33 research outputs found
Dasyproctus geethae Binoy & Girish Kumar 2021, sp. nov.
No full text<i>Dasyproctus geethae</i> Binoy & Girish Kumar, sp. nov. <p>(Figs 1–25)</p> <p>urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 414B390A-6289-47F6-B298-E80190F2EE14</p> <p> <b>Materials Examined:</b> Holotype ♀ India: Kerala, Kozhikode district, Elathur (11°20ʹ37ʺN 75°43ʹ6.74ʺE, 23m), 08.vii.2020, Coll. C. Binoy, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.14741. Paratypes: 2 ³, 2 ♀ (same locality as ho-lotype, all collected by C. Binoy). 1³, 03.viii.2020, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.14742; 1♀, 12.vii.2020, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.14743; 1♀, 21.viii.2020, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/ INV.14856; 1³, 01.ix.2020, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.14857.</p> <p> <b>Diagnosis</b>. The female of <i>Dasyproctus geethae</i> runs to <i>Dasyproctus pentheri</i> Leclercq, 1956 in the key to Asian and Oceanic <i>Dasyproctus</i> (Leclercq 2015) due to the overall appearance and texture of the body. It resembles the widespread <i>D. pentheri</i> in the punctation of head, mesosoma and metasoma; robustness of first metasomal tergum; conspicuous interocular carina dividing the frons, followed by a regular, concave and vaguely foveolate excavation and carina from one orbit to the other; maculation pattern on metasomal terga and well-imprinted supra-orbital fossa smaller than median ocellus. However, <i>D. geethae</i> <b>sp. nov.</b> differs from <i>D. pentheri</i> in having: clypeus with two well produced lobes apico-medially and pointed lateral process, no median indentations (in <i>D. pentheri</i>, clypeus quadridentate with a median indentation formed by an overhanging prolongation of median carina); with macula of Gt 2 elongated and similar to macula of Gt 3 and Gt 4 (in <i>D. pentheri</i>, macula of Gt 2 is rounded and smaller than maculae of Gt 3 –Gt 5); punctation on mesopleuron similar to that of the head, mesosoma and metasoma (in <i>D. pentheri</i>, punctation of mesopleuron is obsolete); POD almost equal to OOD (in <i>D. pentheri</i> POD is distinctly shorter than OOD); pronotum anterolaterally distinctly rugose with vertical wrinkles (in <i>D. pentheri</i>, pronotum has no large vertical wrinkles anterolaterally); Gt 1 with anterior third distinctly and conspicuously rugose (in <i>D. pentheri</i>, Gt 1 uniformly sculptured with widely separated pits and alutaceous interspaces); length of Gt 1 distinctly less than 2×, its greatest width, 1.4× Gt 2 (in <i>D. pentheri</i>, length of Gt 1 roughly 2× its greatest width, not greatly exceeding the length of Gt 2). In the key to males of <i>Dasyproctus</i> from Asia and Oceania (Leclercq 2015), the male of <i>D. geethae</i> <b>sp. nov.</b> runs to the couplet separating <i>D. pentheri</i> and <i>D. percarus</i> Leclercq. It resembles <i>D. pentheri</i> in having Gt 5 –Gt 6 with wide bands and punctation on head and mesosoma and a sturdy, short Gt 1. The male differs from <i>D. pentheri</i> in having pronotum with distinct rugae anterior to the collar (in <i>D. pentheri</i> pronotum without rugae or wrinkles anteriorly); Gt 2 finely punctured (in <i>D. pentheri</i> Gt 2 impunctate). The male of <i>D. geethae</i> <b>sp. nov.</b> resembles <i>D. percarus</i> in having Gt 2 punctate and pronotum with distinct rugae anterior to the collar. However, the new species differs in that: Gt 2 –Gt 6 maculated (in <i>D. percarus</i> all terga immaculate); Gt 1 short and sturdy (in <i>D. percarus</i> Gt 1 slenderer); punctation moderate on head and mesosoma (in <i>D. percarus</i> punctation on head and mesosoma is conspicuous and dense with reticulate interspaces).</p> <p> <b>Description</b>. Both male and female of <i>D. geethae</i> Binoy & Girish Kumar, <b>sp. nov.</b> are easily associated by the following characters: <i>Colour</i>. black with pronotal collar (except medial notch) and prepectus yellow, axilla and two almost contiguous spots on anterior half of scutellum yellow; metasomal terga with yellow maculae. <i>Head.