Search results for: salt tolerance
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1293

Search results for: salt tolerance

813 Kohonen Self-Organizing Maps as a New Method for Determination of Salt Composition of Multi-Component Solutions

Authors: Sergey A. Burikov, Tatiana A. Dolenko, Kirill A. Gushchin, Sergey A. Dolenko

Abstract:

The paper presents the results of clusterization by Kohonen self-organizing maps (SOM) applied for analysis of array of Raman spectra of multi-component solutions of inorganic salts, for determination of types of salts present in the solution. It is demonstrated that use of SOM is a promising method for solution of clusterization and classification problems in spectroscopy of multi-component objects, as attributing a pattern to some cluster may be used for recognition of component composition of the object.

Keywords: Kohonen self-organizing maps, clusterization, multi-component solutions, Raman spectroscopy

Procedia PDF Downloads 443
812 Part Variation Simulations: An Industrial Case Study with an Experimental Validation

Authors: Narendra Akhadkar, Silvestre Cano, Christophe Gourru

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Injection-molded parts are widely used in power system protection products. One of the biggest challenges in an injection molding process is shrinkage and warpage of the molded parts. All these geometrical variations may have an adverse effect on the quality of the product, functionality, cost, and time-to-market. The situation becomes more challenging in the case of intricate shapes and in mass production using multi-cavity tools. To control the effects of shrinkage and warpage, it is very important to correctly find out the input parameters that could affect the product performance. With the advances in the computer-aided engineering (CAE), different tools are available to simulate the injection molding process. For our case study, we used the MoldFlow insight tool. Our aim is to predict the spread of the functional dimensions and geometrical variations on the part due to variations in the input parameters such as material viscosity, packing pressure, mold temperature, melt temperature, and injection speed. The input parameters may vary during batch production or due to variations in the machine process settings. To perform the accurate product assembly variation simulation, the first step is to perform an individual part variation simulation to render realistic tolerance ranges. In this article, we present a method to simulate part variations coming from the input parameters variation during batch production. The method is based on computer simulations and experimental validation using the full factorial design of experiments (DoE). The robustness of the simulation model is verified through input parameter wise sensitivity analysis study performed using simulations and experiments; all the results show a very good correlation in the material flow direction. There exists a non-linear interaction between material and the input process variables. It is observed that the parameters such as packing pressure, material, and mold temperature play an important role in spread on functional dimensions and geometrical variations. This method will allow us in the future to develop accurate/realistic virtual prototypes based on trusted simulated process variation and, therefore, increase the product quality and potentially decrease the time to market.

Keywords: correlation, molding process, tolerance, sensitivity analysis, variation simulation

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811 Development of Extruded Prawn Snack Using Prawn Flavor Powder from Prawn Head Waste

Authors: S. K. Sharma, P. Kumar, Pratibha Singh

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Consumption of SNACK is growing its popularity every day in India and a broad range of these items are available in the market. The end user interest in ready-to-eat snack foods is constantly growing mainly due to their ease, ample accessibility, appearance, taste and texture. Food extrusion has been practiced for over fifty years. Its role was initially limited to mixing and forming cereal products. Although thermoplastic extrusion has been successful for starch products, extrusion of proteins has achieved only limited success. In this study, value-added extruded prawn product was prepared with prawn flavor powder and corn flour using a twin-screw extruder. Prawn flavor concentrates prepared from fresh prawn head (Solenocera indica). To prepare flavor concentrate prawn head washed with potable water and blended with 200ml 3% salt solution per 250gm head weight to make the slurry, which was further put in muslin cloth and boiled with salt and starch solution for 10 minutes, cooled to room temperature and filtered, starch added to the filtrate and made into powder in an electrically drier at 43-450c. The mixture was passed through the twin-screw extruder (co-rotating twin screw extruder - basic technology Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata) which was operated at a particular speed of rotation, die diameter, temperature, moisture, and fish powder concentration. Many trial runs were conducted to set up the process variables. The different extrudes produced after each trail were examined for the quality and characteristics. The effect of temperature, moisture, screw speed, protein, fat, ash and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) number and expansion ratio were studied. In all the four trials, moisture, temperature, speed and die diameter used was 20%, 100°C, 350 rpm and 4 mm, respectively. The ratio of prawn powder and cornstarch used in different trials ranged between 2:98 and 10:90. The storage characteristics of the final product were studied using three different types of packaging under nitrogen flushing, i.e. a- 12-pm polyester, 12-pm metalized polyester, 60-11m polyethylene (metalized polyester a), b- 12-11m metalized polyester, 37.5-11m polyethylene (metalized polyester b), c- 12-11m polyethylene, 9-11m aluminium foil, 37.5-11m polyethylene (aluminium foil). The organoleptic analysis was carried out on a 9-point hedonic scale. The study revealed that the fried product packed in aluminum foil under nitrogen flushing would remain acceptable for more than three months.

Keywords: extruded product, prawn flavor, twin-screw extruder, storage characteristics

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810 Factors Affecting Aluminum Dissolve from Acidified Water Purification Sludge

Authors: Wen Po Cheng, Chi Hua Fu, Ping Hung Chen, Ruey Fang Yu

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Recovering resources from water purification sludge (WPS) have been gradually stipulated in environmental protection laws and regulations in many nations. Hence, reusing the WPS is becoming an important topic, and recovering alum from WPS is one of the many practical alternatives. Most previous research efforts have been conducted on studying the amphoteric characteristic of aluminum hydroxide for investigating the optimum pH range to dissolve the Al(III) species from WPS, but it has been lack of reaction kinetics or mechanisms related discussion. Therefore, in this investigation, water purification sludge (WPS) solution was broken by ultrasound to make particle size of reactants smaller, specific surface area larger. According to the reaction kinetics, these phenomena let the dissolved aluminum salt quantity increased and the reaction rate go faster.

Keywords: aluminum, acidification, sludge, recovery

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809 Variation of Stagnation Properties at Various Altitudes of an Klimov RD-33 Engine

Authors: Upamanyu Majumder, Angshuman Das

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The Klimov RD-33 is a turbofan jet engine for a lightweight fighter jet that is the primary engine for the Mikoyan MiG-29. Its production started in 1981. The RD-33 was the first afterburning turbofan engine produced by the Klimov Company of Russia in the 8,000 to 9,000 kilograms-force (78,000 to 88,000 N; 18,000 to 20,000 lbf) thrust class. It features a modular twin-shaft design with individual parts that can be replaced separately and has a good tolerance to the environment. The RD-33 is simple to maintain and retains good performance in challenging environments. In this paper the stagnation properties(pressure and temperature) at the intake diffuser, compressor and turbine sections of the RD-33 engine are calculated using the standard atmosphere conditions at different altitudes( take-off, 5000m, 10000m, 15000m, 20000m and 22500m). The results are plotted against altitude values using MS-Excel.

