A facile and cost‐effective approach for the fabrication of a hierarchical nanocomposite material of graphene‐wrapped MnO2–graphene nanoribbons (GMG) is developed. The resulting composite has a high ...specific capacity and an excellent cycling stability owing to the synergistic combination of the electrically conductive graphene, graphene nanoribbons, and MnO2.
Gabedit is a freeware graphical user interface, offering preprocessing and postprocessing adapted (to date) to nine computational chemistry software packages. It includes tools for editing, ...displaying, analyzing, converting, and animating molecular systems. A conformational search tool is implemented using a molecular mechanics or a semiempirical potential. Input files can be generated for the computational chemistry software supported by Gabedit. Some molecular properties of interest are processed directly from the output of the computational chemistry programs; others are calculated by Gabedit before display. Molecular orbitals, electron density, electrostatic potential, nuclear magnetic resonance shielding density, and any other volumetric data properties can be displayed. It can display electronic circular dichroism, UV-visible, infrared, and Raman‐computed spectra after a convolution. Gabedit can generate a Povray file for geometry, surfaces, contours, and color‐coded planes. Output can be exported to a selection of popular image and vector graphics file formats; the program can also generate a series of pictures for animation. Quantum mechanical electrostatic potentials can be calculated using the partial charges on atoms, or by solving the Poisson equation using the multigrid method. The atoms in molecule charges can also be calculated. Gabedit is platform independent. The code is distributed under free open source X11 style license and is available at http://gabedit.sourceforge.net/.
In recent years, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have gained tremendous attention attributed to their unique properties. Notably, evidence has shown that zinc is an important nutrient in living ...organisms. As such, both prokaryotes and eukaryotes including bacteria, fungi and yeast are exploited for the synthesis of ZnO NPs by using microbial cells or enzyme, protein and other biomolecules compounds in either an intracellular or extracellular route. ZnO NPs exhibit antimicrobial properties, however, the properties of nanoparticles (NPs) are depended upon on their size and shape, which make them specific for various applications. Nevertheless, the desired size and shape of NPs can be obtained through the optimization process of microbes mediated synthesis by manipulating their reaction conditions. It should be noted that ZnO NPs are synthesized by various chemical and physical methods. Nonetheless, these methods are expensive and not environmentally friendly. On that account, the microbes mediated synthesis of ZnO NPs have rapidly evolved recently where the microbes are cleaner, eco-friendly, non-toxic and biocompatible as the alternatives to chemical and physical practices. Moreover, zinc in the form of NPs is more effective than their bulk counterparts and thus, they have been explored for many potential applications including in animals industry. Notably, with the advent of multi-drug resistant strains, ZnO NPs have emerged as the potential antimicrobial agents. This is mainly due to their superior properties in combating a broad spectrum of pathogens. Moreover, zinc is known as an essential trace element for most of the biological function in the animal's body. As such, the applications of ZnO NPs have been reported to significantly enhance the health and production of the farm animals. Thus, this paper reviews the biological synthesis of ZnO NPs by the microbes, the mechanisms of the biological synthesis, parameters for the optimization process and their potential application as an antimicrobial agent and feed supplement in the animal industry as well as their toxicological hazards on animals.
Technological advancement and the highly competitive nature of business have forced organizations to use multiple strategies to streamline their business operations. Current research investigates the ...relationship between sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and business performance, focusing on operational and financial performance. It provides insights into the operational structure, resource utilization, and the identification of strategic tools needed to strengthen organizational performance. The researchers conducted unstructured interviews with 41 industrialists and analyzed them via open-source coding and deducing reasoning. A questionnaire was developed by analyzing critical scientific literature and unstructured interviews. Empirical responses were taken from 202 industrial corporations. The structural analyses indicate that the effective execution of SSCM significantly improves firms’ operational and financial performance. The findings also provide detailed information about different components of SSCM, namely supply chain strategy (SCS), supply chain network design (SCND), organizational structure, and information system, and explain how it relates to the previous literature review by using a multivariate statistical analysis, followed by structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings of current research highlight the significant role of SSC in accelerating firms’ operational and financial performance and suggest that SSCM should be taken as a secondary strategy and must be integrated with the overall business strategy.
This study aims to utilize the cell-biomass (CB) and supernatant (CFS) of zinc-tolerant Lactobacillus plantarum TA4 as a prospective nanofactory to synthesize ZnO NPs. The surface plasmon resonance ...for the biosynthesized ZnO NPs-CFS and ZnO NPs-CB was 349 nm and 351 nm, respectively, thereby confirming the formation of ZnO NPs. The FTIR analysis revealed the presence of proteins, carboxyl, and hydroxyl groups on the surfaces of both the biosynthesized ZnO NPs that act as reducing and stabilizing agents. The DLS analysis revealed that the poly-dispersity indexes was less than 0.4 for both ZnO NPs. In addition, the HR-TEM micrographs of the biosynthesized ZnO NPs revealed a flower-like pattern for ZnO NPs-CFS and an irregular shape for ZnO NPs-CB with particles size of 291.1 and 191.8 nm, respectively. In this study, the biosynthesized ZnO NPs exhibited antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria in a concentration-dependent manner and showed biocompatibility with the Vero cell line at specific concentrations. Overall, CFS and CB of L. plantarum TA4 can potentially be used as a nanofactory for the biological synthesis of ZnO NPs.
