Understanding the spatial spreading patterns of plant-available sulphur (S) (AS) and plant-available micronutrients (available zinc (AZn), available iron (AFe), available copper (ACu), available ...manganese (AMn) and available boron (AB)) in soils, especially in coastal agricultural soils subjected to various natural and anthropogenic activities, is vital for sustainable crop production by adopting site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) strategies. We studied the spatial distribution patterns of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB in cultivated soils of coastal districts of India using geostatistical approaches. Altogether 39,097 soil samples from surface (0 to 15 cm depth) layers were gathered from farm lands of 68 coastal districts. The analysis of soil samples was carried out for soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic carbon (SOC) and AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB. Soil pH, EC and SOC varied from 3.70 to 9.90, 0.01 to 7.45 dS m.sup.-1 and 0.02 to 3.74%, respectively. The concentrations of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB varied widely in the study area with their corresponding mean values were 37.4±29.4, 1.50±1.53, 27.9±35.1, 2.14±1.74, 16.9±18.4 and 1.34±1.52 mg kg.sup.-1, respectively. The coefficient of variation values of analyzed soil parameters varied from 14.6 to 126%. The concentrations of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB were negatively and significantly correlated with soil pH and positively and significantly correlated with SOC. The geostatistical analysis indicated stable, Gaussian and exponential best-fit semivariogram models with moderate to strong spatial dependence for available nutrients. The generated spatial spreading maps revealed different distribution patterns for AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB. There were variations in spatial spreading patterns of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB in east- and west-coastal area. About 62, 35, 12, 0.4, 23 and 45% of the study area had deficiency of AS, AZn, AFe, ACu, AMn, and AB, respectively. The spatial spreading maps will be highly useful for SSNM in the cultivated coastal soils of the country. This study could also be used as a base for assessing spatial spreading patterns of soil parameters in cultivated coastal areas of other parts of the world.
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•Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized by sol–gel method.•The effects of Ag on defect mediated optical emissions and UV sensing are investigated.•Effective enhancement in ...defect mediated visible emissions with Ag-doping is observed.•Pure ZnO exhibits anomalous UV sensing, which is absent in doped ZnO NPs.•The 7 wt% Ag-doped ZnO NPs is found to highly UV photoresponsive.•Ag-doped ZnO NPs based sensor can provide a better solution for UV detection.
In the present work, defects mediated optical emission and efficient photodetection characteristics of ZnO:Ag (0, 2, 5, and 7 wt%) nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized by sol–gel method have been investigated for UV sensor. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show the polycrystalline nature of ZnO NPs. The crystallite sizes corresponding to most intense peak (101) are found to be in the range of 10–20 nm. Effective enhancement of defect-mediated visible emissions is observed in Ag-doped ZnO NPs. Red-shift of UV peak in Ag-doped ZnO may be due the tensile strain upon Ag doping. Pure ZnO exhibits anomalous UV sensing, which is absent in ZnO NPs doped with Ag. The 7 wt% Ag-ZnO NPs is found to efficient UV photoresponsive. The results obtained by doping of Ag contents in the ZnO can be capable for making efficient and consistent prototype UV sensors.
Abstract
The security of digital information has become increasingly vital in the digital world, which is currently evolving and changing at such a quick speed. With the rapid growth of hidden ...contact and communication around the world, the need for communication security is becoming increasingly important. The main motive of cloud service providers is to collect the information and details of the material uploaded on their cloud servers. One of the major concern is security of the contents uploaded on the cloud servers. Although, they challenge about the security provided by them to the individuals but they are the owner of servers and the information on it. The same has been observed when one of our server crashed and we consulted about the incident with the customer care department of our CSP. We use to back up our university servers backup on cloud for which we pay some amount as decided by our management as well as CSP. The aim of this research is that the cloud owners cannot have access to data of the users. I proposed a new robust encryption technique in this paper to improve the security of the key generating algorithm. To achieve this, an algorithm has been implemented which performs much better than renowned algorithm i.e. RSA algorithm. This algorithm achieves better response time than RSA algorithm which is described and proved in this paper. This paper uses ASCII and EBCDIC codes while encryption and decryption.
A novel alkaline direct borohydride fuel cell (ADBFC) using varying concentrations of hydrogen peroxide as oxidant and sodium borohydride with sodium hydroxide, each of differing concentration, as ...fuel is reported. A peak power density of ca. 150
mW
cm
−2 at a cell voltage of 540
mV can be achieved from the optimized ADBFC operating at 70
°C.
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•Simple chemical polymerization method is used to prepare PANI/CuO nanocomposites.•PANI/CuO NCs as luminescent materials due to its visible optical emissions.•PANI/CuO NCs as ...responsive ammonia sensor due to lower response/recovery time.•PANI/CuO NCs based gas sensor can provide a better solution for NH3 detection.
A simple chemical polymerization method is used to prepare composites of polyaniline with various compositions of cupric-oxide (PANI/CuO) at room temperature. The structural and morphological analysis is performed by XRD and SEM micrographs. The optical characterizations are performed using FT-IR, UV–visible absorption, and PLspectroscopy. The sensing characteristics have been investigated by varying the ammonia concentration over a range of 100–2000 ppm. The response/recovery time of nanocomposites systems are found reduced as compared to PANI designates faster response of sensor confirms their suitability for gas sensors.
