Search

Textile industries are the major consumers of textile dyes, toxic chemicals, and water. Textile effluents discharged into water without treatment cause pollution that has hazardous effects on the environment. Synthetic dyes are regarded as extremely toxic pollutants, as they exhibit mutagenic characteristics, are nonbiodegradable and carcinogenic, and can be accumulated within living organisms. Conventional treatment methods, including chemical, physical, and biological methods, are most widely used for dye removal from wastewater. For the removal of dyes, separation technologies based on nanocomposite membranes have been introduced due to their various advantages, such as cost effectiveness, mild operating conditions, and flexibility, among others. This chapter explores different nanocomposite membrane-based filtration processes for appreciable removal of dyes from textile effluents at permissible levels.

Objectives: To determine the pattern of the distribution of malocclusion in a sample of orthodontic patients in Lahore. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 200 study models of patients aged 8-36 who visited the Orthodontics department of Punjab dental Hospital, Lahore for one-year duration from July 2019 to July 2020 for orthodontic treatment. The total sample size was divided into male and female groups, the age was divided into 3 groups: 8-11 years old, 12-17 years old and 18-36 years old. All data was recorded and analyzed using SPSS version 22. Result: Out of all 200 tested castings; The Angle classification of malocclusions was as follows: class I malocclusion in 101 (50.5%), class II malocclusion in 90 (45%) samples and class III malocclusion in 9 (4.5%) samples. Conclusion: Angle's Grade I malocclusion was the most common malocclusion among orthodontic patients visiting Punjab Dental Hospital, Lahore. Key words: angle class I, angle class II, angle class III, malocclusion, frequency

Introduction: During sliding mechanics, frictional resistance is an important counterforce for orthodontic tooth movement; which must be controlled to allow the application of light continuous forces. Objective: To test the static and kinetic frictional resistance between three orthodontic brackets: ceramic, self-ligating and stainless steel, and three arches 0.019 × 0.025 ": stainless steel, nickel-titanium, titanium-molybdenum. Place and Duration: This study was conducted at the Orthodontics department of Nishtar dental Hospital, Multan for one-year duration from June 2019 to June 2020. Materials and Methods: An in vitro study compared the effect of stainless steel, nickel titanium, and beta titanium arcs on the frictional forces of three orthodontic bracket systems: ceramic, self-ligating and stainless-steel brackets. All brackets had 0.022 "slots and the wires were 0.019 × 0.025". Friction was assessed in a simulated semi-arc fixed apparatus on a testing machine. The static and kinetic friction data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's multi-range post-hoc test. Result: Self-ligating (Damon) brackets generated significantly lower static and kinetic frictional forces than stainless steel (Gemini) and ceramic (Clarity) brackets. Among the arc materials, beta-titanium showed the maximum friction force, and stainless-steel archives had the lowest friction force. Conclusion: The static and kinetic frictional force of the stainless-steel bracket was lowest in each wire combination. Keywords: beta-titanium wire, frictional resistance, kinetic friction, self-ligating, static friction

Advancements in nanocomposite membrane technologies for water and gas purification are noticeably high. Researchers have developed a number of methods by utilizing nanocomposites in membrane technology. Nanocomposite membranes provide many excellent features such as high filtration capacity, good functionality toward pollutants, and cost competence. However, there are a number of operational and environmental challenges that need to be addressed for the commercialization of nanocomposite membranes. The major problem is membrane fouling by the attachment of water contaminants onto the membrane surface or within its pores. Membrane fouling results in higher energy consumption, more frequent cleaning, and reduction in the life cycle of the membrane. The loading mechanisms of NPs in the matrix also play vital roles in the activity of nanocomposite-based membranes. In addition, weak attachment of NPs results in leaching of these NPs to the feed solution, causing destruction of the nanocomposite membrane with time, performance decline, and potential environmental issues. By leaching of NPs from the composite matrix, some possible health issues are expected by the digestion of nanoparticles (NPs) in drinking water. In spite of a large number of positive and transformative uses of NPs, researchers need to be more focused to keep pace with the rapid development of technologies to reduce the hazardous side of this technology.

