Multifunctional wearable electronic textiles based on interfacial polymerization of polypyrrole on carbon nanotubes/cotton fibers offer advantages of simple and low-cost materials that incorporate ...bactericidal, good electrochemical performance, and electrical heating properties. The high conductivity of doped polypyrrole/CNT composite provides textiles that reaches temperature on order of 70 °C with field of 5 V/cm, superior electrochemical performance applied as electrodes of supercapacitor prototypes, reaching capacitance in order of 30 F g–1 and strong bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The combination of these properties can be explored in smart devices for heat and microbial treatment on different parts of body, with incorporated storage of energy on textiles.
The next step after smart cities is the creation of digital or smart nations. A digital nation requires a national transformation across diverse institutions including the urban and rural areas of a ...society. Besides diverse social innovation initiatives, sustainability is a key aspect, so that rather than greenfield projects, long-term solutions will involve brownfield, smart city projects. A digital transformation to a digital or smart nation requires a great deal of innovation in planning, process re-engineering and execution. Whereas research work and policy actions are traditionally focused on a city level, these efforts need to be widened to the national level. Existing city-scale theories and frameworks may be used and adapted to meet the larger-scale needs of the future smart nations. The new issues and research challenges which arise need to be addressed through interdisciplinary approaches. This special issue on the theme of digital nations attempts to address the need in the academic literature to provide a better understanding of digital nations.
The results of the first detailed study, involving a large number of samples, on water equivalent factor (WEQp), non-exchangeable organically bound tritium (NE-OBT) and tissue free water tritium ...(TFWT) activity concentrations in predominant plant species of the tropical monsoonal climatic region, are presented. A total of 369 samples from the vicinity of the PHWR nuclear power plant (NPP) at Kaiga, West Coast of India, and 47 samples of the control region (region not affected by local anthropogenic sources) were analysed. The WEQp varied in the range of 0.347–0.666 L kg−1 with an overall mean value of 0.540 ± 0.045 L kg−1. The NE-OBT activity concentration varied in the range of <9.8–60.9 Bq L−1 of combustion water (mean = 24.6 ± 11.5 Bq L−1) and that of TFWT in the range of 9.2–60.5 Bq L−1 (mean = 30.7 ± 10.9 Bq L−1) in the vicinity of the NPP. Rigorous statistical analysis of the data confirmed that (i) the activity concentrations of both forms of tritium decreased with the increase in the distance between the sampling location and NPP, and beyond 10 km, it was similar to that of the control region, (ii) the incorporation of tritium released from the NPP into wild plant leaves is not species-dependent, (iii) the NE-OBT activity concentration in the 5–10 km zone exhibited a dependence on the prevailing wind regime with respect to the NPP, but not in the 2.3–5 km zone which suggests that the transport of tritium, released into the atmosphere as the gaseous effluent, through diffusion is a dominating factor governing its activity concentration in the 2.3–5 km zone. The NE-OBT to TFWT specific activity concentration ratio (R-value) had a mean value of 0.82 ± 0.27 (range: 0.38–1.64) for samples collected from the vicinity of the NPP and 1.93 ± 0.50 (range: 1.35–3.19) for the control region. Recording higher NE-OBT activity concentration and R-value at the control region highlights the necessity of detailed studies to understand the mechanism of NE-OBT partitioning in the terrestrial environment.
•First study on NE-OBT and TFWT in wild plants of tropical monsoon climate region.•Robust database on important forms of tritium in terrestrial plants is established.•Incorporation of tritium as NE-OBT into wild plant is not species-dependent.•No significant variation was recorded in the NE-OBT activity in different seasons.•NE-OBT to TFWT ratio for NPP region was 0.82 and that for clean air region was 1.89
The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a region of known high aerosol loading with substantial amounts of carbonaceous aerosols from a variety of sources, often dominated by biomass burning. Although black ...carbon has been shown to play an important role in the absorption of solar energy and hence direct radiative forcing (DRF), little is known regarding the influence of light absorbing brown carbon (BrC) on the radiative balance in the region. With this in mind, a study was conducted for a one month period during the winter–spring season of 2013 in Kanpur, India that measured aerosol chemical and physical properties that were used to estimate the sources of carbonaceous aerosols, as well as parameters necessary to estimate direct forcing by aerosols and the contribution of BrC absorption to the atmospheric energy balance. Positive matrix factorization analyses, based on aerosol mass spectrometer measurements, resolved organic carbon into four factors including low-volatile oxygenated organic aerosols, semivolatile oxygenated organic aerosols, biomass burning, and hydrocarbon like organic aerosols. Three-wavelength absorption and scattering coefficient measurements from a Photo Acoustic Soot Spectrometer were used to estimate aerosol optical properties and estimate the relative contribution of BrC to atmospheric absorption. Mean ± standard deviation values of short-wave cloud free clear sky DRF exerted by total aerosols at the top of atmosphere, surface and within the atmospheric column are −6.1 ± 3.2, −31.6 ± 11, and 25.5 ± 10.2 W/m2, respectively. During days dominated by biomass burning the absorption of solar energy by aerosols within the atmosphere increased by ∼35%, accompanied by a 25% increase in negative surface DRF. DRF at the top of atmosphere during biomass burning days decreased in negative magnitude by several W/m2 due to enhanced atmospheric absorption by biomass aerosols, including BrC. The contribution of BrC to atmospheric absorption is estimated to range from on average 2.6 W/m2 for typical ambient conditions to 3.6 W/m2 during biomass burning days. This suggests that BrC accounts for 10–15% of the total aerosol absorption in the atmosphere, indicating that BrC likely plays an important role in surface and boundary temperature as well as climate.
•Apart of U(VI) converted to U(IV) during adsorption to soil.•Ageing leads to rearrangement of chemical fractionation of U in soil.•Organic matter and carbonate minerals responsible for Surface ...enrichment of U.•There occurs Occlusion of U-Fe-Oxides (Hydroxide) in to silica.
The aim of the present work is to understand the solid phase chemical fractionation of Uranium (U) in soil and the mechanism involved. This study integrated batch experiments of U(VI) adsorption to soil, study of U in different soil fractions, ageing impact on fractionation of U and spectroscopic investigation of adsorbed U(VI) using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). For the study three soils, pedogenically different (S1: Igneous, S2: Sedimentary and S3: Metamorphic) were amended with U(VI) and chemical fractionation of U was studied by sequential extraction after an interval of one month and 12 months. It was found that there occurs a significant rearrangement of U in different fractions with ageing and no correlation was observed between the U content in different fractions and the adsorbents of respective fractions such as soil organic matter (SOM), Fe/Mn oxides (hydroxides) carbonates, soil cation exchange capacity (CEC). XPS study revealed that surface enrichment of U mainly governed by the carbonate minerals and SOM, whereas bulk concentration was controlled by the oxides (hydroxides) of Si and Al. Occlusion of U-Fe-oxides (hydroxides) on silica was identified as an important mechanism for bulk enrichment (Increase in residual fraction) and depletion of U concentration in reducible fraction.
The radionuclide transfer between compartments is commonly described by transfer parameters representing the ratio of concentrations of an element in two compartments for equilibrium conditions. This ...is a comprehensive study on the soil-to-grass transfer factor (F
) and grass-to-cow milk transfer coefficient (F
) for stable strontium (Sr) for soil-grass (pasture)-cow (Bos taurus) milk environmental pathway under field conditions for a high rainfall tropical monsoonal climatic region of the Indian subcontinent. The study was conducted in the vicinity of the Kaiga nuclear power plant (NPP), situated ~ 58 km inland of the West Coast of the Indian subcontinent. A grass field was developed exclusively for this study, and two cows of the native breed were raised to graze on it. The soil, grass, and milk were analyzed to evaluate the F
and the F
values for the stable Sr. For comparison, several pasture lands and the cows raised by the villagers and a dairy farm were also studied. The F
values were in the range 0.18-8.6, the geometric mean (GM) being 1.8. The correlations of F
values with a range of physicochemical parameters are presented. The GM values for F
were 2.2 × 10
d L
and 7.2 × 10
d L
for the two cows raised for this study, 2.6 × 10
d L
for those raised by the villagers, and 4.2 × 10
d L
for the dairy farm. The site-specific F
value for the region was determined as 3.2 × 10
d L
. The concentration ratio (CR), defined as the ratio of Sr concentration in milk to that in feed under equilibrium conditions, exhibited less variability (1.8 × 10
-5.4 × 10
) among the three categories of cows.
