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Fulltext pH-induced wurtzite-zinc blende heterogeneous phase formation, optical properties tuning and thermal stability improvement of green synthesized CdS nanoparticles

Sheng CK, Alrababah YM

Heliyon, 2023 May;9(5):e15908.
PMID: 37206008 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15908

This is the first paper to report on the pH response to heterogeneous wurtzite/zinc blende phase transformation, optical tunability and thermal stability advancement of the CdS nanoparticles synthesized via co-precipitation, followed by subsequent thermal treatment at a desired annealing temperature of 320 °C, while the solution pH was varied during CdS synthesis by adjusting the ammonium salt concentration. The surface morphology, crystalline structure, functional groups, optical properties and thermal stability of CdS were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visible spectrophotometer, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), respectively. The results show that a dominant sharp band occurs in the FTIR spectra, which authenticates the presence of Cd-S bonds. XRD results reveal that as the pH declines, CdS in the initial cubic phase has gradually transformed into a heterogeneous phase with the coexistence of cubic and hexagonal structures. As observed from the SEM images, the CdS nanoparticles display a homogeneous, smooth and spherically shaped morphology. Optical absorption characterized by UV-visible spectrophotometry denotes that the band gap decreases proportionally with pH, which could be attributed to the formation of larger grain sizes from the aggregation of many small nanocrystallites. TGA and DSC analyses demonstrate an improvement in the thermal stability of CdS with increasing pH values. Consequently, the present findings dictate that pH tunability could be a valuable approach to procuring the desired properties for the respective applications of CdS in diverse fields.
d-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate surface scaffold polysarcosine based polymeric nanoparticles of enzalutamide for the treatment of colorectal cancer: In vitro, in vivo characterizations

Shah D, Bhattacharya S, Gupta GL, Hatware KV, Jain A, Manthalkar L, et al.

Heliyon, 2024 Feb 15;10(3):e25172.
PMID: 38333874 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25172

In this study, Enzalutamide (ENZ) loaded Poly Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid (PLGA) nanoparticles coated with polysarcosine and d-α-Tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) were prepared using a three-step modified nanoprecipitation method combined with self-assembly. A three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken design was implemented with Design-Expert® software to evaluate the impact of three independent variables on particle size, zeta potential, and percent entrapment efficiency through a numeric optimization approach. The results were corroborated with ANOVA analysis, regression equations, and response surface plots. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope images revealed nanosized, spherical polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) with a size distribution ranging from 178.9 ± 2.3 to 212.8 ± 0.7 nm, a zeta potential of 12.6 ± 0.8 mV, and entrapment efficiency of 71.2 ± 0.7 %. The latter increased with higher polymer concentration. Increased polymer concentration and homogenization speed also enhanced drug entrapment efficiency. In vitro drug release was 85 ± 22.5 %, following the Higuchi model (R2 = 0.98) and Fickian diffusion (n
Fulltext [Not Available]

Saaid FI, Kasim MF, Winie T, Elong KA, Azahidi A, Basri ND, et al.

Heliyon, 2024 Jan 15;10(1):e23968.
PMID: 38249110 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23968

The demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has skyrocketed due to the fast-growing global electric vehicle (EV) market. The Ni-rich cathode materials are considered the most relevant next-generation positive-electrode materials for LIBs as they offer low cost and high energy density materials. However, by increasing Ni content in the cathode materials, the materials suffer from poor cycle ability, rate capability and thermal stability. Therefore, this review article focuses on recent advances in the controlled synthesis of lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC). This work highlights the advantages and challenges associated with each synthesis method that has been used to produce Ni-rich materials. The crystallography and morphology obtained are discussed, as the performance of LIBs is highly dependent on these properties. To address the drawbacks of Ni-rich cathode materials, certain modifications such as ion doping, and surface coating have been pursued. The correlation between the synthesized and modified NMC materials with their electrochemical performances is summarized. Several gaps, challenges and guidelines are elucidated here in order to provide insights for facilitating research in high-performance cathode for lithium-ion batteries. Factors that govern the formation of nickel-rich layered cathode such as pH, reaction and calcination temperatures have been outlined and discussed.
Fulltext Zinc oxide from aloe vera extract: two-level factorial screening of biosynthesis parameters

