Search results for: aqueous media

Authors: Long Pham, Julia Blanke

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An increasingly popular way of establishing citizen engagement within communities is through ‘city apps’. Currently, most of these mobile applications seem to be extensions of the existing communication media, sometimes merely replicating the information available on the classical city web sites, and therefore provide minimal additional impact on citizen behavior and engagement. In order to overcome this challenge, we propose to use a holistic behavioral model to generate dynamic and contextualized app content based on optimizing well defined city-related performance goals constrained by the proposed behavioral model. In this paper, we will show how the data collected by the CorkCitiEngage project in the Irish city of Cork can be utilized to calibrate aspects of the proposed model enabling the design of a personalized citizen engagement app aiming at positively influencing people’s behavior towards more active participation in their communities. We will focus on the important aspect of intentions to act, which is essential for understanding the reasons behind the common value-action-gap being responsible for the mismatch between good intentions and actual observable behavior, and will discuss how customized app design can be based on a rigorous model of behavior optimized towards maximizing well defined city-related performance goals.

Keywords: city apps, holistic behaviour model, intention to act, value-action-gap, citizen engagement

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Authors: Suzanne Giasson, Alberto Guerron

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Stimuli-responsive polymer coatings can be used as functional elements in nanotechnologies, such as valves in microfluidic devices, as membranes in biomedical engineering, as substrates for the culture of biological tissues or in developing nanomaterials for targeted therapies in different diseases. However, such coatings usually suffer from major shortcomings, such as a lack of selectivity and poor environmental stability. The study will present multi-responsive hierarchical and hybrid polymer-based coatings aiming to overcome some of these limitations. Hierarchical polymer coatings, consisting of two-dimensional arrays of thermo-responsive cationic PNIPAM-based microgels and surface-functionalized with non-responsive or pH-responsive polymers, were covalently grafted to substrates to tune the surface chemistry and the elasticity of the surface independently using different stimuli. The characteristic dimensions (i.e., layer thickness) and surface properties (i.e., adhesion, friction) of the microgel coatings were assessed using the Surface Forces Apparatus. The ability to independently control the swelling and surface properties using temperature and pH as triggers were investigated for microgels in aqueous suspension and microgels immobilized on substrates. Polymer chain grafting did not impede the ability of cationic PNIPAM microgels to undergo a volume phase transition above the VPTT, either in suspension or immobilized on a substrate. Due to the presence of amino groups throughout the entirety of the microgel polymer network, the swelling behavior was also pH dependent. However, the thermo-responsive swelling was more significant than the pH-triggered one. The microgels functionalized with PEG exhibited the most promising behavior. Indeed, the thermo-triggered swelling of microgel-co-PEG did not give rise to changes in the microgel surface properties (i.e., surface potential and adhesion) within a wide range of pH values. It was possible for the immobilized microgel-co-PEG to undergo a volume transition (swelling/shrinking) with no change in adhesion, suggesting that the surface of the thermal-responsive microgels remains rather hydrophilic above the VPTT. This work confirms the possibility of tuning the swelling behavior of microgels without changing the adhesive properties. Responsive surfaces whose swelling properties can be reversibly and externally altered over space and time regardless of the surface chemistry are very innovative and will enable revolutionary advances in technologies, particularly in biomedical surface engineering and microfluidics, where advanced assembly of functional components is increasingly required.

Keywords: responsive materials, polymers, surfaces, cell culture

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Authors: Samuel E. Okere, Anthony E. Ataga

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Introduction: This paper evaluated the mineral compositions, disease resistance elicitors in Pleurotus ostratus (POWESMS), and Pleurotus tuber-regium water extract spent mushroom substrate (PTWESMS) on the growth, yield, and management of cassava mosaic disease. Materials and Methods: The cassava plantlet (tms 98/0505) were generated through meristem tip culture at the Tissue Culture Laboratory, National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike before they were transferred to the screen house, University of Port Harcourt Research Farm. The minerals and elicitors contained in the two spent mushroom substrates were evaluated using standard procedures. The treatments for this investigation comprised cassava plants treated with POWESMS, PTWESMS, and untreated cassava as control, which were inoculated with viral inoculum seven days after treatment application. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized block design with 3 replicates. The data generated were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Means were separated using Fishers Least Significant Difference at p=0.05. Results: The results obtained revealed that POWESMS contained 19.3, 0.52, and 0.1g/200g substrate of carbohydrate polymers, glycoproteins, and lipid molecules elicitors respectively while it also contained 3.17, 212.1, 17.9,21.8, 58.8 and 111.0 mg/100g substrate for N, P, K, Na, Mg and Ca respectively. Further, PTWESMS contain 1.6, 0.04, and 0.2g/200g of the substrate as carbohydrate polymers, glycoprotein, and lipid respectively; the minerals contained in this substrate were 3.4, 204.8, 8.9, 24.2, 32.2 and 105.5 mg respectively for N, P, K, Na, and Ca. There were also significant differences in the mean values of the number of storage roots, root length, fresh root weight, fresh weight plant biomass, root girth, and whole plant dry biomass, but no significant difference was recorded for harvest index. The result also revealed significant differences in mean values of disease severity index evaluated at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 28 weeks after inoculation (WAI). Conclusion: The aqueous extract of these spent mushrooms substrate have shown outstanding prospect in managing cassava mosaic disease and also improvement in growth and yield of cassava due to the high level of the minerals and elicitors they contain when compared with the control. However, more work is recommended, especially in understanding the mechanism of this induced resistance.

