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Forecast of urban air pollutant concentrations must deal with a growth in the volume of environmental monitoring data as well as complex changes in the air pollutants. This initiates the need of efficient prediction techniques to increase prediction accuracy and stop pollution causing issues. In this paper, the combination of Random Forest Regression (RFR) and Support Vector Regression (SVR) based machine learning model is proposed to predict the AQI values. Daily meteorological and air pollution data between March 2020 and June 2022 from Jind city in Haryana were used for model training and test the model’s results. First, the important factors affecting air quality are extracted and null values are replaced by their mean values to handle the irregularities in the dataset. Second, the Random Forest regression machine is used for model training and prediction of the value, the SVR model is used in correction of residual items, and finally the predicted values of AQI are obtained. The experimental results showed that the proposed prediction model of RFR-SVR had a better prediction result than the standard Random Forest Regression, support vector regression machine learning. RMSE, R2, MAPE are used as evaluation indicators to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Mandaville. Gourie-Devi, Reema. Gupta, Vibha. Sharma, Vibhor. Pardasani, Siddharth. Maheshwari Aims: In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), death wish is expressed in a varying proportion of patients in different countries. [...]

In the present work, Li-rich layered Li(Li0.25Co0.37Mn0.38)O2 (LiCMO) material is prepared using sol–gel technique. The effect of calcination temperature on the structural and morphological characteristics of LiCMO is studied. The electrochemical performance of layered LiCMO/graphite (Cell 1) and LiCMO/Li (Cell 2) has been investigated. The charge transfer resistance (Rct), lithium diffusion coefficients, and discharging capacity are found to be 16,242 Ω, 3.89 × 10–11 S−1 cm2, and 5.26 mAhg−1 and 16 Ω, 20.78 × 10–8 S−1 cm2, and 323 mAhg−1 for Cells 1 and 2, respectively. The presence of efficient lithium-ion transfer tendency and minimal kinetic barrier for lithium diffusion results in enhanced electrochemical properties of Cell 2. Appreciable results for (LiCMO/Li) coin cell make it a unique combination of LiCMO as cathode with Li as anode for the high energy density lithium-ion battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business analytics courses are an excellent ground for industry-academia partnerships, and when executed right can offer a combined experience of classroom and industry without requiring students to leave the school [...]

Lithium ion batteries play a crucial role in terms of good rechargeability, long cycles and higher shelf life. For the fabrication of such a Li ion battery, properties of cathode material can be engineered keeping anode and electrolyte fixed. In the present work, lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO) has been utilized as cathode material and the properties of LiFePO have been tuned by doping manganese (Mn). LiFePO and different concentrations of Mn doped LiFePO were prepared by solid state route. X-Ray diffraction and Raman studies were performed to confirm the formation of LiFePO and Mn doped LiFePO in olivine structure. Cyclic voltammetry studies revealed maximum peak oxidation current (2.96 mA) and largest surface coverage (0.066 nanoMoles/cm) for the LiFePO doped with 15% Mn (LiMnFePO). AC-conductivity study was carried out for different frequencies at room temperature. The conductivity parameters estimated using Almond and West formalism support the cyclic voltammetry results. Ion-hopping rate ( ω ) and charge carrier concentration ( K) maximize for 15% Mn doping ( ω : 582974.48719 Hz; K: 2.62447 × 10) and drop on either increasing ( ω : 167134.73521 Hz; K: 1.25647 × 10) or decreasing ( ω : 130726.49084 Hz; K: 2.52435 × 10) the Mn doping. The increase till 15% Mn doping has been attributed to the increase in unit cell volume with Mn doping while the sudden decrease at 20% Mn doping is due to dominance of back-hopping mechanism. The results clearly indicate that 15% Mn doped LiFePO is the most appropriate for the realization of a cathode for Li-ion battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th1 immune responses play an important role in controlling Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) hence, Leishmania proteins stimulating T-cell responses in host, are thought to be good vaccine targets. Search of such antigens eliciting cellular responses in Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from cured/exposed/Leishmania patients and hamsters led to the identification of two enzymes of glycolytic pathway in the soluble lysate of a clinical isolate of Leishmania donovani - Enolase (LdEno) and aldolase (LdAld) as potential Th1 stimulatory proteins. The present study deals with the molecular and immunological characterizations of LdEno and LdAld. The successfully cloned and purified recombinant proteins displayed strong ability to proliferate lymphocytes of cured hamsters’ along with significant nitric-oxide production and generation of Th1-type cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-12) from stimulated PBMCs of cured/endemic VL patients. Assessment of their prophylactic potentials revealed ∼90% decrease in parasitic burden in rLdEno vaccinated hamsters against Leishmania challenge, strongly supported by an increase in mRNA expression levels of iNOS, IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-12 transcripts along with extreme down-regulation of TGF-β, IL-4 and IL-10. However, animals vaccinated with rLdAld showed comparatively lesser prophylactic efficacy (∼65%) with inferior immunological response. Further, with a possible implication in vaccine design against VL, identification of potential T-cell epitopes of both the proteins was done using computational approach. Additionally, in-silico 3-D modelling of the proteins was done in order to explore the possibility of exploiting them as potential drug targets. The comparative molecular and immunological characterizations strongly suggest rLdEno as potential vaccine candidate against VL and supports the notion of its being effective T-cell stimulatory protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]