Indoor 222Rn concentration measurements in some buildings of Hebron province during the winter season of the year 2000

In this study, we report on the indoor radon concentration levels in a number of locations scattered in the Hebron province, Palestine. The measurements were performed during the winter season of the year 1999/2000 using the CR-39 detectors. The radon concentration levels were found to vary from 23 to 580 Bq m(-3). The arithmetic average of the obtained radon concentration levels was found to be 91 Bq m(-3). It was found that most of the radon concentration levels in houses and school rooms are below the low reference levels limits. Most of the high-radon concentration levels were found in unpainted storage rooms.     

Potential Applications of Enzymes in Waste Treatment

The implementation of increasingly stringent standards for the discharge of wastes into the environment has necessitated the need for the development of alternative waste treatment processes. A review of research directed toward developing enzymatic treatment systems for solid, liquid and hazardous wastes is presented. A large number of enzymes from a variety of different plants and microorganisms have been reported to play an important role in an array of waste treatment applications. Enzymes can act on specific recalcitrant pollutants to remove them by precipitation or transformation to other products. They also can change the characteristics of a given waste to render it more amenable to treatment or aid in converting waste material to value-added products. Before the full potential of enzymes may be realized, it is recommended that a number of issues be addressed in future research endeavors including the identification and characterization of reaction by-products, the disposal of reaction products and reduction of the cost of enzymatic treatment. © 1997 SCI.     

Application of spectromicroscopy tools to explore local origins of sensor activity in quasi-1D oxide nanostructures

We have tested a range of imaging and spectroscopic techniques to address their ability to locally explore the interplay between surface reactivity and transport properties of the metal oxide nanostructure wired as a chemiresistor and chemi-FET. In particular, we used scanning surface potential microscopy (SSPM) to monitor the spatial and temporal particularities of the dc potential distributions in an operating device. We also successfully implemented synchrotron radiation-based photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) to explore submicron lateral compositional and electronic (work function) inhomogeneity on the surface of an individual nanowire sensor. These results open new avenues to visualize and spectroscopically address the chemical phenomena on an individual quasi-1D nanostructure both in real time and at nano-?and mesoscopic level.     

Effect of dairy powder rehydration state on gel formation during yogurt process

Protein fortification and solubilisation into the milk base are important parameters enhancing yogurt texture. In this study, the milk base prepared from reconstituted skim milk powder was fortified with 2% of 'aged' (1 year old) or 'fresh' micellar casein (MC) powder. Micellar casein powders were left to rehydrate at 20°C for different times (5 or 180, 300, 480, 900 or 1440 min) before acidification with glucono-delta-lactone. The rehydration of the MC powders into milk was monitored with a granulo-morphometer equipment, thus, for the first time, allowing the elucidation of MC rehydration process into an opaque environment such as milk. Whereas the gel point was delayed proportionally to the powder rehydration length, the storage modulus appears unaffected. Besides, the gelation onset was not altered by the powder age.     

The biochemical and cellular basis for nutraceutical strategies to attenuate neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease

Future therapeutic intervention that could effectively decelerate the rate of degeneration within the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) could add years of mobility and reduce morbidity associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). Neurodegenerative decline associated with PD is distinguished by extensive damage to SNc dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons and decay of the striatal tract. While genetic mutations or environmental toxins can precipitate pathology, progressive degenerative succession involves a gradual decline in DA neurotransmission/synaptic uptake, impaired oxidative glucose consumption, a rise in striatal lactate and chronic inflammation. Nutraceuticals play a fundamental role in energy metabolism and signaling transduction pathways that control neurotransmission and inflammation. However, the use of nutritional supplements to slow the progression of PD has met with considerable challenge and has thus far proven unsuccessful. This review re-examines precipitating factors and insults involved in PD and how nutraceuticals can affect each of these biological targets. Discussed are disease dynamics (Sections 1 and 2) and natural substances, vitamins and minerals that could impact disease processes (Section 3). Topics include nutritional influences on α-synuclein aggregation, ubiquitin proteasome function, mTOR signaling/lysosomal-autophagy, energy failure, faulty catecholamine trafficking, DA oxidation, synthesis of toxic DA-quinones, o-semiquinones, benzothiazolines, hyperhomocyseinemia, methylation, inflammation and irreversible oxidation of neuromelanin. In summary, it is clear that future research will be required to consider the multi-faceted nature of this disease and re-examine how and why the use of nutritional multi-vitamin-mineral and plant-based combinations could be used to slow the progression of PD, if possible.     

