Reading Visually: Can Art Historical Reading Approaches go Digital?

As the field of digital humanities grows, scholars are translating and adapting their investigative processes to suit the digital environs. Questions about how digital technologies will enhance and transform historical scholarly reading practices have arisen, but they have not been extensively considered from the perspective of visual culture historians and less so from those working on select non-Western cultures. This paper approaches these questions from an Islamic and South Asian art historical perspective, mapping out the particularities of reading historical texts when conducting visual cultural research and considering the implications for the development of future digital research tools. &nbsp

Rheology of Pomelo Juice

The proximate analysis studies on pomelo juice provide useful data for its juice processing industry. The studies on the physico-chemical properties such as water activity, pH and density make better prediction of its behavior at the relevant processing concentration and temperature. The Pomelo juice is found to have high moisture content which contributes to high water activity and specific heat of capacity. Also, the PH of pomelo juice obtained indicates that pomelo juice is acidic fluid. The predictions of density yielded high regression coefficient. In general, the density increases with increasing concentration but decreases with temperature increase. The density of pomelo juice also presented a stronger dependence on concentration than the temperature. Rheology is the science of deformation and flow behavior of fluid. Knowledge of rheological properties of fluid and their variation with temperature and concentration have been globally important for industrialization of food technology for quality, understanding the texture, process engineering application, correlation with sensory evaluation, designing of transport system , equipment design (heat exchanger and evaporator), deciding pump capacity and power requirement for mixing. The aim of this study was to determine the rheological behavior of pomelo juice at different concentrations (20-60.4 Brix) and temperatures (23-60°C) by using a rotational Haake Rheostress 600 rheometer and a cone and plate geometry sensor (35mm diameter, 2° cone angle), with a gap distance of 0.105 mm. Shear rates employed ranged from 0-1000 s-1. o Pomelo juice was found to exhibit both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behavior. For lower concentration the Newtonian behavior is observed while at higher concentration Non-Newtonian behavior was observed. Standard error (SE) method was selected on the basis to carry out the error analysis due to the best fit model. For the four models the values of SE show that the Herschel-Bulkley and Power Law models perform better than the Bingham and Casson models but Herschel-Bulkley model is true at higher concentration. The experimental data of apparent viscosity versus shear rate were successfully described by the Power-law model. The model parameters; flow behavior index, n varied in the range of 0.65-0.89, whereas the values for the consistency coefficient, K, were in the range of 0.004-0.3 (Pa. ). Apparent viscosity and consistency coefficient of pomelo juice increased with increasing concentration and decreasing temperature. The effect of temperature on n was found to be significant but did not follow any descriptive trend. The effect of temperature on pomelo juice is best described by the applicability of the Arrhenius model related to apparent viscosity, η at a constant shear rate of 100s −1 or the consistency index of the power law model. Activation energies ( a Ε ) of the pomelo juice appeared in the range of 9103.83-23391.43 J/mol as the pomelo juice concentration was increased from 20 to 60.4 o Brix. The relationship between η or K of pomelo juice concentration was explained by exponential and power functions while pomelo juice observed that at higher concentration will have higher viscosity. The master-curve was investigated for comparing data from different products at a reference temperature of 40 . Multiple regression analysis indicated Master-Curve presents good agreement for pomelo juice at all concentrations studied with R 2 >0.8. oC Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to investigate the effects of the three main independent parameters; rotation, temperature and time on the pomelo juice concentration and optimizing the operating conditions of the treatment process. Values of parameters required to obtain efficiency of concentration pomelo juice are suggested based on rotation speed (60-120 rpm), temperature (40-60 ) and time (5-60 min). oC It is clear from the result that the concentration increased when the temperature, rotation speed and time increased. It can be inferred that any parameters, individually, had positive effect on increase of concentration. The main effects of parameters are in following order: Main effect of time> temperature> rotation speed

Relationship Between Dietary Choices Made during a Low-Calorie, Low-fat Diet and Changes in Caloric Intake, Caloric Intake from Fat, and Weight Loss

Background: To better understand what dietary changes enhance consumption of a low-Calorie, low-fat diet and improve weight loss, this secondary data analysis examined relationships between changes from 0 to 6 and 6 to 18 months in food group intake and reductions in energy and energy from fat intake and weight during a lifestyle intervention in 162 participants. Methods: Participants were aged 52.5 ± 8.4 years, predominantly white (92%), female (57.4%), with some college education (88.9%), married (76.5%), and not Hispanic (97.5%), with a body mass index (BMI) of 34.9 + 4.5 kg/m2. Anthropometric and physical activity measurements and three, telephone, 24-hour dietary recalls were collected at 0, 6, and 18 months. Food group servings consumed were determined from NDSR Food Guide Pyramid food group codings. Hierarchical regressions examined relationships between changes in food group intake and changes in energy and percent energy from fat intake and weight from 0 to 6 months (weight loss) and 6 to 18 months (weight loss maintenance). Results: Food group intake changes with significant positive (p \u3c 0.05) associations to energy and percent energy from fat intake changes from 0 to 6 months were: Higher Fat Oils, Higher Fat Meat, Higher Fat Fats, and Modified Regular Fat Dairy. Food group intake changes with significant (p \u3c 0.05) associations to weight changes from 0 to 6 months were: Sugar Sweetened Sweets and Modified Lower Fat Sugar Sweetened Fats Oils and Sweets (positive relationship), and Lower Fat Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Lower Fat Unsweetened Beverages (negative relationship). Food group intake changes with significant (p \u3c 0.05) positive associations to energy and percent energy from fat intake changes from 6 to 18 months were Higher Fat Nuts, Higher Fat Fats, and Modified Regular Fat Dairy. Conclusion: Changes in food group intake associated with reducing energy, percent energy from fat, and weight were decreases in servings consumed from higher fat and sugar sweetened food groups and increases in artificially sweetened and unsweetened beverages. Future research should examine if providing goals for these food groups within the context of a low-Calorie, low-fat dietary prescription enhances outcomes

Effect of Flora Density on Thermal Comfort in Urban Parks in Tropical Region: A Review

Urban areas are heating up due to escalating population and unlimited and unplanned building construction. Moreover, this heating up is more predominant in tropical micro-climate in urban settings. According to sustainable development programmes, urban greening and flora landscaping at urban contexts become more imperative to mitigate Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) and to enhance thermal comfort. It is revealed that flora population can increase the thermal comfort in urban settings. Flora population, its density and landscape can mainly influence to thermal comfort in parks significantly. In urban parks, thermal comfort improves via flora density, through modifying micro climatic conditions. High density of large canopy trees provides huge shade and decrease of air temperature, increase cooling intensity effectively. Considerable density of grasses and bushes carry out responsible roll on improving air quality and moderate micro climatic on thermal comfort. When selection flora species to urban parks, parameters like leaf area index, number of leaves and plant height can be considered as major requirements since these factors controlling solar radiation penetration which influence the temperature and thermal comfort. In order to provide appropriate thermal comfort conditions to urban parks, it is inevitable to design suitable landscape sketches against the challenge of less ground space to the highest flora density. Thermal comfort conditions in urban parks depending on air temperature, wind speed, solar radiation and absolute humidity, but all these factors can be influenced by flora population. In order to succeed the sustainable development programmes in tropical region countries, green urban spaces have been considered as vital component in the microclimate. By formulating appropriate park designs with greater flora density at compacted city areas, especially in tropical region, can increase thermal comfort which can assist urban planning to make better use of green spaces for microclimate regulation. Under this review, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and potential challenges of flora density on urban microclimate were highlighted and knowledge gaps were identified. Research priorities and future challenges that will support in urban planning with multi-prong strategies were also discussed.Keywords: Flora density, Urban parks, Thermal comfort, Landscap

Modeling green supply chain in a manufacturing environment

In recent years, the importance of waste reduction and efficient use of resources has led companies to focus more on eco-friendly processes at different stages of the manufacturing process, such as acquiring raw materials, production, assembly, distribution and recycling. Additionally, manufacturers in many countries have been either under governmental pressure to follow eco-friendly guidelines in their production process, or have chosen to do so to benefit from governmental incentives such as tax reductions. Furthermore, the public interest in environmentally friendly goods has been on the rise as a result of growing awareness towards the negative consequences of industrial activities and practices that harm the environment. All of these factors have made it imperative for industries to adopt green practices in order to gain or maintain their competitive edge. However, staying green is not easy, as green production lines, products and practices are often more costly than their regular non-green counterparts. Therefore, in this study, we have developed a mathematical model based on supply chains and manufacturing facilities of all sizes producing various products with two distinct goals. First, our mathematical model helps companies maximize their profit and second it allows them stay green while the profit is maximized. This mathematical model is then solved for two scenarios in three different companies to (1) evaluate the effects of customer sensitivity towards eco-friendliness of the products and (2) the effects of changing CO2 emissions and transportation costs. The results of the calculations performed by the mathematical model shows the profit that the company stands to gain based on an allowed production volume that does not exceed the defined green criteria and the amount of raw materials to be purchased from suppliers that offer different degrees of greenness. In practice, this mathematical model can be expanded to include more constraints and can also be implemented in commercial software solutions to provide managers with valuable data to facilitate the decision making processes within the companies and among connected commercial entities

