Novel synergistic photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics and bacteria using V-N doped TiO2 under visible light: the state of nitrogen in V-doped TiO2

We report the synthesis of vanadium and nitrogen co-doped TiO2 for photocatalysis mainly emphasizing the state of nitrogen doping into TiO2 in the presence of vanadium ions. Considering the increase in antibiotic resistance developed by microbes due to the excess of pharmaceutical waste in the ecosystem, the photocatalytic activity was measured by degrading an antibiotic, chloramphenicol. A novel experiment was conducted by degrading the antibiotic and bacteria in each other's vicinity to focus on their synergistic photo-degradation by V-N co-doped TiO2. The catalysts were characterized using XRD, DRS, PL, TEM, BET and XPS analysis. Both interstitial and substitutional nitrogen doping were achieved with V-TiO2, showing high efficiency under visible light for antibiotic and bacterial degradation. In addition, the effect of doping concentration of nitrogen and vanadium in TiO2 and catalyst loading was studied thoroughly. Reusability experiments show that the prepared V-N co-doped TiO2 was stable for many cycles.

Quantifying synergistic information

Within the microcosm of information theory, I explore what it means for a system to be functionally irreducible. This is operationalized as quantifying the extent to which cooperative or “synergistic” effects enable random variables X₁, ... , X_n to predict (have mutual information about) a single target random variable Y . In Chapter 1, we introduce the problem with some emblematic examples. In Chapter 2, we show how six different measures from the existing literature fail to quantify this notion of synergistic mutual information. In Chapter 3 we take a step towards a measure of synergy which yields the first nontrivial lowerbound on synergistic mutual information. In Chapter 4, we find that synergy is but the weakest notion of a broader concept of irreducibility. In Chapter 5, we apply our results from Chapters 3 and 4 towards grounding Giulio Tononi’s ambitious φ measure which attempts to quantify the magnitude of consciousness experience.

Self-organization of spinal reflexes involving homonymous, antagonist and synergistic interactions

Recent results in spinal research are challenging the historical view that the spinal reflexes are mostly hardwired and fixed behaviours. In previous work we have shown that three of the simplest spinal reflexes could be self-organised in an agonist-antagonist pair of muscles. The simplicity of these reflexes is given from the fact that they entail at most one interneuron mediating the connectivity between afferent inputs and efferent outputs. These reflexes are: the Myotatic, the Reciprocal Inibition and the Reverse Myotatic reflexes. In this paper we apply our framework to a simulated 2D leg model actuated by six muscles (mono- and bi-articular). Our results show that the framework is successful in learning most of the spinal reflex circuitry as well as the corresponding behaviour in the more complicated muscle arrangement. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

Synergistic extraction and recovery of Cerium(IV) and Fluorin from sulfuric solutions with Cyanex 923 and di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid

Synergistic extraction and recovery of Cerium(IV) (Ce(IV)) and Fluorin (F) from sulfuric solutions using mixture of Cyanex 923 and di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) in n-heptane have been carried out. in order to investigate the synergistic extraction of Cyanex 923 + D2EHPA, extraction Ce(IV), F, Ce(III) and Ce-F mixture solution using D2EHPA or Cyanex 923 as extractant alone were studied firstly, and then Synergistic extraction of Ce(IV), F and Ce(IV)-F mixture solution with D2EHPA + Cyanex 923 were carried out. The largest synergistic coefficient of Ce(IV) is obtained at the mole fraction X-Cyanex (923) = 0.8. The synergistic enhancement coefficients (R-max) obtained for Ce(IV) are 23.12 in Ce(IV) solution, and in Ce-F mixed solution R-max for Ce(IV) and F are 2.24 and 3.25 respectively.

Synergistic extraction of rare earths using acid-base coupling extractants of calix[4]arene carboxyl derivative and primary amine N1923

Synergistic effect in the extraction of rare earth (RE) metals by the acid-base coupling (ABC) extractants of calix[4]arene carboxyl derivative Bu-t[4]CH2COOH (H(4)A) and primary amine N1923 (RNH2) has been investigated. The extraction of RE was enhanced by the addition of sodium cations into the aqueous phase not only in the extraction system of Bu-t[4]CH2COOH alone but also in the mixture of Bu-t[4]CH2COOH and N1923. The separation factors (SFs) indicating the extraction selectivity of adjacent RE elements became higher in the mixture system.

Shape evolution of CdSe nanocrystals in vegetable oils: A synergistic effect of selenium precursor

In this contribution, common vegetable oils are used as coordination solvents for synthesis of high quality CdSe nanocrystals. Various shaped nanocrystals (quantum dots, quantum rods, multipods, arc structure, etc.) can be produced free of alkylphosphonic acids. Shape evolution can be induced by three types of selenium precursors: ODE-Se, VO-Se and TOP-Se (ODE, 1-octadecene; VO, vegetable oil; TOP, trio-n-octylphosphine). The quantum yields of NCs are 15-40%. The full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of the photoluminescence spectra are 27 +/- 1 nm for quantum clots and 23 +/- 1 nm for quantum rods/multipods.

Promoting carbonization of polypropylene during combustion through synergistic catalysis of a trace of halogenated compounds and Ni2O3 for improving flame retardancy

The effect of combination between a trace of halogenated compounds (such as ferric chloride and ammonium bromide) and Ni2O3 particles on the carbonization of polypropylene (PP) was investigated during combustion. The results showed a synergistic catalysis of combined halogenated compounds with Ni2O3 in promoting the formation of the residual char during combustion. The investigation on the promotion mechanism showed that halide radical releasing from halogen-containing additives worked as a catalyst to accelerate dehydrogenation-aromatization of degradation products of PR which promote the degradation products to form the residual char catalyzed by nickel catalyst.