Membraneless ethanol fuel cell Pt-Sn-Re nano active catalyst on a mesoporous carbon support

Herein, we report, for the first-time, mesoporous carbon-supported binary and ternary catalysts with different atomic ratios of Pt/MC (100), Pt-Sn/MC (50 : 50), Pt-Re/MC (50 : 50), Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 10 : 10) and Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 115 : 05) prepared using a co-impregnation reduction method as anode components for membraneless ethanol fuel cells (MLEFLs). Mechanistic and structural insights into binary Pt-Sn/MC, Pt-Re/MC and ternary Pt-Sn-Re/MC catalysts were obtained using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) methods. In particular, chemical characterization via cyclic voltammetry, CO stripping voltammetry and chronoamperometry indicated that Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 15 : 05) had better dynamics toward ethanol oxidation than Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 10 : 10), Pt-Sn/MC (50 : 50) and Pt-Re/MC (50 : 50) catalysts. In terms of the single cell performance of the prepared catalysts, Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 15 : 05) (31.5 mW cm-2) showed a higher power density and current density than Pt-Sn-Re/MC(80 : 10 : 10), Pt-Re/MC (50 : 50) and Pt-Sn/MC (50 : 50) at room temperature. The addition of Re into the binary Pt-Sn catalyst improved its electrical performance for ethanol oxidation in a membraneless ethanol fuel cell. As a result, the ternary-based Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 15 : 05) catalyst demonstrated enhanced performance compared to monometallic and bimetallic catalysts in the ethanol oxidation reaction in a membraneless fuel cell.

Green Campus Audit Procedures and Implementation to Educational Institutions and Industries

Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites. As we are in the twenty-first century, modernization and industrialization are the two important outputs that have made human life more luxurious and comfortable. Simultaneously, they are responsible for several uses of exploitation of forests, natural resources, and wildlife, polluting the scarce, producing massive solid waste and sacred water resources, and finally making our planet Earth ugly and inhospitable. Today, people are getting more familiar with global issues like global warming, the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, climate change, etc. Now, it is considered a final call by Mother Earth to walk on the path of sustainable development. The time has come to wake up, unite and combat together for a sustainable environment. The present study focuses on the concept of green audit and its importance with respect to the conservation of nature for future generations. Every organization should have its own green campus and environment policy with respect to nature conservation and environmental protection and should maintain a sizable amount of green cover area after building construction along with natural and planted vegetation. A maximum number of more oxygen-producing and carbon-di-oxide-absorbing plants should be maintained to provide a pure atmosphere to the stakeholders. The installation of a rainwater harvesting system, percolation, ponds, check dam, and drip irrigation system to conserve rainwater and groundwater should be noteworthy on the campus.

Role of Bacterial Flora in Oral Cancer- An Insight

The human body contains about 1014 bacteria which usually colonise different parts of the body. The bacterial flora is important for a person’s health as well as normal functioning of tissue and organ systems. Bacteria are single celled organisms and are found on almost all surfaces of human body. They act in synergy with host immune mechanism and provide protection against various undesirable foreign invasions, especially in the oral cavity, where they exist in a diversified form which survive in a symbiotic relationship with the host. When there is a disturbance in this equilibrium due to various factors like trauma or tobacco smoking, betel nut chewing and alcohol intake, which makes the mucous membrane more permeable to invading microorganisms, these commensal bacterial species can become virulent and give rise to oral diseases ranging from dental caries to oral carcinoma. The effects of these bacteria can be either direct or indirect initiation of chronic inflammation, formation of procarcinogens that contribute to the development of oral carcinoma. This article focuses on the role of oral bacterial flora in initiation and progression of oral carcinogenesis. Various bacterial and fungal species associated with oral carcinoma and predominant bacterial species in oral cavity and oropharyngeal region along with measures to prevent their adverse effects are described.

A novel method for merging academic social network ontologies using formal concept analysis and hybrid semantic similarity measure

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to merge the ontologies that remove the redundancy and improve the storage efficiency. The count of ontologies developed in the past few eras is noticeably very high. With the availability of these ontologies, the needed information can be smoothly attained, but the presence of comparably varied ontologies nurtures the dispute of rework and merging of data. The assessment of the existing ontologies exposes the existence of the superfluous information; hence, ontology merging is the only solution. The existing ontology merging methods focus only on highly relevant classes and instances, whereas somewhat relevant classes and instances have been simply dropped. Those somewhat relevant classes and instances may also be useful or relevant to the given domain. In this paper, we propose a new method called hybrid semantic similarity measure (HSSM)-based ontology merging using formal concept analysis (FCA) and semantic similarity measure.

Design/methodology/approach

The HSSM categorizes the relevancy into three classes, namely highly relevant, moderate relevant and least relevant classes and instances. To achieve high efficiency in merging, HSSM performs both FCA part and the semantic similarity part.

