Search results for: initial cluster center
1502 Experimental Study of the Extraction of Copper(II) from Sulphuric Acid by Means of Sodium Diethyldithiocarbamate (SDDT)
Authors: S.Touati, A.H. Meniai
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The present work presents the extraction of copper(II) from sulphuric acid solutions with Sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (SDDT), and six different organic diluents: Dichloromethane, Chloroform, Carbon tetrachloride, Toluene, xylene and Cyclohexane, were tested. The pair SDDT/Chloroform showed to be the most selective in removing the copper cations, and hence was considered throughout the experimental study. The effects of operating parameters such as the initial concentration of the extracting agent, the agitation time, the agitation speed and the acid concentration were considered. For an initial concentration of Cu (II) of 63 ppm in a 0.5 M sulphuric acid solution, both with a mass of the extracting agent of 20 mg, an extraction percentage of about 97.8 % and a distribution coefficient of 44.42 were obtained, respectively, confirming the performance of the SDDT-Chloroform pair.Keywords: Copper (II), Distribution coefficient, Extraction, SDDT, Sulphuric acid.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18201501 Fracture Mechanics Modeling of a Shear-Cracked RC Beams Shear-Strengthened with FRP Sheets
Authors: Shahriar Shahbazpanahi, Alaleh Kamgar
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So far, the conventional experimental and theoretical analysis in fracture mechanics have been applied to study concrete flexural- cracked beams, which are strengthened using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite sheets. However, there is still little knowledge about the shear capacity of a side face FRP- strengthened shear-cracked beam. A numerical analysis is herein presented to model the fracture mechanics of a four-point RC beam, with two inclined initial notch on the supports, which is strengthened with side face FRP sheets. In the present study, the shear crack is forced to conduct by using an initial notch in supports. The ABAQUS software is used to model crack propagation by conventional cohesive elements. It is observed that the FRP sheets play important roles in preventing the propagation of shear cracks.
Keywords: Crack, FRP, shear, strengthening.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11811500 Monte Carlo Simulation of Copolymer Heterogeneity in Atom Transfer Radical Copolymerization of Styrene and N-Butyl Acrylate
Authors: Mohammad Najafi, Hossein Roghani-Mamaqani, Mehdi Salami-Kalajahi, Vahid Haddadi-Asl
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A high-performance Monte Carlo simulation, which simultaneously takes diffusion-controlled and chain-length-dependent bimolecular termination reactions into account, is developed to simulate atom transfer radical copolymerization of styrene and nbutyl acrylate. As expected, increasing initial feed fraction of styrene raises the fraction of styrene-styrene dyads (fAA) and reduces that of n-butyl acrylate dyads (fBB). The trend of variation in randomness parameter (fAB) during the copolymerization also varies significantly. Also, there is a drift in copolymer heterogeneity and the highest drift occurs in the initial feeds containing lower percentages of styrene, i.e. 20% and 5%.Keywords: Atom Transfer Radical Copolymerization, MonteCarlo Simulation, Copolymer Heterogeneity, Styrene n-ButylAcrylate
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15941499 The Relationship between the Feeling of Distributive Justice and National Identity of the Youth
Authors: Leila Batmany
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This research studies the relationship between the feeling of distributive justice and national identity of the youth. The present analysis intends to experimentally investigate the various dimensions of the justice feeling and its effect on the national identity components. The study has taken justice into consideration from four different points of view on the basis of availability of valuable social sources such as power, wealth, knowledge and status in the political, economic, and cultural and status justice respectively. Furthermore, the national identity has been considered as the feeling of honour, attachment and commitment towards national society and its seven components i.e. history, language, culture, political system, religion, geographical territory and society. The 'field study' has been used as the method for the research with the individual as unit, taking 368 young between the age of 18 and 29 living in Tehran, chosen randomly according to Cochran formula. The individual samples have been randomly chosen among five districts in north, south, west, east, and centre of Tehran, based on the multistage cluster sampling. The data collection has been performed with the use of questionnaire and interview. The most important results are as follows: i) The feeling of economic justice is the weakest one among the youth. ii) The strongest and the weakest dimensions of the national identity are, respectively, the historical and the social dimension. iii) There is a positive and meaningful relationship between the feeling political and statues justice and then national identity, whereas no meaningful relationship exists between the economic and cultural justice and the national identity. iv) There is a positive and meaningful relationship between the feeling of justice in all dimensions and legitimacy of the political system. There is also such a relationship between the legitimacy of the political system and national identity. v) Generally, there is a positive and meaningful relationship between the feeling of distributive justice and national identity among the youth. vi) It is through the legitimacy of the political system that justice feeling can have an influence on the national identity.
