Homogeneous Mercury Oxidation under Simulated Flue Gas of Oxy-coal Combustion

This study investigated the effects of oxy-coal combustion on Hg-oxidation by HCl using simulated flue gas. Experiments were conducted with different carrier gases that one might find in oxy-coal combustion and conventional coal combustion. The extents of Hg-oxidation in pure CO2, pure N2 and air were also studied for comparison. Our experimental results demonstrated that CO2 weakly assisted Hg-oxidation by HCl; however, its significance was outweighed by the presence of O2. For all carrier gases, the presence of NO or H2O inhibited Hg-oxidation. The inhibitory effects strongly depended on concentrations of NO, but not moisture content. The synergistic inhibitory effects were shown when both NO and H2O were present together. The extents of Hg-oxidation were not significantly different for O2-N2, O2-N2-CO2 and O2-CO2 gas mixtures for all conditions investigated in this study

Mining Frequent Itemsets Using Genetic Algorithm

In general frequent itemsets are generated from large data sets by applying association rule mining algorithms like Apriori, Partition, Pincer-Search, Incremental, Border algorithm etc., which take too much computer time to compute all the frequent itemsets. By using Genetic Algorithm (GA) we can improve the scenario. The major advantage of using GA in the discovery of frequent itemsets is that they perform global search and its time complexity is less compared to other algorithms as the genetic algorithm is based on the greedy approach. The main aim of this paper is to find all the frequent itemsets from given data sets using genetic algorithm

Non-invasive aerosol delivery and transport of gold nanoparticles to the brain

Targeted delivery of nanoscale carriers containing packaged payloads to the central nervous system has potential use in many diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Moreover, understanding of the bio-interactions of the engineered nanoparticles used for tissue-specific delivery by non-invasive delivery approaches are also of paramount interest. Here, we have examined this issue systematically in a relatively simple invertebrate model using insects. We synthesized 5 nm, positively charged gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and targeted their delivery using the electrospray aerosol generator. Our results revealed that after the exposure of synthesized aerosol to the insect antenna, AuNPs reached the brain within an hour. Nanoparticle accumulation in the brain increased linearly with the exposure time. Notably, electrophysiological recordings from neurons in the insect brain several hours after exposure did not show any significant alterations in their spontaneous and odor-evoked spiking properties. Taken together, our findings reveal that aerosolized delivery of nanoparticles can be an effective non-invasive approach for delivering nanoparticles to the brain, and also presents an approach to monitor the short-term nano-biointeractions

Optimization of Bituminous Pavement Thickness using Mechanistic-Empirical Strain-Based Design Approach

The pavement in this paper has been considered as a three layered system with the top layer of bituminous mix followed by unbound granular layer which rests on soil subgrade. The objective of the paper is to develop an optimization method based on mechanistic –empirical approach for estimation of bituminous and granular layer thickness. Two major modes of failure as rutting and fatigue have been considered for structural design of bituminous road section on strain based criteria. The vertical compressive strain on the top of subgrade and radial tensile strain at the bottom of bituminous layer have been determined by Boussinesq’s theory after transforming the three layered system in to a homogeneous system by Odemark’s method. The findings from the present study reveals that only one typical combination of bituminous and granular layer thickness is possible to save the pavement both against rutting and fatigue. The result of layer thickness obtained using present methodology was compared with other international published data and was found in good agreement. The pavement deflection as a performance indicator for the optimized pavement section thus obtained have been determined by Odemark's-Boussinesq's approach and compared with the deflection obtained using IITPAVE and KENPAVE software, which show reasonable good convergence. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091691 Full Text: PD

TiO2 nanoparticle biosynthesis and its physiological effect on mung bean (Vigna radiata L.)

