Search results for: Rich Osaretin Iyagbaye

Authors: Marjan Javanmard

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The rheological properties of dairy products critically depend on the underlying organisation of proteins at multiple length scales. When heated and acidified, milk proteins form particle gel that is viscoelastic, solvent rich, ‘soft’ material. In this work recent developments on the rheology of soft particles suspensions were used to interpret and potentially define the properties of dairy gel structures. It is discovered that at volume fractions below random close packing (RCP), the Maron-Pierce-Quemada (MPQ) model accurately predicts the viscosity of the dairy gel suspensions without fitting parameters; the MPQ model has been shown previously to provide reasonable predictions of the viscosity of hard sphere suspensions from the volume fraction, solvent viscosity and RCP. This surprising finding demonstrates that up to RCP, the dairy gel system behaves as a hard sphere suspension and that the structural aggregates behave as discrete particulates akin to what is observed for microgel suspensions. At effective phase volumes well above RCP, the system is a soft solid. In this region, it is discovered that the storage modulus of the sheared AMG scales with the storage modulus of the set gel. The storage modulus in this regime is reasonably well described as a function of effective phase volume by the Evans and Lips model. Findings of this work has potential to aid in rational design and control of dairy food structure-properties.

Keywords: dairy suspensions, rheology-structure, Maron-Pierce-Quemada Model, Evans and Lips Model

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Authors: Branimir Jurun, Elza Jurun

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Focus of this paper is description and functioning manner of the instrument for wave pressure metering. Moreover, an essential component of this paper is the proposal of a metering unit for the direct wave pressure measurement determined by the shape and surface of the instrument including the number of sensors and angle between them. Namely, far applied instruments by means of height, length, direction, wave time period and other components determine wave pressure on a particular area. This instrument, allows the direct measurement i.e. measurement without additional calculation, of the wave pressure expressed in a standardized unit of measure. That way the instrument has a standardized form, surface, number of sensors and the angle between them. In addition, it is made with the status that follows the wave and always is on the water surface. Database quality which is listed by the instrument is made possible by using the Arduino chip. This chip is programmed for receiving by two data from each of the sensors each second. From these data by a pre-defined manner a unique representative value is estimated. By this procedure all relevant wave pressure measurement results are directly and immediately registered. Final goal of establishing such a rich database is a comprehensive statistical analysis that ranges from multi-criteria analysis across different modeling and parameters testing to hypothesis accepting relating to the widest variety of man-made activities such as filling of beaches, security cages for aquaculture, bridges construction.

Keywords: instrument, metering, water, waves

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Authors: Mohamed Loutou, Mohamed Hajjaji, Mohamed Ait Babram, Mohammed Mansori, Rachid Hakkou, Claude Favotto

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More than 26,4 million tons of phosphates are produced by the phosphates industries in Morocco (2010), generating huge amounts of sludge by flocculation during the ore beneficiation. They way are stored at the end of the process in open air ponds. Its accumulation and storage may have an impact on several scales such as ground water and human being. For this purpose, an efficient way to use it the field of the ceramic is proposed. The as received sludge and a clay-rich sediment have been studied in terms of chemical, mineralogical and micro-structural side using various analytical methods. Several formulations have been performed by mixing the sludge with the binder shaped in the form of granules. After being dried at 105 °C, the samples were heated in the range of 900-1200 °C. As well as the ceramic properties (firing shrinkage, water absorption, total porosity and compressive strength) the micro structure has been investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The relations between properties and the operating factors were formulated using the design of experiments (DOE). Gehlenite was the only phase neo-formed in the sintering samples. SEM micrographs revealed the presence of nano metric stains. Based on RSM results, all factors had positive effects on Firing shrinkage, compressive strength and total porosity. However, they manifested opposite effects on density and water absorption.

Keywords: phosphate sludge, clay, ceramic properties, granule

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Authors: Scott McCutcheon, Karen Schreder

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Higher education is facing a new reality. Student connection with coursework, instructor, and peers competes with online gaming, screen time, and instant gratification. Pedagogical methods that align student connection and critical thinking in a content-rich environment are important in supporting student learning, a sense of community, and emotional health. This mixed methods study focuses on exploring how the use of educational escape rooms (EERs) can support student learning and learning retention while fostering engagement with each other, the instructor, and the coursework. EERs are content-specific, cooperative, team-based learning activities designed to be completed within a short segment of a typical class. Data for the study was collected over three semesters and includes results from the implementation of EERs in science-based and liberal studies courses taught by different instructors. Twenty-seven students were surveyed regarding their learning experiences with this pedagogy, and interviews with four student volunteers were conducted to add depth to the survey data. A key finding from this research indicates that students felt more connected to each other and the course content after participating in the escape room activity. Additional findings point to increased engagement and comprehension of the class material. Data indicates that the use of an EER pedagogy supports student engagement, well-being, subject comprehension, and student-student and student-instructor connection.

