Rhetoric: Spoken discourse, A systematic appeal for reasoning Pathos

The tekhnē of spoken discourse is a critical tool for particular communications and is a substantial means to transform good knowledge . It is an objective tekhnē with an ergon, which is man-made. As such, it may be implemented for political, religious, social or educational purposes. Thus, understanding the implications of spoken discourse and establishing a shared understanding between the rhētōr and his listeners is not just an option in this context. On the contrary, both elements are the mind/soul/heart of the discourse. For what is the value of a discourse if its implications and representations are not well perceived by its listeners? Why do we care to convey knowledge of the good, if we cannot construct an intellectual connection between the listeners and us? I believe it would be impossible to attain any tangible outcomes from such an experience without initiating a discourse that contains these two elements. On the other hand, these two elements involve two concurrent prerequisites, which are: (1) the knowledge of the good, and (2) the good knowledge of the tekhnē. Consequently, converting the knowledge of the good using the good knowledge of the tekhnē are other central elements of the spoken discourse. Any rhētōr must exert all possible efforts to craft his argument using a reasonable form of rhetorical reasoning. Any proficient rhētōr can convey his particular knowledge to his listeners through this exclusive medium. His acquisition of the three skills , namely: (1) ēthos, (2) logos, and (3) pathos, are his means to reach the minds of his listeners in their various states. Furthermore, probability in rhetorical reasoning is not at all an enemy to strict logic. It also does not deconstruct universality. The natural capability of the human mind to use common opinions or common sense to perceive and infer the self-evident is not against logic, reason, knowledge and truth. Chaïm Perelman explains this further by affirming that: It is the idea of self-evidence as characteristic of reason, which we must assail, if we are to make place for a theory of argumentation that will acknowledge the use of reason in directing our own actions and influencing those of others. Self-evidence is conceived both as a force to which every normal mind must yield and as a sign of the truth of that which imposes itself because it is self-evident. The self-evident would connect the psychological with the logical and allow passage back and forth between these two levels. All proof would be reduction to the self-evident and what is self-evident would have no need of proof (The New Rhetoric: A Treatise of Argumentation 1969, 3-4). Correspondingly, intensifying the emotional states of the mind – pathos – using rhetorical spoken discourse has its power; and it is reasonable too. Our faculties of the mind are our means to rationally cognize the cultural environment we exist in – including the emotion states that we experience. Moreover, according to several recently developed theories of the faculties of the mind, there is an intelligible connection between the faculty of reason, the faculty of judgement and the faculty of emotions. The meaningful emotional behaviors and their potential institution of beliefs and actions are quite remarkable. The exemplary developments presented earlier in this research through a theological perspective , a rational perspective , and a social perspective assert and amplify the important role of pathos for exerting a potential change in the status-quo of the listeners by means of reason. Finally, it is apparent from the discussed reflections on the first and the second objectives of this thesis that a knowledgeable spoken discourse cannot afford to delete the emotional appeal – pathos – from its situational circumstances. Although reason and emotional appeal appear to be mutually exclusive, they support each other. The emotional appeal addresses the human mind in its particular states. In addition, the emotional appeal is one of the critical tools to potentially motivate both: change and action through any objective rhetorical spoken discourse

Design and Optimization of PID Controller using Various Algorithms for Micro-Robotics System

Microparticles have the potentials to be used for many medical purposes in-side the human body such as drug delivery and other operations. This paper attempts to provide a thorough comparison between five meta-heuristic search algorithms:  Sparrow Search Algorithm (SSA), Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA), Slime Mould Algorithm (SMA), Marine Predator Algorithm (MPA), and Multi-Verse Optimizer (MVO). These approaches were used to calculate the PID controller optimal indicators with the application of different functions, including Integral Absolute Error (IAE), Integral of Time Multiplied by Square Error (ITSE), Integral Square Time multiplied square Error (ISTES), Integral Square Error (ISE), Integral of Square Time multiplied by square Error (ISTSE), and Integral of Time multiplied by Absolute Error (ITAE). Every method of controlling was presented in a MATLAB Simulink numerical model, and LABVIEW software was used to run the experimental tests. It is observed that the MPA technique achieves the highest values of settling error for both simulation and experimental results among other control approaches, while the SSA approach reduces the settling error by 50% compared to former experiments. The results indicate that SSA is the best method among all approaches and that ISTES is the best choice of PID for optimizing the controlling parameters

