Sustainable value creation from leather solid wastes: Preparation of shoe soling material using nano fillers

Content: Leather manufacturing involves discharge of large quantities of solid and liquid wastes. While efficient recycling methods and in-plant controls have considerably reduced the discharge of obnoxious liquid streams, satisfactory methods to the solid waste management still elude the leather manufacturers. Landfilling is an easy option for the disposal of solid wastes like chrome shavings and trimmings, but is subjected to stringent environmental regulations because of the presence of chromium in these materials. Considerable efforts have been made to recycle the chrome containing wastes by methods such as incineration, pyrolysis and alkaline or enzyme hydrolysis. These recycling processes, however, are seldom complete without further environmental problems. Unfortunately, in such recycling processes the inherent fibrous structure of these materials gets completely destroyed. Applications based on the fibrous nature of the shavings and trimmings are presently limited but various possibilities are being explored continuously. An efficient way of utilization of these fibrous waste materials may be to combine them in a suitable form with synthetic polymers to give composite materials. Short fiber reinforcement of polymers is an important area in polymer composites where both synthetic and natural fibers are effectively used. Footwear has become a basic necessity like food, shelter and clothes. Soles are bottom components of footwear and some important polymeric materials used in footwear fabrication are last, soles and Insoles. This research aims at reducing the solid waste (Chrome shavings) generated by leather industry and reusing them as low cost shoe components such as soles and insole material. In this research, the footwear components were prepared using chrome shaving (tannery solid waste), EPDM (ethylene propylene monomer rubber) and isoprene rubber with different inorganic oxide/hydroxide nano particle based fillers. In this study, soles are prepared by using strap cutting machine, two roll mill and compression moulding machine. The soling materials made characterised using FT-IR and SEM and tested for mechanical properties. Due to good mutual compatibility between Isoprene, EPDM and leather fibre with inorganic nano clay based fillers, the composites are well in terms of all the physic-mechanical behaviours like hardness, density, abrasion resistance and grain crack suitable for shoe sole application. Take-Away: 1. Ethylene propylene monomer rubber and leather fibre with inorganic nano clay based fillers, the composites are well in terms of all the physic-mechanical behaviours like hardness, density, abrasion resistance and grain crack suitable for shoe sole application. 2. An efficient way of utilization of these fibrous waste materials may be to combine them in a suitable form with synthetic polymers to give composite materials. Short fiber reinforcement of polymers is an important area in polymer composites where both synthetic and natural fibers are effectively used

Review on Super Capacitor-Battery based Hybrid Energy Storage System for PV Application

Hybrid energy storage systems are becoming an option for energy management in better performance of automotive, hybrid electrical vehicle and avionics systems. The main objective of this paper is to review and study of Hybrid Energy Storage System for PV application and to increase energy efficiency, behavior of super capacitor and utility scale storage facilities using renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Literature survey clear problem has been observed from single energy storage system (ESS) aspects and solution of hybrid energy storage system. Therefore review about Battery-super capacitor Hybrid Energy Storage System to high energy density, high power density as well as to improve battery lifetime extension and power enhancement. This paper is based on study and review of Hybrid Energy Storage System using Super capacitor, Battery and PV Module for any Load

A case report of primary intraabdominal rhabdomyosarcoma presenting as metastasis

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a rare and in adult accounts for only 1-3% of all malignant soft tissue tumors. The most frequent sites of origin is within head and neck area. One of the least common sites is the retrorectal-presacral space. This case of 61 years old female is probably the fifth well-documented case of primary abdominopelvic RMS. She presented with abdominal distensions, obstipation, vomiting for 5 days. Excision of the gut wall along with soft tissue mass was done and sent to our department for histopathological examination. On microscopic examination, a diagnosis of malignant mesenchymal tumor with closest resemblance to RMS was made. It is a rare case and needs to bring in notice as there is very few information regarding intraabdominal RMS. This case initially thought to be metastasis from gynecologic malignancy.  It is important for pathologists, gynecologists and radiologists to recognize RMS as differential diagnosis of masses arising in abdomen and pelvis

Correlation between maternal serum biochemical markers with karyotyping for prenatal screening of foetal chromosomal abnormalities

