Search results for: Mohammad Iqbal Omar

Authors: Hina Iqbal, Mustansar Ali Ghazanfar, Sandor Szedmak

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Recommender systems uses artificial intelligence practices for filtering obscure information and can predict if a user likes a specified item. Kernel mapping Recommender systems have been proposed which are accurate and state-of-the-art algorithms and resolve recommender system’s design objectives such as; long tail, cold-start, and sparsity. The aim of research is to propose hybrid framework that can efficiently integrate different versions— namely item-based and user-based KMR— of KMR algorithm. We have proposed various heuristic algorithms that integrate different versions of KMR (into a unified framework) resulting in improved accuracy and elimination of problems associated with conventional recommender system. We have tested our system on publically available movies dataset and benchmark with KMR. The results (in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, F1 measure and ROC metrics) reveal that the proposed algorithm is quite accurate especially under cold-start and sparse scenarios.

Keywords: Kernel Mapping Recommender Systems, hybrid recommender systems, cold start, sparsity, long tail

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Authors: Ahmed Aisa, Tariq Iqbal

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This letter talks about the ready-to-use design of a solar water heating system because, in Canada, the average consumption of hot water per person is approximately 50 to 75 L per day and the average Canadian household uses 225 L. Therefore, this paper will demonstrate the method of designing a solar water heating system with thermal storage. It highlights the renewable hybrid power system, allowing you to obtain a reliable, independent system with the optimization of the ingredient size and at an improved capital cost. The system can provide hot water for a big building. The main power for the system comes from solar panels. Solar Advisory Model (SAM) and HOMER are used. HOMER and SAM are design models that calculate the consumption of hot water and cost for a house. Some results, obtained through simulation, were for monthly energy production, annual energy production, after tax cash flow, the lifetime of the system and monthly energy usage represented by three types of energy. These are system energy, electricity load electricity and net metering credit.

Keywords: water heating, thermal storage, capital cost solar, consumption

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Authors: Mohd Ridzwan Yaakub, Muhammad Iqbal Abu Latiffi

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Online business has become popular recently due to the massive amount of information and medium available on the Internet. This has resulted in the huge number of reviews where the consumers share their opinion, criticisms, and satisfaction on the products they have purchased on the websites or the social media such as Facebook and Twitter. However, to analyze customer’s behavior has become very important for organizations to find new market trends and insights. The reviews from the websites or the social media are in structured and unstructured data that need a sentiment analysis approach in analyzing customer’s review. In this article, techniques used in will be defined. Definition of the ontology and description of its possible usage in sentiment analysis will be defined. It will lead to empirical research that related to mobile phones used in research and the ontology used in the experiment. The researcher also will explore the role of preprocessing data and feature selection methodology. As the result, ontology-based approach in sentiment analysis can help in achieving high accuracy for the classification task.

Keywords: feature selection, ontology, opinion, preprocessing data, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Aziz Ibrahim Abdulla, Omar Mohanad Mahdi

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The objective of this paper is to explore the effect of incorporating Nano-Silica with Silica-fume in ferrocement mortar to enhancing mechanical properties of it. One type of Nano silica with average diameter size 23nm and silica fume have been used with two percentage (1%, 2% Nano silica and 5%, 10% silica fume per weight of cement) and w/c with / without superplasticizer was been calculated by flow test method. Also three sand: cement ratios have been used (1.5, 2.0 and 2.5) with max. Aggregate size 0.6mm in this study for reference and other mixtures. Results reveal adding Nano silica with silica fume to ferrocement mortar enhances its physical and mechanical properties such as compressive strength and flexural strength. The SEM pictures and density with absorption ratio demonstrate that Nano silica with silica fume contributes to enhancement of mortar through yielding denser, more compact and uniform mixtures.

Keywords: nano silica, ferrocement mortar, compresion strength, flexural strength

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Authors: Fatima Ezzahra Siragi, Omar Benaini

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For many years, Generation Y has been at the center of controversies. This topic made the buzz in the Media as well as in scientific literature. Previous research led to contradictory results; some scholars considered this population a wealth for companies, while the others believe it constitutes a young danger in need of proper control. Existing literature has almost studied Generation Y in developed countries; very rare studies were conducted in developing countries. To our knowledge, no published articles have treated Generation Y in Morocco. The purpose of this research is to examine the distinctive characteristics of Generation Y in Morocco as well as their behavior at work. Using quantitative method, the study was conducted on a sample of 250 Moroccan employees that have a high educational level and who belong to Generation Y. Our results have shown high resemblance between Moroccan and Occidental Yers (France, USA, Canada …)

Keywords: Behavior in Organizations, Generation Y, Key Characteristics, Moroccan Yers, Motivation

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Authors: Hassane Ouazzani Chahdi, Omar Helli, Bourzgui Nour Eddine, Hassan Maher, Ali Soltani

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The real-time knowledge of the NO, NO₂ concentration at high temperature, would allow manufacturers of automobiles to meet the upcoming stringent EURO7 anti-pollution measures for diesel engines. Knowledge of the concentration of each of these species will also enable engines to run leaner (i.e., more fuel efficient) while still meeting the anti-pollution requirements. Our proposed technology is promising in the field of automotive sensors. It consists of nanostructured semiconductors based on gallium nitride and zirconia dioxide. The development of new technologies for selective detection of NO and NO₂ gas species would be a critical enabler of superior depollution. The current response was well correlated to the NO concentration in the range of 0–2000 ppm, 0-2500 ppm NO₂, and 0-300 ppm NH₃ at a temperature of 600.

Keywords: NOₓ sensors, HEMT transistor, anti-pollution, gallium nitride, gas sensor

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Authors: Abdu Zakari, Sai’d Jibril, Adoum A. Omar

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The leaves of Combretum molle was selected on the basis of its uses in folk medicine as insecticides. The leave extracts of Combretum molle was tested against the larvae of Artemia salina, i.e. Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BST), Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Filaria disease vector) i.e. Larvicidal Test, using crude ethanol, n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol extracts. The methanolic extract proved to be the most effective in inducing complete lethality at minimum doses both in the BST and the Larvicidal activity test. The LC50¬ values obtained are 24.85 µg/ml and 0.4µg/ml respectively. The bioactivity-guided column chromatography afforded the pure compound ACM–3. ACM-3 was not active in the BST with LC50 value >1000µg/ml, but was active in the Larvicidal activity test with LC50 value 4.0µg/ml. ACM-3 was proposed to have the structure I, (Cholesta-β-D-Glucopyranoside).

Keywords: toxicity, larvicidal, Combretum molle, Artemia salina, Culex quinquefasciatus Say.

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Authors: M. Mujahid, Omar A. Al-Hartomy

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Ag-doped ZnO2 loaded on the Pt-carbon spheres have been synthesized and characterized by standard analytical techniques. i.e., UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In order to find the effect of loading of Ag doping on ZnO2, the concentration of Ag was varied from 0-3.5%. The XRD analysis showed that the obtained particles are anatase phase. The SEM images showed Ag-doped ZnO2 are loaded on the surface of the Pt-carbon spheres. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized particles was tested by studying the degradation of methyl orange dye and 4-chlorophenol as a function of time on irradiation in aqueous suspension. Ag-doped ZnO2@Pt-carbon sphere particle with platinum concentration of 3.0 % showed the highest photocatalytic activity as compared to the other Ag concentrations for the degradation of methyl orange and 4-chlorophenol.

Keywords: Ag-ZnO2, Pt-carbon spheres, degradation, methyl orange, 4-chlorophenol

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Authors: Shakir Iqbal, Muhammad Aqeel, Asghar Ali Shah, Aftab Hussain

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The present study was aimed to investigate and compare the emotional indicators of patients with schizophrenia on Draw a Person test in Pakistan. Draw a Person test was administered on a sample of 400 (Schizophrenia patients=200, Normal=200) age ranged from 20 to 50 years. The data was collected from two provinces of Pakistan (Punjab and Khyber Pakhtun Khwa). The sample was selected by the age levels. According to the Koppitz method of scoring a list of 40 Emotional indicators was selected that were derived from the literature review. It was found that 26 out of 40 emotional indicators (EIs) on Draw a Person test significantly differentiated between patients with schizophrenia and normal (healthy) population. Chi square analysis of the study indicated that 23 EIs were found significant at (p=.001) level, while three EIs were found significant at (P=.05) levels. It was also found that 9 exclusive and 4 frequent EIs on Human Figure Drawings may be significant diagnostic emotional indicators for schizophrenia. It was found that DAP test can be used as a diagnostic tool with the battery of psychological tests such as MCMI-III, MMPI, MSE, HTP for schizophrenia in Pakistan.

Keywords: draw a person test, normal population, Schizophrenia patients, psychological sciences

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Authors: Azizah Che Omar

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Various studies have proposed factors of impulse purchase in different advertising mediums like website, mobile, traditional retail store and traditional television. However, to the best of researchers’ knowledge, none of the impulse purchase model is dedicated towards impulse purchase tendency for interactive TV (iTV) advertising. Therefore, the proposed model conceptual design model of interactive television advertising toward impulse purchase (iTVAdIP) was developed. The focus of this study is to evaluate the conceptual design model of iTVAdIP through expert review. As a result, the finding showed that majority of expert reviews agreed that the conceptual design model iTVAdIP is applicable to the development of interactive television advertising and it will increase the effectiveness of advertising. This study also shows the conceptual design model of iTVAdIP that has been reviewed.

Keywords: impulse purchase, interactive television advertising, persuasive

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Authors: A. Iqbal Banauaji, Muchamad Sholikun

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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolism disorder that tends to increase its prevalence in the world, including in Indonesia. The development of DM type 2 can cause oxidative stress characterized by an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants in the body Increased oxidative stress causes type 2 diabetes mellitus to require intake of exogenous antioxidants in large quantities to inhibit oxidative damage in the body. Bran can be defined as a functional food because it consists of 11.39% fiberand 28.7% antioxidants and the purple yam consists of anthocyanin which functions as an antioxidant. With abundant amount and low price, purple yam and bran can be used for analog rice as the effort to diversify functional food. The antioxidant’s activity of analog rice from purple yam and bran which is measured by using DPPH’s method is 12,963%. The rough fiber’s level on the analog rice from purple yam is 2.985%. The water amount of analog rice from purple yam and bran is 8.726%. Analog rice from purple yam and bran has the similar texture as the usual rice, tasted slightly sweet, light purple colored, and smelled like bran.

Keywords: antioxidant, analog rice, functional food, diabetes mellitus

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Authors: M. Iqbal Mahmud, Haeng Muk Cho, Seo Hyun Sang, Wang Wen Hai, Chang Heon Yi, Man Ik Hwang, Dae Hoon Kang

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Solenoid operated electromagnetic control valve (ECV) playing an important role for car’s air conditioning control system. ECV is used in external variable displacement swash plate type compressor and controls the entire air conditioning system by means of a pulse width modulation (PWM) input signal supplying from an external source (controller). Complete form of ECV contains number of internal features like valve body, core, valve guide, plunger, guide pin, plunger spring, bellows etc. While designing the ECV; dimensions of different internal items must meet the standard requirements as it is quite challenging. In this research paper, especially the dimensioning of ECV body and its three pressure ports through which the air/refrigerant passes are considered. Here internal leakage test analysis of ECV body is being carried out from its discharge port (Pd) to crankcase port (Pc) when the guide valve is placed inside it. The experiments have made both in ordinary and digital system using different assumptions and thereafter compare the results.

Keywords: electromagnetic control valve (ECV), leakage, pressure port, valve body, valve guide

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Authors: Talib M. Albayati, Omar S. Mahdy, Ghanim M. Alwan

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This work is aimed to prepare magnetic nanoporous material Fe/MCM-41 and study its Physical characterization in order to enhance the magnetic properties for study the operating conditions on separation efficiency of methyl orange (MO) from wastewater by adsorption process. The experimental results are analysed to select the best operating conditions for different studied parameters which were obtained for both adsorbents mesoporous material samples MCM-41 and magnetic Fe/MCM-41 as follow: constant temperature (20 ºC), pH: (2) adsorbent dosage (0.03 gm), contact time (10 minute) and concentrations (30 mg/L). The results are demonstrated that the adsorption processes can be well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model for pure MCM-41 with a higher correlation coefficient (0.999) and fitted by the freundlich isotherm model for magnetic Fe/MCM-41 with a higher correlation coefficient of (0.994).

Keywords: adsorption, nanoporous materials, mcm-41, magnetic material, wastewater, orange, wastewater

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Authors: Waleed Afzal Naveed, Muhammd Dildar Gogi, Muhammad Sufian, Muhammad Amjad Ali, Muhammad Junaid Nisar, Mubashar Iqbal, Amna Jalal, Faisal Munir

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The study was carried out to evaluate the performance of Slow-Released Formulations (SRF) of Methyl eugenol with Lanolin wax in orchard of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan against fruit flies. Lanolin wax was mixed with methyl eugenol in nine ratios (10:90, 20:80, 30:70, 40:60, 50:50, 60:40, 70:30, 80:20 and 90:10). The results revealed that SRFₗₗ-7 trapped 42.1 flies /day/trap, exhibited an attractancy index (AI) of 51.71%, proved strongly attractive SRFₗₗ for B. zonata and was categorized as Class-III slow-released formulation (AI > 50%). The SRFₗₗ-2, SRFₗₗ-3, SRFₗₗ-4, SRFₗₗ-5, SRFₗₗ-6, SRFₗₗ-8 and SRFₗₗ-9 trapped 17.7, 27.9, 32.3, 23.8, 28.3, 37.8 and 19.9 flies /day/trap, exhibited an attractancy index (AI) of 20.54%, 41.02%, 26.00%, 34.15%, 43.50%, 49.86% and 46.07% AI respectively, proved moderately attractive slow-released formulations for B. zonata and were categorized as Class-II slow-released formulations (AI = 11-50%). However, SRFₗₗ-1 trapped 14.8 flies /day/trap, exhibited 0.71% AI proved little or nonattractive slow-released formulation and was categorized as Class-I slow-released formulation for B. zonata (AI < 11%).

Keywords: Bactrocera zonata, slow-released formulation, lenoline wax, methyl euginol

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Authors: Omar Abdillah, Mirna Adriani

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In this work, we perform new approach for analyzing public sentiment towards the presidential candidate in the 2014 Indonesian election that expressed in Twitter. In this study we propose such procedure for analyzing sentiment over Indonesian political message by understanding the behavior of Indonesian society in sending message on Twitter. We took different approach from previous works by utilizing punctuation mark and Indonesian sentiment lexicon that completed with the new procedure in determining sentiment towards the candidates. Our experiment shows the performance that yields up to 83.31% of average precision. In brief, this work makes two contributions: first, this work is the preliminary study of sentiment analysis in the domain of political message that has not been addressed yet before. Second, we propose such method to conduct sentiment analysis by creating decision making procedure in which it is in line with the characteristic of Indonesian message on Twitter.

Keywords: unsupervised sentiment analysis, political message, lexicon based, user behavior understanding

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Authors: Sharaf S. Omar

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In the current study, level and prevalence of deoxynivalenol (DON), aflatoxin B1 AFB1), zearalenone (ZEN), and ochratoxin A (OTA) in fried poultry eggs in Jordan was investigated. Poultry egg samples (n = 250) were collected. The level of DON, AFB1, ZEN and OTA in the white and yolk of poultry eggs was measured using LC-MS-MS. The health risk assessment was calculated using Margin of Exposures (MOEs) for AFB1 and OTA and hazard index (HI) for ZEN and DON. The highest prevalence in yolk and white of eggs was related to ZEN (96.56%) and OTA (97.44%), respectively. Also, the highest level in white and yolk was related to DON (1.07µg/kg) and DON (1.65 µg/kg), respectively. Level of DON in the yolk of eggs was significantly higher than white of eggs (P-value < 0.05). Risk assessment indicated that exposed population are at high risk of AFB1 (MOEs < 10,000) in fried poultry eggs.

Keywords: mycotoxins 2, aflatoxin b1, risk assessment, poultry egg

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Authors: Omar S. Sharaf

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The mitochondrial 12s rRNA (mt-12s rDNA) gene for pig-specific was developed to detect material from pork species in different products collected from Jordanian market. The amplification PCR products of 359 bp and 531 bp were successfully amplified from the cyt b gene of pig the amplification product using mt-12S rDNA gene were successfully produced a single band with a molecular size of 456 bp. In the present work, the PCR amplification of mtDNA of cytochrome b has been shown as a suitable tool for rapid detection of pig DNA. 100 samples from different dairy, gelatin and chocolate based products and 50 samples from baby food formula were collected and tested to a presence of any pig derivatives. It was found that 10% of chocolate based products, 12% of gelatin and 56% from dairy products and 5.2% from baby food formula showed single band from mt-12S rDNA gene.

Keywords: halal food, baby infant formula, chocolate based products, PCR, Jordan

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Authors: Z. A. Ahmad, R. C. Omar, I. Z. Baharuddin, R. Roslan

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Assessments of social vulnerability, carried out holistically, can provide an important guide to the planning process and to decisions on resource allocation at various levels, and can help to raise public awareness of geo-hazard risks. The assessments can help to provide answers for basic questions such as the human vulnerability at the geo-hazard prone or disaster areas causing health damage, economic loss, loss of natural heritage and vulnerability impact of extreme natural hazard event. To overcome these issues, integrated framework for assessing the increasing human vulnerability to environmental changes caused by geo-hazards will be introduced using an indicator from landslide risk map that is related to agent based modeling platform. The indicators represent the underlying factors, which influence a community’s ability to deal with and recover from the damage associated with geo-hazards. Scope of this paper is particularly limited to landslides.

Keywords: social, vulnerability, geo-hazard, methodology, indicators

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Authors: Makhlouf Mourad, Medkour Mihoub, Bouchher Omar, Messabih Sidi Mohamed, Benrachedi Khaled

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This work is the modeling and simulation of fluid flow (liquid) through porous media. This type of flow occurs in many situations of interest in applied sciences and engineering, fluid (oil) consists of several individual substances in pure, single-phase flow is incompressible and isothermal. The porous medium is isotropic, homogeneous optionally, with the rectangular format and the flow is two-dimensional. Modeling of hydrodynamic phenomena incorporates Darcy's law and the equation of mass conservation. Correlations are used to model the density and viscosity of the fluid. A finite volume code is used in the discretization of differential equations. The nonlinearity is treated by Newton's method with relaxation coefficient. The results of the simulation of the pressure and the mobility of liquid flowing through porous media are presented, analyzed, and illustrated.

Keywords: Darcy equation, middle porous, continuity equation, Peng Robinson equation, mobility

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Authors: Fatema Akram, Mohammad Golam Rasul, Mohammad Masud Kamal Khan, Md. Sharif Imam Ibne Amir

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A variety of routing techniques are available to develop surface runoff hydrographs from rainfall. The selection of runoff routing method is very vital as it is directly related to the type of watershed and the required degree of accuracy. There are different modelling softwares available to explore the rainfall-runoff process in urban areas. XPSTORM, a link-node based, integrated storm-water modelling software, has been used in this study for developing surface runoff hydrograph for a Golf course area located in Rockhampton in Central Queensland in Australia. Four commonly used methods, namely SWMM runoff, Kinematic wave, Laurenson, and Time-Area are employed to generate runoff hydrograph for design storm of this study area. In runoff mode of XPSTORM, the rainfall, infiltration, evaporation and depression storage for sub-catchments were simulated and the runoff from the sub-catchment to collection node was calculated. The simulation results are presented, discussed and compared. The total surface runoff generated by SWMM runoff, Kinematic wave and Time-Area methods are found to be reasonably close, which indicates any of these methods can be used for developing runoff hydrograph of the study area. Laurenson method produces a comparatively less amount of surface runoff, however, it creates highest peak of surface runoff among all which may be suitable for hilly region. Although the Laurenson hydrograph technique is widely acceptable surface runoff routing technique in Queensland (Australia), extensive investigation is recommended with detailed topographic and hydrologic data in order to assess its suitability for use in the case study area.

Keywords: ARI, design storm, IFD, rainfall temporal pattern, routing techniques, surface runoff, XPSTORM

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Authors: Mohamed Omar

Abstract:

Steel bracing members are widely used in steel structures to reduce lateral displacement and dissipate energy during earthquake motions. Concentric steel bracing provide an excellent approach for strengthening and stiffening steel buildings. Using these braces the designer can hardly adjust the stiffness together with ductility as needed because of buckling of braces in compression. In this study the use of SMA bracing and steel bracing (Mega) utilized in steel frames are investigated. The effectiveness of these two systems in rehabilitating a mid-rise eight-storey steel frames were examined using time-history nonlinear analysis utilizing Seismo-Struct software. Results show that both systems improve the strength and stiffness of the original structure but due to excellent behavior of SMA in nonlinear phase and under compressive forces this system shows much better performance than the rehabilitation system of Mega bracing.

Keywords: finite element analysis, seismic response, shapes memory alloy, steel frame, mega bracing

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Authors: Syed Adnan, Javed Iqbal

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In urban and rural areas groundwater is the most economic natural source of drinking. Groundwater resources of Pakistan are degraded due to high population growth and increased industrial development. A study was conducted in district Peshawar to assess groundwater vulnerable zones using GIS based DRASTIC model. Six input parameters (groundwater depth, groundwater recharge, aquifer material, soil type, slope and hydraulic conductivity) were used in the DRASTIC model to generate the groundwater vulnerable zones. Each parameter was divided into different ranges or media types and a subjective rating from 1-10 was assigned to each factor where 1 represented very low impact on pollution potential and 10 represented very high impact. Weight multiplier from 1-5 was used to balance and enhance the importance of each factor. The DRASTIC model scores obtained varied from 47 to 147. Using quantile classification scheme these values were reclassified into three zones i.e. low, moderate and high vulnerable zones. The areas of these zones were calculated. The final result indicated that about 400 km2, 506 km2, and 375 km2 were classified as low, moderate, and high vulnerable areas, respectively. It is recommended that the most vulnerable zones should be treated on first priority to facilitate the inhabitants for drinking purposes.

Keywords: DRASTIC model, groundwater vulnerability, GIS in groundwater, drinking sources

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Authors: Qamar Iqbal

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Companies strive to improve their forecasting methods to predict the fluctuations in customer demand. These fluctuation and variation in demand affect the manufacturing operations and can limit a company’s ability to fulfill customer demand on time. Companies keep the inventory buffer and maintain the stocking levels to reduce the impact of demand variation. A mid-size company deals with thousands of stock keeping units (skus). It is neither easy and nor efficient to control and manage each sku. Inventory classification provides a tool to the management to increase their ability to support customer demand. The paper presents a framework that shows how inventory classification can play a role to increase supply chain responsiveness. A case study will be presented to further elaborate the method both for build-to-order and build-to-forecast manufacturing environments. Results will be compared that will show which manufacturing setting has advantage over another under different circumstances. The outcome of this study is very useful to the management because this will give them an insight on how inventory classification can be used to increase their ability to respond to changing customer needs.

Keywords: inventory classification, supply chain responsiveness, forecast, manufacturing environment

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Authors: Riffat Iqbal, Sidra Ihsan, Andleeb Batool, Maryam Mukhtar

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Glaucoma is a gathering of optic neuropathies described by dynamic degeneration of retinal ganglionic cells. It is clinically and innately heterogenous illness containing a couple of particular forms each with various causes and severities. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the most generally perceived kind of glaucoma. This study investigated the genetic association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs10483727 and rs33912345) at the SIX1/SIX6 locus with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in the Pakistani population. The SIX6 gene plays an important role in ocular development and has been associated with morphology of the optic nerve. A total of 100 patients clinically diagnosed with glaucoma and 100 control individuals of age over 40 were enrolled in the study. Genomic DNA was extracted by organic extraction method. The SNP genotyping was done by (i) PCR based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and sequencing method. Significant genetic associations were observed for rs10483727 (risk allele T) and rs33912345 (risk allele C) with POAG. Hence, it was concluded that Six6 gene is genetically associated with pathogenesis of Glaucoma in Pakistan.

