Desired Elements Research Articles

Synthesis, design of experiments and optimization of heterogeneous Fenton-like degradation of tartrazine by MgFe2O4 nano-catalyst

In this work, magnesium ferrites nanoparticles (MgFe2O4 NPs) were successfully fabricated by sol-gel auto-combustion (SGAC) method and were used in heterogeneous Fenton-like degradation of tartrazine. The obtained products were characterized using XRD, FTIR, SEM and EDX. XRD studies confirmed that the synthesized MgFe2O4 NPs had a cubic spinel structure. The average crystallite size was evaluated using the Debyee Scherrer formula and found to be in the range 16.18–28.55 nm. In FTIR spectra, two primary absorption bands at 571 cm−1 and 415 cm−1 were observed. The spinel ferrites are characterized by these bands and the EDX confirms the presence of the desired elements Mg, Fe, and O. The influences of operating parameters were examined using the Box Behnken statistical design (BD), including magnesium ferrite dosage (0.04–0.12 g/L), tartrazine concentration (30–50 mg/L) and H2O2 concentration (3.53–7.06 mM). Using analysis of variance, a significant quadratic model was created. Optimum conditions were magnesium ferrite dosage of 0.092 g/L, tartrazine concentration of 30.21 mg/L and H2O2 concentration of 6.66 mM, respectively. The predicted degradation efficiency within the optimum conditions as established by the suggested model was 98.4%. Confirmatory tests were carried out and the degradation efficiency of 98.9% was observed, which was in good agreement with the model's prediction. After five recuperation and reapplications, the catalyst's degradation efficiency remains stable. These findings indicate that a heterogeneous Fenton-like process utilizing MgFe2O4 is effective in advanced wastewater treatment.

High-efficiency, polarization-insensitive 1400-lines/mm retroreflective metagrating with cascaded nano-optical modes

A retroreflective grating with a high line density is one of the most desirable optical elements, as it is capable of channeling the reflected light toward the source with high angular resolution. Metagratings can steer the incident light into the desired diffraction order with ultrahigh deflection angle and unitary efficiency. However, in practice, the diffraction efficiency of a metagrating with a small period is very sensitive to the unit cells, thus leading to significant challenges in the fabrication process. In this Letter, a kind of high-efficiency, polarization-insensitive retroreflective metagrating with cascaded nano-optical modes on high-reflection films is proposed. It is found that the conception may increase the fabrication tolerance by a factor of more than two. A 1400-lines/mm metagrating is experimentally realized for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, which shows an excellent broadband diffraction spectrum with 96% efficiency over 50 nm in TE and TM polarization. This proposed novel metagrating will benefit miniature optical systems.

Zen and the Art of Persistent Identifier Service Development for Digital Specimen

One of the most desired (and still missing) elements to enable the concept of Digital Extended (Webster et al. 2021) Specimens is a persistent identifier (PID) for the new digital specimen object. Digital Specimens are created to act as a digital surrogate of the physical objects. Digital Specimens contain all data relevant to the specimens as well as derived data like genetic sequences, trait information, and references to publications, species and environmental information. A PID for the Digital Specimen is thus essential to link it to the extended information. Furthermore, the extended information also needs PIDs to create unique and resolvable references to enable bidirectional linking. DiSSCo, Distributed System of Scientific Collections, has done extensive work to select the most appropriate PID scheme (Hardisty et al. 2021) and design a PID infrastructure for the pan-European specimen collections. The design was created in the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library project (BiCIKL) with funding from the European Commission. The draft design has been discussed with technical specialists in the joint DiSSCo and Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) community, with international stakeholders like GBIF and iDigBio. The draft was also presented at the 2022 conference of SPNHC (the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections) for further feedback, after which it was finalised. This talk will provide a short overview of the key elements in the design of the Persistent Identifier system for Digital Specimens such as the metadata schema, a human friendly string format, and PID lifecycle with support for state changes of the physical object such as splitting and merging. We will illustrate this by showing the current status of development. The Digital Specimen forms the backbone of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) services (Addink et al. 2021) in development by the DiSSCo Prepare project, a project to prepare for the new research infrastructure which currently involves 170 institutions in 23 countries holding an estimated 1,5 billion specimens. The Digital Specimen is a FAIR Digital Object with a PID and machine actionable metadata to make it FAIR. The PID service ensures the identifiers’ integrity and preserves these linkages, improving the FAIR quality of all specimen data. The talk will describe the system design and current test deployment setup, as well as delve into a few technical details of the Handle Server architecture, PID Kernel records, and a roadmap for the service development. The design and test work are done under the auspices of the BiCIKL project that aims to foster collaboration between infrastructures and develop bidirectional connections between the data so that they become part of a big FAIR data pool seamlessly available to researchers (Penev et al. 2022).

