Search results for: Surface water

Authors: Evita Straumite, Zanda Kruma, Ruta Galoburda, Kaiva Saulite

Abstract:

Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) is a popular herb used in many regions, including Baltic countries. Dill is widely used for flavoring foods and beverages due to its pleasant spicy aroma. The aim of this work was to determine the best blanching method for processing of dill prior to microwave vacuum drying based on sensory properties, color and volatile compounds in dried product. Two blanching mediums were used – water and steam, and for part of samples microwave pretreatment was additionally used. Evaluation of dried dill volatile aroma compounds, color changes and sensory attributes was performed. Results showed that blanching significantly influences the quality of dried dill. After evaluation of volatile aroma compounds, color and sensory properties of microwave vacuum dried dill, as the best method for dill pretreatment was established blanching at 90 °C for 30 s.

Keywords: dried dill, sensory panel, sensory properties, aroma compounds, color

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Authors: S. R. De Oliveira, A. De Almeida, I. M. Dal Fabbro

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Residues are produced in all stages of human activities in terms of composition and volume which vary according to consumption practices and to production methods. Forms of significant harm to the environment are associated to volume of generated material as well as to improper disposal of solid wastes, whose negative effects are noticed more frequently in the long term. The solution to this problem constitutes a challenge to the government, industry and society, because they involve economic, social, environmental and, especially, awareness of the population in general. The main concerns are focused on the impact it can have on human health and on the environment (soil, water, air and sights). The hazardous waste produced mainly by industry, are particularly worrisome because, when improperly managed, they become a serious threat to the environment. In view of this issue, this study aimed to evaluate the management system of solid waste of a coprocessing industrial waste company, to propose improvements to the rejects generation management in a specific step of the Blending production process.

Keywords: Blending, environment, industrial residues.

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Authors: B.S. Al-Tulaian, M. J. Al-Shannag, A.M. Al-Hozaimy

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The development of new construction materials using  recycled plastic is important to both the construction and the plastic  recycling industries. Manufacturing of fibers from industrial or  postconsumer plastic waste is an attractive approach with such  benefits as concrete performance enhancement, and reduced needs  for land filling. The main objective of this study is to investigate the  effect of Plastic fibers obtained locally from recycled waste on plastic  shrinkage cracking of ordinary cement based mortar. Parameters  investigated include: fiber length ranging from 20 to 50mm, and fiber  volume fraction ranging from 0% to 1.5% by volume. The test results  showed significant improvement in crack arresting mechanism and  substantial reduction in the surface area of cracks for the mortar  reinforced with recycled plastic fibers compared to plain mortar.  Furthermore, test results indicated that there was a slight decrease in  compressive strength of mortar reinforced with different lengths and  contents of recycled fibers compared to plain mortar. This study  suggests that adding more than 1% of RP fibers to mortar, can be  used effectively for controlling plastic shrinkage cracking of cement  based mortar, and thus results in waste reduction and resources  conservation.

 

Keywords: Mortar, plastic, shrinkage cracking, compressive strength, RF recycled fibers.

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Authors: Alisha Khanal, Gokhan Saygili

Abstract:

It is commonly observed that aftershocks follow the mainshock. Aftershocks continue over a period of time with a decreasing frequency and typically there is not sufficient time for repair and retrofit between a mainshock–aftershock sequence. Usually, aftershocks are smaller in magnitude; however, aftershock ground motion characteristics such as the intensity and duration can be greater than the mainshock due to the changes in the earthquake mechanism and location with respect to the site. The seismic performance of slopes is typically evaluated based on the sliding displacement predicted to occur along a critical sliding surface. Various empirical models are available that predict sliding displacement as a function of seismic loading parameters, ground motion parameters, and site parameters but these models do not include the aftershocks. The seismic risks associated with the post-mainshock slopes ('damaged slopes') subjected to aftershocks is significant. This paper extends the empirical sliding displacement models for flexible slopes subjected to earthquake mainshock-aftershock sequences (a multi hazard approach). A dataset was developed using 144 pairs of as-recorded mainshock-aftershock sequences using the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) database. The results reveal that the combination of mainshock and aftershock increases the seismic demand on slopes relative to the mainshock alone; thus, seismic risks are underestimated if aftershocks are neglected.

