Syngas Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) Testing of In-Situ Type Lignite Coal and Fracture Type Coal

The advancement and utilization of technology require energy, namely electricity and fuel energy. The increasing cost of fossil energy, the scarcity of non-renewable energy sources and the increasing energy demand requires diversification of energy resources. One of the new renewable energy sources currently being developed in Indonesia is Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). UCG is a new technology that utilizes unmined coal. In the UCG process, coal is burned underground and the syngas produced is collected through bore wells for processing or direct use. The resulting syngas is analyzed to see the effect of in-situ type of lignite coal and fractured type of coal on syngas production using the UCG method. Tests carried out on fracture-type lignite coal for 120 minutes with a sample weight of 1.3 kg obtained a CH4 gas concentration of 0.24%, which is relatively low compared to the in-situ type lignite coal sample CH4 gas concentration of 1.13%. The CO2 concentration was 54.46% in the fracture sample, and the In-Situ type sample was 52.19%. The O2 content with a value of 19.43% for the Fracture Type sample and 4.94% for the In-Situ type sample. Fracture Type and In-situ Lignite Coal produced fewer syngas products due to UCG testing than high-rank coals such as sub-bituminous and bituminous coal.

Mental health consequences of home demolition policy towered Palestinians: Literature review

Abstract Home demolition is considered a miserable and frequent reality of life for thousands of Palestinian people. Recently, in January 2020, at least 44 structures were demolished by Israeli forces, displacing at least 87 people. Studies have revealed high levels of stress was associated with losing a family home during home demolition, and the stress doesn’t only carry out immediate effects but also long-term mental consequences. This paper aims to provide an overview of the literature and established studies related to the mental health consequences of home demolitions in Palestine. Methods PubMed, Science Direct, Semantic Scholar and Google Scholar were used to search for materials for the critical analysis of empirical articles. The following aspects were taken into consideration: study type, sample, and key findings. Results In this review, nine studies related to mental health consequences of home demolition were found and considered in this paper. The results indicate depression, stress, anxiety, phobias and lack of hope in the future are mutual themes running throughout the lives of those Palestinian families who have actually experienced home demolition along with those who have experienced a constant threat of demolition to their homes. In addition, many of life stressors such as lack of educational opportunities, low incomes, and a tendency to live in poor housing conditions after and before demolition also play a role in developing serious mental disorders. Conclusion As primary prevention, the practice of home demolition in Palestine has to be ended. In addition to conduct a constant monitoring of the resulting displacement and the damage caused, and ensuring the necessary assistance in particular mental health and psychological support for victims of home demolitions.

Association of SMAD4 loss with drug resistance in clinical cancer patients: A systematic meta-analysis

Background Drug resistance frequently led to the failure of chemotherapy for malignant cancers, hence causing cancer relapse. Thus, understanding mechanism of drug resistance in cancer is vital to improve the treatment efficacy. Here, we aim to evaluate the association between SMAD4 expression and the drug resistance in cancers by performing a meta-analysis. Method Relevant studies detecting SMAD4 expression in cancer patients treated with chemo-drugs up till December 2020 were systematically searched in four common scientific databases using selected keywords. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) was the ratio of hazard rate between SMAD4neg population vs SMAD4pos population. The HRs and risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to explore the association between SMAD4 expression losses with drug resistance in cancers. Result After an initial screening according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, eleven studies were included in the meta-analysis. There were a total of 2092 patients from all the included studies in this analysis. Results obtained indicated that loss of SMAD4 expression was significantly correlated with drug resistance with pooled HRs (95% CI) of 1.23 (1.01–1.45), metastasis with pooled RRs (95% CI) of 1.10 (0.97–1.25) and recurrence with pooled RRs (95% CI) of 1.32 (1.06–1.64). In the subgroup analysis, cancer type, drug type, sample size and antibody brand did not affect the significance of association between loss of SMAD4 expression and drug resistance. In addition, there was no evidence of publication bias as suggested by Begg’s test. Conclusion Findings from our meta-analysis demonstrated that loss of SMAD4 expression was correlated with drug resistance, metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, SMAD4 expression could be potentially used as a molecular marker for cancer resistance.

ESG-driven approach to managing insurance companies’ sustainable development

Environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG) are considered to be the main factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of companies. This article focuses on comparing the ability of insurance companies to use an ESG-driven approach to managing their sustainable development. The study is conducted using comparative analysis, statistical analysis, and a case study method. The study compares six ESG Ratings on four main criteria (dependent variables, independent variables, scale type, sample), that allows choosing the most appropriate rating for the analysis of insurance companies. As a result, 156 insurance companies are compared by the level of ESG risk (low ESG risk – 24 companies, medium ESG risk – 111 companies, high ESG risk – 21 companies) and by geographical affiliation (26 countries) using descriptive statistics. The assessment of effectiveness of the ESG-driven approach to managing sustainable development of insurance companies is carried out on the example of 16 companies by comparing their non-financial reporting (the sample is selected based on of the annual report for 2019-2020). The study identifies the most common guidelines for report development, as well as components of the ESG-driven approach: environmental (waste and pollution, climate change, energy efficiency), social (workforce and diversity, customer engagement, communities), governance (code and values, reporting, risk management). The study systematizes the best practices of insurance companies for applying the ESG-driven approach to manage their sustainable development and highlights the need for insurance companies to improve their reporting and disclosure practices related to the development of the ESG-driven approach. AcknowledgmentComments from the Editor and anonymous referees have been gratefully acknowledged.

Perceptions and experiences of nurses about their performance in the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: to describe the perception and experiences of nurses about their performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: qualitative study with phenomenological approach. Fifteen nurses participated in the study, selected according to an intentional snowball type sample. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and the transcribed information was submitted to thematic-category content analysis. Results: from the analysis of the participants’ discourse, the following categories and subcategories emerged: lived experiences (negative states; work organization; team cohesion; challenges and norms and guidelines); adopted strategies (individual; team support; familiar and informative) and future expectations (return to normality; adaptation; personal and professional growth; nursing uncertainty and valorization). Conclusion: from the perceptions and experiences of the nurses of their performance in the COVID-19 Pandemic, the negative emotional states, strategies adopted of individual character and future expectations of return to normality are highlighted.

Insight into the photophysics of strong dual emission (blue & green) producing graphene quantum dot clusters and their application towards selective and sensitive detection of trace level Fe3+ and Cr6+ ions

Schematic representation for the origin of blue and green emissions, and the resultant PL emission spectra from the GQD interconnected cluster-type sample.

Lasius nigroemarginatus Forel, 1874 is a F1 Hybrid between L. emarginatus (Olivier, 1792) and L. platythorax Seifert, 1991 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Lasius nigroemarginatus Forel, 1874, that has been synonymized in recent catalogues with Lasius emarginatus (Olivier, 1792), is shown to represent a F1 hybrid between L. emarginatus and L. platythorax Seifert, 1991. This conclusion was firstly drawn from numeric description of 16 phenotypic characters and the placement of four type workers of L. nigroemarginatus within vectorial space of the three possible parental species. These were represented by 144 workers of Lasius niger (Linnaeus, 1758), 90 workers of L. emarginatus and 94 workers of L. platythorax – with a coverage for all species by their whole Palaearctic range. The type sample was placed intermediate between (and clearly separated from) the clusters of L. emarginatus and L. platythorax in both Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling and when run as a wild-card in a three-class linear discriminant analysis. Comparing structural and pigmentation characters one by one, the types of L. nigroemarginatus were intermediate between L. emarginatus and L. platythorax in five characters, closer to L. emarginatus in four characters and closer to L. platythorax in seven characters. The conclusions derived from the position in the morphological space were supported by data on swarming time and nest habitat selection and the odor perceived by the collector Forel. Lasius niger could be clearly excluded to represent a parental species. It is argued that the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) shows logical inconsistencies and explanatory weakness regarding the treatment of truly hybridogenous species and that the Articles 1.3.3, 17.2 and 23.8 of ICZN should be amended or re-written.

Спектры остаточной фотопроводимости в гетероструктурах с квантовыми ямами HgTe/CdHgTe

Spectra of persistent photoconductivity (PPC) in HgTe/CdHgTe quantum well (QW) heterostructures of both n- and p-types have been investigated at T = 4.2 K. PPC is shown to be either positive (increase of carrier concentration in QW) or negative depending on a wavelength of the illumination. As a general trend, PPC maxima in n-type sample correspond to PPC minima in p-type samples and vice versa. It is discovered that in p-type samples the illumination with certain wavelengths results in the freezing out of free carriers in QWs but not in the conversion of the conductivity type. The latter indicates a significant role in the PPC mechanism of the built-in electric field that is switching off at the QW neutralization.