Sonochemical Synthesis of Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles

Cobalt ferrite being a hard magnetic material with high coercivity and moderate magnetization has found wide-spread applications. In this paper, we have reported the sonochemical synthesis of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles using metal acetate precursors. The ferrite synthesis occurs in three steps (hydrolysis of acetates, oxidation of hydroxides, and in situ microcalcination of metal oxides) that are facilitated by physical and chemical effects of cavitation bubbles. The physical and magnetic properties of the ferrite nano-particles thus synthesized have been found to be comparable with those reported in the literature using other synthesis techniques

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Sonochemical Synthesis of Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles

Cobalt ferrite being a hard magnetic material with high coercivity and moderate magnetization has found wide-spread applications. In this paper, we have reported the sonochemical synthesis of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles using metal acetate precursors. The ferrite synthesis occurs in three steps (hydrolysis of acetates, oxidation of hydroxides, and in situ microcalcination of metal oxides) that are facilitated by physical and chemical effects of cavitation bubbles. The physical and magnetic properties of the ferrite nano-particles thus synthesized have been found to be comparable with those reported in the literature using other synthesis techniques

Mechanistic Features of Ultrasound-Assisted Oxidative Desulfurization of Liquid Fuels

A new technology for the removal of sulfur compounds from liquid fuels is oxidative desulfurization. Although several studies have reported the enhancement effect of ultrasound irradiation on oxidative desulfurization, the exact mechanism underlying this enhancement is not known yet. In this study, we have addressed this issue with dual approach of coupling experiments with mathematical model for cavitation. Results of this study have given interesting revelation of interaction between mechanism of ultrasound, cavitation, and oxidation system. Isolation of cavitation phenomenon helps to increase the extent of oxidation. This effect is attributed to formation of hydrogen and carbon monoxide during transient collapse of cavitation bubbles due to thermal dissociation of hexane vapor entrapped in the bubble, which hamper the action of O species generated from the oxidation system. Transient cavitation itself does not give rise to radical formation, because of rather low temperature peaks reached during collapse. Therefore, cavitation does not enhance the oxidation process, but in fact, has an adverse effect on it. Current study has established that the beneficial effect of ultrasound on oxidative desulfurization system is merely of a physical nature (i.e., emulsification due to intense micromixing), with no involvement of a sonochemical effect