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Purpose: The aim of this research is to study the impact of social media usage on academic performance among accounting students in public and private universities Design/methodology/approach: The variables measured were number of hours spent on social media, frequency of access to social media, Non-academic usage of social media, educational use of social media and social media addiction. Data of the study is obtained by distributing 341 questionnaires to accounting students in one of the private and public universities. Findings: The result shows that frequency of access found to have significant negative relationship with academic performance. It indicates that frequent access to social media might lead to poor academic performance. Interestingly, the findings of the result also revealed that non-academic usage of social media are found to have significant positive relationship with accounting students' academic performance. It implies that non-academic use of social media would increase the students' academic performance. Research limitations/implications: This study is conducted using small sample from selected population. Hence, the results may not represent a definite academic performance of all public and private universities' students in Malaysia. Practical implications: This study may benefit the educators and students. The educators might have some insights on how social media put a great influence on their students' academic performance. As for students, this study may alarm their awareness on the possible effects that social media has over their academic performance Originality/value: This research is performed to narrow the gap and discrepancies of the past researches and provides current evidence on the relationship between the social media and academic performance of accounting students. Paper type: Research paper Keywords: Social media, Social network, Academic performance, Accounting education, Introduction Social media is now a critical part of the way and platform to fast communicate especially during a pandemic era of COVID-19. The pandemic has caused an increase in [...]

In this study, an industrial-based surfactant known as MFomax surfactant has been modified with unfunctionalized and silane-functionalized silica nanoparticles (NPs) to select the high viscous nano-fluid (NF) for generation of in situ foam to assess the differential pressure buildup (∆p) behavior in the porous media. Different weight concentrations of NPs and MFomax from 0.1 to 0.5% were studied using Design Expert Software to generate full matrix design of NF formulations. The viscosity data were analyzed with the aid of response surface analytical tool to investigate the response of NPs loading on the NF viscosity for optimization. The microstructural properties of the NFs were characterized using spectroscopic equipment. Subsequently, the high viscous NF was selected to generate in situ foam in comparison with the precursor MFomax foam for ∆pbuildup assessment at 110 °C and 2023 psi in the native reservoir core. Results have shown that both the silica NPs could significantly improve the MFomax viscosity; however, the silane-functionalized silica NPs have more effect to improve the viscosity and other microstructural properties than the unfunctionalized NPs, and thus, they were selected for further experimental studies. The coreflood ∆pbuildup assessment shows that NF foam built more ∆phaving average value of 46 psi against 25 psi observed in the case of the precursor MFomax foam. Thus, this study demonstrates that functionalized silica NPs could improve the MFomax viscosity and eventually generates high ∆pbuildup at high-temperature high-pressure conditions.

Background: In India, for the treatment of cold, fever and inflammation, people consume herbal remedies containing Andrographis paniculata Nees(APE) as main ingredient, along with NSAIDs. So the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of APE and pure andrographolide (AN) on the pharmacokinetic of with aceclofenac (ACF) and celecoxib (CXB) after oral co-administration in wistar rats. After co-administration of APE (equivalent to 20 mg/kg of AN) and AN (20 mg/kg) with ACF (5 mg/kg) and CXB (5 mg/kg) in rats, orally, drug concentrations in plasma were determined using HPLC method. Non-compartment model was used to calculate pharmacokinetic parameters like Cmax, Tmax, t1/2, MRT, Vd, CL, and AUC. Results: Co-administration of ACF and CXB with APE and pure AN altered the systemic exposure level of each compound in vivo. The Cmax, Tmax, MRT of CXB were increased whereas Vd and Cl of CXB were decreased significantly after co-administration of CXB with APE. Whereas co-administration of CXB with AN significantly decreased Vd, CL, and MRT of CXB. The concentration of ACF was increased significantly in co-administered groups with pure AN and APE. The AUC0-∞, AUMC0-∞, MRT, Vd and t1/2 of ACF were also significantly decreased in co-administered groups, hence CL of ACF was increased significantly. Conclusion: This study concludes that APE and pure AN have effect on pharmacokinetic of CXB and ACF in rat. Not only patients but medical practitioners using Andrographis paniculatashould have awareness regarding probable herb–drug interactions with ACF and CXB.

Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion Conclusion References Abstract The present work is carried out to study the effect of Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes (Brassicaceae) on [...]

Propolis from apiculture is known for wide range of medicinal properties owing to its vast chemical constituents including polyphenols, flavonoids and anticancer agent Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE).

Bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) is a vital equipment in many applications in the energy, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals process industries due to its numerous advantages such as large heat capacity inside a bed, and rapid heat and mass transfer rate. In spite of numerous research activities, achieving high fluidization performances in BFB process is still a challenge of science. This research is being conducted to study the hydrodynamic regime of a BFB pilot plant gasifier. To this end, a lab-scale cold model was first designed based on the empirical equations and scaling laws. The scaling laws was used to scale down the Tenaga Nasional Berhad-PETRONAS (TNBR-PETRONAS) pilot plant gasifier into a small scale laboratory model. Moreover, the empirical equations were utilized to determine the critical parameters such as bed pressure drop, height of the bed, number of orifices of the distributor plate and the pitch size. Finally a lab-scale hot flow model will be designed based on the cold model geometric dimensions but under a real operating conditions as that of a pilot plant.

Considerable amount of oily waste is generated from petroleum refinery in Malaysia. A typical refinery produces about 40 tons of sludge per month. Disposing via land filling (common method) is becoming less accepted and more expensive. As a result, refineries and other facilities have accumulated large volumes of this waste in makeshift landfills or other storage areas. For this reason solvent extraction method has been selected for oil recovery and to minimize the solid waste. Three solvents (chloroform, MEK, and n-hexane) and two extraction methods (sludge–solvent mixing method , and Soxhlet apparatus) were applied to recover the oil from the refinery sludge. Soxhlet extraction method has shown higher efficiency in extraction than sludge-solvent mixing method. Soxhlet extraction method using MEK solvent can recover about 48.3 % of oil, as compared to mixing method which accounts to only about 32.5 % of recovered oil. It has an added recovery of about 7.1 %, 15.8 % and 5.7 % for n-hexane, MEK and chloroform solvents respectively. FTIR results confirmed that MEK has the highest capability to extract hydrocarbon from refinery waste.

Many papers have been published about the gasification of different biomass fuels in fixed bed reactor. To date, no experimental analysis is available in the open literature on gasification of refinery sludge. Therefore the descriptions of dynamic temperature in an updraft reactor for a dry refinery sludge gasification are investigated in details. The rate of the temperature change with operation time and the temperature profiles inside the reactor are taken for various equivalent ratios. The dynamic results show that increasing the ER from 0.195 to 0.244 shift the combustion zone peak temperature from 858 °C to 986 °C and cause turbulence behavior in reduction zone temperature. With an ER of 0.195, the rate change of temperatures zones was found to be in the ± 50 OC min-1 indicating stable gasification process. The axial temperature for starting of a steady state gasification process was found to be between 20 to 60 min operation time in process.

Kinetic Theory of Granular Flow (KTGF) has been successfully incorporated and widely implemented in the Eulerian simulation models in many multiphase cases. The KTGF theory involves many parameters and is applied in the multiphase simulation for the purpose of hydrodynamic properties modeling of the granular phase. This paper is focused on granular viscosity which is a parameter in the KTGF that incorporates three different viscosities arising from the inter-phase and intra phases interaction in a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB). The 2D BFB model of 0.2 m width and 0.8 m length having a 13-hole orifice plate has been modeled for this purpose. The model was constructed using Gambit software version 2.4.6 and then simulated using ANSYS Fluent version 14. Two models of granular viscosity, namely Syamlal-Obrien model and Gidaspow model, were compared based on its effect to the pressure drop and bed expansion of the BFB. The results depicted that the simulation based on Syamlal-Obrien model tends to produce larger bubbles and contributing to a higher pressure drop across the distributor plate as compared to the Gidaspow model.

The production of refinery sludge has been increasing during tank cleaning, deslugging, and wastewater treatment process. Many efforts have been done to manage the large amount of generated sludge. The gasification of sludge is the most versatile alternative or /and is one potential treatment process for power generation and syngas production. The thermodynamic of gasifier is still not well understood for refinery sludge feedstock. As far as optimising the operational conditions of gasification process is concerned, a successful simulated work is introduced by making use of ASPEN PLUS software simulator. This software was tailored and developed to describe an equilibrium model in updraft gasifier of dry refinery sludge (DRS). The textural characteristic properties of refinery sludge are shown in this paper (ultimate and proximate analysis). In the present study four parameters ( i.e. oxidation zone temperature, operating pressure, air flow rate (l/min) and equivalent ratio) were analyzed. In the present work, details of the equilibrium model are presented. This model shows a better agreement with literature model for biomass gasification. From our model results, the mass fractions yield of the desired products (CO and H2) increases as the oxidation zone temperature increases while their yield decreases after 3 bar. The desired products are found to decrease as the air flow increases while CO2 mass fraction favors high air/fuel ratio. The model results are validated by comparison with experimental data issued from the literature.