Keywords: characterization, elicitors, mosaic, mushroom

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Authors: Sara M. Ismael, Ali H. Al-Badi

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The rapid development and growth of technology has changed the method of obtaining information for educators and learners. Technology has created a new world of collaboration and communication among people. Incorporating new technology into the teaching process can enhance learning outcomes. Billions of individuals across the world are now connected together, and are cooperating and contributing their knowledge and intelligence. Time is no longer wasted in waiting until the teacher is ready to share information as learners can go online and get it immediately. The objectives of this paper are to understand the reasons why changes in teaching and learning methods are necessary, to find ways of improving them, and to investigate the challenges that present themselves in the adoption of new ICT tools in higher education institutes. To achieve these objectives two primary research methods were used: questionnaires, which were distributed among students at higher educational institutes and multiple interviews with faculty members (teachers) from different colleges and universities, which were conducted to find out why teaching and learning methodology should change. The findings show that both learners and educators agree that educational technology plays a significant role in enhancing instructors’ teaching style and students’ overall learning experience; however, time constraints, privacy issues, and not being provided with enough up-to-date technology do create some challenges.

Keywords: e-books, educational technology, educators, e-learning, learners, social media, Web 2.0, LMS

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Authors: Harith Mohammed Benbouali

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The concept of sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in our society. The efforts of specialized agencies, cleverly portrayed in the media, allow a widespread environmental awareness. Far from the old environmental movement in the backward-looking nostalgia, the environment is combined with today's progress. Many areas now include these concerns in their efforts, this in order to try to reduce the negative impact of human activities on the environment. The quantitative dimension of development has given way to the quality aspect. However, this feature is not common, and the initial target was abandoned in favor of economic considerations. Specialists in the field of building and construction have constantly sought to further integrate the environmental dimension, creating a seal of high environmental quality buildings. The pursuit of well-being of neighborhood residents and the quality of buildings are also a hot topic in planning. Quality of life is considered so on, since financial concerns dominate to the detriment of the environment and the welfare of the occupants. This work concerns the development of an analytical method based on multiple indicators of objectives across the district. The quantification of indicators related to objectives allows the construction professional, the developer or the community, to quantify and compare different alternatives for development of a neighborhood. This quantification is based on the use of simulation tools and a multi-criteria aggregation.

Keywords: sustainable development, environment, district, indicators, multi-criteria analysis, evaluation

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Authors: Minh Nguyen

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Today, QR or Quick Response Codes are prevalent, and mobile/smart devices can efficiently read and understand them. Therefore, we can see their appearance in many areas, such as storing web pages/websites, business phone numbers, redirecting to an app download, business location, social media. The popularity of the QR Code is mainly because of its many advantages, such as it can hold a good amount of information, is small, easy to scan and read by a general RGB camera, and it can still work with some damages on its surface. However, there are still some issues. For instance, some areas needed to be kept untouched for its successful decode (e.g., the “Finder Patterns,” the “Quiet Zone,” etc.), the capability of built-in auto-correction is not robust enough, and it is not flexible enough for many application such as Augment Reality (AR). We proposed a new Colour Quick Response Code that has several advantages over the original ones: (1) there is no untouchable area, (2) it allows up to 40% of the entire code area to be damaged, (3) it is more beneficial for Augmented Reality applications, and (4) it is back-compatible and readable by available QR Code scanners such as Pyzbar. From our experience, our Colour Quick Response Code is significantly more flexible on damage compared to the original QR Code. Our code is believed to be suitable in situations where standard 2D Barcodes fail to work, such as curved and shiny surfaces, for instance, medical blood test sample tubes and syringes.

Keywords: QR code, computer vision, image processing, 2D barcode

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Authors: Laurisa Peters, Usha Barahmand, Maria Stalias-Mantzikos, Naila Shamsina, Kerry Aguero

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In the current study, the authors sought to examine whether the links between moral and sexual disgust and misophonia are mediated by mental contamination. An internationally diverse sample of 283 adults (193 females, 76 males, and 14 non-binary individuals) ranging in age from 18 to 60 years old was recruited from online social media platforms and survey recruitment sites. The sample completed an online battery of scales that consisted of the New York Misophonia Scale, State Mental Contamination Scale, and the Three-Domain Disgust Scale. The hypotheses were evaluated using a series of mediations performed using the PROCESS add-on in SPSS. Correlations were found between emotional and aggressive-avoidant reactions in misophonia, mental contamination, pathogen disgust, and sexual disgust. Moral disgust and non-aggressive reactions in misophonia failed to correlate significantly with any of the other constructs. Sexual disgust had direct and indirect effects, while pathogen disgust had only direct effects on aspects of misophonia. These findings partially support our hypothesis that mental contamination mediates the link between disgust propensity and misophonia while also confirming that pathogen-based disgust is not associated with mental contamination. Findings imply that misophonia is distinct from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Further research into the conceptualization of moral disgust is warranted.

