Assessing the effectiveness of disease awareness programs: Evidence from Google Trends data for the world awareness dates

Objectives

The process of disease awareness distribution on the web was studied. The contribution of WHO world awareness days to the total awareness process over the internet was investigated.

Investigation of inter‐relationship between tensile behavior and photocatalytic activity of an acrylic‐based composite upon UVA exposure

The aim of this work is to produce a photocatalytic pseudo‐paint for benzene removal from air and find the role of TiO₂ nanoparticles, TiO₂ pigment, and CaCO₃ extender on photocatalytic performance of this paint along with their role on stress–strain behavior after ultraviolet (UV) exposure. For this purpose, TiO₂ nanoparticles were dispersed into an indoor paint resin (i.e., copolymer acrylic–styrene). The impact of main components of the paint on photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) rate of benzene was studied. It was found that dispersion of nanoparticles had the most dramatic effect on photo activity of nanocomposite. TiO₂ pigment generally increased PCO rate and also made the paint more stable under tensile stress. CaCO₃ may increase and/or decrease PCO of benzene, whether there is pigment in the formulation or not. However, it does not generally contribute to making the formulation resistant to UV exposure. Nanoparticles bring PCO and mechanical strength into the paint, but fail to strengthen the composite against UV deterioration. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44447.     

Analysis and suppression of spurious modes of the ring shape anchored RF MEMS contour mode disk resonator

One of the most encumbering issues in RF MEMS resonators is spurious modes. The problem of spurious modes becomes more critical, when the ring type resonators are used. In the ring shape anchored contour mode disk resonator, for achieving a low serial resistance, the inner radius of the disk must be increased. This causes the spurious modes to become too close to the desired mode and degrade the operation of the resonator. In this work, spurious modes of before-mentioned device are introduced and their characteristics are evaluated by exact analytical approach. Based on those analytical approaches, we introduce two techniques for spurious mode suppression. The first technique is based on exciting the desired mode by proper electrode engineering and hence is an electrical approach. The second technique is reconfiguring of the anchor from a continuous ring to crossed ring segments and locating the segments on the phase discriminating lines to increase the insertion loss for spurious modes and decrease the losses for the fundamental mode. The final harmonic analysis verifies that the proposed techniques result a resonator with a pure frequency spectrum and spurious modes excluded over a very wide frequency range.

     

Precise analytical evaluation of the ring shape anchored contour mode disk resonator for constructing a low noise UHF Pierce oscillator

This paper presents an analytical evaluation of the previously demonstrated Ring Shape Anchored Contour Mode Disk (RSACMD) resonator and extracts its equivalent electrical circuit. In the next step, a series resonant Pierce oscillator is designed and parameterized based on the calculated MEMS characteristics. Due to the inherent 180° of phase shift in the RSACMD resonator equivalent circuit, a modified version of a Pierce sustaining circuit is introduced with two inverters (instead of one inverter in conventional Pierce oscillators) to compensate that extra phase shift and satisfy Barkhausen criteria. The designed circuit presents excellent phase noise performance because of a special design which results in small frequency pulling and enable the circuit oscillate close to natural frequency of the high Q resonator. The overall circuit consumes less than 257 μW from a 1.8 V power supply.     

Prediction of fatigue life in cold expanded Al-alloy 2024-T3 plates used in double shear lap joints

To predict fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack growth lives in cold expanded double shear lap joints a numerical method has been employed. The total estimated fatigue lives were compared with available experimental fatigue test results for plain hole and cold expanded hole specimens of Al 2024-T3 in double shear lap joints. Three-dimensional finite element simulations have been performed in order to obtain the created residual stresses field due to cold expansion and subsequent far field longitudinal loading in the double shear lap joint. The obtained stress and strain distributions from the finite element analyses were employed to predict stress concentration factors to calculate fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack growth lives using AFGROW computer code. The predicted fatigue lives demonstrate that there is a good agreement between the proposed method and experimental fatigue test results.     

Effect of autochthonous starter cultures isolated from Siahmazgi cheese on physicochemical,microbiological and volatile compound profiles and sensorial attributes of sucuk,a Turkish dry-fermented sausage

The effect of adding autochthonous starter cultures isolated from Siahmazgi cheese, on the physicochemical parameters and microbial counts of sucuk was investigated during the ripening period. SPME–GC/MS was used in volatile compound analysis and a trained group of panelists carried out sensory analysis of the final product. After preliminary screening, three strains of Lactobacillus plantarum, which possess desirable technological properties, were used to prepare three starter cultures: LBP7, LBP10 and LBP14. The addition of LBP7 and LBP14 starter cultures had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on lightness, leading to higher L values compared to control sausages during the ripening period. Both LBP7 and LBP14 sausages showed higher counts of lactic acid bacteria, lower growth of Enterobacteriaceae and Gram-positive catalase-positive cocci and greatly lowered the pH value compared to control sausages throughout the ripening process. At the end of the ripening process, lactic acid bacteria counts were affected (P < 0.05) by the addition of starter culture since higher counts were observed in sausages prepared with LBP7 (9.14 log CFU/g) and LBP14 (8.96 log CFU/g) batches. The decrease of water activity during the ripening of sausages was not affected by the various starters. The texture profiles of all sausages were similar except for LBP10, which showed lower hardness and gumminess during ripening. Under the conditions of the study, volatile compounds were mainly from spices, and no marked differences were found among inoculated sausages. However, sensory evaluation revealed that most of the sensory attributes were scored higher for inoculated sausages than for the control ones. Therefore, LBP7 and LBP14 could be promising candidates for inclusion as starter cultures for the manufacture of sucuk.