Findings

The experimental results proved that the HSSM produced better results compared with existing algorithms in terms of similarity distance and time. An inconsistency check can also be done for the dissimilar classes and instances within an ontology. The output ontology will have set of highly relevant and moderate classes and instances as well as few least relevant classes and instances that will eventually lead to exhaustive ontology for the particular domain.

Practical implications

In this paper, a HSSM method is proposed and used to merge the academic social network ontologies; this is observed to be an extremely powerful methodology compared with other former studies. This HSSM approach can be applied for various domain ontologies and it may deliver a novel vision to the researchers.

Originality/value

The HSSM is not applied for merging the ontologies in any former studies up to the knowledge of authors.

Prevalence and severity of molar incisor hypomineralization in children aged 11-16 years of a city in Karnataka, Davangere

INTRODUCTION

Molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) describes the clinical picture of hypomineralization of systemic origin affecting one or more first permanent molar. There is a rarity of prevalence studies in Indian population.

OBJECTIVES

The main aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of MIH in a population of South Indian children.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

A cross-sectional epidemiological survey, included 2000 children aged 11-16 years chosen by stratified random sampling from government and private schools of Davangere, a city in South India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Evaluation of MIH and decayed, missing and filled teeth was carried out in these children by a calibrated examiner. The severity of hypomineralization was recorded according to the Wetzel and Reckel scale.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Chi-square test was used to analyze the categorical data. P ≤ 0.05 was considered for statistical significance.

RESULTS

About 8.9% of all examined children showed at least one ill-structured first permanent molar in terms of MIH. The male and female ratio was found to be 1:1.1. The decreasing order of occurrence of MIH affected teeth were permanent maxillary molars, maxillaryincisors, mandibular molars and the mandibular incisors.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of MIH in the permanent dentition of south Indian children was 8.9%. There is a need for a proper planned preventive and restorative program with regard to the increasing prevalence of MIH.

Mercury Induced Oxidative Stress of Antioxidants in Clitoria ternatea L

Biofertilizers are the special formulation of specific beneficial microorganisms that promote the growth of plant crops by converting the unavailable form of nutrients into available form. Here, the effect of heavy metal stress on antioxidant enzymes were studied in Clitoria ternatea L.leaves. Clitoria ternatea L.plant was grown for 30 days and the heavy metal mercuric chloride was sprayed after 10 days from the date of planting. Effect of mercuric chloride was observed in treated plants. The selected plant Clitoria ternatea L. was grown under mercuric chloride treatment in a specified concentration 1 µg/10 ml. The control plant maintained without the treatment of mercuric chloride. Antioxidant effect of mercuric chloride was measured under controlled and treated conditions. The selected plant Clitoria ternatea L.was grown under mercuric chloride in treatment. Further it increases H2O2 content and the antioxidant enzyme activities such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) were observed in mercuric chloride treated plants when compared with control. Here mercuric chloride was accumulated more in matured leaves. The results are discussed with the literature.

Continuous assessment of undergraduate students at a dental college in India

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the quantitative assessment of a structured essay and standardized oral examination and its correlation to the final-year graduating exam in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College and Hospital, Chennai, India. The records of 531 students from 2005 to 2009 were collected. Students were categorized based on their "completion" and "grading" in a structured essay and standardized oral examination, which is a continuous assessment of dental students in the college. The grades obtained by continuous assessment were compared to students' final-year examination scores. The assessment showed that students who completed all tasks and had desirable performance in their written assessment and standardized oral examination also scored better on their final examination. Therefore, the continuous assessment by written assessment and standardized oral examination had a direct relationship to students' performance on the final examination and is useful for evaluation.

Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance) in urban and rural India: phase I results of the Indian Council of Medical Research-INdia DIABetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

This study reports the results of the first phase of a national study to determine the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance) in India.

METHODS

A total of 363 primary sampling units (188 urban, 175 rural), in three states (Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Jharkhand) and one union territory (Chandigarh) of India were sampled using a stratified multistage sampling design to survey individuals aged ≥ 20 years. The prevalence rates of diabetes and prediabetes were assessed by measurement of fasting and 2 h post glucose load capillary blood glucose.

RESULTS

Of the 16,607 individuals selected for the study, 14,277 (86%) participated, of whom 13,055 gave blood samples. The weighted prevalence of diabetes (both known and newly diagnosed) was 10.4% in Tamilnadu, 8.4% in Maharashtra, 5.3% in Jharkhand, and 13.6% in Chandigarh. The prevalences of prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance) were 8.3%, 12.8%, 8.1% and 14.6% respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age, male sex, family history of diabetes, urban residence, abdominal obesity, generalised obesity, hypertension and income status were significantly associated with diabetes. Significant risk factors for prediabetes were age, family history of diabetes, abdominal obesity, hypertension and income status.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATIONS

We estimate that, in 2011, Maharashtra will have 6 million individuals with diabetes and 9.2 million with prediabetes, Tamilnadu will have 4.8 million with diabetes and 3.9 million with prediabetes, Jharkhand will have 0.96 million with diabetes and 1.5 million with prediabetes, and Chandigarh will have 0.12 million with diabetes and 0.13 million with prediabetes. Projections for the whole of India would be 62.4 million people with diabetes and 77.2 million people with prediabetes.

