The Inclusion of Palm Oil Ash Biomass Waste in Concrete: A Literature Review

Oil palm ash (OPA) is a waste material produced by countries having a blooming palm oil industry. Recycling of oil palm ash is receiving increasing attention because of its huge potential in improving economic benefits and environmental awareness. Recently, it has been used as a partial replacement to cement in concrete, mortar and other cementitious materials. OPA is considered a new member of the supplementary cementing materials. Therefore, it is imperative to have a complete understanding of this material and its effects. In this chapter, a thorough literature review involving OPA will be presented. The physical and chemical properties of OPA will be listed as well as its effect when used as a partial cement replacement on the fresh state, mechanical and durability properties of a number of cementitious products. Capitalising such waste products in the production of concrete will not only benefit the recycling chain process but also produce a green product which enables the reduction of cement quantities used and also produce an energy-efficient building material

Novel therapies for cancer treatment : designing high affinity selective ligands against SIRT1 enzyme

The word ‘Sirtuin’ or Sir2 proteins are a class of proteins that possess either mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase, or deacylase activity, including deacetylase. SIRT1 is the most studied mammalian Sirtuins and predominantly localised in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Many Sirtuins targets are involved in cancer and in many types of cancers, SIRT1 is found to be overexpressed. Recent observations support SIRT1 being both an oncogene and a tumour suppressor, depending on the cancer etiology and type of tissue. To answer the question “How can SIRT1 behave as a tumour suppressor?”, highly selective ligands (aptamers) were developed against SIRT1 enzyme as the first step towards the development of an alternative chemotherapy for cancer diseases. The objectives of current study are to: (i) produce by in vitro SELEX procedures, SIRT1 binding single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) aptamers; (ii) characterise the interactions between selected aptamers and SIRT1 in vitro and determine their equilibrium dissociation constant (KD) values and; (iii) investigate the effects of selected aptamers on cancer cell lines. To achieve these objectives, ssDNA aptamers capable of binding SIRT1 enzyme were generated in vitro using a sequential approach known as SELEX. A total of eight novel SIRT1 aptamers (circular and linear), four circular aptamers from 8 rounds of circularisation-SELEX procedure, and the other four linear aptamers from 12 rounds of a basic-SELEX procedure were generated.The initial screening using the Fluor de Lys-SIRT1 assay for SIRT1 enzymatic activity in vitro indicated that an activator SIRT1 enzyme (circular3, circular4, linear3 and linear4) were obtained, these aptamers showed acceptable values of Km and Vmax to SIRT1 enzyme in kinetic characterisation studies. After equilibrium binding characterisation study of both linear and circular aptamers by SPR, it was show that circular3 and linear3 aptamers are good binder to SIRT1 enzyme, with the low KD constant (27.07± 0.959 nM and 48.3± 0.986 nM) respectively with highly exhibited stability for circular3 in human plasma. To investigate the effects of aptamers in cancer cell lines, it has been found that the lung cancer epithelial model A549, the colorectal adenocarcinoma model Caco-2, the liver hepatic model HepG2 were very sensitive with an IC50 (0.32, 0.67, 0.2μM) respectively. Both breast cancer models (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468) were highly sensitive with an IC50 (0.14 and 0.13 μM), the very difficult to treat MCF-7 and the extremely challenging oestrogen negative MDA-MB-468 proved to be substantially sensitive with the longer exposure. A special mention should be the osteosarcoma model U2OS, this cancer is very prevalent as bone cancer in children and adults over 60 years of age, with prognosis being related to the cancer stage and current treatment leaving extremely non-desirable side effects, the aptamer was very effective on this cell line with IC50 = 0.06 μM. Notably, pre-treatment of adult human keratinocyte HaCaT cells with aptamers resulted in markedly decreased cell viability and the IC50 = 0.123 μM. The most interesting point who that the aptamer was very safe on normal cell line Beas-2b, which indicated that it is safe to non-cancerous tissue. In conclusion, a pharmacological activation of SIRT1 enhanced cell death suggesting a tumour suppressive function of SIRT1 and the high-affinity SIRT1- aptamers identified in this study may be used in the future for cancer treatment

The Fraud Rules in the Letter of Credit under Jordanian Legal System

Letter of credit (L/C) has a massive role in expanding international trade operations. It is considered the most secure and stable banking service to finance foreign trade operations such as import and export. As an international contract, potential legal issues arise due to fraud practices. In this case, L/C users have to be aware of different approaches followed by domestic courts while dealing with fraud at the international level. This paper aims to identify the fraud means under the fraud rule governing L/C and its impact on Jordan's practice. By applying a qualitative and doctrinal legal approach, this paper analyses the lack of organization of the uniform customs and practice for the letter of credit (UCP No. 600). It also examines, via interviews with Jordanian judges, the perceptions of the Jordanian courts' policy regarding the fraud rule exception in L/C. The finding reveals that to protect the interests of all parties in a letter of credit transaction, Jordanian courts should extend the scope of fraud to cover sale contracts fraud in cases where bona fide holder is involved and when a confirming bank is absent, or when the credit amount has not been paid yet by the issuing bank. In respect of the bank practices, such special provisions implemented to commercial code must be issued due to the lack of legal provisions of the L/C in Jordan legislation

KETUHANAN DALAM AGAMA HINDU DAN AGAMA BUDDHA (STUDY KOMPERATIF)

