Clear Solution Research Articles

Promoting Sleep and Balanced Screen Time among School-Aged Children with Neurodevelopmental and Mental Health Disorders: A Parent Perspective.

Background: Children with neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders (N/MHD), such as autism spectrum, mood disorders, and anxiety, are more likely to engage in excessive screen time, receive insufficient sleep, and to have obesity than neurotypical peers. However, little is known about how parents of these children approach promoting sleep and balanced screen time. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with 24 parents of children aged 8-15 years with a diagnosis of N/MHD to assess barriers and facilitators to promoting sleep and balanced screen time. Interviews were transcribed, double-coded using constant comparative methods, and summarized into themes using NVivo 11. Results: Many parents described children's chronic sleep challenges, often compounded by screen use and no clear solutions. When feeling overwhelmed, some parents reluctantly reported co-sleeping or allowing gaming devices in bed. Nearly all participants reported chronic, occasionally severe, conflict when managing children's screen time, with some parents experiencing opposition and physical aggression. Parents struggled to weigh the benefits of screen use (i.e., behavior management, learning, and social connection) with the costs (i.e., reduced self-care and limited physical activity). To combat barriers, parents described firm routines (i.e., "screens off" time and consistent bedtime on weekdays and weekends), moderating access (i.e., shutting down internet and no device in bedroom), verbal priming, and coping strategies (i.e., music and books). Conclusions: Parents of children with N/MHD face unique challenges in promoting sleep and balanced screen time. Given these behaviors may impact weight status and mental health, future interventions should examine ways to support parents in reducing conflict while promoting healthy habits.

Bioethanol Production from an Underutilized Plant, Calabash (Crescentia Cujete) Using Co-Culture of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and Cronobacter Malonaticus

Response surface methodology (RSM) model was used to optimize ethanol production from calabash (Crescentia cujete) pulp juice using co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Cronobacter malonaticus. The calabash pulp was squeezed with muslin cloth, and vacuum filtered to clear solution before use. The clear juice was tested for reducing sugars using the Dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method. Twenty three runs (23), including 3 controls, of the fermentation were conducted at varying temperatures, pH, and volumes of inoculum. The process parameters (input variables): volumes of inoculum, temperature, and pH were subjected to response surface model, using the Central composite design (CCD). Fermentation was done in conical flasks covered with cotton wool and foil in a stationary incubator for four days (96 hours). Active co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Cronobacter malonaticus was used, with inoculum developed using Marcfaland’s method. Samples were collected every 24 hours, centrifuged, filtered and analyzed for measurement of the output variables: reducing sugar, cell density and ethanol concentration. The concentration of reducing sugars from Calabash pulp was 3.2 mg/ml. Results obtained also revealed that the fermentation can take place on a wide range of temperature; 29-31.60C . The optimal pH range for performance of the co-culture for the fermentation process was pH range 7.9- 8.0. The optimum volume of inoculum was 5.5%v/v (ie 5.5 ml in 94.5ml juice). The optimized process using the RSM model gave 6.97% v/v bioethanol at 29oC and pH 7.9. The bioethanol yield from Calabash substrate is reasonable with co-culture considering the concentration of reducing sugars obtained from the juice and the duration of the fermentation.

Denture-Soaking Solution Containing Piper betle Extract-Loaded Polymeric Micelles; Inhibition of Candida albicans, Clinical Study, and Effects on Denture Base Resin.

Candida albicans is a common overgrowth in people wearing dentures. Long-term use of antifungal chemicals carries a risk of toxic side effects. This study focused on the edible Piper betle extract because of its safety. The broth dilution method was applied for antifungal determination of the ethyl acetate fractionated extract (fEA) and fEA-loaded polymeric micelles (PMF). The PMF was prepared by thin-film hydration using poloxamer 407 as a polymer base. The results found that the weight ratio of fEA to polymer is the main factor to obtain PMF system as a clear solution, nanoparticle sizes, narrow size distribution, negative zeta potential, and high entrapment efficiency. The activity of PMF against C. albicans is significantly higher than fEA alone, with a minimum fungicidal concentration of 1.5 mg/mL. PMF from 1:3 ratio of fEA to polymer is used to develop a denture-soaking solution contained 1.5 mg fEA/mL (PMFS). A clinical study on dentures of 15 volunteers demonstrated an 86.1 ± 9.2% reduction of C. albicans after soaking the dentures in PMFS daily for 14 days. Interestingly, PMFS did not change the hardness and roughness of the denture base resins. The developed PMFS may serve as a potential natural denture-soaking solution against candidiasis in denture wearers.

Expert Opinion on the Management of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in the Middle East with a Focus on the Use of Silymarin

Non-alcoholic fatty disease (NAFLD) is amongst the leading causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. The prevalence of NAFLD in the Middle East is 32%, similar to that observed worldwide. The clinicians in this region face several challenges in diagnosing and treating patients with NAFLD. Additionally, there are no national or regional guidelines to address the concerns faced with current treatment options. Silymarin, derived from milk thistle, provides a rational and clinically proven approach to hepatoprotection. This article focuses on addressing regional diagnostic challenges and provides clear guidance and potential solutions for the use of Silymarin in the treatment of NAFLD in the Middle East. Both clinical and preclinical studies have highlighted the efficiency of Silymarin in managing NAFLD by reducing liver disease progression and improving patient symptoms and quality of life, alongside being safe and well tolerated. An expert panel of professionals from the Middle East convened to establish a set of regional-specific diagnostics. A consensus was established to aid general physicians to address the diagnostic challenges in the region. In conclusion, Silymarin can be considered beneficial in treating NAFLD and should be initiated as early as possible and continued as long as necessary.

High Ionic-Conducting Li-ion Argyrodites Synthesized Using a Simple and Economic Liquid-Phase Approach and Their Application in All Solid-State-Lithium Batteries

We develop a new solution synthesis strategy for producing high ionic-conducting sulfide solid electrolyte using ethylenediamine (EDA) solvent. Here, we follow three simple steps: dissolve the precursor in ethylenediamine solvent to form the clear solution, then removing a solvent at 180 °C followed by heat treatment. The prepared Li5.5MPS4.5Cl1.5 electrolyte demonstrated the high ionic conductivity of 2.87 mS cm-1 at 25 °C. Further, fabricated solid battery using optimized electrolyte exhibited a high initial discharge capacity of 175.7 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C rate. Moreover, the synthesis technique is a convenient and quick process, thus facilitating mass production of solid electrolytes.

Expanding Our Understanding of COVID-19 from Biomedical Literature Using Word Embedding.

A better understanding of the clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is urgently required to address this health crisis. Numerous researchers and pharmaceutical companies are working on developing vaccines and treatments; however, a clear solution has yet to be found. The current study proposes the use of artificial intelligence methods to comprehend biomedical knowledge and infer the characteristics of COVID-19. A biomedical knowledge base was established via FastText, a word embedding technique, using PubMed literature from the past decade. Subsequently, a new knowledge base was created using recently published COVID-19 articles. Using this newly constructed knowledge base from the word embedding model, a list of anti-infective drugs and proteins of either human or coronavirus origin were inferred to be related, because they are located close to COVID-19 on the knowledge base. This study attempted to form a method to quickly infer related information about COVID-19 using the existing knowledge base, before sufficient knowledge about COVID-19 is accumulated. With COVID-19 not completely overcome, machine learning-based research in the PubMed literature will provide a broad guideline for researchers and pharmaceutical companies working on treatments for COVID-19.

Quantifying the Effects of Vibration on Medicines in Transit Caused by Fixed-Wing and Multi-Copter Drones

The concept of transporting medical products by drone is gaining a lot of interest amongst the medical and logistics communities. Such innovation has generated several questions, a key one being the potential effects of flight on the stability of medical products. The aims of this study were to quantify the vibration present within drone flight, study its effect on the quality of the medical insulin through live flight trials, and compare the effects of vibration from drone flight with traditional road transport. Three trials took place in which insulin ampoules and mock blood stocks were transported to site and flown using industry standard packaging by a fixed-wing or a multi-copter drone. Triaxial vibration measurements were acquired, both in-flight and during road transit, from which overall levels and frequency spectra were derived. British Pharmacopeia quality tests were undertaken in which the UV spectra of the flown insulin samples were compared to controls of known turbidity. In-flight vibration levels in both the drone types exceeded road induced levels by up to a factor of three, and predominant vibration occurred at significantly higher frequencies. Flown samples gave clear insulin solutions that met the British Pharmacopoeia specification, and no aggregation of insulin was detected.

Exploring the Association Between the "Big Five" Personality Traits and Fatal Opioid Overdose: County-Level Empirical Analysis.

BackgroundOpioid-related deaths constitute a problem of pandemic proportions in the United States, with no clear solution in sight. Although addressing addiction—the heart of this problem—ought to remain a priority for health practitioners, examining the community-level psychological factors with a known impact on health behaviors may provide valuable insights for attenuating this health crisis by curbing risky behaviors before they evolve into addiction.ObjectiveThe goal of this study is twofold: to demonstrate the relationship between community-level psychological traits and fatal opioid overdose both theoretically and empirically, and to provide a blueprint for using social media data to glean these psychological factors in a real-time, reliable, and scalable manner.MethodsWe collected annual panel data from Twitter for 2891 counties in the United States between 2014-2016 and used a novel data mining technique to obtain average county-level “Big Five” psychological trait scores. We then performed interval regression, using a control function to alleviate omitted variable bias, to empirically test the relationship between county-level psychological traits and the prevalence of fatal opioid overdoses in each county.ResultsAfter controlling for a wide range of community-level biopsychosocial factors related to health outcomes, we found that three of the operationalizations of the five psychological traits examined at the community level in the study were significantly associated with fatal opioid overdoses: extraversion (β=.308, P<.001), neuroticism (β=.248, P<.001), and conscientiousness (β=.229, P<.001).ConclusionsAnalyzing the psychological characteristics of a community can be a valuable tool in the local, state, and national fight against the opioid pandemic. Health providers and community health organizations can benefit from this research by evaluating the psychological profile of the communities they serve and assessing the projected risk of fatal opioid overdose based on the relationships our study predict when making decisions for the allocation of overdose-reversal medication and other vital resources.

Promoting healthy and sustainable diets: barriers and enablers for successful policy activities in Australia.

Consumption of healthy and sustainable diets (HSD) provides opportunities to co-benefit human health and adapt to and mitigate climate change. Despite robust evidence and policy recommendations from authoritative groups to reorientate the food system to favour consumption of HSD there has been limited policy action. This study investigated potential barriers and enablers for successful HSD policies in Australia. A review of HSD policy recommendations and of current Australian policies was undertaken. Results from the reviews informed a Delphi study, which investigated Australian stakeholder opinions on the effectiveness of HSD policy recommendations and barriers and enablers to creating successful HSD policies. Nine participants completed two Delphi iterations. A lack of consensus was reached on the effectiveness of policy recommendations. Consensus was reached on the effect of five barriers and three enablers. Key barriers were: the complex nature of the food system, competing interests of stakeholders, pressure from industry, government silos and lack of political will. Key enablers were: building relationships with key stakeholders across multiple disciplines and sectors, understanding the policy making process and developing a clear and coherent solution. Most of the identified barriers fall under the broad category of lack of political will. Interrelationships between barriers are likely worsening the impact of inadequate political will. There is a need to act on the identified barriers and enablers to secure the HSD policies that are required. Interactions between barriers may present an opportunity to address them simultaneously.

Review on Reactor Configurations for Adsorption-Based CO2 Capture

Adsorption-based CO2 capture has enjoyed considerable research attention in recent years. Most of the research efforts focused on sorbent development to reduce the energy penalty. However, the use of suitable gas–solid contacting systems is key for extracting the full potential from the sorbent to minimize operating and capital costs and accelerate the commercial deployment of the technology. This paper reviews several reactor configurations that were proposed for adsorption-based CO2 capture. The fundamental behavior of adsorption in different gas–solid contactors (fixed, fluidized, moving, or rotating beds) and regeneration under different modes (pressure, temperature, or combined swings) is discussed, highlighting the strengths and limitations of different combinations of gas–solid contactor and regeneration mode. In addition, the estimated energy duties in published studies and current technology readiness level of the different reactor configurations are reported. Other aspects, such as the reactor footprint, the operation strategy, suitability to retrofits, and the ability to operate under flexible loads are also discussed. In terms of future work, the key research need is a standardized techno-economic benchmarking study to calculate CO2 avoidance costs for different adsorption technologies under standardized assumptions. Qualitatively, each technology presents several strengths and weaknesses that make it impossible to identify a clear optimal solution. Such a standardized quantitative comparison is therefore needed to focus on future technology development efforts.

Deep eutectic solvent-based emulsification liquid-liquid microextraction for the analysis of phenoxy acid herbicides in paddy field water samples.

An emulsification liquid–liquid microextraction (ELLME) method was successfully developed using phenolic-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) as an extraction solvent for the determination of phenoxy acid herbicides, 3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid (dicamba) and 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) in environmental water samples. Five different phenolics-based DESs were successfully synthesized by using phenol (DES 1), 2-chlorophenol (DES 2), 3-chlorophenol (DES 3), 4-chlorophenol (DES 4) and 3,4-dichlorophenol (DES 6) as the hydrogen-bond donor (HBD) and choline chloride as the hydrogen-bond acceptor (HBA). The DESs were mixed at 1 : 2 ratio. A homogeneous solution (clear solution) was observed upon the completion of successful synthesis. The synthesized DESs were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Under optimum ELLME conditions (50 µl of DES 2 as extraction solvent; 100 µl of THF as emulsifier solvent; pH 2; extraction time 5 min), enrichment factor obtained for dicamba and MCPA were 43.1 and 59.7, respectively. The limit of detection and limit of quantification obtained for dicamba were 1.66 and 5.03 µg l−1, respectively, meanwhile for MCPA were 1.69 and 5.12 µg l−1, respectively. The developed ELLME-DES method was applied on paddy field water samples, with extraction recoveries in the range of 79–91% for dicamba and 82–96% for MCPA.

Security printing methods from a digital printing perspective

The paper discussed the secured prints by digital printing method, the paper has reviewed some new programs features provided in the field. paper problem stated to study the lack of using the new anti-counterfeiting design features in addition to future using of digital printing method as a new method in preventing prints or goods anti-counterfeiting. paper methodology followed the analytical experimental approach and theoretical one’ to solve paper problem. the objectives were to find the influence of those new innovations in doing the experimental, continue with the tests and its analysis to identify a fair and clear solution to the paper problem. in order to do that, the paper has to study the first part of paper research which focuses on one of security new programs, courtesy of agfa ... etc, and types of inks which is considered one of the most important elements in securing materials especially the UV inks, IR inks and taggant inks. The designs include covert elements used the invisible UV inks. semi-covert design elements include microtext, authenticate secure barcode, line in line special screen and other elements used visible Electro-inks. The overt elements include Guilloche, latent image, random pattern and other elements solution have also been used visible Electro-inks. Whereas, The second part focused on the analytical of the digital printing experimental which has been printed for the packages field, discussing the printed secured prints designs with a wide range of several substrates, the tests analysis were all about ink resistant to several agents, tests analysis has been implemented according to ISO Standards, the evaluation of the tests and the paper results showed that the prepared secured documents printed with UV inks on the selected digital printing corporation innovation machine (courtesy of Hewlett-Packard) have a very good performance in durability even with the hard tests which carried out on the printed samples. Recommendation included that the security digital printing and the new digital program features, both of them have an excellent opportunity in securing a very large sectors of low valued documents in addition to some of the valued documents except the forensic features which are not available by the digital printing yet.

Response surface methodology and optimization of the processes for bioethanol production from Calabash (Crescentia cujete) Using Cronobacter malonaticus

Aim: Response surface methodology (RSM) model was applied to optimize ethanol production from Calabash (Crescentia cujete) pulp juice using Cronobacter malonaticus. Study Design: The Calabash pulp was squeezed with muslin cloth, and vacuum filtered to clear solution before use. The clear juice was tested for reducing sugars using the Dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method. Twenty three (23) runs, including 3 controls, of the fermentation was conducted at varying temperatures, pH, and volumes of inoculum. The process parameters (input variables): volumes of inoculum, temperature, and pH were subjected to response surface model, using the Central Composite Design (CCD). Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, University of Port Harcourt for six months. Methodology: Fermentation was done in conical flasks covered with cotton wool and foil in a stationary incubator for four days (96 hours). Active stock culture of Cronobacter malonaticus was used, with inoculum developed using Marcfaland’s method. Samples were collected every 24 hours, centrifuged, filtered and analyzed for measurement of the output variables: Reducing sugar, cell density and ethanol concentration. Results: The concentration of reducing sugars from Calabash pulp was 3.2 mg/ml. Results obtained also revealed that the fermentation can take place on a wide range of temperature 28-32°C. The optimal pH range for performance of C.malonaticus for the fermentation process was pH 5.95-6.5. The optimum volume of inoculum was 10%v/v (i.e. 10 ml in 90 ml juice). The optimized process using the RSM model gave 5.08% v/v bioethanol, being the highest achieved at pH6.08 and 28oC . Conclusion: The bioethanol yield from Calabash substrate is reasonable considering that the bacterium used is not known for ethanol production. Also the concentration of reducing sugars in the substrate and the duration of fermentation could be responsible for the yield.

Tuning Magnetic Relaxation in Square-Pyramidal Dysprosium Single-Molecule Magnets Using Apical Alkoxide Ligands

Tuning Magnetic Relaxation in Square-Pyramidal Dysprosium Single-Molecule Magnets Using Apical Alkoxide Ligands

Mesoporous MnCo2O4, NiCo2O4, and ZnCo2O4 Thin-Film Electrodes as Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Solutions

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the bottleneck of the electrochemical water-splitting process, where the use of porous metal oxide electrodes is beneficial. In this work, we introduce a one-pot synthesis method to fabricate a series of mesoporous metal cobaltite (m-MCo2O4, M = Mn, Ni, and Zn) electrodes for the OER. The method involves preparation and coating of a homogeneous clear solution of all ingredients (metal salts and surfactants) over a fluorine-doped tin oxide surface as a thin lyotropic liquid crystalline film and calcination (as low as 250 °C) to obtain a 400 nm thick crystalline m-MCo2O4 electrode with a spinel structure. Mesophases and m-MCo2O4 films are characterized using structural and electrochemical techniques. All electrodes are stable during the electrochemical test in 1 M KOH aqueous solution and perform at as low as 204 mV overpotential at 1 mA/cm2 current density; the m-MnCo2O4 electrode works at current densities of 1, 10, and 100 mA/cm2 at 227, 300, and 383 mV overpotentials after compensating the IR drop, respectively. The Tafel slope is 60 mV/dec for the m-NiCo2O4 and m-ZnCo2O4 electrodes, but it gradually increases to 85 mV/dec in the m-MnCo2O4 electrode by thermal treatment, indicating a change in the OER mechanism.

Influence of the Surfactant Tail Length on the Viscosity of Oppositely Charged Polyelectrolyte/Surfactant Complexes

Aqueous mixtures of polyelectrolytes and oppositely charged surfactants form clear and homogeneous solutions if either the polyelectrolyte or the surfactant is present in excess. Around charge equi...

An Iterative, Frequentist Approach for Latent Class Analysis to Evaluate Conditionally Dependent Diagnostic Tests.

Latent class analysis is a well-established method in human and veterinary medicine for evaluating the accuracy of diagnostic tests without a gold standard. An important assumption of this procedure is the conditional independence of the tests. If tests with the same biological principle are used, this assumption is no longer met. Therefore, the model has to be adapted so that the dependencies between the tests can be considered. Our approach extends the traditional latent class model with a term for the conditional dependency of the tests. This extension increases the number of parameters to be estimated and leads to negative degrees of freedom of the model, meaning that not enough information is contained in the existing data to obtain a unique estimate. As a result, there is no clear solution. Hence, an iterative algorithm was developed to keep the number of parameters to be estimated small. Given adequate starting values, our approach first estimates the conditional dependencies and then regards the resulting values as fixed to recalculate the test accuracies and the prevalence with the same method used for independent tests. Subsequently, the new values of the test accuracy and prevalence are used to recalculate the terms for the conditional dependencies. These two steps are repeated until the model converges. We simulated five application scenarios based on diagnostic tests used in veterinary medicine. The results suggest that our method and the Bayesian approach produce similar precise results. However, while the presented approach is able to calculate more accurate results than the Bayesian approach if the test accuracies are initially misjudged, the estimates of the Bayesian method are more precise when incorrect dependencies are assumed. This finding shows that our approach is a useful addition to the existing Bayesian methods, while it has the advantage of allowing simpler and more objective estimations.

Substituent-Mediated Transformation of Polynuclear Gold(I)-Sulfido Complexes—From Pentanuclear to Octadecanuclear Cluster-to-Cluster Transformation

Substituent-Mediated Transformation of Polynuclear Gold(I)-Sulfido Complexes—From Pentanuclear to Octadecanuclear Cluster-to-Cluster Transformation

Stability analysis for design improvement of bio-inspired flapping wings by energy method

This study attempts to reach a broad understanding of the stability properties of nonlinear time-periodic flapping wing structures. Two bio-system models, Hummingbird (6DOF) and Hawkmoth (3DOF) are developed for this purpose. Initial analysis on the Hummingbird model, which is based on the Floquet theory, kinetic energy integration, and phase portrait technique, indicates lack of stability in hover flight. Kinetic energy integration is carried out on the extended model of the Hawkmoth to find the domain of attraction and increase the level of stability by varying the design parameters. Here, the hinge location of the wing, flapping amplitude, flapping frequency, and mean angle of attack are adjusted to achieve steady hovering trim condition. The results will be used for hovering control design that is a problem with no clear solution and has been widely studied based on linear analysis and averaging theory regardless of the stability properties. In addition, by averaging theory and linearization technique, the range of mean angle of attack that is associated with the pitch angle is also determined by using eigenvalues to achieve dynamic stability for further nonlinear analysis. Sensitivity analysis is then performed with the phase portrait and energy approach on the equivalent dynamics to reach the main cause of instability. Improved parameters are applied to the non-autonomous dynamics, and for the first time, the creation of a strange attractor is observed in three-dimensional phase space by Floquet analysis.

Improving the decolorization of glycerol by adsorption using activated carbon derived from oil palm biomass.

This study provides insight into the decolorization strategy for crude glycerol obtained from biodiesel production using waste cooking oil as raw material. A sequential procedure that includes physico-chemical treatment and adsorption using activated carbon from oil palm biomass was investigated. The results evidenced decolorization and enrichment of glycerol go hand in hand during the treatment, achieving >89% color removal and > 98% increase in glycerol content, turning the glycerol into a clear (colorless) solution. This is attributed to the complete removal of methanol, free fatty acids, and triglycerides, as well as 85% removal of water, and 93% removal of potassium. Properties of the resultant glycerol met the quality standard of BS 2621:1979. The economic aspects of the proposed methods are examined to fully construct a predesign budgetary estimation according to chemical engineering principles. The starting capital is proportionate to the number of physical assets to acquire where both entail a considerable cost at USD 13,200. Having the benefit of sizeable scale production, it reasonably reduces the operating cost per unit product. As productivity sets at 33 m3 per annum, the annual operating costs amount to USD 79,902 in glycerol decolorization. This is translatable to USD 5.38 per liter glycerol, which is ~69% lower compared to using commercial activated carbon.