</i> Mandible tridentate, with inner tooth smallest; clypeus markedly setose with surface concealed by thick silvery bristles; gena with moderate silvery white setae; POD almost equal to OOD; well imprinted supra-orbital furrow, almost circular, narrower than diameter of an ocellus (Figs 5 & 19); head, mesosoma and metasoma uniformly punctate with matt interspaces and presence of a distinct, concave excavated and foveolate interocular furrow (Figs 3 & 17); frons and vertex along occiput with scattered erect dirty white setae arising from pits. <i>Mesosoma.</i> Mesosoma with dirty white scattered pubescence; propodeum with longer white setae; metasoma setose with dirty white setae; mesopleuron and mesosternum with distinct setigerous punctures (Figs 8 & 15). <i>Metasoma.</i> Gt 1 distinctly rugose anteriorly (Figs 11 & 20).</p> <p> <b>FEMALE.</b> Holotype ♀ (Figs 1–14, 24). Body length 9.90 mm; fore wing 6.93 mm.</p> <p> <i>Colour</i>. Body matt black with the following variously coloured parts. Scape and pedicel bright yellow, mandible medio-basally pale yellowish brown, apically and ventrally black, labial palpus pale yellowish brown. Pronotal collar, pronotal lobe, and an oblique patch beneath, fore and mid femora basally and apically yellow with median black patch, hind femur black with apical yellow spot, all tibiae externally yellow, internally brownish black, all basitarsi pale yellow, remaining tarsomeres dark brown, arolium black, tegula brownish yellow, veins deep brown, Gt 1 –Gt 4 maculate with macula on Gt 1 small, oval, rest longer, similar bright yellow patches laterally (Fig. 12); anterior 2/3 rds of Gt 5 completely bright yellow, remainder black; sterna black with posterior margins paler (Fig. 13).</p> <p> <i>Head</i>. As seen from above transverse, 2.01× as wide as long (Fig. 5); clypeus apico-medially produced into pair of distinct diverging lobes and pair of lateral pointed processes, median carina well defined on the lamina, almost reaching apical margin, obsolete at apex (Figs 4 & 24); antennal toruli almost touching the inner ocular margin but separated from one another, scapal basins moderately excavated, divided medially by longitudinal furrow (that meets dorsally the interocular foveolate furrow) separating it into separate setose compartments (Fig. 3); frons matt, with scattered well imprinted setaceous pits, fine longitudinal median furrow running from interocular furrow onto the median ocellus, fine remnant of the same along ocellar triangle beyond posterior ocelli, not reaching occiput; vertex similarly sculptured, slightly convex beyond ocellar triangle; occipital carina conspicuous, complete, clearly reaching hypostomal carina; POD 1.2× OOD (Fig. 5); scape with two carinae ventrally; relative lengths of antennal scape: pedicel: flagellomeres I to X (last) = 8.5: 4: 4: 3.2: 2.3: 1.9: 2.1: 2: 1.8: 1.5: 1.1: 3.6.</p> <p> <i>Mesosoma.</i> Pronotum anteriorly much lower than mesoscutum, with three conspicuous transverse carinae and several finer striae; mesoscutum and scutellum rather matt, with well-impressed punctures; lateral mesoscutal margins carinate, posterior margin finely sinuate; apical margin of scutellum coarsely foveolate; metanotum rugose with coarse longitudinal rugae, laterally deeply excavated (Fig. 6); hind femur medially enlarged, as wide as the basal width of Gt 1; hind tibia with five stout brown thorny serrations (six thorny serrations in <i>D. pentheri</i> (Leclercq 1956)) (Fig. 8); fore wing moderately setose, with brown tinge (Fig. 9); propodeal enclosure with fine rugae, mostly longitudinal but superficial and evanescent on more granulose background; propodeum outside enclosure shiny with several incomplete longitudinal carinae arising from anterior margin, surface finely pitted anteriorly, posteriorly finely rugose, densely setose, submedian carina converging posteriorly onto petiolar sulcus (Fig. 10).</p> <p> <i>Metasoma.</i> Subsessile with Gt 1 robust; all terga matt black with bright yellow maculae; Gt 1 1.26× as long as wide, anterior third distinctly rugose, remainder alutaceous with well-impressed setigerous pits (Fig. 11); pygidial plate present, medially excavated, pale yellowish brown with thick yellow bristles (Fig. 14).</p> <p> <b>MALE.</b> Paratype ³ (Figs 1–14, 24). Body size 5.47 mm; fore wing 3.46 mm.