This work evaluates the physical and physical-chemical parameters of the strawberry variety “Festival”, obtained in the soil and climate conditions of Humpata, Huila Province, Angola, following the transformation into sweet of adequate quality. The analyses made were: the mass determined on an analytical balance and the transversal and longitudinal diameters with a pachymeter. Other analyses were: total titratable acidity by volumetry, pH by potentiometry, total soluble solids by refractometry, moisture and ash by gravimetry. The study showed that the pH of the pulp was 3.41; and in the candy it was 3.31. The titratable acidity in the strawberry pulp had a value of 0.186 g/100 mL and in the jam 0.096 g/100 mL; the ascorbic acid content in the pulp was 18.60 mg∕100 g. The average soluble solids content in the pulp was 9.51 °Brix and for the jam 68.83 °Brix. These chemical characteristics of the pulp and jam provide information about their nutritional values.

In this paper, electrically conductive composites comprised of silicone rubber and titanium diboride (TiB₂) were synthesized by conventional mixing methods. Fine particles of TiB₂ (in micron size) and 10 parts per hundred parts of rubber (phr) proportion of carbon black (XC-72) were used to make the composites with HTV silicone rubber. The composites were cured at appropriate temperature and pressure and the effect on the electrical properties was studied. The resistance of the silicone rubber is ~ 10¹⁵Ω which decreases to 1–2 kΩ in case of composites with negligible effect of heat ageing. The hardness increases by ~ 35% simultaneous to the decrease of ~ 47% in the tensile strength. Morphological characterization indicates the homogeneous dispersion of the fillers in the composite.

The objective of the present study is to observe the surface morphology, structure and elemental composition of the ash particles produced from some thermal power stations of India using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA). This information is useful to better understand the ash particles before deciding its utility in varied areas.

In this work, the structural transformations of a suboxide vacuum-deposited film of SiO_1.3 composition annealed in an inert atmosphere in a wide temperature range of 100 °C–1100 °C were characterized by the reflection-transmission spectroscopy technique. The experimental spectroscopic data were used to obtain the spectra of the absorption coefficient α(hν) in the absorption edge region of the film. Based on their processing, the dependences of Urbach energy EU and optical (Tauc) bandgap Eo on the annealing temperature were obtained. An assessment of the electronic band gap (mobility gap) Eg was also carried out. Analysis of these dependences allowed us to trace dynamics of thermally stimulated disproportionation of the suboxide film and the features of the formation of nanocomposites consisting of amorphous and/or crystalline silicon nanoparticles in an oxide matrix.

Molybdenum (Mo) is considered and described as an essential element for living organisms' development. Until now, no studies have been performed on genes involved in the Mo transporter in ancestral Ipomoea species. This study aimed to identify potential Mo genes in Ipomoea trifida and I. triloba genomes using bioinformatics tools. We identified four Mo transporter genes, two in I. trifida and two in I. triloba. Based on the RNA-seq datasets, we observed that Mo genes are expressed (in silico) and present different mechanisms between the tissues analyzed. The information generated in this study fills missing gaps in the literature on the Mo gene in an important agronomic crop.

Every production day in Nigeria, and in other oil producing countries, millions of barrels of produced water is generated. Being very toxic, remediation of the produced water before discharge into environment or re-use is very essential. An eco-friendly and cost effective approach is hereby reported for remediative pre-treatment of produced water (PW) obtained from Nigerian oilfield. In this approach, Telfairia occidentalis stem extract-silver nanoparticles (TOSE-AgNPs) were synthesized, characterized and applied as bio-based adsorbent for treating the PW in situ. The nanoparticles were of average size 42.8 nm ± 5.3 nm, spherical to round shaped and mainly composed of nitrogen and oxygen as major atoms on the surface. Owing to the effect of addition of TOSE-AgNPs, the initially high levels (mg/L) of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and TSS of 607, 3.78 and 48.4 in the PW were reduced to 381, 1.22 and 19.6, respectively, whereas DO and COD improved from 161 and 48.4 to 276 and 19.6 respectively, most of which fell within WHO and US-EPA safe limits. Particularly, the added TOSE-AgNPs efficiently removed Pb (II) ions from the PW at temperatures between 25 ℃ to 50 ℃. Removal of TOSE-AgNPs occurred through the adsorption mechanism and was dependent contact time, temperature and dose of TOSE-AgNPs added. Optimal remediation was achieved with 0.5 g/L TOSE-AgNPs at 30 ℃ after 5 h contact time. Adsorption of Pb (Ⅱ) ions on TOSE-AgNPs was spontaneous and physical in nature with remediation efficiency of over 82% of the Pb (Ⅱ) ions in solution. Instead of discarding the stem of Telfairia occidentalis, it can be extracted and prepared into a new material and applied in the oilfield as reported here for the first time.