Degradation of Para-Phenylenediamine in Aqueous Solution by Photo-Fenton Oxidation Processes

In this research Photo-Fenton Oxidation of Para-Phenylenediamine (PPD) in aqueous solution by UV/Fenton’s reagent (Fe2+ and H2O2) was investigated. Experiments were conducted in a batch reactor, at pH 3.5 and at 25°C with a source of UV-C light. The effects of different reaction parameters such as initial PPD concentration, pH of the solution, ferrous concentration, Hydrogen peroxide concentration, on the oxidative degradation of PPD were measured. Final concentration of PPD and COD of the solution after treatment were determined to know degree of degradation of the compound. Iron source used for photo-Fenton’s oxidation were Ferrous Sulphate (FeSO4.7H2O).The optimum conditions established by Fenton’s oxidation without UV, were considered for this investigation. Only the maximum removal conditions were tried with the UV for reaction time of 3 hours. The results showed that under optimum experimental conditions, the pH 3.5, 50 mg/L H2O2, 3 mg/L Fe2+and UV reaction time of 3 hours, the initial concentration 10 mg/L of PPD was reduced by 71.20% with 65.89% COD removal. Likewise the removal efficiencies for PPD concentration of 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/L keeping the same proportion of H2O2and Fe2+dosage (with ratios of PPD:Fe2+:H2O2::10:1:16.7) were investigated and the results showed, PPD removal were 65.10, 61.23, 58.34 and 54.26% and COD removal was 61, 54, 52 and 50.32% respectively. From the results obtained it can be concluded that Fenton’s reagent favours the lower concentration of Phenylenediamines and UV-C assisted photo-Fenton showed that the photo-Fenton process was very effective than the normal Fenton process.Keywords: Para-Phenylenediamine; COD; UV-C light; Fenton’s reagent; Oxidatio

The Need of Mining Industry -A SWOT analysis

Abstrac

Fabrication of α‑Fe2O3 Nanostructures: synthesis, characterization, and their promising application in the treatment of Carcinoma A549 Lung Cancer Cells

In the present work, iron nanoparticles were synthesized in the α-Fe2O3 phase with the reduction of potassium hexachloroferrate(III) by using l-ascorbic acid as a reducing agent in the presence of an amphiphilic non-ionic polyethylene glycol surfactant in an aqueous solution. The synthesized α-Fe2O3 NPs were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry. The powder X-ray diffraction analysis result confirmed the formation of α-Fe2O3 NPs, and the average crystallite size was found to be 45 nm. The other morphological studies suggested that α-Fe2O3 NPs were predominantly spherical in shape with a diameter ranges from 40 to 60 nm. The dynamic light scattering analysis revealed the zeta potential of α-Fe2O3 NPs as −28 ± 18 mV at maximum stability. The ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry analysis shows an absorption peak at 394 nm, which is attributed to their surface plasmon vibration. The cytotoxicity test of synthesized α-Fe2O3 NPs was investigated against human carcinoma A549 lung cancer cells, and the biological adaptability exhibited by α-Fe2O3 NPs has opened a pathway to biomedical applications in the drug delivery system. Our investigation confirmed that l-ascorbic acid-coated α-Fe2O3 NPs with calculated IC50 ≤ 30 μg/mL are the best suited as an anticancer agent, showing the promising application in the treatment of carcinoma A549 lung cancer cells

A framework for human microbiome research

A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies

Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group. The definitive version was published in Nature 486 (2012): 207-214, doi:10.1038/nature11234.Studies of the human microbiome have revealed that even healthy individuals differ remarkably in the microbes that occupy habitats such as the gut, skin and vagina. Much of this diversity remains unexplained, although diet, environment, host genetics and early microbial exposure have all been implicated. Accordingly, to characterize the ecology of human-associated microbial communities, the Human Microbiome Project has analysed the largest cohort and set of distinct, clinically relevant body habitats so far. We found the diversity and abundance of each habitat’s signature microbes to vary widely even among healthy subjects, with strong niche specialization both within and among individuals. The project encountered an estimated 81–99% of the genera, enzyme families and community configurations occupied by the healthy Western microbiome. Metagenomic carriage of metabolic pathways was stable among individuals despite variation in community structure, and ethnic/racial background proved to be one of the strongest associations of both pathways and microbes with clinical metadata. These results thus delineate the range of structural and functional configurations normal in the microbial communities of a healthy population, enabling future characterization of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants U54HG004969 to B.W.B.; U54HG003273 to R.A.G.; U54HG004973 to R.A.G., S.K.H. and J.F.P.; U54HG003067 to E.S.Lander; U54AI084844 to K.E.N.; N01AI30071 to R.L.Strausberg; U54HG004968 to G.M.W.; U01HG004866 to O.R.W.; U54HG003079 to R.K.W.; R01HG005969 to C.H.; R01HG004872 to R.K.; R01HG004885 to M.P.; R01HG005975 to P.D.S.; R01HG004908 to Y.Y.; R01HG004900 to M.K.Cho and P. Sankar; R01HG005171 to D.E.H.; R01HG004853 to A.L.M.; R01HG004856 to R.R.; R01HG004877 to R.R.S. and R.F.; R01HG005172 to P. Spicer.; R01HG004857 to M.P.; R01HG004906 to T.M.S.; R21HG005811 to E.A.V.; M.J.B. was supported by UH2AR057506; G.A.B. was supported by UH2AI083263 and UH3AI083263 (G.A.B., C. N. Cornelissen, L. K. Eaves and J. F. Strauss); S.M.H. was supported by UH3DK083993 (V. B. Young, E. B. Chang, F. Meyer, T. M. S., M. L. Sogin, J. M. Tiedje); K.P.R. was supported by UH2DK083990 (J. V.); J.A.S. and H.H.K. were supported by UH2AR057504 and UH3AR057504 (J.A.S.); DP2OD001500 to K.M.A.; N01HG62088 to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research; U01DE016937 to F.E.D.; S.K.H. was supported by RC1DE0202098 and R01DE021574 (S.K.H. and H. Li); J.I. was supported by R21CA139193 (J.I. and D. S. Michaud); K.P.L. was supported by P30DE020751 (D. J. Smith); Army Research Office grant W911NF-11-1-0473 to C.H.; National Science Foundation grants NSF DBI-1053486 to C.H. and NSF IIS-0812111 to M.P.; The Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 for P.S. C.; LANL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development grant 20100034DR and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency grants B104153I and B084531I to P.S.C.; Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) grant to K.F. and J.Raes; R.K. is an HHMI Early Career Scientist; Gordon&BettyMoore Foundation funding and institutional funding fromthe J. David Gladstone Institutes to K.S.P.; A.M.S. was supported by fellowships provided by the Rackham Graduate School and the NIH Molecular Mechanisms in Microbial Pathogenesis Training Grant T32AI007528; a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada Grant in Aid of Research to E.A.V.; 2010 IBM Faculty Award to K.C.W.; analysis of the HMPdata was performed using National Energy Research Scientific Computing resources, the BluBioU Computational Resource at Rice University

Correction to: Cluster identification, selection, and description in Cluster randomized crossover trials: the PREP-IT trials

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article

Unlocking the potentiality of UAVs in Mining Industry and its Implications

ABSTRACT: Technology plays a key role in shaping the future of mining industry. Number of technologies is debated nowadays and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), so-called Drones, is one among them which is picking faster. UAVs are systems for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and are powered aerial vehicles with no human operator on board and can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely with expendable or recoverable and can carry surveillance equipment. UAVs are smaller than manned aircraft and can carry cameras, sensors, communications equipment. For next generation technologies, UAVs can transform across multiple segments like defence, communications, aviation, health, agriculture, transportation, remote sensing, oil, gas and mining industry. For mining industry drones are relatively new and presently limited applications of drones are known in the mining space. Their uses are somewhat restricted to capturing terrain/outcrops photos from multiple angles. But plenty of space exists for drone technology in mining prolonging from productivity to safety and security areas. In this paper, an attempt has been made to unlock the potentiality of UAVs in mining industry and its implication towards "Future of Mining"

Degradation of Para-Phenylenediamine in Aqueous Solution by Photo-Fenton Oxidation Processes

In this research Photo-Fenton Oxidation of Para-Phenylenediamine (PPD) in aqueous solution by UV/Fenton’s reagent (Fe2+ and H2O2) was investigated. Experiments were conducted in a batch reactor, at pH 3.5 and at 25°C with a source of UV-C light. The effects of different reaction parameters such as initial PPD concentration, pH of the solution, ferrous concentration, Hydrogen peroxide concentration, on the oxidative degradation of PPD were measured. Final concentration of PPD and COD of the solution after treatment were determined to know degree of degradation of the compound. Iron source used for photo-Fenton’s oxidation were Ferrous Sulphate (FeSO4.7H2O).The optimum conditions established by Fenton’s oxidation without UV, were considered for this investigation. Only the maximum removal conditions were tried with the UV for reaction time of 3 hours. The results showed that under optimum experimental conditions, the pH 3.5, 50 mg/L H2O2, 3 mg/L Fe2+and UV reaction time of 3 hours, the initial concentration 10 mg/L of PPD was reduced by 71.20% with 65.89% COD removal. Likewise the removal efficiencies for PPD concentration of 20, 30, 40 and 50 mg/L keeping the same proportion of H2O2and Fe2+dosage (with ratios of PPD:Fe2+:H2O2::10:1:16.7) were investigated and the results showed, PPD removal were 65.10, 61.23, 58.34 and 54.26% and COD removal was 61, 54, 52 and 50.32% respectively. From the results obtained it can be concluded that Fenton’s reagent favours the lower concentration of Phenylenediamines and UV-C assisted photo-Fenton showed that the photo-Fenton process was very effective than the normal Fenton process.Keywords: Para-Phenylenediamine; COD; UV-C light; Fenton’s reagent; Oxidatio