Efficient dye adsorption by highly porous nanofiber aerogels

Electrospun nanofiber membranes are frequently used in adsorption processes thanks to their high specific surface area, tailored surface functionality, and fiber uniformity. However, they are still facing challenges such as low mechanical stability and unfavorable mass transport properties. In this study, an ultra-light and robust 3D nanofiber aerogel (NFA) or nanofiber sponge with tunable porosity and flexibility was synthesized from short pullulan/polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid nanofibers using a freeze casting process followed by thermal crosslinking. We demonstrate time the application of such NFAs in batch and continuous adsorption systems and compare their performance with flat nanofiber membranes (NFM). The NFAs proved to be promising adsorbents for cationic dyes due to their high adsorption capacity (383 mg/g) and their reusability. Langmuir isotherm was a suitable model for describing the adsorption process. The endothermic system followed a pseudo second order kinetic model and intra-fiber adsorption is found to be involved in the adsorption process. Dye adsorption by 3D NFAs was four times faster than for the respective flat NFMs and when used in a continuous process as a deep-bed filter, the pressure drop through the NFA was reduced by a factor of 40 while maintaining equal adsorption performance as for the NFM

Morphological variation of shad fish Alosa brashnicowi (Teleostei, Clupeidae) populations along the southern Caspian Sea coasts, using a truss system

A 15-landmark morphometric truss network system was used to investigate the hypothesis of population fragmentation of Shad fish Alosa braschnicowi Borodin, 1904 along the southern Caspian Sea. A total of 181 A. braschnicowi specimens were caught from six localities, respectively from the west to the east including; Astara, Rezvanshahr, Anzali, Tonekabon, Sari and Miankale. Principal component analysis, canonical variates analysis and clustering analysis were used to examine morphological differences. Univariate analysis of variance showed significant differences between the means of the six groups for 72 standardized morphometric measurements out of 105 characters studied. In canonical variates analysis, the overall assignment of individuals into their original groups was 71.46% and scatter plot of individual component scores between CV1 and CV2 showed fish specimens grouped into six areas. Clustering analysis based on Euclidean square distances among groups of centroids using UPGMA resulted into six main clusters indicating morphologically distinction populations of A. braschnicowi in the region. These populations of A. braschnicowi are distinguished especially by head shape, eye diameter, and pre-dorsal, pre-pelvic and pre-anal distances. Therefore, it is suggested considering these morphologically different populations as distinct stock in the southern Caspian Sea coasts

Evaluating the Knowledge, Attitude and Performance of Kermanshah Citizens about the Effects of Using Detergents and Abstergents on Hygienic, Environmental and Safety

The published statistics show the increasing consumption of detergents and abstergents in recent decades. According to high utilization of these substances and their adverse consequences, the purpose of this study is evaluating the knowledge, attitude and performance of Kermanshah citizens about the hygienic, environmental and safety effects of using detergents and abstergents. This study is analytical and descriptive and the sample size was 386 persons from Kermanshah citizens in 2015. The methodology of this study is based on a self – made questionnaire and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.7. The SPSS – 20 was used for analyzing the data. 42.44% of them have high knowledge and 49% - 9% of them have respectively average and poor knowledge. 81.75% of participants have a positive attitude and 18.25% of them have negative one. Also 61.5% of participants have a proper performance and 38.5% of them don’t have a proper performance. There was a positive and significant relation between knowledge based on attitude (r=0.03) and performance (r=0.2). And also it was found that there is a direct correlation between attitude and performance (r=0.04). Since 38.5% of participants had poor performance and this is not satisfactory, it is necessary to instruct and inform people continuously about using detergents and abstergents correctly for better and more efficient performance

SLRNet: Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation Via Label Reuse for Human Decomposition Images

Semantic segmentation is a challenging computer vision task demanding a significant amount of pixel-level annotated data. Producing such data is a time-consuming and costly process, especially for domains with a scarcity of experts, such as medicine or forensic anthropology. While numerous semi-supervised approaches have been developed to make the most from the limited labeled data and ample amount of unlabeled data, domain-specific real-world datasets often have characteristics that both reduce the effectiveness of off-the-shelf state-of-the-art methods and also provide opportunities to create new methods that exploit these characteristics. We propose and evaluate a semi-supervised method that reuses available labels for unlabeled images of a dataset by exploiting existing similarities, while dynamically weighting the impact of these reused labels in the training process. We evaluate our method on a large dataset of human decomposition images and find that our method, while conceptually simple, outperforms state-of-the-art consistency and pseudo-labeling-based methods for the segmentation of this dataset. This paper includes graphic content of human decomposition