Keywords: misophonia, moral disgust, pathogen disgust, sexual disgust, mental contamination

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Authors: Mehdi Tavana, Seyedeh Zeinab Peighambarzadeh

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Pyelography is used for morphologic and especially functional studies of the urinary tracts. There are many indications for excretory Pyelography in humans and animals. Intravenous Pyelography is the most practical method; other Pyelography techniques were manipulated because of difficulties for finding veins in small size of the patients. At the best of times, the combination of small veins and abundant subcutaneous tissue makes vascular access difficult or impossible, therefore, another methods of administration of contrast media is desired. This study was performed to evaluate the feasibility of intraosseous injection of iodixanol in providing a safe and diagnostic urogram in Persian squirrel. Fourteen hundred mg iodine per kilogram body weight of iodixanol was injected subcutaneously over tibial tuberosity on ten clinically healthy adult Persian squirrels with no signs of urinary system disorder. Lateral and ventrodorsal radiographs were taken every 2 minutes until the pyelogram was finished. Intraosseous injection of iodixanol was successful to show nephrogram, pyelogram, uretrogram and cystogram clearly. There were no abnormal clinical signs after one week of experiments. Biochemical and hematological profiles were in normal ranges. It is concluded that intraosseous Pyelography is an effective and reliable method for Pyelography studies in squirrel. Microscopic examinations of the kidneys and the site of injection after one week were normal.

Keywords: pyelography, intraosseous injection, iodixanol, persian squirrel

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Authors: H. Troudi, M. Ghiss, Z. Tourki, M. Ellejmi

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Packed columns of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consists of separating the liquid mixture of propane and butane to pure gas components by the distillation phenomenon. The flow of the gas and liquid inside the columns is operated by two ways: The co-current and the counter current operation. Heat, mass and species transfer between phases represent the most important factors that influence the choice between those two operations. In this paper, both processes are discussed using computational CFD simulation through ANSYS-Fluent software. Only 3D half section of the packed column was considered with one packed bed. The packed bed was characterized in our case as a porous media. The simulations were carried out at transient state conditions. A multi-component gas and liquid mixture were used out in the two processes. We utilized the Euler-Lagrange approach in which the gas was treated as a continuum phase and the liquid as a group of dispersed particles. The heat and the mass transfer process was modeled using multi-component droplet evaporation approach. The results show that the counter-current process performs better than the co-current, although such limitations of our approach are noted. This comparison gives accurate results for computations times higher than 2 s, at different gas velocity and at packed bed porosity of 0.9.

Keywords: co-current, counter-current, Euler-Lagrange model, heat transfer, mass transfer

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Authors: Manal Sultan Alhussein, Xiang Michelle Liu

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Telehealth is an advanced technology using digital information and telecommunication facilities that provide access to health services from a distance. It slows the transmission factor of COVID-19, especially for elderly patients and patients with chronic diseases during the pandemic. Therefore, understanding patient perspectives on telehealth services and the factors impacting their option of telehealth service will shed light on the measures that healthcare providers can take to improve the quality of telehealth services. This study aimed to evaluate perceptions of telehealth services among different patient groups and explore various aspects of telehealth utilization in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey distributed via social media platforms was used to collect research data. In addition to the descriptive statistics, both correlation and regression analyses were conducted to test research hypotheses. The empirical results highlighted that the factors such as accessibility to telehealth services and the type of specialty clinics that the patients required play important roles in the effectiveness of telehealth services they received. However, the results found that patients’ waiting time to receive telehealth services and their annual income did not significantly influence their desire to select receiving healthcare services via telehealth. The limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: telehealth, patient satisfaction, pandemic, healthcare, survey

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Authors: Priyanka Joshi

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The paper traces the evolving relationship between women, public spaces, and citizenship and dissent by analyzing acts of dissent led by women. The paper outlines this relationship in the context of the protests held in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Registry of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR) in 2019. Additionally, the paper aims to explore how the multiple identities of the protestors in Shaheen Bagh affected the nature, implications, and responses to the protests. To do so, the paper will analyze three key areas in relationship with women, namely, public spaces, citizenship, and dissent. In doing so, it will examine the gendered access to public spaces and its implications on the realization of one’s citizenship rights. Moreover, it will explore the historical notions of citizenship, its contemporary understanding, the exclusionary nature of citizenship, and the conflict between community rights and individual rights with respect to women’s rights. In context of dissent, it will evaluate the understanding of dissent and trace the difference in the experience of dissent based on gender by reviewing social movements led and maintained by women. This paper will utilize secondary data to explore the questions it poses. This includes a study of books and journal articles in conjunction with media reports concerning gender, public spaces, citizenship, and dissent. It will apply an intersectional lens in its analysis.

