The Idea Of A Realistic Utopia

The purpose of this dissertation is to articulate the proper aims and limits of political philosophy by expanding upon John Rawls’s idea of a realistic utopia and applying it to various debates in contemporary political philosophy. First, I defend the importance of ideal theory in constructing a theory of justice and respond to various critics, such as Amartya Sen and others, who argue that ideal theory is neither necessary nor sufficient for our work to advance justice in society. Second, I argue that empirical facts must be included in our reasoning about fundamental principles of justice, contrary to theorists such as G.A. Cohen who argues that political theorizing should proceed independently of such facts. Finally, I conclude with some reflecting thoughts on the importance of articulating a conception of justice that avoids hopelessly utopian ideals. In doing so, I defend the vision of a realistically utopian society as one that both answers our most fundamental interests and also provides us with the best chance of realizing justice in the world

Activated Carbons Prepared from Oil Palm Shells: Characterisations and Application for Column Separation of Heavy Metals

Wastes from agricultural products are abundant, suitable to be used as precursor for producing activated carbons. These wastes, instead of causing significant disposal problems, can be turned into by-products for industries by utilizing them fur manufacturing activated carbons. Carbonization and activation processes were done in the Tubular Carbolite Furnace. N₂ gas was flowed for the first 3 hours followed by CO₂ gas for the next 1 hour on the precursor at the constant temperature of 500°C. Par the H₃PO₄ impregnation, 30 grams of the palm shells were impregnated with 15 ml ofH3P04 and diluted with 100 ml of distilled water to produce 2.2 M H₃PO₄ solution. For the K₃PO₄, 30 grams of palm shells were impregnated with 9 g of K₃PO₄ and diluted with 100 ml of distilled water to produce 9% w/w K₃PO₄ solution. For the KOH impregnation, 30 grams or palm shells were impregnated with 9 g of KOH and diluted with 100 ml of distilled water to produce 9 % w/w KOH solution

Removal of Malachite Green from Aqueous Solution by waste tyre derived activated carbon

Waste rubber tyres were used to prepare activated carbon via destructive distillation method employing a two stage process i.e. carbonization and chemical activation in a tubular furnace. Carbonization was done at 500°C for 1 h followed by impregnation of char with NaOH. Activation was done in a horizontal tube furnace via CO2 activation. Two variables and three parameters i.e. impregnation ratio between NaOH and char (1:1 and 3:1), activation temperature (700°C and 900°C), and activation time (60 min and 180 min) were studied and its effects on percentage yield, and malachite green (MG) dye removal were compared and presented in this paper. IR spectra of all samples a number of bands at 1710, 1620, and 1054 cm–1 –1026 cm–1 which proved the presence of carboxylic, carbonyl, and some acids, alcohols, ether and ester groups on the surface of carbon prepared. Activated carbon, AC6, which was prepared at ratio 3:1 and heated at 900°C for 60 min preparation was selected due to high surface area (313.17 m2/g) and removed about 97.43% of MG dye after 60 minutes. AC6 was best fitted to the Freundlich isotherm indicating multilayer adsorption while the adsorption kinetic followed pseudosecond order kinetics. The maximum monolayer adsorption was 128.21 mg/g

Sphagnum physiology in the context of changing climate: emergent influences of genomics, modelling and host-microbiome interactions on understanding ecosystem function.

Peatlands harbour more than one-third of terrestrial carbon leading to the argument that the bryophytes, as major components of peatland ecosystems, store more organic carbon in soils than any other collective plant taxa. Plants of the genus Sphagnum are important components of peatland ecosystems and are potentially vulnerable to changing climatic conditions. However, the response of Sphagnum to rising temperatures, elevated CO2 and shifts in local hydrology have yet to be fully characterized. In this review, we examine Sphagnum biology and ecology and explore the role of this group of keystone species and its associated microbiome in carbon and nitrogen cycling using literature review and model simulations. Several issues are highlighted including the consequences of a variable environment on plant-microbiome interactions, uncertainty associated with CO2 diffusion resistances and the relationship between fixed N and that partitioned to the photosynthetic apparatus. We note that the Sphagnum fallax genome is currently being sequenced and outline potential applications of population-level genomics and corresponding plant photosynthesis and microbial metabolic modelling techniques. We highlight Sphagnum as a model organism to explore ecosystem response to a changing climate and to define the role that Sphagnum can play at the intersection of physiology, genetics and functional genomics

Remediation of anionic dye simulated wastewater using TiO2 as a photocatalyst under various light irradiation wavelength

Heterogeneous photocatalytic process employing UV/TiO2 batch photo-reactor system was demonstrated to be effective in the photodegradation of C.I. Reactive Black 5 anionic dye. Various artificial lamps (UV-A, UV-B, UV-C and solar irradiation) were used to activate the TiO2-P25 Degussa photocatalyst. UV-C was found to be the best in degrading RB5 with 100% efficiency at the 25th min with an R2 = 0.9786 according to the first order reaction kinetic model. The effectiveness of UV-C is due to the shorter penetration capability with higher energy photon, so there was more electron-hole pairs available for the target compound. Photodegradation with UV-B was also similarly effective while UV-A and solar irradiations were least effective. Increasing the initial dye concentration reduced the degradation rate due to the inner photon filtering effect by the dye molecules. Since RB5 is anionic dye, by increasing the pH of the system, the degradation rate was reduced to 99.65% in 1 h at pH10. This is due to the electrostatic attraction between the dye molecules and the negatively charged TiO2 particles. Photocatalytic degradation was found to be affected by the pollutant concentration and solution pH which were explored and described in detail in this article

Photodegradation of indigo dye using TiO2 and TiO2/zeolite system

Photodegradation of indigo dye in aqueous solution using anatase TiO2 and TiO2/zeolite composite photocatalyst were studied. The composite photocatalysts were prepared by using sol-gel method. Calcination sol-gel was performed in a muffle furnace at 450 ºC for 4 h. The photocatalysts were characterized using SEM and XRD. 0.4 g of photocatalysts were used to degrade 500 mL of indigo dye giving a constant catalyst loading of 0.8 g/L in varying indigo dye concentration of between 10-20 mg/L. The results showed that the photocatalytic behaviour of TiO2/zeolite composite sample was better as the degree of degradation for TiO2/zeolite was higher compared to the neat TiO2 sample. The percentage degradation achieved by using TiO2/zeolite in 10 and 20 mg/L were 58.6 and 75.0 % respectively. In addition, the degradation process followed the first-order reaction kinetics where the rate constant, k, for the degradation of indigo dye solution was in the range of 0.1207-0.2669 h-1 (not presented). This work demonstrates that the sol-gel method was successful in preparing an effective TiO2/zeolite composite photocatalyst

The Homeodomain-Containing Transcription Factors Arx and Pax4 Control Enteroendocrine Subtype Specification in Mice

Intestinal hormones are key regulators of digestion and energy homeostasis secreted by rare enteroendocrine cells. These cells produce over ten different hormones including GLP-1 and GIP peptides known to promote insulin secretion. To date, the molecular mechanisms controlling the specification of the various enteroendocrine subtypes from multipotent Neurog3+ endocrine progenitor cells, as well as their number, remain largely unknown. In contrast, in the embryonic pancreas, the opposite activities of Arx and Pax4 homeodomain transcription factors promote islet progenitor cells towards the different endocrine cell fates. In this study, we thus investigated the role of Arx and Pax4 in enteroendocrine subtype specification. The small intestine and colon of Arx- and Pax4-deficient mice were analyzed using histological, molecular, and lineage tracing approaches. We show that Arx is expressed in endocrine progenitors (Neurog3+) and in early differentiating (ChromograninA−) GLP-1-, GIP-, CCK-, Sct- Gastrin- and Ghrelin-producing cells. We noted a dramatic reduction or a complete loss of all these enteroendocrine cell types in Arx mutants. Serotonin- and Somatostatin-secreting cells do not express Arx and, accordingly, the differentiation of Serotonin cells was not affected in Arx mutants. However, the number of Somatostatin-expressing D-cells is increased as Arx-deficient progenitor cells are redirected to the D-cell lineage. In Pax4-deficient mice, the differentiation of Serotonin and Somatostatin cells is impaired, as well as of GIP and Gastrin cells. In contrast, the number of GLP-1 producing L-cells is increased concomitantly with an upregulation of Arx. Thus, while Arx and Pax4 are necessary for the development of L- and D-cells respectively, they conversely restrict D- and L-cells fates suggesting antagonistic functions in D/L cell allocation. In conclusion, these finding demonstrate that, downstream of Neurog3, the specification of a subset of enteroendocrine subtypes relies on both Arx and Pax4, while others depend only on Arx or Pax4

Application of modified red mud in environmentally-benign applications: a review paper

Red mud (RM) is a waste product that results from bauxite refining via the Bayer process. Its disposal remains an issue which raises significant environmental concerns, particularly if disposed on land or water bodies. Much research has been done on the use of red mud for environmentally-benign applications such as wastewater treatment, catalysis, the production of construction materials and glass ceramics, and for the recovery of metals. This paper reviews the current efforts made in the utilization of red mud as a valuable industrial by-product, which in turn should minimize its harmful impact on the environment. This detailed review compiles and highlights a variety of novel applications of modified red mud as a coagulant, an adsorbent for wastewater treatment, as well as, its use in catalytic processes and in building materials. The physico-chemical properties of red mud can be tuned by a range of treatment methods include acidification, neutralization and heat treatment. As revealed from the literature reviewed, modifications on red mud for the removal of various types of contaminants have shown promising results. However, further amendment and modifications on red mud are needed to utilize this industrial waste in many other industrial applications

Preparation and characterization of activated carbon derived from waste rubber tire via chemical activation with ZnCl2: surface area and morphological studies

Turning waste to wealth is an important aspect in promoting green technology. In this study, activated carbon from waste rubber tire was prepared using chemical activation (ZnCl2) by way of two-stage activation in self-generated atmosphere method. The preparation parameters examined and compared in this study were activation time, activation temperature, and impregnation ratio. The adsorption of the target pollutant, 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP), was used to evaluate the efficiency of adsorption capacity of the prepared activated carbon. Results from the experimental work showed that the activated carbon prepared satisfied the Freundlich isotherm and complied with the pseudo-second-order kinetics (not presented here). Other parameters studied, such as the percentage yield of activated carbon, ash, and moisture content and the morphology structure, are presented in this chapter. This study showed that waste rubber tire dehydrated with ZnCl2 with an impregnation ratio of 1:1 and activated at a temperature of 500 °C for 120 min gave the best result (AC5)