Keywords: Seismic slope stability, sliding displacement, mainshock, aftershock, landslide, earthquake.

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Authors: Mohd Azman A. Nurul, Husni Shafik, Almajano P. Maria, Gallego G. Maria

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The potential of using herbal Betula alba (BA) and Convolvulus arvensis (CA) as a natural antioxidant for food applications were investigated. Each plant extract was prepared by using pure ethanol, different concentration of ethanol aqueous solutions, including 50% and 75%, 50% methanol aqueous and water. Total phenolic content (TPC) was determined using Folin–Ciocalteau method and antioxidant activity were analyzed by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) respectively. Ethanol extract of CA exhibited the highest TPC and antioxidant activity; however BA showed varies of antioxidant activity value in each assay. The BA and CA exhibit the potential sources of natural antioxidant for food commodities.

Keywords: Solvent effect, Antioxidant activity, Betula Alba, Convolvulus arvensis, Total Phenolic Content.

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Authors: He Chao, Zhang Lei, Liu Ran, Li Ang

Abstract:

Temperature regulating system by gaseous nitrogen is of importance to the space environment simulator, which keeps the shrouds in the temperature range from -150°C to +150°C. Liquid nitrogen spray equipment is one of the most critical parts in the temperature regulating system by gaseous nitrogen. Y type jet atomizer and internal mixing atomizer of the liquid nitrogen spray equipment are studied in this paper, 2D/3D atomizer model was established and grid division was conducted respectively by the software of Catia and ICEM. Based on the above preparation, numerical simulation on the spraying process of the atomizer by FLUENT is performed. Using air and water as the medium, comparison between the tests and numerical simulation was conducted and the results of two ways match well. Hence, it can be conclude that this atomizer model can be applied in the numerical simulation of liquid nitrogen spray equipment.

Keywords: Space environmental simulator, liquid nitrogen spray, Y type jet atomizer, internal mixing atomizer, numerical simulation, fluent.

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Authors: Aurélie Mabrouk, Vincent Lagneau, Caroline De Dieuleveult, Martin Bachet, Hélène Schneider, Christophe Coquelet

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Resins are used in nuclear power plants for water ultrapurification. Two approaches are considered in this work: column experiments and simulations. A software called OPTIPUR was developed, tested and used. The approach simulates the onedimensional reactive transport in porous medium with convectivedispersive transport between particles and diffusive transport within the boundary layer around the particles. The transfer limitation in the boundary layer is characterized by the mass transfer coefficient (MTC). The influences on MTC were measured experimentally. The variation of the inlet concentration does not influence the MTC; on the contrary of the Darcy velocity which influences. This is consistent with results obtained using the correlation of Dwivedi&Upadhyay. With the MTC, knowing the number of exchange site and the relative affinity, OPTIPUR can simulate the column outlet concentration versus time. Then, the duration of use of resins can be predicted in conditions of a binary exchange.

Keywords: ion exchange resin, mass transfer coefficient, modeling, OPTIPUR

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Authors: Anirut Luadsong, Nitima Aschariyaphotha

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The spectral action balance equation is an equation that used to simulate short-crested wind-generated waves in shallow water areas such as coastal regions and inland waters. This equation consists of two spatial dimensions, wave direction, and wave frequency which can be solved by finite difference method. When this equation with dominating convection term are discretized using central differences, stability problems occur when the grid spacing is chosen too coarse. In this paper, we introduce the splitting upwind schemes for avoiding stability problems and prove that it is consistent to the upwind scheme with same accuracy. The splitting upwind schemes was adopted to split the wave spectral action balance equation into four onedimensional problems, which for each small problem obtains the independently tridiagonal linear systems. For each smaller system can be solved by direct or iterative methods at the same time which is very fast when performed by a multi-processor computer.

