Thermally stable encapsulated intermetallic and bimetallic nanoparticles for heterogeneous catalysis

Intermetallic compounds have shown promise as efficient heterogeneous catalysts, displaying improved performance over their monometallic parent metals for chemical transformations. Furthermore, colloidal intermetallic nanoparticles (iNPs) afford additional improvements via increased catalyst surface area and enhanced catalytic performance. However, these iNPs are not efficiently protected against sintering during thermal treatment procedures such as catalyst regeneration, resulting in a loss of their active surface area. Herein, we have successfully developed porous encapsulation strategies using inert silica that afford monodisperse iNPs that address this concern. These iNPs are highly stable thermally and the inert silica-based mesoporous encapsulation doesn\u27t present mass transfer obstacles during catalysis. Their efficiency as heterogeneous catalysts are also extensively explored

Optical and structural properties of radiant heated and vacuum annealed electron beam deposited CdS thin films

This paper describes the optical and structural properties of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) thin films deposited onto glass substrate by vacuum evapn. assisted with (RH) and without radiant heater (VA)​. The RH and VA thin films showed high transmittance of 87​% at 680 and 550 nm resp. The optical band gap was estd. using transmittance measurements and found to be decreased with VA thin film. RH thin film revealed max. absorption coeff. compared to VA thin film. The XRD anal. confirmed that the films reveal hexagonal and cubic (002) orientations. The crystallite grain size was found to be 15.5 and 16.7 nm for RH and VA films resp

Optical and structural properties of radiant heated and vacuum annealed electron beam deposited CdS thin films

This paper describes the optical and structural properties of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) thin films deposited onto glass substrate by vacuum evapn. assisted with (RH) and without radiant heater (VA)​. The RH and VA thin films showed high transmittance of 87​% at 680 and 550 nm resp. The optical band gap was estd. using transmittance measurements and found to be decreased with VA thin film. RH thin film revealed max. absorption coeff. compared to VA thin film. The XRD anal. confirmed that the films reveal hexagonal and cubic (002) orientations. The crystallite grain size was found to be 15.5 and 16.7 nm for RH and VA films resp

A Retrospective Clinical Audit of Outcomes of Cochlear Implantation in Children with Multiple Disabilities in Comparison with Normal Implantees : A South Indian Experience

Open Access via Springer Compact Agreement We would like to thank the team and the Auditory Verbal Habilitationists at Madras ENT Research Foundation (MERF), Chennai for all their support during the course of this project. Special thanks to the Medical Statistics Team at the University of Aberdeen for additional advice on the data analysis.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

SECURE SMART TRAFFIC LIGHT SYSTEM USING AUXILIARY DATA IN COOPERATIVE AWARENESS MESSAGE

Current smart traffic lights (STLs) can provide access to a traffic signal, which a vehicle, such as an emergency vehicle, can manipulate through a Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM) object. However, researchers have demonstrated that STLs can be easily hacked using an abusive CAM object. To address such a weakness, techniques are presented herein that secure a STL with auxiliary data that is attached to a CAM object, which can be used by a vehicle on-board unit (OBU) and smartphones. Aspects of the presented techniques reduce the encryption and decryption overhead that is incurred when attaching a security header as part of a CAM message. Further aspects of the presented techniques ensure that the authenticity and integrity of a CAM message can be validated through a roadside infrastructure (e.g., Roadside Units (RSUs)) and STLs with the help of a central server

The 6 minute walk in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: longitudinal changes and minimum important difference

The response characteristics of the 6 minute walk test (6MWT) in studies of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are only poorly understood, and the change in walk distance that constitutes the minimum important difference (MID) over time is unknown

Influence of electron irradiation on optical properties of ZnSe thin films

Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) thin films of 500 nm thickness were deposited by electron beam evaporation technique and irradiated with 8 MeV electron beam for the doses ranging from 0 Gy to 1 kGy. Optical properties were studied for both irradiated and pristine samples using Ultraviolet-Visible spectrophotometer. The increase in electron dose tends to decrease in transmittance and increase in refractive index of thin film. Irradiated thin film exhibits minimum of 67 % transmittance for 800 Gy with very high absorption of optical energy at 550 nm wavelength. The samples irradiated 800 Gy tends to redeem the pristine properties. Optical band gap for irradiated thin film were direct and in the range of 2.66 – 2.69 eV

Transconductance and Transfer Characteristics of 8 MeV Electron Irradiated Dual N-Channel MOSFETs

The electrical characteristics of dual N-channel enhancement metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) were altered by irradiating with 8 MeV electron beam for different doses ranging from 200 Gy to 1 kGy at ambient air. The irradiation experiments were conducted with gate bias (VGS = -2, 0, +1.5 and +2 V). Significant increase in transconductance (gm) was observed after irradiation. The gm was found to increase drastically for the dose of 1 kGy with positive bias (1.5 and 2 V). The transfer characteristics at VDS=12 V revealed that the drain current (ID) increases with the increase of dose and also increases with the increase of gate bias voltage during irradiation. The results of these investigations are presented and discussed

Optical and structural properties of CdS​/ZnSe bi-​layer thin films prepared by e-​beam technique

Single- and bi-​layer thin films of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) and Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) were prepd. on glass and ITO​/Glass substrates by e-​beam technique. Spectral transmittance of bi-​layer thin film showed red shift with prolonged interference effect. The decrease in Urbach tail of bi-​layer thin film signifies the decreased band gap with increased grain size. Single layer CdS film has prominent (002) hexagonal peak where as bi-​layer thin film confirm with (002) hexagonal and (111) cubic peaks of CdS and ZnSe resp. CdS grain size was found to be 14.5, 17.1, and 33.1 nm on glass, ITO​/Glass and ZnSe​/ITO​/Glass substrates resp