Comparison between the use of uniform and non-uniform light absorption profiles in modelling organic photovoltaics

To avoid complexity, a uniform light absorption profile is usually used when modelling organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). However, the actual light absorption profile is not uniform. It is found that a uniform light absorption profile can be used as a replacement for the actual non-uniform light absorption profile in modelling an OPV provided that the actual light absorption profile inside the OPV has a peak absorption value that is roughly less than twice its average absorption value. Nevertheless, the use of a uniform light absorption profile in investigating the effect of a certain parameter (e.g. the active layer thickness) on the performance of OPVs should still be used with care if variations in the value of the said parameter lead to different light absorption profiles

Psychological climacteric symptoms and attitudes toward menopause among Emirati women

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Menopause is an inevitable developmental event that women encounter at an age of 42–54 years. The drop of estrogen levels that accompanies cessation of menstruation is associated with multiple vasomotor, physical, neuropsychological, and sexual symptoms, which may hamper quality of life. This study aimed to examine the severity of psychological symptoms and their correlates among peri-and postmenopausal Emirati women (N = 60, mean age = 54.88 ± 6 years). Participants were interviewed using the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) and attitudes toward menopause scale (ATMS). In four path analysis models, vasomotor symptoms, weight gain, and fatigue had significant direct effects on symptoms of anxiety, depression (only weight gain and fatigue), and psychological distress. Fatigue significantly mediated the effects of vasomotor symptoms and weight gain on symptoms of anxiety, depression (only vasomotor symptoms), psychological distress, and memory problems. These models explained 47.6%, 44.5%, 56.6%, and 29.1% of the variances in anxiety, depression, psychological distress, and memory problems, respectively. Participants with more severe menopausal symptoms expressed more negative attitudes toward menopause though regression analysis revealed that only vasomotor symptoms could significantly contribute to ATMS scores. In conclusion, psychological distress is widespread among menopausal women, and it is associated with vasomotor symptoms, fatigue, and change of body composition (obesity). Psychological symptoms, along with vasomotor symptoms, express a key link to negative attitudes toward menopause. Therefore, interventional strategies that target psychological distress may promote coping with midlife transition and improve mental health among menopausal women

The Titanium and Mixed Titanium Carbon Nanoparticles Supported on Silica for Cyclohexene Conversion and of Dyes Removal

The two samples of  nanoparticles  sulfated titania over silica ST/SiO2 and sulfated titania active carbon over silica  STAC /SiO2 were  synthesized by sol- gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction XRD , BET , thermal analysis and TEM spectroscopy . The TEM demonstrated that the average particle size of two samples were found to be in the range of (15-50 nm).The ST/SiO2 and STAC/SiO2 have been used as an effective catalyst for cyclohexene disproportionation which STAC/SiO2 catalyst  show much higher selectivity for benzene formation at temperature ranging from 200-280°C. Series of kinetic studies had been conducted for  the removal of acid and basic dyes. The STAC/SiO2 has a considerable potential as an adsorbent for the removal of acidic dye (eosin) than the basic dye (saffranin). Keywords: ST/SiO2 and STAC/SiO2 nanocatalyst, Sol- Gel method ,cyclohexene and dyes

Recovery of silver from used X-ray film using alkaline protease from Bacillus subtilis sub sp. subtilis

Silver is an important industrial metal used in several areas such as photographic and x-ray films, jewelries, silver wares and electronic objects. Silver is used for photographic film/x-ray film because of its matchless quality as a light-sensitive material for making a photographic image. Silver is not destroyed in the photographic process and it can be reused and recovered. Results have proven that, bacterial alkaline protease can be used to extract silver in 30 min, but its activity decreases with increasing incubation period. Gelatin hydrolysis was monitored by measuring the increase in turbidity of the hydrolysate, which was accompanied by release of protein and hydroxyproline. The protease of the culture filtrate used was 97 U/ml after 30 min, but it decreased to 86.5U/ml after 60 min. After 90 min, it reached 85 U/ml. A great inactivation was recorded after 120 min; it got to 39.5 and 36.5% (U/ml) after 180 min. Gelatin layer was stripped completely within 30 min with 97 U ml-1 protease at 50°C and pH 8. At the end of the treatment, gelatin layer was completely removed and the polyester film was left clean. In addition, silver was recovered in the hydrolysate, both of which can be reused.Keywords: Silver recovery, x-ray films, gelatin, alkaline protease, Bacillus subtili

The involvement level of extension agent in activities based on rice check technology at IADA Pekan Pahang, Malaysia

Rice is a staple food for Malaysian and productivity must be focus upon in order to meet the increasing demand as the country growing population increases. Government had to produce a new and good variety of paddy which is MR219 and also to provide the Technology of Rice check as a manual and guideline to the extension agents to meet the needs of the farmers. However, the current yield at IADA Pekan is only 2.6 mt/ha which is not even up to the half of the potential yield of 10 mt/ha. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the involvement level and work performance of extension agents in objective setting, planning, implementing, and monitoring activities in transfer of technology based on Rice Check in IADA Pekan. The study was conducted in Pekan, Pahang and 137 respondents were considered for the 3 schemes which are Pahang Tua, Ganchong and Pulau Jawa. Questionnaire was used to elicit response from the respondents and the data was analyzed using SPSS. Based on the result obtained, the respondents at IADA Pekan has moderate level of practice toward rice check technology and the relationship between management function and work performance is also moderate

