Search results for: optical activity

Authors: Toshitaka Higashino, Naoki Wakamiya

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Human beings perform a task by perceiving information from outside, recognizing them, and responding them. There have been various attempts to analyze and understand internal processes behind the reaction to a given stimulus by conducting psychological experiments and analysis from multiple perspectives. Among these, we focused on Model Human Processor (MHP). However, it was built based on psychological experiments and thus the relation with brain activity was unclear so far. To verify the validity of the MHP and propose our model from a viewpoint of neuroscience, EEG (Electroencephalography) measurements are performed during experiments in this study. More specifically, first, experiments were conducted where Latin alphabet characters were used as visual stimuli. In addition to response time, ERPs (event-related potentials) such as N100 and P300 were measured by using EEG. By comparing cycle time predicted by the MHP and latency of ERPs, it was found that N100, related to perception of stimuli, appeared at the end of the perceptual processor. Furthermore, by conducting an additional experiment, it was revealed that P300, related to decision making, appeared during the response decision process, not at the end. Second, by experiments using Japanese Hiragana characters, i.e. Japan's own phonetic symbols, those findings were confirmed. Finally, Japanese Kanji characters were used as more complicated visual stimuli. A Kanji character usually has several readings and several meanings. Despite the difference, a reading-related task and a meaning-related task exhibited similar results, meaning that they involved similar information processing processes of the brain. Based on those results, our model was proposed which reflects response time and ERP latency. It consists of three processors: the perception processor from an input of a stimulus to appearance of N100, the cognitive processor from N100 to P300, and the decision-action processor from P300 to response. Using our model, an application system which reflects brain activity can be established.

Keywords: Brain activity, EEG, information processing model, model human processor.

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Authors: Zainoldin, K.H., Baba, A.S.

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Yogurt is a coagulated milk product obtained from the lactic acid fermentation by the action of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The additions of fruits into milk may enhance the taste and the therapeutical values of milk products. However fruits also may change the fermentation behaviour. In this present study, the changes in physicochemical, the peptide concentration, total phenolics content and the antioxidant potential of yogurt upon the addition of Hylocereus polyrhizus and Hylocereus undatus (white and red dragon fruit) were investigated. Fruits enriched yogurt (10%, 20%, 30% w/w) were prepared and the pH, TTA, syneresis measurement, peptide concentration, total phenolics content and DPPH antioxidant inhibition percentage were determined. Milk fermentation rate was enhanced in red dragon fruit yogurt for all doses (-0.3606 - -0.4126 pH/h) while only white dragon fruit yogurt with 20% and 30% (w/w) composition showed increment in fermentation rate (-0.3471 - -0.3609 pH/h) compared to plain yogurt (-0.3369pH/h). All dragon fruit enriched yogurts generally showed lower pH readings (pH 3.95 - 4.03) compared to plain yogurt (pH 4.05). Both fruit yogurts showed a higher lactic acid percentage (1.14-1.23%) compared to plain yogurt (1.08%). Significantly higher syneresis percentage (57.19 - 70.32%) compared to plain yogurt (52.93%) were seen in all fruit enriched yogurts. The antioxidant activity of plain yogurt (19.16%) was enhanced by the presence of white and red dragon fruit (24.97- 45.74%). All fruit enriched yogurt showed an increment in total phenolic content (36.44 - 64.43mg/ml) compared to plain yogurt (20.25mg/ml). However, the addition of white and red dragon fruit did not enhance the proteolysis of milk during fermentation. Therefore, it could be concluded that the addition of white and red dragon fruit into yogurt enhanced the milk fermentation rate, lactic acid content, syneresis percentage, antioxidant activity, and total phenolics content in yogurt.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, Hylocereus polyrhizus, Hylocereus undatus, yogurt

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Authors: M. Wannaborworn, B. Jongsomjit, T. Shiono

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Copolymerization of ethylene with 1-hexene was carried out using two ansa-fluorenyl titanium derivative complexes. The substituent effect on the catalytic activity, monomer reactivity ratio and polymer property was investigated. It was found that the presence of t-Bu groups on fluorenyl ring exhibited remarkable catalytic activity and produced polymer with high molecular weight. However, these catalysts produce polymer with narrow molecular weight distribution, indicating the characteristic of single-site metallocene catalyst. Based on 13C NMR, we can observe that monomer reactivity ratio was affected by catalyst structure. The rH values of complex 2 were lower than that of complex 1 which might be result from the higher steric hindrance leading to a reduction of 1- hexene insertion step.

Keywords: Constrained geometry catalyst, linear low density polyethylene, copolymerization, reactivity ratio

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Authors: Jing Lei, Yoram Vodovotz, Timothy R. Billiar

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To identify an endothelial cell-specific promoter suitable for vascular-specific targeting, we tested five promoters in vitro--Tie2SE, Tie2LE, ICAM2, Flt-1 and vWF--for promoter activity and specificity in endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and non-vascular resident cells as well as tissues. These promoters, except for vWF, exhibited good endothelial activity and specificity in vitro. In a syngenic heart transplantation model, the ICAM2 promoter was variably functional in coronary endothelial cells of donor hearts. Thus, the ICAM2, Flt-1, Tie2SE and Tie2LE promoters hold promise for endothelial-specific targeting, but in vitro expression may not predict in vivo expression.

Keywords: vascular-specific targeting, endothelial cell-specificpromoter, endothelial specificity.

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Authors: J. Kumchai, J. Z. Huang, C. Y. Lee, F. C. Chen, S. W. Chin

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Cabbage seedlings grown in vitro were exposed to excess levels of heavy metals, including Cd, Mo, and Zn. High metal levels affected plant growth at cotyledonary stage. Seedlings under Cd, Mo, and Zn treatments could not produce root hairs and true leaves. Under stress conditions, seedlings accumulated a higher amount of anthocyanins in their cotyledons than those in the control. The pigments isolated from Cd and Zn stressed seedling cotyledons appeared as pink, while under Mo stress, was dark pink or purple. Moreover, excess Mo stress increased antioxidant enzyme activities of APX, CAT, SOD. These results suggest that, under excess Mo stress, the induced antioxidant enzyme activity of cabbage seedlings may function as a protective mechanism to shield the plants from toxicity and exacerbated growth.

Keywords: Anthocyanin, antioxidant enzyme activity, heavy metal, growth inhibition.

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Authors: Josip Visković, Ana Rimac Smiljanić, Ines Ivić

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Housing loans play an important role in CEE countries’ economies. This fact is based on their share in total loans to households and their importance for economic activity and growth in CEE countries. Therefore, it is important to find out key determinants of housing loans demand in these countries. The aim of this study is to research and analyze the determinants of the demand for housing loans in Croatia. In this regard, the effect of economic activity, loan terms and real estate prices were analyzed. Also, the aim of this study is to find out what motivates people to take housing loans. Therefore, primarily empirical study was conducted among the Croatian residents. The results show that demand for housing loans is positively affected by economic growth, higher personal income and flexible loan terms, while it is negatively affected by interest rate rise.

Keywords: CEE countries, Croatia, demand determinants, housing loans.

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Authors: M. Eickermann, M. K. Class, J. Junk

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Winter oilseed rape, Brassica napus L., is characterized by a high number of herbicide applications. Therefore, its cultivation can lead to massive contamination of ground water and soil by herbicide and their metabolites. A multi-side long-term field experiment (EFFO, Efficient crop rotation) was set-up in Luxembourg to quantify these effects. Based on soil sampling and laboratory analysis, preliminary results showed reduced dehydrogenase activities of several soil organisms due to herbicide treatments. This effect is highly depending on the soil type. Relation between the dehydrogenase activity and the amount of microbial carbon showed higher variability on the test side with loamy Brown Earth, based on Bunter than on those with sandy-loamy Brown Earth, based on calciferous Sandstone.

Keywords: Cropping system, dehydrogenase activity, herbicides, mechanical weed control, oilseed rape.

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Authors: V. K. Rattan, Baljinder K. Gill, Seema Kapoor

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Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium measurements are reported for binary mixture of 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran and Cumene at 97.3 kPa. The data were obtained using a vapor recirculating type (modified Othmer's) equilibrium still. The mixture shows slight negative deviation from ideality. The system does not form an azeotrope. The experimental data obtained in this study are thermodynamically consistent according to the Herington test. The activity coefficients have been satisfactorily correlated by means of the Margules, and NRTL equations. Excess Gibbs free energy has been calculated from the experimental data. The values of activity coefficients have also been obtained by the UNIFAC group contribution method.

Keywords: Binary mixture, 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran, Cumene, Vapor-liquid equilibrium, UNIFAC, Excess Gibbs free energy.

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Authors: Keun-Chang Kwak

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This paper is concerned with motion recognition based fuzzy WP(Wavelet Packet) feature extraction approach from Vicon physical data sets. For this purpose, we use an efficient fuzzy mutual-information-based WP transform for feature extraction. This method estimates the required mutual information using a novel approach based on fuzzy membership function. The physical action data set includes 10 normal and 10 aggressive physical actions that measure the human activity. The data have been collected from 10 subjects using the Vicon 3D tracker. The experiments consist of running, seating, and walking as physical activity motion among various activities. The experimental results revealed that the presented feature extraction approach showed good recognition performance.

Keywords: Motion recognition, fuzzy wavelet packet, Vicon physical data.

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Authors: Ali Habiboghli, Rouhollah Mostafaei, Vasif Nabiyev

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Optical network uses a tool for routing called Latin router. These routers use particular algorithms for routing. For example, we can refer to LDF algorithm that uses backtracking (one of CSP methods) for problem solving. In this paper, we proposed new approached for completion routing table (DRA&CRA algorithm) and compare with pervious proposed ways and showed numbers of backtracking, blocking and run time for DRA algorithm less than LDF and CRA algorithm.

Keywords: Latin Router, Constraint Satisfaction Problem, Wavelength Routing.

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Authors: A. Fazilah, I. Darah, I. Noraznawati

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Three different bacteria capable of degrading phenanthrene were isolated from hydrocarbon contaminated site. In this study, the phenanthrene-degrading activity by defined monoculture was determined and mixed culture was identified as Acinetobacter sp. P3d, Bacillus sp. P4a and Pseudomonas sp. P6. All bacteria were able to grow in a minimal salt medium saturated with phenanthrene as the sole source of carbon and energy. Phenanthrene degradation efficiencies by different combinations (consortia) of these bacteria were investigated and their phenanthrene degradation was evaluated by gas chromatography. Among the monocultures, Pseudomonas sp. P6 exhibited 58.71% activity compared to Acinetobacter sp. P3d and Bacillus sp. P4a which were 56.97% and 53.05%, respectively after 28 days of cultivation. All consortia showed high phenanthrene elimination which were 95.64, 79.37, 87.19, 79.21% for Consortia A, B, C and D, respectively. The results indicate that all of the bacteria isolated may effectively degrade target chemical and have a promising application in bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soil purposes.

Keywords: Acinetobacter sp. P3d, Bacillus sp. P4a, consortia, phenanthrene, Pseudomonas sp. P6.

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Authors: Amr A. Fouad, Waleed H. Albuali, Iyad Jresat

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The protective effect of hesperidin was investigated in rats exposed to liver injury induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide (CYP) at a dose of 150 mg kg-1. Hesperidin treatment (100 mg kg-1/day, orally) was applied for seven days, starting five days before CYP administration. Hesperidin significantly decreased the CYP-induced elevations of serum alanine aminotransferase, and hepatic malondialdehyde and myeloperoxidase activity, significantly prevented the depletion of hepatic glutathione peroxidase activity resulted from CYP administration. Also, hesperidin ameliorated the CYP-induced liver tissue injury observed by histopathological examination. In addition, hesperidin decreased the CYP-induced expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, tumor necrosis factor-α, cyclooxygenase-2, Fas ligand, and caspase-9 in liver tissue. It was concluded that hesperidin may represent a potential candidate to protect against CYP-induced hepatotoxicity.

Keywords: Cyclophosphamide, hesperidin, liver, rats.

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Authors: V. P. Muhamed Shajudheen, K. Viswanathan, K. Anitha Rani, A. Uma Maheswari, S. Saravana Kumar

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In this paper, a simple chemical precipitation route for the preparation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, synthesized by using titanium tetra isopropoxide as a precursor and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping agent, is reported. The Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) of the samples were recorded and the phase transformation temperature of titanium hydroxide, Ti(OH)₄ to titanium oxide, TiO₂ was investigated. The as-prepared Ti(OH)₄ precipitate was annealed at 800°C to obtain TiO₂ nanoparticles. The thermal, structural, morphological and textural characterizations of the TiO₂ nanoparticle samples were carried out by different techniques such as DSC-TGA, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR), Micro Raman spectroscopy, UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and Field Effect Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) techniques. The as-prepared precipitate was characterized using DSC-TGA and confirmed the mass loss of around 30%. XRD results exhibited no diffraction peaks attributable to anatase phase, for the reaction products, after the solvent removal. The results indicate that the product is purely rutile. The vibrational frequencies of two main absorption bands of prepared samples are discussed from the results of the FTIR analysis. The formation of nanosphere of diameter of the order of 10 nm, has been confirmed by FESEM. The optical band gap was found by using UV-Visible spectrum. From photoluminescence spectra, a strong emission was observed. The obtained results suggest that this method provides a simple, efficient and versatile technique for preparing TiO₂ nanoparticles and it has the potential to be applied to other systems for photocatalytic activity.

Keywords: TiO2 nanoparticles, chemical precipitation route, phase transition, Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy, micro Raman spectroscopy, UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy, Photoluminescence spectroscopy, Field Effect Scanning Electron Microscopy.

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Authors: J. Palecek, R. Hajkova, A. Oulehlova, H. Malachova

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Increase of emergency incidents and crisis situations requires proactive crisis management of authorities and for its solution. Application Business Continuity Management helps the crisis management authorities to quickly and responsibly respond to threats. It also helps effectively and efficiently planning powers and resources. The main goal of this article is describing Military Continuity Management System (MCMS) based on the principles of Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) for dealing with floods in the territory of the selected municipalities. There are explained steps of loading, running and evaluating activities in the software application MCMS. Software MCMS provides complete control over the tasks, contribute a comprehensive and responsible approach solutions to solution floods in the municipality.

Keywords: Business Continuity Management, Floods Plan, Flood Activity, Level of Flood Activity.

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Authors: Faisal A. Aburub

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Organizations today need to invest in software in order to run their businesses, and to the organizations’ objectives, the software should be in line with the business process. This research presents an approach for linking process models and system models. Particularly, the new approach aims to synthesize sequence diagram based on role activity diagram (RAD) model. The approach includes four steps namely: Create business process model using RAD, identify computerized activities, identify entities in sequence diagram and identify messages in sequence diagram. The new approach has been validated using the process of student registration in University of Petra as a case study. Further research is required to validate the new approach using different domains.

Keywords: Business process modelling, system models, role activity diagrams, sequence diagrams.

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Authors: Dora Martins, Susana Silva, Cândida Silva

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Human Resources Management (HRM) has been recognized by academics and practitioners as an important element in organizations. Therefore, this paper explores the best practices of HRM and seeks to understand the level of participation in the development of these practices by human resources managers in the hospitality industry and compare it with other industries. Thus, the study compared the HRM practices of companies in the hospitality sector with HRM practices of companies in other sectors, and identifies the main differences between their HRM practices. The results show that the most frequent HRM practices in all companies, independently of its sector of activity, are hiring and training. When comparing hospitality sector with other sectors of activity, some differences were noticed, namely in the adoption of the practices of communication and information sharing, and of recruitment and selection. According to these results, the paper discusses the major theoretical and practical implications. Suggestions for future research are also presented.

Keywords: Human resources management practices, human resources manager, hospitality companies, Portuguese companies, exploratory study.

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Authors: A. V. Goncharova, T. A. Karpenyuk, Y. S. Tsurkan, R. U. Beisembaeva, A. M. Kalbaeva, T. D. Mukasheva, L. V. Ignatova

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Microorganisms isolated from water and soil of Kazakhstan to identify potential high-effective producers of the arachidonic acid, exhibiting a wide range of physiological activity and having practical applications were screened. Based on the results of two independent tests (the test on the sensitivity of the growth processes of microorganisms to acetylsalicylic acid - an irreversible inhibitor of PGH-synthase involved in the metabolism of arachidonic acid and its derivatives, the test for inhibition of peroxidase activity of membrane-bounding fraction of PGH - synthase by acetylsalicylic acid) were selected microbial cultures which are potential highproducer of arachidonic acid. They are characterized by a stable strong growth in the laboratory conditions. Identification of microorganism cultures based on morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic characteristics was performed.

Keywords: Arachidonic acid, aspirin-sensitive culture, bacteria, producers, screening.

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Authors: Stefano Straullu, Silvio Abrate, Antonino Nespola, Paolo Savio, Roberto Gaudino

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Two completely different approaches for a Gigabit Ethernet compliant stream transmission over 50m of 1mm PMMA SI-POF have been experimentally demonstrated and are compared in this paper. The first solution is based on a commercial RC-LED transmission and a careful optimization of the physical layer architecture, realized during the POF-PLUS EU Project. The second solution exploits the performance of an edge-emitting laser at the transmitter side in order to avoid any sort of electrical equalization at the receiver side.

Keywords: Gigabit Ethernet, Home Networking, Step-Index Polymer Optical Fiber (SI-POF)

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Authors: I. Struhár, L. Dovrtělová, M. Kumstát

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Regular exercise promotes reduction in blood pressure, reduction in body weight and it also helps to increase in insulin sensitivity. Participation in physical activity should always be linked to medical screening which can reveal serious medical problems. One of them is high blood pressure. Hypertension is risk factor for one billion people worldwide and the highest prevalence is found in Africa. Another component of hypertension is that people who suffer from hypertension have no symptoms. It is estimated that reduction of 3mm Hg in Systolic Blood Pressure decreases cardiac morbidity at least 5%. The most of the guidelines suggest aerobic exercise in a prevention of cardiovascular diseases. On the other hand, it is important to emphasize the impact of resistance training. Even, it was found higher effect for reduction on the level of systolic blood pressure than aerobic exercise.

Keywords: Coronary artery disease, physical activity, prevention, resistance training.

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Authors: K. A. Laptinskiy, S. A. Burikov, A. M. Vervald, S. A. Dolenko, T. A. Dolenko

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The article presents the results of the application of artificial neural networks to separate the fluorescent contribution of nanodiamonds used as biomarkers, adsorbents and carriers of drugs in biomedicine, from a fluorescent background of own biological fluorophores. The principal possibility of solving this problem is shown. Use of neural network architecture let to detect fluorescence of nanodiamonds against the background autofluorescence of egg white with high accuracy - better than 3 ug/ml.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, fluorescence, data aggregation.

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Authors: Rania Samir Zaki

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Because of their inhibitory effects, selected probiotic Lactobacilli may be used as antimicrobial against some hazardous microorganisms responsible for spoilage of fresh minced beef (cattle) minced meat and camel minced meat. Lactic acid bacteria were isolated from camel meat. These included 10 isolates; 1 Lactobacillus fermenti, 4 Lactobacillus plantarum, 4 Lactobacillus pulgaricus, 3 Lactobacillus acidophilus and 1 Lactobacillus brevis. The most efficient inhibitory organism was Lactobacillus plantarum which can be used as a propiotic with antibacterial activity. All microbiological analyses were made at the time 0, first day and the second day at altered ranges of temperature [4±2 ⁰C (chilling temperature), 25±2 ⁰C, and 38±2 ⁰C]. Results showed a significant decrease of pH 6.2 to 5.1 within variant types of meat, in addition to reduction of Total Bacterial Count, Enterococci, Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli together with the stability of Coliforms and absence of Staphylococcus aureus.

Keywords: Antibacterial, camel meat, inhibition, probiotics.

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Authors: Hong-Wen Hsieh, Shun-Tung Yen

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We theoretically demonstrate modulation of light polarization by a crossed rectangular hole array with asymmetric arm lengths. There are two waveguide modes that can modulate the x- and y- polarized incident waves independently. A specific structure is proposed to convert a left-hand incident wave to a right-hand outgoing wave by transmission.

Keywords: Crossed rectangular hole array, extraordinary optical transmission, polarization modulation.

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Authors: Nazmul Huda, Ashik Mosaddik, Abdul Awal, Shafiqur Rahman, Rukhsana Shaheen, Mustofa Nabi

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Polyherbal formulation Sharbat Deenar is a very popular unani medicine in Bangladesh. It is usually used for different kinds of liver disorders. In absence of reliable and inadequate hepatoprotective agents in conventional medicine, the herbal preparations are preferred for liver diseases. The present study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of Sharbat Deenar on carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) induced hepatotoxicity in male Long-Evans albino rats. Group I served as normal control and received neither formulation nor carbon tetrachloride. Group II received only CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally for consecutive 14 days. Group III received CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally and Silymarin, in dose 50mg/kg body weight of rat orally. Group IV received CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally and Sharbat Deenar 1mL/kg body weight of rat for the same 14 consecutive days. At the end of the study, hepatoprotective activity was evaluated by the levels of total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Histopathological study of rat liver was also carried out. The results showed that polyherbal formulation Sharbat Deenar exhibited a significant hepatoprotective effect. Such an outcome seems to be the synergistic effect of all ingredients of tested herbal formulation. Although this study suggests that Sharbat Deenar may be used to cure or minimize various liver diseases, it needs further study to attain the clarity of mechanism and safety.

Keywords: Carbon tetrachloride, Hepatoprotective, Sharbat Deenar, Silymarin.

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Authors: Athirah Nur Amirulhusni, Navindra Kumari Palanisamy, Zaini Mohd-Zain, Liew Jian Ping, R.Durairaj

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Multidrug resistant organisms have been taunting the medical world for the last few decades. Even with new antibiotics developed, resistant strains have emerged soon after. With the advancement of nanotechnology, we investigated colloidal silver nanoparticles for its antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This organism is a multidrug resistant which contributes to the high morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Five multidrug resistant strains were used in this study. The antimicrobial effect was studied using the disc diffusion and broth dilution techniques. An inhibition zone of 11 mm was observed with 10 μg dose of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles exhibited MIC of 50 μg/ml when added at the lag phase and the subinhibitory concentration was measured as 100 μg/ml. The MIC50 value showed to be 15 μg/ml. This study suggests that silver nanoparticles can be further developed as an antimicrobial agent, hence decreasing the burden of the multidrug resistance phenomena.

Keywords: Antimirobial activity, Multidrug resistance, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Silver nanoparticles

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Authors: Lolita Tomsone, Zanda Kruma, Ruta Galoburda

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Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is a perennial herb belonging to the Brassicaceae family and contains biologically active substances. The aim of the current research was to determine best method for extraction of phenolic compounds from horseradish roots showing high antiradical activity. Three genotypes (No. 105; No. 106 and variety ‘Turku’) of horseradish roots were extracted with eight different solvents: n-hexane, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, 2-propanol, acetone, ethanol (95%), ethanol / water / acetic acid (80/20/1 v/v/v) and ethanol / water (80/20 by volume) using two extraction methods (conventional and Soxhlet). As the best solvents ethanol and ethanol / water solutions can be chosen. Although in Soxhlet extracts TPC was higher, scavenging activity of DPPH˙ radicals did not increase. It can be concluded that using Soxhlet extraction method more compounds that are not effective antioxidants.

