Gaurav Sharma

Bio: Gaurav Sharma is an academic researcher from Shenzhen University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Medicine & Photocatalysis. The author has an hindex of 82, co-authored 1244 publications receiving 31482 citations. Previous affiliations of Gaurav Sharma include Northeastern University & D. E. Shaw & Co..

Facile hetero-assembly of superparamagnetic Fe3O4/BiVO4 stacked on biochar for solar photo-degradation of methyl paraben and pesticide removal from soil

Abstract: Herein we report synthesis of nano-hetero assembly of superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 and bismuth vanadate stacked on Pinus roxburghii derived biochar. Optical studies and band structure analysis indicate the hybridization between the two semiconductors facilitating photodegradation of pollutants in presence of natural sunlight. The nano-heterojunctions have been utilized for removal of emerging micro-pollutants as methylparaben (MeP). 97.4% of MeP degradation was achieved in presence of biochar/Fe 3 O 4 /BiVO 4 in 2 h. A degradation pathway has also been proposed on basis of mass spectrometry, chemical oxygen demand analysis and effects of various scavengers. Pinus derived biochar has also been utilized to see its long term effect on soil characteristics and fertility. The biochar has also been used to remove excessive pesticide from soil for lesser bioavailability.

Solar photocatalytic activity of nano-ZnO supported on activated carbon or brick grain particles: Role of adsorption in dye degradation

Abstract: In precedent work, nano-ZnO was supported on activated carbon or brick grain particles using simple co-precipitation method. Successful formation of ZnO-activated carbon (ZnO-AC) and ZnO-brick grain particle (ZnO-BGP) nanocomposites was ascertained by various spectral techniques. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed that ZnO particles were highly dispersed in activated carbon/brick grain particles. The size of ZnO-AC and ZnO-BGP was found to be 70 and 80 nm, respectively. Both ZnO-AC and ZnO-BGP exhibited excellent adsorption and photocatalytic activity for malachite green (MG) and congo red dye (CR) degradation. The adsorption data for MG and CR removal followed pseudo second order kinetic model. The adsorption capacity followed the order: ZnO-AC > ZnO-BGP > ZnO. The effect of adsorption on photocatalysis was explored under different reaction conditions. Simultaneous adsorption and photocatalysis (A + P) exhibited promoting effect on dye degradation. While adsorption followed by photocatalysis (A − P) had retarding effect on dye removal. ZnO-AC/A + P system emerged as highly efficient for MG and CR degradation. The rate of photodegradation followed pseudo first order kinetics. Using ZnO-AC/A + P system, 99 and 92% of COD removal was attainted for MG and CR degradation, respectively. The oxidative degradation mainly occurred through hydroxyl radicals. The prepared nanocomposites possessed higher recyclability and could be easily separated from solution by sedimentation.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

SPAdes, a new genome assembly algorithm and its applications to single-cell sequencing ( 7th Annual SFAF Meeting, 2012)

Abstract: The lion's share of bacteria in various environments cannot be cloned in the laboratory and thus cannot be sequenced using existing technologies. A major goal of single-cell genomics is to complement gene-centric metagenomic data with whole-genome assemblies of uncultivated organisms. Assembly of single-cell data is challenging because of highly non-uniform read coverage as well as elevated levels of sequencing errors and chimeric reads. We describe SPAdes, a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler (specialized for single-cell data) and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data). SPAdes generates single-cell assemblies, providing information about genomes of uncultivatable bacteria that vastly exceeds what may be obtained via traditional metagenomics studies. SPAdes is available online ( http://bioinf.spbau.ru/spades ). It is distributed as open source software.