Search results for: solid isotropic material with penalization method

Authors: Kriztine R. Viray, Chona Rita R. Cruz

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The paper explores the engagement of indigenous group, Aeta Ambala with different media and how this engagement affects their perception of their own ethnic identity. The researchers employed qualitative research as their approach and descriptive research method as their design. The paper integrates two theories. These are communication theory of identity by Michael Hecht and the Uses and Gratification Theory of Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch. Among others, the paper exposes that the engagement of the Aeta-Ambala with the various forms of media certainly affected the way they perceived the outside world and their own ethnic group.

Keywords: Aeta Ambala, culture, ethnic, media engagement, Philippines

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Authors: Rajesh Kumar, Anil Kamboj

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Inhibition of α- amylase play a vital role in the clinical management of postprandial hyperglycemia. Although, powerful synthetic inhibitors are available, natural inhibitors are potentially safer. The present study was carried out to evaluate α- amylase inhibition activity from hydroalcoholic extracts from aerial parts of Cestrum nocturnum. Hydroalcoholic extract was prepared by Soxhletation Method. The extract showed strong inhibition towards α- amylase activity and IC50 value were 45.9 µg. This In vitro studies indicate the potential of C. nocturnum in the development of effective anti-diabetic agents.

Keywords: α- amylase, cestrum nocturnum, hyperglycemia, hydroalcoholic extracts, diabetes

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Authors: Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, Ali Reza Mahjoub, Behjat Afshari

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In this work, Nickel/Zinc Oxide hollow spherical structures with high surface area using the template Fructose was prepared by the hydrothermal method using a ultrasonic bath at room temperature was produced and were identified by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM. The photocatalytic activity of synthesized hollow spherical Nickel/Zinc Oxide was studied in the destruction of Congo red as Azo dye. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of Nickel/ Zinc Oxide hollow spherical nanostructures is improved compared with zinc oxide hollow sphere and other morphologies.

Keywords: azo dye, hollow spheres, photocatalyst, nickel/zinc oxide

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Authors: Zahra Neffah, Henda Kahalerras

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A numerical study is made in a parallel-plate porous channel subjected to an oscillating flow and an exothermic chemical reaction on its walls. The flow field in the porous region is modeled by the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model and the finite volume method is used to solve the governing equations. The effects of the modified Frank-Kamenetskii (FKm) and Damköhler (Dm) numbers, the amplitude of oscillation (A), and the Strouhal number (St) are examined. The main results show an increase of heat and mass transfer rates with A and St, and their decrease with FKm and Dm.

Keywords: chemical reaction, heat and mass transfer, oscillating flow, porous channel

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Authors: Bikram K. Das, Kalyan K. Chattopadhyay

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The advent of 2-D materials in the last decade has induced a fresh spur of growth in fuel cell technology as these materials have some highly promising traits that can be exploited to felicitate Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) in an efficient way. Among the various 2-D carbon materials, graphyne (Gy) and graphdiyne (Gdy)1 with their intrinsic non-uniform charge distribution holds promises in this purpose and it is expected2 that substitutional Nitrogen (N) doping could further enhance their efficiency. In this regard, dispersive force corrected density functional theory is used to map the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics of five different kinds of N doped graphyne and graphdiyne systems (namely αGy, βGy, γGy, RGy and 6,6,12Gy and Gdy) in alkaline medium. The best doping site for each of the Gy/ Gdy system is determined comparing the formation energies of the possible doping configurations. Similarly, the best di-oxygen (O₂) adsorption sites for the doped systems are identified by comparing the adsorption energies. O₂ adsorption on all N doped Gy/ Gdy systems is found to be energetically favorable. ORR on a catalyst surface may occur either via the Eley-Rideal (ER) or the Langmuir–Hinschelwood (LH) pathway. Systematic studies performed on the considered systems reveal that all of them favor the ER pathway. Further, depending on the nature of di-oxygen adsorption ORR can follow either associative or dissociative mechanism; the possibility of occurrence of both the mechanisms is tested thoroughly for each N doped Gy/ Gdy. For the ORR process, all the Gy/Gdy systems are observed to prefer the efficient four-electron pathway but the expected monotonically exothermic reaction pathway is found only for N doped 6,6,12Gy and RGy following the associative pathway and for N doped βGy, γGy and Gdy following the dissociative pathway. Further computation performed for these systems reveals that for N doped 6,6,12Gy, RGy, βGy, γGy and Gdy the overpotentials are 1.08 V, 0.94 V, 1.17 V, 1.21 V and 1.04 V respectively depicting N doped RGy is the most promising material, to carry out ORR in alkaline medium, among the considered ones. The stability of the ORR intermediate states with the variation of pH and electrode potentials is further explored with Pourbiax diagrams and the activities of these systems in the alkaline medium are compared with the prior reported B/N doped identical systems for ORR in an acidic medium in terms of a common descriptor.

Keywords: graphdiyne, graphyne, nitrogen-doped, ORR

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Authors: Opeyemi Fadipe, Masud Salimian

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The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new normal into the world; online teaching is now the most used method of teaching over the face to face meeting. With the emergency of these teaching, online-teaching has been improved over time and with more technological advancement tools introduced. Practical courses are more demanding to teach because it requires the physical presence of the student as well as a demonstration of the equipment. In this study, a case of Lagos State University thermofluid practical was the understudy. A survey was done and give to a sample of students to fill. The result showed that the blend-approach is better for practical course teaching. Software simulation of the equipment used to conduct practical should be encouraged in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19, online teaching, t-distribution, thermofluid

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Authors: O’Day Luke

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Purpose: To validate virtual non-contrast reconstructions generated from dual-layer spectral computed tomography (DL-CT) data as an alternative for the acquisition of a dedicated true non-contrast dataset during multiphase contrast studies. Material and methods: Thirty-three patients underwent a routine multiphase clinical CT examination, using Dual-Layer Spectral CT, from March to August 2021. True non-contrast (TNC) and virtual non-contrast (VNC) datasets, generated from both portal venous and arterial phase imaging were evaluated. For every patient in both true and virtual non-contrast datasets, a region-of-interest (ROI) was defined in aorta, liver, fluid (i.e. gallbladder, urinary bladder), kidney, muscle, fat and spongious bone, resulting in 693 ROIs. Differences in attenuation for VNC and TNV images were compared, both separately and combined. Consistency between VNC reconstructions obtained from the arterial and portal venous phase was evaluated. Results: Comparison of CT density (HU) on the VNC and TNC images showed a high correlation. The mean difference between TNC and VNC images (excluding bone results) was 5.5 ± 9.1 HU and > 90% of all comparisons showed a difference of less than 15 HU. For all tissues but spongious bone, the mean absolute difference between TNC and VNC images was below 10 HU. VNC images derived from the arterial and the portal venous phase showed a good correlation in most tissue types. The aortic attenuation was somewhat dependent however on which dataset was used for reconstruction. Bone evaluation with VNC datasets continues to be a problem, as spectral CT algorithms are currently poor in differentiating bone and iodine. Conclusion: Given the increasing availability of DL-CT and proven accuracy of virtual non-contrast processing, VNC is a promising tool for generating additional data during routine contrast-enhanced studies. This study shows the utility of virtual non-contrast scans as an alternative for true non-contrast studies during multiphase CT, with potential for dose reduction, without loss of diagnostic information.

Keywords: dual-layer spectral computed tomography, virtual non-contrast, true non-contrast, clinical comparison

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Authors: J. Vitku, L. Kolatorova, T. Chlupacova, J. Heracek, M. Hill, M. Duskova, L. Starka

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Background: 7β-hydroxy-epiandrosterone (7β–OH-EpiA) is an endogenous steroid, that has been shown to exert neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects in vitro as well as in animal models. However, to the best of our knowledge no information is available about concentration of this androgen metabolite in human population. The aim of the study was to measure and compare levels of 7β–OH-EpiA in men and pregnant women in different biological fluids and evaluate the relationship between 7β–OH-EpiA in men and their sperm quality. Methods: First, a sensitive isotope dilution high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for measurement of 7β–OH-EpiA in different biological fluids was developed. Validation of the method met the requirements of FDA guidelines. Afterwards 7β–OH-EpiA in plasma and seminal plasma of 191 men with different degree of infertility (healthy men, lightly infertile men, moderately infertile men, severely infertile men) was analysed. Furthermore, the levels of 7β–OH-EpiA in plasma of 34 pregnant women in 37th week of gestation and corresponding cord plasma that reflects steroid levels in the fetus were measured. Results: Concentrations of 7β–OH-EpiA in seminal plasma were significantly higher in severely infertile men in comparison with healthy men and lightly infertile men. The same trend was observed when blood plasma was evaluated. Furthermore, plasmatic 7β –OH-EpiA negatively correlated with concentration (-0.215; p < 0.01) and total count (-0.15; p < 0.05). Seminal 7β–OH-EpiA was negatively associated with motility (-0.26; p < 0.01), progressively motile sperms (-0.233; p < 0.01) and nonprogressively motile sperms (-0.188; p < 0.05). Plasmatic 7β –OH-EpiA levels in men were generally higher in comparison with pregnant women. Levels 7β–OH-EpiA were under the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) in majority of samples of pregnant women and cord plasma. Only 4 plasma samples of pregnant women and 7 cord blood plasma samples were above LLOQ and where in range of units of pg/ml. Conclusion: Based on available information, this is the first study measuring 7β–OH-EpiA in human samples. 7β–OH-EpiA is associated with lower sperm quality and certainly it is worth to explore its role in this field thoroughly. Interestingly, levels of 7β–OH-EpiA in pregnant women were extremely low despite the fact that steroid levels including androgens are generally higher during pregnancy. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the project MH CR 17-30528 A from the Czech Health Research Council, MH CZ - DRO (Institute of Endocrinology - EU, 00023761) and by the MEYS CR (OP RDE, Excellent research - ENDO.CZ).

Keywords: 7β-hydroxy-epiandrosterone, steroid, sperm quality, pregnancy

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Authors: Wu Sa, Zhang Qian, Li Qi, Wang Ye

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Currently in humidity tests having not put the Dew point temperature as a control parameter, this paper selects wet and dry bulb thermometer to measure the vapor pressure, and introduces several the saturation vapor pressure formulas easily calculated on the controller. Then establish the Dew point temperature calculation model to obtain the relationship between the Dew point temperature and vapor pressure. Finally check through the 100 groups of sample in the range of 0-100 ℃ from "Psychrometric handbook", find that the average error is small. This formula can be applied to calculate the Dew point temperature in the humidity test.

Keywords: dew point temperature, psychrometric handbook, saturation vapor pressure, wet and dry bulb thermometer

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Authors: Ghada Ben Hamad, Zohir Younsi, Hassane Naji, Noureddine Lebaz, Naoual Belouaggadia

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This study deals with a bifunctional micro-encapsulated phase change (MCP) material, capric-stearic acid/graphene oxide-TiO2, which has been successfully developed by in situ hydrolysis and polycondensation of tetrabutyl titanate and modification of graphene oxide (GO) on the TiO2 doped shell. The use of graphene and doped TiO2 is a promising approach to provide photocatalytic activity under visible light and improve the microcapsules physicochemical properties. The morphology and chemical structure of the resulting microcapsule samples were determined by using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscope (SEM), and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) methods. The ultraviolet, visible spectrophotometer (UV–vis), the differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and the thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) were used to investigate the absorption of visible and ultraviolet (UV), the thermal properties, and thermal stabilities of the microcapsules. Note that, the visible light photocatalytic activity was assessed for the toluene and benzene gaseous removal in a suitable test room. The microcapsules exhibit an interesting spherical morphology and an average diameter of 15 to 25 μm. The addition of graphene can enhance the rigidity of the shell and improve the microcapsules thermal reliability. At the same time, the thermal analysis tests showed that the synthesized microcapsules had a high solar thermal energy-storage and better thermal stability. In addition, the capric-stearic acid microcapsules exhibited high solar photocatalytic activity with respect to atmospheric pollutants under natural sunlight. The fatty acid samples obtained with the GO/TiO2 shell showed great potential for applications of solar energy storage, solar photocatalytic degradation of air pollutants and buildings energy conservation.

