Electrochemical incineration of wastes

The novel technology of waste removal in space vehicles by electrochemical methods is presented to convert wastes into chemicals that can be eventually recycled. The important consideration for waste oxidation is to select a right kind of electrode (anode) material that should be stable under anodic conditions and also a poor electrocatalyst for oxygen and chlorine evolution. On the basis of long term electrolysis experiments on seven different electrodes and on the basis of total organic carbon reduced, two best electrodes were identified. The effect of redox ions on the electrolyte was studied. Though most of the experiments were done in mixtures of urine and waste, the experiments with redox couples involved 2.5 M sulfuric acid in order to avoid the precipitation of redox ions by urea. Two methods for long term electrolysis of waste were investigated: (1) the oxidation on Pt and lead dioxide electrodes using the galvanostatic methods; and (2) potentiostatic method on other electrodes. The advantage of the first method is the faster rate of oxidation. The chlorine evolution in the second method is ten times less then in the first. The accomplished research has shown that urine/feces mixtures can be oxidized to carbon dioxide and water, but current densities are low and must be improved. The perovskite and Ti4O7 coated with RuO2 are the best electrode materials found. Recent experiment with the redox agent improves the current density, however, sulphuric acid is required to keep the redox agent in solution to enhance oxidation effectively. It is desirable to reduce the use of acid and/or find substitutes

India’s Law School Legal Aid Clinics: The Gaps Between Aspiration and Practice

The law schools legal aid activities conducted through its clinics has come a long way in India especially since its inception in the early 1970’s. Its evolution has been gradual, intermittent and varied. Although The Bar Council of India (BCI) has mandated, establishing legal aid clinics as a pre-requisite for granting the necessary permissions before law schools start functioning, there are limited ideas of its purpose and objectives. An inherent lack of understanding its importance in terms of teaching, learning and research, the legal aid practices are largely left to the discretion of the individual law schools and interpretations of the individual faculty members. Combined with ideas heavily borrowed from the law schools in the US and individual experiences of the faculty members, legal aid practices in India are diversified. In the backdrop of this, the author intends to explore and map the aspiration of legal aid through an analysis of the key policy documents of legal education since India’s independence through an ontological framework. The ontology maps the aspirations of the legal aid clinics that was intended through these documents. Additionally, a case study of two important institutions have been taken as the case in point in order to verify whether the practices match such aspirations. Thereby, putting forth arguments that are critical for understanding the gaps between the aspiration and the state of reality. Key words: Legal aid Clinics, Law schools, Clinical, Legal education, Social justic

A CFD/CSD Interaction Methodology for Aircraft Wings

With advanced subsonic transports and military aircraft operating in the transonic regime, it is becoming important to determine the effects of the coupling between aerodynamic loads and elastic forces. Since aeroelastic effects can contribute significantly to the design of these aircraft, there is a strong need in the aerospace industry to predict these aero-structure interactions computationally. To perform static aeroelastic analysis in the transonic regime, high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools must be used in conjunction with high fidelity computational structural fluid dynamics (CSD) analysis tools due to the nonlinear behavior of the aerodynamics in the transonic regime. There is also a need to be able to use a wide variety of CFD and CSD tools to predict these aeroelastic effects in the transonic regime. Because source codes are not always available, it is necessary to couple the CFD and CSD codes without alteration of the source codes. In this study, an aeroelastic coupling procedure is developed which will perform static aeroelastic analysis using any CFD and CSD code with little code integration. The aeroelastic coupling procedure is demonstrated on an F/A-18 Stabilator using NASTD (an in-house McDonnell Douglas CFD code) and NASTRAN. In addition, the Aeroelastic Research Wing (ARW-2) is used for demonstration of the aeroelastic coupling procedure by using ENSAERO (NASA Ames Research Center CFD code) and a finite element wing-box code (developed as part of this research)

Assessment of water quality in disease burdened industrializing town of mid hills of North India

Background: Anthropogenic activities associated with rapid urbanization and industrialization have deteriorated the water quality across the world. Rampant industrialization and poor water, sanitation and hygiene in an industrializing town of northern India necessitated the assessment of drinking water in the region. Methods: The study of physico-chemical parameter of the water and water quality index of the most commonly used ten drinking water sources in 2017-2018 was undertaken. Grab water samples were collected during monsoon, the rainy season (June, July and August) and post monsoon (September, October and November) during the years 2017 and 2018 by following the standard procedures. Weighted arithmetic index method was used for the water quality index (WQI) analysis. Results: Pooled analysis inferred water pH, temperature, total dissolved solids and carbonated oxygen demand to be within, whereas, electrical conductivity (91.00-431.50 µS/cm), turbidity (1.00-4.30 mg/l), dissolved oxygen (6.53-7.23 mg/l) and biological oxygen demand (6.12-7.62 mg/l), exceeding the Bureau of Indian standards permissible limits. Calcium, nitrate, chlorides and zinc were within limits, magnesium concentrations (9.16-29.35 mg/l) were below whereas lead (0.06-0.62 mg/l), chromium (0.01-0.12 mg/l), cadmium (0.00-0.25 mg/l) and mercury (0.00-0.08 mg/l) were above the standards. WQI was above 50 in all the drinking water sources. Conclusions: Water was of poor quality and unsuitable for drinking purposes, indicating alarming water pollution. WQI of the various drinking water sources of the region deteriorated more in the monsoon season as compared to the post monsoon season

Wax Defects in Investment Casting and its Minimization

No Abstrac

Clinical profile of patients with menorrhagia and its correlation with endometrial histopathology and sonographic features

Background: Menorrhagia is one of the most common gynecologic complaints in contemporary gynecology. It is defined as total blood loss exceeding 80 ml per cycle or menses lasting longer than 7 days. Current gynecological survey reports that 30% of all pre-menopausal women perceive their menses to be excessive. So, the main aim of this study was to correlate clinical profile of patients with menorrhagia, etiological factors of menorrhagia, endometrial patterns in cases of menorrhagia, sonography findings in these patients.Methods: This is a prospective study of 100 patients with complaints of menorrhagia that were randomly selected from out-patient department of a tertiary care hospital. In all cases of menorrhagia, detailed history followed by examination and a particular set of investigations including USG was done. All women were subjected to D and C and histo-pathological report taken into account. However all cases of Puberty menorrhagia were excluded from this study as D and C could not be done in them. Treatment was given depending upon cause/age/parity/ family/completion/patient’s desire.Results: AUB is the most common cause of menorrhagia in this study group (60%) with leiomyomas as the second commonest cause (24%). Other causes found were adenomyosis (8%), polyp (4%), IUCD (4%). Maximum cases of menorrhagia are in 40-50 years age group.Conclusions: To conclude AUB (60%) was the commonest cause of menorrhagia followed by leiomyomas (24%), adenomyosis (8%), IUCD (4%) and polyps (4%). Menorrhagia was most common in multiparous (78%) and peri-menopausal age group (40-49 years). Proliferative endometrium was most commonly observed histo-pathological pattern in 58% cases. Leiomyoma was the commonest sonological finding seen in 24% cases followed by adenomyosis in 8% cases