Experimental Study on the Effect of Cement and Sand Replacement with Red Mud and Quarry Dust in Cement Concrete Pavements

The main objective of the project is experimental study of the possibility of utilizing the waste red mud (bauxite residue) and quarry dust in cement concrete. Red mud is a by-product produced in the process of extraction of aluminium from bauxite. The red mud generated by this process is highly alkaline with a pH usually ranging from 10 to 12. It leads to serious environmental problems. Worldwide there are approximately 80 to 90 million tons of red mud is being generated every year. The production of 1 ton aluminium generates 1-2 tonnes of red mud. The storage of red mud is economically and environmentally problematic due to the risk of contamination of natural resources and living organisms. Red mud can be used in replacement of cement in concrete. The quarry dust which is available from local resources can be used as a replacement of river sand in a conventional concrete pavements. This study aims at describing such utilization and their effective usage in concrete. Experiments have been conducted under laboratory conditions to assess the compressive strength and flexural strength of the concrete cubes made of red mud and quarry dust. By conducting the model tests we can replace the 15% of cement with red mud and 30% of sand with quarry dust

Pharmaceutico - Analytical study of Trailokyamohana Rasa

Herbo-mineral formulations occupies significant seat in Ayurvedic pharmaceutics. Nearly 70% formulations include combination of one or more metallic/mineral with several herbs which have supporting role in treating the disease. Trailokyamohana Rasa is one of the herbo- mineral formulation prepared by the Kupipakwa Rasayana method explained in the context of Prameha. The present study deals with the preparation and analytical study of Trailokyamohana Rasa, a unique formulation prepared by Antardhuma method of Kupipakwa Rasayana. The analysis of Trailokyamohana Rasa showed 8.4pH, 1.36% loss on drying, 68.94% of total ash and 38.56% of acid insoluble ash. X-RAY Diffraction Study of the sample revealed the peak of mercury which was in HgS form. Peaks also showed traces of Calcium, Tin and sulphur which was crystalline in nature. AAS analysis was done which revealed the traces of Calcium 16%, Tin as 7.56%, sulphur as 3.8%, carbonate as 40.25% and loss on ignition was 49.30% and Hg level showed below 1 ppm. Peaks at intervals showed the traces of Hg (Mercury), S (Sulphur). Second peaks showed the traces of Ca(Calcium) and Sn (Tin). Some other components were found such as C (Carbon), O (Oxide), Na (Sodium), Al (Aluminium), Si (Silicon), P (Phosphorus), Cl (Chlorine), K (Potassium), Fe (Iron), Cu (Copper)

HESS J1632-478: an energetic relic

HESS J1632-478 is an extended and still unidentified TeV source in the galactic plane. In order to identify the source of the very high energy emission and to constrain its spectral energy distribution, we used a deep observation of the field obtained with XMM-Newton together with data from Molonglo, Spitzer and Fermi to detect counterparts at other wavelengths. The flux density emitted by HESS J1632-478 peaks at very high energies and is more than 20 times weaker at all other wavelengths probed. The source spectrum features two large prominent bumps with the synchrotron emission peaking in the ultraviolet and the external inverse Compton emission peaking in the TeV. HESS J1632-478 is an energetic pulsar wind nebula with an age of the order of 10^4 years. Its bolometric (mostly GeV-TeV) luminosity reaches 10% of the current pulsar spin down power. The synchrotron nebula has a size of 1 pc and contains an unresolved point-like X-ray source, probably the pulsar with its wind termination shock.Comment: A&A accepted, 9 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

Analysis of vibration based windmill coupled micromachined energy harvester

The present work exploits the centripetal, Coriolis and Euler forces generated in a rotating windmill. The MEMS device is placed on the blade of a windmill to harvest the energy. Modal analysis is carried out to optimize the dimensions of the structure to match the desired conditions. The real time response of the structure and the voltage generated in the piezoelectric layer are evaluated using transient analysis. It was noticed that Euler and Coriolis forces have a significant contribution in the initial time when the wind turbine accelerates from rest. The later portion is dominated by the Coriolis and Euler forces, and in some instances they cancel out each other. However, there is always a steady contribution from the centripetal force which is proportional to the magnitude of angular velocity of the wind turbine

The Contribution of the Light Quark Condensate to the Pion-Nucleon Sigma Term

There has been a discrepancy between values of the pion-nucleon sigma term extracted by two different methods for many years. Analysis of recent high precision pion-nucleon data has widened the gap between the two determinations. It is argued that the two extractions correspond to different quantities and that the difference between them can be understood and calculated.Comment: Modern Physics Letters A (in press