Unusual dens evaginatus on maxillary premolars: a case report

Dens evaginatus is a developmental anomaly that can be defined as a tubercle from the surface of an affected tooth. It is composed of enamel and dentin usually enclosing pulp tissue. It is a rare dental anomaly commonly seen on premolars. A 12-year-old boy reported for the management of dental caries. He had bilateral occurrence of dens evaginatus on maxillary second premolars. The tubercle on the right side was unusually long without occlusal interference with the opposing primary mandibular second molar. Carious teeth were restored and the tubercle was left untreated. Management of dens evaginatus is determined by various factors which are discussed in decision-support system. Pulpal complication due to caries or fracture of tubercle can occur; hence it should be periodically monitored.

FT-IR, FT-Raman spectra and quantum chemical calculations of 3,4-dimethoxyaniline

In this work, we will report a combined experimental and theoretical study on molecular and vibrational structure of 3,4-dimethoxyaniline (3,4-DMA). The Fourier transform infrared and Fourier transform Raman spectra of 3,4-DMA was recorded in the solid phase. The optimized geometry was calculated by HF and B3LYP methods using 6-31G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets. The harmonic vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities, Raman scattering activities and the thermodynamic functions of the title compound were performed at and HF/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theories. The scaled theoretical wavenumber showed very good agreement with the experimental values. A detailed interpretation of the infrared and Raman spectra of 3,4-DMA was reported. The theoretical spectrograms for IR and Raman spectra of the title molecule have been constructed.

Involvement of protozoa in anaerobic wastewater treatment process

It is only very rarely recognised in literature that anaerobic reactors may contain protozoa in addition to various bacterial and archeal groups. The role of protozoa in anaerobic degradation was studied in anaerobic continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) and batch tests. Anaerobic protozoa, especially the ciliated protozoa, have direct influence on the performance of CSTR at all organic loading rates (1-2g CODl(-1)d(-1)) and retention times (5-10 days). The studies revealed that chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal is strongly correlated to ciliate density in CSTR fed with oleate (suspended COD) and acetate (soluble COD). There was no significant difference in COD removal between reactors fed suspended COD and those fed soluble COD. However, the diversity and number of ciliates is greater in CSTR fed with particulate feed. The mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) representing biomass was significantly lower (16-34%) in CSTR with protozoa. In batch tests, increased COD removal and methane production was observed in sludge having ciliates as compared with sludge without protozoa. Methane production increased linearly with number of ciliates (R(2)=0.96) in batch tests with protozoa. Direct utilization of COD by flagellates and ciliates was observed in bacteria-suppressed cultures. The technological importance of these results is that reactors with protozoa-rich sludge can enhance the rate of mineralization of complex wastewater, especially wastewater containing particulate COD.

Anaerobic protozoa and their growth in biomethanation systems

This study was to investigate growth of protozoa and its influence on biodegradation in anaerobic treatment systems. It was done by specifically controlling and monitoring growth of protozoa versus degradation in continuous stirred anaerobic reactors and batch anaerobic reactors. Occurrence of a diverse protozoa population such as the ciliates, Prorodon, Vorticella, Cyclidium, Spathidium, Loxodes, Metopus were observed in stable anaerobic systems and the flagellates, Rhynchomonas, Naeglaria, Amoeboflagellates, Tetramitus, Trepomonas and Bodo during increased VFA concentration and affected periods of biomethanation. The abundance of ciliates in the anaerobic system had significant correlation with the reduction of MLSS, increased rate of COD removal and higher methane production. The results of this study thus tend to relate increased anaerobic degradation with the abundance of protozoa, mainly ciliates, which indicate their possible involvement in the process. Present study also reveals that performance of anaerobic process can be assessed by monitoring the protozoa population in the system.

Isolation and culturing of a most common anaerobic ciliate, Metopus sp

The study includes isolation of anaerobic ciliate, Metopus sp. from an anaerobic reactor and development of its monoculture under laboratory conditions. Separation by centrifugation followed by micromanipulatory isolation resulted in obtaining pure Metopus culture with less bacterial contamination. The isolated Metopus sp. had the mean dimensions of 32 x 123 microm with the generation time of 53 h. Among the different basal media tried, the ciliate mineral medium (CMV) with 1% wheat powder suspension was the most suitable one for Metopus growth. The temperature and pH ranges, for the best growth of Metopus, were 30-35 degrees C and 6-7, respectively. Higher concentrations of volatile fatty acids (VFA) such as acetate, butyrate and propionate had adverse effect on Metopus growth and prevented its growth beyond 0.05 M concentration. Maximum COD removal was in CMV medium by the growth of anaerobic Metopus sp.