Rasli NI, Basri H, Harun Z

Heliyon, 2020 Jan;6(1):e03156.
PMID: 32042952 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03156

Zinc oxide (ZnO) was biosynthesised from aloe vera plant extract. The aloe vera plant extract was used as a reducing agent in biosynthesis process. Green synthesis method was proposed because it is cost effective and environmentally friendly. ZnO was characterised using SEM, EDX, FTIR, and XRD analyses. The antibacterial property was tested against Escherichia coli. The effects of aloe vera volume (2-50) mL, precursor concentration (0.001-0.300) M, reaction time (20 min-48 h), and temperature of the reaction (26-200) °C on ZnO characteristics were investigated and screened using a two-level factorial method. Based on the observation and ANOVA analysis result, precursor concentration was the only significant parameter that affected the production of the ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). The EDX analysis proved the presence of ZnO while the SEM analysis confirmed the average size of ZnO particle size was in the range of (18-618) μm with a rod-shape appearance. The XRD analysis showed that the average crystallite size was 0.452 μm and it was in the hexagonal phase. It was also proven to have antibacterial property against E. coli.
Fulltext Zebularine and trichostatin A sensitized human breast adenocarcinoma cells towards tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL)-induced apoptosis

Kong WY, Yee ZY, Mai CW, Fang CM, Abdullah S, Ngai SC

Heliyon, 2019 Sep;5(9):e02468.
PMID: 31687564 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02468

Tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising cancer therapeutic agent due to its selective killing on cancer cells while sparing the normal cells. Nevertheless, breast adenocarcinoma cells can develop TRAIL resistance. Therefore, this project investigated the anti-cancer effects of the combination of epigenetic drugs zebularine and trichostatin A (ZT) with TRAIL (TZT) on the human breast adenocarcinoma cells. This treatment regimen was compared with the natural anti-cancer compound curcumin (Cur) and standard chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (Dox). As compared to TRAIL treatment, TZT treatment hampered the cell viability of human breast adenocarcinoma cells MDA-MB-231 significantly but not MCF-7 and immortalized non-cancerous human breast epithelial cells MCF10A. Unlike TZT, Cur and Dox treatments reduced cell viability in both human breast adenocarcinoma and epithelial cells significantly. Nevertheless, there were no changes in cell cycle in both TRAIL and TZT treatments in breast adenocarcinoma and normal epithelial cells. Intriguingly, Cur and Dox treatment generally induced G2/M arrest in MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 and MCF10A but Cur induced S phase arrest in MCF10A. The features of apoptosis such as morphological changes, apoptotic activity and the expression of cleaved poly (ADP) ribose polymerase (PARP) protein were more prominent in TRAIL and TZT-treated MDA-MB-231 as compared to MCF10A at 24 h post-treatment. Compared to TZT treatment, Cur and Dox treatments exhibited lesser apoptotic features in MDA-MB-231. Collectively, the sensitization using Zeb and TSA to augment TRAIL-induced apoptosis might be an alternative therapy towards human breast adenocarcinoma cells, without harming the normal human breast epithelial cells.
Fulltext Z-scheme NiO/g-C3N4 nanocomposites prepared using phyto-mediated nickel nanoparticles for the efficient photocatalytic degradation

Fatimah I, Sulistyowati RZ, Wijayana A, Purwiandono G, Sagadevan S

Heliyon, 2023 May;9(5):e16232.
PMID: 37251879 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16232

Highly-effective photocatalyst of NiO/g-C3N4 with was successfully synthesized by using phyto-mediated-synthesized nickel nanoparticles. The preparation was initiated by synthesizing nickel nanoparticles by using Tinosphora cordifolia stem extract under ultrasound-assisted method followed by the dispersing onto g-C3N4 structure. The study focused on physicochemical characterization and photocatalytic activity as function of the percentage of Ni in the nanocomposite. The photocatalytic activity examinations were carried out to rhodamine B and tetracycline photocatalytic oxidation. The results demonstrated that graphitic carbon nitride is effectively improved the photocatalytic activity of NiO for both photocatalytic oxidation reactions. From the varied Ni content of 5; 10; and 20 %wt., it was also found that the highest photoactivity was achieved by the composite having 10 %wt. of nickel content. The high effectivity was showed by degradation efficiency of 95% toward Rhodamine B and 98% toward tetracycline. The examination on effect of scavengers suggests that Z-scheme involved in the photocatalytic mechanism which facilitated the efficient separation of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs under visible light illumination. In summary, the present findings provide a green approach for fabricating the effective photocatalysts for organic contaminant degradation.
Fulltext YOLO and residual network for colorectal cancer cell detection and counting

Haq I, Mazhar T, Asif RN, Ghadi YY, Ullah N, Khan MA, et al.

Heliyon, 2024 Jan 30;10(2):e24403.
PMID: 38304780 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24403

The HT-29 cell line, derived from human colon cancer, is valuable for biological and cancer research applications. Early detection is crucial for improving the chances of survival, and researchers are introducing new techniques for accurate cancer diagnosis. This study introduces an efficient deep learning-based method for detecting and counting colorectal cancer cells (HT-29). The colorectal cancer cell line was procured from a company. Further, the cancer cells were cultured, and a transwell experiment was conducted in the lab to collect the dataset of colorectal cancer cell images via fluorescence microscopy. Of the 566 images, 80 % were allocated to the training set, and the remaining 20 % were assigned to the testing set. The HT-29 cell detection and counting in medical images is performed by integrating YOLOv2, ResNet-50, and ResNet-18 architectures. The accuracy achieved by ResNet-18 is 98.70 % and ResNet-50 is 96.66 %. The study achieves its primary objective by focusing on detecting and quantifying congested and overlapping colorectal cancer cells within the images. This innovative work constitutes a significant development in overlapping cancer cell detection and counting, paving the way for novel advancements and opening new avenues for research and clinical applications. Researchers can extend the study by exploring variations in ResNet and YOLO architectures to optimize object detection performance. Further investigation into real-time deployment strategies will enhance the practical applicability of these models.
Fulltext Would manufacturing go for renewable energy? Manufacturers' preference towards sustainability

Amar SN, Kamaludin M, Azlina AA, K V Zainuddin MR, Sulaiman KI

Heliyon, 2024 Mar 30;10(6):e27981.
PMID: 38524591 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27981

Malaysia needs to fully utilize its renewable energy resources to meet its goal of installed capacity of 31% of renewable energy in 2025 and 40% in 2035. In order to empower renewable energy sources, the government has established a fund known as the renewable energy fund (RE FUND). In Malaysia, most manufacturing sectors contribute to the RE FUND through their monthly electricity bills due to their electricity consumption exceeding 300kwh per month. As Malaysia's highest electricity consumer, the manufacturing sector needs government investment incentives to switch to renewable energy sources to generate electricity. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify attribute preferences of the manufacturing sector due to investing in renewable energy sources. The Choice Experiment method was employed where the Mixed Logit model was chosen to identify the willingness to pay for the manufacturing sectors based on their preferences among the four attributes: types of renewable energy, project location, annual reduction in GHG emissions, and RE FUND. The study results found that the manufacturing sector places the highest value on the project location, where they prefer to improve the project location from current condition to far location. This study can also help to achieve the Goal 7 in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), where investment in renewable energy sources can guarantee that all individuals obtain affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern electricity in 2030.
Fulltext Work place violence (WPV) against healthcare workers in Africa: A systematic review

Njaka S, Edeogu OC, Oko CC, Goni MD, Nkadi N

Heliyon, 2020 Sep;6(9):e04800.
PMID: 32964153 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04800

Background: WPV amongst healthcare workers has been reported as a public health challenge across the countries of the world, with more in the developing countries where condition of care and service is very poor.
Objectives: We aimed to systematically produce empirical evidence on the WPV against health care workers in Africa through the review of relevant literature.
Method: We sourced for evidence through the following databases: PubMed, Science direct and Scopus from 30th November to 31st December 2019 as well as the reference list of the studies included. A total of 22 peer reviewed articles were included in the review (8065 respondents). Quality appraisal of the included studies was assessed using critical appraisal tools for cross-sectional studies.
Result: Across the studies, diverse but high prevalence of WPV ranging from 9% to 100% was reported with the highest in South Africa (54%-100%) and Egypt (59.7%-86.1%). The common types were verbal, physical, sexual harassment and psychological violence. The correlates of WPV reported were gender, age, shift duty, emergency unit, psychiatric unit, nursing, marital status and others. Various impacts were reported including psychological impacts and desire to quit nursing. Patients and their relatives, the coworkers and supervisors were the mostly reported perpetrators of violence. Doctors were mostly implicated in the sexual violence against nurses. Policy on violence and management strategies were non-existent across the studies.
Conclusion: High prevalence of WPV against healthcare workers exists in Africa but there is still paucity of research on the subject matter. However, urgent measures like policy formulation and others must be taken to address the WPV as to avert the impact on the healthcare system.
Fulltext Women's financial literacy: A bibliometric study on current research and future directions

Sundarasen S, Rajagopalan U, Kanapathy M, Kamaludin K

Heliyon, 2023 Dec;9(12):e21379.
PMID: 38144274 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21379

This study undertakes a bibliometric and content analysis on women's financial literacy. The purpose of a bibliometric research on financial literacy and women is to carefully evaluate and quantify the body of literature on this subject. It attempts to identify trends, research gaps, significant authors, and essential ideas, offering a thorough overview that might direct future research and policy activities to increase women's financial literacy and well-being. The data extraction commenced in January 2023 with a thorough criteria search for articles, which includes inclusion and exclusion criteria using Web of Science Core database, resulting in 312 articles, published between 1998 and 2022. Biblioshiny application as well as the VOSviewer software for network visualization of keywords and bibliographic coupling is used. Based on the outcomes of the scientific bibliographic coupling, dominant themes were identified - "Global Financial Literacy: Addressing Disparities and Enhancing Education", "Addressing gender gap in financial inclusion and personal finance behaviour", "Empowerment through Financial Literacy: Overcoming the Manacles of Domestic Violence" and "Women's retirement planning and preparedness". Future research in this area could examine global gender differences in financial literacy, implement targeted financial education interventions, incorporate financial literacy and economic empowerment into domestic violence policies, investigate factors influencing women's retirement planning, and advance gender equality and financial well-being globally. The outcome from the future research is anticipated to assist regulatory bodies, government agencies and non-profit organization in enhancing existing regulations (specifically for women) and provide the platform for a sustainable wealth management and well-being program for women.
Fulltext When procrastination pays off: Role of knowledge sharing ability, autonomous motivation, and task involvement for employee creativity

Adeel A, Sarminah S, Jie L, Kee DMH, Qasim Daghriri Y, Alghafes RA

Heliyon, 2023 Oct;9(10):e19398.
PMID: 37767479 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19398

The prime objective of this research was to investigate procrastination as a prospectively constructive element of the creative process among employees working at different hierarchical levels in a Chinese organization. Building on self-determination theory, this research postulates a connection between procrastination and creativity through the incubation of knowledge absorption, autonomous motivation and task engagement as boundary conditions. Data was collected from 213 individuals from the workforce and their immediate managers belonging to a Chinese furniture company; then analyzed with Mplus for simple regression analysis, mediated moderated analyses, and coefficient estimates of all the study variables. The outcomes of this investigation showed an inverse relationship between procrastination with creativity, while creativity being strongest in the medium levels of procrastination; however, when autonomous motivation and/or task engagement are strong, procrastination depicts an inverted-U-shaped association; however, in scenarios where both autonomous motivation and the task engagement are low, procrastination has a negative linear relationship. With the results of this research, we have shown that moderate procrastination has a causal effect on the generation of creative ideas. This research demonstrated that as long as employees had strong autonomous drive or high task engagement, their supervisors awarded them better ratings when they procrastinated moderately on their assignments. Limitations and future research directions were also discussed.
Fulltext When abusive supervision affects creative idea sharing: Understanding the role of employee cheating and organizational justice

Batool S, Izwar Ibrahim H, Adeel A, Jiang M, Samad S

Heliyon, 2024 Jan 15;10(1):e22781.
PMID: 38116191 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22781

Getting employees to share their creative ideas has long been recognized as a vital source of organizational effectiveness. This research uses the conservation of resources theory to investigate how employee's creative idea sharing is affected by abusive supervision. Data for this research was collected from 209 employees and their immediate supervisors of generic nurses and medical dispensers of Southern Punjab public sector hospitals working under the Ministry of national health services regulation and Coordination. Data were then analyzed with the AMOS software package for simple regression and moderated mediation. This study found that with the increase in abusive supervision, employees develop cheating behavior, diminishing probability of sharing their creative ideas with coworkers. Along these lines, organizational justice moderates this relationship and attenuates the negative indirect effect of abusive supervision on creative idea sharing. The researchers recommended that organizations should develop training programs or coaching sessions for leaders to make them equip with essential interpersonal skills that can eradicate abusive supervision. Research implications, limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.
Fulltext What a waste? An experience in a secondary school in Malaysia of a food waste management system (FWMS)

Bathmanathan V, Rajadurai J, Alahakone R

Heliyon, 2023 Oct;9(10):e20327.
PMID: 37810851 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20327

Food waste (FW) is not just a problem and challenge in Malaysia but world wide. According to a United Nation Environment Program report, approximately 931 million tonnes of food waste was produced globally in 2019. This included 61% from households, 26% from food services and the remaining 13%, from retail. The sheer magnitude of this wastage is very troubling; especially in the fact that there is no firm hope that the scale of the wastage will decrease in the near future. Most studies into food wastage have investigated the broader field of food industries such as food manufacturers, restaurants, food courts and others. This study, however, aimed to investigate FW among end-users who are students in a school, with data being collected from the school canteen. It investigated the amount of food waste before and after awareness of food waste in Malaysia was raised, and how the waste can be converted into cash. The study had four phases: 1) an awareness program for school students, 2) installation of the FW machine, 3) collection of food waste, and finally 4) data analysis. The food waste was collected, transformed into bio-fertilisers and sold to the parents. A total of 339.5 kg of food waste was collected in 38 days and this waste was transformed into 131.5 kg of bio-fertilisers for sale to parents in the same school. This simple FW conversion to bio-fertilisers undertaken in the school as a pilot project shed some light on the potential of the project to be carried out on a larger scale and with commercial interests for all schools in Malaysia. The school generated RM 1315 from the sale of the bio-fertilisers. The potential profits achievable from this conversion of FW to bio-fertilisers will be significant if the pilot study is expanded throughout Malaysia.
Fulltext Water transport properties of boron nitride nanosheets mixed matrix membranes for humic acid removal

Tang CY, Zulhairun AK, Wong TW, Alireza S, Marzuki MSA, Ismail AF

Heliyon, 2019 Jan;5(1):e01142.
PMID: 30723824 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01142

Ultrafiltration grade polysulfone-based mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) incorporated with two-dimensional boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS) was prepared via phase inversion method. The amount of BN incorporated was varied and the influence on membrane morphology, contact angle, surface charge, as well as water permeability and humic acid rejection were investigated. Results revealed that the addition of BN to the membrane matrix resulted in profound increase in water permeability (almost tripled to that of neat PSf) and humic acid rejection due to the increase in pore size and surface negative charge. Beyond the morphological changes imparted by the inclusion of BNNS, we postulated that the presence of BNNS within the membrane matrix also contribute to the enhancement in flux and rejection based on surface-slip and selective interlayer transport. Despite the favourable augmentation of water transport and filtration performance, the MMMs suffered with fouling problem due to the entrapment of foulant within the enlarged pores and the membrane valleys. Its inherent adsorptive character could be a disadvantage when utilized as membrane filler.
Water budget-salt balance model for calculating net water saving considering different non-conventional water resources in agricultural process

Danboos A, Sharil S, Mohamad Hamzah F, Yafouz A, Huang YF, Ahmed AN, et al.

Heliyon, 2023 Apr;9(4):e15274.
PMID: 37095945 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15274

Iraq is facing a dire water crisis due to the decrease in water quantities flow in Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Due to population growth, several studies estimated the water shortage in 2035 to be 44 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM). Thus, Water Budget-Salt Balance Model (WBSBM) has been developed, applied and examined for the Euphrates River basin to compute the net water saving from Non-Conventional Water Resources (NCWRs). WBSBM includes 4-stages; the first is to identify the required data correspond to the conventional water resources in the study-area. The second stage is demonstrating the water-users activities. Thirdly, develop model through the proposed NCWR projects that reflect the required data. The final stage involves net water saving computation while applying all the NCWR projects simultaneously. The results obtained the optimal potential net water saving amount, which are 6.823 and 6.626 BCM/year in 2025 and 2035, respectively. In conclusion, the proposed WBSBM model has comprehensively examined different scenarios of utilizing NCWRs and has determined the optimal potential the net water saving amounts.
Fulltext Volumetric and conductivity studies of the interaction between levocetirizine dihydrochloride and the amino acids l-alanine and l-glutamine in aqueous solutions

Zolkiflee NF, Meor Mohd Affandi MMR, Abdul Majeed AB

Heliyon, 2023 Apr;9(4):e14363.
PMID: 37009243 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14363

Levocetirizine dihydrochloride (LCTZ) is a second-generation antihistamine known for its efficacy without sedation. However, the binding mechanism with plasma protein which makes it devoid of sedative effects is yet to be uncovered. In this study, we elucidated thermodynamic parameters of solute-solvent and solute-cosolute interactions between LCTZ, and the amino acids l-alanine (Ala) and l-glutamine (Gln) in aqueous solutions. The volumetric and conductance parameters were calculated using the experimental density and conductance data of aqueous solutions of Ala and Gln (concentration range of 0.02-0.20 mol kg-1) and LCTZ (concentration range of 0.01, 0.07, and 0.13 mol kg-1) at 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, and 313.15 K. Volumetric analysis study revealed that the apparent molar volume (Vφ), limiting apparent molar volume (Vφ 0), and Masson's coefficient (Sv) values indicated predominantly solute-solvent interactions that were influenced by the solute's concentration and temperature. Meanwhile, partial molar expansibilities (Eφ 0), transfer volume ΔtrVφ 0 and Hepler's constant (δ2V0/δT2) established the solution system's structure-breaking tendency. The Gibb's free energy (ΔG0) values derived from conductometry data indicated the system's spontaneity. These calculated constants provided a detailed understanding of the different types of intermolecular interactions found in the ternary (LCTZ + water + amino acids) system.
Vision-based lane departure warning framework

Em PP, Hossen J, Fitrian I, Wong EK

Heliyon, 2019 Aug;5(8):e02169.
PMID: 31440587 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02169

Collisions arising from lane departures have contributed to traffic accidents causing millions of injuries and tens of thousands of casualties per year worldwide. Many related studies had shown that single vehicle lane departure crashes accounted largely in road traffic deaths that results from drifting out of the roadway. Hence, automotive safety has becoming a concern for the road users as most of the road casualties occurred due to driver's fallacious judgement of vehicle path. This paper proposes a vision-based lane departure warning framework for lane departure detection under daytime and night-time driving environments. The traffic flow and conditions of the road surface for both urban roads and highways in the city of Malacca are analysed in terms of lane detection rate and false positive rate. The proposed vision-based lane departure warning framework includes lane detection followed by a computation of a lateral offset ratio. The lane detection is composed of two stages: pre-processing and detection. In the pre-processing, a colour space conversion, region of interest extraction, and lane marking segmentation are carried out. In the subsequent detection stage, Hough transform is used to detect lanes. Lastly, the lateral offset ratio is computed to yield a lane departure warning based on the detected X-coordinates of the bottom end-points of each lane boundary in the image plane. For lane detection and lane departure detection performance evaluation, real-life datasets for both urban roads and highways in daytime and night-time driving environments, traffic flows, and road surface conditions are considered. The experimental results show that the proposed framework yields satisfactory results. On average, detection rates of 94.71% for lane detection rate and 81.18% for lane departure detection rate were achieved using the proposed frameworks. In addition, benchmark lane marking segmentation methods and Caltech lanes dataset were also considered for comparison evaluation in lane detection. Challenges to lane detection and lane departure detection such as worn lane markings, low illumination, arrow signs, and occluded lane markings are highlighted as the contributors to the false positive rates.
Fulltext Visible and angular interrogation of Kretschmann-based SPR using hybrid Au-ZnO optical sensor for hyperuricemia detection

