TiO2- and BaTiO3-Assisted Photocatalytic Degradation of Selected Chloroorganic Compounds in Aqueous Medium: Correlation of Reactivity/Orientation Effects of Substituent Groups of the Pollutant Molecule on the Degradation Rate

Investigation of the photocatalytic activity of BaTiO3, a perovskite wideband gap semiconductor has been done in comparison with a widely used photocatalyst TiO2 for the degradation of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP), 4-chloroaniline (4-CA), 3,4-dichloronitrobenzene (3,4-DCNB), and 2,4,5-trichlorophenol (2,4,5-TCP). BaTiO3/TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by gel-to-crystalline conversion method. BaTiO3 has exhibited better catalytic efficiency and process efficiency compared with TiO2 in most of the cases. The present research focuses mainly on two aspects: first the photocatalytic activity of BaTiO3, as there are very few reports in the literature, and second the reactivity/orientation effects of substituent groups of the pollutant molecules on the degradation rate. The above chloroorganic compounds have at least one chlorine substituent in common, along with other functional groups such as −OH, −NH2, and −NO2. Furthermore, the effect of electron acceptors and pH on the rate of degradation is presented. The reactions follow first-order kinetics. The degradation reaction was followed by UV−vis, IR, and GC-MS spectroscopic techniques. On the basis of the identification of the intermediates, a probable degradation reaction mechanism has been proposed for each compoun

Effect of some biocontrol agents against root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita race2)

Culture filtrate of four rhizospheric fungi and four biocontrol agents were studied in vitro for their efficacy against Meloidogyne incognita race 2. The per cent mortality and egg hatching inhibition was proportional to the concentration of culture filtrate and the duration of exposure period. Culture filtrates of Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma sp., Fusarium sp., Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp. significantly induced inhibition of egg hatching and mortality of Meloidogyne incognita race 2.The highest percentage of inhibition of egg hatching and juvenile mortality was recorded in Trichoderma harzianum followed by Trichoderma viride and Trichoderma sp

The MIR Flickr Retrieval Evaluation Proposal Based on User Tags and Textual Passwords

In most well known image retrieval test sets, the imagery typically cannot be freely distributed or is not representative of a large community of users. In this paper we present a collection for the MIR community comprising 69,000 images from the Flickr website which are redistributable for research purposes and represent a real community of users both in the image content and image tags. We have extracted the tags and EXIF image meta data, and also make all of these publicly available. In addition we discuss several challenges for benchmarking retrieval and classification methods and applications

Performance Analysis of Genetic Algorithm with PSO for Data Clustering

Data clustering is widely used in several areas like machine learning, data mining, pattern recognition, image processing and bioinformatics. Clustering is the process of partitioning or grouping of a given set of data into disjoint cluster. Basically there are two types of clustering approaches, one is hierarchical and the other is partitioned. K-means clustering is one of the partitioned types and it suffers from the fact that that it may not be easy to clearly identify the initial K elements. To overcome the problems in K-means Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) techniques came into existence. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of hierarchical approach and can be noted as an optimization technique whose algorithm is based on the mechanics of natural selection and genetics. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is also one of the hierarchical search methods whose mechanics are inspired by the swarming. The PSO algorithm is simple and can be developed in a few lines of code whereas GAs suffers from identifying a current solution but good at reaching a global region. Even though GA and PSO have their own set of strengths they have weaknesses too. So a hybrid approach (GA-PSO) which combines the advantages of GA and PSO are proposed to get a better performance. The hybrid method merges the standard velocity and modernizes rules of PSOs with the thoughts of selection, crossover and mutation from GAs. A comparative study is carried out by analyzing the results like fitness value and elapsed time of GA-PSO to the standard GA and PSO

Strategi Contextual Teaching and Learning Pengelolaan Keuangan Berbasis Tri Hita Karana Dan Catur Purusa Artha Melalui Program Kerja Sekaa

Permasalahan utama yang dihadapi oleh para peserta didik di Indonesia adalah ketidakmampuan peserta didik dalam menghubungkan antara teori dengan implementasi dalam kehidupan nyata di lingkungan masyarakat. Tujuan penulisan ini adalah untuk membantu pengembangan strategi pembelajaran berbasis Contextual Teaching and Learning melalui pengelolaan keuangan sampah. Hal ini penting dilakukan untuk peningkatan pemberdayaan masyarakat lokal, serta membantu mewujudkan insan yang berkualitas dan berkarakter melalui aktivitas sosial tersebut. Sumber data yang digunakan dalam penelitian konseptual ini adalah sumber primer berupa buku-buku dan jurnal-jurnal hasil penelitian, serta sumber sekunder berupa sumber internet dan koran. Data penelitian diuraikan dengan content analysis, descriptive analysis, serta inter-text analysis. Sekaa dapat dijadikan sebagai organisasi sosial dalam mendukung program pengembangan pembelajaran kreatif dan inovatif dalam hal pengelolaan keuangan dan lingkungan. Pemahaman kuat tentang keseimbangan antara filosofi Tri Hita Karana dan Catur Purusa Artha dapat dijadikan sebagai penopang kuat dalam pembentukan etika dan moral seseorang ketika melaksanakan pengelolaan keuangan tersebut. Berbagai ide kreatif dan inovatif dalam hal pengelolaan keuangan dan lingkungan dapat terus dikembangkan sehingga manfaat yang dihasilkan melalui pelaksanaan program ini benar-benar dapat membantu peningkatan pemberdayaan masyarakat.   Kata Kunci: Catur Purusa Artha, Contextual Teaching and Learning, Sekaa, Tri Hita Karana

GPCR-OKB: the G protein coupled receptor oligomer knowledge base

Rapid expansion of available data about G Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) dimers/oligomers over the past few years requires an effective system to organize this information electronically. Based on an ontology derived from a community dialog involving colleagues using experimental and computational methodologies, we developed the GPCR-Oligomerization Knowledge Base (GPCR-OKB). GPCR-OKB is a system that supports browsing and searching for GPCR oligomer data. Such data were manually derived from the literature. While focused on GPCR oligomers, GPCR-OKB is seamlessly connected to GPCRDB, facilitating the correlation of information about GPCR protomers and oligomers