Leachate and groundwater samples were collected from Gazipur landfill-site and its adjacent area to study the possible impact of leachate percolation on groundwater quality. Concentration of various ...physico-chemical parameters including heavy metal (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn) and microbiological parameters (total coliform (TC) and faecal coliform (FC)) were determined in groundwater and leachate samples. The moderately high concentrations of Cl-, NO- ₃, SO²- ₄, NH⁺ ₄, Phenol, Fe, Zn and COD in groundwater, likely indicate that groundwater quality is being significantly affected by leachate percolation. Further they proved to be as tracers for groundwater contamination. The effect of depth and distance of the well from the pollution source was also investigated. The presence of TC and FC in groundwater warns for the groundwater quality and thus renders the associated aquifer unreliable for domestic water supply and other uses. Although some remedial measures are suggested to reduce further groundwater contamination via leachate percolation, the present study demand for the proper management of waste in Delhi.
Globally, livestock is an important contributor to methane (CH4) emissions. This paper reviewed the various CH4 measurement and estimation techniques and mitigation approaches for the livestock ...sector. Two approaches for enteric livestock CH4 emission estimation are the top-down and bottom-up. The combination of both could further improve our understanding of enteric CH4 emission and possible mitigation measures. We discuss three mitigation approaches: reducing emissions, avoiding emissions, and enhancing the removal of emissions from livestock. Dietary management, livestock management, and breeding management are viable reducing emissions pathways. Dietary manipulation is easily applicable and can bring an immediate response. Economic incentive policies can help the livestock farmers to opt for diet, breeding, and livestock management mitigation approaches. Carbon pricing creates a better option to achieve reduction targets in a given period. A combination of carbon pricing, feeding management, breeding management, and livestock management is more feasible and sustainable CH4 emissions mitigation strategy rather than a single approach.
Display omitted
•Dietary management is the immediate CH4 emission mitigation option at farm level•Breeding and livestock management is effective for long run•Simulation based CH4 emissions modeling is efficient and yield better result•Mixed crop-livestock farming serve as an important CH4 mitigation measures•Cap-and-Trade programme, Green Live Stock Fund require more policy support to mitigate CH4 from livestock sector
This article presents an environmental and energy analysis of a wastewater treatment plant operating on sequential batch reactor technology. The analysis of energy consumption shows that the ...electrical, mechanical, chemical, and human energy consumption works out to 0.26 kW h/m
3
of the treated wastewater. The overall share of electrical energy consumption is 84%, and 15% share is of mechanical energy. Nearly 78% of the electrical energy is consumed in the aeration process. The biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, total nitrogen, and total phosphorous are measured for the influent and effluent of the treatment plant. A reduction of 76–97% occurs in these parameters due to wastewater treatment. The greenhouse gas emissions arising directly from the treatment processes and indirectly from the electricity and diesel usage are estimated. The direct and indirect emissions from the wastewater treatment plant amount to 105 tCO
2
e/year and 1316 tCO
2
e/year, respectively. A projection of methane accumulation in the atmosphere from this plant till the year 2041 is also made. The contribution of this plant to the atmospheric accumulation of CH
4
is projected to reach 8679 kg in 2029. The projection for 2030 and thereafter is 9468 kg. Analysis of the energy, environment, and wastewater treatment nexus is of significance to have a holistic view for the sustainable development.
A system dynamics model based on the dynamic interactions among a number of system components is developed to estimate CO(2) emissions from the cement industry in India. The CO(2) emissions are ...projected to reach 396.89 million tonnes by the year 2020 if the existing cement making technological options are followed. Policy options of population growth stabilisation, energy conservation and structural management in cement manufacturing processes are incorporated for developing the CO(2) mitigation scenarios. A 42% reduction in the CO(2) emissions can be achieved in the year 2020 based on an integrated mitigation scenario. Indirect CO(2) emissions from the transport of raw materials to the cement plants and finished product to market are also estimated.
Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are frequently overexpressed in broad range of cancer types, where they alter cellular epigenetic programming to promote cell proliferation and survival. However, the ...mechanism by which HDACs become overexpressed in human cancers remains somewhat of a mystery. In this study, we investigated the expression and functional significance of miR-449a in prostate cancer cells. Using real-time PCR, we found that miR-449a is downregulated in prostate cancer tissues relative to patient-matched control tissue. Introduction of miR-449a into PC-3 prostate cancer cells resulted in cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis and a senescent-like phenotype. In silico analysis of 3'-UTR regions identified a number of genes involved in cell-cycle regulation as putative targets of miR-449a. Using a luciferase 3'-UTR reporter system, we established that HDAC-1 (histone deacetylase 1), a gene that is frequently overexpressed in many types of cancer, is a direct target of miR-449a. Further, our data indicate that miR-449a regulates cell growth and viability in part by repressing the expression of HDAC-1 in prostate cancer cells. Our findings provide new insight into the function of miRNA in regulating HDAC expression in normal versus cancerous tissue.
There has been a significant increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in India during the last few decades and its management has become a major issue because the poor waste management ...practices affect the health and amenity of the cities. In the present study, various physico-chemical parameters of the MSW were analyzed to characterize the waste dumped at Gazipur landfill site in Delhi, India, which shows that it contains a high fraction of degradable organic components. The decomposition of organic components produces methane, a significant contributor to global warming. Based on the waste composition, waste age and the total amount dumped, a first-order decay model (FOD) was applied to estimate the methane generation potential of the Gazipur landfill site, which yields an estimate of 15.3 Gg/year. This value accounts to about 1–3% of existing Indian landfill methane emission estimates. Based on the investigation of Gazipur landfill, we estimate Indian landfill methane emissions at 1.25 Tg/year or 1.68 Tg/year of methane generation potential. These values are within the range of existing estimates. A comparison of FOD with a recently proposed triangular model was also performed and it shows that both models can be used for the estimation of methane generation. However, the decrease of the emission after closure is more gradual in the case of the first-order model, leading to larger gas production predictions after more than 10 years of closure. The regional and global implications of national landfill methane emission are also discussed.
The purpose of this study was to identify prostate cancer (PC) oncogenic microRNAs (miRs) based on miR microarray and to investigate whether these oncogenic miRs may be useful as PC biomarkers.
...Initially, we carried out miR microarray and real-time PCR using RWPE-1, PC-3, DU-145 and LNCaP cells. To investigate the function of miR-183, we used a miR-183 knockdown inhibitor in cell growth and wound-healing assays. We used several algorithms and confirmed that they are directly regulated by miR-183.
We identified three potential oncogenic miRs (miR-146a, miR-183 and miR-767-5P). The expression of miR-183 in PC cells (PC-3, DU-145 and LNCaP) was upregulated compared with RWPE-1 cells. MiR-183 expression was also significantly higher in PC tissues compared with that in matched normal prostate tissues. Additionally, miR-183 expression was correlated with higher prostate-specific antigen, higher pT and shorter overall survival. MiR-183 knockdown decreased cell growth and motility in PC cells and significantly decreased prostate tumour growth in in vivo nude mice experiments. We identified Dkk-3 and SMAD4 as potential target genes of miR-183.
Our data suggest that oncogenic miR-183 may be useful as a new PC biomarker and that inhibition of miR-183 expression may be therapeutically beneficial as a PC treatment.
► Implementation of POSFET tactile sensing array using CMOS technology. ► New design of POSFET tactile sensing devices. ► Four temperature sensors also implemented on same chip. ► New POSFET devices ...have response more than twice that of previous version. ► CMOS implementation opens possibility of realizing full tactile sensing system on chip.
This work presents new tactile sensing chips consisting of 4×4 array of POSFET touch sensing devices (or taxels) and 4 diodes to measure contact temperature. In the new version presented here, the tactile sensing chips have been fabricated using CMOS technology. Both, the individual taxels and the array are designed to match spatio-temporal performance of the human fingertips. To detect contact parameters such as contact force, the taxels utilize the contact induced change in the polarization level of piezoelectric polymer (and hence the changes in the induced channel current of MOS). The performance of POSFET device has been evaluated in the dynamic contact forces range of 0.01–3N. The response of POSFET is linear in the tested range, with the sensitivity (without amplification) of 102.4mV/N – which is more than twice the response of POSFETs presented earlier.
PDF
