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Search results for: SPECIATION OF HEAVY METALS
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Searching for road deformations using mobile laser scanning
PublicationMillions of people use roads every day all over the world. Roads, like many other structures, have an estimated durability. In Poland a lot of the roads were built at the turn of the 20th and 21st c., especially for light cars. Many of these roads carry traffic and heavy goods vehicles which were not predicted when the traffic was first estimated. It creates a lot of problems with technical conditions and the infrastructure must...
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Road texture influence on tyre rolling resistance
PublicationTyre performance, one of the critical factors for vehicle users, is strongly related to theroad surface characteristics, most notably to the pavement texture. Phenomena that occur at the tyre/road interface affect tyre friction (skid resistance), rolling resistance, tyre wear and tyre/road noise. This article deals with relationship between surface texture and rolling resistance of light and heavy vehicle tyres. Mean profile depth...
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Study on the accuracy of axle load spectra used for pavement design
PublicationWeigh-in-Motion (WIM) systems are used in order to reduce the number of overloaded vehicles. Data collected from WIM provide characteristics of vehicle axle loads that are crucial for pavement design as well as for the development of pavement distress prediction models. The inaccuracy of WIM data lead to erroneous estimation of traffic loads and in consequence inaccurate prediction of pavement distress process. The objective of...
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Electrochemical performance of thin free-standing boron-doped diamond nanosheet electrodes
PublicationIn the following work we describe preparation and the electrochemical performance of thin and free-standing heavy boron-doped diamond (BDD) nanosheets. The investigated foils were deposited on Ta substrate using microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique (MPECVD). Foils of two B-dopant densities were investigated, obtained on the base of 10 k and 20 k ppm [B]/[C] ratio in the gas admixture. The obtained foils...
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Environmental risk assessment of Polish wastewater treatment plant activity
PublicationWastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play an extremely important role in shaping modern society's environmental wellbeing and awareness, however only well operated and supervised systems can be considered as environmentally sustainable. For this reason, an attempt was undertaken to assess the environmental burden posed by WWTPs in major Polish cities by collecting water samples prior to and just after wastewater release points....
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Superconductivity in the Cu(Ir1-xPtx)2Se4 spinel
PublicationWe report the observation of superconductivity in the CuIr2Se4 spinel induced by partial substitution of Pt for Ir. The optimal doping level for superconductivity in Cu(Ir1-xPtx )2Se4 is x = 0.2, where Tc is 1.76 K. A superconducting Tc vs composition dome is established between the metallic, normal conductor CuIr2Se4 and semiconducting CuIrPtSe4. Electronic structure calculations show that the optimal Tc occurs near the electron count...
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Expedited Gradient-Based Design Closure of Antennas Using Variable-Resolution Simulations and Sparse Sensitivity Updates
PublicationNumerical optimization has been playing an increasingly important role in the design of contemporary antenna systems. Due to the shortage of design-ready theoretical models, optimization is mainly based on electromagnetic (EM) analysis, which tends to be costly. Numerous techniques have evolved to abate this cost, including surrogate-assisted frameworks for global optimization, or sparse sensitivity updates for speeding up local...
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Comparative wear test of journal sliding bearings with sintered bronze and Babbitt alloy bushes lubricated by environmentally acceptable/adapted lubricants (EAL)
PublicationA growing awareness of the negative effects of mineral oils on the natural environment has resulted in the introduction of new regulations related to environmental protection. One of these regulations requires the use of environmentally acceptable/adapted lubricants (EAL) to lubricate marine main shaft bearings, in place of the mineral lubricating oils that have been used for decades. Classification Societies, which supervise...
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Crystal structure and physical properties of AePd1-xP1+x (Ae = Ca, Sr)
PublicationWe report the discovery of two new compounds AePd1-xP1+x (Ae = Ca, Sr) crystallized in different hexagonal structures. Single crystals of AePd1-xP1+x (Ae = Ca, Sr) are obtained using the Bi-flux method. Crystallographic analysis by both powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction shows that CaPd1-xP1+x crystallizes in a non-centrosymmetric hexagonal structure with the space group P-6m2 (No.187) and lattice parameters a = b = 4.0391(9)...
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Mono- and bi-metallic plasmonic photocatalysts for degradation of organic compounds under UV and visible light irradiation
PublicationTitania powders were surface modified with gold and/or silver nanoparticles (NPs) by photodeposition method. Gold modified titania exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity during methanol dehydrogenation under UV irradiation than titania modified with monometallic silver and bimetallic Au–Ag NPs. Bimetallic photocatalysts exhibited either enhanced or reduced visible light activity, depending on properties of noble metal NPs,...
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A review: Fabrication of porous polyurethane scaffolds
PublicationThe aim of tissue engineering is the fabrication of three-dimensional scaffolds that can be used for the reconstruction and regeneration of damaged or deformed tissues and organs. A wide variety of techniques have been developed to create either fibrous or porous scaffolds from polymers, metals, composite materials and ceramics. However, the most promising materials are biodegradable polymers due to their comprehensive mechanical...
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Progress, Challenge, and Perspective of Bimetallic TiO2-Based Photocatalysts
PublicationBimetallic TiO2-based photocatalysts have attracted considerable attention in recent years as a class of highly active catalysts and photocatalysts under both UV and Vis light irradiation. Bimetallic noble metal structures deposited on TiO2 possess the ability to absorb visible light, in a wide wavelength range (broad LSPR peak), and therefore reveal the highest level of activity as a result of utilization of a large amount of...
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Effect of copper and silver modification of NH2-MIL-125(Ti) on the photoreduction of carbon dioxide to formic acid over this framework under visible-light irradiation
PublicationCu and Ag enhance the photocatalytic activities of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) toward CO2 conversion because of their CO2 adsorption capacities and effects on the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) overpotentials of MOFs. However, to date, targeted introduction of metals into MOFs to achieve visible (Vis)- light-active photocatalysts for CO2 photoconversion has not been realized. Herein, a series of aminefunctionalized...
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Synthesis of 5-Substituted 1H-Tetrazoles from Nitriles in the Presence of Heterogeneous Catalyst
PublicationTetrazoles are five-membered heterocyclic compounds containing in their rings four nitrogen atoms. They have wide applications as corrosion inhibitors, analytical reagents, high-energy materials and gas generating compositions. Tetrazoles also play important role in coordination chemistry as ligands and in medicinal chemistry as metabolically stable surrogates for carboxylic acids. In recent years, investigation of new method of...
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Possibility to use engine compression ignition engines in floating power plants marine
PublicationCompression-ignition engines used in ship technology as main propulsion engines are large units reaching even to 50-60 MW. The engines can be used in power industry for electricity generation in a simple or combined steam turbine system in combined heat and power plants. The leading engine in such an arrangement is an internal-combustion piston engine. The main propulsion engines are used in large piston internal-combustion engines...
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BP-EVD: Forward Block-Output Propagation for Efficient Video Denoising
PublicationDenoising videos in real-time is critical in many applications, including robotics and medicine, where varying light conditions, miniaturized sensors, and optics can substantially compromise image quality. This work proposes the first video denoising method based on a deep neural network that achieves state-of-the-art performance on dynamic scenes while running in real-time on VGA video resolution with no frame latency. The backbone...
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Experimental tuning of AuAg nanoalloy plasmon resonances assisted by machine learning method
PublicationPlasmonic nanostructures based on AuAg nanoalloys were fabricated by thermal annealing of metallic films in an argon atmosphere. The nanoalloys were chosen because they can extend the wavelength range in which plasmon resonance occurs and thus allow the design of plasmonic platforms with the desired parameters. The influence of initial fabrication parameters and experimental conditions on the formation of nanostructures was investigated....
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Preparation and characterization of monometallic (Au) and bimetallic (Ag/Au) modified-titania photocatalysts activated by visible light
PublicationThe Au-TiO2 and Ag/Au-TiO2 nanoparticles have been prepared using a water-in-oil microemulsion system of water/AOT/cyclohexane and water/Triton X-100/cyclohexane. The obtained photocatalysts were subsequently characterized by a BET method, DRS spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron emission spectroscopy (XPS), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRD). For gold-doped titanium (IV) oxide...
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High-temperature Co-electrolysis of CO2/H2O and direct methanation over Co-impregnated SOEC. Bimetallic synergy between Co and Ni
PublicationTo study the synergy between the transition metals for enhancing the electrochemical and chemical activity, a series of SOECs were modified with a small amount of Co ions, namely 1.8, 3.6, and 5.4 wt% in the reduced state. The addition of βCD into the precursor solution allowed for extremely fine dispersion of Co species across the Ni-YSZ cermet structure. The sample containing 3.6 wt% Co reached an outstanding over 2.5-times-higher...
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Biocompatibility and potential functionality of lanthanum-substituted cobalt ferrite spinels
PublicationBulk and nanostructurized lanthanum-cobalt spinels have attracted a lot of interest from researchers, due to their unique physical and chemical properties as well as functionalities, which are interesting for biomedical and electronic industries. In this manuscript we show that introducing small lanthanum (La3+) content can tune magnetic, electronic and cytotoxic properties of the CoFe2− xLaxO4 system (x ≤ 0.1). The mechanisms...
