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A novel and simplified method is introduced for synthesizing a transparent sensor based on graphene-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown single-layer graphene on the PDMS substrate suffers from low conductivity due to defects at grain boundaries. The fabricated sensor incorporates a polyaniline (PANI) layer between two graphene layers to maintain enhanced conductivity even when subjected to strain, due to its flexibility. The tri-layer structure of graphene-PANI–graphene (G-P–G) achieves approximately 90% transmittance and a lower sheet resistance ( $\approx 84~\Omega $ /Sq) on a flexible substrate that surpasses those achieved with a single-layer graphene on PDMS and other sandwich structures on a PDMS substrate. The developed transparent and highly conductive G-P–G sensor exhibits effective sensing for finger tapping/touch, strain detection, human motion detection, wrist pulse detection, breathing detection, and traditional NADI detection. This underscores its versatility for various sensing applications. In summary, the demonstrated results indicate the potential of this single transparent conductive sensor structure for deployment in diverse and multifunctional sensing applications.

Random cross-linking in polymeric gels leads to heterogeneities in the obtained network, resulting in poor mechanical properties and limitations of practical applications. To overcome this issue, networks with movable cross-links have been developed. Slide-ring gels (SRGs), which are polymer networks with cross-links that can slide along the network strands, belong to this category. These gels are softer, more stretchable, tougher, and with good recovery properties due to the sliding of cross-links, which equalizes the applied stress on polymer strands. Although the origin of the excellent mechanical properties of these gels has been well-studied, the specific viscoelastic properties of slide-ring gels remain ambiguous due to the complexity of controlling and detecting the ring mobility. In this study, the development of a palladium-based slide-ring gel from a metal-coordinated pseudorotaxane motif enables us, for the first time, to control the ring’s mobility without changing any other parameters and keeping the overall network connectivity. The rheology data of fixed-ring versus free-ring gels, analyzed with a tube-based model, reveal that the softness and lower elasticity of the slide-ring gels originate from the sliding of cross-links, which increases the effective mesh size of the network well above the length of a single polyrotaxane chain. Moreover, we demonstrate the key role played by the entanglements, which limit the sliding distance of the rings. This study thus provides new insights for understanding the peculiar viscoelastic behavior and huge stretchability of slide-ring gels, toward the rational design of SRGs with controlled properties.

ABSTRACTWith the progression in technologies, conventional cutting of metal with flood cooling is superseded by some other means, viz. minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). Here, in this current work, we present that hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nano-fluid particles are used in terms of percentage mixed in SAFCO lubricant oil. The factors, viz. cutting velocity, depth and percentage of nanoparticles are varied to obtain the mathematical models and optimisation of responses, viz. temperature and surface roughness. Desirability function analysis (DFA) approach is adopted for the optimisation process, and regression analysis is executed for the mathematical modelling. Also, criteria importance through inter criteria (CRITIC) approach was implemented to evaluate the weightage of responses first before the DFA application. The analysis of variance reveals that all the factors taken into the existent are significantly affecting the outcomes, and nanoparticles percentage being the most one. The percentage increase of nanoparticles in oil leads to better surface conditions, as depicted by the result. The ideal settings for the optimisation of responses undertaken may be expressed as follows: 600 rpm cutting speed, 0.1 mm of depth and 2% nanoparticle percentage in MQL. The mathematical modelling confirms that first-order linear models are sufficient for both the responses under the given set of design of experiments.

An experiment was conducted to determine the contribution of Azospirillum brasilenseand vermicompost to improving plant growth characteristics, yield variables, physical characteristics and maintaining sustainable agriculture in custard apple cultivar “Balanagar” during 2018–19 and 2019–20 at the Fruit Instructional Farm, Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Jhalawar, India. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with 16 Azospirillum brasilenseand vermicompost treatments. During the first weeks of July 2018 and July 2019, the 16 various Azospirillumand vermicompost treatment combinations were administered to the soil canopy and rhizosphere of black vertisols in custard apple cultivar (cv.) “Balanagar” plants. Among the various treatments, the treatment T10, which consisted of (Azospirillum (AZS) @ 50 g + Vermicompost (V.C.) @ 10 kg/plant) was found to be significantly superior to all other treatment combinations in terms of promoting plant height (3.46 m), plant spread E–W (2.45 m), plant spread N–S (2.40 m), number of leaves/shoot (19.83), chlorophyll content (2.32 mg/g), number of female flowers/branch (197.50), fruit set (47.08%), number of fruits/plant (92.83), yield/plant (18.60 kg), yield/ha (74.39 q), fruit weight (199.77 g), pulp weight (99.21 g), pulp (49.69%), pulp texture (creamy), horizontal fruit diameter (87.65 mm) and vertical fruit diameter (92.59 mm), the majority of plant growth characteristics, including yield variables and physical characteristics of custard apple cultivar “Balanagar”.

In this work, a transverse spin-dependent shift of the horizontal photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) at a fixed wavelength of 830 nm is simulated and demonstrated for cortisol detection. A five-layer (Ge20Ga5Sb10S65 chalcogenide or BK7 prism, silver, gold, graphene, and cortisol medium) plasmonic spin Hall effect sensor is proposed with the consideration of chemical potential and applied electrical voltage variations. The analysis is started with the effect of induced voltage (1–4 V) on the chemical potential of graphene which in turn considerably responsible for the variation in the performance parameters. Initially, for each value of induced voltage and for a given gold layer thickness of 3 nm, the silver layer thickness is optimized with a step of 0.1 nm for minimum reflectance in simulations. Considering the increase in the refractive index (RI) of the cortisol solution from 1.3297 to 1.33 (concentration dependent) with a fixed chemical potential of graphene as 0.8967 eV, calculated values of limit-of-detection (LOD) and RI resolution are 0.0015 fg/mL and $1.2516\times 10^{-12}$ RIU, respectively. The obtained values of performance parameters (LOD and resolution) are better than for the case when the spin Hall effect is not applied (0.002354 ng/mL and $1.9619\times 10^{-6}$ RIU).

Design thinking has been largely acknowledged as a technical advancement in business circles in terms of technology, innovation, creativity, and flexibility. Design techniques are becoming more and more popular among organizational executives as a cure-all for uncertainty and upheaval, so it is important to take environmental dynamism into account. However, with few exceptions, design thinking studies are most entrenched in considering various organization factors rather than environmental and control systems. The purpose of the present article is to shed insights into the relationship between design thinking and management control systems under the condition of a dynamic setting. Moreover, the article also presents design thinking as a strategic innovation concept that links to and works to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Further, we develop the framework that hypothesized design thinking relationship to diagnostic and interactive control systems (ICSs) in the domain of environmental dynamism and competitive advantage. A survey was conducted on research and development intensive firms varying from manufacturing to service. The results of this article revealed that design thinking is strongly linked with ICSs and sustainable competitive advantage. The present article suggests an imperative way toward integration of the concept of design thinking in businesses while considering environmental factors, given the growing scholarly interest in both design thinking and management control systems. The article also offers fruitful research directions and analyzes the ramifications of such directions for theory and practice.

This article proposes a microwave sensor for breast phantom analysis and tumor detection. The sensor is developed on the small-size ( $25\times25$ mm2) low-cost RT/duroid 5880 substrate. The structure of the proposed sensor is made up of four sensory elements. The sensor performance is experimentally validated by the evaluation of the S-parameters and radiation patterns. The proposed sensor has a 2–30-GHz-wide operating bandwidth, lower mutual coupling ( ${S} _{{21}} \le -30$ dB) between the elements, and offered a desirable directional radiation pattern. Four types of breast phantoms are mimicked: normal phantom, phantom with 3-, 5-, and 10-mm tumor. Developed phantoms have experimented with the proposed sensor and tumor identification is carried out. Measurement of the S-parameters, i.e., reflection coefficients ( ${S} _{{11}}$ , ${S} _{{22}}$ , ${S} _{{33}}$ , ${S} _{{44}}$ ) and mutual coupling coefficient ( ${S} _{{21}}$ , ${S} _{{31}}$ , ${S} _{{41}}$ ) with and without tumor phantom is executed. A large difference in the peak value of the S-parameters results for normal and malignant phantoms is observed over the 2–20-GHz frequency range. Reflection results from data are further processed through principal component analysis (PCA) to better visualize the difference between normal and malignant phantoms. Obtained PCA results exhibited a significant difference between normal and malignant phantoms. Specific absorption rate (SAR) analysis is also performed to separate normal and malignant phantoms. The proposed approach is a noninvasive, low-cost modality and can analyze the phantoms for tumor detection.

