Search results for: Adaptive fuzzy control

Authors: Mónika Bartalné-Berceli, Eszter Izsó, Szilveszter Gergely, András Salgó

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Presently a significant portion of the Earth's population does not have access to healthy food. Either because they cannot afford it or because they do not know which one are they. The aim of the VII th Framework Chance project (Nr. 266331) supported by the European Union has been to develop relatively cheap food with favourable nutritional value and it should have acceptable quality for consumers. As one task of the project we manufactured bread products as a basic food. We examined the enrichment of bread products with four kinds of bran, with a special milling product of grain industry (aleurone-rich flour) and with a soy-based sprouted additive. The applied concentration of the six mentioned additives has been optimized and the physical properties of the bread products were monitored. The weight/density of the enriched breads increased a bit, however the volume and height decreased slightly compared to the corresponding data of the control bread. The optimized composition of the final product is favourably affected by these additives having highly preferred composition from nutritional point of view.

Keywords: Aleurone-rich flour, Brans, Bread products, Sprouted soybean, YASO.

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Authors: Y. T. Yang, H. S. Peng, H. T. Hsu

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This study presents the numerical simulation of optimum pin-fin heat sink with air impinging cooling by using Taguchi method. 9 L ( 4 3 ) orthogonal array is selected as a plan for the four design-parameters with three levels. The governing equations are discretized by using the control-volume-based-finite-difference method with a power-law scheme on the non-uniform staggered grid. We solved the coupling of the velocity and the pressure terms of momentum equations using SIMPLEC algorithm. We employ the k −ε two-equations turbulence model to describe the turbulent behavior. The parameters studied include fin height H (35mm-45mm), inter-fin spacing a , b , and c (2 mm-6.4 mm), and Reynolds number ( Re = 10000- 25000). The objective of this study is to examine the effects of the fin spacings and fin height on the thermal resistance and to find the optimum group by using the Taguchi method. We found that the fin spacings from the center to the edge of the heat sink gradually extended, and the longer the fin’s height the better the results. The optimum group is 3 1 2 3 H a b c . In addition, the effects of parameters are ranked by importance as a , H , c , and b .

Keywords: Heat sink, Optimum, Electronics cooling, CFD.

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Authors: Sewon Kim, Minjun Kwon, Changyeop Lee

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This paper is aimed to study combustion characteristics of low NOx burner using petroleum cokes as fuel. The petroleum coke, which is produced through the oil refining process, is an attractive fuel in terms of its high heating value and low price. But petroleum coke is a challenging fuel because of its low volatile content, high sulfur and nitrogen content, which give rise to undesirable emission characteristics and low ignitability. Therefore, the research and development regarding the petroleum coke burner is needed for applying this industrial system. In this study, combustion and emission characteristics of petroleum cokes burner are experimentally investigated in an industrial steam boiler. The low NOx burner is designed to control fuel and air mixing to achieve staged combustion, which, in turn reduces both flame temperature and oxygen. Air distribution ratio of triple staged air is optimized experimentally. The result showed that NOx concentration is lowest when overfire air is used, and the burner function at a fuel rich condition. That is, the burner is operated at the equivalence ratio of 1.67 and overall equivalence ratio including overfire air is kept 0.87.

Keywords: Petroleum cokes, Staged combustion, Low NOx, Equivalence ratio.

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Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari

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Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.  

Keywords: Energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach.

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Authors: T. M. Mousa-Balabel, M. A. Salama

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The effect of shearing date on behaviors and performances of 20 pregnant Rahmani ewes was evaluated in four groups (5each). Ewes were shorn at 70, 100 and 130 days of pregnancy in the first three groups respectively, while the fourth group was maintained unshorn as a control. Some behavioral and physiological data related to ewes in addition, blood cortisol level were recorded. Results revealed a significant increase in the frequencies of comfort and eating behaviors, respiratory rate, pulse rate, lamb birth weight and blood cortisol level in early and mid pregnancy shorn ewes. Also, a slight increase in pregnancy period was observed for those ewes. On the other hand, social behaviors, and core temperature were not affected by shearing. These results conclude that prenatal shearing (early and mid-pregnancy) of ewes increases the frequencies of comfort and eating behaviors, and improves the survival rates of lambs by increasing their birth weights.