Keywords: Klimov RD-33 engine, stagnation properties, various altitudes, ms-excel

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808 Artificial Neural Network Model Based Setup Period Estimation for Polymer Cutting

Authors: Zsolt János Viharos, Krisztián Balázs Kis, Imre Paniti, Gábor Belső, Péter Németh, János Farkas

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The paper presents the results and industrial applications in the production setup period estimation based on industrial data inherited from the field of polymer cutting. The literature of polymer cutting is very limited considering the number of publications. The first polymer cutting machine is known since the second half of the 20th century; however, the production of polymer parts with this kind of technology is still a challenging research topic. The products of the applying industrial partner must met high technical requirements, as they are used in medical, measurement instrumentation and painting industry branches. Typically, 20% of these parts are new work, which means every five years almost the entire product portfolio is replaced in their low series manufacturing environment. Consequently, it requires a flexible production system, where the estimation of the frequent setup periods' lengths is one of the key success factors. In the investigation, several (input) parameters have been studied and grouped to create an adequate training information set for an artificial neural network as a base for the estimation of the individual setup periods. In the first group, product information is collected such as the product name and number of items. The second group contains material data like material type and colour. In the third group, surface quality and tolerance information are collected including the finest surface and tightest (or narrowest) tolerance. The fourth group contains the setup data like machine type and work shift. One source of these parameters is the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) but some data were also collected from Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings. The number of the applied tools is one of the key factors on which the industrial partners’ estimations were based previously. The artificial neural network model was trained on several thousands of real industrial data. The mean estimation accuracy of the setup periods' lengths was improved by 30%, and in the same time the deviation of the prognosis was also improved by 50%. Furthermore, an investigation on the mentioned parameter groups considering the manufacturing order was also researched. The paper also highlights the manufacturing introduction experiences and further improvements of the proposed methods, both on the shop floor and on the quotation preparation fields. Every week more than 100 real industrial setup events are given and the related data are collected.

Keywords: artificial neural network, low series manufacturing, polymer cutting, setup period estimation

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807 Estimation of Longitudinal Dispersion Coefficient Using Tracer Data

Authors: K. Ebrahimi, Sh. Shahid, M. Mohammadi Ghaleni, M. H. Omid

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The longitudinal dispersion coefficient is a crucial parameter for 1-D water quality analysis of riverine flows. So far, different types of empirical equations for estimation of the coefficient have been developed, based on various case studies. The main objective of this paper is to develop an empirical equation for estimation of the coefficient for a riverine flow. For this purpose, a set of tracer experiments was conducted, involving salt tracer, at three sections located in downstream of a lengthy canal. Tracer data were measured in three mixing lengths along the canal including; 45, 75 and 100m. According to the results, the obtained coefficients from new developed empirical equation gave an encouraging level of agreement with the theoretical values.

Keywords: coefficients, dispersion, river, tracer, water quality

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806 Citizenship Education and Access to Information for Political Socialization and Unity in Nigeria

Authors: Alh Rauf Bello Bella

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The main purpose of citizenship education if properly executed is to create awareness and enlightenment in the society to bring tolerance and political unity among the people. For the citizenry to have a meaningful participation for the achievement of this objective in a modern society where democracy thrives, all citizens should also have access to information on all matters affecting their lives and well-being. The paper therefore examines the scope of citizenship education and the complementary role of information providers in the quest for political socialization and national unity. It emphasizes some issues of national unity which should be addressed through proper enlightenment of the citizenry and access to relevant and timely information at the grassroots.

Keywords: citizenship education, national unity, political socialization, Nigeria

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805 Humanity in Public Policy: The Polemic of Death Penalty Policy in Indonesia

Authors: Alvian R. E. Purnomo, K. Noni Srijati, Hernawan Adi

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Government regulation is a result of agreement on the struggle of ideas, interests, and ideologies among elites in state institution. The polemic about death penalty policy in Indonesia is still becoming an interesting discussion and also a complex issue. There are pros/ cons of whether the policy is humane or not. Indonesia becomes the concern of the world’s community because the policy of death penalty applied is considered not reflecting the values of Indonesian culture including tolerance, mutual cooperation, and love. This paper examines them using literature study on how public policy theories respond to humanity issues and how Indonesian government should take steps to the issue of the death penalty that has become polemic until now.

Keywords: government regulation, public policy, death penalty policy, humanity

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804 High Temperature in Caustic Pretreatment of Gold Locked in the Residue after Filtration from Gold Cyanidation Leaching

Authors: K. L. Kabemba, R. F. Sandenberg

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The usual way to desorb gold is by elution with a hot concentrated alkaline solution of sodium cyanide. The high temperature is necessary because the dielectric constant of water decreases with increasing temperature hence the electrostatic forces between charcoal and the gold cyanide complex decreases. High alkalinity and a high concentration of cyanide are necessary for gold desorption because both OH- and CN- ions are preferentially adsorbed. The rate of elution increases with increasing anion concentration but decreases with increasing cation concentration that means the rate of elution passes through a maximum as the concentration of the eluting salt (NaCN, for example) is increased. The anion that gives the best results, the cyanide ion, decomposes fairly rapidly at elevated temperatures (40% in 6 hours, 90% in 24 hours at 95°C).

