Search results for: mammals size

Authors: Mohamed Rajab Peer Mohamed, Thiruvenkatasamy Kannabiran

Abstract:

In the present investigation, the scour around a circular pier subjected to a steady current were studied numerically using two-dimensional MIKE21 Flow Model (FM) and Sand Transport (ST)Modulewhich is developed by Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI), Denmark. The unstructured flexible mesh generated with rectangular flume dimension of 10 m wide, 1 m deep, and 30 m long. The grain size of the sand was d50 = 0.16 mm, sediment size, sediment gradation=1.16, pier diameter D= 30 mm and depth-averaged current velocity, U = 0.449 m/s are considered in the model. The estimated scour depth obtained from this model is validated and it is observed that the results of the model have good agreement with flume experimental results.In order to estimate the scour depth, several simulations were made for three cases viz., Case I:change in sediment transport model description in the numerical model viz, i) Engelund-Hansen model, ii) Engelund-Fredsøe model, and iii) Van Rijn model, Case II: change in current velocity for keeping constant pile diameter D=0.03 m and Case III:change in pier diameter for constant depth averaged current speed U=0.449 m/s.In case I simulations, the results indicate that the scour depth S/D is the order of 1.73 for Engelund-Hansen model, 0.64 for Engelund-Fredsøe model and 0.46 for VanRijn model. The scour depth estimates using Engelund-Hansen method compares well the experimental results.In case II, simulations show that the scour depth increases with increasing current component of the flow.In case III simulations, the results indicate that the scour depth increases with increase in pier diameter and it stabilize attains steady value when the Froude number> 2.71.All the results of the numerical simulations are clearly matches with reported values of the experimental results. Hence, this MIKE21 FM –Sand Transport model can be used as a suitable tool to estimate the scour depth for field applications. Moreover, to provide suitable scour protection methods, the maximum scour depth is to be predicted, Engelund-Hansen method can be adopted to estimate the scour depth in the steady current region.

Keywords: circular pier, MIKE21, numerical model, scour, sediment transport

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Authors: Louis Ngai Yuen Wong, Varun Maruvanchery

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The Bukit Timah Granite, which is a major rock formation in Singapore, encompasses different rock types such as granite, adamellite, and granodiorite with various hybrid rocks. The present study focuses on the Central Singapore Granite found in the Mandai area. Even within this small aerial extent, lithological variations with respect to the composition, texture as well as the grain size have been recognized in this igneous body. Over the years, the research effort on the Bukit Timah Granite has been focused on achieving a better understanding of its engineering properties in association with civil engineering projects. To our best understanding, a few types of research attempted to systematically investigate the influence of grain size, mineral composition, texture etc. on the strength of Bukit Timah Granite rocks in a comprehensive manner. In typical local industry practices, the different lithological varieties are not differentiated, but all are grouped under Bukit Timah Granite during core logging and the subsequent determination of engineering properties. To address such a major gap in the local engineering geological practice, a preliminary study is conducted on the variations of uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) in seven distinctly different lithological varieties found in the Bukit Timah Granite. Other physical properties including Young’s modulus, P-wave velocity and dry density determined from laboratory testing will also be discussed. The study is supplemented by a petrographical thin section examination. In addition, the specimen failure mode is classified and further correlated with the lithological varieties by carefully observing the details of crack initiation, propagation and coalescence processes in the specimens undergoing loading tests using a high-speed camera. The outcome of this research, which is the first of its type in Singapore, will have a direct implication on the sampling and design practices in the field of civil engineering and particularly underground space development in Singapore.

Keywords: Bukit Timah Granite, lithological variety, thin section study, high speed video, failure mode

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Authors: Ndagi Salihu

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Corporate governance mechanisms are the control measures for ensuring that all the interests groups are equally represented and management are working towards wealth creation in the interest of all. Therefore, there are many empirical studies during the last three decades on corporate governance and firm performance. However, little is known about the effects of family ownership on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance, especially in the developing economy like Nigeria. This limit our understanding of the unique governance dynamics of family ownership with regards firm performance. This study examined the impact of family ownership on the relationship between governance mechanisms and financial performance of publicly listed companies in Nigeria. The study adopted quantitative research methodology using correlational ex-post factor design and secondary data from annual reports and accounts of a sample of 23 listed companies for a period of 5 years (2014-2018). The explanatory variables are the board size, board composition, board financial expertise, and board audit committee attributes. Financial performance is proxy by Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). Multiple panel regression technique of data analysis was employed in the analysis, and the study found that family ownership has a significant positive effect on the relationships between corporate governance mechanisms and financial performance of publicly listed firms in Nigeria. This finding is the same for both the ROA and ROE. However, the findings indicate that board size, board financial expertise, and board audit committee attributes have a significant positive impact on the ROA and ROE of the sample firms after the moderation. Moreover, board composition has significant positive effect on financial performance of the sample listed firms in terms of ROA and ROE. The study concludes that the use of family ownership in the control of firms in Nigeria could improve performance by reducing the opportunistic actions managers as well as agency problems. The study recommends that publicly listed companies in Nigeria should allow significant family ownership of equities and participation in management.

Keywords: profitability, board characteristics, agency theory, stakeholders

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Authors: Noura El-Ahmady El-Naggar

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Among the antitumour drugs, bacterial enzyme L-asparaginase has been employed as the most effective chemotherapeutic agent in pediatric oncotherapy especially for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Glutaminase free L-asparaginase producing actinomycetes were isolated from soil samples collected from Egypt. Among them, a potential culture, strain NEAE-119, was selected and identified on the basis of morphological, cultural, physiological and biochemical properties, together with 16S rDNA sequence as Streptomyces olivaceus NEAE-119 and sequencing product(1509 bp) was deposited in the GenBank database under accession number KJ200342. The optimization of different process parameters for L-asparaginase production by Streptomyces olivaceus NEAE-119 using Plackett–Burman experimental design and response surface methodology was carried out. Fifteen nutritional variables (temperature, pH, incubation time, inoculum size, inoculum age, agitation speed, dextrose, starch, L-asparagine, KNO3, yeast extract, K2HPO4, MgSO4.7H2O, NaCl and FeSO4. 7H2O) were screened using Plackett–Burman experimental design. The most positive significant independent variables affecting enzyme production (temperature, inoculum age and agitation speed) were further optimized by the central composite face-centered design -response surface methodology. As a result, a medium of the following formula is the optimum for producing an extracellular L-asparaginase in the culture filtrate of Streptomyces olivaceus NEAE-119: Dextrose 3g, starch 20g, L-asparagine 10g, KNO3 1g, K2HPO4 1g, MgSO4.7H2O 0.1g, NaCl 0.1g, pH 7, temperature 37°C, agitation speed 200 rpm/min, inoculum size 4%, v/v, inoculum age 72 h and fermentation period 5 days.