Evaluation of water quality index and geochemical characteristics of surfacewater from Tawang India

In this study,the water samples were collected from 31 sites of Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, India (North-Eastern Himalaya), during the winter season to check the suitability of water for drinking and irrigation purposes.The study scientifically demonstrates the estimation of Water quality index (WQI) andhydrogeochemical characteristics of surface water samples by utilizing multivariate statistical methods. The main water quality parameters considered for this study were TDS, conductivity, salinity, pH, hardness, cations and anions. WQI was calculated in order to find out the deviation in the water quality parameters particularly with respect to BIS permissible limits.The major influencing factors responsible for the variation in these parameters were derived by using Principal component analysis (PCA) and Correlation matrix.To check the suitability of water for drinking purpose, hydrogeochemical facies and rock water interaction was derived by using well established methods such as Piper Plot (determine water type), WQI (Quality monitoring), and saturation index (for mineral dissolution). The results revealed that the silicate weathering was the main ionic source in comparison to carbonate weathering which is due to the higher dissolution capacity of silicate minerals.The results of the scattered plot between (Ca2+ + Mg2+)–(HCO3ˉ + SO42ˉ) versus (Na+ + K+)–Clˉ (meq/L) highlighted thation exchange occurs between Mg2+ and Ca2+ofsurface water with Na+ and K+of rock /soil. This means that calcium ion was getting adsorbed, and sodium ion was getting released. The Ca2+–Mg2+–HCO3ˉ, Na+–HCO3ˉand Na+–Clˉ type of surface water suggested permanent and temporary hardness respectively in the studied region. The dominant cations of this study were Na+ and Ca2+ while the dominant anions were HCO3ˉ and SO42ˉ. In order to check the suitability of water sources for irrigation, parameters like, Magnesium hazard (MH), Total hardness (TH), Permeability Index (PI), Kelly Index (KI), Sodium adsorption rate (SAR), Sodium percentage (Na%), and Residual sodium carbonate (RSC) were determined. The results showed that 93% of the samples had PI score < 75, which indicates the suitability of the water for irrigation. Also the WQI calculation showed an average WQI value of 82.49, amongst which 61% samples were in the range of 0–50 being considered as good for drinking, while 39% were catageorised as unsuitable for drinking showing a value of > 50. Hence the above findings reveal that geogenic activities play a major role in influencing the water quality of Tawang region. Hence suitable water treatment technologies or methods might be used to eliminate thenon desirable elements and minerals present in surface water.

Characterization of metal (Mg, Ni &amp; Zn) complexes with β-sitosterol for antimicrobial studies

The metal complexes of Mg (II), Ni (II), and Zn (II) with β-sitosterol were synthesized and the obtained ‎complexes were characterized by various techniques such as elemental analysis, Infrared Spectroscopy (IR), UV ‎Visible Spectroscopy (UV VIS), Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR), Electron Dispersive X-ray ‎Spectroscopy (EDX), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). From the ‎analytical data, the stoichiometry of all the complexes was found to be a 1:2 (metal: ligand) ratio with the general ‎formula ML2X. The IR spectral data predict that the βs behave as a bidentate ligand with a hydroxyl group (OH) and ‎C=C (double bond) groups pointing towards the central metal ion. The Absorption spectra showed an octahedral ‎geometry of the complexes. The EDX features indicated that the desired elements along with their mass percentage ‎ratio are present in the metal complexes. The ligand and complexes were screened for their antibacterial, antifungal ‎and antioxidant activities. The metal ions present in the complexes accelerate the anti-microbial activity and they ‎are more effective than ligands in terms of their biological activity which gives them the opportunity for use in ‎medical practice.

Bicameral Mesh Gradation with a Controlled Advancing Front Approach

This paper discusses an approach to controlling two-dimensional local sizing in a bicameral mesh. This concept was introduced in our prior International Meshing Roundtable conference paper, and we expand on it herein. We define bicameral gradation as a mesh size variation of two distinctly different types in two or more separate chambers or subdomains. The first chamber is controlled by constant to local size functions. The second subdomain is governed by a nonlinear sizing function leading to transitioning meshes. A controlled advancing front approach is proposed for both triangular and quadrangular meshes with the singular goal of ensuring a high local quality metric in the first chamber. A modified H-shock sizing scheme governs the second chamber. Virtual mesh topology is constructed at the face boundary both at geometry and node-loop levels to facilitate this type of bicameral meshing. Results clearly indicate the efficacy of the proposed approach leading to both a well-controlled desired size field and high local element quality. • Bicameralism or Bicameral mesh gradation is defined as a mesh size variation of two distinctly different types in two or more separate chambers or subdomains. • There is a “local chamber” where mesh gradation is constant to linear to a specific governing equation and the rest of the area which is called “residual chamber” and where the size varies in a non-linear transition. • Mesher-native virtual topological elements like soft-points and virtual vertices are used to define zonal boundaries. • Local sizes can be applied on (a) vertex, (b) interior of edges and (c) interior of faces. • 2D NodeLoop-segments are used to perform loop-based advancing front meshing in the local chambers with both triangles and quadrangles.

