A review on activated carbon: process, application and prospects

Activated carbon (AC) is used in different states of applications after its discovery as a strong and reliable adsorbent. An overview on AC is presented together with revisiting the sources of AC generation; methods used to generate AC comprising of pyrolysis activation; physical activation; chemical activation and steam pyrolysis. The important factors affecting the AC production, the possible applications of AC and their future prospects are also discussed. AC is applied in water, wastewater and leachate treatments in many countries, especially to polish the color, remove the odor and some heavy metals. It is cheap and available, and can be produced from agricultural waste materials, e.g. rice husk, palm oil shell and coconut shell. The AC’s fine and porous structure and an extremely large particle surface area (>1000 m2/g) results in making it possessed powerful adsorptive properties. Therefore, the adsorption process using AC is found to be a potentially viable method of removing pollutants from aqueous solutions

Effects of electric potential, NaCl, pH and distance between electrodes on efficiency of electrolysis in landfill leachate treatment

This study investigated the effects of different parameters on the removal efficiencies of organic and inorganic pollutants in landfill leachate treatment by electrolysis. Different parameters were considered such as the electric potential (e.g., 24, 40 and 60 V), hydraulic retention time (HRT) (e.g., 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 min), sodium chloride (NaCl) concentration (e.g., 1, 3, 5 and 7%), pH (e.g., 3, 7 and 9), electrodes materials [e.g., aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe)] and distance between electrodes (e.g., 1, 2 and 3 cm). The best operational condition of electrolysis was then recommended. The electric potential of 60 V with HRT of 120 min at 5% of NaCl solution using Al as anode and Fe as cathode (kept at a distance of 3 cm) was the most efficient condition which increased the removal efficiencies of various parameters such as turbidity, salinity, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and heavy metals (e.g., Zn and Mn). The higher removal percentages of many parameters, especially COD (94%) and Mn (93%) indicated that the electrolysis is an efficient technique for multi-pollutants (e.g., organic, inorganic and heavy metals) removal from the landfill leachate

Allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation for extranodal natural killer/Tâ cell lymphoma, nasal type: a CIBMTR analysis

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146342/1/bjh14879.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146342/2/bjh14879_am.pd

Plant roots sense soil compaction through restricted ethylene diffusion

© 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved. Soil compaction represents a major challenge for modern agriculture. Compaction is intuitively thought to reduce root growth by limiting the ability of roots to penetrate harder soils. We report that root growth in compacted soil is instead actively suppressed by the volatile hormone ethylene. We found that mutant Arabidopsis and rice roots that were insensitive to ethylene penetrated compacted soil more effectively than did wild-type roots. Our results indicate that soil compaction lowers gas diffusion through a reduction in air-filled pores, thereby causing ethylene to accumulate in root tissues and trigger hormone responses that restrict growth. We propose that ethylene acts as an early warning signal for roots to avoid compacted soils, which would be relevant to research into the breeding of crops resilient to soil compaction

In Memoriam: A Memoir for Our Fallen "Heroes"

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or be any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.Even though neurosurgeons exercise these enormous and versatile skills, the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the fabrics of the global neurosurgical family, jeopardizing human lives, and forcing the entire world to be locked down. We stand on the shoulders of the giants and will not forget their examples and their teachings. We will work to the best of our ability to honor their memory. Professor Harvey Cushing said: “When to take great risks; when to withdraw in the face of unexpected difficulties; whether to force an attempted enucleation of a pathologically favorable tumor to its completion with the prospect of an operative fatality, or to abandon the procedure short of completeness with the certainty that after months or years even greater risks may have to be faced at a subsequent session—all these require surgical judgment which is a matter of long experience.” It is up to us, therefore, to keep on the noble path that we have decided to undertake, to accumulate the surgical experience that these icons have shown us, the fruit of sacrifice and obstinacy. Our tribute goes to them; we will always remember their excellent work and their brilliant careers that will continue to enlighten all of us. This memorial is intended to commemorate our colleagues who succumbed during the first 4 months

