Investigation of structural,optical, electrical,and magnetic properties of Fe-doped La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 manganites

In this work, the physical properties of nanocrystalline samples of La_0.7Sr_0.3Mn_1−xFe_xO₃ (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.20) perovskite manganites synthesized by the reverse micelle (RM) technique were explored in detail. The phase purity, crystal structure, and crystallite size of the samples were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. All the samples had rhombohedral crystal structure and crystallite size increased with increase in Fe content in La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃. The scanning electron micrographs (SEMs) exhibited smooth surface morphology and nonuniform shape of the particles. The optical properties studied using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy revealed a decrease in the absorbance and optical band gap with an increase in Fe content in La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ compound. The temperature-dependent resistivity measurements revealed semiconducting nature of x = 0 and 0.1 samples up to the studied temperature range, while a metal-to-insulator transition was observed at higher Fe doping. Magnetic studies revealed weak ferromagnetism in all the samples and a reduction in the maximum magnetization with an increase in Fe content. A close correlation between electrical transport and magnetic properties was observed with the doping of Fe ion in La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ at Mn site. These results advocate strong interactions associated with the double exchange mechanism among Fe³⁺ and Mn³⁺ ions.     

Role of Nd-Ni on structural,spectral and dielectric properties of strontium-barium based nano-sized X-type ferrites

The influence of neodymium and nickel substitution on structural and dielectric parameters was investigated in strontium-barium X-type hexagonal ferrites having composition SrBaCu_2?xNi_xNd_yFe_28?yO₄₆ (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1 and y = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.1). Sol-gel method was employed for synthesizing these hexagonal ferrites. The XRD plots of all studied materials which were annealed at 1250 °C show single phase characteristics. Lattice parameter ‘c’ increased as a consequence of larger radius of rare earth ion (Nd³⁺) as compared to (Fe³⁺), while lattice parameter ‘a’ showed very small variation. The cell volume was obtained in the range 2508.32–2523.75 (ų). The inclusion of Nd-Ni also affected X-ray density, bulk density and porosity. The FTIR spectroscopy indicated the particular absorption peaks of hexagonal ferrites and it was performed in the range of 500–700 cm^?1. On account of Nd-Ni doping, the dielectric constant, dielectric loss and AC-conductivity showed decreasing trend. The occupancy of Nd³⁺ ions at octahedral site impedes the valence alternation of Fe³⁺; therefore there was decrease in dielectric permittivity. Ac conductivity has been decreased from 9.14 to 6.49 (Ω cm)^?1 at frequency of 2.7 GHz. The Cole-Cole plots of synthesized materials noticeably revealed grain boundary contribution. The appearance of single semi-circle in impedance Cole-Cole graphs confirms the exceptional role of grain boundaries in the conduction process. The considerably lower dielectric parameters of investigated nano X-type ferrites propose their feasibility for high-frequency applications (phase shifters, dielectric resonators, stealth technology etc).     

A simplified method for modelling the effect of blinds on window thermal performance

An approximate method is presented for predicting the effect of a louvered blind on the centre‐glass thermal performance of a fenestration. The method combines a one‐dimensional heat transfer model with data from a numerical simulation of the window and blind. Sample results for a blind mounted on the indoor surface of a window show the effect of blind slat angle on heat transmission. Both summer and winter conditions are considered. The results show that a louvered blind can improve the U‐value of a standard double‐glazed window by up to 37%. Also, the radiation heat exchange with the room can be dramatically reduced (by up to 60%), which will improve the level of occupant comfort. However, there was found to be a trade‐off between U‐value and occupant comfort; placing the blind closer to the window improves the U‐value, but increases the radiation heat exchange with the room. The predictions from the present simplified method compare well with results from a full two‐dimensional computational fluid dynamics solution of the conjugate blind/window interaction. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis and thermomechanical characterization of polyurethane elastomers extended with α,ω‐alkane diols

A series of polyurethane (PU) elastomers was prepared by the reaction of poly(?‐caprolactone) and 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate, which was extended with a series of chain extenders (CEs) having 2–10 methylene units in their structure. The completion of the reaction was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The chemical structures of the synthesized PU samples were characterized with Fourier transform infrared, ¹H‐NMR, and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy, and the thermal properties were determined by thermogravimetric analysis, DSC, and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis techniques. The mechanical properties were also studied and are discussed. The thermogravimetric analysis and DSC analysis showed that CE length had a considerable effect on the thermal properties of the prepared samples. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and damping peaks were also affected by the number of methylene units in the CE length. The elastomer extended with 1,2‐ethane diol exhibited optimum thermal properties, whereas the elastomer based on 1,10‐decane diol displayed the worst thermal properties. Tensile strength and elongation at break decreased with increasing CE length, whereas hardness showed the opposite trend. The glass‐transition temperature moved toward lower temperatures with increasing CE length. The decrease in the glass‐transition temperature and tensile properties were interpreted in terms of decreasing hard segments and increasing chain flexibility. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Cytological Observations and Bulked-Segregant Analysis Coupled Global Genome Sequencing Reveal Two Genes Associated with Pollen Fertility in Tetraploid Rice

