Search results for: mineral processing

Authors: Ahmed A. M. Shoaib, Heba A. Esaily, Mahmoud M. Emara, Eman A. E. Badr, Amany S. Khalifa, Mayada M. M., Abdel-Raizk

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Background: DM is associated with metabolic bone diseases, osteoporosis, low-impact fractures and falls in geriatrics. Fetuin-A, which is a serum protein produced by the liver and promotes bone mineralization, is an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Aim: Evaluation of fetuin-A level and bone mineral density in postmenopausal Egyptian female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their correlation with each other & with other metabolic parameters. Patients and methods: Seventy postmenopausal female patients with type II diabetes and thirty postmenopausal female as control were included in this study. Measurement of Fetuin-A together with metabolic parameters and DXA in wrist, hip and spine, ALP, CBC, FBS, PP2H and HBA1c was done in all participants. Results: - Fetuin-A level was found to be highly significant (p< 0.001) between diabetic and nondiabetic groups and negatively correlated with BMD in spine. No difference in BMD was found between patients and control groups while significant negative correlation was found between FBS and hip BMD (<0.05) and between 2hpp and HBA1c with spine BMD in the diabetic group (<0.05). Osteoporosis represented 12.9% in spine area and 7.2% in hip and wrist areas in diabetic patients, while osteopenia were found in 58.5%, 57.1%, and 37.1% in diabetic patients in spine, wrist, and hip respectively. Conclusion: - type II diabetes cannot be considered as a risk factor for osteoporosis; while glycemic parameters (FBS, 2hpp & HBA1c) and serum Fetuin-A levels were correlated with BMD in diabetics. Good glycemic control can be protective against osteoporosis in diabetic elderly.

Keywords: fetuin-A, BMD, postmenopausal, DM type II

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Authors: Habtamu Abdisa

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Spring water is particularly valuable due to its high mineral content, which is beneficial for human health. However, anthropogenic activities usually imbalance the natural levels of its composition, which can cause adverse health effects. Regular monitoring of a naturally given environmental resource is of great concern in the world today. The spectrophotometric application is one of the best methods for qualifying and quantifying the mineral contents of environmental water samples. This research was conducted to evaluate the quality of spring water concerning its heavy metal composition. A grab sampling technique was employed to collect representative samples, including duplicates. The samples were then treated with concentrated HNO3 to a pH level below 2 and stored at 4oC. The samples were digested and analyzed for cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn) following method validation. Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) was utilized for the sample analysis. Quality control measures, including blanks, duplicates, and certified reference materials (CRMs), were implemented to ensure the accuracy and precision of the analytical results. Of the metals analyzed in the water samples, Cd and Cr were found to be below the detection limit. However, the concentrations of Mn, Cu, Fe, and Zn ranged from mean values of 0.119-0.227 mg/L, 0.142-0.166 mg/L, 0.183-0.267 mg/L, and 0.074-0.181 mg/L, respectively. Sediment analysis revealed mean concentration ranges of 348.31-429.21 mg/kg, 0.23-0.28 mg/kg, 18.73-22.84 mg/kg, 2.76-3.15 mg/kg, 941.84-1128.56 mg/kg, and 42.39-66.53 mg/kg for Mn, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, and Zn, respectively. The study results established that the evaluated spring water and its associated sediment met the regulatory standards and guidelines for heavy metal concentrations. Furthermore, this research can enhance the quality assurance and control processes for environmental sample analysis, ensuring the generation of reliable data.

Keywords: method validation, heavy metal, spring water, sediment, method detection limit

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Authors: Katherine Sparks, Christopher Ring

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This study aimed to investigate whether dispositional sport-specific mindfulness moderated the moderation effect of conscious processing on the relationship between anxiety and rowing race performance. Using a sport-specific (Rowing-Specific) Reinvestment Scale (RSRS) to measure state conscious processing, we examined the effects of trait sport-related mindfulness on the conscious processes of rowers under competitive racing pressure at a number of UK regattas. 276 rowers completed a survey post competitive race. The survey included the RSRS, mindfulness, a perceived performance rating scale, demographic and race information to identify and record the rower’s actual race performance. Results from the research demonstrated that high levels of dispositional mindfulness are associated with a superior performance under pressure. In relation to the moderating moderation effect, conscious processing amplifies the detrimental effects of anxiety on performance. However, mindfulness, mindful awareness, and mindful non-judgement all proved to attenuate this amplification effect by moderating the conscious processing moderation on the anxiety-performance relationship. Therefore, this study provides initial support for the speculation that dispositional mindfulness can help prevent the deleterious effects of rowing-specific reinvestment under pressure.

Keywords: mindful, reinvestment, under pressure, performance, rowing

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Authors: J. D. Marinaccio, I. Mabbett, C. Glover, D. Worsley

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Through use of novel modern/rapid processing techniques such as screen printing and Near-Infrared (NIR) radiative curing, process time for the sintering of sintered nickel plaques, applicable to alkaline nickel battery chemistries, has been drastically reduced from in excess of 200 minutes with conventional convection methods to below 2 minutes using NIR curing methods. Steps have also been taken to remove the need for forming gas as a reducing agent by implementing carbon as an in-situ reducing agent, within the ink formulation.

Keywords: batteries, energy, iron, nickel, storage

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Authors: Abraham Terán Salcedo, Didier Samayoa Ochoa

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This work presents a numerical implementation of a method for estimating the box-counting dimension of self-avoiding curves on a planar space, fractal objects captured on digital images; this method is named fractioning estimator. Classical methods of digital image processing, such as noise filtering, contrast manipulation, and thresholding, among others, are used in order to obtain binary images that are suitable for performing the necessary computations of the fractioning estimator. A user interface is developed for performing the image processing operations and testing the fractioning estimator on different captured images of real-life fractal objects. To analyze the results, the estimations obtained through the fractioning estimator are compared to the results obtained through other methods that are already implemented on different available software for computing and estimating the box-counting dimension.

Keywords: box-counting, digital image processing, fractal dimension, numerical method

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Authors: Gabriel K. Nzulu, Lina Rostorm, Hans Högberg, Jun Liu, per Eklund, Lars Hultman, Martin Magnuson

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Altered and gangue quartz in hydrothermal veins from the Kubi Gold deposit in Dunkwa on Offin in the central region of Ghana are investigated for possible Au associated pathfinder minerals and to provide understanding and increase the knowledge of the mineral hosting and alteration processes in quartz. X-ray diffraction, air annealing furnace, differential scanning calorimetry, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy have been applied on different quartz types outcropping from surface and bed rocks at the Kubi Gold Mining to reveal the material properties at different temperatures. From the diffraction results of the fresh and annealed quartz samples, we find that the samples contain pathfinder and the impurity minerals FeS₂, biotite, TiO₂, and magnetite. These minerals, under oxidation process between 574-1400 °C temperatures experienced hematite alterations and a transformation from α-quartz to β-quartz and further to cristobalite as observed from the calorimetry scans for hydrothermally exposed materials. The energy dispersive spectroscopy revealed elemental species of Fe, S, Mg, K, Al, Ti, Na, Si, O, and Ca contained in the samples and these are attributed to the impurity phase minerals observed in the diffraction. The findings also suggest that during the hydrothermal flow regime, impurity minerals and metals can be trapped by voids and faults. Under favorable temperature conditions the trapped minerals can be altered to change color at different depositional stages by oxidation and reduction processes leading to hematite alteration which is a useful pathfinder in mineral exploration.

Keywords: quartz, hydrothermal, minerals, hematite, x-ray diffraction, crystal-structure, defects

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Authors: Jaswinder Kumar, Kulbir Singh Sandhu

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Friction stir processing (FSP) is a solid-state surface processing technique. A single-pass FSP was performed on Aluminum alloy at combinations of different tool rotational speeds with cylindrical threaded pin profiled tool. The effect of these parameters on tribological properties was studied. The wear resistance is found to be increased from base metal to a single pass FSP sample. The results revealed that with an increase in tool rotational speed, the wear rate increases. The high heat generation causes matrix softening, which results in an increased wear rate; on the other hand, high heat generation leads to coarse grains, which also affected tribological properties. Furthermore, Microstructure results showed that FSPed alloy has a more refined grain structure as compare to the base material, which may be resulted in enhancement of hardness and resistance to wear in FSP.

Keywords: friction stir processing, aluminium alloy, microhardness, microstructure

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Authors: Hamza A. Al-Sewadi, Akram N. A. Aldakari

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Copyright protection and ownership proof of digital multimedia are achieved nowadays by digital watermarking techniques. A text watermarking algorithm for protecting the property rights and ownership judgment of color images is proposed in this paper. Embedding is achieved by inserting texts elements randomly into the color image as noise. The YIQ image processing model is found to be faster than other image processing methods, and hence, it is adopted for the embedding process. An optional choice of encrypting the text watermark before embedding is also suggested (in case required by some applications), where, the text can is encrypted using any enciphering technique adding more difficulty to hackers. Experiments resulted in embedding speed improvement of more than double the speed of other considered systems (such as least significant bit method, and separate color code methods), and a fairly acceptable level of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) with low mean square error values for watermarking purposes.

Keywords: steganography, watermarking, time complexity measurements, private keys

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Authors: Lai Yi-Hsiu

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The present study addressed the nature of bilingual semantic processing in Mandarin Chinese and Southern Min and examined category effects and age effects. Nineteen bilingual adults of Mandarin Chinese and Southern Min, nine monolingual seniors of Mandarin Chinese, and ten monolingual seniors of Southern Min in Taiwan individually completed two semantic tasks: Picture naming and category fluency tasks. The instruments for the naming task were sixty black-and-white pictures, including thirty-five object pictures and twenty-five action pictures. The category fluency task also consisted of two semantic categories – objects (or nouns) and actions (or verbs). The reaction time for each picture/question was additionally calculated and analyzed. Oral productions in Mandarin Chinese and in Southern Min were compared and discussed to examine the category effects and age effects. The results of the category fluency task indicated that the content of information of these seniors was comparatively deteriorated, and thus they produced a smaller number of semantic-lexical items. Significant group differences were also found in the reaction time results. Category effects were significant for both adults and seniors in the semantic fluency task. The findings of the present study will help characterize the nature of the bilingual semantic processing of adults and seniors, and contribute to the fields of contrastive and corpus linguistics.

Keywords: bilingual semantic processing, aging, Mandarin Chinese, Southern Min

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Authors: Geevika J. Ganegama Arachchi, Steve H. Flint, Lynn McIntyre, Cristina D. Cruz, Beatrice M. Dias-Wanigasekera, Craig Billington, J. Andrew Hudson, Anthony N. Mutukumira

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In seafood processing plants, Listeriamonocytogenes(L. monocytogenes)likely exists in a metabolically stressed state due to the nutrient-deficient environment, processing treatments such as heating, curing, drying, and freezing, and exposure to detergents and disinfectants. Stressed L. monocytogenes cells have been shown to be as pathogenic as unstressed cells. This study investigated lytic efficacy of (LiMN4L, LiMN4p, and LiMN17) which were previouslycharacterized as virulent against physiologically stressed cells of three seafood borne L. monocytogenesstrains (19CO9, 19DO3, and 19EO3).Physiologically compromised cells ofL. monocytogenesstrains were prepared by aging cultures in TrypticaseSoy Broth at 15±1°C for 72 h; heat injuringcultures at 54±1 - 55±1°C for 40 - 60 min;salt-stressing cultures in Milli-Q water were incubated at 25±1°C in darkness for three weeks; and incubating cultures in 9% (w/v) NaCl at 15±1°C for 72 h. Low concentrations of physiologically compromised cells of three L. monocytogenesstrainswere challenged in vitrowith high titre of three phages in separate experiments using Fish Broth medium (aqueous fish extract) at 15 °C in order to mimic the environment of seafood processing plant. Each phage, when present at ≈9 log10 PFU/ml, reduced late exponential phase cells of L. monocytogenes suspended in fish protein broth at ≈2-3 log10 CFU/ml to a non-detectable level (< 10 CFU/ml). Each phage, when present at ≈8.5 log10 PFU/ml, reduced both heat-injured cells present at 2.5-3.6 log10 CFU/ml and starved cells that were showed coccoid shape, present at ≈2-3 log10 CFU/ml to < 10 CFU/ml after 30 min. Phages also reduced salt-stressed cellspresent at ≈3 log10 CFU/ml by > 2 log10. L. monocytogenes (≈8 log10 CFU/ml) were reduced to below the detection limit (1 CFU/ml) by the three successive phage infections over 16 h, indicating that emergence of spontaneous phage resistance was infrequent. The three virulent phages showed high decontamination potential for physiologically stressed L. monocytogenes strains from seafood processing environments.

Keywords: physiologically stressed L. monocytogenes, heat injured, seafood processing environment, virulent phage

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Authors: Deborah Zelinsky

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The retina filters millions of incoming signals into a smaller amount of exiting optic nerve fibers that travel to different portions of the brain. Most of the signals are for eyesight (called "image-forming" signals). However, there are other faster signals that travel "elsewhere" and are not directly involved with eyesight (called "non-image-forming" signals). This article centers on the neurons of the optic nerve connecting to parts of the limbic system. Eye care providers are currently looking at parvocellular and magnocellular processing pathways without realizing that those are part of an enormous "galaxy" of all the body systems. Lenses are modifying both non-image and image-forming pathways, taking A.M. Skeffington's seminal work one step further. Almost 100 years ago, he described the Where am I (orientation), Where is It (localization), and What is It (identification) pathways. Now, among others, there is a How am I (animation) and a Who am I (inclination, motivation, imagination) pathway. Classic eye testing considers pupils and often assesses posture and motion awareness, but classical prescriptions often overlook limbic involvement in visual processing. The limbic system is composed of the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and anterior nuclei of the thalamus. The optic nerve's limbic connections arise from the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC) through the "retinohypothalamic tract" (RHT). There are two main hypothalamic nuclei with direct photic inputs. These are the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the paraventricular nucleus. Other hypothalamic nuclei connected with retinal function, including mood regulation, appetite, and glucose regulation, are the supraoptic nucleus and the arcuate nucleus. The retino-hypothalamic tract is often overlooked when we prescribe eyeglasses. Each person is different, but the lenses we choose are influencing this fast processing, which affects each patient's aiming and focusing abilities. These signals arise from the ipRGC cells that were only discovered 20+ years ago and do not address the campana retinal interneurons that were only discovered 2 years ago. As eyecare providers, we are unknowingly altering such factors as lymph flow, glucose metabolism, appetite, and sleep cycles in our patients. It is important to know what we are prescribing as the visual processing evaluations expand past the 20/20 central eyesight.

Keywords: neuromodulation, retinal processing, retinohypothalamic tract, limbic system, visual processing

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Authors: Amanda C. Evans

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Enabling technologies such as continuous processing (CP) approaches can provide the tools needed to control and manipulate reactivities and transform chemical reactions into micro-controlled in-flow processes. Traditional synthetic approaches can be radically transformed by the application of CP, facilitating the pairing of chemical methodologies with technologies from other disciplines. CP supports sustainable processes that controllably generate reaction specificity utilizing supramolecular interactions. Continuous photochemical processing is an emerging field of investigation. The use of light to drive chemical reactivity is not novel, but the controlled use of specific and tunable wavelengths of light to selectively generate molecular structure under continuous processing conditions is an innovative approach towards chemical synthesis. This investigation focuses on the use of circularly polarized (cp) light as a sustainable catalyst for the CP generation of asymmetric molecules. Chiral photolysis has already been achieved under batch, solid-phase conditions: using synchrotron-sourced cp light, asymmetric photolytic selectivities of up to 4.2% enantiomeric excess (e.e.) have been reported. In order to determine the optimal wavelengths to use for irradiation with cp light for any given molecular building block, CD and anisotropy spectra for each building block of interest have been generated in two different solvents (water, hexafluoroisopropanol) across a range of wavelengths (130-400 nm). These spectra are being used to support a series of CP experiments using cp light to generate enantioselectivity.

Keywords: anisotropy, asymmetry, flow chemistry, active pharmaceutical ingredients

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Authors: Yili Chen, Xiaokun Liang, Zhicheng Zhang, Yaoqin Xie

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In an effort to restore visual perception in retinal diseases, an electronic retinal prosthesis with thousands of electrodes has been developed. The image processing strategies of retinal prosthesis system converts the original images from the camera to the stimulus pattern which can be interpreted by the brain. Practically, the original images are with more high resolution (256x256) than that of the stimulus pattern (such as 25x25), which causes a technical image processing challenge to do large-capacity image information reduction. In this paper, we focus on developing an efficient image processing stimulus pattern extraction algorithm by using a single cue saliency map for extracting salient objects in the image with an optimal trimming threshold. Experimental results showed that the proposed stimulus pattern extraction algorithm performs quite well for different scenes in terms of the stimulus pattern. In the algorithm performance experiment, our proposed SCSPE algorithm have almost five times of the score compared with Boyle’s algorithm. Through experiment s we suggested that when there are salient objects in the scene (such as the blind meet people or talking with people), the trimming threshold should be set around 0.4max, in other situations, the trimming threshold values can be set between 0.2max-0.4max to give the satisfied stimulus pattern.

Keywords: retinal prosthesis, image processing, region of interest, saliency map, trimming threshold selection

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Authors: Anderson Rocha, Pedro Miguel de Figueiredo Dinis Oliveira Gaspar

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Machine vision has been widely used in recent years in agriculture, as a tool to promote the automation of processes and increase the levels of productivity. The aim of this work is the development of a path recognition algorithm based on image processing to guide a terrestrial robot in-between tree rows. The proposed algorithm was developed using the software MATLAB, and it uses several image processing operations, such as threshold detection, morphological erosion, histogram equalization and the Hough transform, to find edge lines along tree rows on an image and to create a path to be followed by a mobile robot. To develop the algorithm, a set of images of different types of orchards was used, which made possible the construction of a method capable of identifying paths between trees of different heights and aspects. The algorithm was evaluated using several images with different characteristics of quality and the results showed that the proposed method can successfully detect a path in different types of environments.

Keywords: agricultural mobile robot, image processing, path recognition, hough transform

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Authors: Phakamas Rachamontree, Theerawut Phusantisampan, Natthakorn Woravutthikul, Peerapong Pornwongthong, Malinee Sriariyanun

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A total of 115 yeast strains isolated from local cassava processing wastes were measured for crude protein content. Among these strains, the strain MSY-2 possessed the highest protein concentration (>3.5 mg protein/mL). By using molecular identification tools, it was identified to be a strain of Pichia kudriavzevii based on similarity of D1/D2 domain of 26S rDNA region. In this study, to optimize the protein production by MSY-2 strain, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied. The tested parameters were the carbon content, nitrogen content, and incubation time. Here, the value of regression coefficient (R2) = 0.7194 could be explained by the model, which is high to support the significance of the model. Under the optimal condition, the protein content was produced up to 3.77 g per L of the culture and MSY-2 strain contain 66.8 g protein per 100 g of cell dry weight. These results revealed the plausibility of applying the novel strain of yeast in single-cell protein production.

Keywords: single cell protein, response surface methodology, yeast, cassava processing waste

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Authors: Derek Brandon G. Yu, Clyde Vincent O. Pilapil, Christine F. Peña

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College students of Cebu province have been indoors since March 2020, and a challenge encountered is the sudden shift from face to face to online learning and with the lack of empirical data on online learning on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. Sentiments on face to face and online learning will be collected from University of San Carlos (USC), School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) students regarding Mathematics in the Modern World (MMW), a General Education (GE) course. Natural Language Processing with machine learning algorithms will be used to classify the sentiments of the students. Results of the research study are the themes identified through topic modelling and the overall sentiments of the students in USC SAS

Keywords: natural language processing, online learning, sentiment analysis, topic modelling

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Authors: Margaret Ryan, Linda Cupples, Lyndsey Nickels, Paul Sowman

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The current investigation explored the thematic roles of the nouns specified in the lexical entries of experiencer verbs. While prior experimental research assumes experiencer and theme roles for both subject-experiencer (SE) and object-experiencer (OE) verbs, syntactic theorists have posited additional agent and causer roles. Experiment 1 provided evidence for an agent as participants assigned a high degree of intentionality to the logical subject of a subset of SE and OE actives and passives. Experiment 2 provided evidence for a causer as participants assigned high levels of causality to the logical subjects of experiencer sentences generally. However, the presence of an agent, but not a causer, coincided with processing ease. Causality may be an aspect rather than a thematic role. The varying thematic roles amongst experiencer-verb sentences have important implications for stimulus selection because we cannot presume processing is similar across differing sentence subtypes.

Keywords: sentence comprehension, lexicon, canonicity, processing, thematic roles, syntax

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Authors: Lusungu Ndovi

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Radio propagation from point-to-point is affected by the physical channel in many ways. A signal arriving at a destination travels through a number of different paths which are referred to as multi-paths. Research in this area of wireless communications has progressed well over the years with the research taking different angles of focus. By this is meant that some researchers focus on ways of reducing or eluding Multipath effects whilst others focus on ways of mitigating the effects of Multipath through compensation schemes. Baseband processing is seen as one field of signal processing that is cardinal to the advancement of software-defined radio technology. This has led to wide research into the carrying out certain algorithms at baseband. This paper considers compensating for Multipath for Frequency Modulated signals. The compensation process is carried out at Radio frequency (RF) and at Quadrature baseband (QBB) and the results are compared. Simulations are carried out using MatLab so as to show the benefits of working at lower QBB frequencies than at RF.

Keywords: quadrature baseband, qadio frequency, qultipath compensation, frequency qodulation, signal processing

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Authors: Meihua Fang, Tao Fei

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Post-processing can effectively improve the resistance to laser damage in multilayer films used in a high power laser system. In this work, HfO₂/SiO₂ multilayer films are prepared by e-beam evaporation and then β-ray irradiation is employed as the post-processing method. The particle irradiation affects the laser induced damage threshold (LIDT), which includes defects, surface roughness, packing density, and residual stress. The residual stress that is relaxed during irradiation changes from compressive stress into tensile stress. Our results indicate that appropriate tensile stress can improve LIDT remarkably. In view of the fact that LIDT rises from 8 J/cm² to 12 J/cm², i.e., 50% increase, after the film has been irradiated by 2.2×10¹³/cm² β-ray, the particle irradiation can be used as a controllable and desirable post-processing method to improve the resistance to laser induced damage.

Keywords: β-ray irradiation, multilayer film, residual stress, laser-induced damage threshold

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Authors: Binger Lu

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It remains unclear whether second language (L2) speakers could use discourse context cues to predict upcoming information as native speakers do during online comprehension. Some researchers propose that L2 learners may have a reduced ability to generate predictions during discourse processing. At the same time, there is evidence that discourse-level cues are weighed more heavily in L2 processing than in L1. Previous studies showed that L1 prediction is sensitive to the global validity of predictive cues. The current study aims to explore whether and to what extent L2 learners can dynamically and strategically adjust their prediction in accord with the global validity of predictive cues in L2 discourse comprehension as native speakers do. In a self-paced reading experiment, Chinese native speakers (N=128), C-E bilinguals (N=128), and English native speakers (N=128) read high-predictable (e.g., Jimmy felt thirsty after running. He wanted to get some water from the refrigerator.) and low-predictable (e.g., Jimmy felt sick this morning. He wanted to get some water from the refrigerator.) discourses in two-sentence frames. The global validity of predictive cues was manipulated by varying the ratio of predictable (e.g., Bill stood at the door. He opened it with the key.) and unpredictable fillers (e.g., Bill stood at the door. He opened it with the card.), such that across conditions, the predictability of the final word of the fillers ranged from 100% to 0%. The dependent variable was reading time on the critical region (the target word and the following word), analyzed with linear mixed-effects models in R. C-E bilinguals showed reliable prediction across all validity conditions (β = -35.6 ms, SE = 7.74, t = -4.601, p< .001), and Chinese native speakers showed significant effect (β = -93.5 ms, SE = 7.82, t = -11.956, p< .001) in two of the four validity conditions (namely, the High-validity and MedLow conditions, where fillers ended with predictable words in 100% and 25% cases respectively), whereas English native speakers didn’t predict at all (β = -2.78 ms, SE = 7.60, t = -.365, p = .715). There was neither main effect (χ^²(3) = .256, p = .968) nor interaction (Predictability: Background: Validity, χ^²(3) = 1.229, p = .746; Predictability: Validity, χ^²(3) = 2.520, p = .472; Background: Validity, χ^²(3) = 1.281, p = .734) of Validity with speaker groups. The results suggest that prediction occurs in L2 discourse processing but to a much less extent in L1, witha significant effect in some conditions of L1 Chinese and anull effect in L1 English processing, consistent with the view that L2 speakers are more sensitive to discourse cues compared with L1 speakers. Additionally, the pattern of L1 and L2 predictive processing was not affected by the global validity of predictive cues. C-E bilinguals’ predictive processing could be partly transferred from their L1, as prior research showed that discourse information played a more significant role in L1 Chinese processing.

Keywords: bilingualism, discourse processing, global validity, prediction, self-paced reading

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Authors: Pilar Rey del Castillo

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This document describes the building of an average indicator of the general sentiments about the future exposed in the newspapers in Spain. The raw data are collected through the scraping of the Digital Periodical and Newspaper Library website. Basic tools of natural language processing are later applied to the collected information to evaluate the sentiment strength of each word in the texts using a polarized dictionary. The last step consists of summarizing these sentiments to produce daily indices. The results are a first insight into the applicability of these techniques to produce periodic sentiment indicators.

Keywords: natural language processing, periodic indicator, sentiment analysis, web scraping

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Authors: Mustafa Midilli, Mustafa Salman, Omer Hakan Muglali, Tülay Ögretmen, Sena Cenesiz, Neslihan Ormanci

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This study examined the effects of zinc (Zn) from different sources and microbial phytase on the broiler performance, biochemical parameters and digestibility of nutrients when they were added to broiler diets containing low available phosphorus. A total of 875, 1-day-old male broilers of the Ross 308 strain were randomly separated into two control groups (positive and negative) and five treatment groups each containing 125 birds; each group was divided into 5 replicates of 25 birds. The positive control (PC) group was fed a diet containing adequate concentration (0.45%) of available phosphorus due to mineral premix (except zinc) and feeds. The negative control (NC) group was fed a basal diet including low concentration (0.30%) of available phosphorus due to mineral premix (except zinc) and feeds. The basal diet was supplemented with 0.30% phosphorus and 500 FTU phytase (PH); 0.30% phosphorus and organic zinc (OZ; 75mg/kg of Zn from Zn-proteinate); 0.30% phosphorus and inorganic zinc (IZ; 75 mg/kg of Zn from ZnSO4); 0.30% phosphorus, organic zinc and 500 FTU phytase (OZ + PH); and 0.30% phosphorus, inorganic zinc and 500 FTU phytase (IZ + PH) in the treatment groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. The lowest value for mean body weight was in the negative control group on a diet containing low available phosphorus. The use of supplementation with organic and inorganic zinc alone or in combination with microbial phytase significantly (P<0.05) increased the digestibility of Zn in the male broilers. Supplementation of those diets with OZ + PH or IZ + PH was very effective for increasing the body weight, body weight gain and the feed conversion ratio. In conclusion, the effects on broilers of diets with low phosphorus levels may be overcome by the addition of inorganic or organic zinc compounds in combination with microbial phytase.

Keywords: broiler, performance, phytase, phosphorus, zinc

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Authors: Jayme R. Swanke

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This study examined the benefits of maintaining public blogs about substance use disorder recovery. The data analyzed for this study included statements about the benefits derived by individuals who blogged about their recovery. The researcher developed classifications of statements that expressed what these individuals gained from blogging into common themes and developed an emerging theory based on these patterns. The findings indicate that these individuals in recovery benefit from blogging by developing connections, processing emotions, remaining accountable, as well as enjoying.

Keywords: substance use disorder recovery, connection, blogging, accountability, processing emotions

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Authors: Mohsin Talib Mohammed, Zahid A. Khan, Arshad N. Siddiquee

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The wide use of titanium (Ti) materials in medicine gives impetus to a search for development new techniques with elevated properties such as strength, corrosion resistance and Young's modulus close to that of bone tissue. This article presents the most recent state of the art on the use of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) technique in evolving mechanical characteristics of the ultrafine-grained bio-grade Ti materials. Over past few decades, research activities in this area have grown enormously and have produced interesting results, including achieving the combination of conflicting properties that are desirable for biomedical applications by severe plastic deformation (SPD) processing. A comprehensive review of the most recent work in this area is systematically presented. The challenges in processing ultrafine-grained Ti materials are identified and discussed. An overview of the biomedical Ti alloys processed with ECAP technique is given in this review, along with a summary of their effect on the important mechanical properties that can be achieved by SPD processing. The paper also offers insights in the mechanisms underlying SPD.

Keywords: mechanical properties, ECAP, titanium, biomedical applications

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Authors: Sara Seddiki, Maazouzi Abdelhak

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The main objective of this modest work is to follow the physicochemical and bacteriological evolution of the wastewater from the town of Bechar subjected to purification by filtration according to various local supports, namely Sable and Terrill by reducing nuisances that undergo the receiving environment (Oued Bechar) and therefore make this water source reusable in different areas. The study first made it possible to characterize the urban wastewater of the Bechar wadi, which presents an environmental threat, thus allowing an estimation of the pollutant load, the chemical oxygen demand COD (145 mg / l) and the biological oxygen demand BOD5 (72 mg / l) revealed that these waters are less biodegradable (COD / BOD5 ratio = 0.62), have a fairly high conductivity (2.76 mS/cm), and high levels of mineral matter presented by chlorides and sulphates 390 and 596.1 mg / l respectively, with a pH of 8.1. The characterization of the sand dune (Beni Abbes) shows that quartz (97%) is the most present mineral. The granular analysis allowed us to determine certain parameters like the uniformity coefficient (CU) and the equivalent diameter, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations and X-ray analysis were performed. The study of filtered wastewater shows satisfactory and very encouraging treatment results, with complete elimination of total coliforms and streptococci and a good reduction of total aerobic germs in the sand and clay-sand filter. A good yield has been reported in the sand Terrill filter for the reduction of turbidity. The rates of reduction of organic matter in terms of the biological oxygen demand, in chemical oxygen demand recorded, are of the order of 60%. The elimination of sulphates is 40% for the sand filter.

Keywords: urban wastewater, filtration, bacteriological and physicochemical parameters, sand, Terrill, Oued Bechar

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Authors: A. Van Staden, N. Purcell

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Spelling development is complex and multifaceted and relies on several cognitive-linguistic processes. This paper explored the spelling difficulties of English second language learners with auditory processing delays. This empirical study aims to address these issues by means of an intervention design. Specifically, the objectives are: (a) to develop and implement a multi-sensory spelling program for second language learners with auditory processing difficulties (APD) for a period of 6 months; (b) to assess the efficacy of the multi-sensory spelling program and whether this intervention could significantly improve experimental learners' spelling, phonological awareness, and processing (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), working memory (WM), word reading and reading comprehension; and (c) to determine the relationship (or interplay) between these cognitive and linguistic skills (mentioned above), and how they influence spelling development. Forty-four English, second language learners with APD were sampled from one primary school in the Free State province. The learners were randomly assigned to either an experimental (n=22) or control group (n=22). During the implementation of the spelling program, several visual, tactile and kinesthetic exercises, including the utilization of fingerspelling were introduced to support the experimental learners’ (N = 22) spelling development. Post-test results showed the efficacy of the multi-sensory spelling program, with the experimental group who were trained in utilising multi-sensory coding and fingerspelling outperforming learners from the control group on the cognitive-linguistic, spelling and reading measures. The results and efficacy of this multi-sensory spelling program and the utilisation of fingerspelling for hearing second language learners with APD open up innovative perspectives for the prevention and targeted remediation of spelling difficulties.

Keywords: English second language spellers, auditory processing delays, spelling difficulties, multi-sensory intervention program

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Authors: M. Hanif Irsyada, Rifaldy, Arif Lutfi Namury, Syahreza S. Angkasa, Khalid Rizky, Ricky Aryanto, M. Alfiyan Bagus, Excobar Arman, Fahri Septianto, Firman Najib Wibisana

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Galunggung Mountain is an active volcano in Indonesia, precisely on the island of Java. This area is included in the Sunda Sunda arc formed by the tendency of the Australian oceanic plate to Eurasian continental plate. This research was conducted to determine the characteristics and document the mineralogical composition of the Galunggung eruption of the second phase 1982-1983. In fragment samples, petrographic analysis is carried out under a qualitative and quantitative polarizing microscope. This sample was obtained from the second phase eruption in the Cibanjanj formation. Based on the analysis results obtained filter texture characteristics, olivine parallel growth, lamellar structure, glass inclusion, plagioclase zonation and obtained special texture in the gabbroic cummulate. The mineral composition consists of phenocryst plagioclase (41vol%), pyroxene (26vol%), olivin (4vol%) and mineral opaque (29vol%). Microlite minerals consist of plagioclase (31.95vol%), pyroxene (12.09vol%), opaque minerals (55.96vol%). This research is expected to be developed by further researchers to be able to explain in more detail related to Galunggung mountain with 3 phases of eruption that are so intense. Also, it is expected to explain the structural characteristics and mineralogical composition that can be used to determine the origin of all the results of the Galunggung eruption 1982-1983.

Keywords: Galunggung eruption, mineralogical composition, texture characterization, gabbroic cumulate

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Authors: S. Fadda, M. Fiori, C. Matzuzzi

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Mineralized formations in the bottom sediments of a Miocene transgression have been discovered in Sardinia. The mineral assemblage consists of copper sulphides and oxidates suggesting fluctuations of redox conditions in neutral to high-pH restricted shallow-water coastal basins. Azurite/malachite has been observed as authigenic and occurs as loose spheroidal crystalline particles associated with the transitional-littoral horizon forming the bottom of the marine transgression. Many field observations are consistent with a supergenic circulation of metals involving terrestrial groundwater-seawater mixing. Both clastic materials and metals come from Tertiary volcanic edifices while the main precipitating anions, carbonates, and sulphides species are of both continental and marine origin. Formation of Cu carbonates as a supergene secondary 'oxide' assemblage, does not agree with field evidences, petrographic observations along with textural evidences in the host-rock types. Samples were collected along the sedimentary sequence for different analyses: the majority of elements were determined by X-ray fluorescence and plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Mineral identification was obtained by X-ray diffractometry and scanning electron microprobe. Thin sections of the samples were examined in microscopy while porosity measurements were made using a mercury intrusion porosimeter. Cu-carbonates deposited at a temperature below 100 C° which is consistent with the clay minerals in the matrix of the host rock dominated by illite and montmorillonite. Azurite nodules grew during the early diagenetic stage through reaction of cupriferous solutions with CO₂ imported from the overlying groundwater and circulating through the sandstones during shallow burial. Decomposition of organic matter in the bottom anoxic waters released additional carbon dioxide to pore fluids for azurite stability. In this manner localized reducing environments were also generated in which Cu was fixed as Cu-sulphide and sulphosalts. Microscopic examinations of textural features of azurite nodules give evidence of primary malachite/azurite deposition rather than supergene oxidation in place of primary sulfides. Photomicrographs show nuclei of azurite and malachite surrounded by newly formed microcrystalline carbonates which constitute the matrix. The typical pleochroism of crystals can be observed also when this mineral fills microscopic fissures or cracks. Sedimentological evidence of transgression and regression indicates that the pore water would have been a variable mixture of marine water and groundwaters with a possible meteoric component in an alternatively exposed and subaqueous environment owing to water-level fluctuation. Salinity data of the pore fluids, assessed at random intervals along the mineralised strata confirmed the values between about 7000 and 30,000 ppm measured in coeval sediments at the base of Miocene falling in the range of a more or less diluted sea water. This suggests a variation in mean pore-fluids pH between 5.5 and 8.5, compatible with the oxidized and reduced mineral paragenesis described in this work. The results of stable isotopes studies reflect the marine transgressive-regressive cyclicity of events and are compatibile with carbon derivation from sea water. During the last oxidative stage of diagenesis, under surface conditions of higher activity of H₂O and O₂, CO₂ partial pressure decreased, and malachite becomes the stable Cu mineral. The potential for these small but high grade deposits does exist.

Keywords: sedimentary, Cu-carbonates, authigenic, tertiary, Sardinia

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Authors: Hasan Al Bashar Abul Ulayee, AKM Saifun Nabi, MD Mesbah-Ul-Awal

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Alert system for disaster management is common now a day and can play a vital role reducing devastation and saves lives and costs. An alert in right time can save thousands of human life, help to take shelter, manage other assets including live stocks and above all, a right time alert will help to take preparation to face and early recovery of the situation. In a country like Bangladesh where populations is more than 170 million and always facing different types of natural calamities and disasters, an early right time alert is very effective and implementation of alert system is challenging. The challenge comes from the time constraint of alerting the huge number of population. The other method of existing disaster management pre alert is traditional, sequential and non-selective so efficiency is not good enough. This paper describes a way by which alert can be provided to maximum number of people within the short time bound using parallel processing as well as random selection of selective target audience.

Keywords: alert system, Bangladesh, disaster management, parallel processing, SMS

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Authors: Sally A. Brown

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Over the last 30 years, researchers have developed models or frameworks to provide a more structured understanding of the reading comprehension process. Cognitive information processing models and social cognitive theories both provide frameworks to inform reading comprehension instruction. The purpose of this paper is to (a) provide an overview of the historical development of reading comprehension theory, (b) review the literature framed by cognitive information processing, social cognitive, and integrated reading comprehension theories, and (c) demonstrate how these frameworks inform instruction. As integrated models of reading can guide the interpretation of various factors related to student learning, an integrated framework designed by the researcher will be presented. Results indicated that features of cognitive processing and social cognitivism theory—represented in the integrated framework—highlight the importance of the role of the teacher. This model can aid teachers in not only improving reading comprehension instruction but in identifying areas of challenge for students.

Keywords: explicit instruction, integrated models of reading comprehension, reading comprehension, teacher’s role

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