Thermodegradative study of HDPE–HA nanocomposites: IKP and E 2 function

IKP and E ₂ function methods were used to study thermal stability of HDPE–HA nanocomposites synthesized by in situ ethylene polymerization at different volumes of solvent and temperatures. Thermal analysis was carried out at five different heating rates, β = 3, 5, 7, 10, and 13 °C/min, under N₂ atmosphere. Kinetics parameters calculated by IKP method presented a slight increase on activation energy when HA was incorporated in HDPE. A similar tendency was observed in the results obtained from the E ₂ function method, where the activation energy of the nanocomposites increased 100 kJ/mol with respect to unfilled polymer (420–460 kJ/mol). These results implied higher stability of HDPE due to HA incorporation. HDPE and HDPE–HA degradation mechanisms are represented by a set of functions, those with the highest probability were: nucleation and nucleus growth (S3) 23 %, reaction order (S5) 16 %, reaction in the interface (S6. S7, S8) 11–14 %, and potential law (S14, S17) 3 %.     

STUDY OF EXTRACTION METHODS FOR HIGH-ASH COAL USING LOW-BOILING EXTRACTING AGENTS. I. SOLID PHASE EXTRACTION

ABSTRACT

The quality, as well as the quantity, of coal-derived liquids are investigated using low-boiling extracting agents in solid phase extraction (SPE). A broad range of solvents with different boiling point and polarity are studied in order to generate the desired coal-derived material. The column is packed with the coal under investigation and a sequence of solvents used to desorb the organic material trapped in the carbonaceous matrix. It is shown that the nature of the solvent, the solvent-to-coal ratio and the coal mesh size must be carefully controlled. The method is shown to be reliable for generating coal-derived products since it is performed under mild experimental conditions and generates amounts of material comparable to Soxhlet extraction procedures in much less time. In addition, it is cheap, easy to perform, fast and reproducible.     

Tuned interactions of silver nanoparticles with ZSM-5 zeolite by adhesion-promoting poly(acrylic acid) deposited by electrospray ionization (ESI)

The electrospray ionization (ESI) method was used for deposition of thin films of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) on Cu/ZSM-5 (5 wt.% Cu) and Ag–Cu/ZSM-5 (1 wt.% Ag and 4 wt.% Cu) composites. For comparative purposes, the ZSM-5 zeolite was synthesized under hydrothermal conditions and loaded with PAA under the same treating conditions as the composites. This method allowed the formation of uniform polymer films of controlled thickness on conductive substrates. The structural characteristics were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The deposited PAA layer over ZSM-5 acts as a common dispersing and stabilizing agent through coordination-driven guest-templated polymer via interaction of Ag⁺ and Cu²⁺ with carboxylic acid groups, thus increasing and controlling the adhesion and the release of metallic species. A short exposure to light and temperature has reduced the metal ions to Cu⁰ and Ag⁰ metallic nanoparticles. The results of XRD analysis let suggest that the interaction of Cu and Ag with carboxylic groups of PAA inhibits the formation of large metallic silver particles. These samples were being studied for their potential as antibacterial agents toward the bacterial strains such as Staphylococcus pneumonia, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, respectively. Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans as Fungi were also evaluated. The Cu/ZSM-5 and Ag–Cu/ZSM-5 nanocomposites coated with a 10 nm thick PAA layer exhibit significant antibacterial activity.     

Locally adaptive perceptual image coding

Most existing efforts in image and video compression have focused on developing methods to minimize not perceptual but rather mathematically tractable, easy to measure, distortion metrics. While nonperceptual distortion measures were found to be reasonably reliable for higher bit rates (high-quality applications), they do not correlate well with the perceived quality at lower bit rates and they fail to guarantee preservation of important perceptual qualities in the reconstructed images despite the potential for a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This paper presents a perceptual-based image coder, which discriminates between image components based on their perceptual relevance for achieving increased performance in terms of quality and bit rate. The new coder is based on a locally adaptive perceptual quantization scheme for compressing the visual data. Our strategy is to exploit human visual masking properties by deriving visual masking thresholds in a locally adaptive fashion based on a subband decomposition. The derived masking thresholds are used in controlling the quantization stage by adapting the quantizer reconstruction levels to the local amount of masking present at the level of each subband transform coefficient. Compared to the existing non-locally adaptive perceptual quantization methods, the new locally adaptive algorithm exhibits superior performance and does not require additional side information. This is accomplished by estimating the amount of available masking from the already quantized data and linear prediction of the coefficient under consideration. By virtue of the local adaptation, the proposed quantization scheme is able to remove a large amount of perceptually redundant information. Since the algorithm does not require additional side information, it yields a low entropy representation of the image and is well suited for perceptually lossless image compression.     

Selection of the optimum decomposition level using the discrete wavelet transform for automobile suspension system

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This paper discusses the determination of the optimum decomposition level by using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) method for an automobile...