A static timing analysis (STA) methodology based on an effective current source model (ECSM) is proposed for the first time for estimating the aging-aware path-level timing performance and its impact on the logical effort of a CMOS inverter for digital timing closure in pre-stress and post-stress conditions. Degradation in the threshold voltage $(V_{\mathrm{ th}})$ of PMOS occurs due to temporal variability mechanisms (aging), such as negative bias temperature instability, resulting in delay degradation of a standard cell. Therefore, we proposed a technique to make the STA process aware of this degradation by developing device-level variation aware (with aging) timing models of CMOS inverters to represent threshold-crossing points (TCPs) in an ECSM.libs file as a function of stress time ( $t$ ). A device-level approach for $V_{\mathrm{ th}}$ degradation into different aging conditions, such as static and dynamic, is developed for a given process design kit to update TCPs in a (.libs) file as a function of $t$ . A python-based tool is being developed to estimate the path-level timing performance of digital circuits in pre- and post-stress conditions. Again, we developed a technique for relating the inverter’s logical effort with $t$ to resize a near-critical path in pre-stress conditions for achieving digital timing closure in pre- and post-stress conditions. The verification and validation of the proposed model with different benchmark circuits are performed using a parasitic extracted netlist in the Eldo SPICE environment with the 65-nm CMOS process technology. Finally, our model reduces the number of SPICE/Stress simulations by 98.13% compared to the previously reported only simulation-based techniques.

[Display omitted] • First example of heterogeneously catalyzed carbonylative synthesis of bis(indolyl)methanes from aryl iodides. • Air/moisture stable, easy to handle and recyclable Pd-Au@PS catalyst. • Oxalic acid as green, economic and readily available CO, H 2 source as well as acid catalyst. • Green solvent (PEG-200) favored, phosphine ligand free carbonylative approach. • Very good yields (upto 91%), appreciable functional group tolerance. • Easy accessibility and affordability to starting materials. Herein, first example of heterogeneously catalyzed carbonylative synthesis of bis(indolyl)methanes from aryl iodides in one-pot and single-step manner has been reported. The reaction was best catalyzed by polystyrene supported bimetallic Pd-Au (Pd-Au@PS) nanoparticles (NPs) in comparison to various supported monometallic Pd-catalysts. The key feature of this protocol involves the application of oxalic acid as economic, solid, and safe multi-functional reagent which acts as a CO, H 2 source as well as acid co-catalyst with PEG-200 as green solvent reaction medium for delivering moderate to excellent yields of the desired products, bis(indolyl)methanes (BIMs). The developed protocol is additive, phosphine ligand-free under air/moisture stable recyclable catalyst bearing easy accessibility/affordability to starting materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractFall panicum is the most prevalent and problematic weed in rice in Florida. Outdoor studies were conducted in 2021 to determine the effect of flooding on fall panicum growth and its ability to produce and develop panicles. Fall panicum at the two- to four-leaf and four- to six-leaf stages of development were flooded in stock tanks maintained at flooding depths of 0, 10, 15, 20, and 30 cm for 56 d. Plant height, number of tillers and leaves, leaf area, shoot biomass, root biomass, and panicle branches for both fall panicum leaf stages of development decreased with increasing flooding depth. Fall panicum flooded at the two- to four-leaf stage survived flood depth of 15 cm, whereas plants flooded at the four- to six-leaf stage survived and emerged from a flood depth of up to 20 cm. The 10-cm flood depth resulted in the tallest plants with more leaves, tillers, and leaf area for both growth stages. The probability of fall panicum survival and ability to produce panicles decreased as flood depth increased. Flood depth required for 50% survival for four- to six-leaf-stage plants was estimated to occur at 14 cm, whereas that for plants at the two- to four-leaf stage occurred at 12 cm. The flood depth required to reduce panicle branch production by 50% was estimated to be 15 and 20 cm for two- to four-leaf, and four- to six-leaf-stage plants, respectively. These results show that flooding >10 cm is required to significantly reduce fall panicum survival and ability to produce panicles. Since flood level in rice is usually maintained at an average of 10 cm, chemical weed control will be important to supplement flooding for effective control of fall panicum in rice.