Effect of temperature and concentration on rheological properties pomelo juice concentrates

Rheology is the science of deformation and flow behavior of fluid. Knowledge of rheological properties of fluid foods and their variation with temperature and concentration have been globally important for industrialization of food technology for quality, understanding the texture, process engineering application, correlation with sensory evaluation, designing of transport system, equipment design (heat exchanger and evaporator), deciding pump capacity and power requirement for mixing. The aim of this study was to determine the rheological behavior of pomelo juice at different concentrations (20-60.4%) and temperatures (23-60°C) by using a rotational rotational Haake Rheostress 600 rheometer. Pomelo juice was found to exhibit both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian behavior. For lower concentration the Newtonian behavior is observed while at higher concentration Non-Newtonian behavior was observed. Standard error (SE) method was selected on the basis to carry out the error analysis due to the best fit model. For the four models the values of SE show that the Herschel-Bulkley and Power Law models perform better than the Bingham and Casson models but Herschel-Bulkley model is true at higher concentration. The rheological model of pomelo juice, incorporating the effects of concentration and temperature was developed. The master-curve was investigated for comparing data from different products at a reference temperature of 40°C. Multiple regression analysis indicated Master-Curve presents good agreement for pomelo juice at all concentrations studied with R 2>0.8

Diagnostic stewardship : the impact of rapid diagnostic testing for paediatric respiratory presentations in the emergency setting : a systematic review

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing public health crisis, propelled by inappropriate antibiotic prescription, in particular the over-prescription of antibiotics, prolonged duration of antibiotic therapy and the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The paediatric population, in particular, those presenting to emergency settings with respiratory symptoms, have been associated with a high rate of antibiotic prescription rates. Further research has now shown that many of these antibiotic prescriptions may have been avoided, with more targeted diagnostic methods to identify underlying aetiologies. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the impact of rapid diagnostic testing, for paediatric respiratory presentations in the emergency setting, on antibiotic prescription rates. To review the relevant history, a comprehensive search of Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was performed. Eighteen studies were included in the review, and these studies assessed a variety of rapid diagnostic testing tools and outcome measures. Overall, rapid diagnostic testing was found to be an effective method of diagnostic antibiotic stewardship with great promise in improving antibiotic prescribing behaviours. Further studies are required to evaluate the use of rapid diagnostic testing with other methods of antibiotics stewardship, including clinical decisions aids and to increase the specificity of interventions following diagnosis to further reduce rates of antibiotic prescriptio

Regression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease detected by sonography: Results of a four years prospective adult population-based study

Background: Today, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a major health problem owing to its high prevalence. Literature evidence about regression of NAFLD are not as high as its development or progression. Objectives: This cohort study was conducted to reveal the factors influencing the regression of the NAFLD. Methods: A population-based study conducted in Shiraz, Iran. Adults older than 18 years were recruited by multistage randomized sampling in 2012, and then in 2017. Demographic, anthropometric, nutritional, and medical characteristics of each interviewee were entered into a valid and reliable questionnaire. Interviewees were categorized into three groups according to the changing of their NAFLD status between two stages of this study; no change, regressed and progressed. Results: Of the 537 participants, 163 (30.3%) showed regression of their NAFLD compared to 93 (17.3%) that their NAFLD was progressed. Multinomial regression showed that each unit of decrease in BMI (∆ BMI=-1 kg/m2 ) augmented the relative risk (RR) of improvement of NAFLD by 13.3% (RR: 0.867; 95% CI: 0.776-0.969; P = 0.012) and reduced the relative risk of NAFLD deterioration by 14.3% (RR: 1.143; 95% CI: 1.009-1.294; P = 0.035). Conclusions: A significant portion of patients showed regression of their NAFLD by decreasing their BMI. Therefore, BMI as a modifiable variable should be regarded in the management of NAFLD patients Keywords: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver, Regression, Progression, Cohort Stud