Photocatalytic degradation of ketorolac tromethamine (KTC) drug in aqueous phase using prepared Ag-doped ZnO microplates

In this study, Ag-doped ZnO microplates were prepared via precipitation technique and further characterized by FESEM, EDS, XRD, FTIR, TGA, XPS, UV-DRS and RT-PL techniques. The outcomes indicated that Ag+ ions were well incorporated into ZnO lattice leading to the absorption of ZnO in visible region as well as effective charge separation. The photocatalytic experiments showed that Ag-doped ZnO microplates show higher catalytic activity (91%) than bare ZnO (71%) for the degradation of KTC drug under solar illumination. The photocatalytic degradation of KTC drug over Ag doped ZnO microplates obeyed pseudo first-order kinetics model. Also, the role of active species was examined by the addition of several scavengers in the photocatalytic degradation system. The results indicated that h+, •OHs, 1O2 and •OH were considered as prime reactive species in photocatalytic degradation process

Developing Demand-Response Based Solutions for Hawaii’s 100% Renewable Energy Target

The State of Hawaii has set a target to achieve a 100% Renewables by 2045. Due to the State’s high electricity prices and dependence on imported oil, renewables are seen as an environmental and economic solution to the problem. While the state has seen substantial renewables growth in the last few years, a truly transformative system is needed to push for a fully renewable future. This system would be likely to include Demand Response (DR) capability, Distributed Energy Resources and the like. This report models various different scenarios – different rate schedules, energy storage and energy production technologies – to determine which combination can deliver the most economic value. Time-of-Use and Flat Rate Schedules form the basis of the analysis, along with solar self-supply and solar export options for customers that would like rooftop PV. The average Hawaiian Resident’s load and solar production profiles are constructed – and along with the financial incentives of various schedules and DR programs – the optimum solution was determined. For Time-of-Use (TOU) Schedules, customers derived maximum economic value from utilizing storage to arbitrage consumption across different time periods. By shifting consumption, customers were able to achieve payback periods of under two years, and significant bill savings. While adding solar panels to their roofs also created a viable economic case – the TOU rate structure often conflicted with solar production, leading to a less-than-optimal result. For Flat Rate Schedules on the other hand, customers derived maximum economic value from employing solar PV systems (without storage) and exporting excess solar to the grid. Without the battery, the upfront costs of the system were much lower than other options and coupled with a decent export credit rate – the customers were able to attain payback periods under four years. The report concludes that while these two options would be beneficial to customers, there is significant room for further exploration. This could include redesigning or refining the TOU Schedule and modeling various system size combinations. Ultimately, designing a 21st-century renewable system would require going beyond optimizing for a single customer but also modeling the grid impacts of choices different customers could make. Hence, this report serves as a stepping stone to a larger exploration of the grid of the future

A Scalable Graph-Coarsening Based Index for Dynamic Graph Databases

Graph is a commonly used data structure for modeling complex data such as chemical molecules, images, social networks, and XML documents. This complex data is stored using a set of graphs, known as graph database D. To speed up query answering on graph databases, indexes are commonly used. State-of-the-art graph database indexes do not adapt or scale well to dynamic graph database use; they are static, and their ability to prune possible search responses to meet user needs worsens over time as databases change and grow. Users can re-mine indexes to gain some improvement, but it is time consuming. Users must also tune numerous parameters on an ongoing basis to optimize performance and can inadvertently worsen the query response time if they do not choose parameters wisely. Recently, a one-pass algorithm has been developed to enhance the performance of these indexes in part by using the algorithm to update them regularly. However, there are some drawbacks, most notably the need to make updates as the query workload changes. We propose a new index based on graph-coarsening to speed up query answering time in dynamic graph databases. Our index is parameter-free, query-independent, scalable, small enough to store in the main memory, and is simpler and less costly to maintain for database updates. We conducted an extensive sets of experiments on two types of databases, i.e., chemical and social network databases, to compare our graph-coarsening based index vs. hybrid-indexes as follows. First, we considered no database updates or query workload changes (static graph databases) and compared the indexes according to query vi answering time and index size for different minSup values. Second, we compared the indexes in the case of dynamic graph databases, i.e. when graphs are added to or removed from the database. Third, we compared the indexes with regard to query workload changes. Fourth, we studied the scalability of our index vs. hybrid-indexes. Experimental results show that our index outperforms hybrid-indexes (i.e. indexes updated with one-pass) for query answering time in the case of social network databases, and is comparable with these indexes for frequent and infrequent queries on chemical databases. Our graph-coarsening index can be updated up to 60 times faster in comparison to one-pass on dynamic graph databases. Moreover, our index is independent of the query workload for index update and is up to 15 times better after hybrid indexes are attuned to query workload for social network databases. This work is also published in 26th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) held in Singapore[18]

