Catalytic Decomposition of 2% Methanol in Methane over Metallic Catalyst by Fixed-Bed Catalytic Reactor

The structure and performance of promoted Ni/Al2O3 with Cu via thermocatalytic decomposition (TCD) of CH4 mixture (2% CH3OH) were studied. Mesoporous Cat-1 and Cat-2 were synthesized by the impregnation method. The corresponding peaks of nickel oxide and copper oxide in the XRD showed the presence of nickel and copper oxides as a mixed alloy in the calcined catalyst. Temperature program reduction (TPR) showed that Cu enhanced the reducibility of the catalyst as the peak of nickel oxide shifted toward a lower temperature due to the interaction strength of the metal particles and support. The impregnation of 10% Cu on Cat-1 drastically improved the catalytic performance and exhibited 68% CH4 conversion, and endured its activity for 6 h compared with Cat-1, which deactivated after 4 h. The investigation of the spent carbon showed that various forms of carbon were obtained as a by-product of TCD, including graphene fiber (GF), carbon nanofiber (CNF), and multi-wall carbon nanofibers (MWCNFs) on the active sites of Cat-2 and Cat-1, following various kinds of growth mechanisms. The presence of the D and G bands in the Raman spectroscopy confirmed the mixture of amorphous and crystalline morphology of the deposited carbon

A study on the welfare of the animals in zoo negara / Liyana Muhd Fuad ...[et al.]

In recent times, there have been many complaints made regarding the welfare of zoo animals by both the public and NGO's upon Zoo Negara. This forms the basis of the research in the light of animal suffering, standards of a zoo and the adequacies of the legislation and execution of laws. This paper sets out to examine the sufficiency of local laws and its enforcement in protecting the welfare of the animals of Zoo Negara as the national zoo of Malaysia. The primary legislation that provides for wildlife in Malaysia is the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 which is only applicable in West Malaysia, which applies to the targeted area of research, Zoo Negara. Loopholes or shortcomings of the said Act are found throughout the research and has been affirmed by most of the people interviewed for the purpose of this paper. However, problems may surface as to the matter of jurisdiction or limitations of power to compel or take legal action on established zoos. Where rulings based on the old legislation may have been efficient in earlier days, it would be absurd to say the same for its implications 30 years down the road. At the time of research however, the writers were pleased to hear that the Act is soon to be revised. It has been said that the title in itself could be altered, with what is believed to be additional provisions and amendments supplying to a wider scope of laws. Therefore, it may be rightfully presumed that the current Protection of Wildlife Act is questionable and rather ineffective in its content and enforcement in providing protection of welfare for the zoo animals in Zoo Negara

Barriers in Social Distancing during Covid19 pandemic - Is a message for forced lockdown

The world currently faces the predicament of the fast-spreading COVID-19 which as of 21st April 2020 affects 210 countries over the globe. As the disease started spreading its shadow at an alarmingly rapid rate, new information about the novel coronavirus was extracted and it has been reported to be mainly transmitted directly from person-to-person, droplet spread by cough or sneezing or by fomites. Till an effective vaccine becomes available the most potent preventive measure that can be taken is for people to maintain distance and avoid gatherings. Importance of social distancing has been discussed on many forums and disseminated among the public but the problem arises when the practical implementation does not encompass the entirety of the theoretical concepts. Understanding the barriers that stand between applying social distance in community is imperative if authorities and public health sectors expect a substantial change in incident cases. It's imperative that measures should be taken to stop the spread of misinformation, and guide the masses regarding the importance of social distancing. Since the virus spreads by droplet transmission, so without these proper social distancing measures, the burden will increase and it will not be possible to put a stop to this pandemic

A Smart and Robust Automatic Inspection of Printed Labels Using an Image Hashing Technique

This work is focused on the development of a smart and automatic inspection system for printed labels. This is a challenging problem to solve since the collected labels are typically subjected to a variety of geometric and non-geometric distortions. Even though these distortions do not affect the content of a label, they have a substantial impact on the pixel value of the label image. Second, the faulty area may be extremely small as compared to the overall size of the labelling system. A further necessity is the ability to locate and isolate faults. To overcome this issue, a robust image hashing approach for the detection of erroneous labels has been developed. Image hashing techniques are generally used in image authentication, social event detection and image copy detection. Most of the image hashing methods are computationally extensive and also misjudge the images processed through the geometric transformation. In this paper, we present a novel idea to detect the faults in labels by incorporating image hashing along with the traditional computer vision algorithms to reduce the processing time. It is possible to apply Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) to acquire alignment parameters so that the scheme is resistant to geometric and other distortions. The statistical mean is employed to generate the hash value. Even though this feature is quite simple, it has been found to be extremely effective in terms of computing complexity and the precision with which faults are detected, as proven by the experimental findings. Experimental results show that the proposed technique achieved an accuracy of 90.12%

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived With Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years for 29 Cancer Groups From 2010 to 2019: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019) provided systematic estimates of incidence, morbidity, and mortality to inform local and international efforts toward reducing cancer burden. To estimate cancer burden and trends globally for 204 countries and territories and by Sociodemographic Index (SDI) quintiles from 2010 to 2019. The GBD 2019 estimation methods were used to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2019 and over the past decade. Estimates are also provided by quintiles of the SDI, a composite measure of educational attainment, income per capita, and total fertility rate for those younger than 25 years. Estimates include 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs). In 2019, there were an estimated 23.6 million (95% UI, 22.2-24.9 million) new cancer cases (17.2 million when excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) and 10.0 million (95% UI, 9.36-10.6 million) cancer deaths globally, with an estimated 250 million (235-264 million) DALYs due to cancer. Since 2010, these represented a 26.3% (95% UI, 20.3%-32.3%) increase in new cases, a 20.9% (95% UI, 14.2%-27.6%) increase in deaths, and a 16.0% (95% UI, 9.3%-22.8%) increase in DALYs. Among 22 groups of diseases and injuries in the GBD 2019 study, cancer was second only to cardiovascular diseases for the number of deaths, years of life lost, and DALYs globally in 2019. Cancer burden differed across SDI quintiles. The proportion of years lived with disability that contributed to DALYs increased with SDI, ranging from 1.4% (1.1%-1.8%) in the low SDI quintile to 5.7% (4.2%-7.1%) in the high SDI quintile. While the high SDI quintile had the highest number of new cases in 2019, the middle SDI quintile had the highest number of cancer deaths and DALYs. From 2010 to 2019, the largest percentage increase in the numbers of cases and deaths occurred in the low and low-middle SDI quintiles. The results of this systematic analysis suggest that the global burden of cancer is substantial and growing, with burden differing by SDI. These results provide comprehensive and comparable estimates that can potentially inform efforts toward equitable cancer control around the world.Funding/Support: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities. Dr Aljunid acknowledges the Department of Health Policy and Management of Kuwait University and the International Centre for Casemix and Clinical Coding, National University of Malaysia for the approval and support to participate in this research project. Dr Bhaskar acknowledges institutional support from the NSW Ministry of Health and NSW Health Pathology. Dr Bärnighausen was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through the Alexander von Humboldt Professor award, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Dr Braithwaite acknowledges funding from the National Institutes of Health/ National Cancer Institute. Dr Conde acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council ERC Starting Grant agreement No 848325. Dr Costa acknowledges her grant (SFRH/BHD/110001/2015), received by Portuguese national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, IP under the Norma Transitória grant DL57/2016/CP1334/CT0006. Dr Ghith acknowledges support from a grant from Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF16OC0021856). Dr Glasbey is supported by a National Institute of Health Research Doctoral Research Fellowship. Dr Vivek Kumar Gupta acknowledges funding support from National Health and Medical Research Council Australia. Dr Haque thanks Jazan University, Saudi Arabia for providing access to the Saudi Digital Library for this research study. Drs Herteliu, Pana, and Ausloos are partially supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNDS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0084. Dr Hugo received support from the Higher Education Improvement Coordination of the Brazilian Ministry of Education for a sabbatical period at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, between September 2019 and August 2020. Dr Sheikh Mohammed Shariful Islam acknowledges funding by a National Heart Foundation of Australia Fellowship and National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Fellowship. Dr Jakovljevic acknowledges support through grant OI 175014 of the Ministry of Education Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. Dr Katikireddi acknowledges funding from a NHS Research Scotland Senior Clinical Fellowship (SCAF/15/02), the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/2), and the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU17). Dr Md Nuruzzaman Khan acknowledges the support of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Bangladesh. Dr Yun Jin Kim was supported by the Research Management Centre, Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUMRF/2020-C6/ITCM/0004). Dr Koulmane Laxminarayana acknowledges institutional support from Manipal Academy of Higher Education. Dr Landires is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigación, which is supported by Panama’s Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación. Dr Loureiro was supported by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under the Scientific Employment Stimulus–Institutional Call (CEECINST/00049/2018). Dr Molokhia is supported by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center at Guy’s and St Thomas’ National Health Service Foundation Trust and King’s College London. Dr Moosavi appreciates NIGEB's support. Dr Pati acknowledges support from the SIAN Institute, Association for Biodiversity Conservation & Research. Dr Rakovac acknowledges a grant from the government of the Russian Federation in the context of World Health Organization Noncommunicable Diseases Office. Dr Samy was supported by a fellowship from the Egyptian Fulbright Mission Program. Dr Sheikh acknowledges support from Health Data Research UK. Drs Adithi Shetty and Unnikrishnan acknowledge support given by Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. Dr Pavanchand H. Shetty acknowledges Manipal Academy of Higher Education for their research support. Dr Diego Augusto Santos Silva was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil Finance Code 001 and is supported in part by CNPq (302028/2018-8). Dr Zhu acknowledges the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas grant RP210042

Strategic Orientation of Small to Medium Scale Manufacturing Firms in Developing Country: A Case of Auto Parts Manufacturing Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan

Abstract: In toda

Performance of NAA, 2iP, BAP and TDZ on Callus Multiplication, Shoots Initiation and Growth for Efficient Plant Regeneration System in Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.)

Three series of plant growth regulators experiments in Chrysanthemum tissue culture, each arranged in completely randomized design (CRD), were studied to formulate efficient plant regeneration system for developing Chrysanthemum plant cell engineering. In the first experiment, 100 mg callus were cultured in liquid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different combinations of NAA and BAP concentrations treatments. After 30 days of culture, heaviest callus (1.55 g) was obtained in NAA (1.0 mg L-1) + BAP (0.5 mg L-1). Consequently, shoot regeneration experiment with different kinds and concentrations of auxin, i.e. NAA and 2iP were each combined with different concentrations of cytokine BAP. Callus grown on solid MS medium supplemented with both NAA and BAP at 0.5 mg L-1 showed fastest shoot initiation (30 days), largest number of shoots (5 shoots), longest shoot length (2.88 cm). While combination of 2iP (0.5 mg L-1) and BAP (2.0 mg L-1) also produced same response on shoot initiation but shorter (1.88 cm) and only one shoot. Largest number of shoots (3 shoots) was obtained in treatment BAP (0.5 mg L-1) without 2iP, although shoot initiation was slower (39 days) with shorter length (1 cm). In a separate experiment, effect of single treatment of potential synthetic cytokine for shoot regeneration, Thidiazuron (TDZ), at different concentrations was examined. However, callus grown on TDZ incorporated medium did not produce any shoots and changed from green to brown at end of study (90 days). It was assumed that TDZ inhibited formation of shoots in Chrysanthemum callus culture

Attacks Analysis of TCP And UDP Of UNCW-NB15 Dataset

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) are the most important protocols in complete protocol architecture.  There are many types of attacks that can block the communication or reduce the performance of a protocol. This study provides a detail analysis of TCP and UDP attacks and their application layer protocols. The authors will also suggest that where the security administrator should focus for providing best security. The old datasets such as KDD99 and NSLKDD has many limitations. This study uses UNSW-NB15 dataset which has recently been generated