Keywords: caustic, cyanide, gold, temperature

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803 NK Cells Expansion Model from PBMC Led to a Decrease of CD4+ and an Increase of CD8+ and CD25+CD127- T-Reg Lymphocytes in Patients with Ovarian Neoplasia

Authors: Rodrigo Fernandes da Silva, Daniela Maira Cardozo, Paulo Cesar Martins Alves, Sophie Françoise Derchain, Fernando Guimarães

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T-reg lymphocytes are important for the control of peripheral tolerance. They control the adaptive immune system and prevent autoimmunity through its suppressive action on CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes. The suppressive action also includes B lymphocytes, dendritic cells, monocytes/macrophages and recently, studies have shown that T-reg are also able to inhibit NK cells, therefore they exert their control of the immune response from innate to adaptive response. Most tumors express self-ligands, therefore it is believed that T-reg cells induce tolerance of the immune system, hindering the development of successful immunotherapies. T-reg cells have been linked to the suppression mechanisms of the immune response against tumors, including ovarian cancer. The goal of this study was to disclose the sub-population of the expanded CD3+ lymphocytes reported by previous studies, using the long-term culture model designed by Carlens et al 2001, to generate effector cell suspensions enriched with cytotoxic CD3-CD56+ NK cells, from PBMC of ovarian neoplasia patients. Methods and Results: Blood was collected from 12 patients with ovarian neoplasia after signed consent: 7 benign (Bng) and 5 malignant (Mlg). Mononuclear cells were separated by Ficoll-Paque gradient. Long-term culture was conducted by a 21 day culturing process with SCGM CellGro medium supplemented with anti-CD3 (10ng/ml, first 5 days), IL-2 (1000UI/ml) and FBS (10%). After 21 days of expansion, there was an increase in the population of CD3+ lymphocytes in the benign and malignant group. Within CD3+ population, there was a significant decrease in the population of CD4+ lymphocytes in the benign (median Bgn D-0=73.68%, D-21=21.05%) (p<0.05) and malignant (median Mlg D-0=64.00%, D-21=11.97%) (p < 0.01) group. Inversely, after 21 days of expansion, there was an increase in the population of CD8+ lymphocytes within the CD3+ population in the benign (median Bgn D-0=16.80%, D-21=38.56%) and malignant (median Mlg D-0=27.12%, D-21=72.58%) group. However, this increase was only significant on the malignant group (p<0.01). Within the CD3+CD4+ population, there was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the population of T-reg lymphocytes in the benign (median Bgn D-0=9.84%, D-21=39.47%) and malignant (median Mlg D-0=3.56%, D-21=16.18%) group. Statistical analysis inter groups was performed by Kruskal-Wallis test and intra groups by Mann Whitney test. Conclusion: The CD4+ and CD8+ sub-population of CD3+ lymphocytes shifts with the culturing process. This might be due to the process of the immune system to produce a cytotoxic response. At the same time, T-reg lymphocytes increased within the CD4+ population, suggesting a modulation of the immune response towards cells of the immune system. The expansion of the T-reg population can hinder an immune response against cancer. Therefore, an immunotherapy using this expansion procedure should aim to halt the expansion of T-reg or its immunosuppresion capability.

Keywords: regulatory T cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, NK cell expansion

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802 Capacity Building in Dietary Monitoring and Public Health Nutrition in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Authors: Marisol Warthon-Medina, Jenny Plumb, Ayoub Aljawaldeh, Mark Roe, Ailsa Welch, Maria Glibetic, Paul M. Finglas

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Similar to Western Countries, the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) also presents major public health issues associated with the increased consumption of sugar, fat, and salt. Therefore, one of the policies of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) EMR is to reduce the intake of salt, sugar, and fat (Saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids) to address the risk of non-communicable diseases (i.e. diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer) and obesity. The project objective is to assess status and provide training and capacity development in the use of improved standardized methodologies for updated food composition data, dietary intake methods, use of suitable biomarkers of nutritional value and determine health outcomes in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Training exchanges have been developed with clusters of countries created resulting from regional needs including Sudan, Egypt and Jordan; Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania; and other Middle Eastern countries. This capacity building will lead to the development and sustainability of up-to-date national and regional food composition databases in LMIC for use in dietary monitoring assessment in food and nutrient intakes. Workshops were organized to provide training and capacity development in the use of improved standardized methodologies for food composition and food intake. Training needs identified and short-term scientific missions organized for LMIC researchers including (1) training and knowledge exchange workshops, (2) short-term exchange of researchers, (3) development and application of protocols and (4) development of strategies to reduce sugar and fat intake. An initial training workshop, Morocco 2018 was attended by 25 participants from 10 EMR countries to review status and support development of regional food composition. 4 training exchanges are in progress. The use of improved standardized methodologies for food composition and dietary intake will produce robust measurements that will reinforce dietary monitoring and policy in LMIC. The capacity building from this project will lead to the development and sustainability of up-to-date national and regional food composition databases in EMR countries. Supported by the UK Medical Research Council, Global Challenges Research Fund, (MR/R019576/1), and the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Keywords: dietary intake, food composition, low and middle-income countries, status.

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801 Transformational Leadership in the United States to Negate Current Ethnocentrisms

Authors: Molly Meadows

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Following the presidency of Donald J. Trump, Americans have become hyperaware of ethnocentrisms that plague the culture. The president's egoist ethics encouraged a divide between what the citizens of the US identified as just or unjust. In the race for global supremacy and leading ideology, fears have arisen, exacerbated by the ethnocentricity of the country's leader, pointing to the possible harmful ethical standards of competing nations. Due to the concept of ethical absolutism, an international code of ethics would not be possible, and the changes needed to eliminate the stigma surrounding other cultures of thought would need to come from the governing body of the US. As the current leading global ideology, the US would need its government to embody a transformational leadership style in order to unite the motivations of the citizens and encourage intercultural tolerance.

Keywords: ethics, transformational leadership, American politics, egoism, cultural intelligence, ethical relativism

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800 Comparison between Conventional Bacterial and Algal-Bacterial Aerobic Granular Sludge Systems in the Treatment of Saline Wastewater

Authors: Philip Semaha, Zhongfang Lei, Ziwen Zhao, Sen Liu, Zhenya Zhang, Kazuya Shimizu