Keywords: upwind scheme, parallel algorithm, spectral action balance equation, splitting method.

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Authors: Md. Ashikur Rahman Khan, M. M. Rahman, K. Kadirgama

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Artificial neural networks (ANN) are used in distinct researching fields and professions, and are prepared by cooperation of scientists in different fields such as computer engineering, electronic, structure, biology and so many different branches of science. Many models are built correlating the parameters and the outputs in electrical discharge machining (EDM) concern for different types of materials. Up till now model for Ti-5Al-2.5Sn alloy in the case of electrical discharge machining performance characteristics has not been developed. Therefore, in the present work, it is attempted to generate a model of material removal rate (MRR) for Ti-5Al-2.5Sn material by means of Artificial Neural Network. The experimentation is performed according to the design of experiment (DOE) of response surface methodology (RSM). To generate the DOE four parameters such as peak current, pulse on time, pulse off time and servo voltage and one output as MRR are considered. Ti-5Al-2.5Sn alloy is machined with positive polarity of copper electrode. Finally the developed model is tested with confirmation test. The confirmation test yields an error as within the agreeable limit. To investigate the effect of the parameters on performance sensitivity analysis is also carried out which reveals that the peak current having more effect on EDM performance.

Keywords: Ti-5Al-2.5Sn, material removal rate, copper tungsten, positive polarity, artificial neural network, multi-layer perceptron.

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Authors: H. Bensouilah, H. Boucherit, M. Lahmar

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A theoretical investigation on the effects of both steady-state and dynamic deformations of the foils on the dynamic performance characteristics of a self-acting air foil journal bearing operating under small harmonic vibrations is proposed. To take into account the dynamic deformations of foils, the perturbation method is used for determining the gas-film stiffness and damping coefficients for given values of excitation frequency, compressibility number, and compliance factor of the bump foil. The nonlinear stationary Reynolds’ equation is solved by means of the Galerkins’ finite element formulation while the finite differences method are used to solve the first order complex dynamic equations resulting from the perturbation of the nonlinear transient compressible Reynolds’ equation. The stiffness of a bump is uniformly distributed throughout the bearing surface (generation I bearing). It was found that the dynamic properties of the compliant finite length journal bearing are significantly affected by the compliance of foils especially whenthe dynamic deformation of foils is considered in addition to the static one by applying the principle of superposition.

Keywords: Elasto-aerodynamic lubrication, Air foil bearing, Steady-state deformation, Dynamic deformation, Stiffness and damping coefficients, Perturbation method, Fluid-structure interaction, Galerk infinite element method, Finite difference method.

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Authors: Nihit Madireddi, P. A. Mahanwar

Abstract:

We have aimed to produce a self-cleaning transparent polymer coating with polyurethane (PU) matrix as the latter is highly solvent, chemical and weather resistant having good mechanical properties. Nano-silica modified by 1H, 1H, 2H, 2Hperflurooctyltriethoxysilane was incorporated into the PU matrix for attaining self-cleaning ability through hydrophobicity. The modification was confirmed by particle size analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermo-gravimetric (TGA) studies were carried to ascertain the grafting of silane onto the silica. Several coating formulations were prepared by varying the silica loading content and compared to a commercial equivalent. The effect of dispersion and the morphology of the coated films were assessed by SEM analysis. All coating standardized tests like solvent resistance, adhesion, flexibility, acid, alkali, gloss etc. have been performed as per ASTM standards. Water contact angle studies were conducted to analyze the hydrophobic character of the coating. In addition, the coatings were also subjected to salt spray and accelerated weather testing to analyze the durability of the coating.

Keywords: FAS, nano-silica, PU clear coat, self-cleaning.

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Authors: Magdi M. E. Zumrawi

Abstract:

Crossing culverts are essential element of rural roads. The paper aims to investigate failures of recently constructed wadi-crossing pipe culverts in Sennar state and provide necessary remedial measures. The investigation is conducted to provide an extensive diagnosis study in order to find out the main structural and hydrological weaknesses of the culverts. Literature of steel pipe culverts related to construction practices and common types of culvert failures and their appropriate mitigation measures were reviewed. A detailed field survey was conducted to detect failures and defects appeared on the existing culverts. The results revealed that seepage of water through the embankment and foundation of the culverts leads to excessive erosion and scouring causing sever failures and damages. The design mistakes and poor construction were detected as the main causes of culverts failures. For sustainability of the culverts, various remedial measures are recommended to be considered in urgent rehabilitation of the existing crossings.

Keywords: Culvert, erosion, failure, sustainability.

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Authors: Adesoji T. Jaiyeola, Josiah Adeyemo

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This paper presents an extensive review of literature relevant to the modelling techniques adopted in sediment yield and hydrological modelling. Several studies relating to sediment yield are discussed. Many research areas of sedimentation in rivers, runoff and reservoirs are presented. Different types of hydrological models, different methods employed in selecting appropriate models for different case studies are analysed. Applications of evolutionary algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques are discussed and compared especially in water resources management and modelling. This review concentrates on Genetic Programming (GP) and fully discusses its theories and applications. The successful applications of GP as a soft computing technique were reviewed in sediment modelling. Some fundamental issues such as benchmark, generalization ability, bloat, over-fitting and other open issues relating to the working principles of GP are highlighted. This paper concludes with the identification of some research gaps in hydrological modelling and sediment yield.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, evolutionary algorithm, genetic programming, sediment yield.

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Authors: N. D. Osman, M. S. Salikin, M. I. Saripan

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CT assessment of postoperative spine is challenging in the presence of metal streak artifacts that could deteriorate the quality of CT images. In this paper, we studied the influence of different acquisition parameters on the magnitude of metal streaking. A water-bath phantom was constructed with metal insertion similar with postoperative spine assessment. The phantom was scanned with different acquisition settings and acquired data were reconstructed using various reconstruction settings. Standardized ROIs were defined within streaking region for image analysis. The result shows increased kVp and mAs enhanced SNR values by reducing image noise. Sharper kernel enhanced image quality compared to smooth kernel, but produced more noise in the images with higher CT fluctuation. The noise between both kernels were significantly different (P <0.05) with increment of noise in the bone kernel images (mean difference = 54.78). The technical settings should be selected appropriately to attain the acceptable image quality with the best diagnostic value.

Keywords: Computed tomography, metal streak, noise, CT fluctuation.

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Authors: Roghaieh Parvizsedghy, Seyyed Mojtaba Sadrameli

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Biodiesel as an alternative diesel fuel is steadily gaining more attention and significance. However, there are some drawbacks while using biodiesel regarding its properties that requires it to be blended with petrol based diesel and/or additives to improve the fuel characteristics. This study analyses thermal cracking as an alternative technology to improve biodiesel characteristics in which, FAME based biodiesel produced by transesterification of castor oil is fed into a continuous thermal cracking reactor at temperatures range of 450-500°C and flowrate range of 20-40 g/hr. Experiments designed by response surface methodology and subsequent statistical studies show that temperature and feed flowrate significantly affect the products yield. Response surfaces were used to study the impact of temperature and flowrate on the product properties. After each experiment, the produced crude bio-oil was distilled and diesel cut was separated. As shorter chain molecules are produced through thermal cracking, the distillation curve of the diesel cut fitted more with petrol based diesel curve in comparison to the biodiesel. Moreover, the produced diesel cut properties adequately pose within property ranges defined by the related standard of petrol based diesel. Cold flow properties, high heating value as the main drawbacks of the biodiesel are improved by this technology. Thermal cracking decreases kinematic viscosity, Flash point and cetane number. 

Keywords: Biodiesel, castor oil, fuel properties, thermal cracking.