Synthesis of Ni0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 Ferrite and Effect of Annealing Temperature on the Structural, Morphological and Dielectric Analysis

In the current work, we have synthesized nickel substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles using Pechini's method. The presence of single-phase synthesized nanoparticle is confirmed at annealing temperature around 1000 oC and the crystallinity nature further improves at 1150 oC. The average crystallite size is found to increase with increasing annealing temperature. The strain in the crystalline particles also found to decrease with increasing temperature as confirmed through XRD analysis. The cuboidal morphology with considerable size is observed in nanoparticles by FESEM images. The EDAX spectrum further confirms the presence of pure single phase of desired elements in grown nanoparticles. The dielectric properties were studied using impedance spectroscopy, recorded from 100 Hz to 1 MHz at room temperature for different annealed temperatures. The change in the frequency dependent dielectric properties with increasing annealing temperature are in accordance with the Maxwell-Wagner two layers model for space charge theory and correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic led to permanent persistent changes in recreational activity? A case study of a municipal beach

Recreational areas in cities deliver numerous social, health and environmental benefits for local communities. They are a desirable element of the urban structure that influences the quality of life. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented health crisis on a global scale, initially prevented and then significantly limited the use of recreational areas. The pandemic decreased daily activity levels, induced changes in lifestyle and significantly compromised people’s ability to engage in outdoor recreation. In the process of lifting lockdown restrictions, recreational areas play a special role in combatting the consequences of social isolation and restoring access to public spaces. The present study was undertaken to assess the recreational activities of urban dwellers during the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic’s effect on the leisure behaviour of residents in the Polish city of Olsztyn was evaluated on the example of a sports and recreational centre on Lake Ukiel. The visitor traffic register and the centre’s financial performance were analysed, and a diagnostic survey targeting local residents was conducted online. The results point to a clear decline in the local community’s recreational activities as well as changes in the form and place of recreation.

Implementing efficient selective quantum process tomography of superconducting quantum gates on IBM quantum experience

The experimental implementation of selective quantum process tomography (SQPT) involves computing individual elements of the process matrix with the help of a special set of states called quantum 2-design states. However, the number of experimental settings required to prepare input states from quantum 2-design states to selectively and precisely compute a desired element of the process matrix is still high, and hence constructing the corresponding unitary operations in the lab is a daunting task. In order to reduce the experimental complexity, we mathematically reformulated the standard SQPT problem, which we term the modified SQPT (MSQPT) method. We designed the generalized quantum circuit to prepare the required set of input states and formulated an efficient measurement strategy aimed at minimizing the experimental cost of SQPT. We experimentally demonstrated the MSQPT protocol on the IBM QX2 cloud quantum processor and selectively characterized various two- and three-qubit quantum gates.

Learning GUI Completions with User-defined Constraints

A key objective in the design of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) is to ensure consistency across screens of the same product. However, designing a compliant layout is time-consuming and can distract designers from creative thinking. This paper studies layout recommendation methods that fulfill such consistency requirements using machine learning. Given a desired element type and size, the methods suggest element placements following real-world GUI design processes. Consistency requirements are given implicitly through previous layouts from which patterns are to be learned, comparable to existing screens of a software product. We adopt two recently proposed methods for this task, a Graph Neural Network (GNN) and a Transformer model, and compare them with a custom approach based on sequence alignment and nearest neighbor search (kNN) . The methods were tested on handcrafted datasets with explicit layout patterns, as well as large-scale public datasets of diverse mobile design layouts. Our results show that our instance-based learning algorithm outperforms both neural network approaches. Ultimately, this work contributes to establishing smarter design tools for professional designers with explainable algorithms that increase their efficacy.