</p> <p> <i>Colour</i>. Body matt black with the following colour pattern: scape yellow with dorso-basal brown streak, extending to middle of scape; pedicel brown; tegulae brown; scapal basin rugose-reticulate with lesser setosity and smaller bristles; mandible entirely brownish black; hind tibia liver brown with dorso-medial yellow streak; Gt 1 immaculate; Gt 2 –Gt 4 with a maculation on lateral sides; Gt 5 –Gt 6 with yellow band medially.</p> <p> <i>Head</i>. As seen from above transverse, 1.57× as wide as long (Fig. 19); well imprinted punctation, pits wider than that in females; POD 1.05× OOD; antennae slender with flagellomeres ventrally keeled; clypeus medially produced, weakly bilobed (Figs 18 & 25); conspicuous and deep punctures on head; scapal basins moderately excavated, not divided as in female; relative lengths of antennal scape: pedicel: flagellomeres I to XI (last) = 5.5: 0.9: 1.4: 1.2: 1.2: 1.0: 0.9: 0.8: 0.8: 0.8: 0.7: 1.5.</p> <p> <i>Mesosoma.</i> Pronotum anteriorly much lower than mesoscutum, no conspicuous carinae anteriorly; pronotal collar medially notched, with conspicuous anterior and posterior bordering carinae, lateral corners slightly angulate (Figs 16 & 19); pronoto-mesoscutal and mesoscuto-scutellar grooves smooth; posterior margin of mesoscutum sinuate; axillae small; metanotum with irregular areolate rugae; propodeum smooth with radiating several longitudinal and cross rugae; hind femur almost as wide as the basal width of Gt 1; propodeal enclosure with fine rugae, mostly longitudinal (Fig. 20).</p> <p> <i>Metasoma.</i> Subsessile with Gt 1 robust, 1.83× as long as wide (Figs 20 & 21); all terga matt black with small bright yellow maculae on Gt 2 –Gt 6; sterna black with posterior margins paler; Gt 2 with anterior smooth band, remain-der matt with impressed pits (Fig. 21); epipygium small, posteriorly pitted (Fig. 22); gonostyli with appressed and a pair of long spines apically (Fig. 23).</p> <p> <b>Prey.</b> Adult Diptera belonging to the families Dolichopodidae (Sciapodinae, <i>Condylostylus</i> sp.) (Fig. 50), Hybotidae (Hybotinae, <i>Syneches</i> sp.) (Fig. 51), Lauxaniidae (Homoneurinae, <i>Homoneura</i> sp.) (Fig. 52), and Stratiomyidae (Sarginae, <i>Microchrysa</i> sp.) (Fig. 53).</p> <p> <b>Etymology.</b> The species is named after first author’s mother, Mrs. Geetha Rajeevan, who helped in the collection of the type specimen and also encouraged and helped the first author during the study of the developmental stages of the new species.</p>Published as part of <i>Binoy, C., Kumar, P. Girish & Santhosh, S., 2021, A new species of square-headed wasp Dasyproctus Lepeletier & Brullé (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae: Crabronini) from India, with notes on its biology, pp. 223-234 in Zootaxa 4920 (2)</i> on pages 224-227, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4920.2.4, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/4475185">http://zenodo.org/record/4475185</a>
Evolution of Structure in Solid-State Microcellular and Nanocellular Polyetherimide (PEI) Foams as a Function of Carbon Dioxide Concentration
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025Evolution of Structures in PEI-CO2 System This study systematically investigates the evolution of structures in solid-state Polyetherimide (PEI) foams as a function of CO2 concentration across a saturation pressure range of 0.5 to 5.5 MPa at room temperature. The PEI-CO2 system produces a microcellular structure between the saturation pressure range of 0.5 (2.2 wt.% CO2) to 3 MPa (8 wt.% CO2), with cell sizes ranging from 1 to 5 μm. A rapid transition from a microcellular to a nanocellular (cell size ~ 10 nm) structure is observed between 3 and 3.5 MPa (10 wt.% CO2), which is unique to the PEI-CO2 system. The PEI-CO2 system produces a nanocellular structure between the saturation pressure range of 3.5 to 5.5 MPa (12.4 wt.