Catalytic pyrolysis and kinetic study of real-world waste plastics: multi-layered and mixed resin types of plastics

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Multi-layered and mixed resin types of plastics are a great challenge for the waste recycling industry. The majority consist of two or more types of...     

An OpenCL library for parallel random number generators

The Journal of Supercomputing - We present a library of 22 pseudo-random number generators on the GPU. The library is implemented in OpenCL and all generators are tested using the TestU01 and...     

Is ergosterol a new microbiological quality parameter in foods or not?

One of the most important spoilage factors of foods is molds. Therefore, it is important to determine the presence of mold in foods quickly because of the deterioration of aroma, flavor, appearance, and textural structure as well as the mycotoxins, which are toxic secondary metabolites of molds. Twenty-five percent of agricultural products worldwide are infected with mycotoxins directly or indirectly. With the global population increasingly rising, the need for access of safe and adequate food in the future has great importance. Quantification of ergosterol, a constituent of the membrane of molds and a precursor of vitamin D₂, is a feasible method for determination of fungal contamination in foods. The aim of this review is to discuss the possibility of using ergosterol as an indicator of mold growth in foods.     

Identification of rockfall source areas using the seed cell concept and bivariate susceptibility modelling

The objective of this research was to prepare a rockfall susceptibility map. Explorations were conducted in the Dubra?ina River basin (Croatia). The input data included a geological map, an orthophoto and a 1-m digital terrain model (DTM). After a talus inventory was prepared, the seed cell concept was applied to define the rockfall source areas. The contributing factors (predictors) of rockfalls were evaluated by the chi-squared test. The analysis confirmed the following predictors: CORINE land cover, lithology, slope, aspect, distance from a spring, distance from a road, distance from a fault, distance from a stream, and distance from the rock-soil geological boundary. A matrix pairwise comparison of the predictor ratings was used to define the most significant contributing factors. The predictors that affected the susceptibility map in the share of 86.3% were the slope (61.6%), lithology (13.4%), CORINE land cover (6.2%), and distance from the rock-soil geological boundary (5.1%). Two susceptibility maps were prepared: one using all nine contributing factors and another using the four most significant factors. The analysis showed that both maps were good, with the same areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The map prepared with only four contributing factors can be considered a better map due to its more precise spatial definition of critical areas. It can be concluded that geological map, 1-m DTM and orthophoto provide enough data to prepare reliable rockfall susceptibility map. The application of the bivariate statistical zonation method called the “frequency ratio method” was proven to be successful. This research demonstrates that the application of the seed cell concept can be useful to speed up the process of rockfall source area detections in large research regions.

     

Can video games change attitudes towards history? Results from a laboratory experiment measuring short- and long-term effects

This study investigates a video game's effects on implicit and explicit attitudes towards depicted historical events in the short- and long-term on a sample of 148 young adults. We used, as an intervention tool, a serious game Czechoslovakia 38–89: Borderlands that deals with the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia after the WWII. Results showed more negative pretest-posttest explicit attitude changes towards the expulsion on a general level (d = −0.34) and a specific level (d = −0.53) compared to the control group. Over the long-term, group differences in attitude change remained significant for the specific level (d = −0.44), but not for general one (d = −0.16). Exploratory analysis on the item level indicated that especially attitudes towards the expulsion's (un)fairness were affected by the game. However, no significant changes were found in implicit attitudes in the experimental group. This study is the first of such scale to empirically investigate video games' effects on a society's historical awareness.