Search results for: gastrointestinal conditions

Authors: K. Azimzadeh, S. Rasouli

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The present study investigates whether malondialdehyde (MDA) and heat shock protein-27 (HSP-27) are altered in sheep with cystic echinococcosis (CE). For this purpose, forty parasitized and thirty healthy sheep were selected based on severe cystic form observation in liver and lack of blood parasite along with no cystic conformation in carcass respectively. The results revealed a significant decrease (p<0.01) in albumin (Alb) and total plasma protein (TPP) and a significant increase (p<0.01) in HSP-27, MDA, total bilirubin and unconjugated bilirubin in the infected group compared with healthy ones.The results indicate low levels of TPP and Alb reveal liver damage in suffered sheep and MDA elevation demonstrates oxidative stress in infected group. In addition, HSP-27 enhancement may attribute to disease-induced stress conditions.

Keywords: malondialdehyde, heat shock protein-27, Echinococcosis, blood parasites

Procedia PDF Downloads 597

Authors: Adewusi Adeoluwawale, Oronti Iyabosola Busola, Akinola Iretiayo, Komolafe Olusola Aderibigbe

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The complex and radial structure of the low voltage distribution network (415V) makes it vulnerable to faults which are due to system and the environmental related factors. Besides these, the protective scheme employed on the low voltage network which is the fuse cannot be monitored remotely such that in the event of sustained fault, the utility will have to rely solely on the complaint brought by customers for loss of supply and this tends to increase the length of outages. A microcontroller based fault detection scheme is hereby developed to detect low voltage and high voltage fault conditions which are common faults on this network. Voltages below 198V and above 242V on the distribution feeders are classified and detected as low voltage and high voltages respectively. Results shows that the developed scheme produced a good response time in the detection of these faults.

Keywords: fault detection, low voltage distribution feeders, outage times, sustained faults

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Authors: Loganathan Kumaresan, Velusamy Chidambaram, Arumugam Velayutham Karthikeyani, Alex Cheru Pulikottil, Madhusudan Sau, Gurpreet Singh Kapur, Sankara Sri Venkata Ramakumar

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Environmentally driven regulations throughout the world stipulate dramatic improvements in the quality of transportation fuels and refining operations. The exhaust gases like CO, NOx, and SOx from stationary sources (e.g., refinery) and motor vehicles contribute to a large extent for air pollution. The refining industry is under constant environmental pressure to achieve more rigorous standards on sulphur content in the fuel used in the transportation sector and other off-gas emissions. Fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) is a major secondary process in refinery for gasoline and diesel production. CO-combustion promoter additive and gasoline sulphur reduction (GSR) additive are catalytic systems used in FCCU to assist the combustion of CO to CO₂ in the regenerator and regulate sulphur in gasoline faction respectively along with main FCC catalyst. Effectiveness of these catalysts is governed by the active metal used, its dispersion, the type of base material employed, and retention characteristics of additive in FCCU such as attrition resistance and density. The challenge is to have a high-density microsphere catalyst support for its retention and high activity of the active metals as these catalyst additives are used in low concentration compare to the main FCC catalyst. The present paper discusses in the first part development of high dense microsphere of nanocrystalline alumina by hydro-thermal method for CO combustion promoter application. Performance evaluation of additive was conducted under simulated regenerator conditions and shows CO combustion efficiency above 90%. The second part discusses the efficacy of a co-precipitation method for the generation of the active crystalline spinels of Zn, Mg, and Cu with aluminium oxides as an additive. The characterization and micro activity test using heavy combined hydrocarbon feedstock at FCC unit conditions for evaluating gasoline sulphur reduction activity are studied. These additives were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, NH₃-TPD & N₂ sorption analysis, TPR analysis to establish structure-activity relationship. The reaction of sulphur removal mechanisms involving hydrogen transfer reaction, aromatization and alkylation functionalities are established to rank GSR additives for their activity, selectivity, and gasoline sulphur removal efficiency. The sulphur shifting in other liquid products such as heavy naphtha, light cycle oil, and clarified oil were also studied. PIONA analysis of liquid product reveals 20-40% reduction of sulphur in gasoline without compromising research octane number (RON) of gasoline and olefins content.