Keywords: citizenship, dissent, public spaces, Shaheen Bagh, women

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Authors: Panupong Chanplin, Kathaleeya Chanda., Wilailuk Mepracha

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The aims of this research were twofold: 1) to brand identity design of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise, Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkhram Province and 2) to study the level of tourist satisfaction towards brand identity design of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise, Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkhram Province. tourist satisfaction was measured using six criteria: clear brand positioning, likeable brand personality, memorable logo, attractive color palette, professional typography and on-brand supporting graphics. The researcher utilized a probability sampling method via simple random sampling. The sample consisted of 30 tourists in the Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise. Statistics utilized for data analysis were percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The results suggest that tourist had high levels of satisfaction towards all six criteria of the brand identity design that was designed to target them. This study proposes that specifically brand identity designed of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise could also be implemented with other real media already available on the market.

Keywords: satisfaction, brand identity, logo, creative agriculture community enterprise

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Authors: Fahad Al Beyahi, Justin Thomas, Md Mamunur Rashid

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Various definitions of digital well-being have emerged in recent years, most of which center on the impacts -beneficial and detrimental- of digital technology on health and well-being (psychological, social, and financial). Other definitions go further, emphasizing the attainment of balance, viewing digital well-being as wholly subjective, the individual’s perception of optimal balance between the benefits and ills associated with online connectivity. Based on this broad conceptualization of digital well-being, we undertook a global survey measuring various dimensions of this emerging construct. The survey was administered across 35 nations and 7 world regions, with 1000 participants within each territory (N= 35000). Along with attitudinal, behavioral, and sociodemographic variables, the survey included measures of depression, anxiety, problematic social media use, gaming disorder, and other relevant metrics. Coupled with nation-level policy audits, these data were used to create a multinational (global) digital well-being index. Nations are ranked based on various dimensions of digital well-being, and predictive models are used to identify resilience and risk factors for problem technology use. In this paper, we will discuss key findings from the survey and the index. This work can inform public policy and shape our responses to the emerging implications of lives increasingly lived online and interconnected with digital technology.

Keywords: technology, health, behavioral addiction, digital wellbeing

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Authors: Ahmed F. Ghanem, Marwa I. Wahba, Asmaa N. El-Dein, Mohamed A. EL-Raey, Ghada E.A. Awad

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Numerous attempts are being performed in order to formulate suitable packaging materials for meat products. However, to the best of our knowledge, the incorporation of free hibiscus extract or its microcapsules in the pure polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix as packaging materials for meats is seldom reported. Therefore, this study aims at protection of the aqueous crude extract of hibiscus flowers utilizing spry drying encapsulation technique. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and zetasizer results confirmed the successful formation of assembled capsules via strong interactions, spherical rough microparticles, and ~ 235 nm of particle size, respectively. Also, the obtained microcapsules enjoy high thermal stability, unlike the free extract. Then, the obtained spray-dried particles were incorporated into the casting solution of the pure PVA film with a concentration 10 wt. %. The segregated free-standing composite films were investigated, compared to the neat matrix, with several characterization techniques such as FTIR, SEM, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical tester, contact angle, water vapor permeability, and oxygen transmission. The results demonstrated variations in the physicochemical properties of the PVA film after the inclusion of the free and the extract microcapsules. Moreover, biological studies emphasized the biocidal potential of the hybrid films against microorganisms contaminating the meat. Specifically, the microcapsules imparted not only antimicrobial but also antioxidant activities to PVA. Application of the prepared films on the real meat samples displayed low bacterial growth with a slight increase in the pH over the storage time up to 10 days at 4 oC which further proved the meat safety. Moreover, the colors of the films did not significantly changed except after 21 days indicating the spoilage of the meat samples. No doubt, the dual-functional of prepared composite films pave the way towards combined active/smart food packaging applications. This would play a vital role in the food hygiene, including also quality control and assurance.

Keywords: PVA, hibiscus, extraction, encapsulation, active packaging, smart and intelligent packaging, meat spoilage

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Authors: Nicolás Rudas

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Sociologists have brought to light the fascination of contemporary societies with numbers but fall short of explaining it. In their accounts, people generally misunderstand the technical intricacies of statistical knowledge and therefore accept numbers as unassailable “facts”. It is due to such pervasive fascination, furthermore, that both old and new forms of social control find fertile ground. By focusing on the process whereby the fetishization of numbers reaches its zenith, i.e., when specific statistics become emblematic of an entire society, it is asserted that numbers primarily function as moral symbols with immense potential for galvanizing collective action. Their “facticity” is not solely a cognitive problem but one that is deeply rooted in myth and connected with social experiences of epiphany and ritual. Evidence from Colombia is used to illustrate how certain quantifications become canonical. In 2021, Colombia’s Peace Court revealed that the national army had executed 6,402 innocent civilians to later report them as members of illegal armed groups. Rapidly, “6,402” transformed into a prominent item in the country’s political landscape. This article reconstructs such a process by following the first six months of the figure’s circulation, both in traditional and social media. In doing so, it is developed a new cultural-sociological conceptualization of numbers as “fact-icons” that departs from traditional understandings of statistics as “technical” objects. Numbers are icons whose appropriation is less rational than aesthetic.

