Effect of Massage Using Camel Hump Oil Compared to Olive Oil on Muscle Tone of Children with Spastic Diplegia: Single Participant Design

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of massage with camel hump oil on muscle tone in the lower limb compared with olive oil on children with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. Materials and Methods:  The study was performed using a single subject design. Six children were selected based on available sampling. The study lasted 10 weeks for each person, which includes five phases: 1-baseline (two weeks), 2-massage with olive oil (two weeks), 3- baseline (two weeks), 4- massage with camel hump oil (two weeks), and 5- baseline (two weeks). At each stage, muscle tones of Hamstring, hip adductors, and calf muscles were evaluated using the Modified Ashworth Scale. The visual analysis and Mann-whitney U test were used to evaluate differences between phases. Results: A significant difference was observed between the adductor (in 4 cases), hamstrings (in 4 cases), and calf muscles tone (in two cases) (P<0.05), demonstrating the higher effect of massage with camel hump oil compared to that with olive oil. Conclusion: It seems that camel hump oil may be more effective in some cases than olive oil in reducing muscle tone, but the overall conclusion requires further studies.Keywords: Camel hump oil; Massage; Muscle tone; Spastic diplegi

Removal of Pb(II) from Aqueous Solutions Using Magnetic Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposites: Modeling and Optimization Based on Response Surface Methodology

In the adsorption process of heavy metals, a major challenge is to design and develop adsorbent materials in an abundance of accessible adsorption sites with high affinity to achieve both fast adsorption kinetics and increased adsorption capacity for toxic contaminants. The removal of pollutants by mesoporous silica adsorbents is now in the limelight due to the nontoxicity and biocompatibility of these materials with the environment. In this study, a fibrous core-shell magnetic mesoporous composite (Fe3O4/SiO2/KCC-1) was successfully synthesized and used as a nano-adsorbent to remove Pb(II) from an aqueous solution. The adsorbent was characterized by employing TEM, SEM, FTIR, VSM, XRD, and N2 adsorption–desorption techniques. According to the results, Fe3O4/SiO2/KCC-1 was successfully synthesized with an average pore diameter of 7.94 nm, a surface area of 813.07 m2 g-1, and a pore volume of 1.41 cm3 g-1. The response surface methodology (RSM) was then adopted in the central composite design (CCD) to optimize parameters of the adsorption process. The optimal conditions for Pb(II) adsorption were then determined at a temperature of 80 °C, an adsorption dosage of 0.04 g L-1, a pH 5.6, and the contact time of 38 min. The removal rate of Pb(II) was 90%. Studies of equilibrium and kinetics indicated that the adsorption process followed Langmuir’s isotherm and the pseudo-first-order model with correlation coefficients of 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity of Fe3O4/SiO2/KCC-1 was reported 574.4 mg g-1. Moreover, the thermodynamic parameters known as enthalpy (ΔH° = +5.84 kJ mol-1), negative Gibbs free energy (∆G°) values, and entropy (ΔS° = +23.42 kJ mol-1 K-1) indicated that the adsorption was endothermic and spontaneous with the increased disorder at the solid–liquid interphase

Modified carbon fabric electrodes: preparation and electrochemical behavior toward amaranth electrolysis

