110023 research outputs found
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Biomass poplar catkin fiber-based superhydrophobic aerogel with tubular-lamellar interweaved neurons-like structure
No full text[[abstract]]Superhydrophobic aerogels are attractive candidates in controlling oil spills. The major challenges for existing aerogels are the construction of mechanical endurance as well as accessible of building materials. Herein, a newfangled biomass superhydrophobic aerogel (M-PCF/CS) with both superior compressibility and oil caption speed is fabricated by assembling poplar catkin fiber (PCF) hollowed-out shell of 330 nm and chitosan (CS) into tubular-lamellar interweaved neurons-like structure. The resultant aerogels (porosity ~ 96.12%), with flexuous PCF as the elastic buffer and second-pore capillaries, exhibit large longitudinal and transverse compressibility, endurable fatigue tolerance, fast oil sorption rate with a capacity of 28.8–78.1 g/g at 5–25 s. In parallel, the aerogels are tolerant of NaCl, UV radiation, and organic solvents without superhydrophobic variation and a case of oil spill remediation via pump-supported experiment shows that the aerogels facilely achieve continuous oil recycling from seawater by 23052–43956 L·m–2·h–1. Furthermore, the resultant M-PCF/CS, with assistance of an oscillator, can be applied to separate oil/water emulsions with efficiency of 98.07–99.11%. The successful fabrication of this material provides a new design strategy for the construction of mechanically robust aerogels for speedy and economical cleanup of oil pollutants from water
以服務使用者需求建構零約束的長期照顧模式
No full text[[abstract]]One of the important issues in current aging society in Taiwan when making long-term care policy is to provide fundamental financial support for family caregivers who are withdrawn from workforce due to the need to return home to care for their elderly family members. The aim of the research was to construct a feasible family caregiver payment system to fulfill the need of family caregivers. This study employed field research to assess the execution of elderly family care service through observation and interview with 3 care workers and 3 government officials in order to evaluate the feasibility of family caregiver payment based on elderly family care. The result of the study showed that the key success factor for family caregiver system depends on the payment system and practical guidance. Elder family care and family care payment can be integrated by paying 2 family caregivers to provide 24 hours to care for 4-6 disabled elderly in the home environment according to their available physical space at home. Therefore, the requirement for family caregivers should be re-evaluated when making family caregiving policy
Research on the Trusted Online Examination Systems
No full text[[abstract]]In recent years, due to the threat of the new crown
pneumonia (Covid-19), to avoid cluster infections, the
way of online teaching has rapidly formed a trend. To
maintain the authenticity and fairness of exams, teachers
in many colleges and universities have formulated various
solutions for students cheating in online exams. Therefore, cheating methods and proctoring techniques have
become the two most important issues in online teaching. This paper collects and analyzes relevant literature
on online cheating and online proctoring techniques from
2015 to 2022. We concluded that personal and environmental factors mainly influenced why students cheated.
Most types of cheating are plagiarism, plagiarism, collusion, and imposter. Teachers do their best to prevent
students from cheating. Electronic monitoring, authentication, and change assessment methods are the most
common method. However, no matter which method is
used, it cannot obtain satisfactory results. Other academics object to using technology or methods to control
student exams. Return to the essence of education and
cultivate talents who can manage themselves. Such arguments are not an immediate solution to the current problem of cheating on online exams. This paper synthesizes
the opinions and practices of various works of literature
and argues that adopting multiple evaluation methods is
the closest approach to fairness and effectiveness. The
essence of education is to guide value creation, cultivate
ethical thinking, and acquire knowledge and ability. It is
also necessary to rely on the advancement of information
technology to improve the design of learning management
systems (LMS) to break through the blind spots of current online exam cheating and proctoring techniques
Adsorptive removal of some Cl-VOC’s as dangerous environmental pollutants using feather-like γ-Al2O3 derived from aluminium waste with life cycle analysis
No full text[[abstract]]Herein, we designed a cost-effective preparation method of nanocomposite γ-Al2O3 derived from Al-waste. The produced material has a feather-like morphology, and its adsorption of some chlorinated volatile organic compounds (Cl-VOC's) such as benzyl chloride, chloroform and carbon tetrachloride (C7H7Cl, CHCl3 and CCl4) was investigated due to their potential carcinogenic effect on humans. It showed a characteristic efficiency towards the adsorptive removal of these compounds over a long period, i.e., eight continuous weeks, at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. After 8-weeks, the adsorbed amounts of these compounds were determined as: 325.3 mg C7H7Cl, 247.6 mg CHCl3 and 253.3 mg CCl4 per g of γ-Al2O3, respectively. CCl4 was also found to be dissociatively adsorbed on the surface of γ-Al2O3, whereas CHCl3 and C7H7Cl were found to be associatively adsorbed. The prepared γ-Al2O3 has a relatively high surface area (i.e., 192.2 m2. g?1) and mesoporosity with different pore diameters in the range of 25–47 ?. Furthermore, environmental impacts of the nanocomposite γ-Al2O3 preparation were evaluated using life cycle assessment. For prepartion of adsorbent utilising 1 kg of scrap aluminium wire, it was observed that potential energy demand was 288 MJ, climate change potential was 19 kg CO2 equivalent, acidification potential was 0.115 kg SO2 equivalent and eutrophication potential was 0.018 kg PO43? equivalent
Deciphering the pharmacological potentials of Aganosma cymosa (Roxb.) G. Don using in vitro and computational methods
No full text[[abstract]]The methanolic leaf extract of A. cymosa yielded significant (60-75%) free radical scavenging activity in ABTS [2,2’-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)] and DPPH (2,2’-diphenyl 1-picryl hydrazyl) assays, in the concentration range of 10-100 μg/mL. The extract showed antioxidant efficacy of 30-65% in reducing power assay and 55% inhibition in nitric oxide scavenging assay against ascorbic acid positive control. The plant extract exhibited modest inhibition against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the fungal strain, Echinodontium tinctorium. The IC50 value of the extract was 100 μg/mL against MCF-7 breast cancer cells in MTT assay. The extract yielded 22-65% inhibition at 100-800 μg/mL concentration range in RBC membrane stabilization assay. Qualitative phytochemical screening revealed the presence of several classes of primary and secondary metabolites. Quantitative analysis revealed a high content of phenolic and flavonoid molecules. GC-MS profile of the plant extract revealed the presence of 44 bioactive compounds. Network analysis of key breast cancer proteins from differentially expressed genes aided in selecting the key proteins involved in breast cancer pathophysiology. ADMET-SAR analysis was done to assess the potential bioactivity of selected compounds. From the molecular docking results, coprostanol, 4-methylcatechol, pyrocatechol and indole were found to act as ligands of breast cancer target proteins. Furthermore, in molecular dynamics simulations (50 ns), the receptor-ligand complexes were stable for 50 nanoseconds. The results indicate that coprostanol is the principal component for binding to the selected breast cancer receptor proteins. Together, the results suggest that the phytochemicals explored herein exert the beneficial biological activities of A. cymosa
Enhancement of lipid accumulation in microalga Desmodesmus sp. VV2: Response Surface Methodology and Artificial Neural Network modeling for biodiesel production
No full text[[abstract]]Microalgae are the most attractive renewable energy sources for the production of biofuels because of their luxurious growth and lipid accumulation ability in diverse nutritional conditions. In the present study, Desmodesmus sp. VV2, an indigenous microalga, was evaluated for its biodiesel potential using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to improve the lipid accumulation with the combination of nutrients stress NaNO3 starvation, CaCl2 depletion, and supplementation of magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO). Among different stress conditions, 57.6% lipid content was achieved from RSM optimized media. Owing to this, RSM results were also validated by the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with 11 training algorithms and it is found that RSM was more significant. In addition, the saturated fatty acid (SFA) content was noticeably increased in RSM optimized media (95.8%) while compared with control. Further, the highest total FAME content 97.21% was also achieved in cells grown in RSM optimized media. Biodiesel quality parameters were analyzed and found that they are in accordance with international standards. Thus, this study suggesting that the fatty acid profile of Desmodesmus sp. VV2 attained under optimized media conditions would be suitable for biodiesel production for future energy demand
Temporal dynamic drought interpretation of Sawa Lake: case study located at the Southern Iraqi region
No full text[[abstract]]Sawa Lake is a historical, cultural, and environmental landmark of great importance in education and tourism. Its unique advantages make it a potential global natural heritage and geopark in 2021. The current research is devoted to investigate and assess the actual reasons behind the rapid decline of the water level of Sawa Lake, which has begun to drop dramatically in an unprecedented situation. Landsat data are employed for interpreting the temporal and spatial changes of both water and vegetation covers. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data are used for water volume estimation. Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index was used in comparing the rainfall rate to the changing of land use-land cover. Additionally, the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index are established on the Landsat OLI imageries using ENVI 5.3 software. The data analysis showed that one of the most important reasons for the Sawa Lake water level drop is the massive pumping of the groundwater from a site located to the south of the lake to feed the Mamlahat Al-Samawa from which NaCl is extracted
Acute, Subchronic, and Chronic Complications of Radical Prostatectomy versus Radiotherapy with Hormone Therapy in Older Adults with High-Risk Prostate Adenocarcinoma
No full text[[abstract]]Purpose: To compare acute, subchronic, and chronic complications between older patients with high-risk localized prostate cancer (HR-LPC) receiving radical prostatectomy (RP) and high-dose intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) combined with long-term hormone therapy (HT).
Patients and methods: We recruited older patients (?80 years) with HR-LPC from the Taiwan Cancer Registry database. After propensity score matching, logistic regression analysis was used to compare the acute, subchronic, and chronic complication rates between patients who underwent RP (the RP group) and high-dose IMRT combined with long-term HT (the IMRT+HT group).
Results: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) symptoms and urinary incontinence (UI) were the most common complications over 5 years (BPH symptoms: RP, 17.69%; IMRT+HT, 29.58%; UI: RP, 10.47%; IMRT+HT, 5.50%). Compared with the RP group, the IMRT+HT group had higher odds of BPH symptoms and lower odds of UI and hernia after the 5-year follow-up period. The impotence rates were significantly higher in the IMRT+HT group than in the RP group at 3 months and 1 year after treatment and became nonsignificant after 2 years. At 5 years after treatment, the IMRT+HT group had lower risks of UI (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.88) and hernia (aOR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.11-0.82) and a higher risk of BPH symptoms (aOR, 4.15; 95% CI, 2.82-7.37) than the RP group.
Conclusion: IMRT+HT was associated with lower UI and hernia risks than RP. By contrast, RP was associated with fewer complications of BPH over the follow-up period and less impotence during the first year after treatment. Our findings provide important and valuable references for shared decision-making for optimal therapy selection among older men with HR-LPC
Bioactivity Study of Tricyclic and Tetracyclic Genipin Derivatives as Anti-inflammatory Agents
No full text[[abstract]]A series of genipin derivatives included tricyclic cyclopentaimidazopyridine, cyclopentapyridopyrimidine, octahydrocyclopentapyridodiazepine, and tetracyclic decahydrobenzoimidazocyclopentapyridine were synthesized and developed as anti-inflammatory agents. All of them were tested against NO production in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells. Based on IC50 data and the SAR study, we found that tricyclic cyclopentaimidazopyridines 3d–f and 7–9 presented the better inhibitory activities (≦ 28.1 μM) in comparison with the reference standard Indomethacin (166 μM). On the other hand, all of them showed inactivity for in vitro cyclooxygenase COX-2 inhibition assays and compounds 8 and 9 possessed the cell toxity. To explore the further anti-inflammatory mechanism, Western blot analysis was carried out. Furthermore, compound 3d shown better bioactivity than Indomethacin. The suppression of NF-κB signal pathway by compound 3d was also determined. To sum-up, compound 3d would be the potential anti-inflammatory lead compound