Keywords: culture, statistics, collective memory, social movements

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Authors: S. Wagner, C. Boley, Y. Forouzandeh

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When digging excavations, groundwater bearing layers are often encountered. In order to allow anhydrous excavation, soil groutings are carried out, which form a water-impermeable layer. As it is injected into groundwater areas, the effects of the materials used on the environment must be known. Developing an eco-friendly, economical and low viscous acrylic gel which has a sealing effect on groundwater is therefore a significant task. At this point the study begins. Basic investigations with the rheometer and a reverse column experiment have been performed with different mixing ratios of an acrylic gel. A dynamic rheology study was conducted to determine the time at which the gel still can be processed and the maximum gel strength is reached. To examine the effect of acrylic gel grouting on determine the parameters pH value, turbidity, electric conductivity, and total organic carbon on groundwater, an acrylic gel was injected in saturated sand filled the column. The structure was rinsed with a constant flow and the eluate was subsequently examined. The results show small changes in pH values and turbidity but there is a dependency between electric conductivity and total organic carbon. The curves of the two parameters react at the same time, which means that the electrical conductivity in the eluate can be measured constantly until the maximum is reached and only then must total organic carbon (TOC) samples be taken.

Keywords: acrylic gel grouting, dynamic rheology study, electric conductivity, total organic carbon

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Authors: G. Henini, Y. Laidani, F. Souahi, A. Labbaci, S. Hanini

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Environmental contamination is a major problem being faced by the society today. Industrial, agricultural, and domestic wastes, due to the rapid development in the technology, are discharged in the several receivers. Generally, this discharge is directed to the nearest water sources such as rivers, lakes, and seas. While the rates of development and waste production are not likely to diminish, efforts to control and dispose of wastes are appropriately rising. Wastewaters from textile industries represent a serious problem all over the world. They contain different types of synthetic dyes which are known to be a major source of environmental pollution in terms of both the volume of dye discharged and the effluent composition. From an environmental point of view, the removal of synthetic dyes is of great concern. Among several chemical and physical methods, adsorption is a promising technique due to the ease of use and low cost compared to other applications in the process of discoloration, especially if the adsorbent is inexpensive and readily available. The focus of the present study was to assess the potentiality of Brahea edulis (BE) for the removal of synthetic dye Yellow bemacid (YB) from aqueous solutions. The results obtained here may transfer to other dyes with a similar chemical structure. Biosorption studies were carried out under various parameters such as mass adsorbent particle, pH, contact time, initial dye concentration, and temperature. The biosorption kinetic data of the material (BE) was tested by the pseudo first-order and the pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Thermodynamic parameters including the Gibbs free energy ΔG, enthalpy ΔH, and entropy ΔS have revealed that the adsorption of YB on the BE is feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic. The equilibrium data were analyzed by using Langmuir, Freundlich, Elovich, and Temkin isotherm models. The experimental results show that the percentage of biosorption increases with an increase in the biosorbent mass (0.25 g: 12 mg/g; 1.5 g: 47.44 mg/g). The maximum biosorption occurred at around pH value of 2 for the YB. The equilibrium uptake was increased with an increase in the initial dye concentration in solution (C_o = 120 mg/l; q = 35.97 mg/g). Biosorption kinetic data were properly fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The best fit was obtained by the Langmuir model with high correlation coefficient (R² > 0.998) and a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 35.97 mg/g for YB.

Keywords: adsorption, Brahea edulis, isotherm, yellow Bemacid

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Authors: Emelia Noronha, Milind Malshe

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The phatic function of communication is a vital element of any conversation. This research paper looks into this function with respect to personal blogs maintained by Indian bloggers. This paper is a study into the phenomenon of phatic communication maintained by bloggers through their blogs. Based on a linguistic analysis of the posts of twenty eight Indian bloggers, writing in English, studied over a period of three years, the study indicates that though the blogging phenomenon is not conversational in the same manner as face-to-face communication, it does make ample provision for feedback that is conversational in nature. Ordinary day to day offline conversations use conventionalized phatic utterances; those on the social media are in a perpetual mode of innovation and experimentation in order to sustain contact with its readers. These innovative methods and means are the focus of this study. Though the personal blogger aims to chronicle his/her personal life through the blog, the socializing function is crucial to these bloggers. In comparison to the western personal blogs which focus on the presentation of the ‘bounded individual self’, we find Indian personal bloggers engage in the presentation of their ‘social selves’. These bloggers yearn to reach out to the readers on the internet and the phatic function serves to initiate, sustain and renew social ties on the blogosphere thereby consolidating the social network of readers and bloggers.

