Wax coating affects postharvest shelf-life of non-cooled sweet pepper

Investigations were carried out to determine the effect of wax coating on physical and quality parameters in sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) cv. Indra under ambient storage (25±5 oC). Wax coating with carnauba wax at 2% produced the lowest physiological loss of weight (PLW), and increased shelf-life, total soluble solids (TSS), total sugar content and ascorbic acid. Wax concentration of > 2% coating had little or no effect, on physical and biochemical characters. This suggested that 2% wax coating increased the shelf life, while concentration of > 2% did not enhance its shelf life. &nbsp

Physical Characterization of Modified Asphalt Binder with Differing Fly Ash Geopolymer Contents

Nowadays, the use of waste material product has gained popularity in the production of asphalt mixes and becomes a cost-effective method of pavement construction that can decrease the consumption of natural resources and to reduce environmental pollution. This research aimed to investigate the possibility of using waste and by-product material namely fly ash geopolymer additive to influence the physical properties of asphalt binder. An experimental matrix of laboratory testing was conducted to study the properties of the 60/70 and 80/100 asphalt binder with modified binder containing 3%, 5%, 7%, 9% and 11% of fly ash geopolymer additive. The physical properties of the binders were determined using the penetration, softening, penetration index, ductility, and rotational viscosity respectively. The results indicated that, the fly ash geopolymer modified binder had improved the physical properties over base binder. The thermal susceptibility also improved by referring to the Penetration Index value. Overall research conclusions are that geopolymer application resulted in a potential enhancement of some of the properties of the asphalt binder and increase the performance of asphalt binder in the pavement application

Formation and characteristics of zinc phosphate coatings obtained by electrochemical treatment: Cathodic vs. anodic

Electrochemical treatment and galvanic coupling are some of the possible modes of acceleration of low temperature phosphating process. The cathodic and anodic treatments during phosphating influence the deposition mechanism, characteristic properties and the corrosion resistance of the resultant coatings in a differentway. The present paper aims to compare these aspects and to identify the possible applications of phosphate coatings obtained by these treatments

Physical Characterization of Modified Asphalt Binder with Differing Fly Ash Geopolymer Contents

Nowadays, the use of waste material product has gained popularity in the production of asphalt mixes and becomes a cost-effective method of pavement construction that can decrease the consumption of natural resources and to reduce environmental pollution. This research aimed to investigate the possibility of using waste and by-product material namely fly ash geopolymer additive to influence the physical properties of asphalt binder. An experimental matrix of laboratory testing was conducted to study the properties of the 60/70 and 80/100 asphalt binder with modified binder containing 3%, 5%, 7%, 9% and 11% of fly ash geopolymer additive. The physical properties of the binders were determined using the penetration, softening, penetration index, ductility, and rotational viscosity respectively. The results indicated that, the fly ash geopolymer modified binder had improved the physical properties over base binder. The thermal susceptibility also improved by referring to the Penetration Index value. Overall research conclusions are that geopolymer application resulted in a potential enhancement of some of the properties of the asphalt binder and increase the performance of asphalt binder in the pavement application

Evaluation of Nigerian public housing performance using occupants’ experience and satisfaction

There is misconception of occupants’ satisfaction and experience in building performance evaluation due to inadequacy of in-depth studies on each, which resulted to insufficiency of facts about their structure, determinant variables, effects of socioeconomic attributes and conditions under which they are connected. Objective of the study were to identify the building performance levels and differences between occupants’ satisfaction and experience, effects of socioeconomic attributes on them and propose a framework to evaluate public housing performance using occupants’ satisfaction and experience. Building Use Studies (BUS) Methodology, UK questionnaire was adapted and used on a license agreement. Systematic random sampling was used to collect data from 300 occupants of four (4) public housing estates in Gombe metropolis Nigeria. Two independent factors of tangible and intangible building features were conceptualised. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used in the pilot survey to identify the factorability of the variables. The Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in AMOS software was used to validate the constructs and develop two structural equation models (SEM) based on occupants satisfaction and experience. The models were subjected to multi CFA moderation method to determine the effects of socioeconomic attributes of the occupants. The results indicated differences in performance of features based on occupants’ satisfaction and experience. The SEM moderation results showed that education and income moderates occupants’ satisfaction, while they does not moderates occupants’ experience. Therefore, the study concluded with emphasis on the importance of occupants experience as an objective measure of building performance against occupants’ satisfaction’s subjectivity. Based on that, a framework to evaluate public housing performance using occupants’ satisfaction and experience was proposed

Addition of dinitrogentrioxide to Δ<SUP>1</SUP>-arylcyclohexenes

This article does not have an abstract

Turn-turn short circuit fault management in permanent magnet machines

This paper presents a systematic study on turn-turn short circuit fault and ways to manage them to provide a basis for comparison of the various options available. The possible methods to reduce the likelihood of the winding SC fault and the fault mitigation techniques related to such faults are discussed. A Finite Element (FE) analysis of a surface-mount Permanent Magnet (PM) machine under application of different mitigation techniques during a turn-turn fault is presented. Both machine and drive structural adaptations for different fault mitigation techniques are addressed. Amongst the investigated fault mitigation techniques, the most promising solution is identified and validated experimentally. It is shown that the shorting terminal method adopting vertical winding arrangement is an effective method in terms of the implementation, reliability and weight

Insecticidal activity of a novel fatty acid amide derivative from Streptomyces species against Helicoverpa armigera

Helicoverpa armigera, an important pest causes serious damage to grain legumes. The main objective of this study was to isolate and identify the metabolite against H. armigera from a previously characterised Streptomyces sp. CAI-155. The culture filtrate of CAI- 155 was extracted using Diaion HP-20 and the active fractions were fractionated on Silica and C18 column chromatography. The C18 active fraction was further fractionated on Silica gel 60 F254 thin layer chromatography (TLC). The most active fraction (Rf 0.64) purified from TLC led to the identification of a novel metabolite N-(1-(2,2-dimethyl- 5-undecyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)-2-hydroxyethyl)stearamide by spectral studies. The purified metabolite showed 70–78% mortality in 2nd instar H. armigera by diet impregnation assay, detached leaf assay and greenhouse assay. The LD50 and LD90 values of the purified metabolite were 627 and 2276 ppm, respectively. Hence, this novel metabolite can be exploited for pest management in future

Social media for physiotherapy clinics: considerations in creating a Facebook page

Social media websites play a prominent role in modern society, and the most popular of these websites is Facebook. Increasingly, physiotherapy clinics have begun to utilize Facebook in order to create pages to publicize their services. There are many factors to consider in the planning, implementing, and maintenance of Facebook pages for physiotherapy clinics, including ethical and privacy issues. The primary purpose of creating a page must be clearly defined, with dedicated clinicians given adequate time to manage the page. This technical article discusses these factors and summarizes the experiences at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in creating a Facebook page for the physiotherapy clinic and provides suggestions for physiotherapy clinicians in operating a Facebook page