Seasonal performance of a central air conditioner in Dhahran,Saudi Arabia. A computer simulation studyPerformance saisonnière d'un conditionneur d'air central de Dhahran,Arabie Saoudite. Simulation par ordinateur

Seasonal performance of four standard, residential-sized, central air conditioners in a typical hot and humid climate of Gulf environment was measured. A computer model was developed to stimulate the residential building cooling loads and the resulting seasonal energy consumption. For an average 100 m² residence located in Dhahran, equipped with a 17.6 kW air conditioner, simulations show a consumption of ≈22200 kWh of electricity for space cooling over 2600 operation hours, this being within 13% of the measured value. The seasonal performance of three lower capacity (10.5, 12.3 and 14.0 kW) air conditioners for the same duty was also predicted. With the 14.0 kW capacity unit the electricity consumption is reduced by ≈ kWh and can satisfy the load for 96.6% of the time. The smallest (10.5kW) of the four systems can supply the house cooling load for only ≈78% of the time with a seasonal energy consumption of 17 350 kWh.     

Synthetically modified nano‐cellulose for the removal of chromium: a green nanotech perspective

Existing processes for the decontamination of heavy metals from water are found to be cost‐prohibitive and energy‐intensive which is totally against the sustainable concept of development. Green nanotechnology for water purification for ecosystem management, agricultural and industry is an emerging as leading global priority and occupies better position over the current state of water purification. Herein, the diafunctionalised polyaniline modified nanocellulose composite sorbent (PANI‐NCC) has been used to introduce amine and imine functionalities for the removal of trivalent and hexavalent chromium from water bodies. The fabricated nanobiomaterial has been authenticated by modern spectroscopic, microscopic techniques. The modified PANI‐NCC is rod‐like in shape, ~60 nm in size. The roughness and crystallinity index is also quantified and found to be 49.67 nm and 84.18%, respectively. The optimised experimental finding provides the efficient removal of trivalent [Cr(III)] (47.06 mg/g; 94.12%) and hexavalent [Cr(VI)] (48.92 mg/g; 97.84%) chromium from synthetic waste water. The fabricated nano biosorbent is deemed to be a potent biosorbent for technological development to remove the toxic metals in the real environmental water samples.Inspec keywords: decontamination, water pollution, purificationOther keywords: nano‐cellulose, decontamination, heavy metals, green nanotechnology, water purification, ecosystem management, agricultural, global priority, diafunctionalised polyaniline modified nanocellulose composite sorbent, PANI‐NCC, amine functionalities, imine functionalities, trivalent chromium, hexavalent chromium, water bodies, nanobiomaterial, crystallinity index, synthetic waste water, fabricated nano biosorbent, potent biosorbent, toxic metals, real environmental water samples     

Removal of hazardous dye congored from waste material

The present paper is aimed to investigate and develop cheap adsorption methods for color removal from wastewater using waste material sawdust as adsorbent. Sawdust, a biosorbent, was successfully utilized in removing a water soluble azo dye, congored from wastewater. The paper incorporates effect of pH, temperature, amount of adsorbent, contact time, concentration of adsorbate, particle size on adsorption. Specific rate constants of the processes were calculated by kinetic measurements and a first order adsorption kinetics was observed in each case. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were then applied to calculate thermodynamics parameters as well as to suggest the plausible mechanism of the ongoing adsorption processes. In order to observe the quality of wastewater COD measurements were also carried out before and after the treatments. A significant decrease in the COD values was observed, which clearly indicates that adsorption method offer good potential to remove congored from wastewater.     

Weighted Greedy Approach for Low Latency Resource Allocation on V2X Network

Wireless Personal Communications - In Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), resource allocation has become one of the primary tasks. Thus, a system should be well-designed so that information could...     

