#t Artificial Grass Prices

[goturff]

Factors that Affect Artificial Grass Prices in Katy

The popularity of artificial grass has made it simpler than ever to create a gorgeous, low-maintenance lawn. Artificial grass can be the best option for you if you're seeking for a hassle-free, environmentally friendly lawn solution in Katy, Texas. We'll go over the advantages of artificial grass, what influences artificial grass Katy price, and how to locate the top turf companies in Katy in this blog. We'll also introduce you to go-turf, a reputable brand that will help you along the way as you change your grass.

Why Would You Choose Artificial Grass in Katy for Your Lawn?

Artificial grass is a popular option for both residential and business locations in Katy because it provides a host of advantages to homeowners. The following are some reasons you might wish to install it:

You can stop worrying about watering, fertilizing, and mowing. Artificial grass saves you time and money by requiring less maintenance. Artificial grass uses less water and doesn't require chemicals like fertilizers or pesticides, making it a more environmentally friendly choice.

Throughout the year, artificial grass stays lush and green, regardless of the intense heat or downpour. Artificial turf is great for playing with pets and is simple to clean up after.

Artificial turf is a fantastic substitute for natural grass if you're sick of having to maintain your lawn constantly and want to keep it looking wonderful with the least amount of work.

What Influences the Cost of Artificial Grass Katy?

One of your main worries while thinking about artificial grass for your house is the price. The cost of artificial grass varies depending on a number of things, which you should be aware of in order to plan your budget for your new lawn:

Generally speaking, higher-quality fake grass costs more, but it also looks and feels more lifelike. Long-term savings on repairs or replacements can be achieved by making an investment in higher quality.

Obviously, more material will be needed for larger areas, raising the final cost. On the other hand, certain businesses could provide discounts for bigger projects. The labor-intensive nature of the installation process may result in higher costs if your lawn has a lot of slopes, bends, or obstructions.

Add-ons like as pet-specific turf, play area cushioning, and drainage systems can drive up the cost of your project. It is always a good idea to seek quotes from multiple lawn businesses Katy in order to receive an exact estimate. This will help you better understand what to anticipate in light of your unique lawn's needs.

Locating Katy's Top Turf Companies

It's critical to select a turf company with experience and top-notch customer support while looking for turf companies Katy. These pointers will help you identify the ideal provider for your artificial grass needs:

Look through a variety of sites for consumer reviews. Positive reviews are a reliable sign of high-quality services. Reputable grass companies ought to have an assortment of finished tasks in their portfolio. This helps you get a better sense of their level of experience and installation quality.

Always ask many businesses for comprehensive quotes. When choosing, weigh the costs, services, and warranties. Select a business that provides a strong warranty for both the installation and the product. You may rest easy knowing that your investment is safeguarded because of this.

At go-turf, we take great satisfaction in providing Katy locals with affordable prices and excellent service. With our extensive knowledge of the artificial turf market, we can work with you to create the ideal lawn at a cost that works for you.

How to Begin Using Synthetic Grass in Katy

Are you prepared to convert to synthetic grass? Here's how you start on the path to a gorgeous, low-maintenance lawn:

To arrange for an in-home consultation, get in touch with your favorite turf business. Numerous Katy turf firms provide free estimates and consultations. Whether it's for your front lawn, backyard, or commercial area, choose the kind of turf that best fits your demands in terms of both style and price.

After deciding on the turf and settling on the cost, the installation needs to be scheduled. Expert installers will take care of every step, from site preparation to fake grass placement, guaranteeing a faultless outcome. 

All that's left to do is kick back and enjoy your stunning new lawn after installation! Artificial grass enhances the beauty and value of your property, whether it is used for entertaining guests, playing with your children, or just taking in the lush surroundings.

Go-turf is the only company you need to get dependable turf providers in Katy and reasonably priced fake grass. We make sure you get the most out of your investment by providing premium items at affordable costs. Are you prepared to begin? Get in touch with us right now to arrange a free consultation and learn how artificial grass can assist you in creating the ideal lawn.

[sunaleisocial]

How AI is improving simulations with smarter sampling techniques

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/how-ai-is-improving-simulations-with-smarter-sampling-techniques/

How AI is improving simulations with smarter sampling techniques

Imagine you’re tasked with sending a team of football players onto a field to assess the condition of the grass (a likely task for them, of course). If you pick their positions randomly, they might cluster together in some areas while completely neglecting others. But if you give them a strategy, like spreading out uniformly across the field, you might get a far more accurate picture of the grass condition.

Now, imagine needing to spread out not just in two dimensions, but across tens or even hundreds. That’s the challenge MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers are getting ahead of. They’ve developed an AI-driven approach to “low-discrepancy sampling,” a method that improves simulation accuracy by distributing data points more uniformly across space.

A key novelty lies in using graph neural networks (GNNs), which allow points to “communicate” and self-optimize for better uniformity. Their approach marks a pivotal enhancement for simulations in fields like robotics, finance, and computational science, particularly in handling complex, multidimensional problems critical for accurate simulations and numerical computations.

“In many problems, the more uniformly you can spread out points, the more accurately you can simulate complex systems,” says T. Konstantin Rusch, lead author of the new paper and MIT CSAIL postdoc. “We’ve developed a method called Message-Passing Monte Carlo (MPMC) to generate uniformly spaced points, using geometric deep learning techniques. This further allows us to generate points that emphasize dimensions which are particularly important for a problem at hand, a property that is highly important in many applications. The model’s underlying graph neural networks lets the points ‘talk’ with each other, achieving far better uniformity than previous methods.”

Their work was published in the September issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Take me to Monte Carlo

The idea of Monte Carlo methods is to learn about a system by simulating it with random sampling. Sampling is the selection of a subset of a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. Historically, it was already used in the 18th century,  when mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace employed it to estimate the population of France without having to count each individual.

Low-discrepancy sequences, which are sequences with low discrepancy, i.e., high uniformity, such as Sobol’, Halton, and Niederreiter, have long been the gold standard for quasi-random sampling, which exchanges random sampling with low-discrepancy sampling. They are widely used in fields like computer graphics and computational finance, for everything from pricing options to risk assessment, where uniformly filling spaces with points can lead to more accurate results. 

The MPMC framework suggested by the team transforms random samples into points with high uniformity. This is done by processing the random samples with a GNN that minimizes a specific discrepancy measure.

One big challenge of using AI for generating highly uniform points is that the usual way to measure point uniformity is very slow to compute and hard to work with. To solve this, the team switched to a quicker and more flexible uniformity measure called L2-discrepancy. For high-dimensional problems, where this method isn’t enough on its own, they use a novel technique that focuses on important lower-dimensional projections of the points. This way, they can create point sets that are better suited for specific applications.

The implications extend far beyond academia, the team says. In computational finance, for example, simulations rely heavily on the quality of the sampling points. “With these types of methods, random points are often inefficient, but our GNN-generated low-discrepancy points lead to higher precision,” says Rusch. “For instance, we considered a classical problem from computational finance in 32 dimensions, where our MPMC points beat previous state-of-the-art quasi-random sampling methods by a factor of four to 24.”

