Muhammad Waseem Ashraf

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND BIOLOGICAL SCREENING OF VARIOUS N-SUBSTITUTED DERIVATIVES OF SULFONAMIDES

In the present study, a series of N-substituted sulfonamides have been synthesized. The reaction of benzene sulfonyl chloride (1) with O-anisidine (2) yielded N-(2-methoxyphenyl) benzenesulfonamide (3), which on bromination with bromine in the presence of acetic acid gave N-(4,5-dibromo-2-methoxyphenyl)benzenesulfonamide (6). The two products (3) and (6) further on treatment with alkyl halides/acyl halide in the presence of sodium hydride yielded thirteen different N-substituted sulfonamides. The compounds were characterized by IR, EIMS and 1H-NMR and screened against acetyl cholinesterase, butyryl cholinesterase and lipoxygenase enzymes. The results revealed that N-butyl-N-(4, 5-dibromo-2-methoxyphenyl)benzene sulfonamide (6d) and N-pentyl-N-(4,5-dibromo-2-methoxy phenyl)benzenesulfonamide (6e) exhibited good inhibitory potential against lipoxygenase.

Factors influencing the Cloud Computing adoption in Higher Education Institutions of Punjab, Pakistan

Cloud Computing is one of the most important trend and newest area in the field of information technology in which resources (e.g. CPU and storage) can be leased and released by customers through the Internet in an on-demand basis. The adoption of Cloud Computing in Education and developing countries is real an opportunity. Although Cloud computing has gained popularity in Pakistan especially in education and industry, but its impact in Pakistan is still unexplored especially in Higher Education Department. Already published work investigated in respect of factors influencing on adoption of cloud computing but very few investigated said analysis in developing countries. The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Punjab, Pakistan are still not focused to discover cloud adoption factors. In this study, we prepared cloud adoption model for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Punjab, a survey was carried out from 900 students all over Punjab. The survey was designed based upon literature and after discussion and opinions of academicians. In this paper, 34 hypothesis were developed that affect the cloud computing adoption in HEIs and tested by using powerful statistical analysis tools i.e. SPSS and SmartPLS. Statistical findings shows that 84.44% of students voted in the favor of cloud computing adoption in their colleges, while 99% supported Reduce Cost as most important factor in cloud adoption.

Robust nanogenerator based on vertically aligned ZnO nanorods using copper substrate

We report the growth of well-aligned ZnO nanorods that were successfully synthesized on copper (Cu) substrate by using a simple hydrothermal method at low temperature leading to a robust large area nanogenerator (NG) based on cost effective Cu electrode which could enable energy harvest from the walking motions. First, the seed layer of gold (Au) has been deposited by plasma sputtering. Then, the growth process of nanorods was carried out in a sealed chemical bath. The lengths of nanorods 5-6 µm were achieved. The longer and bigger nanorods produced a surface with larger contact area and higher roughness. The larger contact area improves the absorption rate of incident light and the rougher surface strengthens the scattering effect. The surfaces were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Then, Cu substrate was used for the development of high-output NG. Twenty-seven NGs were developed with maximum output voltage that exceeded to 1.8V and maximum output current that exceeded to 148 nA. The structural simulation of nanorod has also been performed in ANSYS. The Cu substrate-based NG provides a feasible technique for effectively converting mechanical energies to electrical energy from external force.

Fabrication and analysis of hollow microneedles and polymeric piezoelectric valveless micropump for transdermal drug-delivery system

This study presents the fabrication and analysis of silicon hollow microneedles and polymeric piezoelectric valveless micropump for microelectromechanical (MEMS)-based transdermal drug-delivery (TDD) system. The proposed TDD system consists of integrated control electronics and MEMS devices such as micropump, microneedles, blood pressure sensor and fluid flow sensor. Microneedles and micropump are the most essential and critical components of the proposed TDD system. Mechanical strength of microneedles has been investigated in structural analysis. Inductively coupled plasma technology has been used to fabricate high aspect ratio silicon hollow microneedles. The numerical analysis of micropump has been done by building three-dimensional electro-fluid–solid model. The experimental performance of fabricated polymeric piezoelectric valveless micropump with different pump chamber diameters has been characterised in terms of actuator deflection and flow rate at different operational parameters.

Simulation and fabrication of blood filtration system for patients with kidney diseases

Here the authors present the new design of blood filtration system for patients with kidney diseases. The proposed system consists of electronic module, drug delivery part, blood extraction and blood insertion part, blood filtration part, flow sensors and blood pressure sensor. Electronic module provides necessary functionalities and control to other components of system. Using inductively coupled plasma etching technology hollow silicon microneedles have been developed for drug delivery part. Nano porous aluminium membrane has been fabricated for blood filtration part. Ultra-sharp tip polymeric dual radii microneedles have been proposed for blood extraction and insertion part. Using ANSYS, strength modelling, microfluidic static and multifield analyses have been conducted. Water, ethanol and blood have been used as working fluid in microfluidic analysis to foresee the flow rate and viscosity effect through microneedles. Fluidic analysis shows that the proposed design is suitable for blood transport because two different lumens radii in microneedles are useful to avoid the clogging effect because of pressure difference in the lumen regions.

Comparative simulation of silicon, PDMS, PGA and PMMA actuator for piezoelectric micropump

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS), a technology of miniature devices comprises micropumps that are also crucial components in microfluidic analysis systems. This article provides comparative study that focused on numerical simulation of silicon, Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and Polyglycolic acid (PGA) actuator for piezoelectric micropump in order to determine which one is better. The aim and objectives of this study is to exhibit the usefulness of finite element analysis (FEA) and simulation techniques for selecting a better material for membrane attached on an actuator in a piezoelectric micropump. The piezoelectric micropump consists of actuator having piezoelectric disk coupled on membrane that can be made of different materials like silicon, PDMS, PMMA and PGA. The behavior of actuator like deflection and stress for different materials has been analyzed by applying voltage from 50 V to 150 V for varying frequency 50 Hz to 150 Hz. The maximum deflection at 150 V has been found for PGA that is 67 μm and minimum deflection comes out for silicon that is 16 μm while others PDMS has deflection of 25.2 μm and PMMA has deflection of 25.8 μm. This research work offers helpful information for piezoelectric micropump design.

Effect of Buckling Restrained Braces Locations on Seismic Responses of High-Rise RC Core Wall Buildings

Conventionally, a flexural plastic hinge is designed and detailed at the core wall base and coupling beams ends to control the seismic responses. This strategy is based on allowing the damage to be concentrated on main structural components. To avoid such damage, an alternative strategy using energy dissipating devices (EDDs) such as buckling restrained braces (BRBs) is being studied and implemented nowadays. In this study, effect of BRBs locations on forty- (40-) story high-rise RC core wall case study building has been studied in detail using Nonlinear Response History Analysis (NLRHA) for seven spectrally matched ground motions. BRBs have been installed at critical locations identified with respect to the maximum DBE elastic modal racking shear deformation demands and force (shear and moment) demands in three different options. The force, deformation, and energy demands on structural components are compared for conventional design and different options of BRBs. The comparison with conventional design shows that BRBs not only are effective for reducing shear force demand along wall height, bending moment demand at mid height, and deformation demands by 10%, 45%, and 45%, respectively, but significantly reduce the rotation and energy demands in the core wall by 90% and 250%, respectively.

Electrical power conservation in low power loads in textile industries

Efficient utilization of electrical power in industries is a critical problem of todays world because wastage of power increases the unit production cost. Electrical power conservation (EPCON) is as important as power production because resources of energy on earth are limited. The resources are decreasing day by day due to continuous and increasing utilization in daily life and industrial productions. In this research, power conservation in low power consuming loads (LPCL) in textile industry is evaluated and implemented. Active control, auto control, replacement of power inefficient items with efficient items, optimization and standardization are the major measures taken to achieve the power conservation in low power loads in textile industry.

Design, Simulation, and Fabrication of Microneedles and a Blood Filter for Use in a Hemofiltration System

This paper deals with the design of a new hemofiltration system that consists of a blood transport device, a blood filtration device, a drug delivery device, flow sensors, blood pressure sensors, and the required control electronic circuits. The simulation and fabrication of microneedles and hemofilter have been performed. Silicon microneedles with length <formula formulatype=inline> <tex Notation=TeX>

Simulation of fuzzy based flow controller in ascending sinusoidal microchannels

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