Removal of manganese from water by electrocoagulation: Adsorption,kinetics and thermodynamic studies

The present study provides an electrocoagulation process for the removal of manganese (Mn) from water using magnesium as anode and galvanised iron as cathode. The various operating parameters like effect of initial pH, current density, electrode configuration, inter‐electrode distance, coexisting ions and temperature on the removal efficiency of Mn were studied. The results showed that the maximum removal efficiency of 97.2% at a pH of 7.0 was achieved at a current density 0.05 A/dm² with an energy consumption of 1.151 kWhr/m³. Thermodynamic parameters, including the Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy, indicated that the Mn adsorption of water on magnesium hydroxides was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic. The experimental data were fitted with several adsorption isotherm models to describe the electrocoagulation process. The adsorption of Mn preferably fitting the Langmuir adsorption isotherm suggests monolayer coverage of adsorbed molecules. In addition, the adsorption kinetic studies showed that the electrocoagulation process was best described using the second‐order kinetic model at the various current densities. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Utilizing Space-Time Diversity for Wireless Communications

In this paper we consider the use of multiple antennas for wireless communication over fading channels.The fading we consider is quasi-static flat Rayleigh fading. For such a scenario optimal SNR schemes are derived when the transmitter knows the channel and when the transmitter does not know the channel. But in both cases the receiver has to estimate the channel. When the SNR during channel estimation is reasonably high we derive expressions to show the impact of channel estimation errors on SNR.     

Effect of precursor concentration on the properties of ITO thin films

Tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films have been prepared by the spray pyrolysis method using indium chloride as a precursor and stannic chloride as a dopant. The effect of a precursor concentration on the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of films has been studied. The concentration of InCl₃ in the spraying solution is varied from 6.25 to 37.5 mM keeping doping percentage of tin fixed at its optimized value of 5 wt.%. Bare glass is used as a substrate and oxygen as the carrier and reaction gas. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show that films are polycrystalline and their crystallinities are dependent on the precursor concentration. A surface morphology has been observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The typical ITO film has minimum resistivity value of 2.71 × 10⁻³ Ω cm, whose carrier concentration and mobility were 7.45 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ and 31 cm²/(V s), respectively. In addition, the best ITO film has optical transmittance of 94.4% and figure of merit 1.20 × 10⁻³ Ω⁻¹.     

Performance of gold-coated titanium bipolar plates in unitized regenerative fuel cell operation

The corrosion of the carbon-based bipolar plate was studied under unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) operation conditions. At overpotentials higher than 2.0 V vs. normal hydrogen electrode (NHE), cell performance in the electrolyzer mode significantly decreases with time due to the increased ohmic resistance of the carbon-based bipolar plates. During fuel cell operation, the unit cell shows an ohmic resistance of approximately 0.15 Ω. After the operation in the electrolyzer mode, the ohmic resistance of the cell increases up to 1.24 Ω. The surface image of the carbon-based bipolar plate after water electrolysis reaction at 2.0 V shows a drastic corrosion at the contact area of the bipolar plate with the electrode. The corrosion of the rib in the flow-field increases the contact resistance between the electrode and the bipolar plate, which leads to the observed decrease in cell performance. A gold coating of 1 μm on the titanium bipolar plates is very effective in preventing titanium oxidation during the URFC operation. The ohmic resistance of the cells that are prepared with bare titanium and gold-deposited titanium bipolar plates is 0.40 Ω and 0.18 Ω, respectively. In fact, the gold coating serves as a barrier layer, which inhibits the formation of the passive layer on the surface of titanium-based bipolar plates. The cycling experiments in the fuel cell and in the electrolyzer mode indicate that the gold-coated titanium bipolar plates exhibit a stable performance.     

Microstructural study of iron nitride thin films deposited by ion beam sputtering

An amorphous iron nitride thin film was deposited using reactive ion beam sputtering of iron by a beam of argon and nitrogen ions. Nitrogen content in the film as determined from conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was FeN_0.7. The mass density of the film was calculated using energy-dispersive X-ray reflectivity (EDXRR) measurements and is found to be 6.0 gm/cm³. CEMS shows that the film is nonmagnetic in nature. Morphology of the film is obtained from atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surface roughness of the film does not increase appreciably beyond that of the substrate even after a deposition of 131 nm of material with these qualities the film is a good candidate for the multilayer superstructure of a nuclear Bragg monochromator of the type ⁵⁶FeN_0.7/⁵⁷FeN_0.7.     

