Exopolysaccharides (EPS) are bioactive metabolites with high molecular weight and are produced by several microorganisms such as endophytic fungi. Thus, the aim of the present study was designed to explore the biosynthesis and characteristics of EPS by the endophytic fungus Neopestalotiopsis clavispora AUMC15969 and then investigate some environmental and nutritional factors that afect their production. Moreover, we estimated an additional value, namely the production of biodiesel. Maximum production of EPS was 7.86 g/L when N. clavispora was grown on lactose as the sole carbon source and peptone as the nitrogen source, respectively, and pH 7 at 35 °Cfor 10 days. The produced EPS had a total sugar content of 0.93 g/g where protein content was 0.076 g/g. It revealed a strong antioxidant activity that improved with increasing sample concentration, with the optimum concentration of 10 mg/mL producing 83.1% DPPH radical scavenging activity with an IC50 equal to 3.89 mg/mL. The extracted lipid from the fungal mycelia at the end of the fermentation process was 31.76% w/w. The biodiesel produced from the transesterifcation of lipids was 87.4% total fatty acid methyl esters. The present study demonstrated the potential production of EPS and lipid biopolymers in one-pot fermentation which could use as a resource for industrial technologies.

Thresholding is an important process required to most tasks in computer vision especially characters’ detection from scene images. So, in this paper, we focus to enhance our previous model which is used to detect the characters from scene images and has proven superior to most existing methods. This improvement is fulfilled by replacing the thresholding method in the entire model in the stage of converting the grayscale image into the binary one. The new thresholding method is known by Bradley method. Although our previous model got better when we use Bradley thresholding, the number of false detections still less than in the case of using our previous thresholding method in the entire designed model

In this paper, we focus on the binarization methods as a core step in most image processing
algorithms especially localization of the characters in scene images. We have developed in this
paper our previous scheme which based on shape properties and geometric features to define text
region and adopt our binarization scheme which based on Naïve Bayes classifier to convert
grayscale image to binary image. Then we compare this binarization scheme with four famous
different methods and explore their effects on detection characters in scene images. We found
that our method outperforms the other four prior methods in detection characters with respect to
Recall metric and the Otsu method follow our methods.

Abstract: Here, we report the structural, optical, magnetic, and dielectric properties of La0.67Sr0.33Mn1-x-y ZnxCoyO3 manganite with various x and y values (0.025 < x + y < 0.20). The pure and co-doped samples are called S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5, with (x + y) = 0.00, 0.025, 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20, respectively. The XRD confirmed a monoclinic structure for all the samples, such that the unit cell volume and the size of the crystallite and grain were generally decreased by increasing the co-doping content (x + y). The opposite was true for the behaviors of the porosity, the Debye temperature, and the elastic modulus. The energy gap Eg was 3.85 eV for S1, but it decreased to 3.82, 3.75, and 3.65 eV for S2, S5, and S3. Meanwhile, it increased and went to its maximum value of 3.95 eV for S4. The values of the single and dispersion energies (Eo, Ed) were 9.55 and 41.88 eV for S1, but they were decreased by co-doping. The samples exhibited paramagnetic behaviors at 300 K, but they showed ferromagnetic behaviors at 10 K. For both temperatures, the saturated magnetizations (Ms) were increased by increasing the co-doping content and they reached their maximum values of 1.27 and 15.08 (emu/g) for S4. At 300 K, the co-doping changed the magnetic material from hard to soft, but it changed from soft to hard at 10 K. In field cooling (FC), the samples showed diamagnetic regime behavior (M < 0) below 80 K, but this behavior was completely absent for zero field cooling (ZFC). In parallel, co-doping of up to 0.10 (S4) decreased the dielectric constant, AC conductivity, and effective capacitance, whereas the electric modulus, impedance, and bulk resistance were increased. The analysis of the electric modulus showed the presence of relaxation peaks for all the samples. These outcomes show a good correlation between the different properties and indicate that co-doping of up to 0.10 of Zn and Co in place of Mn in La:113 compounds is beneficial for elastic deformation, optoelectronics, Li-batteries, and spintronic devices.

Treating dye-containing wastewater poses numerous challenges due to its high chemical complexity and its persistent nature. Thus, the present study aims to synthesize biochar derived from banana peel (BC) and its nanocomposites with copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO_x/BC_1-x) for the purpose of adsorptive removing Congo red (CR) dye from water. Several analytical methods were utilized to describe the physicochemical features of the CuO_x/BC_1-x nanocomposites. It was found that the crystallinity of the nanocomposites gradually improved, while the specific surface area and the surface electronegativity were reduced with increasing x value. The effects of x values (0–0.5), interaction time (10–120 min), adsorbent dose (0.01–0.05 g), initial CR concentration (20–200 mg/L), and the solution temperature (20–60 °C) were evaluated on CR removal. The obtained results revealed that the CuO_0.5/BC_0.5 nanocomposite showed the highest adsorption efficiency with a maximum adsorption capacity of 233.6 mgg⁻¹. Analysis of the equilibrium experimental data revealed that the Langmuir and the pseudo-2nd-order models were the most proper to describe the current adsorption process. Moreover, the thermodynamics studies demonstrated that the adsorption process was spontaneous, endothermic, and random.

ZnTiO₃ nanoparticles (NPS), synthesized using a sol-gel process from zinc acetate dihydrate and titanium tetrabutanolate, were incorporated into aluminum borosilicate glasses to enhance their effectiveness in water purification. Integrating ZnTiO₃-NPS at the expense of SiO₂ causes significant alterations by converting [BO₃] to [BO₄], modifying the Si-O bonds with other metal oxides, and creating a denser structure with more bridging oxygens. The structural improvement is indicated by higher ultrasonic velocities and elastic moduli, demonstrating a stronger and more unified glass framework. The study investigates how different concentrations of ZnTiO₃-NPS affect the glasses' structure and mechanical and optical properties, specifically observing changes in light transmission, such as a blueshift in the absorption edge towards longer wavelengths. This blueshift due to ZnTiO₃-NPS was assured by the observed decrease in the optical band gap (E_g) values and the increase in the mean oscillator position (λ_o) values. Furthermore, the real () and imaginary () parts of the optical conductivity, nonlinear optical parameters viz. first (χ⁽¹⁾) and third (χ⁽³⁾) orders subsatellites, and nonlinear index of refraction (n₂) have been estimated based on the values of the linear index of refraction (n) and the extinction coefficient (k). The optical modifications impact the refractive index, suggesting various potential technological applications based on the ZnTiO₃ levels.