The adsorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions on formaldehyde treated sawdust (SD) and sulphuric acid treated sawdust carbon (SDC) of Indian Rosewood, a timber industry waste, was studied at ...varying Cr(VI) concentrations, adsorbent dose, pH and agitation time. Similar experiments were conducted with commercially available coconut based activated carbon to compare the results. The Cr(VI) adsorption efficiency on SDC was higher than SD. The adsorption followed first order rate expression and Lagergren equation. An initial pH of 3.0 was most favorable for Cr(VI) removal by both the adsorbents. Maximum Cr(VI) was sequestered from the solution within 60 min after the beginning for every experiment. It is proposed that SDC and SD can be potential adsorbents for Cr(VI) removal from dilute solutions.
The genus
Swertia
(Family:
Gentianaceae
) has cosmopolitan distribution which is present in almost all the continents except South America and Australia.
Swertia
genus has been renowned as one of the ...potent herbal drugs in the British, American, and Chinese Pharmacopeias as well as well-documented in the Indian traditional medicinal systems, viz
.
Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani. Many species of this genus have therapeutic properties and have been used traditionally in the treatment of a number of health ailments viz. hepatitis, diabetes, inflammation, bacillary dysentery, cancer, malaria, fever etc. This genus is industrially important medicinal plant that has been used as a principal component in numerous marketed herbal/ polyherbal formulations. Medicinal usage of
Swertia
is endorsed to the miscellaneous compounds viz. xanthones, irridoids, seco-irridoids, and triterpenoids. A chain of systematic isolation of bio-active compounds and their diverse range of pharmacological effects during last 15–20 years proved this genus as industrially important plant. Due to the various practices of the
Swertia
species, annual demand is more than 100 tons per year for this important herb which is continuously increasing 10% annually. The market value rises 10% by the year as there is increased demand in national and international market resulted in adulteration of many
Swertia
spp. due to paucity of agricultural practices, exomorphological, phytochemical, and molecular characterization. Thus, efficient biotechnology methods are prerequisite for the mass production of authentic species, sustainable production of bio-active compounds and ex situ conservation. A chain of systematic biotechnological interventions in
Swertia
herb during last 20 years cover the assessment of genetic diversity, in vitro sustainable production of bio-active compounds and mass propagation of elite genotypes via direct and indirect organogenesis. This review attempts to present the comprehensive assessment on biotechnological process made in
Swertia
over the past few years.
Key points
• Critical and updated assessment on biotechnological aspects of Swertia spp.
• In vitro propagation and genetic diversity assessment in Swertia spp.
• Biosynthesis and sustainable production of secondary metabolites in Swertia spp.
Rising carbon emission or carbon footprint imposes grave concern over the earth׳s climatic condition, as it results in increasing average global temperature. Renewable energy sources seem to be the ...favorable solution in this regard. It can reduce the overall energy consumption rate globally. However, the renewable sources are intermittent in nature with very high initial installation price. Off-grid Small Autonomous Hybrid Power Systems (SAHPS) are good alternative for generating electricity locally in remote areas, where the transmission and distribution of electrical energy generated from conventional sources are otherwise complex, difficult and costly. In optimizing SAHPS, weather data over past several years are generally the main input, which include wind speed and solar radiation. The weather resources used in this optimization process have unsystematic variations based on the atmospheric and seasonal phenomenon and it also varies from year to year. While using past data in the analysis of SAHPS performance, it was assumed that the same pattern will be followed in the next year, which in reality is very unlikely to happen. In this paper, we use BBO optimization algorithm for SAHPS optimal component sizing by minimizing the cost of energy. We have also analysed the effect of using forecast weather data instead of past data on the SAHPS performance. ANNs, which are trained with back-propagation training algorithm, are used for wind speed and solar radiation forecasting. A case study was used for demonstrating the performance of BBO optimization algorithm along with forecasting effects. The simulation results clearly showed the advantages of utilizing wind speed and solar radiation forecasting in a SAHPS optimization problem.
The symmetry method is developed to study space–time fractional nonlinear partial differential equations. Also, the Noether operators are extended for determining the conservation laws by application ...to some physically significant space–time fractional nonlinear partial differential equations.
The study of transverse momentum spectra is crucial to understand the nature of matter produced during heavy-ion collisions. The pT-spectra in a heavy-ion collision consists of a low pT-region where ...soft processes dominate particle production, whereas the high pT-region is mostly dominated by hard processes. Single and multi-component models based on statistical thermodynamics are extensively used to characterize the spectra. In this work, we have introduced a unified non-extensive statistical approach using the Pearson distribution as a tool to study pT-spectra. The goodness-of-fit of the proposed distribution as compared to previously used models makes it an interesting method providing strong insights into the underlying physics of heavy-ion collisions. This generalized approach provides a strong correlation with other observables by comparing the predictions of the methods in pT-distributions with various harmonics of azimuthal distributions.