Keywords: personal blogs, phatic, social-selves, blog readers

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Authors: Coline Bretz, Andrea Vaccaro, Dario Leumann

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The food, personal care, and cosmetic industries are seeing increased consumer demand for more sustainable and innovative ingredients. When developing new formulations incorporating such ingredients, stability is one of the first criteria that must be assessed, and it is thus of great importance to have a method that can detect instabilities early and quickly. Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy (DWS) is a light scattering technique that probes the motion,i.e., the mean square displacement (MSD), of colloids, such as nanoparticles in a suspension or droplets in emulsions. From the MSD, the rheological properties of the surrounding medium can be determined via the so-called microrheology approach. In the case of purely viscous media, it is also possible to obtain information about particle size. DWS can thus be used to monitor the size evolution of particles, droplets, or bubbles in aging dispersions, emulsions, or foams. In the context of early instability detection in emulsions, DWS offers considerable advantages, as the samples are measured in a contact-free manner, using only small quantities of samples loaded in a sealable cuvette. The sensitivity and rapidity of the technique are key to detecting and following the ageing of emulsions reliably. We present applications of DWS focused on the characterization of emulsions. In particular, we demonstrate the ability to record very subtle changes in the structural properties early on. We also discuss the various mechanisms at play in the destabilization of emulsions, such as coalescence or Ostwald ripening, and how to identify them through this technique.

Keywords: instrumentation, emulsions, stability, DWS

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Authors: Khwaja Naweed Seddiqi, Zabihullah Mahdi, Shigeo Honma

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Recently increasing oil production from petroleum reservoirs is one of the most important issues in the global energy sector. So, in this paper, the recovery of oil by the waterflooding technique from petroleum reservoir are considered. To investigate the aforementioned phenomena, the relative permeability of two immiscible fluids in sand is measured in the laboratory based on the steady-state method. Two sorts of oils, kerosene and heavy oil, and water are pumped simultaneously into a vertical sand column with different pumping ratio. From the change in fractional discharge measured at the outlet, a method for determining the relative permeability is developed focusing on the displacement mechanism in sand. Then, displacement mechanism of two immiscible fluids in the sand is investigated under the Buckley-Leveret frontal displacement theory and laboratory experiment. Two sorts of experiments, one is the displacement of pore water by oil, the other is the displacement of pore oil by water, are carried out. It is revealed that the relative permeability curves display tolerably different shape owing to the properties of oils, and produce different amount of residual oils and irreducible water saturation.

Keywords: petroleum reservoir engineering, relative permeability, two-phase flow, immiscible displacement in porous media, steady-state method, waterflooding

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Authors: Burak Bal

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Mechanical characterization tests might come with a remarkable cost of time and money for both companies and academics. The inquiry to transform laboratory experiments to the computational media is getting a trend; accordingly, the literature supplies many analytical ways to explain the mechanics of deformation. In our work, we focused on the crystal plasticity finite element modeling (CPFEM) analysis on various materials in various crystal structures to predict the stress-strain curve without tensile tests. For FEM analysis, which we used in this study was ABAQUS, a standard user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) was prepared. The geometry of a specimen was created via DREAM 3D software with the inputs of Euler angles taken by Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) technique as orientation, or misorientation angles. The synthetic crystal created with DREAM 3D is also meshed in a way the grains inside the crystal meshed separately, and the computer can realize interaction of inter, and intra grain structures. The mechanical deformation parameters obtained from the literature put into the Fortran based UMAT code to describe how material will response to the load applied from specific direction. The mechanical response of a synthetic crystal created with DREAM 3D agrees well with the material response in the literature.

Keywords: crystal plasticity finite element modeling, ABAQUS, Dream.3D, microstructure

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Authors: M. Lizzy Madiwani, Ignatious Ncube, Evelyn Madoroba

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This study was designed to determine the distribution of pathogenic bacteria in household raised chickens and study their virulence and antibiotic profiles. For this purpose, 40 chickens were purchased from families in the Capricorn district and sacrificed for sampling. Tissues were cultured on different bacteriological media followed by biotyping using Matrix-assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-time of Flight (MALDI-TOF). Disk diffusion test was performed to determine the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of these bacteria. Out of a total of 160 tissue samples evaluated, E. coli and Salmonella were detected in these tissues. Furthermore, determination of the pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella strains at species level using primer sets that target selected genes of interest in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was employed. The invA gene, a confirmatory gene of Salmonella was detected in all the Salmonella isolates. The study revealed that there is a high distribution of Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli in these chickens. Therefore, further studies on identification at the species level are highly recommended to provide management and sanitation practices to lower this prevalence. The antimicrobial susceptibly data generated from this study can be a valuable reference to veterinarians for treating bacterial diseases in poultry.

Keywords: antimicrobial, Escherichia coli, pathogens, Salmonella

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Authors: Poramet Saeng-On

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This research aims to develop ways of lodging business management of Bang Khonthi community in Samut Songkram province that are appropriate with the cultural context of the Bang Khonthi community. Eight lodging business owners were interviewed. It was found that lodging business that are family business must be done with passion, correct understanding of self, culture, nature, Thai way of life, thorough, professional development, environmentally concerned, building partnerships with various networks both community level, and public sector and business cohorts. Public relations should be done through media both traditional and modern outlets, such as websites and social networks to provide customers convenience, security, happiness, knowledge, love and value when travel to Bang Khonthi. This will also help them achieve sustainability in business, in line with the 10 Home Stay Standard Thailand. Suggestions for operators are as follows: Operators need to improve their public relations work. They need to use technology in public relations such as the internet. Management standards must be improved. Souvenir and local products shops should be arranged in the compound. Product pricing must be set accordingly. They need to join hands to help each other. Quality of the business operation should be raised to meet the standards. Educational measures to reduce the impact caused by tourism on the community such as efforts to reduce energy consumption.