Keywords: thermal energy storage, microencapsulation, titanium dioxide, photocatalysis, graphene oxide

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Authors: N. A. Mokhtar, A. G. Hussin, Y. Z. Zubairi

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This paper proposes a new simultaneous simple linear functional relationship model by assuming equal error variances. We derive the maximum likelihood estimate of the parameters in the simultaneous model and the covariance. We show by simulation study the small bias values of the parameters suggest the suitability of the estimation method. As an illustration, the proposed simultaneous model is applied to real data of the wind direction and wave direction measured by two different instruments.

Keywords: simultaneous linear functional relationship model, Fisher information matrix, parameter estimation, circular variables

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Authors: Ouassila Bekkal Brikci Benhabib, Zahia Boucherit Otmani, Kebir Boucherit, A. Seghir

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The establishment of intravenous catheters in hospitalized patient is an act common in many clinical situations. These therapeutic tools, from their insertion in the body, represent gateways including fungal germs prone. The latter can generate the growth of biofilms, which can be the cause of fungal infection. Faced with this problem, we conducted a study at the University Hospital of Tlemcen in the neurosurgery unit and aims to isolate and identify Candida yeasts from intravenous catheters. Then test their ability to form biofilms. Materials and methods: 256 patient hospitalized in surgery of the hospital in west Algeria were submitted to this study. All samples were taken from peripheral venous catheters implanted for 72 hours or more days. A total of 31 isolates of Candida species were isolated. MIC and SMIC are determined at 80% inhibition by the test XTT tetrazolium measured at 490 nm. The final concentrations of antifungal agent being between 0.03 and 16 mg / ml for amphotericin B and from 0.015 to 8 mg / mL caspofungin. Results: 31 Candida species isolates from catheters including 14 Candida albicans and 17 Candida non albicans . 21 strains of all the isolates were able to form biofilms. In their form of Planktonic cells, all isolates are 100% susceptible to antifungal agents tested. However, in their state of biofilms, more isolates have become tolerant to the tested antifungals. Conclusion: Candida yeasts isolated from intravascular catheters are considered an important virulence factor in the pathogenesis of infections. Their involvement in catheter-related infections can be disastrous for their potential to generate biofilms. They survive high concentrations of antifungal where treatment failure. Pending the development of a therapeutic approach antibiofilm related to catheters, their mastery is going through: -The risk of infection prevention based on the training and awareness of medical staff, -Strict hygiene and maximum asepsis, and -The choice of material limiting microbial colonization.

Keywords: candida, biofilm, hospital, infection, amphotericin B, caspofungin

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Authors: Mariola Głowacka

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Aim: The aim of this study was to present the assessment of dyspnea and anxiety in seniors staying in the hospice in the context of the nurse's tasks. Materials and methods: The presented research was carried out at the "Hospicjum Płockie" Association of St. Urszula Ledóchowska in Płock, in a stationary ward, for adults. The research group consisted of 100 people, women, and men. In the study described in this paper, the method of diagnostic survey, the method of estimation and analysis of patient records were used, and the research tools were the numerical scale of the NRS assessment, the modified Borg scale to assess dyspnea, the Trait Anxiety scale to test the intensity of anxiety and the sociodemographic assessment of the respondent. Results: Among the patients, the greatest number were people without dyspnoea (38 people) and with average levels of dyspnoea (26 people). People with lung cancer had a higher level of breathlessness than people with other cancers. Half of the patients included in the study felt anxiety at a low level. On average, men had a higher level of anxiety than women. Conclusion: 1) Patients staying in the hospice require comprehensive nursing care due to the underlying disease, comorbidities, and a wide range of medications taken, which aggravate the feeling of dyspnea and anxiety. 2) The study showed that in patients staying in the hospice, the level of dyspnea was of varying severity. The greatest number of people were without dyspnea (38) and patients with a low level of dyspnea (34). There were 12 people experiencing an average level of dyspnea and a high level of dyspnea 15. 3) The main factor influencing the severity of dyspnea in patients was the location of cancer. There was no significant relationship between the intensity of dyspnea and the age, gender of the patient, and time from diagnosis. 4) The study showed that in patients staying in the hospice, the level of anxiety was of varying severity. Most people experience a low level of anxiety (51). There were 16 people with a high level of anxiety, while there were 33 people experiencing anxiety at an average level. 5) The patient's gender was the main factor influencing the increase in anxiety intensity. Men had higher levels of anxiety than women. There was no significant correlation between the intensity of anxiety and the age of the respondents, as well as the type of cancer and time since diagnosis. 6) The intensity of dyspnea depended on the type of cancer the subjects had. People with lung cancer had a higher level of breathlessness than those with breast cancer and bowel cancer. It was not found that the anxiety increased depending on the type of cancer and comorbidities of the examined person.

