Recent Advancements in Electrochemical Conversion of Carbon Dioxide

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into eco-friendly and clean products is a promising approach to eradicate pollution. Although carbon dioxide emission is inhibited by the advent of renewable sources of energy, it is present in the atmosphere and needs to be cleaned. The reduction of carbon dioxide from atmospheric gases can be accomplished by its adsorption and subsequent transportation to electrolytic chambers, where it is reduced to hydrocarbons, organic acids or carbonates. This review focuses on developing a three compartment electrochemical cell to reduce carbon dioxide used as a catholyte. Various factors affecting the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide and recent advancements in this field are deliberated

A CdZnTeSe Gamma Spectrometer Trained by Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Radioisotope Identification

We report the implementation of a deep convolutional neural network to train a high-resolution room-temperature CdZnTeSe based gamma ray spectrometer for accurate and precise determination of gamma ray energies for radioisotope identification. The prototype learned spectrometer consists of a NI PCI 5122 fast digitizer connected to a pre-amplifier to recognize spectral features in a sequence of data. We used simulated preamplifier pulses that resemble actual data for various gamma photon energies to train a CNN on the equivalent of 90 seconds worth of data and validated it on 10 seconds worth of simulated data

Quantum Discord in a spin-1/2 transverse XY Chain Following a Quench

We report a study on the zero-temperature quantum discord as a measure of two-spin correlation of a transverse XY spin chain following a quench across a quantum critical point and investigate the behavior of mutual information, classical correlations and hence of discord in the final state as a function of the rate of quenching. We show that though discord vanishes in the limit of very slow as well as very fast quenching, it exhibits a peak for an intermediate value of the quenching rate. We show that though discord and also the mutual information exhibit a similar behavior with respect to the quenching rate to that of concurrence or negativity following an identical quenching, there are quantitative differences. Our studies indicate that like concurrence, discord also exhibits a power law scaling with the rate of quenching in the limit of slow quenching though it may not be expressible in a closed power law form. We also explore the behavior of discord on quenching linearly across a quantum multicritical point (MCP) and observe a scaling similar to that of the defect density.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Diagnosis of Anosmia and Hyposmia: A Systematic Review

BackgroundAnosmia and hyposmia have many etiologies, including trauma, chronic sinusitis, neoplasms, and respiratory viral infections such as rhinovirus and SARS-CoV-2. We aimed to systematically review the literature on the diagnostic evaluation of anosmia/hyposmia.MethodsPubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases were searched for articles published since January 1990 using terms combined with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). We included articles evaluating diagnostic modalities for anosmia, written in the English language, used original data, and had two or more patients.ResultsA total of 2065 unique titles were returned upon the initial search. Of these, 226 abstracts were examined, yielding 27 full-text articles meeting inclusion criteria (Level of evidence ranging from 1 to 4; most level 2). The studies included a total of 13,577 patients. The most utilized diagnostic tools were orthonasal smell tests (such as the Sniffin? Sticks and the UPSIT, along with validated abridged smell tests). Though various imaging modalities (including MRI and CT) were frequently mentioned in the workup of olfactory dysfunction, routine imaging was not used to primarily diagnose smell loss.ConclusionThe literature includes several studies on validity and reliability for various smell tests in diagnosing anosmia. Along with a thorough history and physical, validated orthonasal smell tests should be part of the workup of the patient with suspected olfactory dysfunction. The most widely studied modality was MRI, but criteria for the timing and sequence of imaging modalities was heterogenous

Population infection estimation from wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in Nagpur, India during the second pandemic wave

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as an effective environmental surveillance tool for predicting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease outbreaks in high-income countries (HICs) with centralized sewage infrastructure. However, few studies have applied WBE alongside epidemic disease modelling to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in low-resource settings. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of collecting untreated wastewater samples from rural and urban catchment areas of Nagpur district, to detect and quantify SARS-CoV-2 using real-time qPCR, to compare geographic differences in viral loads, and to integrate the wastewater data into a modified Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Confirmed Positives-Recovered (SEIPR) model. Of the 983 wastewater samples analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, we detected significantly higher sample positivity rates, 43.7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 40.1, 47.4) and 30.4% (95% CI 24.66, 36.66), and higher viral loads for the urban compared with rural samples, respectively. The Basic reproductive number, R0, positively correlated with population density and negatively correlated with humidity, a proxy for rainfall and dilution of waste in the sewers. The SEIPR model estimated the rate of unreported coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases at the start of the wave as 13.97 [95% CI (10.17, 17.0)] times that of confirmed cases, representing a material difference in cases and healthcare resource burden. Wastewater surveillance might prove to be a more reliable way to prepare for surges in COVID-19 cases during future waves for authorities

RNA-Seq of untreated wastewater to assess COVID-19 and emerging and endemic viruses for public health surveillance