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Correlations between the wear of car brake friction materials and airborne wear particle emissions
PublicationAirborne wear particles emitted from transport vehicle brakes are one of the main sources of toxic metals in inhalable particulate matter. Prediction of wear particle emissions may become more accurate if the relationship between the wear and particle emission characteristics is known. An experimental study was performed to investigate proportional correlations between the mass wear, 0.01–0.42 μm particle emission measured by a NanoScan...
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Multifrequency Nanoscale Impedance Microscopy (m-NIM): A novel approach towards detection of selective and subtle modifications on the surface of polycrystalline boron-doped diamond electrodes
PublicationIn this paper, we describe the modification of Nanoscale Impedance Microscopy (NIM), namely, a combination of contact-mode atomic force microscopy with local impedance measurements. The postulated approach is based on the application of multifrequency voltage perturbation instead of standard frequency-by-frequency analysis, which among others offers more time-efficient and accurate determination of the resultant impedance spectra...
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Biological responses to environmental contamination. How can metal pollution impact signal honesty in avian species?
PublicationEnvironmental pollution, for example with metals, can significantly affect the ecosystem balance leading to severe changes. Biologically active pigments are relevant for the appearance and condition of birds. Melanin and carotenoid particles are the most frequently deposited pigments in avian integument. They are responsible for the majority of colors of bird plumage. The phenotypic expression can be affected by metal contamination....
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Ultrasound-assisted wet-impregnation of Ag–Co nanoparticles on cellulose nanofibers: Enhanced catalytic hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol
PublicationIn this study, a novel nanocomposite of bimetallic Ag–Co nanoparticles supported on cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) was synthesised using the ultrasound-assisted wet-impregnation method for catalytic applications. CNFs were prepared from cellulose acetate using the electrospinning technique. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis confirmed the successful synthesis of CNFs. Further, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)...
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Toxicity and chemical analyses of airport runoff waters in Poland
PublicationThe aim of this study was to assess the ecotoxicological effects of various compounds in complex airport effluents using a chemical and ecotoxicological integrated strategy. The present work deals with the determination of sum of PCBs, PAHs, pesticides, cations, anions, phenols, anionic, cationic, non-ionic detergents, formaldehyde and metals – as well as TOC and conductivity – in runoff water samples collected from 2009 to 2011...
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Contemporary and Conventional Passive Methods of Intensifying Convective Heat Transfer—A Review
PublicationThe ever-increasing demand for effective heat dissipation and temperature control in industrial and everyday applications highlights a critical research problem. The need for development is not only in terms of providing thermal comfort to humans but also forms the basis for the efficient operation of machines and equipment. Cooling of industrial machinery and household electronic equipment is a crucial element in any manufacturing...
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Chiral Schiff base complexes as an effective catalyst in Diels-Alder reaction
PublicationDiels Alder reaction is a very important tool in carbon-carbon bond formation. It is a cycloaddition between a conjugated diene and a second compound called dienophile. Where one or more heteroatoms are present in the diene and/or dienophile framework, the cycloaddition is called hetero-Diels-Alder reaction (HDA). The asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction is among the most powerful available methodologies for that construction of optically...
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Effect of Tool Positioning Factors on the Strength of Dissimilar Friction Stir Welded Joints of AA7075-T6 and AA6061-T6
PublicationFriction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid-state bonding technique. There are many direct and indirect factors affecting the mechanical and microstructural properties of the FSW joints. Tool offset, tilt angle, and plunge depth are determinative tool positioning in the FSW process. Investigating the effect of these factors simultaneously with other parameters such as process speeds (rotational speed and translational speed) and tool...
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Impact of overloaded vehicles on load equivalency factors and service period of flexible pavements
PublicationOverloaded vehicles occur less frequently in comparison to properly loaded vehicles but due to their greater potential to cause damage they significantly contribute to the distress of pavement structure. As the studies show, the phenomena of vehicles overloading intensifies when the control of traffic is poor and the average percentage of overloaded vehicles on analyzed roads varies from 6% to 23%. The main goal of the ar-ticle...
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The Analysis of Working Parameters Decrease in Photovoltaic Modules as a Result of Dust Deposition
PublicationThe aspect of dust accumulation on the surface of photovoltaic (PV) modules should be thoroughly understood in order to minimize possible obstacles affecting energy generation. Several elements affect the amount of pollutant gathered on the surface of a solar device, mainly its localization, which is irreversibly linked to factors such as annual rainfall, occasional snow coverage, or, in a dry climate, increased blow of dust during...
