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Chromium doped Zinc oxide (Zn0.96Cr0.04O), Chromium and Copper co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (Zn0.96Cr0.04Cu0.02O & Zn0.96Cr0.04Cu0.04O) successfully synthesized by chemical precipitation method at 500°C. The crystalline structure, surface morphology and optical properties of the prepared Cr/ZnO and Cr/Cu/ZnO nanoparticles were examined as a function of doping substance and the prepared samples were characterized using XRD, SEM, EDS and UV-Vis spectroscopy analysis. The synthesized nanoparticles show hexagonal wurtzite structure, and the phase segregation takes place for Cu doping. Optical studies revealed that Cr doping increases the energy band gap while Cu incorporation results in decrease of the band gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undoped and Ferrous (Fe)-doped Cu2O thin films were deposited onto glass substrates using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. The variation in the concentration of Fe has significant impact on the final film properties, Fe doping with 5 wt% exhibited major property improvements compared with undoped and Fe doped films. The structural, optical, morphological, magnetic properties and atomic force microscope of the films were systematically investigated. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that all the films had good crystalline quality and the preferential orientation along (111) plane. Optical studies show that the transmittance and optical band-gap values are maximum (2.5 eV) for the Fe doping level of 5 wt%. The relative errors are calculated for crystallite size and optical energy band gap values. The photoluminescence study confirms the presence of various defects in the Cu2O matrix. The Fourier transform infrared results confirmed the presence of expected compounds in the samples. The field emission-scanning electron microscope images indicate that there is a gradual decrease in the grain-size with increase in the Fe doping level and a flower-like structure is obtained in the maximum doping level of Fe. The high resolution transition electron microscope reveals single-crystal nature. Magnetic measurements showed that undoped Cu2O films exhibit diamagnetic behavior and at the maximum (5 wt%) Fe doping level, the films behave as anti-ferromagnetic material. The atomic force microscope reveals that the smoothness of the film surface increases at the maximum doping of Fe concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the preparation, characterization and experimental investigation of polyamide 6 (PA6) reinforced with alumina oxide (AlO) and graphite composites. The test specimens were prepared in an injection-moulding machine by varying the weight proportions of AlO and graphite particles blended with PA6. The tribological properties of the composites were observed by using pin-on-disc wear test rig under dry sliding conditions. The worn surfaces of the composites were examined using scanning electron microscope. The addition of AlO and graphite significantly enhanced the tribological properties of PA6. The PA6 containing 30 wt% AlO and 20 wt% graphite revealed the best tribological behaviours due to the stronger interfacial bonding characteristics with improved wear resistance. Further, the thermal stability of AlO and graphite particles was studied through thermogravimetric analysis test. It was also found that further addition of AlO and graphite in PA6 had no significant improvement in wear resistance, the co-efficient of friction and heat generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present investigation, ZnMgAlO nanoparticles were prepared by soft chemical method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Fourier Transformation Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used for the characterization of the prepared nanoparticles. The structure of ZnMgAlO was confirmed through powder XRD technique as hexagonal wurtzite. The surface morphology was analyzed from SEM images. The size of sample (S4) was estimated 11 nm using scherrer formula. When the concentration of Aluminum was increased, the rod like nano formation was observed. The presence of various functional groups in FT-IR spectra was established the formulation of ZnMgAlO nano particles. Antibacterial activity of all the prepared samples was tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi and Klebsiella.. The ZnMgAlO (S4) was emerged as a better antibacterial agent than the other samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examined the housing and feeding practices of farmers in western Tamil Nadu, India who grow native chickens for meat. Most farmers reared native chickens using the deep litter system. Majority of the farmers also practice multiple batch system. Most chickens were fed with layer starter crumble/mash and the drinking water source came from bore wells.

