Search results for: feed cost

Authors: Kahina Bedda, Boudjema Hamada

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Environmental regulations have been introduced in many countries around the world to reduce the sulfur content of diesel fuel to ultra low levels with the intention of lowering diesel engine’s harmful exhaust emissions and improving air quality. Removal of sulfur containing compounds from diesel feedstocks to produce ultra low sulfur diesel fuel by extraction with selective solvents has received increasing attention in recent years. This is because the sulfur extraction technologies compared to the hydrotreating processes could reduce the cost of desulfurization substantially since they do not demand hydrogen, and are carried out at atmospheric pressure. In this work, the desulfurization of distillate gasoil by liquid-liquid extraction with N, N-dimethylformamide was investigated. This fraction was recovered from a mixture of Hassi Messaoud crude oils and Hassi R'Mel gas-condensate in Algiers refinery. The sulfur content of this cut is 281 ppm. Experiments were performed in six-stage with a ratio of solvent:feed equal to 3:1. The effect of the extraction temperature was investigated in the interval 30 ÷ 110°C. At 110°C the yield of refined gas oil was 82% and its sulfur content was 69 ppm.

Keywords: desulfurization, gasoil, N, N-dimethylformamide, sulfur content

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Authors: G. O. Fakunmoju, F. A. Fakunmoju

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The experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth response of African giant catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed with varying levels of Galawaste based diet, 300 clarias gariepinus fingerlings with mean body weight 10 ± 0.1g were assigned to five (treatment levels in which Gala waste meal replaced maize at 0, 25, 50, 75, 100% respectively in a completely randomized design. The trial fish were fed at 5% body weight daily for a period of 84 days. Data collected showed that body weight gain increased with an increase gala waste meal in the diet (P<0.05). The similar observation was recorded for feed intake but there was no significant (P>0.05) difference in feed conversion ratio among the treatments. All the fish fed the test ingredients performed better than the control groups hence, Gala waste meal could be recommended as a dietary supplement in the diet of African Giant Catfish.

Keywords: Galawaste meal, Clarias gariepinus, replacement, growth performance, diets

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Authors: Lawan Adamu, Aminu Maidala

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Heat stress exerts a high deteriorating impact on the poultry industry which could be ameliorated by dietary incorporation of synthetic vitamin C. Certain herbs either alone or in combination thereof are also a rich source of ascorbic acid in natural form. Gashua is located in the semi arid zones with temperature ranges of 38-43oC especially in the months of March up to June/July which make survival and production much difficult to poultry especially broilers chickens as it was found that high ambient temperatures above 380C feed consumption, growth rate, feed efficiency, survivability, egg production and egg quality tends to decline. In order to address the problem of heat stress, an experiment was conducted in the month of March/April to determine the effect of synthetic ascorbic-acid (vitamin C), natural ascorbic from baobab, African locust bean and prosopis africana pulp was administer in drinking water and basal diets adlibitum. 300 day old marshal breed chicks were used for this experiment which was divided into five treatment group with 20 birds per replicate which designated as zero, synthetic ascorbic acid 40g/L, baobab pulp 40g/L, African locust pulp 40g/L and iron wood pulp 40g/L for T1, T2 T3 T4 and T5 respectively. The experiment was lasted for eight weeks (four weeks each for the starter and finisher). Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS 2002 soft wire and significant difference observed means were separated using Duncan multiple range test. The result revealed that bird on control diet were significantly (p<0.05) lowered in terms total and daily weight gain and feed efficiency but significantly (p<0.05) higher in terms feed intake, water intake, rectal temperature and mortality. This study concluded that ascorbic acid increased broiler performance and reduced mortality under high temperature thereby maintain the sustainability of broiler production to bridge the gap of animal protein deficit in the hot arid zone.

Keywords: ascorbic acid, heat stress, broiler, performance

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Authors: Miraz Hafiz Rossy

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As part of planning to address shortfalls in fresh water supply for the world, Sea water can be a huge source of fresh water. But Desalinating sea water to get fresh water could require a lots of fossil fuels. To save the fossil fuel in terms of save the green world but meet the up growing need for fresh water, a very useful but energy efficient method needs to be introduced. Vacuum desalination of sea water using only the Renewable energy can be an effective solution to this issue. Taking advantage of sensitivity of water's boiling point to air pressure a vacuum desalination water treatment plant can be designed which would only use sea water as feed water and solar energy as fuel to produce fresh drinking water. The study indicates that reducing the air pressure to a certain value water can be boiled at very low temperature. Using solar energy to provide the condensation and the vacuum creation would be very useful and efficient. Compared to existing resources, desalination is considered to be expensive, but using only renewable energy the cost can be reduced significantly. Despite its very few drawbacks, it can be considered a possible solution to the world's fresh water shortages.

Keywords: desalination, scarcity of fresh water, water purification, water treatment

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Authors: Felix Baumann, Aleksandar Milutinovic, Dieter Roller

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Up to this point business process management projects in general and business process modelling projects in particular could not rely on a practical and scientifically validated method to estimate cost and effort. Especially the model development phase is not covered by a cost estimation method or model. Further phases of business process modelling starting with implementation are covered by initial solutions which are discussed in the literature. This article proposes a method of filling this gap by deriving a cost estimation method from available methods in similar domains namely software development or software engineering. Software development is regarded as closely similar to process modelling as we show. After the proposition of this method different ideas for further analysis and validation of the method are proposed. We derive this method from COCOMO II and Function Point which are established methods of effort estimation in the domain of software development. For this we lay out similarities of the software development rocess and the process of process modelling which is a phase of the Business Process Management life-cycle.