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Authors: Rubén Bãnos, José Arcos, Oscar Bautista, Federico Méndez

Abstract:

The Oscillatory electroosmotic flow (OEOF) in power law fluids through a microchannel is studied numerically. A time-dependent external electric field (AC) is suddenly imposed at the ends of the microchannel which induces the fluid motion. The continuity and momentum equations in the x and y direction for the flow field were simplified in the limit of the lubrication approximation theory (LAT), and then solved using a numerical scheme. The solution of the electric potential is based on the Debye-H¨uckel approximation which suggest that the surface potential is small,say, smaller than 0.025V and for a symmetric (z : z) electrolyte. Our results suggest that the velocity profiles across the channel-width are controlled by the following dimensionless parameters: the angular Reynolds number, Reω, the electrokinetic parameter, ¯κ, defined as the ratio of the characteristic length scale to the Debye length, the parameter λ which represents the ratio of the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski velocity to the characteristic length scale and the flow behavior index, n. Also, the results reveal that the velocity profiles become more and more non-uniform across the channel-width as the Reω and ¯κ are increased, so oscillatory OEOF can be really useful in micro-fluidic devices such as micro-mixers.

Keywords: Oscillatory electroosmotic flow, Non-Newtonian fluids, power-law model, low zeta potentials.

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Authors: Geeta Negi, Pankaj, Anjana Srivastava, Anita Sharma

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In the present study, presence of endosulfan, imidacloprid, carbendazim, in the soil /vegetables/cereals and water samples was observed in agriculture fields of Uttarakhand. In view of biodegradation of these pesticides, 9 bacterial isolates were recovered from the soil samples of the fields which tolerated endosulfan, imidacloprid, carbendazim from 100 to 200 µg/ml. Three bacterial consortia used for in vitro bioremediation experiments were consisted of 3 bacterial isolates for carbendazim, imidacloprid and endosulfan, respectively. Maximum degradation (87 and 83%) of α and β endosulfan respectively was observed in soil slurry by consortium. Degradation of Imidacloprid and carbendazim under similar conditions was 88.4 and 77.5% respectively. FT-IR analysis of biodegraded samples of pesticides in liquid media showed stretching of various bonds. GC-MS of biodegraded endosulfan sample in soil slurry showed the presence of nontoxic intermediates. A pot trial with Bacterial treatments lowered down the uptake of pesticides in onion plants.

Keywords: Biodegradation, carbendazim, consortium, Endosulfan.

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Authors: Bachir Chemani, Halima Chemani

Abstract:

This paper studies the application of a variety of sawdust materials in the production of lightweight insulating bricks. First, the mineralogical and chemical composition of clays was determined. Next, ceramic bricks were fabricated with different quantities of materials (3–6 and 9 wt. % for sawdust, 65 wt. % for grey clay, 24–27 and 30 wt. % for yellow clay and 2 wt% of tuff). These bricks were fired at 800 and 950 °C. The effect of adding this sawdust on the technological behaviour of the brick was assessed by drying and firing shrinkage, water absorption, porosity, bulk density and compressive strength. The results have shown that the optimum sintering temperature is 950 °C. Below this temperature, at 950 °C, increased open porosity was observed, which decreased the compressive strength of the bricks. Based on the results obtained, the optimum amounts of waste were 9 wt. % sawdust of eucalyptus, 24 wt. % shaping moisture and 1.6 particle size diameter. These percentages produced bricks whose mechanical properties were suitable for use as secondary raw materials in ceramic brick production.

Keywords: Clay brick, Porosity, Sawdust.

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Authors: Khaing Win Mar, Thinn Thu Naing

Abstract:

Nowadays, precipitation prediction is required for proper planning and management of water resources. Prediction with neural network models has received increasing interest in various research and application domains. However, it is difficult to determine the best neural network architecture for prediction since it is not immediately obvious how many input or hidden nodes are used in the model. In this paper, neural network model is used as a forecasting tool. The major aim is to evaluate a suitable neural network model for monthly precipitation mapping of Myanmar. Using 3-layerd neural network models, 100 cases are tested by changing the number of input and hidden nodes from 1 to 10 nodes, respectively, and only one outputnode used. The optimum model with the suitable number of nodes is selected in accordance with the minimum forecast error. In measuring network performance using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), experimental results significantly show that 3 inputs-10 hiddens-1 output architecture model gives the best prediction result for monthly precipitation in Myanmar.