Impact of Air-Conditioning Filters on Microbial Growth and Indoor Air Pollution

Contemporary lifestyles dictate that people spend between 60 and 90% of their daily lives indoors. For those living in warm climates, air conditioning is thus considered a necessity. Air conditioners function by removing hot and humid air from building interior and replacing it with cooler air. Microorganisms are considered among the most important sources of poor quality of indoor air, and contamination of this air by microbial pollutants is being increasingly recognized as a public health problem and a probable cause of the so-called sick building syndrome. In this regard, microfiber glass panel filters are considered to provide an effective solution for air filtration and have been demonstrated to improve air quality in many applications. However, recent research has demonstrated that certain microorganisms are able to colonize panel filter surfaces. Studies on selected microbes isolated from the most commonly used filters have revealed that the bacterial and fungal moist masses carried on sponge-type filters are greater than those carried on polyester and high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. Moreover, microbial moist mass has been found to increase with increasing incubation time. In addition, recent research has shown that certain microorganisms, particularly fungi, can colonize the materials used in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems (HVAC)

Addressing the challenges of ECMO simulation

This document is the Accepted Manuscript. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Perfusion, May 2018, published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved.Introduction/Aim: The patient’s condition and high-risk nature of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy force clinical services to ensure clinicians are properly trained and always ready to deal effectively with critical situations. Simulation-based education (SBE), from the simplest approaches to the most immersive modalities, helps promote optimum individual and team performance. The risks of SBE are negative learning, inauthenticity in learning and over-reliance on the participants’ suspension of disbelief. This is especially relevant to ECMO SBE as circuit/patient interactions are difficult to fully simulate without confusing circuit alterations. Methods: Our efforts concentrate on making ECMO simulation easier and more realistic in order to reduce the current gap there is between SBE and real ECMO patient care. Issues to be overcome include controlling the circuit pressures, system failures, patient issues, blood colour and cost factors. Key to our developments are the hospital-university collaboration and research funding. Results: A prototype ECMO simulator has been developed that allows for realistic ECMO SBE. The system emulates the ECMO machine interface with remotely controllable pressure parameters, haemorrhaging, line chattering, air bubble noise and simulated blood colour change. Conclusion: The prototype simulator allows the simulation of common ECMO emergencies through innovative solutions that enhance the fidelity of ECMO SBE and reduce the requirement for suspension of disbelief from participants. Future developments will encompass the patient cannulation aspect.Peer reviewe

Arabic Documents classification method a Step towards Efficient Documents Summarization

The massive growth of online information obliged the availability of a thorough research in the domain of automatic text summarization within the Natural Language Processing (NLP) community. To reach this goal, different approaches should be integrated and collaborated. One of these approaches is the classification od documents. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to propose a successful framework for agricultural documents classification as a step forward for a language independent automatic summarization approach. The main target of our serial research is to propose a complete novel framework which not only responses to the question, but also gives the user an opportunity to find additional information that is related to the question. We implemented the proposed method. As a case study, the implemented method is applied on Arabic text in the agriculture field. The implemented approach succeeded in classifying the documents submitted by the user. The approach results have been evaluated using Recall, Precision and F-score measures. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15017

Revisiting Cancer Stem Cells as the Origin of Cancer-Associated Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment: A Hypothetical View from the Potential of iPSCs

The tumor microenvironment (TME) has an essential role in tumor initiation and development. Tumor cells are considered to actively create their microenvironment during tumorigenesis and tumor development. The TME contains multiple types of stromal cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), Tumor endothelial cells (TECs), tumor-associated adipocytes (TAAs), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and others. These cells work together and with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and many other factors to coordinately contribute to tumor growth and maintenance. Although the types and functions of TME cells are well understood, the origin of these cells is still obscure. Many scientists have tried to demonstrate the origin of these cells. Some researchers postulated that TME cells originated from surrounding normal tissues, and others demonstrated that the origin is cancer cells. Recent evidence demonstrates that cancer stem cells (CSCs) have differentiation abilities to generate the original lineage cells for promoting tumor growth and metastasis. The differentiation of CSCs into tumor stromal cells provides a new dimension that explains tumor heterogeneity. Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), our group postulates that CSCs could be one of the key sources of CAFs, TECs, TAAs, and TAMs as well as the descendants, which support the self-renewal potential of the cells and exhibit heterogeneity. In this review, we summarize TME components, their interactions within the TME and their insight into cancer therapy. Especially, we focus on the TME cells and their possible origin and also discuss the multi-lineage differentiation potentials of CSCs exploiting iPSCs to create a society of cells in cancer tissues including TME