Keywords: COCOMO II, busines process modeling, cost estimation method, BPM COCOMO

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Authors: Kowser Ali Jan, R. Balaji

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A disaster hurts those affected. It also spares many in the affected areas, yet those spared may be indirectly affected. The analytical framework of prevention and coping has proved useful in many circumstances. Historically and currently, there has been limited quantitative information available on flood management in Jammu and Kashmir. This study focuses on the Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA) of flood management by District Disaster Management Kulgam, and the assessment is based on secondary pooled data collected from government offices, NGOs, published Journals, and local and national newspapers. It also described the scenario, the approach adopted, and the sources of flood damage cost information. The estimated total benefits account for 78686.18 lakh of rupees, and that of total costs account for 2218.75lakh of rupees. The Benefit-Cost ratio greater than one (>1) shows that Flood Management in District Kulgam was economically feasible and successfully managed. The State of Jammu and Kashmir takes essential prevention and management measures to bring down the damages due to floods to significant status.

Keywords: cost-benefit analysis, nature, flood management, disaster

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Authors: Rodrigo Antunes, Olga Borisevich, David Demange

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The Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe (TLK) has identified zeolite membranes as most promising for tritium processes in the future fusion reactors. Tritium diluted in purge gases or gaseous effluents, and present in both molecular and oxidized forms, can be pre-concentrated by a stage of zeolite membranes followed by a main downstream recovery stage (e.g., catalytic membrane reactor). Since 2011 several membrane zeolite samples have been tested to measure the membrane performances in the separation of hydrogen and water vapor from helium streams. These experiments were carried out in the ZIMT (Zeolite Inorganic Membranes for Tritium) facility where mass spectrometry and cold traps were used to measure the membranes’ performances. The membranes were tested at temperatures ranging from 25 °C up to 130 °C, at feed pressures between 1 and 3 bar, and typical feed flows of 2 l/min. During this experimental campaign, several zeolite-type membranes were studied: a hollow-fiber MFI nanocomposite membrane purchased from IRCELYON (France), and tubular MFI-ZSM5, NaA and H-SOD membranes purchased from Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS, Germany). Among these membranes, only the MFI-based showed relevant performances for the H2/He separation, with rather high permeances (~0.5 – 0.7 μmol/sm2Pa for H2 at 25 °C for MFI-ZSM5), however with a limited ideal selectivity of around 2 for H2/He regardless of the feed concentration. Both MFI and NaA showed higher separation performances when water vapor was used instead; for example, at 30 °C, the separation factor for MFI-ZSM5 is approximately 10 and 38 for 0.2% and 10% H2O/He, respectively. The H-SOD evidenced to be considerably defective and therefore not considered for further experiments. In this contribution, a comprehensive analysis of the experimental methods and results obtained for the separation performance of different zeolite membranes during the past four years in inactive environment is given. These results are encouraging for the experimental campaign with molecular and oxidized tritium that will follow in 2017.

Keywords: gas separation, nuclear fusion, tritium processes, zeolite membranes

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Authors: Eugene Y. C. Wong, Henry Y. K. Lau, Mardjuki Raman

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CO2 emissions from maritime transport operations represent a substantial part of the total greenhouse gas emission. Vessels are designed with better energy efficiency. Minimizing CO2 emission in maritime operations plays an important role in supply chain decarbonisation. This paper reviews the initiatives on slow steaming operations towards the reduction of carbon emission. It investigates the relationship and impact among slow steaming cost reduction, carbon emission reduction, and shipment delay. A scenario-based cost-driven decision support model is developed to facilitate the selection of the optimal slow steaming options, considering the cost on bunker fuel consumption, available speed, carbon emission, and shipment delay. The incorporation of the social cost of cargo is reviewed and suggested. Additional measures on the effect of vessels sizes, routing, and type of fuels towards decarbonisation are discussed.

Keywords: slow steaming, carbon emission, maritime logistics, sustainability, green supply chain

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Authors: Waleerak Sittisom

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The objectives of this research were to analyze transportation route management, to identify potential cost reductions in logistic operation. In-depth interview techniques and small group discussions were utilized with 25 participants from various backgrounds in the areas of logistics. The findings of this research revealed that there were four areas that companies are able to effectively manage a logistic cost reduction: managing the space within the transportation vehicles, managing transportation personnel, managing transportation cost, and managing control of transportation. On the other hand, there were four areas that companies were unable to effectively manage a logistic cost reduction: the working process of transportation, the route planning of transportation, the service point management, and technology management. There are five areas that cost reduction is feasible: personnel management, process of working, map planning, service point planning, and technology implementation. To be able to reduce costs, the transportation companies should suggest that customers use a file system to save truck space. Also, the transportation companies need to adopt new technology to manage their information system so that packages can be reached easy, safe, and fast. Staff needs to be trained regularly to increase knowledge and skills. Teamwork is required to effectively reduce the costs.

Keywords: cost reduction, management, logistics, transportation

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Authors: Tharsinithevy Kirupananthan

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This study analyzed the decision on growing three different crops which suit dry zone of Sri Lanka using the opportunity cost concept in economics. The variable cost of production of sugar cane, sweet orange, and soybean was 112,418.76, 13,463 and 10,928.08 Sri Lankan Rs. (LKR) per acre in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The yield of the sugar cane, sweet orange, and soybean were 49.33 tons, 25,595 fruits, and 1032 kg per acre. The market price of the sugar cane, sweet orange, and soybean were 4200 LKR/ton, LKR 14.66 per fruit and LKR 89.69 per kg. The market value or the total income of the sugar cane, sweet orange, and soybean were LKR 207194.4, 283090.74, and 92560.08. The accounting profit of the sugar cane, sweet orange, and soybean was 94,775.64, 269,627.74, and 81,632 LKR per acre. Therefore, the opportunity cost of sugarcane per acre in terms of accounting profit was LKR. 269,627.74 from sweet orange and LKR 81,632 from soybean. The highest opportunity cost per acre in terms of accounting profit was found when soybean is produced instead of sweet orange. The opportunity cost which compared among the crops in terms of market value for sugar cane per acre was LKR 283090.74 of sweet orange and LKR 92560.08 of soybean. The highest opportunity cost both in terms of accounting profit and market value was found when growing soybean instead of sweet orange by using the resource per acre of land. The economic profit of sugar cane production in place of sweet orange was LKR -188315.1 per acre. The highest economic profit LKR 177067.66 was found when sweet orange is produced in place of soybean. A positive value of economic profit was found in all combination of sweet orange production without considering the first harvest duration of the crop.

Keywords: agricultural economics, crop, opportunity cost, Sri Lanka

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Authors: R. M. K. S. Chandana, A. P. D. G. Pathirana, N. Priyankarage, W. A. D. Nayananjalie, S. S. P. Silva

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Full fat soybean meal (FFSBM) has been used in many parts of the world together with solvent-extracted soybean meal (SBM) in livestock feeds. Although some local FFSBM is available, their use has not been assessed experimentally. This study was carried out to evaluate the use of local extruded FFSBM in broiler rations. Four treatment diets were formulated by incorporating locally produced FFSBM (0, 10, 20, and 30%) as a replacement for soybean meal (SBM) in a two-phase (starter and finisher) feeding program. Two hundred Hubbard F 15 day old broiler chicks were randomly assigned into four treatments with five replicates per each. Bodyweight gain (BWG), feed intakes (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated for a period of 42 days. Nutrient utilization in the form of dry matter (DM), energy, nitrogen, and fat retention were estimated by the total collection method in three weeks old broilers. At the end of the experiment, carcass weight was measured, and the dressing percentage was calculated. Data were analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SAS. There was no significant effect of FFSBM on feed intakes of chicks fed different diets (p > 0.05). Birds fed the control diet, and FF10 (10% FFSBM diet) gained significantly more than that of birds fed FF20 or FF30 diets (p > 0.05). In the finisher period, control birds gained more than all the other treatment birds. FCR was poorer in bird fed higher levels of FFSBM compared to the control or FF10 birds during their early life, but that was not evident in the latter part of the experiment. Treatments did not alter (p > 0.05) the retention of DM and nitrogen, but energy utilization was lowest (p < 0.05) in birds fed with 0% FFSBM, and the highest fat digestibility was observed in birds fed with 30% FFSBM diets. Thus, it can be concluded that FFSBM can be used as a substitute for SBM in broiler rations and could be incorporated up to 10% of the diet safely with no adverse effects on broiler performances.

Keywords: body weight, broiler, digestibility, full fat soybean meal, soybean meal

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Authors: Babatunde Dosumu, Obuks Ejohwomu, Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo

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Cost estimation in construction is often difficult, particularly when dealing with risks and uncertainties, which are inevitable and peculiar to developing countries like Nigeria. Direct consequences of these are major deviations in cost, duration, and quality. The fundamental aim of this study is to develop a framework for assessing the impacts of risk on cost estimation, which in turn causes variabilities between contract sum and final account. This is very important, as initial estimates given to clients should reflect the certain magnitude of consistency and accuracy, which the client builds other planning-related activities upon, and also enhance the capabilities of construction industry professionals by enabling better prediction of the final account from the contract sum. In achieving this, a systematic literature review was conducted with cost variability and construction projects as search string within three databases: Scopus, Web of science, and Ebsco (Business source premium), which are further analyzed and gap(s) in knowledge or research discovered. From the extensive review, it was found that factors causing deviation between final accounts and contract sum ranged between 1 and 45. Besides, it was discovered that a cost estimation framework similar to Building Cost Information Services (BCIS) is unavailable in Nigeria, which is a major reason why initial estimates are very often inconsistent, leading to project delay, abandonment, or determination at the expense of the huge sum of money invested. It was concluded that the development of a cost estimation framework that is adjudged an important tool in risk shedding rather than risk-sharing in project risk management would be a panacea to cost estimation problems, leading to cost variability in the Nigerian construction industry by the time this ongoing Ph.D. research is completed. It was recommended that practitioners in the construction industry should always take into account risk in order to facilitate the rapid development of the construction industry in Nigeria, which should give stakeholders a more in-depth understanding of the estimation effectiveness and efficiency to be adopted by stakeholders in both the private and public sectors.

