Evaluation of the effect of size reduction and thermal treatment on metal extraction from PCBs of mother board and digital video drive of desktop PC

The study aims at evaluating the effect of particle size and thermal treatment on printed circuit boards (PCBs) of Mother Board (MB) and DVD on metal extraction. Results show around 90-95% (w/w) and 35-40% (w/w) of total Al and Cu respectively, in CPU could be recovered by systematized disassembly. Remaining embedded Al and Cu require metallurgical or hydro-metallurgical processing. Cu extraction increases with size reduction. Thermal treatment of MB-PCB shows reduction in Cu extraction (23-38%) for all sizes in comparison without thermal treatment, while DVD-PCB showed surge in extraction after thermal treatment (41-141%) in comparison without thermal treatment

Pretreatment of garden biomass using Fenton’s reagent: influence of Fe2+ and H2O2 concentrations on lignocellulose degradation

Abstract Garden biomass (GB) is defined as low density and heterogeneous waste fraction of garden rubbish like grass clippings, pruning, flowers, branches, weeds; roots. GB is generally different from other types of biomass. GB is mostly generated through maintenance of green areas. GB can be processed for bio energy production as it contains considerably good amount of cellulose and hemicellulose. However, pretreatment is necessary to delignify and facilitate disruption of cellulosic moiety. The aim of the present investigation was to pretreat GB using Fenton’s reagent and to study the influence of Fe2+ and H2O2 concentrations on degradation of lignin and cellulose. The data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and numerical point prediction tool of MINITAB RELEASE 14 to optimize different process variables such as temperature, concentration of Fe2+ and H2O2. The results of the present investigation showed that Fenton’s reagent was effective on GB, however, concentration of Fe2+ and H2O2 play crucial role in determining the efficiency of pretreatment. An increase in H2O2 concentration in Fenton’s reagent significantly increased the rate of cellulose and lignin degradation in contrast to increasing concentration of Fe2+ ion which led to a decrease in lignocellulosic degradation.</jats:p

Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with obesity and prevalent heart failure: a prespecified analysis of the SELECT trial

Background: Semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, reduces the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in people with overweight or obesity, but the effects of this drug on outcomes in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and heart failure are unknown. We report a prespecified analysis of the effect of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2·4 mg on ischaemic and heart failure cardiovascular outcomes. We aimed to investigate if semaglutide was beneficial in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with a history of heart failure compared with placebo; if there was a difference in outcome in patients designated as having heart failure with preserved ejection fraction compared with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; and if the efficacy and safety of semaglutide in patients with heart failure was related to baseline characteristics or subtype of heart failure. Methods: The SELECT trial was a randomised, double-blind, multicentre, placebo-controlled, event-driven phase 3 trial in 41 countries. Adults aged 45 years and older, with a BMI of 27 kg/m2 or greater and established cardiovascular disease were eligible for the study. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) with a block size of four using an interactive web response system in a double-blind manner to escalating doses of once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide over 16 weeks to a target dose of 2·4 mg, or placebo. In a prespecified analysis, we examined the effect of semaglutide compared with placebo in patients with and without a history of heart failure at enrolment, subclassified as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, or unclassified heart failure. Endpoints comprised MACE (a composite of non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, and cardiovascular death); a composite heart failure outcome (cardiovascular death or hospitalisation or urgent hospital visit for heart failure); cardiovascular death; and all-cause death. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03574597. Findings: Between Oct 31, 2018, and March 31, 2021, 17 604 patients with a mean age of 61·6 years (SD 8·9) and a mean BMI of 33·4 kg/m2 (5·0) were randomly assigned to receive semaglutide (8803 [50·0%] patients) or placebo (8801 [50·0%] patients). 4286 (24·3%) of 17 604 patients had a history of investigator-defined heart failure at enrolment: 2273 (53·0%) of 4286 patients had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, 1347 (31·4%) had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and 666 (15·5%) had unclassified heart failure. Baseline characteristics were similar between patients with and without heart failure. Patients with heart failure had a higher incidence of clinical events. Semaglutide improved all outcome measures in patients with heart failure at random assignment compared with those without heart failure (hazard ratio [HR] 0·72, 95% CI 0·60-0·87 for MACE; 0·79, 0·64-0·98 for the heart failure composite endpoint; 0·76, 0·59-0·97 for cardiovascular death; and 0·81, 0·66-1·00 for all-cause death; all pinteraction&gt;0·19). Treatment with semaglutide resulted in improved outcomes in both the heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HR 0·65, 95% CI 0·49-0·87 for MACE; 0·79, 0·58-1·08 for the composite heart failure endpoint) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction groups (0·69, 0·51-0·91 for MACE; 0·75, 0·52-1·07 for the composite heart failure endpoint), although patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction had higher absolute event rates than those with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. For MACE and the heart failure composite, there were no significant differences in benefits across baseline age, sex, BMI, New York Heart Association status, and diuretic use. Serious adverse events were less frequent with semaglutide versus placebo, regardless of heart failure subtype. Interpretation: In patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diease and overweight or obesity, treatment with semaglutide 2·4 mg reduced MACE and composite heart failure endpoints compared with placebo in those with and without clinical heart failure, regardless of heart failure subtype. Our findings could facilitate prescribing and result in improved clinical outcomes for this patient group. Funding: Novo Nordisk

MSW odor quantification using electronic nose and chemical analyzers : relative exploration of prediction capabilities and robust model development

peer reviewedThe work investigates the real-time measurements of municipal solid waste odors using both low-cost chemical sensor array (electronic nose) and chemical analyzers. The study aimed to develop mathematical models using multilinear regression for prediction of odor concentration using electronic nose and chemical five months (50 days) were simultaneously analyzed using electronic nose, chemical analyzers and olfactometer installed at Municipal Solid Waste site. Principal component analysis was carried out on sensors data to study the different sources and concentration levels of odors. The output of olfactometer was correlated with the resonse of sensor array and chemical analyzers using multilinear regression model. The prediction models developed for correlating electronic nose and olfactometer & chemical analyzer with olfactometer helped to understand the usability of both electronic nose and chemical analyzer for odor concentration prediction. The results on these aspects are discussed in the paper

Optimum Operating Condition for Co-Gasification - A Thermodynamic Study

Background: Gasification is a popular process for producing syngas from solid fuels. The focus has nowadays shifted to co-gasification using a mixed feed of coal and biomass. An optimum gasifier operating condition (OGOC) is an extremely important process parameter for gasification system. Method: A thermodynamic analysis was done to calculate this condition for co-gasifier operation. The relative product gas generation trends in co-gasification were compared with the single feed coal gasification in this study. Conclusion: An OGOC of 618°C with CO2 feed of 0.6475 moles and H2O feed of 1.3525 moles was found to be the best condition for co-gasifier operation producing 1.6429 moles of syngas (of syngas ratio 1.5905) and 54.96% H2O conversion with the gasifier product gas containing over 61% syngas. Such OGOC can be found for gasification systems ensuring the advantages of thermoneutral operation as well as 100% carbon conversion