Robots in Monte Carlo

In robotics, path and motion planning often rely on sampling-based algorithms, which guide robots through real-time decision-making processes. The improved uniformity of MPMC could lead to more efficient robotic navigation and real-time adaptations for things like autonomous driving or drone technology. “In fact, in a recent preprint, we demonstrated that our MPMC points achieve a fourfold improvement over previous low-discrepancy methods when applied to real-world robotics motion planning problems,” says Rusch.

“Traditional low-discrepancy sequences were a major advancement in their time, but the world has become more complex, and the problems we’re solving now often exist in 10, 20, or even 100-dimensional spaces,” says Daniela Rus, CSAIL director and MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “We needed something smarter, something that adapts as the dimensionality grows. GNNs are a paradigm shift in how we generate low-discrepancy point sets. Unlike traditional methods, where points are generated independently, GNNs allow points to ‘chat’ with one another so the network learns to place points in a way that reduces clustering and gaps — common issues with typical approaches.”

Going forward, the team plans to make MPMC points even more accessible to everyone, addressing the current limitation of training a new GNN for every fixed number of points and dimensions.

“Much of applied mathematics uses continuously varying quantities, but computation typically allows us to only use a finite number of points,” says Art B. Owen, Stanford University professor of statistics, who wasn’t involved in the research. “The century-plus-old field of discrepancy uses abstract algebra and number theory to define effective sampling points. This paper uses graph neural networks to find input points with low discrepancy compared to a continuous distribution. That approach already comes very close to the best-known low-discrepancy point sets in small problems and is showing great promise for a 32-dimensional integral from computational finance. We can expect this to be the first of many efforts to use neural methods to find good input points for numerical computation.”

Rusch and Rus wrote the paper with University of Waterloo researcher Nathan Kirk, Oxford University’s DeepMind Professor of AI and former CSAIL affiliate Michael Bronstein, and University of Waterloo Statistics and Actuarial Science Professor Christiane Lemieux. Their research was supported, in part, by the AI2050 program at Schmidt Futures, Boeing, the United States Air Force Research Laboratory and the United States Air Force Artificial Intelligence Accelerator, the Swiss National Science Foundation, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and an EPSRC Turing AI World-Leading Research Fellowship. 

[jcmarchi]

How AI is improving simulations with smarter sampling techniques

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-ai-is-improving-simulations-with-smarter-sampling-techniques/

How AI is improving simulations with smarter sampling techniques

Imagine you’re tasked with sending a team of football players onto a field to assess the condition of the grass (a likely task for them, of course). If you pick their positions randomly, they might cluster together in some areas while completely neglecting others. But if you give them a strategy, like spreading out uniformly across the field, you might get a far more accurate picture of the grass condition.

Now, imagine needing to spread out not just in two dimensions, but across tens or even hundreds. That’s the challenge MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers are getting ahead of. They’ve developed an AI-driven approach to “low-discrepancy sampling,” a method that improves simulation accuracy by distributing data points more uniformly across space.

A key novelty lies in using graph neural networks (GNNs), which allow points to “communicate” and self-optimize for better uniformity. Their approach marks a pivotal enhancement for simulations in fields like robotics, finance, and computational science, particularly in handling complex, multidimensional problems critical for accurate simulations and numerical computations.

“In many problems, the more uniformly you can spread out points, the more accurately you can simulate complex systems,” says T. Konstantin Rusch, lead author of the new paper and MIT CSAIL postdoc. “We’ve developed a method called Message-Passing Monte Carlo (MPMC) to generate uniformly spaced points, using geometric deep learning techniques. This further allows us to generate points that emphasize dimensions which are particularly important for a problem at hand, a property that is highly important in many applications. The model’s underlying graph neural networks lets the points ‘talk’ with each other, achieving far better uniformity than previous methods.”

Their work was published in the September issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Take me to Monte Carlo

The idea of Monte Carlo methods is to learn about a system by simulating it with random sampling. Sampling is the selection of a subset of a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. Historically, it was already used in the 18th century,  when mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace employed it to estimate the population of France without having to count each individual.

Low-discrepancy sequences, which are sequences with low discrepancy, i.e., high uniformity, such as Sobol’, Halton, and Niederreiter, have long been the gold standard for quasi-random sampling, which exchanges random sampling with low-discrepancy sampling. They are widely used in fields like computer graphics and computational finance, for everything from pricing options to risk assessment, where uniformly filling spaces with points can lead to more accurate results. 

The MPMC framework suggested by the team transforms random samples into points with high uniformity. This is done by processing the random samples with a GNN that minimizes a specific discrepancy measure.

One big challenge of using AI for generating highly uniform points is that the usual way to measure point uniformity is very slow to compute and hard to work with. To solve this, the team switched to a quicker and more flexible uniformity measure called L2-discrepancy. For high-dimensional problems, where this method isn’t enough on its own, they use a novel technique that focuses on important lower-dimensional projections of the points. This way, they can create point sets that are better suited for specific applications.

The implications extend far beyond academia, the team says. In computational finance, for example, simulations rely heavily on the quality of the sampling points. “With these types of methods, random points are often inefficient, but our GNN-generated low-discrepancy points lead to higher precision,” says Rusch. “For instance, we considered a classical problem from computational finance in 32 dimensions, where our MPMC points beat previous state-of-the-art quasi-random sampling methods by a factor of four to 24.”

Robots in Monte Carlo

In robotics, path and motion planning often rely on sampling-based algorithms, which guide robots through real-time decision-making processes. The improved uniformity of MPMC could lead to more efficient robotic navigation and real-time adaptations for things like autonomous driving or drone technology. “In fact, in a recent preprint, we demonstrated that our MPMC points achieve a fourfold improvement over previous low-discrepancy methods when applied to real-world robotics motion planning problems,” says Rusch.

“Traditional low-discrepancy sequences were a major advancement in their time, but the world has become more complex, and the problems we’re solving now often exist in 10, 20, or even 100-dimensional spaces,” says Daniela Rus, CSAIL director and MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “We needed something smarter, something that adapts as the dimensionality grows. GNNs are a paradigm shift in how we generate low-discrepancy point sets. Unlike traditional methods, where points are generated independently, GNNs allow points to ‘chat’ with one another so the network learns to place points in a way that reduces clustering and gaps — common issues with typical approaches.”

Going forward, the team plans to make MPMC points even more accessible to everyone, addressing the current limitation of training a new GNN for every fixed number of points and dimensions.

“Much of applied mathematics uses continuously varying quantities, but computation typically allows us to only use a finite number of points,” says Art B. Owen, Stanford University professor of statistics, who wasn’t involved in the research. “The century-plus-old field of discrepancy uses abstract algebra and number theory to define effective sampling points. This paper uses graph neural networks to find input points with low discrepancy compared to a continuous distribution. That approach already comes very close to the best-known low-discrepancy point sets in small problems and is showing great promise for a 32-dimensional integral from computational finance. We can expect this to be the first of many efforts to use neural methods to find good input points for numerical computation.”

Rusch and Rus wrote the paper with University of Waterloo researcher Nathan Kirk, Oxford University’s DeepMind Professor of AI and former CSAIL affiliate Michael Bronstein, and University of Waterloo Statistics and Actuarial Science Professor Christiane Lemieux. Their research was supported, in part, by the AI2050 program at Schmidt Futures, Boeing, the United States Air Force Research Laboratory and the United States Air Force Artificial Intelligence Accelerator, the Swiss National Science Foundation, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and an EPSRC Turing AI World-Leading Research Fellowship. 

[tarmizihartanah]

Double Storey Terrace@ Kajang East Precint 2 ===================== Asking Price - RM 840K ===================== DETAILS : -Freehold Strata/Non-Bumi Lot --Size : 2199 sqft (approx) -Land size : 1765 sqft (22×80) --Bedrooms : 4 -Bathrooms : 4 --2 Covered Parking - Extra Land sqft Special Package -Kitchen (hood and hop, 4G glass cabinet, compact plus table top and Vinyl flooring ) -Lighting -Air-cond -Water heaters-2 -full house curtains -Fan-7 -artificial grass carpet -Extended room FACILITIES : Next to Kajang & Bandar Baru Bangi township with full facilities required for modern living : schools, banks, Aeon, Mydin, Tesco, commercial area, district office, police station, fire station, modern goverment clinic, private hospitals etc -Gated and Guarded -Clubhouse -Gym -Multi purpose hall -Jogging track -Swimming pool AMENITIES : -Few minutes drive to Hyper market like Evomall, IOI City Mall, Giant, & Alamanda - 6 mins to Econsave - 7 mins to MYDIN Seksyen 7 Bandar Baru Bangi. Boleh klik link ini untuk perbincangan lanjut ya. *Jual/Beli Hartanah* https://jualbelirumahdengancikmizi.wasap.my Mohd Tarmizi Bakar AFZ Realty Sdn. Bhd 🏘��Klik sini untuk ke laman telegram carian rumah, tanah dan bangunan yang diperlukan. https://t.me/tarmizihartanaheastcost Page Link Untuk Hartanah: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090117935252&mibextid=ZbWKwL Profile FB: https://www.facebook.com/mohdtarmizi.bakar.5?mibextid=ZbWKwL Link Catalog Whatsapp: https://wa.me/c/60179454294 Link Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maimizihartanah?_t=8ZhJ6uYnZab&_r=1 Link IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/COukMpTj9-Q/?igshid=p0s13f4d0h12 Link Twitter: https://twitter.com/tarmizihartanah?t=6dF8l6VsEiyUpK-2krqndg&s=09 Link Tumblr: https://at.tumblr.com/tarmizihartanah/hp1td2uj85ed Link YouTube: Subscribe. https://youtube.com/@mohdtarmizibakar #TrustedAgentHartanah #PerundingHartanahKuantan #TeamNinjaKuantan #AFZREALTY #jualbelirumahpantas #pejuanghartanah ‌ #taman #kawasan #rumah #tanah #bangunan #kuantan #gambang #pekan #kemaman #kualaterengganu #dungun #paka #kerteh #jerteh #besut #rumahmampumilik #rumahbawahhargapasaran #lppsa #banker #lawyer #surveyour #morgage #refi https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp1TJm9v2ro/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[atlastiamborn2point0]

I found this great deal on Lazada! Check it out! Product Name: Grass DIY Backdrop Panels Fence Home Garden Outdoor UV Protected Artificial Turf Green Carpet Wall Lawn Artificial PlantProduct Price: ₱10,999Discount Price: ₱4,653.29Product Link: https://c.lazada.com.ph/t/c.YKTd8M

[oxenfurt-archives]

Witchers

“ 1500 years ago the world changed. The Conjunction of the Spheres opened doors between worlds, and magic poured in. With the magic came monsters of a thousand different types never seen before—the so-called ‘relicts’ of the Conjunction. When people came to these lands, they built walls and ramparts and burned forests and hedges around towns so the monsters could be seen coming. People traveled only during the day, and in large groups.

People began to harness magic, calling themselves sorcerers or mages. Two of the most powerful, the legendary Alzur and his mentor Cosimo Malaspina, created an artificial race: the witchers, bred and trained to hunt and destroy monsters. The sorceress Carla Demetia Crest collected the full process into a single book, “The Trial of Grasses and Other Secret Witcher Practices, Seen by my Own Eyes,” only available to mages. The process was extremely painful and only a handful of test subjects survived. Contrary to rumor, these sorcerers did not steal children to create witchers. Between wars, plagues, and the predation of monsters, ramshackle orphanages and stray children were everywhere.

They subjected these children to alchemical potions that created genetic mutations, a specialized diet, and rigorous mental and physical training. The mutation process, beginning with the Trial of the Grasses, lasted for days. There are no records of successful trials on girls or non-humans. Those that survived the non-stop fevers, vomiting, and haemorrhaging emerged as different creatures.

The most obvious sign of the transformation are the cat’s eyes that give witchers night vision comparable to regular day vision. It also sets them apart. They are made sterile: all witchers are made, not born. Their more efficient immune systems give them tremendous resistance to disease and a prolonged lifespan. They become stronger, faster, and more rugged than humans in every way. They have limited magical ability (enough to cast short-effect spells called “signs”) and are preternaturally aware of their environment. We’ve taken their humanity and given them the tools to fight the ‘relicts’ of the Conjunction so that we don’t have to. In those dark days all men lauded witchers as mankind’s defenders, but as monsters became rare, people forgot the witcher’s purpose.

Today witchers travel constantly to find enough monsters to make their trade profitable. Witcher traditions bar them from fighting humans for pay. Prices for monster slaying have also dropped—people are now more afraid of war than nekkers or common vampires. When people now see a witcher they see only a monstrous, powerful, and dangerous being of dubious humanity. But the monsters were not completely killed off. In these days of few witchers, some of them are making a return, though not in large enough numbers to panic the populace. These days peasants have little to lose or to pay, so they are more likely to gang up on a monster themselves. At their height, when monsters and the monstrous results of magical experimentation were common, there were five witcher Schools: Wolf, Cat, Griffin, Viper, and Bear, each distinguished by their animal head medallion. “

Rodolf Kazmer & Brandon of Oxenfurt

The Witcher Lore (6/∞)

[tbrownartificialgrass]

Artificial Grass Essex

Colchester Synthetic Grass Installers

Are you on the lookout for a synthetic grass installer in Colchester? We at T. Brown Artificial Grass are bringing our high-quality grass set up companies to the Colchester area. We are able to create a lovely inexperienced area in your backyard in Colchester or the surrounding areas with our real looking vary of grasses.

Our company has been putting in artificial grass for over a decade. We offer a bespoke service in Colchester and Clacton On Sea. The faux lawns that we now have fitted all through the years are lush and inexperienced beauties our clients can’t stop raving about.

CONVENIENT & HASSLE FREE

Is Artificial Grass Value It? If you are residing in Colchester and nonetheless undecided on whether to use faux grass to switch your lawn, here are some points that can change your mind:

A Contemporary Search for your Lawn All-Year Round A synthetic lawn can provide your own home a contemporary and attractive look regardless of the climate and season. Gone will be the issues of reseeding and sprinkling of your lawn. Rain or shine, your Astro Turf Colchester garden in Colchester will at all times be a inexperienced and picturesque all year round.

High Quality Artificial Grass that Lasts There are a variety of faux grass merchandise that you would be able to choose from. Our line of merchandise is guaranteed to be of the very best quality. Our vary of luxurious grasses are manufactured in Holland. The supplies that we at T. Brown Artificial Grass use are designed to adjust to ISO standards of quality.

