Microfluidic Membrane Filtration Systems to Study Biofouling

In wastewater treatment, the membrane functions as a semipermeable barrier that restricts transport of undesired particulates. A major problem related to membrane filtration processes is fouling of membranes by colloidal particles, organic matter, and biomaterials. Among the various types of fouling, biofouling is one of the most severe, as it is a dynamic process. Even a few surviving cells that adhere to the membrane surface multiply exponentially at the expense of biodegradable substances in the feed solution. To analyze the mechanism of biofouling, membrane cell is typically considered as a black-box, where only the input and the output can be measured and put into use for analysis. Microfluidic devices are being used to study and understand the nature, properties, and evolution of biofouling. A primary advantage of a microfluidic membrane is the ability to conduct real-time observations of biofilm. This chapter presents an overview of the biofouling in membrane processes and different fabrication technique of microfluidic membrane systems

Role of Microcredit on the Education: A Study on NGOs in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a pioneer of the conceptualizing micro-credit program. It has undertaken some such programs to reduce poverty and bring about socio-economic changes in the rural community. Among them, microcredit plays vital role in promoting education. So micro-credit is considered as vital tools to promote the education and reduce drop out. Presently Microfinance popularly known as micro-credit. Now there are many types of microcredit organizations, we can see throughout the country. The common micro-credit institutions are GB, BRAC, ASA. This study explores the role of micro credits on the education, who had acquired micro credits from different microcredit organizations. Primary research was carried out with the help of a major NGO’s who give loan for education. Two hundred in-depth personal interviews were conducted by the author Roy, I. and Biswas, P. from February to August 2015. Most of the developing countries like Bangladesh; people are poor especially in the rural areas people who are unable to send their children to school. Though Bangladesh Government provides some reading and writing materials to all level of students throughout the Bangladeshi students. But it is not sufficient, and it can’t motivate parents to send their children school. Because of the high cost of education parents are discouraged to educate their children. In such a situation some major microcredit institutions provide money for their children education who is the member of these institutions. They sometimes provide money without any condition or sometimes conditionally. Such major micro-credit organizations are GB, BRAC, and ASA. &nbsp

Biological activities and medicinal properties of neem (Azadirachta indica)

Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is perhaps the most useful traditional medicinal plant in India. Each part of the neem tree has some medicinal property and is thus commercially exploitable. During the last five decades, apart from the chemistry of the neem compounds, considerable progress has been achieved regarding the biological activity and medicinal applications of neem. It is now considered as a valuable source of unique natural products for development of medicines against various diseases and also for the development of industrial products. This review gives a bird's eye view mainly on the biological activities of some of the neem compounds isolated, pharmacological actions of the neem extracts, clinical studies and plausible medicinal applications of neem along with their safety evaluation

Concomitant yield optimization of tannase and gallic acid by Bacillus licheniformis KBR6 through submerged fermentation : an industrial approach

The present study is concerned with the evaluation of tannase and gallic acid production effi cacy of Bacillus licheniformis KBR6 under diff erent environmental conditions through submerged fermentation. Results have shown that diff erent environmental conditions and mineral sources have diff erential infl uences on tannase and gallic acid production. Highest tannase and gallic acid yield was observed at incubation period of 18 h and 22 h, respectively. At tannic acid concentration of 15 g/l, maximum cell mass (0.75 g/l), cell yield coeffi cient (0.08 g/g), specifi c growth rate (37.5 mg/g/h), tannase yield (16.3 U/g) and specifi c tannase production rate (0.80 U/g/h) were observed, however, at higher tannic acid concentration a decrease in tannase yield and production rate were observed, but gallic acid production increased with increasing tannic acid concentration. Additional carbohydrate sources like glucose, fructose, and lactose showed positive infl uence on enzyme yield. Among the studied nitrogen sources urea and NH4Cl, and of the phosphate sources KH2PO4 showed favourable eff ects on cell growth and simultaneous enzyme and gallic acid production. Temperature of 35 °C was found to be optimum for tannase and gallic acid production. Of all the studied metal ions Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+ showed positive eff ect whereas, Co2+, Ag2+, Pb2+, Hg2+ showed inhibitory eff ects

Role of Microcredit on the Education: A Study on NGOs in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a pioneer of the conceptualizing micro-credit program. It has undertaken some such programs to reduce poverty and bring about socio-economic changes in the rural community. Among them, microcredit plays vital role in promoting education. So micro-credit is considered as vital tools to promote the education and reduce drop out. Presently Microfinance popularly known as micro-credit. Now there are many types of microcredit organizations, we can see throughout the country. The common micro-credit institutions are GB, BRAC, ASA. This study explores the role of micro credits on the education, who had acquired micro credits from different microcredit organizations. Primary research was carried out with the help of a major NGO’s who give loan for education. Two hundred in-depth personal interviews were conducted by the author Roy, I. and Biswas, P. from February to August 2015. Most of the developing countries like Bangladesh; people are poor especially in the rural areas people who are unable to send their children to school. Though Bangladesh Government provides some reading and writing materials to all level of students throughout the Bangladeshi students. But it is not sufficient, and it can’t motivate parents to send their children school. Because of the high cost of education parents are discouraged to educate their children. In such a situation some major microcredit institutions provide money for their children education who is the member of these institutions. They sometimes provide money without any condition or sometimes conditionally. Such major micro-credit organizations are GB, BRAC, and ASA