Keywords: Streptomyces olivaceus NEAE-119, glutaminase free L-asparaginase, production, Plackett-Burman design, central composite face-centered design, 16S rRNA, scanning electron microscope

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Authors: Nour Hassan Ismail, Abdelmonem Nassar, Khaled Baz

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Semiconductor crystals smaller than about 10 nm, known as quantum dots, have properties that differ from large samples, including a band gap that becomes larger for smaller particles. These properties create several applications for quantum dots. In this paper, new shapes of quantum dot arrays are used to enhance the photo physical properties of gold nano-particles. This paper presents a study of the effect of nano-particles shape, array, and size on their absorption characteristics.

Keywords: quantum dots, nano-particles, LSPR

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Authors: J. S. Kim

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This paper presents a 0.13-µm Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) vector modulator for beamforming system. The vector modulator features a 360° phase and gain range of -10 dB to 10 dB with a root mean square phase and amplitude error of only 2.2° and 0.45 dB, respectively. These features make it a suitable for wireless backhaul system in the 5 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands. It draws a current of 20.4 mA from a 1.2 V supply. The total chip size is 1.87x1.34 mm².

Keywords: CMOS, vector modulator, beamforming, 802.11ac

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Authors: Inayat Ur Rahman Arshad

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Stevia rebaudiana B. is a shrubby perennial herb of Asteraceae family that possesses the unique ability of accumulative non caloric sweet Steviol Glycosides (SGs). The purpose of the study is to optimize sugar concentration, pH level and inoculum size for inducing the callus with optimum growth and efficient antibacterial potential. Three different experiments were conducted in which Callus explant from three-months-old already established callus of Stevia reabudiana of four different sizes were inoculated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with five different sucrose concentration and pH adjusted at four different levels. Maximum callus induction 100, 87.5 and 85.33% was resulted in the medium supplemented with 30g/l sucrose, pH maintained at 5.5 and inoculated with 1.25g inoculum respectively. Similarly, the highest fresh weight 65.00, 75.50 and 50.53g/l were noted in medium fortified with 40g/l sucrose, inoculated 1.25g inoculum and 6.0 pH level respectively. However, the callus developed in medium containing 50g/l sucrose found highly antibacterial potent with 27.3 and 26.5mm inhibition zone against P. vulgaris and B. subtilize respectively. Similarly, the callus grown on medium inoculated with 1.00g inoculum resulted in maximum antibacterial potential against S. aureus and P. vulgaris with 25 and 23.72mm inhibition zones respectively. However, in the case of pH levels the medium maintained at 6.5pH showed maximum antibacterial activity against P. vulgaris, B.subtilis and E.coli with 27.9, 25 and 23.72mm respectively. The ethyl acetate extract of Stevia callus and leaves did not show antibacterial potential against Xanthomonas campestris and Clavebactor michiganensis. In the entire experiment the standard antibacterial agent Streptomycin showed the highest inhibition zones from the rest of the callus extract, however the pure DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide) caused no inhibitory zone against any bacteria. From these findings it is concluded that among various levels sucrose at the rate of 40g L-1, pH 6.0 and inoculums 0.75g was found best for most of the growth and quality attributes including fresh weight, dry weight and antibacterial activities and therefore can be recommended for callus proliferation and antibacterial potential of Stevia rebaudiana

Keywords: Steviol Glycosides, Skoog, Murashige, Clavebactor michiganensis

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Authors: Saurabh Sharma

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Introduction: The case study deals with the ground stabilisation of Nabi Karim Metro Station in Delhi, India, wherein an extremely complex geology was encountered while excavating the tunnelling shaft for launching Tunnel Boring Machine. The borelog investigation and the Seismic Refraction Technique (SRT) indicated towards the presence of an extremely hard rocky mass from a depth of 3-4 m itself, and accordingly, the Geotechnical Interpretation Report (GIR) concluded the presence of Grade-IV rock from 3m onwards and presence of Grade-III and better rock from 5-6m onwards. Accordingly, it was planned to retain the ground by providing secant piles all around the launching shaft and then excavating the shaft vertically after leaving a berm of 1.5m to prevent secant piles from getting exposed. To retain the side slopes, rock bolting with shotcreting and wire meshing were proposed, which is a normal practice in such strata. However, with the increase in depth of excavation, the rock quality kept on decreasing at an unexpected and surprising pace, with the Grade-III rock mass at 5-6 m converting to conglomerate formation at the depth of 15m. This worsening of geology from high grade rock to slushy conglomerate formation can never be predicted and came as a surprise to even the best geotechnical engineers. Since the excavation had already been cut down vertically to manage the shaft size, the execution was continued with enhanced cautions to stabilise the side slopes. But, when the shaft work was about to finish, a collapse was encountered on one side of the excavation shaft. This collapse was unexpected and surprising since all measures to stabilise the side slopes had been taken after face mapping, and the grid size, diameter, and depth of the rockbolts had already been readjusted to accommodate rock fractures. The above scenario was baffling even to the best geologists and geotechnical engineers, and it was decided that any further slope stabilisation scheme shall have to be designed in such a way to ensure safe completion of works. Accordingly, following revisions to excavation scheme were made: The excavation would be carried while maintaining a slope based on type of soil/rock. The rock bolt type was changed from SN rockbolts to Self Drilling type anchor. The grid size of the bolts changed on real time assessment. the excavation carried out by implementing a ‘Bench Release Approach’. Aggressive Real Time Instrumentation Scheme. Discussion: The above case Study again asserts vitality of correct interpretation of the geological strata and the need of real time revisions of the construction schemes based on the actual site data. The excavation is successfully being done with the above revised scheme, and further details of the Revised Slope Stabilisation Scheme, Instrumentation Schemes, Monitoring results, along with the actual site photographs, shall form the part of the final Paper.

Keywords: unconfined compressive strength (ucs), rock mass rating (rmr), rock bolts, self drilling anchors, face mapping of rock, secant pile, shotcrete

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Authors: Inayat Ur Rahman Arshad

Abstract:

Background: Stevia rebaudiana B. is a shrubby perennial herb of Asteraceae family that possesses the unique ability of accumulative non-caloric sweet steviol glycosides (SGs). Purpose: The purpose of the study is to optimize sugar concentration, pH level, and inoculum size for inducing the callus with optimum growth and efficient antibacterial potential. Method: Three different experiments were conducted in which Callus explant from three-months-old already established callus of Stevia reabudiana of four different sizes was inoculated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with five different sucrose concentration and pH adjusted at four different levels. Results: Maximum callus induction 100, 87.5, and 85.33% resulted in the medium supplemented with 30 g/l sucrose, pH maintained at 5.5, and inoculated with 1.25g inoculum, respectively. Similarly, the highest fresh weights 65.00, 75.50, and 50.53 g/l were noted in a medium fortified with 40 g/l sucrose, inoculated 1.25g inoculum, and 6.0 pH level, respectively. However, the callus developed in a medium containing 50 g/l sucrose was found to be highly antibacterial potent with 27.3 and 26.5 mm inhibition zone against P. vulgaris and B. subtilis, respectively. Similarly, the callus grown on a medium inoculated with 1.00 g inoculum resulted in maximum antibacterial potential against S. aureus and P. vulgaris with 25 and 23.72 mm inhibition zone, respectively. However, in the case of pH levels, the medium maintained at 6.5 pH showed maximum antibacterial activity against P. vulgaris, B.subtilis, and E.coli with 27.9, 25, and 23.72 mm, respectively. The ethyl acetate extract of Stevia callus and leaves did not show antibacterial potential against Xanthomonas campestris and Clavebactor michiganensis. In the entire experiment, the standard antibacterial agent Streptomycin showed the highest inhibition zones among the rest of the callus extract; however, the pure dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) caused no inhibitory zone against any bacteria. Conclusion: From these findings, it is concluded that among various levels, sucrose @ 40 g L⁻¹, pH 6.0, and inoculums at 0.75 g were found best for most of the growth and quality attributes, including fresh weight, dry weight, and antibacterial activities and therefore can be recommended for callus proliferation and antibacterial potential of Stevia rebaudiana.

Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana, Steviol Glycosides, callus, Xanthomonas campestris

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Authors: Jayden Leonard, Nguyen Que Huong

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In this work, we study the Trion state in a spherical quantum dot of a direct band gap semiconductor with a shell of organic material. The electronic structure of the Trion due to degenerate valence band will be considered. The coupling between the wannier exciton inside the dot and the Frenkel exciton in the shell will make the Trion state become hybrid. The competition between “semiconductor” and “organic” phases of the Trion and the transitions between them depend on Parameters of the system such as the materials, the size of the dot and the thickness of the shell, etc… and could be manipulated using those parameters.

Keywords: trion, exciton, quantum dot, heterostructure

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Authors: S. H. Chew, Z. X. Eng, K. E. Chuah, T. Y. Lim, H. M. A. Yim

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In recent years, geotextile tube has been widely used in the hydraulic engineering and dewatering industry. To construct a stable containment bund with geotextile tubes, the sand slurry is always the preference infilling material. However, the shortage of sand supply posts a problem in Singapore to adopt this construction method in the actual construction of long containment bund. Hence, utilizing the soft dredged clay or the excavated soft clay as the infilling material of geotextile tubes has a great economic benefit. There are any technical issues with using this soft clayey material as infilling material, especially on the excessive settlement and stability concerns. To minimize the shape deformation and settlement of geotextile tube associated with the use of this soft clay infilling material, a modified innovative infilling material is proposed – lightly cemented soft clay. The preliminary laboratory studies have shown that the dewatering mechanism via geotextile material of the tube skin, and the introduction of cementitious chemical action of the lightly cemented soft clay will accelerate the consolidation and improve the shear strength of infill material. This study aims to extend the study by conducting a pilot test of the geotextile tube filled with lightly cemented clay. This study consists of testing on a series of miniature geo-tubes and two full-size geotextile tube. In the miniature geo-tube tests, a number of small scaled-down size of geotextile tubes were filled with cemented clay (at water content of 150%) with cement content of 0% to 8% (by weight). The shear strength development of the lightly cemented clay under dewatering mechanism was evaluated using a modified in-situ Cone Penetration Test (CPT) at 0 days, 3 days, 7 days and 28 days after the infilling. The undisturbed soil samples of lightly cemented infilled clay were also extracted at 3-days and 7-days for triaxial tests and evaluation of final water content. The results suggested that the geotextile tubes filled with un-cemented soft clay experienced very significant shape change over the days (as control test). However, geotextile mini-tubes filled with lightly cemented clay experienced only marginal shape changed, even that the strength development of this lightly cemented clay inside the tube may not show significant strength gain at the early stage. The shape stability is believed to be due to the confinement effect of the geotextile tube with clay at non-slurry state. Subsequently, a full-scale instrumented geotextile tube filled with lightly cemented clay was performed. The extensive results of strain gauges and pressure transducers installed on this full-size geotextile tube demonstrated a substantial mobilization of tensile forces on the geotextile skin corresponding to the filling activity and the subsequent dewatering stage. Shape change and the in-fill material strength development was also monitored. In summary, the construction of containment bund with geotextile tube filled with lightly cemented clay is found to be technically feasible and stable with the use of the sufficiently strong (i.e. adequate tensile strength) geotextile tube, the adequate control on the dosage of cement content, and suitable water content of infilling soft clay material.

Keywords: cemented clay, containment bund, dewatering, geotextile tube

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Authors: Luis A. Lizama-Perez, Manuel J. Linares, Mauricio Lopez

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We introduce a method to perform remote user authentication on what we call non-invertible cryptography. It exploits the fact that the multiplication of an invertible integer and a non-invertible integer in a ring Zn produces a non-invertible integer making infeasible to compute factorization. The protocol requires the smallest key size when is compared with the main public key algorithms as Diffie-Hellman, Rivest-Shamir-Adleman or Elliptic Curve Cryptography. Since we found that the unique opportunity for the eavesdropper is to mount an exhaustive search on the keys, the protocol seems to be post-quantum.

Keywords: invertible, non-invertible, ring, key transfer

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Authors: Wang Hong, Liu Chang Kui, Zhao Bing Jing, Hu Min

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Objection We observed the repairment effection of canine mandibular defect with meshy Ti6Al4V scaffold fabricated by electron beam melting (EBM) combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) encapsulated in chitosan hydrogel. Method Meshy titanium scaffolds were prepared by EBM of commercial Ti6Al4V power. The length of scaffolds was 24 mm, the width was 5 mm and height was 8mm. The pore size and porosity were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Chitosan /Bio-Oss hydrogel was prepared by chitosan, β- sodium glycerophosphate and Bio-Oss power. BMMSCs were harvested from canine iliac crests. BMMSCs were seeded in titanium scaffolds and encapsulated in Chitosan /Bio-Oss hydrogel. The validity of BMMSCs was evaluated by cell count kit-8 (CCK-8). The osteogenic differentiation ability was evaluated by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and gene expression of OC, OPN and CoⅠ. Combination were performed by injecting BMMSCs/ Chitosan /Bio-Oss hydrogel into the meshy Ti6Al4V scaffolds and solidified. 24 mm long box-shaped bone defects were made at the mid-portion of mandible of adult beagles. The defects were randomly filled with BMMSCs/ Chitosan/Bio-Oss + titanium, Chitosan /Bio-Oss+titanium, titanium alone. Autogenous iliac crests graft as control group in 3 beagles. Radionuclide bone imaging was used to monitor the new bone tissue at 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks after surgery. CT examination was made on the surgery day and 4 weeks, 12 weeks and 24 weeks after surgery. The animals were sacrificed in 4, 12 and 24 weeks after surgery. The bone formation were evaluated by histology and micro-CT. Results: The pores of the scaffolds was interconnected, the pore size was about 1 mm, the average porosity was about 76%. The pore size of the hydrogel was 50-200μm and the average porosity was approximately 90%. The hydrogel were solidified under the condition of 37℃in 10 minutes. The validity and the osteogenic differentiation ability of BMSCs were not affected by titanium scaffolds and hydrogel. Radionuclide bone imaging shown an increasing tendency of the revascularization and bone regeneration was observed in all the groups at 2, 4, 8 weeks after operation, and there were no changes at 12weeks.The tendency was more obvious in the BMMSCs/ Chitosan/Bio-Oss +titanium group and autogenous group. CT, Micro-CT and histology shown that new bone formed increasingly with the time extend. There were more new bone regenerated in BMMSCs/ Chitosan /Bio-Oss + titanium group and autogenous group than the other two groups. At 24 weeks, the autogenous group was achieved bone union. The BMSCs/ Chitosan /Bio-Oss group was seen extensive new bone formed around the scaffolds and more new bone inside of the central pores of scaffolds than Chitosan /Bio-Oss + titanium group and titanium group. The difference was significantly. Conclusion: The titanium scaffolds fabricated by EBM had controlled porous structure, good bone conduction and biocompatibility. Chitosan /Bio-Oss hydrogel had injectable plasticity, thermosensitive property and good biocompatibility. The meshy Ti6Al4V scaffold produced by EBM combined BMSCs encapsulated in chitosan hydrogel had good capacity on mandibular bone defect repair.

Keywords: mandibular reconstruction, tissue engineering, electron beam melting, titanium alloy

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Authors: Farha Mizana Shamsudin, Shahidan Radiman, Yusof Abdullah, Nasri Abdul Hamid

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Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steels are amongst the most promising candidates for large scale structural materials to be applied in next generation fission and fusion nuclear power reactors. This kind of material is relatively stable at high temperature, possess remarkable mechanical properties and comparatively good resistance from neutron radiation damage. The superior performance of ODS ferritic steels over their conventional properties is attributed to the high number density of nano-sized dispersoids that act as nucleation sites and stable sinks for many small helium bubbles resulting from irradiation, and also as pinning points to dislocation movement and grain growth. ODS ferritic steels are usually produced by powder metallurgical routes involving mechanical alloying (MA) process of Y2O3 and pre-alloyed or elemental metallic powders, and then consolidated by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) or hot extrusion (HE) techniques. In this study, Fe-14Cr-3W-0.5Ti-0.3Y₂O₃ (designated as 14YWT) was produced by mechanical alloying process and followed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) technique. Crystal structure and morphology of this sample were identified and characterized by using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) respectively. The magnetic measurement of this sample at room temperature was carried out by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). FESEM micrograph revealed a homogeneous microstructure constituted by fine grains of less than 650 nm in size. The ultra-fine dispersoids of size between 5 nm to 19 nm were observed homogeneously distributed within the BCC matrix. The EDS mapping reveals that the dispersoids contain Y-Ti-O nanoclusters and from the magnetization curve plotted by VSM, this sample approaches the behavior of soft ferromagnetic materials. In conclusion, ODS Fe-14Cr-3W-0.5Ti-0.3Y₂O₃ (14YWT) ferritic steel was successfully produced by HIP technique in this present study.