These merchandise are developed with a ten-yr warranty for U.V stabilisation. Relaxation assured, the bogus backyard you get from us will look fantastic for years to come.

A Garden with Low Upkeep Maintaining a traditional garden can cost you a ton of your beneficial resources. The availability of time, money, and area where you retailer your backyard gear are just among the many predicaments you encounter when proudly owning a standard lawn. At this time may be just the appropriate time to resolve these issues that eat into your free time.

As soon as put in, our artificial grass will hold you free from any maintenance costs. It's going to take care of itself all 12 months round. No extra need for lawnmowers, edgers, or sprinklers. Selecting to have an artificial garden a practical and price-environment friendly choice for anybody to make.

Why London T. BROWN Artificial Grass is the Greatest Choice? The vast expertise of the grass installation professionals at T. Brown Artificial Grass ensures that they have the mandatory experience to handle any faux grass set up, irrespective of if it’s a garden, sports pitch or a breakout area in an office environment.

Our synthetic grass range come with a UV guarantee of ten years for your peace of mind. We guarantee you that the synthetic grass installation services we provide are of the utmost quality. The services and products we provide have made a whole lot of homeowners joyful a lot so that receive the majority of our work from recommendations.

Get in contact for a quote right now together with your native faux grass installers in Colchester, Essex.

[douglashonorscollege]

A Family Outing

short story by Anonymous  ⌂

“WHOEVER STOLE MY WHEELBARROW F*** YOU B**** COME SEE ME.”

Duke stared at the words in front of the orange home in the Box. This was much different than the “Bless This Home” sign in front of his own house. His house--located in the suburbs, many miles away from the Box--was tall and well-groomed. The carpet in the house was soft under his paws, the bright yellow walls were smooth when he brushed his small furry blonde body against them, and food crumbs were plentiful.

Everything about humans fascinated Duke. He watched every movie with his family (even the scary ones), tried every food he was given, and even sang along when Madeline practiced the violin. When the day of the Box trip arrived, he sat in the family’s van and watched them exit the church. All Duke knew about church was that nobody wanted to go and Mom yelled at anyone who dared to wear jeans. Despite their complaints, Duke envied the time they spent in that small mysterious building.

Duke had been anticipating the visit to the Box for months. He was there when Mom had ordered the tickets online and had been attentively eavesdropping on the family’s Box discussions ever since. At dinner, Dad had remarked, “I can’t wait to see one of those Box-freaks in real life.” Dad acted really tough with his yelling and cursing and giving Duke the nickname “Schmuck”. When no one was looking, he cried during movies, sang to love songs on the radio, and cuddled with Duke after work.

Duke intently watched as Madeline, the oldest sibling, wrote a research paper about the Box:

The Box was built in 2067 in a small town formerly known as Finley, WA. After 6,000 different Hanford Nuclear Power Plant employees developed physical and mental mutations from a radioactive material leak, the government decided to intervene. Side effects ranged from psychotic behavior, tentacle growth from the brain, and green tinting to the skin. After the incident, the power plant was shut down; thousands of families were left without any source of income, ill, and angry.

First, they torched the mall, then the bank, then the churches. When they started murdering masses and rearranging the railroads, it became clear that no ordinary jail cell could contain the continually mutating victims. That’s when the Box was built. The Box is a sturdy, well-filtered facility that is 14.5 cubic miles large. All 6,000 employees were forcibly transferred to live in the Box permanently. Upon entering the Box, citizens were encouraged to build houses and begin farming with the artificial resources provided.

Duke recalled the times he had learned about the Box from the magic screen in the living room. When a Box resident attempted to scale the 14.5 mile wall in an effort to escape, he suffocated from lack of oxygen and died. In efforts to boost morale, the government transformed the Box into a freak show/amusement park for the citizens outside the Box. Within weeks, The Box became the most popular tourist attraction in eastern Washington. Duke was confused why such a sad place would bring people excitement, but he just assumed that it was yet another aspect of being human that he would never understand.

The day they went to the Box was a warm Sunday afternoon in October, so Dad decided a trip to the winery would be a good way to kill time before their appointment at the Box. Duke loved wineries. The long stretches of grass to chase his sisters on, the sunshine to bathe in, and the occasional hidden dead bird or rat to munch on. He loved how happy his family looked. Mom and Dad, sipping red wine and playing cards, and his sisters slicing apples with a small kitchen knife from Mom’s purse. Mom was incredibly thoughtful, she was prepared for anything.

Duke’s family approached the gates to the Box in their minivan and parked next to the ticket booth. A teenager wearing an “I SURVIVED THE BOX” T-shirt opened the ticket window. The shiny pimples on his face reminded Duke of the Skittles commercials his sisters thought were so funny.

“Tickets for seven please,” said Dad.

“Is your group interested in purchasing any souvenirs, sir?” the boy grunted.

“Nah, not today.” Eyeroll. Sigh.

“Welcome to the Box. At the Box, we have three rules: no leaving the vehicle, no weapons permitted, and no removing any items from the Box. Pictures are encouraged. If you post a photo, please use #getboxed to get 15% off your next visit. Since you’ve already signed the waiver you’re good to go.”

The family chanted “The Box! The Box! The Box!” as they traded their van for a rented military-grade Hummer. Duke sat in the passenger's seat on Mom’s lap. Mom is a charming woman whose big eyes, big nose, big mouth, big teeth, and big blonde Jennifer Anniston highlights, looked even bigger on her petite body. She wore large beaded earrings, pink lipstick, high heels, and a dress with lots of lines and shapes on it.

As Dad drove the Hummer through the gates and towards the steak fields, Duke recalled the time when mom had snuck him steak, fish, and even cabbage before dinner. She never forgot about Duke. He thought of their morning snuggles, the good books he read over her shoulder, and the time she defended his honor when he chewed up the cord to the vacuum cleaner. His favorite part of the day was sitting by her side and watching her paint. He often followed his family as their feet shuffled throughout the house. Mom’s were his favorite to follow.

There were times when Duke was convinced that despite her adoration for her biological children, he was indeed Mom’s favorite. He was a good boy. Mom made Duke feel as if--despite his small furry body--that he was human. It was Mom who insisted he join the family on long hikes and trips to the beach and demanded his appearance in every Christmas card. It was Mom who chose to bring him on the family’s big trip to see the Box.

Dad was not as enthusiastic to bring Duke. He found it outrageous that he had to buy an adult-priced ticket for a 10-pound chihuahua.

The further they drove into the Box, their amazement grew. Despite it being 2 pm, the sky was pitch black, and torches illuminated the houses built from garbage. Between the houses were fields of colorful produce, and green octopus-looking children eyeing the family closely, licking their lips. The fields felt endless. The air smelled different near the plants, a sweet, sour stench that made Duke feel dizzy.

Madeline shouted, “Mom look! That orange house is made of trash, just like we learned about in the documentary. The garbage man dumps our trash here so that the monsters can make houses.”

Duke watched as Mom’s bright green eyes faded to a watery grey, as they usually do after a few drinks. Her eyes were glued to a garden next to the orange house. Duke scratched her arm to ask for more snuggles, but she did not respond. The garden was filled with bright blue glowing pumpkins. She was entranced. So entranced that she didn’t even notice the threatening sign next to the house.

“Michael stop the car.”