Keywords: gamification, innovative pedagogy, student engagement, student emotional well being

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Authors: Helena Baffoe

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The US has developed numerous programs over the past 50 years to enhance the lives of those who suffer from mental health illnesses and substance abuse, as well as the effectiveness of their treatments. Despite these advances over the past 50 years, there hasn't been a corresponding improvement in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental health disorders and substance abuse. Highly publicized acts of violence frequently elicit comments that blame the perpetrator's perceived mental health disorder since such people are thought to be substance abusers. Despite these strong public beliefs and perception about mental disorder and substance abuse, concreate empirical evidence that entail this perception is lacking, and evidence of their effectiveness has not been integrated. A rich data was collected from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with a hypothesis that people who are diagnosed with a mental health disorder are likely to be diagnosed with substance abuse using logit regression analysis and Instrumental Variable. It was found that depressive, anxiety, and trauma/stressor mental disorders constitute the most common mental disorder in the United States, and the study could not find statistically significant evidence that being diagnosed with these leading mental health disorders in the United States does necessarily imply that such a patient is diagnosed with substances abuse. Thus, the public has a misconception of mental health and substance abuse issues, and social workers' responsibilities are outlined in order to assist ameliorate this attitude and perception.

Keywords: mental health disorder, substance abuse, role of a social worker, evidence based research

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Authors: Erik Eklund

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Mary Kathleen was a purpose-built company town located in northwest Queensland in Australia. It was created to work on a rich uranium deposit discovered in the area in July 1954. The town was complete by 1958, possessing curved streets, modern materials, and a progressive urban planning scheme. Formed in the minds of corporate executives and architects and made manifest in arid zone country between Cloncurry and Mount Isa, Mary Kathleen was a modern marvel in the outback, a town that tamed the wild country of northwest Queensland, or so it seemed. The town was also a product of the Cold War. In the context of a nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and her allies, and the United States of America (USA) and her Allies, a rapid rush to locate, mine, and process uranium after 1944 led to the creation of uranium towns in Czechoslovakia, Canada, the Soviet Union, USA and Australia of which Mary Kathleen was one such example. Mary Kathleen closed in 1981, and most of the town’s infrastructure was removed. Since then, the town’s ghostly remains have attracted travellers and tourists. Never an officially-sanctioned tourist site, the area has nevertheless become a regular stop for campers and day trippers who have engaged with the site often without formal interpretation. This paper explores the status of this vernacular heritage and asks why it has not gained any official status and what visitors might see in the place despite its uncertain status.

Keywords: uranium mining, planned communities, official heritage, vernacular heritage, Australian history

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Authors: Rachel Thomas Tharmabalan

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The growing unease over the matter of food security in the world is the result of a maturing realization that the genetic base of most human caloric intake from plants is dangerously narrow. Malaysia’s tropical rainforests have the potential to contribute to diet diversification and provide a source of nutrient-rich food as the Orang Asli communities in Malaysia have relied almost entirely on the jungle for food, fodder, medicine and fuel antithetical to what is happening today. This segregation of the Orang Asli from traditional lands and resources leads to severe loss of knowledge of biodiversity. In order to preserve these wild edibles, four different types of vegetables that are frequently consumed by the Orang Asli which consists of Rebu, Meranti, Saya and Pama were selected. These vegetables were then analysed to determine its proximate and mineral content to help ascertain claims and reaffirm the impact it can play in ensuring food and nutrition security, in addition to combating chronic diseases. From the results obtained, the Meranti had the highest crude fiber, iron and calcium content. Other minerals such as potassium, magnesium and copper were also found in varying content. These wild edibles could also contribute to education and bring awareness to younger generations as well as urban populations to start consuming more of these in their daily life as it could prevent various chronic diseases in Malaysia.

Keywords: food and nutrition security, Orang Asli, underutilized plants, wild edible food systems

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Authors: E. Elhan Özus, Melek Tufan, Filiz Erden

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Cloth is a special wearing style of a society for a period or of a profession. Clothes reflect the social status difference than the fashion. Within this context, society forms a wearing style in the direction of its customs, usage, traditions and social structure. One of the properties of a society indicating the social levels and cultural differences differing the societies from each other is clothing style. Clothing is one of the most important needs in life depending on the individual and social attributes. The clothing which first emerged as protection means is a social fact complementing the physical and psychological existence of human being, changing forms depending on technological developments and phases, and continuously changing under the affect of fashion today. Clothing is an aesthetic value fed by the feelings of individuals. So, clothing has an indispensable place in the structure and communication of cultural and social identity within this direction. The traditional Turkish clothing has a rich ethnography. It is also possible to see the winds coming from our predecessors in these cultural assets reflecting the feelings and thoughts of Anatolian women. When the long history of our nation and the cultures interacted by our nation are taken into account, it is seen that the magnificence of our nation has also reflected into the clothing culture.For this reason, we tried to keep the traditional women’s clothing of Tekirdağ region alive by investigating and documenting them. In this study, it is purposed to contribute a little bit to protect our culture and form a source for the future generations, to carry our national cultural values from the past up to now and to the future and deliver to the young people.

Keywords: Turkish, traditional, culture, clothing

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Authors: Liu Jiaxin

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This paper seeks to do an in-depth investigation on the phenomenon of Early Modern era (1500-1700s) Livonian werewolves. Noting their uniqueness in comparison to contemporaneous werewolves hailing from other geographic areas, the paper suggests that the Livonian werewolf is a metaphor for Livonian society at that time, one which was characterized by social turmoil and strict class hierarchy. This metaphor was utilized by different classes to establish their own interests in society, and thus the paper concludes that the werewolf is a mutable artifact whose value is contingent on its social context. This is demonstrated by the particular case of Old Thiess—a poor, elderly Livonian peasant who gave an unorthodox and anomalous testimony when accused of being a werewolf. In his court statement, it is shown how Thiess was, in fact, alluding to social tensions by lambasting the rich German elite and establishing the righteousness of the peasantry, of which he was a member. A close reading method was utilized on the trial transcript of Old Thiess with heavy reference to Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln’s collaborative work Old Thiess, a Livonian werewolf: a classic case in comparative perspective. Through a contextual reading of Livonia’s social atmosphere, the paper draws connections between the content of the trial to wider societal disturbances happening at the time. The thesis—that the werewolf is a flexible metaphor for the social milieu—is further buttressed by numerous contemporaneous sources that had similar messages as Thiess’ transcript, which are discussed as well.

