Search results for: total ownership cost

Authors: Subodh Kumar, Amit Varde

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Typical on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) environments consist of a fixed number and a fixed set of computing hardware. During the design of the HPC environment, the hardware components, including but not limited to CPU, Memory, GPU, and networking, are carefully chosen from select vendors for optimal performance. High capital cost for building the environment is a prime factor influencing the design environment. A class of software called “Job Schedulers” are critical to maximizing these resources and running multiple workloads to extract the maximum value for the high capital cost. In principle, schedulers work by preventing workloads and users from monopolizing the finite hardware resources by queuing jobs in a workload. A cloud-based HPC environment does not have the limitations of fixed (type of and quantity of) hardware resources. In theory, users and workloads could spin up any number and type of hardware resource. This paper discusses the limitations of using traditional scheduling algorithms for cloud-based HPC workloads. It proposes a new set of features, called “HPC optimizers,” for maximizing the benefits of the elasticity and scalability of the cloud with the goal of cost-performance optimization of the workload.

Keywords: high performance computing, HPC, cloud computing, optimization, schedulers

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Authors: Maria M. Giannakou, Athanasios K. Ziliaskopoulos

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Transmission pipelines carrying natural gas are often routed through populated cities, industrial and environmentally sensitive areas. While the need for these networks is unquestionable, there are serious concerns about the risk these lifeline networks pose to the people, to their habitat and to the critical infrastructures, especially in view of natural disasters such as earthquakes. This work presents an Integrated Pipeline Risk Management methodology (IPRM) for assessing the hazard associated with a natural gas pipeline failure due to natural or manmade disasters. IPRM aims to optimize the allocation of the available resources to countermeasures in order to minimize the impacts of pipeline failure to humans, the environment, the infrastructure and the economic activity. A proposed knapsack mathematical programming formulation is introduced that optimally selects the proper mitigation policies based on the estimated cost – benefit ratios. The proposed model is demonstrated with a small numerical example. The vulnerability analysis of these pipelines and the quantification of consequences from such failures can be useful for natural gas industries on deciding which mitigation measures to implement on the existing pipeline networks with the minimum cost in an acceptable level of hazard.

Keywords: cost benefit analysis, knapsack problem, natural gas distribution network, risk management, risk mitigation

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Authors: Nattawit Thiapairat

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Multiple diseases have been linked to excessive levels of free radicals, which cause tissue or cell damage as a result of oxidative stress. Many plants are sources of high antioxidant activity. Derris scandens has a high amount of phenolic and flavonoid contents which demonstrated good biological activities. This study focused on the antioxidant activity of polyphenols extracted from D. scandens. This study performs total flavonoids content and various antioxidant assays, which were 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging capacity assays. The total flavonoid content of D. scandens extract was determined and expressed as quercetin equivalents (QE)/g measured by the aluminum chloride colorimetric method. The antioxidant activity of D. scandens extract was also determined by DPPH and ABTS assays. In the DPPH assay, vitamin C was used as a positive control, whereas Trolox was used as a positive control in the ABTS assay. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values for D. scandens extract from DPPH and ABTS assays were 41.79 μg/mL ± 0.783 and 29.42 μg/mL ± 0.890, respectively, in the DPPH assay. To conclude, D. scandens extract consists of a high amount of total phenolic content, which exhibits a significant antioxidant activity. However, further investigation regarding antioxidant activity such as SOD, ROS, and RNS scavenging assays and in vivo experiments should be performed.

Keywords: ABTS assay, antioxidant activity, Derris scandens, DPPH assays, total flavonoid content

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Tatyana A. Karpenyuk, Saltanat B. Orazova, Yana S. Tzurkan, Alla V. Goncharova, Bakytzhan K. Kairat, Togzhan D. Mukasheva, Ludmila V. Ignatova, Ramza Z. Berzhanova

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Microalgae due to the ability to accumulate high levels of practically valuable polyunsaturated fatty acids attract attention as a promising raw material for commercial products. It were defined the features of the growth processes of cells green protococcal microalgae Oocystis rhomboideus, Scenedesmus obliquus, Dictyochlorella globosa at cultivation in different nutritional mediums. For the rapid accumulation of biomass, combined with high productivity of total lipids fraction yield recommended to use the Fitzgerald medium (Scenodesmus obliquus, Oocystis rhomboideus) and/or Bold medium (Dictyochlorella globosa). Productivity of lipids decreased in sequence Dictyochlorella globosa > Scenodesmus obliquus > Oocystis rhomboideus. The bulk of fatty acids fraction of the total lipids is unsaturated fatty acids, which accounts for 70 to 83% of the total number of fatty acids. The share of monoenic acids varies from 16 to 36 %, the share of unsaturated fatty acids - from 44 to 65% of total fatty acids fraction. Among the unsaturated acids dominate α-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3), hexadecatetraenic acid (C16:4) and linoleic acid (C18:2).

Keywords: microalgae, lipids, fatty acids, culture conditions

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Authors: Miguel Mariano Rivera Galvan

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The purpose of this research was to create a digital tool by which users can obtain an immediate and accurate solution of the angular characteristics of an irregular quadrilateral. The development of this project arose because of the frequent absence of a polygon’s geometric information in land ownership accreditation documents. The researcher created a mathematical model using a linear approximation iterative method, employing various disciplines and techniques including trigonometry, geometry, algebra, and topography. This mathematical model uses as input data the surface of the quadrilateral, as well as the length of its sides, to obtain its interior angles and make possible its representation in a coordinate system. The results are as accurate and reliable as the user requires, offering the possibility of using this tool as a support to develop future engineering and architecture projects quickly and reliably.

Keywords: digital tool, geometry, mathematical model, quadrilateral, solution

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Authors: Win Zaw Hein, Khin Sandar Linn, Su Su Yi Mon, Yoshitaka Goto

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The Earth ionosphere is located at the altitude of about 70 km to several 100 km from the ground, and it is composed of ions and electrons called plasma. In the ionosphere, these plasma makes delay in GPS (Global Positioning System) signals and reflect in radio waves. The delay along the signal path from the satellite to the receiver is directly proportional to the total electron content (TEC) of plasma, and this delay is the largest error factor in satellite positioning and navigation. Sounding observation from the top and bottom of the ionosphere was popular to investigate such ionospheric plasma for a long time. Recently, continuous monitoring of the TEC using networks of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) observation stations, which are basically built for land survey, has been conducted in several countries. However, in these stations, multi-frequency support receivers are installed to estimate the effect of plasma delay using their frequency dependence and the cost of multi-frequency support receivers are much higher than single frequency support GPS receiver. In this research, single frequency GPS receiver was used instead of expensive multi-frequency GNSS receivers to measure the ionospheric plasma variation such as vertical TEC distribution. In this measurement, single-frequency support ublox GPS receiver was used to probe ionospheric TEC. The location of observation was assigned at Mandalay Technological University in Myanmar. In the method, the ionospheric TEC distribution is represented by polynomial functions for latitude and longitude, and parameters of the functions are determined by least-squares fitting on pseudorange data obtained at a known location under an assumption of thin layer ionosphere. The validity of the method was evaluated by measurements obtained by the Japanese GNSS observation network called GEONET. The performance of measurement results using single-frequency of GPS receiver was compared with the results by dual-frequency measurement.

Keywords: ionosphere, global positioning system, GPS, ionospheric delay, total electron content, TEC

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Authors: Dhafer Alqahtani

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Total quality management (TQM) has become a widely accepted approach in the modern industry over recent years. There is a general consensus that by adopting TQM, the overall effectiveness and performance of an industry can be improved. It is also proved that as long as TQM is adopted fully and practiced effectively in the industry, potential benefits of TQM will be delivered. But despite the benefits of TQM as articulated by many quality gurus and academicians, these benefits are not achieved in practice. Many service industries have found it difficult to implement TQM successfully. This paper, therefore, explores the barriers to TQM’s successful implementation in construction firms. The aim is to identify and rank the barriers to successful TQM implementation in order to make them know and get a better understanding by the managers and practitioners of the Construction Industries. The research methodology adopted in this study was an extensive literature review on barriers to TQM implementation followed by a survey of selected construction firms using the self-administered instrument. The results also showed that only lack of effective communication and lack of top management support were not significantly associated with the level of implementation of TQM.

Keywords: total quality management, construction firms, barriers, successful implementation

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Authors: Mustafa Ali Abugila

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A total of 13807 diabetic patients [(males 5893(42.68%), females 7914 (57.32%)] were on the registered in diabetic clinics in the western north of Libya at the end of 2012. Of the total clinic population, 865 patients had Type 1 IDDM (6.26%) and the rest cases had Type 2 NIDDM (93.74%). Diabetes mellitus was higher in females than in males (57.32% , 42.68%), the male to female ratio was (0.74 : 1).

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus (DM), gestational diabetes mellitus, North Western of Libya,

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Authors: Noemia Gomes de Mattos de Mesquita, José Eduardo Ferreira de Oliveira, Arimatea Quaresma Ferraz

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Stops to exchange cutting tool, to set up again the tool in a turning operation with CNC or to measure the workpiece dimensions have a direct influence on production. The premature removal of the cutting tool results in high cost of machining since the parcel relating to the cost of the cutting tool increases. On the other hand, the late exchange of cutting tool also increases the cost of production because getting parts out of the preset tolerances may require rework for its use when it does not cause bigger problems such as breaking of cutting tools or the loss of the part. Therefore, the right time to exchange the tool should be well defined when wanted to minimize production costs. When the flank wear is the limiting tool life, the time predetermination that a cutting tool must be used for the machining occurs within the limits of tolerance can be done without difficulty. This paper aims to show how the life of the cutting tool can be calculated taking into account the cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed and depth of cut), workpiece material, power of the machine, the dimensional tolerance of the part, the finishing surface, the geometry of the cutting tool and operating conditions of the machine tool, once known the parameters of Taylor algebraic structure. These parameters were raised for the ABNT 1038 steel machined with cutting tools of hard metal.

Keywords: machining, productions, cutting condition, design, manufacturing, measurement

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Authors: Katherine Anson

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This paper takes a closer look at the use of day-to-day informal working practices in Latin American spatial, cultural activism against gentrification. Through a discursive analysis of the Ecuadorian communally made film documentary San Roque: A House for All (2015), and the study of the political conflict around the gentrification of the place, the essay illustrates how the purposeful showcase of indigenous uses of space claims ownership over the city’s downtown area. This argument concludes that by making visible everyday indigenous ways of production in relation to space, the video contests the neoliberalist aim to proletarianize the urban poor, and therefore, to transform them into a landless group. This approach demonstrates that through representations of their own cultural working practices grassroots organizations consciously deconstruct/contest the capitalist urbanization of space.

Keywords: cultural activism, gentrification, indigenous working traditions, neoliberalism, urban displacement, everyday forms of resistance

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Authors: Clyde Haruzivi, Olusegun Oyebade Ikusika, Thando Conference Mpendulo

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Feed scarcity, increasing demand for animal products due to the growing human population, competition for conventional feed resources for humans and animal production, and ever-increasing prices of these feed resources are major constraints to the livestock industry in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, the industry is suffering immensely as the cost of production is high, hence the reduced returns. Most affected are the communal and resource-limited farmers who cannot afford the cost of conventional feed resources to supplement feeds, especially in arid and semi-arid areas where the available feed resources are not adequate for maintenance and production. This has tasked researchers and animal scientists to focus on the potential of non-conventional feed resources (NCFRs). Non-conventional feed resources could fill the gap through reduced competition, cost of feed, increased supply, increased profits, and independency as farmers will be utilizing locally available feed resources. Identifying available non-conventional feed resources is vital as it creates possibilities for novel feed industries and markets and implements methods of using these feedstuffs to improve livestock production and livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hence, this research work analyses the progress, challenges, and prospects of some non-conventional feed resources in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: non-conventional, feed resources, livestock production, food security, Sub-Saharan

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Authors: K. Malak, A. Nourah, S.Liyakathunisa

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Nowadays, healthcare services are facing many challenges since they are becoming more complex and more needed. Every detail of a patient’s interactions with health care providers is maintained in Electronic Health Records (ECR) and Healthcare information systems (HIS). However, most of the existing systems are often focused on documenting what happens in manual health care process, rather than providing the highest quality patient care. Healthcare business processes and stakeholders can no longer rely on manual processes, to provide better patient care and efficient utilization of resources, Healthcare processes must be automated wherever it is possible. In this research, a detail survey and analysis is performed on the existing health care systems in Saudi Arabia, and an automated smart medical healthcare business process model is proposed. The business process management methods and rules are followed in discovering, collecting information, analysis, redesign, implementation and performance improvement analysis in terms of time and cost. From the simulation results, it is evident that our proposed smart medical records system can improve the quality of the service by reducing the time and cost and increasing efficiency

Keywords: business process management, electronic health records, efficiency, cost, time

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Authors: Rifda Naufalin, Nurul Latifasari, Siti Nuryanti, Muna Ridha Hanifah

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Kecombrang is a Zingiberaceae plant which has antioxidant properties. The high antioxidant content in kecombrang flowers has the potential to be processed as a functional beverage raw material so that it can be used as an ingredient in making herbal teas. The purpose of this study was to determine the chemical components, physicochemistry, antioxidant activity and sensory characteristics of kecombrang tea. The research methodology was carried out by using a completely randomized design with processing factors of kecombrang tea namely blanching and non-blanching, fermentation and non-fermentation, and the optimal time for drying kecombrang tea. The best treatment combination based on the effective index method is the treatment of the blanching process followed by drying at a temperature of 50ᵒC until the 2% moisture content can produce kecombrang tea with a total phenol content of 5.95 mg Tannic Acid Equivalent (TAE) / gram db, total flavonoid 3%, pH 4.5, and antioxidant activity 82.95%, red color, distinctive aroma of tea, fresh taste, and preferred by panelists.

Keywords: kecombrang tea, blanching, fermentation, total phenol, and antioxidant activity

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Authors: Nisful Laila, Fatin Fadhilah Hasib, Puji Sucia Sukmaningrum, Achsania Hendratmi

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The purpose of this study is to determine and comparing the level of efficiency of Islamic Banks in Indonesia and United Kingdom during eurozone sovereign debt crisis. This study using a quantitative non-parametric approach with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) VRS assumption, and a statistical tool Mann-Whitney U-Test. The samples are 11 Islamic Banks in Indonesia and 4 Islamic Banks in England. This research used mediating approach. Input variable consists of total deposit, asset, and the cost of labour. Output variable consists of financing and profit/loss. This study shows that the efficiency of Islamic Bank in Indonesia and United Kingdom are varied and fluctuated during the observation period. There is no significant different the efficiency performance of Islamic Banks in Indonesia and United Kingdom.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, efficiency, eurozone crisis, islamic bank

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Authors: Win Nee Phong, Tau Chuan Ling, Pau Loke Show

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From an industrial perspective, the exploitation of microalgae for protein source is of great economical and commercial interest due to numerous attractive characteristics. Nonetheless, the release of protein from microalgae is limited by the multiple layers of the rigid thick cell wall that generally contain a large proportion of cellulose. Thus an efficient cell disruption process is required to rupture the cell wall. The conventional downstream processing methods which typically involve several unit operational steps such as disruption, isolation, extraction, concentration and purification are energy-intensive and costly. To reduce the overall cost and establish a feasible technology for the success of the large-scale production, microalgal industry today demands a more cost-effective and eco-friendly technique in downstream processing. One of the main challenges to extract the proteins from microalgae is the presence of rigid cell wall. This study aims to provide some guidance on the selection of the efficient solvent to facilitate the proteins released during the cell disruption process. The effects of solvent types such as methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol and water in rupturing the microalgae cell wall were studied. It is interesting to know that water is the most effective solvent to recover proteins from microalgae and the cost is cheapest among all other solvents.

Keywords: green, microalgae, protein, solvents

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Authors: Ashima Sharma, Tapan K. Chaudhuri

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Human Serum Albumin (HSA) is one of the most demanded therapeutic protein with immense biotechnological applications. The current source of HSA is human blood plasma. Blood is a limited and an unsafe source as it possesses the risk of contamination by various blood derived pathogens. This issue led to exploitation of various hosts with the aim to obtain an alternative source for the production of the rHSA. But, till now no host has been proven to be effective commercially for rHSA production because of their respective limitations. Thus, there exists an indispensable need to promote non-animal derived rHSA production. Of all the host systems, Escherichia coli is one of the most convenient hosts which has contributed in the production of more than 30% of the FDA approved recombinant pharmaceuticals. E. coli grows rapidly and its culture reaches high cell density using inexpensive and simple substrates. The fermentation batch turnaround number for E. coli culture is 300 per year, which is far greater than any of the host systems available. Therefore, E. coli derived recombinant products have more economical potential as fermentation processes are cheaper compared to the other expression hosts available. Despite of all the mentioned advantages, E. coli had not been successfully adopted as a host for rHSA production. The major bottleneck in exploiting E. coli as a host for rHSA production was aggregation i.e. majority of the expressed recombinant protein was forming inclusion bodies (more than 90% of the total expressed rHSA) in the E. coli cytosol. Recovery of functional rHSA form inclusion body is not preferred because it is tedious, time consuming, laborious and expensive. Because of this limitation, E. coli host system was neglected for rHSA production for last few decades. Considering the advantages of E. coli as a host, the present work has targeted E. coli as an alternate host for rHSA production through resolving the major issue of inclusion body formation associated with it. In the present study, we have developed a novel and innovative method for enhanced soluble and functional production of rHSA in E.coli (~60% of the total expressed rHSA in the soluble fraction) through modulation of the cellular growth, folding and environmental parameters, thereby leading to significantly improved and enhanced -expression levels as well as the functional and soluble proportion of the total expressed rHSA in the cytosolic fraction of the host. Therefore, in the present case we have filled in the gap in the literature, by exploiting the most well studied host system Escherichia coli which is of low cost, fast growing, scalable and ‘yet neglected’, for the enhancement of functional production of HSA- one of the most crucial biomolecule for clinical and biotechnological applications.

Keywords: enhanced functional production of rHSA in E. coli, recombinant human serum albumin, recombinant protein expression, recombinant protein processing

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Authors: Ali Allahverdi, Harun Aydilek, Asiye Aydilek

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The two stage assembly flowshop scheduling problem has lots of application in real life. To the best of our knowledge, the two stage assembly flowshop scheduling problem with total tardiness performance measure and separate setup times has not been addressed so far, and hence, it is addressed in this paper. Different dominance relations are developed and several algorithms are proposed. Extensive computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed algorithms. The computational experiments have shown that one of the algorithms performs much better than the others. Moreover, the experiments have shown that the best performing algorithm performs much better than the best existing algorithm for the case of zero setup times in the literature. Therefore, the proposed best performing algorithm not only can be used for problems with separate setup times but also for the case of zero setup times.

Keywords: scheduling, assembly flowshop, total tardiness, algorithm

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Authors: Gemma A. Gruyal

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Plants can contain a wide variety of substances with antioxidative properties which are associated to important health benefits. These positive health effects are of great importance at a time when the environment is laden with many toxic substances. Five selected herbal plants namely, Mimosa pudica, Phyllanthus niruri, Ceiba pentandra, Eleusine polydactyla and Trema amboinensis, were chosen for the experiment to investigate their total phenolics content and antioxidant activities using ABTS radical cation decolorization power, and ferric reducing antioxidant power. The total phenolic content of each herbal plants ranges from 0.84 to 42.59 mg gallic acid equivalent/g. The antioxidant activity in the ABTS radical cation decolorization power varies from 0.005 to 0.362 mg trolox equivalent/g and the FRAP ranges from 0.30 to 28.42 mg gallic acid equivalent/g. Among the five medicinal plants, Mimosa pudica has been an excellent performer in terms of the 3 parameters measured; it is followed by Phyllanthus niruri. The five herbal plants do not have equivalent antioxidant power. The relative high values for M. pudica and P. niruri supports the medicinal value of both plants. The total phenolics, ABTS and FRAP correlate strongly with one another.

Keywords: ABTS, FRAP, Leaf extracts, phenol

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Authors: Rashi Bhalla, Russel Pears, M. Asif Naeem

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In this 'Information Explosion Era' analyzing data 'a critical commodity' and mining knowledge from vertically distributed data stream incurs huge communication cost. However, an effort to decrease the communication in the distributed environment has an adverse influence on the classification accuracy; therefore, a research challenge lies in maintaining a balance between transmission cost and accuracy. This paper proposes a method based on Bayesian inference to reduce the communication volume in a heterogeneous distributed environment while retaining prediction accuracy. Our experimental evaluation reveals that a significant reduction in communication can be achieved across a diverse range of dataset types.

Keywords: big data, bayesian inference, distributed data stream mining, heterogeneous-distributed data

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Authors: Jamil Hijazi, Stirling Howieson

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Over one-quarter of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s total oil production (2.8 million barrels a day) is used for electricity generation. The built environment is estimated to consume 77% of the total energy production. Of this amount, air conditioning systems consume about 80%. Apart from considerations surrounding global warming and CO2 production it has to be recognised that oil is a finite resource and the KSA like many other oil rich countries will have to start to consider a horizon where hydro-carbons are not the dominant energy resource. The employment of hybrid ground cooling pipes in combination with black body solar collection and radiant night cooling systems may have the potential to displace a significant proportion of oil currently used to run conventional air conditioning plant. This paper presents an investigation into the viability of such hybrid systems with the specific aim of reducing carbon emissions while providing all year round thermal comfort in a typical Saudi Arabian urban housing block. At the outset air and soil temperatures were measured in the city of Jeddah. A parametric study then was carried out by computational simulation software (Design Builder) that utilised the field measurements and predicted the cooling energy consumption of both a base case and an ideal scenario (typical block retro-fitted with insulation, solar shading, ground pipes integrated with hypocaust floor slabs/ stack ventilation and radiant cooling pipes embed in floor).Initial simulation results suggest that careful ‘ecological design’ combined with hybrid radiant and ground pipe cooling techniques can displace air conditioning systems, producing significant cost and carbon savings (both capital and running) without appreciable deprivation of amenity.

