Microbial reduction of graphene oxide and its application in microbial fuel cells and biophotovoltaics

Despite more than a decade of study, there are still significant obstacles to overcome before graphene can be successfully produced on a large scale for commercial use. Chemical oxidation of graphite to produce graphene oxide (GO), followed by a subsequent reduction process to synthesize reduced graphene oxide (rGO), is considered the most practical method for mass production. Microorganisms, which are abundant in nature and inexpensive, are one of the potential green reductants for rGO synthesis. However, there is no recent review discussing the reported microbial reduction of GO in detail. To address this, we present a comprehensive review on the reduction of GO by a range of microorganisms and compared their efficacies and reaction conditions. Also, presented were the mechanisms by which microorganisms reduce GO. We also reviewed the recent advancements in using microbially reduced GO as the anode and cathode material in the microbial fuel cell (MFC) and algal biophotovoltaics (BPV), as well as the challenges and future directions in microbial fuel cell research.     

Convolutional neural network with spatial pyramid pooling for hand gesture recognition

Neural Computing and Applications - Hand gesture provides a means for human to interact through a series of gestures. While hand gesture plays a significant role in human–computer...     

Inband crosstalk analysis of optical cross-connect architectures

In this paper, inband crosstalk in several important classes of optical cross-connect (OXC) architectures is studied. We derive the expression for the power penalty imposed by crosstalk so that the various OXC architectures can be evaluated in a systematic way. This, in turn, enables us to study the relation between crosstalk and the component requirement.     

Determination of optimum harvest maturity and physico-chemical quality of Rastali banana (Musa AAB Rastali) during fruit ripening

BACKGROUND: A series of physico‐chemical quality (peel and pulp colours, pulp firmness, fruit pH, sugars and acids content, respiration rate and ethylene production) were conducted to study the optimum harvest periods (either week 11 or week 12 after emergence of the first hand) of Rastali banana (Musa AAB Rastali) based on the fruit quality during ripening. RESULT: Rastali banana fruit exhibited a climacteric rise with the peaks of both CO₂ and ethylene production occurring simultaneously at day 3 after ripening was initiated and declined at day 5 when fruits entered the senescence stage. De‐greening was observed in both of the harvesting weeks with peel turned from green to yellow, tissue softening, and fruits became more acidic and sweeter as ripening progressed. Sucrose, fructose and glucose were the main sugars found while malic, citric and succinic acids were the main organic acids found in the fruit. CONCLUSION: Rastali banana harvested at weeks 11 and 12 can be considered as commercial harvest period when the fruits have developed good organoleptic and quality attributes during ripening. However, Rastali banana fruit at more mature stage of harvest maturity taste slightly sweeter and softer with higher ethylene production which also means the fruits may undergo senescence faster than fruit harvested at week 11. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Micro powder injection moulding of alumina micro-channel part

A feedstock consisting of submicron alumina powder and a formulated binder, was developed to fabricate alumina micro-channel part by micro powder injection moulding. During small scale-mixing, the mixing torques of feedstocks with four different powder loadings were used to establish a suitable powder loading. The thermal and rheological properties of the selected feedstock were examined and used to establish conditions for large scale mixing, debinding and injection moulding. The micro-channel parts were pressureless sintered at different temperatures. The results showed that the moulded, debound and sintered micro-channel parts had good shape retention. The dimensions of the micro-channel part changed with the different processing steps. High densification of the micro-channel parts was achieved at sintering temperatures of 1350 °C and above. Above 1350 °C, the grain grew significantly with increasing the sintering temperatures and thus it led to a decrease in the microhardness.     

Specific IgE to isocyanates: a useful diagnostic role in occupational asthma

BACKGROUND: Isocyanates are the most frequent cause of occupational asthma in industrialized countries. OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate the utility of specific IgE measurement in the diagnosis of isocyanate-induced asthma. METHODS: Fifty-eight of 101 patients referred for investigation were diagnosed as having isocyanate-induced occupational asthma by means of history, serial peak flow records, and bronchial provocation tests. Specific IgE antibodies to toluene diisocyanate:human serum albumin (HSA), diphenylmethane diisocyanate:HSA, and hexamethylene diisocyanate: HSA were measured in all patients by Phadebas RAST. RESULTS: Twenty patients had a RAST ratio of 2 or greater to at least one isocyanate. Thirteen (28%) of the 46 patients with a positive provocation test response had a RAST ratio of 2 or greater, and nine (20%) had a RAST ratio of 3 or greater. Raising the RAST cut-off from 2 or greater to 3 or greater reduced its sensitivity but increased the specificity of the test to 100%. RAST measurement was most likely to be positive within 30 days of exposure. Serial measurements suggested that the half-life of the IgE antibodies was approximately 6 months. Evidence of cross-reactivity between isocyanate RAST responses was found in eight subjects. CONCLUSION: Specific IgE to isocyanates is a more specific than sensitive index of occupational asthma. With a RAST score of 3 or greater, it is wholly specific and therefore diagnostic of isocyanate-induced asthma. The sensitivity of specific IgE measurement is highest when blood is taken less than 30 days from last exposure, which is consistent with the observed half-life.     

邻苯二甲酸二异壬酯增塑剂在提高挤出效益方面的应用

重点探讨了邻苯二甲酸二异壬酯（DINP-S）在提高挤出效益方面的优越性，在典型的挤出加工条件下，DINP-S比DOP更能降低混合料的熔融粘度，这有助于降低口模压力，减少机械磨损或提高挤出生产率（高达21%），这种生产率的提高可在无须更改产品配方和生产工艺，无须额外固定投资，无须额外能耗，且保持产品品质的情况下实现。     

PULSE DISCRIMINATION FOR ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING WITH ROTATING ELECTRODE

This article presents a new method for discrimination of various types of pulses generated during an electrical discharge machining process in presence of a rotating electrode. Existing pulse discrimination methods do not perform efficiently in an electrical discharge machine with rotating electrode, as arcs rarely occur during the machining process. Our method involves simultaneous comparison of the gap voltage and current signals with various thresholds. The main advantage of our proposed method is its efficient computation and significantly better accuracy in discriminating between various pulse classes for electrical discharge machining devices with rotating electrode. Experimental studies demonstrate a superior performance of our method in distinguishing normal pulses from harmful arcs, open circuit and short circuit pulses, compared with the state-of-art methods.