Joint beam selection and user association strategy for beam space millimetre wave downlink systems

Beam space multiple‐input multiple‐output (B‐MIMO) systems operating at mmWave frequency in downlink uses different beam selection techniques for reducing the required number of radio frequency chains without apparent performance loss. In this paper, a joint beam selection and user association scheme with the objective of sum rate maximization is proposed. The proposed work on beam selection is based on a norm and uncorrrelation based approach, which considers channel correlation among the users so as to avoid inter‐user interference. Two different methods for beam user association with one modelled as a balanced assignment problem based on average sum assignment method and the other method that associates an optimal beam to every user by considering their channel gain values are also proposed along with beam selection. The proposed beam assignment methods are less complex and efficient in finding a suitable beam to every user within the cell. Simulation results show that the proposed method accomplish comparable performance in terms of sum rate and energy efficiency with appreciably low computational complexity relative to the existing methods in a correlated environment.     

Microbiome and Metabolomics in Liver Cancer: Scientific Technology

Primary liver cancer is a heterogeneous disease. Liver cancer metabolism includes both the reprogramming of intracellular metabolism to enable cancer cells to proliferate inappropriately and adapt to the tumor microenvironment and fluctuations in regular tissue metabolism. Currently, metabolomics and metabolite profiling in liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been in the spotlight in terms of cancer diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. Metabolomics is the global analysis of small molecules, chemicals, and metabolites. Metabolomics technologies can provide critical information about the liver cancer state. Here, we review how liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and HCC therapies interact with metabolism at the cellular and systemic levels. An overview of liver metabolomics is provided, with a focus on currently available technologies and how they have been used in clinical and translational research. We also list scalable methods, including chemometrics, followed by pathway processing in liver cancer. We conclude that important drivers of metabolomics science and scientific technologies are novel therapeutic tools and liver cancer biomarker analysis.     

In-Silico Drug Toxicity and Interaction Prediction for Plant Complexes Based on Virtual Screening and Text Mining

Potential drug toxicities and drug interactions of redundant compounds of plant complexes may cause unexpected clinical responses or even severe adverse events. On the other hand, super-additivity of drug interactions between natural products and synthetic drugs may be utilized to gain better performance in disease management. Although without enough datasets for prediction model training, based on the SwissSimilarity and PubChem platforms, for the first time, a feasible workflow of prediction of both toxicity and drug interaction of plant complexes was built in this study. The optimal similarity score threshold for toxicity prediction of this system is 0.6171, based on an analysis of 20 different herbal medicines. From the PubChem database, 31 different sections of toxicity information such as “Acute Effects”, “NIOSH Toxicity Data”, “Interactions”, “Hepatotoxicity”, “Carcinogenicity”, “Symptoms”, and “Human Toxicity Values” sections have been retrieved, with dozens of active compounds predicted to exert potential toxicities. In Spatholobus suberectus Dunn (SSD), there are 9 out of 24 active compounds predicted to play synergistic effects on cancer management with various drugs or factors. The synergism between SSD, luteolin and docetaxel in the management of triple-negative breast cancer was proved by the combination index assay, synergy score detection assay, and xenograft model.     

Influence of magnetic field and thermal radiation on peristaltic motion with double‐diffusive convection in Jeffery nanofluids

A theoretical study is conducted to examine the peristaltic pumping with double‐diffusive convection in Jeffery nanofluids through a two‐dimensional infinite asymmetric channel. The flow is examined in a wave casing of orientation that moves pace with the velocity of the wave. The peristaltic wave train on the walls that have different amplitude and phase is chosen to form channel irregularity. Rosseland approximation is noticed in the modeling of the transmission radiation heat transfer and temperatures of the walls are recognized constants. The replica has a great impact in discovering nanofluid dynamic influences on peristaltic motion, in biological vessels as symbolized by transportation of heat in blood flow, food molecules, hormones, novel pharmacodynamics pumps, and engineered gastrointestinal motility enhancement. Peristaltic motion has applications in physiology, such as transport of urine, transport of food bolus through gastrointestinal tract, and transport of blood through small blood vessels. Analytical results have been established for stream function, axial velocity, temperature, and absorption and nanoparticle volume fraction. The effect of the principal hydrodynamic parameters (thermophoresis, Brownian motion, Dufour, and Soret) and Grashof numbers (concentration, thermal, nanoparticle) on peristaltic transport patterns with double‐diffusive convection are deliberated with the support of computational outcomes found. The pictorial investigation is done to investigate the possessions of miscellaneous limitations on flow quantities of curiosity.