Keywords: hydrothermal, nanocrystalline, spinel, sulphur reduction

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Authors: Mohammad Afkhami, Ali Hassanpour, Michael Fairweather

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The work described in this paper was undertaken to gain insight into fundamental aspects of turbulent gas-particle flows with relevance to processes employed in a wide range of applications, such as oil and gas flow assurance in pipes, powder dispersion from dry powder inhalers, and particle resuspension in nuclear waste ponds, to name but a few. In particular, the influence of particle interaction and fluid phase behavior in turbulent flow on particle dispersion in a horizontal channel is investigated. The mathematical modeling technique used is based on the large eddy simulation (LES) methodology embodied in the commercial CFD code FLUENT, with flow solutions provided by this approach coupled to a second commercial code, EDEM, based on the discrete element method (DEM) which is used for the prediction of particle motion and interaction. The results generated by LES for the fluid phase have been validated against direct numerical simulations (DNS) for three different channel flows with shear Reynolds numbers, Reτ = 150, 300 and 590. Overall, the LES shows good agreement, with mean velocities and normal and shear stresses matching those of the DNS in both magnitude and position. The research work has focused on the prediction of those conditions favoring particle aggregation and deposition within turbulent flows. Simulations have been carried out to investigate the effects of particle size, density and concentration on particle agglomeration. Furthermore, particles with different surface properties have been simulated in three channel flows with different levels of flow turbulence, achieved by increasing the Reynolds number of the flow. The simulations mimic the conditions of two-phase, fluid-solid flows frequently encountered in domestic, commercial and industrial applications, for example, air conditioning and refrigeration units, heat exchangers, oil and gas suction and pressure lines. The particle size, density, surface energy and volume fractions selected are 45.6, 102 and 150 µm, 250, 1000 and 2159 kg m-3, 50, 500, and 5000 mJ m-2 and 7.84 × 10-6, 2.8 × 10-5, and 1 × 10-4, respectively; such particle properties are associated with particles found in soil, as well as metals and oxides prevalent in turbulent bounded fluid-solid flows due to erosion and corrosion of inner pipe walls. It has been found that the turbulence structure of the flow dominates the motion of the particles, creating particle-particle interactions, with most of these interactions taking place at locations close to the channel walls and in regions of high turbulence where their agglomeration is aided both by the high levels of turbulence and the high concentration of particles. A positive relationship between particle surface energy, concentration, size and density, and agglomeration was observed. Moreover, the results derived for the three Reynolds numbers considered show that the rate of agglomeration is strongly influenced for high surface energy particles by, and increases with, the intensity of the flow turbulence. In contrast, for lower surface energy particles, the rate of agglomeration diminishes with an increase in flow turbulence intensity.

Keywords: agglomeration, channel flow, DEM, LES, turbulence

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Authors: Abdulrahman Abdulrahman, Abir Abdulrahman

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The stability of slopes of earthen embankments is usually examined by Swedish slip circle method or the slices method. The factor of safety against sliding using Fellenius procedure depends upon the angle formed by the arc of sliding at the center ψ and the radius of the slip circle r. The values of both mentioned parameters ψ and r aren't precisely predicted because they are measured from the drawing. In this paper, analytical formulae were derived for finding the exact values of both ψ and r. Also this paper presents the different conditions of intersections the slip circle with the body of an earthen dam and the coordinate of intersection points. Numerical examples are chosen for demonstration the proposed solution

Keywords: earthen dams stability, , earthen embankments stability, , Fellenius method, hydraulic structures, , side slopes stability, , slices method, Swedish slip circle

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Authors: Elmabruk Laias

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IEEE Standard 802.16 provides QoS (Quality of Service) for the applications such as Voice over IP, video streaming and high bandwidth file transfer. With the ability of broadband wireless access of an IEEE 802.16 system, a WiMAX TDD frame contains one downlink subframe and one uplink subframe. The capacity allocated to each subframe is a system parameter that should be determined based on the expected traffic conditions. a proper resource allocation scheme for packet transmissions is imperatively needed. In this paper, we present a new resource allocation scheme, called additional bandwidth yielding (ABY), to improve transmission efficiency of an IEEE 802.16-based network. Our proposed scheme can be adopted along with the existing scheduling algorithms and the multi-priority scheme without any change. The experimental results show that by using our ABY, the packet queuing delay could be significantly improved, especially for the service flows of higher-priority classes.