AbstractTiO2 nanoparticle (NPs) biosynthesis is a low cost, ecofriendly approach developed using the fungi Aspergillus flavus TFR 7. To determine whether TiO2 NPs is suitable for nutrient, we conducted a two part study; biosynthesis of TiO2 NP and evaluates their influence on mung bean. The characterized TiO2 NPs were foliar sprayed at 10mgL−1 concentration on the leaves of 14 days old mung bean plants. A significant improvement was observed in shoot length (17.02%), root length (49.6%), root area (43%), root nodule (67.5%), chlorophyll content (46.4%) and total soluble leaf protein (94%) as a result of TiO2 NPs application. In the rhizosphere microbial population increased by 21.4–48.1% and activity of acid phosphatase (67.3%), alkaline phosphatase (72%), phytase (64%) and dehydrogenase (108.7%) enzyme was observed over control in six weeks old plants owing to application of TiO2 NPs. A possible mechanism has also been hypothesized for TiO2 NPs biosynthesis

DUAL WIDEBAND AND HIGH GAIN MICROSTRIP ANTENNA FOR WIRELESS SYSTEM

In this paper dual wideband high gain circular shaped microstrip antenna with modified ground plane is presented for wireless communication systems. The overall dimension of the proposed antenna is 50 x 40 x 1.6 mm3. The radiating element consists of circular shaped patch which is excited by microstrip feed-line printed on FR4 epoxy substrate. The ground plane is on the other side of the substrate having a rectangular ring shape to enhance the peak gain of the antenna. The proposed antenna exhibits two wide fractional bandwidths (based on ≤ -10 dB) of 61.1% (ranging from 2.0 to 3.8 GHz, centred at 2.88 GHz) and 53.37% (ranging from 5.48 to 9.6 GHz, centred at 7.44 GHz). The measured peak gain achieved is 8.25 dBi at 8.76 GHz. The measured impedance bandwidth and gain suffice all the commercial bands of wireless systems such as 4G LTE band-40, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WLAN, WiMAX, C-band, and X-band. The measured results are experimentally tested and verified with simulated results. A reasonable agreement is found between them

Correlation-driven metal-insulator transition in unconventional magnetic metal superoxides

Using first-principles electronic structure calculations, we have extensively studied the electronic and magnetic properties of alkali sodium superoxide (NaO2) in comparison with that of potassium superoxide (KO2) both at high and low temperatures. These properties of these superoxides are governed by the unpaired electron donated by the alkali atoms Na and K to the O atoms forming dimers. This unpaired electron is the source of orbital fluctuations in the O-{\pi}* manifold for both cases. In order to reduce this orbital fluctuation, both go through several structural phase transitions. In these plethora of structures, the O2- dimers undergo rotation, leading to a complex linking of its orbital degrees of freedom with its spin degrees of freedom. Hence the magnetic properties are found to be controlled by this unpaired electron vary as the orientations of these O2 - dimers change. Due to the change in the orientations of O2- dimers, the alkali ion cages around the O2 - dimers change from square in the pyrite phase to rhombus and rectangle for the orthorhombic phase for NaO2 and square in the tetragonal phase to parallelogram in the monoclinic phase for KO2 on the plane cutting through the dimers. The band structures of NaO2 in the low-temperature orthorhombic phase and KO2 in the monoclinic phase show that the lifting of degeneracy in the O-{\pi}* manifold is due to the redefined electrostatic interaction between the K/Na cages and the O2 - dimers. This, inaddition to electron correlation among the localized O-{\pi}* electrons, establishes complete orbital ordering (OO) in turn drives metal-insulator transition (MIT) in both the systems. Furthermore, K doping for Na in NaO2 also results in correlation-induced MIT, predicted to take place at a temperature higher than that in NaO2. This opens up the possibility of MIT in Rb/Cs-doped NaO2 at even higher temperatures.Comment: 17 page

A new (k,n) verifiable secret image sharing scheme (VSISS)

AbstractIn this paper, a new (k,n) verifiable secret image sharing scheme (VSISS) is proposed in which third order LFSR (linear-feedback shift register)-based public key cryptosystem is applied for the cheating prevention and preview before decryption. In the proposed scheme the secret image is first partitioned into several non-overlapping blocks of k pixels. Every k pixel is then used to form m=⌈k/4⌉+1 pixels of one encrypted share. The original secret image can be reconstructed by gathering any k or more encrypted shared images. The experimental results show that the proposed VSISS is an efficient and safe method