ENV-612: A NOVEL SLUDGE-BED ANAEROBIC MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR FOR SUSTAINABLE TREATMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER

Dissolving pulp mill wastewater called prehydrolysis liquor (PHL) obtained from steam (at 150-1700C) treatment of wood had a total chemical oxygen demand (COD) of approximately 100 g/L contains mainly sugars, furfural, lignin, and acetic acid, poses a considerable wastewater disposal problem. Replacement of the current energy intensive disposal method (evaporation and use of recovery boiler) is a requirement of dissolving pulp industry. The bioreactors were fed with PHL at organic loading rates (OLR) ranging from 0.8 to 5 kg-COD/m3-d to study the performance with respect to the COD removal, methane (bio-energy) production, effluent characteristics, and membrane fouling. Average COD removal of 91% and specific methane yield of 0.36 m3/kg-CODremoved/day were achieved during the pseudo-steady period of the continuous mesophilic operation at each loading rate. Whereas, in thermophilic conditions, a methane yield of 0.38 m3/kg-CODremoved/day was observed. There was no sugar and furfural found in the effluent of the SB-AnMBR at both temperatures (350C and 550C) during the pseudo-steady period. High effluent COD can be attributed to lignin in the effluent (0.2 to 1.6 g/L). Flat-sheet membranes used in the SB-AnMBRs did not show significant fouling based on monitoring of temporal variations in the trans-membrane pressure at a sustained flux of 0.1 m3/m2/d during the 550 days of the continuous operation

Revisiting scaling relations for giant radio halos in galaxy clusters

Many galaxy clusters host Megaparsec-scale radio halos, generated by ultrarelativistic electrons in the magnetized intracluster medium. Correlations between the power of radio halos and the thermal properties of the hosting clusters were established in the last decade, including the connection between the presence of a halo and cluster mergers. The X-ray luminosity and redshift limited Extended GMRT Radio Halo Survey provides a rich and unique dataset for statistical studies of the halos. We uniformly analyze the radio and X-ray data for the GMRT cluster sample, and use the new Planck SZ catalog, to revisit the correlations between the power of halos and the thermal properties of galaxy clusters. We find that the radio power of halos at 1.4 GHz scales with the cluster X-ray (0.1--2.4 keV) luminosity computed within R_500 as P_1.4 L_500^2.0. Our bigger and more homogenous sample confirms that the X-ray luminous (L_500 > 5x10^44 erg/s) clusters branch into two populations --- radio halos lie on the correlation, while clusters with upper limits to radio-halo emission are well below that correlation. This bimodality remains if we excise cool cores from the X-ray luminosities. Correlating with Planck data, we find that P_1.4 scales with the cluster integrated SZ signal within R_500 as P_1.4 Y_500^2.1, in line with previous findings. However, contrary to previous studies that were limited by incompleteness and small sample size, we find that the "SZ-luminous" Y_500 > 6x10^-5 Mpc^2 clusters show a bimodal behavior similar to that in the radio-X-ray diagram. Bimodality of both correlations can be traced to clusters dynamics, with radio halos found exclusively in merging clusters. These results confirm the key role of mergers for the origin of giant radio halos, suggesting that they trigger the relativistic particle acceleration.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ on September 12, 201

Environmentally sustainable facile synthesis of nanocrystalline holmium hafnate (Ho2Hf2O7): Promising new oxide-ion conducting solid electrolyte

A2B2O7 oxides with defect-fluorite structure are one of the potential candidates for solid oxide fuel cell electrolyte material due to their excessive thermodynamic stability in oxygen potential gradient at elevated temperature between 500 and 900 °C. Holmium hafnate nanoparticles have been synthesised through the Leeds Alginate Process (LAP) using inorganic salts of holmium and hafnium as starting materials immobilized in alginate beads. Ion exchange with sodium alginate and its subsequent thermal treatment have been used to prepare the nanopowder of Ho2Hf2O7. Thermal decomposition of dried beads is carried out at 700 °C for 2 h and 6 h to obtain the nanoparticles of Ho2Hf2O7. This calcination temperature was determined after carrying out simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA/DSC). High Temperature X-ray Diffraction (HT-XRD) was carried out to gain further insight into the thermal decomposition process in static ambient environment. HT-XRD analysis corroborated with the results obtained from TGA/DSC. Nano-crystalline powder of single phase Ho2Hf2O7 has been obtained by calcination of oven dried ion-exchanged alginate beads in relatively low temperature range of 500–700 °C. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) data confirmed the formation of single phase defect fluorite structure of Ho2Hf2O7. The crystallographic parameters calculated from TEM and XRD analysis are in excellent agreement with each other. Furthermore, TEM–EDX analysis confirms that the Ho2Hf2O7 synthesised by the facile alginate process is nearly stoichiometric. Raman spectroscopy gives evidence of the presence of oxide-ion vacancy in holmium hafnate which is supported with ac-impedance spectroscopy measurement at selected three temperatures. The present study suggests that the LAP has the capability of yielding on a large scale single phase defect-fluorite nanoparticles of electrolyte materials for solid oxide fuel cells in environmentally sustainable, economical and energy efficiently manner