Keywords: hot isostatic pressing, magnetization, microstructure, ODS ferritic steel

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Authors: Jing (Claire) LI

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More than two decades from 2000 to 2020 of economic reforms have brought China unprecedented economic growth. There is an urgent call of research towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of China because while China continues to develop into a global trading market, it suffers from various serious problems relating to CSR. This study analyses the factors affecting the adoption of CSR practices by Chinese listed companies. The author proposes a new framework of factors of CSR adoption. Following common organisational factors and external factors in the literature (including organisational support, company size, shareholder pressures, and government support), this study introduces two additional factors, dynamic capability and regional culture. A survey questionnaire was conducted on the CSR adoption of Chinese listed companies in Shen Zhen and Shang Hai index from December 2019 to March 2020. The survey was conducted to collect data on the factors that affect the adoption of CSR. After collection of data, this study performed factor analysis to reduce the number of measurement items to several main factors. This procedure is to confirm the proposed framework and ensure the significant factors. Through analysis, this study identifies four grouped factors as determinants of the CSR adoption. The first factor loading includes dynamic capability and organisational support. The study finds that they are positively related to the first factor, so the first factor mainly reflects the capabilities of companies, which is one component in internal factors. In the second factor, measurement items of stakeholder pressures mainly are from regulatory bodies, customer and supplier, employees and community, and shareholders. In sum, they are positively related to the second factor and they reflect stakeholder pressures, which is one component of external factors. The third factor reflects organisational characteristics. Variables include company size and cultural score. Among these variables, company size is negatively related to the third factor. The resulted factor loading of the third factor implies that organisational factor is an important determinant of CSR adoption. Cultural consistency, the variable in the fourth factor, is positively related to the factor. It represents the difference between perception of managers and actual culture of the organisations in terms of cultural dimensions, which is one component in internal factors. It implies that regional culture is an important factor of CSR adoption. Overall, the results are consistent with previous literature. This study is of significance from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. First, from the significance of theoretical perspective, this research combines stakeholder theory, dynamic capability view of a firm, and neo-institutional theory in CSR research. Based on association of these three theories, this study introduces two new factors (dynamic capability and regional culture) to have a better framework for CSR adoption. Second, this study contributes to empirical literature of CSR in the context of China. Extant Chinese companies lack recognition of the importance of CSR practices adoption. This study built a framework and may help companies to design resource allocation strategies and evaluate future CSR and management practices in an early stage.

Keywords: China, corporate social responsibility, CSR adoption, dynamic capability, regional culture

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Authors: Xianglu Tang, Zhenxue Jiang, Zhuo Li

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Characterization of shale multi scale heterogeneity is an important part to evaluate size and space distribution of shale gas reservoirs in sedimentary basins. The origin of shale heterogeneity has always been a hot research topic for it determines shale micro characteristics description and macro quality reservoir prediction. Shale multi scale heterogeneity was discussed based on thin section observation, FIB-SEM, QEMSCAN, TOC, XRD, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), and nitrogen adsorption analysis from 30 core samples in Silurian Longmaxi formation. Results show that shale heterogeneity can be characterized by pore structure and mineral composition. The heterogeneity of shale pore is showed by different size pores at nm-μm scale. Macropores (pore diameter > 50 nm) have a large percentage of pore volume than mesopores (pore diameter between 2~ 50 nm) and micropores (pore diameter < 2nm). However, they have a low specific surface area than mesopores and micropores. Fractal dimensions of the pores from nitrogen adsorption data are higher than 2.7, what are higher than 2.8 from MIP data, showing extremely complex pore structure. This complexity in pore structure is mainly due to the organic matter and clay minerals with complex pore network structures, and diagenesis makes it more complicated. The heterogeneity of shale minerals is showed by mineral grains, lamina, and different lithology at nm-km scale under the continuous changing horizon. Through analyzing the change of mineral composition at each scale, random arrangement of mineral equal proportion, seasonal climate changes, large changes of sedimentary environment, and provenance supply are considered to be the main reasons that cause shale minerals heterogeneity from microcosmic to macroscopic. Due to scale effect, the change of shale multi scale heterogeneity is a discontinuous process, and there is a transformation boundary between homogeneous and in homogeneous. Therefore, a shale multi scale heterogeneity changing model is established by defining four types of homogeneous unit at different scales, which can be used to guide the prediction of shale gas distribution from micro scale to macro scale.

Keywords: heterogeneity, homogeneous unit, multiscale, shale

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Authors: Volkmar Nolting

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Fatigue crack growth prediction has become an important topic in both engineering and non-destructive evaluation. Crack propagation is influenced by the mechanical properties of the material and is conveniently modelled by the Paris-Erdogan equation. The critical crack size and the total number of load cycles are calculated. From a Larson-Miller plot the maximum operational temperature can for a given stress level be determined so that failure does not occur within a given time interval t. The study is used to determine a reasonable inspection cycle and thus enhances operational safety and reduces costs.

Keywords: fracturemechanics, crack growth prediction, lifetime of a component, structural health monitoring

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Authors: P. Fernández-Morales, D. Peláez, C. Isaza, J. M. Meza, E. Mendoza

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Mg AZ31B alloy sheets were processed through equal-channel angular sheet drawing (ECASD) process, following the route A and C at room temperature and varying the processing speed. SEM was used to analyze the microstructure. The grain size was refined and presence of twins was observed. Vickers microhardness and tensile testing were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties, showing in general; a remarkable increase in the first pass and slight increases during subsequent passes and, that the route C produces better uniform properties distribution through the thickness of the samples.

Keywords: ECASD, Mg Alloy, mechanical properties, microstructure

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Authors: R. Sarjahani, M. Sheikhattar, S. Javadpour, B. Hashemi

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Glazes and their surface characterization is an important subject for ceramic industries. Fabrication of a super smooth surface resistant to stains is a big improvement for those industries. In this investigation, surface topography of popular glazes such as Zircon and Titania based opaque glazes, calcium based matte glaze and transparent glaze has been analyzed by Marsurf M300, SEM, EDS and XRD. Results shows that surface roughness of glazes seriously depends on surface crystallinity, crystal size and shapes.

Keywords: crystallinity, glaze, surface roughness, topography

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Authors: Ahmed Aljudaya, Derek Ingham, Lin Ma, Kevin Hughes, Mohammed Pourkashanian

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Researchers, power companies, and state politicians have given concentrated solar power (CSP) much attention due to its capacity to generate large amounts of electricity whereas overcoming the intermittent nature of solar resources. The Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) is a well-known CSP technology type for being inexpensive, having a low land use factor, and suffering from low optical efficiency. The LFR was considered a cost-effective alternative option to the Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) because of its simplistic design, and this often outweighs its lower efficiency. The LFR has been found to be a promising option for directly producing steam to a thermal cycle in order to generate low-cost electricity, but also it has been shown to be promising for indirect steam generation. The purpose of this important analysis is to compare the annual performance of the Direct Steam Generation (DSG) and Indirect Steam Generation (ISG) of LFR power plants using molten salt and other different Heat Transfer Fluids (HTF) to investigate their technical and economic effects. A 50 MWe solar-only system is examined as a case study for both steam production methods in extreme weather conditions. In addition, a parametric analysis is carried out to determine the optimal solar field size that provides the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) while achieving the highest technical performance. As a result of optimizing the optimum solar field size, the solar multiple (SM) is found to be between 1.2 – 1.5 in order to achieve as low as 9 Cent/KWh for the direct steam generation of the linear Fresnel reflector. In addition, the power plant is capable of producing around 141 GWh annually and up to 36% of the capacity factor, whereas the ISG produces less energy at a higher cost. The optimization results show that the DSG’s performance overcomes the ISG in producing around 3% more annual energy, 2% lower LCOE, and 28% less capital cost.

