Search results for: bacteriological parameters

Authors: Hosein I. Hosein, Ragab Azzam, Ahmed M. S. Menshawy, Sherin Rouby, Khaled Hendy, Ayman Mahrous, Hany Hussien

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Brucellosis is a highly contagious bacterial zoonotic disease of a worldwide spread and has different names; Infectious or enzootic abortion and Bang's disease in animals; and Mediterranean or Malta fever, Undulant Fever and Rock fever in humans. It is caused by the different species of genus Brucella which is a Gram-negative, aerobic, non-spore forming, facultative intracellular bacterium. Brucella affects a wide range of mammals including bovines, small ruminants, pigs, equines, rodents, marine mammals as well as human resulting in serious economic losses in animal populations. In human, Brucella causes a severe illness representing a great public health problem. The disease was reported in Egypt for the first time in 1939; since then the disease remained endemic at high levels among cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat and is still representing a public health hazard. The annual economic losses due to brucellosis were estimated to be about 60 million Egyptian pounds yearly, but actual estimates are still missing despite almost 30 years of implementation of the Egyptian control programme. Despite being the gold standard, bacterial isolation has been reported to show poor sensitivity for samples with low-level of Brucella and is impractical for regular screening of large populations. Thus, serological tests still remain the corner stone for routine diagnosis of brucellosis, especially in developing countries. In the present study, a total of 1533 cows (256 from Beni-Suef Governorate, 445 from Al-Fayoum Governorate and 832 from Damietta Governorate), were employed for estimation of relative sensitivity, relative specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of buffered acidified plate antigen test (BPAT), rose bengal test (RBT) and complement fixation test (CFT). The overall seroprevalence of brucellosis revealed (19.63%). Relative sensitivity, relative specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of BPAT,RBT and CFT were estimated as, (96.27 %, 96.76 %, 87.65 % and 99.10 %), (93.42 %, 96.27 %, 90.16 % and 98.35%) and (89.30 %, 98.60 %, 94.35 %and 97.24 %) respectively. BPAT showed the highest sensitivity among the three employed serological tests. RBT was less specific than BPAT. CFT showed the least sensitivity 89.30 % among the three employed serological tests but showed the highest specificity. Different tissues specimens of 22 seropositive cows (spleen, retropharyngeal udder, and supra-mammary lymph nodes) were subjected for bacteriological studies for isolation and identification of Brucella organisms. Brucella melitensis biovar 3 could be recovered from 12 (54.55%) cows. Bacteriological examinations failed to classify 10 cases (45.45%) and were culture negative. Bruce-ladder PCR was carried out for molecular identification of the 12 Brucella isolates at the species level. Three fragments of 587 bp, 1071 bp and 1682 bp sizes were amplified indicating Brucella melitensis. The results indicated the importance of using several procedures to overcome the problem of escaping of some infected animals from diagnosis.Bruce-ladder PCR is an important tool for diagnosis and epidemiologic studies, providing relevant information for identification of Brucella spp.

Keywords: brucellosis, relative sensitivity, relative specificity, Bruce-ladder, Egypt

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Authors: Mounir Belattar

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In this paper the Analysis of voltage waves that propagate along a lossless exponential nonuniform line is presented. For this analysis the parameters of this line are assumed to be varying function of the distance x along the line from the source end. The approach is based on the tow-port networks cascading presentation to derive the ABDC parameters of transmission using Picard-Carson Method which is a powerful method in getting a power series solution for distributed network because it is easy to calculate poles and zeros and solves differential equations such as telegrapher equations by an iterative sequence. So the impedance, admittance voltage and current along the line are expanded as a Taylor series in x/l where l is the total length of the line to obtain at the end, the main transmission line parameters such as voltage response and transmission and reflexion coefficients represented by scattering parameters in frequency domain.

Keywords: ABCD parameters, characteristic impedance exponential nonuniform transmission line, Picard-Carson's method, S parameters, Taylor's series

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Authors: Rama Debbarma

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The present study deals with the performance of Linear base isolation system to mitigate seismic response of structures characterized by random system parameters. This involves optimization of the tuning ratio and damping properties of the base isolation system considering uncertain system parameters. However, the efficiency of base isolator may reduce if it is not tuned to the vibrating mode it is designed to suppress due to unavoidable presence of system parameters uncertainty. With the aid of matrix perturbation theory and first order Taylor series expansion, the total probability concept is used to evaluate the unconditional response of the primary structures considering random system parameters. For this, the conditional second order information of the response quantities are obtained in random vibration framework using state space formulation. Subsequently, the maximum unconditional root mean square displacement of the primary structures is used as the objective function to obtain optimum damping parameters Numerical study is performed to elucidate the effect of parameters uncertainties on the optimization of parameters of linear base isolator and system performance.

Keywords: linear base isolator, earthquake, optimization, uncertain parameters

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Carlos R. Duharte Rodríguez, Ibrain Ceballo Acosta, Carmen B. Busoch Morlán, Angel Regueiro Gómez, Annet Martinez Hernández

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This work shows the designing and characterization of a prototype of laboratory incubator as support of research in Microbiology, in particular during studies of bacterial growth in biological samples, with the help of optic methods (Turbidimetry) and electrometric measurements of bioimpedance. It shows the results of simulation and experimentation of the design proposed for the canals of measurement of the variables: temperature and humidity, with a high linearity from the adequate selection of sensors and analogue components of every channel, controlled with help of a microcontroller AT89C51 (ATMEL) with adequate benefits for this type of application.

Keywords: microbiology, bacterial growth, incubation station, microorganisms

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Authors: Armin Rahmatfam, Mohammad Zehsaz, Farid Vakili Tahami, Nasser Ghassembaglou

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In this paper the thermal ratcheting, kinematic hardening parameters C, γ, isotropic hardening parameters and also k, b, Q combined isotropic/kinematic hardening parameters have been obtained experimentally from the monotonic, strain controlled cyclic tests at room and elevated temperatures of 20°C, 100°C, and 400°C. These parameters are used in nonlinear combined isotropic/kinematic hardening model to predict better description of the loading and reloading cycles in the cyclic indentation as well as thermal ratcheting. For this purpose, three groups of specimens made of Aluminum 7075-T6 have been investigated. After each test and using stable hysteretic cycles, material parameters have been obtained for using in combined nonlinear isotropic/kinematic hardening models. Also the methodology of obtaining the correct kinematic/isotropic hardening parameters is presented.

Keywords: combined hardening model, kinematic hardening, isotropic hardening, cyclic tests

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Authors: Mohamed Ben Amar, Najib Souissi, Chedly Bradai

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A Taguchi design investigation has been made into the relationship between the ductility and process variables in a squeeze cast 2017A wrought aluminium alloy. The considered process parameters were: squeeze pressure, melt temperature and die preheating temperature. An orthogonal array (OA), main effect, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to analyze the effect of casting parameters. The results have shown that the selected parameters significantly affect the ductility of 2017A wrought Al alloy castings. Optimal squeeze cast process parameters were provided to illustrate the proposed approach and the results were proven to be trustworthy through practical experiments.

Keywords: Taguchi method, squeeze casting, process parameters, ductility, microstructure

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Authors: Kazuyoshi Mori

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In this paper, we consider the number of parameters for the parametrization of stabilizing controllers for RHinf systems with size 2 × 2. Fortunately, any plant of this model can admit doubly coprime factorization. Thus we can use the Youla parameterization to parametrize the stabilizing contollers . However, Youla parameterization does not give itself the minimal number of parameters. This paper shows that the minimal number of parameters is four. As a result, we show that the Youla parametrization naturally gives the parameterization of stabilizing controllers with minimal numbers.

Keywords: RHinfo, parameterization, number of parameters, multi-input, multi-output systems

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Authors: A. Şahinoğlu, R. Gürbüz, A. Güllü, M. Karhan

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This study in production machines, it is aimed that machine will automatically perceive cutting data and alter cutting parameters. The two most important parameters have to be checked in machine control unit are progress feed rate and speeds. These parameters are aimed to be controlled by sounds of machine. Optimum sound’s features introduced to computer. During process, real time data is received and converted by Matlab software. Data is converted into numerical values. According to them progress and speeds decreases/increases at a certain rate and thus optimum sound is acquired. Cutting process is made in respect of optimum cutting parameters. During chip remove progress, features of cutting tools, kind of cut material, cutting parameters and used machine; affects on various parameters. Instead of required parameters need to be measured such as temperature, vibration, and tool wear that emerged during cutting process; detailed analysis of the sound emerged during cutting process will provide detection of various data that included in the cutting process by the much more easy and economic way. The relation between cutting parameters and sound is being identified.

Keywords: cutting process, sound processing, intelligent late, sound analysis

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Authors: Isiya Aminu Dabai, Adebola Kayode, Adeosun Kayode Daniel

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Rural water supply relies mainly on groundwater exploitation, because it is more accessible, reliable, cheaper to develop and maintain, also with good quality compared to the surface water. Despite these advantages, groundwater has come under pollution threats like waste dumps, mineral exploitation, industrialization etc. This study investigates the effects of an open dumping to the surrounding groundwater. Ten hand dug well water samples were collected from the surroundings and tested. The average result shows that temperature, colour and turbidity to be 8.50 c, 6.1 TCU and 3.1 NTU respectively and pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, chloride content and hardness to be 7.2, 4.78, 1.8, 5.7, and 3.4 respectively while in the bacteriological test well no. 1, 2, 3, and 5 shows the presence of coliforms and E. Coli bacteria.

Keywords: groundwater, pollution, waste, dump site, unsafe, quality

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Authors: Dukali Abujnah, Mokhtar Blgacem Halbuda

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Water is one of the world's natural resources. It is an essential source for the maintenance of human, animal, and plant life. It has a significant impact on the country's economy and all human activities. Over the past twenty years, pressure on water resources has increased due to population and industrial growth and increasing demand for agricultural and household products, which has become a major concern of the international community. The aim of this study is the physical and bacteriological analysis of drinking water in the city of Value. The study covered different locations in the city. Thirty-six groundwater samples were taken from wells and various tanks owned by the State and private wells, and the Ain Thalia spring and other samples were taken from underground water tanks. It fills up with rainwater during the rainy season. These samples were analyzed for their physical, chemical, and biological status and the results were compared to Libyan and World Health Organization drinking water specifications to assess the quality of drinking water in the city of Value. Physical and chemical analysis of water samples showed acceptable values for acidity and electrical conductivity, and turbidity was found in water samples collected from underground reservoirs compared to Libyan and World Health Organization standards. The highest levels of electrical conductivity and alkalinity, TDS, and water hardness in the samples collected were below the maximum acceptable levels for drinking water as recommended by Libyan and World Health Organization specifications. The biological test results also showed that the water samples were free of intestinal bacteria.

Keywords: quality, agriculture, region, reservoir, evaluation

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Authors: Bhrugesh Radadiya, Jaydeep Shah

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In Indian foundry industry, there is a need of defect free casting with minimum production cost in short lead time. Casting defect is a very large issue in foundry shop which increases the rejection rate of casting and wastage of materials. The various parameters influences on casting process such as mold machine related parameters, green sand related parameters, cast metal related parameters, mold related parameters and shake out related parameters. The mold related parameters are most influences on casting defects in sand casting process. This paper review the casting produced by foundry with shrinkage and blow holes as a major defects was analyzed and identified that mold related parameters such as mold temperature, pouring temperature and runner size were not properly set in sand casting process. These parameters were optimized using different optimization techniques such as Taguchi method, Response surface methodology, Genetic algorithm and Teaching-learning based optimization algorithm. Finally, concluded that a Teaching-learning based optimization algorithm give better result than other optimization techniques.