Keywords: behavior, blood cortisol, pregnant rahmani ewes, shearing.

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Authors: Shubha P Bhat, Krishnamurthy, T.C.Manjunath, C. Ardil

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In this paper, the effects of the restoring force device on the response of a space frame structure resting on sliding type of bearing with a restoring force device is studied. The NS component of the El - Centro earthquake and harmonic ground acceleration is considered for earthquake excitation. The structure is modeled by considering six-degrees of freedom (three translations and three rotations) at each node. The sliding support is modeled as a fictitious spring with two horizontal degrees of freedom. The response quantities considered for the study are the top floor acceleration, base shear, bending moment and base displacement. It is concluded from the study that the displacement of the structure reduces by the use of the restoring force device. Also, the peak values of acceleration, bending moment and base shear also decreases. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the developed and proposed method.

Keywords: DOF, Space structures, Acceleration, Excitation, Smart structure, Vibration, Isolation, Earthquakes.

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Authors: Hanan Moawad, Naglaa M. Abd EL-Rahman

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Erwinia carotovora var. carotovora is the main cause of soft rot in potatoes. Hyphaene thebaica was studied for biocontrol of E. carotovora which inhibited growth of E. carotovora on solid medium, a comparative study of classical and ultrasound-assisted extractions of Hyphaene thebaica fruit. The use of ultrasound decreased significant the total time of treatment and increase the total amount of crude extract. The crude extract was subjected to determine the in vitro, by a bioassay technique revealed that the treatment of paper disks with ultrasound extraction of Hyphaene thebaica reduced the growth of pathogen and produced inhibition zones up to 38mm in diameter. The antioxidant activity of ultrasound-ethanolic extract of Doum fruits (Hyphaene thebaica) was determined. Data obtained showed that the extract contains the secondary metabolites such as Tannins, Saponin, Flavonoids, Phenols, Steroids, Terpenoids, Glycosides and Alkaloids.

Keywords: Ultrasound, classical extract, Biological control, Erwinia carotovora, Hyphaene thebaica.

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Authors: Ayedh Alqahtani, Andrew Whyte

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Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is one of the goals and key pillars of the construction management science because it comprises many of the functions and processes necessary, which assist organisations and agencies to achieve their goals. It has therefore become important to design and control assets during their whole life cycle, from the design and planning phase through to disposal phase. LCCA is aimed to improve the decision making system in the ownership of assets by taking into account all the cost elements including to the asset throughout its life. Current application of LCC approach is impractical during misunderstanding of the advantages of LCC. This main objective of this research is to show a different relationship between capital cost and long-term running costs. One hundred and thirty eight actual building projects in United Kingdom (UK) were used in order to achieve and measure the above-mentioned objective of the study. The result shown that LCC is one of the most significant tools should be considered on the decision making process.

Keywords: Building projects, Capital cost, Life cycle cost, Maintenance costs, Operation costs.

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Authors: Shih-Wen Hsiao, Chu-Hsuan Lee, Rong-Qi Chen

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When it comes to last, it is regarded as the critical foundation of shoe design and development. Not only the last relates to the comfort of shoes wearing but also it aids the production of shoe styling and manufacturing. In order to enhance the efficiency and application of last development, a computer aided methodology for customized last form designs is proposed in this study. The reverse engineering is mainly applied to the process of scanning for the last form. Then the minimum energy is used for the revision of surface continuity, the surface of the last is reconstructed with the feature curves of the scanned last. When the surface of a last is reconstructed, based on the foundation of the proposed last form reconstruction module, the weighted arithmetic mean method is applied to the calculation on the shape morphing which differs from the grading for the control mesh of last, and the algorithm of subdivision is used to create the surface of last mesh, thus the feet-fitting 3D last form of different sizes is generated from its original form feature with functions remained. Finally, the practicability of the proposed methodology is verified through later case studies.

Keywords: 3D last design, Customization, Reverse engineering, Weighted morphing, Shape blending.

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Authors: Michael Ajide Oyinloye

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Generally the natural environment is made up of air, water and soil. The release of emission of industrial waste into anyone of the components of the environment causes pollution. Industrial pollution significantly threatens the inherent right of people, to the enjoyment of a safe and secure environment. The aim of this paper is to assess the effect of environmental pollution and health risks of residents living near Ewekoro cement factory. The research made use of IKONOS imagery for Geographical Information System (GIS) to buffer and extract buildings that are less than 1km to the factory, within 1km to 5km and above 5km to the factory. Also questionnaire was used to elicit information on the socio-economic factors, effect of environmental pollution on residents and measures adopted to control industrial pollution on the residents. Findings show that most buildings that fall between less than 1km and 1km to 5km to the factory have high health risk in the study area. The study recommended total relocation for the residents of the study area to reduce health risk problems.

Keywords: Environmental pollution, Ewekoro, GIS, Health risk, Satellite imagery.

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Authors: Kanokrat Makkwao, Tassanee Prueksasit

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This study aimed to investigate PM₁₀ emitted from different limestone mines in Saraburi province, Thailand. The blasting and crushing were the main processes selected for PM₁₀ sampling. PM₁₀ was collected in two mines including, a limestone mine for cement manufacturing (mine A) and a limestone mine for construction (mine B). The IMPACT samplers were used to collect PM₁₀. At blasting, the points aligning with the upwind and downwind direction were assigned for the sampling. The ranges of PM₁₀ concentrations at mine A and B were 0.267-5.592 and 0.130-0.325 mg/m³, respectively, and the concentration at blasting from mine A was significantly higher than mine B (p < 0.05). During crushing at mine A, the PM₁₀ concentration with the range of 1.153-3.716 and 0.085-1.724 mg/m³ at crusher and piles in respectively were observed whereas the PM₁₀ concentration measured at four sampling points in mine B, including secondary crusher, tertiary crusher, screening point, and piles, were ranged 1.032-16.529, 10.957-74.057, 0.655-4.956, and 0.169-1.699 mg/m³, respectively. The emission of PM₁₀ concentration at the crushing units was different in the ranges depending on types of machine, its operation, dust collection and control system, and environmental conditions.

Keywords: Blasting, crushing, limestone mines, PM10 concentration.

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Authors: Jain-Shing Liu

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In this paper, we present a matrix game-theoretic cross-layer optimization formulation to maximize the network lifetime in wireless ad hoc networks with network coding. To this end, we introduce a cross-layer formulation of general NUM (network utility maximization) that accommodates routing, scheduling, and stream control from different layers in the coded networks. Specifically, for the scheduling problem and then the objective function involved, we develop a matrix game with the strategy sets of the players corresponding to hyperlinks and transmission modes, and design the payoffs specific to the lifetime. In particular, with the inherit merit that matrix game can be solved with linear programming, our cross-layer programming formulation can benefit from both game-based and NUM-based approaches at the same time by cooperating the programming model for the matrix game with that for the other layers in a consistent framework. Finally, our numerical example demonstrates its performance results on a well-known wireless butterfly network to verify the cross-layer optimization scheme.

Keywords: Cross-layer design, Lifetime maximization, Matrix game, Network coding

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Authors: Lei Yao, Jia Hao Cheong, Rui-Feng Xue, Minkyu Je

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A closed-loop controlled wireless power transmission circuit block for implantable biomedical applications is described in this paper. The circuit consists of one front-end rectifier, power management sub-block including bandgap reference and low drop-out regulators (LDOs) as well as transmission power detection / feedback circuits. Simulation result shows that the front-end rectifier achieves 80% power efficiency with 750-mV single-end peak-to-peak input voltage and 1.28-V output voltage under load current of 4 mA. The power management block can supply 1.8mA average load current under 1V consuming only 12μW power, which is equivalent to 99.3% power efficiency. The wireless power transmission block described in this paper achieves a maximum power efficiency of 80%. The wireless power transmission circuit block is designed and implemented using UMC 65-nm CMOS/RF process. It occupies 1 mm × 1.2 mm silicon area.

Keywords: Implantable biomedical devices, wireless power transfer, LDO, rectifier, closed-loop power control

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Authors: Jieun Song, Taesung Kim, Sokjoon Lee, Howon Kim

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Recently, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology attracts the world market attention as essential technology for ubiquitous environment. The RFID market has focused on transponders and reader development. But that concern has shifted to RFID software like as high-valued e-business applications, RFID middleware and related development tools. However, due to the high sensitivity of data and service transaction within the RFID network, security consideration must be addressed. In order to guarantee trusted e-business based on RFID technology, we propose a security enhanced RFID middleware system. Our proposal is compliant with EPCglobal ALE (Application Level Events), which is standard interface for middleware and its clients. We show how to provide strengthened security and trust by protecting transported data between middleware and its client, and stored data in middleware. Moreover, we achieve the identification and service access control against illegal service abuse. Our system enables secure RFID middleware service and trusted e-business service.

Keywords: RFID Middleware, ALE (Application Level Events), Security.

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Authors: Durga C. Dalal, Swapan K. Pandit

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In this paper, a numerical study has been made to analyze the transient 2-D flows of a viscous incompressible fluid through channels with forward or backward constriction. Problems addressed include flow through sudden contraction and sudden expansion channel geometries with rounded and increasingly sharp reentrant corner. In both the cases, numerical results are presented for the separation and reattachment points, streamlines, vorticity and flow patterns. A fourth order accurate compact scheme has been employed to efficiently capture steady state solutions of the governing equations. It appears from our study that sharpness of the throat in the channel is one of the important parameters to control the strength and size of the separation zone without modifying the general flow patterns. The comparison between the two cases shows that the upstream geometry plays a significant role on vortex growth dynamics.

Keywords: Forward and backward constriction, HOC scheme, Incompressible viscous flows, Separation and reattachment points.

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Authors: M. Eckert, M. Oliveira

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The intensive use of natural aggregates, near cities and towns, associated to the increase of the global population, leads to its depletion and increases the transport distances. The uncontrolled deposition of construction and demolition waste in landfills and city outskirts, causes pollution and takes up space. The use of recycled aggregates in concrete preparation would contribute to mitigate the problem. However, it arises the problem that the high water absorption of recycled aggregate decreases the bleeding rate of concrete, and when this gets lower than the evaporation rate, plastic shrinkage cracking occurs. This phenomenon can be particularly problematic in hot and windy curing environments. Cracking facilitates the flow of liquid and gas into concrete which attacks the reinforcement and degrades the concrete. These factors reduce the durability of concrete structures and consequently the lifetime of buildings. A ring test was used, cured in a wind tunnel, to evaluate the plastic shrinkage cracking sensitivity of recycled aggregate concrete, in order to implement preventive means to control this phenomenon. The role of several aggregate properties on the concrete segregation and cracking mechanisms were also discussed.

Keywords: Recycled Aggregate, Plastic Shrinkage Cracking; Wind Tunnel, Durability.

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Authors: D. Satish Kumar, S. Karthik

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A dual tiered network model is designed to overcome the problem of energy alert and fault tolerance. This model minimizes the delay time and overcome failure of links. Performance analysis of the dual tiered network model is studied in this paper where the CA and LS schemes are compared with DEO optimal. We then evaluate  the Integrated Network Topological Control and Key Management (INTK) Schemes, which was proposed to add security features of the wireless sensor networks. Clustering efficiency, level of protections, the time complexity is some of the parameters of INTK scheme that were analyzed. We then evaluate the Cluster based Energy Competent n-coverage scheme (CEC n-coverage scheme) to ensure area coverage for wireless sensor networks.

Keywords: CEC n-coverage scheme, Clustering efficiency, Dual tired network, Wireless sensor networks.

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Authors: Yiyang Su, Jörg Neumann, Jan Wetzlich, Florian Thiel

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Smart grid is a term used to describe the next generation power grid. New challenges such as integration of renewable and decentralized energy sources, the requirement for continuous grid estimation and optimization, as well as the use of two-way flows of energy have been brought to the power gird. In order to achieve efficient, reliable, sustainable, as well as secure delivery of electric power more and more information and communication technologies are used for the monitoring and the control of power grids. Consequently, the need for cybersecurity is dramatically increased and has converged into several standards which will be presented here. These standards for the smart grid must be designed to satisfy both performance and reliability requirements. An in depth investigation of the effect of retrospectively embedded security in existing grids on it’s dynamic behavior is required. Therefore, a retrofitting plan for existing meters is offered, and it’s performance in a test low voltage microgrid is investigated. As a result of this, integration of security measures into measurement architectures of smart grids at the design phase is strongly recommended.

Keywords: Cyber security, performance, protocols, security standards, smart grid.

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Authors: Naima Nur, Safa Islam, Saeema Islam, Md. Faridul Alam

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The study addresses the increasing challenge of pediatric presumptive tuberculosis, emphasizing the need to understand the factors associated with it. The research aims to determine the proportion of presumptive TB and factors associated with it among suspected pediatric tuberculosis patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted at ICDDR-Bangladesh, collecting specimens from suspected pediatric patients and using logistic regression for data analysis. The study found a high proportion of presumptive TB (85.7%) but no statistically significant differences between presumptive and non-presumptive TB. Theoretical importance of the study highlights the importance of identifying factors associated with presumptive TB for better control and management strategies. Specimens were collected from 84 suspected pediatric patients diagnosed with TB based on clinical symptoms/radiological findings. Microbiological tests like smear-microscopy, culture, and GeneXpert were used to isolate presumptive TB and confirmed TB. The proportion of presumptive TB was 85.7% among suspected pediatric TB patients. Among various factors that were not found to be associated with the presumptive TB. The study concludes that despite a high proportion of presumptive TB, no significant differences were found between presumptive and non-presumptive TB cases.

Keywords: Presumptive tuberculosis, confirmed tuberculosis, patient's characteristics, diagnosis.

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Authors: Murugan. A., Jerlin Nirmala. F .

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Life is beautiful. But, it is decided by genes, environment and the individual and shattered by the natural and / or the invited problems. Most of the global rural helpless masses are struggling for their survival since; they are neglected in all aspects of life including health. Amidst a countless number of miserable diseases in man, diabetes is becoming a dreaded killer and ramifying the entire globe in a jet speed. Diabetes control continues as a Herculean task to the scientific community and the modern society in the 21st century also. T2DM is not pertaining to any age and it can develop even during the childhood. This multifactorial disease abruptly changes the activities of certain vital biomarkers in the present rural T2DM cases. A remarkable variation in the levels of biomarkers like AST, ALT, GGT, ALP, LDH, HbA1C, C- peptide, fasting sugar, post-prandial sugar, sodium, potassium, BUN, creatinine and insulin show the rampant nature of T2DM in this physically active rural agrarian community.

Keywords: Alanine aminotransferase, Aspartate aminotransferase, Blood urea nitrogen, Glycated haemoglobin, Thyroid stimulating hormone

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Authors: Aniruddha Bhattacharya, Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay

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Optimal reactive power flow is an optimization problem with one or more objective of minimizing the active power losses for fixed generation schedule. The control variables are generator bus voltages, transformer tap settings and reactive power output of the compensating devices placed on different bus bars. Biogeography- Based Optimization (BBO) technique has been applied to solve different kinds of optimal reactive power flow problems subject to operational constraints like power balance constraint, line flow and bus voltages limits etc. BBO searches for the global optimum mainly through two steps: Migration and Mutation. In the present work, BBO has been applied to solve the optimal reactive power flow problems on IEEE 30-bus and standard IEEE 57-bus power systems for minimization of active power loss. The superiority of the proposed method has been demonstrated. Considering the quality of the solution obtained, the proposed method seems to be a promising one for solving these problems.

Keywords: Active Power Loss, Biogeography-Based Optimization, Migration, Mutation, Optimal Reactive Power Flow.

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Authors: Boguslaw Schreyer

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The paper investigates the application of the Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Map (SOM) to the wheeled robot starting and braking dynamic states. In securing wheeled robot stability as well as minimum starting and braking time, it is important to ensure correct torque distribution as well as proper slope of braking and driving moments. In this paper, a correct movement distribution has been formulated, securing optimum adhesion coefficient and good transversal stability of a wheeled robot. A neural tuner has been proposed to secure the above properties, although most of the attention is attached to the SOM network application. If the delay of the torque application or torque release is not negligible, it is important to change the rising and falling slopes of the torque. The road/surface condition is also paramount in robot dynamic states control. As the road conditions may randomly change in time, application of the SOM network has been suggested in order to classify the actual road conditions.