Keywords: early-modern baltic, Livonia, Old Thiess, social history, werewolves

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Authors: Tom O'Mahony

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This article considers the design of a student-centered learning environment in engineering education. The learning environment integrates a number of components, including project-based learning, collaborative learning, two-stage assignments, active learning lectures, and a flipped-classroom. Together these elements place the individual learner and their learning at the center of the environment by focusing on understanding, enhancing relevance, applying learning, obtaining rich feedback, making choices, and taking responsibility. The evolution of this environment from 2014 to the present day is outlined. The impact of this environment on learners and their learning is evaluated via student questionnaires that consist of both open and closed-ended questions. The closed questions indicate that students found the learning environment to be really interesting and enjoyable (rated as 4.7 on a 5 point scale) and encouraged students to adopt a deep approach towards studying the course materials (rated as 4.0 on a 5 point scale). A content analysis of the open-ended questions provides evidence that the project, active learning lectures, and flipped classroom all contribute to the success of this environment. Furthermore, this analysis indicates that the two-stage assessment process, in which feedback is provided between a draft and final assignment, is the key component and the dominant theme. A limitation of the study is the small class size (less than 20 learners per year), but, to some degree, this is compensated for by the longitudinal nature of the study.

Keywords: deep approaches, formative assessment, project-based learning, student-centered learning

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Authors: Amtul Jamil Sami

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Apis mellifera is an insect of immense economic importance lives on rich carbohydrate diet including cellulose, nectar, honey and pollen. The carbohydrate metabolism in A mellifera has not been understood fully, as there are no data available, on the functional expression of cellulase gene. The cellulose hydrolyzing enzyme is required for the digestion of pollen cellulose wall, to release the important nutrients (amino acids, minerals, vitamins etc.) from the pollen. A dissection of Apis genome had revealed that there is one gene present for the expression of endo-beta-1,4-glucanase, for cellulose hydrolysis. In the presented work, functional expression of endo-beta-1,4 glucanase gene is reported. Total soluble proteins of the honey bee were isolated and were tested cellulose hydrolyzing enzyme activity, using carboxy-methyl cellulose, as a substrate. A mellifera proteins were able to hydrolyze carboxy-methyl cellulose, confirming its endo- type mode of action. Endo beta-1,4 glucanase enzyme was only present in the gut tissues, no activity was detected in the salivary glands. The pH optima of the enzyme were in the acidic pH range of 4-5-5-0, indicating its metabolic role in the acidic stomach of A mellifera. The reported enzyme is unique, as endo-beta- 1,4 glucanase was able to generate non reducing sugar, as an end product. The results presented, are supportive to the information that the honey bee is capable of producing its novel endo-beta-1,4 glucanase. Further it could be helpful, in understanding, the carbohydrate metabolism in A mellifera.

Keywords: honey bees, Endo-beta 1, 4- glucanase, Apis mellifera, functional expression

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Authors: Tami A. Ulhiza, Noor I. M. Puad, Azlin S. Azmi, Mohd. I. A. Malek

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High amount of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in starchy waste can be harmful to the environment. In common practice, starch processing wastewater is discharged to the river without proper treatment. However, starchy waste still contains complex sugars and organic acids. By the right pretreatment method, the complex sugar can be hydrolyzed into more readily digestible sugars which can be utilized to be converted into more valuable products. At the same time, the global demand of energy is inevitable. The continuous usage of fossil fuel as the main source of energy can lead to energy scarcity. Hydrogen is a renewable form of energy which can be an alternative energy in the future. Moreover, hydrogen is clean and carries the highest energy compared to other fuels. Biohydrogen produced from waste has significant advantages over chemical methods. One of the major problems in biohydrogen production is the raw material cost. The carbohydrate-rich starchy wastes such as tapioca, maize, wheat, potato, and sago wastes is a promising candidate to be used as a substrate in producing biohydrogen. The utilization of those wastes for biohydrogen production can provide cheap energy generation with simultaneous waste treatment. Therefore this paper aims to review variety source of starchy wastes that has been widely used to synthesize biohydrogen. The scope includes the source of waste, the performance in yielding hydrogen, the pretreatment method and the type of culture that is suitable for starchy waste.

