Second interlude: on the house from all sorts of angles

The planning and design of environments for healthcare is complex and at times contradictory. Research and critical discourse have been fragmented and have not provided the degree of support required by the architectural profession. This dilemma is compounded by the enormous capital investment countries around the globe expend annually to promote the health status of their citizens. To help rectify this situation, landmark international developments in the relationship between architecture and health are outlined within a dualistic conceptual framework that is part historical and part futurist. Prognostications for the year 2050 are offered on issues concerning the rise of alternative care settings to the traditional acute care hospital. This portion of the discussion examines the rising importance of home- and community-based care, the functions of nature as a therapeutic modality, patient empowerment, the critical need for socially equitable and sustainable environments for healthcare, and the need for new paradigms in the planning and design of therapeutically supportive care and treatment settings. Two developments in particular, functional deconstruction and residentialism, are described in some detail as is the critical role of interdisciplinary approaches in meeting the global research and practice challenges which lie ahead in this century.     

Kinetic study of liquid lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis of olive oil using Lipozyme TL 100L

Monoacylglycerol (MAG) and diacylglycerol (DAG) are two natural components found in most edible oils and fats. Conventional synthesis of MAG and DAG is usually conducted by glycerolysis of triacylglycerol (TAG) at high temperatures (above 200°C) in the presence of an alkaline catalyst. In this work, the synthesis of MAG and DAG using enzymatic glycerolysis of olive oil was investigated using Tween 80 as surfactant, n-butanol as co-surfactant and the novel lipase in free/liquid formulation Lipozyme TL 100L as catalyst. Experimental design was used to evaluate the effect of enzyme load and reaction temperature on the feedstock conversion. Enzyme load and system temperature were significant variables in the statistical design and the best condition was found at 35°C, 7.5 vol% of Lipozyme TL 100L and glycerol to oil volumetric ratio of 2:1 with conversion of TAG at approximately 98% after 2 h of process. A mathematical model based on the Ping-Pong Bi-Bi mechanism was used to describe the reaction kinetics. The model adequately described the behavior of the system and can be a useful tool for the design of reactors in larger scales.     

Carbon-Based Materials in Photodynamic and Photothermal Therapies Applied to Tumor Destruction

Within phototherapy, a grand challenge in clinical cancer treatments is to develop a simple, cost-effective, and biocompatible approach to treat this disease using ultra-low doses of light. Carbon-based materials (CBM), such as graphene oxide (GO), reduced GO (r-GO), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), and carbon dots (C-DOTs), are rapidly emerging as a new class of therapeutic materials against cancer. This review summarizes the progress made in recent years regarding the applications of CBM in photodynamic (PDT) and photothermal (PTT) therapies for tumor destruction. The current understanding of the performance of modified CBM, hybrids and composites, is also addressed. This approach seeks to achieve an enhanced antitumor action by improving and modulating the properties of CBM to treat various types of cancer. Metal oxides, organic molecules, biopolymers, therapeutic drugs, among others, have been combined with CBM to treat cancer by PDT, PTT, or synergistic therapies.     

Analysis of the Content of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters in Biodiesel by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy: Method and Comparison with Gas Chromatography

The increasing importance of sustainability in energy production has led to a global commitment to the use of fuels derived from renewable biological sources, such as biodiesel produced from plant crops or biomass residues, that do not compete with human food for their production. For a biofuel to be considered biodiesel, it must satisfy the specifications described in the UNE 14214, with the UNE-EN 14103 referring to the determination of fatty acid methyl ester content. This standard applies gas chromatography as an analytical technique. Gas chromatography is a widely used technique in the analysis of methyl ester although it has a number of drawbacks such as: long analysis times, a high consumption of high-quality gases and internal standards, does not allow the analysis of different compounds with the same column, etc. From an industrial production point of view, is necessary to know the fatty acid methyl ester content in biodiesel samples quickly. This paper studies the development of an analytical method using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as alternative to gas chromatography (GC), since it is a simple, rapid, and precise analytical technique to quantify fatty acid methyl ester content in biofuel samples.     