Keywords: concentrated solar power, levelized cost of electricity, linear Fresnel reflectors, steam generation

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Authors: Mohammad M. Khan, Pankaj Agarwal

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The present investigation deals with the microstructures, mechanical and detailed wear characteristics of in situ TiC particles reinforced zinc aluminum-based metal matrix composites. The composites have been synthesized by liquid metallurgy route using vortex technique. The composite was found to be harder than the matrix alloy due to high hardness of the dispersoid particles therein. The former was also lower in ultimate tensile strength and ductility as compared to the matrix alloy. This could be explained to be due to the use of coarser size dispersoid and larger interparticle spacing. Reasonably uniform distribution of the dispersoid phase in the alloy matrix and good interfacial bonding between the dispersoid and matrix was observed. The composite exhibited predominantly brittle mode of fracture with microcracking in the dispersoid phase indicating effective easy transfer of load from matrix to the dispersoid particles. To study the wear behavior of the samples three different types of tests were performed namely: (i) sliding wear tests using a pin on disc machine under dry condition, (ii) high stress (two-body) abrasive wear tests using different combinations of abrasive media and specimen surfaces under the conditions of varying abrasive size, traversal distance and load, and (iii) low-stress (three-body) abrasion tests using a rubber wheel abrasion tester at various loads and traversal distances using different abrasive media. In sliding wear test, significantly lower wear rates were observed in the case of base alloy over that of the composites. This has been attributed to the poor room temperature strength as a result of increased microcracking tendency of the composite over the matrix alloy. Wear surfaces of the composite revealed the presence of fragmented dispersoid particles and microcracking whereas the wear surface of matrix alloy was observed to be smooth with shallow grooves. During high-stress abrasion, the presence of the reinforcement offered increased resistance to the destructive action of the abrasive particles. Microcracking tendency was also enhanced because of the reinforcement in the matrix. The negative effect of the microcracking tendency was predominant by the abrasion resistance of the dispersoid. As a result, the composite attained improved wear resistance than the matrix alloy. The wear rate increased with load and abrasive size due to a larger depth of cut made by the abrasive medium. The wear surfaces revealed fine grooves, and damaged reinforcement particles while subsurface regions revealed limited plastic deformation and microcracking and fracturing of the dispersoid phase. During low-stress abrasion, the composite experienced significantly less wear rate than the matrix alloy irrespective of the test conditions. This could be explained to be due to wear resistance offered by the hard dispersoid phase thereby protecting the softer matrix against the destructive action of the abrasive medium. Abraded surfaces of the composite showed protrusion of dispersoid phase. The subsurface regions of the composites exhibited decohesion of the dispersoid phase along with its microcracking and limited plastic deformation in the vicinity of the abraded surfaces.

Keywords: abrasive wear, liquid metallurgy, metal martix composite, SEM

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Authors: Ja-Keoung Koo, Kensuke Nakamura, Hyohun Kim, Dongwha Shin, Yeonseok Kim, Ji-Su Ahn, Byung-Woo Hong

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The machine learning techniques based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) have been actively developed and successfully applied to a variety of image analysis tasks including reconstruction, noise reduction, resolution enhancement, segmentation, motion estimation, object recognition. The classical visual information processing that ranges from low level tasks to high level ones has been widely developed in the deep learning framework. It is generally considered as a challenging problem to derive visual interpretation from high dimensional imagery data. A CNN is a class of feed-forward artificial neural network that usually consists of deep layers the connections of which are established by a series of non-linear operations. The CNN architecture is known to be shift invariant due to its shared weights and translation invariance characteristics. However, it is often computationally intractable to optimize the network in particular with a large number of convolution layers due to a large number of unknowns to be optimized with respect to the training set that is generally required to be large enough to effectively generalize the model under consideration. It is also necessary to limit the size of convolution kernels due to the computational expense despite of the recent development of effective parallel processing machinery, which leads to the use of the constantly small size of the convolution kernels throughout the deep CNN architecture. However, it is often desired to consider different scales in the analysis of visual features at different layers in the network. Thus, we propose a CNN model where different sizes of the convolution kernels are applied at each layer based on the random projection. We apply random filters with varying sizes and associate the filter responses with scalar weights that correspond to the standard deviation of the random filters. We are allowed to use large number of random filters with the cost of one scalar unknown for each filter. The computational cost in the back-propagation procedure does not increase with the larger size of the filters even though the additional computational cost is required in the computation of convolution in the feed-forward procedure. The use of random kernels with varying sizes allows to effectively analyze image features at multiple scales leading to a better generalization. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed CNN based on random kernels are demonstrated by numerical experiments where the quantitative comparison of the well-known CNN architectures and our models that simply replace the convolution kernels with the random filters is performed. The experimental results indicate that our model achieves better performance with less number of unknown weights. The proposed algorithm has a high potential in the application of a variety of visual tasks based on the CNN framework. Acknowledgement—This work was supported by the MISP (Ministry of Science and ICT), Korea, under the National Program for Excellence in SW (20170001000011001) supervised by IITP, and NRF-2014R1A2A1A11051941, NRF2017R1A2B4006023.