Formulation of a composite of date palm wood-cement

This work reports the results of an experimental study on the incorporation of wood waste date palm reduced in particles for the manufacture of wood – cement composites. These materials are chipper than the conventional insulator material and environmental friendly. Five types of wood – cement composites with various concentrations of the wood particles, ie. 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10% of total volume, were made according to defined protocol and mix design. Their thermal and mechanical properties were measured and compared to other conventional materials. The obtained results show that the thermal conductivity is positively correlated to the content of particles in the mixture. The compressive strength of composites decreases where the content of particles increase. However, taking account of the ASTM C 109 / C109-95 standard, the wood – cement composite contained 10% of wood particles, considered as lightweight concrete, could be used as non-structural material in construction

Induced Sputum Substance P in Children with Difficult-to-Treat Bronchial Asthma and Gastroesophageal Reflux: Effect of Esomeprazole Therapy

Objectives. To assess the induced sputum substance P (ISSP) levels in children having difficult-to-treat asthma (DA) with and without gastroesophageal reflux (GER). We aimed also to evaluate the association of GER with childhood DA, relationship of GER severity with childhood asthma control test (C-ACT), FEV1, peak expiratory flow (PEF) variability, and ISSP. Finally, we tried to evaluate esomeprazole treatment effect on C-ACT and FEV1 in children with DA. Methods. Spirometry, C-ACT, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and ISSP measurement were done for children with DA compared to healthy controls. Results. ISSP was high in DA with higher levels in the group having associated GER. In the latter group, ISSP and C-ACT improved significantly after esomeprazole treatment while FEV1 and PEF variability did not improve. Reflux severity was positively correlated with ISSP and negatively correlated with FEV1. Conclusions. GER was found in 49% of our patients with childhood DA. Very high ISSP levels in children with DA may be used as a marker for presence of GERD. Esomeprazole therapy improved asthma symptoms but did not improve lung function

A 3G/WiFi-enabled 6LoWPAN-based u-healthcare system for ubiquitous real-time monitoring and data logging

Ubiquitous healthcare (U-healthcare) systems are expected to offer flexible and resilient high-end technological solutions enabling remote monitoring of patients health status in real-time and provisioning of feedback and remote actions by healthcare providers. In this paper, we present a 6LowPAN based U-healthcare platform that contributes to the realization of the above expectation. The proposed system comprises two sensor nodes sending temperature data and ECG signals to a remote processing unit. These sensors are being assigned an IPv6 address to enable the Internet-of-Things (IoT) functionality. A 6LowPAN-enabled edge router, connected to a PC, is serving as a base station through a serial interface, to collect data from the sensor nodes. Furthermore, a program interfacing through a Serial-Line-Internet-Protocol (SLIP) and running on the PC provides a network interface that receives IPv6 packets from the edge router. The above system is enhanced by having the application save readings from the sensors into a file that can be downloaded by a remote server using a free Cloud service such as UbuntuOne. This enhancement makes the system robust against data loss especially for outdoor healthcare services, where the 3G/4G connectivity may get lost because of signal quality fluctuations. The system provided a proof of concept of successful remote U-healthcare monitoring illustrating the IoT functionality and involving 3G/4G connectivity while being enhanced by a cloud-based backup

Catalytic behavior and antibacterial/antifungal activities of new MNPs/zeolite@alginate composite beads

In this paper, a new family of composite materials was prepared based on calcium alginate and metal nanoparticle-loaded zeolite omega. Different types of metal nanoparticles (NPs), namely Cu, Co and Fe, were loaded onto zeolite omega to test the performance of the resulting metal/zeolite@alginate composites towards the catalytic reduction of methylene blue dye. To examine their application field as broadly as possible, these composite beads were also tested as antibacterial and antifungal agents against several types of bacteria. Several techniques such as XRD, XRF, FTIR, XPS, SEM and TGA were used to characterize the samples. The obtained results showed that all the composite bead samples were effective in the reduction of MB dye. The composite Co/Zeolite@ALG with relatively low Co nanoparticle (NP) content was selected as the best performing catalyst due to its reduction of MB dye being completely achieved in 3 min with a rate constant of 0.02 min-1, which was attributed to its highly porous structure. The reuse tests conducted on the best-performing catalyst showed good results which persisted through five successive cycles. For antibacterial and antifungal activities, the Cu/Zeolite@ALG and Fe/Zeolite@ALG composites showed good activity with significant inhibition zones

Ziziphus lotus (L.) Lam. plant treatment by ultrasounds and microwaves to improve antioxidants yield and quality: An overview