FLAG Review 2021 Aoki, Y.; Blum, T.; Colangelo, G. ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
10/2022, Letnik:
82, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We review lattice results related to pion, kaon,
D
-meson,
B
-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More ...specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor
f
+
(
0
)
arising in the semileptonic
K
→
π
transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio
f
K
/
f
π
and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements
V
us
and
V
ud
. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of
S
U
(
2
)
L
×
S
U
(
2
)
R
and
S
U
(
3
)
L
×
S
U
(
3
)
R
Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the
B
K
parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four
B
parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for
m
c
and
m
b
as well as those for the decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters of charmed and bottom mesons and baryons. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant
α
s
. We consider nucleon matrix elements, and review the determinations of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal. Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing determinations of scale-setting quantities.
FLAG Review 2019 Aoki, S; Aoki, Y; Bečirević, D ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
02/2020, Letnik:
80, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D-meson, B-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More ...specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor f+(0) arising in the semileptonic K→π transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio fK/fπ and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements Vus and Vud. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of SU(2)L×SU(2)R and SU(3)L×SU(3)R Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the BK parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four B parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for mc and mb as well as those for D- and B-meson decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant αs. Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing results for nucleon matrix elements of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal.
Drug toxicity evaluation is an essential process of drug development as it is reportedly responsible for the attrition of approximately 30% of drug candidates. The rapid increase in the number and ...types of large toxicology data sets together with the advances in computational methods may be used to improve many steps in drug safety evaluation. The development of in silico models to screen and understand mechanisms of drug toxicity may be particularly beneficial in the early stages of drug development where early toxicity assessment can most reduce expenses and labor time. To facilitate this, machine learning methods have been employed to evaluate drug toxicity but are often limited by small and less diverse data sets. Recent advances in machine learning methods together with the rapid increase in big toxicity data such as molecular descriptors, toxicogenomics, and high-throughput bioactivity data may help alleviate some of the current challenges. In this article, the most common machine learning methods used in toxicity assessment are reviewed together with examples of toxicity studies that have used machine learning methodology. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview of the different types of toxicity tools and data sets available to build in silico toxicity prediction models has been provided to give an overview of the current big toxicity data landscape and highlight opportunities and challenges related to them.
Xpert MTB/RIF, the first automated molecular test for tuberculosis, is transforming the diagnostic landscape in high-burden settings. This study assessed the impact of up-front Xpert MTB/RIF testing ...on detection of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and rifampicin-resistant PTB (DR-TB) cases in India.
This demonstration study was implemented in 18 sub-district level TB programme units (TUs) in India in diverse geographic and demographic settings covering a population of 8.8 million. A baseline phase in 14 TUs captured programmatic baseline data, and an intervention phase in 18 TUs had Xpert MTB/RIF offered to all presumptive TB patients. We estimated changes in detection of TB and DR-TB, the former using binomial regression models to adjust for clustering and covariates.
In the 14 study TUs, which participated in both phases, 10,675 and 70,556 presumptive TB patients were enrolled in the baseline and intervention phase, respectively, and 1,532 (14.4%) and 14,299 (20.3%) bacteriologically confirmed PTB cases were detected. The implementation of Xpert MTB/RIF was associated with increases in both notification rates of bacteriologically confirmed TB cases (adjusted incidence rate ratio aIRR 1.39; CI 1.18-1.64), and proportion of bacteriological confirmed TB cases among presumptive TB cases (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 1.33; CI 1.6-1.52). Compared with the baseline strategy of selective drug-susceptibility testing only for PTB cases at high risk of drug-resistant TB, Xpert MTB/RIF implementation increased rifampicin resistant TB case detection by over fivefold. Among, 2765 rifampicin resistance cases detected, 1055 were retested with conventional drug susceptibility testing (DST). Positive predictive value (PPV) of rifampicin resistance detected by Xpert MTB/RIF was 94.7% (CI 91.3-98.1), in comparison to conventional DST.
Introduction of Xpert MTB/RIF as initial diagnostic test for TB in public health facilities significantly increased case-notification rates of all bacteriologically confirmed TB by 39% and rifampicin-resistant TB case notification by fivefold.
FLAG Review 2019 Aoki, S.; Aoki, Y.; Bečirević, D. ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
02/2020, Letnik:
80, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We review lattice results related to pion, kaon,
D
-meson,
B
-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More ...specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor
f
+
(
0
)
arising in the semileptonic
K
→
π
transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio
f
K
/
f
π
and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements
V
us
and
V
ud
. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of
S
U
(
2
)
L
×
S
U
(
2
)
R
and
S
U
(
3
)
L
×
S
U
(
3
)
R
Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the
B
K
parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four
B
parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for
m
c
and
m
b
as well as those for
D
- and
B
-meson decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant
α
s
. Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing results for nucleon matrix elements of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal.