The tremendous development of nanotechnology is bringing us closer to the dream of clinical application of nanoparticles in photothermal therapies of tumors. This requires the use of specific ...nanoparticles that must be highly biocompatible, efficient light‐to‐heat converters and fluorescent markers. Temperature reading by the heating nanoparticles during therapy appears of paramount importance to keep at a minimum the collateral damage that could arise from undesirable excessive heating. In this work, this thermally controlled therapy is possible by using Nd3+ ion‐doped LaF3 nanocrystals. Because of the particular optical features of Nd3+ ions at high doping concentrations, these nanoparticles are capable of in vivo photothermal heating, fluorescent tumor localization and intratumoral thermal sensing. The successful photothermal therapy experiments here presented highlight the importance of controlling therapy parameters based on intratumoral temperature measurements instead of on the traditionally used skin temperature measurements. In fact, significant differences between intratumoral and skin temperatures do exist and could lead to the appearance of excessive collateral damage. These results open a new avenue for the real application of nanoparticle‐based photothermal therapy at clinical level.
The unique ability of Neodymium‐doped LaF3 nanoparticles for simultaneous heating and temperature sensing is used here for the development of efficient and damage‐free photo‐thermal treatment of cancer tumors with real time intratumoral thermal reading.
This paper reviews dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) in soils - a newly appreciated pathway of nitrogen (N) cycling in the terrestrial ecosystems. The reduction of NO3− occurs in two ...steps; in the first step, NO3− is reduced to NO2−; and in the second, unlike denitrification, NO2− is reduced to NH4+ without intermediates. There are two sets of NO3−/NO2− reductase enzymes, i.e., Nap/Nrf and Nar/Nir; the former occurs on the periplasmic-membrane and energy conservation is respiratory via electron-transport-chain, whereas the latter is cytoplasmic and energy conservation is both respiratory and fermentative (Nir, substrate-phosphorylation). Since, Nir catalyzes both assimilatory- and dissimilatory-nitrate reduction, the nrfA gene, which transcribes the NrfA protein, is treated as a molecular-marker of DNRA; and a high nrfA/nosZ (N2O-reductase) ratio favours DNRA. Recently, several crystal structures of NrfA have been presumed to producee N2O as a byproduct of DNRA via the NO (nitric-oxide) pathway. Meta-analyses of about 200 publications have revealed that DNRA is regulated by oxidation state of soils and sediments, carbon (C)/N and NO2−/NO3− ratio, and concentrations of ferrous iron (Fe2+) and sulfide (S2−). Under low-redox conditions, a high C/NO3− ratio selects for DNRA while a low ratio selects for denitrification. When the proportion of both C and NO3− are equal, the NO2−/NO3− ratio modulates partitioning of NO3−, and a high NO2−/NO3− ratio favours DNRA. A high S2−/NO3− ratio also promotes DNRA in coastal-ecosystems and saline sediments. Soil pH, temperature, and fine soil particles are other factors known to influence DNRA. Since, DNRA reduces NO3− to NH4+, it is essential for protecting NO3− from leaching and gaseous (N2O) losses and enriches soils with readily available NH4+-N to primary producers and heterotrophic microorganisms. Therefore, DNRA may be treated as a tool to reduce ground-water NO3− pollution, enhance soil health and improve environmental quality.
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•DNRA is a novel and shortest biological pathway of N-cycling in terrestrial ecosystems where NO3- is reduced to NH4+ in soils•This pathway has potential to reduce N2O emissions and protect NO3- from leaching losses•It outcompetes the denitrification process under limited NO3- availability in the system•It enriches soil with NH4+-N and make available to primary producers as N-fertilizer•Meta-analyse revealed that DNRA is mainly regulated by C/N ratio, NO2- / NO3- ratio and S2-
•To handle impulsive noise environments, robust cost functions derived from the theory of robust statistics and special functions of residual error should be utilized.•The study of robust techniques ...in impulsive noise contaminated distributed scenarios is not available in the literature, and a literature review is much needed for further development of novel robust algorithms to tackle outliers.•The manuscript reviews robust distributed algorithms available in the literature for parameter estimation and it mainly focuses on robust distributed estimation using loss functions.
Distributed estimation strategies over wireless sensor networks are one of the active areas of research due to the wide range of applications in a variety of fields ranging from agriculture to surveillance. The classical least squares based algorithms are simple and effective when the noise follows Gaussian distribution. In practical scenarios, the noise may have heavy tailed distributions unlike the Gaussian distribution. The presence of outliers or impulsive noise in distributed networks is unavoidable in practical scenarios due to atmospheric phenomena, electric machinery, saturation effects, link or node failures, etc. To handle such impulsive noise environments, robust cost functions derived from the theory of robust statistics and special robust functions of residual error should be utilized. The study of such robust techniques in distributed scenarios is not available in the literature, and such a literature review is much needed for the further development of novel robust algorithms to tackle outliers. A review of such robust distributed algorithms available in the literature for parameter estimation is presented in this manuscript.
•Bacterial community structure was evaluated in long-term fertilized (LTFE) paddy soil.•NPK-addition (without FYM) over 47 years did not harm bacterial community structure.•N-application alone over ...47 years (NA47) suppressed the Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria.•NA47 also suppressed diazotrophs which may be responsible to decline rice yield.•Bacterial community under LTFE may have been influenced by soil pH and high N content.
Soil bacterial communities are considered as an essential member of the microbial community, contributing to soil health. Continuous application of chemical fertilizers alters the bacterial community structure (BCS) thereby disturbing the soil biogeochemical cycling. The present study highlights the 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing-based variation of BCS through Illumina-MiSeq® in a 47 years old long-term fertilized paddy soil and its relation with grain yield (GY), straw biomass (SB) and various soil properties. The experiment comprising six treatments: control (no fertilizers), nitrogen (N), nitrogen + phosphorus (P) + potassium (K), farmyard manure (FYM), FYM + N and FYM + NPK. Data on rice crop performance indicated that GY and SB significantly (p ≤ 0.05) enhanced by 45.1%–49.3% and 36.9–39.4% in FYM + NPK compared to control. Relative abundance of bacterial phyla varied across inorganic and organic fertilizer treatments. Dominant phyla across all treatments were Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Firmicutes, accounting for about 80–85% of total operational taxonomic units (OTUs). N application alone over 47 years encouraged certain bacterial phyla (Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Nitrospira) while major (Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Cyanobacteria) and minor (Fibrobacteres, Spirochaetes, TM7 and GNO4) bacterial phyla were found to be suppressed compared to other treatments. Moreover, continuous use of chemical N in paddy soil, considerably suppressed some diazotrophs taxa Burkholderiales, Enterobacteriaceae, and other taxa Kaistobacter, Anaeromyxobacter, Bdellovibrio, and MND1. Redundancy analysis coupled with principal component analysis revealed that BCS was significantly influenced by soil pH and presence of higher nitrogen content. Interestingly, the highest proportion of bacterial OTUs was recorded in balanced fertilizer (NPK) (without FYM) and therefore, this result suggested for the first time that continuous application of NPK encouraged the beneficial bacterial community without compromising of GY and SB. Overall, the present study indicated that continuous application of N and NPK with or without FYM for more than four decades in paddy soil, encouraged certain BCS whereas, N application alone suppressed certain beneficial bacterial phyla, resulting in the alteration of soil biodiversity and rice productivity.
In the present study sodium carbonate modified
Bambusa tulda
was utilised for the removal of crystal violet dye from aqueous solution. The functional group characterization and the surface morphology ...was done by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). It confirms the hydroxyl groups and carboxyl group present on the surface of modified Bambusa tulda. The optimum condition for the removal of crystal violet was taken place at pH 7, 200 rpm, dose at 10gm/l, initial concentration 50 mg/l, at equilibrium time 60 minutes and 298
K
temperature with maximum adsorption capacity of 20.84 mg/gm. The adsorption of crystal violet by modified Bambusa tulda best fits in Langmuir isotherm model with
R
2
value 0.924 and Pseudo 2
nd
order rate equation model with
R
2
value of 0.999. Other parameters like isosteric heat analysis, thermodynamics profile and activation energy were investigated. Thus, modified Bambusa tulda can be an efficient and economically used as an alternative for activated carbon for the removal of crystal violet from waste water.
The samples of (Ba1−xSrx)2SnO4 with x = 0, 0.10, 0.20, 0.40, 0.80, 1.00 were synthesized by a high-temperature solid state ceramic route. Lattice parameters obtained from the Rietveld profile ...analysis; decreased with increasing Sr. The decreasing nature of lattice parameters indicated the complete solubility of Sr at Ba-site. Further, incorporation of Sr at Ba-site has been studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The dielectric constant and dissipation factor increases with increasing Sr. Contribution of grain and grain boundary were resolved by complex modulus spectroscopy analysis. AC conductivity spectra of the entire sample follow Universal Jonscher's power law. The similar value of activation energy obtained from relaxation frequency and dc conductivity implies that the origin of conduction and relaxation mechanisms remains the same throughout the samples. The modulus and conductivity spectra of solid solutions nicely follow the time-temperature superposition (TTSP) principle. Further, conductivity spectra of solid solutions were studied by Ghosh and Summerfield scaling.
•The solubility of Sr in Ruddlesden popper system (Ba1-xSrx)2SnO4 has achieved upto 100%.•Giant dielectric properties have been observed and compared to other layered perovskites.•Non-Debye type relaxation process occurred in the solid solution of Ruddlesden Popper system.•Relaxation and Conduction process takes place by hoping of electron between degenerate sites of Sn (Sn4+/Sn2+).•Scaling studies suggests that relaxation/conduction processes are temperature and compositional independent.
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