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

Electric power demand forecasting: A case study of Lucknow city

The study of forecasting identifies the urgent need for special attention in evolving effective energy policies to alleviate an energy famine in the near future. Since power demand is increasing day by day in entire world and it is also one of the fundamental infrastructure input for the development, its prospects and availability sets significant constraints on the socio-economic growth of every person as well as every country. A care full long-term power plan is imperative for the development of power sector. This need assumes more importance in the state of Uttar Pradesh where the demand for electrical energy is growing at a rapid pace. This study analyses the requirement of electricity with respect to the future population for the major forms of energy in the Lucknow city in Uttar Pradesh state of India. A model consisting of significant key energy indicators have been used for the estimation. Model wherever required refined in the second stage to remove the effect of auto-correlation. The accuracy of the model has been checked using standard statistical techniques and validated against the past data by testing for 'expost' forecast accuracy

Spatial distribution of Brevicoryne brassicae (L.) in Cabbage in mid-hills of Himachal Pradesh, India

Investigations were carried out during two consecutive Rabi seasons of 2014 and2015 at the Experi-mental Farm of the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and For-estry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India to study the spatial distribution of Brevicoryne brassicae in cabbage. One month old cabbage seedlings were planted in the field in the month of November during both the years. Distri-bution pattern of any insect population is an important aspect as it represents the interaction between individuals of the species and their habitat. Spatial distribution is useful for designing efficient sampling programmes for population estimation and development of population models. Spatial distribution is also important to understand the bioecology of the pest and to determine the sampling protocol for that species. In the present study variance to mean ratio (s2/X),mean crowding (X*), ratio of mean crowding to mean (X*/X), ‘k’ of negative binomial, Taylor’s power equation(s2 = 0.9099X1.55 during 2014 and s2 = 2.9861X1.1949 during 2015), Iwao’s patchiness regression and optimum number of samples (Nopt) required to achieve the desired precision were calculated for different densities. Cabbage aphid, B. brassicae appeared in the fourth standard week i.e last week of January( 26.2 aphids/ plant during 2014 and 0.30 aphids/ plant during 2015) and persisted upto thirteenth standard week i.e last week of April ( 18.4 aphids/ plant during 2014 and 18.2 aphids/ plant during 2015) and followed a negative binomial distribution during both years. Optimum number of samples (Nopt) required varied with mean density as well as precision level. The present study will serve as basic information to develop a sampling plan of B. Brassicae in cabbage for its monitoring and management

Micro evolution of bitter taste domain drugs

Ayurveda classified the drugs in various ways and one of which the classification is based on Rasa (taste) dominancy. Rasa is essential to identify drugs and to know its therapeutic application. In this study the drug has been selected according to Charaka classification of Tikta Rasa (bitter taste) drugs with an aim to find out the similar characters among all the drugs having bitter Rasa dominancy. Till date there is no data available regarding the pharmacognostical evaluation in concern bitter taste. For the first time selected five bitter drugs are subjected to various pharmacognostical evaluation, result reveals that Organoleptic characters of all five drugs give bitter taste, microscopic evaluation revealed that presence of starch grain, vessels, fiber , brown content are dominant in all five raw drug and all the five powder subjected to alkaloid test by using dragondroff reagent and give positive result for alkaloid

Pattern formation during the evaporation of a colloidal nanoliter drop: a numerical and experimental study

An efficient way to precisely pattern particles on solid surfaces is to dispense and evaporate colloidal drops, as for bioassays. The dried deposits often exhibit complex structures exemplified by the coffee ring pattern, where most particles have accumulated at the periphery of the deposit. In this work, the formation of deposits during the drying of nanoliter colloidal drops on a flat substrate is investigated numerically and experimentally. A finite-element numerical model is developed that solves the Navier-Stokes, heat and mass transport equations in a Lagrangian framework. The diffusion of vapor in the atmosphere is solved numerically, providing an exact boundary condition for the evaporative flux at the droplet-air interface. Laplace stresses and thermal Marangoni stresses are accounted for. The particle concentration is tracked by solving a continuum advection-diffusion equation. Wetting line motion and the interaction of the free surface of the drop with the growing deposit are modeled based on criteria on wetting angles. Numerical results for evaporation times and flow field are in very good agreement with published experimental and theoretical results. We also performed transient visualization experiments of water and isopropanol drops loaded with polystyrene microsphere evaporating on respectively glass and polydimethylsiloxane substrates. Measured evaporation times, deposit shape and sizes, and flow fields are in very good agreement with the numerical results. Different flow patterns caused by the competition of Marangoni loops and radial flow are shown to determine the deposit shape to be either a ring-like pattern or a homogeneous bump

