Microbiological study of effects of solid organic waste (chicken droppings and sheep manure) decomposed in the soil used for Pisum sativum cultivation

ABSTRACT

Organic agriculture uses biofertilisers which can increase yields and enhance qualities of foodstuffs. This present work examines the composting of chicken droppings and sheep manure and their effects on Pisum sativum cultivation. The biodiversity of chicken droppings’ filamentous fungi is different from that of sheep manure. In addition, filamentous fungi associated with the decomposition of chicken droppings in the soil were mainly pathogenic and phytopathogenic fungal species. The study has shown that sheep manure is a good biofertiliser to improve crop yield and quality. The use of chicken droppings as biofertilisers without maturation may cause risks to the environment and public health.     

Diagnostic,Prognostic, and Mechanistic Biomarkers of Diabetes Mellitus-Associated Cognitive Decline

Cognitive dysfunctions such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and other forms of dementia are recognized as common comorbidities of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Currently, there are no disease-modifying therapies or definitive clinical diagnostic and prognostic tools for dementia, and the mechanisms underpinning the link between T2DM and cognitive dysfunction remain equivocal. Some of the suggested pathophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive decline in diabetes patients include hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and altered insulin signaling, neuroinflammation, cerebral microvascular injury, and buildup of cerebral amyloid and tau proteins. Given the skyrocketing global rates of diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders, there is an urgent need to discover novel biomarkers relevant to the co-morbidity of both conditions to guide future diagnostic approaches. This review aims to provide a comprehensive background of the potential risk factors, the identified biomarkers of diabetes-related cognitive decrements, and the underlying processes of diabetes-associated cognitive dysfunction. Aging, poor glycemic control, hypoglycemia and hyperglycemic episodes, depression, and vascular complications are associated with increased risk of dementia. Conclusive research studies that have attempted to find specific biomarkers are limited. However, the most frequent considerations in such investigations are related to C reactive protein, tau protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, advanced glycation end products, glycosylated hemoglobin, and adipokines.     

Elasto‐aerodynamic lubrication analysis of a self‐acting air foil journal bearing

Nowadays, air foil bearings find widespread use in very high speed, lightly loaded oil‐free rotating turbomachineries such as compressors and microgas turbines because they have theoretically no speed limitations and they are environmentally benign. In the design of such bearings, it is of cardinal importance to enhance their steady‐state and dynamic performance characteristics for the safety operation, especially against the external dynamic excitations. Most of elasto‐aerodynamic approaches under dynamic conditions proposed in the technical literature include only the static pressure induced deformation of foils. This paper presents a theoretical investigation on the effects of both static and dynamic deformations of the foils on the dynamic performance characteristics and stability of a self‐acting air foil journal bearing operating under small harmonic vibrations. For the dynamic deformations of foils to be taken into account, the perturbation method is used for determining the gas‐film stiffness and damping coefficients for given values of excitation frequency, compressibility number and compliance factor of the bump foil. The rotor‐dynamic coefficients serve as input data for the linear stability analysis of rotor‐bearing system. The nonlinear stationary Reynolds' equation is solved by means of the Galerkin's finite element formulation, whereas the finite differences method are used to solve the first‐order complex dynamic equations resulting from the perturbation of the transient compressible Reynolds' equation. As a first approximation, the corrugated subfoil is modelled as a simple elastic foundation, i.e. the stiffness of a bump is uniformly distributed throughout the bearing surface. It was found that the dynamic properties and stability of the compliant finite length journal bearing are significantly affected by the compliance of foils especially when the dynamic deformation of foils is considered in addition to the static one by applying the principle of superposition. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Additive manufacturing technology: the status,applications, and prospects

Additive manufacturing (AM) has first emerged in 1987 with the invention of stereolithography. The AM is an important, rapidly emerging, manufacturing technology that takes the information from a computer-aided design (CAD) and builds parts in a layer-by-layer style. As this technology offers many advantages such as manufacturing of complex geometries, reducing manufacturing cost and energy consumption, it has transformed manufacturing from the mass production to the mass customization. Also, it has found wide applications in several fields although some drawbacks. This paper presents the state of the art of the different AM processes, the material processing issues, and the post-processing operations. A comparison between AM and conventional processes is presented as well. We finish by presenting some prospects of this technology such as hybrid manufacturing and 4D printing.     

Substrate heterostructure effects on interface composition,microstructure development and functional properties of PZT thin films

Platinum- and (La_0.8,Sr_0.2)MnO₃ (LSMO)-terminated silicon substrates were used for the liquid-phase deposition of Pb(Zr_0.52,Ti_0.48)O₃ (PZT) thin films. Different layer thicknesses ranging from 100 to 600 nm were processed by sequential coating. Characterization of the films involved X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with depth profiling to probe the interface composition. The films deposited on Pt exhibit an intermetallic layer, Pt_xPb, after annealing at 500 °C in air. This film has been used to establish the XPS signature of the intermetallic phase which consists of a negative shift of the peak position of Pt(4f) due the electron transfer from Pb to Pt. In all cases pure phase perovskite thin films were obtained after short annealing at 700 °C. XPS depth profiling shows unambiguously the existence of an intermetallic layer, Pt_xPb, of approximately 10 nm at the interface between Pt and PZT, while an interdiffusion layer of ～30 nm was observed between LSMO and PZT. The impacts of interfacial layers on microstructure development and functional properties translate in the formation of specific textures, i.e. a pronounced (1 1 1)-texture on Pt due to lattice matching between (1 1 1)-PZT and (1 1 1)-Pt_xPb, and a random film orientation on LSMO, and a substantial thickness dependence of the dielectric and ferroelectric properties, though specific behaviors were observed for the two different substrate heterostructures.     

