Rate-Memory Trade-off with Coded Placement

This work considers the combinatorial multi-access coded caching problem introduced in the recent work by Muralidhar \textit{et al.} [P. N. Muralidhar, D. Katyal, and B. S. Rajan, ``Maddah-Ali-Niesen scheme for multi-access coded caching,'' in \textit{IEEE Inf. Theory Workshop (ITW)}, 2021] The problem setting consists of a central server having a library of $N$ files and $C$ caches each of capacity $M$. Each user in the system can access a unique set of $r<C$ caches, and there exist users corresponding to every distinct set of $r$ caches. Therefore, the number of users in the system is $\binom{C}{r}$. For the aforementioned combinatorial multi-access setting, we propose a coded caching scheme with an MDS code-based coded placement. This novel placement technique helps to achieve a better rate in the delivery phase compared to the optimal scheme under uncoded placement, when $M> N/C$. For a lower memory regime, we present another scheme with coded placement, which outperforms the optimal scheme under uncoded placement if the number of files is no more than the number of users. Further, we derive an information-theoretic lower bound on the optimal rate-memory trade-off of the combinatorial multi-access coded caching scheme. Finally, using the derived lower bound, we show that the first scheme is optimal in the higher memory regime, and the second scheme is optimal if $N\leq \binom{C}{r}$.Comment: 15 pages and 5 figure

Multi-Antenna Coded Caching for Multi-Access Networks with Cyclic Wrap-Around

This work explores a multiple transmit antenna setting in a multi-access coded caching (MACC) network where each user accesses more than one cache. A MACC network has $K$ users and $K$ caches, and each user has access to $r < K$ consecutive caches in a cyclic wrap-around manner. There are $L$ antennas at the server, and each cache has a normalized size of $M/N \leq 1$. The cyclic wrap-around MACC network with a single antenna at the server has been a well-investigated topic, and several coded caching schemes and improved lower bounds on the performance are known for the same. However, this MACC network has not yet been studied under multi-antenna settings in the coded caching literature. We study the multi-antenna MACC problem and propose a solution for the same by constructing a pair of arrays called caching and delivery arrays. We present three constructions of caching and delivery arrays for different scenarios and obtain corresponding multi-antenna MACC schemes for the same. Two schemes resulting from the above constructions achieve optimal performance under uncoded placement and one-shot delivery. The optimality is shown by matching the performance of the multi-antenna MACC scheme to that of an optimal multi-antenna scheme for a dedicated cache network having an identical number of users, and each user has a normalized cache size of $rM/N$. Further, as a special case, one of the proposed schemes subsumes an existing optimal MACC scheme for the single-antenna setting.Comment: 11 pages (double column), 3 Figure

BIOLOGIJA, PONAŠANJE I ODNOS ŽRTVA - PREDATOR U VRSTE Sphedanolestes Variabilis Distant (INSECTA: HEMIPTERA: REDUVIIDAE: HARPACTORINAE), POTENCIJALNOGA PREDATORA ŠTETNIKA IZ REDA LEPIDOPTERA

Sphedanolestes variabilis Distant laid light brown colour eggs singly as well as in small clusters of 5 to 10 eggs. The incubation period was 6.92±0.29 days. The stadial durations of I,II,III,IV and V instar nymphs were 6.83±0.58, 6.83±0.94, 6.58±1.56, 8.42±2.68 and 8.67±2.23 and 19.67±3.44 days respectively. Adult males and females lived for 93.83±13.04 and 102.83±12.69 days and their sex ratio was 1: 1 (male and female). The sequential acts of predation as well as that of mating conform to these of other harpactorine reduviids. S. variabilis exhibited Holling\u27s type II functional response as indicated by the positive correlation obtained between the prey density and the number of prey killed by the predator. The attack ratio decreased as the prey density was increased. A negative correlation was obtained between the searching time and the prey density.Sphedanolestes variabilis Distant odlaže jaja svijetlosmeđe boje pojedinačno ili u skupinama od 5 do 10 jaja. Inkubacijsko razdoblje traje 6,92 ± 0,29 dana. Razvojni stadiji I., II., III., IV. i V. faze nimfe jesu 6,83 ± 0,58, 6,83 ± 0,94, 6,58 ± 1,56, 8,42 ± 2,68 i 8,67 ± 2,23 i 19,67 ± 3,44 dana. Odrasli mužjaci i ženke živjeli su 93,83 ± 13,04 i 102,83 ± 12,69 dana, a omjer spolova bio je 1:1 (muški i ženski). Prema predatorstvu i parenju ta je vrsta u skladu s drugim vrstama iz porodice Readuviidae. Da bi se opisao odnos žrtva-plijen, korišten je model Holling tip II., koji je pokazao pozitivnu korelaciju između gustoće plijena i broja plijena ubijenih od predatora. Omjer napada smanjen je kako je gustoća plijena bila povećana. Negativna korelacija dobivena je između vremena pronalaska plijena i gustoće plijena

Thin chemisorbed polyaniline film on cobalt oxide as an electrode for hybrid energy storage devices

Electrical charge storing electrodes and their surface modification are intensively investigated to improve the charge storability indicators in electrochemical energy storage devices. Here, the effects of a thin chemisorbed polyaniline (PANI) film on the charge storage behavior of rod-shaped spinal-type cobalt oxide (Co3O4) nanorods (PANI@Co3O4) are detailed for fabrication of battery–supercapacitor hybrid (BSH) devices. The PANI@Co3O4 showed larger surface area and optimum porosity properties, which contributed to ∼50 % enhanced specific charge than that in the Co3O4. The deconvoluted total charge storage gain showed more contribution to the bulk-diffusion controlled process (battery-type), lower ion transport resistance and Warburg impedance in the PANI@Co3O4 electrode than that in the Co3O4. Two-sets of BSH devices are fabricated using PANI@Co3O4 as a positive electrode and mesoporous carbon (MC) and activated carbon (AC) negative electrodes in an aqueous electrolyte and benchmarked with symmetric supercapacitors fabricated using the two carbons. The PANI@Co3O4//MC device showed nearly two-fold higher specific energy (ES) than that of PANI@Co3O4//AC. Interestingly, AC//AC symmetric supercapacitors showed two-fold higher ES than the MC//MC device. Origin of differences in the charge storage behavior of the two types of devices are systematically analyzed and reported