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The increasing generation of saline wastewater through various industrial activities is becoming a global concern for activated sludge (AS) based biological treatment which is widely applied in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). As for the AS process, an increase in wastewater salinity has negative impact on its overall performance. The advent of conventional aerobic granular sludge (AGS) or bacterial AGS biotechnology has gained much attention because of its superior performance. The development of algal-bacterial AGS could enhance better nutrients removal, potentially reduce aeration cost through symbiotic algae-bacterial activity, and thus, can also reduce overall treatment cost. Nonetheless, the potential of salt stress to decrease biomass growth, microbial activity and nutrient removal exist. Up to the present, little information is available on saline wastewater treatment by algal-bacterial AGS. To the authors’ best knowledge, a comparison of the two AGS systems has not been done to evaluate nutrients removal capacity in the context of salinity increase. This study sought to figure out the impact of salinity on the algal-bacterial AGS system in comparison to bacterial AGS one, contributing to the application of AGS technology in the real world of saline wastewater treatment. In this study, the salt concentrations tested were 0 g/L, 1 g/L, 5 g/L, 10 g/L and 15 g/L of NaCl with 24-hr artificial illuminance of approximately 97.2 µmol m¯²s¯¹, and mature bacterial and algal-bacterial AGS were used for the operation of two identical sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) with a working volume of 0.9 L each, respectively. The results showed that salinity increase caused no apparent change in the color of bacterial AGS; while for algal-bacterial AGS, its color was progressively changed from green to dark green. A consequent increase in granule diameter and fluffiness was observed in the bacterial AGS reactor with the increase of salinity in comparison to a decrease in algal-bacterial AGS diameter. However, nitrite accumulation peaked from 1.0 mg/L and 0.4 mg/L at 1 g/L NaCl in the bacterial and algal-bacterial AGS systems, respectively to 9.8 mg/L in both systems when NaCl concentration varied from 5 g/L to 15 g/L. Almost no ammonia nitrogen was detected in the effluent except at 10 g/L NaCl concentration, where it averaged 4.2 mg/L and 2.4 mg/L, respectively, in the bacterial and algal-bacterial AGS systems. Nutrients removal in the algal-bacterial system was relatively higher than the bacterial AGS in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus removals. Nonetheless, the nutrient removal rate was almost 50% or lower. Results show that algal-bacterial AGS is more adaptable to salinity increase and could be more suitable for saline wastewater treatment. Optimization of operation conditions for algal-bacterial AGS system would be important to ensure its stably high efficiency in practice.

Keywords: algal-bacterial aerobic granular sludge, bacterial aerobic granular sludge, Nutrients removal, saline wastewater, sequencing batch reactor

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799 Tolerating Input Faults in Asynchronous Sequential Machines

Authors: Jung-Min Yang

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A method of tolerating input faults for input/state asynchronous sequential machines is proposed. A corrective controller is placed in front of the considered asynchronous machine to realize model matching with a reference model. The value of the external input transmitted to the closed-loop system may change by fault. We address the existence condition for the controller that can counteract adverse effects of any input fault while maintaining the objective of model matching. A design procedure for constructing the controller is outlined. The proposed reachability condition for the controller design is validated in an illustrative example.

Keywords: asynchronous sequential machines, corrective control, fault tolerance, input faults, model matching

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798 Antimicrobial Activity of Fatty Acid Salts against Microbes for Food Safety

Authors: Aya Tanaka, Mariko Era, Manami Masuda, Yui Okuno, Takayoshi Kawahara, Takahide Kanyama, Hiroshi Morita

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Objectives— Fungi and bacteria are present in a wide range of natural environments. They are breed in the foods such as vegetables and fruit, causing corruption and deterioration of these foods in some cases. Furthermore, some species of fungi and bacteria are known to cause food intoxication or allergic reactions in some individuals. To prevent fungal and bacterial contamination, various fungicides and bactericidal have been developed that inhibit fungal and bacterial growth. Fungicides and bactericides must show high antifungal and antibacterial activity, sustainable activity, and a high degree of safety. Therefore, we focused on the fatty acid salt which is the main component of soap. We focused on especially C10K and C12K. This study aimed to find the effectiveness of the fatty acid salt as antimicrobial agents for food safety. Materials and Methods— Cladosporium cladosporioides NBRC 30314, Penicillium pinophilum NBRC 6345, Aspergillus oryzae (Akita Konno store), Rhizopus oryzae NBRC 4716, Fusarium oxysporum NBRC 31631, Escherichia coli NBRC 3972, Bacillus subtilis NBRC 3335, Staphylococcus aureus NBRC 12732, Pseudomonas aenuginosa NBRC 13275 and Serratia marcescens NBRC 102204 were chosen as tested fungi and bacteria. Hartmannella vermiformis NBRC 50599 and Acanthamoeba castellanii NBRC 30010 were chosen as tested amoeba. Nine fatty acid salts including potassium caprate (C10K) and laurate (C12K) at 350 mM and pH 10.5 were used as antifungal activity. The spore suspension of each fungus (3.0×10⁴ spores/mL) or the bacterial suspension (3.0×10⁵ or 3.0×10⁶ or 3.0×10⁷ CFU/mL) was mixed with each of the fatty acid salts (final concentration of 175 mM). Samples were counted at 0, 10, 60, and 180 min by plating (100 µL) on potato dextrose agar or nutrient agar. Fungal and bacterial colonies were counted after incubation for 1 or 2 days at 30 °C. Results— C10K was antifungal activity of 4 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against fungi other than A. oryzae. C12K was antifungal activity of 4 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against fungi other than P. pinophilum and A. oryzae. C10K and C12K did not show high anti-yeast activity. C10K was antibacterial activity of 6 or 7 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against bacteria other than B. subtilis. C12K was antibacterial activity of 5 to 7 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against bacteria other than S. marcescens. C12K was anti-amoeba activity of 4 log-unit incubated time for 10 min against H. vermiformis. These results suggest C10K and C12K have potential in the field of food safety.

Keywords: food safety, microbes, antimicrobial, fatty acid salts

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797 The Necessity and Methods of Abolishing Discrimination and Religious Violence

Authors: Hossein Boroujerdi, Mohammad R. Sadeghi, Maryam Moazen Zadeh

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During the recent decades, the result of religious prophets has lost its attraction, and theology has become disfigured, so it has been made ugly. Undoubtedly, some of existing non-peaceful and harsh rules and measures within the religious books and contexts have been considered as the reasons and excuses for defamation of religions. Based on library sources and also extensive research in Quran and Islamic narratives, this study has aimed to find some alternative solutions and options to abolish and disregard those religious rules which are in contrary of human right charters and standards. The results have demonstrated that some of inhuman religious punishments such as execution, stoning, whipping as well as religious discriminations and warlike behaviors are in contrary of some other religious contexts and concepts. This finding have proved inadaptability between some religious contexts and religious records.

Keywords: adjustment and abolishment, discrimination, religious commands and laws, tolerance, violence

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796 The Effect of the Proportion of Carbon on the Corrosion Rate of Carbon-Steel

Authors: Abdulmagid A. Khattabi, Ahmed A. Hablous, Mofied M. Elnemry

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The carbon steel is of one of the most common mineral materials used in engineering and industrial applications in order to have access to the required mechanical properties, especially after the change of carbon ratio, but this may lead to stimulate corrosion. It has been used in models of solids with different carbon ratios such as 0.05% C, 0.2% C, 0.35% C, 0.5% C, and 0.65% C and have been studied using three testing durations which are 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 8 weeks and among different corrosion environments such as atmosphere, fresh water, and salt water. This research is for the purpose of finding the effect of the carbon content on the corrosion resistance of steels in different corrosion medium by using the weight loss technique as a function of the corrosion resistance. The results that have been obtained through this research shows that a correlation can be made between corrosion rates and steel's carbon content, and the corrosion resistance decreases with the increase in carbon content.

