Using agricultural wastes to treat lead-contaminated water in Western Australia

Aqueous solutions are becoming increasingly contaminated in all parts of the world (2015). Heavy metals are toxic contaminants that are mainly distributed in urban stormwater run-off and industrial wastewaters as a result of some mining operations, electronic assembly planting, battery manufacturing, and etching operations (Kadirvelu et al. 2001). Pb (II) is a heavy metal that causes significant damage in the human body. Drinking lead-contaminated water even at low concentrations may cause lifethreatening conditions such as cancer, kidney damage, brain damage, and liver problems (El-Said 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to remove lead from aqueous solutions. Several conventional physical, chemical, and biological systems have been used to eliminate Pb (II) ions from contaminated aqueous solutions, including membrane filtration (Song et al. 2011), electrolysis (Deng et al. 2010), chemical precipitation (Cort 2005), magnetic base methods (Ma et al. 2017), water filtration (Gohari et al. 2013, Magni et al. 2015), and adsorption techniques (Pehlivan et al. 2009). However, the cost of some of the cited techniques is prohibitively high, while others cannot remove low Pb (II) ion concentrations efficiently (Babel and Kurniawan 2003, Volesky and Holan 1995). Although adsorption is a reasonable process for removing dissolved lead from contaminated water, the cost of using conventional media (e.g. activated carbon and resin) make it cost inhibitive for the treatment of large quantities of wastewater (Cutillas-Barreiro et al. 2016, Demirbas 2008). It also takes a long time in some cases to achieve adsorption equilibrium (Czinkota et al. 2002). In recent decades, interest in the use of cost-effective adsorbents to reduce the expense of water treatment processes has intensified. Attention has been focused on natural agricultural waste materials such as seeds (Gilbert et al. 2011), fruit peel (Mallampati et al. 2015), nut shells (Taşar et al. 2014) , crop residues (El-Said 2010), and fruit shells (Zein et al. 2010) as low-cost and environmentally friendly adsorbents which are highly efficient and generally available in large quantities (Ibrahim et al. 2010). Against this backdrop, many agricultural residues are being produced every day, and they need to be managed. Using agricultural wastes to treat contaminated water is a low-cost and effective approach that deal with waste management and water treatment at the same time. This project describes an economically viable and practical way to utilize crop residues as adsorbents to remove toxic Pb (II) ions from lead-contaminated water. These agricultural waste adsorbents have a number of advantages; they are cheap and biodegradable, they have a porous surface, and are able to eliminate Pb (II) ions from contaminated water quickly and effectively. Therefore, in this research two Western Australian crop residues were used as adsorbents to eliminate lead ions from aqueous solutions. The study was carried out in four phases: the first phase involved the selection and preparation of different local Western Australian agricultural wastes. Lupin straw and canola stalk were collected from local farms and studied for their efficiency as two low-cost natural adsorbents that can remove dissolved Pb2+ ions from synthetic wastewater. In the second phase, experiments were carried out to understand the equilibria of Pb (II) adsorption onto adsorbents. The effect of various environmental conditions such as contact time, pH, initial adsorbent dosage and adsorbate concentration were investigated. The presence of different functional groups, chemical compositions, and the surface characteristics of the adsorbents were analysed in the third phase using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) devices. In the final phase, the obtained experimental data were validated using different isotherm models developed by Langmuir, Freundlich, Harkins-Jura, Redlich- Peterson and Halsey to describe the adsorption process based on the homogeneity of the surfaces of the adsorbents. Pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, intra-particle diffusion, Elovich, and fractional power kinetic models were utilized to investigate the dynamic mechanism of lead adsorption onto adsorbents over time

Automated Test Case Generation Using Code Models and Domain Adaptation

State-of-the-art automated test generation techniques, such as search-based testing, are usually ignorant about what a developer would create as a test case. Therefore, they typically create tests that are not human-readable and may not necessarily detect all types of complex bugs developer-written tests would do. In this study, we leverage Transformer-based code models to generate unit tests that can complement search-based test generation. Specifically, we use CodeT5, i.e., a state-of-the-art large code model, and fine-tune it on the test generation downstream task. For our analysis, we use the Methods2test dataset for fine-tuning CodeT5 and Defects4j for project-level domain adaptation and evaluation. The main contribution of this study is proposing a fully automated testing framework that leverages developer-written tests and available code models to generate compilable, human-readable unit tests. Results show that our approach can generate new test cases that cover lines that were not covered by developer-written tests. Using domain adaptation, we can also increase line coverage of the model-generated unit tests by 49.9% and 54% in terms of mean and median (compared to the model without domain adaptation). We can also use our framework as a complementary solution alongside common search-based methods to increase the overall coverage with mean and median of 25.3% and 6.3%. It can also increase the mutation score of search-based methods by killing extra mutants (up to 64 new mutants were killed per project in our experiments).Comment: 10 pages + referenc

Designing Authority Data Properties Based on Microdata Method and Study of Web Search Engines’ Reaction to Them

Objective: The purpose of this research was to study the Search Engine’s responses to authority data properties embedded into schema.org-based metadata on the Microdata syntax. Methods: The experimental method was used in this research. The research population comprised 400 records of authority metadata based on the Microdata method from the digital library of Allameh Tabataba'i University. The examination group consisted of 200 metadata records, 100 records with authority data extensions embedded into schema.org-based metadata in the Microdata syntax and 100 other similar records in the JSON-LD syntax (50 samples of name authority, and 50 other subject authority) And the control group consisted of 200 Records, including 100 Records related to the description of the book in the Microdata syntax and 100 other similar records in the JSON-LD syntax. The records have been published on the independent website at www.Aghadeh.ir and have been introduced to the Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex search engines as designers of the schema.org standard. Then, through searching the search engines, using the data gathering tool, the checklist provided by the researchers, the indexing and retrieval of the metadata records of the control groups and experimental groups were evaluated in the search results of the selected search engines. Results: The results of this study showed that search engines were able to index and retrieve all of the metadata records and values of added extensions associated with authority data. Such a possibility had the same status for the name authority records and the subject authority data. Conclusions: By retrieving each of the variant properties’ values of examination group’s records, in addition to the authorized values of the name and subject terms, a suitable platform for the comprehensiveness of the retrieve process, and the authority control in the Web search tools will be improved