Keywords: casting defects, genetic algorithm, parametric optimization, Taguchi method, TLBO algorithm

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Authors: Jumazulhisham Abdul Shukor, Mohd. Sazali Said, Roshanizah Harun, Shuib Husin, Ahmad Razlee Ab Kadir

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This paper applies Taguchi Optimization Method in determining the best machining parameters for pocket milling process on Polypropylene (PP) using CNC milling machine where the surface roughness is considered and the Carbide inserts cutting tool are used. Three machining parameters; speed, feed rate and depth of cut are investigated along three levels; low, medium and high of each parameter (Taguchi Orthogonal Arrays). The setting of machining parameters were determined by using Taguchi Method and the Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio are assessed to define the optimal levels and to predict the effect of surface roughness with assigned parameters based on L9. The final experimental outcomes are presented to prove the optimization parameters recommended by manufacturer are accurate.

Keywords: inserts, milling process, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, surface roughness, Taguchi Optimization Method

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Authors: Vivek Bhat, Rohini Kelkar, Sanjay Biswas

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Introduction: Cancer patients are at increased risk of bacterial infections. This may due to the disease process itself, the effect of chemotherapeutic drugs or invasive procedures such as catheterization. A wide variety of bacteria including some emerging pathogens are increasingly being reported from these patients. The incidence of multidrug-resistant organisms particularly in the Gram negative group is also increasing, with higher resistance rates seen to cephalosporins, β-lactam/β-lactam inhibitor combinations, and the carbapenems. This study documents the bacteriological spectrum of infections and their resistance patterns in cancer patients. Methods: This study includes all bacterial isolates recovered from infections cancer patients over a period of 18 months. Samples included Blood cultures, Pus/wound swabs, urine, tissue biopsies, body fluids, catheter tips and respiratory specimens such as sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). All samples were processed in the microbiology laboratory as per standard laboratory protocols. Organisms were identified to species level and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed manually by the disc diffusion technique or in the Vitek-2 (Biomereux, France) instrument. Interpretations were as per Clinical laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results: A total of 1150 bacterial isolates were cultured from 884 test samples during the study period. Of these 227 were Gram-positive and 923 were Gram-negative organisms. Staphylococcus aureus (99 isolates) was the commonest Gram-positive isolate followed by Enterococcus (79) and Gr A Streptococcus (30). Among the Gram negatives, E. coli (304), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (201) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (190) were the most common. Of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates 27.2% were methicillin resistant. Only 5.06% enterococci were vancomycin resistant. High rates of resistance to cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin were seen amongst E. coli (84.8% & 83.55%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (71 & 62.1%) respectively. Resistance to carbapenems (meropenem) was high at 70% in Acinetobacter spp.; however all isolates were sensitive to colistin. Among the aminoglycosides, amikacin retained good efficacy against Escherichia coli (82.9%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (78.1%). Occasional isolates of emerging pathogens such as Chryseobacterium indologens, Roseomonas, and Achromobacter xyloxidans were also recovered. Conclusion: The common infections in cancer patients include respiratory, wound, tract infections and sepsis. The commonest isolates include Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococci, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. There is a high level of resistance to the commonly used antibiotics among Gram-negative organisms.

Keywords: bacteria, resistance, infection, cancer

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Authors: F. Bouchouka, S. Benamara

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The present work is an attempt to prepare a fresh cheese using lemon juice and lemon juice / orange juice mixture as acidifying / clotting agents. A reference cheese is obtained by acidification with commercial vinegar. The analysis performed on the final product (fat, cheese yield, sensory analysis, rheological and bacteriological properties) confirmed the technical feasibility of a natural cheese, using a lemon juice and / or lemon juice / orange juice mixture as acidifying / clotting agents. In addition, a general acceptance test allowed to select the cheese sample acidified with lemon juice as the best, compared to the two other samples (lemon juice/orange juice acidification and commercial vinegar acidification).

Keywords: clotting agent, fresh cheese, juice, lemon, orange

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Authors: Assem Sallam, Aly Elzahaby, Ahmed Makled, Mohamed Khalil

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Change in design parameters of launch vehicle affects its overall flight path trajectory. In this paper, several design parameters are introduced to study their effect. Selected parameters are the launch vehicle mass, which is presented in the form of payload mass, the maximum allowable angle of attack the launch vehicle can withstand, the flight path angle that is predefined for the launch vehicle second stage, the required inclination and its effect on the launch azimuth and finally by changing the launch pad coordinate. Selected design parameters are studied for their effect on the variation of altitude, ground range, absolute velocity and the flight path angle. The study gives a general mean of adjusting the design parameters to reach the required launch vehicle performance.

Keywords: launch vehicle azimuth, launch vehicle trajectory, launch vehicle payload, launch pad location

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Authors: Kittipong Tripetch

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This paper proposes for the first time symbolic formula of the power spectrum of cross couple oscillator and its modified circuit. Many principle existed to derived power spectrum in microwave textbook such as impedance, admittance parameters, ABCD, H parameters, etc. It can be compared by graph of power spectrum which methodology is the best from the point of view of practical measurement setup such as condition of impedance parameter which used superposition of current to derived (its current injection of the other port of the circuit is zero, which is impossible in reality). Four Graphs of impedance parameters of cross couple oscillator is proposed. After that four graphs of Scattering parameters of cross couple oscillator will be shown.

Keywords: optimization, power spectrum, impedance parameters, scattering parameter

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Authors: Pankaj Chandna, Dinesh Kumar

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The present work analyses different parameters of end milling to minimize the surface roughness for AISI D2 steel. D2 Steel is generally used for stamping or forming dies, punches, forming rolls, knives, slitters, shear blades, tools, scrap choppers, tyre shredders etc. Surface roughness is one of the main indices that determines the quality of machined products and is influenced by various cutting parameters. In machining operations, achieving desired surface quality by optimization of machining parameters, is a challenging job. In case of mating components the surface roughness become more essential and is influenced by the cutting parameters, because, these quality structures are highly correlated and are expected to be influenced directly or indirectly by the direct effect of process parameters or their interactive effects (i.e. on process environment). In this work, the effects of selected process parameters on surface roughness and subsequent setting of parameters with the levels have been accomplished by Taguchi’s parameter design approach. The experiments have been performed as per the combination of levels of different process parameters suggested by L9 orthogonal array. Experimental investigation of the end milling of AISI D2 steel with carbide tool by varying feed, speed and depth of cut and the surface roughness has been measured using surface roughness tester. Analyses of variance have been performed for mean and signal-to-noise ratio to estimate the contribution of the different process parameters on the process.

Keywords: D2 steel, orthogonal array, optimization, surface roughness, Taguchi methodology

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Authors: Sorayya Malek, Mogeeb Mosleh, Sharifah M. Syed

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In this study, Support Vector Machine (SVM) technique was applied to predict the dichotomized value of Dissolved oxygen (DO) from two freshwater lakes namely Chini and Bera Lake (Malaysia). Data sample contained 11 parameters for water quality features from year 2005 until 2009. All data parameters were used to predicate the dissolved oxygen concentration which was dichotomized into 3 different levels (High, Medium, and Low). The input parameters were ranked, and forward selection method was applied to determine the optimum parameters that yield the lowest errors, and highest accuracy. Initial results showed that pH, water temperature, and conductivity are the most important parameters that significantly affect the predication of DO. Then, SVM model was applied using the Anova kernel with those parameters yielded 74% accuracy rate. We concluded that using SVM models to predicate the DO is feasible, and using dichotomized value of DO yields higher prediction accuracy than using precise DO value.

Keywords: dissolved oxygen, water quality, predication DO, support vector machine

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Authors: Wahiba Boudraa, Farah Chettibbi, Meriem Aberkane, Fatma Djamaa, Moussa Houhamdi

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The intensity of human activities in regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea always has a strong long-term environmental impact resulting in coastal and marine degradation, as well as an aggravated risk of more serious damage. The available data on water quality show that most water resources in Algeria are polluted by uncontrolled discharges from municipal sewage and untreated industrial effluents. Annaba is a coastal town in Algeria; The Gulf of Annaba, responds to these changes as it receives the continental inputs and urban waste, industrial without prior treatment of a highly industrialized and urbanized city, subject to the same environmental problems that know the rest of the Algerian coast. In later year, the beaches of bacterial enumeration process waters showed relatively high levels of bacterial indicators of fecal contamination (group D streptococci, total and fecal coliforms), which reflect the risks to people attending these beaches. During the twelve months of our study, we isolated from three beaches in the city of Annaba (St. Cloud, El-Kettara, and Djenane El Bey) a number of pathogenic microorganisms considered, namely: Salmonella, Aeromonas, Citrobacter, Yersinia, Enterococcus, and E.coli. The microbial count revealed elevated levels of coliform bacteria, fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci quite high especially in urban beaches (St. Cloud and El-Kettara). They are widely popular during the summer by many vacationers. For the physico-chemical parameters, there exist some weak values which increase during the pluvial period, hivernal and festival saison. These values remain, nevertheless, weak to be able to cause an organic or metallic pollution.

Keywords: quality microbiology, pollution of water, fecal contamination, physico-chemistry, beaches of Annaba city, Algeria.

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Authors: Mohammad Zamzam, Wesam Bachir, Imad Asaad

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Several studies have produced estimates of Er:YAG laser parameters and specifications but there is still insufficient data for reliable selection of laser parameters. As a consequence, there is a heightened need for ideal specifications of Er:YAG laser to reduce the amount of enamel ablation. The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of Er:YAG laser parameters, energy level and pulse duration, on orthodontic composite removal after bracket debonding. The sample consisted of 45 cuboids of orthodontic composite made by plastic moulds. The samples were divided into three groups, each was irradiated with Er:YAG laser set at different energy levels and three values for pulse durations (50 µs, 100 µs, and 300 µs). Geometrical parameters (depth and area) of cavities formed by laser irradiation were determined. ANCOVA test showed statistically significant difference (p < 0.0.5) between the groups indicating a potential effect of laser pulse duration on the geometrical parameters after controlling laser energy level. A post-hoc Bonferroni test ranked the 50µ Er:YAG laser pulse as the most influential factor for all geometrical parameters in removing remnant composite from enamel surface. Also, 300 mJ laser pulses caused the largest removal of the composite. The results of the present study demonstrated the efficacy of 50 µs and 300 mJ Er:YAG laser pulse for removal of remnant orthodontic composite.

Keywords: enamel, Er:YAG, geometrical parameters, orthodontic composite, remnant composite

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Authors: Matheus Fernando Pereira, Varese Salvador Timoteo

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In this work, we have solved the two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation numerically for a spatially dependent solute dispersion along non-uniform flow with a pulse type source in order to make a systematic study on the influence of medium heterogeneity, initial flow velocity, and initial dispersion coefficient parameters on the solutions of the equation. The behavior of the solutions is then investigated as we change the three parameters independently. Our results show that even though the parameters represent different physical features of the system, the effect on their variation is very similar. We also observe that the effects caused by the parameters on the concentration depend on the distance from the source. Finally, our numerical results are in good agreement with the exact solutions for all values of the parameters we used in our analysis.