Keywords: proportion of carbon in the steel, corrosion rate, erosion, corrosion resistance in carbon-steel

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795 Examining the Investment Behavior of Arab Women in the Stock Market

Authors: Razan Salem

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Gender plays a vital role in the stock markets because men and women differ in their behavior when investing in stocks. Accordingly, the role of gender differences in investment behavior is an increasingly important strand in the field of behavioral finance research. The investment behaviors of women relative to men have been examined in the behavioral finance literature, mainly for comparison purposes. Women's roles in the stock market have not been examined in the behavioral finance literature, however, particularly with respect to the Arab region. This study aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the investment behavior of Arab women (in regards to their risk tolerance, investment confidence, and investment literacy levels) relative to Arab men; using a sample from Arab women and men investors living in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. In order to achieve the study's main aim, the researcher used non-parametric tests, as Mann-Whitney U test, along with frequency distribution analysis to analyze the study’s primary data. The researcher distributed close-ended online questionnaires to a sample of 550 Arab male and female individuals investing in stocks in both Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The results confirm that the sample Arab women invest less in stocks compared to Arab men due to their risk-averse behaviors and limited confidence levels. The results also reveal that due to Arab women’s very low investment literacy levels, they fear from taking the risk and invest often in stocks relative to Arab men. Overall, the study’s main variables (risk tolerance, investment confidence, and investment literacy levels) have a combined effect on the investment behavior of Arab women and their limited participation in the stock market. Hence, this study is one of the very first studies that indicate the combined effect of the three main variables (which are usually studied separately in the existing literature) on the investment behavior of women, particularly Arab women. This study makes three important contributions to the growing literature on gender differences in investment behavior. First, while the behavioral finance literature documents evidence on gender differences in investment behaviors in many developed countries, there are very limited studies that investigate such differences in Arab countries. Arab women investors, generally, are ignored from the behavioral finance literature due probably to cultural barriers and data collection difficulties. Thus, this study extends the literature to include Arab women and their investment behaviors when trading stock relative to Arab men. Moreover, the study associates women investment literacy and confidence levels with their financial risk behaviors and participation in the stock market. This study provides direct evidence on Arab women's investment behaviors when trading stocks. Overall, studying Arab women investors is important to investigate whether the investment behavior identified for Western women investors are also found in Arab women investors.

Keywords: Arab women, gender differences, investment behavior, stock markets

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794 iPSC-derived MSC Mediated Immunosuppression during Mouse Airway Transplantation

Authors: Mohammad Afzal Khan, Fatimah Alanazi, Hala Abdalrahman Ahmed, Talal Shamma, Kilian Kelly, Mohammed A. Hammad, Abdullah O. Alawad, Abdullah Mohammed Assiri, Dieter Clemens Broering

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Lung transplantation is a life-saving surgical replacement of diseased lungs in patients with end-stage respiratory malfunctions. Despite the remarkable short-term recovery, long-term lung survival continues to face several significant challenges, including chronic rejection and severe toxic side-effects due to global immunosuppression. Stem cell-based immunotherapy has been recognized as a crucial immunoregulatory regimen in various preclinical and clinical studies. Despite initial therapeutic outcomes, conventional stem cells face key limitations. The Cymerus™ manufacturing facilitates the production of a virtually limitless supply of consistent human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived mesenchymal stem cells, which could play a key role in selective immunosuppression and graft repair during rejection. Here, we demonstrated the impact of iPSC-derived human MSCs on the development of immune-tolerance and long-term graft survival in mouse orthotopic airway allografts. BALB/c→C57BL/6 allografts were reconstituted with iPSC-derived MSCs (2 million/transplant/ at d0), and allografts were examined for regulatory T cells (Tregs), oxygenation, microvascular blood flow, airway epithelium and collagen deposition during rejection. We demonstrated that iPSC-derived MSC treatment leads to significant increase in tissue expression of hTSG-6 protein, followed by an upregulation of mouse Tregs and IL-5, IL-10, IL-15 cytokines, which augments graft microvascular blood flow and oxygenation, and thereby maintained a healthy airway epithelium and prevented the subepithelial deposition of collagen at d90 post-transplantation. Collectively, these data confirmed that iPSC-derived MSC-mediated immunosuppression has potential to establish immune-tolerance and rescue allograft from sustained hypoxic/ischemic phase and subsequently limits long-term airway epithelial injury and collagen progression, which therapeutically warrant a study of Cymerus iPSC-derived MSCs as a potential management option for immunosuppression in transplant recipients.

Keywords: stem cell therapy, immunotolerance, regulatory T cells, hypoxia and ischemia, microvasculature

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793 Efforts to Revitalize Piipaash Language: An Explorative Study to Develop Culturally Appropriate and Contextually Relevant Teaching Materials for Preschoolers

Authors: Shahzadi Laibah Burq, Gina Scarpete Walters

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Piipaash, representing one large family of North American languages, Yuman, is reported as one of the seriously endangered languages in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of Arizona. In a collaborative venture between Arizona State University (ASU) and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC), efforts have been made to revitalize and preserve the Piipaash language and its cultural heritage. The present study is one example of several other language documentation and revitalization initiatives that Humanities Lab ASU has taken. This study was approved to receive a “Beyond the lab” grant after the researchers successfully created a Teaching Guide for Early Childhood Piipaash storybook during their time working in the Humanities Lab. The current research is an extension of the previous project and focuses on creating customized teaching materials and tools for the teachers and parents of the students of the Early Enrichment Program at SRPMIC. However, to determine and maximize the usefulness of the teaching materials with regards to their reliability, validity, and practicality in the given context, this research aims to conduct Environmental Analysis and Need Analysis. Environmental Analysis seeks to evaluate the Early Enrichment Program situation and Need Analysis to investigate the specific and situated requirements of the teachers to assist students in building target language skills. The study employs a qualitative methods approach for the collection of the data. Multiple data collection strategies are used concurrently to gather information from the participants. The research tools include semi-structured interviews with the program administrators and teachers, classroom observations, and teacher shadowing. The researchers utilize triangulation of the data to maintain validity in the process of data interpretation. The preliminary results of the study show a need for culturally appropriate materials that can further the learning of students of the target language as well as the culture, i.e., clay pots and basket-making materials. It was found that the course and teachers focus on developing the Listening and Speaking skills of the students. Moreover, to assist the young learners beyond the classroom, the teachers could make use of send-home teaching materials to reinforce the learning (i.e., coloring books, including illustrations of culturally relevant animals, food, and places). Audio language resources are also identified as helpful additional materials for the parents to assist the learning of the kids.

Keywords: indigenous education, materials development, need analysis, piipaash language revitalizaton

Procedia PDF Downloads 89
792 Conductive Clay Nanocomposite Using Smectite and Poly(O-Anisidine)

Authors: M. Şahi̇n, E. Erdem, M. Saçak

Abstract:

In this study, Na-smectite crystals purificated of bentonite were used after being swelling with benzyltributylammonium bromide (BTBAB) as alkyl ammonium salt. Swelling process was carried out using 0.2 g of BTBAB for smectite of 0.8 g with 4 h of mixing time after investigated conditions such as mixing time, the swelling agent amount. Then, the conductive poly(o-anisidine) (POA)/smectite nanocomposite was prepared in the presence of swollen Na-smectite using ammonium persulfate (APS) as oxidant in aqueous acidic medium. The POA content and conductivity of the prepared nanocomposite were systematically investigated as a function of polymerization conditions such as the treatment time of swollen smectite in monomer solution and o-anisidine/APS mol ratio. POA/smectite nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, FTIR and SEM techniques and was compared separately with components of composite.

Keywords: clay, composite, conducting polymer, poly(o-anisidine)

Procedia PDF Downloads 325
791 Evaluation of Antidiabetic Activity of a Combination Extract of Nigella Sativa & Cinnamomum Cassia in Streptozotocin Induced Type-I Diabetic Rats

Authors: Ginpreet Kaur, Mohammad Yasir Usmani, Mohammed Kamil Khan

Abstract:

Diabetes mellitus is a disease with a high global burden and results in significant morbidity and mortality. In India, the number of people suffering with diabetes is expected to rise from 19 to 57 million in 2025. At present, interest in herbal remedies is growing to reduce the side effects associated with conventional dosage form like oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Our aim was to investigate the antidiabetic activities of combinatorial extract of N. sativa & C. cassia in Streptozotocin induced type-I Diabetic Rats. Thus, the present study was undertaken to screen postprandial glucose excursion potential through α- glucosidase inhibitory activity (In Vitro) and effect of combinatorial extract of N. sativa & C. cassia in Streptozotocin induced type-I Diabetic Rats (In Vivo). In addition changes in body weight, plasma glucose, lipid profile and kidney profile were also determined. The IC50 values for both extract and Acarbose was calculated by extrapolation method. Combinatorial extract of N. sativa & C. cassia at different dosages (100 and 200 mg/kg orally) and Metformin (50 mg/kg orally) as the standard drug was administered for 28 days and then biochemical estimation, body weights and OGTT (Oral glucose tolerance test) were determined. Histopathological studies were also performed on kidney and pancreatic tissue. In In-Vitro the combinatorial extract shows much more inhibiting effect than the individual extracts. The results reveals that combinatorial extract of N. sativa & C. cassia has shown significant decrease in plasma glucose (p<0.0001), total cholesterol and LDL levels when compared with the STZ group The decreasing level of BUN and creatinine revealed the protection of N. sativa & C. cassia extracts against nephropathy associated with diabetes. Combination of N. sativa & C. cassia significantly improved glucose tolerance to exogenously administered glucose (2 g/kg) after 60, 90 and 120 min interval on OGTT in high dose streptozotocin induced diabetic rats compared with the untreated control group. Histopathological studies shown that treatment with N. sativa & C. cassia extract alone and in combination restored pancreatic tissue integrity and was able to regenerate the STZ damaged pancreatic β cells. Thus, the present study reveals that combination of N. sativa & C. cassia extract has significant α- glucosidase inhibitory activity and thus has great potential as a new source for diabetes treatment.

Keywords: lipid levels, OGTT, diabetes, herbs, glucosidase

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790 The Beneficial Effects of Inhibition of Hepatic Adaptor Protein Phosphotyrosine Interacting with PH Domain and Leucine Zipper 2 on Glucose and Cholesterol Homeostasis

Authors: Xi Chen, King-Yip Cheng

Abstract:

Hypercholesterolemia, characterized by high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), raises cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Although several drugs, such as statin and PCSK9 inhibitors, are available for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, they exert detrimental effects on glucose metabolism and hence increase the risk of T2D. On the other hand, the drugs used to treat T2D have minimal effect on improving the lipid profile. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop treatments that can simultaneously improve glucose and lipid homeostasis. Adaptor protein phosphotyrosine interacting with PH domain and leucine zipper 2 (APPL2) causes insulin resistance in the liver and skeletal muscle via inhibiting insulin and adiponectin actions in animal models. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the APPL2 gene were associated with LDL-C, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and coronary artery disease in humans. The aim of this project is to investigate whether APPL2 antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) can alleviate dietary-induced T2D and hypercholesterolemia. High-fat diet (HFD) was used to induce obesity and insulin resistance in mice. GalNAc-conjugated APPL2 ASO (GalNAc-APPL2-ASO) was used to silence hepatic APPL2 expression in C57/BL6J mice selectively. Glucose, lipid, and energy metabolism were monitored. Immunoblotting and quantitative PCR analysis showed that GalNAc-APPL2-ASO treatment selectively reduced APPL2 expression in the liver instead of other tissues, like adipose tissues, kidneys, muscle, and heart. The glucose tolerance test and insulin sensitivity test revealed that GalNAc-APPL2-ASO improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity progressively. Blood chemistry analysis revealed that the mice treated with GalNAc-APPL2-ASO had significantly lower circulating levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. However, there was no difference in circulating levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglyceride, and free fatty acid between the mice treated with GalNac-APPL2-ASO and GalNAc-Control-ASO. No obvious effect on food intake, body weight, and liver injury markers after GalNAc-APPL2-ASO treatment was found, supporting its tolerability and safety. We showed that selectively silencing hepatic APPL2 alleviated insulin resistance and hypercholesterolemia and improved energy metabolism in the dietary-induced obese mouse model, indicating APPL2 as a therapeutic target for metabolic diseases.