Keywords: cancer, shortness of breath, anxiety, senior, hospice

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Authors: Alex Konrad

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In 2017, about 4.5 million Muslims live in Germany. They can practice their faith openly, mostly in well-equipped community centers. At the same time, right-wing politicians and media allege that all Muslims tend to be radical and undemocratic. Both perspectives are rooted in an interacting development since the 1970s. German authorities closed the 'King Fahd Academy' international school in Bonn in summer 2017 because they accused the school administration of attracting Islamists. Only 30 years ago, German authorities and labor unions directed their requests for pastoral care of the Muslim communities in Germany to the Turkish and Saudi administrations. This study shows the leading and misleading tracks of Muslim life and its perception in Germany from a historical point of view. Most of the Muslims came as so-called 'Gastarbeiter' (migrant workers) from Turkey and Morocco to West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. Until the late 1970s, German society recognized them as workforce solely and ignored their religious needs broadly. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 caused widespread hysteria about Islamic radicalization. Likewise, it shifted the German perception of migrant workers in Germany. For the first time, the majority society saw them as religious people. Media and self-proclaimed 'experts' on Islam suspected Muslims in Germany of subversive and undemocratic belief. On the upside, they obtained the opportunity to be heard by German society and authorities. In the ensuing decades, Muslims and Islamophiles fought a discursive struggle against right-wing politicians, 'experts' and media with monolithic views. In the 1990s, Muslims achieved to establish a solid infrastructure of Islamic community center throughout Germany. Their religious life became present and contributed to diversifying the common monolithic images of Muslims as insane fundamentalists in Germany. However, the media and many 'experts' promoted the fundamentalist narrative, which gained more and more acceptance in German society at the same time. This study uses archival sources from German authorities, Islamic communities, together with local and national media to get a close approach to the contemporary historical debates. In addition, contributions by Muslims and Islamophiles in Germany, for example in magazines, event reports, and internal communication, revealing their quotidian struggle for more acceptance are being used as sources. The inclusion of widely publicized books, documentaries and newspaper articles about Islam as a menace to Europe conduces to a balanced analysis of the contemporary debates and views. Theoretically, the study applies the Third Space approach. Muslims in Germany fight the othering by the German majority society. It was their chief purpose not to be marginalized in both spatial meanings, discursively and physically. Therefore, they established realities of life as hybrids in Germany. This study reconstructs the development of the perception of Muslims in Germany. It claims that self-proclaimed experts and politicians with monolithic views maintained the hegemonic discursive positions and coined the German images of Muslims. Nevertheless, Muslims in Germany accomplished that Muslim presence in Germany’s everyday life became an integral part of society and the public sphere. This is how Muslims hybridized religious spaces in Germany.

Keywords: experts, fundamentalism, Germany, hybridization, Islamophobia, migrant workers

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Authors: Matthias Steffan, Franz Haas

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The production process grinding is one of the latest steps in a value-added manufacturing chain. Within this step, workpiece geometry and surface roughness are determined. Up to this process stage, considerable costs and energy have already been spent on components. According to the current state of the art, therefore, large safety reserves are calculated in order to guarantee a process capability. Especially for non-circular grinding, this fact leads to considerable losses of process efficiency. With present technology, various non-circular geometries on a workpiece must be grinded subsequently in an oscillating process where X- and Q-axis of the machine are coupled. With the approach of RPM-Synchronous Noncircular Grinding, such workpieces can be machined in an ordinary plung grinding process. Therefore, the workpieces and the grinding wheels revolutionary rate are in a fixed ratio. A non-circular grinding wheel is used to transfer its geometry onto the workpiece. The authors use a worldwide unique machine tool that was especially designed for this technology. Highest revolution rates on the workpiece spindle (up to 4500 rpm) are mandatory for the success of this grinding process. This grinding approach is performed in a two-step process. For roughing, a highly porous vitrified bonded grinding wheel with medium grain size is used. It ensures high specific material removal rates for efficiently producing the non-circular geometry on the workpiece. This process step is adapted by a force control algorithm, which uses acquired data from a three-component force sensor located in the dead centre of the tailstock. For finishing, a grinding wheel with a fine grain size is used. Roughing and finishing are performed consecutively among the same clamping of the workpiece with two locally separated grinding spindles. The approach of RPM-Synchronous Noncircular Grinding shows great efficiency enhancement in non-circular grinding. For the first time, three-dimensional non-circular shapes can be grinded that opens up various fields of application. Especially automotive industries show big interest in the emerging trend in finishing machining.

Keywords: efficiency enhancement, finishing machining, non-circular grinding, rpm-synchronous grinding

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Authors: Ruby Priya, Om Parkash Pandey

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Eu doped Gd₂O₃ phosphors are synthesized via co-precipitation method using ammonia as a precipitating agent. The concentration of the Eu was set as 4 mol% for all the samples. The effect of the surfactants (CTAB, PEG, and SDS) on the structural, morphological and luminescent properties has been studied in details. The as-synthesized phosphors were characterized by X-ray diffraction technique, Field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and photoluminescence technique. It was observed that the surfactants have not changed the crystal structure, but influenced the morphology of as-synthesized phosphors to a great extent. The as-synthesized phosphors are expected to be promising candidates for optoelectronic devices, biosensors, MRI contrast agents and various biomedical applications.

Keywords: co-precipitation, Europium, photoluminescence, surfactants

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Authors: Soma Ghosh, Balaram Mohapatra, Pinaki Sar, Abhijeet Mukherjee