Keywords: Precipitation prediction, monthly precipitation, neural network models, Myanmar.

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Authors: S. Mohajer, R. M. Taha, M. Adel

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Developing our knowledge of when pineapple roots grow can lead to improved water, fertilizer applications, and more precise culture management. This paper presents current understanding of morphological traits in pineapple roots, highlighting studies using incubation periods and various solid MS media treated with different sucrose concentrations and pH, which directly assess in vitro environmental factors. Rooting parameters had different optimal sucrose concentrations and incubation periods. All shoots failed to root in medium supplemented with sucrose at 5 g/L and no roots formed within the first 45 days in medium enriched with sucrose at 10 g/L. After 75 days, all shoots rooted in medium enriched with 10 and 20 g/L sucrose. Moreover, MS medium supplied with 20 g/L sucrose resulted in the longest and the highest number of roots with 27.3 mm and 4.7, respectively. Root function, such as capacity for P and N uptake, declined rapidly with root length. As a result, the longer the incubation period, the better the rooting responses would be.

Keywords: Environmental factors, in vitro rooting, pineapple, tissue culture.

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Authors: Arunima Shukla, Vikas Almadi, Devesh Jaiswal, Sunil Saini, Bhusan S. Patil

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Lightning protection consists of three main parts; mainly air termination system, down conductor, and earth termination system. Earth termination system is the most important part as earth is the sink and source of charges. Therefore, even when the charges are captured and delivered to the ground, and an easy path is not provided to the charges, earth termination system would lead to problems. Soil has significantly different resistivities ranging from 10 Ωm for wet organic soil to 10000 Ωm for bedrock. Different methods have been discussed and used conventionally such as deep-ground-well method and altering the length of the rod. Those methods are not considered economical. Therefore, it was a general practice to use charcoal along with salt to reduce the soil resistivity. Bentonite is worldwide acceptable material, that had led our interest towards study of bentonite at first. It was concluded that bentonite is a clay which is non-corrosive, environment friendly. Whereas bentonite is suitable only when there is moisture present in the soil, as in the absence of moisture, cracks will appear on the surface which will provide an open passage to the air, resulting into increase in the resistivity. Furthermore, bentonite without moisture does not have enough bonding property, moisture retention, conductivity, and non-leachability. Therefore, bentonite was used along with the other backfill material to overcome the dependency of bentonite on moisture. Different experiments were performed to get the best ratio of bentonite and carbon backfill. It was concluded that properties will highly depend on the quantity of bentonite and carbon-based backfill material.

Keywords: Backfill material, bentonite, conducting soil, grounding material, low resistivity.

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Authors: Xiaochun Huang, Xuejun Zhao, Yun Zou, Feiyu Yang, Wenbin Liu, Nan Deng, Ming Zhang, Nengbin Cai

Abstract:

A simple device termed infrared radiation (IR) was developed for rapid visualization of sweat fingerprints deposit on paper with blue light (450 nm, 11 W). In this approach, IR serves as the pretreatment device before the sweat fingerprints was illuminated by blue light. An annular blue light source was adopted for visualizing latent sweat fingerprints. Sample fingerprints were examined under various conditions after deposition, and experimental results indicate that the recovery rate of the latent sweat fingerprints is in the range of 50%-100% without chemical treatments. A mechanism for the observed visibility is proposed based on transportation and re-impregnation of fluorescer in paper at the region of water. And further exploratory experimental results gave the full support to the visible mechanism. Therefore, such a method as IR-pretreated in detecting latent fingerprints may be better for examination in the case where biological information of samples is needed for consequent testing.

Keywords: Forensic science, visualization, infrared radiation, blue light, latent sweat fingerprints, detection.

