Fitness professionals’ knowledge and perceptions on hydration and fluid intake: a preliminary study

This descriptive study examined the extent of hydration knowledge and fluid intake pattern in people who work within fitness industry. Fourty fitness professionals were asked to complete a questionnaire about their perspectives on hydration, thirst and fluid intake pattern. Water was the most preferred drink before (75.0%), during (72.5%) and after exercise (60.0%) as well as generally during the day (75.0%). Most participants rated plain tap water and plain bottled mineral water as excellent sources of water for human body, whereas colas or lemonade and chocolate drinks were rated as a poor source of water. To conclude, the fitness professionals generally demonstrated substantial knowledge about the timing and benefits of fluid replacement, hydration status monitoring and the health consequences of water consumption, but lack understanding on the type of beverages that adequately hydrate the body.Keywords: thirst; fluid balance; fluid intake; personal trainers; knowledge

Electrochemical strategy for grown ZnO nanoparticles deposited onto HY zeolite with enhanced photodecolorization of methylene blue: Effect of the formation of Si O Zn bonds

Nanoparticles of electrogenerated zinc-supported HY zeolite (EGZnO/HY) catalyst were prepared by a simple electrochemical method. The interaction between zinc species and HY support during the electrolysis was found to affect the EGZnO/HY structure. In addition to the formation of EGZnO nanoparticles (<30 nm in size) that distributed on the surface of HY support, an isomorphous substitution of Al with Zn also occurred in the aluminosilicate framework to result in a Si O Zn bonds. The photoactivity of EGZnO/HY was tested on the decolorization of methylene blue (MB). An amount of 0.375 g L−1 of 1 wt% EGZnO/HY was found to be the optimum dosage for 10 mg L−1 MB, which resulted in 80% of maximum decolorization after 6 h of contact time at pH 3 under fluorescent light (420 nm). Increasing the EGZnO loading led to additional formation of Si O Zn bonds and lessened the number of EGZnO nanoparticles, which then reduced the photodecolorization percentage of MB.The photocatalytic reaction was follows the first-order Langmuir–Hinshelwood model, and gives partially mineralization. The photocatalyst was still stable after five cycling runs with no Zn leaching

Slope stability analysis under different soil nailing parameters using the slope/w software

Slope failure is one of the major geological phenomenon that happen due to the topography and weather conditions which cause a wide range of ground movements which needed engineers to plan in order to avoid its risk on human lives and properties by an appropriate stabilizing method. Soil nailing system is considered as one of the major preventive methods and economic systems to overcome the slope failures. In this paper, soil nailing system was studied in term of inclination to determine the most appropriate values for effective stabilization of soil slope using the SLOPE/W software. To validate the results, different soil nail inclinations were applied to a case study, and the Factor of Safety (FOS) of the case study was evaluated as well. The case study is located at Genting Highlands, Pahang. Results showed that the soil nails inclination has significant effect on the stability of the soil slope. For soil slope with steepness of 30°, 45° and 60°, the best FOS found with soil nail inclination (to the horizontal) of 60°, 50° and 40° respectively. The effect of soil nails inclination gives small difference in FOS when the degree of inclination of the soil nails varies within 5° - 20° to the horizontal

A CASE STUDY OF OCCUPANT ENVIRONMENTAL COMFORT AT AUTOMOTIVE ASSEMBLYWORKSTATION

The environmental factors assessment in the building has become a popular research area over the past decade. However, how the service life of a building affects the results of the environmental assessment of a building has not been emphasized previously. The aim of this study is to analyze how structural solutions and building design affect the results of the environmental assessment. Furthermore, how the environmental factors affects the productivity is analyzed. The environmental assessments in building were calculated for this study by Environment Factors Equipment. The current situation and the future of the environmental assessment of buildings are discussed. In addition, topics for further research are suggested which is the environmental impact of an occupant should be studied. The research concludes that comfort and productivity in the workplace is related more to design factors

Focused–type ultrasound extraction of phenolic acids from Q.Infectoria galls: process modelling and sequential optimization

Phenolic acids from Q.Infectoria (QI) galls were extracted using focused–type ultrasound extraction method and further optimized using sequential optimization by response surface methodology (RSM). Different independent variables of sonication time, A (6–10 h), solvent concentration, B (0.05–0.15 M), ratio, C (1:05–1:15), duty cycle, D (30–50 %) and temperature, E (60–80 °C) were first screened via full factorial design (FFD) and the obtained results indicated that sonication time, ratio and temperature were the most significant variables in attaining higher yields. The significant curvature from focused–type ultrasound performance provides insights to a subsequent optimization of the factorial model via face–centred central composite design (FCCCD). The later results revealed that temperature highly impacted the yield with highest contribution percentage of 56.76 %. Notably, maximum extraction yield of 4119.77 mg/g was achieved at optimum condition of 9 h sonication time, ratio of 1:6 and temperature of 75 °C. Besides, Fick’s model successfully promotes diffusivity and appropriately foreseen that temperature factor governed the extraction process from QI galls. Relevant activation energy of 83.39 J/mol, along with the thermodynamic factors which include activation enthalpy (ΔH*) and activation Gibbs free energy (ΔG*), affirmed the extraction process was endothermic and non-spontaneous in identity