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Microbial role in arsenic (As) mobilization in the groundwater aquifers of Brahmaputra river basin (BRB) in India, severely threatened by high concentrations of As, remains largely unknown. The present study, therefore, is a molecular and ecophysiological characterization of an indigenous bacterium strain IIIJ3-1 isolated from As contaminated groundwater of BRB and application of this strain in several microcosm set ups differing in their organic carbon (OC) source and terminal electron acceptors (TEA), to understand its role in As dissolution under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Strain IIIJ3-1 was found to be a new facultative anaerobic, gram-positive, endospore-forming strain capable of arsenite (As3+) oxidation and dissimilatory arsenate (As5+) reduction. The bacterium exhibited low genomic (G+C)% content (45 mol%). Although, its 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed a maximum similarity of 99% with Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579(T) but the DNA-DNA relatedness of their genomic DNAs was only 49.9%, which remains well below the value recommended to delimit different species. Abundance of fatty acids iC17:0, iC15:0 and menaquinone (MK) 7 though corroborates its taxonomic affiliation with B. cereus sensu-lato group, presence of hydroxy fatty acids (HFAs), C18:2, MK5 and MK6 marked its uniqueness. Besides being highly As resistant (MTC=10mM As3+, 350mM As5+), metabolically diverse, efficient aerobic As3+ oxidizer; it exhibited near complete dissimilatory reduction of As5+ (1 mM). Utilization of various carbon sources with As5+ as TEA revealed lactate to serve as the best electron donor. Aerobic biotransformation assay yielded a lower Km for As3+ oxidation than As5+ reduction. Arsenic homeostasis was found to be conferred by the presence of arr, arsB, aioB, and acr3(1) genes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis of this bacterium revealed reduction in cell size upon exposure to As and formation of As-rich electron opaque dots following growth with As3+. Incubation of this strain with sediment (sterilised) collected from BRB aquifers under varying OC, TEA and redox conditions revealed that the strain caused highest As mobilization from solid to aqueous phase under anaerobic condition with lactate and nitrate as electron donor and acceptor, respectively. Co-release of highest concentrations of oxalic acid, a well known bioweathering agent, considerable fold increase in viable cell counts and SEM-EDX and X-ray diffraction analysis of the sediment after incubation under this condition indicated that As release is consequent to microbial bioweathering of the minerals. Co-release of other elements statistically proves decoupled release of As with Fe and Zn. Principle component analysis also revealed prominent role of nitrate under aerobic and/or anaerobic condition in As release by strain IIIJ3-1. This study, therefore, is the first to isolate, characterize and reveal As mobilization property of a strain belonging to the Bacillus cereus sensu lato group isolated from highly As contaminated aquifers of Brahmaputra River Basin.

Keywords: anaerobic microcosm, arsenic rich electron opaque dots, Arsenic release, Bacillus strain IIIJ3-1

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Authors: Matthew Baucum

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With the increasing popularity of fMRI as an experimental method, psychology and neuroscience can greatly benefit from advanced techniques for summarizing and synthesizing large amounts of data from brain imaging studies. One promising avenue is automated meta-analyses, in which natural language processing methods are used to identify the brain regions consistently associated with certain semantic concepts (e.g. “social”, “reward’) across large corpora of studies. This study builds on this approach by demonstrating how, in fMRI meta-analyses, individual voxels can be treated as vectors in a semantic space and evaluated for their “proximity” to terms of interest. In this technique, a low-dimensional semantic space is built from brain imaging study texts, allowing words in each text to be represented as vectors (where words that frequently appear together are near each other in the semantic space). Consequently, each voxel in a brain mask can be represented as a normalized vector sum of all of the words in the studies that showed activation in that voxel. The entire brain mask can then be visualized in terms of each voxel’s proximity to a given term of interest (e.g., “vision”, “decision making”) or collection of terms (e.g., “theory of mind”, “social”, “agent”), as measured by the cosine similarity between the voxel’s vector and the term vector (or the average of multiple term vectors). Analysis can also proceed in the opposite direction, allowing word cloud visualizations of the nearest semantic neighbors for a given brain region. This approach allows for continuous, fine-grained metrics of voxel-term associations, and relies on state-of-the-art “open vocabulary” methods that go beyond mere word-counts. An analysis of over 11,000 neuroimaging studies from an existing meta-analytic fMRI database demonstrates that this technique can be used to recover known neural bases for multiple psychological functions, suggesting this method’s utility for efficient, high-level meta-analyses of localized brain function. While automated text analytic methods are no replacement for deliberate, manual meta-analyses, they seem to show promise for the efficient aggregation of large bodies of scientific knowledge, at least on a relatively general level.

Keywords: FMRI, machine learning, meta-analysis, text analysis

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Authors: Sara Taghdisi, Mehrosadat Mirmohammadi, Mostafa Mokhtarian, Mohammad Hossein Pazandeh

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Leishmaniasis is one of the 10 most important diseases of the World Health Organization with health problems in more than 90 countries. Over one billion people are at risk of these diseases on almost every continent. The present human study was performed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of cotton plant on cutaneous leishmaniasis leision. firstly, the cotton seeds were cleaned and grinded to smaller particles. In the second step, the seeds were oiled by cold press method. In order to separate bioactive compound, after saponification of the oil, its gossypol was hydrolyzed and crystalized. finally, the therapeutic effect of Cottonseed Oil on cutaneous leishmaniasis was investigated. In the current project, Gossypol was extracted with a liquid-liquid extraction method in 120 minutes in the presence of Phosphoric acid from the cotton seed oil of Golestan beach varieties, then got crystallized in darkness using Acetic acid and isolated as Gossypol Acetic acid. The efficiency of the extracted crystal was obtained at 1.28±0.12. the cotton plant could be efficient in the treatment of Cutaneous leishmaniasis. This double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was performed on 88 cases of leishmaniasis wounds. Patients were randomly divided into two groups of 44 cases. two groups received conventional treatment. In addition to the usual treatment (glucantime), the first group received cottonseed oil and the control group received placebo. The results of the present study showed that the surface of lesion before the intervention and in the first to fourth weeks after the intervention was not significantly different between the two groups (P-value> 0.05). But the surface of lesion in the Intervention group in the eighth and twelfth weeks was lower than the control group (P-value <0.05). This study showed that the improvement of leishmaniasis lesion using topical cotton plant mark in the eighth and twelfth weeks after the intervention was significantly more than the control group. Considering the most common chemical drugs for Cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment are sodium stibogluconate, and meglumine antimonate, which not only have relatively many side effects, but also some species of the Leishmania genus have become resistant to them. Therefore, a plant base bioactive compound such as cottonseed oil can be useful whit fewer side effects.