Mustaffa SN, Md Yatim N, Abdul Rashid AR, Md Yatim N, Pithaih V, Sha'ari NS, et al.

Heliyon, 2023 Dec;9(12):e22926.
PMID: 38125452 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22926

Uric acid is a waste product of the human body where high levels of it or hyperuricemia can lead to gout, kidney disease and other health issues. In this paper, Finite Difference Time Doman (FDTD) simulation method was used to develop a plasmonic optical sensor to detect uric acid with molarity ranging from 0 to 3.0 mM. A hybrid layer of gold-zinc oxide (Au-ZnO) was used in this Kretschmann-based Surface Plasmon Resonance (K-SPR) technique with angular interrogation at 670 nm and 785 nm visible optical wavelengths. The purpose of this study is to observe the ability of the hybrid material as a sensing performance enhancer for differentiating between healthy and unhealthy uric acid levels based on the refractive index values from previous study. Upon exposure to 670 nm wavelength, the average sensitivity of this sensor was found to be 0.028°/mM with a linearity of 98.67 % and Q-factor value of 0.0053 mM-1. While at 785 nm, the average sensitivity is equal to 0.0193°/mM with slightly lower linearity at 94.46 % and Q-factor value of 0.0076 mM-1. The results have proven the ability of hybrid material Au-ZnO as a sensing performance enhancer for detecting uric acid when compared with bare Au and can be further explored in experimental work.
Viscous dissipation effects on hybrid nanofluid flow over a non-linearly shrinking sheet with power-law velocity

Waini I, Alabdulhady S, Ishak A, Pop I

Heliyon, 2023 Oct;9(10):e20910.
PMID: 37867886 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20910

This research intends to investigate the effect of the nonlinearity of the surface velocity on the hybrid nanofluid flow behavior. Here, the total composition of Al2O3 (alumina) as well as Cu (copper) volume fractions, are implemented in a one-to-one ratio and then dispersed in water. The similarity equations are gained employing a similarity transformation, which is programmed in MATLAB software. The dual solutions are attainable for certain ranges with respect to the mass flux parameter S and the power-law index n. Also, the turning point occurs in the region of S<0 and n>1. Besides, the rise of n led to reduce the skin friction as well as the heat transfer coefficients with 39.44 % and 11.71 % reduction, respectively. Moreover, 14.39 % reduction of the heat transfer rate is observed in the presence of viscous dissipation (Eckert number). It is found that only the first solution is stable as time progresses. Generally, this study gives scientists and engineers a starting point for predicting how to control the parameters to achieve the best results for relevant practical applications.
Fulltext Virtual idol marketing: Benefits, risks, and an integrated framework of the emerging marketing field

Yu Y, Kwong SC, Bannasilp A

Heliyon, 2023 Nov;9(11):e22164.
PMID: 38053914 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22164

The marketing practice involved with virtual idols became popular, leading to the emergence of virtual idol marketing. However, there is a lack of scientific understanding of this emerging marketing field. To promote a fundamental understanding of virtual idol marketing, this study clarifies the conceptual boundary of virtual idols and provides meaningful insights into the definitions, benefits, and risks of virtual idol marketing. On this basis, this study further proposes an integrated framework established on the existing theories and research to explain the potential working mechanism of virtual idol marketing. This study can increase the accumulation of knowledge in the emerging field of virtual idol marketing, provide inspiration and decision-making assistance for brands to build connections with young consumers, especially Generation Z, and provide an avenue for future research in the field of virtual idol marketing.

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