Dad stopped the car; he is more obedient than Duke sometimes. Mom pulled a small kitchen knife from her purse, handed the knife to her two oldest children, and told them to go to the garden and grab a pumpkin for her.

They hesitated at first, confused why they were being encouraged to steal but soon jumped out of the car like it was the grandest adventure of their lives. They too, upon seeing the pumpkins for themselves, fell in love.

They had never looked at Duke the way they looked at those pumpkins. Was he not good enough? What did those pumpkins have that he didn’t? The pumpkins never chewed up their toys. That must be it.

Duke watched through the window. He observed their big cheesy smiles as the two girls tried to cut the pumpkin from the stem, and their terrified faces when the door to the orange house opened, a 300-pound green-skinned witch with scales instead of skin emerged. Her long hair was made of octopus tentacles that rattled as she walked. She wore a long nightgown made of bedsheets. After taking a long puff from her cigar, she asked them to leave.

Duke was ready to attack. He could sense that his sisters were in danger.

Dad opened the door to apologize, but before he could muster the words Mom had summoned her children to the car, put the pumpkin in her purse, and had called Box patrol.

The Box patrol rolled up in another military-grade Hummer with #GetBoxed logos on every door. Two tall brawny women armed with assault rifles exited the vehicle and inspected the scene. Duke noted the way they looked at the woman from the orange house. They grimaced at her scaly feet and overgrown nails. The stench seeping from her tentacles made them gag. The woman took a long puff from her cigar.

“These kids stole one of my pumpkins. The rules say no stealing. I’ve been growing these pumpkins for years. They are the only part of this Box that brings me joy.”

Mom remained calm, and looked the patrol woman in the eyes, “There seems to be a misunderstanding. My dog leaped from the car window and my daughters went to go grab him before he did any damage to this beautiful garden. Then this witch chased my children around the yard and threatened them with violence. I was so scared.” She paused and turned to the woman, “You have a lovely home by the way.”

Duke was in shock. That is not what happened. He was a good boy and stayed in the car.

How could the woman he loved so dearly lie so easily?

The woman became enraged by Mom’s lies and pleaded her innocence. The patrol women ignored her; they had already made up their minds.

“CHECK HER PURSE!” the witch yelled. The veins in her neck glowed through her skin.

The first gunshot fired. Duke whimpered. His sisters unbuckled their seatbelts. Mom locked the doors. Dad didn’t move, his eyes glued to the ground.

“SHE HAS MY PUMPKIN.”

The second shot fired. Duke began to bark. When his sisters cried, they were told to close their eyes. Mom was yelling now, demanding them to shut their eyes. Duke looked at mom, eyes wide open.

“PLEASE, LET ME LIVE!”

The third shot fired. Duke darted through the window to the Box Patrol and started biting their legs. He tore their pants but realized it was too late.

The woman’s body lay in front of her home. The little orange house made of garbage that she built herself. Her blood was a deep blue and bubbled as it pooled around her body. Duke walked to her corpse and stared at her. He licked her fingertips but she didn’t move.

Momo, age six, was crying and tugged at Mom’s shoulder, “Can we say sorry now? We’re really sorry we stole her pumpkins. I want to go home. Is she hurt? We should wake her up now.”

Duke’s other sisters remained silent, they knew better than to comment. They stared at the floor, nauseous with guilt.

The muscular Box Patrol women stood over her corpse, took a photo, and asked Mom and Dad if they would like a free copy of it emailed to them. Dad said no, Mom said yes, which means yes, the picture would be sent to her email address.

As one of the patrol officers bagged the body, another apologized to Mom, “We are sincerely embarrassed for your family’s traumatic experience today and would like to offer a gift to make up for it. We will be sending #GetBoxed T-shirts as well as #IsurvivedtheBoxFreak merchandise to your home as well as a 50% discount on your next visit.”

The blue glowing pumpkin now lives in the family’s beautiful home in Kennewick. It sat first in a glass box next to the easel where Mom paints, in place of where Duke used to sit. The glass seemed to be shrinking. Last week, the glass broke. Every day, Duke patiently waits for his morning snuggles, lunchtime walks, and evening painting, but Mom no longer shows any interest. She prefers to stare at the pumpkin. Her eyes have faded since staring at it, obsessing over it, and refusing to throw it away, even after it starts to decay. She has stopped sneaking Duke treats and inviting him on trips. When Duke chewed up a shoe out of boredom, she called him a monster.

His sisters stay in their rooms with the doors shut, not cracked, so he can’t push them open with his nose. At dinner, there is silence. The pumpkin at first sat on the piano during dinner but is now massive enough to be a table.

Duke often finds himself staring at the yellow walls, which have now begun to fade to green. The walls are no longer smooth, but prickly when he rubs against them. They’re covered in numerous paintings of the blue pumpkin. Duke stares in awe, confusion, and betrayal. The walls have become so shiny that Duke sees himself in the mirror for the first time. He doesn’t look human at all. He looks like a blue pumpkin. ∎

Minerva’s Owl Homepage

[karingudino]

Three natural enemies found to ‘beat fall armyworm’

[NAIROBI] Maize farmers throughout Africa may quickly discover aid from the devastation attributable to fall armyworm (FAW) following encouraging outcomes from using indigenous pure enemies to battle the pest.

The UN Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) estimates that fall armyworm causes Africa to lose as much as 18 million tonnes of maize yearly, representing an financial lack of as a lot as US$4.6 billion.

Researchers on the Worldwide Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) have recognized three native parasitoids or insect species whose larvae stay as parasites that ultimately kill the hosts. The scientists noticed promising outcomes after mass releasing them into maize farms with fall armyworm in Kenya.

“The truth that the pure enemies are indigenous is advantageous as they are going to be tailored to the native environments.”

Lilian Gichuru, Alliance for a Inexperienced Revolution in Africa

“The preliminary post-release discipline assessments revealed that parasitism charges of FAW within the discipline elevated by 55 per cent, 50 per cent and 38 per cent, for Trichogramma chilonis, Telenomus remus and Cotesia icipe, respectively,” says icipe, in a press release revealed final month. “The launched parasitoids work synergistically to convey down the inhabitants of FAW by attacking totally different developmental phases (eggs and larvae) of the pest.”

Based on the assertion, over the past quarter of 2020, icipe researchers and nationwide companions in Kenya started releasing 140,000 every of T.  remus and T. chilonis wasps that parasitise FAW eggs and 5,000 C. icipe wasps that parasitise early larval phases of FAW. The sector actions had been carried out between December 2020 and February 2021 in 5 counties: Taita-Taveta, Machakos, Embu, Meru and Nyeri.

Sevgan Subramanian, principal scientist and chief of the environmental well being theme at icipe, tells SciDev.Internet that following the encouraging discipline experiment in Kenya, they’re planning for mass manufacturing and launch of the parasitoids in different African nations.

“Successfully conserving environment friendly indigenous pure enemies within the agroecosystem are among the many higher choices for the administration of a pest, as they’re already tailored to outlive within the prevailing ecological circumstances and successfully management the pest,” Subramanian says.

However Subramanian provides {that a} key constraint is the dearth of technical capability for replication of pure enemy manufacturing facility in numerous nations.

The caterpillars of fall armyworms feed on the leaves, stems and reproductive components of greater than 100 plant species reminiscent of maize, rice, sorghum and sugarcane, in addition to different crops, together with cabbage, beet, peanut and soybean, pasture grasses and millet, inflicting main injury to cultivated pants.