Keywords: Distributive justice, national identity, legitimacy of political system, Cochran formula, multistage cluster sampling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5121498 Design Optimisation of Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) for Improved Performance
Authors: M. M. Isa, R. Abd-Rahman, H. H. Goh
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A compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is a wellknown non-imaging concentrator that will concentrate the solar radiation onto receiver (PV cell). One of disadvantage of CPC is has tall and narrow height compared to its diameter entry aperture area. Therefore, for economic reason, a truncation had been done by removed from the top of the full height CPC. This also will lead to the decreases of concentration ratio but it will be negligible. In this paper, the flux distribution of untruncated and truncated 2-D hollow compound parabolic trough concentrator (hCPTC) design is presented. The untruncated design has initial height H=193.4mm with concentration ratio C_(2-D)=4. This paper presents the optical simulation of compound parabolic trough concentrator using raytracing software TracePro. Results showed that, after the truncation, the height of CPC reduced 45% from initial height with the geometrical concentration ratio only decrease 10%. Thus, the cost of reflector and material dielectric usage can be saved especially at manufacturing site.Keywords: Compound parabolic trough concentrator, optical modelling, ray-tracing analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33291497 Order Optimization of a Telecommunication Distribution Center through Service Lead Time
Authors: Tamás Hartványi, Ferenc Tóth
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European telecommunication distribution center performance is measured by service lead time and quality. Operation model is CTO (customized to order) namely, a high mix customization of telecommunication network equipment and parts. CTO operation contains material receiving, warehousing, network and server assembly to order and configure based on customer specifications. Variety of the product and orders does not support mass production structure. One of the success factors to satisfy customer is to have a proper aggregated planning method for the operation in order to have optimized human resources and highly efficient asset utilization. Research will investigate several methods and find proper way to have an order book simulation where practical optimization problem may contain thousands of variables and the simulation running times of developed algorithms were taken into account with high importance. There are two operation research models that were developed, customer demand is given in orders, no change over time, customer demands are given for product types, and changeover time is constant.
Keywords: CTO, aggregated planning, demand simulation, changeover time.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7801496 An Analysis of the Optimization Condition of Plasma Generator for Air Conditioner System
Authors: Arunrungrusmi S, Chaokamnerd W , Tanitteerapan T , Mungkung N., Yuji T.
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This research aimed to develop plasma system used in air conditioners. This developed plasma system could be installed in the air conditioners - all split type. The quality of air could be improved to be equal to present plasma system. Development processes were as follows: 1) to study the plasma system used in the air conditioners, 2) to design a plasma generator, 3) to develop the plasma generator, and 4) to test its performance in many types of the air conditioners. This plasma system was developed by AC high voltage – 14 kv with a frequency of 50 kHz. Carbon was a conductor to generate arc in air purifier system. The research was tested by installing the plasma generator in the air conditioners - wall type. Whereas, there were 3 types of installations: air flow out, air flow in, and room center. The result of the plasma generator installed in the air conditioners, split type, revealed that the air flow out installation provided the highest average of o-zone at 223 mg/h. This type of installation provided the highest efficiency of air quality improvement. Moreover, the air flow in installation and the room center installation provided the average of the o-zone at 163 mg/h and 64 mg/h, respectively.
Keywords: Air Conditioner, Plasma generator, High voltage, Optimization, Installation position.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13491495 Trainer Aircraft Selection Using Preference Analysis for Reference Ideal Solution (PARIS)
Authors: C. Ardil
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This article presents a multiple criteria evaluation for a trainer aircraft selection problem using "preference analysis for reference ideal solution (PARIS)” approach. The available relevant literature points to the use of multiple criteria decision making analysis (MCDMA) methods for the problem of trainer aircraft selection, which often involves conflicting multiple criteria. Therefore, this MCDMA study aims to propose a robust systematic integrated framework focusing on the trainer aircraft selection problem. For this purpose, an integrated preference analysis approach based the mean weight and entropy weight procedures with PARIS, and TOPSIS was used for a MCDMA compensating solution. In this study, six trainer aircraft alternatives were evaluated according to six technical decision criteria, and data were collected from the current relevant literature. As a result, the King Air C90GTi alternative was identified as the most suitable trainer aircraft alternative. In order to verify the stability and accuracy of the results obtained, comparisons were made with existing MCDMA methods during the sensitivity and validity analysis process.The results of the application were further validated by applying the comparative analysis-based PARIS, and TOPSIS method. The proposed integrated MCDMA systematic structure is also expected to address the issues encountered in the aircraft selection process. Finally, the analysis results obtained show that the proposed MCDMA method is an effective and accurate tool that can help analysts make better decisions.