Keywords: IEEE 802.16, WiMAX, OFDMA, resource allocation, uplink-downlink mapping

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Authors: Dara Satyadileep, Abdallah S. Berrouk

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Selective absorption of Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) using methyldiethanol amine (MDEA) has become a point of interest as means of minimizing capital and operating costs of gas sweetening plants. This paper discusses the prominence of optimum design of column internals to best achieve H2S selectivity using MDEA. To this end, a kinetics-based process simulation model has been developed for a commercial gas sweetening unit. Trends of sweet gas H2S & CO2 contents as function of fraction active area (and hence residence time) have been explained through analysis of interdependent heat and mass transfer phenomena. Guidelines for column internals design in order to achieve desired degree of H2S selectivity are provided. Also the effectiveness of various operating conditions in achieving H2S selectivity for an industrial absorber with fixed internals is investigated.

Keywords: gas sweetening, H2S selectivity, methyldiethanol amine, process simulation, residence time

Procedia PDF Downloads 324

Authors: R. I. You, C. L. Ho, M. S. Dai, H. M. Hung, S. F. Yen, C. S. Chen, T. Y. Chao

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Neutrophils are the most abundant innate immune cells to against invading microorganisms. Numerous data shown neutrophils have plasticity in response to physiological and pathological conditions. Tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) exist in distinct types of tumor and play an important role in cancer biology. Different transcriptomic profiles of neutrophils in tumor and non-tumor samples have been identified. Several miRNAs have been recognized as regulators of gene expression in neutrophil, which may have key roles in neutrophil activation. However, the miRNAs expression patterns in TAN are not well known. To address this question, magnetic bead isolated neutrophils from tumor-bearing mice were used in this study. We analyzed production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence assay. The expression of miRNAs targeting NADPH oxidase, ROS generation and autophagy was explored using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Our data suggest that tumor environment influence neutrophil develop to differential states of activation via miRNAs regulation.

Keywords: tumor-associated neutrophil, miRNAs, neutrophil, ROS

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Authors: Anastasia Schnitzer, Oliver Rehren

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Mental health has become an increasingly important topic in society in recent years, not least due to the challenges posed by the corona pandemic. Along with this, the public has become more and more aware that a lack of enlightenment and proper coping mechanisms may result in a notable risk to develop mental disorders. Yet, there are still many biases against those affected, which are further connected to issues of stigmatization and societal exclusion. One of the main strategies to combat these forms of prejudice and stigma is to induce intergroup contact. More specifically, the Intergroup Contact Theory states engaging in certain types of contact with members of marginalized groups may be an effective way to improve attitudes towards these groups. However, due to the persistent prejudice and stigmatization, affected individuals often do not dare to speak openly about their mental disorders, so that intergroup contact often goes unnoticed. As a result, many people only experience conscious contact with individuals with a mental disorder through media. As an analogy to the Intergroup Contact Theory, the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis proposes that repeatedly being exposed to positive media representations of outgroup members can lead to a reduction of negative prejudices and attitudes towards this outgroup. While there is a growing body of research on the merit of this mechanism, measurements often only consist of 'positive' or 'negative' parasocial contact conditions (or examine the valence or quality of the previous contact with the outgroup); meanwhile, more specific conditions are often neglected. The current study aims to tackle this shortcoming. By scrutinizing the potential of contemporary series as a narrative framework of high quality, we strive to elucidate more detailed aspects of beneficial parasocial contact -for the sake of reducing prejudice and stigma towards individuals with mental disorders. Thus, a two-factorial between-subject online panel study with three measurement points was conducted (N = 95). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, having to watch episodes of either a series with a narrative framework of high (Quality-TV) or low quality (Continental-TV), with one-week interval in-between the episodes. Suitable series were determined with the help of a pretest. Prejudice and stigma towards people with mental disorders were measured at the beginning of the study, before and after each episode, and in a final follow-up one week after the last two episodes. Additionally, parasocial interaction (PSI), quality of contact (QoC), and transportation were measured several times. Based on these data, multivariate multilevel analyses were performed in R using the lavaan package. Latent growth models showed moderate to high increases in QoC and PSI as well as small to moderate decreases in stigma and prejudice over time. Multilevel path analysis with individual and group levels further revealed that a qualitative narrative framework leads to a higher quality of contact experience, which then leads to lower prejudice and stigma, with effects ranging from moderate to high.

