Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adsorption of Lead(II) from Aqueous Solution Using Chitosan and Polyvinyl Alcohol Blends

Abstract The goal of the present paper is to explore the properties of medium molecular-weight chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol blends mixed in volume ratios of 75:25, 50:50, and 25:75 obtained by solution casting. Cross-linked chitosan/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanostructures were obtained by treating these blends with 5% (v/v) glutaraldehyde. The prepared chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol films were characterized by attenuated total reflectance – Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering, and cytotoxicity, while the nanostructured materials were examined by scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffraction. Also, the removal of lead(II) ions from aqueous solution by adsorbents nanostructures was studied in the batch adsorption mode. The effects of adsorbent dosages, initial metal concentration, and contact time on the adsorption capacity were investigated. The FT-IR spectra indicated the interactions of polyvinyl alcohol with chitosan. DSC and TGA analyses revealed the loss of water up to 100 °C. The zeta potential and mobility of the prepared nanostructures were enhanced with the increasing ratio of the cationic polymer. The results showed that the 100% chitosan adsorbent provided the highest removal of Pb(II) during the first 15 min (̴94%). The chitosan100/polyvinyl alcohol0 and chitosan75/polyvinyl alcohol25 nanostructures fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacities for Pb(II) ions reached maxima of 7.36 and 7.67 mg/g, respectively. The Freundlich isotherm model best described the Pb(II) adsorption on the 50% chitosan/50% polyvinyl alcohol and 25% chitosan/75% polyvinyl alcohol adsorbents. Furthermore, (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay results demonstrated that chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol films are biocompatible with more than 90% cell viability.
Guide To Safety Analysis for Accident Prevention

This book addresses safety analysis, with the intention of providing more efficient and effective accident prevention. It describes general safety analysis procedures. The procedures and methods can be used with a diverse number of situations and systems. The procedures are generally used in the workplace, and have many common elements with accident investigation. Both safety analysis and accident investigation identify hazards occurring in a situation; try to comprehend how a situation can be made less accident prone and safer; encourage the development of safety improvements; and are crucial to safety management in organizations.
Yield and quality Responses of Selected Solanaceous Vegetable Crops to Potassium Fertilization

Over a period of two years, field experiments were conducted on two silty loam soils grown with four solanaceous vegetable crops of eggplant (var. serpentinum Bailey), tomato (var. commune Bailey), sweet pepper (var. grossum Bailey) and chilli (var. lengum Bailey), respectively. Each experiment included four treatments with from low to high doses, 0～450 kg ha-1 for eggplant, tomato and sweet pepper, and 0～270 kg ha- 1 for chilli, of K fertilizers in the form of sulfate of potash (SOP) applied together with N and P fertilizers. One CK treatment without K, N and P fertilizers applied and one treatment of K fertilizer in the form of muriate of potash (MOP) applied at the high level (450 kg ha-i) together with N and P fertilizers were included in the experiments of eggplant, in order to compare the effects of SOP and MOP. The fruit yields of the tested crops increased significantly with the increasing rate of K application. The crops supplied with K fertilizers yielded more stably as the CV% of their yields decreased with the rate of K application. The dry matter and vitamin C contents in fruits of tomato, sweet pepper and chilli, and the sugar content and the titratable acidity level of tomato fruits were increased, and the S/A ratio (ratio of sugar content to titratable acidity) of tomato fruits were decreased by K fertilization, indicating that K fertilization could improve the fruit quality of the solanaceous vegetable crops. However, the high rate of K fertilizer might lower the dry matter and vitamin C contents of tomato fruits and sweet pepper fruits. SOP was more effective than MOP in increasing the yield and quality of eggplant fruits at the high fertilization rate; therefore, the choice of applying SOP may be better for high levels of K fertilization.
Structure and fluctuations of the premelted liquid film of ice at the triple point

ABSTRACT In this paper, we study the structure of the ice/vapour interface in the neighbourhood of the triple point for the TIP4P/2005 model. We probe the fluctuations of the ice/film and film/vapour surfaces that separate the liquid film from the coexisting bulk phases at basal, primary prismatic and secondary prismatic planes. The results are interpreted using a coupled sine Gordon plus Interface Hamiltonian model. At large length scales, the two bounding surfaces are correlated and behave as a single complex ice/vapour interface. For small length, on the contrary, the ice/film and film/vapour surfaces behave very much like independent ice/water and water/vapour interfaces. The study suggests that the basal facet of the TIP4P/2005 model is smooth, the prismatic facet is close to a roughening transition, and the secondary prismatic facet is rough. For the faceted basal face, our fluctuation analysis allows us to estimate the step free energy in good agreement with experiment. Our results allow for a quantitative characterisation of the extent to which the adsorbed quasi-liquid layer behaves as water and explains experimental observations which reveal similar activation energies for crystals grown in bulk vapour or bulk water. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Effect of dexmedetomidine infusion on stress induced blood glucose levels and intraoperative sevoflurane requirement

Introduction: Dexmedetomidine has been shown to blunt the stress response to surgery and reduce the consumption of inhalational anaesthetic agents. Hence, we designed this study to observe the effects of IV Dexmedetomidine infusion on stress-induced blood glucose levels and intra operative Sevoflurane requirement during laparoscopic surgery. Materials and Methods: Sixty patients between the ages of 18-60 years, of either gender, ASA Grade I & II, posted for elective laparoscopic surgical procedures under general anaesthesia were divided into two groups of 30 each. Group D received loading dose of Inj. Dexmedetomidine at 1µg/kg diluted to 50 ml and given over 10 minutes; followed by maintenance with 0. 5µg/kg/hour, till the end of surgery. Group P received similar volume of normal saline. Anaesthesia was maintained with Nitrous oxide in oxygen (50:50) and Sevoflurane keeping BIS 40 - 60. Serial blood glucose levels, sevoflurane requirement by Dion’s method, extubation time, sedation score and adverse effects were observed. The data was analyzed using student t test. Results: Blood glucose levels at first hour post operatively in group P and in group D, were 136.7±6.30 mg/dl and 103.8±8.28 mg/dl respectively (P Conclusion: IV Dexmedetomidine infusion was effective in attenuating stress induced blood glucose levels and it also reduced Sevoflurane requirement without affecting the time for extubation. Keywords: Dexmedetomidine, Stress induced blood glucose levels, Dion’s method, Sevoflurane consumption.
FORGING RESEARCH-TEACHING LINKAGES THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH: AN EXAMPLE OF FACILITATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETENCY IN CRITICAL REFLECTION

Action research is an approach to enquiry that forges linkages between research and teaching, with each potentially informing the other in a responsive and creative cycle. This paper provides an overview of a pedagogic action research project which was undertaken in order to respond directly to learning needs expressed by a group of second year students on a Masters programme in Learning and Teaching. An espoused aim of the MA programme is to facilitate the enhancement of the students' competency in reflective practice. This paper outlines the process that took place when learners openly communicated some difficulties they had in this regard, in particular when faced with the challenge of writing their reflections in a manner that consistently demonstrated a capacity to be critical. It adumbrates the two specific actions that were taken within the context of the living theories approach to action research - the use of Socratic questioning and the development of a new approach to reflective writing - with a focus on the latter. The living theories approach to action research begins with the question, 'How do I improve my practice? ' (Whitehead, 1989) and involves the practitioner seeking out ways in which to influence her own learning and that of others. By interacting with the students in a collaborative process, there is a possibility of creating new knowledge individually and collectively (Whitehead and McNiff, 2006). The outcomes of the project, including the effect of the pedagogic initiatives on student learning, and the development of a new framework for reflective writing - the 'Integrative Reflection Template' - are also presented, with the on - going nature of the process of enquiry made explicit.
Recent Advances on Drawing Technology of Ultra-Fine Steel Tire Cord and Steel Saw Wire

Steel tire cord and steel saw wire represent typical precision pearlitic steel wire rods of wire products; it is a very important solar energy material with a diameter about 50 μm. This paper mainly discusses the research progress of the wire rod drawing process, and its main contents are as follows: First section—the control of the wire rod surface quality is summarized, including the thickness of the surface decarburization layer, the phase composition and thickness of the surface iron oxide scale, and the removal of surface iron oxide scale. Then, the research progress of the wire rod water bath treatment process during sorbitization is summarized. In addition, the development of brass plating technology for steel wire is summarized, including copper plating technology, coating phase composition, etc. Furthermore, the development of steel wire drawing methods is summarized. Finally, the development of the dies used in steel wire drawings is summarized.
An Empirical Study of the Factors that Impact Medical Representatives' Attitude toward the Intention to Use M-Learning for Career Development

The proliferation and popularity of mobile phone usage in Sri Lanka has created an untapped potential for educators and organizations. The very recent introduction of m-learning to the higher education sector of the country is set to exploit much of this opportunity, but there remains some doubt on the readiness of people toward this revolutionary distance learning method. This paper critically evaluates the factors that would affect the intention to use m-learning among medical representatives, and also intends to shed some light on the barriers that hold the pharmaceutical sector back from utilizing it as a training tool. A sample of 210 medical representatives was selected, from an urban population of 450. The instrument of data collection was a Likert scale questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using the statistical software SPSS 16.0. Correlation studies, simple linear regression and one-way ANOVA tests were conducted to establish relationships and test hypotheses. The results supported past literature through ten of the hypotheses with the exception of perceived self-efficacy and present level of education, which were not found to bear an impact on the intention to use m-learning. This empirical study is a first of its kind in Sri Lanka, and hopes to contribute to the existing body of literature on technology acceptance, in addition to providing invaluable insights to the pharmaceutical, mobile telephony and education sectors of this country.
IEEE802.15.4 Performance in Various WSNs Applications