Keywords: biohydrogen, dark fermentation, renewable energy, starchy waste

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Authors: Ya-Ting Liao, Chien-Chang Huang

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Green diesel is a renewable biofuel obtained from plant oil or fatty acid deoxygenation. Because the molecular structure of green diesel is similar to that of fossil fuel, green diesel can be directly used in present vehicle engines without blending with fossil fuel. In this study, mesoporous carbon-based catalysts with doped metal ions, such as Mg, Ni, or Fe, were prepared using co-polymers and gallic acid as molecular templates and carbon sources, respectively. The prepared catalysts were then applied to carry out the deoxygenation of fatty acid and waste cooking oil. To obtain the highest net energy from the produced green diesel, the catalyzed deoxygenation reaction and catalyst preparation processes were carried out under ambient conditions, respectively, to avoid using H₂ as a reagent and reducing agent. XRD, BET, SEM, EDS, FT-IR, and pyridine-IR characterized the composition and configuration of the prepared catalyst. The results display that the doped metal ions were well-dispersed in the carbon-based catalyst and the surface of the catalysts was rich in Lewis acid sites after the catalysts were calcined at the proper temperature. The pore size present on the catalyst was 9-11 nm. To catalyze the deoxygenation of fatty acid by the prepared catalysts at 320℃ under H₂-free conditions, high fatty acid conversion (99%) and high selectivity for hydrocarbons (78%) were obtained when the ratio of doped Ni to doped Mg was optimized.

Keywords: ordered mesoporous carbon, catalysts, hydrocarbons, deoxygenation

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Authors: Marwa T. Badawy, Alaa F. Bakr, Nesrine Hegazi, Mohamed A. Farag, Ahmed Abdellatif

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Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease affecting a large population worldwide. Africa is rich in native medicinal plants with myriad health benefits, though less explored towards the development of specific drug therapy as in diabetes. This study aims to determine the in vivo antidiabetic potential of the well-reported and traditionally used fruits of Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) using STZ induced diabetic model. The in-vitro cytotoxic and antioxidant properties were examined using MTT assay on L-929 fibroblast cells and DPPH antioxidant assays, respectively. The extract showed minimal cytotoxicity with an IC50 value of 105.7 µg/mL. Histopathological and immunohistochemical investigations showed the hepatoprotective and the renoprotective effects of A. digitata fruits’ extract, implying its protective effects against diabetes complications. These findings were further supported by biochemical assays, which showed that i.p., injection of a low dose (150 mg/kg) of A. digitata twice a week lowered the fasting blood glucose levels, lipid profile, hepatic and renal markers. For a comprehensive overview of extract metabolites composition, ultrahigh performance (UHPLC) analysis coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS) in synchronization with molecular networks led to the annotation of 77 metabolites, among which 50% are reported for the first time in A. digitata fruits.

Keywords: adansonia digital, diabetes mellitus, metabolomics, streptozotocin, Sprague, dawley rats

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Authors: N. Boussoualim, H. Trabsa, I. Krache, S. Aouachria, S. Boumerfeg, L. Arrar, A. Baghiani

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The aim of this study consisted in evaluating the antioxidant in vivo properties, anti-hemolytic and XOR inhibitory effect of Globularia alypum L. (GA) extracts. GA was submitted to extraction and fractionation to give crude (CrE), chloroformique (ChE), ethyle acetate (EAE) and aqueos (AqE) extracts. Total polyphenols contents of GA extracts were determined; EAE is the most rich in polyphenols (157,74±5,27 mg GAE/mg of extract). GA Extracts inhibited XO in a concentration-dependent manner, the EAE showed the highest inhibitory properties on the XOR activity (IC50=0,083±0,001 mg/ml), followed by CrE and ChE. The antioxidant activities of the CrE, EAE, and AqE were tested by an in vivo assay in mice, the plasma ability to inhibit DPPH radical was measured, The CrE was found to exhibit the greatest scavenger activity with 48.41±2.763%, followed by AqE and EAE (40.54±7.51% and 41.79±1.654%, respectively). Total antioxidant capacity of red blood cells was measured, from the kinetics of hemolysis obtained. The calculated HT50 reveal an extension of time for half hemolysis in all treated groups compared with the control group. CrE increase significantly HT50 (112,8±2,427). The hemolysis is lagged, indicating that endogenous antioxidants in the erythrocytes can trap radicals to protect them against free-radical-induced hemolysis. Antimicrobial activities of the extracts were determined by the disc diffusion method. Test microorganisms were; 4 Gram positive, 7 gram negative bacteria, most active extracts were EAE and CrE. We deduce a great relationship between the effect on the extracts antibacterial effect and their contents in flavonoid.

Keywords: Globularia alypum, Xanthine oxidoreductase, in vivo-antioxidant activity, hemolysis, polyphenol

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Authors: Arash Esmaeili, Zhibang Liu, Yang Xiang, Jimmy Yun, Lei Shao

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A high-pressure carbon dioxide (CO₂) absorption from a specific off-gas in a conventional column has been evaluated for the environmental concerns by the Aspen HYSYS simulator using a wide range of single absorbents and piperazine (PZ) blended solutions to estimate the outlet CO₂ concentration, CO₂ loading, reboiler power supply, and regeneration heat duty to choose the most efficient solution in terms of CO₂ removal and required heat duty. The property package, which is compatible with all applied solutions for the simulation in this study, estimates the properties based on the electrolyte non-random two-liquid (E-NRTL) model for electrolyte thermodynamics and Peng-Robinson equation of state for vapor phase and liquid hydrocarbon phase properties. The results of the simulation indicate that piperazine, in addition to the mixture of piperazine and monoethanolamine (MEA), demands the highest regeneration heat duty compared with other studied single and blended amine solutions, respectively. The blended amine solutions with the lowest PZ concentrations (5wt% and 10wt%) were considered and compared to reduce the cost of the process, among which the blended solution of 10wt%PZ+35wt%MDEA (methyldiethanolamine) was found as the most appropriate solution in terms of CO₂ content in the outlet gas, rich-CO₂ loading, and regeneration heat duty.