Keywords: aircraft, trainer aircraft selection, multiple criteria decision making, multiple criteria decision making analysis, mean weight, entropy weight, MCDMA, PARIS, TOPSIS
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4141494 Effect of Fines on Liquefaction Susceptibility of Sandy Soil
Authors: Ayad Salih Sabbar, Amin Chegenizadeh, Hamid Nikraz
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Investigation of liquefaction susceptibility of materials that have been used in embankments, slopes, dams, and foundations is very essential. Many catastrophic geo-hazards such as flow slides, declination of foundations, and damage to earth structure are associated with static liquefaction that may occur during abrupt shearing of these materials. Many artificial backfill materials are mixtures of sand with fines and other composition. In order to provide some clarifications and evaluations on the role of fines in static liquefaction behaviour of sand sandy soils, the effect of fines on the liquefaction susceptibility of sand was experimentally examined in the present work over a range of fines content, relative density, and initial confining pressure. The results of an experimental study on various sand-fines mixtures are presented. Undrained static triaxial compression tests were conducted on saturated Perth sand containing 5% bentonite at three different relative densities (10, 50, and 90%), and saturated Perth sand containing both 5% bentonite and slag (2%, 4%, and 6%) at single relative density 10%. Undrained static triaxial tests were performed at three different initial confining pressures (100, 150, and 200 kPa). The brittleness index was used to quantify the liquefaction potential of sand-bentonite-slag mixtures. The results demonstrated that the liquefaction susceptibility of sand-5% bentonite mixture was more than liquefaction susceptibility of clean sandy soil. However, liquefaction potential decreased when both of two fines (bentonite and slag) were used. Liquefaction susceptibility of all mixtures decreased with increasing relative density and initial confining pressure.
Keywords: Bentonite, brittleness index, liquefaction, slag.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12021493 Learning Flexible Neural Networks for Pattern Recognition
Authors: A. Mirzaaghazadeh, H. Motameni, M. Karshenas, H. Nematzadeh
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Learning the gradient of neuron's activity function like the weight of links causes a new specification which is flexibility. In flexible neural networks because of supervising and controlling the operation of neurons, all the burden of the learning is not dedicated to the weight of links, therefore in each period of learning of each neuron, in fact the gradient of their activity function, cooperate in order to achieve the goal of learning thus the number of learning will be decreased considerably. Furthermore, learning neurons parameters immunes them against changing in their inputs and factors which cause such changing. Likewise initial selecting of weights, type of activity function, selecting the initial gradient of activity function and selecting a fixed amount which is multiplied by gradient of error to calculate the weight changes and gradient of activity function, has a direct affect in convergence of network for learning.Keywords: Back propagation, Flexible, Gradient, Learning, Neural network, Pattern recognition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14851492 A Parameter-Tuning Framework for Metaheuristics Based on Design of Experiments and Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: Felix Dobslaw
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In this paper, a framework for the simplification and standardization of metaheuristic related parameter-tuning by applying a four phase methodology, utilizing Design of Experiments and Artificial Neural Networks, is presented. Metaheuristics are multipurpose problem solvers that are utilized on computational optimization problems for which no efficient problem specific algorithm exist. Their successful application to concrete problems requires the finding of a good initial parameter setting, which is a tedious and time consuming task. Recent research reveals the lack of approach when it comes to this so called parameter-tuning process. In the majority of publications, researchers do have a weak motivation for their respective choices, if any. Because initial parameter settings have a significant impact on the solutions quality, this course of action could lead to suboptimal experimental results, and thereby a fraudulent basis for the drawing of conclusions.Keywords: Parameter-Tuning, Metaheuristics, Design of Experiments, Artificial Neural Networks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17641491 The Small Strain Effects to the Shear Strength and Maximum Stiffness of Post-Cyclic Degradation of Hemic Peat Soil
Authors: Z. Adnan, M. M. Habib
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The laboratory tests for measuring the effects of small strain to the shear strength and maximum stiffness development of post-cyclic degradation of hemic peat are reviewed in this paper. A series of laboratory testing has been conducted to fulfil the objective of this research to study the post-cyclic behaviour of peat soil and focuses on the small strain characteristics. For this purpose, a number of strain-controlled static, cyclic and post-cyclic triaxial tests were carried out in undrained condition on hemic peat soil. The shear strength and maximum stiffness of hemic peat are evaluated immediately after post-cyclic monotonic testing. There are two soil samples taken from West Johor and East Malaysia peat soil. Based on these laboratories and field testing data, it was found that the shear strength and maximum stiffness of peat soil decreased in post-cyclic monotonic loading than its initial shear strength and stiffness. In particular, degradation in shear strength and stiffness is more sensitive for peat soil due to fragile and uniform fibre structures. Shear strength of peat soil, τmax = 12.53 kPa (Beaufort peat, BFpt) and 36.61 kPa (Parit Nipah peat, PNpt) decreased than its initial 58.46 kPa and 91.67 kPa. The maximum stiffness, Gmax = 0.23 and 0.25 decreased markedly with post-cyclic, Gmax = 0.04 and 0.09. Simple correlations between the Gmax and the τmax effects due to small strain, ε = 0.1, the Gmax values for post-cyclic are relatively low compared to its initial Gmax. As a consequence, the reported values and patterns of both the West Johor and East Malaysia peat soil are generally the same.
Keywords: Post-cyclic, strain, shear strength, maximum stiffness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10721490 Chemotherapy Safety Protocol for Oncology Nurses: It's Effect on Their Protective Measures Practices
Authors: Magda M. Mohsen, Manal E. Fareed
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Background: Widespread use of chemotherapeutic drugs in the treatment of cancer has lead to higher health hazards among employee who handle and administer such drugs, so nurses should know how to protect themselves, their patients and their work environment against toxic effects of chemotherapy. Aim of this study was carried out to examine the effect of chemotherapy safety protocol for oncology nurses on their protective measure practices. Design: A quasi experimental research design was utilized. Setting: The study was carried out in oncology department of Menoufia university hospital and Tanta oncology treatment center. Sample: A convenience sample of forty five nurses in Tanta oncology treatment center and eighteen nurses in Menoufiya oncology department. Tools: 1. an interviewing questionnaire that covering sociodemographic data, assessment of unit and nurses' knowledge about chemotherapy. II: Obeservational check list to assess nurses' actual practices of handling and adminestration of chemotherapy. A base line data were assessed before implementing Chemotherapy Safety protocol, then Chemotherapy Safety protocol was implemented, and after 2 monthes they were assessed again. Results: reveled that 88.9% of study group I and 55.6% of study group II improved to good total knowledge scores after educating on the safety protocol, also 95.6% of study group I and 88.9% of study group II had good total practice score after educating on the safety protocol. Moreover less than half of group I (44.4%) reported that heavy workload is the most barriers for them, while the majority of group II (94.4%) had many barriers for adhering to the safety protocol such as they didn’t know the protocol, the heavy work load and inadequate equipment. Conclusions: Safety protocol for Oncology Nurses seemed to have positive effect on improving nurses' knowledge and practice. Recommendation: chemotherapy safety protocol should be instituted for all oncology nurses who are working in any oncology unit and/ or center to enhance compliance, and this protocol should be done at frequent intervals.
Keywords: Chemotherapy Safety protocol, Effect, protective measure practice.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 71781489 Equilibrium, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies of Simultaneous Co-Adsorptive Removal of Phenol and Cyanide Using Chitosan
Authors: Bhumica Agarwal, Priya Sengupta, Chandrajit Balomajumder
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The present study analyses the potential of acid treated chitosan for simultaneous co-adsorptive removal of phenol and cyanide from a binary waste water solution. The effects of parameters like pH, temperature, initial concentration, adsorbent dose, and adsorbent size were studied. At an optimum pH of 8, temperature of 30⁰C, initial phenol and cyanide concentration of 200 mg/L and 20 mg/L respectively, adsorbent dose of 30 g/L and size between 0.4-0.6 mm the maximum percentage removal of phenol and cyanide was found to be 60.97% and 90.86% respectively. Amongst the adsorption isotherms applied extended Freundlich best depicted the adsorption of both phenol and cyanide based on lowest MPSD value. The kinetics depicted that chemisorption was the adsorption mechanism and intraparticle diffusion is not the only rate controlling step of the reaction. Thermodynamic studies revealed that phenol adsorption was exothermic and spontaneous whereas that of cyanide was an endothermic process.
