Investigation of CO₂ sequestration options for Alaskan North Slope with emphasis on enhanced oil recovery

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2006Carbon dioxide (CO₂), the main component of greenhouse gases, is released into the atmosphere primarily by combustion of fossil fuels like coal and oil. Due to a conspicuous lack of any CO₂ sequestration studies for Alaskan North Slope (ANS), the study of CO₂ sequestration options will open new avenues for CO₂ disposal options, such as viscous oil reservoirs and coal seams, on the ANS. This study focuses on the investigation of CO₂ storage options by screening ANS oil pools amenable to enhanced oil recovery, evaluating phase behavior of viscous oil and CO₂ mixture, and simulating enhanced oil recovery by CO₂ flooding, and migration of CO₂ in saline aquifer. Phase behavior studies revealed that CO₂ gas was partially miscible with West Sak, at the pressure closer to the reservoir pressure. Compositional simulation of CO₂ flooding for a five-spot West Sak reservoir pattern showed an increase in percent recovery with an increase in pore volume injected, but at the expense of an early breakthrough. Sensitivity analysis of CO₂ flooding project was found to be strongly dependent on the variables such as oil price and discount rate. Investigation of supercritical CO₂ injection in saline formation didn't increase temperature in the permafrost region

Biosorption of heavy metals by citrus fruit waste materials

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2004Conventionally used processes for removing heavy metals from wastewater are usually either expensive, such as ion exchange, or inefficient, such as precipitation. An innovative technique that is both efficient and economical is biosorption, in which living and dead biomass can act as biosorbents through physical-chemical processes like ion exchange and micro-precipitation. Pectin, a structural polysaccharide present in plant cell walls, is similar to alginate, a molecule that is often responsible for the high metal uptake by algae. Based on the structural similarity between alginate and pectin, it was expected that pectin rich bio-wastes may be as good a biosorbent material as brown algae. A comparison between different pectin-rich materials showed high stability and metal binding capacity of citrus peels. Sorption isotherms for citrus peels showed higher metal uptake capacity at pH 5 compared to pH 3. Kinetic studies revealed the time required to reach equilibrium for lemon fruit waste (0.177 mm) was 20 min while for larger particles the time increased to 30 min-60 min. For lemon fruit waste, the content and pKa values of acidic groups were determined by using a pKa spectrum technique. Isotherm modeling was carried out by using Langmuir isotherms and pH sensitive modeling

Proposed new grading of oral submucous fibrosis based on cheek flexibility

Objectives: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a potentially malignant disorder of oral cavity, pharynx and upper digestive tract, characterized by progressive inability to open the mouth. Based on clinical and/or histopathological features, various classifications and grading systems have been put forth till date. The aim of the present study was to study the variance in cheek flexibility in OSMF patients, the observance of which led to the introduction of a new grading for the condition. Material and Methods: The study included 412 patients with OSMF attending to the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology during the period from December 2008 to June 2013. A detailed history and examination of the patients was performed with special emphasis on measuring cheek flexibility. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test and p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The most common etiological factor was tobacco (73.3%). All the patients reported with burning sensation of the mouth and blanching of the mucosa. Malignancy was reported in only 4.6% patients. 60.4% patients showed cheek flexibility of 30mm and above, while 29.6% patients showed cheek flexibility between 20-30mm and 10% patients showed less than 30mm of cheek flexibility. Conclusion: The observations of the present study have led to the proposal of a new grading of OSMF based on cheek flexibility which could assist in the categorization of the condition by the clinicians

Prevalence of lip lesions in an Indian population

Objectives: Lip lesions are a frequent cause of consultation in dentistry, as they comprise a signifi cant proportion of the oral lesions. The aim of the present study was to identify the different lip lesions and determine their prevalence in an Indian population. Material and methods: 5231 patients visiting a Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology were examined for the presence of different lip lesions during the period from October, 2011 to May, 2013. The statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test and p<0.05 was considered to be statistically signifi cant. Results: The age of the patients ranged from 8-70 years with a mean age of 32.6 years. The prevalence of lip lesions was 18.8%. The most commonly diagnosed lesions were those due to infections, which affected 32.6% of the po- pulation, followed by mucocele (29.8%) and premalignant lesions and conditions which were observed in 20.6% of the population. Males were more commonly affected than females. Conclusions: The relatively high prevalence of the lip lesions suggests dental practitioners and health care workers to educate the patients and create more awareness regarding them. The dentists should have adequate knowledge about the etiology, clinical features, diagnosis and management of the lip lesions

Prevalence of impacted and supernumerary teeth in the North Indian population

Objective: Dental impaction is a very frequent problem. Supernumerary teeth, or hyperdontia, are the presence of additional teeth to the normal series in the either of the dentition. The presence of impacted and/or supernumerary teeth can cause various complications. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of impacted and supernumerary teeth in the North Indian population. Study Design: The panoramic radiographic records of 4750 patients attending the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Jodhpur Dental College General Hospital between September 2008 to December 2012 were examined for this retrospective study. The ages of the patients ranged from 8 to 72 years, with a mean of 34.6 years. Results: A total of 798 (16.8%) patients presented with 1126 impacted teeth. Impacted canines were the most prevalent (9.7%), followed by impacted premolars (4.3%). Supernumerary teeth (1.6%) and impacted molars (1.2%) were less prevalent. Among the 842 impacted teeth, the most frequently affected teeth were the canines (56.7%), followed by premolars (27.8%), and supernumerary teeth (9.3%), while the prevalence of impacted molars was quite lower (6.2%). Conclusion: The most frequently impacted teeth were maxillary canines and the mesiodens were the most common supernumerary tooth. The early diagnosis of supernumerary and impacted teeth is essential to prevent malocclusion and malalignment of permanent teeth demonstrating the importance of panoramic radiographs in their detection