The present FAW management strategies based mostly on using artificial pesticides is detrimental to conservation of indigenous pure enemies, and has damaging health impact for famers, customers and the environment, he tells SciDev.Internet.

He urges maize farmers and agricultural policymakers to undertake sustainable FAW administration methods reminiscent of promotion of diversified maize cropping programs.

Roger Day, programme govt for Motion on Invasives on the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences Worldwide (CABI, the parent organisation of SciDev.Internet), says {that a} key difficulty is what number of parasitoids should be launched to regulate the pest inhabitants.

“As an illustration, in trials in Brazil, there are reviews of releasing 100,000-200,000 bugs per hectare. So, the work reported by icipe seems to be small-scale or pilot releases. This is a vital first step,” he provides.

Mass rearing, distributing and releasing parasitoids on the proper time, Day explains, is just not as straightforward as distributing pesticides, and it may be expensive. If the price of management is greater than the worth of the decreased crop loss, it’s not price doing it.

He additionally provides that it’s nonetheless removed from clear whether or not such mass releases could be cost-effective in Africa.  And if three species of parasitoid are being launched without delay, that’s prone to make the method dearer.

Lilian Gichuru, affiliate programme officer on the Alliance for a Inexperienced Revolution in Africa, welcomes the encouraging findings in Kenya.

“The truth that the pure enemies are indigenous is advantageous as they are going to be tailored to the native environments to thrive and multiply and naturally management FAW,” she says.

Gichuru requires programmes to educate farming communities on these non-chemical management choices as a part of pest management actions, and present farmers that though pure enemies don’t provide fast “killing-effect”, they will suppress pest populations to manageable ranges.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Internet’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.

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source https://fikiss.net/three-natural-enemies-found-to-beat-fall-armyworm/ Three natural enemies found to ‘beat fall armyworm’ published first on https://fikiss.net/ from Karin Gudino https://karingudino.blogspot.com/2021/03/three-natural-enemies-found-to-beat.html

[thinktosee]

THE POLITICS AND PROFITS OF HAZE

The view from the north-east of singapore, Sep. 18, 2019. In the foreground, the grass has browned completely. In the background, the island of Ubin is no longer visible. 

A. INTRODUCTION

The haze hanging over the triangular region encompassing Malaysia, singapore and Indonesia, has been especially bad this time. Public health and rights are no doubt under siege. This is a result of slash and burn agricultural or palm farming in Indonesia and Borneo, coupled with an especially prolonged dry spell or drought. 

B. THE POLITICS of PALM

Firstly, the term “Transboundary haze”  - what does this mean? Is nature supposed to recognize artificial boundaries? We shouldn’t either. Borders are dumb and fake. They are designed to keep us isolated or penned in silos, with overpriced and useless military establishments, to protect the elites or one percenters, from the masses. Observe what the tribes can do to the Arabian oil installations a few days ago with a few armed drones (1). The most sophisticated armed forces in the world couldn’t stop that! It’s reminiscent of the Gerald Butler movie, “Angel has Fallen” which depicts how multiple armed drones can make the most protected person in the world so vulnerable (2). It is also a lesson about the unsustainability of bloated military expenditures and their fake relationship to national security. 

Back to the haze  - the fact it encompasses the region is the real issue. Remove the borders and the problem will be dealt with effectively. For now, everyone is in a blame game – it’s political (3). Truly, there appears to be a glaring lack of commitment to our common heritage among the political leaders in the region. That’s what borders do. Every issue or tragedy is compartmentalized. The people divided and weak. The ruling elites wouldn’t have it any other way.

The sources of the haze problem are no doubt, slash-burn farming and prolonged dry weather. The first an economic, while the second a climatic issue. Both are human-made. A corporate palm oil lobby is reported to have denied direct responsibility in the first instance. Instead, they pointed the finger at the small farmers next door to their plantations, for slashing and burning (4). Is this silly PR stunt a demonstration of responsible leadership? 

Image courtesy Google

Let’s be clear about something – the mega palm oil corporations are based in singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Here they are : 

Image courtesy iuf.org

C. HIDING BEHIND THE SMALL FARMER

Image courtesy cartoonresource.com

Now let’s see, the small palm grower harvests his crop and then trucks same to his sophisticated processing plant where the palm seeds are crushed and processed into oil. Following that, he trucks the oil to the nearest seaport to load onto his multi-million dollar palm oil tankers for shipment to the consuming markets. Let’s try to understand this picture – the small grower does all these? How? He’s barely making ends meet with his small farm! 

Image courtesy iuf.org

Like most things named “business,” the big guys have the wherewithal – by this I mean cheap financing, cheap labour, modern factories, logistics and supply chains, political connections, PR agents, negligible tax exposure (singapore, Labuan, etc.) and large plantations, to game or monopolize the business. The small farmer sells his produce for processing, which are very costly contraptions and are therefore owned by the corporations. These few big guys control the business from A to Z. The small farmer is at their mercy in terms of the price for their produce and hence, for their survival. The corporations and their political patrons are merciful of course – they let him and his family subsist, as slave labour in the plantation. Bullying as this has few equals. 

D. WOOL OVER OUR EYES 

Image courtesy Pinterest

Some of these corporations have “audited” sustainable practices (5). That is, they are officially certified to be environmentally-friendly. I used to work for a major petroleum company. I can testify to what their “audit for corporate and environmental risk management” is worth – zilch. That’s because many employees and contractors for a corporation are careerists. They are not paid or needed to think critically. Instead, they adhere robotically to the commercial imperatives of their corporate culture. Which reminds me of something the US Secretary of State in the 1970s, Dr. Henry Kissinger reportedly said about his staff – they may not be competent, but are loyal (6). That’s what “institutionalized meritocracy” is about folks. We only need to be loyal to be successful in our career. Seriously, unless we start to take things into our hands and work positively to eradicate the causes of the haze, nothing is going to change.

Here’s a story of irresponsible or, I should add, loyal leadership : 

M/T Kirki, sans her bow. Image courtesy Amazon.com

Many years ago, a major maritime accident occurred off the pristine waters of Australia. It centered on an old rust bucket, named Kirki. The subsequent investigation by the Australian maritime transport authority (a very competent bunch of pros) discovered glaring omissions to safety by the oil company and the ship managers concerned (7,8). The same oil company also regrettably was involved in a tragic accident and oil spill in the US Gulf coast years later (9). The financial claims for this are stupendous, illustrating the massive affliction to life and the environment (10). Tragedies as these are avoidable if we had more professionals and less careerists in charge.

Political and corporate leadership built on old boys’ club, ethnicity, family, clan, religious or masonic network is NO LEADERSHIP. We the People should not look to them to solve our problems or to rule over us.

E. WHAT WE CAN DO

Image courtesy picpedia.org

Hold those responsible DIRECTLY accountable.