Agar have long been used as a growth media for plants. Here, we made agar media with embedded fluidic channels to study the effect of exposure to nutrient solution on root growth and pull-out force. ...Black Eye bean (Vigna Unguiculata) and Mung bean (Vigna Radiata) were used in this study due to their rapid root development. Agar media were fabricated using casting process with removable cores to form channels which were subsequently filled with nutrient solution. Upon germination, beans were transplanted onto the agar media and allowed to grow. Pull-out force was determined at 96, 120 and 144 h after germination by applying a force on the hypocotyl above the gel surface. The effect of nutrients was investigated by comparing corresponding data obtained from control plants which have not been exposed to nutrient solution. Pull-out force of Black Eye bean plantlets grown in agar with nutrient solution in channels was greater than those grown in gel without nutrients and was 110% greater after 144 h of germination. Pull-out force of Mung bean plantlets grown in agar with and without nutrient solution was similar. Tap root lengths of Black Eye bean and Mung Bean plantlets grown in agar with nutrient solution are shorter than those grown without nutrient.
In recent years, there has been major interest in the exposure to physical therapy during rehabilitation. Several publications have demonstrated its usefulness in clinical/medical and human machine ...interface (HMI) applications. An automated system will guide the user to perform the training during rehabilitation independently. Advances in engineering have extended electromyography (EMG) beyond the traditional diagnostic applications to also include applications in diverse areas such as movement analysis. This paper gives an overview of the numerous methods available to recognize motion patterns of EMG signals for both isotonic and isometric contractions. Various signal analysis methods are compared by illustrating their applicability in real-time settings. This paper will be of interest to researchers who would like to select the most appropriate methodology in classifying motion patterns, especially during different types of contractions. For feature extraction, the probability density function (PDF) of EMG signals will be the main interest of this study. Following that, a brief explanation of the different methods for pre-processing, feature extraction and classifying EMG signals will be compared in terms of their performance. The crux of this paper is to review the most recent developments and research studies related to the issues mentioned above.
Within the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure–corporate sustainability performance (economic, environmental and social; EES) framework, our empirical analysis examined the impact ...of ESG information disclosure on EES sustainability performance among Asian firms from 2005 to 2017. The positive ESG disclosure–EES sustainability performance relationship found in this study provides evidence that disclosing the implementation of environment and social strategies within an effective system of corporate governance in the organization strengthens corporate sustainability performance. The results also show that environmental performance and social performance are significantly positively related to economic sustainable performance, indicating that the corporation’s economic value and creating value for society are interdependent. In line with the stakeholder theory and the shared value theory, ESG information disclosure to all stakeholders is an important factor in creating a competitive advantage for enhancing corporate sustainability performance.
Transforming CO2 into fuels by utilizing sunlight is promising to synchronously overcome global warming and energy‐supply issues. It is crucial to design efficient photocatalysts with intriguing ...features such as robust light‐harvesting ability, strong redox potential, high charge‐separation, and excellent durability. Hitherto, a single‐component photocatalyst is incapable to simultaneously meet all these criteria. Inspired by natural photosynthesis, constructing artificial Z‐scheme photocatalysts provides a facile way to conquer these bottlenecks. In this review, we firstly introduce the fundamentals of photocatalytic CO2 reduction and Z‐scheme systems. Thereafter we discuss state‐of‐the‐art Z‐scheme photocatalytic CO2 reduction, whereby special attention is placed on the predominant factors that affect photoactivity. Additionally, further modifications that are important for efficient photocatalysis are reviewed.
Mimicking natural photosynthesis: The latest progress on Z‐scheme photocatalytic systems for CO2 reduction is comprehensively discussed in this Review. Particular attention is given to modification strategies that improve photocatalytic performance as well as confirmation methods to assess the Z‐scheme charge transfer mechanism.
The perovskite structure is shown to be the single most versatile ceramic host. Inorganic perovskite type oxides are attractive compounds for varied applications due to its large number of compounds, ...they exhibit both physical and biochemical characteristics and their Nano-formulation have been utilized as catalysts in many reaction due to their sensitivity, unique long-term stability and anti-interference ability. Some perovskites materials are very hopeful applicants for the improvement of effective anodic catalysts performance. Depending Perovskite-phase metal oxides distinct variety of properties they became useful for various applications they are newly used in electrochemical sensing of alcohols, glucose, hydrogen peroxide, gases, and neurotransmitters. Perovskite organometallic halide showed efficient essential properties for photovoltaic solar cells. This review presents a full coverage of the structure, progress of perovskites and their related applications. Stress is focused particularly to different methods of perovskites properties and there related application.
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