Photocatalytic decolorization of methyl orange dye using SnO2-TiO2 nanocomposite particles synthesised by Ultrasonic Assisted Co-Precipitation Method

The ultrasonic-aided co-precipitation method was used to create SnO2-TiO2 nanocomposite particles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and UV-vis spectroscopy were used to characterize the nanocomposite particles. XRD patterns revealed the crystalline structure of particles and the average particle size determined by Debye Scherrer’s equation was found to be 11.355, 4.9577, and 4.333 nm for TiO2 nanoparticles, SnO2 nanoparticles, and SnO2-TiO2 nanocomposites, respectively. The Ti, Sn, and O species were confirmed to exist by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The UV absorption peaks at 288, 305, and 350 nm were attributed to SnO2, TiO2-SnO2, and TiO2 respectively. The photocatalytic aspect was investigated in a model organic contaminant (methyl orange). Data obtained by the above-mentioned characterization methods confirmed the superior photocatalytic activity of SnO2-TiO2 nanostructure than SnO2 or TiO2 alone

A Comparative Analysis of the Similar Wordformation Processes in English and Arabic

This paper sets out on a comparative analysis of similar word-formation processes in English and Arabic. In doing so, it hopesto emerge and serve assubsequent and reliable, albeit partial, reference material for English and Arabic linguistics, especially in reference to linguistic structures. The framework herein for the study and analysis of word-formation processes in both languages may also be applied in future studies and other genres, corpora, and texts. This study enriches the research findings and meta-theory in the field of linguistics, contributing to the current linguistic intellectualism trends. The specific processes discussed are acronyms, antonomasia, backformation, blending, borrowing, compounding, and derivation

Design and Analysis of a Hybrid Power System for McCallum, NL, Canada

Although solar power plants have several advantages over conventional power generation methods, the main issue is the need for land, which is used for agriculture globally, as well as the expense. With the help of a floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) system, the problem of land constraints can be solved. FSPV can be put in any water section, which will boost generation by utilizing the cooling impact of water while also lowering the cost of the land. In this research, an on-grid FSPV system is designed and analyzed for McCallum, NL, Canada. The designed system can reduce remote site diesel consumption by 70%

Mapping the integrated marketing communications research: A bibliometric analysis

Given the growing popularity of integrated marketing communications (IMC) among academicians and businessmen, this study examines the trends of theoretical development in IMC during 1991-2020 by using a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 303 academic research papers. In addition to examining the citation and publication structures in terms of authors, institutions, countries, and sources, this study explores the publications and citations trends and identifies conceptual and intellectual structure of IMC literature. The results demonstrate that IMC literature follows a steady but slow growth rate, although average citations per document are high. Kitchen, PJ. (author), Northwestern University (institution), USA (country), and Journal of Marketing Communications (source) contributed the most to IMC literature. With 216 multi-authored documents, IMC can be recognized as a field of high research collaboration. About 84% of the keywords appeared only once in IMC literature. In addition, the foundation of IMC rests on a small number of articles by a few researchers published in handful number of journals. Finally, the keyword co-occurrence network analysis identifies different clusters of IMC research, of which clusters marked with the keywords (1) brand equity, (2) measurement, (3) IMC and consumer empowerment represent the highest research potential

Information Seeking Behaviour of Grass Root Level Extension Workers of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Bangladesh

This study assessed the information searching behaviour of root level extension workers (SAAOs) to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the root level extension workers and their information searching behaviour. Chawgacha, Jhikargacha and Jessore Sadar upazila under Jessore district were the study area. All the 70 Sub Assistant Agriculture Officers (SAAOs) in these three upazilas participated in the study. The study revealed that 64.30%of the respondents were frequent information searcher Findings reveal that job satisfaction and aspiration for training had positive significant relationship with information searching behaviour while age, experience of extension work, annual expenditure, and motivation for searching job related information, organizational problem confrontation and technical knowledge had no significant relationship with information searching behaviours

Lack of association between polymorphism rs540782 and primary open angle glaucoma in Saudi patients.

Background To investigate whether polymorphism rs540782 on chromsome 1, in close proximity to the Zona Pellucida Glycoprotein 4 (ZP4) gene, is a risk factor for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). Method The study genotyped 92 unrelated POAG cases and 95 control subjects from Saudi Arabia using Taq-Man® assay. Results The genotype frequency distribution did not deviate significantly from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > 0.05). Overall, both the genotype and allele frequencies were not significantly different between cases and controls. The minor ‘C’ allele frequency was 49.4%, which was comparable to the Japanese population and higher than the Indian and Afro-Caribbean populations. Similarly, no significant association was found between genotypes and systemic diseases and health awareness/behavior domain variables. Importantly, glaucoma specific indices, such as intraocular pressure, cup/disc ratio and number of anti-glaucoma medication, also showed no statistically significant effect of genotypes within POAG cases. Conclusion Polymorphism rs540782 is not a risk factor for POAG in the Saudi cohort

Microencapsulation of peppermint oil using an ionic gelation electrospray technique