This is the first detailed study on 14C activity in the environment surrounding a nuclear facility in India. Samples of food matrices and wild plants from the off-site locations of the PHWR nuclear ...power plant (NPP) at Kaiga were analysed by liquid scintillation spectrometry, results were validated by accelerator mass spectrometry, and an extensive database (N = 142) was established. The stable isotope ratio of carbon (δ13C) in terrestrial plants varied from −33.5 to −23.3 ‰. The maximum excess 14C activity recorded in terrestrial biota was 44 Bq kg−1C (19 pMC). About 75 % of the samples exhibited specific activity in the range 228–249 Bq kg−1C (101–110 pMC). Statistical tests on the 14C specific activity dataset for 2.3–5, 5–10, and 10–20 km radial zones confirmed that the impact of the operation of the NPP on the environment beyond 5 km is minimal. The study suggests that the 14C activity released through gaseous effluents from Kaiga NPP is transported to greater distances along the axis of the valley than that predicted by the Gaussian plume model and those reported for other NPP sites worldwide. This is due to the unique topography of the Kaiga valley in which wind flow channelling, strong winds in the valley mouth, and calm wind within the valley due to the blocking effect by hills for the south-westerly wind regime play dominant roles in the transport of gaseous effluents. The 14C specific activity values at upwind monitoring stations located at >5 km distance from the NPP during the south-westerly wind regime were higher than those observed during the north-easterly wind regime when the same monitoring stations were located on the downwind side. The ingestion dose to the population in the 2.3–5 km radius zone, attributable to the release of 14C from the NPP, was 0.75 μSv y−1. This is a negligibly small fraction of the ICRP recommended dose limit of 1000 μSv y−1 for the public from other than natural sources. The dose due to the natural 14C activity in the Kaiga region was 12 µSv y-1, corresponding to the ambient natural activity of 230 Bq kg-1 C.
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•First study on 14C in environmental matrices in the vicinity of an NPP in India.•Maximum excess 14C activity in the vicinity of NPP was 44 Bq kg−1C.•Wind channelling plays a dominant role in dispersion of gaseous effluents.•Ingestion dose to the population, attributable to the NPP, was 0.75 μSv y−1.
Variation in Neonatal Transfusion Practice Patel, Ravi M.; Hendrickson, Jeanne E.; Nellis, Marianne E. ...
The Journal of pediatrics,
08/2021, Letnik:
235
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
To estimate the incidence of blood product transfusion, including red blood cells, platelets, and plasma, and characterize pretransfusion hematologic values for infants during their initial ...hospitalization after birth.
Retrospective cohort study using data from 7 geographically diverse US academic and community hospitals that participated in the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III (REDS-III) from 2013 to 2016. Pretransfusion hematologic values were evaluated closest to each transfusion and no more than 24 hours beforehand.
Data from 60 243 infants were evaluated. The incidence of any transfusion differed by gestational age (P < .0001), with 80% (95% CI 76%-84%) transfused at <27 weeks of gestation (n = 329) and 0.5% (95% CI 0.5%-0.6%) transfused at ≥37 weeks of gestation (n = 53 919). The median pretransfusion hemoglobin was 11.2 g/dL (10th-90th percentile 8.8-14.1) for the entire cohort, ranging from 10.5 g/dL (8.8-12.3) for infants born extremely preterm at <27 weeks of gestation to 13.0 g/dL (10.5-15.5) for infants born at term. The median pretransfusion platelet count (×109/L) was 71 (10th-90th percentile 26-135) for the entire cohort, and was >45 for all gestational age groups examined. The median pretransfusion international normalized ratio for the entire cohort was 1.7 (10th-90th percentile 1.2-2.8).
There is wide variability in pretransfusion hemoglobin, platelet count, and international normalized ratio values for neonatal transfusions. Our findings suggest that a large proportion of neonatal transfusions in the US are administered at thresholds greater than supported by the best-available evidence and highlight an opportunity for improved patient blood management.
Carbon content (%) measurement for determination of
14
C specific activity (Bq kg
−1
C) in environmental matrices based on thermal oxidation of the sample using pyrolyser is discussed. The carbon ...content in biota samples (
N
= 574) of the tropical region were in the range 30–45%, 28–47%, 31–46%, 32–45%, 43–49%, and 37–50% with corresponding mean values of 38 ± 3.1%, 38 ± 4.4%, 41 ± 3.1%, 41 ± 3.7%, 46 ± 1.5%, and 44 ± 5.1% respectively for wild plant leaves, vegetables, fruits, cereals, wood, and fish samples. The present study shows that carbon content within the species and category (fruit, leaves, vegetables, etc.) of the sample may differ up to ~ 20% points.
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