Keywords: cottonseed oil, crystallization, gossypol, leishmaniasis

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Authors: Kiran P. Kumar, H. M. Nayana, R. Rakshitha, S. Sushmitha

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Aircraft noise is a highly concerned problem in the field of the aviation industry. It is necessary to reduce the noise in order to be environment-friendly. Air-frame noise is caused because of the quick separation of the boundary layer over an aircraft body. So, we have to delay the boundary layer separation of an air-frame and engine nacelle. By following a certain procedure boundary layer separation can be reduced by converting laminar into turbulent and hence early separation can be prevented that leads to the noise reduction. This method has a tendency to reduce the noise of the aircraft hence it can prove efficient and environment-friendly than the present Aircraft.

Keywords: airframe, boundary layer, noise, reduction

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Authors: Shahindokht Bassiri-Jahromi, Mohammad Reza Pourshafie, Farzad Katiraee, Mannan Hajimahmoodi, Ehsan Mostafavi, Malihe Talebi

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Objective: Resistance of Candida species to antifungal agents has potentially serious implications for management of infections. Candida species are now fourth common organisms isolated from hospitalized patients. It is important to increase effective therapy. In the past decade, numerous reports of treatment failures were reported. Prevention and control of these infections will require new antimicrobial agents. Plant-derived antifungal have always been a source of novel therapeutics. The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal effect of methanolic extract of pomegranate peel and pulp against Candida species. Material and Methods: Eight cultivars of Punica granatum L. were collected from Saveh Agricultural Investigation Center in Iran. Both pomegranate pulp and peel were dried and powdered separately. The dried powders were extracted by using a soxhlet extractor. The antifungal effect of methanolic extract of pomegranate peel and pulp were determined in vitro by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against five standard species of (ATCC 10231), C. parapsilosis (ATCC 22019), C. tropicalis (ATCC 750), C. glabrata (PTCC 5297), and C. kroseii (PTCC 5295). Results: Maximum inhibitions of antifungal effect were attributed to peel extract pomegranate cultivar and Candida species. The most potential antifungal inhibition among 8 different cultivars observed by sour malas, sour white peel, and sour summer extracts respectively, against five Candida strains. The antifungal activity of pulp extracts against Candida species was approximately negative. Conclusion: The use of Punica granatum peel extract has been shown to possess antifungal activities. The phytochemistry and pharmacological actions of Punica granatum peel components suggest a wide range of clinical applications for the treatment and prevention of candidiasis.

Keywords: antifungal activity, Candida species, Punica granatum L., pharmacognosy

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Authors: Meysam Lak, Mohammad Fatehi Marji, Alireza Yarahamdi Bafghi, Abolfazl Abdollahipour

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A wellbore is a hole that is drilled to aid in the exploration and recovery of natural resources including oil and gas. Occasionally, in order to increase productivity index and porosity of the wellbore and reservoir, the well stimulation methods have been used. Hydraulic fracturing is one of these methods. Moreover, several explosions at the end of the well can stimulate the reservoir and create fractures around it. In this study, crack initiation in rock around the wellbore has been numerically modeled due to explosion. One, two, three, and four pairs of explosion have been set at the end of the wellbore on its wall. After each stage of the explosion, results have been presented and discussed. Results show that this method can initiate and probably propagate several fractures around the wellbore.

Keywords: crack initiation, explosion, finite difference modelling, well productivity

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Authors: Sónia Ribeiro, Diana Farinha, Elsa Pereira, Hélia Sales, Filipa Figueiredo, Rita Pontes, João Nunes

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Conventional plastic impacts on Planet, natural resources contamination, human health as well as animals are the most attractive environmental and health attention. The lack of treatment in the end-of-life (EOL) phase and uncontrolled discard allows plastic to be found everywhere in the world. Food waste is increasing significantly, with a final destination to landfills. To face these difficulties, new packaging solutions are needed with the objective of prolonging the shelf-life of products as well as equipment solutions for the development of the mentioned packaging. FLUI project thus presents relevance and innovation to reach a new level of knowledge and industrial development focused in Ecodesign. Industrial equipment field for the manufacture of new packaging solutions based on biodegradable plastics films to apply in the food sector. With lesser environmental impacts and new solutions that make it possible to prevent food waste, reduce the production e consequent poor disposal of plastic of fossil origin. It will be a paradigm shift at different levels, from industry to waste treatment stations, passing through commercial agents and consumers. It can be achieved through the life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecodesign of the products, which integrates the environmental concerns in the design of the product as well as through the entire life cycle. The FLUI project aims to build a piece of new bio-PLA extrusion equipment with the incorporation of bioactive extracts through the production of flexible mono- and multi-layer functional films (FLUI systems). The biofunctional and biodegradable films will prompt the extension of packaged products’ shelf-life, reduce food waste and contribute to reducing the consumption of non-degradable fossil plastics, as well as the use of raw material from renewable sources.

Keywords: food packing, bioplastics, ecodesign, circular economy

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Authors: M. M. Wickramasinghe

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Cholesterol and triglycerides are lipids, mainly essential to maintain the cellular structure of the human body. Cholesterol is also important for hormone production, vitamin D production, proper digestion functions, and strengthening the immune system. Excess fats in the blood circulation, known as hyperlipidemia, become harmful leading to arterial clogging and causing atherosclerosis. Aim of this research is to develop a treatment protocol to efficiently break down and maintain circulatory lipids by improving blood circulation without strenuous physical exercises while immersed in a tub of water. To achieve the target of strong exercise effect, this method involves generating powerful ozone bubbles to spin, collide, and burst in the water. Powerful emission of air into water is capable of transferring locked energy of the water molecules and releasing energy. This method involves water and air-based impact generated by pumping ozone at the speed of 46 lts/sec with a concentration of 0.03-0.05 ppt according to safety standards of The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, BfArM, Germany. The direct impact of ozone bubbles on the muscular system and skin becomes the main target and is capable of increasing the heart rate while immersed in water. A total time duration of 20 minutes is adequate to exert a strong exercise effect, improve blood circulation, and stimulate the nervous and endocrine systems. Unstable ozone breakdown into oxygen release onto the surface of the water giving additional benefits and supplying high-quality air rich in oxygen required to maintain efficient metabolic functions. The breathing technique was introduced to improve the efficiency of lung functions and benefit the air exchange mechanism. The temperature of the water is maintained at 39c to 40c to support arterial dilation and enzyme functions and efficiently improve blood circulation to the vital organs. The buoyancy of water and natural hydrostatic pressure release the tension of the body weight and relax the mind and body. Sufficient hydration (3lts of water per day) is an essential requirement to transport nutrients and remove waste byproducts to process through the liver, kidney, and skin. Proper nutritional intake is an added advantage to optimize the efficiency of this method which aids in a fast recovery process. Within 20-30 days of daily treatment, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins (LDL), and total cholesterol reduction were observed in patients with abnormal levels of lipid profile. Borderline patients were cleared within 10–15 days of treatment. This is a highly efficient system that provides many benefits and is able to achieve a successful reduction of triglycerides, LDL, and total cholesterol within a short period of time. Supported by proper hydration and nutritional balance, this system of natural treatment maintains healthy levels of lipids in the blood and avoids the risk of cerebral stroke, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.

Keywords: atherosclerosis, cholesterol, hydrotherapy, hyperlipidemia, lipid management, ozone therapy, triglycerides

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Authors: Xiangchun Wang, Lihui Zheng, Maozong Gan, Peng Zhang, Tong Wu, An Chang

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The deep coal measure tight gas reservoir in Sulige is usually reformed by fracturing, because the reservoir thickness is small, the water layers can be easily communicated during fracturing, which will lead to water production of gas wells and lower production of gas wells. Therefore, it is necessary to control water during fracturing in deep coal measure tight gas reservoir. Using fuzzy-ball fluid to control water fracturing can not only increase the output but also reduce the water output. The fuzzy-ball fluid was prepared indoors to carry out evaluation experiments. The fuzzy ball fluid was mixed in equal volume with the pre-fluid and formation water to test its compatibility. The core displacement device was used to test the gas and water breaking through the matrix and fractured cores blocked by fuzzy-ball fluid. The breakthrough pressure of the plunger tests its water blocking performance. The experimental results show that there is no precipitation after the fuzzy-ball fluid is mixed with the pad fluid and the formation water, respectively. The breakthrough pressure gradients of gas and water after the fuzzy-ball fluid plugged the cracks were 0.02MPa/cm and 0.04MPa/cm, respectively, and the breakthrough pressure gradients of gas and water after the matrix was plugged were 0.03MPa/cm and 0.2MPa/cm, respectively, which meet the requirements of field operation. Two wells A and B in the Sulige Gas Field were used on site to implement water control fracturing. After the pre-fluid was injected into the two wells, 50m3 of fuzzy-ball fluid was pumped to plug the water. The construction went smoothly. After water control and fracturing, the average daily output in 161 days was increased by 13.71% and 6.99% compared with that of adjacent wells in the same layer. The adjacent wells were bubbled for 3 times and 63 times respectively, while there was no effusion in A and B construction wells. The results show that fuzzy-ball fluid is a water plugging material suitable for water control fracturing in tight gas wells, and its water control mechanism can also provide a new idea for the development of water control fracturing materials.

Keywords: coal seam, deep layer, fracking, fuzzy-ball fluid, reservoir reconstruction

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Authors: Chen Wang, Jared Evans, Yan Asmann

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With the quick evolvement of next-generation sequencing techniques, whole-exome or exome-panel data have become a cost-effective way for detection of small exonic mutations, but there has been a growing desire to accurately detect copy number variations (CNVs) as well. In order to address this research and clinical needs, we developed a sequencing coverage pattern-based method not only for copy number detections, data integrity checks, CNV calling, and visualization reports. The developed methodologies include complete automation to increase usability, genome content-coverage bias correction, CNV segmentation, data quality reports, and publication quality images. Automatic identification and removal of poor quality outlier samples were made automatically. Multiple experimental batches were routinely detected and further reduced for a clean subset of samples before analysis. Algorithm improvements were also made to improve somatic CNV detection as well as germline CNV detection in trio family. Additionally, a set of utilities was included to facilitate users for producing CNV plots in focused genes of interest. We demonstrate the somatic CNV enhancements by accurately detecting CNVs in whole exome-wide data from the cancer genome atlas cancer samples and a lymphoma case study with paired tumor and normal samples. We also showed our efficient reuses of existing exome sequencing data, for improved germline CNV calling in a family of the trio from the phase-III study of 1000 Genome to detect CNVs with various modes of inheritance. The performance of the developed method is evaluated by comparing CNV calling results with results from other orthogonal copy number platforms. Through our case studies, reuses of exome sequencing data for calling CNVs have several noticeable functionalities, including a better quality control for exome sequencing data, improved joint analysis with single nucleotide variant calls, and novel genomic discovery of under-utilized existing whole exome and custom exome panel data.

Keywords: bioinformatics, computational genetics, copy number variations, data reuse, exome sequencing, next generation sequencing

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Authors: Vijaya K. Srivastava, Davide Spinello

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This paper presents established 3ⁿ enumeration procedure for mixed integer optimization problems for solving multi-objective reliability and redundancy allocation problem subject to design constraints. The formulated problem is to find the optimum level of unit reliability and the number of units for each subsystem. A number of illustrative examples are provided and compared to indicate the application of the superiority of the proposed method.

