The protective and attractive covering of a vegetated embankment using coir geotextiles

This paper presents the results of a field experiment conducted in Kerala, South India, to test the effectiveness of coir geotextiles for embankment protection. The results reveal that treatment with geotextile in combination with grass is an effective eco-hydrological measure to protect steep slopes from erosion. In the context of sustainable watershed management, coir is a cheap and locally available material that can be used to strengthen traditional earthen bunds or protect the banks of village ponds from erosion. Particularly in developing countries, where coir is abundantly available and textiles can be produced by small-scale industry, this is an attractive alternative for conventional methods. This paper analyses the performance of coir geotextile in different treatments with respect to soil moisture content, protection against erosion and biomass production

Marine yeast Candida MCCF 101 as feed supplement in aquaculture: nutritional quality, optimization of large scale production and evaluation of its protective effect on Koi carp from Aeromonas infection

Marine yeast have been regarded as safe and showing a beneficial impact on biotechnological process. It provides better nutritional and dietary values indicating their potential application as feed supplements in aquaculture. Brown et al. (1996) evaluated all the marine yeasts characterised with high protein content, carbohydrate, good amino acid composition and high levels of saturated fats. However, there is paucity of information on marine yeasts as feed supplements and no feed formulation has been found either in literature or in market supplemented with them. This statement supported by Zhenming et al. (2006) reported still a lack of feed composed of single cell protein (SCP) from marine yeasts with high content of protein and other nutrients. Recent research has shown that marine yeasts also have highly potential uses in food, feed, medical and biofuel industries as well as marine biotechnology (Chi et al., 2009; 2010). Sajeevan et al. (2006; 2009a) and Sarlin and Philip (2011) demonstrates that the marine yeasts Candida sake served as a high quality, inexpensive nutrient source and it had proven immunostimulatory properties for cultured shrimps. This strain has been made part of the culture collection of National Centre for Aquatic Animal Health, Cochin University of Science and Technology as Candida MCCF 101. Over the years marine yeasts have been gaining increased attention in animal feed industry due to their nutritional value and immune boosting property.Therefore, the present study was undertaken, and focused on the nutritional quality, optimization of large scale production and evaluation of its protective effect on Koi carp from Aeromonas infection

Psychological values as protective factors against sexist attitudes in preadolescents

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Common black coatings - reflectance and ageing characteristics in the 0.32-14.3 mu m wavelength range

The diffuse and regular reflectances of five optically absorbing coatings frequently used in optical systems, were measured over the 0.32-14.3 mu m wavelength range, before and after exposure to heat and intense optical radiation. The measured coatings included Nextel Velvet Black, an anodised coating and NPL Super Black. The anodised coating exhibited substantial variations in its diffuse and regular reflectance values after thermal and simulated solar ageing. Solar and thermal ageing of the Nextel Velvet Black resulted in increases of its reflectance. However, thermal ageing tended to decrease the reflectance of the other paint samples examined. Thermal and solar ageing of the NPL Super Black resulted in only minor changes in its reflectance characteristics. All measurements are traceable to the UK National Standards.

Multilayered hydrogel coatings covalently-linked to glass surfaces showing a potential to mimic mucosal tissues

Multilayered hydrogel coatings can be developed on the surface of glass slides via layer-by-layer deposition of hydrogen-bonded interpolymer complexes formed by poly(acrylic acid) and methylcellulose. Chemical modification of the glass surface with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane with subsequent layer-by-layer deposition and cross-linking of interpolymer complexes by thermal treatment allows fabrication of ultrathin hydrogel coatings, not detachable from the substrate. The thickness of these coatings is directly related to the number of deposition cycles and cross-linking conditions. An unusual dependence of the hydrogel swelling properties on the sample thickness is observed and can be interpreted by gradual transitions between two- and three-dimensional networks. The hydrogels exhibit pH-responsive swelling behaviour, achieving higher swelling degrees at pH > 6.0. These coatings can be used as model substrates to study the adhesive properties of pharmaceutical tablets and can potentially mimic the total work of adhesion observed for the detachment of mucoadhesives from porcine buccal mucosa but fail to exhibit identical detachment profiles.

Promoting resilience and protective factors in the Children's Fund: supporting children and young people's pathways towards social inclusion?

As part of the broader prevention and social inclusion agenda, concepts of risk, resilience, and protective factors inform a range of U.K. Government initiatives targeted towards children and young people in England, including Sure Start, the Children's Fund, On Track, and Connexions. This paper is based on findings from a large qualitative dataset of interviews conducted with children and their parents or caregiver who accessed Children's Fund services as part of National Evaluation of the Children's Fund research.1 Drawing on the notion of young people's trajectories, the paper discusses how Children's Fund services support children's and young people's pathways towards greater social inclusion. While many services help to build resilience and protective factors for individual children, the paper considers the extent to which services also promote resilience within the domains of the family, school, and wider community and, hence, attempt to tackle the complex, multi-dimensional aspects of social exclusion affecting children, young people, and their families.

The influence of Fe-rich coatings on the dissolution of anorthite at pH 2.6

Surface coatings are very common on mineral grains in soils but most laboratory dissolution experiments are carried out on pristine, uncoated mineral grains. An experiment designed to unambiguously isolate the effect of surface coatings on mineral dissolution from any influence of solution saturation state is reported. Two aliquots of 53 to 63 mum anorthite feldspar powder were used. One was dissolved in pH 2.6 HCl, the other in pH 2.6 FeCl3 solution, both for similar to6000 h in flow-through reactors. An amorphous Fe-rich, Al-, Ca- and Si-free orange precipitate coated the anorthite dissolved in the FeCl3 solution. BET surface area of the anorthite increased from 0.16 to 1.65 m(2) g(-1) in the HCl experiment and to 3.89 m(2) g(-1) in the FeCl3 experiment. The increase in surface area in the HCl experiment was due to the formation of etch pits on the anorthite grain surface whilst the additional increase in the FeCl3 experiment was due to the micro- and meso-porous nature of the orange precipitate. This precipitate did not inhibit or slow the dissolution of the anorthite. Steady state dissolution rates for the anorthite dissolved in the HCl and FeCl3 were similar to2.5 and 3.2 X 10(-10) mol(feldspar) m(-2) s(-1) respectively. These rates are not significantly different after the cumulative uncertainty of 17% in their value due to uncertainty in the inputs parameters used in their calculation is taken into account. Results from this experiment support previous theoretical and inference-based conclusions that porous coatings should not inhibit mineral dissolution. Copyright (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd.

Solvent Effects on the Formation of Nanoparticles and Multilayered Coatings Based on Hydrogen-Bonded Interpolymer Complexes of Poly(acrylic acid) with Homo- and Copolymers of N-Vinyl Pyrrolidone

The formation of hydrogen-bonded interpolymer complexes between poly(acrylic acid) and poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) as well as amphiphilic copolymers of N-vinyl pyrrolidone with vinyl propyl ether has been studied in aqueous and organic solutions. It was demonstrated that introduction of vinyl propyl ether units into the macromolecules of the nonionic polymer enhances their ability to form complexes in aqueous solutions due to more significant contribution of hydrophobic effects. The complexation was found to be a multistage process that involves the formation of primary polycomplex particles, which further aggregate to form spherical nanoparticles. Depending on the environmental factors (pH, solvent nature), these nanoparticles may either form stable colloidal solutions or undergo further aggregation, resulting in precipitation of interpolymer complexes. In organic solvents, the intensity of complex formation increases in the following order: methanol < ethanol < isopropanol < dioxane. The multilayered coatings were developed using layer-by-layer deposition of interpolymer complexes on glass surfaces. It was demonstrated that the solvent nature affects the efficiency of coating deposition.

Protective and curative effect of neem (Azadirachta indica) formulations on the development of root-knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica in roots of tomato plants

Two types of neem formulations, crude and refined, were tested. The crude form was neem leaves and neem cakes (a by-product left after the extraction of oil from neem seed) and one of the neem-refined products was "aza". The protective and curative soil application of these formulations significantly reduced the number of egg masses and eggs per egg mass on tomato roots. Protective application of neem crude formulations (leaves and cake) did not reduce the invasion of juveniles whereas aza at 0.1% w/w did. Curative application of neem formulations significantly reduced the number of egg masses and eggs per egg mass as compared with the control. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antioxidant activity and protective effects of green and dark coffee components against human low density lipoprotein oxidation

The in vitro antioxidant activity and the protective effect against human low density lipoprotein oxidation of coffees prepared using different degrees of roasting was evaluated. Coffees with the highest amount of brown pigments (dark coffee) showed the highest peroxyl radical scavenging activity. These coffees also protected human low-density lipoprotein (LDL) against oxidation, although green coffee extracts showed more protection. In a different experiment, coffee extracts were incubated with human plasma prior to isolation of LDL particles. This showed, for the first time, that incubation of plasma with dark, but not green coffee extracts protected the LDL against oxidation by copper or by the thermolabile azo compound AAPH. Antioxidants in the dark coffee extracts must therefore have become associated with the LDL particles. Brown compounds, especially those derived from the Maillard reaction, are the compounds most likely to be responsible for this activity.

Interference filters and coatings for mid-infrared astronomy (8-30µm)

The VISIR instrument for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a thermal-infrared imager and spectrometer currently being developed by the French Service d'Astrophysique of CEA Saclay, and Dutch NFRA ASTRON Dwingeloo consortium. This cryogenic instrument will employ precision infrared bandpass filters in the N-( =7.5-14µm) and Q-( =16-28µm) band mid-IR atmospheric windows to study interstellar and circumstellar environments crucial for star and planetary formation theories. As the filters in these mid-IR wavelength ranges are of interest to many astronomical cryogenic instruments, a worldwide astronomical filter consortium was set up with participation from 12 differing institutes, each requiring instrument specific filter operating environments and optical metrology. This paper describes the design and fabrication methods used to manufacture these astronomical consortium filters, including the rationale for the selection of multilayer coating designs, temperature-dependant optical properties of the filter materials and FTIR spectral measurements showing the changes in passband and blocking performance on cooling to <50K. We also describe the development of a 7-14µm broadband antireflection coating deposited on Ge lenses and KRS-5 grisms for cryogenic operation at 40K

Investigation of cadmium alternatives in thin-film coatings - art. no. 62860C

The health risks associated with the inhalation or ingestion of cadmium are well documented([1,2]). During the past 18 years, EU legislation has steadily been introduced to restrict its use, leaving a requirement for the development of replacement materials. This paper looks at possible alternatives to various cadmium II-VI dielectric compounds used in the deposition of optical thin-films for various opto-electronic devices. Application areas of particular interest are for infrared multilayer interference filter fabrication and solar cell industries, where cadmium-based coatings currently find widespread use. The results of single and multilayer designs comprising CdTe, CdS, CdSe and PbTe deposited onto group IV and II-VI materials as interference filters for the mid-IR region are presented. Thin films of SnN, SnO2, SnS and SnSe are fabricated by plasma assisted CVD, reactive RF sputtering and thermal evaporation. Examination of these films using FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, EDX analysis and optical characterisation methods provide details of material dispersion, absorption, composition, refractive index, energy band gap and layer thicknesses. The optimisation of deposition parameters in order to synthesise coatings with similar optical and semiconductor properties as those containing cadmium has been investigated. Results of environmental, durability and stability trials are also presented.