Catalytic enhancement in the performance of the microscopic two-stroke heat engine.

We consider a model of heat engine operating in the microscopic regime: the two-stroke engine. It produces work and exchanges heat in two discrete strokes that are separated in time. The working body of the engine consists of two d-level systems initialized in thermal states at two distinct temperatures.

Catalytic Advantage in Otto-like Two-Stroke Quantum Engines.

We demonstrate how to incorporate a catalyst to enhance the performance of a heat engine. Specifically, we analyze efficiency in one of the simplest engine models, which operates in only two strokes and comprises of a pair of two-level systems, potentially assisted by a d-dimensional catalyst. When no catalysis is present, the efficiency of the machine is given by the Otto efficiency.

Source identification and potential health risks from elevated groundwater nitrate contamination in Sundarbans coastal aquifers, India.

In recent years groundwater contamination through nitrate contamination has increased rapidly in the managementof water research. In our study, fourteen nitrate conditioning factors were used, and multi-collinearity analysis is done. Among all variables, pH is crucial and ranked one, with a value of 0.

Using unsupervised machine learning models to drive groundwater chemistry and associated health risks in Indo-Bangla Sundarban region.

Groundwater is an essential resource in the Sundarban regions of India and Bangladesh, but its quality is deteriorating due to anthropogenic impacts. However, the integrated factors affecting groundwater chemistry, source distribution, and health risk are poorly understood along the Indo-Bangla coastal border. The goal of this study is to assess groundwater chemistry, associated driving factors, source contributions, and potential non-carcinogenic health risks (PN-CHR) using unsupervised machine learning models such as a self-organizing map (SOM), positive matrix factorization (PMF), ion ratios, and Monte Carlo simulation.

Arsenic and fluoride exposure in drinking water caused human health risk in coastal groundwater aquifers.

Groundwater (GW) is a precious resource for human beings as we depend on it as a source of fresh drinking water, agricultural practices, industrial and domestic uses, etc. Extreme exposure of arsenic (As) and fluoride (F-) concentrations along the coastal GW aquifers of "South 24 Parganas and East Medinipur" diluted the quality of GW and created serious health issues. Various chronic health disorders such as - black foot disease, fluorosis skin cancer, cardiac problems, and other water borne diseases have been noticed in these two coastal districts.

Effects of elevated arsenic and nitrate concentrations on groundwater resources in deltaic region of Sundarban Ramsar site, Indo-Bangladesh region.

An attempt has been adopted to predict the As and NO concentration in groundwater (GW) in fast-growing coastal Ramsar region in eastern India. This study is focused to evaluate the As and NO vulnerable areas of coastal belts of the Indo-Bangladesh Ramsar site a hydro-geostrategic region of the world by using advanced ensemble ML techniques including NB-RF, NB-SVM and NB-Bagging. A total of 199 samples were collected from the entire study area for utilizing the 12 GWQ conditioning factors.

Hydro-chemical assessment of coastal groundwater aquifers for human health risk from elevated arsenic and fluoride in West Bengal, India.

The vulnerability of groundwater in the coastal regions in terms of As, F, and NO exposure is growing rapidly. Hence, the present study focused on assessing groundwater quality, ecological richness, and HR in the coastal districts of West Bengal by applying field-based CD, GWQI, ERI, and HRI techniques. After assessing the GW vulnerability, it is stated that approximately 40-50 % area of the two selected coastal district's GW is poor to very poor in quality, the ecology of GW is threatened, and human health is faced serious risk for both dry and wet season.

Strict lockdown measures reduced PM concentrations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kolkata, India.

The COVID-19 situation is a critical state throughout the world that most countries have been forced to implement partial to total lockdown to control the COVID-19 disease outbreak. And displays the natural power to rejuvenate herself without the interference of human beings. So, the top-level emergency response including full quarantine actions are significant measures against the COVID-19 and resulted in a notable reduction in PM in the atmosphere.

Fluctuation-dissipation relations for thermodynamic distillation processes.

The fluctuation-dissipation theorem is a fundamental result in statistical physics that establishes a connection between the response of a system subject to a perturbation and the fluctuations associated with observables in equilibrium. Here we derive its version within a resource-theoretic framework, where one investigates optimal quantum state transitions under thermodynamic constraints. More precisely, we first characterize optimal thermodynamic distillation processes, and then we prove a relation between the amount of free energy dissipated in such processes and the free-energy fluctuations of the initial state of the system.

-Aminobenzoic acid-capped hematite as an efficient nanocatalyst for solvent-free CO fixation under atmospheric pressure.

Utilization of carbon dioxide by converting it into value-added chemicals is a sustainable remedy approach that stipulates abundant, cheap, non-toxic and efficient catalytic materials. In this study, we have demonstrated the use of -aminobenzoic acid-capped hematite (PABA@α-FeO) as an efficient nanocatalyst for the conversion of epoxides to cyclic carbonates utilizing CO. The developed PABA@α-FeO nanocatalyst along with a cocatalyst, tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI), was able to convert a variety of epoxide substrates into their corresponding cyclic carbonates under atmospheric pressure and solvent-free conditions.

Triazine-based Organic Polymer-catalysed Conversion of Epoxide to Cyclic Carbonate under Ambient CO Pressure.

In this work we have achieved epoxide to cyclic carbonate conversion using a metal-free polymeric catalyst under ambient CO pressure (1.02 atm) using a balloon setup. The triazine containing polymer (CYA-ANIS) was prepared from cyanuric chloride (CYA-Cl) and o-dianisidine (ANIS) in anhydrous DMF as solvent by refluxing under the N gas environment.

Retinol Levels in Serum and Chronic Skin Lesions of Atopic Dermatitis.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common childhood dermatosis and a distressing cause of morbidity. The pathogenesis of AD is known to be associated with disorders of immune response and defect in antioxidant defense, genetic predisposition, environmental triggers, psychosomatic factors, and other mechanisms. Retinol has immunomodulatory and antioxidant effects, thus may have a protective role in AD.

Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome: Case Report of a Rare Disorder.

Cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome or CFC syndrome is a rare genetic disorder first described in 1986. It is one of the RASopathies involving multiple organs particularly the heart, skin and face affecting males and females equally. The phenotypic features overlap with 2 other conditions, the Noonan and Costello syndrome.

Knowledge and perception regarding clinical trials among doctors of government medical colleges: A questionnaire-based study.

Aims: By virtue of being a specialized field by itself, the science of clinical trials (CTs) may not be well understood by doctors who are not specifically trained in it. A lack of knowledge may translate to a negative perception toward CT. With the idea of getting a situational snapshot, we estimated the knowledge and perception of CTs among doctors from government medical colleges of West Bengal who are not trained on CT in their postgraduate curriculum.

Enantiodivergent synthetic entry to the quinolizidine alkaloid lasubine II.

Intramolecular cycloaddition of the syn- and the anti-nitrone 9 and 13 leads stereoselectively to the azabicyclic compounds 10 and 14 which may provide access to both enantiomers of the quinolizidine alkaloid lasubine II.