Neo-tetraploid rice with high fertility is a useful germplasm for polyploid rice breeding, which was developed from the crossing of different autotetraploid rice lines. However, little information is available on the molecular mechanism underlying the fertility of neo-tetraploid rice. Here, two contrasting populations of tetraploid rice, including one with high fertility (hereafter referred to as JG) and another with low fertility (hereafter referred to as JD), were generated by crossing Huaduo 3 (H3), a high fertility neo-tetraploid rice that was developed by crossing Jackson-4x with 96025-4x, and Huajingxian74-4x (T452), a low fertility autotetraploid rice parent. Cytological, global genome sequencing-based bulked-segregant (BSA-seq) and CRISPR/Cas9 technology were employed to study the genes associated with pollen fertility in neo-tetraploid rice. The embryo sacs of JG and JD lines were normal; however, pollen fertility was low in JD, which led to scarce fertilization and low seed setting. Cytological observations displayed low pollen fertility (25.1%) and approximately 31.3 and 27.2% chromosome lagging at metaphase I and II, and 28.8 and 24.8% chromosome straggling at anaphase I and II in JD, respectively. BSA-seq of F_2–3 generations and RNA-seq of F₄ generation detected a common fragment, i.e., 18,915,234–19,500,000, at chromosome 7, which was comprised of 78 genes associated with fertility. Among 78 genes, 9 genes had been known to be involved in meiosis and pollen development. Two mutants ny1 (LOC_Os07g32406) and ny2 (LOC_Os07g32040) were generated by CRISPR/Cas9 knockout in neo-tetraploid rice, and which exhibited low pollen fertility and abnormal chromosome behavior. Our study revealed that two unknown genes, LOC_Os07g32406 (NY1) and LOC_Os07g32040 (NY2) play an important role in pollen development of neo-tetraploid rice and provides a new perspective about the genetic mechanisms of fertility in polyploid rice.     

Hero Wavelength Spectral Sampling

We present a spectral rendering technique that offers a compelling set of advantages over existing approaches. The key idea is to propagate energy along paths for a small, constant number of changing wavelengths. The first of these, the hero wavelength, is randomly sampled for each path, and all directional sampling is solely based on it. The additional wavelengths are placed at equal distances from the hero wavelength, so that all path wavelengths together always evenly cover the visible range. A related technique, spectral multiple importance sampling, was already introduced a few years ago. We propose a simplified and optimised version of this approach which is easier to implement, has good performance characteristics, and is actually more powerful than the original method. Our proposed method is also superior to techniques which use a static spectral representation, as it does not suffer from any inherent representation bias. We demonstrate the performance of our method in several application areas that are of critical importance for production work, such as fidelity of colour reproduction, sub‐surface scattering, dispersion and volumetric effects. We also discuss how to couple our proposed approach with several technologies that are important in current production systems, such as photon maps, bidirectional path tracing, environment maps, and participating media.     

An image composition algorithm for handling global visual effects

Image composition is widely used in television and film industry to create synthetic visual effects. It requires seamless integration of different parts of two or more images into a single image. Existing image composition techniques only change the local contents of the resulting image while in many cases local changes may also require some global effects as well. For example, if the image of sun from one image is transferred to another image, the global brightness pattern should also be transferred. Unfortunately existing techniques cannot handle global effects of local content manipulations. This paper describes a novel image composition technique which captures global effects associated with a specific local content from one image and incorporates in the second image. In our proposed technique, all images are transformed to the frequency domain. The composite image is created in frequency domain by mixing different frequencies from multiple images and then transformed back to the spatial domain. We have experimented the proposed technique to shift the image of sun along with its global brightness pattern, the global effects of rain and also for transferring global texture pattern from one image to the other. In most of the cases the results produced by our algorithm appear far close to real images than state of the art existing image composition techniques.     

Indoor positioning: “an image-based crowdsource machine learning approach”

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Various technologies have been utilized today for recognizing client or user in the indoor areas. These technologies incorporate RSSI, Bluetooth Low Energy...