Exploring digital narratives: A comprehensive dataset of household energy app reviews.

This paper presents an anonymous dataset of 7999 user reviews covering five household energy mobile applications used in Norwegian households. Such reviews are usually available through the Google Play Store and Apple App Store platforms. They were collected using Python-based Google-Play-Scraper and App Store Scraper. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset represents a unique and valuable resource for investigating sustainable household energy behaviour within the specific context of Norway, where a considerable proportion of households already use these applications. Given the recent rise of mobile applications and the ongoing development of technological infrastructure worldwide, this dataset holds a potential for empirical research. It can provide valuable insights into daily energy practices, user sentiments, perceptions, and motivations for adopting digital solutions. Further, it can shed light on the potential of these solutions to drive sustainable behavioural change. Moreover, conducting the empirical analysis of this dataset can provide valuable insights to stakeholders involved in policy formulation, utility improvement, emissions reduction, and promotion of technology-driven behavioural change.

Comparing sustainable product hashtags: Insights from a historical twitter dataset.

This data article describes the process of data collection and analysis of Twitter conversations about sustainable products. The dataset contains the IDs of tweets tagged with the hashtags #sustainableproducts, #ecoproducts, #ecofriendlyproducts, and #greenproducts. The time period spans 10 years and includes a total of over 140 thousand tweets from around the world. The article describes the process of obtaining the data using Twarc and the Twitter developer's academic researcher API and describes the preprocessing techniques used to identify keywords, hashtags, topics, and sentiments expressed in the conversations. The analysis identifies key attributes of each sustainable product category as well as commonalities and differences within and across categories. The data have the potential to be reused in future research related to sustainable consumption and production, including further analysis of the sentiments and attitudes expressed in the Twitter conversations and comparison with other social media platforms or survey data. In addition, the data can serve as a basis for marketing strategies and product design by enterprises or organizations seeking to promote sustainable products.

Preparation and Characterization of Doxycycline-Loaded Electrospun PLA/HAP Nanofibers as a Drug Delivery System.

The present study aimed to prepare nanofibers by electrospinning in the system polylactic acid-hydroxyapatite-doxycycline (PLA-HAP-Doxy) to be used as a drug delivery vehicle. Two different routes were employed for the preparation of Doxy-containing nanofibers: Immobilization on the electrospun mat's surface and encapsulation in the fiber structure. The nanofibers obtained by Doxy encapsulation were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric (TG) and differential thermal analyses (DTA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption properties of pure PLA and PLA-HAP nanofibers were investigated for solutions with different Doxy concentrations (3, 7 and 12 wt%). Moreover, the desorption properties of the active substance were tested in two different fluids, simulated body fluid (SBF) and phosphate buffer solution (PBS), to evidence the drug release properties. In vitro drug release studies were performed and different drug release kinetics were assessed to confirm the use of these nanofiber materials as efficient drug delivery vehicles. The obtained results indicate that the PLA-HAP-Doxy is a promising system for biomedical applications, the samples with 3 and 7 wt% of Doxy-loaded PLA-HAP nanofibers prepared by physical adsorption are the most acceptable membranes to provide prolonged release in PBS/SBF rather than an immediate release of Doxy.

Fluorescent enzyme-coupled activity assay for phenylalanine ammonia-lyases.

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyases (PALs) catalyse the non-oxidative deamination of L-phenylalanine to trans-cinnamic acid, while in the presence of high ammonia concentration the reverse reaction occurs. PALs have been intensively studied, however, their industrial applications for amino acids synthesis remained limited, mainly due to their decreased operational stability or limited substrate specificity. The application of extensive directed evolution procedures to improve their stability, activity or selectivity, is hindered by the lack of reliable activity assays allowing facile screening of PAL-activity within large-sized mutant libraries. Herein, we describe the development of an enzyme-coupled fluorescent assay applicable for PAL-activity screens at whole cell level, involving decarboxylation of trans-cinnamic acid (the product of the PAL reaction) by ferulic acid decarboxylase (FDC1) and a photochemical reaction of the produced styrene with a diaryltetrazole, that generates a detectable, fluorescent pyrazoline product. The general applicability of the fluorescent assay for PALs of different origin, as well as its versatility for the detection of tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL) activity have been also demonstrated. Accordingly, the developed procedure provides a facile tool for the efficient activity screens of large mutant libraries of PALs in presence of non-natural substrates of interest, being essential for the substrate-specificity modifications/tailoring of PALs through directed evolution-based protein engineering.