Optical transmissions in the wavelength range 600–2700 nm have been done for the Se
40
As
60−x
S
x
(
x
= 10, 20) chalcogenide thin films. By using these transmission curves, various optical ...parameters like linear refractive index (
n
), static refractive index (
n
0
), nonlinear refractive index (
n
2
), oscillator energy (
E
d
), dispersive energy (
E
0
), band gap energy (
E
g
), third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility (
χ
(3)
) and
γ
have been studied. Wemple-Di-Domenico (WDD) relation has been used for dispersion analysis. To know the possibility of nonlinear switching in Se
40
As
60−x
S
x
(
x
= 10, 20) chalcogenides, nonlinear susceptibility and nonlinear refractive indices are determined by using linear index of refraction and parameters of WDD. On the basis of observed nonlinear optical parameters, the suitability for photonic applications is also discussed. Our experimental results have very good agreement at 10 at.% of S with telecommunication wavelength (~ 1550 nm) at which the maximum optical nonlinearity is found. Due to higher values of nonlinear refractive index, Se
40
As
50
S
10
is processed better for photonic devices in comparison of Se
40
As
40
S
20
.
A Pd-doped Ni–MgO catalyst was prepared for synthesis gas production by dry reforming of methane (DRM). The catalyst was prepared by a two-step method; first a high surface area MgO support was ...prepared by a hydrothermal method then Pd and Ni nanoparticles were deposited by sublimation of the precursor salts. The prepared catalysts were characterized by BET-surface area, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), temperature programmed desorption (CO 2 -TPD), Raman spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy and temperature programmed reduction (H 2 -TPR) analysis. Both Ni–MgO and Pd/Ni–MgO were highly active for the DRM reaction. Addition of Pd-nanoparticles to the Ni–MgO catalyst decreased the reaction initiation temperature by 90 °C and increased the rate of H 2 and CO production during catalysis. The increased activity of the Pd/Ni–MgO catalyst was due to the easily reducible Ni-oxide particles and much smaller Pd-particles, which were active for the DRM reaction at lower temperature. The best feature of the synthesized catalysts was the ability to inhibit the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction, which highly improved the H 2 /CO ratio. In fact, the Pd/Ni–MgO catalyst almost stopped the RWGS reaction and the presence of water in the reaction product was negligible. A time on stream (TOS) study of both the catalysts showed absolutely no deactivation even after 100 h of reaction at 750 °C. Both catalysts showed production of synthesis gas with a H 2 /CO ratio of 0.97–0.99 during the TOS study.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) worldwide continues to increase, in particular in India. Early T2DM diagnosis followed by appropriate management will result in more cardiovascular event free life ...years. However, knowledge of the cardiovascular profile of newly diagnosed T2DM patients is still limited. The aim of this study was to understand the extent of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk of newly diagnosed T2DM patients in India.
A cross sectional observational study was conducted to evaluate clinical laboratory and socio-demographic parameters of 5,080 newly diagnosed T2DM patients (48.3 ± 12.8 years of age; 36.7% female). In addition, we determined their cardiovascular risk according to the guidelines of the Lipid Association of India (LAI) and the criteria of the QRISK3 score.
Of the newly T2DM diagnosed patients in India 2,007(39.5%) were classified as "High risk" and 3,073 (60.5%) were classified as "Very high risk" based on LAI criteria. On average, patients had 1.7 ± 0.9 major atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk factors. Low HDL-C value was the most frequent major risk (2,823; 55.6%) followed by high age (2,502; 49.3%), hypertension (2,141; 42.1%), smoking/tobacco use (1,078; 21.2%) and chronic kidney disease stage 3b or higher (568; 11.2%). In addition, 4,192 (82.5%) patients appeared to have at least one cholesterol abnormality and, if the latest LAI recommendations are applied, 96.5% (4,902) presented with lipid values above recommended targets. Based on the QRISK3 calculation Indian diabetes patients had an average CVD risk of 15.3 ± 12.3%, (12.2 ± 10.1 vs. 17.1 ± 13.5 p<0.001 for females and males, respectively).
Newly diagnosed Indian T2DM patients are at high ASCVD risk. Our data therefore support the notion that further extension of nationwide ASCVD risk identification programs and prevention strategies to reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases are warranted.
Nanocrystalline thin films of Al doped ZnO (Al:0–5
at%) with low electrical resistivity and high optical transparency have been grown by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction patterns showed the ...presence of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO phase with strong
c-axis orientation in all the cases. The
c-axis lattice parameter was found to increase with increase in Al doping. The average grain size in the film decreases from ∼38 to ∼25
nm with increasing Al concentration from 0 to 5
at%. For a critical doping of 2
at%, the resistivity of the AZO film is minimum (6×10
−4
Ω-cm) and the average optical transparency is nearly 85%. The band gap increases with increase in doping which is in accordance to Burstein–Moss shift. A blue shift in the absorption edge of ZnO with increasing Al concentration in the film is noteworthy as it leads to increase in the width of the transmission window.
Nanocolloids consisting of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) doped with different concentrations (0.10 and 0.50 wt.%) of surface treated gold nanoparticles (GNPs) differing in size (1.77, 5.5 nm) ...are prepared and characterised. The effects of doping on the clearing temperatures as well as electro-optic and dielectric parameters of a FLC mixture are presented. The clearing temperatures remain invariant with doping. A remarkable increase in the spontaneous polarisation is noticed due to the addition of the GNPs with chiral monolayer capping. Tilt angle and switching time, at least in their tendency, become slightly reduced and increased, respectively. Depending on the size of the nanoparticles, surface plasmon resonance is observed to be slightly increased by increasing the surface. In addition, a small change in localised electric field is found upon doping. The increase in the dielectric permittivity and the dielectric strength is observed and attributed to the parallel coupling between the dipoles of functionalised GNPs, induced by external electric field, and the vector of the spontaneous polarisation of the FLC matrix. A decrease in relaxation frequency is observed. A substantial increment of one order in the dc conductivity is also observed for the nanocolloids.
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