Keywords: absorption, amine solutions, aspen HYSYS, CO₂ loading, piperazine, regeneration heat duty

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Authors: Gianella Franco, Karen Suarez, María Quijano, Patricia Manzano

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Agro-industries generate large amounts of waste, which are mostly untapped. This research was carried out to use cocoa, coffee and orange industrial by-products to develop a dairy drink. The product was prepared by making a 10% aqueous extract of the mixture of cocoa and coffee beans shells and orange peel. Extreme Vertices Mixture Design was applied to vary the proportions of the ingredients of the aqueous extract, getting 13 formulations. Each formulation was mixed with skim milk and pasteurized. The attributes of taste, smell, color and appearance were evaluated by a semi-trained panel by multiple comparisons test, comparing the formulations against a standard marked as "R", which consisted of a coffee commercial drink. The formulations with the highest scores were selected to maximize the Total Polyphenol Content (TPC) through a process of linear optimization resulting in the formulation 80.5%: 18.37%: 1.13% of cocoa bean shell, coffee bean shell and orange peel, respectively. The Total Polyphenol Content was 4.99 ± 0.34 mg GAE/g of drink, DPPH radical scavenging activity (%) was 80.14 ± 0.05 and caffeine concentration of 114.78 mg / L, while the coffee commercial drink presented 3.93 ± 0.84 mg GAE / g drink, 55.54 ± 0.03 % and 47.44 mg / L of TPC, DPPH radical scavenging activity and caffeine content, respectively. The results show that it is possible to prepare an antioxidant - rich drink with good sensorial attributes made of industrial by-products.

Keywords: DPPH, polyphenols, waste, food science

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Authors: F. Ghandehari, H. Lu, L. El-Jahel, D. Jayasuriya

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Disagreement among investors is a fundamental aspect of financial markets, significantly influencing market dynamics. Measuring this disagreement has traditionally posed challenges, often relying on proxies like analyst forecast dispersion, which are limited by biases and infrequent updates. Recent movements in social media indicate that retail investors actively seek financial advice online and can influence the stock market. The evolution of the investing landscape, particularly the rise of social media as a hub for financial advice, provides an alternative avenue for real-time measurement of investor sentiment and disagreement. Platforms like Reddit offer rich, community-driven discussions that reflect genuine investor opinions. This research explores how social media empowers retail investors and the potential of leveraging textual analysis of social media content to capture daily fluctuations in investor disagreement. This study investigates the relationship between daily investor disagreement and trading volume, focusing on the role of social media platforms in shaping market dynamics, specifically using data from WallStreetBets (WSB) on Reddit. This paper uses data from 2020 to 2023 from WSB and analyses 4,896 firms with enough social media activity in WSB to define stock-day level disagreement measures. Consistent with traditional theories that disagreement induces trading volume, the results show significant evidence supporting this claim through different disagreement measures derived from WSB discussions.

Keywords: disagreement, retail investor, social finance, social media

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Authors: Fani Sakellariadou

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The Blue Economy includes all marine-based and marine-related activities. They correspond to established, emerging as well as unborn ocean-based industries. Seabed mining is an emerging marine-based activity; its operations depend particularly on cutting-edge science and technology. The 21st century will face a crisis in resources as a consequence of the world’s population growth and the rising standard of living. The natural capital stored in the global ocean is decisive for it to provide a wide range of sustainable ecosystem services. Seabed mineral deposits were identified as having a high potential for critical elements and base metals. They have a crucial role in the fast evolution of green technologies. The major categories of marine mineral deposits are deep-sea deposits, including cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, polymetallic nodules, phosphorites, and deep-sea muds, as well as shallow-water deposits including marine placers. Seabed mining operations may take place within continental shelf areas of nation-states. In international waters, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has entered into 15-year contracts for deep-seabed exploration with 21 contractors. These contracts are for polymetallic nodules (18 contracts), polymetallic sulfides (7 contracts), and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts (5 contracts). Exploration areas are located in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, the Indian Ocean, the Mid Atlantic Ridge, the South Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. Potential environmental impacts of deep-sea mining include habitat alteration, sediment disturbance, plume discharge, toxic compounds release, light and noise generation, and air emissions. They could cause burial and smothering of benthic species, health problems for marine species, biodiversity loss, reduced photosynthetic mechanism, behavior change and masking acoustic communication for mammals and fish, heavy metals bioaccumulation up the food web, decrease of the content of dissolved oxygen, and climate change. An important concern related to deep-sea mining is our knowledge gap regarding deep-sea bio-communities. The ecological consequences that will be caused in the remote, unique, fragile, and little-understood deep-sea ecosystems and inhabitants are still largely unknown. The blue economy conceptualizes oceans as developing spaces supplying socio-economic benefits for current and future generations but also protecting, supporting, and restoring biodiversity and ecological productivity. In that sense, people should apply holistic management and make an assessment of marine mining impacts on ecosystem services, including the categories of provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. The variety in environmental parameters, the range in sea depth, the diversity in the characteristics of marine species, and the possible proximity to other existing maritime industries cause a span of marine mining impact the ability of ecosystems to support people and nature. In conclusion, the use of the untapped potential of the global ocean demands a liable and sustainable attitude. Moreover, there is a need to change our lifestyle and move beyond the philosophy of single-use. Living in a throw-away society based on a linear approach to resource consumption, humans are putting too much pressure on the natural environment. Applying modern, sustainable and eco-friendly approaches according to the principle of circular economy, a substantial amount of natural resource savings will be achieved. Acknowledgement: This work is part of the MAREE project, financially supported by the Division VI of IUPAC. This work has been partly supported by the University of Piraeus Research Center.

Keywords: blue economy, deep-sea mining, ecosystem services, environmental impacts

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Authors: Mohammed Muzafar, Darshan Ruikar

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BIM, an acronym for Building Information Modelling relates to the practice of creating a computer generated model which is capable of displaying the planning, design, construction and operation of a structure. The resulting simulation is a data-rich, object-oriented, intelligent and parametric digital representation of the facility, from which views and data, appropriate to various users needs can be extracted and analysed to generate information that can be used to make decisions and to improve the process of delivering the facility. BIM also refers to a shift in culture that will influence the way the built environment and infrastructure operates and how it is delivered. One of the main issues of concern in the construction industry at present in the UK is its record on Health & Safety (H&S). It is, therefore, important that new technologies such as BIM are developed to help improve the quality of health and safety. Historically the H&S record of the construction industry in the UK is relatively poor as compared to the manufacturing industries. BIM and the digital environment it operates within now allow us to use design and construction data in a more intelligent way. It allows data generated by the design process to be re-purposed and contribute to improving efficiencies in other areas of a project. This evolutionary step in design is not only creating exciting opportunities for the designers themselves but it is also creating opportunity for every stakeholder in any given project. From designers, engineers, contractors through to H&S managers, BIM is accelerating a cultural change. The paper introduces the concept behind a research project that mitigates the H&S risks associated with the construction, operation and maintenance of assets through the adoption of BIM.

Keywords: building information modeling, BIM levels, health, safety, integration

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Authors: Elida Gastelum-Martinez, Neith A. Pacheco-Lopez, Juan L. Morales-Landa

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Cashew agroindustry obtained from cashew apple crop (Anacardium occidentale L.) generates large amounts of unused waste in Campeche, Mexico. Despite having a high content of nutritional compounds such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, fiber, carbohydrates, and minerals, it is not consumed due to its astringent sensation. The aim of this work was to develop a processing method for cashew apple waste in order to obtain a powder with reduced astringency able to be used as an additive in the food industry. The processing method consisted first in reducing astringency by inducing tannins from cashew apple peel to react and form precipitating complexes with a colloid rich in proline and histidine. Then cashew apples were processed to obtain a dry powder. Astringency reduction was determined by total phenolic content and evaluated by sensorial analysis in cashew-apple-powder based cookies. Total phenolic content in processed powders showed up to 72% lower concentration compared to control samples. The sensorial evaluation indicated that cookies baked using cashew apple powder with reduced astringency were 96.8% preferred. Sensorial characteristics like texture, color and taste were also well-accepted attributes. In conclusion, the method applied for astringency reduction is a viable tool to produce cashew apple powder with desirable sensorial properties to be used in the development of food products.

Keywords: astringency reduction, cashew apple waste, food industry, sensorial evaluation

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Authors: Abeer Tariq, Mohammed S. Aljawad, Khaldoun S. Alfarisi

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This paper aimed to estimate the petrophysical properties (porosity, permeability, and fluid saturation) of the Ajeel well (Aj-1) Shale reservoir. Petrophysical properties of the Naokelekan Formation at Ajeel field are determined from the interpretation of open hole log data of one well which penetrated the source rock reservoir. However, depending on these properties, it is possible to divide the Formation which has a thickness of approximately 28-34 m, into three lithological units: A is the upper unit (thickness about 9 to 13 m) consisting of dolomitized limestones; B is a middle unit (thickness about 13 to 20 m) which is composed of dolomitic limestone, and C is a lower unit (>22 m thick) which consists of shale-rich and dolomitic limestones. The results showed that the average formation water resistivity for the formation (Rw = 0.024), the average resistivity of the mud filtration (Rmf = 0.46), and the Archie parameters were determined by the picket plot method, where (m) value equal to 1.86, (n) value equal to 2 and (a) value equal to 1. Also, this reservoir proved to be economical for future developments to increase the production rate of the field by dealing with challenging reservoirs. In addition, Porosity values and water saturation Sw were calculated along with the depth of the composition using Interactive Petrophysics (IP) V4.5 software. The interpretation of the computer process (CPI) showed that the better porous zone holds the highest amount of hydrocarbons in the second and third zone. From the flow zone indicator FZI method, there are two rock types in the studied reservoir.

Keywords: petrophysical properties, porosity, permeability, ajeel field, Naokelekan formation, Jurassic sequences, carbonate reservoir, source rock

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Authors: Juan Antonio Mondragon Sanchez, Ruben Santamaria

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The DNA G-quadruplex is a four-stranded DNA structure conformed by stacked planes of four base paired guanines (G-quartet). The guanine rich DNA sequences are present in many sites of genomic DNA and can potentially lead to the formation of G-quadruplexes, especially at the 3'-terminus of the human telomeric DNA with many TTAGGG repeats. The formation and stabilization of a G-quadruplex by small ligands at the telomeric region can inhibit the telomerase activity. In turn, the ligands can be used to regulate oncogene expression making the G-quadruplex an attractive target for anticancer therapy. Clearly, the G-quadruplex structured in the telomeric DNA is of fundamental importance for rational drug design. In this context, we investigate two G-quadruplex structures, the first follows from the sequence TTAGGG(TTAGGG)3TT (HUT1), and the second from AAAGGG(TTAGGG)3AA (HUT2), both in a K+ solution. We determine the free energy surfaces of the HUT1 and HUT2 structures and investigate their conformations using replica-exchange metadynamics simulations. The carbonyl-carbonyl distances belonging to different guanines residues are selected as the main collective variables to determine the free energy surfaces. The surfaces exhibit two main local minima, compatible with experiments on the conformational transformations of HUT1 and HUT2 under substitution of the K+ ions by the Na+ ions. The conformational transitions are not observed in short MD simulations without the use of the metadynamics approach. The results of this work should be of help to understand the formation and stability of human telomeric G-quadruplex in environments including the presence of K+ and Na+ ions.

Keywords: g-quadruplex, metadynamics, molecular dynamics, replica-exchange

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Authors: Yi-Chun Wu, Nai-Yun Chang, Chuan LI

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This study investigates a feasible range of composition for the mixture of gelatin and polyvinyl alcohol to form nanofibers by electrospinning. Gelatin, one of the most available naturally derived hydrogels of amino acids, is a popular choice for food additives, cosmetic ingredients, biomedical implants, or dressing of its non-toxic and biodegradable nature. Nevertheless, synthetic hydrogel polyvinyl alcohol has long been used as a thickening agent for adhesion purposes. Many biomedical devices are also containing polyvinyl-alcohol as a major content, such as eye drops and contact lenses. To discover appropriate compositions of gelatin and polyvinyl-alcohol for electrospun nanofibers, polymer solutions of different volumetric ratios between gelatin and polyvinyl alcohol were prepared for electrospinning. The viscosity, surface tension, pH value, and electrical conductance of polymer solutions were measured. On the nanofibers, the vibrational modes of molecular structures in nanofibers were investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The morphologies and surface chemical elements of fibers were examined by the scanning electron microscope and the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The hydrophilicity of nanofiberswas evaluated by the water contact angles on the surface of the fibers. To further test the biotoxicity of nanofibers, an in-vitro 3T3 fibroblasts culture further tested the biotoxicity of the electrospun nanofibers. Throughstatistical analyses of the experimental data, it is found that the polyvinyl-alcohol rich composition (the volumetric ratio of gelatin/polyvinyl-alcohol < 1) would be a preferable choice for the formation of nanofibers by the current setup of electrospinning. These electrospun nanofibers tend to be hydrophilic with no biotoxicity threat to the 3T3 fibroblasts.

Keywords: gelatin, polyvinyl-alcohol, nanofibers, electrospinning, spin coating

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Authors: Anna Gramza-Michałowska, Dominik Kmiecik, Justyna Bilon, Joanna Skręty, Joanna Kobus-Cisowska, Józef Korczak, Andrzej Sidor

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Background: Hypertension is one of the civilization diseases with a global scope. Many research showed that every day diet influences significantly our health, helping with the prophylaxis and diseases treatment. The key factor here is the presence of plant origin natural bio active components. Aim: The following research describes snack health-oriented products for hypertension sufferers enriched with selected plant ingredients. Various analytical methods have been applied to determine product’s basic composition and their antioxidant activity. Methods: Snack products was formulated from a composition of different flours, oil, yeast, plant particles and extracts. Basic composition of a product was evaluated as content of protein, lipids, fiber, ash and caloricity. Antioxidant capacity of snacks was evaluated with use radical scavenging methods (DPPH, ABTS) and ORAC value. Proposed snacks as new product was also characterized with sensory analysis. Results and discussion: Results showed that addition of phyto nutrients allowed to improve nutritional and antioxidative value of examined products. Also the anti radical potential was significantly increased, with no loss of sensory value of a snacks. Conclusions: Designed snack is rich in polyphenolics, that express high antioxidant activity, helpful in hypertension and as low calories product obesity prophylaxis.

Keywords: antioxidant, well-being, hypertension, bioactive compounds

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Authors: Jeyarajan Sivapathasundram

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Knowledge management has been recognised as an emerging factor for being competitive among institutions and performances in firms. As such, being recognised as knowledge rich institution, higher education institutes have to be recognised knowledge management based resources for achieving competitive advantages. Present research picked result out of postgraduate research conducted in knowledge management at non-state higher educational institutes of Sri Lanka. Besides, the present research aimed to discover knowledge management for competition and firm performances of higher educational institutes out of the result produced by the postgraduate study. Besides, the results are found in a pair that developed out of knowledge management practices and the reason behind the existence of the practices. As such, the present research has developed a filter to pick the pairs that satisfy its condition of competition and performance of the firm. As such, the pair, such as benchmarking is practised to be ethically competing through conducting courses. As the postgraduate research tested results of foreign researches in a qualitative paradigm, the finding of the present research are generalise fact for knowledge management for competitiveness and performances in higher educational institutes. Further, the presented research method used attributes which explain competition and performance in its filter to discover the pairs relevant to competition and performances. As such, the fact in regards to knowledge management for competition and performances in higher educational institutes are presented in the publication that the presentation is out of the generalised result. Therefore, knowledge management for competition and performance in higher educational institutes are generalised.

