Extensive research and testing continue to be conducted for the development of vaccines targeting zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis. In this study, the potential of the DapB as a recombinant protein vaccine to effectively combat Brucella abortus 544 infection in BALB/c mice was evaluated. Western blotting assay results showed that recombinant protein DapB reacted with Brucella-positive serum, indicating its potential immunoreactivity. In vivo results showed that the peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T cell population significantly increased in the DapB-immunized mice group after the first, second and third blood collection, compared to the control group that received PBS. Additionally, at the fourth blood collection, an increase in CD4+ T cell activation was observed in three vaccination groups compared to PBS negative control group. These results indicate the potential of DapB in stimulating cellular immunity. Fourteen days after infection, the bacterial load in the spleen was evaluated. The reduction in bacterial replication in the spleen by both DapB and RB51 highlights their protective efficacy against Brucella infection. These findings contribute to the ongoing efforts in developing effective vaccines against brucellosis and provide valuable insights for further research in this field.

Compulsive buying is a problematic behavior that could lead to negative outcomes (e.g., debts and negative relationships with relatives). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people changed their shopping behavior and experienced various life events. This research aims at exploring the relationship between life events and compulsive buying in Indonesia. A qualitative approach using in-depth interviews was employed. Nineteen participants who faced changing course of life, either positive (e.g., give birth) or negative (e.g., sudden death of family), during the pandemic were interviewed. We found that positive life events cause people to feel over-excited and over-grateful and shop compulsively. Negative life events that result in self-doubt and lower self-esteem also lead to a compulsive behavior. The study contributes to the compulsive behavior literature by exploring the antecedent of compulsive buying from the live events perspective and provide implications for policy makers and marketers.

This paper investigates how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in services may potentially have a negative impact on consumer wellbeing due to the fear of being replaced by AI. Drawing on temporal self-appraisal theory, the study proposes that the fear of being replaced by an AI agent (as opposed to a human) has a negative effect on consumers' psychological wellbeing. The research suggests that this fear negatively affects consumers' perceptions of self-continuity, and that self-continuity perceptions mediate the relationship between fear of AI replacement and psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, the study explores how the type of task intelligence replaced by AI, whether thinking or feeling tasks, moderates the effects of AI on self-continuity and wellbeing.

Mental distress has been consistently reported to be highly prevalent after collective traumas, alongside physical and personal damages. When left untreated, these will worsen survivors’ ability to function. Research also points to unmet needs, related to job security and a sense of belonging. Our study aims to identify a clustered-dimensional approach to people’s experiences after a massive urban violence apart from traditional categorical psychopathological assessments. This cross-sectional internet-based study included 1305 Lebanese adults, 4 months after the apocalyptic Beirut Port explosion. Emotions, attitudes and needs were assessed using iCode software, measuring explicit answers and implicit reaction time. First and foremost, explicit responses revealed alarming levels of distress (75-80%). Latent class analysis further differentiated three groups on seven different dimensions derived from principal component analysis. People who experienced the most intense emotional distress and intrusive thoughts had higher country dissatisfaction and job worries. Faith and community resilience buffered the negative emotionality of those affected in spite of avoidance and intrusion. The last group was less distressed by the trauma with a marked sense of community and an overall reduced country and job dissatisfactions. These findings suggest that integrating implicit responses helps cluster people’s experiences after a collective trauma above and beyond single demographic criteria as vulnerability to mass violence is quite variable within seemingly homogenous samples. They also provide insight onto hard-wired attitudes and needs post-trauma. It mostly taps into multi-factorial individual vulnerabilities and protective factors to better refine targeted interventions for at-risk subpopulation outreach and foster resilience in unstable environments.

Online shopping has grown exponentially in the last decade, benefiting both consumers and companies. Among several advantages, online shopping lets consumers compare values and prices from different stores on multiple mobile devices in real time. In addition, for young people, it is a way of expressing their identity and independence.

The capability for Artificial Intelligence in the beauty industry is enormous, as customers are demanding increasingly customized offers that only these strategies can offer. However, there is still a scarcity of empirical research on customer experiences enabled by AI, which highlights this research's relevance, which we intend to bridge.

A new high-tech product - lab grown meat (LGM), has been gaining media attention while initiating public discourse on social media (SM) platforms. This netnographic study is based on a dataset of selected SM public posts, comments and discussions collected during 30 days in early 2023. The findings indicate that LGM is highly contradictory, while not being fully understood how it is produced or when it will become commercially available. The findings indicate that this novel food requires carefully designed marketing strategies: when naming a new product category; must allow transparency and sensibly explain all product’s attributes; and invest time and efforts to educate consumers, leading to higher adoption rates when launched on mass consumer markets, as an alternative to conventionally grown foods.

A new type of food created in laboratories – lab grown meat (LGM) is an alternative to traditional animal farming and attracting attention of media, industry experts and consumers. Why is this new product so controversial? It is claimed that cell-based meat production is more environmentally friendly, ethical and sustainable than traditional methods that involve animals. Hence, being less harmful and potentially slowing down environmental degradation that leads to climate change. However, consumers have concerns regarding product quality, sourcing of cells used for production and use of growth serums. So many differing views are present, even before LGM is introduced as a marketable product. This paper examines what drives public discourse regarding how this new industry can be regulated, technology and how social media posts, fake news and publicly available rhetoric address consumer concerns and consumer acceptance regarding this new food category.

The Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam) is installed on the Korea’s lunar orbiter, Danuri, which launched on August 5, 2022. The mission objectives of PolCam are to construct photometric maps at a wavelength of 336 nm and polarization maps at 461 and 748 nm, with a phase angle range of 0◦–135◦ and a spatial resolution of less than 100 m. PolCam is an imager using the push-broom method and has two cameras, Cam 1 and Cam 2, with a viewing angle of 45◦ to the right and left of the spacecraft’s direction of orbit. We conducted performance tests in a laboratory setting before installing PolCam’s flight model on the spacecraft. We analyzed the CCD’s dark current, flat-field frame, spot size, and light flux. The dark current was obtained during thermal / vacuum test with various temperatures and the flat-field frame data was also obtained with an integrating sphere and tungsten light bulb. We describe the calibration method and results in this study.

This work presents four high-amplitude variable YSOs (≃3 mag at near- or mid-IR wavelengths) arising from the SPICY catalog. Three outbursts show a duration that is longer than 1 year, and are still ongoing. And additional YSO brightened over the last two epochs of NEOWISE observations and the duration of the outburst is thus unclear. Analysis of the spectra of the four sources confirms them as new members of the eruptive variable class. We find two YSOs that can be firmly classified as bona fide FUors and one object that falls in the V1647 Ori-like class. Given the uncertainty in the duration of its outburst, an additional YSO can only be classified as a candidate FUor. Continued monitoring and follow-up of these particular sources is important to better understand the accretion process of YSOs.

The GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF) is the first instrument for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). G-CLEF is a fiber feed, optical band echelle spectrograph that is capable of extremely precise radial velocity measurement. G-CLEF Flexure Control Camera (FCC) is included as a part in G-CLEF Front End Assembly (GCFEA), which monitors the field images focused on a fiber mirror to control the flexure and the focus errors within GCFEA. FCC consists of an optical bench on which five optical components are installed. The order of the optical train is: a collimator, neutral density filters, a focus analyzer, a reimager and a detector (Andor iKon-L 936 CCD camera). The collimator consists of a triplet lens and receives the beam reflected by a fiber mirror. The neutral density filters make it possible a broad range star brightness as a target or a guide. The focus analyzer is used to measure a focus offset. The reimager focuses the beam from the collimator onto the CCD detector focal plane. The detector module includes a linear translator and a field de-rotator. We performed thermoelastic stress analysis for lenses and their mounts to confirm the physical safety of the lens materials. We also conducted the global structure analysis for various gravitational orientations to verify the image stability requirement during the operation of the telescope and the instrument. In this article, we present the opto-mechanical detailed design of G-CLEF FCC and describe the consequence of the numerical finite element analyses for the design.

This study investigated durian (Durio zibethinus) peels to produce powdered activated carbon (DPAC). The influence of process variables such as carbonization temperature, activation time, contact time, CO2 flow rate, and adsorption dosage was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). A six-factor and two levels Box–Behnken design (BBD) was used to optimize the parameters. The independent variables were activation temperature (°C), duration (min), CO2 flow rate during the activation process (L/min), irradiation of adsorbent (kGy), irradiation duration (min), and adsorbent dosage (g) while phenol removal (mg/L) was the dependent variable (response). Following the observed correlation coefficient values, the design was fitted to a quadratic model (R2 = 0.9896). The optimal removal efficiency (97.25%) was observed at an activation temperature of 900 °C, activation time of 30 min, CO2 flow rate of 0.05 L/min, irradiation dose of 100 kGy, contact time of 35 min and adsorption dosage of 0.75 g. The optimal DPAC showed a BET surface of 281.33 m2/ g. The removal efficiency was later compared with a commercially available activated carbon which shows a 98.56% phenol removal. The results show that the durian peel could be an effective precursor for making activated carbon for phenol removal, and irradiation can significantly enhance surface activation.

This work reports the fabrication of a flexible Photodetector (PD) using Carbon Dots (CDs)/Polymer composite for Deep UV (DUV) photodetection. The CDs have been prepared using a simple and inexpensive heating process. The syncretic studies reveal the disordered graphitic core with surface functional groups and the excitation-dependent character of CDs. The synthesized CDs are stabilized via Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) through a synergistic effect and investigated for different compositions (2–10 weight %) of CDs. The CDs/PVA composites shows improved absorbance at 208 and 335 nm compared to pure CDs owing to the bonding between them. This advantageous property of high absorption and photo response in the DUV region is utilized by employing CDs/PVA composite as a photo-sensing layer on the ITO-coated PET substrate in the PD. The performance of the PD was measured under dark, short (254 nm) and long (365 nm) UV region. Among all the compositions, 4% CDs/PVA PD exhibits superior performance in terms of high photo-to-dark current ratio (IPh/Id), responsivity and detectivity. The PD functioning and other parameters are discussed in detail and reported.

Subunit vaccines are being developed as a potential therapy for preventing microbial pathogen infection. In this study, the immunogenicity of recombinant Brucella (B.) abortus Fe/Mn superoxide dismutase (rFe/Mn SOD) protein as a subunit vaccine against B. abortus was investigated in BALB/c mice model. Brucella Fe/Mn SOD gene was cloned into a pcold-TF DNA vector. The bacterial recombinant protein was expressed using the Escherichia coli DH5α strain with a size of 82.50 kDa. The western blotting assay showed that rFe/Mn SOD reacted with Brucella-positive serum, indicating the potential immunoreactivity of this recombinant protein. After the second and third vaccinations, the peripheral CD4+ T cell population was increased significantly in the rFe/Mn SOD-immunized mice group compared to the PBS control group. Moreover, immunization of this recombinant protein increased the CD4+ T cell population from the first vaccination to the third vaccination. Meanwhile, the CD8+ T cells were slightly enhanced after the second vaccination compared to the first vaccination and compared to control groups. Fourteen days after the bacterial infection, the splenomegaly and the number of bacteria in the spleen were evaluated. The result showed that both rFe/Mn SOD and positive control RB51 decreased the bacterial replication in the spleen and the splenomegaly compared to control groups. Altogether, these results suggested that rFe/Mn SOD could induce host immunity against B. abortus infection.

In this work, we report a direct preparation of a few-walled carbon nanotube (FWCNTs) and NiMgAl composites namely FWCNT-NiMgAl by pyrolysis of waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic at 800 °C with NiMgAl-layered double hydroxide (LDH) as catalysts. The composite formation is carried out in a single step using our lab-developed pyrolysis reactor. The NiMgAl-LDH catalyst was prepared by co-precipitation method and the FWCNTs were grown on the NiMgAl-LDH catalyst with FWCNT yield of 10% and FWCNT-NiMgAl composite yield of 55% whose quality is determined by Raman ID/IG ratio of 2.57. The average outer and inner diameter of the FWCNT are found to be 5.5 nm and 2.9 nm, respectively, from TEM and 2.92 nm from the outer RBM (radial breathing mode) band, which indicates the formation of a few-walled CNTs. FWCNT-NiMgAl is used for the fabrication of flexible supercapacitor electrodes on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet which achieved a specific capacitance of 432 Fg− 1 in a wide potential range (ΔV = 2) at a scan rate of 5 mV s− 1 in 2 M KOH electrolyte with a high energy density of 240 Wh kg− 1, whereas NiMgAl displayed a capacitance of 200 Fg− 1 with an energy density of 111 Wh kg− 1. The diffusion-type charge storage mechanism (pseudocapacitance) is found to be dominant with contributions of 73.2% and 69.75% for NiMgAl and FWCNT-NiMgAl, respectively. The highest specific capacitance and energy density are obtained for NiMgAl in 2 M KCl and for FWCNT-NiMgAl in 2 M NaOH electrolytes. However, the largest potential window is observed in KOH electrolyte for both NiMgAl and FWCNT-NiMgAl with value of ΔV = 2 V. The electrode material shows good stability in acidic electrolytes and also shows good capacitive stability at high frequencies maintaining a phase angle of 70°. The present work is a novel approach to fabricate low-cost multifunctional carbon composite nanomaterials and will contribute to the research on low-cost waste-derived CNT composite preparation and its application in flexible energy storage devices.

An electrical double-layer capacitor is fabricated with biomass-derived activated carbon (AC) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which are synthesized from Pongamia pinnata fruit shell and its seed oil, respectively. The activated carbon is produced by the chemical activation process at varying carbonization temperatures from 600 to 900 °C for 5 h at a rate of 10 min in an N2 atmosphere. The surface area of activated carbon and MWCNTs is 1170 m2 g− 1 and 216 m2 g− 1, respectively. The total pore volumes of activated carbon and MWCNTs are 1.51 cm3 g− 1 and 0.5907 cm3 g− 1, respectively. The as-prepared AC and MWCNTs are characterized by surface area analysis Brunner–Emmett–Teller method (BET), X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopic analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The electrochemical performances of AC-AC, MWCNTs-MWCNTs and AC-MWCNTs (25:75) symmetric electrodes are studied by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The AC-MWCNTs (25:75) single electrode performance is also studied in two different electrolytes, such as 0.5 M Na2SO4 and 0.5 M H2SO4. The fabricated AC-MWCNTs (25:75) symmetric supercapacitor cell exhibits excellent electrochemical performance in 0.5 M Na2SO4. It shows a specific capacitance of 55.51 Fg− 1, energy density 4.852 Wh Kg− 1 and power density of 199.18 W Kg− 1 at a current density of 1 Ag− 1 in the voltage window of 0–1.8 V. The AC-AC and AC-MWCNTs (25:75) symmetric supercapacitor electrodes show outstanding performance.