Investigation of cement mortar incorporating Bacillus sphaericus

Ureolytic-type bacteria has been used to improve the strength of cement mortar by the precipitation of calcium carbonate. In the present study Bacillus sphaericus has been used to improve the properties of cement mortar such as setting time, compressive strength and sorptivity. The setting time is found to be unaffected by the presence of bacteria. It is found that compressive strength at both 7-days and 28-days of mortar cube increases with the increase of bacteria concentration. At the optimum bacteria dosage of 10⁷ cells/ml, the average compressive strength increases by 58% (at 7 day) and 23% (at 28 day) over the control specimen. The sorpitivity coefficient decreases as the concentration of bacterial cells increases. The mineralogy and morphology of the calcium carbonate precipitation have been tested by XRD and FESEM.     

Polymer-Drug Conjugates: Novel Carriers for Cancer Chemotherapy

Cancer is the second worldwide cause of death following cardiovascular diseases. Chemotherapy is the gold standard strategy for effective treatment of cancer. However, the use of free chemotherapeutic agents in cancer treatment has been hindered by poor aqueous solubility, short biological half-life, non-speci?city or dose-dependent cellular toxicity, and the development of multidrug resistance. To address the aforementioned limitations, polymer-drug conjugations, among other novel drug delivery approaches, are receiving attention in cancer therapy. In this review the concept of polymer–drug conjugations, polymer–drug conjugates as drug carriers, polymer-drug coupling methods, and recent polymer-anticancer drugs conjugates have been described.     

An application of Q‐value‐based dynamic programming with Boltzmann distribution to real‐world road networks

In order to alleviate traffic congestion and improve the efficiency of traffic systems from a global perspective, a dynamic traffic management model is proposed in this paper. The proposed model is applied to the large‐scale microscopic simulator SOUND/4U based on the real‐world road network of Kurosaki, Kitakyushu, Japan. All the vehicles in the simulator follow the direction from the route guidance of the dynamic traffic management model, in which the extended Q‐value‐based dynamic Programming with Boltzmann distribution (QDP‐BD) and the time‐varying traffic information are used to generate the routes from the origins to the destinations. The simulation results show that the proposed QDP‐BD can reduce traffic congestion and improve the efficiency of the whole traffic system effectively compared with the greedy method in the real‐world road network. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Controlled Polarizability of One‐Nanometer‐Thick Oxide Nanosheets for Tailored,High‐κ Nanodielectrics

An important challenge in current microelectronics research is the development of techniques for making smaller, higher‐performance electronic components. In this context, the fabrication and integration of ultrathin high‐κ dielectrics with good insulating properties is an important issue. Here, we report on a rational approach to produce high‐performance nanodielectrics using one‐nanometer‐thick oxide nanosheets as a building block. In titano niobate nanosheets (TiNbO₅, Ti₂NbO₇, Ti₅NbO₁₄), the octahedral distortion inherent to site‐engineering by Nb incorporation results in a giant molecular polarizability, and their multilayer nanofilms exhibit a high dielectric constant (160–320), the largest value seen so far in high‐κ nanofilms with thickness down to 10 nm. Furthermore, these superior high‐κ properties are fairly temperature‐independent with low leakage‐current density (<10^?7 A cm^?2). This work may provide a new recipe for designing nanodielectrics desirable for practical high‐κ devices.     

Biological leaching of nickel and cobalt from lateritic nickel ore of Sukinda mines

In the present study lateritic nickel ore was used for bacterial leaching using a mixed consortium of mesophilic acidophiles. The microorganisms were adapted to 1 gram nickel/L prior to leaching. For the experiments, lateritic ore in different forms such as raw, roasted, roasted ore presoaked in dilute sulphuric acid and palletized pretreated roasted (400 °C and 600 °C) ore were taken. The leaching experiments were conducted in 9 K+ with 40 L capacity bioreactor using 10% (v/v) inoculum concentration at 10% (w/v) pulp density. The aeration was maintained at 2–3 L/min and the speed of agitator and temperature at 400–500 rpm and 35 °C. The maximum extraction of nickel and cobalt was observed with pretreated ore (600 °C) at 10% pulp density (77.23% and 73.22%) respectively within 31 days at pH 1.5 and least extraction in case of raw ore i.e., 9.47% nickel and 41.12% cobalt respectively.     

BFCNet: a CNN for diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in breast from cytology images

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a quick and minimally invasive technique used to diagnose breast cancer, specifically ductal carcinoma. The incidence...     

Percolation bacterial leaching of low-grade chalcopyrite using acidophilic microorganisms

Bioleaching studies were carried out in percolation columns using low-grade copper containing rock (granite). The lixiviant consisted of acidified ferric sulfate containing acidophilic microorganisms. The iron oxidizing strain was isolated from Malanjkhand mine water and after adaptation the iron oxidation observed to be 500 mg/L/h. Leaching parameters studied were lixiviant flow rate, particle size and bed height. It was observed that leaching efficiency increased with decrease of particle size and lixiviant flow rate. The precipitation of iron during leaching observed to be low as pH was maintained at 2. Based on the leaching kinetics, a unified rate equation was developed and shown as rά(d _p )^−0.61 (F)^−0.76 (H _b )^0.97.     

Specific Spatial Localization of Actin and DNA in a Water/Water Microdroplet: Self‐Emergence of a Cell‐Like Structure

The effect of binary hydrophilic polymers on a pair of representative bio‐macromolecules in a living cell has been examined. The results showed that these bio‐macromolecules exhibited specific localization in cell‐sized droplets that were spontaneously formed through water/water microphase segregation under crowding conditions with coexisting polymers. In these experiments, a simple binary polymer system with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran (DEX) was used. Under the conditions of microphase segregation, DNA was entrapped within cell‐sized droplets rich in DEX. Similarly, F‐actin, linearly polymerized actin, was entrapped specifically within microdroplets rich in DEX, whereas G‐actin, a monomeric actin, was distributed evenly inside and outside these droplets. This study has been extended to a system with both F‐actin and DNA, and it was found that DNA molecules were localized separately from aligned F‐actin proteins to create microdomains inside microdroplets, reflecting the self‐emergence of a cellular morphology similar to a stage of cell division.