Investigating early iron finds from Mayiladumparai Tamil Nadu

The paper covers preliminary metallurgical investigations related to the ferrous metal finds excavated at the Iron Age stie of Mayiladumparai by Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeolog

Mesoporous Ternary Nitrides of Earth-Abundant Metals as Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalyst

As sustainable energy becomes a major concern for modern society, renewable and clean energy systems need highly active, stable, and low-cost catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Mesoporous materials offer an attractive route for generating efficient electrocatalysts with high mass transport capabilities. Herein, we report an efficient hard templating pathway to design and synthesize three-dimensional (3-D) mesoporous ternary nickel iron nitride (Ni3FeN). The as-synthesized electrocatalyst shows good OER performance in an alkaline solution with low overpotential (259 mV) and a small Tafel slope (54 mV dec(−1)), giving superior performance to IrO(2) and RuO(2) catalysts. The highly active contact area, the hierarchical porosity, and the synergistic effect of bimetal atoms contributed to the improved electrocatalytic performance toward OER. In a practical rechargeable Zn–air battery, mesoporous Ni(3)FeN is also shown to deliver a lower charging voltage and longer lifetime than RuO(2). This work opens up a new promising approach to synthesize active OER electrocatalysts for energy-related devices. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s40820-020-0412-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Indian gangsterism in Kuala Lumpur / Thevendran S Sivanantham

Indian gangsterism in Kuala Lumpur is a twentieth century phenomenon. Started in the 1950s as an institution to provide protection service to lower caste member it has went through numerous changes till this day, where it is scourned upon as a Criminal gang. The Indian gang sprouted through the city in the la t e 1950s and early 60s but it does not have a single line of origin Thus, we find that the various gangs differ in their rites and initiation ceremonies. These gangs are not well organized units and as such we find them constantly emerging and then dying-off. As a criminal gang, the activities of these gangs include gang fights and "table talks", vice rings, drug pushing, extortion and "protection service". For these purposes, the gangs use a wide range of weapons, from meat choppers to revolvers. The role of' the police in curbing the increasing menace of these gangs basal so increased lately. The fear that these gangs create and the atrocious activities that they involve in has brought about tighter legislation against them. The emergence of "gangster- type" individuals is linked closely to the social environment o£ an individual. It is found that these gangsters who come from lower class communities go through detective socialization processes that create delinquent. Various factors contribute towards this cause, namely, broken homes, lack of parental love and control, bad neighbourhood and influence of friends. Indian gangs although have not adapted themselves well to the social changes, they still pose a threat to the safety of the general public and as such it is very necessary to check their growth. While legislation is important in this aspect, of more importance is to help children and youths to go through normal and proper socialization process to avoid the emergence of delinquent features in the first place

Nickel selenide supported on nickel foam as an efficient and durable non-precious electrocatalyst for the alkaline water electrolysis

Herein, we describe an in-situ hybridization of Nickel Selenide (Ni3Se2) with a Nickel Foam (NF) current collector as an efficient, ultra-durable electrode for the continuous alkaline water electrolysis. Earth abundant, cost effective, non-precious self-made Ni3Se2/NF electrode delivers an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotential value of 315 mV at a current density of 100 mA cm−2 (versus a reversible hydrogen electrode) in aqueous electrolyte of 1 M KOH. On a static current density of 100 mA cm−2, Ni3Se2/NF electrode shows a good OER stability over 285 h with very small potential loss of 5.5% in alkaline electrolyte. Accordingly, the alkaline water electrolyzer constructed with Ni3Se2/NF (anode) and NiCo2S4/NF (cathode), it requires 1.58 V to deliver 10 mA cm−2 current density, with 500 h continuous operation in 1 M KOH. In addition, we demonstrate that the light-driven water splitting using solar panel, it can be a promising approach to facilitate true independence from electricity in H2 fuel economy. Overall, this methodology is one of the appropriate energy efficient ways to reduce the cost of water splitting devices, as it may simplify the diverse process and equipment. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Built-in Self-Test Methodology for System-on-a-Chip Testing

149-153Built-in Self-Test is a circuit embedded within the design to detect the faults in the System-on-a-Chip circuits. It shrinks the test application time and reduces the cost of external testing equipment. This paper presents a test pattern generation methodology for detection of transition faults using in-circuit arithmetic circuits. Arithmetic circuits are used for pattern generation which utilizes the accumulators in the design itself with the inclusion of additional control unit for pattern generation. This control unit controls the pattern generation circuit to reduce the transition power during testing and ensure better fault coverage. The main focus of this paper is to reduce the area overhead using arithmetic circuits and also to reduce the power of the test pattern generator. The proposed method can be made use in circuits that contains gray code converters. Experimental results show that the proposed technique has lower power consumption and lesser hardware compared to linear generators

Internationalising auditing standards: Stakeholder views on Australia's strategic directions

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the internationalisation of Australian auditing standards by analysing the submissions to the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board's (AUASB) strategic directions paper (SDP) and comparing the proposed and approved strategic directions frameworks of the AUASB. Design/methodology/approach - A content analysis of the submissions to the SDP is conducted to identify the extent of support, and arguments for and against the proposed strategic directions. This study attempts to find a link, if any, between the proposed strategic directions, the views expressed by the stakeholders, and the final set of strategic directions issued by Australia's Financial Reporting Council. Findings - Overall, the final set of strategic directions released in April 2005 are consistent with the views expressed in the submissions, which support minimal divergence from International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and using the ISAs as the base for developing Australian auditing standards. Major changes from the SDP include a requirement for the AUASB to undertake research and monitor auditing standards issued by national standard setters. However, the AUASB is no longer obliged to contribute to the international standard arena and need only have regard to any program initiated by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Research limitations/implications - The findings of this study provide an insight into the future of Australia's role in the international arena and increase awareness of stakeholders' views on the international harmonisation of auditing standards. Originality/value - While there have been several studies examining the international harmonisation of accounting standards, there is comparatively little research on the international harmonisation of auditing standards. This paper attempts to address this void, in part, and contribute to the literature on the convergence of auditing standards with ISAs

Inexpensive electrochemical synthesis of nickel iron sulphides on nickel foam: super active and ultra-durable electrocatalysts for alkaline electrolyte membrane water electrolysis

Efficient and durable electrocatalysts for water splitting (both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)) are required for the replacement of expensive noble metal-based catalysts used in water electrolysis devices. Herein, we describe the inexpensive synthesis of electrochemically deposited nickel iron sulphides on nickel foam (NiFeS/NF) and their use as highly efficient bi-functional water splitting catalysts that can meet the current energy demands. The NiFeS/NF electrocatalysts exhibited low overpotentials of approximately 231 mV for the OER and 180 mV for the HER in 1 M KOH. Moreover, the NiFeS/NF electrocatalysts exhibited a turnover frequency of one order of magnitude higher than those of state-of-the-art noble metal catalysts (RuO2 and Pt/C) for the OER and HER. In addition to this excellent activity, the bi-functional catalyst also exhibited an outstanding OER and HER electrode stability for over 200 h with minimal loss in activity. Further, it can be directly used in the practical application of alkaline electrolyte membrane water electrolysis. The high performance, prolonged electrode stability, and facile synthesis as an adherent coating on nickel foam suggest that NiFeS/NF electrocatalysts might be suitable for use as alternative commercially viable catalysts. © 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence(CC-BY-NC)

Implementation of Special Function Unit for Vertex Shader Processor Using Hybrid Number System

The world of 3D graphic computing has undergone a revolution in the recent past, making devices more computationally intensive, providing high-end imaging to the user. The OpenGL ES Standard documents the requirements of graphic processing unit. A prime feature of this standard is a special function unit (SFU), which performs all the required mathematical computations on the vertex information corresponding to the image. This paper presents a low-cost, high-performance SFU architecture with improved speed and reduced area. Hybrid number system is employed here in order to reduce the complexity of operations by suitably switching between logarithmic number system (LNS) and binary number system (BNS). In this work, reduction of area and a higher operating frequency are achieved with almost the same power consumption as that of the existing implementations