HYDROGEN GENERATION BY REACTION OF BALL-MILLED MAGNESIUM POWDER WITH HOT WATER

Hydrogen is a very promising source of fuel; it has already constituted a significant part of modern innovations for power generation in automobile and space shuttle. Hydrogen can be produced from several sources and as a byproduct of some chemical processes, including the association of magnesium with water. The production yield of this later production method is limited by influences associated with the formation of passive oxide/hydroxide films on the surface of magnesium metal during reaction. The experiments within this project highlight optimization conditions towards improved hydrogen yield via magnesium hydrolysis. Reduced rate of hydroxide layer formation on Mg surface, hence increased production yield, is accomplished by exposing a greater surface area of Mg in contact with water. This has been achieved via ball milling process; Mg powders with greater higher surface area to volume ratios are ball-milled with certain salts (e.g. NaCl and KCl). The weight percentage (wt.%) of these salt within the mixture influences hydrogen production yield by facilitating the creation of reaction sites. Here, these salts produce cavities within the magnesium/salt powdery matrices, thus creating more assessable surface area for water. The experimental results from this work reveal that ball milling duration and weight percentage of salts affect the final size of Mg particle produced. Thus, the maximum hydrogen yield is achieved by controlling these two parameters and the results are further correlated by the microstructure of the samples under scanning electron microscope (SEM)

Mentoring Exchange

This poster describes the progress and lessons learned as a result of newly implemented Faculty Mentoring Program in the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing

PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF INCISIONAL HERNIA: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Infection at the surgical site, which leads to the development of excessive tension causing inadequate healing is the most common cause of incisional hernia. Objective: To find out risk factors associated with incisional hernia and its prevalence. Method: A general proforma was prepared for studying each case in detail and underwent routine blood, radiology investigations. A detailed enquiry was made regarding the demographic profile, history of previous operations, its nature and postoperative period. Onset and progress of the hernia were noted. Result: During the study period total operated cases were 921. From that 50 cases of incisional were reported during the follow-up. Out of fifty cases 12 (24%) were male, and 38 (76%) were female. Ratio of male to female is 1:3.2. The difference was found to be significantly significant (p<0.05). Maximum cases were distributed between the age group of 41-50 (32%). Overall highest prevalence of incisional hernia was noted with perforation peritonitis operation, and female it was noted with LSCS operation commonest incision was midline (76 %) which lead to incisional hernia. Conclusion: The prevalence rate of incisional hernia was 5.42%. Overall highest prevalence of incisional hernia was noted with perforation peritonitis operation, and female it was noted with LSCS operation. 76% cases of incisional hernia associated with midline incision

Chain-length dependent ultrasonic degradation of perfluoroalkyl substances

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been found all over the world and are particularly persistent, potentially carcinogenic, and bioaccumulative in the environment. Degradation of short-chain perfluorinated carboxylic acids of varying carbon chain lengths (from 4 to 8 carbons), higher-chain perfluoro carboxylic acids of varying carbon chain lengths (from 9 to 14 carbons), and perfluorosulfonic acids of varying carbon chain lengths (6 and 8 carbons) were tested in a flow through ultrasonic cavitation reactor to determine the efficacy of the high frequency ultrasound process. Temperature, frequency, power density, pH, sodium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate concentrations are examined as process parameters. The frequency and length of the PFAS chain were found to be vital components in the sonolytic degradation process. Degradation of all PFAS was shown to be particularly rapid at room temperature, basic pH, and a power density of 252 W/L. At a power density of 144 W/L, all of the PFAS were degraded by more than 97% in 8 h, with the exception of perfluorobutonic acid (83%) and perfluorohexanoic acid (94%). The bond dissociation energy of C-F bonds was found to be much higher than experimental sonolytic activation energies, supporting cavitation bubble as a catalyst for thermolytic destruction of PFAS compounds. Optimizing the reactor geometry has the potential to make this approach even more appealing for treating small volumes of concentrated wastes

PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF INCISIONAL HERNIA: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Infection at the surgical site, which leads to the development of excessive tension causing inadequate healing is the most common cause of incisional hernia. Objective: To find out risk factors associated with incisional hernia and its prevalence. Method: A general proforma was prepared for studying each case in detail and underwent routine blood, radiology investigations. A detailed enquiry was made regarding the demographic profile, history of previous operations, its nature and postoperative period. Onset and progress of the hernia were noted. Result: During the study period total operated cases were 921. From that 50 cases of incisional were reported during the follow-up. Out of fifty cases 12 (24%) were male, and 38 (76%) were female. Ratio of male to female is 1:3.2. The difference was found to be significantly significant (p<0.05). Maximum cases were distributed between the age group of 41-50 (32%). Overall highest prevalence of incisional hernia was noted with perforation peritonitis operation, and female it was noted with LSCS operation commonest incision was midline (76 %) which lead to incisional hernia. Conclusion: The prevalence rate of incisional hernia was 5.42%. Overall highest prevalence of incisional hernia was noted with perforation peritonitis operation, and female it was noted with LSCS operation. 76% cases of incisional hernia associated with midline incision

Machine Learning for Classification of Imbalanced Big Data

The problem of classification of imbalanced datasets is a critical one. With an increase in the number of application domains that rely on classification, extensive research has been carried out in this field; with focus directed towards the problem of poor classification accuracy. Of late, the rise in significance of Big Data has forced industries to search for better techniques to handle massive and unstructured datasets; this has led to a need for robust classification algorithms that deal with unbalanced Big Data. This paper surveys the current algorithms provided by Machine Learning for unbalanced dataset classification and considers their possible use for larger or unstructured datasets

Health information management practices in informal caregiving: An artifacts analysis and implications for IT design

Introduction Unpaid informal caregivers of adult care recipients, including persons with dementia, experience multiple unmet information needs and information management challenges. Objectives To understand the current personal health information management (PHIM) practices in informal caregiving for adults with and without dementia. Methods Semi-structured interviews were performed with ten informal caregivers—half of whom were caring for persons with dementia—and four formal caregivers at an adult day service. Interviews centered on a paper-based tool distributed by the day service, the CARE Kit, permitting an artifacts analysis of the tools used by participants for PHIM. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to interview data. Results Caregivers’ PHIM practices aimed to support daily care management and decision-making on behalf of care recipients, through: 1) information acquisition and integration across multiple sources and records; 2) information maintenance, updating, and use over time; and 3) information sharing and communication with healthcare professionals and other family caregivers. Participants reported advantages and challenges of their PHIM practices and tools, including fitting PHIM into their daily lives, managing PHIM-related cognitive workload, the functionality of PHIM tools, and the dynamic, longitudinal nature of PHIM. Conclusion The study produced a number of implications for caregiver health information management information technology (CHIM IT), based on findings about the nature of caregivers’ practices for managing information for adult care recipients. We present CHIM IT requirements related to privacy and security, customization and flexibility, ease of use, credibility and sensitivity, situation awareness, information integration, delegation and shared use, updating and maintenance, archiving and versioning, communication, agency and information access, and validation