Nature inspired materials: Emerging trends and prospects

The term ‘Nature-inspired’ is associated with a sequence of efforts to understand, synthesise and imitate any natural object or phenomenon either in the tangible or intangible form which allows us to obtain improved insights into nature. Such inspirations can come through materials, processes, or designs that we see around. Materials as opposed to processes and designs found in nature due to being tangible can readily be used without engineering efforts. One such example is that of an aquaporin which is used to filter water. The scope of this work in Nature-inspired materials is to define, clarify and consolidate the current understanding by probing new insights in the recent developments by reviewing examples from the laboratory to industrial scale while highlighting newer opportunities in this area. A careful analysis of the “nature-inspired materials” shows that they possess specific functionality that relies on our ability to harness peculiar electrical, mechanical, biological, chemical, sustainability or combined gains

Biophysical and spectral modeling

Activities and results of a project to develop strategies for modeling vegetative canopy reflectance are reported. Specific tasks included the inversion of canopy reflectance models to estimate agronomic variables (particularly leaf area index) from in-situ reflectance measurements, and a study of possible uses of ecological models in analyzing temporal profiles of greenness

Modeling of vegetation canopy reflectance: Status, issues and recommended future strategy

Various technical issues related to mapping of vegetative type, condition and stage of maturity, utilizing remotely sensed spectral data are reviewed. The existing knowledge base of models, especially of radiative properties of the vegetation canopy and atmosphere, is reviewed to establish the state of the art for addressing the problem of vegetation mapping. Activities to advance the state of the art are recommended. They include working on canopy reflectance and atmospheric scattering models, and field measurements of canopy reflectance as well as of canopy components. Leaf area index (LAI) and solar radiation interception (SRI) are identified as the two most important vegetation variables requiring further investigation. It is recommended that activities related to sensing them or understanding their relationships with measurable variables, should be encouraged and supported

A review of crop canopy reflectance models

Various models for calculating crop canopy reflectance, in the visible and infrared wavelengths, from the optical and geometrical properties of a canopy and its constituents are reviewed. The radiative transfer equation is discussed as well as both analytical and numerical crop reflectance models which are manifestations of the solution of this equation. Recommendations are made for further work in modeling of canopy reflectance

Impact of Vermicompost on Growth, Yield and Quality of Tomato Plant (Lycopersicum Esculentum)

The main objective of the study was to prepare vermicompost from the waste and to determine its effect on the qualitative and quantitative yield of tomato plant. The treatment groups consisted of VC (15, 30, 45 and control). The parameters like pH 7.2, Electrical Conductivity (10.70mmhos/cm), Total Hardness (360mg/l), Calcium (160mg/l) and Magnesium (200mg/l) were determined. The present results show that vermicompost treatment has significant growth impact on plant height, number of leaves, fruits, flowers and stem diameter as compared to control

Uniaxial pulling and nano-scratching of a newly synthesized high entropy alloy

Multicomponent alloys possessing nanocrystalline structure, often alluded to as Cantor alloys or high entropy alloys (HEAs), continue to attract the great attention of the research community. It has been suggested that about 64 elements in the periodic table can be mixed in various compositions to synthesize as many as ∼108 different types of HEA alloys. Nanomechanics of HEAs combining experimental and atomic simulations are rather scarce in the literature, which was a major motivation behind this work. In this spirit, a novel high-entropy alloy (Ni25Cu18.75Fe25Co25Al6.25) was synthesized using the arc melting method, which followed a joint simulation and experimental effort to investigate dislocation-mediated plastic mechanisms leading to side flow, pileup, and crystal defects formed in the sub-surface of the HEA during and after the scratch process. The major types of crystal defects associated with the plastic deformation of the crystalline face-centered cubic structure of HEA were 2,3,4-hcp layered such as defect coordination structures, coherent ∑3 twin boundary, and ∑11 fault or tilt boundary, in combination with Stair rods, Hirth locks, Frank partials, and Lomer–Cottrell locks. Moreover, 1/6 <112> Shockley, with exceptionally larger dislocation loops, was seen to be the transporter of stacking faults deeper into the substrate than the location of the applied cutting load. The (100) orientation showed the highest value for the kinetic coefficient of friction but the least amount of cutting stress and cutting temperature during HEA deformation, suggesting that this orientation is better than the other orientations for improved contact-mode manufacturing

Nitrogen in stone meteorites and terrestrial standards

Nitrogen contents have been determined by neutron activation method in stone meteorites and silicate standards. Leaching and sieving experiments on standards indicate that contamination from atmospheric nitrogen is negligible. For BCR-1 nitrogen contents show a range from 15 to 62ppm. The study includes 32 chondrites belonging to various classes and six achondrites. Nitrogen is high in C1 and C2 chondrites (500 to 1,000ppm) and in E chondrites (100 - 500ppm). C3 group shows variable amounts of nitrogen. Ordinary chondrites have similar nitrogen contents (~30pm) irrespective of their petrologic group. For all classes of meteorites, chondrules have lower nitrogen compared to the matrix. Dark phases of some gas- rich meteorites are enriched in nitrogen as compared to their light counterparts. Non-magnetic portions have slightly excess N compared to the magnetic portions. Correlation of N with C, In, Bi, Tl, Zn and Cd indicates the presence of two host phases for N