Keywords: SOM network, torque distribution, torque slope, wheeled robots.

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Authors: El Youssfi L., Choukr-Allah R., Zaafrani M., Mediouni T., Sarr F, Hirich A.

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An experiment was implemented in a filed in the south of Morocco to evaluate the effects of domestic treated wastewater use for irrigation of amaranth crop under semi-arid conditions. Three varieties (A0020, A0057 & A211) were tested and irrigated using domestic treated wastewater EC1 (0,92 dS/m) as control, EC3 (3dS/m) and EC6 (6dS/m) obtained by adding sea water. In term of growth, an increase of the EC level of applied irrigation water reduced significantly the plant-s height, leaf area, fresh and dry weight measured at vegetative, flowering and maturity stage for all varieties. Even with the application of the EC6, yields were relatively higher in comparison with the once obtained in normal cultivation conditions. A significant accumulation of nitrate, chloride and sodium in soil layers during the crop cycle was noted. The use of treated waste water for its irrigation is proved to be possible. The variety A211 had showed to be less sensitive to salinity stress and it could be more promising its introduction to study area.

Keywords: Amaranth, salinity, semi-arid, treated waste water.

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Authors: P. Thongmuang

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The purposes of this research were 1) to survey the number of drugstores that unlawful dispense of asthma prescription drugs, in form of drug combinations in the Phaya Thai district of Bangkok, 2) to find the steroids contained in that drug combinations, 3) to find a means for informing general public about the dangers of drugs and for a campaign to stop dispensing them. Researcher collected drug combinations from 69 drugstores in Phaya Thai district from Feb 15, 2012 to Mar 15, 2012. The survey found 30.43%, 21, drug stores, sold asthma drug combinations to customers without a prescription. These collected samples were tested for steroid contamination by using Immunochromatography kits. Eleven samples, 52.38%, were found contaminated with steroids. In short, there should be control and inspection of drugstores in the distribution of steroid medications. To improve the knowledge of self health maintenance and drug usage among public, Thai Government and Department of Public Health should educate people about the side effects of using drug combinations and steroids.

Keywords: Dispensing, Drug Combinations, Steroids

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Authors: Rashidah Ghazali, Herlina Abdul Rahim, Mashitah Shikh Maidin, Shafishuhaza Sahlan, Noramli Abdul Razak

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Sound exposure effects have been investigated by broadcasting a group of broilers with sound of Quran verses (Group B) whereas the other group is the control broilers (Group C). The growth rate comparisons in terms of weight and raw meat texture measured by shear force have been investigated. Twenty-seven broilers were randomly selected from each group on Day 24 and weight measurement was carried out every week till the harvest day (Day 39).Group B showed a higher mean weight on Day 24 (1.441 ± 0.013 kg) than Group C. Significant difference in the weight on Day 39 existed for Group B compared to Group C (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant (p >0.05) difference of shear force in the same muscles (breast and drumstick raw meat) of both groups but the shear force of the breast meat for Group B and C broilers was lower (p < 0.05) than that of their drumstick meat. Thus, broadcasting the sound of Quran verses in the coop can be applied to improve the growth rate of broilers for producing better quality poultry.

Keywords: Broilers, sound, shear force, weight.

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Authors: Haohao Wang

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Technology, multimedia in Open Educational Resources, can contribute positively to student performance in an online instructional environment. Student performance data of past four years were obtained from an online course entitled Applied Calculus (MA139). This paper examined the data to determine whether multimedia (independent variable) had any impact on student performance (dependent variable) in online math learning, and how students felt about the value of the technology. Two groups of student data were analyzed, group 1 (control) from the online applied calculus course that did not use multimedia instructional materials, and group 2 (treatment) of the same online applied calculus course that used multimedia instructional materials. For the MA139 class, results indicate a statistically significant difference (p = .001) between the two groups, where group 1 had a final score mean of 56.36 (out of 100), group 2 of 70.68. Additionally, student testimonials were discussed in which students shared their experience in learning applied calculus online with multimedia instructional materials.