% CO2) with average cell sizes ranging from 20 to 130 nm. At 5.5 MPa, the foams exhibit a uniform nanocellular structure with an average cell size consistently around 20 nm across various foaming temperatures. A probabilistic model based on cell nucleation density is presented to predict the size distributions of the critical radius of cell nuclei based on the Laplace Equation. The model explains the mechanism of the structural transition from microcellular to nanocellular through progressive activation of smaller flaws by increasing saturation pressure. Microcellular PEI foams exhibit a unique cellular structure, wherein secondary nanopores, ranging in size from 10 to 80 nm, develop on the cell walls of the primary microcells. This study experimentally characterizes the evolution of the secondary nanoporous structure as a function of primary cell expansion. The study comprises two parts: In Part I, the foaming temperature was varied independently at saturation pressures of 0.5 MPa, 2.5 MPa, and 3.3 MPa. In Part II, the foaming time was varied independently at different foaming temperatures under a saturation pressure of 1 MPa. The experimental results demonstrate that the growth of the primary cells directly influences the growth of the secondary nanopores. A modified classical nucleation theory framework based on strain energy due to primary cell expansion is presented to explain that the underlying nucleation mechanism of secondary nanopores is a coupled effect of polymer crazing and foaming. Investigating the Effect of Cell Size on the Toughness of PEI Foams This research is a collaborative effort involving Microcellular Plastics Lab, Meza Research Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Multiscale Analysis of Materials & Structures (MAMS) Lab in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The title of the project is "Investigating Fundamental Toughness Mechanisms in Nanocellular Foams," which was funded by the National Science Foundation. The PI of the project is Dr. Lucas Meza from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Vipin Kumar and Dr. Marco Salviato are the co-PIs from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, respectively. This investigation was conducted in collaboration with Kush Dwivedi, a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering. Complete details of all the tensile and fracture experiments, along with numerical simulations, are to be provided in Kush Dwivedi's Ph.D. dissertation.
The author contributed to the development of process space to fabricate microcellular and nanocellular foams, the fabrication of foam specimens for mechanical tests, the preparation of mechanical test specimens, the SEM characterization of foams before mechanical testing, and the SEM characterization of fracture surfaces. Process space maps consisting of relative densities at different foaming temperatures were established for microcellular and nanocellular PEI foams. Process conditions were selected from the process space maps to fabricate microcellular PEI foams with cell sizes ranging from 3 to 5 μm and nanocellular PEI foams with cell sizes ranging from 15 to 40 nm. The relative densities of the foams ranged from 0.4 to 0.8. Uniaxial tensile and fracture tests were performed to investigate the effect of cell size on fracture toughness. Tensile behavior was characterized using true stress–strain curves, while fracture behavior was characterized using load–CMOD (Crack Mouth Opening Displacement) curves. True strain and CMOD measurements were obtained using Digital Image Correlation (DIC). In general, nanocellular foams demonstrated significantly higher toughness than microcellular foams at equivalent relative densities. These findings contradict the classical scaling law that predicts a reduction in fracture toughness with decreasing cell size. Notably, nanocellular foams with a relative density of 0.8 exhibited fracture toughness comparable to that of unprocessed PEI. Post-test fracture surface analysis was conducted using SEM. Regions of stable crack propagation exhibited cell wall stretching, indicative of ductile failure. Conversely, unstable crack propagation regions exhibited flat fracture surfaces, characteristic of brittle failure. Overall, nanocellular foams exhibited larger regions of stable crack growth with cell wall stretching. This indicates plastic deformation occurring locally at the nanoscale level. Therefore, ductility at the nanoscale level leads to toughness enhancement, which is the underlying reason for the disruptive fracture behavior of the nanocellular foams. Advanced Methods to Produce Skinless Solid-State Foams Previous studies have shown that nanocellular PEI foams have an open-celled porous structure. However, access to these porous structures is limited by the presence of the solid skin