Electrochemical incineration of wastes

There is an increasing concern regarding the disposal of human wastes in space vehicles. It is of utmost importance to convert such wastes into harmless products which can be recycled into an Environmental Life Support System (CELSS), which incorporates the growth of plants (e.g. wheat) and algae to supplement the diet of the astronauts. Chemical treatments have proven relatively unsatisfactory and tend to be increasingly so with increase of the mission duration. Similarly, the use of heat to destroy wastes and convert them to CO2 by the use of air or oxygen has the disadvantage and difficulty of dissipating heat in a space environment and to the inevitable presence of oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide in the effluent gases. In particular, electrochemical techniques offer several advantages including low temperatures which may be used and the absence of any NO and CO in the evolved gases. Successful research has been carried out in the electrochemical oxidation of wastes over the last several years. The major task for 1992 was to conduct parametric studies in preparation for the building of a breadboard system, i.e., an actual practical device to consume the daily waste output of one astronaut in 24 hours, electrochemical incineration of human wastes in space vehicles. One of the main objectives was to decide on the type of three dimensional or other electrode system that would suit this purpose. The various types of electrode systems which were considered for this purpose included: rotating disc electrode, micro-electrode (an array), vibrating electrode, jet electrode, and packed bed electrode

Improvement in Grinding and Classification Circuit by the use of Hydrocone at Rakha Concentrator

With increase in demand of metals, depleting ore reserves, falling ore grades and manyfold increase in operational cost, many of the mineral industries are now facing the prospect of closing their operations. However, efforts are being made at every place to reduce the cost of production through innovations and improvement tech-nology

Targeting Btk/Etk of prostate cancer cells by a novel dual inhibitor.

Btk and Etk/BMX are Tec-family non-receptor tyrosine kinases. Btk has previously been reported to be expressed primarily in B cells and has an important role in immune responses and B-cell malignancies. Etk has been shown previously to provide a strong survival and metastasis signal in human prostate cancer cells, and to confer androgen independence and drug resistance. While the role of Etk in prostate carcinogenesis is well established, the functions of Btk in prostate cancer have never been investigated, likely due to the perception that Btk is a hematopoietic, but not epithelial, kinase. Herein, we found that Btk is overexpressed in prostate cancer tissues and prostate cancer cells. The level of Btk in prostate cancer tissues correlates with cancer grades. Knockdown of Btk expression selectively inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells, but not that of the normal prostate epithelial cells, which express very little Btk. Dual inhibition of Btk and Etk has an additive inhibitory effect on prostate cancer cell growth. To explore Btk and Etk as targets for prostate cancer, we developed a small molecule dual inhibitor of Btk and Etk, CTN06. Treatment of PC3 and other prostate cancer cells, but not immortalized prostate epithelial cells with CTN06 resulted in effective cell killing, accompanied by the attenuation of Btk/Etk signals. The killing effect of CTN06 is more potent than that of commonly used inhibitors against Src, Raf/VEGFR and EGFR. CTN06 induces apoptosis as well as autophagy in human prostate cancer cells, and is a chemo-sensitizer for docetaxel (DTX), a standard of care for metastatic prostate cancer patients. CTN06 also impeded the migration of human prostate cancer cells based on a 'wound healing' assay. The anti-cancer effect of CTN06 was further validated in vivo in a PC3 xenograft mouse model

Single and multiple ionization of CS<SUB>2</SUB> in intense laser fields: wavelength dependence and energetics

Single and multiple ionization of carbon disulphide by intense picosecond laser fields is the subject of this paper. Mass spectra were measured at five wavelengths from the infrared to the ultraviolet. In terms of the Keldysh adiabaticity parameter, we cover both the multiphoton and the tunnelling regimes. The dynamics of the dissociative ionization process is shown to be dependent upon the regime in which the laser - molecule interaction occurs. Resonances, which may be possible and which could access electronically excited states of the molecule, appear to play little part in the dynamics. Ion abundances have been measured as a function of laser intensity in the tunnelling regime; no correlation is found between measured values of saturation intensity and zero-field molecular properties such as dissociation or ionization thresholds and ionization energies. In addition, the covariance mapping technique is applied to study the dissociation dynamics of multiply charged ions at 1064 nm. The measured values of kinetic energy release accompanying formation of fragment ion-pairs are very much less than those measured in single-photon and electron-impact experiments. It is postulated that this reduction may be a manifestation of the extent to which potential energy surfaces of CS24+ ions are `flattened' by the action of the intense, linearly polarized laser radiation, akin to the bond-softening process that has been observed in the case of diatomic molecules. Our observations indicate that distortion of molecular potential energy surfaces may be the dominating feature in intense laser - molecule interactions