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A Novel Approach of Using Selected Unconventional Geodesic Methods of Estimation on VTS Areas
PublicationThe Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) systems belong to the fundamental tools used in ensuring a high level of safety across sea basins with heavy traffic, where the presence of navigational hazards poses a great risk of collision or a ship running aground. In order to determine the mutual location of ships, VTS systems obtain information from different facilities, such as coastal radar stations, AIS, and vision systems. Fixing a ship’s...
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A new approach to design of weather disruption-tolerant wireless mesh networks
PublicationWireless Mesh Networks, offering transmission rates of 1–10 Gb/s per a millimeter-wave link (utilizing the 71–86 GHz band) seem to be a promising alternative to fiber optic backbone metropolitan area networks because of significantly lower costs of deployment and maintenance. However, despite providing high transmission rates in good weather conditions, high-frequency wireless links are very susceptible to weather disruptions....
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A New Approach to Assess Quality of Motion in Functional Task of Upper Limb in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Publication(1) Background: This study presents a new method for the motion quantitative analysis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients (DMD) performing functional tasks in clinical conditions. (2) Methods: An experimental study was designed to define how different levels of external mass (light and heavy) influence the performance of the upper limbs of a tested DMD and reference subject (RS) during horizontal movements (level of the waist)...
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Synthesis of CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles: The Effect of Ionic Strength, Concentration, and Precursor Type on Morphology and Magnetic Properties
PublicationThe present study highlights the effect of metal precursor types (SO4 2¯, Cl¯, and NO3¯), their concentration, and the influence of ionic strength of reaction environment on the morphology, surface, and magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 particles. The magnetic nanoparticles were obtained by chemical coprecipitation in alkaline medium at increasing metal concentration in the range of 0.0425 mol·dm-3 to 0.17 mol·dm-3 and calcination...
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Prediction of metal deformation due to line heating; an alternative method of mechanical bending, based on artificial neural network approach
PublicationLine heating is one of the alternative methods of forming metals and this kind of forming uses the heating torch as a source of heat input. During the process, many parameters are considered like the size of the substrate, thickness, cooling method, source power intensity, the travel speed of the power source, the sequence of heating, and so on. It is important to analyze the factors affecting the...
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Mercury concentration in the sediments as a function of changing climate in coastal zone of Southern Baltic Sea – preliminary results
PublicationMercury, despite of its many uses in industry, is also highly toxic. It is highly neurotoxic, and because of the ability of mercury to penetrate placental barrier, in some countries ban on predatory fish consumption (the main route of mercury into human organism) by pregnant women was introduced. There are very little publications describing the consequences of weather anomalies on contaminants cycles. No research was published...
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ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF THE PLANNED SEWAGE DISCHARGE FROM THE ‘NORTH’ POWER PLANT ON THE VISTULA WATER QUALITY
PublicationThe paper presents results of analysis of the industrial sewage discharge impact from the ‘North’ Power Plant on the Vistula water quality around 45+330 of the river kilometer. For the analysis, the two-dimensional models of flow, impurities and temperature transport were used. Hydrological conditions of the analyzed section of the river, characteristic flows and bathymetry of the riverbed in the first instance were defined....
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Lanthanide co-doped TiO2: the effect of metal type and amount on surface properties and photocatalytic activity
PublicationPreparation of new rare earth metal-containing TiO2 nanocomposites (Nd3+/Er3+, Nd3+/Eu3+, Eu3+/Ho3+-TiO2) using sol–gel route and their photoactivity under visible and ultraviolet light is reported. The obtained photocatalysts were subsequently characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, UV–Vis diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), luminescence spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray powder diffraction...
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Ionic liquids for nano- and microstructures preparation. Part 1: Properties and multifunctional role
PublicationIonic liquids (ILs) are a broad group of organic salts of varying structure and properties, used in energy conversion and storage, chemical analysis, separation processes, as well as in the preparation of particles in nano- and microscale. In material engineering, ionic liquids are applied to synthesize mainly metal nanoparticles and 3D semiconductor microparticles. They could generally serve as a structuring agent or as a reaction...
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Study of the anticancer potential of Cd complexes of selenazoyl-hydrazones and their sulfur isosters
PublicationThe biological activity of Cd compounds has been investigated scarce since Cd has been recognized as a human carcinogen. However, the toxicity of cadmium is comparable to the toxicity of noble metals such as Pt and Pd. The paradigm of metal toxicity has been challenged suggesting that metal toxicity is not a constant property, yet it depends on many factors like the presence of appropriate ligands. Studies on anticancer activity...