INTRODUCTION: Alginate has become the material of choice for encapsulation by ionic gelation and widely used in engineering and biotechnological industries, due to its biocompatibility, low cost and being a non-toxic polymer. Peppermint oil have been used for many pharmaceutical formulations and currently used as pharmaceutical active ingredient for few specific diseases. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to encapsulate and characterize peppermint oil in alginate microbeads by electrospray technique. METHODS: In this study, sodium alginates, Lecithin, calcium chloride and peppermint oil were used consecutively as an encapsulating material, emulsifying or, stabilizing agent, gelling solution and, as an active pharmaceutical ingredient. The electrospray technique was employed to encapsulate the peppermint oil by preparing the microbeads. To characterize emulsion, emulsion stability, size distribution of emulsion oil droplets and zeta potential, microstructure and shape and size of beads was determined followed by centrifugation or accelerated technique, a light scattering instrument, and light microscope. Finally, the analytical method was validated followed by ICH_Q2 guideline and encapsulation efficiency was determined by using UV-vis spectrophotometric (600 nm) method. The method was validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, and limit of quantitation. RESULTS: For the analysis method, it was found that peppermint oil obeys linearity within the concentration range of 3 mg/ml - 25 mg/ml and coefficient correlation was found to be 0.9890. The proposed method was found to be specific while estimating commercial formulations without interference of excipients. The emulsion was found to be highly stable while the percentage of beads yield was about 88%. In addition, the distribution of particle size of the emulsion was almost in nano size. In the characterization of beads, the size and shape of the beads were in good spherical shape. CONCLUSION: The analytical method was found to be simple, sensitive, accurate, precise & the most important cost effective and can be used for quantifying peppermint oil in the beads. Furthermore, peppermint oil was successfully encapsulated in alginate microbeads

Electro-hydrodynamic assisted synthesis of lecithin-stabilized peppermint oil-loaded alginate microbeads for intestinal drug delivery

Peppermint oil (PO) is the most prominent oil using in pharmaceutical formulations with its significant therapeutic value. In this sense, this oil is attracting considerable attention from the scientific community due to its traditional therapeutic claim, biological and pharmacological potential in recent research. An organic solventfree and environment-friendly electrohydrodynamic assisted (EHDA) technique was employed to prepared POloaded alginate microbeads. The current study deals with the development, optimization, in vitro characterization, in vivo gastrointestinal tract drug distribution and ex-vivo mucoadhesive properties, antioxidant, and antiinflammatory effects of PO-loaded alginate microbeads. The optimization results indicated the voltage and flow rate have a significant influence on microbeads size and sphericity factor and encapsulation efficiency. All these optimized microbeads showed a better drug release profile in simulated intestinal fluid (pH 6.8) at 2 h. However, a minor release was found in acidic media (pH 1.2) at 2 h. The optimized formulation showed excellent mucoadhesive properties in ex-vivo and good swelling characterization in intestine media. The microbeads were found to be well distributed in various parts of the intestine in in vivo study. PO-loaded alginate microbeads similarly showed potential antioxidant effects with drug release. The formulation exhibited possible improvement of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in MO-induced rats. It significantly suppressed proinflammatory cytokines, i.e., interleukin- IL-1β, and upregulated anti-inflammatory cytokine expression, i.e., IL-10. It would be a promising approach for targeted drug release after oral administration and could be considered an antiinflammatory therapeutic strategy for treating IBS

The Human-Milk Oligosaccharide Profile of Lactating Women in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: Human-milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are an abundant component of human milk that have health-related effects on breastfeeding infants. Since variation in HMO composition can be explained by maternal and environmental factors, understanding the diversity in HMOs across settings and identifying context-specific factors associated with HMO abundances is important. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to describe the HMO profile of Bangladeshi women and to estimate the effect of maternal vitamin D supplementation on HMO composition. METHODS: In a cross-sectional analysis of data and samples from the Maternal Vitamin D for Infant Growth trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh (clinicaltrials.gov; NCT01924013), 192 participants were randomly selected including 96 from each of the placebo and highest-dose vitamin D supplementation groups. In mid-feed breast milk samples collected at a mean (±SD) postpartum age of 93 ± 7 d, absolute and relative abundances of 19 HMOs were analyzed by HPLC. "Secretors" were defined as participants with 2'fucosyllactose concentrations >350 nmol/mL. Associations between HMO concentrations and selected maternal or environmental factors were estimated by multivariable linear regression, adjusting for vitamin D group allocation and secretor status. HMO profiles of Bangladeshi women were compared with data from other international cohorts. RESULTS: Overall, 34% (65/192) of participants were nonsecretors. Secretor status was associated with the concentrations of total HMOs and 79% (15/19) of individual HMOs. Vitamin D supplementation did not affect the total or individual concentration of any measured HMO. 3-Fucosyllactose concentration was significantly higher in breast milk samples collected in December to February compared with samples collected in March to May. HMO composition was similar to other previously reported cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: The HMO profile of Bangladeshi women is predominantly determined by secretor status. Context-specific HMO data may improve understanding of the effects of HMOs on the infant microbiome and health and guide the development of HMO-containing interventions

Diversification Benefits of Shari’ah Compliant Equity ETFs in Emerging Markets

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Previous studies on the performance of Islamic finance and banking have been more comparative than experimental when it comes to the role and effect of Islamic (Shari'ah compliant) assets in a conventional setting. This paper investigates whether Shari'ah compliant exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have potential diversification benefits to a volatile portfolio of conventional investments in emerging markets. The results suggest that such assets not only improve the risk-adjusted returns of portfolios but also receive proportionally higher weight during crisis periods. Hence, institutional investors should consider the ‘religion effect’ when they manage their assets, given the evidence regarding the outperformance of Shari'ah compliant equity relative to their conventional peers