Keywords: advection-diffusion equation, dispersion, numerical methods, pulse-type source

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Authors: A. E. Kurtoglu, A. Cevik, M. Bilgehan

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In this parametric study, effect of soil and material characteristics on safety of structures is investigated. The soil parameters such as shear strength, unit weight; geometrical parameters of the structure such as foundation depth and height of building; and material properties such as weight of concrete were selected as input parameters. A real accelerogram of 1989 El-Centro earthquake recorded by the USGS in Imperial Valley is used for this study. It is contained in the standard Strong Motion CD-ROM (SMC) format, which can be recognized and interpreted by FEM software used. The soil-structure interaction model subjected to above-mentioned earthquake was analyzed for 729 cases. Effect of input parameters on safety factor of the soil-structure system was then investigated and the interaction between the input and output parameters is presented in graphical form. Findings showed that all input parameters have significant effects on factor of safety results.

Keywords: factor of safety, finite element method, safety of structures, soil structure interaction

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Authors: Naime Boudemagh, Zoheir Hammoudi

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The parameters estimation of the K-distribution is an essential part in radar detection. In fact, presence of interfering targets in reference cells causes a decrease in detection performances. In such situation, the estimate of the shape and the scale parameters are far from the actual values. In the order to avoid interfering targets, we propose an Automatic Censoring (AC) algorithm of radar interfering targets in K-distribution. The censoring technique used in this work offers a good discrimination between homogeneous and non-homogeneous environments. The homogeneous population is then used to estimate the unknown parameters by the classical Method of Moment (MOM). The AC algorithm does not need any prior information about the clutter parameters nor does it require both the number and the position of interfering targets. The accuracy of the estimation parameters obtained by this algorithm are validated and compared to various actual values of the shape parameter, using Monte Carlo simulations, this latter show that the probability of censing in multiple target situations are in good agreement.

Keywords: parameters estimation, method of moments, automatic censoring, K distribution

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Authors: Abdesselam Babouri, Ahcène Lemzadmi, M Rahmane, B. Belhadi, N. Abouchi

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Medical monitoring aims at monitoring and remotely controlling the vital physiological parameters of the patient. The physiological sensors provide repetitive measurements of these parameters in the form of electrical signals that vary continuously over time. Various measures allow informing us about the health of the person's physiological data (weight, blood pressure, heart rate or specific to a disease), environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, light, noise level) and displacement and movements (physical efforts and the completion of major daily living activities). The collected data will allow monitoring the patient’s condition and alerting in case of modification. They are also used in the diagnosis and decision making on medical treatment and the health of the patient. This work presents the implementation of a monitoring system to be used for the control of physiological parameters.

Keywords: clinical monitoring, physiological parameters, biomedical sensors, personal health

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Authors: Imen Bouazzi

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The IEEE-802.15.4 standard utilizes the CSMA-CA mechanism to control nodes access to the shared wireless communication medium. It is becoming the popular choice for various applications of surveillance and control used in wireless sensor network (WSN). The benefit of this standard is evaluated regarding of the packet loss probability who depends on the configuration of IEEE 802.15.4 MAC parameters and the traffic load. Our exigency is to evaluate the effects of various configurable MAC parameters on the performance of beaconless IEEE 802.15.4 networks under different traffic loads, static values of IEEE 802.15.4 MAC parameters (macMinBE, macMaxCSMABackoffs, and macMaxFrame Retries) will be evaluated. To performance analysis, we use ns-2[2] network simulator.

Keywords: WSN, packet loss, CSMA/CA, IEEE-802.15.4

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Authors: Mohammed A. Tashkandi, Jawdat A. Al-Jarrah, Masoud Ibrahim

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This paper investigates the shear strength of the joints produced by friction stir spot welding process (FSSW). FSSW parameters such as tool rotational speed, plunge depth, shoulder diameter of the welding tool and dwell time play the major role in determining the shear strength of the joints. The effect of these four parameters on FSSW process as well as the shear strength of the welded joints was studied via five levels of each parameter. Taguchi method was used to minimize the number of experiments required to determine the fracture load of the friction stir spot-welded joints by incorporating independently controllable FSSW parameters. Taguchi analysis was applied to optimize the FSSW parameters to attain the maximum shear strength of the spot weld for this type of aluminum alloy.

