Imphal Times Supplementary issue Page 3

Science and TecnologyIT NewsNew Delhi/Hyderabad, Sept 4

The Indian Journalists Unionstrongly condemns the UttarPradesh government for filingan FIR against a journalist inMirzapur district for reportingthe truth and demands that itbe withdrawn forthwith.Pawan Jaiswal, with Hindipublication Jansandesh, hadshot a v ideo, showingchildren sitting on the floorand eating rotis with salt atthe d istr ict’s pr imarygovernment school, whichwent viral a week ago, andblowing the lid over the Stategovernment’s flagship mid-day meal scheme. The BlockEducation Officer f iled acomplaint against, Pawan,and two others, including arepresentative of the localvillage head accusing them of

IJU condemns UP Government t for caseagainst Journalist

‘criminal conspiracy to defamethe UP government.’In a statement, IJU ActingPresident Geetartha Pathakand Secretary General and IFJVice President Sabina Inderjitdemanded the Yogi Adityanathgovernment withdraw the caseimmediately as Pawan was

doing his duty, reported thetruth and in fact drew theattention of the authorities tothe ir regular ities in thescheme, which boasted of anelaborate menu.The IJU also drew theGovernment’s attention to thefact that the video of children

being given roti and salt wasconfirmed by none other thanthe Mirzapur DM AnuragPatel, who is quoted by newschannels saying, “As soon asthe issue came to my notice, Iordered an inquiry. After theallegations of serving roti andsalt were found true, twopeople Murari and ArvindTripathi have been suspendedand strict action will be takenfurther,” he had added.The IJU said that media’sfreedom to report and carry outits responsibility was heavilycurtailed in Uttar Pradesh andthis is not the first instance whenan FIR has been lodged againsta journalist. It cautioned thegovernment, saying instead ofharassing journalists andattacking the freedom of thepress in the State, it must put itshouse in order and not misleadthe people.

IT NewsImphal, Sept. 4

Observing the NationalNutr ition Week, TulihalBattalion of 9 Sector AssamRifles under the aegis of IGAR(south) organised anawareness programme ongood health along with amedical camp at SnehaBhawan Orphanage, Imphalon 3rd September 2019.The event commenced withan informative lecture ongood health and healthy

IT NewsImphal, Sept. 4

With the objective ofinteracting with the villagersnear Indo-Myanmar border,Chassad Battalion of 10Sector Assam Rifles under theaegis of IGAR (S) conductedsecurity meet cum interactivesession with the prominentpersonnel of the bordervillages of Kamjong district atAishi post.The meet was attended by the

IT NewsImphal, Sept. 4

Mantripukhri Battalion of 9Sector Assam Rifles underthe aegis of IGAR (South)organ ised a f r i endlyvolleyball match atKoriengei CompanyOperat ing Base ( COB),

Assam Rifles observed NationalNutrition Week

living through nutrition by theBattalion Medical Officer. Thechildren were educated aboutbenef its of nutr itious andbalanced diet and advised toadhere to healthy and hygienichabits.The lecture was followed by amedical camp for all thechildren. A dedicated medicalteam under the Medical Officerof the Battalion providedmedical assistance to over 150children. In addition to themedical checkup, consultationon various diseases and health

related issues was carried outas well as free medicines weredistributed to the needychildren.At the end of the event, a firstaid kit with all basic medicinesalongwith some nutritionalsupplements was alsoprovided to the Orphanage asa kind gesture by the Battalion.The earnest endeavor of theAssam Rifles to bring smilesto the faces of children atSneha Bhavan wasappreciated by all staff andinmates.

AR conducts security meet at Aishivillage Chairmen, members ofvillage youth club, and localsof the respective areas. Duringthe meet, locals weresensitized about the currentsituation prevailing in the areaalongwith an in teractivesession on necessarymeasures to be undertaken formaintaining a strict vigil in theborder villages and to ensurethat no untoward incidenttakes place.The chairmen of borderingvillages shared various issues

concerning their villagesduring the session. The meetconcluded with lunch for theattendees. The v illagechairmen expressed their fullfledged support to the AssamRifles for maintaining peaceand vigil in the area.The localsappreciated the efforts ofAssam Rifles for conduct ofsuch security meetings withvillage author ities tosynergise the effor ts andenhance civ il-militarycooperation.