Membrane technology plays a vital role in resolving current challenges of the global water scarcity. The limitations of conventional polymer and inorganic membranes have led to the development of an innovative class of membranes, known as nanocomposite membranes. Synergistic properties of both inorganic and organic phases provide mixed matrix membranes with improved selectivity; good permeability; and enhanced mechanical, thermal, and chemical stability. The primary pressure-driven membrane separation processes for water treatment include microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO). This chapter covers the main prospects of nanocomposite membranes in these processes; various types of nanofillers used to make nanocomposite membrane for each process; and the major improvement achieved in terms of permeation, mechanical, and antifouling properties.

A novel, functionalized graphene oxide–based cellulose acetate membrane was fabricated using the phase inversion method to improve the membrane characteristics and performance. We studied the effect of aminated graphene oxide (NH2–GO) composite on the CA membrane characteristics and performance in terms of membrane chemistry, hydrophilicity, thermal and mechanical stability, permeation flux, and antibacterial activity. The results of contact angle and water flux indicate the improved hydrophilic behavior of composite membranes in comparison to that of the pure CA membrane. The AGO-3 membrane showed the highest water flux of about 153 Lm−2h−1. The addition of hydrophilic AGO additive in CA membranes enhanced the antibacterial activity of AGO–CA membranes, and the thermal stability of the resulting membrane also improved since it increases the Tg value in comparison to that of a pristine CA membrane. The aminated graphene oxide (NH2–GO) was, therefore, found to be a promising additive for the fabrication of composite membranes with potent applications in wastewater treatment.

Knee joint’s muscle strength and range of motion get affected after total knee replacement and anterior cruciate ligament surgeries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design a rehabilitative device for knee joint muscle strength and range of motion enhancement. The device will work using a Printed Circuit Board-Arduino based electronic circuit which will operate the geared DC motor. The degrees of flexion /extension, speed of movement and duration could be set by physiotherapists remotely, using android technology. The android application will also store patient’s history of the exercises performed and can also send the patient’s feedback about improvement in his condition to physiotherapist.

The continuous increase in demand for electric power has resulted in extremely complex power grids. The correct operation of these grids depends on the computerized control and monitoring using a communication network. These modern power grids are equipped with phasor measurement units which play a key role in providing crucial data for the state estimator of an energy management system. The integration of a communication network with the power grid makes it vulnerable to cyber attacks in the form of data tampering. These attacks can disrupt the operation of the state estimator resulting in significant financial as well as infrastructure damage. To solve this issue, this paper proposes a technique to detect tampered data in synchrophasors using the system entropy of a power network. The results show that the proposed technique can be used as an effective tool to detect attacks on synchrophasors.

During last few decades, membrane technology has emerged as an efficient technique over conventional methods due to its high removal capacity, ease in operation and cost effectiveness for wastewater treatment and production of clean water. Membrane based separations are commonly based on polymeric membranes because of their higher flexibility, easily pore forming mechanism, low cost and smaller space for installation as compared to inorganic membranes. Commonly employed membrane fabrication phase inversion method has been shortly reviewed in this article. Major limitation of membrane based separations is fouling and polymeric membranes being hydrophobic in nature are more prone to fouling. Fouling is a deposition of various colloidal particles, macromolecules (polysaccharides, proteins), salts etc. on membrane surface and within pores thus impedes membrane performance, reduces flux and results in high cost. Modification of polymeric membranes due to its tailoring ability with nanomaterials such as metal based and carbon based results in polymeric nano-composite membranes with high antifouling characteristics. Nanomaterials impart high selectivity, permeability, hydrophilicity, thermal stability, mechanical strength, and antibacterial properties to polymeric membranes via blending, coating etc. modification methods. Characterization techniques has also discussed in later section for studying morphological properties and performance of polymer nano-composite membranes. Graphical Abstract

This paper presents a study on how nature provides intelligent solutions to complex real-world problems. In this regard we study the intelligent behavior of swarming insect societies with the focus on ant colonies; examining how these almost blind species are capable of providing optimal solutions and how such solutions can be modeled into algorithms. F urther we have explored an interesting collaboration of data mining analysis with an ant based algorithm to prove that a nature inspired algorithm is able to perform data mining task successfully, this has been done with the help of a comparative experimental analysis.