Keywords: cost variability, construction projects, future studies, Nigeria

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Authors: Panagiotis Karadimos, Leonidas Anthopoulos

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Predicting the actual cost and duration in construction projects concern a continuous and existing problem for the construction sector. This paper addresses this problem with modern methods and data available from past public construction projects. 39 bridge projects, constructed in Greece, with a similar type of available data were examined. Considering each project’s attributes with the actual cost and the actual duration, correlation analysis is performed and the most appropriate predictive project variables are defined. Additionally, the most efficient subgroup of variables is selected with the use of the WEKA application, through its attribute selection function. The selected variables are used as input neurons for neural network models through correlation analysis. For constructing neural network models, the application FANN Tool is used. The optimum neural network model, for predicting the actual cost, produced a mean squared error with a value of 3.84886e-05 and it was based on the budgeted cost and the quantity of deck concrete. The optimum neural network model, for predicting the actual duration, produced a mean squared error with a value of 5.89463e-05 and it also was based on the budgeted cost and the amount of deck concrete.

Keywords: actual cost and duration, attribute selection, bridge construction, neural networks, predicting models, FANN TOOL, WEKA

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Authors: Paulina Zavistanaviciute, Vita Krungleviciute, Elena Bartkiene

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Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are microbial supplements that increase the nutritional, therapeutic, and safety value of food and feed. Often LAB strains are incubated in an expensive commercially available de Man-Rogosa-Sharpe (MRS) medium; the cultures are centrifuged, and the cells are washing with sterile water. Potato juice and apple juice industry bio-products are industrial wastes which may constitute a source of digestible nutrients for microorganisms. Due to their low cost and good chemical composition, potato juice and apple juice production bio- products could have a potential application in LAB encapsulation. In this study, pure LAB (P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus) were multiplied in a crushed potato juice and apple juice industry bio-products medium. Before using, bio-products were sterilized and filtered. No additives were added to mass, except apple juice industry bioproducts were diluted with sterile water (1/5; v/v). The tap of sterilised mass, and LAB cell suspension (5 mL), containing of 8.9 log10 colony-forming units (cfu) per mL of the P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus was used to multiply the LAB for 72 h. The final colony number in the potato juice and apple juice bio- products substrate was on average 9.60 log10 cfu/g. In order to stabilize the LAB, several methods of dehydration have been tested: lyophilisation (MilrockKieffer Lane, Kingston, USA) and dehydration in spray drying system (SD-06, Keison, Great Britain). Into the spray drying system multiplied LAB in a crushed potato juice and apple juice bio-products medium was injected in peristaltic way (inlet temperature +60 °C, inlet air temperature +150° C, outgoing air temperature +80 °C, air flow 200 m3/h). After lyophilisation (-48 °C) and spray drying (+150 °C) the viable cell concentration in the fermented potato juice powder was 9.18 ± 0.09 log10 cfu/g and 9.04 ± 0.07 log10 cfu/g, respectively, and in apple mass powder 8.03 ± 0.04 log10 cfu/g and 7.03 ± 0.03 log10 cfu/g, respectively. Results indicated that during the storage (after 12 months) at room temperature (22 +/- 2 ºC) LAB count in dehydrated products was 5.18 log10 cfu/g and 7.00 log10 cfu/g (in spray dried and lyophilized potato juice powder, respectively), and 3.05 log10 cfu/g and 4.10 log10 cfu/g (in spray dried and lyophilized apple juice industry bio-products powder, respectively). According to obtained results, potato juice could be used as alternative substrate for P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus cultivation, and by drying received powders can be used in food/feed industry as the LAB starters. Therefore, apple juice industry by- products before spray drying and lyophilisation should be modified (i. e. by using different starches) in order to improve its encapsulation.

Keywords: bio-products, encapsulation, lactic acid bacteria, sustainability

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Authors: Deba Kumar Sarma, Sanjib Kr. Rajbongshi

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Surface finish is an important product quality in machining. At first, experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of the cutting tool nose radius (considering 1mm and 0.65mm) in prediction of surface finish with process parameters of cutting speed, feed and depth of cut. For all possible cutting conditions, full factorial design was considered as two levels four parameters. Commercial Mild Steel bar and High Speed Steel (HSS) material were considered as work-piece and cutting tool material respectively. In order to obtain functional relationship between process parameters and surface roughness, neural network was used which was found to be capable for the prediction of surface roughness within a reasonable degree of accuracy. It was observed that tool nose radius of 1mm provides better surface finish in comparison to 0.65 mm. Also, it was observed that feed rate has a significant influence on surface finish.

Keywords: full factorial design, neural network, nose radius, surface finish

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Authors: Mary Josephine

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Waste of certain process can be the input source of other sectors in order to reduce environmental pollution. Today there are more and more solid wastes are generated, but only very small amount of those are recycled. So, the threatening of environmental pressure to public health is very serious. The methods considered for the treatment of solid waste are biogas tanks or processing to make animal feed and fertilizer, however, they did not perform well. An alternative approach is growing mushrooms on waste residues. This is regarded as an environmental friendly solution with potential economic benefit. The substrate producers do their best to produce quality substrate at low cost. Apart from other methods, this can be achieved by employing biologically degradable wastes used as the resource material component of the substrate. Mushroom growing is a significant tool for the restoration, replenishment and remediation of Earth’s overburdened ecosphere. One of the rational methods of waste utilization involves locally available wastes. The present study aims to find out the yield of mushroom grown on locally available waste for free and to conserve our environment by recycling wastes.

Keywords: biodegradable, environment, mushroom, remediation

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Authors: Georgi Vendramin, Aurea Lúcia, Yamamoto, Carlos Itsuo, Camargo Nogueira, Carlos Eduardo, Lenz, Anderson Miguel, Souza Melegari, Samuel N.

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The thermal performance of a solar water heating with 1.00 m2 flat plate collectors in Cascavel-PR, is which presented in this article, paper presents the solution to leverage the marketing of solar heating systems through detailed constituent materials of the solar collector studies, these abundant materials in construction, such as expanded polyethylene, PVC, aluminum and glass tubes, mixing them with new materials to minimize loss of efficiency while decreasing its cost. The system was tested during months and the collector obtained maximum recorded temperature of outlet fluid of 55 °C, while the maximum temperature of the water at the bottom of the hot water tank was 35 °C. The average daily energy collected was 19 6 MJ/d; the energy supplied by the solar plate was 16.2 MJ/d; the loss in the feed pipe was 3.2 MJ/d; the solar fraction was 32.2%, the efficiency of the collector was 45.6% and the efficiency of the system was 37.8%.

Keywords: recycling materials, energy efficiency, solar collector, solar water heating system

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Authors: Guoliang Fan, Aiping Li, Nan Xie, Liyun Xu, Xuemei Liu

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Mass customization production increases the difficulty of the production line layout planning. The material distribution process for variety of parts is very complex, which greatly increases the cost of material handling and logistics. In response to this problem, this paper presents an approach of production line layout planning based on complexity measurement. Firstly, by analyzing the influencing factors of equipment layout, the complexity model of production line is established by using information entropy theory. Then, the cost of the part logistics is derived considering different variety of parts. Furthermore, the function of optimization including two objectives of the lowest cost, and the least configuration complexity is built. Finally, the validity of the function is verified in a case study. The results show that the proposed approach may find the layout scheme with the lowest logistics cost and the least complexity. Optimized production line layout planning can effectively improve production efficiency and equipment utilization with lowest cost and complexity.

Keywords: production line, layout planning, complexity measurement, optimization, mass customization

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Authors: Hong Lu, Wei Fan, Yongquan Zhang, Junbo Zhang

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A cross coupling sliding synchronization control strategy is proposed for the dual-driving feed system. This technology will minimize the position error oscillation and achieve the precise synchronization performance in the high speed and high precision drive system, especially some high speed and high precision machine. Moreover, a cross coupling compensation matrix is provided to offset the mismatched disturbance and the disturbance observer is established to eliminate the chattering phenomenon. Performance comparisons of proposed dual-driving cross coupling sliding mode control (CCSMC), normal cross coupling control （CCC） strategy with PID control, and electronic virtual main shaft control (EVMSC) strategy with SMC control are investigated by simulation and a dual-driving control system; the results show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Keywords: cross coupling matrix, dual motors, synchronization control, sliding mode control

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Authors: J. García-Pérez

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An approach to compute optimum seismic design parameters is presented. It is based on the optimization of the expected present value of the total cost, which includes the initial cost of structures as well as the cost due to earthquakes. Different types of seismicity models are considered, including one for characteristic earthquakes. Uncertainties are included in some variables to observe the influence on optimum values. Optimum seismic design coefficients are computed for three different structural types representing high, medium and low rise buildings, located near and far from the seismic sources. Ordinary and important structures are considered in the analysis. The results of optimum values show an important influence of seismicity models as well as of uncertainties on the variables.

Keywords: importance factors, optimum parameters, seismic losses, seismic risk, total cost

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Authors: Zain Ul Abadeen, Muhammad Zargham Khan, Muhammad Kashif Saleemi, Ahrar Khan, Ijaz Javed Hassan, Aisha Khatoon, Qasim Altaf

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Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by toxigenic fungi, and there are four types of aflatoxins include AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is considered as most toxic form. It is mainly responsible for the contamination of poultry feed and produces a condition called aflatoxicosis leads to immunosuppression in poultry birds. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a single cell microorganism and acts as a source of growth factors, minerals and amino acids which improve the immunity and digestibility in poultry birds as probiotics. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is well recognized to cause the biological degradation of mycotoxins (toxin binder) because its cell wall contains β-glucans and mannans which specifically bind with aflatoxins and reduce their absorption or transfer them to some non-toxic compounds. The present study was designed to investigate the immunosuppressive effects of aflatoxins in broiler chicks and the reduction of severity of these effects by the use of Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). One-day-old broiler chicks were procured from local hatchery and were divided into various groups (A-I). These groups were treated with different levels of AFB1 @ 400 µg/kg and 600 µg/kg along with different levels of Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) 0.1% and 0.5 % in the feed. The total duration of the experiment was six weeks and different immunological parameters including the cellular immune response by injecting PHA-P (Phytohemagglutinin-P) in the skin of the birds, phagocytic function of mononuclear cells by Carbon clearance assay from blood samples and humoral immune response against intravenously injected sheep RBCs from the serum samples were determined. The birds from each group were slaughtered at the end of the experiment to determine the presence of gross lesions in the immune organs and these tissues were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin for histological investigations. The results showed that AFB1 intoxicated groups had reduced body weight gain, feed intake, organs weight and immunological responses compared to the control and Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) treated groups. Different gross and histological degenerative changes were recorded in the immune organs of AFB1 intoxicated groups compared to control and Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) treated groups. The present study concluded that Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) addition in the feed helps to ameliorate the immunotoxigenic effects produced by AFB1 in broiler chicks.