Assam Rifles conducts friendlyvolleyball match

Imphal East d istrict on 02September.With an aim to f ostercompet itive sp ir it andsports manship am ongstyouth of the area, the matchwas p layed between theteams of Heingang Star Cluband troops of Koriengei COB.Both the teams played with

great zeal and enthusiasmshowcasing true team spiritdur ing the game and gavetheir best efforts on the field.At the end of the match, thewinning and the runner upteams ware felicitated withtokens of appreciation. Theevent concluded with tea andrefreshment for all.

AIRNew Delhi, Sept. 4

India’s moon lander Vikram isall set to land on the moon onSeptember 7 with IndianSpace Research Organisationcompleting the second andfinal de-orbital operationssuccessfully this morning.According to ISRO, Vikaram’ssecond de-orbital operationsbegan at 3.42 AM using theon-board propulsion systemand was completed in nineseconds. With this operation,the required orbit for theVikram to commence itdescent towards the surfaceof the Moon is achieved. The touchdown on theMoon’s south polar region willbe between 1.30 AM and 2.30

India’s lander Vikram completes2nd and final de-orbitingmaneuver successfully

AM on September 7.After the touch down byVikram, the rover Pragyan willroll down from the former tocarry out the research forwhich it has been designed.On Monday afternoon, theVikram separated from its

mother spacecraf tChandrayaan-2. Chandrayaan-2 was launched into the spaceby India’s heavy-lift rocketGeosynchronous SatelliteLaunch Vehicle-Mark II I(GSLV Mk III) in a text bookstyle on July 22.

Courtesy : Rice University

A common greenhouse gascould be repurposed in anefficient and environmentallyfriendly way with anelectrolyzer that usesrenewable electricity toproduce pure liquid fuels.The catalytic reactordeveloped by the RiceUniversity lab of chemical andbiomolecular engineerHaotian Wang uses carbondioxide as its feedstock and,in its latest pro totype,produces highly purified andhigh concentrations of formicacid.Formic acid produced bytraditional carbon dioxidedevices needs costly andenergy-intensive purificationsteps, Wang said. The directproduction of pure formic acidsolutions will help to promotecommercial carbon dioxideconversion technologies.The method is detailed inNature Energy.Wang, who jo ined Rice’sBrown School of Engineeringin January, and his grouppursue technologies that turngreenhouse gases into usefulproducts. In tests, the newelectrocatalyst reached anenergy conversion efficiencyof about 42%. That meansnearly half of the electricalenergy can be stored in formicacid as liquid fuel.“Formic acid is an energycarrier,” Wang said. “It’s afuel-cell fuel that can generateelectricity and emit carbondioxide — which you can graband recycle again.“It’s also fundamental in thechemical engineering industryas a feedstock for o therchemicals, and a storagematerial for hydrogen that canhold nearly 1,000 times theenergy of the same volume ofhydrogen gas, which isdifficult to compress,” he said.“That’s currently a bigchallenge for hydrogen fuel-cell cars.”Two advances made the newdevice possib le, said leadauthor and Rice postdoctoralresearcher Chuan Xia. Thefirst was his development of arobust, two-dimensionalb ismuth catalyst and thesecond a so lid-stateelectrolyte that eliminates the

Reactor turns greenhouse gas into pure liquid fuelLab’s ‘green’ invention reduces