Keywords: competition in and among higher educational institutes, performances of higher educational institutes, noun based filtering, production out of generalisation of a research

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Authors: Rejane Maria P. da Silva, Mariana X. Milagre, João Victor de S. Araujo, Leandro A. de Oliveira, Renato A. Antunes, Isolda Costa

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The Al-Cu-Li alloys are advanced materials for aerospace application because of their interesting mechanical properties and low density when compared with conventional Al-alloys. However, Al-Cu-Li alloys are susceptible to localized corrosion. The near-surface deformed layer (NSDL) induced by the rolling process during the production of the alloy and its removal by polishing can influence on the corrosion susceptibility of these alloys. In this work, the influence of surface preparation effects on the electrochemical activity of AA2098-T351 (Al–Cu–Li alloy) was investigated using a correlation between surface chemistry, microstructure, and electrochemical activity. Two conditions were investigated, polished and as-received surfaces of the alloy. The morphology of the two types of surfaces was investigated using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and optical microscopy. The surface chemistry was analyzed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Global electrochemical techniques (potentiodynamic polarization and EIS technique) and a local electrochemical technique (Localized Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy-LEIS) were used to examine the electrochemical activity of the surfaces. The results obtained in this study showed that in the as-received surface, the near-surface deformed layer (NSDL), which is composed of Mg-rich bands, influenced the electrochemical behavior of the alloy. The results showed higher electrochemical activity to the polished surface condition compared to the as-received one.

Keywords: Al-Cu-Li alloys, surface preparation effects, electrochemical techniques, localized corrosion

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Authors: Esther Chiramal, Kelvin Soh Boon Kai

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Explainable AI is a strong strategy implemented to understand complex black-box model predictions in a human-interpretable language. It provides the evidence required to execute the use of trustworthy and reliable AI systems. On the other hand, however, it also opens the door to locating possible vulnerabilities in an AI model. Traditional adversarial text attack uses word substitution, data augmentation techniques, and gradient-based attacks on powerful pre-trained Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) variants to generate adversarial sentences. These attacks are generally white-box in nature and not practical as they can be easily detected by humans e.g., Changing the word from “Poor” to “Rich”. We proposed a simple yet effective Grey-box cum Black-box approach that does not require the knowledge of the model while using a set of surrogate Transformer/BERT models to perform the attack using Explainable AI techniques. As Transformers are the current state-of-the-art models for almost all Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks, an attack generated from BERT1 is transferable to BERT2. This transferability is made possible due to the attention mechanism in the transformer that allows the model to capture long-range dependencies in a sequence. Using the power of BERT generalisation via attention, we attempt to exploit how transformers learn by attacking a few surrogate transformer variants which are all based on a different architecture. We demonstrate that this approach is highly effective to generate semantically good sentences by changing as little as one word that is not detectable by humans while still fooling other BERT models.

Keywords: BERT, explainable AI, Grey-box text attack, transformer

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Authors: Yousuf Nasser Al Khamisi

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Purpose: This paper presents a Knowledge Transfer (KT) Framework in healthcare sectors by applying a systematic literature review process to the healthcare organizations domain to identify enablers and barriers of KT in Healthcare. Methods: The paper conducted a systematic literature search of peer-reviewed papers that described key elements of KT using four databases (Medline, Cinahl, Scopus, and Proquest) for a 10-year period (1/1/2008–16/10/2017). The results of the literature review were used to build a conceptual framework of KT in healthcare organizations. The author used a systematic review of the literature, as described by Barbara Kitchenham in Procedures for Performing Systematic Reviews. Findings: The paper highlighted the impacts of using Knowledge Management (KM) concept at a healthcare organization in controlling infectious diseases in hospitals, improving family medicine performance and enhancing quality improvement practices. Moreover, it found that good-coding performance is analytically linked with a knowledge sharing network structure rich in brokerage and hierarchy rather than in density. The unavailability or ignored of the latest evidence on more cost-effective or more efficient delivery approaches leads to increase the healthcare costs and may lead to unintended results. Originality: Search procedure produced 12,093 results, of which 3523 were general articles about KM and KT. The titles and abstracts of these articles had been screened to segregate what is related and what is not. 94 articles identified by the researchers for full-text assessment. The total number of eligible articles after removing un-related articles was 22 articles.

Keywords: healthcare organisation, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, KT framework

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Authors: Melissa Teo

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It is increasingly important that project managers develop greater capabilities to better manage the social, cultural, political, environmental and economic impacts on proposed construction projects. These challenges are best resolved in consultation with communities rather than in conflict with them. This is particularly important on controversial projects which are projects that have obtained government sanctioned ‘development approval’ but not ‘community approval’. While a rich body of research and intellectual frameworks exist in the fields of urban geography and planning to understand and manage community concerns during the pre-development approval stages of new projects, current theoretical frameworks guiding community engagement in project management are inadequate. A new and innovative research agenda is needed to guide thinking about the role of local communities in the construction process and is an important research gap that needs to be filled. Within this context, this research aims to assess the effectiveness of strategies adopted by project teams to engage with local communities so as to capture lessons learnt to apply to future projects. This paper reports a research methodology which uses Arnstein’s model of participation to better understand how power differentials between the project team and local communities can influence the adoption of community engagement strategies. A case study approach is utilizing interviews and documentary analysis of a large-scale controversial construction project in Queensland, Australia is presented. The findings will result in a number of recommendations to guide community engagement practices on future projects.

Keywords: community engagement, construction, case study, project management

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