Keywords: aflatoxins, body weight gain, feed intake, immunological response, toxigenic effect

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Authors: Aminah Salim, Idrees Ahmed Nasir, Abdul Qayyum Rao, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Sohail Anjum, Ayesha Hameed, Bushra Tabassum, Anwar Khan, Arfan Ali, Mariyam Zameer, Tayyab Husnain

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Risk assessment of transgenic herbicide tolerant sugarcane having CEMB codon optimized cp4EPSPS gene was done in present study. Fifteen days old chicks taken from K&Ns Company were randomly assorted into four groups with eight chicks in each group namely control chicken group fed with commercial diet, non-transgenic group fed with non-experimental sugarcane and transgenic group fed with transgenic sugarcane with minimum and maximum level. Body weights, biochemical analysis for Urea, alkaline phosphatase, alanine transferase, aspartate transferase, creatinine and bilirubin determination and histological examination of chicks fed with four types of feed was taken at fifteen days interval and no significant difference was observed in body weight biochemical and histological studies of all four groups. Protein isolated from the serum sample was analyzed through dipstick and SDS-PAGE, showing the absence of transgene protein in the serum sample of control and experimental groups. Moreover the amplification of cp4EPSPS gene with gene specific primers of DNA isolated from chicks blood and also from commercial diet was done to determine the presence and mobility of any nucleotide fragment of the transgene in/from feed and no amplification was obtained in feed as well as in blood extracted DNA of any group. Also no mRNA expression of cp4EPSPS gene was obtained in any tissue of four groups of chicks. From the results it is clear that there is no deleterious or harmful effect of the CEMB codon optimized transgenic cp4EPSPS sugarcane on the chicks health.

Keywords: chicks, cp4EPSPS, glyphosate, sugarcane

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Authors: Khaled A. Madi, Rema A. Mousbahi, Mostafa B. Abuitbel, Abdualhakim O. Nagi

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Antenna perhaps is the most important part of any communication system, it determines the overall efficiency and the direction of radiation of the system. Antennas vary in shape and size on a very wide range. For fast moving vehicles, the antenna should offer as litter aerodynamic resistance as possible. Slot antenna is best suited for this purpose. It offers very little aerodynamic resistance, compact, easy to feed and fabricate. This work presented in this paper deals with the investigation of a half wave slot antenna. The antenna has been studied, analyzed, designed, simulated, fabrication, and tested at the X-band. The field of antenna study is an extremely vast one, and to grasp the fundamentals, two pronged approaches have been used, and the focus was on the fabrication and testing of a slot waveguide directional antenna. Focuses on the design and simulation of slot antennas with an emphasis on optimization of a 9.1 GHz a rectangular waveguide have been used to feed slot antenna. A microwave fed slot antenna used in the communication lab was also simulated. The results have been presented and compared with the expected values, where a good agreement was achieved between the simulation and experimental results.

Keywords: microwave, slot antenna, simulation, fabrication

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Authors: Sangwon Han, Chengquan Jin

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Time-cost trade-off (TCTO) is one of the most significant part of construction project management. Despite the significance, current TCTO analysis, based on the Critical Path Method, does not consider resource constraint, and accordingly sometimes generates an impractical and/or infeasible schedule planning in terms of resource availability. Therefore, resource constraint needs to be considered when doing TCTO analysis. In this research, genetic algorithms (GA) based optimization model is created in order to find the optimal schedule. This model is utilized to compare four distinct scenarios (i.e., 1) initial CPM, 2) TCTO without considering resource constraint, 3) resource allocation after TCTO, and 4) TCTO with considering resource constraint) in terms of duration, cost, and resource utilization. The comparison results identify that ‘TCTO with considering resource constraint’ generates the optimal schedule with the respect of duration, cost, and resource. This verifies the need for consideration of resource constraint when doing TCTO analysis. It is expected that the proposed model will produce more feasible and optimal schedule.

Keywords: time-cost trade-off, genetic algorithms, critical path, resource availability

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Authors: Neeta Kumari, Gopal Pathak

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Artificial neural network has been proved to be an efficient tool for non-parametric modeling of data in various applications where output is non-linearly associated with input. It is a preferred tool for many predictive data mining applications because of its power , flexibility, and ease of use. A standard feed forward networks (FFN) is used to predict the groundwater fluoride content. The ANN model is trained using back propagated algorithm, Tansig and Logsig activation function having varying number of neurons. The models are evaluated on the basis of statistical performance criteria like Root Mean Squarred Error (RMSE) and Regression coefficient (R2), bias (mean error), Coefficient of variation (CV), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and the index of agreement (IOA). The results of the study indicate that Artificial neural network (ANN) can be used for groundwater fluoride prediction in the limited data situation in the hard rock region like western parts of Jharkhand with sufficiently good accuracy.

Keywords: Artificial neural network (ANN), FFN (Feed-forward network), backpropagation algorithm, Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, groundwater fluoride contamination

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Authors: Abidi Sourour, Ben Salem Hichem, Zoghlemi Aziza, Mezni Mejid, Nasri Saida

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In Tunisia, there is an urgent need to maintain food security by reversing soil degradation and improving crop and livestock productivity. Conservation Agriculture (CA) can be helpful in enhancing crop productivity and soil health. However, the demand for crop residues as animal feed are among the major constraints for the adoption of CA. Thus, the objective of this trial is to test the nutritional value of new forage mixture hays as alternative to cereal residues. Two tri-specific cereal-legume mixture were studied and compared to the classic Vetch-Oat one. They were implemented at farm level in four regions characterized by sub-humi climatic: V70-A15-T15 (Vetch70% - Oat15% -Triticale15%) installed in two sites (Zhir and safasaf), V60-A7-T33 (Vetch60% - Oat7% -Triticale33%) and V70-A30 (Vetch70%-Oat30%). Results revealed a significant variation between mixtures V70-A15-T15 installed at Safsafa, recorded the highest forage yield with 12t DM ha-1 than V60A7T33 and V70A30 installed, respectively in ksar cheikh and Fernana with 11.6 and 11.2.tMSha-1. The same mixture installed in Safsafa gave 22% less yields than the one installed in Safsafa. In fact, the month of March was dry in Z'hir. Moreover, these yields in DM can be comparable to those observed by Yucel and Avci (2009). The CP contents of the samples studied vary significantly between the mixtures (P<0.0003). V70-A15-T15 installed in Safsaf and V70A30 present higher contents of CP (respectively 14.4 and 13.7% DM) compared to the other mixtures. These contents are explained by the high proportion of vetch in the fourth mixture and by the low proportion of weeds in the second. In all cases, the hay produced from these mixtures is significantly richer in protein than that of oats in pure culture (Abdelraheem et al., 2019). The positive correlation between the CP content and the proportion of vetch explains this superior quality. The NDF and ADF contents were similar for all mixtures. These values were similar to those reported in the literature (Abidi and Benyoussef, 2019; Haj-Ayed and al., 2000). In general, the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) was significantly greater than 1 for the vetch-oat-triticale mixture at Zhiir and Safsafa and also for the vetch-oat a at Fernana, proving that they are more productive in intercropping than in pure culture. For the Ksar Cheikh site, the LER value of the vetch-oat-triticale mixture is maintained at around 1. Proving the absence of the advantage of mixture culture compared to pure culture. This proves the massive presence of weeds interferes with the two partners of the mixture increases. The LER for the vetch-oat mixture reached its maximum in March 13 and decreases in April but remained above 1. This proves that the tutoring power of oats showed itself in a constant way until an advanced stage since the variety used is characterized by very thick stems, protecting it from the risk of lodging. These forages mixture present a promising option, a high nutritional quality that could reduce the use of concentrate and, therefore, the cost of feed. With such feed value, these mixtures allow good animal performance.

Keywords: soybean, lupine, vetch, lamb-ADG, meat

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Authors: Mandeep Kumar, Hari Singh

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The effective optimization of machining process parameters affects dramatically the cost and production time of machined components as well as the quality of the final products. This paper presents the optimization aspects of a Wire Electrical Discharge Machining operation using Inconel X-750 as work material. The objective considered in this study is minimization of the dimensional deviation. Six input process parameters of WEDM namely spark gap voltage, pulse-on time, pulse-off time, wire feed rate, peak current and wire tension, were chosen as variables to study the process performance. Taguchi's design of experiments methodology has been used for planning and designing the experiments. The analysis of variance was carried out for raw data as well as for signal to noise ratio. Four input parameters and one two-factor interaction have been found to be statistically significant for their effects on the response of interest. The confirmation experiments were also performed for validating the predicted results.

Keywords: ANOVA, DOE, inconel, machining, optimization

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Authors: Anish Desai, Reshmi Pillai, Nilesh Mahajan, Hitesh Chopra, Vishal Mahajan, Ajay Grover, Ashish Kohli

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Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is hospital acquired infection of growing concern. This study presents the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of triclosan-coated suture, in reducing the burden of SSI in India. Methodology: A systematic literature search was conducted for economic burden (1998-2018) of SSI and efficacy of triclosan-coated sutures (TCS) vs. non-coated sutures (NCS) (2000-2018). PubMed Medline and EMBASE indexed articles were searched using Mesh terms or Emtree. Decision tree analysis was used to calculate, the cost difference between TCS and NCS at private and public hospitals, respectively for 7 surgical procedures. Results: The SSI range from low to high for Caesarean section (C-section), Laparoscopic hysterectomy (L-hysterectomy), Open Hernia (O-Hernia), Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (L-Cholecystectomy), Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), Total knee replacement (TKR), and Mastectomy were (3.77 to 24.2%), (2.28 to 11.7%), (1.75 to 60%), (1.71 to 25.58%), (1.6 to 18.86%), (1.74 to 12.5%), and (5.56 to 25%), respectively. The incremental cost (%) of TCS ranged 0.1%-0.01% in private and from 0.9%-0.09% at public hospitals across all surgical procedures. Cost savings at median efficacy & SSI risk was 6.52%, 5.07 %, 11.39%, 9.63%, 3.62%, 2.71%, 9.41% for C-section, L-hysterectomy, O-Hernia, L-Cholecystectomy, CABG, TKR, and Mastectomy in private and 8.79%, 4.99%, 12.67%, 10.58%, 3.32%, 2.35%, 11.83% in public hospital, respectively. Efficacy of TCS and SSI incidence in a particular surgical procedure were important determinants of cost savings using one-way sensitivity analysis. Conclusion: TCS suture led to cost savings across all 7 surgeries in both private and public hospitals in India.