Keywords: prejudice, quality of contact, parasocial contact, narrative framework

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Authors: Ahmad Kavousi, Ali Delaviz

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In this project, the landing process is simulated by using of multi-body dynamics commercial software. Various factors, including landing situations, aircraft structures and climate are used in this simulation. The purpose of this project is to determine the forces exerted on the aircraft landing gears in landing process in various landing conditions. For this purpose, the ADAMS multi-body dynamics software is used. Different scenarios based on FAR-25, including level landing, tail-down landing, crab landing are simulated. Results of dynamic simulation software with landing load factor obtained from the analytical solution are compared. The effect of fuselage elasticity on the landing load is studied. For this purpose, both of elastic and rigid body assumptions are used in the simulation process, and the results are compared and some conclusions are made.

Keywords: landing gear, landing process, aircraft, multi-body dynamics

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Authors: K. Barbaro, F. Di Egidio, A. Amaddeo, G. Lupoli, S. Eramo, G. Barraco, D. Amaddeo, C. Gallottini

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In this study, we wanted to evaluate the effects of nano-hydroxy apatite (NHA) on mesenchymal stem cells extracted from subcutaneous adipose tissue of the dog. The stem cells were divided into 6 experimental groups at different concentrations of NHA. The comparison was made with a control group of stem cell grown in standard conditions without NHA. After 1 week, the cells were fixed with 10% buffered formalin for 1 hour at room temperature and stained with Giemsa, measured at the inverted optical microscope. The morphological evaluation of the control samples and those treated showed that stem cells adhere to the substrate and proliferate in the presence of nanohydroxy apatite at different concentrations showing no detectable toxic effects.

Keywords: nano-hydroxy apatite, adipose mesenchymal stem cells, dog, morphological evaluation

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Authors: Min-Tsai Lai, Taqwa Hariguna

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This paper presents a periodical replacement model for a system, considering the concept of single and cumulative repair cost limits simultaneously. The failures are divided into two types. Minor failure can be corrected by minimal repair and serious failure makes the system breakdown completely. When a minor failure occurs, if the repair cost is less than a single repair cost limit L1 and the accumulated repair cost is less than a cumulative repair cost limit L2, then minimal repair is executed, otherwise, the system is preventively replaced. The system is also replaced at time T or at serious failure. The optimal period T minimizing the long-run expected cost per unit time is verified to be finite and unique under some specific conditions.

Keywords: repair-cost limit, cumulative repair-cost limit, minimal repair, periodical replacement policy

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Authors: Ngozi Nwogu, Mohammed Kajama, Emmanuel Anyanwu, Edward Gobina

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With the objective to create technologically advanced materials to be scientifically applicable, multi-layer silica alumina membranes were molecularly fabricated by continuous surface coating silica layers containing hybrid material onto a ceramic porous substrate for flue gas separation applications. The multi-layer silica alumina membrane was prepared by dip coating technique before further drying in an oven at elevated temperature. The effects of substrate physical appearance, coating quantity, the cross-linking agent, a number of coatings and testing conditions on the gas separation performance of the membrane have been investigated. Scanning electron microscope was used to investigate the development of coating thickness. The membrane shows impressive perm selectivity especially for CO2 and N2 binary mixture representing a stimulated flue gas stream

Keywords: gas separation, silica membrane, separation factor, membrane layer thickness

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Authors: Cafer Görkem Pınar, İlker Coşar, Serkan Uzun, Atahan Çelebi, Mehmet Ali Ersoy, Ali Pınarbaşı

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In this study, it was numerically investigated that a 1:1 scale model of the Renault Clio MK4 SW brand vehicle aerodynamic analysis was performed in the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package program of ANSYS CFX 2021 R1 under steady, subsonic, and 3-D conditions. The model of vehicle used for the analysis was made independent of the number of mesh elements, and the k-epsilon turbulence model was applied during the analysis. Results were interpreted as streamlines, pressure gradient, and turbulent kinetic energy contours around the vehicle at 50 km/h and 100 km/h speeds. In addition, the validity of the analysis was decided by comparing the drag coefficient of the vehicle with the values in the literature. As a result, the pressure gradient contours of the taillight of the Renault Clio MK4 SW vehicle were examined, and the behavior of the total force at speeds of 50 km/h and 100 km/h was interpreted.

