Azimuthal asymmetries in DD-meson and jet production at the EIC

We study the azimuthal asymmetries in back-to-back leptoproduction of $D$-meson and jet to probe the gluon TMDs in an unpolarized and transversely polarized electron-proton collision at the kinematics of EIC. We give predictions for unpolarized cross-sections within the TMD factorization framework. In $D$-meson and jet formation, the only leading order contribution comes from the photon gluon fusion process. We give numerical estimates of the upper bound on the azimuthal asymmetries with the saturation of positivity bounds; also, we present the asymmetries using a Gaussian parameterization of TMDs. We obtain sizable asymmetries in the kinematics that will be accessible at EIC.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, the version to be published in PR

Editorial: Biomass, Bioenergy and Biofuels for Circular Bioeconomy

The huge demand for energy and products, mostly based on fossil fuels, have caused severe environmental impacts, that are based on pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and finally of climate changes. While energy can be supplied from different renewable sources, such as solar, wind or hydro energy, they are intrinsically impossible or hard to control, or dependent on climatic conditions that are becoming more and more unpredictable. In this context, biomass has come, once more, as one of the potential solutions to add to the renewable energy mix.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A bench-scale electrochemical peroxidation reactor performance on removal of organic pollutants from tannery industrial wastewater.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of a novel laboratory scale electrochemical peroxidation (ECP) reactor using iron (Fe) electrodes (anode and cathode) for treatment of tannery wastewater. In order to minimize operating cost, the effects of operating parameters were determined, and response surface methodology was used to optimize the operating parameters. The operating parameters were initial pH 2.2-8.4, H2O2 dosage 0-0.02 g/L, Fe2+ dosage 0-0.005 g/L and current density 10-40 mA/cm2. Under the optimum conditions, the ECP process revealed better performance in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal with an average value of 85% in contrast to 65% removal in electro-Fenton (EF) process. Analysis and comparison of the data revealed that ECP process delivered a better treatment performance than EF process, taking into account that the optimum electrolysis time and applied current density were considerably. Overall, these results confirmed that the novel ECP reactor using Fe electrodes can reduce the operating cost and be proposed as a pragmatic approach to remove maximum amount of colour, COD, and chromium(III) from tannery wastewater

A review on energy and cost effective phase separated pretreatment of biosolids

Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) existent in anaerobic sludge proves to be a barrier for sludge liquefaction and biomass lysis efficiency. Hence EPS deaggregation heightens the surface area for the subsequent pretreatment thereby uplifting the sludge disintegration and biomethanation rate. This review documents the role of EPS and its components which inhibits sludge hydrolysis and also the various phase separated pretreatment methods available with its disintegration mechanism to enhance the biomass lysis and methane production rate. It also illustrates the effects of phase separated pretreatment on the sludge disintegration rate which embodies two phases-floc disruption and cell lysis accompanied by their computation through biomethane potential assay and fermentation analysis comprehensively. Additionally, energy balance study and cost analysis requisite for successful implementation of a proposed phase separated pretreatment on a pilot scale level and their challenges are also reviewed. Overall this paper documents the potency of phase separated pretreatment for full scale approach.publishedVersio

Effect of deflocculation on the efficiency of sludge reduction by Fenton process.

A novel approach to improve the efficiency of Fenton treatment for sludge reduction through the implication of a deflocculating agent citric acid, for the exclusion of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from waste-activated sludge (WAS), was investigated. Deflocculation was achieved with 0.06 g/g suspended solids (SS) of citric acid dosage. Fenton optimization studies using response surface methodology (RSM) revealed that 0.5 and 0.0055 g/g SS were the optimal dosages of H2O2 and Fe2+. The addition of a cation-binding agent set the pH value of sludge to 5 which did not affect the Fenton efficiency. The results presented in this study shows the advantage of deflocculating the sludge as SS and volatile suspended solids (VSS) reductions were found to be higher in the deflocculated (53 and 63 %, respectively) than in the flocculated (22 and 34 %, respectively) sludges. Kinetic investigation of the treatment showed that the rate of the reaction was four times higher in the deflocculated sludge than control. The methodology reported in this manuscript was successfully applied to a real case were the deflocculated mediated Fenton process reduced the sludge disposal cost from 297.8 to 61.9 US dollars/ton of sludge

Development of bioelectrochemical systems using various biogas fermenter effluents as inocula and municipal waste liquor as adapting substrate

The purpose of this research was to improve microbial fuel cell (MFC) performance – treating landfill-derived waste liquor – by applying effluents of various biogas fermenters as inocula. It turned out that the differences of initial microbial community profiles notably influenced the efficiency of MFCs. In fact, the adaptation time (during 3 weeks of operation) has varied significantly, depending on the source of inoculum and accordingly, the obtainable cumulative energy yields were also greatly affected (65% enhancement in case of municipal wastewater sludge inoculum compared to sugar factory waste sludge inoculum). Hence, it could be concluded that the capacity of MFCs to utilize the complex feedstock was heavily dependent on biological factors such as the origin/history of inoculum, the microbial composition as well as proper acclimation period. Therefore, these parameters should be of primary concerns for adequate process design to efficiently generate electricity with microbial fuel cells

Process optimisation for production and recovery of succinic acid using xylose-rich hydrolysates by Actinobacillus succinogenes

