Vignana Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad is a UGC Auotonmous Engineering College affiliated to JNTUH, Hyderabad offering engineering and MBA programmes is located in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 2004 by Dr. N. Goutham Rao, Dr G. Manohar Reddy and Dr. K.K.V. Sharma. The college is situated at Ghatkesar. It has an annual intake of over 1400 students..
The increasing environmental impact of ordinary Portland cement production and natural aggregate depletion has accelerated the development of sustainable concrete alternatives. This study presents the development of self-compacting alkali-activated concrete (SCAAC) incorporating rice husk ash (RHA) as a supplementary binder and engineered fly ash based artificial coarse aggregate (NACA) produced from hardened fly ash as a partial replacement of natural coarse aggregate. A comprehensive experimental program was conducted to evaluate fresh properties, non-destructive characteristics, mechanical performance, durability behaviour, and environmental sustainability. RHA replacement up to 15% improved particle packing and reaction efficiency, while NACA replacement enhanced performance up to an optimum level of 70%. The optimum mix (F35R15N70) achieved a 28-day compressive strength of 66.03 MPa, splitting tensile strength of 6.02 MPa, flexural strength of 8.72 MPa, and impact energy of 19.8 kN-m, along with a high ultrasonic pulse velocity of 4776 m/s. Durability studies demonstrated reduced water absorption (2.55%), lower sorptivity, and improved resistance to acid and sulphate attack, with lower mass loss and higher residual strength compared to the control mix. Environmental assessment revealed a reduction in embodied energy (EE) from 4152 to 4055 MJ/m 3 and a decrease in global warming potential (GWP) from 620.2 to 618.1 kgCO 2 e/m 3 . Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was successfully modelled and optimized the combined effects of RHA and NACA, identifying an optimum mix that balances fresh performance, mechanical strength, durability, and environmental efficiency. The results confirm the feasibility of utilizing agricultural waste and engineered artificial aggregates to produce high-performance and sustainable SCAAC.
Mixed metal oxides are emerging materials in the gas-sensing industry because of their superior gas-sensing characteristics. ZnO-based ternary mixed-metal oxide nanocomposites were sprayed on glass substrates using the spray pyrolysis method with optimized deposition conditions by changing NiO and CuO molar concentrations. Microstructural, topographical, and chemical studies of synthesised thin films were conducted using XRD, Raman spectroscopy, TEM, FESEM, and XPS, respectively. The XRD studies showed that ZnO is hexagonal, NiO particles are cubic, and CuO has monoclinic structures. Using the Scherrer formula, the crystallite sizes of the nanocomposites were calculated and found to be in the range of 8 nm–10 nm. FESEM results indicate that the synthesised films show a uniform distribution of particles with a good porous nature. Raman spectroscopy and TEM results agree with the studies of XRD. XPS analysis also confirms the formation of ZnO-NiO-CuO composites. Using a static method, gas sensing studies were conducted towards different ammonia concentrations, starting from 5 ppm to 20 ppm, at room temperature. A ternary composite sprayed with a molar concentration of 50 wt% ZnO – 30 wt% NiO- 20 wt% CuO showed superior gas sensing properties compared to other samples with response and recovery times of 59 s and 66 s, respectively, towards 5 ppm of ammonia at room temperature due to uniformly distributed spherical nanoparticles with a highly porous and rough surface made it strong interparticle interactions, making it ideal for ammonia sensing applications.
The study proposes a high-fidel deep clinical imaging system to detect and classify Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFUs) with high precision and is a very important solution in the context of timely clinical intervention and early diagnosis of the ulcers. Using the DenseNet121 architecture, the model proposed can have strong feature extraction and excellent gradient flow, which will make it effectively differentiate among mild, moderate, and severe stages of ulcers. The system achieves an outstanding accuracy of 99% with a standardized DFU dataset and an optimised preprocessing pipeline which beats the performance of conventional CNNs, VGG16, and models based on autoencoders. Detailed analyses with the help of confusion matrices, ROC-AUC, Precision-Recall curves, and Grad-CAM visualizations prove the reliability and interpretability of the model used in real clinical cases. The system exhibits high generalization with changing wound textures, different lighting conditions and tissue mounting, thus making it appropriate to the real-world implementation. The article brings a clinically consistent, scalable, and highly accurate deep learning solution to diabetic wound assessment and promote patient outcomes.
Abstract This study is on structural, thermal, and electrical properties of the composite solid electrolyte system [NaNO 3 ] 85 :[Sr(NO 3 ) 2 ] 15 (host matrix) dispersed with nano particles of zirconium oxide, whose size is less than 100 nm. XRD and FTIR studies on host and dispersed systems explored the three-phase coexistence of the host matrix and ZrO 2 , supporting that the zirconia nanoparticles continued as independent dispersed phase within the host system. SEM pictures clearly showed the closely contacted different size grains of host with evenly dispersed ZrO 2 nanoparticles, a morphology that helps to understand higher ionic conductivity in dispersed zirconia systems because of the enhanced movements in the in the interfaces of the phases . DSC results showed only a slight shift in melting behavior upon ZrO 2 addition, indicating that the nanoparticles do not affect the intrinsic phase transitions of the host but enhance ionic conductivity mainly through interfacial effects rather than thermal modification. The influence of ZrO 2 concentration on ionic transport was investigated through DC conductivity measurements. A notable increase in conductivity was observed with increasing ZrO 2 content, reaching a maximum at 11 mol%, followed by a reduction at higher mole percent. The conductivity enhancement is attributed to the formation of space-charge regions at the nanoparticle-electrolyte interface, which provides additional mobile ions and facilitate their movement through the matrix.
