Biohydrogen production from Imperata cylindrica bio-oil using non-stoichiometric and thermodynamic model

This paper presents a non-stoichiometric and thermodynamic model for steam reforming of Imperata cylindrica bio-oil for biohydrogen production. Thermodynamic analyses of major bio-oil components such as formic acid, propanoic acid, oleic acid, hexadecanoic acid and octanol produced from fast pyrolysis of I. cylindrica was examined. Sensitivity analyses of the operating conditions; temperature (100–1000 °C), pressure (1–10 atm) and steam to fuel ratio (1–10) were determined. The results showed an increase in biohydrogen yield with increasing temperature although the effect of pressure was negligible. Furthermore, increase in steam to fuel ratio favoured biohydrogen production. Maximum yield of 60 ± 10% at 500–810 °C temperature range and steam to fuel ratio 5–9 was obtained for formic acid, propanoic acid and octanol. The heavier components hexadecanoic and oleic acid maximum hydrogen yield are 40% (740 °C and S/F = 9) and 43% (810 °C and S/F = 8) respectively. However, the effect of pressure on biohydrogen yield at the selected reforming temperatures was negligible. Overall, the results of the study demonstrate that the non-stoichiometry and thermodynamic model can successfully predict biohydrogen yield as well as the composition of gas mixtures from the gasification and steam reforming of bio-oil from biomass resources. This will serve as a useful guide for further experimental works and process development.     

Modelling and simulation of Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell with serpentine bipolar plate using MATLAB

This report presents experimental results derived from a Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell with a serpentine flow plate design. The investigation seeks to explore the effects of some parameters like cell operational temperature, humidification and atmospheric pressure on the general performance and efficiency of PEM fuel cell using MATLAB. A number of codes were written to generate the polarization curve for a single stack and five (5) cell stack fuel cell at various operating conditions. Detailed information of hydrogen and oxygen consumption and the effect they have on the fuel cell performance were critically analysed. The investigation concluded that the open circuit voltage generated was less than the theoretical voltage predicted in the literature. It was also noticed that an increase in current or current density reduced the voltage derived from the fuel cell stack. The experiment also clearly confirmed that when more current is being drawn from the fuel cell, more water will also be generated at the cathode section of the cell hence the need for an effective water management to improve the performance of the fuel cell. Other parameters like the stack efficiency and power density were also analysed using the experimental results obtained.     

Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Olea europaea Leaf Extract for Their Enhanced Antibacterial,Antioxidant, Cytotoxic and Biocompatibility Applications

Herein, we report the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (OE-Ag NPs) by ecofriendly green processes using biological molecules of Olea europaea leaf extract. Green synthesized OE-Ag NPs were successfully characterized using different spectroscopic techniques. Antibacterial activity of OE-Ag NPs was assessed against four different bacteriological strains using the dilution serial method. The cytotoxic potential was determined against MCF-7 carcinoma cells using MTT assay in terms of cell viability percentage. Antioxidant properties were evaluated in terms of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging. Biocompatibility was further examined by incubating the synthesized NPs with hMSC cells for 24 h. The results were demonstrated that synthesized OE-Ag NPs presented excellent log₁₀ reduction in the growth of all the tested bacterial strains, which as statistically equivalent (p > 0.05) to the standard antibiotic drug. Moreover, they also demonstrated excellent cytotoxic efficacy against the MCF-7 carcinoma cells compared to plant lead extract and Com-Ag NPs. Green synthesized OE-Ag NPs appeared more biocompatible to hMSC and 293T cells compared to Com-Ag NPs. Excellent biological results of the OE-Ag NPs might be attributed to the synergetic effect of NPs’ properties and the adsorbed secondary metabolites of plant leaf extract. Hence, this study suggests that synthesized OE-Ag NPs can be a potential contender for their various biological and nutraceutical applications. Moreover, this study will open a new avenue to produce biocompatible nanoparticles with additional biological functionalities from the plants.     