Keywords: Online learning, Open Educational Resources, Multimedia, Technology.

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Authors: Marcela Capcarova, Adriana Kolesarova, Marina Medvedova, Peter Petruska, Alexander V. Sirotkin

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The aim of this study was to determine the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), total antioxidant status (TAS) and accumulation of Hsp70 in porcine ovarian granulosa cells after deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEA) exposure in vitro. Porcine ovarian granulosa cells were incubated with DON/ZEA administrations as follows: group A (10/10 ng/mL), group B (100/100 ng/mL), group C (1000/1000 ng/mL), and the control group without any additions for 24h. In this study mycotoxins developed stress reaction of porcine ovarian granulosa cells and increased accumulation of Hsp70 what resulted in increasing activities of SOD and GPx in groups with lower doses of mycotoxins. High dose of DON and ZEA had opposite effect on GPx activity than the lower doses. Slight increase in TAS of porcine granulosa cells was observed after mycotoxins exposure. These results contribute towards the understanding of cellular stress and its response.

Keywords: Deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, antioxidants, Hsp70, granulosa cells.

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Authors: Malik I. Al-Amayreh, Mohammad I. Kilani, Ahmed S. Al-Salaymeh

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This work presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of a butterfly valve used to control the flow of combustible gas mixture in an industrial process setting.The work uses CFD simulation to analyze the flow characteristics in the vicinity of the valve, including the pressure distributions and Frequency spectrum of the pressure pulsations downstream the valves and the vortex shedding allow predicting the torque fluctuations acting on the valve shaft and the possibility of generating mechanical vibration and resonance.These fluctuations are due to aerodynamic torque resulting from fluid turbulence and vortex shedding in the valve vicinity. The valve analyzed is located in a pipeline between two opposing 90o elbows, which exposes the valve and the surrounding structure to the turbulence generated upstream and downstream the elbows at either end of the pipe.CFD simulations show that the best location for the valve from a vibration point of view is in the middle of the pipe joining the elbows.

Keywords: Butterfly Valve Vibration Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluid Flow Circuit Design, Fluid Mechanics.

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Authors: Jatindra N. Bhakta, Yukihiro Munekage

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The present study attempted to improve the Mercury (Hg) sorption capacity of kanuma volcanic ash soil (KVAS) by impregnating the cupper (Cu). Impregnation was executed by 1 and 5% Cu powder and sorption characterization of optimum Hg removing Cu impregnated KVAS was performed under different operational conditions, contact time, solution pH, sorbent dosage and Hg concentration using the batch operation studies. The 1% Cu impregnated KVAS pronounced optimum improvement (79%) in removing Hg from water compare to control. The present investigation determined the equilibrium state of maximum Hg adsorption at 6 h contact period. The adsorption revealed a pH dependent response and pH 3.5 showed maximum sorption capacity of Hg. Freundlich isotherm model is well fitted with the experimental data than that of Langmuir isotherm. It can be concluded that the Cu impregnation improves the Hg sorption capacity of KVAS and 1% Cu impregnated KVAS could be employed as cost-effective adsorbent media for treating Hg contaminated water.

Keywords: Cupper, impregnation, isotherm, kanuma volcanic ash soil, mercury, sorption

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Authors: Me. Sistaninia, G.H.Farrahi, Ma. Sistaninia

Abstract:

Thermoelastic temperature, displacement, and stress in heat transfer during laser surface hardening are solved in Eulerian formulation. In Eulerian formulations the heat flux is fixed in space and the workpiece is moved through a control volume. In the case of uniform velocity and uniform heat flux distribution, the Eulerian formulations leads to a steady-state problem, while the Lagrangian formulations remains transient. In Eulerian formulations the reduction to a steady-state problem increases the computational efficiency. In this study also an analytical solution is developed for an uncoupled transient heat conduction equation in which a plane slab is heated by a laser beam. The thermal result of the numerical model is compared with the result of this analytical model. Comparing the results shows numerical solution for uncoupled equations are in good agreement with the analytical solution.

Keywords: Coupled thermoelasticity, Finite element, Laser surface hardening, Eulerian formulation.

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