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10800-014-0769-9The electrochemical behavior of non-modified, Pt-modified, and Pt/polyaniline-modified carbon fiber textile electrodes was studied through a series of electrolyses, under potentiostatic conditions, on an amaranth/sulfuric solution in the presence or absence of chloride ion. The morphology of the dispersed Pt, PANI, and PANI/Pt coatings was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electrochemical microscopy confirmed that the textile surface was effectively modified by the electrocatalytic material. Color removal reached values above 90 % in both electroreduction and electrooxidation processes. The amaranth electroreductions carried out with the non-modified electrode showed better charge efficiency than those with the Pt-modified textile electrode. The electrooxidations with Pt-modified textile electrodes showed a significant reduction in electrolysis time. Ultraviolet-visible and Fourier transform infrared with attenuated total reflection spectra enabled the electrochemical behavior of the non-modified and Pt/PANI-modified electrodes to be distinguished.The authors wish to acknowledge to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (contract CTM2011-23583) and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Vicerrectorado de Investigacion PAID-06-10 contract 003-233) for the financial support; and as well as Carbongen S. A. (Cocentaina, Spain), who kindly donated the activated carbon fabric. J. Molina is grateful to the Conselleria d'Educacio, Formacio i Ocupacio (Generalitat Valenciana) for the Programa VALi+D Postdoctoral Fellowship. A.I. del Rio is grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia for the FPI fellowship.Fernández Sáez, J.; Del Río García, AI.; Molina Puerto, J.; Bonastre Cano, JA.; Cases Iborra, FJ. (2015). Modified carbon fabric electrodes: preparation and electrochemical behavior toward amaranth electrolysis. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry. 45(3):263-272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-014-0769-9S263272453Marsh H, Reinoso FR (2000) Sciences of carbon materials. Universidad de Alicante, AlicanteKinoshita K (1998) Carbon: electrochemical and physicochemical properties. Wiley, New York, pp 293–387Burchell TD (1999) Carbon materials for advances technologies. Pergamon, AmsterdamDomínguez SD, Pardilla JA, Murcia AB, Morallón E, Amorós DC (2008) Electrochemical deposition of Pt nanoparticles on different carbon supports and conducting polymers. J Appl Electrochem 38:259–268Kezhong W, Xu M, Xindong W, Jingling L (2005) Pt–Polyaniline-modified carbon fiber electrode for the electrooxidation of methanol. Rare Met 24:33–36Wu G, Li L, Li JH, Xu BQ (2006) Methanol electrooxidation on Pt particles dispersed into PANI/SWNT composite films. J Power Sources 155:118–127Singh RN, Awasthi R, Tiwari SK (2010) Electro-catalytic activities of binary nano-composites of Pt and nano-carbon/multiwall carbon nanotube for methanol electro-electrooxidation. Open Catal J 3:50–57Zhiani M, Rezaei B, Jalili J (2010) Methanol electro-electrooxidation on Pt/C modified by polyaniline nanofibers for DMFC applications. Int J Hydrogen Energ 35:9298–9305Laborde H, Léger J-M, Lamy C (1994) Electrocatalytic electrooxidation of methanol and C1 molecules on highly dispersed electrodes. Part 1: Pt in polyaniline. J Appl Electrochem 24:219–226Niu L, Li Q, Wei F, Wu S, Liu P, Cao X (2005) Electrocatalytic behaviour of Pt-modified polyaniline electrode for methanol electrooxidation: effect of Pt deposition modes. J Electroanal Chem 578:331–337Huang LM, Tang WR, Wen TCh (2007) Spatially electrodeposited Pt in polyaniline doped with poly(styrene sulfonic acid) for methanol electrooxidation. J Power Sources 164:519–526Fernández J, Molina J, del Río AI, Bonastre J, Cases FJ (2012) Synthesis and characterization of electrochemically platinum–polyaniline modified carbon textile electrodes. Int J Electrochem Sci 7:10175–10189Snehalatha M, Ravikumar C, Sekar N, Jayakumar SV, Joe H (2008) FT–Raman, IR and UV–visible spectral investigations and ab initio computations of a nonlinear food dye amaranth. J Raman Spectrosc 39:928–936Rajendran L, Ananthi SP (2004) Analysis of positive feedback currents at the scanning electrochemical microscope. J Electroanal Chem 561:113–118Niu L, Li Q, Wei F, Chen X, Wang W (2003) Formation optimization of Pt-modified polyaniline films for the electrocatalytic electrooxidation of methanol. Synthetic Met 139:271–276Sala M, del Río AI, Molina J, Cases F, Gutierrez-Bouzán MC (2012) Influence of cell design and electrode materials on the decoloration of dyeing effluents. 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Use of facile mechanochemical method to functionalize carbon nanofibers with nanostructured polyaniline and their electrochemical capacitance

A facile approach to functionalize carbon nanofibers [CNFs] with nanostructured polyaniline was developed via in situ mechanochemical polymerization of polyaniline in the presence of chemically treated CNFs. The nanostructured polyaniline grafting on the CNF was mainly in a form of branched nanofibers as well as rough nanolayers. The good dispersibility and processability of the hybrid nanocomposite could be attributed to its overall nanostructure which enhanced its accessibility to the electrolyte. The mechanochemical oxidation polymerization was believed to be related to the strong Lewis acid characteristic of FeCl3 and the Lewis base characteristic of aniline. The growth mechanism of the hierarchical structured nanofibers was also discussed. After functionalization with the nanostructured polyaniline, the hybrid polyaniline/CNF composite showed an enhanced specific capacitance, which might be related to its hierarchical nanostructure and the interaction between the aromatic polyaniline molecules and the CNFs

Palladium Nanoparticles Loaded on Carbon Modified TiO2 Nanobelts for Enhanced Methanol Electrooxidation

Made available based on the terms of the Springer open license. Publication available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.5101/nml.v5i3.p202-212Carbon modified TiO2 nanobelts (TiO2-C) were synthesized using a hydrothermal growth method, as a support material for palladium (Pd) nanoparticles (Pd/TiO2-C) to improve the electrocatalytic performance for methanol electrooxidation by comparison to Pd nanoparticles on bare TiO2 nanobelts (Pd/TiO2) and activated carbon (Pd/AC). Cyclic voltammetry characterization was conducted with respect to saturated calomel electrode (SCE) in an alkaline methanol solution, and the results indicate that the specific activity of Pd/TiO2-C is 2.2 times that of Pd/AC and 1.5 times that of Pd/TiO2. Chronoamperometry results revealed that the TiO2-C support was comparable in stability to activated carbon; but possesses an enhanced current density for methanol oxidation at a potential of -0.2 V vs. SCE. The current study demonstrates the potential of Pd nanoparticle loaded on hierarchical TiO2-C nanobelts for electrocatalytic applications such as fuel cells and batteries.FedDev Ontario through the Applied Research and Commercialization (ARC) InitiativeNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) programMicrobonds, Inc