Background: Prenatal screening for chromosomal abnormalities can be done by biochemical screening tests like dual marker test (DMT), triple marker test (TMT) and quadruple marker test (QMT). It is important to identify ideal screening test among them which best correlates with result of karyotyping which is confirmatory test of foetal chromosomal abnormalities. This helps to decrease need for invasive prenatal tests for foetal karyotyping. This study aims to evaluate sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy and correlation of DMT, TMT, and QMT with results of karyotyping.Methods: Retrospective observational study was conducted in tertiary care maternity hospital over one year- 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015. Women with singleton pregnancy undergoing DMT, TMT or QMT were included.Results: Of the 529 women screened by biochemical marker tests, 462 (87.33%) were screen negative and 67 (12.66%) women were screen positive. In 56 women, it was false positive (83.58%) and in 11 women true positive (16.41%). In 461 women the test results were true negative (99.78%), but in one case, result was false negative (0.21%).  3/11 (27.27%)women with foetal chromosomal abnormalities were primigravidae. 4/11 (36.36%)women were below 35 years. DMT and QMT had higher sensitivity (both 100%) and specificity (90.00% and 93.18% respectively) than TMT (sensitivity 80% and specificity 82.61%). Positive likelihood ratio (LR+) was 1.00 in DMT. Diagnostic odds ratio was highest with DMT (DOR=115.11) and best correlated with karyotyping results (coefficient of correlation 0.4).Conclusions: Universal screening of antenatal women, irrespective of their age and parity is suggested. DMT has highest diagnostic value and best correlation with the results of karyotyping. Hence the dual marker test can be considered to be better test for screening for aneuploidy

Revolutionizing Healthcare through Health Monitoring Applications with Wearable Biomedical Devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized the connectivity and communication of tangible objects, and it serves as a versatile and cost-effective solution in the healthcare sector, particularly in regions with limited healthcare infrastructure. This research explores the application of sensors such as LM35, AD8232, and MAX30100 for the detection of vital health indicators, including body temperature, pulse rate, electrocardiogram (ECG), and oxygen saturation levels, with data transmission through IoT cloud, offering real-time parameter access via an Android application for non-invasive remote patient monitoring. The study aims to expand healthcare services to various settings, such as hospitals, commercial areas, educational institutions, workplaces, and residential neighborhoods. After the COVID-19 pandemic, IoT-enabled continuous monitoring of critical health metrics such as temperature and pulse rate has become increasingly crucial for early illness detection and efficient communication with healthcare providers. Our low-cost wearable device, which includes ECG monitoring, aims to bridge the accessibility gap for people with limited financial resources, with the primary goal of providing efficient healthcare solutions to underserved rural areas while also contributing valuable data to future medical research. Our proposed system is a low-cost, high-efficiency solution that outperforms existing systems in healthcare data collection and patient monitoring. It improves access to vital health data and shows economic benefits, indicating a significant advancement in healthcare technology

BACTERIAL DISEASES OF LIVESTOCK ANIMALS AND THEIR IMPACT ON HUMAN HEALTH

Recently, whole world is facing the problem of infectious diseases related to animal diseases that pose significant threats to human health. In other words, humans may acquire zoonotic infections through various routes i.e. food, water etc. The transmission of certain bacterial diseases (through food and water) is one of the important cause of illness in both developing and developed countries. Most of the infectious pathogens that are normally reside in the intestinal tract of healthy animals and may transmit the disease through products (meat, milk or eggs) and faecal contamination of the environment. Normally, minute amount of intestinal contents are released and contaminate milk during milking; carcass at slaughter and egg during laying. Generally, risk associated with this type of contamination is somehow minimised where proper food hygiene is normally applied throughout the entire food chain from production, through processing to preparation at home. In this view, we provide some information about bacterial diseases of livestock animals and their effect or impact on human health.Â

Multifractal Behaviour of n-Simplex Lattice

We study the asymptotic behaviour of resistance scaling and fluctuation of resistance that give rise to flicker noise in an {\em n}-simplex lattice. We propose a simple method to calculate the resistance scaling and give a closed-form formula to calculate the exponent, $\beta_L$, associated with resistance scaling, for any n. Using current cumulant method we calculate the exact noise exponent for n-simplex lattices.Comment: Latex, 9 pages including one figur