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and FTIR studies of vanadium barium phosphate glasses

Barium vanadophosphate glasses, having composition 50BaO–xV₂O₅–(50 − x)P₂O₅, (x = 0–50 mol%), were prepared by conventional melt quench method. Density, molar volume and glass transition temperature (T_g) were measured as a function of V₂O₅ content. Structural investigation was done using XPS and FTIR spectroscopy. First, substitution of the P₂O₅ by the V₂O₅ in the metaphosphate 50BaO–50P₂O₅ glass increases the density and T_g and decreases the molar volume. When the amount of V₂O₅ increases, all these properties show a reverse trend. XPS measurement found in the O1s, P2p, and V2p core level spectra indicate the presence of primarily P–O–P, P–O–V and V–O–V structural bonds, the asymmetry in the P 2p spectra indeed arises from the spin-orbit splitting of P 2p core level, and more than one valence state of V ions being present. IR spectroscopy reveals the depolymerization of the phosphate glass network by systematic conversion of metaphosphate chains into pyrophosphate groups and then orthophosphate groups. Even though metaphosphate to pyrophosphate conversion is taking place due to breaking of P–O–P linkages, formation of P–O–V and P–O–Ba linkages provide cross linking between short P-structural units, which make the glass network more rigid. Above 10–20 mol% V₂O₅ content, network is highly depolymerized due to the formation of orthophosphate units and V–O–V bridge bonds, resulting in poor cross-linking, making the glass network less rigid.     

Energy Detection Approach for Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Systems with the Use of Random Sampling

In radiomobile contexte, radio frequency spectrum is a ressource that needs to be used with appropriate efficiency. This can be achieved by the mean of spectrum sensing operation. This function consists to analyze the occupancy of the radio frequency spectrum in order to detect which bands are unused. This concept is largely appreciated in cognitive radio where more flexibility is required to adapt to the communication environment. Different techniques are presented in the literature. In this paper, we are interested by the application of the energy detector method for spectrum sensing. This application is performed in cognitive radio systems with the use of random sampling. The performance of this approach is evaluated in term of its receiver operating characteristic curve and compared to the uniform sampling case.     

Properties of electropolymerised polyaniline thin films obtained from different supporting electrolytes

This work reports on the properties of polyaniline (PANI) films electrochemically synthesised onto indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate from a mixed solution of 0.1?M aniline with three different types of supporting electrolytes: HNO₃, H₂SO₄ and H₃PO₄. In order to investigate the effect of dopant on the behaviour of polyaniline different techniques have been employed. These characterisations were made using photoelectrochemical, FTIR and Raman spectroscopies, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, UV–vis spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry and photoluminescence techniques. The potocurent transients show a change of PANI films conductivity from p-type to n-type by changing the supporting electrolytes. The FTIR technique and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the formation of PANI thin film on ITO substrates. The morphology of the electropolymerised PANI thin films is closely related to the supporting electrolytes. Compact and spongy morphologies were observed for PANI films deposited in different supporting electrolytes. The optical measurements show an optical transmittance in the visible region, with variations depending on the nature of electrolytes.     

Hf-based high-<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis> materials for Si nanocrystal floating gate memories

Pure and Si-rich HfO₂ layers fabricated by radio frequency sputtering were utilized as alternative tunnel oxide layers for high-k/Si-nanocrystals-SiO₂/SiO₂ memory structures. The effect of Si incorporation on the properties of Hf-based tunnel layer was investigated. The Si-rich SiO₂ active layers were used as charge storage layers, and their properties were studied versus deposition conditions and annealing treatment. The capacitance-voltage measurements were performed to study the charge trapping characteristics of these structures. It was shown that with specific deposition conditions and annealing treatment, a large memory window of about 6.8 V is achievable at a sweeping voltage of ± 6 V, indicating the utility of these stack structures for low-operating-voltage nonvolatile memory devices.     

Circuit models of multiconductor shielded cables: incident plane wave effect

The present study examines the variation effects of incident plane wave on multiconductor shielded cables in frequency domains using Branin's method, which is referred to as the method of characteristics. The model operates in frequency and time domains with linear and nonlinear loads, respectively, which allows it to be easily introduced into circuit simulators, such as SPICE, Sabar, and ESACAP. Two examples are studied: coaxial shielded cables and shielded cables with two parallel wires (i.e., twinax cables), and they are both excited by an incident plane wave. The results obtained by this method are in agreement with those obtained by other methods. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.