Keywords: CFD, k-epsilon, aerodynamics, drag coefficient, taillight

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Authors: Zareen Shahid

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Rapid increase in population has resulted in uncontrolled and unplanned growth of metropolitan cities in Pakistan. Pakistan is facing unprecedented challenges of acute housing shortages, unhealthy living conditions and a non-existent or dilapidated infrastructure across the country. The government of Pakistan has also failed to devise a comprehensive and long-term strategy to cope with the problem of housing and better infrastructure development and management that has resulted in congestion, overcrowding and deterioration of environment in cities. On the other hand public has developed intense faith upon Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore. This research paper is about to observe the difference in residential estate development and services provided by DHA Lahore. This paper attempts to identify the factors which are contributing towards the success of DHA and recommend measures for improvement in public sector for betterment.

Keywords: residential estate, development and management, defence housing authority

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Authors: Hajer Rahali, Zied Hajaiej, Noureddine Ellouze

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The goal of speech parameterization is to extract the relevant information about what is being spoken from the audio signal. In speech recognition systems Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Relative Spectral Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (RASTA-MFCC) are the two main techniques used. It will be shown in this paper that it presents some modifications to the original MFCC method. In our work the effectiveness of proposed changes to MFCC called Modified Function Cepstral Coefficients (MODFCC) were tested and compared against the original MFCC and RASTA-MFCC features. The prosodic features such as jitter and shimmer are added to baseline spectral features. The above-mentioned techniques were tested with impulsive signals under various noisy conditions within AURORA databases.

Keywords: auditory filter, impulsive noise, MFCC, prosodic features, RASTA filter

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Authors: Ojas Chaudhari, Ali Nejad Ghafar, Giedrius Zirgulis, Marjan Mousavi, Tommy Ellison, Sandra Pousette, Patrick Fontana

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In Swedish tunnel construction, a critical issue that has been repeatedly acknowledged is corrosion and, consequently, failure of the rock bolts in rock support systems. The defective installation of rock bolts results in the formation of cavities in the cement mortar that is regularly used to fill the area under the dome plates. These voids allow for water-ingress to the rock bolt assembly, which results in corrosion of rock bolt components and eventually failure. In addition, the current installation technique consists of several manual steps with intense labor works that are usually done in uncomfortable and exhausting conditions, e.g., under the roof of the tunnels. Such intense tasks also lead to a considerable waste of materials and execution errors. Moreover, adequate quality control of the execution is hardly possible with the current technique. To overcome these issues, a non-shrinking/expansive cement-based mortar filled in the paper packaging has been developed in this study which properly fills the area under the dome plates without or with the least remaining cavities, ultimately that diminishes the potential of corrosion. This article summarizes the development process and the experimental evaluation of this technique for the installation of rock bolts. In the development process, the cementitious mortar was first developed using specific cement and shrinkage reducing/expansive additives. The mechanical and flow properties of the mortar were then evaluated using compressive strength, density, and slump flow measurement methods. In addition, isothermal calorimetry and shrinkage/expansion measurements were used to elucidate the hydration and durability attributes of the mortar. After obtaining the desired properties in both fresh and hardened conditions, the developed dry mortar was filled in specific permeable paper packaging and then submerged in water bath for specific intervals before the installation. The tests were enhanced progressively by optimizing different parameters such as shape and size of the packaging, characteristics of the paper used, immersion time in water and even some minor characteristics of the mortar. Finally, the developed prototype was tested in a lab-scale rock bolt assembly with various angles to analyze the efficiency of the method in real life scenario. The results showed that the new technique improves the performance of the rock bolts by reducing the material wastage, improving environmental performance, facilitating and accelerating the labor works, and finally enhancing the durability of the whole system. Accordingly, this approach provides an efficient alternative for the traditional way of tunnel bolt installation with considerable advantages for the Swedish tunneling industry.