Years ago, I wrote to the governments of the region about tackling the haze. A simple solution was proposed – haul the corporate heads of the major palm companies before the world’s mass media and ask them collectively how they are going to solve the problem they have created! Here’s an excerpt :

“There is little benefit in a blame game………

Actively involve and hold accountable……the corporations having a direct or indirect stake in the blazing landholdings. By this, a simple call to the CEOs of the companies to step forward and give a blanket undertaking that they will do all within their power…..to reduce and ….eliminate the threat of haze-causing fires on their landholdings. The region’s public health demands this. This undertaking will be made public at a press conference called by ASEAN ministers and attended by the CEOs. The CEOs are to be held personally responsible for the fires not only within their landholdings, but also to those which their companies have a commercial arrangement – their supply chain. I am sure this complies with acceptable sustainable requirements.” (11)

Sadly, nothing was done then, and nothing again now. The reason I believe, remains the cozy and symbiotic relationship among the political, business and media elites in the region - a clubby bunch, as shown by this chart. Four ASEAN countries among the top 10. 

Source : Forbes; IMF; The Economist (12)

Some years ago too, I wrote to the governments in the region about coordinating their efforts to deal with climate changes, especially the need to develop strategies and technologies for abating same. Again, nothing was done, as we can see from this current and intense dry spell, which has normalized in the last few years.

F. CONCLUSION

Image courtesy news.mongabay.com

The haze will go on recurring. It is an evironmental disaster. We will be wise to avoid blaming the small farmers. They have been victimized enough (13). Farming is their livelihood. Stick the blame where it truly belongs – irresponsible, avaricious and crony political, corporate and media leaders. Hold them accountable. It is our right. 

In the Spirit of David Cornelius Singh

David’s father

Email : davidnfather@gmail.com

https://thinktosee.tumblr.com/

Sources/References

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-refineries-drone-attack.html

2. https://angelhasfallen.movie/

3. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southeastasia-haze/malaysian-pm-to-write-to-indonesias-leader-as-row-over-haze-flares-idUSKCN1VX0VE

4. https://www.todayonline.com/world/we-didnt-start-fire-say-malaysian-palm-oil-firms

5. https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/18485/greenpeace-investigation-wilmar-brands-palm-oil-deforestation-indonesia/

6. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, April 11, 1973, 294, U.S. State Dept. Archives

7. https://www.amsa.gov.au/marine-environment/incidents-and-exercises/kirki-21-july-1991

8. https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1991/mair/mair33/

9. https://www.dw.com/en/the-legacy-of-deepwater-horizon-what-researchers-learned-about-oil-spills/a-37662810

10. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-deepwaterhorizon/bp-deepwater-horizon-costs-balloon-to-65-billion-idUSKBN1F50NL

11. Letter to ASEAN ambassadors dated Sep 29, 2015 titled : “Lazy, Hazy days of Autumn.”

12. http://infographics.economist.com/2016/Cronyism_index/

13. https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/indonesian-farmers-file-judicial-review-on-palm-oil-fund-as-big-companies-dominate-the-fund/

[juniperpublishers-fashion-b-blog]

Cotton Cloth: Diversified Applications beyond Fashion and Wearable Cloth - Juniper Publishers

To know more about Journal of Fashion Technology-https://juniperpublishers.com/ctftte/index.phpTo know more about open access journals Publishers click on Juniper PublishersTo know more about Journal of Fashion Technology-https://juniperpublishers.com/ctftte/index.phpTo know more about open access journals Publishers click on Juniper Publishers

Abstract

Recent developments in the field of textile industry highlighting cotton cloth/fabric to a new interest in another application. The cotton cloth that is well known as one of the most comfortable wearable fabric has positioning itself to various new significant functions and application especially in the area of wastewater treatment technology, medical and surgery devices, electronic applications, enzyme and lipase production, crop and harvesting procedure, energy storage devices and etc. This article emphasizing few studies from various researches regarding the use of cotton cloth either as a substrate, template material, function modification or even as storage or covering materials. This proved the versatility of cotton cloth to be used in vast areas of technology.Keywords: Cotton cloth; Cotton fabric; Cotton cloth substrate; Wearable cloth; Cotton cloth applicationAbbreviations: GOS: Galacto-Oligo Saccharides; RGO: Reduced Graphene Oxide; ISTA: International Seed Testing AssociationGo to

Introduction

Daily clothes such as blouses, T-shirts, sweater, robes, under garments and even sheets or blanket mainly originated from natural cotton fibers. Weaving activity of cotton fiber has produced a flexible and porous cotton fabric with soft yet strong, durable and comfort properties [

1

]. Cotton is suitable and matched with weather in Asia and perfect for wearing in the summer. Cotton cloth is one of the most popular fabrics to wear because of it many advantages. It definitely have a comfortable, wearable and breathable cloth, since it able to draw heat away from skin, easily absorb body moisture and evaporate in the air, keeping cool and comfortable in hot weather [

2

,

3

]. Cotton fabric irregularly causes allergic responses and wearing cotton cloth is often suggested for those with skin allergic [

3

]. The medical product such as bandages and gauze also produced from cotton. In addition to that, cotton cloth is the best choice of fabric when it comes to baby/children clothing [

2

]. Cotton is allowing air circulation that discourages fungi from growing in dark and moist atmosphere [

2

,

3

]. The affordable cost of cotton cloth make more appealing and high in demand. Thus, cotton cloth with various advantages has make it a perfect choice for people nowadays to wear with coziness in daily life.The rapid growth and exploration of emerging technology nowadays allows cotton cloth to be further explored, designed and manufactured for a broader spectrum of applications. A significant progress has been achieved through modified and improved it surface function, structure and morphology. For instances, it is applicable in wastewater treatment technology [

4

-

6

], medical and surgery devices [

1

], electronic applications [

79

], enzyme and lipase production [

10

,

11

], in crop and harvesting procedure [

12

], energy storage devices [

9

] and the number keep increasing from one technology to another.

Diversified cotton cloth application

The specialty of cotton cloth includes less in weight, very flexible to be folded or recovered, thin in diameter sizes, good mechanical strength, and lower cost, have good breathability, abundance in nature, renewability, versatility and easily to get from any cloth shops around the world. The following describe the use of cotton cloth in another technology application.The cotton cloth has been effectively used as a filter to remove radioactive ions such as uranium which mainly comes from nuclear industry. The synthesis of cotton cloth filter was grafted by acrylonitrile and methacrylic acid onto cotton cloth using mutual irradiation technique and the subsequent amidoximation of the reactive intermediate nitrile groups. The grafting on cotton/cellulose materials have several advantages due to high hydrophilicity, high adsorption capacity and fibrous structure of cellulosite material. Plus, this filter can be biodegraded after used and possesses good morphology and chemical stability which is SEM image of cotton cloth filter fabricated to remove uranium suitable for practical application [

13

].

Figure 1

illustrates the ion from radioactive waste treatment.

The enormous use of fossil fuels can cause severe consequences toward environment such as air pollution and global warming. In order to reduce the high reliance of fossil fuels, the expansion of high-performance electrochemical energy storage devices is required for renewable energy and electric vehicles. Energy storage devices will be highly in demand upon meeting criteria of flexible, lightweight, efficient, wearable or portable e.g.to be used in artificial biosensor or implantable medical devices. The cotton textile used as starting substance for constructing wearable super capacitors because of its low cost, high flexibility, great strength, good breathability, abundance, renewability and versatility [

8

].

Figure 2

shows the fabrication process of wearable super capacitor using cotton textile as substrate.

