removal of metal ions from ethanoic acid producing plant waste water effluent,using ion exchange resins and activated carbon

This study is conducted using effluents taken from BP PETRONAS Acelyls Plant which the outcomcs of this project may give new alternative for effluent treatment oil-site not only for BBPA plant but to other industries as well This is to ensure the quality of the environment is maintained and at the same time may help in reducing cost of having to treat the effluent off site

A Comparison Study on Control Moment Gyroscope Arrays and Steering Laws

Current reaction wheels and magnetorquers for microsatellite are limited by low slew rate and heavily depends on orbital parameters for coverage area. Control moment gyroscope (CMG) clusters offer an alternative solution for high slew rates and rapid retargeting. Though CMGs are often used in large space missions, their use in microsatellites is limited due to the stringent mass budget. Most literature reports only on pyramid configuration, and there are no definite cross-comparison studies between various CMG clusters and steering laws. In this research, a generic tool in Matlab and Simulink is developed to further understand CMG configurations and steering laws for a microsat mission. Various steering laws necessary for mitigating singularities in CMG clusters are compared in two distinct missions. The simulation results were evaluated based on the pointing accuracy, platform jitter, and pointing stability achieved by the spacecraft for each combination of CMG clusters, and steering laws and trajectories. The simulation results demonstrate that the pyramid cluster is marginally better than the rooftop cluster in pointing accuracy. The comparison of steering laws shows that, counterintuitively, Singularity Robust steering law, which passes through singularities, outperforms both Moore-Penrose and Local Gradient methods for almost all evaluation criteria for the two missions it was tested on. The simulation results would aid systems engineers in designing low-cost actuation systems and corresponding control software, which can increase the data acquisition rate of remote sensing missions

ADME ANALYSIS AND MOLECULAR DOCKING OF PHYTOCOMPOUNDS OF SALVIA PLEBEIA AGAINST SIRT1 TARGETS IN LUNG CANCER

Objective: The sirtuin family is known to have a significant role in the regulation of a wide range of physiological and pathological processes, including in neurodegeneration, age-related diseases, obesity, heart disease, and cancer, according to its targets in certain signaling pathways or in particular tumors. In the present study, the counteractive activity of 10 phytocompounds of the plant Salvia plebeia against lung cancer’s disease-causing protein SIRT1 was observed. Methods: The molecules’ structural information was obtained using PubChem and IMPPAT websites, pharmacological assessment was done using SwissADME and toxicity was predicted using ProTox-II. A computational approach was used to study the phytochemical properties of the compounds of Salvia plebeia. Molecular docking was done using PyRx and BIOVIA helped in the visualization process. Results: The results from the molecular docking showed that nepetin, hispidulin, and eupatorin were the most effective against SIRT1 promoting lung cancer. Conclusion: The compounds’ ADME/T characteristics were examined to forecast their likelihood of becoming drugs. This docking study can be exploited to create powerful SIRT1 lung cancer inhibitors

removal of metal ions from ethanoic acid producing plant waste water effluent,using ion exchange resins and activated carbon

This study is conducted using effluents taken from BP PETRONAS Acelyls Plant which the outcomcs of this project may give new alternative for effluent treatment oil-site not only for BBPA plant but to other industries as well This is to ensure the quality of the environment is maintained and at the same time may help in reducing cost of having to treat the effluent off site

Robot weed killers - no pain more gain

Weed destruction plays a significant role in crop production, and its automation has both economic and environmental benefits by minimizing the usage of chemicals in the fields. Our aim is to design a small low-cost versatile robot allowing the destruction of weeds that lie between the crop rows by navigating in the field autonomously. Major challenges foreseen are: mapping the unknown geometry of the field, high-level planning of efficient and complete coverage of the field, and controlling the low-level operations of the robot. Traditionally, sensors like odometer have been used for localisation of robots but without much success in real-world scenarios. Specialized sensors like cameras will therefore be investigated and the plethora of image recognition algorithms will be explored and fine-tuned to enable Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) even on resource constrained robotic platforms. Vision-based localisation is not always viable because of the varying weather conditions of the environment and to overcome that, intelligent stochastic data fusion and machine learning algorithms will be utilized to combine data from heterogenous sensor. The image sensors for localisation will be re-used to differentiate crop rows from the weeds, which are cut when they grow. Finally, logics and reinforcement learning techniques will be explored, to exploit the generated map of the field and other sensorial information, to efficiently plan and execute weed elimination