Development and Evaluation of Repurposed Etoricoxib Loaded Nanoemulsion for Improving Anticancer Activities against Lung Cancer Cells

In the present work, novel modality for lung cancer intervention has been explored. Primary literature has established the potential role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor in regression of multiple forms of carcinomas. To overcome its poor water solubility and boost anticancer activity, etoricoxib (ETO) was chosen as a therapeutic candidate for repurposing and formulated into a nanoemulsion (NE). The prepared ETO loaded NE was characterized for the surface charge, droplet size, surface morphology, and in vitro release. The optimized ETO loaded NE was then investigated for its anticancer potential employing A549 lung cancer cell line via cytotoxicity, apoptotic activity, mitochondrial membrane potential activity, cell migration assay, cell cycle analysis, Caspase-3, 9, and p53 activity by ELISA and molecular biomarker analysis through RT-PCR test. The developed ETO-NE formulation showed adequate homogeneity in the droplet size distribution with polydispersity index (PDI) of (0.2 ± 0.03) and had the lowest possible droplet size (124 ± 2.91 nm) and optimal negative surface charge (−8.19 ± 1.51 mV) indicative of colloidal stability. The MTT assay results demonstrated that ETO-NE exhibited substantial anticancer activity compared to the free drug. The ETO-NE showed a substantially potent cytotoxic effect against lung cancer cells, as was evident from the commencement of apoptosis/necrotic cell death and S-phase cell cycle arrests in A549 cells. The study on these molecules through RT-PCR confirmed that ETO-NE is significantly efficacious in mitigating the abundance of IL-B, IL-6, TNF, COX-2, and NF-kB as compared to the free ETO and control group. The current study demonstrates that ETO-NE represents a feasible approach that could provide clinical benefits for lung cancer patients in the future.     

Embedding Pyramids into 3D Meshes

The pyramid architecture is a powerful topology in the area of computer vision. On the other hand, the 3D mesh architecture possesses rich topological features which make it suitable for building scalable parallel processor systems. The usefulness of these two architectures has led us to consider the problem of embedding pyramids into 3D meshes, for which we present two solutions. The first solution, termednatural embedding,maps a pyramid into a 3D mesh such that each level of the pyramid is mapped to a single level of the 3D mesh. The second solution, termedmultiple embedding,allows simultaneous embedding of multiple pyramids into a single 3D mesh. The quality of both solutions is evaluated using dilation and expansion measures. Using the multiple embedding, we are able to obtain an average dilation of 1.26 and a near-optimal expansion of 1.12.     

A comprehensive review of renewable energy resources for electricity generation in Australia

Recently, renewable energy resources and their impacts have sparked a heated debate to resolve the Australian energy crisis. There are many projects launched throughout the country to improve network security and reliability. This paper aims to review the current status of different renewable energy resources along with their impacts on society and the environment. Besides, it provides for the first time the statistics of the documents published in the field of renewable energy in Australia. The statistics include information such as the rate of papers published, possible journals for finding relative paper, types of documents published, top authors, and the most prevalent keywords in the field of renewable energy in Australia. It will focus on solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydropower technologies and will investigate the social and environmental impacts of these technologies.     

Effect of gamma irradiation on thermoluminescence emissions from dust of Asian plant nuts

Experiments were conducted to see the effect of irradiation on the thermoluminescence emission from dust of plant nuts such as almond, peanut, pinenut and walnut. Inorganic dust particulate minerals adhering to the nut's surface were collected from unirradiated and irradiated (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kGy) samples, and analysed for their thermoluminescence (TL) intensities in the temperature range of 80–320°C at a temperature rate of 10°C/s. It was observed that peaks of the TL signals appeared at 200°C in each case and generally the magnitude of the peak signals of irradiated samples was manifold that of unirradiated controls. Regression and correlation analysis of the data indicated strong relationship between radiation adsorbed dose and TL values at each temperature (r ⪈ 0.96). It was concluded that TL measurements could serve as a fast and reliable method for identifying as well as determining absorbed dose in irradiated plant nuts.     

3D Printed Cobalt-Chromium-Molybdenum Porous Superalloy with Superior Antiviral Activity

COVID-19 pandemic and associated supply-chain disruptions emphasise the requirement for antimicrobial materials for on-demand manufacturing. Besides aerosol transmission, SARS-CoV-2 is also propagated through contact with virus-contaminated surfaces. As such, the development of effective biofunctional materials that can inactivate SARS-CoV-2 is critical for pandemic preparedness. Such materials will enable the rational development of antiviral devices with prolonged serviceability, reducing the environmental burden of disposable alternatives. This research reveals the novel use of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) to 3D print porous Cobalt-Chromium-Molybdenum (Co-Cr-Mo) superalloy with potent antiviral activity (100% viral inactivation in 30 min). The porous material was rationally conceived using a multi-objective surrogate model featuring track thickness (tt) and pore diameter (ϕd) as responses. The regression analysis found the most significant parameters for Co-Cr-Mo track formation to be the interaction effects of scanning rate (Vs) and laser power (Pl) in the order PlVs>Vs>Pl. Contrastively, the pore diameter was found to be primarily driven by the hatch spacing (Sh). The study is the first to demonstrate the superior antiviral properties of 3D printed Co-Cr-Mo superalloy against an enveloped virus used as biosafe viral model of SARS-CoV-2. The material significantly outperforms the viral inactivation time of other broadly used antiviral metals such as copper and silver, as the material’s viral inactivation time was from 5 h to 30 min. As such, the study goes beyond the current state-of-the-art in antiviral alloys to provide extra protection to combat the SARS-CoV-2 viral spread. The evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic brings new and unpredictable challenges where on-demand 3D printing of antiviral materials can achieve rapid solutions while reducing the environmental impact of disposable devices.     

Zinc-Imidazolate Films as an All-Dry Resist Technology

Motivated by the drawbacks of solution phase processing, an all-dry resist formation process is presented that utilizes amorphous zinc-imidazolate (aZnMIm) films deposited by atomic/molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD), patterned with electron beam lithography (EBL), and developed by novel low temperature (120 °C) gas phase etching using 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoroacetylacetone (hfacH) to achieve well-resolved 22 nm lines with a pitch of 30 nm. The effects of electron beam irradiation on the chemical structure and hfacH etch resistance of aZnMIm films are investigated, and it is found that electron irradiation degrades the 2-methylimidazolate ligands and transforms aZnMIm into a more dense material that is resistant to etching by hfacH and has a C:N:Zn ratio effectively identical to that of unmodified aZnMIm. These findings showcase the potential for aZnMIm films to function in a dry resist technology. Sensitivity, contrast, and critical dimensions of the patterns are determined to be 37 mC cm⁻², 0.87, and 29 nm, respectively, for aZnMIm deposited on silicon substrates and patterned at 30 keV. This work introduces a new direction for solvent-free resist processing, offering the prospect of scalable, high-resolution patterning techniques for advanced semiconductor fabrication processes.     

Textural and microstructural properties of Kradi cheese (an indigenous cheese of Jammu and Kashmir,India)

The texture and microstructure of Kradi cheese, an indigenous fresh unripened cheese of Jammu and Kashmir, India, were studied. There were significant differences (P < 0.05) for hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and resilience between samples from four different market areas. The optimised products made in the laboratory from cultures NCDC‐167 and NCDC‐144 showed significant differences (P < 0.05) in the textural and mechanical properties of tensile strength. The microstructure of the market samples was distinguished by the greater size of the voids present in three‐dimensional casein network. The optimised laboratory product had a more compact and fibrous structure compared to the market samples, which was attributed to its higher protein content.