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Authors: J. Prakash, K. Rajesh

Abstract:

In this paper we present a new method for coin identification. The proposed method adopts a hybrid scheme using Eigenvalues of covariance matrix, Circular Hough Transform (CHT) and Bresenham-s circle algorithm. The statistical and geometrical properties of the small and large Eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of a set of edge pixels over a connected region of support are explored for the purpose of circular object detection. Sparse matrix technique is used to perform CHT. Since sparse matrices squeeze zero elements and contain only a small number of non-zero elements, they provide an advantage of matrix storage space and computational time. Neighborhood suppression scheme is used to find the valid Hough peaks. The accurate position of the circumference pixels is identified using Raster scan algorithm which uses geometrical symmetry property. After finding circular objects, the proposed method uses the texture on the surface of the coins called texton, which are unique properties of coins, refers to the fundamental micro structure in generic natural images. This method has been tested on several real world images including coin and non-coin images. The performance is also evaluated based on the noise withstanding capability.

Keywords: Circular Hough Transform, Coin detection, Covariance matrix, Eigenvalues, Raster scan Algorithm, Texton.

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Authors: Sutisa Khempaka, Supattra Okrathok, Laddawan Hokking, Buntita Thukhanon, Wittawat Molee

Abstract:

This study was conducted to investigate the optimum levels of glutamine (Gln) supplementation in broiler diets. A total of 32 one-day-old male chicks with initial body weight 41.5 g were segregated into 4 groups (8 chicks per group) and subsequently distributed to individual cages. Feed and water were provided ad libitum for 21 days. Four dietary treatments were as follows: control and supplemented Gln at 1, 2 and 3%, respectively. The results found that the addition Gln had no negative effects on dry matter, organic matter, ash digestibility or nitrogen retention. Birds fed with 1% Gln had significantly higher villi wide and villi height : crypt depth ratio in duodenum than the control chicks and 2 and 3% Gln chicks. It is suggested that the addition of Gln at 1% indicated a beneficial effect on improving small intestinal morphology, in addition Gln may stimulate immune organ development of broiler chickens.

Keywords: broiler chicken, digestibility, gastrointestinal tract glutamine, glutamine

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Authors: Tor Kindsbekken Kjeldby, Ruud Henkes, Ole Jørgen Nydal

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Experimental data from an atmospheric air/water terrain slugging case has been made available by the Shell Amsterdam research center, and has been subject to numerical simulation and comparison with a one-dimensional two-phase slug tracking simulator under development at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The code is based on tracking of liquid slugs in pipelines by use of a Lagrangian grid formulation implemented in Cµ by use of object oriented techniques. An existing hybrid spatial discretization scheme is tested, in which the stratified regions are modelled by the two-fluid model. The slug regions are treated incompressible, thus requiring a single momentum balance over the whole slug. Upon comparison with the experimental data, the period of the simulated severe slugging cycle is observed to be sensitive to slug generation in the horizontal parts of the system. Two different slug initiation methods have been tested with the slug tracking code, and grid dependency has been investigated.

Keywords: Hydrodynamic initiation, slug tracking, terrain slugging, two-fluid model, two-phase flow.

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Authors: Luen Chow Chan

Abstract:

With the advocacy of green transportation and green traveling, cycling has become increasingly popular nowadays. Physiology and bike design are key factors for the influence of cycling efficiency. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the significance of bike-frame geometric factors on cycling efficiency and muscle activation for different body sizes of non-professional Asian male cyclists. Participants who represented various body sizes, as measured by leg and back lengths, carried out cycling tests using a tailor-assembled road bike with different ergonomic design configurations including seat-height adjustments (i.e., 96%, 100%, and 104% of trochanteric height) and bike frame sizes (i.e., small and medium frames) for an assessable distance of 1 km. A specific power meter and self-developed adaptable surface electromyography (sEMG) were used to measure average pedaling power and cadence generated and muscle activation, respectively. The results showed that changing the seat height was far more significant than the body and bike frame sizes. The sEMG data evidently provided a better understanding of muscle activation as a function of different seat heights. Therefore, the interpretation of this study is that the major bike ergonomic design factor dominating the cycling efficiency of Asian participants with different body sizes was the seat height.

Keywords: Bike frame sizes, cadence rate, pedaling power, seat height.