Anaerobic membrane reactor: Biomethane from chicken manure and high-quality effluent

Chicken manure was treated in a pilot scale reactor anaerobic membrane bioreactor constituted by a completely mixed reactor combined with an ultrafiltration tube-shaped membrane in a side-stream configuration. The process operated under mesophilic condition and the inhibition of high concentration of ammonia was avoided using an ammonia stripping system. The experimental plan included a preliminary evaluation, where organic loading rates between 1.0 and 7.6 kgVS/m3/day were tested. The organic load higher than 4 kgVS/m3/d caused the accumulation of volatile fatty acids and process instability. Application of the ammonia stripping was also evaluated. The best performances were achieved using a retention time of 21 days, an organic load between 1.4 and 2.0 kgVS/m3/d, and the recirculation of stripped permeate. Reduction of the ammonia permeate content by 90% through stripping and utilization of a mixture of chicken manure/water/permeate in a ratio of 0.22/0.72/0.72 w/w led to a specific biogas production of 0.59 m3biogas/kgVS and methane content of 66–69%. The ammonia thus removed can be recovered by sulphuric acid treatment as ammonium sulphate, which can be used as a fertilizer. The proposed configuration allowed satisfactory biogas production with appropriate methane percentages, recovery of ammonium sulphate, and a high-quality effluent

Acoustic complexity indices reveal the acoustic communities of the old-growth Mediterranean forest of Sasso Fratino Integral Natural Reserve (Central Italy)

The Sasso Fratino Integral Natural Reserve (Central Italy), a rare example of climax Mediterranean forest, provides an extraordinary opportunity to create an important soundscape reference of old-growth forest. In this study, we describe the soundscape of three localities (Lama, Sasso 950, Sasso 1400) representative of a gradient of variety and complexity of habitats, recorded during the period 10 May to 9 June 2017. Our results reveal temporal partitioning into acoustically homogeneous periods across 24 h suggesting that soniferous species (mainly birds) adopt ecological routines in which their acoustic activity is organized according to specific transient physiological needs. We processed multi-temporal aggregates of 1, 5, 10, and 15 s recordings and calculated the Acoustic Signature (AS) with four new indices: Ecoacoustic Events (EE), Acoustic Signature Dissimilarity (ASD), and their fractal dimensions (DEE and DASD), derived from the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI). The use of the EE and ASD greatly improved the AS interpretation, adding further details such as the emergence of a clear sequence of patterns consistent with the daily evolution of the overall soundscape. DEE and DASD confirm the patterns observed using the AS, but provide more clarity and detail about the great acoustic complexity that exists across temporal scales in this old-growth forest. The temporal turnover of different acoustic communities occurs as a result of a gradual shift of different homogenous acoustic properties. We conclude that soniferous species use distinct, species-specific temporal resolutions according to their physiological and ecological needs and that the fractal approach used here provides a novel tool to overcome the difficulties associated with describing multi-temporal acoustic patterns

Low Energy Analyzing Powers in Pion-Proton Elastic Scattering

Analyzing powers of pion-proton elastic scattering have been measured at PSI with the Low Energy Pion Spectrometer LEPS as well as a novel polarized scintillator target. Angular distributions between 40 and 120 deg (c.m.) were taken at 45.2, 51.2, 57.2, 68.5, 77.2, and 87.2 MeV incoming pion kinetic energy for pi+ p scattering, and at 67.3 and 87.2 MeV for pi- p scattering. These new measurements constitute a substantial extension of the polarization data base at low energies. Predictions from phase shift analyses are compared with the experimental results, and deviations are observed at low energies.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Smart Material Implication Using Spin-Transfer Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junctions for Logic-in-Memory Computing

Smart material implication (SIMPLY) logic has been recently proposed for the design of energy-efficient Logic-in-Memory (LIM) architectures based on non-volatile resistive memory devices. The SIMPLY logic is enabled by adding a comparator to the conventional IMPLY scheme. This allows performing a preliminary READ operation and hence the SET operation only in the case it is actually required. This work explores the SIMPLY logic scheme using nanoscale spin-transfer torque magnetic tunnel junction (STT-MTJ) devices. The performance of the STT-MTJ based SIMPLY architecture is analyzed by varying the load resistor and applied voltages to implement both READ and SET operations, while also investigating the effect of temperature on circuit operation. Obtained results show an existing tradeoff between error rate and energy consumption, which can be effectively managed by properly setting the values of load resistor and applied voltages. In addition, our analysis proves that tracking the temperature dependence of the MTJ properties through a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) reference voltage at the input of the comparator is beneficial to mitigate the reliability degradation under temperature variations