Keywords: Friction Stir Spot Welding, Al6061 alloy, Shear Strength, FSSW process parameters

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Authors: Mohamed Z. Sayed-Ahmed, Ahmed M. Ahdy, Emad E. Younis, Sabry A. El-Khodary

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Little research information is available on the prevalence of diseases of donkeys in Egypt. Across sectional study was undertaken between March 2009 and February 2010 to verify the prevalence of skin affection of donkeys. A total of 1134 donkeys in northern Egypt were investigated. A questionnaire was constructed to verify the number of infected contact animals as well as the associated factors. Physical examination was carried out, and the distribution of skin lesions was recorded. Skin scraping and biopsy were obtained to perform bacteriological, mycological, and histopathological examinations. Thirty-five (3.09%) out of 1134 noticed donkeys had skin affections including mange (18/35), dermatophytosis (6/35), bacterial dermatitis (6/35) urticaria (2/35) and allergic dermatitis (3/35). The present results indicate that mange and dermatophytosis are the prevalent skin diseases in donkeys. Contact with other animal species of contaminated environment may contribute to the occurrence of the diseases.

Keywords: donkeys, Egypt, prevalence, skin affection

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Wael El-Deeb

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The present study aimed to investigate the diagnostic importance of acute phase proteins in urinary tract infection (UTI) in cattle. We describe the clinical, bacteriological and biochemical findings in 99 lactating cows. Blood and urine samples from diseased (n=84) and control healthy cows (n=15) were submitted to laboratory investigations. The urine analysis revealed hematuria and pyuria in UTI group. The isolated bacteria were E.coli (43/84) Corynebacterium spp, (31/84), Proteus spp. (6/84) and Streptococcus spp (4/84). The concentrations of Haptoglobin (Hp), serum amyloid A (SAA), α1-Acid glycoprotein (AGP), fibrinogen (Fb), total protein, albumen, and globulin were higher in cows with UTI when compared to healthy ones. Fifty-one of 84 cows with UTI were successfully treated. The levels of Hp, SAA, AGP, total protein, and globulin were associated with the odds of treatment failure. Conclusively, acute phase proteins could be used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cows with UTI.

Keywords: cows, urinary, infections, haptoglobin, serum Amyloid A

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Authors: Raida Zouari, Iness Ahriz, Rafik Zayani, Ali Dziri, Ridha Bouallegue

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This paper proposes a room level indoor localization algorithm based on the use Multi-Layer Neural Network (MLNN) classifiers and one versus one strategy. Seven parameters of the Channel Impulse Response (CIR) were used and Gram-Shmidt Orthogonalization was performed to study the relevance of the extracted parameters. Simulation results show that when relevant CIR parameters are used as position fingerprint and when optimal MLNN architecture is selected good room level localization score can be achieved. The current study showed also that some of the CIR parameters are not correlated to the location and can decrease the localization performance of the system.

Keywords: mobile indoor localization, multi-layer neural network (MLNN), channel impulse response (CIR), Gram-Shmidt orthogonalization

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Authors: Saeid Jalilzadeh

Abstract:

PID controllers are widely used to control the industrial plants because of their robustness and simple structures. Tuning of the controller's parameters to get a desired response is difficult and time consuming. With the development of computer technology and artificial intelligence in automatic control field, all kinds of parameters tuning methods of PID controller have emerged in endlessly, which bring much energy for the study of PID controller, but many advanced tuning methods behave not so perfect as to be expected. Honey Bee algorithm (HBA) and genetic algorithm (GA) are extensively used for real parameter optimization in diverse fields of study. This paper describes an application of HBA and GA to the problem of designing a PID controller whose parameters comprise proportionality constant, integral constant and derivative constant. Presence of three parameters to optimize makes the task of designing a PID controller more challenging than conventional P, PI, and PD controllers design. The suitability of the proposed approach has been demonstrated through computer simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Keywords: controller, GA, optimization, PID, PSO

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