Globalization has exacerbated the need for engineers who are capable of working in a cross-cultural environment. Multinational companies continuously seek for engineers who are intercultural competent and capable of conducting business successfully in a cross-cultural environment. However, the skills required to be successful in a multicultural environment are difficult to be taught in the traditional classroom. One of the most effective approaches to acquiring intercultural competence skills is through experiential learning. It is, therefore, not surprising that most colleges all over the world are devoting resources towards the internationalization of their classrooms and the campus community. This ensures that students are provided with a diverse environment so they can learn from, and about diverse cultures and develop their intercultural competence skills. Another effective approach is the study abroad programs, which require students to travel to different countries. However, these approaches require a lot of resources that may not be available to the poor and needy students. Therefore, a more cost-effective approach, such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is receiving a lot of attention in recent years. In this study, some engineering technology students participated in an 8-week long COIL program with materials engineering students from different languacultural and geographical region. This study reviews the results and compares the performance of the COIL students with those who were not involved. It was observed that the COIL teams performed significantly better on the project work.
The synergistic effects of transition metal based nanocomposites are known to possess enhanced antibacterial activities. However, in-depth analysis of the relative antibacterial performance of some of the prominent nanocomposites remains unavailable. This study compares the antibacterial activity of two separate nanocomposites, which are copper oxide with silver (CuO/Ag) and zinc oxide with silver (ZnO/Ag). The individual CuO/Ag and ZnO/Ag nanocomposites were synthesised by a mixed wet-chemical method. The resulting particles were analysed by XRD, XRF, TEM, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, BET, and FTIR. The antibacterial activity of the nanoparticles were tested on Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, Escherichia coli (ATCC25922) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923), respectively, using the Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion and the microdilution methods. The Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion test results had the same minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) value for both CuO/Ag and ZnO/Ag against E. coli and S. aureus, which was 0.25 mg/ml. The applied nanocomposites using microdilution showed that CuO/Ag had approximately 98.8% and 98.7% efficiency on the respective Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species, while ZnO/Ag achieved 91.7% and 89.3% efficiency, respectively, against the Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species. This study presents a novel approach for relative analysis of the performance efficiency of transition metal based nanocomposites.
Fluoride-contaminated drinking waters are known to cause severe health hazards such as fluorosis and arthritis. This paper presents the encapsulation of iron oxide nanoparticles in kaolin-bentonite composites adsorbents (KBNPs) for the removal of fluoride from drinking water by adsorption compared with kaolin-bentonite composite (KB). Adsorbents with an average weight of ∼200 mg and ∼7 mm diameter (granules) were prepared in the ratio of 10 : 10 : 0.1 for kaolinite, bentonite, and magnetite nanoparticles, respectively. The granules were air-dried and calcined at 750°C and contacted with 2 mg/L sodium fluoride solution at varying time periods. The adsorbents were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) formulation, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), whereas the adsorption mechanism and the kinetics were explained using the Langmuir isotherm, Freundlich models, and pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models. The results showed that the BET surface areas for the granules were 10 m2/g and 3 m2/g for KBNPs and KB, respectively. The SEM images for the adsorbents before and after adsorption confirm the plate-like morphology of kaolin and bentonite. The FTIR analyses of bentonite (3550 cm−1–4000 cm−1) and kaolin (400–1200 cm−1) correspond to the structural hydroxyl groups and water molecules in the interlayer space of bentonites and the vibrational modes of SiO4 tetrahedron of kaolin, respectively. The KBNPs composites also recorded a fluoride removal efficiency of ∼91% after 120 minutes compared with 64% for KB composites without Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The adsorptions of fluoride by the KBNPs and KB granules were found to agree with the Freundlich isotherm and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model, respectively. The results clearly show that the impregnation of clays with magnetite nanoparticles has significant effect in the removal of fluoride, and the implication of the results has been discussed to show the impact of clay-magnetite nanoparticles composites in the removal of fluoride from contaminated water.
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