Search results for: extended range engine

Authors: Pooja Kumbhare

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Water is an important resource for the survival of life. The inadequate availability of surface water makes people depend on ground water for fulfilling their needs. However, ground water is generally too hard to satisfy the requirements for domestic as well as industrial applications. Removal of hardness involves various techniques such as lime soda process, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, nano-filtration, distillation, and, evaporation, etc. These techniques have individual problems such as high annual operating cost, sediment formation on membrane, sludge disposal problem, etc. Electrocoagulation (EC) is being explored as modern and cost-effective technology to cope up with the growing demand of high water quality at the consumer end. In general, earlier studies on electrocoagulation for hardness removal are found to deploy batch processes. As batch processes are always inappropriate to deal with large volume of water to be treated, it is essential to develop continuous flow EC process. So, in the present study, an attempt is made to investigate continuous flow EC process for decreasing excessive hardness of bore-well water. The experimental study has been conducted using 12 aluminum electrodes (25cm*10cm, 1cm thick) provided in EC reactor with volume of 8 L. Bore well water sample, collected from a local bore-well (i.e. at – Vishrambag, Sangli; Maharashtra) having average initial hardness of 680 mg/l (Range: 650 – 700 mg/l), was used for the study. Continuous flow electrocoagulation experiments were carried out by varying operating parameters specifically reaction time (Range: 10 – 60 min), voltage (Range: 5 – 20 V), current (Range: 1 – 5A). Based on the experimental study, it is found that hardness removal to the desired extent could be achieved even for continuous flow EC reactor, so the use of it is found promising.

Keywords: hardness, continuous flow EC process, aluminum electrode, optimal operating parameters

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Authors: Qin Yang, Fan Zhang, Juan Du, Chongkui Sun, Krishna Kota, Yun-Ling Zheng

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Telomeres are specialized structures at chromosome ends consisting of tandem repetitive DNA sequences [(TTAGGG)n in humans] and associated proteins, which are necessary for telomere function. Telomere lengths are tightly regulated within a narrow range in normal human somatic cells, the basis of cellular senescence and aging. Previous studies have extensively focused on how short telomeres are extended and have demonstrated that telomerase plays a central role in telomere maintenance through elongating the short telomeres. However, the molecular mechanisms of regulating excessively long telomeres are unknown. Here, we found that telomerase enzymatic component hTERT plays a dual role in the regulation of telomeres length. We analyzed single telomere alterations at each chromosomal end led to the discoveries that hTERT shortens excessively long telomeres and elongates short telomeres simultaneously, thus maintaining the optimal telomere length at each chromosomal end for an efficient protection. The hTERT-mediated telomere shortening removes large segments of telomere DNA rapidly without inducing telomere dysfunction foci or affecting cell proliferation, thus it is mechanistically distinct from rapid telomere deletion. We found that expression of hTERT generates telomeric circular DNA, suggesting that telomere homologous recombination may be involved in this telomere shortening process. Moreover, the hTERT-mediated telomere shortening is required its enzymatic activity, but telomerase RNA component hTR is not involved in it. Furthermore, shelterin protein TPP1 interacts with hTERT and recruits it on telomeres to mediate telomere shortening. In addition, telomere-associated proteins, DKC1 and TCAB1 also play roles in this process. This novel hTERT-mediated telomere shortening mechanism not only exists in cancer cells, but also in primary human cells. Thus, the hTERT-mediated telomere shortening is expected to shift the paradigm on current molecular models of telomere length maintenance, with wide-reaching consequences in cancer and aging fields.

Keywords: aging, hTERT, telomerase, telomeres, human cells

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Authors: Sorayya Kazemi, Hamed Kharrati, Mehdi Abedinpour Fallah

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This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel electric pressure-sensitive toothbrush, capable of measuring the forces applied to the head of the brush. The developed device is used for gum recession measurement. In particular, the percentage of gum recession is measured by a Programmable Automation controller (PAC). Moreover, the brushing forces are measured by a Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) sensor. These forces are analog inputs of PAC. According to the applied forces during patient’s brushing and the patient’s percentage of gum recession, dentist sets the standard force range. The instrument alarms when the patient applies a force over the set range.

Keywords: gum recession, force sensing resistor, controller, toothbrush

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Authors: David Nieto Simavilla, Wilco M. H. Verbeeten

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The viscoelastic behavior of polymeric flows under isothermal conditions has been extensively researched. However, most of the processing of polymeric materials occurs under non-isothermal conditions and understanding the linkage between the thermo-physical properties and the process state variables remains a challenge. Furthermore, the cost and energy required to manufacture, recycle and dispose polymers is strongly affected by the thermo-physical properties and their dependence on state variables such as temperature and stress. Experiments show that thermal conductivity in flowing polymers is anisotropic (i.e. direction dependent). This phenomenon has been previously omitted in the study and simulation of industrially relevant flows. Our work combines experimental evidence of a universal relationship between thermal conductivity and stress tensors (i.e. the stress-thermal rule) with differential constitutive equations for the viscoelastic behavior of polymers to provide predictions for the anisotropy in thermal conductivity in uniaxial, planar, equibiaxial and shear flow in commercial polymers. A particular focus is placed on the eXtended Pom-Pom model which is able to capture the non-linear behavior in both shear and elongation flows. The predictions provided by this approach are amenable to implementation in finite elements packages, since viscoelastic and thermal behavior can be described by a single equation. Our results include predictions for flow-induced anisotropy in thermal conductivity for low and high density polyethylene as well as confirmation of our method through comparison with a number of thermoplastic systems for which measurements of anisotropy in thermal conductivity are available. Remarkably, this approach allows for universal predictions of anisotropy in thermal conductivity that can be used in simulations of complex flows in which only the most fundamental rheological behavior of the material has been previously characterized (i.e. there is no need for additional adjusting parameters other than those in the constitutive model). Accounting for polymers anisotropy in thermal conductivity in industrially relevant flows benefits the optimization of manufacturing processes as well as the mechanical and thermal performance of finalized plastic products during use.

Keywords: anisotropy, differential constitutive models, flow simulations in polymers, thermal conductivity

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Authors: David Idiata

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This paper is directed at using the UKCP09 climate change projection tool to predict the effect of climate change on the dynamic modulus of asphalt concrete is Southern England knowing that there is a pressing challenge directly facing infrastructure in the urban cities in the world today due to climate change. Climate change causes change in the environment which in turn impacts on the long-term structural performance of structures. From the projection values obtained, it was discovered that as the temperature increases, the dynamic modulus reduces and this effect was more on the South West which have temperature range of 36.8 oC to 48.3 oC and dynamic modulus range of 2,212 MPa to 1256 MPa.

Keywords: dynamic modulus, asphalt concrete, UKCP09, Southern England

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Authors: Ivan Stanev, Maria Koleva

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Automated software development issues are addressed in this paper. Layers and packages of a Common Platform for Automated Programming (CPAP) are defined based on Service Oriented Architecture, Cloud computing, Knowledge based automated software engineering (KBASE) and Method of automated programming. Tools of seven leading companies (AWS of Amazon, Azure of Microsoft, App Engine of Google, vCloud of VMWare, Bluemix of IBM, Helion of HP, OCPaaS of Oracle) are analyzed in the context of CPAP. Based on the results of the analysis CPAP requirements are formulated

Keywords: automated programming, cloud computing, knowledge based software engineering, service oriented architecture

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Authors: Chahid K. Ghaddar

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The spreadsheet engine is exploited via a non-conventional mechanism to enable novel worksheet solver functions for computational calculus. The solver functions bypass inherent restrictions on built-in math and user defined functions by taking variable formulas as a new type of argument while retaining purity and recursion properties. The enabling mechanism permits integration of numerical algorithms into worksheet functions for solving virtually any computational problem that can be modelled by formulas and variables. Several examples are presented for computing integrals, derivatives, and systems of deferential-algebraic equations. Incorporation of the worksheet solver functions with the ubiquitous spreadsheet extend the utility of the latter as a powerful tool for computational mathematics.

Keywords: calculus, differential algebraic equations, solvers, spreadsheet

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Authors: Hafiz Husnain Nawaz

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Anthracnose disease in olive, caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum acutatum, is considered one of the most critical issues in olive orchards in Pakistan. This disease poses a significant threat as it results in infections that can lead to the complete damage of olive plants, affecting leaves, stems, and fruits in the field. Controlling this disease is particularly challenging due to the absence of an effective fungicide that does not pose risks to farmer health and the environment. To address this challenge, our study aimed to evaluate the antagonistic activity of a biosurfactant produced by the Bacillus subtilis PE-07 strain against the anthracnose-causing agent in olive plants. This strain was selected after screening sixty rhizobacteria strains. Additionally, we assessed the heat stability, pH range, and toxicity of the biosurfactant produced by strain PE-07. Our results revealed that the biosurfactant exhibited maximum antifungal activity against C. acutatum. In vitro studies indicated that the biosurfactant could reduce fungal activity by inhibiting the spore germination of C. acutatum. Furthermore, the biosurfactant demonstrated a wide pH and temperature range, displaying antifungal activity at pH levels ranging from 5 to 10 and a temperature range from room temperature to 110°C. To evaluate the biosurfactant's safety, we conducted toxicity tests on zebra fish (Danio rerio). The results showed that the biosurfactant had minimal harmful effects, even at maximum concentrations. In conclusion, our study confirmed that the biosurfactant produced by B. subtilis exhibited high pH and heat stability with minimal harmful effects. Therefore, it presents a promising alternative to chemical pesticides for effectively controlling olive anthracnose in Pakistan.

Keywords: biological control, heat stability and PH range, toxicity, Danio rerio

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Authors: Anuj Srivastava, Kuldeep Kumar

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This paper proposes a numerical study of volute tongue design, which affects the centrifugal compressor operating range and pressure recovery. Increased efficiency has been the traditional importance of compressor design. However, the increased operating range has become important in an age of ever-increasing productivity and energy costs in the turbomachinery industry. Efficiency and overall operating range are the two most important parameters studied to evaluate the aerodynamic performance of centrifugal compressor. Volute is one of the components that have significant effect on these two parameters. Choice of volute tongue geometry has major role in compressor performance, also affects performance map. The author evaluates the trade-off on using pull-back tongue geometry on centrifugal compressor performance. In present paper, three different tongue positions and shapes are discussed. These designs are compared in terms of pressure recovery coefficient, pressure loss coefficient, and stable operating range. The detailed flow structures for various volute geometries and pull back angle near tongue are studied extensively to explore the fluid behavior. The viscous Navier-Stokes equations are used to simulate the flow inside the volute. The numerical calculations are compared with thermodynamic 1-D calculations. Author concludes that the increment in compression ratio accompanies with more uniform pressure distribution in the modified tongue shape and location, a uniform static pressure around the circumferential which build a more uniform flow in the impeller and diffuser. Also, the blockage at the tongue of the volute was causing circumferentially nonuniformed pressure along the volute. This nonuniformity may lead impeller and diffuser to operate unstably. However, it is not the volute that directly controls the stall.

Keywords: centrifugal compressor volute, tongue geometry, pull-back, compressor performance, flow instability

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Authors: Kaili Wang, Botao Zhang, Enming Zhang

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Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a common problem affecting athletes' training and competition. Although the association between a limited hip range of motion and prevalence of low back pain has been studied extensively, it has not been studied in table tennis. Aim: The main purposes of this study in table tennis players were (1) to investigate if there is a difference in hip internal rotation (HIR) and external rotation (HER) range of motion (ROM) between players with LBP and players without LBP and (2) to analyze the association between HIR and HER ROM and LBP. Methods: Forty-six table tennis players from the Chinese table tennis team were evaluated for passive maximum HIR and HER ROM. LBP was retrospectively recorded for the last 12 months before the date of ROM assessment by a physical therapist. The data were analyzed the difference in HIR and HER ROM between players with LBP and players without LBP by Mann-Whitney U test, and the association between the difference in HIR and HER ROM and LBP was analyzed via a binary logistic regression. Results: The 54% of players had developed LBP during the retrospective study period. Significant difference between LBP group and the asymptomatic group for HIR ROM (z=4.007, p<0.001) was observed. Difference between LBP group and asymptomatic group for HER ROM (z=1.117, p=0.264) was not significant. Players who had HIR ROM deficit had an increased risk of LBP compared with players without HIR ROM deficit (OR=5.344, 95%CI: 1.006-28.395, P=0.049). Conclusion: HIR ROM of a table tennis player with LBP was less than a table tennis player without LBP. Compared with player whose HIR ROM was normal, player who had HIR ROM deficit appeared to have a higher risk for LBP.

Keywords: assessment, injury prevention, low back pain, table tennis players

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Authors: K. Fraňa, M. Müller

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A presentation of the design of the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) with heat regeneration and super-heating processes is a subject of this paper. The maximum temperature level in the ORC is considered to be 110°C and the maximum pressure varies up to 2.5MPa. The selection process of the appropriate working fluids, thermal design and calculation of the cycle and its components are described. With respect to the safety, toxicity, flammability, price and thermal cycle efficiency, the working fluid selected is R134a. As a particular example, the thermal design of the condenser used for the ORC engine with a theoretical thermal power of 179 kW was introduced. The minimal heat transfer area for a completed condensation was determined to be approximately 520m2.

Keywords: organic rankine cycle, thermal efficiency, working fluids, environmental engineering

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Authors: Ujjval J. Solanki, Prof.(Dr.) P.J. Gundaliya, Prof.M.D. Barasara

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The application of Falling Weight Deflectometer is to evaluate structural performance of the flexible pavement. The exercise of back calculation is required to know the modulus of elasticity of existing in-service pavement. The process of back calculation needs in-depth field experience for the input of range of modulus of elasticity of bituminous, granular and subgrade layer, and its required number of trial to find such matching moduli with the observed FWD deflection on the field. The study carried out at Barnala-Mansa State Highway Punjab-India using FWD before and after overlay; the deflections obtained at 0 on the load cell, 300, 600, 900,1200, 1500 and 1800 mm interval from the load cell these seven deflection results used to calculate Surface Curvature Index (SCI), Base damage Index (BDI), Base curvature index (BCI). This SCI, BCI and BDI indices are useful to predict the structural performance of in-service pavement and also useful to identify homogeneous section for condition assessment. The SCI, BCI and BDI range are determined for before and after overlay the range of SCI 520 to 51 BDI 294 to 63 BCI 83 to 0.27 for old pavement and SCI 272 to 23 BDI 228 to 28, BCI 25.85 to 4.60 for new pavement. It also shows good correlation with back calculated modulus of elasticity of all the three layer.

Keywords: back calculation, base damage index, base curvature index, FWD (Falling Weight Deflectometer), surface curvature index

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Authors: Weerinda Appamana, Jirapong Keawkoon, Yamonporn Pacthong, Jirathiti Chitsanguansuk, Yanyong Sookklay

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In the present work, spinning disc reactor has been used for the intensification of synthesis of biodiesel from refined palm oil (RPO) based on the transesterification reaction. Experiments have been performed using different spinning disc surface and under varying operating parameters viz. molar ratio of oil to methanol (over the range of 1:4.5–1:9), rotational speed (over the range of 500–2,000 rpm), total flow rate (over the range of 260-520 ml/min), and KOH catalyst loading of 1.50% by weight of oil. Maximum FAME (fatty acid methyl esters) yield (97.5 %) of biodiesel from RPO was obtained at oil to methanol ratio of 1:6, temperature of 60 °C, and rotational speed of 1500 rpm and flow rate of 520 mL/min using groove disc at KOH catalyst loading of 1.5 wt%. Also, higher yield efficiency (biodiesel produced per unit energy consumed) was obtained for using the spinning disc reactor based approach as compared to the ultrasound hydrodynamic cavitation and conventional mechanical stirrer reactors. It obviously offers a significant reduction in the reaction time for the transesterification, especially when compared with the reaction time of 90 minutes required for the conventional mechanical stirrer. It can be concluded that the spinning disk reactor is a promising alternative method for continuous biodiesel production.

Keywords: spinning disc reactor, biodiesel, process intensification, yield efficiency

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Authors: Reza Fazaeli, Reza Eslami-Farsani, Hamid Targhagh

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Low density polyethylene (LDPE) nanocomposites with 3, 5 and 7 wt. % cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanopowder fabricated with extrusion mixing and followed up by hot press to reach compact samples. The transmission/reflection measurements were carried out with a network analyzer in the frequency range of 8-12 GHz. By increasing the percent of CoFe2O4 nanopowder, reflection loss (S11) increases, while transferring loss (S21) decreases. Reflectivity (R) calculations made using S11 and S21. Increase in percent of CoFe2O4 nanopowder up to 7 wt. % in composite leaded to higher reflectivity amount, and revealed that increasing the percent of CoFe2O4 nanopowder up to 7 wt. % leads to further microwave absorption in 8-12 GHz range.

Keywords: nanocomposite, cobalt ferrite, low density polyethylene, microwave absorption

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Authors: Khalid Mahmud

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In this paper, an analytic approach is presented to evaluate the Bit Error Rate (BER) and round trip distance for a UWB chipless RFID system using diversity technique at the reader receiver using different modulation technique. The analysis is carried out with multiresonator based chipless RFID tags using frequency range from 3 GHz − 6 GHz and bandwidth of 500 M Hz in outdoor non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environment. SISO configuration is used to communicate from the reader to the tag and SIMO configuration is used do vice versa. Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) technique is used in the reader. MPSK, DQPSK, DBPSK, BPSK, QPSK and DMPSK modulation techniques are considered with coherent demodulation to evaluate the BER performance. From the numerical analysis of the results, it is found that at a given BER maximum possible round trip distance can be achieved using DMPSK modulation technique. In addition, it has been proved that, while using DMPSK modulation technique, the application of diversity has very little effect on the overall improvement in reader receiver sensitivity and achievable distance. Finally the method not only proves to be a very good way for tag detection in case of a chipless RFID system but also gives a clear insight regarding the interrelationship between BER, read range, reader received power, number of receiving antenna in outdoor NLOS environment.

Keywords: EGC, MRC, BER, read range, diversity

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Authors: Rasha Alhendawi

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This research will give the introductory ideas for cultural adaption of B2C E-Service design in Germany. By the intense competition of E-Service development, many companies have realized the importance of understanding the emotional and cultural characteristics of their customers. Ignoring customers’ needs and requirements throughout the E-Service design can lead to faults, mistakes, and gaps. The term of E-Service usability now is changed not only to develop high quality E-Services, but also to be extended to include customer satisfaction and provide for them to feel local.

Keywords: human computer interaction (HCI), usability, cultural usability, E-Services, business-to-consumer (B2C), e-services

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Authors: G. Traini, G. Battistoni, F. Collamati, E. De Lucia, R. Faccini, C. Mancini-Terracciano, M. Marafini, I. Mattei, S. Muraro, A. Sarti, A. Sciubba, E. Solfaroli Camillocci, M. Toppi, S. M. Valle, C. Voena, V. Patera

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In Particle Therapy (PT) treatments a large amount of secondary particles, whose emission point is correlated to the dose released in the crossed tissues, is produced. The measurement of the secondary charged fragments component could represent a valid technique to monitor the beam range during the PT treatments, that is a still missing item in the clinical practice. A sub-millimetrical precision on the beam range measurement is required to significantly optimise the technique and to improve the treatment quality. In this contribution, a detector, named Dose Profiler (DP), is presented. It is specifically planned to monitor on-line the beam range exploiting the secondary charged particles produced in PT Carbon ions treatment. In particular, the DP is designed to track the secondary fragments emitted at large angles with respect to the beam direction (mainly protons), with the aim to reconstruct the spatial coordinates of the fragment emission point extrapolating the measured track toward the beam axis. The DP is currently under development within of the INSIDE collaboration (Innovative Solutions for In-beam Dosimetry in hadrontherapy). The tracker is made by six layers (20 × 20 cm²) of BCF-12 square scintillating fibres (500 μm) coupled to Silicon Photo-Multipliers, followed by two plastic scintillator layers of 6 mm thickness. A system of front-end boards based on FPGAs arranged around the detector provides the data acquisition. The detector characterization with cosmic rays is currently undergoing, and a data taking campaign with protons will take place in May 2017. The DP design and the performances measured with using MIPs and protons beam will be reviewed.

Keywords: fragmentation, monitoring, particle therapy, tracking

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Authors: Chaiyakrit Raoupatham, Ram Hari Dhakal, Chalermchai Wanichlamlert

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Fresh concrete that is on bound to be rejected due to belated use either from delay construction process or unflavored traffic cause delay on concrete delivering can recover the slump and use once again by introduce second dose of superplasticizer(naphthalene based type F) into system. By adding superplasticizer as solution for recover unusable slump loss concrete may affects other concrete properties. Therefore, this paper was observed setting time and compressive strength of concrete after being re-dose with chemical admixture type F (superplasticizer, naphthalene based) for slump recovery. The concrete used in this study was fly ash concrete with fly ash replacement of 0%, 30% and 50% respectively. Concrete mix designed for test specimen was prepared with paste content (ratio of volume of cement to volume of void in the aggregate) of 1.2 and 1.3, water-to-binder ratio (w/b) range of 0.3 to 0.58, initial dose of superplasticizer (SP) range from 0.5 to 1.6%. The setting time of concrete were tested both before and after re-dosed with different amount of second dose and time of dosing. The research was concluded that addition of second dose of superplasticizer would increase both initial and final setting times accordingly to dosage of addition. As for fly ash concrete, the prolongation effect was higher as the replacement of fly ash is increase. The prolongation effect can reach up to maximum about 4 hours. In case of compressive strength, the re-dosed concrete has strength fluctuation within acceptable range of ±10%.

Keywords: compressive strength, fly ash concrete, second dose of superplasticizer, setting times

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Authors: Mark Bezner, Shani Deri, Tom Trigano, Kfir Ben-Harush

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Intermediate filament (IF) proteins-based fibers are among the toughest fibers in nature, as was shown by native hagfish slime threads and by synthetic fibers that are based on type V IF-proteins, the nuclear lamins. It is assumed that their mechanical performance stems from two major factors: (1) the transition from elastic -helices to stiff-sheets during tensile load; and (2) the specific organization of the coiled-coil proteins into a hierarchical network of nano-filaments. Here, we investigated the interrelationship between these two factors by using wet-spun fibers based on C. elegans (Ce) lamin. We found that Ce-lamin fibers, whether assembled in aqueous or alcoholic solutions, had the same nonlinear mechanical behavior, with the elastic region ending at ~5%. The pattern of the transition was, however, different: the ratio between -helices and -sheets/random coils was relatively constant until a 20% strain for fibers assembled in an aqueous solution, whereas for fibers assembled in 70% ethanol, the transition ended at a 6% strain. This structural phenomenon in alcoholic solution probably occurred through the transition between compacted and extended conformation of the random coil, and not between -helix and -sheets, as cycle analyses had suggested. The different transition pattern can also be explained by the different higher order organization of Ce-lamins in aqueous or alcoholic solutions, as demonstrated by introducing a point mutation in conserved residue in Ce-lamin gene that alter the structure of the Ce-lamins’ nano-fibrils. In addition, biomimicking the layered structure of silk and hair fibers by coating the Ce-lamin fiber with a hydrophobic layer enhanced fiber toughness and lead to a reversible transition between -helix and the extended conformation. This work suggests that different hierarchical structures, which are formed by specific assembly conditions, lead to diverse secondary structure transitions patterns, which in turn affect the fibers’ mechanical properties.

Keywords: protein-based fibers, intermediate filaments (IF) assembly, toughness, structure-property relationships

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Authors: A. Chávez, A. Rodríguez, F. Pinzón

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Society is concerned about measures of environmental, economic and social impacts generated in the solid waste disposal. These places of confinement, also known as landfills, are locations where problems of pollution and damage to human health are reduced. They are technically designed and operated, using engineering principles, storing the residue in a small area, compact it to reduce volume and covering them with soil layers. Problems preventing liquid (leachate) and gases produced by the decomposition of organic matter. Despite planning and site selection for disposal, monitoring and control of selected processes, remains the dilemma of the leachate as extreme concentration of pollutants, devastating soil, flora and fauna; aggressive processes requiring priority attention. A biological technology is the activated sludge system, used for tributaries with high pollutant loads. Since transforms biodegradable dissolved and particulate matter into CO2, H2O and sludge; transform suspended and no Settleable solids; change nutrients as nitrogen and phosphorous; and degrades heavy metals. The microorganisms that remove organic matter in the processes are in generally facultative heterotrophic bacteria, forming heterogeneous populations. Is possible to find unicellular fungi, algae, protozoa and rotifers, that process the organic carbon source and oxygen, as well as the nitrogen and phosphorus because are vital for cell synthesis. The mixture of the substrate, in this case sludge leachate, molasses and wastewater is maintained ventilated by mechanical aeration diffusers. Considering as the biological processes work to remove dissolved material (< 45 microns), generating biomass, easily obtained by decantation processes. The design consists of an artificial support and aeration pumps, favoring develop microorganisms (denitrifying) using oxygen (O) with nitrate, resulting in nitrogen (N) in the gas phase. Thus, avoiding negative effects of the presence of ammonia or phosphorus. Overall the activated sludge system includes about 8 hours of hydraulic retention time, which does not prevent the demand for nitrification, which occurs on average in a value of MLSS 3,000 mg/L. The extended aeration works with times greater than 24 hours detention; with ratio of organic load/biomass inventory under 0.1; and average stay time (sludge age) more than 8 days. This project developed a pilot system with sludge leachate from Doña Juana landfill - RSDJ –, located in Bogota, Colombia, where they will be subjected to a process of activated sludge and extended aeration through a sequential Bach reactor - SBR, to be dump in hydric sources, avoiding ecological collapse. The system worked with a dwell time of 8 days, 30 L capacity, mainly by removing values of BOD and COD above 90%, with initial data of 1720 mg/L and 6500 mg/L respectively. Motivating the deliberate nitrification is expected to be possible commercial use diffused aeration systems for sludge leachate from landfills.

Keywords: sludge, landfill, leachate, SBR

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Authors: Xin Chang, Daping Chu

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Oxygen gas sensing technology has progressed since the last century and it has been extensively used in a wide range of applications such as controlling the combustion process by sensing the oxygen level in the exhaust gas of automobiles to ensure the catalytic converter is in a good working condition. Similar sensors are also used in industrial boilers to make the combustion process economic and environmentally friendly. Different gas sensing mechanisms have been developed: ceramic-based potentiometric equilibrium sensors and semiconductor-based sensors by oxygen absorption. In this work, we present a highly sensitive and low-cost oxygen gas sensor based on Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (average particle size of 35nm) dispersion in ethanol. The sensor is able to measure the pressure range from 103 mBar to 10-5 mBar with a sensitivity of more than 102 mA/Bar. The sensor is also erasable with heat.

Keywords: nanoparticles, oxygen, sensor, ZnO

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Authors: I. N. Nwafia, U. C. Ozumba, M. E. Ohanu, S. O. Ebede

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Antibiotic resistance is increasing globally and has become a major health challenge. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase is clinically important because the ESBL gene are mostly plasmid encoded and these plasmids frequently carry genes encoding resistance to other classes of antimicrobials thereby limiting antibiotic options in the treatment of infections caused by these organisms. The specific objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of ESBLs production in Escherichia coli, to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of ESBLs producing Escherichia coli, to detect TEM, SHV and CTX-M genes and the risk factors to acquisition of ESBL producing Escherichia coli. The protocol of the study was approved by Health Research and Ethics committee of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study that involved all hospitalized patients in UNTH from whose specimens Escherichia coli was isolated during the period of the study. The samples analysed were urine, wound swabs, blood and cerebrospinal fluid. These samples were cultured in 5% sheep Blood agar and MacConkey agar (Oxoid Laboratories, Cambridge UK) and incubated at 35-370C for 24 hours. Escherichia coli was identified with standard biochemical tests and confirmed using API 20E auxanogram (bioMerieux, Marcy 1'Etoile, France). The antibiotic susceptibility testing was done by disc diffusion method and interpreted according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute guideline. ESBL production was confirmed using ESBL Epsilometer test strips (Liofilchem srl, Italy). The ESBL bla genes were detected with polymerase chain reaction, after extraction of DNA with plasmid mini-prep kit (Jena Bioscience, Jena, Germany). Data analysis was with appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics. One hundred and six isolates (53.00%) out of the 200 were from urine, followed by isolates from different swabs specimens 53(26.50%) and the least number of the isolates 4(2.00) were from blood (P value = 0.096). Seventy (35.00%) out of the 200 isolates, were confirmed positive for ESBL production. Forty-two (60.00%) of the isolates were from female patients while 28(40.00%) were from male patients (P value = 0.13). Sixty-eight (97.14%) of the isolates were susceptible to imipenem while all of the isolates were resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. From the 70 positive isolates the ESBL genes detected with polymerase chain reaction were blaCTX-M (n=26; 37.14%), blaTEM (n=7; 10.00%), blaSHV (n=2; 2.86%), blaCTX-M/TEM (n=7; 10.0%), blaCTX-M/SHV (n=14; 20.0%) and blaCTX-M/TEM/SHV (n=10; 14.29%). There was no gene detected in 4(5.71%) of the isolates. The most associated risk factors to infections caused by ESBL producing Escherichia coli was previous antibiotics use for the past 3 months followed by admission in the intensive care unit, recent surgery, and urinary catheterization. In conclusion, ESBLs was detected in 4 of every 10 Escherichia coli with the predominant gene detected being CTX-M. This knowledge will enable appropriate measures towards improvement of patient health care, antibiotic stewardship, research and infection control in the hospital.

Keywords: antimicrobial, Escherichia coli, extended spectrum beta lactamase, resistance

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Authors: Seyed-Yaser Nabavi-Chashmi, Davood Asadi, Karim Ahmadi, Eren Demir

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The landing phase of a UAV is very critical as there are many uncertainties in this phase, which can easily entail a hard landing or even a crash. In this paper, the estimation of relative distance and velocity to the ground, as one of the most important processes during the landing phase, is studied. Using accurate measurement sensors as an alternative approach can be very expensive for sensors like LIDAR, or with a limited operational range, for sensors like ultrasonic sensors. Additionally, absolute positioning systems like GPS or IMU cannot provide distance to the ground independently. The focus of this paper is to determine whether we can measure the relative distance and velocity of UAV and ground in the landing phase using just low-resolution images taken by a monocular camera. The Lucas-Konda feature detection technique is employed to extract the most suitable feature in a series of images taken during the UAV landing. Two different approaches based on Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) have been proposed, and their performance in estimation of the relative distance and velocity are compared. The first approach uses the kinematics of the UAV as the process and the calculated optical flow as the measurement; On the other hand, the second approach uses the feature’s projection on the camera plane (pixel position) as the measurement while employing both the kinematics of the UAV and the dynamics of variation of projected point as the process to estimate both relative distance and relative velocity. To verify the results, a sequence of low-quality images taken by a camera that is moving on a specifically developed testbed has been used to compare the performance of the proposed algorithm. The case studies show that the quality of images results in considerable noise, which reduces the performance of the first approach. On the other hand, using the projected feature position is much less sensitive to the noise and estimates the distance and velocity with relatively high accuracy. This approach also can be used to predict the future projected feature position, which can drastically decrease the computational workload, as an important criterion for real-time applications.

Keywords: altitude estimation, drone, image processing, trajectory planning

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Authors: Kshanaprava Dhalsamant, Punyadarshini P. Tripathy, Shanker L. Shrivastava

Abstract:

Potato is chosen as the food product for carrying out the natural convection mixed-mode solar drying experiments since they are easily available and globally consumed. The convective heat and mass transfer coefficients along with effective diffusivity were calculated considering both shrinkage and without shrinkage for the potato cylinders of different geometry (8, 10 and 13 mm diameters and a constant length of 50 mm). The convective heat transfer coefficient (hc) without considering shrinkage effect were 24.28, 18.69, 15.89 W/m2˚C and hc considering shrinkage effect were 37.81, 29.21, 25.72 W/m2˚C for 8, 10 and 13 mm diameter samples respectively. Similarly, the effective diffusivity (Deff) without considering shrinkage effect were 3.20×10-9, 4.82×10-9, 2.48×10-8 m2/s and Deff considering shrinkage effect were 1.68×10-9, 2.56×10-9, 1.34×10-8 m2/s for 8, 10 and 13 mm diameter samples respectively and the mass transfer coefficient (hm) without considering the shrinkage effect were 5.16×10-7, 2.93×10-7, 2.59×10-7 m/s and hm considering shrinkage effect were 3.71×10-7, 2.04×10-7, 1.80×10-7 m/s for 8, 10 and 13 mm diameter samples respectively. Increased values of hc were obtained by considering shrinkage effect in all diameter samples because shrinkage results in decreasing diameter with time achieving in enhanced rate of water loss. The average values of Deff determined without considering the shrinkage effect were found to be almost double that with shrinkage effect. The reduction in hm values is due to the fact that with increasing sample diameter, the exposed surface area per unit mass decreases, resulting in a slower moisture removal. It is worth noting that considering shrinkage effect led to overestimation of hc values in the range of 55.72-61.86% and neglecting the shrinkage effect in the mass transfer analysis, the values of Deff and hm are overestimated in the range of 85.02-90.27% and 39.11-45.11%, respectively, for the range of sample diameter investigated in the present study.

Keywords: shrinkage, convective heat transfer coefficient, effectivive diffusivity, convective mass transfer coefficient

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Authors: Bina Kumari, Subir K. Sarkar, Pradipta Bandyopadhyay

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The autocorrelation function of the density fluctuation is studied in each of the two phases in a Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) simulation of the problem of phase separation for a square well potential with various values of its range. We find that the normalized autocorrelation function is described very well as a linear combination of an exponential function with a time scale τ₂ and a stretched exponential function with a time scale τ₁ and an exponent α. Dependence of (α, τ₁, τ₂) on the parameters of the GEMC algorithm and the range of the square well potential is investigated and interpreted. We also analyse the issue of how to choose the parameters of the GEMC simulation optimally.

Keywords: autocorrelation function, density fluctuation, GEMC, simulation

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Authors: Pradeep Joshi, Prashant Dhiman, Shiv Dayal Dhakad

Abstract:

Inconel 718 is a family if Nickel-Chromium based Superalloy; it has very high oxidation and corrosion resistance. Inconel 718 is widely being used in aerospace, engine, turbine etc. due to its high mechanical strength and creep resistance. Being widely used, its machining should be easy but in real its machining is very difficult, especially by using traditional machining methods. It becomes easy to machine only by using non Traditional machining such as EDM. During EDM machining there is wear of both tool and workpiece, the tool wear is undesired because it changes tool shape, geometry. To reduce the tool wear rate (TWR) cryogenic treatment is performed on tool before the machining operation. The machining performances of the process are to be evaluated in terms of MRR, TWR which are functions of Discharge current, Pulse on-time, Pulse Off-time.

Keywords: EDM, cyrogenic, TWR, MRR

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Authors: Nadjah Chergui, Narhimene Boustia

Abstract:

Intrusion Detection Systems are an essential tool for network security infrastructure. However, IDSs have a serious problem which is the generating of massive number of alerts, most of them are false positive ones which can hide true alerts and make the analyst confused to analyze the right alerts for report the true attacks. The purpose behind this paper is to present a formalism model to perform correlation engine by the reduction of false positive alerts basing on vulnerability contextual information. For that, we propose a formalism model based on non-monotonic JClassicδє description logic augmented with a default (δ) and an exception (є) operator that allows a dynamic inference according to contextual information.

Keywords: context, default, exception, vulnerability

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Authors: Sulaiman B. Ali Alharbi, Bassam H. Mashat, Naif Abdullah Al-Harbi, Milton Wainwright, Abeer S. Aloufi, Sulamain Alnaimat

Abstract:

Bismuth salicylate was found to inhibit the growth of a range of bacteria and yeast, Candida albican. In general the growth of bacteria did not result in the increase in bismuth solubilisation, in contrast, bismuth solubilisation increased following the growth of C. albicans. A significant increase in the biomass (dry weight) of Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae occurred in vitro when these fungi were grown in the presence of bismuth salicylate. Biomass increase occurred over a range of bismuth compound additions, which in the case of A. oryzae was associated with the increase in the solubilisation of the insoluble bismuth compounds.

Keywords: bacterial inhibition, fungal growth stimulation, medical uses of bismuth, yeast inhibition

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Authors: Jin-Hyeong Park, Hong-Seok Kim, Jin-Hyeok Yim, Young-Ji Kim, Dong-Hyeon Kim, Jung-Whan Chon, Kun-Ho Seo

Abstract:

Salmonella contamination in chicken samples can cause major health problems in humans. However, not only the effects of antibiotic treatment during growth but also the impacts of poultry slaughter line on the prevalence of Salmonella in final chicken meat sold to consumers are unknown. In this study, we compared the isolation rates and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella between antibiotic-free, conventional, conventional Korean native retail chicken meat samples and clonal divergence of Salmonella isolates by multilocus sequence typing. In addition, the distribution of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) genes in ESBL-producing Salmonella isolates was analyzed. A total of 72 retail chicken meat samples (n = 24 antibiotic-free broiler [AFB] chickens, n = 24 conventional broiler [CB] chickens, and n = 24 conventional Korean native [CK] chickens) were collected from local retail markets in Seoul, South Korea. The isolation rates of Salmonella were 66.6% in AFB chickens, 45.8% in CB chickens, and 25% in CK chickens. By analyzing the minimum inhibitory concentrations of β -lactam antibiotics with the disc-diffusion test, we found that 81.2% of Salmonella isolates from AFB chickens, 63.6% of isolates from CB chickens, and 50% of isolates from CK chickens were ESBL producers; all ESBL-positive isolates had the CTX-M-15 genotype. Interestingly, all ESBL-producing Salmonella were revealed as ST16 by multilocus sequence typing. In addition, all CTX-M-15-positive isolates had the genetic platform of blaCTX-M gene (IS26-ISEcp1-blaCTX-M-15-IS903), to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in Salmonella around the world. The Salmonella ST33 strain (S. Hadar) isolated in this study has never been reported in South Korea. In conclusion, our findings showed that antibiotic-free retail chicken meat products were also largely contaminated with ESBL-producing Salmonella and that their ESBL genes and genetic platforms were the same as those isolated from conventional retail chicken meat products.

Keywords: antibiotic-free poultry, conventional poultry, multilocus sequence typing, extended-spectrum β-lactamase, antimicrobial resistance

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Authors: Senthuran Manoharan, Rathesan Sivagananalingam

Abstract:

One of the main issues in system security is Authentication. Authentication can be defined as the process of recognizing the user's identity and it is the most important step in the access control process to safeguard data/resources from being accessed by unauthorized users. The static method of authentication cannot ensure the genuineness of the user. Due to this reason, more innovative authentication mechanisms came into play. At first two factor authentication was introduced and later, multi-factor authentication was introduced to enhance the security of the system. It also had some issues and later, adaptive authentication was introduced. In this research paper, the design of an adaptive authentication engine was put forward. The user risk profile was calculated based on the user parameters and then the user was challenged with a suitable authentication method.

Keywords: authentication, adaptive authentication, machine learning, security

Procedia PDF Downloads 249