Physio-chemical characterizations and antimicrobial properties of nano-sized Mg-Zn ferrite particles for biomedical applications

ABSTRACT The nano-sized magnesium doped zinc ferrite (MgxZn1-xFe2O4 for x = 0.2 and 0.6) has been synthesised for biomedical application through two different routes (sol–gel and hydrothermal). The x-ray diffraction pattern showed the single phase of ferrite. The crystallite sizes and lattice parameters of Mg-Zn ferrite were obtained by three different methods viz. Scherrer formula (X’pert high score), Maud analysis (Rietveld refinement software), and Williamson Hall Plot. The field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed the near-spherical and dumbbell-shaped morphology of Mg-Zn ferrite. The vibrating sample magnetometer showed the increasing magnetic properties on increasing Mg doping. The elemental dispersive spectroscopy analysis revealed the presence of desired elements. The antimicrobial assay against E. coli (gram-negative) and S. aureus (gram-positive) bacteria showed a clear zone of inhibition. The Mg-Zn ferrite showed good magnetic and antimicrobial properties synthesised via the sol–gel route, which can be further used for possible drug delivery applications.

Adulthood Responsibility and Invitational Education

First and third world values characterize the Republic of South Africa, and today its challenge is to integrate a diverse population into a unified and equitable society. Education, naturally, is a key element to attain this goal. To succeed in this regard, common aims and guidelines are needed to give direction to the educational system. The concept of "adulthood," which is considered to be the ultimate aim of education by leading theorists, provides a common denominator for education in the new South Africa. One problem, however, is finding a useful description of the essentials of adulthood—a description that reveals desirable and relevant elements of adulthood in today's society. The need for a clear and relevant profile of adulthood became the catalyst for establishing a research team to conduct an empirical survey to determine the facets of adulthood.

Open Access Monographs

The UK Research and Innovation funding council announced its latest Open Access Policy on August 6, 2021. This policy applies to all UKRI funded research, and thus constitutes a significant move towards OA as an academic standard. For the first time in the UK, OA is to be mandated for academic books – this means that both monographs and edited chaptered books must be published Open Access from January 2024, though a 1 year embargo is permissible. As the infrastructures, business models and workflows supporting OA book publishing are currently lagging behind journals, especially in the Arts and Humanities, many researchers and institutions have responded to the policy with some consternation, even whilst supporting the aims and ethics of OA publishing. This article explores some of these apprehensions and questions raised by institutions, academics and by librarians regarding OA book publishing in a UK context, especially regarding funding and sustainability. It aims to dispel certain myths around OA book publishing in general, particularly the notion that Book Processing Charges are a necessary or even desirable element. The article then presents some of the varied models and systems currently in use and development, particularly the work of the UKRI/Research England funded COPIM project (Community- Led Open Access Infrastructures for Monographs), one of the aims of which is to build ways of delivering more sustainable revenue sources to OA publishers. It focuses in particular a key and soon to be launched output of the project: the Open Book Collective.

METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING THE BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AT DIFFERENT URBAN SCALES

In the context of increased urbanization, urban green infrastructure (UGI) is an important tool for preserving the structure and functions of natural ecosystems and providing diverse benefits to the human population. The study of benefits is of high importance for the spatial and administrative planning of urban green infrastructures. The present analysis aims to understand the benefits associated with green infrastructures and to develop new possibilities for integrating green infrastructures into urban planning, using the municipality of Buzău as case study. In order to assess the distribution of UGIs in Buzău and to identify the benefits and services associated with them, 227 questionnaires were applied to local population. The case studies offer the possibility to provide concrete examples of current urban green infrastructures management practices. For the municipality of Buzău, the most desired elements of green infrastructure in the city is: parks and public gardens (94.20%), outdoor sports facilities (84.58%), street alignments (79.29%) and flower arrangements (55.06%). The involvement of the local community in the UGI planning process is a strong point, which should be integrated in the practices of local authorities and implemented effectively.

Ethics of schizoanalysis

In this essay I read Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia from an ethical point of view. My main question refers to a claim that Michel Foucault made in his preface to Anti-Oedipus: “Anti-Oedipus (may its authors forgive me) is a book of ethics”. I try to elaborate on this suggestion in conversation with Jacques Lacan’s Ethics of Psychoanalysis, a 1959-1960 seminar published under the same title. This essay responds to Lacan’s formulation of an unconscious desire by way of Deleuze and Guattari’s social-machinic perspective. In my interpretation Anti-Oedipus accounts for an ontological ethics in terms of an unconscious desire that is exteriority. I take the notion of socius as the key element of this exterior desire and therefore as the true site of ethics.

Rare Earth Elements Recovery Using Selective Membranes via Extraction and Rejection.