layer. A novel plasma treatment-based solid-state process was developed in collaboration with Ankush Nandi (Ph.D. student, ME) from the Vashisth Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering to produce skinless foams. The author contributed to designing, executing the experiments, and conducting SEM analysis. The author and Ankush Nandi contributed to tuning the plasma system parameters to achieve solid-state foaming. This process involves plasma treatment of CO₂-saturated polymer sheets (with thicknesses ranging from 0.5 to 1.6 mm) using a commercially available low-temperature air plasma system. The resulting foams exhibit a porous surface on the plasma-treated side, with a gradient foam structure extending into the cross-section. Skinless microcellular foams were successfully fabricated in the PC–CO₂ system at saturation pressures of 1 MPa and 5 MPa. Additionally, skinless nanocellular foams with an average cell size of 90 nm were produced in the PEI–CO₂ system. Selective foaming was achieved on the 15 μm-thick skin of a prefabricated open-cell porous nanocellular PEI sheet by partially re-saturating the skin with CO2 and subsequently treating it with plasma. The SEM images revealed pores within the skin region and on the treated surface. The acetone-based dye penetration test confirmed that the treated surface is permeable, and the skin is now porous and interconnected with the core. Thus, we successfully demonstrated a new technique to selectively make the solid skin porous, thereby enabling a new way to access the porous structure at the core. Therefore, the plasma treatment-based solid-state foaming process is a promising method for producing skinless solid-state foams to access the core
The effective use of virtualization for selection of data centers in a cloud computing environment
No full text
DNB Otorhinolaryngology final Paper 1 Old question paper 2021 to 2011.pdf
No full textDNB Otorhinolaryngology Final year Paper 1 Previous year question paper of years 2021 to 22016. Author NATIONAL board of Examination </p
Scientometrics Analysis of Quantum Computing Literature During 2011-2017
No full textThis study analyses the research output in Quantum Computing, which the trend in the development of quantum computers which are promising than classical computers. The data for this study was downloaded from Web of Science (WoS) database for the period 2011-2017. A total of 10,551 records were yielded for the period of seven years. The growth of literature, the degree of collaboration, prolific authors, journal distribution, were discussed in this study. The average degree of collaboration was 0.875. Peter A. John was the most prolific author with 46 publications to his credit whereas, Muthu S secured the second position. A total of 1235 journals were preferred by the authors to publish their research results on Quantum Computing in which Physical Review B occupied the first position with 610 records in its collection
Window Based Input Vector Monitoring Concurrent BIST Using SRAM Cells with Diagnostic Data Compression
No full textAbstractWindow based Input vector monitoring concurrent built-in self test (BIST) schemes perform testing during the normal operation of the circuit without the requirement to set the circuit offline to perform the test. It is evaluated based on the hardware overhead and the concurrent test latency (CTL). This thesis makes an attempt using novel input vector monitoring concurrent BIST scheme, which is based on the idea of monitoring a set of vectors called windows, and the use of a static-RAM like structure. To detect Static Faults in Random Access Memories, proposed a BIST architecture with the capability of hamming syndrome compression. To reduce the diagnostic data volume, a new idea of March element based (MEB)compression is proposed in this BIST Architecture. The data to be diagnosed in a RAM tested with a March test can be efficiently compressed by the MEB compression scheme. The scheme with SRAM cells is shown to perform the detection of error, error location and the error bit position in that location successfully. The software simulation is carried out in ModelSim SE PLUS 6.2b and Xilinx 14.2i design suite. FPGA implementation is done in Xilinx Spartan 3E kit and the output is verified