ZnO NPs of different surface morphologies are synthesized by different methods. These II-IV group metal oxide semiconductor photocatalysts are potentially explored photodegradation of Azo red dye in water. The structural and optical properties of synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed using XRD, SEM, UV and PL techniques. The results showed that the average particle size of the prepared nanoparticles was 15 nm - 20 nm. The photodegradation effects against azo red dye investigated by pure, PVP and Chitosan capped ZnO nanoparticles under ultra violet irradiation. The experimental results showed the azo red dye was degraded by 76% in 120 minutes when chitosan capped ZnO nanoparticles under ultra violet irradiation were used as removal catalyst, besides removal of colour. Synthesized chitosan capped ZnO nanoparticles exhibit outstanding photocatalytic activity under UV irradiation. A comparative study of photodegradation efficiency among pure ZnO, PVP caped ZnO and chitosan capped ZnO also performed. Metal oxide Semiconductor photocatalysis frequently leads to partial or complete mineralization of organic contaminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid expansion in urban areas has engendered a superfluity of municipal solid waste (MSW) stemming from contemporary civilization, encompassing commercial sectors and human undertakings. Kerbside waste, a type of MSW, has the potential for recycling and reuse at the end of its first life cycle, but is often limited to a linear cycle. This study aimed to assess the life cycle costs of different separation and recycling methods for handling kerbside waste. A new life cycle cost model, drawing from the circular economy's value retention process (VRP) model, has been created and applied to assess the continuous recycling of kerbside glass. The study investigates two key separation techniques, kerbside recycling mixed bin recycling (KRMB) kerbside glass recycling separate bin (KGRSB) and analyses their impact on the life cycle cost of the recycling process. Additionally, the research explores two approaches of recycling and downcycling: closed-loop recycling, which pertains to the recycling of glass containers, and open-looped recycling, which involves the use of recycled glass in asphalt. The results showed when use annually collected waste as the functional unit, the KRMB model incurred lower costs compared to the KGRSB model due to its lower production output. However, when evaluated over a 1-ton production of glass container and asphalt, the KGRSB method demonstrated superior cost performance with a 40-50% reduction compared to the KRMB method. The open-loop recycling method (asphalt) incurred a higher cost compared to the closed-loop recycling method due to its larger production volume over a 21-year period., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Surface crack detection is an integral part of infrastructure health surveys. This work presents a transformative shift towards rapid and reliable data collection capabilities, dramatically reducing the time spent on inspecting infrastructures. Two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were deployed, enabling the capturing of images simultaneously for efficient coverage of the structure. The suggested drone hardware is especially suitable for the inspection of infrastructure with confined spaces that UAVs with a broader footprint are incapable of accessing due to a lack of safe access or positioning data. The collected image data were analyzed using a binary classification convolutional neural network (CNN), effectively filtering out images containing cracks. A comparison of state-of-the-art CNN architectures against a novel CNN layout "CrackClassCNN" was investigated to obtain the optimal layout for classification. A Segment Anything Model (SAM) was employed to segment defect areas, and its performance was benchmarked against manually annotated images. The suggested "CrackClassCNN" achieved an accuracy rate of 95.02%, and the SAM segmentation process yielded a mean Intersection over Union (IoU) score of 0.778 and an F1 score of 0.735. It was concluded that the selected UAV platform, the communication network, and the suggested processing techniques were highly effective in surface crack detection.

This study assesses the financial viability and environmental evaluation of Photovoltaic (PV) panels from the perspective of the recent economic recession due to the Russia-Ukraine war. The financial viability of PV installation is calculated based on the estimated price, solar rebates, feed-in tariff, energy supply cost, and other evaluation parameters available at the assessment time. This calculation implicitly assumes variable discount rates (4%, 7%, and 12%) to show how the future will unfold and its correlations with design parameters. Details of economic appraisal integrating current inflation, rebates, and incentives of solar systems have been analyzed for the first time in this study. Financial indicators reveal the advantages of installing a grid-connected solar system (SS) over a solar battery storage system (SSWB). Compared to other installation systems, the lowest payback (PB) and highest internal rate of return (IRR) are observed for a 7 kW grid-connected solar system. Relative uncertainties of solar installation systems represent the necessity of government subsidies (r = -0.602) for solar storage batteries. LCA signifies the energy-intensive process of manufacturing metallurgical-grade (MG) silicon is the primary cause of significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and cumulative energy demand (CED) for PV panels. A potential amount of metal and fossil fuels is depleted for interconnective components of solar installation systems. Amorphous solar panels exhibit lower impacts than polycrystalline, but further upgradation in service life is required to become cost-effective and cope with current inflation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The ongoing COVID-19 disease significantly affects not only human health, it also affects the wealth of country' economy and everyday routine of human life. To control the spread of the virus, face mask is used as primary personal protective equipment (PPE). Thus, the production and usage of face masks significantly increase as the COVID-19 pandemic still escalating. Further, most of these masks contain plastics or other derivatives of plastics. Therefore, this extensive usage of face masks generates million tons of plastic wastes to the environments in a short span of time. This study aims to investigate the environmental impact induced by face mask wastes and sustainable solution to reduce this waste. An online survey was carried out to identify the types of face mask and number of masks used per week by an individual from 1033 people. Based on this survey and available literature, this study quantifies the amount of plastics waste generated by face masks. However, this survey was limited with certain ages, country and durations (July-August 2020). Thus, the prediction of plastic waste generation, only provide fundamental knowledge about the mask wastes. Results revealed that there is a huge plastic waste remained in land and marine environment in the form of mask waste, which will contribute to micro-plastic pollution. Therefore, this paper also highlights the sustainable approach to the mask production by integrating the use of natural plant fiber in the woven face mask technology to reduce the plastic waste induced by masks. Further, upcycling the mask waste and producing construction materials also discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article., (© 2021 The Authors.)

Structural evaluation of masonry against dynamic seismic actions invariably requires appropriate cyclic compression constitutive models. However, not many research studies have been dedicated to date to investigate the cyclic compression behaviour of masonry. Therefore, series of experimental investigation followed by analytical model verification were employed in this research to better understand the cyclic compression characteristics of masonry. Twelve masonry wallettes were experimentally tested under cyclic compression loading with different unit-to-mortar assemblies, which are commonly found in masonry structures. The experimental results indicated that the cyclic compression behaviour is greatly influenced by the masonry compressive strength and deformation properties. Thereafter, the ability of five literature analytical models to predict the masonry structural response under cyclic compression loading was investigated. The advantages and limitations of these models are presented and discussed, and the most appropriate analytical model to define the cyclic compression characteristics of masonry has been evaluated and reported. The suggested analytical model is shown to predict the cyclic compression characteristics of different masonry assemblies such as the envelop response, the stiffness degradation, the plastic strain history of the unloading and reloading stages.

Seven pairs of oat near-isogenic lines (NILs) (Kibite in Crop Sci 41:277-278, 2001) contrasting for the Dw6 dwarfing gene were used to test for correlation between tall/dwarf phenotype and polymorphic genotype using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and other molecular markers selected from the Kanota × Ogle (K×O) (Wight et al. in Genome 46:28-47, 2003) and Terra × Marion (De Koeyer et al. in Theor Appl Genet 108:1285-1298, 2004) recombination maps. This strategy located the Dw6/dw6 locus to a small chromosomal region on K×O linkage group (LG) KO33, near or at a putative RFLP locus aco245z. Aco245z and other tightly linked flanking markers have potential for use in marker-assisted selection (MAS), and PCR-based markers were developed from several of these. RFLP genotyping of the Dw6 NILs indicated that 13 of the 14 individual lines were homogeneously maternal or paternal for a large genomic region near Dw6/dw6, an unexpected result for NILs. The cDNA clone aco245 codes for a vacuolar proton ATPase subunit H, a potential candidate gene for Dw6. Vacuolar proton ATPase enzymes have a central role in plant growth and development and a mutation in subunit C is responsible for the det3 dwarfing mutation in Arabidopsis thaliana (Schumacher et al. in Genes Dev 13:3259-3270, 1999). Aco245 affords the potential of designing highly precise diagnostic markers for MAS for Dw6. The Dw6 NILs have potential utility to investigate the role of vacuolar proton ATPases in growth and development in plants.

Segregating F(3) families, derived from a cross between oat cultivar Swan and the putative single gene line PC68, were used to determine the association of seed storage protein loci and resistance gene analogues (RGAs) with the crown rust resistance gene Pc68. SDS-PAGE analysis detected three avenin loci, AveX, AveY, and AveZ, closely linked to Pc68. Their diagnostic alleles are linked in coupling to Pc68 and were also detected in three additional lines carrying Pc68. Another protein locus was linked in repulsion to Pc68. In complementary studies, three wheat RGA clones (W2, W4, and W10) detected restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) between homozygous resistant and homozygous susceptible F(3) DNA bulks. Four oat homologues of W2 were cloned and sequenced. RFLPs detected with two of them were mapped using F(3) and F(4) populations. Clone 18 detected a locus, Orga2, linked in repulsion to Pc68. Clone 22 detected several RFLPs including Orga1 (the closest locus to Pc68) and three RGA loci (Orga22-2, Orga22-3, and Orga22-4) loosely linked to Pc68. The diagnostic RFLPs linked in coupling to Pc68 were detected by clone 22 in three additional oat lines carrying Pc68 and have potential utility in investigating and improving crown rust resistance of oat.