The aim of this study is to find potential utilization practice of rice straw in India from an environmental perspective. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted for four most realistic utilization practices of straw including: (1) incorporation into the field as fertilizer (2) animal fodder (3) electricity (4) biogas. The results show that processing of 1 ton straw to electricity and biogas resu

Advanced 1-D models for Secondary Settling Tanks (SSTs) explicitly account for several phenomena that influence the settling process (such as hindered settling and compression settling). For each of these phenomena a valid mathematical expression needs to be selected and its parameters calibrated to obtain a model that can be used for operation and control. This is, however, a challenging task as

This study aims at summarizing available geological and geochemical data on known Proterozoic platinum-bearing ultramafic-mafic massifs in the south of Siberia. Considering new data on geochemistry and geochronology of some intrusions, it was feasible to compare ore-bearing complexes of different time spans and areas and to follow their relationships with the recognized large igneous provinces. In

To design diesel engines with low environmental impact, it is important to link health and climate-relevant soot (black carbon) emission characteristics to specific combustion conditions. The in-cylinder evolution of soot properties over the combustion cycle and as a function of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) was investigated in a modern heavy-duty diesel engine. A novel combination of a fast gas

The paper presents a study of key aspects in the design of a flexible unified data plane capable of integrating both fronthaul and backhaul transport in future 5G systems. In this study, we first review candidate access and multiplexing technologies from the state of the art and assess their capability to support legacy and new fronthaul and backhaul traffic. We then propose a new design framework

The phylogenetic relationship of lecanoroid lichens is studied using two data sets: 1) a 2-locus data set including 251 OTUs representing 150 species, and 2) a 6-locus data set with 82 OTUs representing 53 species. The genus Lecanora as currently circumscribed is shown to be highly polyphyletic and several genera, including Adelolecia, Arctopeltis, Bryonora, Carbonea, Frutidella, Lecidella, Miriqu

The safe application of nanotechnology devices in biomedicine requires fundamental understanding on how they interact with and affect the different components of biological systems. In this respect, the cellular membrane, the cell envelope, certainly represents an important target or barrier for nanosystems. Here we report on the interaction between functionalized SuperParamagnetic Iron Oxide Nano

Diffusion MRI (dMRI) provides rich information on the white matter of the human brain, enabling insight into neurological disease, normal aging, and neuroplasticity. We present BundleMAP, an approach to extracting features from dMRI data that can be used for supervised classification, regression, and hypothesis testing. Our features are based on aggregating measurements along nerve fiber bundles,

The papers in this volume explore the cognitive neuroscience of second language acquisition from the perspectives of critical/sensitive periods, maturational effects, individual differences, neural regions involved, and processing characteristics. The research methodologies used include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and event related potentials (

The Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation (DST) is renowned for exceptionally preserved Precambrian fossils including metazoans. Some of these fossils, particularly microfossils such as multicellular algae and acanthomorphic acritarchs, are preserved in DST chert nodules. To better understand the geomicrobiological processes that contributed to the authigenic formation of DST chert nodules and facilitate

Due to their high theoretical capacity compared to that of state-of-the-art graphite-based electrodes, silicon electrodes have gained much research focus for use in the development of next generation lithium-ion batteries. However, a major drawback of silicon as an electrode material is that it suffers from particle fracturing due to huge volume expansion during electrochemical cycling, thus limit

Epitaxial Bi-containing III–V crystals (III-V1-xBix) have attracted increasing interest due to their potential in infrared applications. Atomic-scale characterization and engineering of bulk-like III-V1-xBix properties (e.g., Bi incorporation and defect formation) are challenging but relevant to develop applications. Toward that target, we report here that the traditional surface-science measureme

We consider a fifth-order Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation which arises as a two-dimensional model in the classical water-wave problem. This equation possesses a family of generalized line solitary waves which decay exponentially to periodic waves at infinity. We prove that these solitary waves are transversely spectrally unstable and that this instability is induced by the transverse instability o

β-Glucan benefits are related with its molar mass and it would be of interest to better understand how this parameter can be changed by processing and variety for design of food with specific health effects. For this purpose, extracts from barley malts and brewers' spent grain, processed at different conditions, were analysed regarding β-glucan content, molar mass, and protein content. Molar mass

The aim of this study was to investigate non-solvent precipitation of starch to produce nanoparticles that could be used in Pickering emulsions. The material used was waxy maize, modified with octenyl succinic anhydride. Different methods of non-solvent precipitation were investigated, and a method based on direct mixing of an 8% starch solution and ethanol (ratio 1:1) was found to produce the sma

BackgroundPregnant women who gain excess weight are at risk of complications during pregnancy and in the long term. Interventions based on diet and physical activity minimise gestational weight gain with varied effect on clinical outcomes. The effect of interventions on varied groups of women based on body mass index, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parity, and underlying medical conditions

A new class of soluble cellulose-grafted hyperbranched polymers has been synthesized by a facile “hypergrafting” reaction using bis(2-chloroethyl)amine and soluble cellulose tosylates. The molecular structures of the obtained new materials were characterized by 13C NMR, FTIR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. The degree of substitution of the hyperbranched cellulose derivatives ranges between 0

The feasibility of applying friction stir processing (FSP) to locally homogenise and to refine the microstructure of a recently developed Mg-Zn-Ca(-Zr) alloy, ZKX50, has been examined. The application of a single pass of FSP resulted in dissolution of coarse intermetallic particles at dendrite boundaries and grain refinement, from an average grain size of ~60 µm in the as-cast state to ~1.2 µm. Th