Effect of freezing time and shaking speed on the performance of Progressive Freeze Concentration via Vertical Finned Crystallizer

Performance of a newly developed freeze concentrator named Vertical Finned Crystallizer (VFC) in concentrated glucose solution was evaluated. The VFC was designed as an attempt to provide an efficient Progressive Freeze Concentration (PFC) system by providing larger heat transfer area for crystallization. Glucose solution at an initial concentration of 11°Brix was concentrated through the new PFC system. The performance of the crystallizer was analyzed in parallel with the effect of freezing time and shaking speed to the system efficiency, represented by effective partition constant (K) and solute recovery (Y). The results show that the efficiency of the system has significantly improved portrayed by the lowest K value obtained of 0.383 and the highest Y value obtained of 0.96 g glucose/g initial glucose at intermediate circulation time and shaking speed. Thus, the VFC is evidently proven to have a high potential to be integrated in a PFC process as an efficient concentration system. The results obtained offer some guidelines on how to produce an efficient PFC system through parameter setting

3D numerical modelling of shallow tunnel in weathered granite incorporating multi-stage excavation and pre-support

Generally tunnelling in urban ground condition is not always favourable due to the tunnels’ susceptibility to major displacement especially when excavated in the soft soil and/or weak weathered rock formation. Apart from conventional support systems, pre-support measure like forepoling umbrella arch is frequently used to reinforce the ground. Modern computational tools allows the inclusion of multi-stage excavations and pre-support which was not possible in two dimensional (2D) plane strain. This paper demonstrates the three dimensional (3D) finite element analysis of Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer tunnel, as a reference case, where multi-stage excavation and pre-support are incorporated as intrinsic part of the model. The New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM)-3 segments which encountered Grade III weathered granite, having shallow overburden cover, was selected for numerical analysis using RS3 software. Comparison between simulated and observed data has shown good agreement during verification

Antioxidant properties of rice bran oil from different varieties extracted by solvent extraction methods

Antioxidant properties of rice bran oil from different rice bran varieties; Rice Bran-Bario (RB-Bario), Rice bran-Lowland (RB-Low) and Rice Bran- Upland rice (RB-Up), collected from different cultural plots, were assessed. Measurement of antioxidant properties was evaluated by TPC (total phenolic content), DPPH scavenging activities and reducing power of extracts.. The study shows that antioxidant efficacy of rice bran was found the highest in RB-Up, followed by RB- Low and RB-Bario. The antioxidant properties were related to the rice bran origin and water irrigation demand by particular variety. RB –Up has a unique plantation condition which takes least amount of water retention which contribute to the highest antioxidant activity. Extraction solvents used shows that Upland (16.15%) and Lowland (16.16%) yielded the highest amount in conserving the crude fat oil in rice bran extract compared to Bario

Rock bearing resistance of bored piles socketed into rock

In view of the large movement required to mobilise the base resistance of bored piles and difficulty in base cleaning, the end bearing resistance often ignored in current design practice that will result in excessive rock socket length. Many attempts have been made to correlate the end bearing resistance with the uniaxial compressive strength of intact rock and the RQD but it is uncertain how applicable they are to rock type in Malaysia. This paper attempts to review the applicability of the formulas from previous studies to rock type in Malaysia. A program of field tests for 13 bored piles with diameter varying from 1000 mm to 1500 mm constructed in granite was conducted to measure the axial response of bored piles, tested using static load test and high strain load dynamic test to verify its integrity and performance. The results were evaluated and compared to the predicted rock bearing resistance. Based on the result obtained, the method by AASHTO gives the best prediction of rock bearing resistance for granite in Malaysia. However the relationship between compressive strength and rock discontinuities with the rock bearing resistance showed scattered results

Steerable Higher-order Mode Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Parasitic Elements for 5G Applications

© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This paper presents the findings of a steerable higher-order mode (TEy 1δ3) dielectric resonator antenna with parasitic elements. The beam steering was successfully achieved by switching the termination capacitor on the parasitic element. In this light, all of the dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) have the same dielectric permittivity similar to that of 10 and was excited by a 50Ω microstrip with a narrow aperture. The effect of the mutual coupling on the radiation pattern and the reflection coefficient, as well as the array factor were investigated clearly using MATLAB ver. 2014b and ANSYS HFSS ver. 16. As the result, the antenna beam of the proposed DRA array managed to steer from -32° to +32° at 15 GHz. Furthermore, the measured antenna array showed the maximum gain of 9.25 dBi and the reflection coefficients which are less than -10 dB with the bandwidth more than 1.3 GHz, which is viewed as desirable for Device-to-Device communication (D2D) in 5G Internet of Things (IoT) applications