Adsorptive removal of lead and arsenic from aqueous solution using soya bean as a novel biosorbent: equilibrium isotherm and thermal stability studies

Abstract In this study, adsorption potential of soya bean adsorbent for lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) has been assessed in order to consider its suitability for purification of wastewater containing heavy metals. The main focus of study was on Pb and As. Batch experiments were performed to study the adsorption of Pb and As on soya bean absorbent. The effect of various experimental parameters (adsorbent dose, contact time, temperature and pH) was studied, and optimal conditions were determined. The effect of adsorbent dose on the biosorption of Pb and As from aqueous solution was studied at 37 °C by varying the adsorbent amount from 1 g/100 ml to 4 g/100 ml. Highest amount of Pb and As was adsorbed at sorbent amount of 3 g/100 ml. The optimum pH for removal of As and Pb was found to be 2.0 and 4.0 ± 0.26. Maximum biosorption of Pb and As was achieved at 37 °C. The maximum percentage removal of Pb and As was attained at 60 min of shaking time. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were utilized for equilibrium studies. It was found that biosorption by soya bean adsorbent was exothermic in nature. The thermal degradation analysis suggested that the degradation occurs in two steps and adsorbent is thermally stable

Skull fractures: CT scans versus autopsies

Background Emergency departments rely on CT scans to manage trauma victims, especially for head injuries. Although the detection of an undisplaced fracture on a CT scan of the head without significant intracranial findings may be insignificant for a clinician, such cases are of paramount importance for medico-legal purposes because they help ascertain the nature, manner, and cause of the head injury. Aims The study was conducted with the objective of knowing the sensitivity and specificity of ante-mortem CT scan findings indicating the presence or absence of skull fractures. Methods Findings were confirmed during post-mortem examination of the subjects who had died during management but who had not had any surgical intervention. A comparative study of ante-mortem CT scan and autopsy findings with respect to fracture in traumatic head injuries was undertaken on 60 deceased individuals brought in for medico-legal post- mortem examination over a period of two years. Results Considering the autopsy findings as the gold standard, we have concluded that 14.6 per cent of the fractures were missed on CT scan findings compared to fractures found during autopsy. The sensitivity of CT scan for skull fractures was found to be 85.4 per cent and specificity was 100 per cent. Kappa was 0.787, which shows good agreement with

Enhancing Environmental Monitoring – A LoRa-Based Wireless Sensor Network Approach

Daily climate change has an impact on all aspects of human life. The effects of climate change include acid rain, torrential rain, rising sea levels, and flooding. To acquire pollution data and accurately evaluate local monitoring data, related studies offer ways that involve very cheap equipment networking. Precautions must be taken to reduce these consequences, and one of those precautions is to feel and track environmental variables including temperature, relative humidity, air quality, and rainfall in remote as well as urban areas. The design of the monitoring system included designing of wireless sensor network by using a LoRa Technologies module for the collection of data regarding environmental parameters. As part of this prototype, the microcontroller is paired with temp., humidity, and rainfall sensors so that they may act as sensor nodes. These sensor nodes are responsible for transmitting significant data over long distances at low data rates while using as little power as possible. The experimental results show that by using LoRa modules we can monitor the parameters with high accuracy and at longer distances. This prototype was tested for three different months to collect the data. Meanwhile, we demonstrate that the transport sector is mostly responsible for the city's air pollution by carefully examining the particular situation mostly during daily peak hours and festival season. We conclude that employing weather quality monitoring and forecasting to control traffic conditions during the peak hours and festival season, will significantly contribute to the protection of cities' atmospheric environments

Utilization of waste slate powder in poly(lactic acid) based composite for 3D printer filament

This work aims to develop and validate a novel composite material for fused deposition additive manufacturing utilizing poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and discarded slate powder. The slate powder is mixed into PLA filaments at varying percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%) using a twin screw extruder. The resulting filaments are used in a 3D printer to print the test specimens. The tensile strength of the testing specimens is improved up to 5 wt% by incorporating slate powder. In contrast, the tensile modulus, hardness, and impact strength are raised with slate powder up to 15 wt% in PLA-based filament by 19.03%, 10.67%, and 31.63%, respectively. The maximum flexural strength and modulus values are 93.25 MPa and 4.15 GPa, respectively, achieved at 10 wt% slate powder content PLA matrix. Moreover, slate powder's presence significantly affects the composites' dynamic mechanical properties, such as storage, loss modulus, and damping factor. The composite's entanglement density, C-factor, adhesion efficiency, and reinforcing efficiency factor are investigated using dynamic mechanical properties and correlated with their structural integrity. Results show that 10 wt% slate powder in the PLA matrix is sufficient for their successful application

The sequence of rice chromosomes 11 and 12, rich in disease resistance genes and recent gene duplications

Background: Rice is an important staple food and, with the smallest cereal genome, serves as a reference species for studies on the evolution of cereals and other grasses. Therefore, decoding its entire genome will be a prerequisite for applied and basic research on this species and all other cereals. Results: We have determined and analyzed the complete sequences of two of its chromosomes, 11 and 12, which total 55.9 Mb (14.3% of the entire genome length), based on a set of overlapping clones. A total of 5,993 non-transposable element related genes are present on these chromosomes. Among them are 289 disease resistance-like and 28 defense-response genes, a higher proportion of these categories than on any other rice chromosome. A three-Mb segment on both chromosomes resulted from a duplication 7.7 million years ago (mya), the most recent large-scale duplication in the rice genome. Paralogous gene copies within this segmental duplication can be aligned with genomic assemblies from sorghum and maize. Although these gene copies are preserved on both chromosomes, their expression patterns have diverged. When the gene order of rice chromosomes 11 and 12 was compared to wheat gene loci, significant synteny between these orthologous regions was detected, illustrating the presence of conserved genes alternating with recently evolved genes. Conclusion: Because the resistance and defense response genes, enriched on these chromosomes relative to the whole genome, also occur in clusters, they provide a preferred target for breeding durable disease resistance in rice and the isolation of their allelic variants. The recent duplication of a large chromosomal segment coupled with the high density of disease resistance gene clusters makes this the most recently envolved part of the rice genome. Based on syntenic alignments of these chromosomes, rice chromosome 11 and 12 do not appear to have resulted from a single whole-genome duplication event as peviously suggested

A Snapshot of the Emerging Tomato Genome Sequence

The genome of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is being sequenced by an international consortium of 10 countries (Korea, China, the United Kingdom, India, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Spain, Italy, and the United States) as part of the larger \u201cInternational Solanaceae Genome Project (SOL): Systems Approach to Diversity and Adaptation\u201d initiative. The tomato genome sequencing project uses an ordered bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) approach to generate a high-quality tomato euchromatic genome sequence for use as a reference genome for the Solanaceae and euasterids. Sequence is deposited at GenBank and at the SOL Genomics Network (SGN). Currently, there are around 1000 BACs finished or in progress, representing more than a third of the projected euchromatic portion of the genome. An annotation effort is also underway by the International Tomato Annotation Group. The expected number of genes in the euchromatin is 3c40,000, based on an estimate from a preliminary annotation of 11% of finished sequence. Here, we present this first snapshot of the emerging tomato genome and its annotation, a short comparison with potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) sequence data, and the tools available for the researchers to exploit this new resource are also presented. In the future, whole-genome shotgun techniques will be combined with the BAC-by-BAC approach to cover the entire tomato genome. The high-quality reference euchromatic tomato sequence is expected to be near completion by 2010