The development of a single-item Food Choice Questionnaire

Based on the multi-item Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) originally developed by Steptoe and colleagues (1995), the current study developed a single-item FCQ that provides an acceptable balance between practical needs and psychometric concerns. Studies 1 (N = 1851) and 2 (2a (N = 3290), 2b (N = 4723), 2c (N = 270)) showed that the single-item FCQ scale has good convergent and discriminant validity. Generally, the results showed the highest correlations with the related multi-item dimensions (>0.40). Study 2 refined the scale. Only the items for convenience (Study 2a), sensory appeal (Study 2b) and mood (Study 2c) needed to be revised (as Study 1 showed a correlation between the multi-item and the single-item below the threshold of 0.60). The results also showed comparable predictive validity. Both methods revealed similar association patterns between food motives and consumption behaviours (Fisher’s z tests revealed agreements of 86.2% for Study 1, 92.9% for Study 2a and 100% for Studies 2b and 2c). Study 3 (N = 6062) showed an example of the added value of a context-specific application for the single-item FCQ. Different motives were shown to be relevant across contexts, and the context-specific motives had additional explained variance beyond the general multi-item FCQ. Studies 2b and 3 also showed the performance of the single-item FCQ in an international context. In sum, the results indicate that the single-item FCQ can be used as a flexible and short substitute for the multi-item FCQ. The study also discusses the conditions that should be considered when using the single-item scale.     

Biohydrogen Production from Organic Waste – A Review

Hydrogen fuel is a promising alternative to fossil fuels because of its energy content, clean nature, and fuel efficiency. However, it is not readily available. Most current producion processes are very energy intensive and emit carbon dioxide. Therefore, this article reviews technological options for hydrogen production that are eco-friendly and generate clean hydrogen fuel. Biological methods, such different fermentation processes and photolysis are discussed together with the required substrates and the process efficiency.     

Time-series clustering – A decade review

Clustering is a solution for classifying enormous data when there is not any early knowledge about classes. With emerging new concepts like cloud computing and big data and their vast applications in recent years, research works have been increased on unsupervised solutions like clustering algorithms to extract knowledge from this avalanche of data. Clustering time-series data has been used in diverse scientific areas to discover patterns which empower data analysts to extract valuable information from complex and massive datasets. In case of huge datasets, using supervised classification solutions is almost impossible, while clustering can solve this problem using un-supervised approaches. In this research work, the focus is on time-series data, which is one of the popular data types in clustering problems and is broadly used from gene expression data in biology to stock market analysis in finance. This review will expose four main components of time-series clustering and is aimed to represent an updated investigation on the trend of improvements in efficiency, quality and complexity of clustering time-series approaches during the last decade and enlighten new paths for future works.     

Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 to Ethylene by Molecular Cu‐Complex Immobilized on Graphitized Mesoporous Carbon

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to hydrocarbons is a challenging task because of the issues in controlling the efficiency and selectivity of the products. Among the various transition metals, copper has attracted attention as it yields more reduced and C2 products even while using mononuclear copper center as catalysts. In addition, it is found that reversible formation of copper nanoparticle acts as the real catalytically active site for the conversion of CO₂ to reduced products. Here, it is demonstrated that the dinuclear molecular copper complex immobilized over graphitized mesoporous carbon can act as catalysts for the conversion of CO₂ to hydrocarbons (methane and ethylene) up to 60%. Interestingly, high selectivity toward C2 product (40% faradaic efficiency) is achieved by a molecular complex based hybrid material from CO₂ in 0.1 m KCl. In addition, the role of local pH, porous structure, and carbon support in limiting the mass transport to achieve the highly reduced products is demonstrated. Although the spectroscopic analysis of the catalysts exhibits molecular nature of the complex after 2 h bulk electrolysis, morphological study reveals that the newly generated copper cluster is the real active site during the catalytic reactions.     

Economic Indicators

Currency exchanges rates – updated monthly. Economic indicators of industrial production. Countries included: France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan (Total G-7), Eurozone and Total EU-28 (Total OECD). Updated monthly. Economic indicators of car registration in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Japan, Republic of Korea and Other OECD (Total OECD-30). Updated monthly. Monthly averages of crude steel production in thousand metric tons for the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Iran, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Australia.     

A model for multicomponent diffusion in oxide melts

A general flux equation for multicomponent diffusion in oxide melts is presented. An explicit method was developed to calculate the gradients of single-ion activities from those of oxides with the constraints of local equilibrium and electroneutrality. This resolves ambiguity in quantifying the thermochemical driving force for ionic diffusion. A model equation for multicomponent ionic diffusion was derived within the framework of non-equilibrium thermodynamics by de Groot and Mazur. The proposed model takes empirically measurable quantities as input variables, so the diffusion calculations are consistent with thermochemical data, as furnished by the CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams) method, as well as ionic mobility measurements. Although the model is derived for oxides, it can be applied to diffusion in other concentrated liquid electrolytes, such as chloride and fluoride melts. Formulas for multicomponent ionic diffusion in various reference frames are presented with respect to mole fraction.     

关于提升电视专题节目制作质量的对策研究

在广播电视行业不断发展条件下,电视专题节目制作也受到受众高度重视。这就应提高电视专题节目制作质量,在满足广大受众日常观看要求同时,使得我国广播电视行业向着现代化方向发展。针对电视专题节目制作进行研究,首先阐述电视专题节目制作特点,之后阐述电视专题节目制作质量问题和相关提升对策。在解决电视专题节目制作问题同时,提升电视专题节目制作质量,继而彰显电视专题节目制作优势。     

Automated and Continuous Production of Microstructured Metallic Plates via Cold Embossing

Many critical issues need to be addressed when microstructured reactors are manufactured in large unit volumes. The most crucial of these are cost, ease of production, and reliability. The lack of breakthrough manufacturing technology to provide high‐efficiency, low‐cost, high‐precision plates is a hindrance to the early market implementation of systems requiring metallic microstructured plates. This contribution focuses on the development and optimization of a combined embossing and bending tool for the quick and continuous manufacture of easily machined plates.     

Mining fleet management systems: a review of models and algorithms

The objective of this paper is to review and document the mine fleet management systems’ models and algorithms. The purpose is to understand the algorithms behind the fleet management systems and the proposed academic solutions in this area to identify any gaps in the current literature and to open up opportunities to establish research questions that need to be addressed in an integrated simulation and optimisation operational planning research framework. In this paper, we review industrial fleet management systems and the main academic algorithms behind such systems. The fleet management systems are divided into three subsequently related problems to review: shortest path, production optimisation and real-time dispatching. Finally, the limitations of current algorithms for fleet management systems are documented in terms of mining practice feasibility and optimality of the solution on large-scale problems. The results of this literature review enable us to evaluate the logical links between major components of an integrated simulation and optimisation operational planning framework with current theory of fleet management systems.     

Advanced Surface of Fibrous Activated Carbon Immobilized with FeO/TiO2 for Photocatalytic Evolution of Hydrogen under Visible Light

FeO-doped TiO₂ nanoparticle photocatalysts were immobilized onto the surface of fibrous activated carbon (ACF) via a sol-gel process. As an adsorbent and photocatalyst, FeO-TiO₂ on immobilized ACFs (FeO-TiO₂/ACF) greatly improved the photocatalysis rate of hydrogen production as compared with pure TiO₂ and ACF-TiO₂ under UV irradiation and visible light. The addition of ACFs surface significantly reduced the photogenerated pairs of electrons-hole recombination, thereby promoting the photocatalysis action of doped photo-metal oxides of FeO-TiO₂. Co-doping of FeO onto the lattice of the TiO₂ approach can improve the absorption activity of visible light through photo-metal oxide of TiO₂ and further enhance hydrogen production under visible light. The photocatalytic fabrics (FeO-TiO₂/ACF) were effortlessly split out from the experimental solution for re-utilization and exhibited high stability even after five complete regeneration cycles.