Codimension one intersections between components of the Emerton-Gee stack for GL2\mathrm{GL}_2

Let $p$ be a fixed odd prime, and let $K$ be a finite extension of $\mathbb{Q}_p$ with ring of integers $\mathcal{O}_K$. The Emerton-Gee stack for $\mathrm{GL}_2$ is a stack of $(\varphi, \Gamma)$-modules. The stack, denoted $\mathcal{X}_2$, can be interpreted as a moduli stack of representations of the absolute Galois group of $K$ with $p$-adic coefficients. The reduced part of the Emerton-Gee stack, denoted $\mathcal{X}_{2, \text{red}}$, is an algebraic stack defined over a finite field of characteristic $p$ and can be viewed as a moduli stack of Galois representations with mod $p$ coefficients. The irreducible components of $\mathcal{X}_{2, \text{red}}$ are labelled in a natural way by Serre weights, which are the irreducible mod $p$ representations of $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathcal{O}_K)$. Each irreducible component of $\mathcal{X}_{2, \text{red}}$ has dimension $[K:\mathbb{Q}_p]$. Motivated by the conjectural categorical $p$-adic Langlands programme, we find representation-theoretic criteria for codimension one intersections of the irreducible components of $\mathcal{X}_{2, \text{red}}$. The methods involve two separate computations and a final comparison between the two. The first of these computations determines extension groups of Serre weights and the second determines all the pairs of irreducible components that intersect in codimension one. We show that a non-trivial extension of a pair of non-isomorphic Serre weights implies a codimension one intersection of the corresponding irreducible components. The converse of this statement is also true when the Serre weights are chosen to be sufficiently generic. Furthermore, we show that the number of top-dimensional components in a codimension one intersection is related to the nature of the extension group of corresponding Serre weights.Comment: Changed the setting from the Caraiani-Emerton-Gee-Savitt stack to the Emerton-Gee stack. Very slight strengthening of the first main theore

National And Institutional Outcomes Data In Head And Neck Cancers, And Functional And Patient Reported Outcomes In Patients With Oropharyngeal Cancers

Background and Purpose: To determine the availability of outcomes data to head and neck cancer patients. To create a database of comprehensive information including demographics, process metrics, and outcomes for head and neck cancer patients who were diagnosed or treated at a Yale New Haven Hospital affiliate. To examine factors affecting functional and patient reported outcomes in patients with oropharyngeal cancers. Materials and Methods: The websites of all NCI-designated Cancer Centers and all affiliated institutions were examined for publicly available data regarding head and neck cancer patients. For Yale data, IRB approval was obtained to use tumor registry data, as well as chart review, to create a comprehensive database for all new head and neck cancer patients at Yale in 2013 and 2014. The patients with oropharyngeal cancers were then isolated and all living patients were called to survey them about long term treatment effects, using a standardized survey. The data gathered was then analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: Only 6 institutions across the country had any publicly available data regarding head and neck patients, and only three of them had information beyond the number of patients seen. The database of head and neck cancer patients at Yale was created successfully, and compiled into outcomes books for each year that presented the relevant data. Analysis of oropharyngeal patients focused on HPV status, insurance type, academic vs. non-academic centers, and distance from radiation treatment site for patients treated with that modality. Many factors were found to be significant on univariate analysis. On multivariate analysis, it was found that HPV positive patients had better outcomes in various functional and patient reported outcomes. It was also found that private practice patients had improved outcomes compared to Medicare patients. Finally, it was also found that recurrence rates were higher for patients that lived over 15 miles away from their treatment site. Conclusions: There is a paucity of publicly available data regarding head and neck cancer outcomes at NCI designated cancer centers around the country. At Yale, the data showed that standard metrics are in line with national outcomes. The institution can improve significantly in terms of various process metrics, most specifically in terms of having various ancillary staff work with patients who are diagnosed or treated for a head or neck cancer. Analysis of oropharyngeal patients demonstrated that patients with HPV negative cancers need closer monitoring for various functional and patient reported outcomes. It also demonstrated that patients on Medicare need monitoring for various other functional and patient reported metrics. Patients who live further from their treatment sites have higher recurrence rates, indicating that patients who have to travel further might be at higher risk for missing treatment or for receiving adequate follow-up