Keywords: Chitosan, Co-adsorption, Cyanide, Phenol.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24051488 Optimization of Process Parameters Affecting Biogas Production from Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste via Anaerobic Digestion
Authors: Sajeena Beevi. B, Jose P. P., G. Madhu
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The aim of this study was to obtain the optimal conditions for biogas production from anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) using response surface methodology (RSM). The parameters studied were initial pH, substrate concentration and total organic carbon (TOC). The experimental results showed that the linear model terms of initial pH and substrate concentration and the quadratic model terms of the substrate concentration and TOC had significant individual effect (p < 0.05) on biogas yield. However, there was no interactive effect between these variables (p > 0.05). The highest level of biogas produced was 53.4 L/Kg VS at optimum pH, substrate concentration and total organic carbon of 6.5, 99gTS/L and 20.32 g/L respectively.
Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Optimization, Response Surface Methodology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 47591487 Removal of Cibacron Brilliant Yellow 3G-P Dye from Aqueous Solutions Using Coffee Husks as Non-Conventional Low-Cost Sorbent
Authors: Ismail I. Fasfous, Nedal Abu Farha
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The purpose of this research is to establish the experimental conditions for removal of Cibacron Brilliant Yellow 3G-P dye (CBY) from aqueous solutions by sorption onto coffee husks as a low-cost sorbent. The effects of various experimental parameters (e.g. initial CBY dye concentration, sorbent mass, pH, temperature) were examined and the optimal experimental conditions were determined. The results indicated that the removal of the dye was pH dependent and at initial pH of 2, the dye was removed effectively. The CBY dye sorption data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich equilibrium models. The maximum sorption capacity of CBY dye ions onto coffee husks increased from 24.04 to 35.04 mg g-1 when the temperature was increased from 293 to 313 K. The calculated sorption thermodynamic parameters including ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS° indicated that the CBY dye sorption onto coffee husks is a spontaneous, endothermic and mainly physical in nature.
Keywords: Coffee husks, equilibrium, reactive dyes, sorption.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24421486 Thermal Analysis of Circular Pin-fin with Rectangular Slot at the Center by Forced Convection
Authors: Kavita H. Dhanawade, Hanamant S. Dhanawade, Ajay Kashikar, Shweta Matey, Mahesh Bhadane, Sunny Sarraf
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Extended surfaces are commonly used in practice to enhance heat transfer. Most of the engineering problems require high performance heat transfer components with light weight, volumes, accommodating shapes, costs and reliability depending on industrial applications. This paper reports an experimental analysis to investigate heat transfer enhancement by forced convection using different sizes of pin-fin with rectangular slots at the center. The cross sectional area of the oblong duct was 200 mm x 80 mm. The info utilized in performance analysis was obtained experimentally for material, aluminum at 200 Watts heat input varying velocity 1 m/s to 5 m/s. Using the Taguchi experimental design method, optimum design parameters and their levels were analysed. Nusselt number and friction factor were considered as a performance characteristic parameter. An An L9 (33) orthogonal array was designated as an experimental proposal. Optimum results were found by experimenting. It is observed that pin-fins with different slots sizes have a better impact on Nusselt Number.Keywords: Heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt Number, pin-fin, forced convection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7821485 Assessment of Drug Delivery Systems from Molecular Dynamic Perspective
Authors: M. Rahimnejad, B. Vahidi, B. Ebrahimi Hoseinzadeh, F. Yazdian, P. Motamed Fath, R. Jamjah
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In this study, we developed and simulated nano-drug delivery systems efficacy in compare to free drug prescription. Computational models can be utilized to accelerate experimental steps and control the experiments high cost. Molecular dynamics simulation (MDS), in particular NAMD was utilized to better understand the anti-cancer drug interaction with cell membrane model. Paclitaxel (PTX) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) were selected for the drug molecule and as a natural phospholipid nanocarrier, respectively. This work focused on two important interaction parameters between molecules in terms of center of mass (COM) and van der Waals interaction energy. Furthermore, we compared the simulation results of the PTX interaction with the cell membrane and the interaction of DPPC as a nanocarrier loaded by the drug with the cell membrane. The molecular dynamic analysis resulted in low energy between the nanocarrier and the cell membrane as well as significant decrease of COM amount in the nanocarrier and the cell membrane system during the interaction. Thus, the drug vehicle showed notably better interaction with the cell membrane in compared to free drug interaction with the cell membrane.
Keywords: Anti-cancer drug, center of Mass, interaction energy, molecular dynamics simulation, nanocarrier.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13071484 Fatigue Life Prediction on Steel Beam Bridges under Variable Amplitude Loading
Authors: M. F. V. Montezuma, E. P. Deus, M. C. Carvalho
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Steel bridges are normally subjected to random loads with different traffic frequencies. They are structures with dynamic behavior and are subject to fatigue failure process, where the nucleation of a crack, growth and failure can occur. After locating and determining the size of an existing fault, it is important to predict the crack propagation and the convenient time for repair. Therefore, fracture mechanics and fatigue concepts are essential to the right approach to the problem. To study the fatigue crack growth, a computational code was developed by using the root mean square (RMS) and the cycle-by-cycle models. One observes the variable amplitude loading influence on the life structural prediction. Different loads histories and initial crack length were considered as input variables. Thus, it was evaluated the dispersion of results of the expected structural life choosing different initial parameters.
Keywords: Fatigue crack propagation, life prediction, variable loadings, steel bridges.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5071483 Solar Photocatalytic Degradation of Phenol in Aqueous Solutions Using Titanium Dioxide
Authors: Mohamed Gar Alalm, Ahmed Tawfik
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In this study, photocatalytic degradation of phenol by titanium dioxide (TiO2) in aqueous solution was evaluated. The UV energy of solar light was utilized by compound parabolic collectors (CPCs) technology. The effect of irradiation time, initial pH, and dosage of TiO2 were investigated. Aromatic intermediates (catechol, benzoquinone, and hydroquinone) were quantified during the reaction to study the pathways of the oxidation process. 94.5% degradation efficiency of phenol was achieved after 150 minutes of irradiation when the initial concentration was 100 mg/L. The dosage of TiO2 significantly affected the degradation efficiency of phenol. The observed optimum pH for the reaction was 5.2. Phenol photocatalytic degradation fitted to the pseudo-first order kinetic according to Langmuir–Hinshelwood model.
Keywords: Compound parabolic collectors, phenol, photocatalytic, titanium dioxide.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 40711482 A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for the Sequence Dependent Flow-Shop Scheduling Problem
Authors: Mohammad Mirabi
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Flow-shop scheduling problem (FSP) deals with the scheduling of a set of jobs that visit a set of machines in the same order. The FSP is NP-hard, which means that an efficient algorithm for solving the problem to optimality is unavailable. To meet the requirements on time and to minimize the make-span performance of large permutation flow-shop scheduling problems in which there are sequence dependent setup times on each machine, this paper develops one hybrid genetic algorithms (HGA). Proposed HGA apply a modified approach to generate population of initial chromosomes and also use an improved heuristic called the iterated swap procedure to improve initial solutions. Also the author uses three genetic operators to make good new offspring. The results are compared to some recently developed heuristics and computational experimental results show that the proposed HGA performs very competitively with respect to accuracy and efficiency of solution.Keywords: Hybrid genetic algorithm, Scheduling, Permutationflow-shop, Sequence dependent
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18721481 Synthesis of Silk Fibroin Fiber for Indoor air Particulate Removal
Authors: Janjira Triped, Wipada Sanongraj, Bovornlak Oonkhanond, Sompop Sanongraj
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The main objective of this research is to synthesize silk fibroin fiber for indoor air particulate removal. Silk cocoons were de-gummed using 0.5 wt % Na2CO3 alkaline solutions at 90 Ó╣ìC for 60 mins, washed with distilled water, and dried at 80 Ó╣ìC for 3 hrs in a vacuum oven. Two sets of experiment were conducted to investigate the impacts of initial particulate matter (PM) concentration and that of air flow rate on the removal efficiency. Rice bran collected from a local rice mill in Ubonratchathani province was used as indoor air contaminant in this work. The morphology and physical properties of silk fibroin (SF) fiber were measured. The SEM revealed the deposition of PM on the used fiber. The PM removal efficiencies of 72.29 ± 3.03 % and 39.33 ± 1.99 % were obtained of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, when using the initial PM concentration at 0.040 mg/m3 and 0.020 mg/m3 of PM10 and PM2.5, respectively, with the air flow rate of 5 L/min.