carbon dioxide into valuable fuelsneed for salt as part of thereaction.“Bismuth is a very heavyatom, compared to transitionmetals like copper, iron orcobalt,” Wang said . “Itsmobility is much lower,particularly under reactionconditions. So that stabilizesthe catalyst.” He noted thereactor is structured to keepwater from contacting thecatalyst, which also helpspreserve it.Xia can make thenanomater ials in bulk .“Currently, people producecatalysts on the milligram orgram scales,” he said. “Wedeveloped a way to producethem at the kilogram scale.That will make our processeasier to scale up forindustry.”The polymer-based so lidelectro lyte is coated withsulfonic acid ligands toconduct positive charge oramino functional groups toconduct negative ions.“Usually people reducecarbon dioxide in a traditionalliquid electrolyte like saltywater,” Wang said. “You wantthe electr icity to beconducted, but pure waterelectrolyte is too resistant.You need to add salts likesodium chloride or potassiumbicarbonate so that ions canmove freely in water.“But when you generateformic acid that way, it mixeswith the salts,” he said. “For amajority of applications youhave to remove the salts fromthe end product, which takesa lot of energy and cost. Sowe employed so lidelectrolytes that conductprotons and can be made ofinsoluble polymers orinorganic compounds,eliminating the need for salts.”The rate at which water flowsthrough the product chamberdetermines the concentrationof the solu tion . Slowthroughput with the currentsetup produces a so lutionthat is nearly 30% formic acidby weight, while faster flowsallow the concentration to becustomized. The researchersexpect to achieve higherconcentrations from next-generation reactors thataccept gas flow to bring outpure formic acid vapors.

The Rice lab worked withBrookhaven NationalLaboratory to view the processin progress. “X-ray absorptionspectroscopy, a powerfu ltechnique available at theInner Shell Spectroscopy (ISS)beamline at Brookhaven Lab’sNational Synchrotron LightSource II, enables us to probethe electronic structure ofelectrocatalysts in operando— that is, during the actualchemical process,” said co-author Eli Stav itski, leadbeamline scientist at ISS. “Inthis work , we fo llowedbismuth’s oxidation states atdifferent potentials and wereable to identify the catalyst’sactive state during carbondioxide reduction.”With its current reactor, the labgenerated formic acidcontinuously for 100 hourswith negligible degradation ofthe reactor’s components,including the nanoscalecatalysts. Wang suggested thereactor could be easilyretooled to produce suchhigher-value products asacetic acid , ethanol orpropanol fuels.“The big picture is that carbondioxide reduction is veryimportant for its effect onglobal warming as well as forgreen chemical synthesis,”Wang said. “If the electricitycomes from renewable sourceslike the sun or wind, we cancreate a loop that turns carbondioxide into somethingimportant without emittingmore of it.”Co-authors are Rice graduatestudent Peng Zhu; graduatestudent Qiu Jiang and HusamAlshareef , a professor ofmaterial science andengineering, at King AbdullahUniversity of Science andTechnology, Saudi Arabia(KAUST); postdoctoralresearcher Ying Pan of HarvardUniversity; and staff scientistWentao Liang of NortheasternUniversity. Wang is theWilliam Marsh Rice TrusteeAssistan t Professor ofChemical and BiomolecularEngineering. Xia is a J. EvansAttwell-Welch PostdoctoralFellow at Rice.Rice and the U.S. Departmentof Energy Office of ScienceUser Facilities supported theresearch.

State Govt.issuesadvisory oninfluxSource – NPNDimapur, Sept. 4

Nagaland State governmenthas issued advisory as apreventive measure againstpossible influx of illegalimmigrants in the state.In an order, principalsecretary Abhijit Sinhastated that all entry points/check gates manned by thePolice should be suitablystrengthened to prevent anypossible influx of illegalimmigrants and mobilepatrolling in vulnerablelocations should beactivated in the respectivejurisdictions. The government has orderedthat non-locals entering theState should not be allowedwithout the valid passissued by the DistrictAdministration and anyunusual influx of outsiderswithout valid pass should bepromptly brought to theknowledge of the DistrictAdministration. All the village/town/municipal authorities havebeen directed to takemeasures to strictly monitorthe influx of people fromoutside the state in violationof the existing rules/norms. The antecedents of any newincoming tenants should beproperly checked andverified by the DistrictAdministration and Police. District Administration andPolice have been directed tostrictly monitor theregulation of ILP, especiallyalong the Border Areas.

Tuensangpolice seizesillegal drug

AgencyDimapur , Sept 4

Tuensang police carried outraid and seized 20,059 SPcapsules and arrested oneperson from St. John ‘B’ sectorTuensang on August31. According to SPTuensang, the drug wasrecovered from possession ofWongtochu Chang (35), sonof Bakong Chang, Yimpangvillage, Noklak, Tuensang,and a resident of St. John ‘B’sector Tuensang. In thisconnection, a criminal casehas been registered atTuensang police station.