Comparative study of the efficacy of herbal antioxdants oxitard and aloe vera in the treatment of oral submucous fibrosis

Objectives: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a potentially malignant disorder predominantly seen in the Indian subcontinent due to areca nut, tobacco and their products. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of oxitard and aloe vera in the management of OSMF. Material and Methods: 120 subjects with OSMF were included in the study. The patients were clinico-pathologi - cally diagnosed and divided equally in 2 groups, Group A (oxitard group) and Group B (aloe vera group). Group A was administered 2 oxitard capsules twice daily and Group B was given 5 mg aloe vera gel to be applied topically thrice daily for 3 months. Different clinical parameters were evaluated at regular intervals. Data was analyzed using the Student's paired t test and Chi-square test. P-value <0.001 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Clinical improvements in mouth opening and tongue protrusion was significant in the oxitard group (p=0.0005). Subjective symptoms of pain associated with the lesion (p=0.0003), difficulty in swallowing (p=0.0000) and speech (p=0.0001) also significantly improved in the Group A. The improvement in burning sensation was not statistically significant between the 2 groups (p=0.002). There was a mild to moderate decrease in the size of the lesion. Conclusions: Though there is no definitive treatment for the condition however, overall assessment of symptoms like mouth opening, tongue protrusion, difficulty in swallowing and speech and pain associated with the lesion showed that oxitard capsules can bring about significant clinical improvements than aloe vera gel in the treatment of OSMF

MULTICAST ROUTING DIAGNOSTICS SYSTEM USING MACHINE LEARNING

Techniques are described herein for using Machine Learning to detect anomalies that cannot be detected by programming or scripts. These anomalies must be discovered by prior issues that have been troubleshooted by classic network tools (e.g., debugs, show commands, packet capturing tools, etc.)

Phytochemical analysis of useful parts of Barbari (Ocimum basilicum Linn.) and its evaluation for Anti-Microbial Activity

In recent decades, the interest in evaluating therapeutic effects of plants has increased d. Phytomedicines have been shown to be good alternatives to synthetic chemical antimicrobial agents because of the serious side effects, antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of previously uncommon infections due to inappropriate or widespread overuse of antimicrobials. Barbari is a commonly available drug and have also been used as a folk remedy to treat various ailments. Hence Phytochemical Analysis of useful parts of Barbari (Ocimum basilicum Linn.) and its evaluation for antimicrobial activity were taken for study. The objectives of the study are Pharmacognostic study of useful parts in Barbari, Phytochemical analysis of useful parts in Barbari, Qualitative analysis of Phytoelements present in the drug and Anti-microbial activity of Barbari on certain strains of microbes. Extraction of Arka from both leaves &amp; seeds were done as per the norms mentioned in classics. Phytochemical Analysis of different extracts is done. Determinations of volatile oil percentage and chemical finger printing by GC-MS and HPLC of both the Arka have been conducted, along with their antimicrobial activities evaluated. The Results obtained are negative for the presence of Euginol by GC-MS &amp; HPLC. Both the samples were found to be inactive against tested bacterial and fungal strains

Adaptive Load Balancing Using RR and ALB: Resource Provisioning in Cloud

Cloud Computing context, load balancing is an issue. With a rise in the number of cloud-based technology users and their need for a broad range of services utilizing resources successfully or effectively in a cloud environment is referred to as load balancing, has become a significant obstacle. Load balancing is crucial in storage systems to increase network capacity and speed up response times. The main goal is to present a new load-balancing mechanism that can balance incoming requests from users all over globally who are in different regions requesting data from remote data sources. This method will combine effective scheduling and cloud-based techniques. A dynamic load balancing method was developed to ensure that cloud environments have the ability to respond rapidly, in addition to running cloud resources efficiently and speeding up job processing times. Applications' incoming traffic is automatically split up across a number of targets, including Amazon EC2 instances, network addresses, and other entities by elastic load balancing. Elastic load balancing offers three distinct classifications of load balancer, and each one provides high availability, intelligent scalability, and robust security to guarantee the error-free functioning of your applications. Application load balancing and round robin are the two load balancing mechanisms in database cloud that are focus of this research study

802.11AX FOR INTERNET OF THINGS - MACHINE LEARNING ASSISTED OPTIMIZED POWER SAVE TECHNIQUES FOR IOT DEVICES USING 802.11AX TARGET WAKE TIME

Machine-learning assisted optimized power-saving techniques for battery-operated Wi-Fi Internet of Things (IoT) devices are provided. These techniques use various IoT device information including Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) data along with a clustering algorithm to provide an automatic and dynamic computation of Target Wake Time (TWT) power save schedule for the devices. These techniques may be used by next generation 802.11ax access points to more efficiently schedule the target wake time for the 802.11ax supported IoT devices, to thereby prolong the lifetime of battery operated IoT devices connected to the 802.11ac access points