Effect of temperature and air velocity on drying kinetics, antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content, colour, texture and microstructure of apple (var. Granny Smith) slices

The aim of this work was to study the effect of temperature and air velocity on the drying kinetics and quality attributes of apple (var. Granny Smith) slices during drying. Experiments were conducted at 40, 60 and 80 °C, as well as at air velocities of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m s⁻¹. Effective moisture diffusivity increased with temperature and air velocity, reaching a value of 15.30 × 10⁻⁹ m² s⁻¹ at maximum temperature and air velocity under study. The rehydration ratio changed with varying both air velocity and temperature indicating tissue damage due to processing. The colour difference, ΔE, showed the best results at 80 °C. The DPPH-radical scavenging activity at 40 °C and 0.5 m s⁻¹ showed the highest antioxidant activity, closest to that of the fresh sample. Although ΔE decreased with temperature, antioxidant activity barely varied and even increased at high air velocities, revealing an antioxidant capacity of the browning products. The total phenolics decreased with temperature, but at high air velocity retardation of thermal degradation was observed. Firmness was also determined and explained using glass transition concept and microstructure analysis.     

Effect of Pretreatment on Carbon-Supported Au/TiO2 Catalysts for Preferential Oxidation of CO

The impact of thermal treatment at various preparation stages of carbon supported Au/TiO₂ catalysts prior to oxidation of CO in the presence and absence of hydrogen was studied. An increase in catalytic activity for thermally treated samples due to a more ordered structure of TiO₂ was observed. A reversible deactivation of the catalysts occurred in the absence of hydrogen. However, the activity was restored at preferential CO oxidation conditions in presence of hydrogen.     

Perceptual and cognitive load interact to control the spatial focus of attention.

Caparos and Linnell (2009, 2010) used a variable-separation flanker paradigm to show that (a) when cognitive load is low, increasing perceptual load causes spatial attention to focus and (b) when perceptual load is high, decreasing cognitive load causes spatial attention to focus. Here, we tested whether the effects of perceptual and cognitive load on spatial focus remain when, respectively, cognitive load is high and perceptual load is low. We found that decreasing cognitive load only causes spatial attention to focus when perceptual load is high and the stimulus encourages this. Moreover, and contrary to the widely held assumption that perceptual load focuses attention automatically (Lavie, Hirst, de Fockert, & Viding, 2004), perceptual load exerts its focusing effect only with the engagement of cognitive resources when cognitive load is low. In sum, perceptual and cognitive mechanisms exert interacting effects and operate in concert to focus spatial attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Epilogue: on meaning and experience (or images versus practices)

The essay presents an alternative idea of what Islamic architecture could be from what is termed as a ‘value-centred’ approach. To date, the theory of Islamic architecture has been mainly derived either from a formalistic analysis of historically selected buildings from the past, or from the works of Sufism which claim to be the form generator of the Islamic spirit. There are also the works of regionalist architects that maintain the idea of Islamic architecture as being a product of cultural and environmental as well as geographical forces. The essay instead presents the argument that since modernist architecture was the product of a value-centred discourse ranging across political, religious and environmental issues, then Islamic architecture could also be derived from an examination of the values inherent in the hadith or traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. The body of hadiths contains many accounts of the Prophet's values concerning life practices of which some can be used in order to derive a framework of architectural design. With this framework, a re-evaluation of past historical works can be carried out and new building designs can be made from the interpretation of hadiths within the context of the cultural, geographical, economic and political settings of each project.     

Optimal temperature input design for estimation of the square root model parameters: parameter accuracy and model validity restrictions

As part of the model building process, parameter estimation is of great importance in view of accurate prediction making. Confidence limits on the predicted model output are largely determined by the parameter estimation accuracy that is reflected by its parameter estimation covariance matrix. In view of the accurate estimation of the Square Root model parameters, Bernaerts et al. have successfully applied the techniques of optimal experiment design for parameter estimation [Int. J. Food Microbiol. 54 (1-2) (2000) 27]. Simulation-based results have proved that dynamic (i.e., time-varying) temperature conditions characterised by a large abrupt temperature increase yield highly informative cell density data enabling precise estimation of the Square Root model parameters. In this study, it is shown by bioreactor experiments with detailed and precise sampling that extreme temperature shifts disturb the exponential growth of Escherichia coli K12. A too large shift results in an intermediate lag phase. Because common growth models lack the ability to model this intermediate lag phase, temperature conditions should be designed such that exponential growth persist even though the temperature may be changing. The current publication presents (i) the design of an optimal temperature input guaranteeing model validity yet yielding accurate Square Root model parameters, and (ii) the experimental implementation of the optimal input in a computer-controlled bioreactor. Starting values for the experiment design are generated by a traditional two-step procedure based on static experiments. Opposed to the single step temperature profile, the novel temperature input comprises a sequence of smaller temperature increments. The structural development of the temperature input is extensively explained. High quality data of E. coli K12 under optimally varying temperature conditions realised in a computer-controlled bioreactor yield accurate estimates for the Square Root model parameters. The latter is illustrated by means of the individual confidence intervals and the joint confidence region.