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Although electrolytes prepared from natural substances have taken up research towards a greener future, practical difficulties in their mechanical and water resistive properties are yet to be addressed by many. In this current paper, a natural gum tragacanth is graft copolymerized with tertiary butyl acrylate utilising glutaraldehyde as the crosslinker and ascorbic acid and potassium persulfate as the initiators. From the TGA analysis, enhanced thermal stability is observed in the crosslinked membrane. The DSC analysis reveals that the crosslinked gum exhibits a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 66 °C and a melting temperature (Tm) of 86 °C. The water uptake of the crosslinked membrane was found to be lower than the pure non-crosslinked membrane. The stress-strain curves of the crosslinked electrolyte showed a tensile strength of 3.58Mpa and a percent elongation of 302%. The effect of the crosslinker glutaraldehyde and the ionic salt lithium nitrate is studied with the help of XRD and FTIR. The electrolyte is characterised to be a good ionic conductive membrane as its conductivity value is found to be 4.72 ×10−4 Scm−1 through EIS measurements. The Arrhenius behaviour of temperature-dependent conductivity was studied and the activation energy values for all the films were calculated.

Background: Gastric adenocarcinoma in Indian patients’ is on the rise. A high level of plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) is associated not only with the development of cancerassociated thrombosis but also with the degree of malignancy, the rate of metastasis, and cancer prognosis. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to study the association of vWF with tumor location, TNM staging, and grades of tumor differentiation in gastric adenocarcinoma and to assess the usefulness of circulating vWF levels as a potential biomarker for gastric adenocarcinoma. Materials and Methods: This study is a prospective observational study done in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Madurai Medical College, Madurai, over a period of 2 years between September 2020 and August 2022. Fifty cases of gastric cancer and 50 controls were recruited and vWF levels were analyzed. Results: Among the 50 gastric cancer patients, 8% belonged to Stage II, 62% belonged to Stage III, and 30% belonged to Stage IV. vWF was elevated in Gastric Cancer patients compared to control group. Mean value of vWF in Cases and Control population was 3.68 ng/ml and 0.58 ng/ml respectively (p value 0.0005). Pertaining to Stage, the vWF value was, Stage II – 4.7, Stage III – 3.3, and Stage IV – 4.1 ng/mL. With respect to tumor differentiation, the vWF values were, poorly differentiated – 4.7, moderately differentiated – 3.0, and well differentiated – 3.9 ng/mL. Conclusion: vWF values were significantly elevated in gastric cancer patients. Based on the results, vWF can be used as a surrogate marker to predict the tumor differentiation in patients, thereby prognosticating the disease. Stage-wise, there was no significant difference in the vWF values.

The current competitiveness in the business arena of the construction industry has forced players to improve and optimise, forcing them to adopt the iterating process of continuous improvement that ensures the adequate quality of projects, in addition to moderating the cost and time involved in their implementation, the three of which have collectively been recognised as the primary factors causing the client's approval or disfavour in relation to a project.

Joining of similar materials by varying the input factors on a continuous drive friction welding process is done in this study. The intention is to find the optimal solution in friction welding input process parameters. Among several types of welding processes, friction welding forms good metal joints. The process factors considered for this material joining practice are Upset Time (UT), Heating Time (HT), Heating Pressure (HP), Upset Pressure (UP), chemical composition and measurements of the materials. Frictional joints provide better mechanical properties, hence it is attracted by researchers. Here, EN353 is used as the specimen, for its extensive usage in the automobile and manufacturing sectors. Axial shortening, hardness testing and the temperature during welding are evaluated, compared and optimized using Taguchi Design of Experiments (DoE) scheme using L27 orthogonal array and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA).

In the event of natural calamities and disasters, it is seen that potable water or drinking water becomes an extremely scarce resource. This, in some cases, can lead to very bad situations as seen in the Cholera epidemic in West Bengal (1998), attributed to preceding floods; Hepatitis A and E frequently following heavy rains and floods (Noted in Aceh, Indonesia following December 2004 Tsunami.) But, even in such cases, some uncontaminated local water bodies like cleaner rivers and lakes can be used as a source for drinking water. The project is aimed at designing a system used to identify potable water sources and help the victims of the accident to avail them. This project is designed to get the location of the potable water sources and the victims of the disaster and connect each victim to the nearest potable water source to prevent the scarcity of drinking water. Moreover, it will also prevent the spread of water-borne diseases that are spread when someone consumes water not fit for drinking. This paper is aimed at a project that can target the victims of natural calamities/disasters to their nearest source of safe drinking water to mitigate the risks of post-disaster epidemics and water-borne diseases.

C43H42N8O, triclinic, P1̅ (no. 2), a = 9.997(2) Å, b = 12.046(2) Å, c = 15.635(3) Å, α = 90.84(3)°, β = 105.18(3)°, γ = 93.43(3)°, V = 1813.0 Å3, Z = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.071, wRref(F2) = 0.176, T = 193 K.

The high temperature strength of alloys with (γ + γ′) microstructure is primarily due to the resistance of the ordered precipitate to cutting by matrix dislocations. Such shearing requires higher stresses since it involves the creation of a planar fault. Planar fault energy is known to be dependent on composition. This implies that the composition on the fault may be different from that in the bulk for energetic reasons. Such segregation (or desegregation) of specific alloying elements to the fault may result in Suzuki strengthening which has not been explored extensively in these systems. In this work, segregation (or desegregation) of alloying elements to planar faults was studied computationally in Ni3(Al,Ti) and Co3(W,Al) type γ′ precipitates. The composition dependence of APB energy and heat of mixing were evaluated from first principle electronic structure calculations. A phase field model incorporating the first principles results, was used to simulate the motion of an extended superdislocation under stress concurrently with composition evolution. Results reveal that in both systems, significant (de)segregation occurs on equilibration. On application of stress, solutes were dragged along with the APB in some cases. Additionally, it was also noted the velocity of the superdislocation under an applied stress is strongly dependent on atomic mobility (i.e. diffusivity).

Since the discovery [1] of γ′ precipitate (L12 – Co3(Al, W)) in the Co-Al-W ternary system, there has been an increased interest in Co-based superalloys. Since these alloys have two phase microstructures (γ + γ′) similar to Ni-based superalloys [2], they are viable candidates in high temperature applications, particularly in land-based turbines. The role of alloying on stability of the γ′ phase has been an active area of research. In this study, electronic structure calculations were done to probe the effect of alloying in Co3W with L12 structure. Compositions of type Co3(W,X), (where X/Y = Mn, Fe, Ni, Pt, Cr , Al, Si, V, W, Ta, Ti, Nb, Hf, Zr and Mo) were studied. Effect of alloying on equilibrium lattice parameters and ground state energies was used to calculate Vegard's coefficients and site preference related data. The effect of alloying on the stability of the L12 structure vis a vis other geometrically close packed ordered structures was also studied for a range of Co3X compounds. Results suggest that the penchant of element for the W sublattice can be predicted by comparing heats of formation of Co3X in different structures.

It is well established that Re and Ru additions to Ni-base superalloys result in improved creep performance and phase stability. However, the role of Re and Ru and their synergetic effects are not well understood, and the first step in understanding these effects is to design alloys with controlled microstructural parameters. A computational approach was undertaken in the present work for designing model alloys with varying levels of Re and Ru. Thermodynamic and first principles calculations were employed complimentarily to design a set of alloys with varying Re and Ru levels, but which were constrained by constant microstructural parameters, i.e., phase fractions and lattice misfit across the alloys. Three ternary/quaternary alloys of type Ni-Al-xRe-yRu were thus designed. These compositions were subsequently cast, homogenized and aged. Experimental results suggest that while the measured volume fraction matches the predicted value in the Ru containing alloy, volume fraction is significantly higher than the designed value in the Re containing alloys. This is possibly due to errors in the thermodynamic database used to predict phase fraction and composition. These errors are also reflected in the mismatch between predicted and measured values of misfit.

The shearing of ordered γ′ precipitates by matrix dislocations results in the formation of antiphase boundaries (APB) in Ni-base superalloys. The APB energy is an important source of order-strengthening in disk and blade alloys where Ti and Ta substitute for Al in γ′. While the importance of APB energy is well-acknowledged, the effect of alloying on APB energy is not fully understood. In the present study, the effect of Ti and Ta additions on the {111} and {010} APB energies was probed via electronic structure calculations. Results suggest that at low levels of Ti/Ta, APB energies on either plane increases with alloying. However, at higher Ti/Ta levels, the APB energies decrease with alloying. These trends understood by accounting for nearest neighbour violations about the APB and additionally, invoking the effect of precipitate composition on the energy penalty of the violations. We propose an Environment Dependent Nearest Neighbour Bond (EDNNB) model that predicts APB energies that are in close agreement to calculated values.

C36H32N4P2Pt, monoclinic, C12/c1 (no. 15), a = 22.183(1) Å, b = 10.4130(6) Å, c = 15.2670(9) Å, β = 118.038(5)°, V = 3112.7 Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.024, wRref(F2) = 0.069, T = 193 K.