Keywords: cost Savings, non-coated sutures, surgical site infection, triclosan-coated sutures

Procedia PDF Downloads 397

Authors: E Tolufase

Abstract:

The demand, high costs and health implications of using energy derived from hydrocarbon compound have necessitated the continuous search for alternative source of energy. The World energy market is facing some challenges viz: depletion of fossil fuel reserves, population explosion, lack of energy security, economic and urbanization growth and also, in Nigeria some rural areas still depend largely on wood, charcoal, kerosene, petrol among others, as the sources of their energy. To overcome these short falls in energy supply and demand, as well as taking into consideration the risks from global climate change due to effect of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from fossil fuels’ combustion, brought a lot of attention on efficiently harnessing the renewable energy sources. A very promising among the renewable energy resources for a clean energy technology for power production, vehicle and domestic usage is biogas. Therefore, optimization of biogas yield and quality is imperative. Hence, this study investigated yield and quality of biogas using low cost bio-digester and combination of various feed stocks referred to as co-digestion. Batch/Discontinuous Bio-digester type was used because it was cheap, easy, plausible and appropriate for different substrates used to get the desired results. Three substrates were used; cow dung, chicken droppings and lemon grass digested in five separate 21 litre digesters, A, B, C, D, and E and the gas collection system was designed using locally available materials. For single digestion we had; cow dung, chicken droppings, lemon grass, in Bio-digesters A, B, and C respectively, the co-digested three substrates in different mixed ratio 7:1:2 in digester D and E in ratio 5:3:2. The respective feed-stocks materials were collected locally, digested and analyzed in accordance with standard procedures. They were pre-fermented for a period of 10 days before being introduced into the digesters. They were digested for a retention period of 28 days, the physiochemical parameters namely; pressure, temperature, pH, volume of the gas collector system and volume of biogas produced were all closely monitored and recorded daily. The values of pH and temperature ranged 6.0 - 8.0, and 220C- 350C respectively. For the single substrate, bio-digester A(Cow dung only) produced biogas of total volume 0.1607m3(average volume of 0.0054m3 daily),while B (Chicken droppings ) produced 0.1722m3 (average of 0.0057m3 daily) and C (lemon grass) produced 0.1035m3 (average of 0.0035m3 daily). For the co-digested substrates in bio-digester D the total biogas produced was 0.2007m³ (average volume of 0.0067m³ daily) and bio-digester E produced 0.1991m³ (average volume of 0.0066m³ daily) It’s obvious from the results, that combining different substrates gave higher yields than when a singular feed stock was used and also mixing ratio played some roles in the yield improvement. Bio-digesters D and E contained the same substrates but mixed with different ratios, but higher yield was noticed in D with mixing ratio of 7:1:2 than in E with ratio 5:3:2.Therefore, co-digestion of substrates and mixing proportions are important factors for biogas production optimization.

Keywords: anaerobic, batch, biogas, biodigester, digestion, fermentation, optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 27

Authors: Fatmah Almathkour

Abstract:

Managing and controlling the construction supply chain (CSC) are very important components of effective construction project execution. The goals of managing the CSC are to reduce uncertainty and optimize the performance of a construction project by improving efficiency and reducing project costs. The heart of much SC activity is addressing risk, and the CSC is no different. The delivery and consumption of construction materials is highly variable due to the complexity of construction operations, rapidly changing demand for certain components, lead time variability from suppliers, transportation time variability, and disruptions at the job site. Current notions of managing and controlling CSC, involve focusing on one project at a time with a push-based material ordering system based on the initial construction schedule and, then, holding a tremendous amount of inventory. A two-stage methodology was proposed to coordinate the feed-forward control of advanced order placement with a supplier to a feedback local control in the form of adding the ability to transship materials between projects to improve efficiency and reduce costs. It focused on the single supplier integrated production and transshipment problem with multiple products. The methodology is used as a design tool for the CSC because it includes an external storage site not associated with one of the projects. The idea is to add this feature to a highly constrained environment to explore its effectiveness in buffering the impact of variability and maintaining project schedule at low cost. The methodology uses deterministic optimization models with objectives that minimizing the total cost of the CSC. To illustrate how this methodology can be used in practice and the types of information that can be gleaned, it is tested on a number of cases based on the real example of multiple construction projects in Kuwait.

Keywords: construction supply chain, inventory control supply chain, transshipment

Procedia PDF Downloads 121