Sesungguhnya, setiap agama yang ada dan berkembang di muka bumi ini, bertitik tolak dari kepercayaan kepada Tuhan yang Maha Kuasa. Tuhanlah yang mengatur semua ini, Tuhan pula sebagai penyebab pertama segala yang ada. Hal ini diakui dalam setiap agama termasuk agama Hindu dan agama Buddha. Maka Skripsi yang telah penulis teliti adalah yang berjudul “KETUHANAN DALAM AGAMA HINDU DAN AGAMA BUDDHA (STUDY KOMPERATIF)”. Kitab suci Hindu demikian lancar dalam melukiskan sifat-sifat Tuhan. Tuhan dalam Agama Hindu disebut sebagai Brahman dan Sang Hyang Widhi. Selain itu, Pada dasarnya, ketuhanan dalam Agama Hindu adalah kepada Tuhan Yang Esa, tetapi sistem ketuhanannya terkoordinasi dalam konsep ketuhanan Trimurti. Trimurti ini terbahagi kepada tiga (sifat) yaitu Brahman, Wisnu, dan Siwa. Dewa-dewa di lukiskan dalam bentuk konkrit untuk tujuan penyembahan. Adapun Agama Buddha (Mahayana) umatnya berkeyakinan terhadap Tuhan yang Maha Esa dan meyebutkan Tuhan Yang Maha Esa dengan sebutan yang berbeda-beda antaranya Sang Hyang Adi, Parama Buddha, Hyang Tathagata dan lainnya tetapi hakikatnya adalah satu dan sama. Seperti halnya dalam Agama Hindu, Agama Buddha aliran Mahayana ini juga berkeyakinan terhadap tiga perwujudan yaitu Trikaya. Trikaya terbahagi kepada Dharmakaya (Zat Tunggal), Samboghakaya (Welas Asih), dan Nirmanakaya (Percobaan Ajaib). Doktrin zat- zat samawi pada mulanya difahami dalam bentuk abstrak namun lambat laun dipersonafikasikan dalam bentuk konkrit bagi keperluan pemujaan. Penelitian yang digunakan penulis adalah penelitian kepustakaan (Library Research) dimana penulis mencari literatur-literatur yang ada hubungan dan kaitannya dengan kajian ini. Mekanisme penyajian yang digunakan adalah sumber data Primer yaitu bersumberkan Kitab Hindu Bhagawad Gita (Pancama Veda) dan Kena Upanisad (Kenopanisad) serta Kitab Buddha Udana (Ungkapan Nurani Para Arya). Disamping itu, sumber data sekunder pula adalah literature dari buku-buku yang berhubungan dengan objek penelitian. Temuan penelitian ini adalah bahwa Agama Hindu dan Agama Buddha mempunyai konsep kepercayaan kepada tuhan. Malah, mempunyai keyakinan terhadap tiga perwujudan yaitu Trimurti dan Trikaya. Selain itu, umat kedua agama ini menggunakan patung-patung yang berbentuk konkrit bagi keperluan pemujaan

Numerical simulation of heat transfer to separation tio(2)/water nanofluids flow in an asymmetric abrupt expansion

Flow separation and reattachment of 0.2% TiO2 nanofluid in an asymmetric abrupt expansion is studied in this paper. Such flows occur in various engineering and heat transfer applications. Computational fluid dynamics package (FLUENT) is used to investigate turbulent nanofluid flow in the horizontal double-tube heat exchanger. The meshing of this model consists of 43383 nodes and 74891 elements. Only a quarter of the annular pipe is developed and simulated as it has symmetrical geometry. Standard k-epsilon second order implicit, pressure based-solver equation is applied. Reynolds numbers between 17050 and 44545, step height ratio of 1 and 1.82 and constant heat flux of 49050 W/m2 was utilized in the simulation. Water was used as a working fluid to benchmark the study of the heat transfer enhancement in this case. Numerical simulation results show that the increase in the Reynolds number increases the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number of the flowing fluid. Moreover, the surface temperature will drop to its lowest value after the expansion and then gradually increase along the pipe. Finally, the chaotic movement and higher thermal conductivity of the TiO2 nanoparticles have contributed to the overall heat transfer enhancement of the nanofluid compare to the water

DEMYSTIFYING SHIP OPERATIONAL AVAILABILITY – AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF NAVAL VESSELS

Asset availability improvement has been the focus of many studies by various industries for a few decades now, and the defence industry is no exception. To date, there exists no simple and inexpensive high availability solution for the complex naval ships consisting of many interdependent systems and subsystems working in parallel. Any given approach must strike a balance between true needs and economics, an ever-increasing decision-making burden to stakeholders. Nevertheless, there are many ways to approach the problem. In the past, availability has been viewed as complex mathematical calculations and estimates involving defective equipment. The applied approach has not been fully understood nor appealing to most practitioners as well as the majority of stakeholders who continuously complain about the gap between theory and practice. This paper aims to demystify the complex naval ship availability issue, simplified for easy understanding of operators, maintainers and logisticians as well as other stakeholders involved in the maintenance of naval vessels. The stepby-step approach begins with the identification of severe factors involving both human and machinery affecting downtime of naval vessels culminating into the generation of an availability-oriented model, summarized to a simple four-step approach to availability improvement. Practitioners are now able to appreciate their individual contribution towards improving ship availability