Galacto-OligoSaccharides (GOS) production from lactose by β-galactosidase is introduced in food product and dairy industry due to many health benefits. Previous practice basically used free enzyme in solution for its production. However, compared with enzyme immobilizing on a solid support using reactor, it provides many advantages including enzyme reusability, operated continuously, controllable, simpler and efficient in processing. Besides, immobilized enzyme reactor generally more economic compare to free enzyme reactor due to higher productivity and able to minimize the downtime, enzyme costs and reactor size. With the used of cotton cloth packed in loose spiral form in the reactor, it has produce lower pressure drop, good flow rate and minimized the diffusion limitation [

10

]. In order to get clear understanding of enzyme cotton-cloth reactor, the schematic diagram is shown in

Figure 3.

The lipase from thermo myceslanuginosus is a single chain protein with amino acid that produced enzyme. The enzyme is biotechnology relevant and is widely used in many industries such as food, fine chemicals, detergents, waste water treatment, cosmetics, paper and pulp, pharmaceuticals and leather industry Cotton cloth as immobilization matrix has many advantages e.g. high porosity, large surface area, good mechanical strength and relatively inexpensive. It serves as an excellent choice as support matrix for immobilization [

11

].

Nanomaterial offer comprehensive potential applications when assimilated with fabric substrates such as to be used for heat generation application [

14

]. A study conducted using Reduced Graphene Oxide (RGO) nanosheets coated on cotton cloth based films as heating element for wearable body warmer. The fabric cloth coated nanomaterials being an interactive material for heating elements due to their special and exceptional properties such as large surface to volume ratio, less in weight, dimensionality, and corrosion free. Directly it minimizing the common problem faced by the device like heavyweight, inflexibility, and low heating proficiency. Hence, by considering all the advantages, the textile electronic devices can be employed in automobile, biomedical and electronic wearable technology For example, the heating element application in biomedical field can be vast, for instances as medical blankets for patients, jacket for soldiers and electrotherapy treatment [

1

].

Figure 4

exhibits the fabricated RGO coated cotton cloth for heating element devices.

Practically, microalgae cultures are sustained using a variety of techniques which include serial subculture, lyophilisation and cryopreservation. The maintenance and conservation of microalgae are tedious and require specific conditions. Due to several limitations, researchers have developed an easy and convenient method for long-term preservation and conservation of microalgae which is by using cotton fabric for the immobilization of microalgae [

15

].

Figure 5

presents the culture of microalgae immobilized on cotton cloth and SEM image of algal cell.

Sorghum

(Sorghum bicolor L

.) is in forth ranking of cereal crop in the world after wheat, rice and maize. It is a tropical crop which belong to a grass family. In Tanzania, Sorghum is one of the most important source of subsistence in their country. For common practice, sorghum seed germination test has to be conducted using International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) paper substrate. The ISTA paper has to be imported since it was not manufactured in their country. As an alternative solution, cotton cloth is used as a substrate since the seed germination performance can be maintained similar to the use of ISTA paper. The cotton cloth has minimized the cost of importing ISTA paper due to local availability and lower in price [

16

].

Figure 6

shows the Sorghum seedlings laboratory germination tests using cotton cloth and ISTA paper.

The use of cotton cloth is also diversified and tested for wastewater treatment technology. Focusing on effluent from textile and other dyeing industries such as paper, printing, leather, food and plastic industries, the presence of dyes create an environmental problem due to their high visibility, resistance and toxic impact [

17

]. Dyes can be eliminated by various methods, and most common method used is adsorption. Researchers coated the adsorbent on the cotton cloth as a substrate. The aim is to simplify the maintenance activity after the adsorption process as well as improving the surface area to weight ratio of the adsorbent and minimizing the quantity of solid adsorbent required. The cotton cloth was chosen as substrate due to its large surface area, thin, light weight, easy to handle and reasonable in price [

18

].

Figure 7

illustrates the cotton cloth adsorbent coating strip.

A brief summary on the usage, function and advantages of cotton cloth in various field of applications is tabulated in

Conclusion

The current study contributes to our knowledge by addressing several issues.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the Research University Grant (1001/PJKIMIA/814269) and Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi for providing My PHD as financial support throughout the study.

To know more about Journal of Fashion Technology-https://juniperpublishers.com/ctftte/index.php

To know more about open access journals Publishers click on Juniper Publishers

[nightmare-afton-cosplay]

Forget the McMansion! A Palm Springs Development Offers Modern Masterpieces

realtor.com

When considering new housing developments, we often conjure up images of McMansion hell. Big, brown homes with odd rooflines scrunched way too close together.

However, a tract home doesn’t have to be beige! A brand-new development in Palm Springs, CA, called Linea eschews the maligned McMansion in favor of modern, minimalist homes in a soothing all-white hue.

The collection of 14 high-end homes is being introduced to the market a few units at a time. Seven have already sold, and three more are now available. 

The modern homes are geared toward vacation home buyers who appreciate the midcentury architecture of the desert, but don’t want to necessarily live in an older home.

“You’re getting all the amenities of brand-new construction,” says listing agent Rich Nolan. “The homes are meant to be as low-maintenance as possible.” 

Each dwelling comes with a home warranty, along with sustainable elements like insulation, artificial turf, and solar panels. The homes are designed to be turnkey, ready for your next getaway.

“It’s just a different caliber than a remodeled home,” Nolan says.

Details include Fleetwood sliding glass doors, open layouts, and large outdoor space with pools. The homes “have top-of-the-line finishes and still remain competitive in pricing,” Nolan says.

The development from builder Andrew Adler, founder and chairman of Alta Verde Group, and Los Angeles architect Anthony Poon of Poon Design offers three different layouts. One of the layouts recently won an American Institute of Architects Housing Award for best new American homes. The model was praised for offering a “new standard for the speculative tract housing industry” while keeping costs at a “record low” for Southern California.

According to the listing, the designs draw inspiration from artists such as Donald Judd and Bauhaus painters, resulting in “minimal lines, walls of glass, measured proportions, and sculptural massing.”

Let’s have a look at what a terrific tract home can offer.

3076 Linea Ter

Price: $2,479,000 Modern amenities: The four-bedroom Residence V comes with an oval pool and guesthouse, along with mountain views. Kitchen and bath counters are quartz, and the imported cabinets have underlighting. The brilliant white interiors are set off by the bright green grass outside and the azure blue of the oval pool.

All-white home with oval pool

James Butchart

Open kitchen with quartz counters

James Butchart

———

3072 Linea Ter

Price: $2,790,000 Modern amenities: At nearly 5,000 square feet, the four-bedroom Residence T has both east- and west-facing views. Luxe amenities include a lap pool, cabana, wine room, and solar panels. The gallery walls in the hall, with their all-white finishes, are ready to display an art collection. There are quartz counters in the kitchen and baths, and floating cabinets in bathrooms and the media room. 

Art hall

James Butchart

Living room that opens to the outdoors

James Butchart

Lap pool and outdoor space

James Butchart

———

3083 Linea Ter

Price: $2,279,000 Modern amenities: This four-bedroom model features southwest views from every room, and a “tranquil” master suite. The 4,330 square feet of interior space offers plenty of room to spread out. Features include a lap pool, cabana, smart home technology, and solar panels. 

Sliding glass doors and living space with fireplace

James Butchart

Lap pool, spa, and fire pit

James Butchart

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