Microstructural analysis of neutron-irradiation induced changes in polyester fibre studied using EPMA

Electron microscopy is an important characterization technique for the study of textile fibre as it gives more information on fabric wear, nature of fibre fracture, chemical degradation, abrasion, fatigue and many others. Electron Probe Micro Analyzer (EPMA) micrographs of virgin and some neutron-irradiated samples (graphite coated) are discussed. The filament diameter, D, of virgin PET fibre obtained from EPMA study was 12.5 µn. The surface topography of single filament distinctly reveals the core and sheath parts of the filament. The core diameter of the virgin fibre was estimated to be 1.43 µm. The fibre irradiated at fluence 1 × 1012 n/cm2 shows radiation induced sphere like polymer balls or spherulites of diameter 2.27 µm in the expanded core region. Due to irradiation, the sheath area crosslinks with expanded core region, which may be responsible for increase of strength and hardness of the polymer materials. Moreover, the micrograph at 3000 X magnifications clearly shows that there is no preferred orientation of the polymer in any direction confirming the isotropic nature of the sample.Microstructural analysis of neutron-irradiation induced changes in polyester fibre studied using EPMA Biswajit Mallick1*, Ramesh Chandra Behera2, Simanchal Panigrahi1, Tanmaya Badapanda1, Biswanath Parija1, Banita Behera1, Manas Panigrahi1 and Madhumita Sarangi2 1Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-769 008, Orissa, India 2Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-769 008, Orissa, India E-mail : [email protected] of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-769 008, Orissa, India 2Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-769 008, Orissa, Indi

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Ethanol production from mahula (Madhuca latifolia L.) flowers with immobilized cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Luffa cylindrica L. sponge discs

The dried spongy fruit of luffa (Luffa cylindrica L.), a cucurbitaceous crop available in abundance in tropical and sub-tropical countries has been found to be a promising material for immobilizing microbial cells. The aim of the present study was to examine the ethanol production from mahula flowers in submerged fermentation using whole cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized in luffa sponge discs. The cells not only survived but also were physiologically active in three more cycles of fermentation without significant reduction (Ethanol Fermentation Madhuca latifolia Saccharomyces cerevisiae Luffa

Numerical Study of Interrupted Impinging Jets for Cooling of Electronics

The objective of this paper is to present the results of a numerical investigation of the effect of flow pulsations on local, time-averaged Nusselt number of an impinging air jet. The problem was considered to provide inputs to augmenting heat transfer from electronic components. The solution is sought through the FLUENT (Version 6.0) platform. The standard $k\in$ model for turbulence equations and two-layer zonal model in wall function are used in the problem. Pressure-velocity coupling is handled using the SIMPLEC algorithm. The model is first validated against some experimental results available in the literature. A parametric study is carried out to quantify the effect of the pulsating jets. The parameters considered are 1) average jet Reynolds number (5130<Re<8560), 2) sine and square wave pulsations, 3) frequencies of pulsations (25 < f < 400 Hz), and 4) height of impingement to jet diameter ratios (5 < H/d < 9). In the case of sine wave pulsations, the ratio of root mean square value of the amplitude to the average value $(A_N )$ was varied from 18% to 53%. The studies are restricted to a constant wall heat flux condition. Parametric conditions for which enhancement in the time-averaged heat transfer from the surface can be expected are identified

Comparative study of bio-ethanol production from mahula (Madhuca latifolia L.) flowers by Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells immobilized in agar agar and Ca-alginate matrices

Batch fermentation of mahula (Madhuca latifolia L., a tree commonly found in tropical rain forest) flowers was carried out using immobilized cells (in agar agar and calcium alginate) and free cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The ethanol yields were 151.2, 154.5 and 149.1 g kg-1 flowers using immobilized (in agar agar and calcium alginate) and free cells, respectively. Cell entrapment in calcium alginate was found to be marginally superior to those in agar agar (2.2% more) as well as over free cell (3.5% more) as regard to ethanol yield from mahula flowers is concerned. Further, the immobilized cells were physiologically active at least for three cycles [150.6, 148.5 and 146.5 g kg-1 (agar agar) and 152.8, 151.5 and 149.5 g kg-1 flowers (calcium alginate) for first, second and third cycle, respectively] of ethanol fermentation without apparently lowering the productivity. Mahula flowers, a renewable, non-food-grade cheap carbohydrate substrate from non-agricultural environment such as forest can serve as an alternative to food grade sugar/starchy crops such as maize, sugarcane for bio-ethanol production.Bio-ethanol Immobilization Submerged fermentation Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Bioethanol production from mahula (Madhuca latifolia L.) flowers by solid-state fermentation

There is a growing interest worldwide to find out new and cheap carbohydrate sources for production of bioethanol. In this context, the production of ethanol from mahula (Madhuca latifolia L.) flowers by Saccharomyces cerevisiae in solid-state fermentation was investigated. The moisture level of 70%, pH of 6.0 and temperature of 30 °C were found optimum for maximum ethanol concentration (225.0 ± 4.0 g/kg flower) obtained from mahula flowers after 72 h of fermentation. Concomitant with highest ethanol concentration, the maximum ethanol productivity (3.13 g/kg flower/h), yeast biomass (18.5 x 108 CFU/g flower), the ethanol yield (58.44 g/100 g sugar consumed) and the fermentation efficiency (77.1%) were also obtained at these parametric levels.Bioethanol Ethanol productivity Mahula (Madhuca latifolia L.) flower Solid-state fermentation Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Empowering rural south Odisha: A clean energy entrepreneurship approach for sustainable development

The current paper focuses on the process of developing clean energy entrepreneurs to facilitate the abundant adoption of clean energy products in rural areas of South Odisha, India. Southern part of the state of Odisha, is characterized by its rich cultural and ecological diversity significance, and it faces the challenges of energy access which subsequently leads to slowing down the socio-economic development of the region. Background: The present study focuses on developing a framework on the role of clean energy entrepreneurs in adoption of clean energy technology or the clean energy products and also further it also focuses on design and development of a solar operated Agri-pesticide sprayer. Method: A case study method is used to, identify the major barriers to clean energy adoption in the rural regions of South Odisha and also explore the different entrepreneurial steps undertaken to overcome the challenges. Moreover, the paper also focuses on the collaborating efforts between the local entrepreneurs, government agencies, and various non-profit organizations so as to create a supportive ecosystem for achieving sustainable development. Results: The findings of the study aims to inform policy makers, Government, etc. that there is a need to collaborate in order to adopt clean energy products so that it will help in paving a way for achieving sustainable development

Effect of Vitamin E and Selenium (Se) supplementation in combating summer-induced-heat stress in ducks

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