Experience in feeding coal into a liquefaction process development unit

A system for preparing coal slurry and feeding it into a high pressure liquefaction plant is described. The system was developed to provide supporting research and development for the Bureau of Mines coal liquefaction pilot plant. Operating experiences are included

A review on removal of pharmaceuticals from water by adsorption

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are recognized as emerging pollutants in water resources. Various treatment options have been investigated for the removal of pharmaceuticals that include both conventional (e.g., biodegradation, adsorption, activated sludge) and advanced (e.g., membrane, microfiltration, ozonation) processes. This article reviews literature for adsorptive removal of pharmaceuticals from water sources. Adsorbents from various origins were reviewed for their capacity to remove pharmaceuticals from water. These adsorbents include carbonaceous materials, clay minerals, siliceous adsorbents, and polymeric materials. The adsorption capacity of adsorbents to adsorb pharmaceuticals from water is discussed in this study. The review discusses the mechanism for adsorption of pharmaceuticals onto adsorbents as well. Finally, effectiveness of processing parameters during adsorption processes is presented

COMPARATIVE PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE AND EGG CHARACTERISTICS OF PULLETS AND SPENT LAYERS

Production performance and egg quality characteristics of pullets and spent layers were compared in this study. Forty birds, each from the flocks of pullets (24 weeks old) and spent layers (76 weeks old) were selected as experimental birds. The birds from each age group were divided into five replicates, each comprising of eight birds. All the experimental birds were fed a commercial layer ration @ 110g/bird/day for 12 weeks. The data on egg production, feed consumption, egg weight and egg quality characteristics viz. shell thickness, shell weight, breaking strength, albumen diameter, albumen weight and yolk weight were recorded. The data thus collected were utilized for calculation of FCR, Haugh unit and yolk index values. The results revealed that pullets produced more eggs and utilized their feed more efficiently than spent layers. However, egg weight in spent layers was higher than in their counterparts. Pullets also produced eggs with thicker shell and higher Haugh unit values when compared to the spent layers. Feed consumption and yolk index values remained unaffected due to the age. Pullets also had better egg quality characteristics than those of spent layers

Effect of dietary zinc on the growth and metabolic enzyme activities of golden mahseer (Tor putitora) fry

The golden mahseer (Tor putitora) is an important and high valued sport and food fish of national and international importance. Therefore for promotion of golden mahseer, proper mineral supplementation in early developmental stages is very important. The present study evaluated the effects of dietary zinc on growth, survivaland physiological response of Tor putitora fry. One thousand eight hundred fry (avg.wt 54.35±3.09 mg) were randomly distributed into 6 treatment groups with triplicates each. Six iso-nitrogenous (40±0.02% to 41.44±0.01% crude protein) semi-purified diets were prepared with graded levels of dietary zinc. Zinc sulphate was added as the dietary zinc source to the basal diet. The results indicated that specific growth rate (SGR) was of value 2.52 ±0.23 gm of T. putitora fry which increased with dietary zinc levels up to a concentration of 40 mg Zn Kg-1 in diet. The zinc dependent metabolic enzymes and antioxidant enzymes was also observed to be highest in groups supplemented with 40 mg zinc/kg feed. The overall results of the present study suggest the efficacy of dietary zinc on growth, survival and physiological response of golden mahseer fry in order to garner the possibility of establishing the species to commercial aquaculture

Alanine scanning mutagenesis of a high-affinity nitrate transporter highlights the requirement for glycine and asparagine residues in the two nitrate signature motifs

Common to all of the nitrate nitrite porter family are two conserved motifs in transmembrane helices 5 and 11 termed NS (nitrate signature) 1 and NS2. Although perfectly conserved substrate-interacting arginine residues have been described in transmembrane helices 2 and 8, the role of NSs has not been investigated. In the present study, a combination of structural modelling of NrtA (nitrate transporter from Aspergillus nidulans) with alanine scanning mutagenesis of residues within and around the NSs has been used to shed light on the probable role of conserved residues in the NSs. Models show that Asn 168 in NS1 and Asn 459 in NS2 are positioned approximately midway within the protein at the central pivot point in close proximity to the substrate-binding residues Arg 368 and Arg 87 respectively, which lie offset from the pivot point towards the cytoplasmic face. The Asn 168 /Arg 368 and Asn 459 /Arg 87 residue pairs are relatively widely separated on opposite sides of the probable substrate translocation pore. The results of the present study demonstrate the critical structural contribution of several glycine residues in each NS at sites of close helix packing. Given the relative locations of Asn 168 /Arg 368 and Asn 459 /Arg 87 pairs, the validity of the models and possible role of the NSs together with the substrate-binding arginine residues are discusse

STUDIES ON SOME BIOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF OVARIAN FOLLICULAR FLUID AND PERIPHERAL BLOOD IN BUFFALOES

