Characterization of Nickel Assisted Growth of Boron Nanostructures

Boron nanostructures were synthesized by the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism using nickel as a catalyst. Two types of catalyst deposition methods were used: thermal evaporation and solution dispersion of Ni nanopowder. Also, the effect of synthesis temperature on the shapes of the nanostrucrure formed is reported here. The nanostructures were primarily characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Further qualitative analyses were done with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). For quantitative analyses Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) were used. These results confirmed that 1) high purity Ni assisted boron nanostructures grow by pyrolysis of diborane, and that 2) oxide assisted growth of the nanostructures did not take place as carbon and oxygen were present only as surface contamination. Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED) patterns showed that the nanostructures were mainly crystalline. By decreasing the amount of nickel catalyst that is deposited by thermal evaporation the diameters of the nanowires were reduced. Also, the use of nickel nanopowder as catalyst instead of Ni film resulted in significant reduction in wire diameter. The diameter of the boron nanowires are about 36 nm. With nanowires other types of nanostructures were formed in either type of deposition. At the lower reaction temperature formation of nanosheets was observed

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

BiPhone: Modeling Inter Language Phonetic Influences in Text

A large number of people are forced to use the Web in a language they have low literacy in due to technology asymmetries. Written text in the second language (L2) from such users often contains a large number of errors that are influenced by their native language (L1). We propose a method to mine phoneme confusions (sounds in L2 that an L1 speaker is likely to conflate) for pairs of L1 and L2. These confusions are then plugged into a generative model (Bi-Phone) for synthetically producing corrupted L2 text. Through human evaluations, we show that Bi-Phone generates plausible corruptions that differ across L1s and also have widespread coverage on the Web. We also corrupt the popular language understanding benchmark SuperGLUE with our technique (FunGLUE for Phonetically Noised GLUE) and show that SoTA language understating models perform poorly. We also introduce a new phoneme prediction pre-training task which helps byte models to recover performance close to SuperGLUE. Finally, we also release the FunGLUE benchmark to promote further research in phonetically robust language models. To the best of our knowledge, FunGLUE is the first benchmark to introduce L1-L2 interactions in text.Comment: Accepted at ACL 202

Insilico and Invitro anthelmintic properties of phytocompounds in Rostellularia quinquangularis (J. Koenig ex Roxb.) Nees

The present study aimed to evaluate the anthelmintic activity of various extracts of Rostellularia quinquangularis (R. quinquangularis) against adult Indian earthworms (Pheretima posthuma). Petroleum ether extract (PERQ), ethyl acetate extract (RQEA), and ethanol extract (RQEE) of R. quinquangularis were tested at different concentrations (10, 20, 50, and 100 mg/mL), along with the positive control (albendazole) and negative control (normal saline). Anthelmintic activity was assessed based on the duration of paralysis and mortality. The RQEE extract showed significant anthelmintic activity, with the highest activity observed at a concentration of 100 mg/mL, exhibiting paralysis time of 1.62 min and death times of 19.9 min, compared to the standard albendazole. Further, HR LC-MS analysis of the RQEE extract revealed the presence of various phytoconstituents based on m/z signals. Molecular docking analysis using AutoDock Vina indicated that Columbianetin, Dunnione, Cryptochlorogenic acid, Gaylussacin, Luvangetin, and Albendazole showed docking scores of -8.1, -7.9, -7.4, -7.3, -7.2, and -6.8 Kcal/mol, respectively. These results suggest that R. quinquangularis possesses potent anthelmintic activity, supporting its traditional use in medicinal practices.

Mesoamerican nephropathy: a narrative review

Mesoamerican nephropathy (MeN) also known as chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) is prevalent in agriculturally rich areas. The most widely accepted pathophysiological explanation for MeN is chronic dehydration caused by prolonged exposure to the sun. Other theories include oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, infection and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. The clinical presentation is quite vague and is diagnosed similar to CKD from any cause using blood, urine analysis and ultrasound. The study highlights the need for interdisciplinary cooperation among physicians, epidemiologists, toxicologists, and geneticists while identifying significant research gaps and future objectives. Occupational health related to agriculture is not emphasised enough especially in third world countries where a large chunk of population heavily depend on farming. To safeguard the population at risk, the significance of community-based initiatives, occupational health measures, and regulatory changes is emphasised

BacHBerry: BACterial Hosts for production of Bioactive phenolics from bERRY fruits

BACterial Hosts for production of Bioactive phenolics from bERRY fruits (BacHBerry) was a 3-year project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Union that ran between November 2013 and October 2016. The overall aim of the project was to establish a sustainable and economically-feasible strategy for the production of novel high-value phenolic compounds isolated from berry fruits using bacterial platforms. The project aimed at covering all stages of the discovery and pre-commercialization process, including berry collection, screening and characterization of their bioactive components, identification and functional characterization of the corresponding biosynthetic pathways, and construction of Gram-positive bacterial cell factories producing phenolic compounds. Further activities included optimization of polyphenol extraction methods from bacterial cultures, scale-up of production by fermentation up to pilot scale, as well as societal and economic analyses of the processes. This review article summarizes some of the key findings obtained throughout the duration of the project

Characterization of Nickel Assisted Growth of Boron Nanostructures

Boron nanostructures were synthesized by the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism using nickel as a catalyst. Two types of catalyst deposition methods were used: thermal evaporation and solution dispersion of Ni nanopowder. Also, the effect of synthesis temperature on the shapes of the nanostrucrure formed is reported here. The nanostructures were primarily characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Further qualitative analyses were done with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). For quantitative analyses Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) were used. These results confirmed that 1) high purity Ni assisted boron nanostructures grow by pyrolysis of diborane, and that 2) oxide assisted growth of the nanostructures did not take place as carbon and oxygen were present only as surface contamination. Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED) patterns showed that the nanostructures were mainly crystalline. By decreasing the amount of nickel catalyst that is deposited by thermal evaporation the diameters of the nanowires were reduced. Also, the use of nickel nanopowder as catalyst instead of Ni film resulted in significant reduction in wire diameter. The diameter of the boron nanowires are about 36 nm. With nanowires other types of nanostructures were formed in either type of deposition. At the lower reaction temperature formation of nanosheets was observed.</jats:p