Consumption of fruit and vegetables among elderly people: a cross sectional study from Iran

Background  

There is substantial evidence that low consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV) is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to assess FV consumption and the variables that influence it among elderly individuals in Iran aged 60 and over.     

Characterization of B site codoped LaFeO_3 nanoparticles prepared via co-precipitation route

LaFe_1-x-yCo_xPd_yO_3 [(x, y) =(0, 0),(0.40, 0),(0.38, 0.05)] nanoparticles were synthesized via a co-precipitation route using ammonium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and ammonium carbonate as the precipitant and calcination at different temperatures to study the compositional driven structural changes in lanthanum ferrites.Analysis of X-ray diffraction(XRD) patterns confirms the formation of single-phase perovskite structure and existence of orthorhombic Pnma symmetry for calcined powders. Field emission scanning electron microscope(FESEM) observations show that Pd-doped powders yield finer particles along with narrower particle size distribution compared with LaFeO_3 and LaFe_0.6Co_0.4O_3. Moreover,using ammonia as the precipitant leads to a smaller mean particle size of powders compared to NaOH, as well as significant difference in morphology of the particles.Raman analysis reveals that both Co and Pd atoms substitute Fe site in perovskite structure with shifting of phonon modes. Comparing Raman spectra demonstrates the presence of more oxygen vacancies in Pd-doped perovskites. It can be concluded from the results that Pd is successfully incorporated into the perovskite structure by co-precipitation method.     

Sorption-enhanced water gas shift reaction by sodium-promoted calcium oxides

The water gas shift reaction was evaluated in the presence of novel carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture sorbents, both alone and with catalyst, at moderate reaction conditions (i.e., 300-600 °C and 1-11.2 atm). Experimental results showed significant improvements to carbon monoxide (CO) conversions and production of hydrogen (H₂) when CO₂ sorbents are incorporated into the water gas shift reaction. Results suggested that the performance of the sorbent is linked to the presence of a Ca(OH)₂ phase within the sorbent. Promoting calcium oxide (CaO) sorbents with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as well as pre-treating the CaO sorbent with steam appeared to lead to formation of Ca(OH)₂, which improved CO₂ sorption capacity and WGS performance. Results suggest that an optimum amount of NaOH exists as too much leads to a lower capture capacity of the resultant sorbent. During capture, the NaOH-promoted sorbents displayed a high capture efficiency (nearly 100%) at temperatures of 300-600 °C. Results also suggest that the CaO sorbents possess catalytic properties which may augment the WGS reactivity even post-breakthrough. Furthermore, promotion of CaO by NaOH significantly reduces the regeneration temperature of the former.     

Nanomechanical properties of functionally graded composite coatings: Electrodeposited nickel dispersions containing silicon micro- and nanoparticles

Functionally graded composite coatings constitute a class of materials which are mostly used for mechanical and tribological applications. Among these materials, nickel metal deposits with incorporation of SiC particles have excellent mechanical properties due to nickel metal and good tribological properties due to the SiC particles. In this work, nickel coatings containing different sizes of SiC particles, nanoparticles and microparticles (10 nm to 5 μm), were electrodeposited from an additive-free sulfate bath containing nickel ions and SiC particles. The material properties of the coatings were compared to nickel coatings containing microparticles (5 μm). The effect of current density, SiC content in the bath, and electroactive species concentration on the codeposition of SiC were studied. Afterwards, the effect of particle size and codeposition percentage of SiC particles on the nanomechanical properties on the morphology and structure of the electrodeposits were investigated. The coatings were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nanoidentation and lateral force microscopy (LFM). The Ni–SiC electrocomposites, prepared at optimum conditions, exhibited improved nanomechanical properties in comparison to pure nickel electrodeposits. The improved properties of the composite coatings are associated to structural modifications of the nickel crystallites as well as the morphology of the electrodeposited layers. The improved nanomechanical properties of electrocomposites containing nanosized SiC particles, as compared to electrocomposites containing micron-sized SiC particles, is attributed to the increasing values of the density of embedded SiC particles with decreasing particle size and the mechanism of embedment of the SiC particles.     

Enhanced biomethane production via thermophilic anaerobic digestion of cattail amended with potassium phosphate- and magnesium-modified biochar

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Biochar can effectively strengthen anaerobic digestion (AD) and improve the treatment efficiency of organic wastes. However, the types of biochar...     

Processing of Cu-Fe and Cu-Fe-SiC nanocomposites by mechanical alloying

The Cu-Fe and Cu-Fe-SiC nanocomposite powders were synthesized by a two step mechanical alloying process. A supersaturated solid-solution of Cu-20 wt% Fe was prepared by ball milling of elemental powders up to 5 and 20 h and subsequently the SiC powder was added during additional 5 h milling. The dissolution of Fe into Cu matrix and the morphology of powder particles were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. It was found that the iron peaks in the XRD patterns vanish at the early stages of mechanical alloying process but the dissolution of Fe needs more milling time. Moreover, the crystallite size of the matrix decreases with increasing milling time and the crystallite size reaches a plateau with continued milling. In this regard, the addition of SiC was found to be beneficial in postponing the saturation in crystallite size refinement. Moreover, the effect of SiC on the particle size was found to be significant only if it is added at the right time. It was also found that the silicon carbide and iron particles are present after consolidation and are on the order of nanometer sizes.     

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Mentha pulegium and investigation of their antibacterial,antifungal and anticancer activity

A simple and eco‐friendly method for efficient synthesis of stable colloidal silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Mentha pulegium extracts is described. A series of reactions was conducted using different types and concentrations of plant extract as well as metal ions to optimize the reaction conditions. AgNPs were characterized by using UV–vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, zetasizer, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDAX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). At the optimized conditions, plate shaped AgNPs with zeta potential value of ‐15.7 and plasmon absorption maximum at 450 nm were obtained using high concentration of aqueous extract. Efficient adsorption of organic compounds on the nanoparticles was confirmed by FTIR and EDAX. The biogenic AgNPs displayed promising antibacterial activity on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pyogenes. The highest antibacterial activity of 25 µg mL‐1 was obtained for all the strains using aqueous extract synthesized AgNPs. The aqueous extract synthesised AgNPs also showed considerable antifungal activity against fluconazole resistant Candida albicans. The cytotoxicity assay revealed considerable anticancer activity of AgNPs on HeLa and MCF‐7 cancer cells. Overall results indicated high potential of M. pulegium extract to synthesis high quality AgNPs for biomedical applications.Inspec keywords: silver, nanoparticles, nanofabrication, botany, antibacterial activity, biomedical materials, nanomedicine, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X‐ray chemical analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra, electrokinetic effects, microorganisms, cellular biophysics, cancerOther keywords: antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, anticancer activity, stable colloidal silver nanoparticle, Mentha pulegium, plant extract, UV‐visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, DLS, zetasizer, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, methanolic extract, aqueous extract, plate‐shaped silver nanoparticle, zeta potential, plasmon absorption maximum, organic compounds adsorption, biogenic silver nanoparticle, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, fluconazole‐resistant Candida albicans, MTT assay, HeLa cancer cell, MCF‐7 cancer cell, Ag     

Using Syntactic-Based Kernels for Classifying Temporal Relations

Temporal relation classification is one of contemporary demanding tasks of natural language processing. This task can be used in various applications such as question answering, summarization, and language specific information retrieval. In this paper, we propose an improved algorithm for classifying temporal relations, between events or between events and time, using support vector machines (SVM). Along with gold-standard corpus features, the proposed method aims at exploiting some useful automatically generated syntactic features to improve the accuracy of classification. Accordingly, a number of novel kernel functions are introduced and evaluated. Our evaluations clearly demonstrate that adding syntactic features results in a considerable improvement over the state-of-the-art method of classifying temporal relations.     

Combustion characteristics of bio-oil from swine manure/crude glycerol co-liquefaction by thermogravimetric analysis technology

The thermal analysis and kinetics of bio-oils derived from swine manure/crude glycerol co-liquefaction were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in the air. It was found that the combustion processes of bio-oils can be divided into three stages, with most of the materials decomposing between 330 and 370°C. In kinetic calculations, oxidation of the bio-oils was determined using the Coats–Redfern method, considering that bio-oil combustion occurs in three consecutive steps. Four models including more than 12 alpha functions were tested to fit the study’s experimental results. The calculation shows that the diffusion models are the best fit for describing the bio-oil combustion process in the air.     

Magnetic mesoporous silica: a novel nano-material towards electrochemical sensing

This study reports on the synthesis and characterization of a novel magnetic nano-material, Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles/mobile crystalline material-41 (Fe₃O₄ MNP-MCM-41) for sensing some cardiovascular drugs. For the first time, as-synthesized Fe₃O₄ MNP-MCM-41 is engineered to specifically and effectively capture and enhancement the electrochemical signals of some cardiovascular drugs at different pH due to the synergy among MCM-41 and magnetic nanoparticles. We have illustrated that the as-obtained Fe₃O₄ MNP-MCM-41 exhibited a much higher electroactivity individual bare carbon past electrode (CPE) for the electrooxidation and detection of selected cardiovascular drugs. Magnetic and specific properties of the Fe₃O₄ MNP-MCM-41 can be exploited to capture and pre-concentration the selected cardiovascular drugs onto its surface, which are important for detection of multi-drugs. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine selected drugs in human serum, yielding satisfactory results. In general, Fast response time, excellent catalytic activity, lower overvoltage and ease of preparation are the advantages of the proposed nano-sensor.