Keywords: genotyping, Pakistani population, primary open-angle glaucoma, SIX6 gene

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Authors: Waleed Afzal Naveed, Muhammd Dildar Gogi, Mubashir Iqbal, Muhammad Junaid Nisar, Muhammad Hamza Khaliq, Faisal Munir

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Experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of highly effective Slow-Released Formulations (SRF) of Methyl eugenol with Lanolin wax, Candellila wax, Bee-wax, Carnauba wax and paraffin wax in the orchard of University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan against fruit flies. The waxes were mixed with methyl eugenol in 1:9 ratio. The results revealed that SRF of Candellila, Paraffin, Bees and Carnauba wax attracted 13.77, 11, 8.15 and 7.23 flies/day/trap which was 2.6, 2, 1.5 and 1.4 times higher than standard respectively and exhibited 41.42%, 32.05%, 20.98% and 12.87% attractive index respectively, proved moderately attractive slow-released formulation to B. zonata and was catagorized as Class-II slow-released formulation (AI = 11-50%). However, SRF of Lanolin wax trapped 1.81 flies/day/trap which was 3 times less than standard and exhibited -61.86% attractive index proved little or non attractive slow-released formulation and was categorized as Class-I slow-released formulation for B. zonata (AI < 11%).

Keywords: biodegradable waxes, slow-released formulation, Bactrocera zonata, methyl euginol

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Authors: Muhammad Asghar, Aamer Iqbal Bhatti, Qadeer Ahmed, Tahir Izhar

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Three wheeler auto Rickshaw, often termed as ‘auto rickshaw’ is very common in Pakistan and is considered as the most affordable means of transportation to the local people. Problems caused by the gasoline engine on the environment and people, the researchers and the automotive industry have turned to the hybrid electric vehicles and electrical powered vehicle. The research in this paper explains the design of energy efficient Electric auto Rickshaw. An electric auto rickshaw is being developed at Center for Energy Research and Development, (Lahore), which is running on the roads of Lahore city. Energy storage capacity of batteries is at least 25 times heavier than fossil fuel and having volume 10 times in comparison to fuel, resulting an increase of the Rickshaw weight. A set of specifications is derived according to the mobility requirements of the electric auto rickshaw. The design choices considering the power-train and component selection are explained in detail. It was concluded that electric auto rickshaw has many advantages and benefits over the conventional auto rickshaw. It is cleaner and much more energy efficient but limited to the distance it can travel before recharging of battery. In addition, a brief future view of the battery technology is given.

Keywords: conventional auto rickshaw, energy efficiency, electric auto rickshaw, internal combustion engine, environment

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Authors: Javad Taherahmadi, Mohammad Jafarian, Mohammad Naser Asefi

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The global capacity of wind power has dramatically increased in recent years. Therefore, improving the technology of wind turbines to take different advantages of this enormous potential in the power grid, could be interesting subject for scientists. The doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbine is a popular system due to its many advantages such as the improved power quality, high energy efficiency and controllability, etc. With an increase in wind power penetration in the network and with regard to the flexible control of wind turbines, the use of wind turbine systems to improve the dynamic stability of power systems has been of significance importance for researchers. Subsynchronous oscillations are one of the important issues in the stability of power systems. Damping subsynchronous oscillations by using wind turbines has been studied in various research efforts, mainly by adding an auxiliary control loop to the control structure of the wind turbine. In most of the studies, this control loop is composed of linear blocks. In this paper, simple adaptive control is used for this purpose. In order to use an adaptive controller, the convergence of the controller should be verified. Since adaptive control parameters tend to optimum values in order to obtain optimum control performance, using this controller will help the wind turbines to have positive contribution in damping the network subsynchronous oscillations at different wind speeds and system operating points. In this paper, the application of simple adaptive control in DFIG wind turbine systems to improve the dynamic stability of power systems is studied and the essential condition for using this controller is considered. It is also shown that this controller has an insignificant effect on the dynamic stability of the wind turbine, itself.

Keywords: almost strictly positive real (ASPR), doubly-fed induction generator (DIFG), simple adaptive control (SAC), subsynchronous oscillations, wind turbine

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Authors: Samy S. Eleawa, Mahmoud A. Alkhateeb, Fahaid H. Alhashem, Ismaeel bin-Jaliah, Hussein F. Sakr, Hesham M. Elrefaey, Abbas O. Elkarib, Mohammad A. Haidara, Abdullah S. Shatoor, Mohammad A. Khalil

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This effect of Resveratrol (RES) against CdCl2- induced toxicity in the rat testes was investigated. Seven experimental groups of adult male rats were formulated as follows: A) Controls + NS, B) Control+ vehicle (saline solution of hydroxypropyl cyclodextrin), C) RES treated, D) CdCl2 +NS, E) CdCl2+ vehicle, F) RES followed by CdCl2 and M) CdCl2 followed by RES. At the end of the protocol, serum levels of FSH, LH, and testosterone were measured in all groups. Testicular levels of TBARS and Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD) activity were also measured. Epidydidimal semen analysis was performed and testicular expression of Bcl-2, p53 and Bax were assessed by RT-PCR. Also, histopathological changes of testes were examined microscopically and described. Pre and Post administration of RES in cadmium chloride-intoxicated rats improved semen parameters including count, motility, daily sperm production and morphology, increased serum concentrations of gonadotropins and testosterone, decreased testicular lipid peroxidation and increased SOD activity. Not only RES attenuated cadmium chloride induced testicular histopathology but was also able to protect against the onset of cadmium chloride testicular toxicity. Cadmium chloride downregulated the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl2 and upregulated the expression of both pro-apoptotic genes p53 and Bax. Resveratrol protected from and partially reversed cadmium chloride testicular via upregulation of Bcl2 and down regulation of p53 and Bax gene expression. Antioxidant activity of RES protects against cadmium chloride testicular toxicity and partially reverses its effect via upregulation of BCl2 and downregulation of p53 and Bax expression. These findings have far reaching implications on subfertility and impotency frequently seen in hypertensive as well as metabolic syndrome patients.

Keywords: resveratrol, cadmium, infertility, sperm, testis, metabolic syndrome

Procedia PDF Downloads 510

Authors: Alaa M. Badr Eldin, Mayar M. Shahen, Mohammed S. Sedeek, Marwa I. Ezzat, Sawsan M. ElSonbaty, Muhammed A. Saad, Manal S. Afifi, Omar M. Sabry

Abstract:

Using HPLC-MS/MS technique, 133 polyphenolic compounds were identified in the methanol extract of pomegranate rind (Punica granatum L.). In-vitro cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cell line MCF-7 was investigated, with an IC50 of 54 ug/ml. In-silico molecular docking using ellagic acid, gallagic acid, and Punicalagin as model compounds identified in pomegranate rind extract confirmed the intriguing anti-estrogenic action of the key polyphenolic components in pomegranate rind extract. Surprisingly, taxol showed low activity compared to pomegranate compounds as ERα antagonist and ERβ agonist. Pomegranate rind extract enhanced apoptosis of breast cancer cells through upregulation of the caspase-3 expression and downregulation of NF-κB transcription factor.

Keywords: HPLC-MS/MS, pomegranate rind, cytotoxicity, MCF-7, ER, caspase-3, NF-kB

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: Murada Alholy, Mengshi Lin, Omar Alhaj, Mahmoud Abugoush

Abstract:

Alicyclobacillus is a causative agent of spoilage in pasteurized and heat-treated apple juice products. Differentiating between this genus and the closely related Bacillus is crucially important. In this study, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to identify and discriminate between four Alicyclobacillus strains and four Bacillus isolates inoculated individually into apple juice. Loading plots over the range of 1350 and 1700 cm-1 reflected the most distinctive biochemical features of Bacillus and Alicyclobacillus. Multivariate statistical methods (e.g. principal component analysis (PCA) and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA)) were used to analyze the spectral data. Distinctive separation of spectral samples was observed. This study demonstrates that FT-IR spectroscopy in combination with multivariate analysis could serve as a rapid and effective tool for fruit juice industry to differentiate between Bacillus and Alicyclobacillus and to distinguish between species belonging to these two genera.

Keywords: alicyclobacillus, bacillus, FT-IR, spectroscopy, PCA

Procedia PDF Downloads 452