Adsorptive removal of direct dyes by low cost rice husk: Effect of treatments and modifications

In the present study, free, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-immobilized, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-alginate immobilized and chemically treated rice husk biomass was used for the biosorption of Everdirect Orange-3GL and Direct Blue-67 dyes. Maximum biosorption capacity of free, immobilized and hydrochloric acid treated biomass was observed for both dyes at low pH. Comparative study of free, immobilized and HCl treated biomass showed that, the HCl treated biomass exhibited more biosorption capacity (29.98 and 37.92 mg/g) for Everdirect Orange-3GL and Direct Blue-67, respectively. Equilibrium time was less for HCl treated biomass when compared with immobilized biomass. The Langmuir type 1 and 2 models were best fitted to experimental data for free, CMC, polyvinyl alcohol-alginate immobilized and HCl treated biomass in case of Everdirect Orange-3GL, while the equilibrium data of Direct Blue-67 followed the Langmuir type 2 isotherm. Pseudo-second-order and Elovich kinetic models illustrated good fitness to all types of biomasses showing chemisorption nature of biosorption. The amount of dyes sorbed (mg/g) increased with increase in temperature. The values of Gibbs free energy (ΔG°) showed that reaction was spontaneous at high temperature.Key words: Biosorption, kinetics, thermodynamics, direct dyes, immobilization, pretreatments

Evaluating the effectiveness of digital communication within the National Medication Safety Network for England

Objectives: The medication safety officer (MSO) role was created following a patient safety alert, with an action for MSOs to be active participants in a national network in England, which included regular online webinar meetings and an online forum. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of digital platforms in facilitating interaction and communication by the MSO network. The objectives were to establish the proportion of MSOs who interact through monthly webinars and the online forum. A secondary objective was to identify barriers and facilitators for engaging digitally within the MSO network. Methods: An online survey was used alongside semistructured interviews. The online survey was disseminated to all 400 MSOs registered with the UK Department of Health Central Alerting System from December 2018 to February 2019. Interviewees were identified purposively through snowball sampling and voluntarily through the survey. Results: 84 MSOs responded to the survey (21% response rate) and 10 participated in the semistructured interviews. The majority of the respondents were pharmacists (79/84, 94%) from NHS large healthcare providers (44/84, 52%). MSO respondents (61/84, 73%) joined the monthly webinar and 47/84 (56%) believed the webinar was useful for networking. Ten (12%) did not attend the webinars due to technical difficulties or lack of time. The online forum was used less frequently, with a third (27/84, 32%) that had never used it. Conclusions: Digital communications through webinars and online forums were perceived by respondents as a way to facilitate networking but require a robust information technology infrastructure that can be accessed without difficulty. User-friendly platforms can help the MSO network achieve critical mass and greater interaction, allowing timely access to information

How to Live in a Textile Quota-free World

Its going to be an open arena, only fittest will survive, instead of governments, markets will determine whom to favour or not. There will be no textile quotas in the year 2005. The world has changed and it is going to change increasingly. It differs from the colonial patterns of trade and co-operation when only United Kingdom was the major player in the international trading arena. Now there are many leading trading nations in the world. In post World Trade Organisation era that is after January 1, 1995 at least on paper every country is equal partner in the global trading system. On ground there are big and small players in this equal paper partnership. United States continues to be the leading exporter and importer in the world with a share of 12.4 percent of total world exports and 18.0 percent of total world imports. The East Asian economies first tier, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan have climbed up on the Product Cycle ladder shifting from low value products to high value added exports like hi-tech electronics, the second tier of NIE’s Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines have diverse exporting patterns. Excluding Malaysia, others are exporters of textiles and clothing with many other products

