Anti-inflammatory effect of functionalized sulfasalazine boron nitride nanocages on cardiovascular disease and breast cancer: An in-silico simulation

The objective of this research work is to investigate the ability of sulfasalazine (as an anti-cytokine drug) functionalized B₁₆N₁₆, B₁₅GeN₁₆ and B₁₅SiN₁₆ nanocages to treat inflammatory cardiovascular disease and breast cancer in comparison with the pure sulfasalazine (SSZ). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations at PBE1 functional were used to investigate the structural, electronic and spectral properties of sulfasalazine decorated B₁₆N₁₆, B₁₅GeN₁₆ and B15SiN16 nanocage

Electrospun Ta-MOF/PEBA Nanohybrids and Their CH4 Adsorption Application

For the first time, biocompatible and biodegradable Ta-metal organic framework (MOF)/polyether block amide (PEBA) fibrous polymeric nanostructures were synthesized by ultrasonic and electrospinning routes in this study. The XRD peaks of products were wider, which is due to the significant effect of the ultrasonic and electrospinning methods on the final product. The adsorption/desorption behavior of the nanostructures is similar to that of the third type of isotherm series, which showed mesoporous behavior for the products. The sample has uniform morphology without any evidence of agglomeration. Since the adsorption and trapping of gaseous pollutants are very important, the application of the final Ta-MOF/PEBA fibrous polymeric nanostructures was investigated for CH4 adsorption. In order to achieve the optimal conditions of experiments and also systematic studies of the parameters, fractional factorial design was used. The results showed that by selecting temperature 40°C, time duration 35 min, and pressure 3 bar, the CH4 gas adsorption rate was near 4 mmol/g. Ultrasonic and electrospinning routes as well as immobilization of Ta-MOF in the PEBA fibrous network affect the performance of the final products for CH4 gas adsorption

Vibration analysis of size dependent micro FML cylindrical shell reinforced by CNTs based on modified couple stress theory

In this manuscript, the sequel of agglomeration on the vibration of fiber metal laminated (FML) cylindrical shell in the micro phase using developed couple stress theory (MCST). Hamilton’s principle has been carried out for deriving the non-classical equations of motion of size dependent thin micro cylindrical shell on the basis of Love’s first approximation theory. Mori Tanaka and extended rule of mixture are utilized to estimate the mechanical attributes of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and equivalent fiber, respectively. These four phases CNTs/fiber/polymer/metal laminated (CNTFPML) micro cylindrical shell is analyzed applying beam modal function model for several boundary limitations. Then, an investigation is performed to study the impacts of differing input parameters namely material length scale parameter, agglomeration, the distributions of agglomerated CNTs, the mass fraction of equivalent fiber and the volume fraction of CNTs on the frequency response of micro agglomerated CNTFPML cylindrical shell. The main output illustrated that the growth of frequencies is directly dependent to the increase of material length scale parameter for this agglomerated CNTFPML cylindrical shell so that through increasing the values of agglomeration parameters g and l and material length scale parameter l altogether, the frequencies of this cylindrical shell gro

Synthesis of Bioactive Yttrium-Metal–Organic Framework as Efficient Nanocatalyst in Synthesis of Novel Pyrazolopyranopyrimidine Derivatives and Evaluation of Anticancer Activity

Novel Yttrium-metal–organic framework (Y-MOF) was synthesized under optimal conditions of microwave with a power of 20 W, the temperature of 30 degrees of centigrade, and time duration of 10 min. The products were characterized by SEM (morphology and size distribution), TGA (thermal stability), BET technique (surface area), and FTIR (characterization of the related group). The Yttrium-metal–organic framework (Y-MOF) synthesized in this study, after identifying and confirming the structure, was used as an efficient and recyclable catalyst in the synthesis of new pyrazolopyranopyrimidine derivatives. Following the study of the properties and applications of Y-MOF, its anticancer properties on breast cancer cells based on the MTT method were evaluated, and significant results were observed. In addition, the anticancer properties of the pyrazolopyranopyrimidine derivatives were investigated

Multiple Intelligences of Students with Learning Disabilities: Its Implication for Business Curriculum Development in United Arab Emirates

AbstractOne of the challenging issues in the educational parlance is learning disabilities. The study was conducted to modify business curriculum for students with in selected learning institutions in United Arab Emirates. Descriptive method/qualitative approach using observation and interview schedule techniques were employed in data gathering and analysis of population (n=125) of which female students comprised of twenty percent (20%) and males were eighty percent (80%). It was observed that one major struggle that learning facilitators had, how to effectively carry out the learning process with meaningful results and keeping in sight the existence of students from different nationalities. The research findings revealed that students needed updated instructional materials and the universities should modify the business curriculum for students with multiple intelligences. Curriculum modification was not limited to instructional modification or content modification but included a continuum of a wide range of modified educational components in business .On the bases of findings and conclusions derived from the study, and in consideration of the limitations of the study, the following were recommended: curriculum development/modification in business courses offerings,training of personnel, training of faculty needed to have a compulsory component in “teaching and assessing learners with learning challenges”. Similar in-service training was also needed for the already practicing faculty .Further, there was a clear manifestation of lack of resources in learning institutions where special students were found, modified curriculum and differentiated instruction materials for students’ with multiple intelligences must be introduced

An Environmentally Friendly Solution for Waste Facial Masks Recycled in Construction Materials

