Selective oxidation of alcohols using octahedral molecular sieves: influence of synthesis method and property–activity relations

Manganese oxides having a tunnel structure (OMS-2) have been utilized as selective catalysts for alcohol oxidation. In this study manganese oxide catalysts were synthesized in different media and modified by exchanging the tunnel cation by H⁺, using acid treatment or exchanging with NH₄⁺ followed by thermolysis. Various alcohol oxidations were performed using these catalysts to ascertain the influence of synthesis method on their activity. A correlation is made between lattice oxygen instability and activity of the catalysts, which indicates involvement of the lattice oxygen in the mechanism. The exchange of the tunnel cation with the smaller H⁺ ions leads to weakening of the Mn–O bond, as verified by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) results. Only the chemisorbed oxygen on the surface (O⁻) and the lattice oxygen in the layers close to the surface is involved in the oxygen transfer during the reaction.     

Can cities become self-reliant in food?

Modern cities almost exclusively rely on the import of resources to meet their daily basic needs. Food and other essential materials and goods are transported from long-distances, often across continents, which results in the emission of harmful greenhouse gasses. As more people now live in cities than rural areas and all future population growth is expected to occur in cities, the potential for local self-reliance in food for a typical post-industrial North American city was determined. Given current policies and bylaws and available area, crop yields, and human intake, three distinct scenarios were developed to determine the potential level of food self-reliance for the City of Cleveland, which has been plagued with home foreclosures and resulting vacant land, lack of access to healthy food, hunger, and obesity particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Scenario I, which utilizes 80% of every vacant lot, can generate between 22% and 48% of Cleveland’s demand for fresh produce (vegetables and fruits) depending on the vegetable production practice used (conventional gardening, intensive gardening, or hydroponics), 25% of both poultry and shell eggs, and 100% of honey. Scenario II, which uses 80% of every vacant lot and 9% of every occupied residential lot, can generate between 31% and 68% of the needed fresh produce, 94% of both poultry and shell eggs, and 100% of honey. Finally, scenario III, which adds 62% of every industrial and commercial rooftop in addition to the land area used in scenario II, can meet between 46% and 100% of Cleveland’s fresh produce need, and 94% of poultry and shell eggs and 100% of honey. The three scenarios can attain overall levels of self-reliance between 4.2% and 17.7% by weight and 1.8% and 7.3% by expenditure in total food and beverage consumption, compared to the current level of 0.1% self-reliance in total food and beverage by expenditure. The analysis also reveals that the enhanced food self-reliance would result in $29 M to $115 M being retained in Cleveland annually depending upon the scenario employed. This study provides support to the hypothesis that significant levels of local self-reliance in food, the most basic need, is possible in post-industrial North American cities. It is concluded that while high levels of local self-reliance would require an active role of city governments and planners, public commitment, financial investment, and labor, the benefits to human health, the local and global environment, and the local economy and community may outweigh the cost.     

Biochemical factors responsible for susceptibility or resistance of various plants against the scarlet mite,brevipalpus phoenicis: i. amino acids analysis

Free amino acids show considerable variations among various species of plants that exhibit different degrees of susceptibility or resistance to various pests infestation. Some of the free amino acids, directly or indirectly, contribute to defense mechanism of the plants. Recently, 31 plant species were screened for susceptibility or resistance against the attack of the scarlet mite, Brevipalpus phoenicis (Geij.). Thin layer chromatography showed that all resistant species contain tryptophan, tyrosine and hydroxyproline, while all susceptible hosts had amino acids like α‐aminocaprylic acid and dihydroxyphenylalanine. The plants species lacking dihydroxyphenylalanine could not support the development of the scarlet mite.     

Identifying Erosion Mechanism: A Novel Approach

Understanding the erosion mechanism is a key to improve the performance of material subjected to erosive condition. Capability to predict the erosion mechanism could prove to be useful tool. In this work, a parameter named “erosion mechanism identifier,” ξ, is proposed to predict the erosion mechanism in materials. Suitability of ξ in predicting erosion mechanism of ductile and brittle materials was evaluated using the data reported in the literature. It was observed that ξ is able to predict the erosion mechanism for both categories of material. The predictability of ξ was not restrained by different operating conditions.     

Wavelet Bootstrap Multiple Linear Regression Based Hybrid Modeling for Daily River Discharge Forecasting

A new hybrid model, the wavelet–bootstrap–multiple linear regression (WBMLR) is proposed to explore the potential of wavelet analysis and bootstrap resampling techniques for daily discharge forecasting. The performance of the developed WBMLR model is also compared with five more models: multiple linear regression (MLR), artificial neural network (ANN), wavelet-based MLR (WMLR), wavelet-based ANN (WANN) and wavelet–bootstrap–ANN (WBANN) models. Seven years of discharge data from seven gauging stations in the middle reaches of Mahanadi river basin in India are applied in this study. Significant input vectors are decomposed into discrete wavelet components (DWCs) using discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) to generate wavelet sub time series that are used as inputs to the MLR and ANN models to develop the WMLR and WANN models, respectively. Effective wavelets are selected by considering several types of wavelets with different vanishing moments. WBMLR and WBANN models are developed as ensemble of different WMLR and WANN models, respectively, developed using different realizations of the training dataset generated using bootstrap resampling technique. The results show that the wavelet bootstrap hybrid models (i.e. WBMLR and WBANN) produce significantly better results than the traditional MLR and ANN models. Hybrid models based on MLR (WMLR, WBMLR) perform better than the ANN based hybrid models (WBANN, WANN). The WBMLR and WMLR models simulate the peak discharges better than the WBANN, WANN, MLR and ANN models, whereas the overall performance of WBMLR model is found to be more accurate and reliable than the remaining five models.     

The CD40-CD154 system in anti-infective host defense

Research in the past few years has documented significant advances in our understanding of the CD40-CD40 ligand (CD154) system in diverse immune functions. This system influences many T cell mediated inflammatory immune responses and effector functions, unmasking a previously unexpected role for CD40-CD154 in cell mediated immunity. Manipulation of CD154 in animal models of infection by the use of CD154-deficient mice or anti-CD154 antibodies has shown the importance of this system in the initiation of the inflammatory response, in the activation of antigen-presenting cells and in resistance to infections.