The Biosorption of Cr (VI) From Aqueous SolutionUsing Date Palm Fibers (Leef)

The ability of Cr (VI) removal from aqueous solution using date palm fibers (leef) was investigated .The effects of pH, contact time, sorbets concentration and initial metal ions concentration on the biosorption were investigated.<br />The residual concentration of Cr (VI) in solution was determined colorimetrically using spectrophotometer at wave length 540 nm .The biosorption was pH-dependent, the optimum pH was 7 and adsorption isotherms obtained fitted well with Langmuir isotherms .The Langmuir equation obtained was Ce/Cs = 79.99 Ce-77.39, the correlation factor was 0.908.These results indicate that date palm fibers (leef) has a potential effect for the uptake of Cr (VI) from industrial waste water.<br /

Green construction in India: gaining a deeper understanding

A workshop on green construction was organized in New Delhi in July 2008 by Jamia Millia University, India and University of Salford, U.K., aiming to increase &#039;green&#039; practices that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The workshop included participants from regulatory bodies, public and private construction companies and researchers. The object of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to capture issues, challenges and research issues in green practices throughout the supply chain in the construction sector in India. The methodology constituted a survey that was provided to all participants, where eight questions were composed by the facilitators. The participants were asked about their views on voluntary and compulsory ways of assessment and audit of green implementation in India. The findings of the workshop featured major challenges, drivers, initiatives, and the ways of effective implementation as well as enforcement on the discussed topic

The evolution of genome-scale models of cancer metabolism

The importance of metabolism in cancer is becoming increasingly apparent with the identification of metabolic enzyme mutations and the growing awareness of the influence of metabolism on signaling, epigenetic markers, and transcription. However, the complexity of these processes has challenged our ability to make sense of the metabolic changes in cancer. Fortunately, constraint-based modeling, a systems biology approach, now enables one to study the entirety of cancer metabolism and simulate basic phenotypes. With the newness of this field, there has been a rapid evolution of both the scope of these models and their applications. Here we review the various constraint-based models built for cancer metabolism and how their predictions are shedding new light on basic cancer phenotypes, elucidating pathway differences between tumors, and dicovering putative anti-cancer targets. As the field continues to evolve, the scope of these genome-scale cancer models must expand beyond central metabolism to address questions related to the diverse processes contributing to tumor development and metastasis

Low Concentrations of Vitamin C Reduce the Synthesis of Extracellular Polymers and Destabilize Bacterial Biofilms

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) produced by bacteria form a matrix supporting the complex three-dimensional architecture of biofilms. This EPS matrix is primarily composed of polysaccharides, proteins and extracellular DNA. In addition to supporting the community structure, the EPS matrix protects bacterial biofilms from the environment. Specifically, it shields the bacterial cells inside the biofilm, by preventing antimicrobial agents from getting in contact with them, thereby reducing their killing effect. New strategies for disrupting the formation of the EPS matrix can therefore lead to a more efficient use of existing antimicrobials. Here we examined the mechanism of the known effect of vitamin C (sodium ascorbate) on enhancing the activity of various antibacterial agents. Our quantitative proteomics analysis shows that non-lethal concentrations of vitamin C inhibit bacterial quorum sensing and other regulatory mechanisms underpinning biofilm development. As a result, the EPS biosynthesis in reduced, and especially the polysaccharide component of the matrix is depleted. Once the EPS content is reduced beyond a critical point, bacterial cells get fully exposed to the medium. At this stage, the cells are more susceptible to killing, either by vitamin C-induced oxidative stress as reported here, or by other antimicrobials or treatments

Rapid Manufacturing: Classification and Recent Development

Rapid Prototyping is an emerging technology in the field of advance manufacturing process/technique in which components/parts/models are rapidly created from the visual world (CAD model) to real world with minimum human interaction. Since the manufacturing starts with the creation of geometric data, either as a 3D solid using a CAD model, or 2D layers using a 3D scanning device therefore it is also referred as Layer Manufacturing, Material Deposition Manufacturing, Additive Manufacturing, Solid Freeform Manufacturing and Three-Dimensional Printing. This is one of the best techniques to manufacture prototypes which may be used for physical visualization, making some typical and intrinsic geometry. For the same requirement, in most of the cases it is very cost effective, flexible and time saving than any other available manufacturing technique. Therefore it is the most appropriate technique to manufacture or to recreate components/parts/model in different engineering viz. aerospace, product and tool development. A lot of new developments are occurring in the field of Rapid Prototyping Techniques in recent years. This paper also provides the development, trendsand applications of the Rapid Prototyping Techniques. The authors cover various available literatures to prepare concise and progressive review. There are various components which are associated with RP technique and some of them are listed in this paper

Overexpression of adrenomedullin gene markedly inhibits proliferation of PC3 prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo

The expression of the gene encoding adrenomedullin (AM), a multifunctional peptide hormone, in the prostate is localized to the epithelial cells. Prostate cancer cells are derived from prostatic epithelial cells. To elucidate the potential role of the AM gene in prostate cancer progression, we have stably-transfected the PC3 human prostate cancer cell line with an AM gene expression vector. The AM-transfected PC3 sublines were studied along with parental and empty vector transfected PC3 cells as controls. The average level of AM in the conditioned media of AM-transfected cells was 0.959+/-0.113 nM, a physiologically relevant concentration. The ectopic expression of AM gene inhibited the proliferation of PC3 cells in culture dishes. In addition, anchorage-independent growth of the transfected sublines was virtually abolished in soft agar assays. Flow cytometry studies showed that overexpression of AM gene caused a very significant G(1)/G(0) cell cycle arrest. In vivo experiments demonstrated that AM gene expression markedly inhibited the growth of xenograft tumors in nude mice. Our in vivo and in vitro studies suggest that AM could strongly suppress the malignancy of prostate cancer cells, via autocrine and/or paracrine mechanisms

Search for squarks and gluinos with the ATLAS detector in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum using √s=8 TeV proton-proton collision data

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing high-p T jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment in s√=8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. Results are interpreted in a variety of simplified and specific supersymmetry-breaking models assuming that R-parity is conserved and that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1330 GeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino and the lightest neutralino. For a simplified model involving the strong production of first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 850 GeV (440 GeV) are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino, assuming mass degenerate (single light-flavour) squarks. In mSUGRA/CMSSM models with tan β = 30, A 0 = −2m 0 and μ > 0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded for masses below 1700 GeV. Additional limits are set for non-universal Higgs mass models with gaugino mediation and for simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos, each decaying to a top squark and a top quark, with the top squark decaying to a charm quark and a neutralino. These limits extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous searches with the ATLAS detector

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30

Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry