This study was conducted in order to examine whether abdominal draw-in maneuver (ADIM) with isometric shoulder flexion, extension, adduction, and abduction selectively contracted deep abdominal muscles. This study's subjects were 13 males 17 females. In order to evaluate the comparison of effects of ADIM and ADIM with isometric shoulder flexion, extension, adduction and abduction, measurements were made on transverse abdominis (TrA), internal oblique (IO), and external oblique (EO) using a real-time ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system. Each position was repetitively measured three times with a real-time ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and their mean values were used for analysis. The ADIM with isometric shoulder flexion, extension, adduction and abduction significantly increased the thickness of TrA relative to the ADIM only (p<.05). The ADIM with isometric shoulder abduction significantly increased the thickness of IO compared to the ADIM only (p<.05). The ADIM with isometric shoulder extension and abduction significantly decreased the thickness of EO compared to the ADIM only and the ADIM with isometric shoulder extension significantly decreased the thickness of EO relative to the ADIM with isometric shoulder adduction (p<.05). ADIM with isometric shoulder abduction is an effective method to selectively strengthen deep abdominal muscles and therefore may be employed as an intervention for trunk stabilization.

The sol-gel technique has been studied to fabricate a homogeneous Fe-Mo/MgO catalyst. Ambient effects (air, Ar, and H2) on thermal decomposition of the citrate precursor have been systematically investigated to fabricate an Fe-Mo/MgO catalyst. Severe agglomeration of metal catalyst was observed under thermal decomposition of citrate precursor in air atmosphere. Ar/H2 atmosphere effectively restricted agglomeration of bimetallic catalyst and formation of highly-dispersed Fe-Mo/MgO catalyst with high specific surface-area due to the formation of Fe-Mo nanoclusters within MgO support. High-quality thin-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (t-MWCNTs) with uniform diameters were achieved on a large scale by catalytic decomposition of methane over Fe-Mo/MgO catalyst prepared under Ar-atmosphere. The produced t-MWCNTs had outer diameters in the range of 4-8 nm (average diameter ~6.6 nm) and wall numbers in the range of 4-7 graphenes. The as-synthesized t-MWCNTs showed product yields over 450% relative to the utilized Fe-Mo/MgO catalyst, and indicated a purity of about 85%.

To produce palm kernel shell (PKS) biocrude oil, a bubbling fluidized bed pyrolyzer was used with different sample sizes and reaction temperatures. The PKS sample sizes used were 0.1 ~ 0.4 mm, 0.4 ~ 1.0 mm, and 1.0 ~ 2.0 mm and the reaction temperature were 465oC, 490oC, 530oC, 560oC, and 590oC. The yield of PKS biocrude oil increased with decreasing the sample size. The maximum yield of PKS biocrude oil was 47.31% at 560oC with a PKS sample size of 0.1 ~ 0.4 mm. In addition, the maximum energy yield of PKS biocrude oil was 45.05% at 560oC and size 0.1 ~ 0.4 mm. Among the characteristics of PKS biocrude oil, the high heating values are from 15.98 MJ/Kg to 20.29 MJ/Kg, the moisture content is from 20.14wt.% to 31.57wt.%, and the viscosity ranges from 0.0117 N s/m2 to 0.0408 N s/m2. In addition, proximate analyses and elemental analysis of PKS biocrude oil were conducted.

Converting biomass to biocrude oil has been extensively studied worldwide as a renewable energy technology and a solution to global warming caused by overuse of fossil fuels because it is a carbon neutral fuel that originates from biomass and, thus, could help prevent climate change. Fast pyrolysis is an effective technology for producing biocrude-oil, and woody biomass is usually used as feedstock. Although many studies have been performed with this feedstock, high production cost and low higher heating value (HHV) have frequently reported as challenging barriers to commercialization. Thus, coffee ground residue was selected as an alternative feedstock to overcome this barrier due to its higher HHV than other biomasses, as well as an expected improvement in the recycling rate of organic waste from many coffee shops. A kinetic study on the thermal decomposition reaction of ground coffee residue was carried out previously to investigate pyrolysis characteristics by thermogravimetric analysis, and its kinetic parameters were studied using two calculation models. A bubbling-fluidized-bed reactor was used for fast pyrolysis and the yield and characteristics of the biocrudeoil from ground coffee residue were investigated at reaction temperatures of 400-600°C. The activation energy of the decomposition reaction was calculated separately to be 41.57 kJ/mol and 44.01-350.20 kJ/mol with the above two methods. The highest biocrude-oil content was about 51.7wt% at 550°C.