Design and statistical optimization of glipizide loaded lipospheres using response surface methodologyA 32factorial design was employed to produce glipizide lipospheres by the emulsification phase separation technique using paraffin wax and stearic acid as retardants. The effect of critical formulation variables, namely levels of paraffin wax (X1) and proportion of stearic acid in the wax (X2) on geometric mean diameter (dg), percent encapsulation efficiency (% EE), release at the end of 12 h (rel12) and time taken for 50% of drug release (t50), were evaluated using the F-test. Mathematical models containing only the significant terms were generated for each response parameter using the multiple linear regression analysis (MLRA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Both formulation variables studied exerted a significant influence (p< 0.05) on the response parameters. Numerical optimization using the desirability approach was employed to develop an optimized formulation by setting constraints on the dependent and independent variables. The experimental values of dg, % EE, rel12and t50values for the optimized formulation were found to be 57.54 ± 1.38 µm, 86.28 ± 1.32%, 77.23 ± 2.78% and 5.60 ± 0.32 h, respectively, which were in close agreement with those predicted by the mathematical models. The drug release from lipospheres followed first-order kinetics and was characterized by the Higuchi diffusion model. The optimized liposphere formulation developed was found to produce sustained anti-diabetic activity following oral administration in rats.

Produced water is a waste by-product generated during oil and gas recovery operations. It contains the mixture of organic and inorganic compounds. Produced water management is a challenge faced by the petroleum practitioners worldwide. Build-up of chemical wastes from produced water causes huge footprint, which results in high CapEx and OpEx. Different technologies are practiced by various practitioners to treat the produced waste water. However, the constituents removed by each technology and the degree of organic compound removal has to be considered to identify the potential and effective treatment technologies for offshore industrial applications. Current produced water technologies and their successful applications have advantages and disadvantages and can be ranked on the basis of several factors, such as their discharge limit into water bodies, reinjection in producing well, or for any miscellaneous beneficial use. This paper attempts to provide a review of existing physical and chemical treatment technologies used for management of produced water. Based on our analysis, suitable methods will be recommended for offshore waste water treatment technologies.

Due to the scarcity of water, it has become a necessity to improve the quality of wastewater that is discharged into the environment. Conventional wastewater treatment can be either a physical, chemical, and/or biological processes, or in some cases a combination of these operations. The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to eliminate nutrients, solids, and organic compounds from effluents. Current wastewater treatment technologies are deemed ineffective in the complete removal of pollutants, particularly organic matter. In many cases, these organic compounds are resistant to conventional treatment methods, thus creating the necessity for tertiary treatment. Advanced oxidation process (AOP), constitutes as a promising treatment technology for the management of wastewater. AOPs are characterised by a common chemical feature, where they utilize the highly reactive hydroxyl radicals for achieving complete mineralization of the organic pollutants into carbon dioxide and water. This paper delineates advanced oxidation processes currently used for the remediation of water and wastewater. It also provides the cost estimation of installing and running an AOP system. The costs are separated into three categories: capital, operational, and operating & maintenance.

Depletion of natural oil reserves has forced oil industries to focus on tertiary recovery methods to extract residual oil after exhausting the primary and secondary methods. Among the Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies, Chemical EOR (CEOR) is gaining popularity. Despite research efforts to increase the recovery using CEOR, increasing complexity in extraction methods are encountered. With changes in reservoir conditions (high temperature, pressure and salinity) and crude oil properties, existing chemicals used in CEOR, such as alkali, polymers and surfactants do not function desirably. These conditions have detrimental effects on the performance of EOR chemicals, like precipitation, degradation, etc. Development and utilization of effective EOR hybrids such as surfactant-polymer, polymer-nanomaterial, surfactant-nanomaterial and polymer-surfactant-nanomaterial had prevailed the effects of harsh reservoir conditions, and their applications in oil fields in recent years have increased the success of EOR. The synergistic effects between the hybrid components play major roles in improving the properties that could withstand the effect of extreme reservoir conditions and changes in crude oil properties. Therefore, this paper is aimed at reviewing recent advances in CEOR hybrid technologies, and discusses the basic concept, applications, advancement and limitations of different hybrid materials used in CEOR processes.