Keywords: corrosion, durability, mortar, rock bolt

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Authors: A. N.Ukwuani, A. K. Abdulfatah

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G. crenata is used locally for the treatment of fractured bones, wound healing and inflammatory conditions. In vitro and in vivo antioxidant activity of hydromethanolic extracts of the leaves of G. crenata were assessed. The phytochemical analysis shows the presence of phenols, flavonoids, saponins, cardiac glycosides and tannins. An in vitro quantitative analysis of phenols, flavonoids and tannins respectively were (164±1.20, 199±0.88 and 88.67±0.88 mg/100g FW). In vivo studies of hydromethanolic extract demonstrated a dose dependent increase in hepatic superoxide dismutase (1.14±0.14, 2.13±0.11, 2.55±0.11 U/mg Protein) with improvement in hepatic glutathione (6.98±0.42, 8.91±0.37, 11.07±0.46 µM/mg Protein) and Catalase (4.47±0.05, 6.24±0.02, 7.17±0.04 U/mg Protein) and Total protein (6.18±0.08, 6.69±0.18, 7.27±0.16 mg/ml) respectively at 100-300mg/kg body weight Grewia crenata leaves when compared to the control and standard drug. It can be concluded from the present findings of that G. crenata leaves possess antioxidant potential.

Keywords: Grewia crenata, antioxidant, hydromethanolic extract, in vivo, in vitro

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Authors: Marine Segui, Ruxandra Mihaela Botez

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OpenVSP is an aerodynamic solver developed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that allows building a reliable model of an aircraft. This software performs an aerodynamic simulation according to the angle of attack of the aircraft makes between the incoming airstream, and its speed. A reliable aerodynamic model of the Cessna Citation X was designed but it required a lot of computation time. As a consequence, a prediction method was established that allowed predicting lift and drag coefficients for all Mach numbers and for all angles of attack, exclusively for stall conditions, from a computation of three angles of attack and only one Mach number. Aerodynamic coefficients given by the prediction method for a Cessna Citation X model were finally compared with aerodynamics coefficients obtained using a complete OpenVSP study.

Keywords: aerodynamic, coefficient, cruise, improving, longitudinal, openVSP, solver, time

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Authors: Le Quang Hanh

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Almost all big cities in Vietnam are often located in the river deltas. Therefore the ground condition on these cities is mostly soft soil. As a result, the soil strengthen works are mandatory in order to prevent the harmful to the third parties and tunnel structure itself in urban tunnel projects in Vietnam. This paper will particularly introduce the large diameter jet-grouted column technique that is recently being successfully applied in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The success application of this technique for protecting the historical sensitive building and for water cutoff objective of launching and arriving shafts in the urban tunnel project, will be analyzed from construction process, quality control and lessons learnt. From this situation, the large diameter jet-grouted column technique can extend to another urban tunnel projects in Vietnam and other countries which have similar soft soil conditions.

Keywords: large diameter, jet grouting, ground improvement, urban tunnel

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Authors: Khadija Radhi

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Food allergy is a serious public health problem, especially in developed countries. As one of the most significant allergies, peanut allergy was investigated in this research. Peanut was mixed with treacle under different heating conditions. The results of glycation analyses revealed that proteins from peanuts interacted with the carbohydrates. Further studies also indicated that Millard reactions were determined by different heating treatment. It is noted that denatured peanut proteins accelerated the first stage of Millard reactions but prevented the third one. From the ELISA results, it was found that Millard reactions between proteins with sugars had no effects on the allergenicity of peanuts. Besides, there was no significant difference in allergenicity between digested and non-digested peanut proteins. However, pre-boiled peanut with denatured proteins displayed lower allergenicity after mixing with sugars. Such results indicated that denaturation is the key factor to reduce the allergenicity of the peanut proteins and it seemed that the second-staged Maillard products had less allergenicity.

Keywords: allergenicity, heating treatment, peanut, Maillard reaction

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Authors: D. R. Ambika, K. R. Radhika, D. Seshachalam

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Unconstrained authentication is an important component for personal automated systems and human-computer interfaces. Existing solutions mostly use face as the primary object of analysis. The performance of face-based systems is largely determined by the extent of deformation caused in the facial region and amount of useful information available in occluded face images. Periocular region is a useful portion of face with discriminative ability coupled with resistance to deformation. A reliable portion of periocular area is available for occluded images. The present work demonstrates that joint representation of periocular texture and periocular structure provides an effective expression and poses invariant representation. The proposed methodology provides an effective and compact description of periocular texture and shape. The method is tested over four benchmark datasets exhibiting varied acquisition conditions.

Keywords: periocular authentication, Zernike moments, LBP variance, shape and texture fusion

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Authors: Wajeeha A. Qazi, Mohammed-Hasham Azam, Umais A. Mehmood, Ghithaa A. Al-Mufragi, Noor-Alhuda Alrawahi, Mohammed F. M. Abushammala

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Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposed in landfill sites decompose under anaerobic conditions and produce gases which mainly contain carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄). Methane has the potential of causing global warming 25 times more than CO₂, and can potentially affect human life and environment. Thus, this research aims to determine MSW generation and the annual CH₄ emissions from the generated waste in Oman over the years 1971-2030. The estimation of total waste generation was performed using existing models, while the CH₄ emissions estimation was performed using the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) default method. It is found that total MSW generation in Oman might be reached 3,089 Gg in the year 2030, which approximately produced 85 Gg of CH₄ emissions in the year 2030.

Keywords: methane, emissions, landfills, solid waste

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Authors: Prateek Kishore, T. M. Muruganandam

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Supersonic wind tunnel nozzles are generally capable of producing a constant Mach number flow in the test section of the wind tunnel. As a result, most of the supersonic vehicles are widely designed using steady state flow characteristics which may have errors while facing unsteady situations. This study aims to explore the possibility of varying the Mach number of the flow during wind tunnel operation. The nozzle walls are restricted to be inflexible for cooling near the throat due to high stagnation temperature requirement of the flow to simulate the conditions as experienced by the vehicle. Two simple independent mechanisms, rotation and translation of nozzle walls have been analyzed and the nozzle ranges have been optimized to vary the Mach number from Mach 2 to Mach 5 using minimum number of nozzles in the wind tunnel.

Keywords: method of characteristics, nozzle, supersonic wind tunnel, variable mach number

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Authors: Radia Chemlal, Youcef Hamidi, Nabil Mameri

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This study deals with the production of biosurfactant by the Pseudomonas luteola strain on three different culture media (semi-synthetic medium M1, whey, and pharmaceutical reject) in the presence of gasoil. The monitoring of bacterial growth by measuring the optical density at 600 nm by spectrophotometer and the surface tension clearly showed the ability of Pseudomonas luteola to produce biosurfactants at various conditions of the culture medium. The biosurfactant produced in the pharmaceutical reject medium generated a decrease in the surface tension with a percentage of 19.4% greater than the percentage obtained when using whey which is 7.0%. The pharmaceutical rejection is diluted at various percentages ranging from 5% to 100% in order to study the effect of the concentration on the biosurfactant production. The best result inducing the great reduction of the surface tension value is obtained at the dilution of 30% with the pharmaceutical reject.

Keywords: biosurfactant, pseudomonas luteola, whey, antiscorpionic serum, gas oil

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Authors: Ilham ihoume, Rachid Tadili, Nora Arbaoui

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This study examines the manner in which a solar copper coil heating system performs in a North-South-oriented greenhouse environment. In order to retain heat during the day and release it back ‎into the greenhouse environment at night, this system relies on the circulation of water in a closed ‎loop under the roof of the greenhouse. Experimental research ‎was conducted to compare the results in two identical greenhouses. The first one has a heating system, whilst the second one ‎has not and is regarded as a control. We determined the mass of the heat transfer fluid, which ‎makes up the storage system, needed to heat the greenhouse during the night to be equivalent to ‎‎689 Kg using the heat balance of the greenhouse equipped with a heating system. The findings ‎demonstrated that when compared to a controlled greenhouse without a heating system, the climatic ‎conditions within the experimental greenhouse were greatly enhanced by the solar heating system. ‎‎

Keywords: renewable energy, storage, enviromental impact, heating, agricultural greenhouse

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Authors: Norshazmira Mat Azmi, Sayidal El Fatimah Masnan, Shatirah Akib

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More than 70% of the Earth is covered by oceans, which are considered to possess boundless renewable energy, such as tidal energy, tidal current energy, wave energy, thermal energy, and chemical energy. The hybrid system help in improving the economic and environmental sustainability of renewable energy systems to fulfill the energy demand. The concept of hybridizing renewable energy is to meet the desired system requirements, with the lowest value of the energy cost. This paper propose a hybrid power generation system suitable for remote area application and highlight the impact of surface waves on turbine design and performance, and the importance of understanding the site-specific wave conditions.

Keywords: marine current energy, tidal turbines, wave turbine, renewable energy, surface waves, hydraulic flume experiments, instantaneous wave phase

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Authors: Nisa Nur Duman, Sümeyya Kiliç

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In global competition conditions, survival of the plants by obtaining competitive advantage relies on the effective usage of existing sources. By this way, the plants can minimize their costs without losing their quality. They also take advantage took advantage on their competitors and enlarge customer portfolio by increasing profit margins. Changing structure of market and customer demands also change the structure of the competition between companies. Furthermore, competition is not only between the companies. By this manner, supply chain and supply chain management get importance by considering company performances. Companies that want to survive, search the ways of decreasing costs and the ways of meeting customer expectations. One of the important tools for reaching these goals is inventory managemet. The best inventory management system is meeting the demands by considering plant goals.

Keywords: Supply chain, inventory management, apparel sector, garment industry

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Authors: Smita Lakhotia, C. Kew, S. H. M. Siraj, B. Chern

Abstract:

Up to 50% of those with endometriosis may suffer from infertility due to either distorted pelvic anatomy/impaired oocyte release or inhibit ovum pickup and transport, altered peritoneal function, endocrine and anovulatory disorders, including LUF, impaired implantation, progesterone resistance or decreased levels of cellular immunity. The dilemma continues as to whether the surgery or IVF is the optimal management for such recurrent endometriomas. The core question is whether surgery adds anything of value for infertile women with recurrent endometriosis or not. Complete and detailed information on risks and benefits of treatment alternatives must be offered to patients, giving a realistic estimate of chances of success of repetitive surgery and of multiple IVF cycles in order to allow unbiased choices between different possible optionsAn individualized treatment plan should be developed taking into account patient age, duration of infertility, previous pregnancies and specific clinical conditions and wish.

Keywords: recurrent endometriosis, infertility, oocyte release, pregnancy

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Elena Chernyak

Abstract:

The status of Russian women has changed dramatically over the course of Russian history and under different leadership and economic, political, and social conditions. The perception of women, their submissive roles, and low social status cause gender conflict that affects society: demographical issues, increased numbers of divorces, alcoholism, drug abuse, and crime. Despite the fact that around the world women are becoming more independent, protected by law, and play more important roles in society, Russian women are still dependent on men financially, socially, and psychologically. This paper critically explores the experience of Russian women over the course of over a thousand year of Russian history and how the position and image of women changed in Russian Empire, Soviet and post-Soviet Russia and what role women play in contemporary Russia. This paper is a result of deep examination of historical and religious literature, mass media, internet sources, and documents. This analysis shows that throughout history, the role and image of women in society have repeatedly varied depending on ideological and social conditions. In particular, the history of Russian women may be divided into five main periods. The first was the period of paganism, when almost all areas of life were open for women and when women were almost equal in social roles with men. During the second period, starting with the beginning of the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, the position of women was diminishing due to social transformation to the patriarchal society in which women started playing subordinate role in family and society. The third period – the period from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries - is a period of the total seclusion of Russian women from each part of social life. The fourth, Soviet period started after the Revolution of 1917. During that time, the position of women was drastically changed due to the transformation of traditional gender roles under the Bolshevik government. Woman's role was seen as worker-mothers who had a double duty: a worker and a mother. The final period began after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The restructuring (Perestroika) and post-Restructuring periods have had contradictory consequences and tremendous impact on Russian society. The image of women as partners and equal to men, which was promoted during the Soviet regime, has been replaced with the traditional functionalist views on family and the role of women, in which men and women have different but supposedly complementary roles. Modern Russia, despite publicly stating its commitment to equal rights, during last two decades has been reverting to an older social model with its emphasis on traditional gender roles, patriarchal ideas of dominant masculinity, and adverse attitudes to women, which are further supported and reinforced by the reviving Russian Orthodox Church. As demonstrated in this review, Russian women have never possessed the same rights as men and have always been subordinate to men. During all period of Russian history, patriarchal ideology maintained and reinforced in Russian society has always subjected women to manipulation, oppression, and victimization and portrayed women as not a ‘full human being’.

Keywords: women, Russia, patriarchy, religion, Russian Orthodox Church

Procedia PDF Downloads 150