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic showcased the power of genomic sequencing to tackle the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. However, metagenomic sequencing of total microbial RNAs in wastewater has the potential to assess multiple infectious diseases simultaneously and has yet to be explored.MethodsA retrospective RNA-Seq epidemiological survey of 140 untreated composite wastewater samples was performed across urban (n = 112) and rural (n = 28) areas of Nagpur, Central India. Composite wastewater samples were prepared by pooling 422 individual grab samples collected prospectively from sewer lines of urban municipality zones and open drains of rural areas from 3rd February to 3rd April 2021, during the second COVID-19 wave in India. Samples were pre-processed and total RNA was extracted prior to genomic sequencing.FindingsThis is the first study that has utilised culture and/or probe-independent unbiased RNA-Seq to examine Indian wastewater samples. Our findings reveal the detection of zoonotic viruses including chikungunya, Jingmen tick and rabies viruses, which have not previously been reported in wastewater. SARS-CoV-2 was detectable in 83 locations (59%), with stark abundance variations observed between sampling sites. Hepatitis C virus was the most frequently detected infectious virus, identified in 113 locations and co-occurring 77 times with SARS-CoV-2; and both were more abundantly detected in rural areas than urban zones. Concurrent identification of segmented virus genomic fragments of influenza A virus, norovirus, and rotavirus was observed. Geographical differences were also observed for astrovirus, saffold virus, husavirus, and aichi virus that were more prevalent in urban samples, while the zoonotic viruses chikungunya and rabies, were more abundant in rural environments.InterpretationRNA-Seq can effectively detect multiple infectious diseases simultaneously, facilitating geographical and epidemiological surveys of endemic viruses that could help direct healthcare interventions against emergent and pre-existent infectious diseases as well as cost-effectively and qualitatively characterising the health status of the population over time

Останні досягнення в електрохімічному перетворенні вуглекислого газу

Електрохімічне відновлення вуглекислого газу в екологічно чисті продукти є перспективним підходом до викорінення забруднення. Хоча викиди вуглекислого газу гальмуються появою відновлюваних джерел енергії, він присутній в атмосфері та потребує очищення. Відновлення вуглекислого газу з атмосферних газів може бути здійснено шляхом його адсорбції та подальшого транспортування в електролітичні камери, де він відновлюється до вуглеводнів, органічних кислот або карбонатів. Стаття зосереджена на розробці трикамерної електрохімічної комірки для зменшення вуглекислого газу, який використовується як католіт. Розглядаються різні фактори, що впливають на електрохімічне відновлення вуглекислого газу, і останні досягнення в цій галузі.Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into eco-friendly and clean products is a promising approach to eradicate pollution. Although carbon dioxide emission is inhibited by the advent of renewable sources of energy, it is present in the atmosphere and needs to be cleaned. The reduction of carbon dioxide from atmospheric gases can be accomplished by its adsorption and subsequent transportation to electrolytic chambers, where it is reduced to hydrocarbons, organic acids or carbonates. This review focuses on developing a threecompartment electrochemical cell to reduce carbon dioxide used as a catholyte. Various factors affecting the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide and recent advancements in this field are deliberated

Zinc(II)- and Copper(I)-mediated large two- photon absorption cross sections in a bis-cinnamaldiminato schiff base

A Schiff base ligand has been synthesized by condensing 1,2-diaminobenzene with 4-(dimethylamino)cinnamaldehyde to give a donor- π -acceptor- π -donor system which does not show any two-photon absorption cross section but which does, upon complexation with Zn(II) or Cu(I), exhibit very high two-photon absorption cross sections

Acyclic donor-acceptor-donor chromophores for large enhancement of two-photon absorption cross-section in the presence of Mg(II), Ca(II) or Zn(II) ions

Two new chromophores in the format, donor-acceptor-donor, have been synthesized in high yields from easily available starting materials. These compounds do not show any two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-section in the wavelength range, 780-900 nm when probed by the Z-scan technique with a femtosecond laser. However, in presence of Zn(II), Ca(II) or Mg(II) ion, each compound gives exceptionally large TPA cross-section in the same wavelength range

Metal induced enhancement of fluorescence and modulation of two-photon absorption cross-section with a donor-acceptor-acceptor-donor receptor

A metal ion sensing fluorophore L that exhibits a large two-photon absorption cross-section has been synthesized in good yields. The influences of different metal ion inputs, on the one- and two-photon spectroscopic properties of L, have been investigated. The ligand itself does not show any fluorescence although in presence of a metal ion like Zn(II), Cd(II), Mg(II) or Ca(II), a ~25 time enhancement of fluorescence is observed. The ligand with symmetrical "donor-acceptor-acceptor-donor" characteristics exhibits a large two-photon absorption cross-section measured by femtosecond open-aperture Z-scan technique at 880 nm. However, presence of any of the above metal ions lowers its two-photon absorption cross-section (δ ) to different extents at 880 nm. Theoretical calculation carried out in DFT formalism on the ligand and its Zn(II) complex corroborate experimental results