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Borax is one of food additives that has been prohibited from being used by the Indonesian Government because it is dangerous to health. However, the fact is that borax has been widely added to several food products, such as skewered meatballs, school children’s snacks, bread, meatballs, tofu and crackers. Crackers containing borax is easily found in traditional markets. Short-term consumption of borax can cause various symptoms such as headache, fever, malaise, nausea or vomiting, pain in the upper abdomen and diarrhea. While long-term exposure to borax will have a more dangerous effect, which can cause stomach disorders, seizures to acute kidney failure which can lead to death. This paper reports a simple, easy and inexpensive test of borax content using a home-made turmeric paper on ten types of crackers purchased randomly in traditional market. The aim is that the borax content test can be carried out by anyone only by buying a few ingredients from the local market and pharmacy, and without the need to involve laboratory tests, but with accurate results when compared to laboratory tests. As a comparison, a flame test and a colour test on the borax content carried out in the laboratorium using the AOAC 18 ed. 2005 Official Method Boric Acid & Borates in Food 970.33 and the FI ed. V of 2014 General Identification Test Borat method A on Page 1423 was also completed. Among the 10 crackers tested, six of them were detected to contain borax. These results are very consistent with the laboratory test results. The performance of the home made turmeric paper is therefore reliable.

International audience; This survey was written by students of L. D. Faddeev under the editorship of L. A. Takhtajan. Sections 1.1, 1.2, 2–4, and 6 were written by Takhtajan, §§1.3 and 1.4 by F. A. Smirnov, §§5.1 and 5.2 by E. K. Sklyanin, §§5.3–5.6 by Sklyanin, Smirnov, and Takhtajan, §7.1 by M. A. Semenov- Tian-Shansky, §§7.2–7.6 by Takhtajan and S. L. Shatashvili, §7.7 by A. Yu. Alekseev and Shatashvili, and §8 by I. Ya. Aref'eva.

In this paper, the study will be conducted to examine whether there is any communality among the marks obtained by B.Ed. examinees in various papers of this course since there are three major streams into which B.Ed. students are channelized.[1,2] The marks obtained by the examinees in three streams will be studied separately. The three streams are Arts, Commerce and Science even though the B.Ed. courses are open to all University graduates including B.Sc., Agriculture, B.E., B. Tech, M.B.B.S. However, there are few instances all over the country where B.E., B. Tech, M.B.B.S. degree holders seek and get admission in B.Ed. courses. Thus the marks obtained by B.Ed. examinees belonging to the three streams in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 in R T M Nagpur University were subjected to factor analysis. While discussing the scope of the present work, it is essential to mention that the factor analysis is one of the advanced procedures of statistical analysis of the data. The marks obtained by the examinees in each of the said streams for every year separately are factorially analyzed and interpreted.

Paper pulper machines a capacity of 83 litres/process must have a low-cost material, robust and safe to operate. Paper pulper machine components analysed are tubes, frames, helical screw shaft and the shaft holder. The method uses a static structural analysis to obtain von mises stress and displacement. Static structural analysis uses finite element analysis with the help of CATIA® Software. The safe component size and lowest cost (safety factor more than 2.5) were selected in this study. Calculation of costs by multiplying the size of the material needs by material prices. Tube components use SUS 304 with thickness variations of 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.5, and 2mm. Frame and shaft holder using L shape ASTM A36 size 40x40mm and 50 x50 mm with thickness variations of 3, 4, and 5 mm respectively. Variations in material size are determined based on standard material sizes available on the market. The simulation result of each component shows the thicker the material, the lower the von mises stress, the lower the displacement and the higher safety factor. Tubes with a thickness of 0.5mm have a von mises stress of 4.43 MPa, a displacement of 4.7 x 104 mm with SF 56.4 is safe and were chosen because of the lowest material costs (IDR 360,009). The frame size was chosen 40x40x3 mm based on the SF frame value (26) with the lowest material cost (IDR 197,800). The shaft holder is also chosen for the size of 40x40x3mm where the SF value (3834) and the lowest material cost (IDR 14,400). Helical screw shaft size is chosen at 0.5mm thickness where SF is 304 and material costs IDR 100,968. The overall results of the static structural analysis on various sizes of the paper pulper machine components showed ovon under Oyield, small displacement, and SF is safe.

Fish ladders are structures that are designed and constructed at water barriers, such as dams, to assist fish to migrate and complete their life cycle between different habitats without interruption or delay. The design of the fish ladders is considered a complicated process. It depends on two essential aspects; the biological and environmental nature of the fish. Consequently, hydraulic parameters such as velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, and flow patterns have to be designed to suit the fish’s capabilities without affecting it. This study is dedicated to performing an overview of the design of one of the most common fish ladders, the vertical slot fish ladder. A brief on an empirical and numerical design method is presented first. Then, a review of the recent literature on the vertical slot fish ladder design is explored. From reviewing several works on the design of the vertical slot fish ladder, it was found that important design parameters, such as the velocity of the flow, the turbulence, the slope of the fish ladder channel, have already been investigated in previous studies. However, it was observed that other important parameters, such as the slot angle, have not been investigated or explored in the literature. It is predicted that this parameter has a vital influence on the velocity of the flow inside the fish ladder which controls all other design parameters.

In this letter, we investigate the population dynamics in a May-Leonard formulation of the rock-paper-scissors game in which one or two species, which we shall refer to as "weak", have a reduced predation or reproduction probability. We show that in a nonspatial model the stationary solution where all three species coexist is always unstable, while in a spatial stochastic model coexistence is possible for a wide parameter space. We find, that a reduced predation probability results in a significantly higher abundance of "weak" species, in models with either one or two "weak" species, as long as the simulation lattices are sufficiently large for coexistence to prevail. On the other hand, we show that a reduced reproduction probability has a smaller impact on the abundance of "weak" species, generally leading to a slight decrease of its population size -- the increase of the population size of one of the "weak" species being more than compensated by the reduction of the other, in the two species case. We further show that the species abundances in models where both predation and reproduction probabilities are simultaneously reduced may be accurately estimated from the results obtained considering only a reduction of either the predation or the reproduction probability., 6 pages, 7 figures, to appear in EPL

The research aimed to produce natural wrapping paper from banana (Musa Paradisiaca Linn.) peel waste with additive essentials oils. The method used in this research was alkalization. The delignification process is done with the use of NaOH 4% at the temperature of 100°C for 1.5 hours. Additive materials in the form of essential oils are added as a preservative and aroma agent, namely cinnamon oil, lemon oil, clove oil and lime oil respectively 2% and 3%. Chemical and physical properties of the produced papers are tested included water content (dry-oven method SNI ISO 287:2010), pH (SNI ISO 6588-1.2010), grammage (SNI ISO 536:2010) and brightness (SNI ISO 2470:2010). Testing results of each paper were compared with commercial wrapping paper. The result shows that the natural paper from banana peel waste with additive essential oil meets the standard of ISO 6519:2016 about Basic Paper for Laminated Plastic Wrapping Paper within the parameter of pH and water content. The paper produced also meet the standard of ISO 8218:2015 about Food Paper and Cardboard within the grammage parameter (high-grade grammage), except the paper with 2% lemon oil. The paper which is closest to the characteristic of commercial wrapping paper is the paper with the additive of 2% cinnamon oil, with pH of 6.95, the water content of 7.14%, grammage of 347.6 gram/m2 and the brightness level of 24.68%.

The part of Areca Palm (Areca catechu) that economical is the seed. It is commercially available in dried, cured and fresh forms, while the fibre is usually thrown away. Cellulose fibers from agricultural waste can be utilized as raw material for handicraft paper. Laboratory research showed that Areca palm fibre contained 70.2% of cellulose, 10.92% of water, and 6.02% of ash. This indicated that Areca palm fibre is very potential to be processed as handicraft paper. Handicraft paper is made of wastepaper or plants which cointain celluloce to produce rough-textured paper. In order to obtain preferred sensory quality of handicraft paper such as color, fiber appearance and texture as well as good physical quantity such as tensile strength, tear resistance and grammage, the addition of wastepaper to provide secondary fibre and sometimes adhesive are needed in making handicraft paper. Handicraft paper making was one alternative to treat the solid waste and to reduce the use of wood fiber as paper raw material. The aim of this study is to compare the two most famous method, i.e. Federer and Gomez Method, for calculate the number of replications. This study is preliminary research before do the research in order to get the best treatment to produce handicraft paper. The Gomez method calculates fewer replications than the Federer method. Based on data simulation the error generated using 3 replicates of 0.0876 while using 2 replicates of 0.1032.

We briefly review a history of the impact of the famous 1963 paper by E Lorenz on hydrodynamics, physics and mathematics communities on both sides of the iron curtain. This paper was an attempt to apply the ideas and methods of dynamical systems theory to the problem of weather forecast. Its major discovery was the phenomenon of chaos in dissipative dynamical systems which makes such forecasts rather problematic, if at all possible. In this connection we present some recent results which demonstrate that both a short-term and a long-term forecast are actually possible for the most chaotic dynamical (as well as for the most random, like IID and Markov chain) systems. Moreover, there is a sharp transition between the time interval where one may use a short-term forecast and the times where a long-term forecast is applicable. Finally we discuss how these findings could be incorporated into the forecast strategy outlined in the Lorenz's paper.

We obtain sharp constants in multiplicative inequalities that characterize embeddings of the Sobolev spaces into the space of bounded continuous functions. Bibliography: 2 titles.

Perron-Frobenius theorem describe five properties of irreducible nonnegative matrix. Leslie matrix is one of nonnegative matrix. Leslie matrix that used in this research is limited to the irreducible Leslie matrix. In previous research has been proven that irreducible Leslie matrix satisfies three properties in Perron-Frobenius theorem by spectral radius. This research completed the previous research, proving that irreducible Leslie matrix has a unique Perron vector and satisfies Collatz Wielandt formula. Leslie matrix is a primitive matrix. It is used to calculate the number of populations in the future. Growth of population is interpreted by value spectral radius of Leslie matrix.

A new method for calculating an explicit form of the Hilbert pairing is proposed. It is used to calculate the Hilbert pairing in a classical local field and in a complete higher-dimensional field. Bibliography: 25 titles.

The chaotic characteristics of time series of five partial discharge (PD) patterns in oil-paper insulation are studied. The results verify obvious chaotic characteristic of the time series of discharge signals and the fact that PD is a chaotic process. These time series have distinctive features, and the chaotic attractors obtained from time series differed greatly from each other by shapes in the phase space, so they could be used to qualitatively identify the PD patterns. The phase space parameters are selected, then the chaotic characteristic quantities can be extracted. These quantities could quantificationally characterize the PD patterns. The effects on pattern recognition of PRPD and CAPD are compared by using the neural network of radial basis function. The results show that both of the two recognition methods work well and have their respective advantages. Then, both the statistical operators under PRPD mode and the chaotic characteristic quantities under CAPD mode are selected comprehensively as the input vectors of neural network, and the PD pattern recognition accuracy is thereby greatly improved.

In this paper we rigorously prove some statements on the symbolic dynamics for Bernoulli coupled map lattices studied by Kawasaki and Sasa. The advantage of our approach is that it is purely topological and it gives a simultaneous proof for the statements.

Funder: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100005851, Funder: Einstein Visiting Fellow Program, The Rayleigh–Bénard system with stress-free boundary conditions is shown to have a global attractor in each affine space where velocity has fixed spatial average. The physical problem is shown to be equivalent to one with periodic boundary conditions and certain symmetries. This enables a Gronwall estimate on enstrophy. That estimate is then used to bound the L 2 norm of the temperature gradient on the global attractor, which, in turn, is used to find a bounding region for the attractor in the enstrophy–palinstrophy plane. All final bounds are algebraic in the viscosity and thermal diffusivity, a significant improvement over previously established estimates. The sharpness of the bounds are tested with numerical simulations.

It has been conjectured that for ≥0 the entire spectrum of the non-Hermitian -symmetric Hamiltonian HN = p2 + x2(ix), where N = 2 + , is real. Strong evidence for this conjecture for the special case N = 3 was provided in a recent paper by Mezincescu (Mezincescu G A 2000 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 33 4911) in which the spectral zeta function Z3(1) for the Hamiltonian H3 = p2 + ix3 was calculated exactly. Here, the calculation of Mezincescu is generalized from the special case N = 3 to the region of all N≥2 (≥0) and the exact spectral zeta function ZN(1) for HN is obtained. Using ZN(1) it is shown that to extremely high precision (about three parts in 1018) the spectrum of HN for other values of N such as N = 4 is entirely real.

The publishers of Physics in Medicine and Biology (PMB), IOP Publishing, in association with the journal owners, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), jointly award an annual prize for the best paper published in PMB during the previous year. The procedure for deciding the winner has been made as thorough as possible, to try to ensure that an outstanding paper wins the prize. We started off with a shortlist of the 10 research papers published in 2009 which were rated the best based on the referees' quality assessments. Following the submission of a short 'case for winning' document by each of the shortlisted authors, an IPEM college of jurors of the status of FIPEM assessed and rated these 10 papers in order to choose a winner, which was then endorsed by the Editorial Board. We have a clear, and very worthy, winner this year. We have much pleasure in advising readers that the 2009 Roberts Prize is awarded to E Z Zhang et al from University College London for their paper on photoacoustic tomography. In vivo high resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of superficial vascular anatomy E Z Zhang, J G Laufer, R B Pedley and P C Beard 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1035–46 Our congratulations go to these authors. Of course all of the shortlisted papers were of great merit, and the full top-10 is listed below (in alphabetical order). Steve Webb Editor-in-Chief Simon Harris Publisher References Cheng Y-C N , Neelavalli J and Haacke E M 2009 Limitations of calculating field distributions and magnetic susceptibilities in MRI using a Fourier based method Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1169–89 Cho S, Ahn S, Li Q and Leahy R M 2009 Exact and approximate Fourier rebinning of PET data from time-of-flight to non time-of-flight 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 467–84 Davidson S R H, Weersink R A, Haider M A, Gertner M R, Bogaards A, Giewercer D, Scherz A, Sherar M D, Elhilali M, Chin J L, Trachtenberg J and Wilson B C 2009 Treatment planning and dose analysis for interstitial photodynamic therapy of prostate cancer Phys. Med. Biol. 54 2293–313 Hand J W, Shaw A, Sadhoo N, Rajagopal S, Dickinson R J and Gavrilov L R 2009 A random phased array device for delivery of high intensity focused ultrasound Phys. Med. Biol. 54 5675–93 Johnson P, Lee C, Johnson K, Siragusa D and Bolch W E 2009 The influence of patient size on dose conversion coefficients: a hybrid phantom study for adult cardiac catheterization Phys. Med. Biol. 54 3613–29 Paganetti H 2009 Dose to water versus dose to medium in proton beam therapy Phys. Med. Biol. 54 4399–421 Pramanik M, Song K H, Swierczewska M, Green D, Sitharaman B and Wang L V 2009 In vivo carbon nanotube-enhanced non-invasive photoacoustic mapping of the sentinel lymph node Phys. Med. Biol. 54 3291–301 Schondube H, Stierstorfer K and Noo F 2009 Accurate helical cone-beam CT reconstruction with redundant data 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 4625–44 Tang G, Earl M A and Yu C X 2009 Variable dose rate single-arc IMAT delivered with a constant dose rate and variable angular spacing Phys. Med. Biol. 54 6439–56 Zhang E Z, Laufer J G, Pedley R B and Beard P C 2009 In vivo high resolution 3D photoacoustic imaging of superficial vascular anatomy Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1035–46 For more information on this article see medicalphysicsweb.org

At the moment, the pulp and paper industry produces a wide variety of types of paper and board, which can serve as an alternative to plastic packaging products. The main requirement for paper packaging is high strength properties, which include: breaking length, resistance to breaking, bursting and tearing. The required strength properties can be ensured at the stage of refining the semi-finished product from which the paper product will be made by changing the consistency of the pulp. Since the influence of the consistency of the pulp during refining on the strength characteristics of the finished product has not been fully studied, it was of interest to find out how the strength properties of castings change when refining the pulp with a change in concentration.

A paper by Kiya et al. (1992, Fluid Dyn. Res. 10 , 117–131) on the numerical simulation of pseudo-elliptical vortex ring using the viscous version of the 3-D vortex particle method (Winckelmans 1989 (Ph.D. Thesis); Winckelmans and Leonard 1989 ( Proc. Workshop SIAM , 1988), 1992a (to appear in J. Comput. Phys. )) was recently published in this journal. The blame for the poor quality of the numerical results was put on the “Winckelmans-Leonard viscous scheme” (actually, the credit for the viscous method by exchange of particle strengths should go to Degond and Mas-Gallic (1989, Math. Comput. 53, 485–526)). It is the author's hope that this short note will convince the reader that the method is perfectly sound as long as it is used with care.

Since 1991, Measurement Science and Technology has awarded a Best Paper prize. The Editorial Board of this journal believes that such a prize is an opportunity to thank authors for submitting their work, and serves as an integral part of the on-going quality review of the journal. The current breadth of topical areas that are covered by MST has made it advisable to expand the recognition of excellent publications. Hence, since 2005 the Editorial Board have presented 'Outstanding Paper Awards' in four subject categories: Fluid Mechanics; Measurement Science; Precision Measurements; and Sensors and Sensing Systems. 2006 Award Winners—Fluid Mechanics The article 'Molecular tagging velocimetry and thermometry and its application to the wake of a heated circular cylinder' by Hui Hu and Manoochehr Koochesfahani, published in volume 17, issue 6, pp 1269–1281, was selected by the cognizant Editorial Board Members as the Outstanding Paper in Fluid Mechanics for 2006. This consensus selection was accompanied by the collective judgment that a number of other very strong contributions were published in 2006. These other papers have been added to the 2006 Highlights in the electronic version of the journal. The paper by Hu and Koochesfahani is recognized for its contribution to the use of molecular tagging techniques in the service of velocity and temperature measurements. The paper clearly articulates the prior state-of-the-art in this area and it communicates the required equipment and procedures to utilize this experimental tool. The capabilities of their technique are made apparent by the simultaneous (u,v,T) observations in the wake of a circular cylinder. The normalized heat flux vectors, , demonstrate one of the beneficial results of obtaining a whole-field view of the velocity and temperature distributions. The authors also have carefully noted the intrinsic limitations of their technique. 2006 Award Winners—Measurement Science The 2006 Measurement Science and Technology Outstanding Paper Award in the Measurement Science category has been awarded to A Minakov, J Morikawa, T Hashimoto, H Huth and C Schick for the article 'Temperature distribution in a thin-film chip utilized for advanced nanocalorimetry', published in volume 17, issue 1, pp 199–207. In making their recommendation the measurement science working group chaired by Professor Richard Dewhurst gave the following endorsement: This paper is a fine example of quantitative measurement science. It describes the temperature distribution in a thin (sub-micron) silicon nitride membrane intended for advanced nanocalorimetry. A combination of experimental and theoretical analysis is used to provide a new insight into sensor performance when monitoring fast gas cooling rates of up to 10 000 K s-1. The paper contains an excellent introduction, explaining the value of thin-film calorimetry as a scientific technique for studying the kinetics of thermodynamic processes. It is a powerful technique for the investigation of a wide variety of materials and their phase transitions. In this paper, the authors have clearly explained the issues that arise in monitoring materials in non-equilibrium states generated by high cooling rates. In previous papers, they had already demonstrated the use of a microchip for temperature-modulation nanocalorimetry, as well as picocalorimetry in a differential mode. So this paper was concerned with the temperature distribution in the membrane. Supported by video-thermography, they present a detailed discussion of both the temperature distribution in the membrane and the gas temperature around the membrane. This is an in-depth study, clearly described. After analysis, they conclude that the thermal conductivity of a gas is not a limiting factor for ultra-fast-cooling experiments. It was unfortunate that this conclusion required some searching for within the paper, since the paper did not contain a concluding section that would have made it even better. Nevertheless, the paper made good use of an appendix for some aspects of the mathematical description, leaving the reader to concentrate on the measurement analysis within the paper. It is well written, with a good set of references. 2006 Award Winners—Precision Measurement The 2006 Measurement Science and Technology Outstanding Paper Award in the Precision Measurement category has been awarded to 'Prototype cantilevers for SI-traceable nanonewton force calibration by Richard S Gates and Jon R Pratt, published in volume 17, issue 10, pp 2852–2860. In making their recommendation the precision measurement working group chaired by Dr Kenichi Fujii gave the following endorsement: This paper describes a new artifact developed for calibrating spring constants of cantilevers for measuring forces in a nanonewton region using a SI-traceable technique. In the field of atomic force microscopy (AFM), accurate calibration of the spring constants of AFM cantilevers has been solicited for estimation of forces applied to samples. In the work described here, new reference cantilevers were fabricated using high-quality silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and calibrated electron-beam lithography so that both the thickness and length of the cantilevers could be precisely controlled. Furthermore, the spring constants of the uniform cantilevers were measured in a SI-traceable way using the electrostatic force balance (EFB) developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, resulting in calibrating the very small spring constants ranging from 0.02 N m-1 to 0.2 N m-1 with a relative standard uncertainty of better than 2%. This result was also checked by the authors using the conventional Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, showing an excellent agreement between the result and theory. These results thus paved a new way for production of SI-traceable calibration artifacts that could be made available to the AFM community. 2006 Award Winners—Sensors and Sensing Systems From the many excellent papers on sensors and sensing systems that have appeared in the 2006 volume of MST, the Editorial Board has selected the paper 'Nano-newton drag sensor based on flexible micro-pillars' by S Grose, W Schroder and C Brucker, published in volume 17, issue 10, pp 2689–2697, for the best paper award 2006. In making their recommendation the sensors and sensing systems working group chaired by Professor Paul Regtien gave the following endorsement: The paper describes a method for measuring drag forces on free or floating particles in turbulent shear flows near a wall. Knowledge about these drag forces contributes to a better understanding of mechanisms that affect turbulent shear forces. The measurement of such small forces (in the nN range) without interfering with the flow itself is considered to be a real challenge. The method is based on measuring the bending of a pillar (typically 20 µm in diameter) when exposed to flow. The position of the pillar tip is observed through a microscope. Different test particles (up to several hundred µm) can be attached to the top of the pillar. A rheometer generates an adjustable flow along the test particle, whose deflection is then measured. The paper presents all essential information about the measurement set-up and procedure: analysis of all forces acting on the pillar and test particle, theoretical assessment of the sensitivity, investigation of possible error sources and sensor calibration. A comparison between theory and experiments with respect to bending and drag force (given in graphical form) shows, according to the authors, a convincing agreement. Unfortunately, a more detailed uncertainty evaluation is missing, which otherwise would better support the authors' claim that with improved optics piconewton measurements are possible. Altogether, this is an excellent paper presenting an interesting measuring method for a wide range of particles and with the potential to also measure dynamic drag forces up to a few kHz. The Outstanding Paper Awards, comprising a cash honorarium and certificate, will be presented to the authors of the winning papers at suitable venues in the near future. The Editorial Board would like to congratulate the winning authors and would like to encourage all researchers to think of Measurement Science and Technology as the home for your best submissions.

A theorem of Weyl tells us that the Lorentz (and parity) invariant polynomials in the momenta of $n$ particles are generated by the dot products. We extend this result to include the action of an arbitrary permutation group $P \subset S_n$ on the particles, to take account of the quantum-field-theoretic fact that particles can be indistinguishable. Doing so provides a convenient set of variables for describing scattering processes involving identical particles, such as $pp \to jjj$, for which we provide an explicit set of Lorentz and permutation invariant generators., Comment: 18 pages, 3 Tables

In an attempt to understand the soliton resolution conjecture, we consider the Sine-Gordon equation on a spherically symmetric wormhole spacetime. We show that within each topological sector (indexed by a positive integer degree $n$) there exists a unique linearly stable soliton, which we call the $n$-kink. We give numerical evidence that the $n$-kink is a global attractor in the evolution of any smooth, finite energy solutions of degree $n$. When the radius of the wormhole throat $a$ is large enough, the convergence to the $n$-kink is shown to be governed by internal modes that slowly decay due to the resonant transfer of energy to radiation. We compute the exact asymptotics of this relaxation process for the $1$-kink using the Soffer-Weinstein weakly nonlinear perturbation theory., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, final version

A list of the 100 most popular scientific papers that were discussed on social media in 2013 – those that had the most "likes" on Facebook, Tweets or coverage in blogs – is dominated by papers in biology and the social sciences, with physics and mathematics papers only taking up a couple of places on the list.

For the last seven years, Measurement Science and Technology has awarded a Best Paper prize. The Editorial Board of the journal believes that awarding such a prize is an opportunity to say `thank you' to authors for submitting their best material, and serves as a focus for their on-going quality review. The working party, composed of Professors R J Dewhurst (Chairman), P P L Regtien and M A Player, considered a large number of papers recommended by Board Members. They wish to record their thanks to Members for their responses, which formed an important part of the assessment process. Twelve Board Members responded, the highest number ever, from which a short list of six papers was drawn up. These were re-examined, with a view to finding an original contributed paper that described new and significant work that was presented in a clear and rigorous form. Additional evidence that was available to the working party comprised (i) MST articles published in 2000 rated top quality by referees and (ii) the top 80 papers ranked by number of accesses to the electronic journal. Specifically excluded were review articles, papers associated with Board Members or papers appearing in special issues or special features that were of a review nature. After some discussion, one paper was the clear winner this year. It was recommended by five Board Members, and was high on the electronic access list, even though the article had only been published in November, making it available over only a short time period. The following paper is therefore recommended for the MST Best Paper Award for 2000: `A potential remote sensor of CO in vehicle exhaust using 2.3 µm diode lasers' by Jian Wang, Mikhail Maiorov, Jay B Jeffries, Dmitri Z Garbuzov, John C Connolly and Ronald K Hanson, 11 1576-1584. The paper describes an investigation into remote sensing of CO using a laser diode for infrared spectroscopic measurements. New laser diodes are now available at 2.319 µm to match the R(15) line of CO. These lasers are crucial for monitoring absorption exploiting this transition. In this new measurement scheme, this transition is particularly chosen since its line strength has the smallest temperature sensitivity of several R transitions. It has also been experimentally verified to be free of interference from water. In the paper, a further proposal concerns the idea that the effects of temperature on measurement can be reduced by using a ratio measurement of the quantity of CO with respect to CO2. There is some choice in the wavelength value for the CO2 absorption line, within the infrared spectral region, and the line (or line combination) may be selected to compensate the residual sensitivity of the CO line. For the CO R(15), the authors use wavelength modulation spectroscopy by modulating the diode to increase signal-to-noise ratio in the absorption measurements. In initial experimental investigations, they have produced results to indicate a sensitivity of 1 ppm m, which corresponds to 20 ppm sensitivity across a 5 cm diameter pipe. Further laboratory development is expected to lead to an instrument for outdoor CO monitoring of vehicle exhaust fumes. The prize is awarded for a good exposition of original ideas presented in the paper, together with a clear and quantitative summary in both its abstract and conclusion. Five other papers that were short-listed for the award were: `A non-destructive technique for detecting pinholes in hermetically sealed flexible packaging' by K I Jolic, C R Nagarajah and P Iovenitti, 11 1396-1402 `Density measurements in air by optically exciting the Cordes bands of I2' by R J Balla and R J Exton, 11 459-466 `Thermometry in air by optically exciting the I2 Cordes bands' by R J Balla and R J Exton, 11 1319-1327 `Measurement of droplet velocity, size and refractive index using the pulse displacement technique' by S M Lin, D R Waterman and A H Lettington, 11 L1-L4 `Laser-based distance measurement using picosecond resolution time-correlated single photon counting' by S Pellegrini, G S Buller, J M Smith, A M Wallace and S Cova, 11 712-716 All authors are to be congratulated for their innovative work.

The rock—paper—scissors (RPS) game is a nice model to study the biodiversity in an ecosystem. However, in the previous studies only the nearest-neighbor interaction among the species was considered. In this paper, taking the long-range migration into account, the effects of the interplay between nearest-neighbor-interaction and long-range-interaction given by Levy flight with distance distribution lh (−3 ≤ h < −1) in the spatial RPS game are investigated. Taking the probability, exchange rate, and power-law exponent of Levy flight as parameters, the coexistence conditions of three species are given. The critical curves for stable coexistence of three species in the parameter space are presented. It is also found that Levy flight has interesting effects on the final spatiotemporal pattern of the system. The results reveal that the long-range-interaction given by Levy flight exhibits pronounced effects on biodiversity of the ecosystem.

This paper presents the results of research on the process of grinding dried corn stalks to use them as polylactide filler. Shredding was carried out on a laboratory shredder with the use of a design variant based on discs with cylindrical holes. By selecting the design variant, the appropriate grinding speed and the material pressure on the shredder discs, the most favourable parameters in terms of the quality of the shredded product and low energy consumption were selected. The research was conducted to reduce the energy demand during the shredding process and to obtain the shredded material suitable for further processing steps.

We introduce a framework for the reconstruction and representation of functions in a setting where these objects cannot be directly observed, but only indirect and noisy measurements are available, namely an inverse problem setting. The proposed methodology can be applied either to the analysis of indirectly observed functional images or to the associated covariance operators, representing second-order information, and thus lying on a non-Euclidean space. To deal with the ill-posedness of the inverse problem, we exploit the spatial structure of the sample data by introducing a flexible regularizing term embedded in the model. Thanks to its efficiency, the proposed model is applied to MEG data, leading to a novel approach to the investigation of functional connectivity., 40 pages

In this study, multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model with order two and three were developed for predicting the California bearing capacity (CBR) value of pond ash stabilized with lime and lime sludge. To this aim, the model had five variables named maximum dry density, optimum moisture content, lime percentage, lime sludge percentage, and curing period as inputs, and CBR as output variable. MARS-O3 has the best results, which its R2 stood at 0.9565 and 0.9312, and PI 0.0709 and 0.1061 for the training and testing phases, respectively. In both developed models, the estimated CBR values in training and testing stages specify acceptable agreement with experimental results, representing the workability of proposed equations for predicting the CBR values with high accuracy. Comparison of two developed equations supplied that MARS-O3 has a better result than MARS-O2. Based on error curves, the MARS-O3 model results in the lowest error percentage in the CBR predicting process, providing roughly accurate prediction than those of the rest developed methods specified. Therefore, MARS-O3 could be recognized as the proposed model.

In the present comment we point out some errors found in the above three papers by Abo-Eldahab and his co-workers.

The core of this volume is formed by four chapters (2–5) with detailed reconstructions of the arguments and derivations in four of Einstein's most important papers, the three main papers of his annus mirabilis 1905 (on the light quantum, Brownian motion, and special relativity) and his first systematic exposition of general relativity of 1916. The derivations are given in sufficient detail and in sufficiently modernized notation (without any serious distortion of the originals) for an undergraduate physics major to read and understand them with far less effort than it would take him or her to understand (English translations of) Einstein's original papers. Each of these four papers is accompanied by a detailed introduction, which covers the conceptual development of the relevant field prior to Einstein's contribution to it and corrects some of the myths surrounding these papers that still have not been fully eradicated among physicists. (One quibble: though Kennedy correctly points out that the goal of the light quantum paper was not to explain the photoelectric effect, it is also not quite right to say that 'it was written to explain the Wien region of blackbody radiation' (p. xv). Einstein used this explanatory feat as the central argument for his light quantum hypothesis.) These four chapters then are the most valuable part of the volume. They could be used, independently of one another, but preferably in conjunction with Einstein's original texts, in courses on quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, electrodynamics, and general relativity, respectively, to add a historical component to such courses. As a historian of science embedded in a physics department who is regularly called upon to give guest lectures in such courses on the history of their subjects, I can highly recommend the volume for this purpose. However, I would not adopt this volume as (one of) the central text(s) for a course on the history of modern physics. For one thing, chapter 1, which in just 26 pages (not counting six pages of notes and references) covers everything from Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton to Maxwell and Lorentz to Einstein's early biography to a cardboard version of Popper versus Kuhn, is too superficial to be useful for such a course. To a lesser extent, this is also true for chapter 6, which compresses the development of quantum theory after Einstein's 1905 paper into 20 pages (plus seven pages of notes and references) and for chapter 7, a brief epilogue. However, this is not my main worry. One could easily supplement or even replace the bookends of the volume with other richer sources and use this volume mainly for its excellent detailed commentaries on some Einstein classics in the four chapters in between. My more serious reservation about the use of the volume as a whole in a history of physics course, ironically, comes from the exact same feature that made me whole-heartedly recommend its core chapters for physics courses. This is especially true for the chapters on special and general relativity. How useful is it for a student to go through, in as much detail as this volume provides, the Lorentz transformation of Maxwell's equations in vector form? I can see how a student in an E&M class (with a section on special relativity) might benefit from this exercise. The clumsiness of the calculations in vector form by Lorentz and Einstein could help a student encountering Maxwell's equations in tensor form for the first time appreciate the advantages of the latter formalism. Similarly, it would be useful for a student in a GR class to go through the basics of tensor calculus in the old-fashioned but not inelegant mathematical introduction of Einstein's 1916 review article on general relativity. This could reinforce mastery of material that a student in a GR class will have to learn anyway (though Einstein's presentation of the mathematics of both special and general relativity in The Meaning of Relativity would seem to be more suitable for these purposes). It is not so clear what benefit a student in a history of physics course rather than a E&M course or a GR course would derive from the exhaustive coverage of the papers on special and general relativity in this volume. In the case of the history of special relativity, it would seem to make sense to leave out the details of the Lorentz transformation of Maxwell's equations to make room for a discussion, even if only qualitatively, of Minkowski's four-dimensional formalism and Minkowski diagrams. In the case of the history of general relativity, coverage of tensor calculus could profitably be curtailed to make room for discussion of how Einstein found his field equations or how GR failed to make all motion relative. Chapter 3 on Brownian motion also contains its share of detailed calculations that may be useful for students in a class on Stat Mech but not for those in a class on history of physics. Chapter 2 on the light quantum paper does not suffer from this problem. However, whereas the other three papers covered in detail in the volume can serve as representative of Einstein's broader efforts in those fields, the light quantum paper is only the first in a series of remarkable contributions that Einstein made to early quantum theory. Several of these contributions (specific heat, wave-particle duality, stimulated emission, Bose--Einstein statistics) are covered very briefly in chapter 6. I would have liked to see a presentation of Einstein's 1917 derivation of the Planck law for the spectral distribution of black-body radiation with the famous A and B coefficients as detailed and as easy to follow as many less important derivations in the chapters on relativity and Brownian motion. This derivation is much easier yet much more illuminating than, say, the original proofs of the Lorentz invariance of Maxwell's equations. I hope the author will consider such changes in emphasis for a second edition, for his reconstructions and commentaries certainly do open up these four classic Einstein papers to interested undergraduates in physics and other disciplines in ways that the scholarly literature on Einstein does not.

This special issue of Fluid Dynamics Research includes nine papers which are based on nine of the presentations at the Second UK–Japan bilateral Workshop and First ERCOFTAC Workshop on 'Turbulent flows generated/designed in multiscale/fractal ways: fundamentals and applications' held from 26 to 27 March 2012 at Imperial College London, UK. The research area of fractal-generated turbulent flows started with a chapter published in 2001 in one of the conference proceedings which came out of the 1999 Isaac Newton Institute 6 month Programme on Turbulence in Cambridge (UK). However, the first results which formed the basis of much of the work reported in this special issue started appearing from 2007 onwards and progress since then could perhaps be described as not insignificant. Research in this area has resulted in the following six notable advances: (a) the definition of two new length-scales characterizing grid-generated turbulence; (b) enhanced and energy-efficient stirring and scalar transfer by fractal grid and fractal openings/flanges with applications, in particular, to improved turbulence generation for combustion; (c) the non-equilibrium turbulent dissipation law; (d) non-equilibrium axisymmetric wake laws; (e) insights into the dependence of drag forces and vortex shedding on the fractal geometry of fractal objects and simulation methods for the calculation of drag of fractal trees; and (f) the invention and successful proof of concept of fractal spoilers and fractal fences. The present special issue contains papers directly related to these advances and can be seen as a reflection of the current research in the field of fractal-generated turbulent flows and their differences and commonalities with other turbulent flows. The financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science has been decisive for the organization and success of this workshop. We are also grateful to ERCOFTAC who put in place the EU-wide Special Interest Group on multiscale-generated turbulence and for supporting the workshop both financially and by way of advertisement. Last but by no means least, we express our deep gratitude to the editors of FDR who handled this issue: M Funakoshi, A D Gilbert, L B Mydlarski and K Suga.

Conventional construction materials are considered as exploitation to natural resources. Thus, numerous alternative materials using natural or waste materials are proposed for concrete production as a response for greener, renewable and biodegradable environments with regard to sustainability. Natural fibre such as bamboo has been rapidly proposed for many applications especially for concrete production in construction. In order to tackle the environmental issues and focusing on sustainability, natural fibre of Beting bamboo is proposed for partial replacement used as supplementary cementitious materials. Current study investigates the partial replacement of coarse aggregate with Beting bamboo in concrete mixtures. The outcome of the study discovers that through the mix design, replacing 5% by weight of Beting bamboo is an ideal % to achieve concrete mixture for structural and nonstructural application. However, with the increase % of Beting bamboo for partial replacement, the strength of the concrete gradually decreased.

At present, in the dairy industry there are a number of unresolved issues, one of them is the processing of secondary raw materials, namely whey curd. Processing of dairy whey in Russia, despite numerous developments in this area, is held back for various reasons. Production and introduction of whey drink will allow to extend the assortment of functional products and due to resource-saving technology will allow to solve the problem of processing of secondary raw materials. The results of researches on making extracts of vegetative raw material by different methods are resulted in the article and the optimum one which allows to enrich maximal extract with biologically active substances is chosen. The technology of whey beverage with the use of plant extracts is developed. The influence of extracts from vegetable raw materials on the nutritional value of whey drink has been determined.

Styrax resin is a major non-timber forest product from North Sumatra, Indonesia. However, thousands tons of raw resin are sent abroad, while various styrax oil-based products worth US millions dollars are imported annually. Limited harvesting and processing technology are some of root of causes the lack of styrax oil-based industry development in Indonesia. The objective of this paper was an overview of styrax forest management in North Sumatra, efforts to increase the added-value both quality and quantity of resin, and an alternative processing of raw material into a perfume innovation. Benzoin resin is produced by the injured inner epithelial bark of styrax tree. Therefore, tapping of bark is the best effort to harvest the resin. But, styrax forest management has been carried out traditionally, including harvesting techniques. One of scheme to increase added-value is resins processing into a perfume products with high economic value. The innovative products begin from extracting a solid styrax resin into pure essential oil. There are two methods used, namely (a) extraction with solvent, and (b) distillation method. The amount of yield of benzoin oil produced by solvent method is influenced by incense grade from 23.9 to 34.6% and higher than another method. But distillation method also produces high quality and quantity of hydrosol (side product) with a distinctive aroma. Combined with various essential oils from Indonesia’s tropical forests, the styrax oil becomes a fixing agent for a signature perfume that formulated by considering the gradation of aroma in accordance with release of constituent essential oil particles. Processing resin into an essential oil increases the added-value of styrax resin. Innovation of styrax resin based products will explore the fragrance formulation of this commodities therefore reduce our country dependence on imported perfume and raw materials used for various personal cares.

This is an introductory paper based on general knowledge such as simplicial complex, nerves and their homotopy equivalents in the topology field. It focuses on the theoretical part of one of the four statements on nerve theorem of paper variations on the nerve theorem. One of many ideologies throughout this theorem is to conduct an approximating process on mathematical spaces with restrictions, which is the bridge from a theory to an application of Weil’s theorem and many others. Besides, work done by Kathryn Heal in her paper variations on the nerve theorem has proved the correctness and feasibility about Weil’s theorem. This paper aims to clarify her proof of Weil’s theorem and make it more easier for people to understand.

The Applied Inverse Problems Conference is held every two years and is always a highlight of the inverse problems calendar. This year the conference was held at Texas A&M University where Inverse Problems was proud to be asked to sponsor the Best Paper Prize. The award was to be presented to a participant, still in the early part of their career, who was presenting in the minisymposia or special sections. The selection of the winner was made by a group composed of the scientific committee and the plenary speakers, all of which were asked to make a note of well-presented talks on interesting topics containing novel approaches or surprising results. The prize was awarded to Dr Hamid Hezari of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his work on spectral inverse problems. Some 60 years ago, Marc Kac posed his famous 'Can you hear the shape of a drum' problem. This remained open for 40 years when it was shown to be false. However, the counterexamples are all for non-convex regions with non-smooth boundaries. It remains possible that one can hear the shape of a convex drum with an analytic or smooth boundary. A class of domains with this property is said to be spectrally rigid. This spectral geometry problem shares links with billiards on a domain and integrable systems and is a rich area of mathematical physics research. Birkhoff conjectured that ellipses are unique domains with integrable billiards. The main result of Dr Hezari's talk (which was a joint work with Dr Steve Zelditch) was spectral rigidity of the ellipse among domains with two symmetries.

This special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical is dedicated to Darryl Holm on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The papers were largely drawn from the lectures at a meeting held in his honour at the Bernoulli Center at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, 22–28 July, 2007. The papers cover, as much as it is possible, the tremendous range and depth of work done by Darryl over the years. These topics include the Camassa–Holm equation and waves, geometric mechanics, symmetry and integrable systems, fluid and plasma dynamics, including stability problems, regularized incompressible fluid models (such as the α- or LANS models), including turbulence and multiscale methods, ocean dynamics, the EPDiff equation (a higher dimensional version of the CH equation) and computational anatomy. Perhaps a little less well known is Darryl's influential work in adiabatic fluids in general relativity, liquid crystals and other topics. But underlying all of Darryl's work is the geometric view of mechanics and physics, which was already kindled in his 1976 PhD thesis at Michigan. One of Darryl's and our favorite accomplishments is the development of the Camassa–Holm equation, a remarkable integrable PDE with, amazingly, spatially non-smooth, peaked, solitions. This is understandable—the equation caught on like wildfire because of its fascinating properties and the ideas in that paper proved to be a gold mine of research. It is his most cited paper with nearly a thousand citations, according to Google Scholar. We are pleased that our joint 1985 paper on fluid and plasma stability comes in second and the paper that was a precursor to the alpha model series of papers, namely our Euler–Poincare paper, comes in third. Of course having an equation named after you is a very nice bonus. Congratulations Darryl on a brilliant career that shows no signs of slowing down!

This paper uses break-even analysis to determine the cost of producing patchouli oil in Kete Nilam Hijo (KNH). KNH is an industry engaged in the refining process of patchouli oil, located in South Aceh Regency, Indonesia. One obstacle faced by the KNH is that the costs of producing patchouli oil are not yet known. So far, KNH has never made economic calculations in producing patchouli oil. KNH only relies on production based on profit so that profits are not maximized and always fluctuates. In addition, the break-even point for the production of patchouli oil is also not known with certainty. To determine the break-even point, total costs and total revenue will be calculated first. This research was conducted in several stages, namely preliminary study, data collection, data processing, analysis of results, and finally concluding the results of the study. The results showed that the total production cost of patchouli oil refining at KNH in one year was 1,120,018,250 rupiah. Meanwhile, KNH had to sell 1,600 kilograms of patchouli oil to break-even.

Purpose. 4D-CT is routine imaging for lung cancer patients treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy. No studies have investigated optimal 4D phase selection for radiomics. We aim to determine how phase data should be used to identify prognostic biomarkers for distant failure, and test whether stability assessment is required. A phase selection approach will be developed to aid studies with different 4D protocols and account for patient differences. Methods. 186 features were extracted from the tumour and peritumour on all phases for 258 patients. Feature values were selected from phase features using four methods: (A) mean across phases, (B) median across phases, (C) 50% phase, and (D) the most stable phase (closest in value to two neighbours), coined personalised selection. Four levels of stability assessment were also analysed, with inclusion of: (1) all features, (2) stable features across all phases, (3) stable features across phase and neighbour phases, and (4) features averaged over neighbour phases. Clinical-radiomics models were built for twelve combinations of feature type and assessment method. Model performance was assessed by concordance index (c-index) and fraction of new information from radiomic features. Results. The most stable phase spanned the whole range but was most often near exhale. All radiomic signatures provided new information for distant failure prediction. The personalised model had the highest c-index (0.77), and 58% of new information was provided by radiomic features when no stability assessment was performed. Conclusion. The most stable phase varies per-patient and selecting this improves model performance compared to standard methods. We advise the single most stable phase should be determined by minimising feature differences to neighbour phases. Stability assessment over all phases decreases performance by excessively removing features. Instead, averaging of neighbour phases should be used when stability is of concern. The models suggest that higher peritumoural intensity predicts distant failure.

The environmental impact caused by generation of plastic wastes at a global level is significant, during the last year, production of plastic increased by 40% due to the Covid-19 pandemic, demanding in an accelerated way the massive use of disposable personal protection elements. This situation has changed drastically the pattern of human behavior, introducing a lifestyle with greater hygiene that makes necessary to use plastic packaging to cover products, utensils, and food, avoiding any risk of transmission. To combat the massive use of plastic it is necessary to activate the transition towards circular economies that make use of environmentally friendly plastics; this is the case of biopolymers, materials that can be synthesized from organic waste rich in starch. Therefore, in this work, the factors that affect the hardness of polymers made from potato and plantain peels are studied through a factorial experimental design. The design establishes the combination of urea, glycerine, acetic acid, and water, to identify the best combination of plasticizer and their effect on the hardness of the material. Using Minitab, the multivariate linear models of hardness behavior were assessed to achieve the highest hardness values.

Agroindustry of dadiah is a small industry of Minangkabau traditional food, made from buffalo milk through spontaneous fermentation. Dadiah is a combination of comparative and competitive advantages that has the potential to be developed in West Sumatra. This synergic and sustainable “local specific” development is expected to be able to increase community income and product added value. This is a further research, after mapping dadiah agroindustry. The purpose of this study is to identify the raw materials, processes and products of dadiah traditional food agro-industry that had been mapped in earlier studies. Dadiah identification includes physical properties (length and diameter of dadiah tube, color, moisture content), chemical (pH) and biological (BAL). The sampling technique uses deliberate sampling techniques, namely the agro-industry that is willing to be interviewed and whose products are analyzed. Observation on the identification of raw materials showed that the length of dadiah tube varied for each group. Tanah Datar District has an average size of 28+ 2cm. The dadiah product of Agam District, taken from two locations, each with size of 10 + 2 (Gaduik) and 17 +/-2 cm (Lambah), Sawahlunto District 30 +/-2 and Solok District 60+/2 5 cm. The physical properties of color, aroma and overall appearance are not different, namely yellowish white, dadiah distinctive aroma, solid shape, flat and curved surface. The chemical properties of dadiah have almost the same pH and ash content.

UV light and air pollution are sources of free radicals that can trigger skin problems. Skin problems can be overcome by using skin treatments that contain antioxidant compounds so that oxidation reactions derived from free radicals can be inhibited (Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2000). Skin care that can overcome skin problems is body scrub preparation. Body scrub cream-based preparations consists of oil and water phase, emulgator, and abrasives. Oilseed press cake or residual product of nyamplung (tamanu) oil (Calophyllum inophyllum L.) has characteristics as an abrasiver and reported degree of hydrolysis that can counteract free radicals using the DPPH method through a % RSA value of 39.82%. Oilseed press cake of nyamplung will be developed as a raw material for the formulation of body scrub that have added value. Body scrub formulation was done by optimizing the emulgator material (stearic acid and triethanolamine) using Expert Design software D-Optimal and the optimal emulgator concentration was obtained (stearic acid 3% and triethanolamine 1%) and physical in stability of the optimum formulation is tested in 28 days in 1,2,3 and 4 week at room temperature by looking at the parameters of organoleptic physical properties, pH, viscosity, spreadability, and adhesion test. Based on physicaly examination, it showed that the formula of oilseed press cake of nyamplung body scrub for 28 days at room temperature is a semi-solid, brown color and smells of apple, pH value is 7,647 ± 0.128; the viscosity value is 3.633.33 ± 152.75 dPas; spreadability is 3,87 ± 0.20 cm, and adhesiveness is 2,3 ± 0,04 second.

This study aims to utilize the combination of cassava and coal waste as raw materials for making briquettes using several different concentrations of tapioca adhesives. This study uses a completely randomized design (RDC) with 2 factorials. The first factor is material composition, assigned by the letter P, which has 3 different varieties of different cassava, which are (P1) Kasetsart cassava and coal waste, (P2) Thai cassava and coal waste, and (P3) butter cassava and coal waste. The second factor is tapioca adhesive concentration, which consists of two different treatments: (M1) 15% and (M2) 20%. The combination of these different treatments then repeated 4 times resulted in 24 experimental units. The briquettes produced then underwent several characteristics tests, including water content, calorific value, combustion rate, density, compressive strength, shatter resistance index, and changes in the temperature of the pan base when the briquettes were burned. The acquired data then processed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SAS v9 software. The data obtained will then be compared to SNI (Indonesia National Standard) to find out whether the briquette is fulfilling the requirement for application. The results are as follows: treatment P1M1 and P1M2 have a water content ranging from 5.36-7.09% and a calorific value between 4.427 – 5.541 cal/g, and it also fulfills the SNI Standard. Another characteristic is shown by P1M1 and P1M2 such as combustion rate around 0.37-0.4 g/min, density between 0.37-0.39 g/cm3, compressive strength between 48.67 N/cm2, and shatter resistance index numbering around 99.90-99.92%, able to fulfill 95% of the SNI requirement for bio coal briquette, as well as changes in the bottom temperature of the pan which has reached the highest temperature of 303°C in the 26th minute of the P1M1 treatment combination and the lowest is 311°C at the 28th minute of the P1M2 treatment combination.

The relevance of the problem under consideration is due to the need for hardware to cover a wide range in the determination of heavy metals in food. One of the primary and important tasks remains to ensure control of the quantitative content of lead, the introduction and application of fast and reliable methods of their research. The analysis of the data obtained shows that all the results on the study of wheat bread for the content of lead, obtained by stripping voltammetry and atomic absorption spectrometry for the assessment of precision and operational control of the error using the method of additions are satisfactory. The obtained monitoring results indicate that in the range of less than 0.01 mg of lead per 1 kg of wheat bread prevail (75.6%) over other ranges. The least registered sample results are (2.2%) with the range of obtained data: 0.1-1.0 mg/kg.

After making the 'Langer transformation', r = ex, ψ(r) = ex/2u(x), Langer found the first-order JWKB hydrogen radial wavefunction to be as if the centrifugal potential were 2(l + 1/2)2/(2r2), thereby 'justifying' the substitution suggested by Kramers and known to get, in first order, the correct rl + 1 behavior at the origin, the correct phase shift and the exact energy levels. There have been many extensions of the Kramers–Langer substitution: to get the exact origin behavior at any pre-specified higher order; to show that no substitution is necessary at infinite order; to replace 2l(l + 1) by L2 + L, with L set equal to l at the end. Recently, it was discovered that Langer's JWKB solution in x was exactly equivalent to a JWKB solution in r for r−1/2ψ(r): namely the Langer transformation was irrelevant. How can there be many seemingly incompatible JWKB expansions to solve one equation? The key is the ambiguous treatment of : in the radial kinetic energy, is the expansion parameter; in the centrifugal potential, is implicit, passive and not expanded. By designating the implicit i by its own symbol, one sees immediately how the different JWKB expansions correspond to different partitions of the centrifugal potential between expansion and implicit i and therefore solve different equations. The different expansions represent the same physical solution only when i = . Moreover, in the two- notation, 'the generalization' of the Kramers–Langer substitution is made transparently simple: That is, the implicit 2i/4 that completes the square is compensated by the expansion −2/4 that modifies the second-order JWKB wavefunction directly and higher orders indirectly.

The demand for applying sustainability in the construction industry increases the necessity of using natural materials in concrete production. Plant-based natural fibers are cost effective renewable materials which considered a potential way to support sustainable development in both urban and rural regions. This paper investigates the potential of using sugarcane bagasse, palm trunk and banana fibers as concrete reinforcement by determining the effect of different volume percentages of these fiber on the mechanical properties of concrete. The percentage of fiber used was 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% for sugarcane, 1%, 2%, and 3% for Palm Trunk, and 0.3%, 0.5%, 0.7%, and 1% for banana. Results showed that the optimum value of sugarcane, and banana is 0.5%, 4% respectively. In addition, the addition of 1%, 2%, and 3% of palm trunk fiber improved the mechanical properties of concrete.

The paper deals with the design of composition and verification of the properties of heavy-weight concrete for the production of weights. Heavy weights from fine-grained heavy-weight concrete can be used as a substitute for harmful lead weights (sinkers) for fishing purposes. Lead fishing weights contaminate water, posing a risk to aquatic animals and birds. The production of fishing sinkers from heavy-weight concrete seems to be a possible substitute. A significant reduction in the use of lead fishing sinkers in the European Union is currently under preparation. The formulas of heavy-weight concrete from fine aggregate (fractions max. 2mm) were designed and tested. The consistency of concrete was designed for casting. The optimum vibration frequency of concrete compaction was determined at 75 Hz, resulting in a smooth, colourable surface. The density of the dried concrete after 28 days was 4000 kg.m−3 using a magnetite aggregate with an apparent density of 5.07 Mg/m3.

The paper presents experimental investigations of straw cutting in the form of triticale. The cutting was performed using a specialized testing station adapted for mounting on a MTS Insight 50 kN testing machine. It is allows to change the cutting blade, which made it possible to study the effect of changing the rake angle of its blade and the inclination of the cutting edge on cutting force value. The influence of the linear speed of the knife and the size of the gap between the blade and the counter-blade was also investigated. The results obtained allowed to select the most favorable values of the above-mentioned parameters of the cutting process in terms of obtaining the lowest value of the cutting force, which consequently determines the process energy consumption. Obtained results are not only guidelines for machine design and cutting devices, but these can also be used as input data for multicriteria analysis, which can result in looking for other values of process parameters not taken into account in the presented studies, and key ones in the direction of the next ones.