Keywords: DPPH˙, extraction, solvent, Soxhlet, TPC

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Authors: Thitipong Auttanat, Siriporn Jongpatiwut, Thirasak Rirksomboon

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The catalytic dehydroxylation of glycerol to propylene glycol was investigated over Cu-ZnO/Al2O3 prepared by incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) method with different purity feedstocks - refined glycerol and technical grade glycerol. The main purpose is to investigate the effects of feed impurities that cause the catalyst deactivation. The prepared catalyst were tested for its catalytic activity and selectivity in a continuous flow fixed bed reactor at 523 K, 500 psig, H2/feed molar ratio of 4 and WHSV of 3 h-1. The results showed that conversion of refined glycerol and technical grade glycerol at time on stream 6 hour are 99% and 71% and selectivity to propylene glycol are 87% and 56% respectively. The ICP-EOS and TPO results indicated that the cause of catalyst deactivation was the amount of impurities in the feedstock. The higher amount of impurities (especially Na and K) the lower catalytic activity.

Keywords: Cu-ZnO/Al2O3, dehydroxylation, glycerol, propylene glycol,

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Authors: Kensuke Akiyama, Satoru Kaneko, Takeshi Ozawa, Kazuya Yokomizo, Masaru Itakura

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The photoluminescence (PL) at 1.55 μm from semiconducting β-FeSi2 has attracted a noticeable interest for silicon-based optoelectronic applications. Moreover, its high optical absorption coefficient (higher than 105 cm-1 above 1.0 eV) allows this semiconducting material to be used as photovoltanics devices. A clear PL spectrum for β-FeSi2 was observed by Cu or Au coating on Si(001). High-crystal-quality β-FeSi2 with a low-level nonradiative center was formed on a Cu- or Au- reated Si layer. This method of deposition can be applied to other materials requiring high crystal quality.

Keywords: iron silicide, semiconductor, epitaxial, photoluminescence.

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Authors: A. Keshavarz

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A physical model for guiding the wave in photorefractive media is studied. Propagation of cos-Gaussian beam as the special cases of sinusoidal-Gaussian beams in photorefractive crystal is simulated numerically by the Crank-Nicolson method in one dimension. Results show that the beam profile deforms as the energy transfers from the center to the tails under propagation. This simulation approach is of significant interest for application in optical telecommunication. The results are presented graphically and discussed.

Keywords: Beam propagation, cos-Gaussian beam, Numerical simulation, Photorefractive crystal.

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Authors: Kanyapat U. Tapao

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the operation strategy strategies and public relations trend for public relations strategies development in public television station in Thailand. This study is a qualitative approach by indent interview from the 6 key informants that are managers of Voice TV and Thairath TV Channel. The results showed that both TV stations have to do research before making a release on the operation strategy policy such as a slogan, segmentation, integrated marketing communication and PR activity and also in term of Public Relations trend are including online media, online content and online training before opening the station and start promoting. By the way, we found the PR strategy for both TV station should be including application on mobile, online content, CRM activity, online banner, special event, and brand ambassador in order to bring a very reliable way.

Keywords: Operation strategy, public relations trend, public relations strategies development, online banner.

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Authors: Kowit Suwannahong, Wipada Sanongra, Jittiporn Kruenate, Sarun Phibanchon, Siriuma Jawjit, Wipawee Khamwichit

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The photocatalytic activity efficiency of TiO2 for the degradation of Toluene in photoreactor can be enhanced by nano- TiO2/LDPE composite film. Since the amount of TiO2 affected the efficiency of the photocatalytic activity, this work was mainly concentrated on the effort to embed the high amount of TiO2 in the Polyethylene matrix. The developed photocatalyst was characterized by XRD, UV-Vis spectrophotometer and SEM. The SEM images revealed the high homogeneity of the deposition of TiO2 on the polyethylene matrix. The XRD patterns interpreted that TiO2 embedded in the PE matrix exhibited mainly in anatase form. In addition, the photocatalytic results show that the toluene removal efficiencies of 30±5%, 49±4%, 68±5%, 42±6% and 33±5% were obtained when using the catalyst loading at 0%, 10%, 15%, 25% and 50% (wt. cat./wt. film), respectively.

Keywords: Photocatalytic oxidation, Toluene, nano-TiO2/LDPE composite film.

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