Field testing of an onsite sanitation system on apartment building blackwater using biological treatment and electrochemical disinfection

The Closed Loop Advanced Sanitation System (CLASS) was designed to treat, disinfect, and recycle toilet blackwater from existing flush toilets in a multi-story apartment building. Two systems were tested at two unique sites in Coimbatore, India for a combined 7500+ treatment hours resulting in more than 180 000 L of treated water. The CLASS prototypes used a combination of biological pretreatment and electrochemical oxidation processes to produce treated water that nearly met the stringent requirements outlined in the standard ISO 30500. The nutrient and organic loading from the toilet blackwater was predominantly reduced by over 85–95% and 80–87%, respectively, through biological processes that were achieved using either a sequencing batch reactor (SBR, site A) or an anaerobic–aerobic biodigester (EcoSan, site B). Complete disinfection of E. coli with nil CFU per ml was achieved using electrochemical processes that also served to remove the remaining organic and nutrient loading to over 90–96%. The treated water was reused for flushing by the residents of the apartment building for 89 days

Thermal Properties of the Binary-Filler Composites with Few-Layer Graphene and Copper Nanoparticles

The thermal properties of an epoxy-based binary composites comprised of graphene and copper nanoparticles are reported. It is found that the "synergistic" filler effect, revealed as a strong enhancement of the thermal conductivity of composites with the size-dissimilar fillers, has a well-defined filler loading threshold. The thermal conductivity of composites with a moderate graphene concentration of ~15 wt% exhibits an abrupt increase as the loading of copper nanoparticles approaches ~40 wt%, followed by saturation. The effect is attributed to intercalation of spherical copper nanoparticles between the large graphene flakes, resulting in formation of the highly thermally conductive percolation network. In contrast, in composites with a high graphene concentration, ~40 wt%, the thermal conductivity increases linearly with addition of copper nanoparticles. The electrical percolation is observed at low graphene loading, less than 7 wt.%, owing to the large aspect ratio of graphene. At all concentrations of the fillers, below and above the electrical percolation threshold, the thermal transport is dominated by phonons. The obtained results shed light on the interaction between graphene fillers and copper nanoparticles in the composites and demonstrate potential of such hybrid epoxy composites for practical applications in thermal interface materials and adhesives.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Some Hermite-Hadamard type inequalities for the product of two operator preinvex functions

In this paper we introduce operator preinvex functions and es- tablish a Hermite-Hadamard type inequality for such functions. We give an estimate of the right hand side of a Hermite-Hadamard type inequality in which some operator preinvex functions of selfadjoint operators in Hilbert spaces are involved. Also some Hermite-Hadamard type inequalities for the product of two operator preinvex functions are given.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1306.073

Study of Pseudo BL–Algebras in View of Left Boolean Lifting Property

In this paper, we define left Boolean lifting property (right Boolean lifting property) LBLP (RBLP) for pseudo BL–algebra which is the property that all Boolean elements can be lifted modulo every left filter (right filter) and next, we study pseudo BL-algebra with LBLP (RBLP). We show that Quasi local, local and hyper Archimedean pseudo BL–algebra that have LBLP (RBLP) has an interesting behavior in direct products. LBLP (RBLP) provides an important representation theorem for semi local and maximal pseudo BL–algebra

What has finite element analysis taught us about diabetic foot disease and its management?:a systematic review

Over the past two decades finite element (FE) analysis has become a popular tool for researchers seeking to simulate the biomechanics of the healthy and diabetic foot. The primary aims of these simulations have been to improve our understanding of the foot's complicated mechanical loading in health and disease and to inform interventions designed to prevent plantar ulceration, a major complication of diabetes. This article provides a systematic review and summary of the findings from FE analysis-based computational simulations of the diabetic foot.A systematic literature search was carried out and 31 relevant articles were identified covering three primary themes: methodological aspects relevant to modelling the diabetic foot; investigations of the pathomechanics of the diabetic foot; and simulation-based design of interventions to reduce ulceration risk.Methodological studies illustrated appropriate use of FE analysis for simulation of foot mechanics, incorporating nonlinear tissue mechanics, contact and rigid body movements. FE studies of pathomechanics have provided estimates of internal soft tissue stresses, and suggest that such stresses may often be considerably larger than those measured at the plantar surface and are proportionally greater in the diabetic foot compared to controls. FE analysis allowed evaluation of insole performance and development of new insole designs, footwear and corrective surgery to effectively provide intervention strategies. The technique also presents the opportunity to simulate the effect of changes associated with the diabetic foot on non-mechanical factors such as blood supply to local tissues.While significant advancement in diabetic foot research has been made possible by the use of FE analysis, translational utility of this powerful tool for routine clinical care at the patient level requires adoption of cost-effective (both in terms of labour and computation) and reliable approaches with clear clinical validity for decision making

Surface roughness and wettability of wool fabrics loaded with silver nanoparticles: Influence of synthesis and application methods

Hydrophilization of wool fabrics was performed by silver nanoparticles with different surface charge using three different methods: exhausting, pad–dry–cure and in situ synthesis. Dynamic wetting measurements and surface topography analysis were used to evaluate surface changes on wool fabrics. The wool samples in situ loaded revealed the highest fabric roughness and porosity, while the use of the pad–dry–cure method leads to the lowest fabric porosity, and its roughness values approximately were the same as those for samples loaded with the exhaustion method. The results revealed that loading silver nanoparticles with high surface charges onto wool fabrics via the exhaustion method can significantly improve the hydrophilicity of wool fibre surface. The possible reasons for this improvement are discussed

ORAL HEALTH IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE

Kidneys are visceral organs that are responsible for numerous body functions. About 90% of patients with kidney failure show oral signs and symptoms on both soft and hard dental tissues, some of them are caused by the disease, while others may be caused by the treatment. The main aim of this paper was to present the oral health changes caused by chronic renal failure. In order to realize the main aim, adequate literature review was conducted. The occurrence of gingival hyperplasia due to immunosuppressive therapy is the most studied oral manifestation. It is estimated that 30% of patients who are on cyclosporine therapy show clinically significant gingival enlargement. Decreased kidney function results in an increase in levels of urea in the blood, and thus an increased level of urea in the saliva, where it is the same converts to ammonia. For this reason, uremic individuals have a characteristic halitosis (uremic fetor), which also occurs in about a third of patients on hemodialysis. Hyposalivation occurs as a result of reduced fluid intake, or as a result of secondary effects of drugs (mainly antihypertensives), as a result of the atrophy of the parenchyma of the small salivary glands or due to mouth breathing. The knowledge of the basic anatomical and pathological characteristics of kidneys, as well as the signs and symptoms of their diseases will allow them to avoid numerous complications in everyday practice that may occur during dental interventions in such patients

Two-phase modelling for fission gas sweeping in restructuring nuclear oxide fuel

In this work, we propose a modelling approach for the intra-granular fission gas behaviour in UO2 under restructuring process. Leveraging the definition of restructured volume fraction, we consider the fuel matrix transition from the non-restructured to the restructured phase, together with the evolution of the corresponding fission gas concentrations retained in the fuel matrix. Firstly, we derive a sweeping term that exchanges fission gas atoms from the non-restructured to the restructured fuel region. The sweeping term is then included in the conventional intra-granular fission gas diffusion problem. Secondly, the spectral diffusion algorithm is employed to solve two spatially-dimensionless problems, properly representing the non-restructured region with micrometric grains and the restructured region with sub-micrometric grains. The model developed is implemented in SCIANTIX, a 0D meso-scale code for physics-based modelling of fission gas behaviour in nuclear oxide fuel and compared with experimental data and semi-empirical models.LR