Learning From Students Perspectives On Open Education At Arab Universities: A Case Study

Open learning provides a unique opportunity to professionals for their continuing education and capacity building. Arab Open University, Kuwait (AOU) has been a successful enterprise with an objective to address the educational needs of masses in the Arab universities. Continuing education in the Arab region was the most neglected part of the educational system. AOU, in collaboration with Open University, UK (OU/UK), tailored graduate programs in the field of Business Administration, Information and Computing Technology and English language & Literature in 2002, which presents a number of futuristic strategies that can be used in the process of design to improve the harmony between the user and building the environment in which it is placed. In this study, the students perspectives of the graduate programs in Arab Open University, Kuwait Branch have been studied through a questionnaire survey to evaluate the effectiveness of open education. The data collected from 5,430 students were analyzed through descriptive statistics and provided qualitative inputs to the study. Most of the respondents found the program useful for their career and jobs. The study explored and revealed that there were potential issues which were addressed, but there is still a lot to be done for attainment of the objective of the establishment

A Survey on Fourier Transform (FT) and it�s Application in the Area of Mobile Phones

Electronic assets are a fundamental piece of the arithmetic, software engineering, media transmission, and computerized reasoning accumulations of the Library of Congress. Comparative like other correspondence frameworks, at the less than desirable end the transmitted flag is demodulated to separate the data. Every one of these strategies depend on unadulterated science. While adjusting the data flag, a high recurrence sinusoidal bearer flag is utilized to transmit the message motion through a medium (link or air). It is then gotten and demodulated utilizing Fourier Transform examination. So to understand the correspondence innovation, the procedures of balance, demodulation and Fourier Transform should be investigated first. In this paper, I have examined how Fourier Transform is utilized as a part of cell phone networking.

Measurement of corporate social performance: an Indian perspective

Kansal, M ORCiD: 0000-0003-4392-1072Purpose - This paper aims to: design a comprehensive, review-based and statistically tested corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) index; measure item-wise and theme-wise the social performance of the top 82 companies in India; and investigate item-wise and theme-wise the variations in CSRD. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents an empirical study of CSRD in 2009-2010, using content analysis, Cronbach's α, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests of normality and a six point scale (0-5), mean, skewness, kurtosis, and Levene's, Kruskal-Wallis's and Mood's median tests for analysis and interpretation. Findings - CSRD shows less satisfactory social performance, mainly narrative, and varies significantly among items and themes. Community development, with a mean score of 14.30, is the most disclosed theme, followed by HR, with a score of 11.20. The human element is the center of social performance in India. More than equal focus should be given to the environment and to emissions, which impact the greater interests of the world. Some burning global issues like water usage, alternative sources of energy, product safety and innovation have not received adequate attention. Research limitations/implications - The study offers ample scope for the further studies as each and every theme and item considered in the model/index requires individual focus to serve the future generations of mankind. Longitudinal/transnational studies in the area of CSR could be carried out to set the scene for further studies. Practical implications - The paper recommends mandatory CSR norms leading to improved disclosure, the sharing of innovative knowledge, cost reductions and enhanced effectiveness in managing scarce resources. Originality/value - The paper evaluates social performance in the economic, social, religious environment and highlights the emerging philanthropic attitude. The paper improves an existing model by incorporating an emerging dimension, i.e. Emissions of carbon and other harmful gases. The CSEEE index designed here is highly appropriate for developing economies like India. The paper measures CSRD using six-point scales for the first time. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited