Search results for: acoustic absorption
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 645

Search results for: acoustic absorption

255 Improved Closed Set Text-Independent Speaker Identification by Combining MFCC with Evidence from Flipped Filter Banks

Authors: Sandipan Chakroborty, Anindya Roy, Goutam Saha

Abstract:

A state of the art Speaker Identification (SI) system requires a robust feature extraction unit followed by a speaker modeling scheme for generalized representation of these features. Over the years, Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) modeled on the human auditory system has been used as a standard acoustic feature set for SI applications. However, due to the structure of its filter bank, it captures vocal tract characteristics more effectively in the lower frequency regions. This paper proposes a new set of features using a complementary filter bank structure which improves distinguishability of speaker specific cues present in the higher frequency zone. Unlike high level features that are difficult to extract, the proposed feature set involves little computational burden during the extraction process. When combined with MFCC via a parallel implementation of speaker models, the proposed feature set outperforms baseline MFCC significantly. This proposition is validated by experiments conducted on two different kinds of public databases namely YOHO (microphone speech) and POLYCOST (telephone speech) with Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) as a Classifier for various model orders.

Keywords: Complementary Information, Filter Bank, GMM, IMFCC, MFCC, Speaker Identification, Speaker Recognition.

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254 Semi Classical Three-Valley Monte Carlo Simulation Analysis of Steady-State and Transient Electron Transport within Bulk Ga0.38In0.62P

Authors: N. Massoum, B. Bouazza, H. Tahir, C. Sayah, A. Guen Bouazza

Abstract:

to simulate the phenomenon of electronic transport in semiconductors, we try to adapt a numerical method, often and most frequently it’s that of Monte Carlo. In our work, we applied this method in the case of a ternary alloy semiconductor GaInP in its cubic form; The Calculations are made using a non-parabolic effective-mass energy band model. We consider a band of conduction to three valleys (ΓLX), major of the scattering mechanisms are taken into account in this modeling, as the interactions with the acoustic phonons (elastic collisions) and optics (inelastic collisions). The polar optical phonons cause anisotropic collisions, intra-valleys, very probable in the III-V semiconductors. Other optical phonons, no polar, allow transitions inter-valleys. Initially, we present the full results obtained by the simulation of Monte Carlo in GaInP in stationary regime. We consider thereafter the effects related to the application of an electric field varying according to time, we thus study the transient phenomenon which make their appearance in ternary material

Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation, steady-state electron transport, transient electron transport, alloy scattering.

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253 Effect of Isfahan Refinery, Power Plant and Petrochemical on Borkhar District Soil

Authors: A. Gandomkar

Abstract:

This study aimed to evaluate regional soil Borkhar of the metals Lead has been made. In this field study fires visits to the regions. The limit of this study located in the East refineries, petrochemical and power plant to 20 km was selected. The 41 soil samples from depths of 0 to 10 cm in area and were randomized. Soil samples were transported to the laboratory and by air was dry and passed through 2-mil thickness sieve. In the laboratory of physical and chemical characteristics and concentrations of total absorption was measured. The results showed that the amount of lead in soil in many parts of the range higher than the standard limit. Survey maps show that the lead spatial distribution of the region does not special pattern.

Keywords: Soil Pollution, Heavy Metals, Borkhar District, Soil Sampling.

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252 Social Networks and Absorptive Capacity

Authors: Rachelle Bosua, Nina Evans

Abstract:

The resource-based view of the firm regards knowledge as one of the most important organizational assets and a key strategic resource that contributes unique value to organizations. The acquisition, absorption and internalization of external knowledge are central to an organization-s innovative capabilities. This ability to evaluate, acquire and integrate new knowledge from its environment is referred to as a firm-s absorptive capacity (AC). This research in progress paper explores the link between interorganizational Social Networks (SNs) and a firm-s Absorptive Capacity (AC). Based on an in-depth literature survey of both concepts, four propositions are proposed that explain the link between AC and SNs. These propositions suggest that SNs are key to a firm-s AC. A qualitative research method is proposed to test the set of propositions in the next stage of this research.

Keywords: Knowledge, Innovation, Absorptive Capacity, Social Networks

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251 Experimental Study of Different Types of Concrete in Uniaxial Compression Test

Authors: Khashayar Jafari, Mostafa Jafarian Abyaneh, Vahab Toufigh

Abstract:

Polymer concrete (PC) is a distinct concrete with superior characteristics in comparison to ordinary cement concrete. It has become well-known for its applications in thin overlays, floors and precast components. In this investigation, the mechanical properties of PC with different epoxy resin contents, ordinary cement concrete (OCC) and lightweight concrete (LC) have been studied under uniaxial compression test. The study involves five types of concrete, with each type being tested four times. Their complete elastic-plastic behavior was compared with each other through the measurement of volumetric strain during the tests. According to the results, PC showed higher strength, ductility and energy absorption with respect to OCC and LC.

Keywords: Polymer concrete, ordinary cement concrete, lightweight concrete, uniaxial compression test, volumetric strain.

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250 An Analytical Method to Analysis of Foam Drainage Problem

Authors: A. Nikkar, M. Mighani

Abstract:

In this study, a new reliable technique use to handle the foam drainage equation. This new method is resulted from VIM by a simple modification that is Reconstruction of Variational Iteration Method (RVIM). The drainage of liquid foams involves the interplay of gravity, surface tension, and viscous forces. Foaming occurs in many distillation and absorption processes. Results are compared with those of Adomian’s decomposition method (ADM).The comparisons show that the Reconstruction of Variational Iteration Method is very effective and overcome the difficulty of traditional methods and quite accurate to systems of non-linear partial differential equations.

Keywords: Reconstruction of Variational Iteration Method (RVIM), Foam drainage, nonlinear partial differential equation.

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249 Relaxation Dynamics of Quantum Emitters Resonantly Coupled to a Localized Surface Plasmon

Authors: Khachatur V. Nerkararyan, Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi

Abstract:

We investigate relaxation dynamics of a quantum dipole emitter (QDE), e.g., a molecule or quantum dot, located near a metal nanoparticle (MNP) exhibiting a dipolar localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance at the frequency of the QDE radiative transition. It is shown that under the condition of the QDE-MNP characteristic relaxation time being much shorter than that of the QDE in free-space but much longer than the LSP lifetime. It is also shown that energy dissipation in the QDE-MNP system is relatively weak with the probability of the photon emission being about 0.75, a number which, rather surprisingly, does not explicitly depend on the metal absorption characteristics. The degree of entanglement measured by the concurrency takes the maximum value, while the distances between the QDEs and metal ball approximately are equal.

Keywords: Metal nanoparticle, Localized surface plasmon, Quantum dipole emitter, Relaxation dynamics.

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248 Researches Concerning Photons as Corpuscles with Mass and Negative Electrostatic Charge

Authors: Ioan Rusu

Abstract:

Let us consider that the entire universe is composed of a single hydrogen atom within which the electron is moving around the proton. In this case, according to classical theories of physics, radiation, photons respectively, should be absorbed by the electron. Depending on the number of photons absorbed, the electron radius of rotation around the proton is established. Until now, the principle of photons absorption by electrons and the electron transition to a new energy level, namely to a higher radius of rotation around the proton, is not clarified in physics. This paper aims to demonstrate that radiation, photons respectively, have mass and negative electrostatic charge similar to electrons but infinitely smaller. The experiments which demonstrate this theory are simple: thermal expansion, photoelectric effect and thermonuclear reaction.

Keywords: Electrostatic, electron, proton, photon, radiation.

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247 Optimization and Determination of Process Parameters in Thin Film SOI Photo-BJMOSFET

Authors: Hai-Qing Xie, Yun Zeng, Yong-Hong Yan, Guo-Liang Zhang, Tai-Hong Wang

Abstract:

We propose photo-BJMOSFET (Bipolar Junction Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) fabricated on SOI film. ITO film is adopted in the device as gate electrode to reduce light absorption. I-V characteristics of photo-BJMOSFET obtained in dark (dark current) and under 570nm illumination (photo current) are studied furthermore to achieve high photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio. Two variables in the calculation were the channel length and the thickness of the film which were set equal to six different values, i.e., L=2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12μm and three different values, i.e., dsi =100, 200 and 300nm, respectively. The results indicate that the greatest photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio is achieved with L=10μm and dsi=200 nm at VGK=0.6V.

Keywords: Photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio, Photo-current, Dark-current, Process parameter

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246 Energy Saving of the Paint with Mineral Insulators: Simulation and Study on Different Climates

Authors: A. A. Azemati, H. Hosseini, B. Shirkavand Hadavand

Abstract:

By using an adequate thermal barrier coating in buildings the energy saving will be happened. In this study, a range of wall paints with different absorption coefficient in different climates has been investigated. In order to study these effects, heating and cooling loads of a common building with different ordinary paints and paint with mineral coating have been calculated. The effect of building paint in different climatic condition was studied and comparison was done between ordinary paints and paint with mineral insulators in temperate climate to obtain optimized energy consumption. The results have been shown that coatings with inorganic micro particles as insulation reduce the energy consumption of buildings around 14%.

Keywords: Insulator, coating, climate, energy consumption.

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245 Effects of Double Delta Doping on Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Wave Response of Two-Dimensional Hot Electrons in GaAs Nanostructures

Authors: N. Basanta Singh, Sanjoy Deb, G. P Mishra, Subir Kumar Sarkar

Abstract:

Carrier mobility has become the most important characteristic of high speed low dimensional devices. Due to development of very fast switching semiconductor devices, speed of computer and communication equipment has been increasing day by day and will continue to do so in future. As the response of any device depends on the carrier motion within the devices, extensive studies of carrier mobility in the devices has been established essential for the growth in the field of low dimensional devices. Small-signal ac transport of degenerate two-dimensional hot electrons in GaAs quantum wells is studied here incorporating deformation potential acoustic, polar optic and ionized impurity scattering in the framework of heated drifted Fermi-Dirac carrier distribution. Delta doping is considered in the calculations to investigate the effects of double delta doping on millimeter and submillimeter wave response of two dimensional hot electrons in GaAs nanostructures. The inclusion of delta doping is found to enhance considerably the two dimensional electron density which in turn improves the carrier mobility (both ac and dc) values in the GaAs quantum wells thereby providing scope of getting higher speed devices in future.

Keywords: Carrier mobility, Delta doping, Hot carriers, Quantum wells.

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244 The Effect of Damping Treatment for Noise Control on Offshore Platforms Using Statistical Energy Analysis

Authors: Ji Xi, Cheng Song Chin, Ehsan Mesbahi

Abstract:

Structure-borne noise is an important aspect of offshore platform sound field. It can be generated either directly by vibrating machineries induced mechanical force, indirectly by the excitation of structure or excitation by incident airborne noise. Therefore, limiting of the transmission of vibration energy throughout the offshore platform is the key to control the structureborne noise. This is usually done by introducing damping treatment to the steel structures. Two types of damping treatment using onboard are presented. By conducting a Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) simulation on a jack-up rig, the noise level in the source room, the neighboring rooms, and remote living quarter cabins are compared before and after the damping treatments been applied. The results demonstrated that, in the source neighboring room and living quarter area, there is a significant noise reduction with the damping treatment applied, whereas in the source room where air-borne sound predominates that of structure-borne sound, the impact is not obvious. The conclusion on effective damping treatment in the offshore platform is made which enable acoustic professionals to implement noise control during the design stage for offshore crews’ hearing protection and habitant comfortability.

Keywords: Statistical energy analysis, damping treatment, noise control, offshore platform.

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243 Material Selection for Footwear Insole Using Analytical Hierarchal Process

Authors: Mohammed A. Almomani, Dina W. Al-Qudah

Abstract:

Product performance depends on the type and quality of its building material. Successful product must be made using high quality material, and using the right methods. Many foot problems took place as a result of using poor insole material. Therefore, selecting a proper insole material is crucial to eliminate these problems. In this study, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to provide a systematic procedure for choosing the best material adequate for this application among three material alternatives (polyurethane, poron, and plastzote). Several comparison criteria are used to build the AHP model including: density, stiffness, durability, energy absorption, and ease of fabrication. Poron was selected as the best choice. Inconsistency testing indicates that the model is reasonable, and the materials alternative ranking is effective.

Keywords: Materials selection, biomedical insole, footwear insole, AHP.

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242 Lime-Pozzolan Plasters with Enhanced Thermal Capacity

Authors: Z. Pavlík, A. Trník, M. Pavlíková, M. Keppert, R. Černý

Abstract:

A new type of lightweight plaster with the thermal capacity enhanced by PCM (Phase Change Material) addition is analyzed. The basic physical characteristics, namely the bulk density, matrix density, total open porosity, and pore size distribution are measured at first. For description of mechanical properties, compressive strength measurements are done. The thermal properties are characterized by transient impulse techniques as well as by DSC analysis that enables determination of the specific heat capacity as a function of temperature. The resistivity against the liquid water ingress is described by water absorption coefficient measurement. The experimental results indicate a good capability of the designed plaster to moderate effectively the interior climate of buildings.

Keywords: Lime-pozzolan plaster, PCM addition, enhanced thermal capacity, DSC analysis.

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241 Characterization of Lactose Consumption during the Biogas Production from Acid Whey by FT-IR Spectroscopy

Authors: K. Rugele, M. Gavare, M. Grube, K. Tihomirova, E. Skripsts, S. Larsson, J. Rubulis

Abstract:

The consumption of lactose in acid cheese whey anaerobic fermentation process under fed-batch conditions was studied. During fermentation for 100 hours the biogas production (CO2 and CH4) was analyzed online. Among the standard analyses FT-IR spectroscopy was used to follow the consumption of lactose by bacteria. The absorption bands at 990, 894 and 787 cm-1 in the 2nd derivative spectra were shown to be characteristic for lactose and were used to follow the lactose conversion. It was shown that acid cheese whey lactose was converted by bacteria in first 7 hours. In the spectra of 17, 18 and 95 hour fermentation samples lactose was not identified and these results correlated with the HPLC data.

Keywords: Acid whey, anaerobic digestion, biogas, FT-IR spectroscopy, lactose consumption.

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240 Properties of Bricks Produced With Recycled Fine Aggregate

Authors: S. Ismail, Z. Yaacob

Abstract:

The main aim of this research is to study the possible use of recycled fine aggregate made from waste rubble wall to substitute partially for the natural sand used in the production of cement and sand bricks. The bricks specimens were prepared by using 100% natural sand; they were then replaced by recycled fine aggregate at 25, 50, 75, and 100% by weight of natural sand. A series of tests was carried out to study the effect of using recycled aggregate on the physical and mechanical properties of bricks, such as density, drying shrinkage, water absorption characteristic, compressive and flexural strength. Test results indicate that it is possible to manufacture bricks containing recycled fine aggregate with good characteristics that are similar in physical and mechanical properties to those of bricks with natural aggregate, provided that the percentage of recycled fine aggregates is limited up to 50-75%.

Keywords: Bricks, cement, recycled aggregate, sand

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239 Study on the Production of Chromite Refractory Brick from Local Chromite Ore

Authors: Waing Waing Kay Khine Oo, Shwe Wut Hmon Aye, Kay Thi Lwin

Abstract:

Chromite is one of the principal ore of chromium in which the metal exists as a complex oxide (FeO.Cr2O3).The prepared chromite can be widely used as refractory in high temperature applications. This study describes the use of local chromite ore as refractory material. To study the feasibility of local chromite, chemical analysis and refractoriness are firstly measured. To produce chromite refractory brick, it is pressed under a press of 400 tons, dried and fired at 1580°C for fifty two hours. Then, the standard properties such as cold crushing strength, apparent porosity, apparent specific gravity, bulk density and water absorption that the chromite brick should possess were measured. According to the results obtained, the brick made by local chromite ore was suitable for use as refractory brick.

Keywords: chemical analysis, chromite ore, chromite refractory brick, refractoriness.

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238 Some Aspects Regarding I. R. Absorbing Materials Based On Thin Alumina Films for Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion, Using X-Ray Diffraction Technique

Authors: Sorina Adriana Mitrea, Silvia Maria Hodorogea, Anca Duta, Luminita Isac, Elena Purghel, Mihaela Voinea

Abstract:

Solar energy is the most “available", ecological and clean energy. This energy can be used in active or passive mode. The active mode implies the transformation of solar energy into a useful energy. The solar energy can be transformed into thermal energy, using solar collectors. In these collectors, the active and the most important element is the absorber, material which performs the absorption of solar radiation and, in at the same time, limits its reflection. The paper presents some aspects regarding the IR absorbing material – a type of cermets, used as absorber in the solar collectors, by X Ray Diffraction Technique (XRD) characterization.

Keywords: Alumina films, solar energy, X-ray diffraction.

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237 Comparison among Various Question Generations for Decision Tree Based State Tying in Persian Language

Authors: Nasibeh Nasiri, Dawood Talebi Khanmiri

Abstract:

Performance of any continuous speech recognition system is highly dependent on performance of the acoustic models. Generally, development of the robust spoken language technology relies on the availability of large amounts of data. Common way to cope with little data for training each state of Markov models is treebased state tying. This tying method applies contextual questions to tie states. Manual procedure for question generation suffers from human errors and is time consuming. Various automatically generated questions are used to construct decision tree. There are three approaches to generate questions to construct HMMs based on decision tree. One approach is based on misrecognized phonemes, another approach basically uses feature table and the other is based on state distributions corresponding to context-independent subword units. In this paper, all these methods of automatic question generation are applied to the decision tree on FARSDAT corpus in Persian language and their results are compared with those of manually generated questions. The results show that automatically generated questions yield much better results and can replace manually generated questions in Persian language.

Keywords: Decision Tree, Markov Models, Speech Recognition, State Tying.

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236 Analysis of Linguistic Disfluencies in Bilingual Children’s Discourse

Authors: Sheena Christabel Pravin, M. Palanivelan

Abstract:

Speech disfluencies are common in spontaneous speech. The primary purpose of this study was to distinguish linguistic disfluencies from stuttering disfluencies in bilingual Tamil–English (TE) speaking children. The secondary purpose was to determine whether their disfluencies are mediated by native language dominance and/or on an early onset of developmental stuttering at childhood. A detailed study was carried out to identify the prosodic and acoustic features that uniquely represent the disfluent regions of speech. This paper focuses on statistical modeling of repetitions, prolongations, pauses and interjections in the speech corpus encompassing bilingual spontaneous utterances from school going children – English and Tamil. Two classifiers including Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), which is a class of feed-forward artificial neural network, were compared in the classification of disfluencies. The results of the classifiers document the patterns of disfluency in spontaneous speech samples of school-aged children to distinguish between Children Who Stutter (CWS) and Children with Language Impairment CLI). The ability of the models in classifying the disfluencies was measured in terms of F-measure, Recall, and Precision.

Keywords: Bilingual, children who stutter, children with language impairment, Hidden Markov Models, multi-layer perceptron, linguistic disfluencies, stuttering disfluencies.

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235 Highly Efficient Silicon Photomultiplier for Positron Emission Tomography Application

Authors: Fei Sun, Ning Duan, Guo-Qiang Lo

Abstract:

A silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) was designed, fabricated and characterized. The SiPM was based on SACM (Separation of Absorption, Charge and Multiplication) structure, which was optimized for blue light detection in application of positron emission tomography (PET). The achieved SiPM array has a high geometric fill factor of 64% and a low breakdown voltage of about 22V, while the temperature dependence of breakdown voltage is only 17mV/°C. The gain and photon detection efficiency of the device achieved were also measured under illumination of light at 405nm and 460nm wavelengths. The gain of the device is in the order of 106. The photon detection efficiency up to 60% has been observed under 1.8V overvoltage.

Keywords: Photon Detection Efficiency, Positron Emission Tomography, Silicon Photomultiplier.

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234 Soil-Cement Floor Produced with Alum Water Treatment Residues

Authors: Flavio Araujo, Paulo Scalize, Julio Lima, Natalia Vieira, Antonio Albuquerque, Isabela Santos

Abstract:

From a concern regarding the environmental impacts caused by the disposal of residues generated in Water Treatment Plants (WTP's), alternatives ways have been studied to use these residues as raw material for manufacture of building materials, avoiding their discharge on water streams, disposal on sanitary landfills or incineration. This paper aims to present the results of a research work, which is using WTR for replacing the soil content in the manufacturing of soil-cement floor with proportions of 0, 5, 10 and 15%. The samples tests showed a reduction mechanical strength in so far as has increased the amount of waste. The water absorption was below the maximum of 6% required by the standard. The application of WTR contributes to the reduction of the environmental damage in the water treatment industry.

Keywords: Residue, soil-cement floor, sustainable, WTP.

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233 Understanding the Experience of the Visually Impaired towards a Multi-Sensorial Architectural Design

Authors: Sarah M. Oteifa, Lobna A. Sherif, Yasser M. Mostafa

Abstract:

Visually impaired people, in their daily lives, face struggles and spatial barriers because the built environment is often designed with an extreme focus on the visual element, causing what is called architectural visual bias or ocularcentrism. The aim of the study is to holistically understand the world of the visually impaired as an attempt to extract the qualities of space that accommodate their needs, and to show the importance of multi-sensory, holistic designs for the blind. Within the framework of existential phenomenology, common themes are reached through "intersubjectivity": experience descriptions by blind people and blind architects, observation of how blind children learn to perceive their surrounding environment, and a personal lived blind-folded experience are analyzed. The extracted themes show how visually impaired people filter out and prioritize tactile (active, passive and dynamic touch), acoustic and olfactory spatial qualities respectively, and how this happened during the personal lived blind folded experience. The themes clarify that haptic and aural inclusive designs are essential to create environments suitable for the visually impaired to empower them towards an independent, safe and efficient life.

Keywords: Visually impaired, architecture, multi-sensory design, architectural ocularcentrism.

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232 Experimental Characterization of the Thermal Behavior of a Sawdust Mortar

Authors: F. Taouche-Kheloui, O. Fedaoui-Akmoussi, K. Ait tahar, Li. Alex

Abstract:

Currently, the reduction of energy consumption, through the use of abundant and recyclable natural materials, for better thermal insulation represents an important area of research. To this end, the use of bio-sourced materials has been identified as one of the green sectors with a very high economic development potential for the future. Because of its role in reducing the consumption of fossil-based raw materials, it contributes significantly to the storage of atmospheric carbon, limits greenhouse gas emissions and creates new economic opportunities. This study constitutes a contribution to the elaboration and the experimental characterization of the thermal behavior of a sawdust-reduced mortar matrix. We have taken into account the influence of the size of the grain fibers of sawdust, hence the use of three different ranges and also different percentage in the different confections. The intended practical application consists of producing a light weight compound at a lower cost to ensure a better thermal and acoustic behavior compared to that existing in the field, in addition to the desired resistances. Improving energy performance, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector, is amongst the objectives to be achieved. The results are very encouraging and highlight the value of the proposed design of organic-source mortar panels which have specific mechanical properties acceptable for their use, low densities, lower cost of manufacture and labor, and above all a positive impact on the environment.

Keywords: Mortar, sawdust waste, thermal, experimental, analysis.

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231 Construction of Green Aggregates from Waste Processing

Authors: Fahad K. Alqahtani

Abstract:

Nowadays construction industry is developing means to incorporate waste products in concrete to ensure sustainability. To meet the need of construction industry, a synthetic aggregate was developed using optimized technique called compression moulding press technique. The manufactured aggregate comprises mixture of plastic, waste which acts as binder, together with by-product waste which acts as fillers. The physical properties and microstructures of the inert materials and the manufactured aggregate were examined and compared with the conventional available aggregates. The outcomes suggest that the developed aggregate has potential to be used as substitution of conventional aggregate due to its less weight and water absorption. The microstructure analysis confirmed the efficiency of the manufacturing process where the final product has the same mixture of binder and filler.

Keywords: Fly ash, plastic waste, quarry fine, red sand, synthetic aggregate.

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230 Immobilization of Aspergillus awamori 1-8 for Subsequent Pectinase Production

Authors: Zh. B. Suleimenova, Zh. K. Rakhmetova, R. K. Blieva, A. E. Nurlybayeva

Abstract:

The overall objective of this research is a strain improvement technology for efficient pectinase production. A novel cells cultivation technology by immobilization of fungal cells has been studied in long time continuous fermentations. Immobilization was achieved by using of new material for absorption of stores of immobilized cultures which was for the first time used for immobilization of microorganisms. Effects of various conditions of nitrogen and carbon nutrition on the biosynthesis of pectolytic enzymes in Aspergillus awamori 1-8 strain were studied. Proposed cultivation technology along with optimization of media components for pectinase overproduction led to increased pectinase productivity in Aspergillus awamori 1-8 from 7 to 8 times. Proposed technology can be applied successfully for production of major industrial enzymes such as α-amylase, protease, collagenase etc.

Keywords: Aspergillus awamori, immobilization, pectolytic enzymes.

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229 Effects of TiO2 and Nb2O5 on Hydrogen Desorption of Mg(BH4)2

Authors: Wipada Ploysuksai, Pramoch Rangsunvigit, Santi Kulprathipanja

Abstract:

In this work, effects of catalysts (TiO2, and Nb2O5) were investigated on the hydrogen desorption of Mg(BH4)2. LiBH4 and MgCl2 with 2:1 molar ratio were mixed by using ball milling to prepare Mg(BH4)2. The desorption behaviors were measured by thermo-volumetric apparatus. The hydrogen desorption capacity of the mixed sample milled for 2 h was 4.78 wt% with a 2-step released. The first step occurred at 214 °C and the second step appeared at 374 °C. The addition of 16 wt% Nb2O5 decreased the desorption temperature in the second step about 66 °C and increased the hydrogen desorption capacity to 4.86 wt% hydrogen. The addition of TiO2 also improved the desorption temperature in the second step and the hydrogen desorption capacity. It decreased the desorption temperature about 71°C and showed a high amount of hydrogen, 5.27 wt%, released from the mixed sample. The hydrogen absorption after desorption of Mg(BH4)2 was also studied under 9.5 MPa and 350 °C for 12 h.

Keywords: hydrogen storage, LiBH4, metal hydride, Mg(BH4)2

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228 Utilising Unground Oil Palm Ash in Producing Foamed Concrete and Its Implementation as an Interlocking Mortar-Less Block

Authors: Hanizam Awang, Mohammed Zuhear Al-Mulali

Abstract:

In this study, the possibility of using unground oil palm ash (UOPA) for producing foamed concrete is investigated. The UOPA used in this study is produced by incinerating palm oil biomass at a temperature exceeding 1000ºC. A semi-structural density of 1300kg/m3 was used with filler to binder ratio of 1.5 and preliminary water to binder ratio of 0.45. Cement was replaced by UOPA at replacement levels of 0, 25, 35, 45, 55 and 65% by weight of binder. Properties such as density, compressive strength, drying shrinkage and water absorption were investigated to the age of 90 days. The mix with a 35% of UOPA content was chosen to be used as the base material of a newly designed interlocking, mortar-less block system.

Keywords: Foamed concrete, oil palm ash, strength, interlocking block.

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227 In situ Observation of the State and Stability of Hemoglobin Adsorbed onto Glass Surface by Slab Optical Waveguide (SOWG) Spectroscopy

Authors: Masayoshi Matsui, Akiko Nakahara, Akiko Takatsu, Kenji Kato, Naoki Matsuda

Abstract:

The state and stability of hemoglobin adsorbed on the glass surface was investigated using slab optical waveguide (SOWG) spectroscopy. The peak position of the absorption band of hemoglobin adsorbed on the glass surface was same as that of the hemoglobin in solution. This result suggests that no significant denaturation occurred by adsorption. The adsorption of hemoglobin is relatively strong that the hemoglobin molecules even remained adsorbed after rinsing the cell with buffer solution. The peak shift caused by the reduction of adsorbed hemoglobin was also observed.

Keywords: hemoglobin, reduction, slab optical waveguide spectroscopy, solid/liquid interface.

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226 Zinc Contaminate on Urban Roadside in Rush Hour, Bangkok, Thailand

Authors: Sivapan Choo-In

Abstract:

This research aims to study the Zinc (Zn) concentration in fine particulate matter on Rajchawithee roadside in rush hour. 30 Samples were collected in Jun to August 2013 by 8 stage non-avaible cascade impactor. Each samples (filter paper) were digest with nitric acid and analyed by atomic absorption spectrophotometer for Zinc determination. The highest value for the mean fraction (18.00 ± 9.28%) is the size 9.0 – 110.0 micron follow by the range 3.3 – 4.7 micron (14.77 ± 14.66 %) and 1.1 – 2.1 micron (14.01 ± 11.77 %). The concentration of Zn in the particulate matter of range 0.43 – 0.7mm, 0.7 – 1.1 mm, 1.1 – 2.1 mm, 2.1 – 3.3 mm, 3.3 – 4.7 mm, 4.7 – 5.8 mm, 5.8 – 9.0 mm, 9.0 – 10.0 mm, were 41.56 – 217.62 mg/m3 (175.86 ±32.25 mg/m3), 152.60 – 217.24 mg/m3 (187.71 ± 17.42 mg/m3), 142.90 – 214.67 mg/m3(180.95 ± 18.71 mg/m3), 155.48 – 218.19 mg/m3(183.22 ± 19.94 mg/m3), 151.72 – 217.39 mg/m3(181.85 ± 17.57 mg/m3), 133.86 – 220.17 mg/m3 (178.78 ± 23.45 mg/m3), 160.00 – 220.35 mg/m3 (182.58 ± 18.08 mg/m3), 153.30 – 226.70 mg/m3 (181.52 ± 20.05 mg/m3), respectively. The Zn concentration in each size of particulate matter was not statistically significant different (p > .005)

Keywords: Air Pollution, Air Quality, Pollution and monitoring.

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