The purpose of this review is to compile the literature published about different aspects of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) use and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) applied on jujube worldwide and to compare the results on the antioxidant activity obtained for each extraction method. As a result of the increased consumers demand for natural products, as well as for those of agro-food, nutraceutical, cosmetic industries, and green extraction techniques are nowadays trending to be potential alternatives that can improve antioxidant yield and its quality from an economical and environmental point of view by reducing time, energy, and solvent consumption. Ultrasounds and microwaves are widely used methods in the extraction of active principles due to their cavitation and dipolar rotation effect, respectively. These two techniques provide efficiency of extraction while minimizing the time and preserving the quality of the food matrix, overcoming the disadvantages of conventional techniques characterized by their consumption of large quantities of solvents and providing a sparse quantity of extraction. Jujube, a shrub with a high antioxidant potential, which can be affected by various extraction conditions can be the target of UAE and MAE to increase the antioxidant extraction yield. Exploiting the beneficial properties such as the antioxidant activity can lead to an industrialization process, replacing therefor synthetic antioxidants with natural compounds. These can also help in the development of new nutraceuticals and can be used, for instance, in agro-food industries as preservatives

Micro-structural Auditory Pathway Changes in Patients with Sensorineural Hearing Loss with or without Tinnitus, could diffusion tensor imaging be valuable?

Background: Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can assess tissue microstructure. It's challenging to identify sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) cause suing CT or MRI without significant gross disruption. Objectives: to assess microstructural integrity of auditory neural pathway SNHL patients with or without tinnitus by DTI. Patients and methods: This prospective, case-control study included 55 subjects in three groups: 30 healthy volunteers in control group (GI), 12 patients in bilateral SNHL without tinnitus group (GII), and 13 patients in bilateral SNHL with tinnitus group (GIII) were MRI-assessed using 1.5 Tesla GE machine. Ordinary one-way ANOVA test was used to compare groups with normal distributions, Kroskal Wallis test: compares groups with abnormally distributed data; post-hoc test: determines significance between pairs. Results: ANOVA test revealed statistically significant difference at Lateral lemniscus(LL), Inferior colliculus(IC), medial geniculate body (MGB), auditory radiation(AR), Superior temporal gyrus(STG), Hippocampus, amygdala, Superior longitudinal fasciculus(SLF), genu and splenium of corpus callosum (CC) with P value ≤0.05. Post-hoc test: group II had lower FA comparing to group I at LL, MGB, IC, AR, STG, genu and splenium of CC. In group III the forementioned regions were affected besides hippocampus and amygdala. Group III had statistically significant lower FA values compared to group II at LL, IC, MGB, hippocampus, amygdala, SLF, genu and splenium of CC. Conclusion: Using DTI to assess microstructural integrity of auditory pathway, SNHL is associated with white matter microstructure affection as proved by the current study, and presence of tinnitus is associated with limbic system affection

M (M: Cu, Co, Cr or Fe) nanoparticles-loaded metal-organic framework MIL-101(Cr) material by sonication process: Catalytic activity and antibacterial properties

The current study deals with the preparation and development of nanomaterials based on iron, copper, chromium or cobalt to study their antibacterial and catalytic properties. To achieve this, the different metals were dispersed in the material MIL-101(Cr) by an ultrasonic-assisted method and then treated by chemical reduction in order to produce corresponding metal nanoparticles (MNPs). The obtained nanocatalysts MIL-101(Cr)/MNPs were characterized by various techniques such as XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, FTIR; TGA, XRF, Adsorption-desoprtion of nitrogen at 77 K and UV–vis DR. The results showed that the nanocatalysts consist of a mixture of metal phases and oxides. All the prepared nanocatalysts were evaluated based on their performance in reducing the methylene blue (MB) dye in the presence of NaBH4 as reducing agent, for selection of the optimal catalyst. The best catalytic activity was obtained by the MIL-101 (Cr)/CuNPs nanocatalyst in which 6 min was sufficient to reduce the MB dye and the recorded rate constant kapp was 0.503 min−1. The performance of this catalyst was evaluated by varying the effects of three important parameters such as catalyst loading and the concentration of NaBH4 and MB dye. The study of the effects of these three parameters on the reduction process reveals that more than 99% of MB dye was reduced using 0.6 mM of MB dye, 6.8 mM of NaBH4 and 3 mg of nanocatalyst. The kinetic study shows that the reduction of MB dye by the MOF-101(Cr)/CuNPs nanocatalyst follows pseudo-first order kinetics. In addition, the MIL-101(Cr)/CoNPs and MIL-101(Cr)/CuNPs samples demonstrated efficacy at inhibiting bacterial and fungal growth. Hence, it is concluded through this work that the nature, size and concentration of nanoparticles present in the MOF matrix are the key parameters that can influence the catalytic and antibacterial properties of these MNP-loaded MIL-101(Cr) systems