The utilization of bamboo as a manufacturing material is becoming globally attractive in
the wood and wood product industries today. This is due to the numerous industrial applications and
uses of the bamboo plant from its fast growth, availability, unique appearance and strength. Bamboo
has been popularly known for its traditional uses such as poultry cages, vegetable baskets, incense
sticks, skewers and chopsticks, woven blinds and handicrafts. Very little has been done on the
industrial processing of bamboo into boards. Several authors have studied and reported on the
utilization, processing and the properties of this emerging material as an alternative to the increasing
decline of wood in the forest. This review aims to compare and contrast some of the works done on
the advancement in producing laminated bamboo timber. The properties of bamboo and its laminated
products attest to its potency in substituting wood. Bamboo utilisation has increased significantly in
the wood and wood product industries, with adequate retooling in most processing firms in the sector.
In line with the development and use of bamboo-laminated timber for the purpose of wood in
furniture production, the creation of bamboo plantations on degraded lands will meaningfully support
production and mitigate the degradation of forest.
Titania nanotube is gaining tremendous interest for its unique features including high
surface area, ion-exchange ability, photocatalytic potential and prominent electrical properties. Many
attempts were made to manipulate the unique properties of titania nanotubes for supercapacitor
application. In this review a comprehensive list of literatures on fabrication of titania nanotubes via
anodisation method in fluoride-based electrolytes and its application as supercapacitor are discussed.
This review shows that the nanotube morphology can be optimized by varying the anodisation
parameter such as electrolyte concentration, pH, voltage, and bath temperature. The review also
includes studies on the application of titania nanotubes as supercapacitor on improving the specific
capacitance value by doping with metal oxides and conducting polymers.
This paper presents an evaluation of the alternative use of natural cellulose coir fibres for
soil reinforcement. Soil reinforcement is defined as a technique to improve the engineering properties
of soil. Inserting natural fibres into the soil has been proposed as a reinforcement method. Randomly
distributed coir fibre reinforced soils have recently attracted increasing attention in geotechnical
engineering due to their strength. Furthermore, there is a need to develop an innovative and
sustainable pre-treatment method to improve the effectiveness and performance of coir fibre as soil
reinforcement. The primary purpose of this paper is, therefore, to review the characteristics, benefits,
applications and weaknesses of coir fibre as soil reinforcement.
The aim of this paper is to review the principles of ground-borne vibration induced by road
traffic. Several researchers have studied the impact of ground-borne vibration on people, structure, and
equipment, and developed guidelines or standards in order to indicate the threshold limit of damage and
annoyance. Measurement of ground-borne vibration is a crucial aspect in ground-borne vibration
studies that needs to be understood well. The reliability of the measurement is dependent on the
accuracy of the data collected. Thus, discussion in this review paper proceeds on the types of groundborne vibration modelling that can predict and explain the phenomenon.
Brucella melitensis is one of the major zoonotic pathogens worldwide with enormous
economic losses as well as considerable human morbidity in endemic areas. The global burden of its
incidence in both human and animal populations remains significantly at an alarming rate. The impact
of the disease is even multidimensional in nature and not always well understood and significantly
complicating effective policy response. The pathogenesis is complex and governed by several factors
working together in synergistic manner. The evolutionarily developed diverse evasion strategy to avoid
the host’s innate and adaptive immunity is further worsening the situation. Until recently,
lipopolysaccharide (LPS) remains the major virulent factor of B. melitensis and responsible for the
mechanism by which the pathogen causes its deleterious effects. Mechanisms presiding to the
colonization of the pregnant uterus in different animal species are still largely unknown. Information
related to the epidemiology and immunopathophysiology is still scarce in the database and control
programs are rarely implemented. Therapy is based on wide spectrum antibiotics with mysterious
outcome. The pre-existing vaccines appear not promising. Thus, understating the biological behaviour
of the disease becomes a fundamental issue. In this review, we highlight various key aspects of the
disease with special reference to the epidemiology and the immunopathophysiology of the disease in
sheep goat populations.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the leading nosocomial
pathogen that is also emerging as a zoonotic pathogen. In this review, it was observed that rapid
emergence of new MRSA clones at a higher frequency has ushered in a new knowledge on the clonality
and epidemic potentials of MRSA. Secondly, the success of treatment and management of MRSA
infection is threatened by the diversity in the clonal types. This is because different clones harbours
different antibiotics resistance characteristics and as such respond differently to treatment. Furthermore,
clonal replacement of hospital-acquired MRSA with community -acquired MRSA has also been
observed. Thirdly, the transmission of MRSA even though previously thought to be exclusively within
the hospital setting through hand contact and nasal colonization has now spread to the community and in
addition human to animal and animal to human transmission has also been observed. Similarly, pet
owners, veterinarians and farmers have been described as high-risked group with potentials of becoming
reservoirs of MRSA. Furthermore, the adoption of hand hygiene in healthcare setting have to a great
extent reduced the incidence of MRSA in the hospital. And lastly, the advent of molecular typing such as
Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST), Staphylococcal protein
A typing (Spa typing) and Double Locus Sequence Typing (DLST) have proven to be a useful tool in
providing valuable information on the evolution and clonal diversity of MRSA. These in turn help
researchers to answer some pertinent questions on the epidemiology of MRSA.
Robotic navigation has remained an open issue through the last two decades. Mobile robot
is required to navigate safely to goal location in presence of obstacles. Recently the use of mobile
robot in unknown dynamic environment has significantly increased. The aim of this paper is to offer a
comprehensive review over different approaches to mobile robots in dynamic environments,
particularly on how they solve many issues that face the researchers recently. This paper also explains
the advantages and drawbacks of each reviewed paper. The authors decide to categorize these articles
based on the entire content of each paper into ten common challenges which have been discussed in
this paper, including: traveling distance, traveling time, safety, motion control, smooth path, future
prediction, stabilization, competence, precision, and low computation cost. Finally, some open areas
and challenging topics are offered according to the articles mentioned.
– Feedback is one of the most influential tools in the learning of writing. However, there are
divided views on its impact on ESL writing. This article reviews past studies to explore the various
types of written feedback and its effectiveness. Firstly, it discusses the feedback role in ESL students’
writing, followed by the types of feedback. Furthermore, it highlights the type of feedback which is
useful and effective in the writing process. Next, it presents the different views on the effectiveness of
feedback in ESL writing due to the type of feedback and the way it is given. Lastly, it concludes that
feedback acts as a scaffold by providing a meaningful and impactful learning to students.
A resistant variety with high yielding potential is key for increasing crop production to
fulfill the food requirement of the ever increasing world populations. Consequently, the aim of plant
breeders is to develop high yielding varieties or cultivars that are resistant or tolerant to specific
diseases or insects. For developing a resistant variety, it is enormously indispensable to incorporate or
introgress the specific resistant genes of that particular disease into the recipient. Suppression
subtractive hybridization (SSH) is a powerful technique for the identification of disease specific
differentially expressed genes that are expressed in a resistant or susceptible variety. This paper
presents a brief review on the SSH technique with examples focusing on the identification of the
wheat disease specific differentially expressed genes and their defense mechanisms against fungal
pathogens in global wheat cultivars. This review is helpful for wheat researchers for the updated
information on the SSH technique for the identification of differentially expressed genes in the global
wheat cultivars and varieties. Eventually, the identified genes could be used to develop the disease
resistance variety through marker-assisted backcrossing programme or conventional breeding.
Nitric oxide (NO) is a signaling molecule involved in numerous physiological processes in
both animals and plants. The bioactivity of NO is mainly transduced via post-translational modification
of cysteine residues of proteins termed S-nitrosylation. Interestingly, a number of key regulatory
components in plant defense responses have been found to be regulated by S-nitrosylation making this
type of protein modification an important modulator of plant immunity. As a signaling molecule, NO
intimately interact with other important molecules such as reactive oxygen species. Since the
identification of NO in plants, increasing number of papers isbeing published in the area of NO biology
each year. Here, a collection of papers describing the role of NO in plant immunity has been brought
together to provide a bird's-eye view on the focus area.
Quantum dots-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) is one of the third generation solar cell that is
the most promising low cost, easy to manufacture and highly efficient solar cell. Compared to Dyesensitized
solar cell (DSSC), quantum dots (QDs) of QDSSC has a narrow bandgap and possess
excellent properties such as tunable band gaps, strong light absorption and high multiple electron
generation. Titanium dioxide or titania (TiO2) is an oxides semiconductor material that is frequently
used as a photoanode in this photovoltaic system due to high stability under visible light illumination.
TiO2 is also known as a good photocatalyst and an excellent choice in environmental purification. The
efficiencies of electron injection and light harvesting in QDSSC are affected by the nature, size
morphology, and quantity of this nanomaterial. In this review, the concept and principles of the
QDSSCs are reviewed. The preparation and fabrication method ofTiO2 electrode in QDSSC are also
discussed. It is worthwhile to know the architecture of TiO2 in order to enhance the efficiency of
QDSSC.