Specific-and Partial-Source Memory: Effects of Aging

Normal aging can be associated with impairments in source memory (recollecting an event's context). This study examined the effects of aging on specific-source memory (e.g., remembering which of 4 people spoke a word) and partial-source memory (e.g., remembering the gender of the person who spoke the word). When young and older adults were matched in terms of old-new recognition, age-related deficits were observed on both specific-and partial-source recollection. When the groups were matched on partial-source performance, no disproportionate specific-source impairment was seen. The results suggest that aging does not differentially affect specific-versus partial-source memory. There has been considerable interest amongst memory researchers in characterizing the nature of the memory impairments associated with normal aging. Whereas evidence suggests that various aspects of memory decline with increasing age, it has become clear that some features of memory can be affected more than others. One area that has received particular attention is memory for contextual details, such as the source of remembered information (e.

Recognition memory, self-other source memory, and theory-of-mind in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This study investigated semantic and episodic memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using a task which assessed recognition and self-other source memory. Children with ASD showed undiminished recognition memory but significantly diminished source memory, relative to age- and verbal ability-matched comparison children. Both children with and without ASD showed an “enactment effect”, demonstrating significantly better recognition and source memory for self-performed actions than other-person-performed actions. Within the comparison group, theory-of-mind (ToM) task performance was significantly correlated with source memory, specifically for other-person-performed actions (after statistically controlling for verbal ability). Within the ASD group, ToM task performance was not significantly correlated with source memory (after controlling for verbal ability). Possible explanations for these relations between source memory and ToM are considered

Protecting eyewitness evidence: Examining the efficacy of a self-administered interview tool

Given the crucial role of eyewitness evidence, statements should be obtained as soon as possible after an incident. This is not always achieved due to demands on police resources. Two studies trace the development of a new tool, the Self-Administered Interview (SAI), designed to elicit a comprehensive initial statement. In Study 1, SAI participants reported more correct details than participants who provided a free recall account, and performed at the same level as participants given a Cognitive Interview. In Study 2, participants viewed a simulated crime and half recorded their statement using the SAI. After a delay of 1 week, all participants completed a free recall test. SAI participants recalled more correct details in the delayed recall task than control participants

Intoxicated witnesses: Testing the validity of the Alcohol Myopia Theory.

In an assessment of the Alcohol Myopia Theory, the effects of alcohol on an eyewitness’s recall of high and low salience details were investigated. In laboratory study 1, participants watched a staged videoed theft whilst either sober (control or placebo), above (MBAC=0.09%) or below (MBAC=0.06%) the UK drink-drive limit. A week later a free-recall and recognition test were completed. Intoxication was not found to reduce recall accuracy using either recall task. In Study 2, while on a night out participants watched the videoed theft with high (MBAC=0.14%) or low (MBAC=0.05%) BAC’s. A week later the free-recall and recognition test were attempted. High BAC’s were seen to impair recall when memory was assessed through free-recall but not with the recognition test. Neither study found the attention narrowing predicted by AMT using either recall technique, although poor recall for low salience details in all groups may have contributed to this result

Drawing to Remember: External Support of Older Adults’ Eyewitness Performance

Although healthy aging is accompanied by a general decline in memory functioning, environmental support at retrieval can improve older adults’ (+65 years) episodic remembering. Despite those over the age of 65years representing a growing proportion of the population, few environmental retrieval support methods have been empirically evaluated for use with older witnesses and victims of crime. Here, the efficacy of a novel retrieval technique, the Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context, is compared with a standard Mental Reinstatement of Context and a no support control (Control). Fifty-one participants witnessed an unexpected live event, and 48 hours later were interviewed using one of three aforementioned techniques. In line with predictions emanating from cognitive theories of aging and the environmental support hypothesis, participants in the Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context condition recalled significantly more correct information and fewer inaccurate items. The Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context technique appears to scaffold memory retrieval in an age-appropriate manner during a post-event interview, possibly by encouraging more effortful retrieval and reducing dual-task load. As such, this procedure offers an effective alternative to current approaches, adding to the toolbox of techniques available to forensic and other interviewers

Recall of a live and personally experienced eyewitness event by adults with autism spectrum disorder

The aim of the present study was to (a) extend previous eyewitness research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a live and personally experienced event; (b) examine whether witnesses with ASD demonstrate a facilitative effect in memory for self- over other-performed actions; (c) explore source monitoring abilities by witnesses with ASD in discriminating who performed which actions within the event. Eighteen high-functioning adults with ASD and 18 age- and IQ-matched typical counterparts participated in a live first aid scenario in which they and the experimenter each performed a number of actions. Participants were subsequently interviewed for their memory of the event using a standard interview procedure with free recall followed by questioning. The ASD group recalled just as many correct details as the comparison group from the event overall, however they made more errors. This was the case across both free recall and questioning phases. Both groups showed a self-enactment effect across both interview phases, recalling more actions that they had performed themselves than actions that the experimenter had performed. However, the ASD group were more likely than their typical comparisons to confuse the source of self-performed actions in free recall, but not in questioning, which may indicate executive functioning difficulties with unsupported test procedures. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications