Search results for: composition effect

Authors: Deniz Yurtoğlu

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Aerosols directly affect the radiative balance of the earth by absorbing and/or scattering the sun rays reaching the atmosphere and indirectly affect the balance by acting as a nucleus in cloud formation. The composition, physical, and chemical properties of aerosols vary depending on their sources and the time spent in the atmosphere. The Eastern Mediterranean Basin has a high aerosol load that is formed from different sources; such as anthropogenic activities, desert dust outbreaks, and the spray of sea salt; and the area is subjected to atmospheric transport from other locations on the earth. This region, which includes the deserts of Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean sea, is one of the most affected areas by climate change due to its location and the chemistry of the atmosphere. This study aims to investigate the spatiotemporal deviation of aerosol load in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin between the years 2018-2022 with the help of a new pioneer satellite of ESA (European Space Agency), Sentinel-5P. The TROPOMI (The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) traveling on this low-Earth orbiting satellite is a UV (Ultraviolet)-sensing spectrometer with a resolution of 5.5 km x 3.5 km, which can make measurements even in a cloud-covered atmosphere. By using Absorbing Aerosol Index data produced by this spectrometer and special scripts written in Python language that transforms this data into images, it was seen that the majority of the aerosol load in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin is sourced from desert dust and anthropogenic activities. After retrieving the daily data, which was separated from the NaN values, seasonal analyses match with the normal aerosol variations expected, which are high in warm seasons and lower in cold seasons. Monthly analyses showed that in four years, there was an increase in the amount of Absorbing Aerosol Index in spring and winter by 92.27% (2019-2021) and 39.81% (2019-2022), respectively. On the other hand, in the summer and autumn seasons, a decrease has been observed by 20.99% (2018-2021) and 0.94% (2018-2021), respectively. The overall variation of the mean absorbing aerosol index from TROPOMI between April 2018 to April 2022 reflects a decrease of 115.87% by annual mean from 0.228 to -0.036. However, when the data is analyzed by the annual mean values of the years which have the data from January to December, meaning from 2019 to 2021, there was an increase of 57.82% increase (0.108-0.171). This result can be interpreted as the effect of climate change on the aerosol load and also, more specifically, the effect of forest fires that happened in the summer months of 2021.

Keywords: aerosols, eastern mediterranean basin, sentinel-5p, tropomi, aerosol index, remote sensing

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Authors: H. A. Jawan

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This review describes the models of environmental-related crack propagation of aluminum alloys (7xxx) during the last few decades. Acknowledge on effects of different factors on the susceptibility to SCC permits to propose valuable mechanisms on crack advancement. The reliable mechanism of cracking give a possibility to propose the optimum chemical composition and thermal treatment conditions resulting in microstructure the most suitable for real environmental condition and stress state.

Keywords: microstructure, environmental, propagation, mechanism

Procedia PDF Downloads 405

Authors: Rachel Danielson, Brendan Bohannan, S.M. Tsai, Kyle Meyer, Jorge L.M. Rodrigues

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The Amazon Rainforest is a global diversity hotspot and crucial carbon sink, but approximately 20% of its total extent has been deforested- primarily for the establishment of cattle pasture. Understanding the impact of this large-scale disturbance on soil microbial community composition and activity is crucial in understanding potentially consequential shifts in nutrient or greenhouse gas cycling, as well as adding to the body of knowledge concerning how these complex communities respond to human disturbance. In this study, surface soils (0-10cm) were collected from three forests and three 45-year-old pastures in Rondonia, Brazil (the Amazon state with the greatest rate of forest destruction) in order to determine the impact of forest conversion on microbial communities involved in nitrogen fixation. Soil chemical and physical parameters were paired with measurements of microbial activity and genetic profiles to determine how community composition and process rates relate to environmental conditions. Measuring both the natural abundance of 15N in total soil N, as well as incorporation of enriched 15N2 under incubation has revealed that conversion of primary forest to cattle pasture results in a significant increase in the rate of nitrogen fixation by free-living diazotrophs. Quantification of nifH gene copy numbers (an essential subunit encoding the nitrogenase enzyme) correspondingly reveals a significant increase of genes in pasture compared to forest soils. Additionally, genetic sequencing of both nifH genes and transcripts shows a significant increase in the diversity of the present and metabolically active diazotrophs within the soil community. Levels of both organic and inorganic nitrogen tend to be lower in pastures compared to forests, with ammonium rather than nitrate as the dominant inorganic form. However, no significant or consistent differences in total, extractable, permanganate-oxidizable, or loss-on-ignition carbon are present between the two land-use types. Forest conversion is associated with a 0.5- 1.0 unit pH increase, but concentrations of many biologically relevant nutrients such as phosphorus do not increase consistently. Increases in free-living diazotrophic community abundance and activity appear to be related to shifts in carbon to nitrogen pool ratios. Furthermore, there may be an important impact of transient, low molecular weight plant-root-derived organic carbon on free-living diazotroph communities not captured in this study. Preliminary analysis of nitrogenase gene variant composition using NovoSeq metagenomic sequencing indicates that conversion of forest to pasture may significantly enrich vanadium-based nitrogenases. This indication is complemented by a significant decrease in available soil molybdenum. Very little is known about the ecology of diazotrophs utilizing vanadium-based nitrogenases, so further analysis may reveal important environmental conditions favoring their abundance and diversity in soil systems. Taken together, the results of this study indicate a significant change in nitrogen cycling and diazotroph community composition with the conversion of the Amazon Rainforest. This may have important implications for the sustainability of cattle pastures once established since nitrogen is a crucial nutrient for forage grass productivity.

Keywords: free-living diazotrophs, land use change, metagenomic sequencing, nitrogen fixation

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Authors: Satyanarayana Kosaraju, Venu Gopal Anne, Sateesh Nagari

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In this paper, the effect of cutting speed, feedrate and rake angle in tool geometry on cutting forces and temperature generated on the tool tip in turning were investigated. The data used for the investigation derived from experiments conducted on precision lathe according to the full factorial design to observe the effect of each factor level on the process performance. During the tests, depth of cut were kept constant and each test was conducted with a sharp coated tool insert. Ti-6Al-4V was used as the workpiece material. The effects of cutting parameters and tool geometry on cutting forces and tool tip temperature were analyzed. The main cutting force was observed to have a decreasing trend and temperature found to be increasing trend as the rake angle increased.

Keywords: cutting force, tool tip temperature, rake angle, machining

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Authors: Si Yin Tee

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Bimetallic nanostructures have received tremendous interests as a new class of nanomaterials which may have better technological usefulness with distinct properties from those of individual atoms and molecules or bulk matter. They excelled over the monometallic counterparts because of their improved electronic, optical and catalytic performances. The properties and the applicability of these bimetallic nanostructures not only depend on their size and shape, but also on the composition and their fine structure. These bimetallic nanostructures are potential candidates for bio-applications such as biosensing, bioimaging, biodiagnostics, drug delivery, targeted therapeutics, and tissue engineering. Herein, gold-incorporated copper (Cu/Au) nanostructures were synthesized through the controlled disproportionation of Cu⁺-oleylamine complex at 220 ºC to form copper nanowires and the subsequent reaction with Au³⁺ at different temperatures of 140, 220 and 300 ºC. This is to achieve their synergistic effect through the combined use of the merits of low-cost transition and high-stability noble metals. Of these Cu/Au nanostructures, Cu/Au nanotubes display the best performance towards electrochemical non-enzymatic glucose sensing, originating from the high conductivity of gold and the high aspect ratio copper nanotubes with high surface area so as to optimise the electroactive sites and facilitate mass transport. In addition to high sensitivity and fast response, the Cu/Au nanotubes possess high selectivity against interferences from other potential interfering species and excellent reproducibility with long-term stability. By introducing gold into copper nanostructures at a low level of 3, 1 and 0.1 mol% relative to initial copper precursor, a significant electrocatalytic enhancement of the resulting bimetallic Cu/Au nanostructures starts to occur at 1 mol%. Overall, the present fabrication of stable Cu/Au nanostructures offers a promising low-cost platform for sensitive, selective, reproducible and reusable electrochemical sensing of glucose.

Keywords: bimetallic, electrochemical sensing, glucose oxidation, gold-incorporated copper nanostructures

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Authors: Hatane Semuel, Hartmann H. Ngono, Sautma R. Basana

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The effect of capital structure on profitability is often debated by many financial investigators. The application of the trade-off theory and pecking order theory to analyze this relationship may generate different views. Each company has its own strategies to achieve its objectives and the external environment, such as state policy has a broad impact on the relationship with the capital structure of the company's profitability. Malaysia is the country closest to Indonesia that had a similar growth rate of GDP and industrial production with Indonesia, but Malaysia has lower inflation rate than Indonesia. This study was conducted to compare the performance of manufacturing sector between two countries when entering the era of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The samples for this study were 69 companies in Indonesia and 242 companies in Malaysia that engaged in manufacturing sector. The study uses panel data analysis. The study found that the capital structure have positive effect on profitability of manufacturing company in Indonesia, and it turns to negative effect on manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The results also showed that there are significant differences in short-term debt towards profitability of manufacturing companies in the two countries Indonesia and Malaysia.

Keywords: capital structure, Indonesia, Malaysia, manufacturing, profitability

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Authors: S. Pal, R. Singh, S. Sivakumar, D. Kunzru

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AOT stabilized reverse micelles of deionized water, dispersed in isooctane have been used to synthesize bimetallic nickel tungsten nanoparticles. Prepared nanoparticles were supported on γ-Al2O3 followed by calcination at 500oC. Characterizations of the nanoparticles were done by TEM, XRD, FTIR, XRF, TGA and BET. XRF results showed that this method gave good composition control with W/Ni weight ratio equal to 3.2. TEM images showed particle size of 5-10 nm. Removal of surfactant after calcination was confirmed by TGA and FTIR.

Keywords: nanoparticles, reverse micelles, nickel, tungsten

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Authors: Thitima Chaiyakul

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The number of previous literature regarding to the effect of asset growth and equity returns is small. Furthermore, those literature are mainly focus in the developed markets. According to my knowledge, there is no published paper examining the effect of asset growth and equity returns in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in different industry groups. The main objective in this research is the testing the effect of asset growth to equity returns in different industry groups. This study employs the data of the listed companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand during January 1996 and December 2014. The data of financial industry are exclude from this study due to the different meaning of accounting terms. The results show the supported evidence that the asset growth positively affects the equity returns at a statistically significance level of at least 5% in Agro& Food Industry, Industrials, and Services Industry Groups. These results are inconsistent with the previous research testing in developed markets. Nevertheless, the statistically significances of the effect of asset growth to equity returns appear in some cases. In summary, the asset growth is a non-systematic risk and it is a mispricing factor.

Keywords: asset growth, asset pricing, equity returns, Thailand

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Authors: Ms Azam Najafkouchak, David Todem, Dorothy Pathak, Pramod Pathak, Joseph Gardiner

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Propensity score (PS) methods have recently become the standard analysis as a tool for the causal inference in the observational studies where exposure is not randomly assigned, thus, confounding can impact the estimation of treatment effect on the outcome. For the binary outcome, the effect of treatment on the outcome can be estimated by odds ratios, relative risks, and risk differences. However, using the different PS methods may give you a different estimation of the treatment effect on the outcome. Several methods of PS analyses have been used mainly, include matching, inverse probability of weighting, stratification, and covariate adjusted on PS. Due to the dangers of discretizing continuous variables (exposure, covariates), the focus of this paper will be on how the variation in cut-points or boundaries will affect the average treatment effect (ATE) utilizing the stratification of PS method. Therefore, we are trying to avoid choosing arbitrary cut-points, instead, we continuously discretize the PS and accumulate information across all cut-points for inferences. We will use Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate ATE, focusing on two PS methods, stratification and covariate adjusted on PS. We will then show how this can be observed based on the analyses of the data from a case-control study of breast cancer, the Polish Women’s Health Study.

Keywords: average treatment effect, propensity score, stratification, covariate adjusted, monte Calro estimation, breast cancer, case_control study

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Authors: S. A. Naeini, M. Mortezaee

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of fine grain content in soil and its plastic properties on soil liquefaction potential. For this purpose, the conditions for considering the fine grains effect and percentage of plastic fine on the liquefaction resistance of saturated sand presented by researchers has been investigated. Then, some comprehensive results of all the issues raised by some researchers are stated. From these investigations it was observed that by increasing the percentage of cohesive fine grains in the sandy soil (up to 20%), the maximum shear strength decreases and by adding more fine- grained percentage, the maximum shear strength of the resulting soil increases but never reaches the amount of clean sand.

Keywords: fine-grained, liquefaction, plasticity, shear strength, sand

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Authors: M. Bolacalı, Y. Öztürk, O. Yılmaz, M. Küçük, M. A. Karslı

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The aim of the study was to determine various body measurements from the birth to the 30-day age of Boer x Hair goats F1 crossbred kids and pure Hair goat kids raised in Van in Eastern Anatolia region, and reveal factors such as the effects of year, dame body weight, genotype, dame age, birth type and sex on this parameter. 49 kids born in 2012 and 76 kids born in 2014 were utilized in the study. In the statistical analysis of various body measurements data was performed using the General Lineer Model procedure in SPSS software. Duncan's multiple range test was used for multiple comparisons. Boer x Hair goats F1 crossbred kids and pure Hair goat kids from various body measurements cidago height, body length, chest length, chest depth, chest circumference, circumference of leg, cannon bone circumference, chest width were determinated in general respectively 29.90 and 27.88 cm; 29.49 and 27.93 cm; 17.28 and 16.68 cm; 13.34 and 12.82 cm; 31.74 and 29.85 cm; 28.43 and 23.95 cm; 5.41 and 5.15 cm; 8.71 and 7.63 cm at birth, respectively; 35.01 and 32.98 cm; 35.20 and 33.30 cm; 18.82 and 18.17 cm; 15.64 and 14.83 cm; 39.08 and 37.30 cm; 34.29 and 29.25 cm; 5.80 and 5.42 cm; 9.87 and 8.85 cm at 30 days age, respectively. Among factors affecting cidago height in this study, the effect of dame body weight and sex were not significant, but genotype, dame age and birth type were significant (P < 0,05 and P < 0,01) at birth; dame body weight effect of the cidago height was not significant, but the effect of genotype, birth type, of dame age and sex were significant (P < 0.05, P < 0.05 and P<0.001) at 30-day age. The effect of genotype and sex of body length were not significant, but dam age, dame body weight and birth type were significant (P < 0.05, P < 0.05 and P<0.001, respectively) at birth; the effect of sex to body length was not significant, but genotype, dame age, dame body weight and birth type were significant (P < 0.01, P < 0.05, P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively) at 30-day age. While circumference of leg was insignificant the effect of dame age and sex, genotype, dame body weight and type of the birth were significant (P < 0.001, P < 0.05 and P < 0.001) at birth; the circumstance of leg at 30-day age was found to be important the effect of examined other factors except for sex (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001). The obtained results, when considered in terms of a variety of body sizes, from birth to 30-day age growth period, showed that the kids of Boer x Hair Goat F1 hybrids have higher values than the kids of Hair Goats.

Keywords: Boer x hair goat F1 crossbred, hair goat, body measurements, cidago height

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Authors: In Su Na, Gunwon Lee, Seiyong Kim

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This study analyzed the effect of area variables and economic variables on the length of each period of the project in order to analyze the effect of agreement rate on project implementation in housing renewal projects. In conclusion, as can be seen from these results, a low agreement rate may not translate into project promotion, and a higher agreement rate may not translate into project delay. The expectation of the policy is that the lower the agreement rate, the more projects would be promoted, but that is not the actual effect. From a policy consistency viewpoint, changing the agreement rate frequently, depending on the decision of the public, is not reasonable. The policy of using agreement rate as a necessary condition for project implementation should be reconsidered.

Keywords: Area and Economic Variables, Elapsed time, Housing Renewal Project

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Authors: Zehra Buyuktuncer, Aylin H. Büyükkaragöz, Tuğçe N. Balcı, Nevin Ergun

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Background: Undergoing rigid dietary habits for enhancing athletic performance could lead to eating disorders. High prevalence of eating disorders among female athletes has been already reported. However, the risk of disordered eating among disabled athletes is not known. A better knowledge of the different eating behaviors and their prevalence in disabled athletes would be helpful to understand interactions between eating and health. This study aimed to examine the cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating behaviors in a disabled athlete population. Method: A total of 70 disabled Turkish national athletes (33 female, 37 male) from 5 sport branches (soccer, weight lifting, shooting, table tennis and basketball) were involved in the study. The cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating behaviors were assessed using the revised version of Three Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18 (TFEQ-R18). The questionnaires were conducted by dietitian during the preparation camps of athletes. Body weight, height and waist circumference (WC) were measured; and body composition was analyzed by bioelectrical impedance analysis method. Results: The TFEQ scales showed a cognitive dietary restraint score of 13.9±4.2, uncontrolled eating score of 17.7±5.8 and emotional eating score of 4.9±2.5. The mean score of total TFEQ-R18 was 36.5±8.62. Neither total TFEQ-R18 score nor subscale scores differed significantly by gender or sport branches (p>0.05, for each). The scores were also similar in BMI groups (n=63; p>0.05). Total TFEQ, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating scores were significantly higher among the athletes with congenital disabilities compared to the scores of the athletes with acquired disabilities (p<0.05, for each). Moreover, the cognitive dietary restraint score was significantly high in athletes who would like to lose weight (p=0.009). Conclusion: Disabled athletes might have a risk of disordered eating. The different eating behaviors among disabled athletes should be assessed using validated tools to develop personalized nutritional strategies for those athletes.

Keywords: disabled athletes, eating behaviour, three-factor eating questionnaire-r18, body composition

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Authors: I. T. Makhubedu, B. A. Letty, P. F. Scogings, P. L. Mafongoya

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Despite their potential importance in recycling dinitrogen (N2) fixed in alley cropping systems, the effects of tree pruning residues on symbiotic N2 fixation are poorly studied. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of pruning residue management and pruning date on symbiotic performance and

Keywords: alley cropping, management, N₂ fixed, natural abundance, recycling

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Authors: I. Muslih, A. Alkhalailah, A. Merdji

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Photovoltaic efficiency is highly affected by dust accumulation; the dust particles prevent direct solar radiation from reaching the panel surface; therefore a reduction in output power will occur. A study of dust and soiling accumulation effect on the output power of PV panels was conducted for different periods of time from May to October in three countries of the MENA region, Jordan, Egypt, and Algeria, under local weather conditions. This study leads to build a more realistic equation to estimate the power reduction as a function of time. This logarithmic function shows the high reduction in power in the first days with 10% reduction in output power compared to the reference system, where it reaches a steady state value after 60 days to reach a maximum value of 30%.

Keywords: dust effect, MENA, solar energy, PV system

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Authors: Elsa Reethu, S. Karthik Babu, N. Syed

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Background: Studies in the past focused on the additional benefits of action observation in improving upper and lower limb functions and improving activities of daily living when administered along with conventional therapy. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of literature proving the effects of motor imagery of truncal exercise in improving trunk control in patients with stroke. Aims/purpose: To study the effect of motor imagery of truncal exercises on trunk function and balance in early stroke. Methods: A total of 24 patients were included in the study. 12 were included in the experimental group and 12 were included in control group Trunk function was measured using Trunk Control Test (TCT), Trunk Impairment Scale Verheyden (TIS Verheyden) and Trunk Impairment Scale Fujiwara (TIS Fujiwara). The balance was assessed using Brunel Balance Assessment (BBA) and Tinetti POMA. For the experimental group, each session was for 30 minutes of physical exercises and 15 minutes of motor imagery, once a day, six times a week for 3 weeks and prior to the exercise session, patients viewed a video tape of all the trunk exercises to be performed for 15minutes. The control group practiced the trunk exercises alone for the same duration. Measurements were taken before, after and 4 weeks after intervention. Results: The effect of treatment in motor imagery group showed better improvement when compared with control group when measured after 3 weeks on values of static sitting balance, dynamic balance, total TIS (Verheyden) score, BBA, Tinetti balance and gait with a large effect size of 0.86, 1.99, 1.69, 1.06, 1.63 and 0.97 respectively. The moderate effect size was seen in values of TIS Fujiwara (0.58) and small effect size was seen on TCT (0.12) and TIS coordination component (0.13).at the end of 4 weeks after intervention, the large effect size was identified on values of dynamic balance (2.06), total TIS score (1.59) and Tinetti balance (1.24). The moderate effect size was observed on BBA (0.62) and Tinetti gait (0.72). Conclusion: Trunk motor imagery is effective in improving trunk function and balance in patients with stroke and has a carryover effect in the aspects of mobility. The therapy gain that was observed during the time of discharge was seen to be maintained at the follow-up levels.

Keywords: stroke, trunk rehabilitation, trunk function, balance, motor imagery

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Authors: Oscar Rubiano, Oscar Ortiz, Natalia Morales, Lida Alfonso, Johana Alvarado, Adriana Gutierrez, Daniel Botero

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Athletes who usually use protein supplements, are those who practice strength and power sports, whose goal is to achieve a large muscle mass. However, it has also been explored in sports or endurance activities such as cycling, and where despite requiring high power, prominent muscle development can impede good competitive performance due to the determinant of body mass for good performance of the athlete body. This research shows, the effect with protein supplements establishes a protein - muscle mass ratio, although in a lesser proportion the relationship between protein types and muscle power. Thus, we intend to explore as a first approximation, the behavior of muscle power in lower limbs after the intake of two protein supplements from different sources. The aim of the study was to describe the behavior of muscle power in lower limbs after the consumption of animal protein (AP) and vegetable protein (VP) in four route cyclists from 18 to 20 years of the Bogota cycling league. The methodological design of this study is quantitative, with a non-probabilistic sampling, based on a pre-experimental model. The jumping power was evaluated before and after the intervention by means of the squat jump test (SJ), Counter movement jump (CMJ) and Abalacov (AB). Cyclists consumed a drink with whey protein and a soy isolate after training four times a week for three months. The amount of protein in each cyclist, was calculated according to body weight (0.5 g / kg of muscle mass). The results show that subjects who consumed PV improved muscle strength and landing strength. In contrast, the power and landing force decreased for subjects who consumed PA. For the group that consumed PV, the increase was positive at 164.26 watts, 135.70 watts and 33.96 watts for the AB, SJ and CMJ jumps respectively. While for PA, the differences of the medians were negative at -32.29 watts, -82.79 watts and -143.86 watts for the AB, SJ and CMJ jumps respectively. The differences of the medians in the AB jump were positive for both the PV (121.61 Newton) and PA (454.34 Newton) cases, however, the difference was greater for PA. For the SJ jump, the difference for the PA cases was 371.52 Newton, while for the PV cases the difference was negative -448.56 Newton, so the difference was greater in the SJ jump for PA. In jump CMJ, the differences of the medians were negative for the cases of PA and PV, being -7.05 for PA and - 958.2 for PV. So the difference was greater for PA. The conclusion of this study shows that serum protein supplementation showed no improvement in muscle power in the lower limbs of the cyclists studied, which could suggest that whey protein does not have a beneficial effect on performance in terms of power, either, showed an impact on body composition. In contrast, supplementation with soy isolate showed positive effects on muscle power, body.

Keywords: animal protein (AP), muscle power, supplements, vegetable protein (VP)

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Authors: Meseret Teshome

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This study has the objective of assessing the effect of kaizen (5S, Muda elimination and Quality Control Circle (QCC) on employees’ affective attitude (job satisfaction, commitment and job stress) in Kombolcha Textile Share Company. A conceptual model was developed to describe the relationship between Kaizen and Employees’ Affective Attitude (EAA) factors. The three factors of Employee Affective Attitude were measured using questionnaire derived from other validated questionnaire. In the data collection to conduct this study; questionnaire, unstructured interview, written documents and direct observations are used. To analyze the data, SPSS and Microsoft Excel were used. In addition, the internal consistency of similar items in the questionnaire instrument was measured for their equivalence by using the cronbach’s alpha test. In this study, the effect of 5S, Muda elimination and QCC on job satisfaction, commitment and job stress in Kombolcha Textile Share Company is assessed and factors that reduce employees’ job satisfaction with respect to kaizen implementation are identified. The total averages of means from the questionnaire are 3.1 for job satisfaction, 4.31 for job commitment and 4.2 for job stress. And results from interview and secondary data show that kaizen implementation have effect on EAA. In general, based on the thesis results it was concluded that kaizen (5S, muda elimination and QCC) have positive effect for improving EAA factors at KTSC. Finally, recommendations for improvement are given based on the results.

Keywords: kaizen, job satisfaction, job commitment, job stress

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Authors: Joseph Lillington, Tom Gout, Mike Harrison, Ian Farnan

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The vitrification of high-level nuclear waste within borosilicate glass and its incorporation within a multi-barrier repository deep underground is widely accepted as the preferred disposal method. However, for this to happen, any safety case will require validation that the initially localized radionuclides will not be considerably released into the near/far-field. Therefore, accurate mechanistic models are necessary to predict glass dissolution, and these should be robust to a variety of incorporated waste species and leaching test conditions, particularly given substantial variations across international waste-streams. Here, machine learning is used to predict glass material properties (viscosity, density) and glass leaching model parameters from large-scale industrial data. A variety of different machine learning algorithms have been compared to assess performance. Density was predicted solely from composition, whereas viscosity additionally considered temperature. To predict suitable glass leaching model parameters, a large simulated dataset was created by coupling MATLAB and the chemical reactive-transport code HYTEC, considering the state-of-the-art GRAAL model (glass reactivity in allowance of the alteration layer). The trained models were then subsequently applied to the large-scale industrial, experimental data to identify potentially appropriate model parameters. Results indicate that ensemble methods can accurately predict viscosity as a function of temperature and composition across all three industrial datasets. Glass density prediction shows reliable learning performance with predictions primarily being within the experimental uncertainty of the test data. Furthermore, machine learning can predict glass dissolution model parameters behavior, demonstrating potential value in GRAAL model development and in assessing suitable model parameters for large-scale industrial glass dissolution data.

Keywords: machine learning, predictive modelling, pattern recognition, radioactive waste glass

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Authors: F. Zouai, F. Z. Benabid, S. Bouhelal, D. Benachour

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Reinforced plastics or nanocomposites have attracted considerable attention in scientific and industrial fields because a very small amount of clay can significantly improve the properties of the polymer. The polymeric matrices used in this work are two saturated polyesters, i.e., polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). The success of processing compatible blends, based on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/poly(ethylene naphthalene) (PEN)/clay nanocomposites in one step by reactive melt extrusion is described. Untreated clay was first purified and functionalized ‘in situ’ with a compound based on an organic peroxide/ sulfur mixture and (tetramethylthiuram disulfide) as the activator for sulfur. The PET and PEN materials were first separately mixed in the molten state with functionalized clay. The PET/4 wt% clay and PEN/7.5 wt% clay compositions showed total exfoliation. These compositions, denoted nPET and nPEN, respectively, were used to prepare new n(PET/PEN) nanoblends in the same mixing batch. The n(PET/PEN) nanoblends were compared to neat PET/PEN blends. The blends and nanocomposites were characterized using various techniques. Microstructural and nanostructural properties were investigated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that the exfoliation of tetrahedral clay nanolayers is complete, and the octahedral structure totally disappears. It was shown that total exfoliation, confirmed by wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) measurements, contributes to the enhancement of impact strength and tensile modulus. In addition, WAXS results indicated that all samples are amorphous. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study indicated the occurrence of one glass transition temperature Tg, one crystallization temperature Tc and one melting temperature Tm for every composition.

Keywords: exfoliation, DRX, DSC, montmorillonite, nanocomposites, PEN, PET, plastograph, reactive melt-mixing

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Authors: Anwaar Ahmed, Muhammad Bilal Khurshid, Samuel Labi

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The effect of trucks on the level of service is determined by considering passenger car equivalents (PCE) of trucks. The current version of Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) uses a single PCE value for all tucks combined. However, the composition of truck traffic varies from location to location; therefore a single PCE-value for all trucks may not correctly represent the impact of truck traffic at specific locations. Consequently, present study developed separate PCE values for single-unit and combination trucks to replace the single value provided in the HCM on different freeways. Site specific PCE values, were developed using concept of spatial lagging headways (the distance from the rear bumper of a leading vehicle to the rear bumper of the following vehicle) measured from field traffic data. The study used data from four locations on a single urban freeway and three different rural freeways in Indiana. Three-stage-least-squares (3SLS) regression techniques were used to generate models that predicted lagging headways for passenger cars, single unit trucks (SUT), and combination trucks (CT). The estimated PCE values for single-unit and combination truck for basic urban freeways (level terrain) were: 1.35 and 1.60, respectively. For rural freeways the estimated PCE values for single-unit and combination truck were: 1.30 and 1.45, respectively. As expected, traffic variables such as vehicle flow rates and speed have significant impacts on vehicle headways. Study results revealed that the use of separate PCE values for different truck classes can have significant influence on the LOS estimation.

Keywords: level of service, capacity analysis, lagging headway, trucks

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Authors: H. Jawan

Abstract:

This review describes the models of environmental-related crack propagation of aluminum alloys (7xxx) during the last few decades. Acknowledge on effects of different factors on the susceptibility to SCC permits to propose valuable mechanisms on crack advancement. The reliable mechanism of cracking give a possibility to propose the optimum chemical composition and thermal treatment conditions resulting in microstructure the most suitable for real environmental condition and stress state.

Keywords: microstructure, environmental, propagation, mechanism

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: H. B. Tibar, Z. Y. Jiang

Abstract:

In this study, the influence of rolling process parameters such as the work roll cross angle and work roll shifting value on the strip shape and profile of aluminum have been investigated under dry conditions at a speed ratio of 1.3 using Hille 100 experimental mill. The strip profile was found to improve significantly with increase in work roll cross angle from 0^o to 1^o, with an associated decrease in rolling force. The effect of roll shifting (from 0 to 8mm) was not as significant as the roll cross angle. However, an increase in work roll shifting value achieved a similar decrease in rolling force as that of work roll cross angle. The effect of work roll shifting was also found to be maximum at an optimum roll speed of 0.0986 m/s for the desired thickness. Of all these parameters, the most significant effect of the strip shape profile was observed with variation of work roll cross angle. However, the rolling force can be a significantly reduced by either increasing the the work roll cross angle or work roll shifting.

Keywords: rolling speed ratio, strip shape, work roll cross angle, work roll shifting

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Authors: M. Nasiri

Abstract:

Aim: Considering the hypoglisimic ad hipolipidimic effect of the fenugreek seed and aerobic exercise training, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of fenugreek and aerobic exercise training on insulin resistance in women with type 2 diabetes. Methodology: 32 patients with type II diabetes were selected and randomly divided into four groups: control, fenugreek, training and fenugreek - training. Fenugreek groups used 10 grams of fenugreek seeds daily for eight weeks on two occasions before noon and evening meal. Training of groups is also performed a regular program of aerobic exercise 65-55% of maximum heart rate (4 days per week).Two days before and after the training period, blood samples were taken from their brachial veins in a fasting state (12 hours prior to the test) in a sitting position. The data was analyzed used of t-independent and ANOVA at a significance level of α < 0.05. Results: Intra-group changes in all experimental groups showed that significant decrease insulin resistance, and the difference between groups showed significant difference between the groups of fenugreek - training than other groups there. Conclusions: According to the research findings to fenugreek combined with aerobic exercise more beneficial effect on the inhibition of insulin resistance in women with diabetes are recommended to them.

Keywords: fenugreek, training, insulin resistance, diabetes

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Authors: M. Wigwe, J. G Akpa, E. N Wami

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Mathematical models of the absorber of a glycol dehydration facility was developed using the principles of conservation of mass and energy. Models which predict variation of the water content of gas in mole fraction, variation of gas and liquid temperatures across the parking height were developed. These models contain contributions from bulk and diffusion flows. The effect of diffusion on the process occurring in the absorber was studied in this work. The models were validated using the initial conditions in the plant data from Company W TEG unit in Nigeria. The results obtained showed that the effect of diffusion was noticed between z=0 and z=0.004 m. A deviation from plant data of 0% was observed for the gas water content at a residence time of 20 seconds, at z=0.004 m. Similarly, deviations of 1.584% and 2.844% were observed for the gas and TEG temperatures.

Keywords: separations, absorption, simulation, dehydration, water content, triethylene glycol

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Authors: Benallou Yassine, Amara Kadda, Bouazza Boubakar, Soudini Belabbes, Arbouche Omar, M. Zemouli

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The study of the pressure effect on the materials, their functionality and their properties is very important, insofar as it provides the opportunity to identify others applications such the optical properties in the alkaline earth chalcogenides, as like the SrS. Here we present the first-principles calculations which have been performed using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method (FP-LAPW) within the Generalized Gradient Approximation developed by Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhor for solids (PBEsol). The calculated structural parameters like the lattice parameters, the bulk modulus B and their pressure derivative B' are in reasonable agreement with the available experimental and theoretical data. In addition, the elastic properties such as elastic constants (C11, C12, and C44), the shear modulus G, the Young modulus E, the Poisson’s ratio ν and the B/G ratio are also given. The treatments of exchange and correlation effects were done by the Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) potential for the electronic. The pressure effect on the electronic properties was visualized by calculating the variations of the gap as a function of pressure. The obtained results are compared to available experimental data and to other theoretical calculations

Keywords: SrS, GGA-PBEsol+TB-MBJ, density functional, Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhor, FP-LAPW, pressure effect

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Authors: Emre Alan, Yusuf Yamanturk, Gokay Bas

Abstract:

Non-grain oriented electrical steels are high silicon containing steels in which the direction of magnetism is intended the same in any direction of the material. Major applications of non-grain-oriented electrical steels are electrical motors, generators, etc. where low magnetic losses are required. Selection of proper hot rolling process parameters is an important factor in order to produce a material that has desired magnetic properties. In this study, the effect of finishing and coiling temperatures on magnetic properties of Fe-3%Si non-grain oriented electrical steels will be investigated. Additionally, the effect of slab reheating temperature at same entry finishing temperature will be investigated by means of reduction in roughing mill pass number from 1-5 to 1-3.

Keywords: electrical steels, hot rolling, magnetic properties, roughing mill

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Authors: T. Nakpun, T. Kanjanarach, T. Kittisopee

Abstract:

Turnover of community pharmacist can affect continuity of patient care and most importantly the quality of care and also the costs of a pharmacy. It was hypothesized that organizational resources, job characteristics, and social supports had direct effect on pharmacist turnover intention, and indirect effect on pharmacist turnover intention via pharmacist engagement. This research aimed to study influencing factors on pharmacist engagement and pharmacist turnover intention by testing the proposed structural hypothesized model to explain the relationship among organizational resources, job characteristics, and social supports that effect on pharmacist turnover intention and pharmacist engagement in Thai community pharmacists. A cross sectional study design with self-administered questionnaire was conducted in 209 Thai community pharmacists. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling technique with analysis of a moment structures AMOS program. The final model showed that only organizational resources had significant negative direct effect on pharmacist turnover intention (β =-0.45). Job characteristics and social supports had significant positive relationship with pharmacist engagement (β = 0.44, and 0.55 respectively). Pharmacist engagement had significant negative relationship with pharmacist turnover intention (β = - 0.24). Thus, job characteristics and social supports had significant negative indirect effect on turnover intention via pharmacist engagement (β =-0.11 and -0.13, respectively). The model fit the data well (χ2/ degree of freedom (DF) = 2.12, the goodness of fit index (GFI)=0.89, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.94 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07). This study can be concluded that organizational resources were the most important factor because it had direct effect on pharmacist turnover intention. Job characteristics and social supports were also help decrease pharmacist turnover intention via pharmacist engagement.

Keywords: community pharmacist, influencing factor, turnover intention, work engagement

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Authors: Xiaohua Zhu, Lingling Ma, Yongguang Zhao

Abstract:

Leaf Area Index (LAI) is a key structural characteristic of crops and plays a significant role in precision agricultural management and farmland ecosystem modeling. However, LAI retrieved from different resolution data contain a scaling bias due to the spatial heterogeneity and model non-linearity, that is, there is scale effect during multi-scale LAI estimate. In this article, a typical farmland in semi-arid regions of Chinese Inner Mongolia is taken as the study area, based on the combination of PROSPECT model and SAIL model, a multiple dimensional Look-Up-Table (LUT) is generated for multiple crops LAI estimation from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral data. Based on Taylor expansion method and computational geometry model, a scale transfer model considering both difference between inter- and intra-class is constructed for scale effect analysis of LAI inversion over inhomogeneous surface. The results indicate that, (1) the LUT method based on classification and parameter sensitive analysis is useful for LAI retrieval of corn, potato, sunflower and melon on the typical farmland, with correlation coefficient R2 of 0.82 and root mean square error RMSE of 0.43m2/m-2. (2) The scale effect of LAI is becoming obvious with the decrease of image resolution, and maximum scale bias is more than 45%. (3) The scale effect of inter-classes is higher than that of intra-class, which can be corrected efficiently by the scale transfer model established based Taylor expansion and Computational geometry. After corrected, the maximum scale bias can be reduced to 1.2%.

Keywords: leaf area index (LAI), scale effect, UAV-based hyperspectral data, look-up-table (LUT), remote sensing

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Authors: Siavash Mirahmadizoghi, Steven Bell, David Simpson

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In this work a new independent component analysis (ICA) based method for noise reduction in evoked potentials is evaluated on for auditory late responses (ALR) captured with a 63-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) from 10 normal-hearing subjects. The performance of the new method is compared with a single channel alternative in terms of signal to noise ratio (SNR), the number of channels with an SNR above an empirically derived statistical critical value and an estimate of the effect of attention on the major components in the ALR waveform. The results show that the multichannel signal processing method can significantly enhance the quality of the ALR signal and also detect the effect of the attention on the ALR better than the single channel alternative.

Keywords: auditory late response (ALR), attention, EEG, independent component analysis (ICA), multichannel signal processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 492