Succinic acid (SA) is a top platform chemical obtainable from biomass. The current study evaluated the potential of Actinobacillus succinogenes for SA production using xylose-rich hemicellulosic fractions of two important lignocellulosic feedstocks, olive pits (OP) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB) and the results were compared with pure xylose. Initial experiments were conducted in shake flask followed by batch and fed-batch cultivation in bioreactor. Further separation of SA from the fermented broth was carried out by adapting direct crystallisation method. During fed-batch culture, maximum SA titers of 36.7, 33.6, and 28.7 g/L was achieved on pure xylose, OP and SCB hydrolysates, respectively, with same conversion yield of 0.27 g/g. The recovery yield of SA accumulated on pure xylose, OP and SCB hydrolysates was 79.1, 76.5, and 75.2%, respectively. The results obtained are of substantial value and pave the way for development of sustainable SA biomanufacturing in an integrated biorefinery

Magnitude, temporal trends, and projections of the global prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Global and regional prevalence estimates for blindness and vision impairment are important for the development of public health policies. We aimed to provide global estimates, trends, and projections of global blindness and vision impairment. Methods: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based datasets relevant to global vision impairment and blindness that were published between 1980 and 2015. We fitted hierarchical models to estimate the prevalence (by age, country, and sex), in 2015, of mild visual impairment (presenting visual acuity worse than 6/12 to 6/18 inclusive), moderate to severe visual impairment (presenting visual acuity worse than 6/18 to 3/60 inclusive), blindness (presenting visual acuity worse than 3/60), and functional presbyopia (defined as presenting near vision worse than N6 or N8 at 40 cm when best-corrected distance visual acuity was better than 6/12). Findings: Globally, of the 7·33 billion people alive in 2015, an estimated 36·0 million (80% uncertainty interval [UI] 12·9–65·4) were blind (crude prevalence 0·48%; 80% UI 0·17–0·87; 56% female), 216·6 million (80% UI 98·5–359·1) people had moderate to severe visual impairment (2·95%, 80% UI 1·34–4·89; 55% female), and 188·5 million (80% UI 64·5–350·2) had mild visual impairment (2·57%, 80% UI 0·88–4·77; 54% female). Functional presbyopia affected an estimated 1094·7 million (80% UI 581·1–1686·5) people aged 35 years and older, with 666·7 million (80% UI 364·9–997·6) being aged 50 years or older. The estimated number of blind people increased by 17·6%, from 30·6 million (80% UI 9·9–57·3) in 1990 to 36·0 million (80% UI 12·9–65·4) in 2015. This change was attributable to three factors, namely an increase because of population growth (38·4%), population ageing after accounting for population growth (34·6%), and reduction in age-specific prevalence (–36·7%). The number of people with moderate and severe visual impairment also increased, from 159·9 million (80% UI 68·3–270·0) in 1990 to 216·6 million (80% UI 98·5–359·1) in 2015. Interpretation: There is an ongoing reduction in the age-standardised prevalence of blindness and visual impairment, yet the growth and ageing of the world’s population is causing a substantial increase in number of people affected. These observations, plus a very large contribution from uncorrected presbyopia, highlight the need to scale up vision impairment alleviation efforts at all levels

Global causes of blindness and distance vision impairment 1990–2020: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Contemporary data on causes of vision impairment and blindness form an important basis for recommendations in public health policies. Refreshment of the Global Vision Database with recently published data sources permitted modeling of cause of vision loss data from 1990 to 2015, further disaggregation by cause, and forecasts to 2020. Methods: Published and unpublished population-based data on the causes of vision impairment and blindness from 1980 to 2015 were systematically analysed. A series of regression models were fit to estimate the proportion of moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI; defined as presenting visual acuity <6/18 but ≥3/60 in the better eye) and blindness (presenting visual acuity <3/60 in the better eye) by cause by age, region, and year. Findings: Among the projected global population with MSVI (216.6 million; 80% uncertainty intervals [UI] 98.5-359.1), in 2015 the leading causes thereof are uncorrected refractive error (116.3 million; UI 49.4-202.1), cataract (52.6 million; UI 18.2-109.6), age-related macular degeneration (AMD; 8.4 million; UI 0.9-29.5), glaucoma (4.0 million; UI 0.6-13.3) and diabetic retinopathy (2.6 million; UI 0.2-9.9). In 2015, the leading global causes of blindness were cataract (12.6 million; UI 3.4-28.7) followed by uncorrected refractive error (7.4 million; UI 2.4-14.8) and glaucoma (2.9 million; UI 0.4-9.9), while by 2020, these numbers affected are anticipated to rise to 13.4 million, 8.0 million and 3.2 million, respectively. Cataract and uncorrected refractive error combined contributed to 55% of blindness and 77% of MSVI in adults aged 50 years and older in 2015. World regions varied markedly in the causes of blindness, with a relatively low prevalence of cataract and a relatively high prevalence of AMD as causes for vision loss in the High-income subregions. Blindness due to cataract and diabetic retinopathy was more common among women, while blindness due to glaucoma and corneal opacity was more common among men, with no gender difference related to AMD. Conclusions: The numbers of people affected by the common causes of vision loss have increased substantially as the population increases and ages. Preventable vision loss due to cataract and refractive error (reversible with surgery and spectacle correction respectively), continue to cause the majority of blindness and MSVI in adults aged 50+ years. A massive scale up of eye care provision to cope with the increasing numbers is needed if one is to address avoidable vision loss