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An application for a new type of pneumatic engine concept
PublicationHeavy trucks are often equipped with loading and unloading systems like dock levellers with swing lip or telescopic lip. Most of these devices require hydro-electrical energy supply systems (eg. the pump that presses the working substance to the actuators must be propelled by electric engine.) The space taken by pump with electric engine can be reduced on condition that a new type of pneumatic drive will be considered. It is possible...
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Expedited EM-Driven Design of Miniaturized Microwave Hybrid Couplers Using Surrogate-Based Optimization
PublicationMiniaturization of microwave hybrid couplers is important for contemporary wireless communication engineering. Using standard computer-aided design methods for development of compact structures is extremely challenging due to a general lack of computationally efficient and accurate simulation models. Poor accuracy of available equivalent circuits results from neglecting parasitic cross-couplings that greatly affect the performance...
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Manufacturing and Recycling Impact on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Innovative Wind Power Plant Part 1/2
PublicationWind power plants are considered as ecologically-clean source of energy. However, manufacturing processes cannot be treated that way. Manufacturing processes consume huge amount of electrical and thermal energy and significant amount of materials, e.g. steel, polymers, oils and lubricants. All of the above could be potentially harmful for environment. There are not many works and publications regarding life-cycle analysis of wind...
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Development of Intelligent Road Signs with V2X Interface for Adaptive Traffic Controlling
PublicationThe objective of this paper is to present a practical project of intelligent road signs, under which a series of new products for the regulation of traffic is being created. The engineering part of the project, described in this paper, was preceded by a series of experimental studies, the results of which were described in another paper accepted for publication at the MTS-ITS conference 2019, entitled "Comparative study on the effectiveness...
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A new B-D-galactosidase with a low temperature optimum isolated from the Antarctic Arthrobacter sp. 20B: gene cloning, purification and characterization.
PublicationA psychrotrophic bacterium producing a coldadaptedB-galactosidase upon growth at low temperatureswas classiWed as Arthrobacter sp. 20B. A genomic DNAlibrary of strain 20B introduced into Escherichia coliTOP10F' and screening on X-Gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-B-D-galactopyranoside)-containing agar plates ledto the isolation of B-galactosidase gene. The B-galactosidasegene (bgaS) encoding a protein of 1,053 amino acids,with a...
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Water-Lubricated Sintered Bronze Journal Bearings—Theoretical and Experimental Research
PublicationWater lubricated bearings are used from many years in shipbuilding, hydro power and other industries because of their advantages such as: extensive serviceable life, low coefficient of friction, longevity of shaft sleeve, good abrasion resistance, low maintenance required, unit simplicity, no danger of pollution and low price. Various types of water lubricated sliding bearings have been tested at the Technical University of Gdansk...
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Conductive printable electrodes tuned by boron-doped nanodiamond foil additives for nitroexplosive detection
PublicationAn efficient additive manufacturing-based composite material fabrication for electrochemical applications is reported. The composite is composed of commercially available graphene-doped polylactide acid (G-PLA) 3D printouts and surface- functionalized with nanocrystalline boron-doped diamond foil (NDF) additives. The NDFs were synthesized on a tantalum substrate and transferred to the 3D-printout surface at 200 °C. No other electrode...
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Reduced-cost optimization-based miniaturization of microwave passives by multi-resolution EM simulations for internet of things and space-limited applications
PublicationStringent performance specifications along with constraints imposed on physical dimensions, make the design of contemporary microwave components a truly onerous task. In recent years, the latter demand has been growing in importance, with the innovative application areas such as Internet of Things coming into play. The need to employ full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simu-lations for response evaluation, reliable yet CPU heavy, only...
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Artificial neural network prophecy of ion exchange process for Cu (II) eradication from acid mine drainage
PublicationThe removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater was found to be significant when the cation exchange procedure was used effectively. The model of the cation exchange process was built using an artificial neural network (ANN). The acid mine drainage waste’s Cu(II) ion was removed using Indion 730 cation exchange resin. Experimental data from 252 cycles were recorded. In a column study, 252 experimental observations validated the...
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Reduction of CO2 Emissions from Offshore Combined Cycle Diesel Engine-Steam Turbine Power Plant Powered by Alternative Fuels
PublicationDiverse forms of environmental pollution arise with the introduction of materials or energy that exert adverse effects on human health, climate patterns, ecosystems, and beyond. Rigorous emission regulations for gases resulting from fuel combustion are being enforced by the European Union and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), directed at maritime sectors to mitigate emissions of SOx, NOx, and CO2. The IMO envisions...