Optimisation & minimisation of corrosion rate of electroless Ni-Co-P coating

Electroless Ni-Co–P alloy coatings were deposited to decrease the corrosion rate of the copper substrate. Central Composite Design (CCD) was employed through Design Expert Software to establish optimised deposition parameters, which produces a coating having high corrosion resistance. CCD has also been employed to determine the effect of various process parameters namely concentration of cobalt sulphate (CoSO4.7H2O) solution (10–20 gm/cc), concentration of sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2.H2O) solution (20–30 gm/cc) and bath temperature (80-90°C). The corrosion rate was determined by the Potential Dynamic test in 3.5% NaCl solution and the Tafel plot was used to determine the corrosion current density for each coated substrate. On the corrosion response of the coatings, the most significant interactions and important factors were identified using ANOVA analysis. The regression analysis showed a good fit of the experimental data through the second-order polynomial model with a coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.9531 and a model F-value of 22.57. 15 g/L of Cobalt Sulphate, 30 g/L of Sodium Hypophosphite and 80°C of bath temperature were found out to be the optimum conditions of bath deposition to obtain a corrosion rate of 0.535 µm/Y

Application of egg shell with fortified vermicompost in Capsicum cultivation: A strategy in waste management

Purpose Chicken eggshell (ES) is a global biowaste product of poultry industry and an enriched source of calcium required for plant growth. Therefore, the present study has been carried out to assess the potentiality of the combination of ES with vermicompost (VC) and chicken feather protein hydrolysate (CFPH) on growth and yield improvement of Capsicum plants.Method A field study was conducted through randomized block design (RBD) with eight treatments having three replicates for each. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) have performed to analyze the yield related parameters of plant. Nutritional components of VC and ES were also analyzed.Results The PCA analysis of the  field experiment data has indicated that the combination of ES, CFPH and VC (in a ratio of 100:10:3) remarkably increased the agronomic parameters of capsicum plant about four folds as compared to its chemical counterpart and control, while together VC and ES strongly influences the characteristics of fruits. The first two dimensions of first and second PCA analysis showed 88.39 and 66.91 percent of the overall dataset inertia respectively, explaining 88.39 and 66.91 percent of the total variability. These two values are higher than their respective reference values of 36.32 and 46.76 percent indicating substantial variability.Conclusion The co-application of ES, CFPH with VC could enhance the yield parameters of crops by enriching the soil with both micro and macronutrients. It also serves as a source of organic compost with concomitant reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers

Spatial and temporal evolution of fouling phenomena in membrane systems

The use of membranes in the treatment of wastewater is very limited in part because of the fouling phenomena. This thesis presents a parametric study of the efficiency of nanofiltration flat sheet membrane and the fouling behavior on the membrane surface. Experiments were performed by using copper nanofluid and iron salt (FeCl3) diluted solution as wastewater. The solute concentrations in the wastewater were varied from 10 to 370 ppm to gain understanding of the impact of concentration on foulant deposition rate. Different types of flat sheet membranes were tested to understand the fouling phenomena on the membrane surface with time and along the length of the membrane. It was observed that the behavior of permeate flux was a function of cross flow velocity, feed flow rate, feed concentration and transmembrane pressure. Experimental evidence showed fouling rate was a function of solute concentration and time of the experiment. The progression of foulants and particle deposition rate was correlated with feed concentration and permeate flux. Results indicate non-uniformity in the spatial development of fouling on the membrane surface. The tendency of starting fouling was observed in the retentate side of the membrane surface and it increased with time on the feed side. Fouling was strongly dependent on the crossflow velocity inside the crossflow cell and membrane properties. The shape of formation of fouling on the membrane surface was independent of the parameters tested

Comparative Analysis of RuBisCO Evolution and Intrinsic Differences: Insights from In Silico Assessment in Cyanobacteria, Monocot, and Dicot Plants

RuBisCO is the main photosynthetic enzyme of carbon assimilatory pathways in nature. Despite being the most abundant protein on earth, RuBisCO is still relatively underutilised in the food chain. Although there are sequence and structure details in the database, there are few instances of studies on evolutionary relationships. A bioinformatics and in silico study was conducted to check sequence and structural differences of RuBisCO among different photosynthetic organisms. RuBisCO from Oryza sativa showed an abundance of charged amino acids, salt-bridges, and intra-protein interactions and was more hydrophilic in nature compared to Nostoc sp., Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and Nicotiana tabacum. From molecular dynamics simulations, lower root mean square deviation and root mean square fluctuation indicate that RuBisCO from Oryza sativa was more stable, followed by Nicotiana tabacum, and a lower radius of gyrations indicates their tight packing. From this study, it was clear that some specific evolutions in charged amino acids of RuBisCO of monocot, i.e., Oryza sativa, make it more stable and stronger than other plant groups. The study concludes that a more stable nature of RuBisCO is gained from monocot Oryza sativa

Decentralized Control Strategy for PV Based DC Microgrid with Hybrid Storage

Due to the rapid development of power electronics technology and modernization of DC based loads, DC microgrids (DCMG) are becoming most attractive solution in terms of their increased efficiency and high power quality. However they face certain challenges like intermittency of renewable energy sources, limitations in dynamic behaviour of storage systems and various stability issues during islanding. Thus it is mandatory to select the DCMG components properly with a robust control strategy for power converters in order to maintain power balance despite of variation in source and load power in order maintain the system power quality. In this work, a DC bus signalling based decentralized control strategy is proposed for a PV based DCMG, which eliminates the risk associated with DC bus voltage fluctuation. Fuel cell is as an auxiliary power source along with solar PV and storage devices, reduces the possibility of black out and helps to increase system reliability. The proposed control strategy has been validated through MATLAB/Simulink based simulation studies for variable weather condition and load demand on DCMG system