IEEE802.15. 4 is a standard proposed to support physical and MAC layers for low data rate Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications. It provides features that allow diverse WSN applications to work at reduced energy consumption in low cost. These applications can be classified according to the arrival rate of the surrounding phenomena and according to the duty cycle. This paper investigates three WSN applications with different arrival rates and different duty cycles (100% and 50%). This paper performs intensive simulation analysis on seven network scenarios with different number of nodes. The scenarios are evaluated in terms of energy consumption, average end-to-end delay and throughput. The obtained results reveal that, irrespective of application type, both average delay and throughput behaviors vary directly, whereas energy consumption varies inversely. Results also revealed that as the duty cycle increases, both average delay and throughput improve. Improving one of the two metrics, by just increasing the duty cycle, assures enhancing the other metric, accordingly.
A METHOD OF ESTABLISHING THE BEST VOLTAGE LEVELS FOR FUTURE NAVAL AIRCRAFT

Abstract : Reliability is of paramount importance in aircraft electrical systems. With higher system voltages the problems of corona, arc-over, and adaptation of utilization equipment become increasingly difficult, especially in high-altitude applications. It is shown that if the criterion of maximum utilization of copper or other conductor in the transmission system is used to establish the optimum system voltage, the weight of wiring in the transmission system is reduced to within 5% to 10% of the theoretical minimum with only a moderate increase (50%) in present system voltages. A simple method was evolved to determine the variation of system wiring weight and other system parameters with increase in system voltage. The method is applicable to any system, dc or ac, and to any aircraft. Application of the method to the dc and ac transmission systems on the WF-2 aircraft indicates that a weight reduction of 30% in system wiring will result with an increase of approximately 50% in systems voltage. On application of the analysis to several representative naval aircraft, best system voltage levels for future aircraft can be determined.
What do the police do? Performance measurement and the SAPS

The South African government requires all departments to establish and track indicators of performance and service delivery, and the South African Police Service has been highly innovative in this area. Public obsession with recorded crime statistics has, unfortunately, resulted in these figures being seen by many as the primary police performance indicator. This paper argues that recorded crime levels do not reflect the real crime situation and may, in fact, increase due to good police work. In addition, there is little evidence that the work the police are trained to do has any impact on the incidence of crime. It is therefore necessary that alternative indicators be developed and publicised that are reflective of what the police actually do; are within their direct control; take into account their capacity and workload; are simple to collect and understand; and promote socially desirable behaviour.
Morphometric, Histochemical, and Ultrastructural Analysis of the Reproductive System and Spermatogenic Stages of Male Blue Crab (Callinectessapidus Rathbun, 1896)

The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896, is considered to be a luxury meal, especially in touristic cities. It contains more than 20 types of amino acids and provides all the needed amounts for human growth. This study describes the morphology and complex differentiation in the gonadosomatic index, morphological and ultrastructure features of the reproductive system, spermatogenesis, and spermatophores structure; this is due to the need to maintain natural and fishing stocks. Mature adult male crabs (carapace length 59 ± 7.12; width 126 ± 18.8 mm) were obtained from Abu-Qir Bay from November 2018 to October 2019 and transported alive in seawater to the laboratory. The reproductive system was dissected and weighed to the nearest 0.001g using the electronic balance, and the gonadosomatic index was subsequently calculated. The morphological analysis showed the developing testes with highly compacted seminiferous tubules. Using Periodic acid–Schiff stain, the spermatophore appeared with a zigzag-shaped wall that indicates its carbohydrate constituents. Each Spermatophore consisted of an inner spermatozoal mass embedded in a matrix, whose main components were secretions 1 and 2, and an outer thin acellular layer composed of secretions 3 and 4 from the anterior vas deferens (AVD). Secretions 5 and 6 (S5 and S6) also appeared with carbohydrate constituents using Mallory triple stain. The transverse section of the middle vas deferens (MVD) showed spermatophores with rod-shaped secretion S6 and granular secretions 7 (S7), forming a complex matrix between spermatophores. The secretion found in the MVD was granular, strongly acidophilic, and secreted by its highly columnar epithelium (S7). The ultrastructure showed that the testes were surrounded by a monolayer of myoid cells with an elongated nucleus, which also contained the following stages: spermatogonia, primary spermatocyte, secondary spermatocytes, and spermatids as well as spermatozoa. On the other hand, scanning electron microscope studies for fully formed spermatophore taken from the middle part of the vas deferens indicated that it is ellipsoidal in its outline with terminal stalk. Furthermore, the spermatophore was surrounded by a thick capsule of non-cellular substances and contained mature spermatozoa.
Board meetings: the impact of scheduling medium on long term group coordination in software development1