Keywords: Indoor air, Particulate matter, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Silk fibroin fiber.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17921480 Analysis of Initial Entry-Level Technology Course Impacts on STEM Major Selection
Authors: Ethan Shafer, Timothy Graziano, Jay Fisher
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This research seeks to answer whether first-year courses at institutions of higher learning can impact STEM major selection. Unlike many universities, an entry-level technology course (often referred to as CS0) is required for all United States Military Academy (USMA) students–regardless of major–in their first year of attendance. Students at the Academy choose their major at the end of their first year of studies. Through student responses to a multi-semester survey, this paper identifies a number of factors that potentially influence STEM major selection. Student demographic data, pre-existing exposure and access to technology, perceptions of STEM subjects, and initial desire for a STEM major are captured before and after taking a CS0 course. An analysis of factors that contribute to student perception of STEM and major selection are presented. This work provides recommendations and suggestions for institutions currently providing or looking to provide CS0-like courses to their students.
Keywords: STEM major, STEM, pedagogy, digital literacy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1921479 Development of a Remote Testing System for Performance of Gas Leakage Detectors
Authors: Gyoutae Park, Woosuk Kim, Sangguk Ahn, Seungmo Kim, Minjun Kim, Jinhan Lee, Youngdo Jo, Jongsam Moon, Hiesik Kim
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In this research, we designed a remote system to test parameters of gas detectors such as gas concentration and initial response time. This testing system is available to measure two gas instruments simultaneously. First of all, we assembled an experimental jig with a square structure. Those parts are included with a glass flask, two high-quality cameras, and two Ethernet modems for transmitting data. This remote gas detector testing system extracts numerals from videos with continually various gas concentrations while LCDs show photographs from cameras. Extracted numeral data are received to a laptop computer through Ethernet modem. And then, the numerical data with gas concentrations and the measured initial response speeds are recorded and graphed. Our remote testing system will be diversely applied on gas detector’s test and will be certificated in domestic and international countries.
Keywords: Gas leakage detector, inspection instrument, extracting numerals, concentration.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8891478 Mapping the Quotidian Life of Practitioners of Various Religious Sects in Late Medieval Bengal: Portrayals on the Front Façades of the Baranagar Temple Cluster
Authors: I. Gupta, B. Karmakar
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Bengal has a long history (8th century A.D. onwards) of decorating the wall of brick-built temples with curved terracotta plaques on a diverse range of subjects. These could be considered as one of the most significant visual archives to understand the various facets of the then contemporary societies. The temples under focus include Char-bangla temple complex (circa 1755 A.D.), Bhavanishvara temple (circa 1755 A.D.) and the Gangeshvara Shiva Jor-bangla temple (circa 1753 A.D.), located within a part of the river Bhagirathi basin in Baranagar, Murshidabad, West Bengal, India. Though, a diverse range of subjects have been intricately carved mainly on the front façades of the Baranagar temple cluster, the study specifically concentrates on depictions related to religious and non-religious acts performed by practitioners of various religious sects of late medieval Bengal with the intention to acquire knowledge about the various facets of their life. Apart from this, the paper also mapped the spatial location of these religious performers on the temples’ façades to examine if any systematic plan or arrangement had been employed for connoting a particular idea. Further, an attempt is made to provide a commentary on the attire worn by followers of various religious sects of late medieval Bengal. The primary materials for the study comprise the depictions which denote religious activities carved on the terracotta plaques. The secondary material has been collected from published and unpublished theses, journals and books. These data have been further supplemented with photographic documentation, some useful line-drawings and descriptions in table format to get a clear understanding of the concerned issues.
Keywords: Attire, scheme of allocation, terracotta temple, various religious sect.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7661477 A Multigrid Approach for Three-Dimensional Inverse Heat Conduction Problems
Authors: Jianhua Zhou, Yuwen Zhang
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A two-step multigrid approach is proposed to solve the inverse heat conduction problem in a 3-D object under laser irradiation. In the first step, the location of the laser center is estimated using a coarse and uniform grid system. In the second step, the front-surface temperature is recovered in good accuracy using a multiple grid system in which fine mesh is used at laser spot center to capture the drastic temperature rise in this region but coarse mesh is employed in the peripheral region to reduce the total number of sensors required. The effectiveness of the two-step approach and the multiple grid system are demonstrated by the illustrative inverse solutions. If the measurement data for the temperature and heat flux on the back surface do not contain random error, the proposed multigrid approach can yield more accurate inverse solutions. When the back-surface measurement data contain random noise, accurate inverse solutions cannot be obtained if both temperature and heat flux are measured on the back surface.