Keywords: APPL2, antisense oligonucleotide, hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes

Procedia PDF Downloads 67
789 Biotechnological Methods for the Grouting of the Tunneling Space

Authors: V. Ivanov, J. Chu, V. Stabnikov

Abstract:

Different biotechnological methods for the production of construction materials and for the performance of construction processes in situ are developing within a new scientific discipline of Construction Biotechnology. The aim of this research was to develop and test new biotechnologies and biotechnological grouts for the minimization of the hydraulic conductivity of the fractured rocks and porous soil. This problem is essential to minimize flow rate of groundwater into the construction sites, the tunneling space before and after excavation, inside levies, as well as to stop water seepage from the aquaculture ponds, agricultural channels, radioactive waste or toxic chemicals storage sites, from the landfills or from the soil-polluted sites. The conventional fine or ultrafine cement grouts or chemical grouts have such restrictions as high cost, viscosity, sometime toxicity but the biogrouts, which are based on microbial or enzymatic activities and some not expensive inorganic reagents, could be more suitable in many cases because of lower cost and low or zero toxicity. Due to these advantages, development of biotechnologies for biogrouting is going exponentially. However, most popular at present biogrout, which is based on activity of urease- producing bacteria initiating crystallization of calcium carbonate from calcium salt has such disadvantages as production of toxic ammonium/ammonia and development of high pH. Therefore, the aim of our studies was development and testing of new biogrouts that are environmentally friendly and have low cost suitable for large scale geotechnical, construction, and environmental applications. New microbial biotechnologies have been studied and tested in the sand columns, fissured rock samples, in 1 m3 tank with sand, and in the pack of stone sheets that were the models of the porous soil and fractured rocks. Several biotechnological methods showed positive results: 1) biogrouting using sequential desaturation of sand by injection of denitrifying bacteria and medium following with biocementation using urease-producing bacteria, urea and calcium salt decreased hydraulic conductivity of sand to 2×10-7 ms-1 after 17 days of treatment and consumed almost three times less reagents than conventional calcium-and urea-based biogrouting; 2) biogrouting using slime-producing bacteria decreased hydraulic conductivity of sand to 1x10-6 ms-1 after 15 days of treatment; 3) biogrouting of the rocks with the width of the fissures 65×10-6 m using calcium bicarbonate solution, that was produced from CaCO3 and CO2 under 30 bars pressure, decreased hydraulic conductivity of the fissured rocks to 2×10-7 ms-1 after 5 days of treatment. These bioclogging technologies could have a lot of advantages over conventional construction materials and processes and can be used in geotechnical engineering, agriculture and aquaculture, and for the environmental protection.

Keywords: biocementation, bioclogging, biogrouting, fractured rocks, porous soil, tunneling space

Procedia PDF Downloads 208
788 Examination of Corrosion Durability Related to Installed Environments of Steel Bridges

Authors: Jin-Hee Ahn, Seok-Hyeon Jeon, Young-Bin Lee, Min-Gyun Ha, Yu-Chan Hong

Abstract:

Corrosion durability of steel bridges can be generally affected by atmospheric environments of bridge installation, since corrosion problem is related to environmental factors such as humidity, temperature, airborne salt, chemical components as SO₂, chlorides, etc. Thus, atmospheric environment condition should be measured to estimate corrosion condition of steel bridges as well as measurement of actual corrosion damage of structural members of steel bridge. Even in the same atmospheric environment, the corrosion environment may be different depending on the installation direction of structural members. In this study, therefore, atmospheric corrosion monitoring was conducted using atmospheric corrosion monitoring sensor, hygrometer, thermometer and airborne salt collection device to examine the corrosion durability of steel bridges. As a target steel bridge for corrosion durability monitoring, a cable-stayed bridge with truss steel members was selected. This cable-stayed bridge was located on the coast to connect the islands with the islands. Especially, atmospheric corrosion monitoring was carried out depending on structural direction of a cable-stayed bridge with truss type girders since it consists of structural members with various directions. For atmospheric corrosion monitoring, daily average electricity (corrosion current) was measured at each monitoring members to evaluate corrosion environments and corrosion level depending on structural members with various direction which have different corrosion environment in the same installed area. To compare corrosion durability connected with monitoring data depending on corrosion monitoring members, monitoring steel plate was additionally installed in same monitoring members. Monitoring steel plates of carbon steel was fabricated with dimension of 60mm width and 3mm thickness. And its surface was cleaned for removing rust on the surface by blasting, and its weight was measured before its installation on each structural members. After a 3 month exposure period on real atmospheric corrosion environment at bridge, surface condition of atmospheric corrosion monitoring sensors and monitoring steel plates were observed for corrosion damage. When severe deterioration of atmospheric corrosion monitoring sensors or corrosion damage of monitoring steel plates were found, they were replaced or collected. From 3month exposure tests in the actual steel bridge with various structural member with various direction, the rust on the surface of monitoring steel plate was found, and the difference in the corrosion rate was found depending on the direction of structural member from their visual inspection. And daily average electricity (corrosion current) was changed depending on the direction of structural member. However, it is difficult to identify the relative differences in corrosion durability of steel structural members using short-term monitoring results. After long exposure tests in this corrosion environments, it can be clearly evaluated the difference in corrosion durability depending on installed conditions of steel bridges. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03028755).

Keywords: corrosion, atmospheric environments, steel bridge, monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 360
787 Sequential Pulsed Electric Field and Ultrasound Assisted Extraction of Bioactive Enriched Fractions from Button Mushroom Stalks

Authors: Bibha Kumari, Nigel P. Brunton, Dilip K. Rai, Brijesh K. Tiwari

Abstract:

Edible mushrooms possess numerous functional components like homo- and hetero- β-glucans [β(1→3), β(1→4) and β(1→6) glucosidic linkages], chitins, ergosterols, bioactive polysaccharides and peptides imparting health beneficial properties to mushrooms. Some of the proven biological activities of mushroom extracts are antioxidant, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, cholesterol lowering activity by inhibiting a key cholesterol metabolism enzyme i.e. 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl CoA reductase (HMGCR), angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition. Application of novel extraction technologies like pulsed electric field (PEF) and high power ultrasound offers clean, green, faster and efficient extraction alternatives with enhanced and good quality extracts. Sequential PEF followed by ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) were applied to recover bioactive enriched fractions from industrial white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) stalk waste using environmentally friendly and GRAS solvents i.e. water and water/ethanol combinations. The PEF treatment was carried out at 60% output voltage, 2 Hz frequency for 500 pulses of 20 microseconds pulse width, using KCl salt solution of 0.6 mS/cm conductivity by the placing 35g of chopped fresh mushroom stalks and 25g of salt solution in the 4x4x4cm3 treatment chamber. Sequential UAE was carried out on the PEF pre-treated samples using ultrasonic-water-bath (USB) of three frequencies (25 KHz, 35 KHz and 45 KHz) for various treatment times (15-120 min) at 80°C. Individual treatment using either PEF or UAE were also investigation to compare the effect of each treatment along with the combined effect on the recovery and bioactivity of the crude extracts. The freeze dried mushroom stalk powder was characterised for proximate compositional parameters (dry weight basis) showing 64.11% total carbohydrate, 19.12% total protein, 7.21% total fat, 31.2% total dietary fiber, 7.9% chitin (as glucosamine equivalent) and 1.02% β-glucan content. The total phenolic contents (TPC) were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu procedure and expressed as gallic-acid-equivalents (GAE). The antioxidant properties were ascertained using DPPH and FRAP assays and expressed as trolox-equivalents (TE). HMGCR activity and molecular mass of β-glucans will be measured using the commercial HMG-CoA Reductase Assay kit (Sigma-Aldrich) and size exclusion chromatography (HPLC-SEC), respectively. Effects of PEF, UAE and their combination on the antioxidant capacity, HMGCR inhibition and β-glucans content will be presented.

Keywords: β-glucan, mushroom stalks, pulsed electric field (PEF), ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE)

Procedia PDF Downloads 291
786 Synthesis, Spectroscopic and Thermal Studies of Copper(I) Chlorido Complexes of Thioureas

Authors: Muhammad Mufakkar, Ghulam Hussain Bhatti, Maryem Rana

Abstract:

The study of the coordination behavior of thiones is of considerable interest due to the similarity of their binding sites to those in living systems. The complexation of thiones towards Copper(I) has also received considerable attraction in view of their variable bonding modes, structural diversity and promising biological implications. Copper (I) complexes of thioureas of the general formula: CuLCl, CuL2Cl and CuL3Cl [where L= Thiourea and its N- and N, N/- mono and di alkyl and phenyl derivatives] have been prepared using Cu(I)CN in the presence of HCl. The complexes have been characterized by thermal, IR and NMR(1H and 13C) spectroscopy. An upfield shift in 13C NMR and downfield shifts in 1H NMR are consistent with the sulfur coordination to Copper(I). The disappearance of a band around 2200 cm⁻¹ in IR and a resonance around 146 ppm in 13C NMR indicates that during the course of reaction the cyanide group of the Copper(I) salt has been replaced by chloride leading to the formation of chlorido complexes.

Keywords: Thiones, complexation, spectra, TGA, thermogram, chemical shifts, deshielding, resonance

Procedia PDF Downloads 238
785 Potential Cross-Protection Roles of Chitooligosaccharide in Alleviating Cd Toxicity in Edible Rape (Brassica rapa L.)

Authors: Haiying Zong, Yi Yuan, Pengcheng Li

Abstract:

Cadmium (Cd), one of the toxic heavy metals, has high solubility and mobility in agricultural soils and is readily taken up by roots and transported to the vegetative and reproductive organs which can cause deleterious effects on crop yield and quality. Excess Cd in plants can interfere with many metabolic processes, such as photosynthesis, transpiration, respiration or nutrients homeostasis. Generally, the main methods to reduce Cd accumulation in plants are to decrease the concentration of Cd in the soil solution through reduction of Cd influx into the soil system, site selection, and management practices. However, these approaches can be very costly and consume a lot of energy Therefore, it is critical to develop effective approaches to reduce the Cd concentration in plants. It is proved that chitooligosaccharide (COS) can enhance the plant's tolerance to abiotic stress including drought stress, salinity stress, and toxic metal stress. However, so far little information is known about whether foliar application with COS modulates Cd-induced toxicity in plants. The metal detoxification processes of plants treated with COS also remain unclear. In this study, edible rape (Brassica rapa L.), one of the most widely consumed leafy vegetables, was selected as an experimental mode plant. The effect of foliar application with COS on reducing Cd accumulation in edible rape was investigated. Moreover, Cd subcellular distribution pattern in response to Cd stress in the rape plant sprayed with COS was further tested in order to explore the potential detoxification mechanisms in plants. The results demonstrated that spraying COS at different concentrations (25, 50,100 and 200 mg L-1) possess diverse functions including growth-promoting,chlorophyll contents-enhancing, malondialdehyde (MDA) level-decreasing in leaves, Cd2+ concentration-decreasingin shoots and roots of edible rape under Cd stress. In addition, it was found that COS can also dramatically improve superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity and peroxidase (POX) activity of edible rape leaves. The relievingeffect of COS was related to theconcentration and COS with 50-100 mg L-1 displayed the best activity. Furtherly, theexperiments results exhibitedthat COS could decrease the proportion of Cd in the organelle fraction of leaves by 40.1% while enhance the proportion of Cd in the soluble fraction by 13.2% at the concentration of 50 mg L-1. The above results showed that COS may have thepotential to improve plant resistance to Cd via promoting antioxidant enzyme activities and altering Cd subcellular distribution. All the results described here open up a new way to study the protection role of COS in alleviating Cd tolerance and lay the foundation for future research about the detoxification mechanism at subcellular level.

Keywords: chitooligosaccharide, cadmium, edible rape (Brassica rapa L.), subcellular distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 294
784 Towards an Understanding of Breaking and Coalescence Process in Bitumen Emulsions

Authors: Abdullah Khan, Per Redelius, Nicole Kringos

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The breaking and coalescence process in bitumen emulsion strongly influence the performance of the cold mix asphalt (CMA) and this phase separation process is affected by the physio-chemical changes happening at the bitumen/water interface. In this paper, coalescence experiments of two bitumen droplets in an emulsion environment have been carried out by a newly developed test procedure. In this study, different types of emulsifiers were selected to understand the coalescence process with respect to changes in the water phase surface tension due to addition of different surfactants and other additives such as salts. The research showed that the relaxation kinetics of bitumen droplets varied with the type of emulsifier, its concentration as well as with and without presence of salt in the water phase. Moreover, kinetics of the coalescence process was also investigated with the temperature variation.

Keywords: bitumen emulsions, breaking and coalescence, cold mix asphalt, emulsifiers, relaxation, salts

Procedia PDF Downloads 338