The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on quality of life of women with chronic low back pain

Introduction: Acceptance and commitment therapy [ACT] can enhance psychological flexibility andsubsequently improve mental health and quality of life of individuals. Also, recovery of patients withchronic low back pain (LBP) depends on several physical and psychological factors. Therefore, theauthors aimed to examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on qualityof life of women with chronic low back pain.Materials and Methods: It was a semi-experimental research in pre-test and post-test design togetherwith control group. Participants were 14 women with chronic low back pain attending clinical centersand hospitals of Rasht who were selected by convenience sampling. Next, they were randomlyassigned to experimental (ACT+ usual medical care) and the control group (usual medical care only).Then, experimental group received ACT for 8 one-hour sessions. To analyze the data, covarianceanalysis was used. The instrument was self-reported by the World Health Organization's quality oflife. Data analysis was performed using analysis of independent t-test.Results: Results indicated reduction effect in pain severity in the patients who practiced 8 sessionsACT reported significantly lower pain than patients who only received usual medical care. Also, theresults shows that except of subscale of physical health (p < 0.38) there was significant increase in allother subscales of quality of life in experimental group (p < 0.001).Conclusion: The results show that acceptance and commitment therapy reduces pain severity andimproves the quality of life and recommends use of coping strategic with pain in patients with chroniclow back pain (CLBP). Counselling of treatment counsellors and family therapists recommended acounselling centers and family education classes in order to improve quality of life of female patientswith CLBP

Surface enriched nanofiber mats for efficient adsorption of Cr(VI) inspired by nature

Adsorption is a surface process. By evolution, nature has created design principles such as scaffolds that allow to carrying surface bound agents at high density. We used a nanofibrous pullulan/poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(acrylic acid) (Pul/PVA/PAA) support to carry surface active PAMAM dendrimer similar to spores attached to mushroom gills. A monolayer of ceria (CeO2) nanoparticles served as the linker between PAMAM and the nanofiber. The nanocomposite was a highly effective Cr(VI) adsorbent and the maximum adsorption capacity qmax = 847 mg g-1 is the highest reported value for the same kind of materials so far. The materials was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), zeta potential and multipoint BET method to measure the specific surface area. Removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous media was tested under different batch and fixed bed column operation conditions such as pH, temperature and competing ions. Thermodynamic properties were determined based on a modified Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the adsorption kinetic was investigated. Positive entropy of adsorption and an endothermic adsorption process was found, while the rate-limiting step was pseudo second order which is associated with a chemisorption process. The nanocomposite was reusable and up to 95% of the adsorbed Cr(IV) ions were recovered by alkyne washing

The effect of Saccharomyces strain and fermentation conditions on quality prameters of non-alcoholic beer

In this study, the effect of several species of fermenting yeast and fermentation conditions (periodic aeration and temperature) on quality parameters of non-alcoholic beer is assessed. Yeast starters with different inoculation percent were added separately into wort with determined gravity. Wort was fermented for 48 h in different temperatures under aerobic condition or periodic aeration (every 12 h). Growth rate, wort gravity and ethanol content were analyzed for 48 hours (12-h interval). Also, 6 trained panelists were asked for sensory evaluation of final product. The highest growth rate and the highest ethanol content were found in treatments with 4×107 cfu/ml inoculation fermented at 24˚C under periodic aeration and in those fermented under anaerobic conditions, respectively. The highest gravity was observed for treatments with 107 cfu/ml inoculation, periodic aeration and fermentation at 4˚C. The lowest growth rate and ethanol content were observed in treatments with 107 cfu/ml, fermented at 4˚C under anaerobic condition and those fermented under periodic aeration, respectively. In treatments with 4×107 cfu/ml inoculation, anaerobic condition and fermentation at 4˚C, the lowest gravity was observed. In addition, among yeasts, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces rouxii showed the highest and the lowest growth rate, ethanol content and wort gravity, respectively. Additionally, treatments containing Saccharomyces cerevisiae resulted in non-alcoholic beer with more satisfactory flavor attributes