Keywords: Conduction, inverse problems, conjugated gradient method, laser.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8301476 Realization of Soliton Phase Characteristics in 10 Gbps, Single Channel, Uncompensated Telecommunication System
Authors: A. Jawahar
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In this paper, the dependence of soliton pulses with respect to phase in a 10Gbps, single channel, dispersion uncompensated telecommunication system was studied. The characteristic feature of periodic soliton interaction was noted at the Interaction point (I=6202.5Km) in one collision length of L=12405.1 Km. The interaction point is located for 10Gbps system with an initial relative spacing (qo) of soliton as 5.28 using Perturbation theory. It is shown that, when two in-phase solitons are launched, they interact at the point I=6202.5 Km, but the interaction could be restricted with introduction of different phase initially. When the phase of the input solitons increases, the deviation of soliton pulses at the ‘I’ also increases. We have successfully demonstrated this effect in a telecommunication set-up in terms of Quality factor (Q), where the Q=0 for in-phase soliton. The Q was noted to be 125.9, 38.63, 47.53, 59.60, 161.37, and 78.04 for different phases such as 10o, 20o, 30o, 45o, 60o and 90o degrees respectively at Interaction point (I).Keywords: Soliton interaction, Initial relative spacing, phase, Perturbation theory and telecommunication system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18601475 High Speed Bitwise Search for Digital Forensic System
Authors: Hyungkeun Jee, Jooyoung Lee, Dowon Hong
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The most common forensic activity is searching a hard disk for string of data. Nowadays, investigators and analysts are increasingly experiencing large, even terabyte sized data sets when conducting digital investigations. Therefore consecutive searching can take weeks to complete successfully. There are two primary search methods: index-based search and bitwise search. Index-based searching is very fast after the initial indexing but initial indexing takes a long time. In this paper, we discuss a high speed bitwise search model for large-scale digital forensic investigations. We used pattern matching board, which is generally used for network security, to search for string and complex regular expressions. Our results indicate that in many cases, the use of pattern matching board can substantially increase the performance of digital forensic search tools.Keywords: Digital forensics, search, regular expression.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17951474 Kinetics Studies on Biological Treatment of Tannery Wastewater Using Mixed Culture
Authors: G.Durai, N.Rajamohan, C.Karthikeyan, M.Rajasimman
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In this study, aerobic digestion of tannery industry wastewater was carried out using mixed culture obtained from common effluent treatment plant treating tannery wastewater. The effect of pH, temperature, inoculum concentration, agitation speed and initial substrate concentration on the reduction of organic matters were found. The optimum conditions for COD reduction was found to be pH - 7 (60%), temperature - 30ÔùªC (61%), inoculum concentration - 2% (61%), agitation speed - 150rpm (65%) and initial substrate concentration - 1560 mg COD/L (74%). Kinetics studies were carried by using Monod model, First order, Diffusional model and Singh model. From the results it was found that the Monod model suits well for the degradation of tannery wastewater using mixed microbial consortium.Keywords: Tannery, Wastewater, Biological treatment, Aerobic, Mixed culture, Kinetics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31561473 Mathematical Modeling of an Avalanche Release and Estimation of Flow Parameters by Numerical Method
Authors: Mahmoud Zarrini
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Avalanche release of snow has been modeled in the present studies. Snow is assumed to be represented by semi-solid and the governing equations have been studied from the concept of continuum approach. The dynamical equations have been solved for two different zones [starting zone and track zone] by using appropriate initial and boundary conditions. Effect of density (ρ), Eddy viscosity (η), Slope angle (θ), Slab depth (R) on the flow parameters have been observed in the present studies. Numerical methods have been employed for computing the non linear differential equations. One of the most interesting and fundamental innovation in the present studies is getting initial condition for the computation of velocity by numerical approach. This information of the velocity has obtained through the concept of fracture mechanics applicable to snow. The results on the flow parameters have found to be in qualitative agreement with the published results.
Keywords: Snow avalanche, fracture mechanics, avalanche velocity, avalanche zones.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1761