Recently, demands for raw materials like rare earth elements (REEs) have increased considerably due to their high potential applications in modern industry. Additionally, REEs’ similar chemical and physical properties caused their separation to be difficult. Numerous strategies for REEs separation such as precipitation, adsorption and solvent extraction have been applied. However, these strategies have various disadvantages such as low selectivity and purity of desired elements, high cost, vast consumption of chemicals and creation of many pollutions due to remaining large amounts of acidic and alkaline wastes. Membrane separation technology (MST), as an environmentally friendly approach, has recently attracted much attention for the extraction of REEs. The separation of REEs by membranes usually occurs through three mechanisms: (1) complexation of REE ions with extractant that is embedded in the membrane matrix, (2) adsorption of REE ions on the surface created-active sites on the membrane and (3) the rejection of REE ions or REEs complex with organic materials from the membrane. In this review, we investigated the effect of these mechanisms on the selectivity and efficiency of the membrane separation process. Finally, potential directions for future studies were recommended at the end of the review.

Investigation of structural and dielectric properties of Gd3+ substituted nickel-zinc ferrite prepared via low-temperature citrate gel self-ignited process

The productive of nanocrystalline Gd3+ substituted mixed Ni0.7Zn0.3GdxFe2-xO4 (where × = 0.000, 0.005, 0.010, 0.015, 0.020 and 0.025) spinel ferric material was synthesized using the low-temperature citrate assisted self-ignited process. The structure, microstructure, and elemental investigation were examined by XRD, SEM, EDX and TEM investigation. It revealed that the prepared accumulation a spinel system with an fd-3m space group. Scanning electron microscopy has shown the agglomeration of irregular morphology of nickel-zinc ferrite sample, EDX also confirms the presence of desired elements. TEM micrographs support the XRD data and the average particle size was estimated (approximately below 50 nm). The dielectric investigation is executed by using complex impedance spectroscopy in the frequencies 20 Hz to 2MH. Dielectric properties such as real (ε'), imaginary (ε'') parts in addition loss tangent (tan δ) decreased by means of rising frequency for prepared ferric materials. The investigation of complex impedance outcomes showed “the capacitive and reactive characteristics”. A study of the modulus electric evaluation suggested that relaxation processes in this nickel-zinc with Gd3+ substituted compositions are of a “non-Debye’s type”. Replacing Fe ions through Gd3+ ions significantly impacts synthesised nano ferrites' electrical properties.

Recombinant Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara Development to Express VP2, NS1, and VP7 Proteins of Bluetongue Virus.

Modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) is employed widely as an experimental vaccine vector for its abortive replication in mammalian cells and high expression level of foreign/heterologous genes. Recombinant MVAs (rMVAs) are used as platforms for protein production as well as vectors to generate vaccines against a wide range of infectious diseases and other pathologies. The portrait of the virus combines desirable elements such as high-level biological safety, the ability to activate appropriate innate immune mediators upon vaccination , and the capacity to deliver substantial amounts of heterologous antigens. rMVAs encoding proteins of Bluetongue virus (BTV), an orbivirus that infects domestic and wild ruminants through transmission by biting midges of the Culicoides species, are excellent vaccine candidates against this virus. In this chapter, we describe the methods for the generation of rMVAs encoding VP2, NS1, and VP7 proteins of BTV . The included protocols cover the cloning of VP2, NS1, and VP7 BTV-4 genes in a transfer plasmid, the construction of rMVAs, the titration of virus working stocks, and the protein expression analysis by immunofluorescence and radiolabeling of rMVA infected cells as well as virus purification procedure.

Is Electronic Health Record Safety a Paradox?

Is Electronic Health Record Safety a Paradox?

Impact of the Quality of Urban Settlements on Housing Prices in China

The quality of urban settlement is an essential element of people's desire for a better life, which has been capitalized into housing prices of local cities. However, previous literature focuses overwhelmingly on the determinants of intracity housing prices. There is still a lack of research on the determinants of the spatial disparity in intercity housing prices, and there is even less research on the association between comprehensive urban settlement quality and housing prices. This paper uses principal component analysis to evaluate urban settlement quality for 294 cities in China and applies spatial econometric models to examine the impact of urban settlement quality on housing prices. The results show that urban settlement quality in China is composed of five principal components: social livelihood, service industry development, leisure-traffic, the ecological environment, and economic development. There is spatial correlation between urban settlement quality and housing prices in China, both of which show high values in eastern China and low values in western China. Spatial econometric modeling results indicate that social livelihood and the ecological environment have a significant positive impact on housing prices, while service industry development and the leisure-traffic factor have a significant impeding effect on housing prices. In addition, residential land prices and per capita real-estate development investment are significant factors affecting housing prices in China.