Keywords: homestay, lodging business, management, standard

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Authors: Carolijn Van Noort

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The aim of this research is to understand how the emerging power bloc BRICS employs infrastructure development narratives to construct a new world order. BRICS is an international body consisting of five emerging countries that collaborate on economic and political issues: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. This study explores the projection of infrastructure development narratives through an analysis of BRICS’ attention to infrastructure investment and financing, its support of the New Partnership on African Development and the establishment of the New Development Bank in Shanghai. The theory of Strategic Narratives is used to explore BRICS’ commitment to infrastructure development and to distinguish three layers: system narratives (BRICS as a global actor to propose development reform), identity narratives (BRICS as a collective identity joining efforts to act upon development aspirations) and issue narratives (BRICS committed to a range of issues of which infrastructure development is prominent). The methodology that is employed is a narrative analysis of BRICS’ official documents, media statements, and website imagery. A comparison of these narratives illuminates tensions at the three layers and among the five member states. Identifying tensions among development infrastructure narratives provides an indication of how policymaking for infrastructure development could be improved. Subsequently, it advances BRICS’ ability to act as a global actor to construct a new world order.

Keywords: BRICS, emerging powers, infrastructure development, strategic narratives

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Authors: Zohreh Rashmei

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Introduction: Plasma inactivation is one of the emerging technologies in biomedical field and has been applied to the inactivation of microorganisms in water. The inactivation effect has been attributed to the presence of active plasma species, i.e. OH, O, O3, H2O2, UV and electric fields, generated by the discharge of plasma. Material and Method: To evaluate germicidal effects of plasma, the electric spark discharge device was used. After the effect of the plasma samples were collected for culture medium agar plate count. In addition to biological experiments, the concentration of hydrogen peroxide was also measured. Results: The results showed that Plasma is able to inactivate a high concentration of E. coli. After a short period of plasma radiation on the surface of water, the amount log8 reduced the microbial load. Starting plasma radiation on the surface of the water, the measurements show of production and increasing the amount of hydrogen peroxide in water. So that at the end of the experiment, the concentration of hydrogen peroxide to about 100 mg / l increased. Conclusion: Increasing the concentration of hydrogen peroxide is directly related to the reduction of microbial load. The results of E. coli culture in media containing certain concentrations of H2O2 showed that E. coli can not to grow in a medium containing more than 2/5 mg/l of H2O2. Surely we can say that the main cause of killing bacteria is a molecule of H2O2.

Keywords: plasma, hydrogen peroxide, disinfection, E. coli

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Authors: Ganfeng Yu, Yuefeng Ma, Shanliang Yang

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The word discovery is a key problem in text information retrieval technology. Methods in new word discovery tend to be closely related to words because they generally obtain new word results by analyzing words. With the popularity of social networks, individual netizens and online self-media have generated various network texts for the convenience of online life, including network words that are far from standard Chinese expression. How detect network words is one of the important goals in the field of text information retrieval today. In this paper, we integrate the word embedding model and clustering methods to propose a network word discovery framework based on sentence semantic similarity (S³-NWD) to detect network words effectively from the corpus. This framework constructs sentence semantic vectors through a distributed representation model, uses the similarity of sentence semantic vectors to determine the semantic relationship between sentences, and finally realizes network word discovery by the meaning of semantic replacement between sentences. The experiment verifies that the framework not only completes the rapid discovery of network words but also realizes the standard word meaning of the discovery of network words, which reflects the effectiveness of our work.

Keywords: text information retrieval, natural language processing, new word discovery, information extraction

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Authors: Carlos Y. Soto, Camila A. Lota, G. Astrid Garzón

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Bacterial biofilms cause an ongoing problem for food safety. They are formed when microorganisms aggregate to form a community that attaches to solid surfaces. Biofilms increase the resistance of pathogens to cleaning, disinfection and antibacterial products. This resistance gives rise to problems for human health, industry, and agriculture. At present, plant extracts rich in polyphenolics are being investigated as natural alternatives to degrade bacterial biofilms. The pomace of the tropical Berry Vaccinium meridionale S. contains high amounts of phenolic compounds. Therefore, in the current study, the antimicrobial and antibiofilm effects of extracts from the pomace of Vaccinium meridionale S. were tested on three foodborne pathogens: Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 (ATCC®700728TM), Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus (ATCC® 6538TM), and Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (ATCC® 13076TM). Microwave-assisted extraction was used to extract polyphenols with aqueous methanol (80% v/v) at a solid to solvent ratio of 1:10 (w/v) for 20 min. The magnetic stirring was set at 400 rpm, and the microwave power was adjusted to 400 W. The antimicrobial effect of the extract was assessed by determining the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) against the three food poisoning pathogens at concentrations ranging from 50 to 2,850 μg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/mL of the extract. Biofilm inhibition was assessed using a crystal violet assay applying the same range of concentration. Three replications of the experiments were carried out, and all analyses were run in triplicate. IC50 values were determined using the GraphPad Prism8® program. Significant differences (P<0.05) among means were identified using one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the post-hoc least significant difference (LSD) test using the Statgraphics plus program, version 2.1.There was significant difference among the mean IC50 values for the tested bacteria. The IC50 for S. aureus was 48 ± 9 μg GAE/mL, followed by 123 ± 49 μg GAE/mL for Salmonella and 376 ± 32 μg GAE/mL for E. coli. The percent inhibition of the extract on biofilm formation was significantly higher for S. aureus (85.8  0.3), followed by E. coli (74.5  1.0) and Salmonella (53.6  9.7). These findings suggest that polyphenolic extracts obtained from the pomace of V. meridionale S. might be used as natural antimicrobial and anti-biofilm natural agents, effective against S. aureus, E. coli and Salmonella enterica.

Keywords: antibiofilm, antimicrobial, E. coli, S. aureus, salmonella, IC50, pomace, V. meridionale

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Authors: Abdelaziz Messis, Azzeddine Bettache, Nawel Boucherba, Said Benallaoua, Mouloud Kecha

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Actinobacteria are of special biotechnological interest since they are known to produce chemically diverse compounds with a wide range of biological activity. This distinct clade of Gram-positve bacteria include some of the key antibiotic producers and are also sources of several bioactive compounds, established commercially a newly filamentous bacteria was recovered from Tikjda forest soil (Algeria) for its high antifungal activity against various pathogenic and phytopathogenic fungi. The nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene (1454 pb) of Streptomyces sp. TKJ2 exhibited close similarity (99 %) with other Streptomyces16S rRNA genes. Antifungal metabolite production of Streptomyces sp TKJ2 was evaluated using six different fermentation media. The extracellular products contained potent antifungal agents. Antifungal protein produced by Streptomyces sp. TKJ2 on PCA medium has been purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, SPE column chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography in a reverse-phase column. The UV chromatograms of the active fractions obtained at 214 nm by NanoLC-ESI-MS/MS have different molecular weights. The F20 Peptidic fraction obtained from culture filtrat of Streptomyces sp. TKJ2 precipitated at 30% of ammonium sulfate was selected for analysis by infusion ESI-MS which yielded a singly charged ion mass of 437.17 Da.

Keywords: actinobacteria, antifungal protein, chromatography, Streptomyces

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Authors: Ana Mouro, Ana Ramalheira

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Since 1989, with the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany has undergone a profound restructuring political and economic process. When the Euro Crisis broke out, Germany was no longer the “sick man” of Europe. Instead, it had recovered its dominance as the strongest and wealthiest economy within the European Union. With the European Debt Crisis, that has been taking place in the European Union since the end of 2009, Germany´s Chancellor Angela Merkel has gained the power of deciding, so to say, on the fate of the debtor nations, but she neither stands for binding German commitments, nor refuses assistance. A debate on whether Merkel’s hesitation has been deliberated and used as a means of coercion has arisen on international print media, and the Portuguese Press has been no exception. This study, which was conducted by using news reporting, opinion articles, interviews and editorials, published in the Portuguese weekly Expresso and the daily Público, from 2008 to 2015, tries to show how Merkel’s hesitation, depicted in the press by the term “Merkiavelli”, was perceived in Portugal, a country that had to embrace the austerity measures, imposed by the European Central Bank, but defined under Angela Merkel´s leading role.

Keywords: Euro crisis, “Merkiavelli”, cultural studies, Portuguese quality press

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Authors: Lormaine Anne Branzuela, Elysa Largo, Julie Marisol Pagalilauan, Neil Concibido, Monet Concepcion Detras

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Energy is a necessity both for the people and the country. The demand for energy is continually increasing, but the supply is not doing the same. The reopening of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in the Philippines has been circulating in the media for the current time. The general public has been hesitant in accepting the inclusion of nuclear energy in the Philippine energy mix due to perceived unsafe conditions of the plant. This study evaluated the possible operations of a nuclear power plant, which is of the same type as the BNPP, considering the safety of the workers, the public, and the environment using a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) method. What-If Technique was utilized to identify the hazards and consequences on the operations of the plant, together with the level of risk it entails. Through the brainstorming sessions of the PHA team, it was found that the most critical system on the plant is the primary system. Possible leakages on pipes and equipment due to weakened seals and welds and blockages on coolant path due to fouling were the most common scenarios identified, which further caused the most critical scenario – radioactive leak through sump contamination, nuclear meltdown, and equipment damage and explosion which could result to multiple injuries and fatalities, and environmental impacts.

Keywords: process safety management, process hazard analysis, what-If technique, nuclear power plant

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