Despite a wealth of electronic group tools for coordinating the software development process, instead we find many groups preferring to use apparently outmoded "material" tools in critical projects. The current ethnographic study investigates this paradox. We begin by building up a detailed picture of the overall software development process and identify critical general problems in achieving coordination. Coordination problems arise in software development from the complex dependencies that hold among the work of different individuals. We identify the critical role of the schedule as a coordination device, but find that its value can be undermined because the schedule is often neither accurate nor current. As a result, the schedule is not used as a resource for individual or group planning, and we identify the reasons why this occurs. We then compare coordination in two development groups, one using electronic and the other material scheduling tools. We found that the medium of the schedule has a major impact on coordination problems. The size, public location and physical qualities of material tools engender certain crucial group processes that current electronic technologies fail to support. A large wallboard located in a public area encouraged greater responsibility, commitment and updating and its material properties served to encourage more reflective planning. Furthermore, the public nature of the wallboard promoted group interaction around the board, it enabled collaborative problem solving, as well as informing individuals about the local and global progress of the ! " ! # %$& (') # * % + , $& -. /10#2 3 3,465 7 8( 9 ! : : ,; $<$6 %$&$6 % # 9$1 , = , * > ? # ! @ A % 9 ! A " -B % ? % C ED+ ? % ; B C$6 ,F6 , $1 GHD+ ? , 9I @ $6 9$1 EG :$< ? -. G ? , B * > 9 ; ! J$< # K-B L" ! A ,-. 9$ G AM %$6 7 Whittaker/Schwarz Group coordination 2 project. Despite these benefits, however, the material tool fell short on several other dimensions such as distribution, complex dependency tracking, and versioning. We make design recommendations about how the benefits of material tools could be incorporated into electronic groupware systems and discuss the theoretical implications of this work.
Toxicity of Selected Munitions and Munition-Contaminated Soil on the Earthworm (Eisenia foetida)

Abstract : The munitions HMX (cyclotetramethylenetetranitramine), RDX (cyclotrimythylenetrinitramine), and TNT (trinitrotoluene) and soils from two Army ammunition plants (Radford, VA and Milan, TN), both contaminated with munitions or munition residues, were tested for their toxicity to the earthworm (Eisenia foetida). HMX and RDX were tested at 0, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 500 ug/g concentrations by weight in an artificial soil mixture. TNT was tested at 0, 80, 110, 140, 170, and 200 ug/g in artificial soil and at 0, 150, 300, 400, and 500 ug/g in a naturally-occurring forest soil. Contaminated Radford soil (60 ug/g TNT and 100 ug/g trinitrobenzene) and contaminated and fortified Radford soil (fortified with an additional 125 ug/g of 2,4dinitrotoluene and 40 ug/g 2,6- dinitrotoluene) were tested for their toxicity to earthworms. Contaminated and fortified Milan soil (initially contaminated with 13 ug/g HMX, 117 ug/g RDX, and 16 ug/g TNT and then fortified with 1000 ug/g of HMX, RDX, and 2,4-DNT each and 400 ug/g of 2,6-DNT) was also tested for its toxicity to earthworms. The lethal and sublethal effects these munitions and munition-contaminated soils had on earthworms are discussed in terms of the no observable effects level (NOEL) and lowest observable effects level (LOEL). Earthworms (Eisenia foetida), Munitions, No observable effects level (NOEL), Munition-contaminate, Lowest observable effects level (LOEL).
Ensuring Adequate Calcium intake on a Plant-Based Diet

Patients on a plant-based diet consume no dairy products and so must get their calcium from plant foods. Fortunately, a number of plant foods can supply the calcium needed. However, care needs to be taken to obtain calcium from foods that have a low oxalate content and therefore are more bioavailable. Concern about reduced bioavailability due to phytate is less of an issue for those on a plant-based diet because they develop bacterial flora that effectively degrades it. Epidemiologic studies show that people on a plant-based diet achieve a bone mineral density equal to their omnivore counterparts if their calcium intake is adequate. However, plant-based diets vary in their content. While some patients on a plant-based diet achieve adequate calcium intake, many don’t. In order to ensure adequate calcium intake, patients need to be counseled to emphasize foods with a high calcium content. Patients should also be counseled on dietary factors that decrease calcium retention, particularly sodium. Almost half the American public take calcium supplements. This can be helpful for patients on a plant-based diet. Obtaining calcium from plant foods has the advantage of avoiding the saturated fat and cholesterol in dairy products, and providing other nutrients, including fiber and phytonutrients, absent in dairy.