A team of environmental scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and China has for the first time used a dynamic, two-step process to completely degrade a common flame-retardant chemical, rendering the persistent global pollutant nontoxic.
This new process breaks down tetrabromobisohenol A (TBBPA) to harmless carbon dioxide and water.
The discovery highlights the potential of using a special material, sulfidated nanoscale zerovalent iron (S-nZVI), in water treatment systems and in the natural environment to break down not only TBBPA but other organic refractory compounds that are difficult to degrade, says Jun Wu, a visiting Ph.D. student at UMass Amherst's Stockbridge College of Agriculture and lead author of the paper published in Environmental Science & Technology.
"This is the first research about this dynamic, oxic/anoxic process," Wu says.
"Usually, reduction or oxidation alone is used to remove TBBPA, facilitated by S-nZVI.
Wu emphasizes that "the technique is technically simple and environmentally friendly.
Thin films made of carbon nanotubes hold a lot of promise for advanced optoelectronics, energy and medicine, however with their manufacturing process subject to close supervision and stringent standardization requirements, they are unlikely to become ubiquitous anytime soon.
"A major hindrance to unlocking the vast potential of nanotubes is their multiphase manufacturing process which is extremely difficult to manage.
We have suggested using artificial neural networks (ANN) to analyze experimental data and predict the efficiency of single-walled carbon nanotubes synthesis," explains one of the authors of the study and Skoltech researcher, Dmitry Krasnikov.
In their work published in the prestigious Carbon journal, the authors show that machine learning methods, and, in particular, ANN trained on experimental parameters, such as temperature, gas pressure and flow rate, can help monitor the properties of the carbon nanotube films produced.
"The development of human civilization and the advancement of the materials manufacturing and application technologies are closely interlinked in the era of information and technology, with both materials and computational algorithms and their applications shaping our day-to-day life.
This is equally true for ANN that have evolved into an indispensable tool for dealing with multi-parameter tasks, which run the gamut from object recognition to medical diagnosis.
The civil construction industry is one of the oldest and most revered professions in the world.
Ever since humans emerged from caveman dwellings and began to build the very first civilizations, there had always been needed for roads, bridges, drainage systems and plumbing, residential spaces, government offices, public services, transportation networks, and many other infrastructure projects.
Construction projects vary widely in scale and scope, starting from small-scale domestic works, to medium-scale plants and manufactories, and finally up to Best Construction Company in Gurgaon.
To say that it is the construction business that makes up the building blocks of civilized life is not an overstatement.From the primitive carpenter to the modern materials science researcher, the civil works industry is indispensable to social development, always gaining new ground side by side with technology.
Best Construction Company in Gurgaon helped push technological advancement and created new inventions, even as it benefited from new technology.
Modern TechnologyAside from undertaking major public works, the civil engineering industry today is engaged in a wide array of projects, which includes (but is not limited to) routine domestic constructions and commercial, industry-scale projects.
Needless to mention, Computer Science Engineering is an ever-growing field of engineering since the advent of computers in the 20th century.
Since then this field has only kept evolving into many diverse branches.
You will barely find a business or place that does not involve computers or software in any form.
Computers and software have penetrated our lives in ways that people could have never anticipated and it’s safe to say that it is here to stay.
So, computer engineering is not only one of the best choices among the various engineering disciplines, but it is also beneficial in terms of job placement.Computer Science opens up a wide range of job possibilities in various sectors such as software development, game designing, web designing, app development, artificial intelligence etc.
With the software business on the rise, the year 2020 will also undoubtedly be a good time for computer engineers.