Trend of Crop Water Requirement at Akola (Maharashtra), India

Climate change scenario badly affects the agriculture. The present study aimed to characterize the trend in maximum temperature and crop water requirement over a last decade at Akola station (Maharashtra State), because of changing trend in meteorological parameters. Study investigated the trends in temperature and reference evapotranspiration using various statistical parameters like mean, coefficient of variation, coefficient of skewness and coefficient of kurtosis. Monthly maximum air temperature showed slightly decreasing trend over summer season while increasing trend over monsoon and winter season. On the contrary, the monthly reference evapotranspiration showed decreasing linear trend over monsoon and winter season, while increasing trend over summer season. The study concluded that as the monthly reference evapotranspiration showed decreasing linear trend over cropping seasons (i.e. monsoon and winter), the crop water requirement at Akola station shall decrease in future

Study of drug prescription pattern and adverse drug reaction monitoring in patients with hypertension and diabetes visiting outpatient department in a government tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra, India

Background: Drug utilization study is an important tool to study the clinical use of drugs and its impact on healthcare system. DUS in patients with HTN and DM is essential to observe the changing prescribing attitude of physicians with the aim to promote rational use of drugs and to minimize the adverse drug reactions.Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted on randomly selected patients attending medicine outpatient department in a tertiary care hospital. Drug prescription sheets of 600 patients were studied for 18 months from January 2016 to June 2017 and the prescribing pattern was analysed using the World Health Organization basic drug indicators.Results: Total 2029 drugs were prescribed to 600 patients that belonged to various classes. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 3.4. Majority (61.5%) drugs were prescribed using generic names. Percentage encounters with the antibiotics and injections were 6.3 and 11.5 per cent respectively. 38% drugs were prescribed from the 20th edition of WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. PDD in the current study was found to be significantly less than WHO DDD in all drugs. All of the prescriptions in the present study conformed to WHO guidelines and majority of them with JNC VIII guidelines.Conclusions: The findings of this study are comparable to those of other studies. However, there is a scope of improvement in areas such as overdosing, prescribing more by generic names instead of brand names and from WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

Influence of Socioeconomic Factors on Nutrition During Childhood in Germany and India

Malnutrition, nutritional deficiency, or undernutrition is an imbalanced nutritional status resulting from insufficient intake of nutrients to meet normal physiologic requirements. Malnutrition in childhood has both short-term consequences and long-term consequences on mental and physical health as well as the overall health development of children. Of all regions in the world, the Asia and the Pacific region has achieved the fastest rate of economic growth. There is no evidence that this rapid economic growth translates into a decline in malnutrition of children in Asian countries such as India

Wearable Nano-Based Gas Sensors for Environmental Monitoring and Encountered Challenges in Optimization

With a rising emphasis on public safety and quality of life, there is an urgent need to ensure optimal air quality, both indoors and outdoors. Detecting toxic gaseous compounds plays a pivotal role in shaping our sustainable future. This review aims to elucidate the advancements in smart wearable (nano)sensors for monitoring harmful gaseous pollutants, such as ammonia (NH3), nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), hydrocarbons (CxHy), and hydrogen fluoride (HF). Differentiating this review from its predecessors, we shed light on the challenges faced in enhancing sensor performance and offer a deep dive into the evolution of sensing materials, wearable substrates, electrodes, and types of sensors. Noteworthy materials for robust detection systems encompass 2D nanostructures, carbon nanomaterials, conducting polymers, nanohybrids, and metal oxide semiconductors. A dedicated section dissects the significance of circuit integration, miniaturization, real-time sensing, repeatability, reusability, power efficiency, gas-sensitive material deposition, selectivity, sensitivity, stability, and response/recovery time, pinpointing gaps in the current knowledge and offering avenues for further research. To conclude, we provide insights and suggestions for the prospective trajectory of smart wearable nanosensors in addressing the extant challenges

Massive Assymetrical Virginal Breast Hypertrophy: A Case Report

Virginal breast hypertrophy (VHB) is a rare , distinct disorder of unknown etiology with the rapid onset of macromastia at the onset of puberty.We reported a 12 year old, peripubertal girl presented to us with abnormal assymetrical growth of her breasts in 10 months. Due to the enormous breast volume, which caused her physical and psychological problems, she curtailed her social life. On examination, left breast was enlarged more in comparision to right, with associated skin changes. Endocrinological investigations were normal. A bilateral reduction mammaplasty with free nipple graft was performed. Histological analysis of the breast tissue revealed the diagnosis of virginal hypertrophy. During the follow-up period of 13 months, no recurrence was noted and patient is physically and psychologically satisfied

The Effect of Giving Dragon Fruit Skin Extract (Hylocereus costarisensis) on the Quality of Se'i Beef Meat

This research has been conducted to determine the quality of processed meat mixed with dragon fruit skin extract (Hylocereus costarisensis) and determine the length of time of different watering. The method used was an experimental method with a design using a complete randomized design (CRD) consisting of 2 4x3 pattern factors consisting of 4 factors of dragon skin extract level of 0% (control), 40%, 60%, 80%, and 3 factors of duration time of watering 6 hours, 12 hours, 18 hours. Combining these two factors produces 12 combinations in each treatment and were repeated 3 times, thus there will be 36 experimental units. The parameters measured in the study were TBA, water activity, pH, total bacteria (TPC). Data analysis used Anova, if the impact is very significant (P<0.01) Duncan further test was conducted to determine the difference between treatment with SPSS 23 software. This study showed that the interaction between dragon fruit skin extract and the duration factor of watering had a very significant effect (P<0.01) on TBA, pH, TPC, antioxidant activity. The best combination for TBA, pH, TPC, antioxidant activity of meat se'i at 80% for 18 hours. While the activity of se'i water caused the Aw value to increase from 0.84 to 0.96, the best combination for the value of water activity meat se'i at the level of 60% with a length of 12 hours.