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Authors: Bashayi Obadiah, Barau Daniel

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One of the United Nations Millennium Development targets is to 'achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020'. To monitor progress on this target a first step is to develop an operational definition to identify slum settlements. The indicators selected are: access to water and sanitation, sufficient living area, a house with durable material on a non-hazardous location and with tenure security. This paper describes the techniques of identifying slums and applied the techniques in identifying slum in Lafia town. The methodology used was selection of one district in Lafia town for this study and the district was zoned into four units. The total of 10% sample size out of 2,482 households of 250 questionnaires was administered using systematic sampling method based on proportion of houses at each zones as 90, 70, 40 and 50 respectively. The result shows that the area is a second order degeneration that needs a major improvement. Recommendations were made in this regard for urgent intervention in improving or upgrading of housing and infrastructural facilities

Keywords: Urban slums, security, safety, degeneration, upgrading.

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Authors: Junior B. N. Adohinzin, Ling Xu

Abstract:

Nitrogen is among the main nutrients encouraging the growth of organic matter and algae which cause eutrophication in water bodies. Therefore, its removal from wastewater has become a worldwide emerging concern. In this research, an innovative Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) system named “moving bed membrane bioreactor (MBMBR)” was developed and investigated under intermittently-aerated mode for simultaneous removal of organic carbon and nitrogen.

Results indicated that the variation of the intermittently aerated duration did not have an apparent impact on COD and NH₄⁺–N removal rate, yielding the effluent with average COD and NH₄⁺–N removal efficiency of more than 92 and 91% respectively. However, in the intermittently aerated cycle of (continuously aeration/0s mix), (aeration 90s/mix 90s) and (aeration 90s/mix 180s); the average TN removal efficiency was 67.6%, 69.5% and 87.8% respectively. At the same time, their nitrite accumulation rate was 4.5%, 49.1% and 79.4% respectively. These results indicate that the intermittently aerated mode is an efficient way to controlling the nitrification to stop at nitrition; and also the length of anoxic duration is a key factor in improving TN removal.

Keywords: Membrane bioreactor (MBR), Moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), Nutrients removal, Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification.

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Authors: Hossein Kabir, Mojtaba Sadeghi

Abstract:

Nowadays, high-strength concrete is an integral element of a variety of high-rise buildings. On the other hand, finding a suitable aggregate size distribution is a great concern; hence, the concrete mix proportion is presented that has no coarse aggregate, which still withstands enough desirable strength. Nano Reactive Silica sand powder concrete (NRSSPC) is a type of concrete with no coarse material in its own composition. In this concrete, the only aggregate found in the mix design is silica sand powder with a size less than 150 mm that is infinitesimally small regarding the normal concrete. The research aim is to find the compressive strength of this particular concrete under the applied different conditions of curing and consolidation to compare the approaches. In this study, the young concrete specimens were compacted with a pressing or vibrating process. It is worthwhile to mention that in order to show the influence of temperature in the curing process, the concrete specimen was cured either in 20 ⁰C lime water or autoclaved in 90 ⁰C oven.

Keywords: Nano reactive silica sand powder concrete, consolidation, compressive strength, normal curing, thermal accelerated curing.

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Authors: Andressa dos Santos Nicolau, João P. da S.C Algusto, Claudio Márcio do N. A. Pereira, Roberto Schirru

Abstract:

In case of abnormal situations, the nuclear power plant (NPP) operators must follow written procedures to check the condition of the plant and to classify the type of emergency. In this paper, we proposed a Real Time Expert System in order to improve operator’s performance in case of transient or accident with reactor shutdown. The expert system’s knowledge is based on the sequence of events (SoE) of known accident and two emergency procedures of the Brazilian Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) NPP and uses two kinds of knowledge representation: rule and logic trees. The results show that the system was able to classify the response of the automatic protection systems, as well as to evaluate the conditions of the plant, diagnosing the type of occurrence, recovery procedure to be followed, indicating the shutdown root cause, and classifying the emergency level.

Keywords: Emergence procedure, expert system, operator support, PWR nuclear power plant.

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