Regulation, Auditor Litigation and Settlements

This paper aims to understand the determinants of lawsuits against auditors in securities class action litigation and the settlement pattern by auditors when the suit is not dismissed. The issues we consider are: (i) when are auditors named as defendants (ii) when do auditors choose to settle and (iii) what proportion of the settlement do auditors pay in relation to the settlement by all the other parties; and (iv) differences in settlement strategies among the big-n firms. This paper also examines how the lawsuit and settlement patterns have changed following the enactment of major regulation such as the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA), Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). Following prior literature, we first establish that auditors are more likely both to be named and to settle in cases involving restatement of earnings, accusations of violation of GAAP or accounting improprieties. We then show that the likelihood of suit and settlement increase in a measure that we construct measuring the complexity of litigation. We then examine differences in settlement patterns across periods preceding and after the passage of PSLRA and SOX. We find that auditors are named less often in the post PSLRA period (relative to the pre-PSLRA period), settle with the same frequency in both periods but pay less proportional damages. The same set of comparisons show that auditors are just as likely to be sued post-SOX as pre-SOX, but settle with lower frequency and pay the same proportion of damages. Overall this study documents the beneficial role of both PSLRA and SOX on reducing the litigation burden on auditors. With regard to settlement strategies, we document the varying strategies employed by the Big-n firms that settle at different rates, vary in their aggressiveness and time to settle signaling the willingness to fight or cooperate in the settlement

Isolation and identification of some cyanobacteria and their plant growth promoting effect on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), Ethiopia

Cyanobacteria are gram negative photosynthetic prokaryotic microorganisms otherwise known as Blue Green Algae (BGA). Numerous cyanobacteria were isolated and identified worldwide and most of them are known to possess the ability to discharge plant growth promoting substances as well as fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Therefore, the present study mainly focussed on evaluating the plant growth promoting activity of cyanobacterial isolates using wheat as an experimental crop by seed germination and pot experiments. In the present study, five different cyanobacterial species were isolated and identified as Pseudanabaena galeata KA1, Oscillatoria perornata KA2, Phormidium acutum KA3, Rivularia sp. KA4 and Lyngbya sp. KA5 based on the morphometric characters using microscopic investigations. The heterocystous cyanobacterium Rivularia sp. KA4 at 0.3% aqueous concentration showed significantly (p<0.05) highest results in the morphological parameters as well as in the biochemical parameters under seed germinations experiment. The same heterocystous cyanobacterium Rivularia sp. KA4 at 2g dried application significantly (p<0.05) boosted the morphological growth parameters (plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf width, number of roots, root length, shoot fresh and dry weight) and biochemical parameters (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoid) of the experimental crop under pot experiment when compared to all other cyanobacterial species, chemical fertilizer treatment, and control. Therefore, the heterocystous cyanobacterial isolate Rivularia sp. KA4 at 3% aqueous extracts can be used to do the pretreatment of wheat seeds and the same heterocystous cyanobacterium Rivularia sp. KA4 can also be used as biofertilizers in both dried as well as liquid form for the cultivation of T. aestivum

Weakly generalized connectedness in intuitionistic fuzzy topological spaces

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to introduce weakly generalized connected spaces in intuitionistic fuzzy topological spaces and study some of their properties. We also investigate their characterizations and basic properties. 201

Detection of marine aerosols with IRS P4-ocean colour monitor

The atmospheric correction bands 7 and 8 (765nm and 865nm respectively) of the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS P4-0CM (Ocean Colour Monitor) can be used for deriving aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the oceans. A retrieval algorithm has been developed which computes the AOD using band 7 data by treating the ocean surface as a dark background after removing the Rayleigh path radiance in the sensor-detected radiances. This algorithm has been used to detect marine aerosol distributions at different coastal and offshore locations around India. A comparison between OCM derived AOD and the NOAA operational AOD shows a correlation ~0.92 while that between OCM derived AOD and the ground-based sun photometer measurements near the coast of Trivandrum shows a correlation of ~0.90

Integrated Pest and Disease Management in Tomato: An Economic Analysis

The adoption of IPM technology in tomato using African marigold as a trap crop, root dipping of seedlings in Imidacloprid, soil application of neem/pongamia cake, spraying of botanicals like pongamia soap and biopesticide like Ha NPV has been found effective in both insect as well as disease management. The IPM technology has been found economically viable as the yield on IPM farms has been found higher by about 46 per cent, cost of cultivation has been less by about 21 per cent and the net returns have been higher by 119 per cent. The technology can be considered environment-friendly as it uses more of eco-friendly inputs and less of chemicals. The constraints like non-availability of botanicals and bio-pesticides should be addressed on priority basis to make the technology sustainable and more popular.Agricultural and Food Policy,