Clinico-pathological features of incidentally detected and symptomatic renal cell carcinomas

Background: Most studies have demonstrated that patients in whom renal cell carcinomas (RCC) are incidentally detected have a better prognosis than those with symptoms related to RCC. This study aimed to compare the differences in the clinico-pathological features of incidentally detected and symptomatic RCC. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in patients who underwent surgical treatment for suspected renal masses and pathologically proven RCC. Histopathological data was retrieved from the pathology database. Incidentally diagnosed RCC and symptomatic tumors were compared. Significance was calculated using Fisher’s exact test. Results: Of the total 179 patients, 41 (22.9%) were incidentally detected and 138 (77.1%) were symptomatic. Incidentally detected tumors were smaller, on average being 3.63 cm, and diagnosed at earlier stage and lower grade when compared to symptomatic tumors. More aggressive histology, such as sarcomatoid variants, collecting duct tumors and high grade tumors were more often seen in the symptomatic group. Conclusions: Incidentally detected RCC has significantly better pathological prognostic factors than the symptomatic group. Symptomatic tumors present at a significantly higher stage, grade and are more aggressive than incidental lesions, particularly at later stages. [Arch Clin Exp Surg 2017; 6(1.000): 28-32

Adsorptive treatment of landfill leachate using activated carbon modified with three different methods

Activated Carbon (AC) is an adsorbent having high surface area which makes the process of removing heavy metals from wastewater (such as landfill leachate) very effective. This study explored the utilization of three methods of modification of AC produced from coconut shell by treating it with nitric acid (HNO3), potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and heating at 600°C to improve the adsorption capacity. The AC can remove multi-pollutants in the filtration process which was used to treat landfill leachate. The water quality parameters such as pH, TSS, Ammonia-Nitrogen and a few heavy metals were considered in the present study. Results showed that the removal of these parameters was proportional with the increase of contact time and the bed depth of AC. The isotherm analysis of the adsorption of modified AC showed the best Removal Efficiency (RE) can be achieved when AC treated with KMnO4 for NH3-N, zinc, TSS and sulphide. The morphology of the AC was studied through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) pattern analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis. It was found that various types of oxygen functional groups were introduced onto the surface of coconut shell derived AC through oxidation using HNO3. FTIR was used to characterize the surface oxygen functional groups. The surface functional groups such as N-H and C-H stretching played a significant role in heavy metals adsorption. Hence, it can be concluded that the hybrid technique by using electrolysis process with AC adsorption be an effective way to remove the suspended solids and heavy metals from landfill leachate and thus able to reduce environmental pollution

Methotrexate impacts conserved pathways in diverse human gut bacteria leading to decreased host immune activation

Immunomodulatory drugs can inhibit bacterial growth, yet their mechanism of action, spectrum, and clinical relevance remain unknown. Methotrexate (MTX), a first-line rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment, inhibits mammalian dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), but whether it directly impacts gut bacteria is unclear. We show that MTX broadly alters the human gut microbiota. Drug sensitivity varied across strains, but the mechanism of action against DHFR appears conserved between mammalian and bacterial cells. RA patient microbiotas were sensitive to MTX, and changes in gut bacterial taxa and gene family abundance were distinct between responders and non-responders. Transplantation of post-treatment samples into germ-free mice given an inflammatory trigger led to reduced immune activation relative to pre-treatment controls, enabling identification of MTX-modulated bacterial taxa associated with intestinal and splenic immune cells. Thus, conservation in cellular pathways across domains of life can result in broad off-target drug effects on the human gut microbiota with consequences for immune function

Impact of total body irradiation‐ vs chemotherapy‐based myeloablative conditioning on outcomes of haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation for acute myelogenous leukemia

International audienc

Impact of total body irradiation‐ vs chemotherapy‐based myeloablative conditioning on outcomes of haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation for acute myelogenous leukemia

International audienc