This project was designed to study some biochemical constituents of ovarian follicular fluid (FF) and peripheral blood in buffaloes. For this purpose, ovaries were collected from adult buffaloes immediately after slaughter, FF was aspirated and stored at -4°C. Blood samples were also collected from these buffaloes before slaughter, plasma was separated and stored for further analysis. Samples were classified into two groups according to the follicle diameter i.e. small (3-10 mm) and large (11-20 mm). The FF and plasma samples were analyzed for various biochemical constituents, including glucose, cholesterol, total proteins, albumin, globulin, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, triiodothyronine and thyroxine contents, using commercial kits.The results showed that small follicles had significantly lower (P<0.05) glucose contents than large follicles, while blood plasma had significantly higher (P<0.05) glucose contents than fluid from both classes of follicles. The differences in concentrations of cholesterol, total proteins, albumin and globulin between small and large follicles were non-significant. The concentrations of these compounds were higher in the blood than in FF, except albumin, which was higher in FF than in the blood. Contents of electrolytes and trace elements did not vary between the two follicle classes. However, the plasma levels of these electrolytes and trace elements, except potassium and zinc, were significantly higher (p<0.05) than their levels in FF. The level of potassium was significantly higher (P<0.05) in FF than in the plasma, while serum zinc level did not differ from FF. The differences in concentrations of triiodothyronine and thyroxine in fluid from small and large sized follicles were non-significant. Likewise, the levels of these hormones were non-significantly higher in blood plasma than in FF. It was concluded that FF levels of glucose differed between small and large follicle groups, while blood levels of most of constituents were higher than their levels in FF

Exploring access to end of life care for ethnic minorities with end stage kidney disease through recruitment in action research

BACKGROUND: Variation in provision of palliative care in kidney services and practitioner concerns to provide equitable access led to the development of this study which focussed on the perspectives of South Asian patients and their care providers. As people with a South Asian background experience a higher risk of Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and end stage kidney failure (ESKF) compared to the majority population but wait longer for a transplant, there is a need for end of life care to be accessible for this group of patients. Furthermore because non English speakers and people at end of life are often excluded from research there is a dearth of research evidence with which to inform service improvement. This paper aims to explore issues relating to the process of recruitment of patients for a research project which contribute to our understanding of access to end of life care for ethnic minority patients in the kidney setting. METHODS: The study employed an action research methodology with interviews and focus groups to capture and reflect on the process of engaging with South Asian patients about end of life care. Researchers and kidney care clinicians on four NHS sites in the UK recruited South Asian patients with ESKF who were requiring end of life care to take part in individual interviews; and other clinicians who provided care to South Asian kidney patients at end of life to take part in focus groups exploring end of life care issues. In action research planning, action and evaluation are interlinked and data were analysed with emergent themes fed back to care providers through the research cycle. Reflections on the process of patient recruitment generated focus group discussions about access which were analysed thematically and reported here. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were recruited to interview and 45 different care providers took part in 14 focus groups across the sites. The process of recruiting patients to interview and subsequent focus group data highlighted some of the key issues concerning access to end of life care. These were: the identification of patients approaching end of life; and their awareness of end of life care; language barriers and informal carers' roles in mediating communication; and contrasting cultures in end of life kidney care. CONCLUSIONS: Reflection on the process of recruitment in this action research study provided insight into the complex scenario of end of life in kidney care. Some of the emerging issues such as the difficulty identifying patients are likely to be common across all patient groups, whilst others concerning language barriers and third party communication are more specific to ethnic minorities. A focus on South Asian ethnicity contributes to better understanding of patient perspectives and generic concepts as well as access to end of life kidney care for this group of patients in the UK. Action research was a useful methodology for achieving this and for informing future research to include informal carers and other ethnic groups.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Del Pezzo surfaces with 1/3(1,1) points

We classify del Pezzo surfaces with 1/3(1,1) points in 29 qG-deformation families grouped into six unprojection cascades (this overlaps with work of Fujita and Yasutake), we tabulate their biregular invariants, we give good model constructions for surfaces in all families as degeneracy loci in rep quotient varieties and we prove that precisely 26 families admit qG-degenerations to toric surfaces. This work is part of a program to study mirror symmetry for orbifold del Pezzo surfaces.Comment: 42 pages. v2: model construction added of last remaining surface, minor corrections, minor changes to presentation, references adde

The use of modern tools for modelling and simulation of UAV with Haptic

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a research field in robotics which is in high demand in recent years, although there still exist many unanswered questions. In contrast, to the human operated aerial vehicles, it is still far less used to the fact that people are dubious about flying in or flying an unmanned vehicle. It is all about giving the control right to the computer (which is the Artificial Intelligence) for making decisions based on the situation like human do but this has not been easy to make people understand that it’s safe and to continue the enhancement on it. These days there are many types of UAVs available in the market for consumer use, for applications like photography to play games, to map routes, to monitor buildings, for security purposes and much more. Plus, these UAVs are also being widely used by the military for surveillance and for security reasons. One of the most commonly used consumer product is a quadcopter or quadrotor. The research carried out used modern tools (i.e., SolidWorks, Java Net Beans and MATLAB/Simulink) to model controls system for Quadcopter UAV with haptic control system to control the quadcopter in a virtual simulation environment and in real time environment. A mathematical model for the controlling the quadcopter in simulations and real time environments were introduced. Where, the design methodology for the quadcopter was defined. This methodology was then enhanced to develop a virtual simulation and real time environments for simulations and experiments. Furthermore, the haptic control was then implemented with designed control system to control the quadcopter in virtual simulation and real time experiments. By using the mathematical model of quadcopter, PID & PD control techniques were used to model the control setup for the quadcopter altitude and motion controls as work progressed. Firstly, the dynamic model is developed using a simple set of equations which evolves further by using complex control & mathematical model with precise function of actuators and aerodynamic coefficients Figure5-7. The presented results are satisfying and shows that flight experiments and simulations of the quadcopter control using haptics is a novel area of research which helps perform operations more successfully and give more control to the operator when operating in difficult environments. By using haptic accidents can be minimised and the functional performance of the operator and the UAV will be significantly enhanced. This concept and area of research of haptic control can be further developed accordingly to the needs of specific applications