Keywords: integer programming, mixed integer programming, multi-objective optimization, Reliability Redundancy Allocation

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Authors: Anoop T. R., Otman Basir, Robert F. Hess, Eileen E. Birch, Brooke A. Koritala, Reed M. Jost, Becky Luu, David Stager, Ben Thompson

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Strabismus refers to a misalignment of the eyes. Early detection and treatment of strabismus in childhood can prevent the development of permanent vision loss due to abnormal development of visual brain areas. We developed a two-stage method for strabismus detection and classification based on photographs of the face. The first stage detects the presence or absence of strabismus, and the second stage classifies the type of strabismus. The first stage comprises face detection using Haar cascade, facial landmark estimation, face alignment, aligned face landmark detection, segmentation of the eye region, and detection of strabismus using VGG 16 convolution neural networks. Face alignment transforms the face to a canonical pose to ensure consistency in subsequent analysis. Using facial landmarks, the eye region is segmented from the aligned face and fed into a VGG 16 CNN model, which has been trained to classify strabismus. The CNN determines whether strabismus is present and classifies the type of strabismus (exotropia, esotropia, and vertical deviation). If stage 1 detects strabismus, the eye region image is fed into stage 2, which starts with the estimation of pupil center coordinates using mask R-CNN deep neural networks. Then, the distance between the pupil coordinates and eye landmarks is calculated along with the angle that the pupil coordinates make with the horizontal and vertical axis. The distance and angle information is used to characterize the degree and direction of the strabismic eye misalignment. This model was tested on 100 clinically labeled images of children with (n = 50) and without (n = 50) strabismus. The True Positive Rate (TPR) and False Positive Rate (FPR) of the first stage were 94% and 6% respectively. The classification stage has produced a TPR of 94.73%, 94.44%, and 100% for esotropia, exotropia, and vertical deviations, respectively. This method also had an FPR of 5.26%, 5.55%, and 0% for esotropia, exotropia, and vertical deviation, respectively. The addition of one more feature related to the location of corneal light reflections may reduce the FPR, which was primarily due to children with pseudo-strabismus (the appearance of strabismus due to a wide nasal bridge or skin folds on the nasal side of the eyes).

Keywords: strabismus, deep neural networks, face detection, facial landmarks, face alignment, segmentation, VGG 16, mask R-CNN, pupil coordinates, angle deviation, horizontal and vertical deviation

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Authors: Shady S. Hassan, Brijesh K. Tiwari, Gwilym A. Williams, Amit K. Jaiswal

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Waste materials from a wide range of agro-industrial processes may be used as substrates for microbial growth, and subsequently the production of a range of high value products and bioenergy. In addition, utilization of these agro-residues in bioprocesses has the dual advantage of providing alternative substrates, as well as solving their disposal problems. Spent coffee grounds (SCG) are a by-product (45%) of coffee processing. SCG is a lignocellulosic material, which is composed mainly of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Thus, a pretreatment process is required to facilitate an efficient enzymatic hydrolysis of such carbohydrates. In this context, microwave pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass without the addition of harsh chemicals represents a green technology. Moreover, microwave treatment has a high heating efficiency and is easy to implement. Thus, microwave pretreatment of SCG without adding of harsh chemicals investigated as a green technology to enhance enzyme hydrolysis. In the present work, microwave pretreatment experiments were conducted on SCG at varying power levels (100, 250, 440, 600, and 1000 W) for 60 s. By increasing microwave power to a certain level (which vary by varying biomass), reducing sugar increases, then reducing sugar from biomass start to decrease with microwave power increase beyond this level. Microwave pretreatment of SCG at 60s followed by enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in total reducing sugars of 91.6 ± 7.0 mg/g of biomass (at microwave power of 100 w). Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was employed to investigate changes in functional groups of biomass after pretreatment, while high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed for determination of glucose. Pretreatment of lignocellulose using microwave was found to be an effective and energy efficient technology to improve saccharification and glucose yield. Energy performance will be evaluated for the microwave pretreatment, and the enzyme hydrolysate will be used as media component substitute for the production of ethanol and other high value products.

Keywords: lignocellulose, microwave, pretreatment, spent coffee grounds

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Authors: Marius Sebastian Secula, Mihaela Darie, Gabriela Carja

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Persistent organic pollutant discharged by various industries or urban regions into the aquatic ecosystems represent a serious threat to fauna and human health. The endocrine disrupting compounds are known to have toxic effects even at very low values of concentration. The anti-inflammatory agent Ibuprofen is an endocrine disrupting compound and is considered as model pollutant in the present study. The use of light energy to accomplish the latest requirements concerning wastewater discharge demands highly-performant and robust photo-catalysts. Many efforts have been paid to obtain efficient photo-responsive materials. Among the promising photo-catalysts, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) attracted significant consideration especially due to their composition flexibility, high surface area and tailored redox features. This work presents Fe(II) self-supported on ZnMeLDHs (Me =Al3+, Fe3+) as novel efficient photo-catalysts for Fenton-like catalysis. The co-precipitation method was used to prepare ZnAlLDH, ZnFeAlLDH and ZnCrLDH (Zn2+/Me3+ = 2 molar ratio). Fe(II) was self-supported on the LDHs matrices by using the reconstruction method, at two different values of weight concentration. X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG/DTG), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the structural, textural, and micromorphology of the catalysts. The Fe(II)/ZnMeLDHs nano-hybrids were tested for the degradation of a model pharmaceutical agent, the anti-inflammatory agent ibuprofen, by photocatalysis and photo-Fenton catalysis, respectively. The results point out that the embedment Fe(II) into ZnFeAlLDH and ZnCrLDH lead to a slight enhancement of ibuprofen degradation by light irradiation, whereas in case of ZnAlLDH, the degradation process is relatively low. A remarkable enhancement of ibuprofen degradation was found in the case of Fe(II)/ZnMeLDHs by photo-Fenton process. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0405.

Keywords: layered double hydroxide, heterogeneous Fenton, micropollutant, photocatalysis

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