Restoration of soil quality using biochar and brown coal waste: A review

Soils in intensively farmed areas of the world are prone to degradation. Amendment of such soils with organic waste materials attempts to restore soil quality. Organic amendments are heterogeneous media, which are a source of soil organic matter (SOM) and maintain or restore chemical, physical, biological and ecological functionality. More specifically, an increase in SOM can influence the soil microclimate, microbial community structure, biomass turnover and mineralisation of nutrients. The search is on-going for locally sourced alternatives as many forms may be costly or geographically limiting. The present review focuses on a heterogeneous group of amendments i.e. biochar and brown coal waste (BCW). Both biochar (made from a variety of feedstocks at various temperatures) and BCW (mined extensively) are options that have worldwide applicability. These materials have very high C contents and soil stability, therefore can be used for long-term C sequestration to abate greenhouse gas emissions and as conditioners to improve soil quality. However, biochar is costly for large-scale applications and BCW may have inherently high moisture and pollutant contents. Future studies should focus on the long-term application of these amendments and determine the physicochemical properties of the soil, bioavailability of soil contaminants, diversity of soil communities and productivity of selected crops. Furthermore, the development of in situ technologies to lower production and processing costs of biochar and BCW would improve their economic feasibility for large-scale application

Design and Performance Analysis of a Compact Quad-Element UWB MIMO Antenna for Automotive Communications

This paper presents the design and analysis of a planar ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for modern vehicular communication systems. The proposed unit cell antenna structure was designed using modified elliptical radiators on a Rogers RO3003 substrate, has a size of 22 × 22 × 0.76 mm3, and covers an impedance bandwidth (S11 ≤ −10 dB) of 3.14 GHz to 12.24 GHz. The peak gain and efficiency of the unit cell prototype are 5.1 dBi and 81%, respectively. The unit cell was further developed into a MIMO antenna configuration with four elements placed orthogonal to each other in a single plane measuring 50 × 50 × 0.76 mm3. The measured isolation between the antenna elements was greater than 20 dB. The measured envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of the MIMO antenna was less than 0.004, the diversity gain (DG) was greater than 9.67 dB, the total active reflection coefficient (TARC) was <−10 dB, and the mean effective gain (MEG) ratio was > 0.99. The characteristics of the proposed unit cell and the MIMO antenna were investigated for housing effects in order to validate the consistent performance of the antenna in the presence of conducting bodies. In addition, the radiation characteristics of the antenna when mounted on a vehicle were analyzed using a virtual model of the car. The results show that the proposed quad-element UWB MIMO array is compact, has good performance, and is well-suited for automotive applications

Strategies for dimensionality reduction in hyperspectral remote sensing: A comprehensive overview

The technological advancements in spectroscopy give rise to acquiring data about different materials on earth's surface which can be utilized in a variety of potential applications. But, the hundreds of spectral bands are generally equipped with highly correlated information with limited training samples. This will degrade the Hyperspectral Image (HSI) classification accuracy. So Dimensionality Reduction (DR) has become inevitable and necessary step need to incorporate before HSI classification. The main contribution of this work lies in comparative study and review on dimensionality reduction techniques for Hyperspectral remote sensing image classification. The related challenges and research directions are also discussed. This study will help the researchers in the Hyperspectral remote sensing community to choose the appropriate DR technique for classification which can be useful in various real time applications

Structure Prediction of Human Fatty Acid Synthase–Dehydratase: A Plausible Model for Understanding Active Site Interactions

Fatty acid synthase (FASN, UniProt ID: P49327) is a multienzyme dimer complex that plays a critical role in lipogenesis. Consequently, this lipogenic enzyme has gained tremendous biomedical importance. The role of FASN and its inhibition is being extensively researched in several clinical conditions, such as cancers, obesity, and diabetes. X-ray crystallographic structures of some of its domains, such as β-ketoacyl synthase, acetyl transacylase, malonyl transacylase, enoyl reductase, β-ketoacyl reductase, and thioesterase, (TE) are already reported. Here, we have attempted an in silico elucidation of the uncrystallized dehydratase (DH) catalytic domain of human FASN. This theoretical model for DH domain was predicted using comparative modeling methods. Different stand-alone tools and servers were used to validate and check the reliability of the predicted models, which suggested it to be a highly plausible model. The stereochemical analysis showed 92.0% residues in favorable region of Ramachandran plot. The initial physiological substrate β-hydroxybutyryl group was docked into active site of DH domain using Glide. The molecular dynamics simulations carried out for 20 ns in apo and holo states indicated the stability and accuracy of the predicted structure in solvated condition. The predicted model provided useful biochemical insights into the substrate – active site binding mechanisms. This model was then used for identifying potential FASN inhibitors using high-throughput virtual screening of the National Cancer Institute database of chemical ligands. The inhibitory efficacy of the top hit ligands was validated by performing molecular dynamics simulation for 20 ns, where in the ligand NSC71039 exhibited good enzyme inhibition characteristics and exhibited dose-dependent anticancer cytotoxicity in retinoblastoma cancer cells in vitro