Biopolymer Based Nanomaterials as Potential Biosorbents for Lead Ions

The objectives of the present work included synthesis of nanoparticles of calcium crosslinked alginate by emulsion crosslinking method and their characterization by techniques such as FTIR, TEM and XRD. In order to study the effect of various factors like adsorbent dose, initial metal ion concentration, pH and temperature on the removal of lead ions from water using nanoparticles of alginate, a series of batch sorption experiments were conducted. The obtained results were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and it was found that the adsorption of lead more precisely follows Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The results were also analyzed through various kinetic models like Lagergreen pseudo-first order kinetics, the pseudo-second order kinetics, and intraparticle diffusion model. Adsorption of Pb ions from aqueous solutions was found to be best described by pseudo second order Lagergreen equation. It was also found that intra particle transport was not the rate limiting step. The removal of Pb ions was found to be more than 90 percent. The metal ion removal capacity of the nanoparticles was found to depend on the chemical composition of the adsorbent, concentration of the metal ion solution, pH and temperature of the medium and speed of the suspension. Keywords: lead, alginate, nanoparticles, adsorption, emulsion cross linking

Construction status and prospects of the Hyper-Kamiokande project

The Hyper-Kamiokande project is a 258-kton Water Cherenkov together with a 1.3-MW high-intensity neutrino beam from the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The inner detector with 186-kton fiducial volume is viewed by 20-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and multi-PMT modules, and thereby provides state-of-the-art of Cherenkov ring reconstruction with thresholds in the range of few MeVs. The project is expected to lead to precision neutrino oscillation studies, especially neutrino CP violation, nucleon decay searches, and low energy neutrino astronomy. In 2020, the project was officially approved and construction of the far detector was started at Kamioka. In 2021, the excavation of the access tunnel and initial mass production of the newly developed 20-inch PMTs was also started. In this paper, we present a basic overview of the project and the latest updates on the construction status of the project, which is expected to commence operation in 2027

Prospects for neutrino astrophysics with Hyper-Kamiokande

Hyper-Kamiokande is a multi-purpose next generation neutrino experiment. The detector is a two-layered cylindrical shape ultra-pure water tank, with its height of 64 m and diameter of 71 m. The inner detector will be surrounded by tens of thousands of twenty-inch photosensors and multi-PMT modules to detect water Cherenkov radiation due to the charged particles and provide our fiducial volume of 188 kt. This detection technique is established by Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande. As the successor of these experiments, Hyper-K will be located deep underground, 600 m below Mt. Tochibora at Kamioka in Japan to reduce cosmic-ray backgrounds. Besides our physics program with accelerator neutrino, atmospheric neutrino and proton decay, neutrino astrophysics is an important research topic for Hyper-K. With its fruitful physics research programs, Hyper-K will play a critical role in the next neutrino physics frontier. It will also provide important information via astrophysical neutrino measurements, i.e., solar neutrino, supernova burst neutrinos and supernova relic neutrino. Here, we will discuss the physics potential of Hyper-K neutrino astrophysics

Biopolymer Based Nanomaterials as Potential Biosorbents for Toxic Metal Ions

In the present work ternary nanoparticles of chitosan, yeast and gelatin were prepared by emulsion crosslinking method and characterized by techniques like FTIR and TEM. Whereas the spectral studies confirm the presence of characteristic functional groups of the three biopolymers. The TEM analysis also reveal that the size of nanoparticles lie in the range 50 to 150 nm. The nanospheres so prepared were examined for removal of Cu (II) ions and it was found that the removal capacity of metal ions was more than 90 percent. The metal ion removal capacity of the nanoparticles was found to depend on the chemical composition of the adsorbent, concentration of the metal ion solution, pH and temperature of the medium and agitation speed of the suspension

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Not AvailableResult Framework Document (RFD) provides a summary of the most important results that a department/ministry expects to achieve during the financial year. This document has two main purposes: (a) move the focus of the department from process-orientation to result-orientation, and (b) provide an objective and fair basis to evaluate department’s overall performance at the end of the year. RFD is essentially a record of understanding between a Minister representing the people’s mandate, and the Secretary of a Department responsible for implementing this mandate. This document contains not only the agreed objectives, policies, programs and projects but also success indicators and targets to measure progress in implementing them. The RFD should contain the following six sections: Section 1 Institute’s Vision, Mission, Objectives and Functions, Section 2 Inter se priorities among key objectives, success indicators and targets, Section 3 Trend values of the success indicators, Section 4 Description and definition of success indicators and proposed measurement methodology, Section 5 Specific performance requirements from other departments that are critical for delivering agreed results, Section 6 Outcome / Impact of activities of department/ministry. Government of India prepared the format of RFD and issued guidelines to prepare RFDs in their departments/institutes (www.performance.gov.in). The database was created using MySQL database software for storage of the result of the various modules in RFDMS environment. MySQL has been chosen to develop the database because it efficiently manages large database, concurrent database users, has high transaction performance, and is compatible with .Net Technology. The database contains the details information on six section of RFD. User interface was developed to interact in RFDMS environment. This user interface is the only component of RFDMS that is visible to user. It transforms the user inputs in RFD document. A set of mock values was entered into the developed RFDMS for testing the system. It was found that system is generating the RFD report satisfactorily.ICAR-IASR

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Not AvailableRFD provides a summary of the most important results that a department/ministry expects to achieve during the financial year. This document has two main purposes: (a) move the focus of the department from process-orientation to result-orientation, and (b) provide an objective and fair basis to evaluate department’s overall performance at the end of the year. RFD is essentially a record of understanding between a Minister representing the people’s mandate, and the Secretary of a Department responsible for implementing this mandate. This document contains not only the agreed objectives, policies, programs and projects but also success indicators and targets to measure progress in implementing them. The RFD should contain the following six sections: Section 1 Institute’s Vision, Mission, Objectives and Functions, Section 2 Inter se priorities among key objectives, success indicators and targets, Section 3 Trend values of the success indicators, Section 4 Description and definition of success indicators and proposed measurement methodology, Section 5 Specific performance requirements from other departments that are critical for delivering agreed results, Section 6 Outcome / Impact of activities of department/ministry. Government of India was prepared the format of RFD and issued guidelines to prepare RFDs in their departments/institutes (www.performance.gov.in). The database was created using MySQL database software for storage of the result of the various module in RFDMS environment. MySQL has been chosen to develop the database because it is efficiently manage large database, concurrent database users, high transaction performance, and compatible with .Net Technology. The database contains the details information on RFD Six Sections. The user interface was developed to interact in RFDMS environment. This user interface is the only component of RFDMS that is visible to user. It transforms the user inputs in RFD document. A set of mock values was entered into the developed RFDMS. It was found that system is generating the RFD report satisfactorilyNot Availabl

Applicability of a Dense Medium Cyclone and Vorsyl Separator for Upgrading Non-Coking Coal Fines for Use as a Blast Furnace Injection Fuel

Replacement of metallurgical coke by high injection rates of thermal coal into the blast furnace is an important technology as it reduces the cost of hot metals significantly. However, one of the main problems that prevents the use of thermal coals is their high mineral-matter contents. Although, the ash content of coals to be injected in a blast furnace should be as low as possible, a maximum of 16% ash is acceptable. A non-coking coal sample from Chhattisgarh area, India, having a feed ash content of around 27% was collected for beneficiation studies to a grade acceptable for the injection purposes.A series of experiments were conducted in a 76-mm diameter dense-medium cyclone (DMC) and a Vorsyl separator (VS). It is observed that a clean coal having around 16% ash can be produced using both the cyclones if the variables are properly optimized. Further, it is observed that at the same ash level the yield of clean coal was 5%–6% more in VS than in DMC. It has also been demonstrated that at the same ash level, the magnetite medium stability in a VS was better than a DMC

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Not AvailableIndian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is one of the largest national agricultural system in the world with 101 institutes and 71 agricultural universities spread across the country. Following the guidelines of Government of India, ICAR was given responsibility to all the ICAR institutes to develop Results Framework Documents (RFDs) in their institutes. But, there is no web based information system available in ICAR for preparing and reporting the RFDs to the respective subject matter divisions (SMD) and for preparing consolidated reports and evaluating overall performance of the institutes by the ICAR headquarters. Thus, ICARIASRI developed a web based Results Framework Document Management System (RFDMS) in ICAR to manage RFD activities in ICAR which replaces the existing manual handling of RFD documents. The system consists of 6 input options viz., Section 1 to Section 6 of RFD and each of these sections further constitutes different options that help the user to enter various components of RFD. The RFDMS facilitates institutes to prepare, submit targets and achievements and consolidated reports online and also provides access to officials for effective monitoring and decision making. It is a centralized, automated and uniform reporting tool across ICAR institutes resulting into improved targets monitoring and decision making. This system leads to IT empowerment and improved information management of RFD in ICAR.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableIndian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is one of the largest national agricultural system in the world with 101 institutes and 71 agricultural universities spread across the country. Following the guidelines of Government of India, ICAR was given responsibility to all the ICAR institutes to develop Results Framework Documents (RFDs) in their institutes. But, there is no web based information system available in ICAR for preparing and reporting the RFDs to the respective subject matter divisions (SMD) and for preparing consolidated reports and evaluating overall performance of the institutes by the ICAR headquarters. Thus, ICARIASRI developed a web based Results Framework Document Management System (RFDMS) in ICAR to manage RFD activities in ICAR which replaces the existing manual handling of RFD documents. The system consists of 6 input options viz., Section 1 to Section 6 of RFD and each of these sections further constitutes different options that help the user to enter various components of RFD. The RFDMS facilitates institutes to prepare, submit targets and achievements and consolidated reports online and also provides access to officials for effective monitoring and decision making. It is a centralized, automated and uniform reporting tool across ICAR institutes resulting into improved targets monitoring and decision making. This system leads to IT empowerment and improved information management of RFD in ICAR.IASR