Efficient Biodiesel Production Catalyzed by Nanobioconjugate of Lipase from Pseudomonas fluorescens.

The Amano lipase from Pseudomonas fluorescens (L-AK) was covalently immobilized on various carbon nanomaterials (functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide) and tested for biodiesel production. Using the most active lipase preparation (covalently immobilized L-AK on SwCNTNH2 derivatized with glycerol diglycidyl ether) under optimal conditions, quasi-complete conversion (>99%) of sunflower oil was obtained after only 4 h reaction time. Moreover, the biocatalyst maintained more than 99% of its initial activity in the batch system after multiple recycling experiments.

Efficient and Stable Magnetic Chitosan-Lipase B from Candida Antarctica Bioconjugates in the Enzymatic Kinetic Resolution of Racemic Heteroarylethanols.

Lipase B from Candida antarctica immobilized by covalent binding on sebacoyl-activated chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles proved to be an efficient biocatalyst (49.2-50% conversion in 3-16 h and >96% enantiomeric excess) for the enzymatic kinetic resolution of some racemic heteroarylethanols through transesterification with vinyl acetate. Under optimal conditions (vinyl acetate, n-hexane, 45 °C), the biocatalyst remains active after 10 cycles.

[Main characteristics of the street food sector in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso]. / Caractéistiques de l'alimentation de rue dans la ville de Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

To investigate the sector of food sold in the streets of Bobo-Dioulasso and identify relevant information for action, a survey on knowledge and practices of street food vendors and consumers was conducted in June 2005. Data have been collected in 928 street food selling posts. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 874 street vendors and 2474 consumers. Street food sites are concentrated in places where administration and trade activities are usually running. The street food seller is a married and illiterate woman of 32 years old. Cereals (48.5%), meat (33.9%), milk (9.6%) and fruits (4.4%) are the basic consumables. The street food consumer is a non married man, 27 years old working in profit-making activity. Consumers use many criteria to choose the place to eat, at times or permanently. The street food sector represents a source of income and induces change in household eating habits. Street food in Bobo-Dioulasso needs to be better organised, by using an holistic approach that involves all the actors.

[Variation of the parasite density of Plasmodium falciparum in asymptomatic carriers: consequences for malaria chemoresistance studies]. / Variation de la densité parasitaire de Plasmodium falciparum chez des porteurs asymptomatiques: conséquences dans les études de chimiorésistance du paludisme.

During the studies on malaria chemoresistance, we noted great variations in parasite density of Plasmodium falciparum between screening in the morning and final selection in the afternoon, in asymptomatic people. To better understand this phenomenon, we conducted a study in october 1987 on primary school children in a village near the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, at the peak malaria prevalence. We performed 3 blood-smears at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., on Day 0 and Day 4, to an initial number of 86 children, aged from 6 to 9 years. By the end of the study 44 children remained who fulfilled the inclusion criteria Among them 35 showed a parasitaemia on Day 0 and 9 remained negative. On Day 4, 28 were positive and 16 remained negative. Of the 35 children positive at entry to the study 16 remained continuously positive, the others were negative on at least one occasion. Of the 28 children positive on Day 4, 14 remained continuously positive. For the 16 people with a parasitaemia continuously positive on Day 0.7 (43.7 p. cent) became spontaneously negative on Day 4. But considering the small size of our sample, the analysis of the nycthemeral variation and of the variation between the two days did not show a significant difference. Further studies involving a greater number of blood-smears during a longer period and concerning more people, should be conducted. The possibility of spontaneous negativation of the parasitaemia without drug absorption shows that there are some cases of false malaria chemosensitivity that are declared when the in vivo tests are not coupled with in vitro tests.