Gyrase ATPase Domain as an Antitubercular Drug Discovery Platform: Structure‐Based Design and Lead Optimization of Nitrothiazolyl Carboxamide Analogues

In this study, we explored the pharmaceutically underexploited mycobacterial gyrase ATPase (GyrB) domain as a template for a structure‐based virtual screening of our in‐house (BITS Pilani) compound collection to discover new inhibitors targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb.) The hit identified was further customized by using a combination of molecular docking and medicinal chemistry strategies to obtain an optimized analogue displaying considerable in vitro enzyme efficacy and bactericidal properties against the M.tb. H₃₇Rv strain. The binding affinity of the ligand toward the GyrB domain was reascertained by differential scanning fluorimetry experiments. Further evaluation of the hERG toxicity (a major limitation among the previously reported N‐linked aminopiperidine analogues) indicated these molecules to be completely devoid of cardiotoxicity, a significant achievement within this class.     

Energy budget of fodder harvesting pattern along the altitudinal gradient in Garhwal Himalaya, India

Fodder plays a major role in crop-livestock-manure-soil nutrient cycle of farms in middle mountains of the Himalaya. In Garhwal part of Indian Himalayan Region fodder is mainly collected by lopping the vegetative biomass of trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses. The present study was carried out to understand the fodder utilization pattern, energy budget and problems related to fodder biomass removal in existing traditional hill agro-ecosystems prevalent at different altitudes of Garhwal Himalaya. The total fodder collection at different altitudes varied for green and dry fodder. The total green fodder collection ranged from 64.4 ± 3.60 to 84.0 ± 6.23 kg household⁻¹ day⁻¹ whereas, total dry fodder collection ranged from 62.4 ± 1.66 to 80.4 ± 5.11 kg household⁻¹ day⁻¹. Fodder collection was varied in summer (March-October) and winter months (November-February) of the year. The labor energy expended for fodder collection varied from 832.78 ± 61.05 to 1192.44 ± 45.66 MJ household⁻¹ year⁻¹. In last few years fodder removal has enhanced resource extraction conflicts, malnutrition of women and their off-springs, improper education of females, increased health and life hazards, accidents because of collapse, etc. For better utilization of dry fodder in hilly areas, the farmers and livestock owners should be motivated and educated toward modern feeding options. Novel feeding system of complete feed and silage preparation for lean periods is well suited to hilly states like Uttarakhand that needs to be promoted. The study also aims to help in developing suitable policy to lessen the impact of degradation of forests for fodder by developing fodder bank models in each village cluster of Uttarakhand.     

PREDICTION OF EQUILIBRIUM PHASE COMPOSITIONS AND β-GLUCOSIDASE PARTITION COEFFICIENT IN AQUEOUS TWO-PHASE SYSTEMS

Artificial neural networks (ANN) and Flory-Huggins (F-H)-type models were implemented to simulate the binodal curve of an aqueous two-phase, system (ATPS) composed of poly(ethylene glycol), potassium phosphate, and water. The ANN model outperformed the F-H model in predicting the equilibrium compositions of the PEG-rich phase (average percent deviation: 10.0 versus 56.6). However, the estimation of interaction parameters was feasible only in the thermodynamic framework. Beta-glucosidase was introduced into the system under various temperature (25°–50°C) and pH conditions (6.5–8.0). The β-glucosidase partition coefficient increased with the temperature and pH over a range of 0.11–1.18. The network was better suited to predict the partitioning behavior of the enzyme because of the increased number of interaction parameters. The artificial intelligence–guided approach for isolating the enzyme has the potential to reduce costs, improve performance, and identify the most favorable purification conditions.     

The relationship between stressors and creativity: A meta-analysis examining competing theoretical models.

Competing theoretical models and equivocal evidence leave unanswered questions regarding stressors’ effect on creativity. The present meta-analysis of 76 experimental studies (including 82 independent samples) aims to clarify this association and identify factors that may explain differences between studies. Our results suggest that the effect of stressors on creative performance depends on how stress-inducing the stressor is and what type of stress is induced. We found a curvilinear relationship between evaluative stress and creativity such that low evaluative contexts increased creative performance over control conditions, whereas highly evaluative contexts decreased creative performance. We found a linearly negative relationship between uncontrollability and creativity such that more uncontrollability decreased creative performance. The results suggest that stressors’ effect on creativity is more complex than previously assumed and points to the need for understanding boundary conditions that shed light on inconsistent findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)