Keywords: deep learning, convolutional neural network, random kernel, random projection, dimensionality reduction, object recognition

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Authors: Ali Raza, Rizwan Latif, Syed Adnan Qasim, Imran Shafi

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Diesel engines are most efficient and reliable in terms of efficiency, reliability, and adaptability. Most of the research and development up till now have been directed towards High Speed Diesel Engine, for Commercial use. In these engines, objective is to optimize maximum acceleration by reducing exhaust emission to meet international standards. In high torque low speed engines, the requirement is altogether different. These types of engines are mostly used in Maritime Industry, Agriculture Industry, Static Engines Compressors Engines, etc. On the contrary, high torque low speed engines are neglected quite often and are eminent for low efficiency and high soot emissions. One of the most effective ways to overcome these issues is by efficient combustion in an engine cylinder. Fuel spray dynamics play a vital role in defining mixture formation, fuel consumption, combustion efficiency and soot emissions. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the fuel spray characteristics and atomization process in high torque low speed diesel engine is of great importance. Evaporation in the combustion chamber has a rigorous effect on the efficiency of the engine. In this paper, multiphase evaporation of fuel is modeled for high torque low speed engine using the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) codes. Two distinct phases of evaporation are modeled using modeling soft wares. The basic model equations are derived from the energy conservation equation and Naiver-Stokes equation. O’Rourke model is used to model the evaporation phases. The results obtained showed a generous effect on the efficiency of the engine. Evaporation rate of fuel droplet is increased with the increase in vapor pressure. An appreciable reduction in size of droplet is achieved by adding the convective heat effects in the combustion chamber. By and large, an overall increase in efficiency is observed by modeling distinct evaporation phases. This increase in efficiency is due to the fact that droplet size is reduced and vapor pressure is increased in the engine cylinder.

Keywords: diesel fuel, CFD, evaporation, multiphase

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Authors: Mondher Labidi, Fethi Choubani

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In this paper, novel miniaturization technique of antenna is proposed using I-slot. Using this technique, gain of antenna can increased for 4dB (antenna only) to 6.6dB for the proposed I-slot antenna and a frequency shift of about 0.45 GHz to 1 GHz is obtained. Also a reduction of the shape size of the antenna is achieved (about 38 %) to operate in the Wi-Fi (2.45 GHz) band.RF Moreover the frequency shift can be controlled by changing the place or the length of the I-slot. Finally the proposed miniature antenna with an improved radiation efficiency and gain was built and tested.

Keywords: slot antenna, miniaturization, RF, electrical equivalent circuit (EEC)

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Authors: Yanting Cao, Kazumitsu Nawata

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As smartphones upgrading, their software and hardware are getting smarter, so the smartphone-based human activity recognition will be described as more refined, complex, and detailed. In this context, we analyzed a set of experimental data obtained by observing and measuring 30 volunteers with six activities of daily living (ADL). Due to the large sample size, especially a 561-feature vector with time and frequency domain variables, cleaning these intractable features and training a proper model becomes extremely challenging. After a series of feature selection and parameters adjustment, a well-performed SVM classifier has been trained.

Keywords: smart sensors, human activity recognition, artificial intelligence, SVM

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Authors: Samrat Paul, Satyajit Pahari, Krishnendu Basak, Amitava Roy

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Fishing is one of the pivotal livelihood activities, especially in developing countries. Today it is considered an important occupation for human society from the era of human settlement began. In simple terms, non-target catches of any species during fishing can be considered as ‘bycatch,’ and fishing bycatch is neither a new fishery management issue nor a new problem. Sundarban is one of the world’s largest mangrove land expanding up to 10,200 sq. km in India and Bangladesh. This largest mangrove biome resource is used by the local inhabitants commercially to run their livelihood, especially by forest fringe villagers (FFVs). In Sundarban, over-fishing, especially post larvae collection of wild Penaeus monodon, is one of the major concerns, as during the collection of P. monodon, different aquatic species are destroyed as a result of bycatch mortality which changes in productivity and may negatively impact entire biodiversity, of the ecosystem. Wild prawn seed collection gear like a small mesh sized net poses a serious threat to aquatic stocks, where the collection isn’t only limited to prawn seed larvae. As prawn seed collection processes are inexpensive, require less monetary investment, and are lucrative; people are easily engaged here as their source of income. Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) intervention in selected forest fringe villages of Sundarban Tiger Reserve (STR) was to estimate and reduce the mortality of aquatic bycatches by involving local communities in newly developed release method and their time engagement in prawn seed collection (PSC) by involving them in Alternate Income Generation (AIG). The study was conducted for their taxonomic identification during the period of March to October 2019. Collected samples were preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol for identification, and all the preserved bycatch samples were identified morphologically by the expertise of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata. Around 74 different aquatic species, where 11 different species are molluscs, 41 fish species, out of which 31 species were identified, and 22 species of crustacean collected, out of which 18 species were identified. Around 13 different species belong to a different order, and families were unable to identify them morphologically as they were collected in the juvenile stage. The study reveals that for collecting one single prawn seed, eight individual life of associated faunas are being lost. Zero bycatch mortality is not practical; rather, collectors should focus on bycatch reduction by avoiding capturing, allowing escaping, and mortality reduction, and must make changes in their fishing method by increasing net mesh size, which will avoid non-target captures. But as the prawns are small in size (generally 1-1.5 inches in length), thus increase net size making economically less or no profit for collectors if they do so. In this case, returning bycatches is considered one of the best ways to a reduction in bycatch mortality which is a more sustainable practice.

Keywords: bycatch mortality, biodiversity, mangrove biome resource, sustainable practice, Alternate Income Generation (AIG)

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Authors: K. Hariohm, V. Prakash, J. Saravana Kumar

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Introduction and Rationale: Increased scope of Physiotherapy (PT) practice also has contributed to research in the field of PT. It is essential to determine the production and quality of the clinical trials from India since, it may reflect the scientific growth of the profession. These trends can be taken as a baseline to measure our performance and also can be used as a guideline for the future trials. Objective: To quantify and analyze qualitatively the RCT’s from India from the period 2000-2013’ May, and classify data for the information process. Methods: Studies were searched in the Medline database using the key terms “India”, “Indian”, “Physiotherapy”. Clinical trials only with PT authors were included. Trials out of scope of PT practice and on animals were excluded. Retrieved valid articles were analyzed for published year, type of participants, area of study, PEDro score, outcome measure domains of impairment, activity, participation; ‘a priori’ sample size calculation, region, and explanation of the intervention. Result: 45 valid articles were retrieved from the year 2000-2013’ May. The majority of articles were done on symptomatic participants (81%). The frequencies of conditions repeated more were low back pain (n-7) and diabetes (n-4). PEDro score with mode 5 and upper limit of 8 and lower limit 4 was found. 97.2% of studies measure the outcome at the impairment level, 34% in activity level, and 27.8% in participation level. 29.7% of studies did ‘a priori’ sample size calculation. Correlation of year trend and PEDro score found to be not significant (p>.05). Individual PEDro item analysis showed, randomization (100%), concealment (33%) baseline (76%), blinding-subject, therapist, assessor (9.1%, 0%, 10%), follow-up (89%) ITT (15%), statistics between groups (100%), measures of variance (88 %). Conclusion: The trend shows an upward slope in terms of RCTs published from India which is a good indicator. The qualitative analysis showed some gaps in the clinical trial design, which can be expected to be, fulfilled by the future researchers.

Keywords: RCT, PEDro, physical therapy, rehabilitation

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Authors: J. Mona, R. R. da Silva, C.-L.Cheng, Y. Kopelevich

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We report on a possible occurrence of superconductivity in 5 nm particle size diamond powders treated with sulfur (S) at 500 o C for 10 hours in ~10-2 Torr vacuum. Superconducting-like magnetization hysteresis loops M(H) have been measured up to ~ 50 K by means of the SQUID magnetometer (Quantum Design). Both X-ray (Θ-2Θ geometry) and Raman spectroscopy analyses revealed no impurity or additional phases. Nevertheless, the measured Raman spectra are characteristic to the diamond with embedded disordered carbon and/or graphitic fragments suggesting a link to the previous reports of the local or surface superconductivity in graphite- and amorphous carbon–sulfur composites.

Keywords: nanodiamond, sulfur, superconductivity, Raman spectroscopy

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Authors: J. Desbrieres, M. Popa, C. Peptu, S. Bacaita

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Because of their favorable properties (non-toxicity, biodegradability, mucoadhesivity etc.), polysaccharides were studied as biomaterials and as pharmaceutical excipients in drug formulations. These formulations may be produced in a wide variety of forms including hydrogels, hydrogel based particles (or capsules), films etc. In these formulations, the polysaccharide based materials are able to provide local delivery of loaded therapeutic agents but their delivery can be rapid and not easily time-controllable due to, particularly, the burst effect. This leads to a loss in drug efficiency and lifetime. To overcome the consequences of burst effect, systems involving liposomes incorporated into polysaccharide hydrogels may appear as a promising material in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug loading systems. Liposomes are spherical self-closed structures, composed of curved lipid bilayers, which enclose part of the surrounding solvent into their structure. The simplicity of production, their biocompatibility, the size and similar composition of cells, the possibility of size adjustment for specific applications, the ability of hydrophilic or/and hydrophobic drug loading make them a revolutionary tool in nanomedicine and biomedical domain. Drug delivery systems were developed as hydrogels containing chitosan or carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) as polysaccharides and gelatin (GEL) as polypeptide, and phosphatidylcholine or phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol liposomes able to accurately control this delivery, without any burst effect. Hydrogels based on CMC were covalently crosslinked using glutaraldehyde, whereas chitosan based hydrogels were double crosslinked (ionically using sodium tripolyphosphate or sodium sulphate and covalently using glutaraldehyde). It has been proven that the liposome integrity is highly protected during the crosslinking procedure for the formation of the film network. Calcein was used as model active matter for delivery experiments. Multi-Lamellar vesicles (MLV) and Small Uni-Lamellar Vesicles (SUV) were prepared and compared. The liposomes are well distributed throughout the whole area of the film, and the vesicle distribution is equivalent (for both types of liposomes evaluated) on the film surface as well as deeper (100 microns) in the film matrix. An obvious decrease of the burst effect was observed in presence of liposomes as well as a uniform increase of calcein release that continues even at large time scales. Liposomes act as an extra barrier for calcein release. Systems containing MLVs release higher amounts of calcein compared to systems containing SUVs, although these liposomes are more stable in the matrix and diffuse with difficulty. This difference comes from the higher quantity of calcein present within the MLV in relation with their size. Modeling of release kinetics curves was performed and the release of hydrophilic drugs may be described by a multi-scale mechanism characterized by four distinct phases, each of them being characterized by a different kinetics model (Higuchi equation, Korsmeyer-Peppas model etc.). Knowledge of such models will be a very interesting tool for designing new formulations for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug delivery systems.

Keywords: controlled and delayed release, hydrogels, liposomes, polysaccharides

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Authors: Ahlem Bouziri, Chiraz Latiri, Eric Gaussier

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The steady growth in the size of textual document collections is a key progress-driver for modern information retrieval techniques whose effectiveness and efficiency are constantly challenged. Given a user query, the number of retrieved documents can be overwhelmingly large, hampering their efficient exploitation by the user. In addition, retaining only relevant documents in a query answer is of paramount importance for an effective meeting of the user needs. In this situation, the query expansion technique offers an interesting solution for obtaining a complete answer while preserving the quality of retained documents. This mainly relies on an accurate choice of the added terms to an initial query. Interestingly enough, query expansion takes advantage of large text volumes by extracting statistical information about index terms co-occurrences and using it to make user queries better fit the real information needs. In this respect, a promising track consists in the application of data mining methods to extract dependencies between terms, namely a generic basis of association rules between terms. The key feature of our approach is a better trade off between the size of the mining result and the conveyed knowledge. Thus, face to the huge number of derived association rules and in order to select the optimal combination of query terms from the generic basis, we propose to model the problem as a classification problem and solve it using a supervised learning algorithm such as SVM or k-means. For this purpose, we first generate a training set using a genetic algorithm based approach that explores the association rules space in order to find an optimal set of expansion terms, improving the MAP of the search results. The experiments were performed on SDA 95 collection, a data collection for information retrieval. It was found that the results were better in both terms of MAP and NDCG. The main observation is that the hybridization of text mining techniques and query expansion in an intelligent way allows us to incorporate the good features of all of them. As this is a preliminary attempt in this direction, there is a large scope for enhancing the proposed method.

Keywords: supervised leaning, classification, query expansion, association rules

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