Plasma splashing from Al and Cu materials induced by and Nd : YAG pulsed laser

Plasma splashing from Al and Cu target materials and the growth of thin films on Cu and Al, respectively, has been studied using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a 1064-nm, 80-mJ, 8-ns pulse width as the source of ablation. The target kept rotating and the substrate, Cu for Al and vice versa, was placed at an angle of 15° with respect to the beam axis. During the laser-matter interaction, the targets absorbed thermal energy within the thermal region depth of 4.7 (1.1) nm, yielding an ablated skin depth of 6.7 (4.2) nm. The surface morphology of the exposed targets was studied by analyzing SEM micrographs obtained using a ZEISS SUPRA 35 VP. The obtained results are explained on the basis of different sputtering/ablation mechanisms. Comparatively severe damage forming a bigger crater is seen on the Al target surface in contrast to the crater on the Cu surface. This observation is correlated with the blustering effect and/or debris formation. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) of the substrates yielded the deposition of micrometric grain-size particle

The exact evaluation of the corner-to-corner resistance of an M x N resistor network: Asymptotic expansion

We study the corner-to-corner resistance of an M x N resistor network with resistors r and s in the two spatial directions, and obtain an asymptotic expansion of its exact expression for large M and N. For M = N, r = s =1, our result is R_{NxN} = (4/pi) log N + 0.077318 + 0.266070/N^2 - 0.534779/N^4 + O(1/N^6).Comment: 12 pages, re-arranged section

Double standards in healthcare innovations: the case of mosquito net mesh for hernia repair

With over two decades of evidence available including from randomised clinical trials, we explore whether the use of low-cost mosquito net mesh for inguinal hernia repair, common practice only in low-income and middle-income countries, represents a double standard in surgical care. We explore the clinical evidence, biomechanical properties and sterilisation requirements for mosquito net mesh for hernia repair and discuss the rationale for its use routinely in all settings, including in high-income settings. Considering that mosquito net mesh is as effective and safe as commercial mesh, and also with features that more closely resemble normal abdominal wall tissue, there is a strong case for its use in all settings, not just low-income and middle-income countries. In the healthcare sector specifically, either innovations should be acceptable for all contexts, or none at all. If such a double standard exists and worse, persists, it raises serious questions about the ethics of promoting healthcare innovations in some but not all contexts in terms of risks to health outcomes, equitable access, and barriers to learning

Frugal Innovation and Social Innovation: Linked Paths to Achieving Inclusion Sustainably.

This Handbook emphasizes the fundamental shift needed in management scholarship to address global problems and achieve social impact by working towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.This will be an invaluable resource for those ..

Asymptomatic Ileal Schwannoma presenting as a Mesenteric Tumour : Case report and review of literature

A schwannoma is a benign tumour which arises from the schwann cells of the central or peripheral nervous system. Common sites include the head and limbs; it is rare that this tumour arises from the gastrointestinal tract’s neural plexus. It is even rarer to find the ileum as the site of origin. We report a patient who presented with a central abdominal mass which was preoperatively diagnosed as a mesenteric tumour. However, immunohistochemistry of the surgically-removed specimen proved it to be a benign ileal schwannoma

Haptically enabled interactivity and immersive virtual assembly

Virtual training systems are attracting paramount attention from the manufacturing industries due to their potential advantages over the conventional training practices such as general assembly. Within this virtual training realm for general assembly, a haptically enabled interactive and immersive virtual reality (HIVEx) system is presented. The idea is to imitate real assembly training scenarios by providing comprehensive user interaction as well as by enforcing physical constraints within the virtual environment through the use of haptics technology. The developed system employs a modular system approach providing flexibility of reconfiguration and scalability as well as better utilization of the current multi-core computer architecture. The user interacts with the system using haptics device and data glove while fully immersed into the virtual environment with depth perception. An evaluation module, incorporated into the system, automatically logs and evaluates the information through the simulation providing user performance and improvements over time. A ruggedized portable version of the system is also developed and presented with full system capabilities allowing easy relocation with different factory environments. A number of training scenarios has been developed with varying degree of complexity to exploit the potential of the presented system. The presented system can be employed for teaching and training of existing assembly processes as well as the design of new optimised assembly operations. Furthermore, the presented system can assist in optimizing existing practices by evaluating the effectiveness and the level of knowledge transfer involved in the process. Within the aforementioned conceptual. framework, a working prototype is developed.<br /