Non-Gaussian perturbations from multi-field inflation

We show how the primordial bispectrum of density perturbations from inflation may be characterised in terms of manifestly gauge-invariant cosmological perturbations at second order. The primordial metric perturbation, zeta, describing the perturbed expansion of uniform-density hypersurfaces on large scales is related to scalar field perturbations on unperturbed (spatially-flat) hypersurfaces at first- and second-order. The bispectrum of the metric perturbation is thus composed of (i) a local contribution due to the second-order gauge-transformation, and (ii) the instrinsic bispectrum of the field perturbations on spatially flat hypersurfaces. We generalise previous results to allow for scale-dependence of the scalar field power spectra and correlations that can develop between fields on super-Hubble scales.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex; minor changes to text; conclusions unchanged; version to appear in JCA

Adjuvant enzalutamide for the treatment of early-stage androgen-receptor positive, triple-negative breast cancer: a feasibility study.

PURPOSE: Chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). A subset of TNBCs express the androgen receptor (AR), representing a potential new therapeutic target. This study assessed the feasibility of adjuvant enzalutamide, an AR antagonist, in early-stage, AR-positive (AR +) TNBC. METHODS: This study was a single-arm, open-label, multicenter trial in which patients with stage I-III, AR ≥ 1% TNBC who had completed standard-of-care therapy were treated with enzalutamide 160 mg/day orally for 1 year. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of 1 year of adjuvant enzalutamide, defined as the treatment discontinuation rate of enzalutamide due to toxicity, withdrawal of consent, or other events related to tolerability. Secondary endpoints included disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), safety, and genomic features of recurrent tumors. RESULTS: Fifty patients were enrolled in this study. Thirty-five patients completed 1 year of therapy, thereby meeting the prespecified trial endpoint for feasibility. Thirty-two patients elected to continue with an optional second year of treatment. Grade ≥ 3 treatment-related adverse events were uncommon. The 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year DFS were 94%, 92% , and 80%, respectively. Median OS has not been reached. CONCLUSION: This clinical trial demonstrates that adjuvant enzalutamide is a feasible and well-tolerated regimen in patients with an early-stage AR + TNBC. Randomized trials in the metastatic setting may inform patient selection through biomarker development; longer follow-up is needed to determine the effect of anti-androgens on DFS and OS in this patient population

The QUaD Galactic Plane Survey. I. Maps and Analysis of Diffuse Emission

We present a survey of ~800 deg$^{2}$ of the galactic plane observed with the QUaD telescope. The primary products of the survey are maps of Stokes I, Q, and U parameters at 100 and 150 GHz, with spatial resolution of 5' and 3'.5, respectively. Two regions are covered, spanning approximately 245°-295° and 315°-5° in the galactic longitude l and –4° < b < +4° in the galactic latitude b. At 0°.02 square pixel size, the median sensitivity is 74 and 107 kJy sr$^{–1}$ at 100 GHz and 150 GHz respectively in I, and 98 and 120 kJy sr$^{–1}$ for Q and U. In total intensity, we find an average spectral index of α = 2.35 ± 0.01(stat) ± 0.02(sys) for |b| ≤ 1°, indicative of emission components other than thermal dust. A comparison to published dust, synchrotron, and free-free models implies an excess of emission in the 100 GHz QUaD band, while better agreement is found at 150 GHz. A smaller excess is observed when comparing QUaD 100 GHz data to the WMAP five-year W band; in this case, the excess is likely due to the wider bandwidth of QUaD. Combining the QUaD and WMAP data, a two-component spectral fit to the inner galactic plane (|b| ≤ 1°) yields mean spectral indices of α s = –0.32 ± 0.03 and α$_{d}$ = 2.84 ± 0.03; the former is interpreted as a combination of the spectral indices of synchrotron, free-free, and dust, while the second is largely attributed to the thermal dust continuum. In the same galactic latitude range, the polarization data show a high degree of alignment perpendicular to the expected galactic magnetic field direction, and exhibit mean polarization fraction 1.38 ± 0.08(stat) ± 0.1(sys)% at 100 GHz and 1.70 ± 0.06(stat) ± 0.1(sys)% at 150 GHz. We find agreement in polarization fraction between QUaD 100 GHz and the WMAP W band, the latter giving 1.1% ± 0.4%.Astronom