Keywords: energy efficiency, ground pipe, hybrid cooling, radiative cooling, thermal comfort

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Authors: Adel A. Ghoneim

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In most existing buildings in hot climate, cooling loads lead to high primary energy consumption and consequently high CO2 emissions. These can be substantially decreased with integrated renewable energy systems. Kuwait is characterized by its dry hot long summer and short warm winter. Kuwait receives annual total radiation more than 5280 MJ/m2 with approximately 3347 h of sunshine. Solar energy systems consist of PV modules and parabolic trough collectors are considered to satisfy electricity consumption, domestic water heating, and cooling loads of an existing building. This paper presents the results of an extensive program of energy conservation and energy generation using integrated photovoltaic (PV) modules and parabolic trough collectors (PTC). The program conducted on an existing institutional building intending to convert it into a Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB) or near net Zero Energy Building (nNZEB). The program consists of two phases; the first phase is concerned with energy auditing and energy conservation measures at minimum cost and the second phase considers the installation of photovoltaic modules and parabolic trough collectors. The 2-storey building under consideration is the Applied Sciences Department at the College of Technological Studies, Kuwait. Single effect lithium bromide water absorption chillers are implemented to provide air conditioning load to the building. A numerical model is developed to evaluate the performance of parabolic trough collectors in Kuwait climate. Transient simulation program (TRNSYS) is adapted to simulate the performance of different solar system components. In addition, a numerical model is developed to assess the environmental impacts of building integrated renewable energy systems. Results indicate that efficient energy conservation can play an important role in converting the existing buildings into NZEBs as it saves a significant portion of annual energy consumption of the building. The first phase results in an energy conservation of about 28% of the building consumption. In the second phase, the integrated PV completely covers the lighting and equipment loads of the building. On the other hand, parabolic trough collectors of optimum area of 765 m2 can satisfy a significant portion of the cooling load, i.e about73% of the total building cooling load. The annual avoided CO2 emission is evaluated at the optimum conditions to assess the environmental impacts of renewable energy systems. The total annual avoided CO2 emission is about 680 metric ton/year which confirms the environmental impacts of these systems in Kuwait.

Keywords: building integrated renewable systems, Net-Zero energy building, solar fraction, avoided CO2 emission

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Authors: Hossam M. Abdallah, Ali M. El-Halawany, Gamal A. Mohamed, Khalid Z. Alshali, Zainy M. Banjar, Hany A. El-Bassossy

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Hypertension and vascular dysfunction are major components and complications of many diseases like metabolic syndrome. In addition, vascular dysfunction is considered the initial step in diabetic atherosclerosis, the main etiology for mortality and a great percent of morbidity in diabetic patients. In spite of the significant developments in antidiabetic therapy, diabetic complications, particularly seen in long-term diabetes, continue to be seriously deleterious. Herbal drugs are prescribed widely in treatment of different aliment because of their effectiveness, fewer side effects and relatively low cost. Nine plants belong to five different families grown in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were evaluated for their effect on exaggerated vasoconstriction and impaired relaxation in aortae isolated from metabolic syndrome rats. The aerial parts of Onopordum ambiguum Fresen. (OA), Astragalus abyssinicus Steud. (AA), Pulicaria Arabica Cass. (PA), Echinops sheilae Kit Tan (ES), Aizoon canariense L. (AC), Cleome viscosa L. (CV), Chrozophora oblongifolia (Delile) A.Juss. ex Spreng (CO), Centaurea pseudosinaica Mouterde (CP) and Tephrosia nubica Baker (TN) were dried and extracted with methanol. The effect of thirty minute incubation with the total extracts (10-330 µg/ml) or their fractions on the exaggerated vasoconstriction response to phenylephrine (10nM to 10microM) and impaired vasodilation to acetylcholine (10-330 µg /ml) of aortae isolated from metabolic syndrome animals was studied. Incubating aortae isolated from metabolic syndrome animals with total methanol extract of OA, AA, PA, AC, CV, and TN at concentrations (10-330 microgram/ml) in the organ bath led to concentration dependent alleviation of exaggerated vasoconstriction response to phenylephrine without having beneficial effect on impaired vasodilation to acetylcholine. In conclusion, addition of OA, AA, PA, AC, CV and TN to the standard therapies may provide superior means to alleviate the associated vascular complications.

Keywords: vascular dysfunction, exaggerated vasoconstriction, metabolic syndrome, Saudi plants

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Authors: Mohammad Lemar Zalmai, Osman Hurol Turkakin, Cemil Akcay, Ekrem Manisali

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Most of the construction projects are exposed to time and cost overruns due to various factors and this is a major problem. As a solution to this, the Earned Value Management (EVM) method is considered. EVM is a powerful and well-known method used in monitoring and controlling the project. EVM is a technique that project managers use to track the performance of their project against project baselines. EVM gives an early indication that either project is delayed or not, and the project is either over budget or under budget at any particular day by tracking it. Thus, it helps to improve the management control system of a construction project, to detect and control the problems in potential risk areas and to suggest the importance and purpose of monitoring the construction work. This paper explains the main parameters of the EVM system involved in the calculation of time and cost for construction projects. In this study, the project management software Primavera P6 is used to deals with the project monitoring process of a seven-storeyed (G+6) faculty building whose construction is in progress at Istanbul, Turkey. A comparison between the planned progress of construction activities and actual progress is performed, and the analysis results are interpreted. This case study justifies the benefits of using EVM for project cash flow analysis and forecasting.

Keywords: earned value management (EVM), construction cost management, construction planning, primavera P6, project management, project scheduling

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Authors: Evelyne Nguegwouo, Raoul Fonkem Sonfack Tsakem, Abel Wade, Gabriel Nama Medoua, Kamgaing Theophile

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Fresh and smoked fish are widely consumed in Cameroon. The traditional nature of smoking, the lack of hygiene in production, the poor preservation of stocks and the long storage time for certain types of fish considerably favor the contamination of products by molds, which secrete toxic molecules called mycotoxins. Today there are more than 400 types of mycotoxins, Aflatoxins being the most formidable. These toxins are considered carcinogenic in humans. It is in this perspective that we proposed to evaluate the total Aflatoxins in the fish marketed and consumed by the populations of the city of Yaoundé in Cameroon. On the one hand, it was a question of conducting a survey of fish consumers and sellers in points of sale, sampling fish of three species [Marquereau (Scomber scombrus), Cod (Gadus morhua) and Bifaka (Ethmalosa fimbriata)], randomly in some markets of the city to evaluate the total Aflatoxins contents (B1, B2, G1, G2) by the quantitative ELISA method and finally to estimate the level of exposure of the populations. It emerges from this study that of the 30 samples analyzed, 96.1% contained total Aflatoxins and two samples had total Aflatoxins levels above the standard, which is 20 ppb. These first results show that the risk is present in Cameroon and in order to improve the quality of marketed fish in terms of mycotoxins, a more thorough control must be done from the production chain to the consumer.

Keywords: aflatoxins, evaluation, exposure, mycotoxins, fish

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Authors: Mohammed Salem Alzahrani

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In this paper, student admission process is studied to optimize the assignment of vacant seats with three main objectives. Utilizing all vacant seats, satisfying all program of study admission requirements and maintaining fairness among all candidates are the three main objectives of the optimization model. Seat Assignment Method (SAM) is used to build the model and solve the optimization problem with help of Northwest Coroner Method and Least Cost Method. A closed formula is derived for applying the priority of assigning seat to candidate based on SAM.

Keywords: admission process model, assignment problem, Hungarian Method, Least Cost Method, Northwest Corner Method, SAM

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Authors: Theodora-Venetia Missirli, Konstantina Kyriakopoulou, Magdalini Krokida

Abstract:

Olive mill solid waste is an olive oil mill industry by-product with high phenolic, lipid and organic acid concentrations that can be used as a low cost source of natural antioxidants. In this study, extracts of Olea europaea (olive tree) solid olive mill waste (SOMW) were evaluated in terms of their antiradical activity and total phenolic compounds concentrations, such as oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol etc. SOMW samples were subjected to drying prior to extraction as a pretreatment step. Two drying processes, accelerated solar drying (ASD) and air-drying (AD) (at 35, 50, 70°C constant air velocity of 1 m/s), were applied. Subsequently, three different extraction methods were employed to recover extracts from untreated and dried SOMW samples. The methods include the green Microwave Assisted (MAE) and Ultrasound Assisted Extraction (UAE) and the conventional Soxhlet extraction (SE), using water and methanol as solvents. The efficiency and selectivity of the processes were evaluated in terms of extraction yield. The antioxidant activity (AAR) and the total phenolic content (TPC) of the extracts were evaluated using the DPPH assay and the Folin-Ciocalteu method, respectively. The results showed that bioactive content was significantly affected by the extraction technique and the solvent. Specifically, untreated SOMW samples showed higher performance in the yield for all solvents and higher antioxidant potential and phenolic content in the case of water. UAE extraction method showed greater extraction yields than the MAE method for both untreated and dried leaves regardless of the solvent used. The use of ultrasound and microwave assisted extraction in combination with industrially applied drying methods, such as air and solar drying, was feasible and effective for the recovery of bioactive compounds.

Keywords: antioxidant potential, drying treatment, olive mill pomace, microwave assisted extraction, ultrasound assisted extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: K. Myška, L. Pilařová

Abstract:

The article deals with possibilities of using cheap mobile devices with the combination of free or open source software tools as an alternative to professional hardware and software equipment. Especially in social work, it is important to find cheap yet functional solution that can compete with complex but expensive solutions for digitizing paper materials. Our research was focused on the analysis of cheap and affordable solutions for digitizing the most frequently used paper materials that are being commonly used by terrain workers in social work. We used comparative analysis as a research method. Social workers need to process data from paper forms quite often. It is still more affordable, time and cost-effective to use paper forms to get feedback in many cases. Collecting data from paper quizzes and questionnaires can be done with the help of professional scanners and software. These technologies are very powerful and have advanced options for digitizing and processing digitized data, but are also very expensive. According to results of our study, the combination of open source software and mobile phone or cheap scanner can be considered as a cost-effective alternative to professional equipment.

Keywords: digitalization, e-learning, mobile devices, questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Omar Bataineh

Abstract:

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a principle-based method that aims to get a high-level production with no breakdowns, no slow running and no defects. Key principles of TPM were applied in this work to improve the performance of the glass production line at United Beverage Company in Kuwait, which is producing bottles of soft drinks. Principles such as 5S as a foundation for TPM implementation, developing a program for equipment management, Cause and Effect Analysis (CEA), quality improvement, training and education of employees were employed. After the completion of TPM implementation, it was possible to increase the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) from 23% to 40%.

Keywords: OEE, TPM, FMEA, CEA

Procedia PDF Downloads 315

Authors: Carolina Beres, Laurine Da Silva, Danielle Pereira, Ana Ribeiro, Renata Tonon, Caroline Mellinger-Silva, Karina Dos Santos, Flavia Gomes, Lourdes Cabral

Abstract:

The health benefits of bioactive compounds such as phenolics are well known. The main source of these compounds are fruits and derivates. This study had the objective to study the bioacessibility of phenolic compounds from grape pomace and juçara dried extracts. For this purpose both characterized extracts were submitted to a simulated human digestion and the total phenolic content, total anthocyanins and antioxidant scavenging capacity was determinate in digestive fractions (oral, gastric, intestinal and colonic). Juçara had a higher anthocianins bioacessibility (17.16%) when compared to grape pomace (2.08%). The opposite result was found for total phenolic compound, where the higher bioacessibility was for grape (400%). The phenolic compound increase indicates a more accessible compound in the human gut. The lyophilized process had a beneficial impact in the final accessibility of the phenolic compounds being a more promising technique.

Keywords: bioacessibility, phenolic compounds, grape, juçara

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Mojtaba Valinejadshoubi, Azin Shakibabarough, Ashutosh Bagchi

Abstract:

Facilities such as residential buildings, office buildings, and hospitals house large density of occupants. Therefore, a low-cost facility management program (FMP) should be used to provide a satisfactory built environment for these occupants. Facility management (FM) has been recently used in building projects as a critical task. It has been effective in reducing operation and maintenance cost of these facilities. Issues of information integration and visualization capabilities are critical for reducing the complexity and cost of FM. Building information modeling (BIM) can be used as a strong visual modeling tool and database in FM. The main objective of this study is to examine the applicability of BIM in the FM process during a building’s operational phase. For this purpose, a seven-storey office building is modeled Autodesk Revit software. Authors integrated the cloud-based environment using a visual programming tool, Dynamo, for the purpose of having a real-time cloud-based communication between the facility managers and the participants involved in the project. An appropriate and effective integrated data source and visual model such as BIM can reduce a building’s operational and maintenance costs by managing the building life cycle properly.

Keywords: building information modeling, facility management, operational phase, building life cycle

Procedia PDF Downloads 135