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, single-use disposable masks saw a dramatic rise in production. Facial masks that are not properly disposed of will expose the environment to a form of non-biodegradable plastic waste that will take hundreds of years to degrade. Therefore, recycling such waste in an eco-friendly manner is imperative. Fibered or shredded waste masks can be used to make green concrete that is an environmentally friendly solution to dispose the facial masks. This study prepared six classes of concrete samples, three of which contained fibers from masks and three of which contained shredded masks at the ages of seven days and 28 days. The results show that in the seven-day and 28-day samples, mask fiber added to the mixes resulted in increased compressive strength. For seven-day and 28-day samples, the compressive strength increased by 7.2% and 10%, respectively. Despite that, the results of the shredded mask addition to concrete indicate that the increase in shredded mask volume has a minor impact on the compressive strength of the seven-day samples. An increase in shredded mask from 0.75 to 1% increased 28-day compressive strength by 14%. However, the compressive strength of the mask fiber decreased by 8 after 1% volume. According to a thermal analysis of 28-day concrete samples, as the fiber percentage increases, the mass loss percentage increases. The mass loss rate for samples containing fibers is higher than that for samples containing shredded mask pieces. In general, based on the results mentioned above, the use of fiber in concrete in its fiber state enhances its strength properties. As a result, using shredded mask pieces in concrete leads to better curing due to the reduction of residual capillary pore water loss in construction materials

Fuzzy Multi-Objective Optimization to Evaluate the Performance of Suppliers Taking Into Account the Visibility and Supply Chain Risk

Adequate and desirable connections between suppliers and customers necessitate an appropriate flow of information. Therefore, a promising and proper data collaboration in the supply chain is of tremendous significance. Thus, the study’s main objective is to provide multiple objective programming models under uncertain conditions to assess the performance of suppliers. To meet that aim, a case study for the reliability assessment of the presented model is carried out. That section is associated with supply chain visibility (SCV). Likewise, the likelihood of unpredicted and undesirable incidents involving supply chain risk (SCR) is taken into consideration. The intimate relation between visibility and risk of the supply chain is deemed efficient for the performance of the supply chain. Incoherence in maximization and minimization of SCR and SCV and other factors, including costs, capacity, or demand, necessitates multiple objective programming models to assess suppliers’ performance to accomplish the before-mentioned aims. The study’s results indicate the high reliability of the proposed model. Besides, the numeral results reveal that decision-makers in selecting suppliers mainly decrease SCR and then attempt to enhance SCV. In conclusion, the provided model in the study can be a desirable model for analyzing and estimating supplier performance with SCR and SCV simultaneously

The effect of various irrigation technologies and strategies on water resources management

Today, the uncontrolled abstraction of surface water and groundwater resources has created adverse consequences, which include: extinction of living organisms, land subsidence, salinity of coastal aquifers, increased pumping energy. Therefore, the need to manage available water resources is felt more than ever. Among the various water uses (agriculture, drinking, and industry), agriculture accounts for the bulk of water consumption. Due to the climate change and the growing population, determining the appropriate strategy and technology for irrigation is necessary. In the current study, a simulation model is used to numerically simulate the dynamics of daily soil moisture during the potato crop growing season and to estimate crop production and economic benefits. For climatic data, daily observations of a meteorological station have been used. Results and analyses have been presented for all cases of micro and traditional irrigation methods and agricultural management strategies of non-stress irrigation, low irrigation, and rainfed cultivation. The results showed that in the non-stress irrigation method, crop production and net profit are almost equal in both traditional and micro methods. In the low irrigation method, microtechnology has made crop production and net profit 1.75 times more than traditional technology, which indicates the impact of irrigation technology on crop production

Improving the Melting Duration of a PV/PCM System Integrated with Different Metal Foam Configurations for Thermal Energy Management

The melting duration in the photovoltaic/phase-change material (PV/PCM) system is a crucial parameter for thermal energy management such that its improvement can realize better energy management in respect to thermal storage capabilities, thermal conditions, and the lifespan of PV modules. An innovative and efficient technique for improving the melting duration is the inclusion of an exterior metal foam layer in the PV/PCM system. For detailed investigations of utilizing different metal foam configurations in terms of their convective heat transfer coefficients, the present paper proposes a newly developed mathematical model for the PV/PCM–metal foam assembly that can readily be implemented with a wide range of operating conditions. Both computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and experimental validations proved the good accuracy of the proposed model for further applications. The present research found that the average PV cell temperature can be reduced by about 12 °C with a corresponding improvement in PCM melting duration of 127%. The addition of the metal foam is more effective at low solar radiation, ambient temperatures far below the PCM solidus temperature, and high wind speeds in nonlinear extension. With increasing of tilt angle, the PCM melting duration is linearly decreased by an average value of (13.4–25.0)% when the metal foam convective heat transfer coefficient is changed in the range of (0.5–20) W/m2.K. The present research also shows that the PCM thickness has a positive linear effect on the PCM melting duration, however, modifying the metal foam configuration from 0.5 to 20 W/m2.K has an effect on the PCM melting duration in such a way that the average PCM melting duration is doubled. This confirms the effectiveness of the inclusion of metal foam in the PV/PCM system

Psychometric assessment of the Persian translation of the Interpersonal Mindfulness Scale with undergraduate students

Interpersonal mindfulness is a construct that significantly contributes to social interaction. To date, no validated measure assessing interpersonal mindfulness has been developed in Iran. Therefore, the aim of this study was to translate and validate the Interpersonal Mindfulness Scale (IMS) among Iranian undergraduate students. Participants in the study (370 undergraduate students; 220 females) from the Azad University completed the translated IMS, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Scale. The translated measure demonstrated acceptable face validity. All items had acceptable content validity and were deemed essential to the scale. The results of a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirmed a scale with four subscales (presence, awareness of self and others, non-judgmental acceptance, and non-reactivity), with acceptable internal consistency. The findings support the psychometric properties of the Persian translated Interpersonal Mindfulness Scale, which could be used to measure interpersonal mindfulness among undergraduate students in Iran