Search results for: Experimental measurement
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4381

Search results for: Experimental measurement

151 Nuclear Fuel Safety Threshold Determined by Logistic Regression Plus Uncertainty

Authors: D. S. Gomes, A. T. Silva

Abstract:

Analysis of the uncertainty quantification related to nuclear safety margins applied to the nuclear reactor is an important concept to prevent future radioactive accidents. The nuclear fuel performance code may involve the tolerance level determined by traditional deterministic models producing acceptable results at burn cycles under 62 GWd/MTU. The behavior of nuclear fuel can simulate applying a series of material properties under irradiation and physics models to calculate the safety limits. In this study, theoretical predictions of nuclear fuel failure under transient conditions investigate extended radiation cycles at 75 GWd/MTU, considering the behavior of fuel rods in light-water reactors under reactivity accident conditions. The fuel pellet can melt due to the quick increase of reactivity during a transient. Large power excursions in the reactor are the subject of interest bringing to a treatment that is known as the Fuchs-Hansen model. The point kinetic neutron equations show similar characteristics of non-linear differential equations. In this investigation, the multivariate logistic regression is employed to a probabilistic forecast of fuel failure. A comparison of computational simulation and experimental results was acceptable. The experiments carried out use the pre-irradiated fuels rods subjected to a rapid energy pulse which exhibits the same behavior during a nuclear accident. The propagation of uncertainty utilizes the Wilk's formulation. The variables chosen as essential to failure prediction were the fuel burnup, the applied peak power, the pulse width, the oxidation layer thickness, and the cladding type.

Keywords: Logistic regression, reactivity-initiated accident, safety margins, uncertainty propagation.

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150 Design, Manufacture and Test of a Solar Powered Audible Bird Scarer

Authors: Turhan Koyuncu, Fuat Lule

Abstract:

The most common domestic birds live in Turkey are: crows (Corvus corone), pigeons (Columba livia), sparrows (Passer domesticus), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and blackbirds (Turdus merula). These birds give damage to the agricultural areas and make dirty the human life areas. In order to send away these birds, some different materials and methods such as chemicals, treatments, colored lights, flash and audible scarers are used. It is possible to see many studies about chemical methods in the literatures. However there is not enough works regarding audible bird scarers are reported in the literature. Therefore, a solar powered bird scarer was designed, manufactured and tested in this experimental investigation. Firstly, to understand the sensitive level of these domestic birds against to the audible scarer, many series preliminary studies were conducted. These studies showed that crows are the most resistant against to the audible bird scarer when compared with pigeons, sparrows, starlings and blackbirds. Therefore the solar powered audible bird scarer was tested on crows. The scarer was tested about one month during April- May, 2007. 18 different common known predators- sounds (voices or calls) of domestic birds from Falcon (Falco eleonorae), Falcon (Buteo lagopus), Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Montagu-s harrier (Circus pygargus) and Owl (Glaucidium passerinum) were selected for test of the scarer. It was seen from the results that the reaction of the birds was changed depending on the predators- sound type, camouflage of the scarer, sound quality and volume, loudspeaker play and pause periods in one application. In addition, it was also seen that the sound from Falcon (Buteo lagopus) was most effective on crows and the scarer was enough efficient.

Keywords: Bird damage, Audible scarer, Solar powered scarer, Predator sound

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149 Heat-treated or Raw Sunflower Seeds in Lactating Dairy Cows Diets: Effects on Milk Fatty Acids Profile and Milk Production

Authors: H. Mansoori, A. Aghazadeh, K. Nazeradl

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with raw or heat-treated sunflower oil seed with two levels of 7.5% or 15% on unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat and performances of high-yielding lactating cows. Twenty early lactating Holstein cows were used in a complete randomized design. Treatments included: 1) CON, control (without sunflower oil seed). 2) LS-UT, 7.5% raw sunflower oil seed. 3) LS-HT, 7.5% heat-treated sunflower oil seed. 4) HS-UT, 15% raw sunflower oil seed. 5) HS-HT, 15% heat-treated sunflower oil seed. Experimental period lasted for 4 wk, with first 2 wk used for adaptation to the diets. Supplementation with 7.5% raw sunflower seed (LS-UT) tended to decrease milk yield, with 28.37 kg/d compared with the control (34.75 kg/d). Milk fat percentage was increased with the HS-UT treatment that obtained 3.71% compared with CON that was 3.39% and without significant different. Milk protein percent was decreased high level sunflower oil seed treatments (15%) with 3.18% whereas CON treatment is caused 3.40% protein. The cows fed added low sunflower heat-treated (LS-HT) produced milk with the highest content of total unsaturated fatty acid with 32.59 g/100g of milk fat compared with the HS-UT with 23.59 g/100g of milk fat. Content of C18 unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat increased from 21.68 g/100g of fat in the HS-UT to 22.50, 23.98, 27.39 and 30.30 g/100g of fat from the cow fed HS-HT, CON, LS-UT and LS-HT treatments, respectively. C18:2 isomers of fatty acid in milk were greater by LSHT supplementation with significant effect (P < 0.05). Total of C18 unsaturated fatty acids content was significantly higher in milk of animal fed added low heat-treated sunflower (7.5%) than those fed with high sunflower. In all, results of this study showed that diet cow's supplementation with sunflower oil seed tended to reduce milk production of lactating cows but can improve C18 UFA (Unsaturated Fatty Acid) content in milk fat. 7.5% level of sunflower oil seed that heated seemed to be the optimal source to increase UFA production.

Keywords: Fatty acid profile, milk production, sunflower seed.

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148 An Experimental Investigation on the Behavior of Pressure Tube under Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Heating Conditions in an Indian PHWR

Authors: Ashwini K. Yadav, Ravi Kumar, Akhilesh Gupta, P. Majumdar, B. Chatterjee, D. Mukhopadhyay

Abstract:

Thermal behavior of fuel channel under loss of coolant accident (LOCA) is a major concern for nuclear reactor safety. LOCA along with failure of emergency cooling water system (ECC) may leads to mechanical deformations like sagging and ballooning. In order to understand the phenomenon an experiment has been carried out using 19 pin fuel element simulator. Main purpose of the experiment was to trace temperature profiles over the pressure tube, calandria tube and clad tubes of Indian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (IPHWR) under symmetrical and asymmetrical heat-up conditions. For simulating the fully voided scenario, symmetrical heating of pressure was carried out by injecting 13.2 KW (2 % of nominal power) to all the 19 pins and the temperatures of pressure tube, calandria tube and clad tubes were measured. During symmetrical heating the sagging of fuel channel was initiated at 460 °C and the highest temperature attained by PT was 650 °C . The decay heat from clad tubes was dissipated to moderator mainly by radiation and natural convection. The highest temperature of 680 °C was observed over the outer ring of clad tubes of fuel simulator. Again, to simulate partially voided condition, asymmetrical heating of pressure was carried out by supplying 8.0 kW power to upper 8 pins of fuel simulator and temperature profiles were measured. Along the circumference of pressure tube (PT) the highest temperature difference of 320 °C was observed, which highlights the magnitude of thermal stresses under partially voided conditions.

Keywords: LOCA, ECCS, PHWR, ballooning, channel heat-up, pressure tube, calandria tube.

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147 Seawater Desalination for Production of Highly Pure Water Using a Hydrophobic PTFE Membrane and Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD)

Authors: Ahmad Kayvani Fard, Yehia Manawi

Abstract:

Qatar’s primary source of fresh water is through seawater desalination. Amongst the major processes that are commercially available on the market, the most common large scale techniques are Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF), Multi Effect distillation (MED), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Although commonly used, these three processes are highly expensive down to high energy input requirements and high operating costs allied with maintenance and stress induced on the systems in harsh alkaline media. Beside that cost, environmental footprint of these desalination techniques are significant; from damaging marine eco-system, to huge land use, to discharge of tons of GHG and huge carbon footprint. Other less energy consuming techniques based on membrane separation are being sought to reduce both the carbon footprint and operating costs is membrane distillation (MD). Emerged in 1960s, MD is an alternative technology for water desalination attracting more attention since 1980s. MD process involves the evaporation of a hot feed, typically below boiling point of brine at standard conditions, by creating a water vapor pressure difference across the porous, hydrophobic membrane. Main advantages of MD compared to other commercially available technologies (MSF and MED) and specially RO are reduction of membrane and module stress due to absence of trans-membrane pressure, less impact of contaminant fouling on distillate due to transfer of only water vapor, utilization of low grade or waste heat from oil and gas industries to heat up the feed up to required temperature difference across the membrane, superior water quality, and relatively lower capital and operating cost. To achieve the objective of this study, state of the art flat-sheet cross-flow DCMD bench scale unit was designed, commissioned, and tested. The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics and morphology of the membrane suitable for DCMD through SEM imaging and contact angle measurement and to study the water quality of distillate produced by DCMD bench scale unit. Comparison with available literature data is undertaken where appropriate and laboratory data is used to compare a DCMD distillate quality with that of other desalination techniques and standards. Membrane SEM analysis showed that the PTFE membrane used for the study has contact angle of 127º with highly porous surface supported with less porous and bigger pore size PP membrane. Study on the effect of feed solution (salinity) and temperature on water quality of distillate produced from ICP and IC analysis showed that with any salinity and different feed temperature (up to 70ºC) the electric conductivity of distillate is less than 5 μS/cm with 99.99% salt rejection and proved to be feasible and effective process capable of consistently producing high quality distillate from very high feed salinity solution (i.e. 100000 mg/L TDS) even with substantial quality difference compared to other desalination methods such as RO and MSF.

Keywords: Membrane Distillation, Waste Heat, Seawater Desalination, Membrane, Freshwater, Direct Contact Membrane Distillation

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146 Selective Encryption using ISMA Cryp in Real Time Video Streaming of H.264/AVC for DVB-H Application

Authors: Jay M. Joshi, Upena D. Dalal

Abstract:

Multimedia information availability has increased dramatically with the advent of video broadcasting on handheld devices. But with this availability comes problems of maintaining the security of information that is displayed in public. ISMA Encryption and Authentication (ISMACryp) is one of the chosen technologies for service protection in DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting- Handheld), the TV system for portable handheld devices. The ISMACryp is encoded with H.264/AVC (advanced video coding), while leaving all structural data as it is. Two modes of ISMACryp are available; the CTR mode (Counter type) and CBC mode (Cipher Block Chaining) mode. Both modes of ISMACryp are based on 128- bit AES algorithm. AES algorithms are more complex and require larger time for execution which is not suitable for real time application like live TV. The proposed system aims to gain a deep understanding of video data security on multimedia technologies and to provide security for real time video applications using selective encryption for H.264/AVC. Five level of security proposed in this paper based on the content of NAL unit in Baseline Constrain profile of H.264/AVC. The selective encryption in different levels provides encryption of intra-prediction mode, residue data, inter-prediction mode or motion vectors only. Experimental results shown in this paper described that fifth level which is ISMACryp provide higher level of security with more encryption time and the one level provide lower level of security by encrypting only motion vectors with lower execution time without compromise on compression and quality of visual content. This encryption scheme with compression process with low cost, and keeps the file format unchanged with some direct operations supported. Simulation was being carried out in Matlab.

Keywords: AES-128, CAVLC, H.264, ISMACryp

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145 The Effect of the Side-Weir Crest Height to Scour in Clay-Sand Mixed Sediments

Authors: F. Ayça Varol Saraçoğlu, Hayrullah Ağaçcıoğlu

Abstract:

Experimental studies to investigate the depth of the scour conducted at a side-weir intersection located at the 1800 curved flume which located Hydraulic Laboratory of Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Side weirs were located at the middle of the straight part of the main channel. Three different lengths (25, 40 and 50 cm) and three different weir crest height (7, 10 and 12 cm) of the side weir placed on the side weir station. There is no scour when the material is only kaolin. Therefore, the cohesive bed was prepared by properly mixing clay material (kaolin) with 31% sand in all experiments. Following 24h consolidation time, in order to observe the effect of flow intensity on the scour depth, experiments were carried out for five different upstream Froude numbers in the range of 0.33-0.81. As a result of this study the relation between scour depth and upstream flow intensity as a function of time have been established. The longitudinal velocities decreased along the side weir; towards the downstream due to overflow over the side-weirs. At the beginning, the scour depth increases rapidly with time and then asymptotically approached constant values in all experiments for all side weir dimensions as in non-cohesive sediment. Thus, the scour depth reached equilibrium conditions. Time to equilibrium depends on the approach flow intensity and the dimensions of side weirs. For different heights of the weir crest, dimensionless scour depths increased with increasing upstream Froude number. Equilibrium scour depths which formed 7 cm side-weir crest height were obtained higher than that of the 12 cm side-weir crest height. This means when side-weir crest height increased equilibrium scour depths decreased. Although the upstream side of the scour hole is almost vertical, the downstream side of the hole is inclined.

Keywords: Clay-sand mixed sediments, scour, side weir.

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144 Physicochemical Properties of Microemulsions and their uses in Enhanced Oil Recovery

Authors: T. Kumar, Achinta Bera, Ajay Mandal

Abstract:

Use of microemulsion in enhanced oil recovery has become more attractive in recent years because of its high level of extraction efficiency. Experimental investigations have been made on characterization of microemulsions of oil-brinesurfactant/ cosurfactant system for its use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Sodium dodecyl sulfate, propan-1-ol and heptane were selected as surfactant, cosurfactant and oil respectively for preparation of microemulsion. The effects of salinity on the relative phase volumes and solubilization parameters have also been studied. As salinity changes from low to high value, phase transition takes place from Winsor I to Winsor II via Winsor III. Suitable microemulsion composition has been selected based on its stability and ability to reduce interfacial tension. A series of flooding experiments have been performed using the selected microemulsion. The flooding experiments were performed in a core flooding apparatus using uniform sand pack. The core holder was tightly packed with uniform sands (60-100 mesh) and saturated with brines of different salinities. It was flooded with the brine at 25 psig and the absolute permeability was calculated from the flow rate of the through sand pack. The sand pack was then flooded with the crude oil at 800 psig to irreducible water saturation. The initial water saturation was determined on the basis of mass balance. Waterflooding was conducted by placing the coreholder horizontally at a constant injection pressure at 200 pisg. After water flooding, when water-cut reached above 95%, around 0.5 pore volume (PV) of the above microemulsion slug was injected followed by chasing water. The experiments were repeated using different composition of microemulsion slug. The additional recoveries were calculated by material balance. Encouraging results with additional recovery more than 20% of original oil in place above the conventional water flooding have been observed.

Keywords: Microemulsion Flooding, Enhanced Oil Recovery, Phase Behavior, Optimal salinity

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143 Optimization of Quercus cerris Bark Liquefaction

Authors: Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes, Hugo Costa e Silva, Idalina Domingos, José Ferreira, Luís Teixeira de Lemos, Bruno Esteves

Abstract:

The liquefaction process of cork based tree barks has led to an increase of interest due to its potential innovation in the lumber and wood industries. In this particular study the bark of Quercus cerris (Turkish oak) is used due to its appreciable amount of cork tissue, although of inferior quality when compared to the cork provided by other Quercus trees. This study aims to optimize alkaline catalysis liquefaction conditions, regarding several parameters. To better comprehend the possible chemical characteristics of the bark of Quercus cerris, a complete chemical analysis was performed. The liquefaction process was performed in a double-jacket reactor heated with oil, using glycerol and a mixture of glycerol/ethylene glycol as solvents, potassium hydroxide as a catalyst, and varying the temperature, liquefaction time and granulometry. Due to low liquefaction efficiency resulting from the first experimental procedures a study was made regarding different washing techniques after the filtration process using methanol and methanol/water. The chemical analysis stated that the bark of Quercus cerris is mostly composed by suberin (ca. 30%) and lignin (ca. 24%) as well as insolvent hemicelluloses in hot water (ca. 23%). On the liquefaction stage, the results that led to higher yields were: using a mixture of methanol/ethylene glycol as reagents and a time and temperature of 120 minutes and 200 ºC, respectively. It is concluded that using a granulometry of <80 mesh leads to better results, even if this parameter barely influences the liquefaction efficiency. Regarding the filtration stage, washing the residue with methanol and then distilled water leads to a considerable increase on final liquefaction percentages, which proves that this procedure is effective at liquefying suberin content and lignocellulose fraction.

Keywords: Liquefaction, alkaline catalysis, optimization, Quercus cerris bark.

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142 Lexical Based Method for Opinion Detection on Tripadvisor Collection

Authors: Faiza Belbachir, Thibault Schienhinski

Abstract:

The massive development of online social networks allows users to post and share their opinions on various topics. With this huge volume of opinion, it is interesting to extract and interpret these information for different domains, e.g., product and service benchmarking, politic, system of recommendation. This is why opinion detection is one of the most important research tasks. It consists on differentiating between opinion data and factual data. The difficulty of this task is to determine an approach which returns opinionated document. Generally, there are two approaches used for opinion detection i.e. Lexical based approaches and Machine Learning based approaches. In Lexical based approaches, a dictionary of sentimental words is used, words are associated with weights. The opinion score of document is derived by the occurrence of words from this dictionary. In Machine learning approaches, usually a classifier is trained using a set of annotated document containing sentiment, and features such as n-grams of words, part-of-speech tags, and logical forms. Majority of these works are based on documents text to determine opinion score but dont take into account if these texts are really correct. Thus, it is interesting to exploit other information to improve opinion detection. In our work, we will develop a new way to consider the opinion score. We introduce the notion of trust score. We determine opinionated documents but also if these opinions are really trustable information in relation with topics. For that we use lexical SentiWordNet to calculate opinion and trust scores, we compute different features about users like (numbers of their comments, numbers of their useful comments, Average useful review). After that, we combine opinion score and trust score to obtain a final score. We applied our method to detect trust opinions in TRIPADVISOR collection. Our experimental results report that the combination between opinion score and trust score improves opinion detection.

Keywords: Tripadvisor, Opinion detection, SentiWordNet, trust score.

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141 Visual Study on Flow Patterns and Heat Transfer during Convective Boiling Inside Horizontal Smooth and Microfin Tubes

Authors: V.D. Hatamipour, M.A. Akhavan-Behabadi

Abstract:

Evaporator is an important and widely used heat exchanger in air conditioning and refrigeration industries. Different methods have been used by investigators to increase the heat transfer rates in evaporators. One of the passive techniques to enhance heat transfer coefficient is the application of microfin tubes. The mechanism of heat transfer augmentation in microfin tubes is dependent on the flow regime of two-phase flow. Therefore many investigations of the flow patterns for in-tube evaporation have been reported in literatures. The gravitational force, surface tension and the vapor-liquid interfacial shear stress are known as three dominant factors controlling the vapor and liquid distribution inside the tube. A review of the existing literature reveals that the previous investigations were concerned with the two-phase flow pattern for flow boiling in horizontal tubes [12], [9]. Therefore, the objective of the present investigation is to obtain information about the two-phase flow patterns for evaporation of R-134a inside horizontal smooth and microfin tubes. Also Investigation of heat transfer during flow boiling of R-134a inside horizontal microfin and smooth tube have been carried out experimentally The heat transfer coefficients for annular flow in the smooth tube is shown to agree well with Gungor and Winterton-s correlation [4]. All the flow patterns occurred in the test can be divided into three dominant regimes, i.e., stratified-wavy flow, wavy-annular flow and annular flow. Experimental data are plotted in two kinds of flow maps, i.e., Weber number for the vapor versus weber number for the liquid flow map and mass flux versus vapor quality flow map. The transition from wavy-annular flow to annular or stratified-wavy flow is identified in the flow maps.

Keywords: Flow boiling, Flow pattern, Heat transfer, Horizontal, Smooth tube, Microfin tube.

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140 Qualitative Parametric Comparison of Load Balancing Algorithms in Parallel and Distributed Computing Environment

Authors: Amit Chhabra, Gurvinder Singh, Sandeep Singh Waraich, Bhavneet Sidhu, Gaurav Kumar

Abstract:

Decrease in hardware costs and advances in computer networking technologies have led to increased interest in the use of large-scale parallel and distributed computing systems. One of the biggest issues in such systems is the development of effective techniques/algorithms for the distribution of the processes/load of a parallel program on multiple hosts to achieve goal(s) such as minimizing execution time, minimizing communication delays, maximizing resource utilization and maximizing throughput. Substantive research using queuing analysis and assuming job arrivals following a Poisson pattern, have shown that in a multi-host system the probability of one of the hosts being idle while other host has multiple jobs queued up can be very high. Such imbalances in system load suggest that performance can be improved by either transferring jobs from the currently heavily loaded hosts to the lightly loaded ones or distributing load evenly/fairly among the hosts .The algorithms known as load balancing algorithms, helps to achieve the above said goal(s). These algorithms come into two basic categories - static and dynamic. Whereas static load balancing algorithms (SLB) take decisions regarding assignment of tasks to processors based on the average estimated values of process execution times and communication delays at compile time, Dynamic load balancing algorithms (DLB) are adaptive to changing situations and take decisions at run time. The objective of this paper work is to identify qualitative parameters for the comparison of above said algorithms. In future this work can be extended to develop an experimental environment to study these Load balancing algorithms based on comparative parameters quantitatively.

Keywords: SLB, DLB, Host, Algorithm and Load.

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139 Analysis of Surface Hardness, Surface Roughness, and Near Surface Microstructure of AISI 4140 Steel Worked with Turn-Assisted Deep Cold Rolling Process

Authors: P. R. Prabhu, S. M. Kulkarni, S. S. Sharma, K. Jagannath, Achutha Kini U.

Abstract:

In the present study, response surface methodology has been used to optimize turn-assisted deep cold rolling process of AISI 4140 steel. A regression model is developed to predict surface hardness and surface roughness using response surface methodology and central composite design. In the development of predictive model, deep cold rolling force, ball diameter, initial roughness of the workpiece, and number of tool passes are considered as model variables. The rolling force and the ball diameter are the significant factors on the surface hardness and ball diameter and numbers of tool passes are found to be significant for surface roughness. The predicted surface hardness and surface roughness values and the subsequent verification experiments under the optimal operating conditions confirmed the validity of the predicted model. The absolute average error between the experimental and predicted values at the optimal combination of parameter settings for surface hardness and surface roughness is calculated as 0.16% and 1.58% respectively. Using the optimal processing parameters, the surface hardness is improved from 225 to 306 HV, which resulted in an increase in the near surface hardness by about 36% and the surface roughness is improved from 4.84µm to 0.252 µm, which resulted in decrease in the surface roughness by about 95%. The depth of compression is found to be more than 300µm from the microstructure analysis and this is in correlation with the results obtained from the microhardness measurements. Taylor hobson talysurf tester, micro vickers hardness tester, optical microscopy and X-ray diffractometer are used to characterize the modified surface layer. 

Keywords: Surface hardness, response surface methodology, microstructure, central composite design, deep cold rolling, surface roughness.

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138 A Quasi-Systematic Review on Effectiveness of Social and Cultural Sustainability Practices in Built Environment

Authors: Asif Ali, Daud Salim Faruquie

Abstract:

With the advancement of knowledge about the utility and impact of sustainability, its feasibility has been explored into different walks of life. Scientists, however; have established their knowledge in four areas viz environmental, economic, social and cultural, popularly termed as four pillars of sustainability. Aspects of environmental and economic sustainability have been rigorously researched and practiced and huge volume of strong evidence of effectiveness has been founded for these two sub-areas. For the social and cultural aspects of sustainability, dependable evidence of effectiveness is still to be instituted as the researchers and practitioners are developing and experimenting methods across the globe. Therefore, the present research aimed to identify globally used practices of social and cultural sustainability and through evidence synthesis assess their outcomes to determine the effectiveness of those practices. A PICO format steered the methodology which included all populations, popular sustainability practices including walkability/cycle tracks, social/recreational spaces, privacy, health & human services and barrier free built environment, comparators included ‘Before’ and ‘After’, ‘With’ and ‘Without’, ‘More’ and ‘Less’ and outcomes included Social well-being, cultural coexistence, quality of life, ethics and morality, social capital, sense of place, education, health, recreation and leisure, and holistic development. Search of literature included major electronic databases, search websites, organizational resources, directory of open access journals and subscribed journals. Grey literature, however, was not included. Inclusion criteria filtered studies on the basis of research designs such as total randomization, quasirandomization, cluster randomization, observational or single studies and certain types of analysis. Studies with combined outcomes were considered but studies focusing only on environmental and/or economic outcomes were rejected. Data extraction, critical appraisal and evidence synthesis was carried out using customized tabulation, reference manager and CASP tool. Partial meta-analysis was carried out and calculation of pooled effects and forest plotting were done. As many as 13 studies finally included for final synthesis explained the impact of targeted practices on health, behavioural and social dimensions. Objectivity in the measurement of health outcomes facilitated quantitative synthesis of studies which highlighted the impact of sustainability methods on physical activity, Body Mass Index, perinatal outcomes and child health. Studies synthesized qualitatively (and also quantitatively) showed outcomes such as routines, family relations, citizenship, trust in relationships, social inclusion, neighbourhood social capital, wellbeing, habitability and family’s social processes. The synthesized evidence indicates slight effectiveness and efficacy of social and cultural sustainability on the targeted outcomes. Further synthesis revealed that such results of this study are due weak research designs and disintegrated implementations. If architects and other practitioners deliver their interventions in collaboration with research bodies and policy makers, a stronger evidence-base in this area could be generated.

Keywords: Built environment, cultural sustainability, social sustainability, sustainable architecture.

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137 Triplet Shear Tests on Retrofitted Brickwork Masonry Walls

Authors: Berna Istegun, Erkan Celebi

Abstract:

The main objective of this experimental study is to assess the shear strength and the crack behavior of the triplets built of perforated brickwork masonry elements. In order to observe the influence of shear resistance and energy dissipating before and after retrofitting applications by using the reinforcing system, static-cyclic shear tests were employed in the structural mechanics laboratory of Sakarya University. The reinforcing system is composed of hybrid multiaxial seismic fabric consisting of alkali resistant glass and polypropylene fibers. The plaster as bonding material used in the specimen’s retrofitting consists of expanded glass granular. In order to acquire exact measuring data about the failure behavior of the two mortar joints under shear stressing, vertical load-controlled cylinder having force capacity of 50 kN and loading rate of 1.5 mm/min. with an internal inductive displacement transducers is carried out perpendicular to the triplet specimens. In this study, a total of six triplet specimens with textile reinforcement were prepared for these shear bond tests. The three of them were produced as single-sided reinforced triplets with seismic fabric, while the others were strengthened on both sides. In addition, three triplet specimens without retrofitting and plaster were also tested as reference samples. The obtained test results were given in the manner of force-displacement relationships, ductility coefficients and shear strength parameters comparatively. It is concluded that two-side seismic textile applications on masonry elements with relevant plaster have considerably increased the sheer force resistance and the ductility capacity.

Keywords: Triplet shears tests, retrofitting, seismic fabric, perforated brickwork, expanded glass granular.

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136 Supervisory Controller with Three-State Energy Saving Mode for Induction Motor in Fluid Transportation

Authors: O. S. Ebrahim, K. O. Shawky, M. O. Ebrahim, P. K. Jain

Abstract:

Induction Motor (IM) driving pump is the main consumer of electricity in a typical fluid transportation system (FTS). Changing the connection of the stator windings from delta to star at no load can achieve noticeable active and reactive energy savings. This paper proposes a supervisory hysteresis liquid-level control with three-state energy saving mode (ESM) for IM in FTS including storage tank. The IM pump drive comprises modified star/delta switch and hydromantic coupler. Three-state ESM is defined, along with the normal running, and named analog to computer ESMs as follows: Sleeping mode in which the motor runs at no load with delta stator connection, hibernate mode in which the motor runs at no load with a star connection, and motor shutdown is the third energy saver mode. A logic flow-chart is synthesized to select the motor state at no-load for best energetic cost reduction, considering the motor thermal capacity used. An artificial neural network (ANN) state estimator, based on the recurrent architecture, is constructed and learned in order to provide fault-tolerant capability for the supervisory controller. Sequential test of Wald is used for sensor fault detection. Theoretical analysis, preliminary experimental testing and, computer simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed control in terms of reliability, power quality and energy/coenergy cost reduction with the suggestion of power factor correction.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, ANN, Energy Saving Mode, ESM, Induction Motor, IM, star/delta switch, supervisory control, fluid transportation, reliability, power quality.

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135 Heavy Deformation and High-Temperature Annealing Microstructure and Texture Studies of TaHfNbZrTi Equiatomic Refractory High Entropy Alloy

Authors: Veeresham Mokali

Abstract:

The refractory alloys are crucial for high-temperature applications to improve performance and reduce cost. They are used in several applications such as aerospace, outer space, military and defense, nuclear powerplants, automobiles, and industry. The conventional refractory alloys show greater stability at high temperatures and in contrast they have operational limitations due to their low melting temperatures. However, there is a huge requirement to improve the refractory alloys’ operational temperatures and replace the conventional alloys. The newly emerging refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs) could be alternative materials for conventional refractory alloys and fulfill the demands and requirements of various practical applications in the future. The RHEA TaHfNbZrTi was prepared through an arc melting process. The annealing behavior of severely deformed equiatomic RHEATaHfNbZrTi has been investigated. To obtain deformed condition, the alloy is cold-rolled to 90% thickness reduction and then subjected to an annealing process to observe recrystallization and microstructural evolution in the range of 800 °C to 1400 °C temperatures. The cold-rolled – 90% condition shows the presence of microstructural heterogeneity. The annealing microstructure of 800 °C temperature reveals that partial recrystallization and further annealing treatment carried out annealing treatment in the range of 850 °C to 1400 °C temperatures exhibits completely recrystallized microstructures, followed by coarsening with a degree of annealing temperature. The deformed and annealed conditions featured the development of body-centered cubic (BCC) fiber textures. The experimental investigation of heavy deformation and followed by high-temperature annealing up to 1400 °C temperature will contribute to the understanding of microstructure and texture evolution of emerging RHEAs.

Keywords: Refractory high entropy alloys, cold-rolling, annealing, microstructure, texture.

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134 Evaluating the Capability of the Flux-Limiter Schemes in Capturing the Turbulence Structures in a Fully Developed Channel Flow

Authors: Mohamed Elghorab, Vendra C. Madhav Rao, Jennifer X. Wen

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Turbulence modelling is still evolving, and efforts are on to improve and develop numerical methods to simulate the real turbulence structures by using the empirical and experimental information. The monotonically integrated large eddy simulation (MILES) is an attractive approach for modelling turbulence in high Re flows, which is based on the solving of the unfiltered flow equations with no explicit sub-grid scale (SGS) model. In the current work, this approach has been used, and the action of the SGS model has been included implicitly by intrinsic nonlinear high-frequency filters built into the convection discretization schemes. The MILES solver is developed using the opensource CFD OpenFOAM libraries. The role of flux limiters schemes namely, Gamma, superBee, van-Albada and van-Leer, is studied in predicting turbulent statistical quantities for a fully developed channel flow with a friction Reynolds number, ReT = 180, and compared the numerical predictions with the well-established Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) results for studying the wall generated turbulence. It is inferred from the numerical predictions that Gamma, van-Leer and van-Albada limiters produced more diffusion and overpredicted the velocity profiles, while superBee scheme reproduced velocity profiles and turbulence statistical quantities in good agreement with the reference DNS data in the streamwise direction although it deviated slightly in the spanwise and normal to the wall directions. The simulation results are further discussed in terms of the turbulence intensities and Reynolds stresses averaged in time and space to draw conclusion on the flux limiter schemes performance in OpenFOAM context.

Keywords: Flux limiters, MILES, OpenFOAM, turbulence structures, TVD schemes.

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133 Assessment of Wastewater Reuse Potential for an Enamel Coating Industry

Authors: Guclu Insel, Efe Gumuslu, Gulten Yuksek, Nilay Sayi Ucar, Emine Ubay Cokgor, Tugba Olmez Hanci, Didem Okutman Tas, Fatos Germirli Babuna, Derya Firat Ertem, Okmen Yildirim, Ozge Erturan, Betul Kirci

Abstract:

In order to eliminate water scarcity problems, effective precautions must be taken. Growing competition for water is increasingly forcing facilities to tackle their own water scarcity problems. At this point, application of wastewater reclamation and reuse results in considerable economic advantageous. In this study, an enamel coating facility, which is one of the high water consumed facilities, is evaluated in terms of its wastewater reuse potential. Wastewater reclamation and reuse can be defined as one of the best available techniques for this sector. Hence, process and pollution profiles together with detailed characterization of segregated wastewater sources are appraised in a way to find out the recoverable effluent streams arising from enamel coating operations. Daily, 170 m3 of process water is required and 160 m3 of wastewater is generated. The segregated streams generated by two enamel coating processes are characterized in terms of conventional parameters. Relatively clean segregated wastewater streams (reusable wastewaters) are separately collected and experimental treatability studies are conducted on it. The results reflected that the reusable wastewater fraction has an approximate amount of 110 m3/day that accounts for 68% of the total wastewaters. The need for treatment applicable on reusable wastewaters is determined by considering water quality requirements of various operations and characterization of reusable wastewater streams. Ultra-filtration (UF), Nano-filtration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes are subsequently applied on reusable effluent fraction. Adequate organic matter removal is not obtained with the mentioned treatment sequence.

Keywords: enamel coating, membrane, reuse, wastewater

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132 A Face-to-Face Education Support System Capable of Lecture Adaptation and Q&A Assistance Based On Probabilistic Inference

Authors: Yoshitaka Fujiwara, Jun-ichirou Fukushima, Yasunari Maeda

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Keys to high-quality face-to-face education are ensuring flexibility in the way lectures are given, and providing care and responsiveness to learners. This paper describes a face-to-face education support system that is designed to raise the satisfaction of learners and reduce the workload on instructors. This system consists of a lecture adaptation assistance part, which assists instructors in adapting teaching content and strategy, and a Q&A assistance part, which provides learners with answers to their questions. The core component of the former part is a “learning achievement map", which is composed of a Bayesian network (BN). From learners- performance in exercises on relevant past lectures, the lecture adaptation assistance part obtains information required to adapt appropriately the presentation of the next lecture. The core component of the Q&A assistance part is a case base, which accumulates cases consisting of questions expected from learners and answers to them. The Q&A assistance part is a case-based search system equipped with a search index which performs probabilistic inference. A prototype face-to-face education support system has been built, which is intended for the teaching of Java programming, and this approach was evaluated using this system. The expected degree of understanding of each learner for a future lecture was derived from his or her performance in exercises on past lectures, and this expected degree of understanding was used to select one of three adaptation levels. A model for determining the adaptation level most suitable for the individual learner has been identified. An experimental case base was built to examine the search performance of the Q&A assistance part, and it was found that the rate of successfully finding an appropriate case was 56%.

Keywords: Bayesian network, face-to-face education, lecture adaptation, Q&A assistance.

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131 Turbine Follower Control Strategy Design Based on Developed FFPP Model

Authors: Ali Ghaffari, Mansour Nikkhah Bahrami, Hesam Parsa

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In this paper a comprehensive model of a fossil fueled power plant (FFPP) is developed in order to evaluate the performance of a newly designed turbine follower controller. Considering the drawbacks of previous works, an overall model is developed to minimize the error between each subsystem model output and the experimental data obtained at the actual power plant. The developed model is organized in two main subsystems namely; Boiler and Turbine. Considering each FFPP subsystem characteristics, different modeling approaches are developed. For economizer, evaporator, superheater and reheater, first order models are determined based on principles of mass and energy conservation. Simulations verify the accuracy of the developed models. Due to the nonlinear characteristics of attemperator, a new model, based on a genetic-fuzzy systems utilizing Pittsburgh approach is developed showing a promising performance vis-à-vis those derived with other methods like ANFIS. The optimization constraints are handled utilizing penalty functions. The effect of increasing the number of rules and membership functions on the performance of the proposed model is also studied and evaluated. The turbine model is developed based on the equation of adiabatic expansion. Parameters of all evaluated models are tuned by means of evolutionary algorithms. Based on the developed model a fuzzy PI controller is developed. It is then successfully implemented in the turbine follower control strategy of the plant. In this control strategy instead of keeping control parameters constant, they are adjusted on-line with regard to the error and the error rate. It is shown that the response of the system improves significantly. It is also shown that fuel consumption decreases considerably.

Keywords: Attemperator, Evolutionary algorithms, Fossil fuelled power plant (FFPP), Fuzzy set theory, Gain scheduling

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130 Jatropha curcas L. Oil Selectivity in Froth Flotation

Authors: André C. Silva, Izabela L. A. Moraes, Elenice M. S. Silva, Carlos M. Silva Filho

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In Brazil, most soils are acidic and low in essential nutrients required for the growth and development of plants, making fertilizers essential for agriculture. As the biggest producer of soy in the world and a major producer of coffee, sugar cane and citrus fruits, Brazil is a large consumer of phosphate. Brazilian’s phosphate ores are predominantly from igneous rocks showing a complex mineralogy, associated with carbonites and oxides, typically iron, silicon and barium. The adopted industrial concentration circuit for this type of ore is a mix between magnetic separation (both low and high field) to remove the magnetic fraction and a froth flotation circuit composed by a reverse flotation of apatite (barite’s flotation) followed by direct flotation circuit (rougher, cleaner and scavenger circuit). Since the 70’s fatty acids obtained from vegetable oils are widely used as lower-cost collectors in apatite froth flotation. This is a very effective approach to the apatite family of minerals, being that this type of collector is both selective and efficient (high recovery). This paper presents Jatropha curcas L. oil (JCO) as a renewable and sustainable source of fatty acids with high selectivity in froth flotation of apatite. JCO is considerably rich in fatty acids such as linoleic, oleic and palmitic acid. The experimental campaign involved 216 tests using a modified Hallimond tube and two different minerals (apatite and quartz). In order to be used as a collector, the oil was saponified. The results found were compared with the synthetic collector, Fotigam 5806 produced by Clariant, which is composed mainly by soy oil. JCO showed the highest selectivity for apatite flotation with cold saponification at pH 8 and concentration of 2.5 mg/L. In this case, the mineral recovery was around 95%.

Keywords: Froth flotation, Jatropha curcas L., microflotation, selectivity.

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129 Mathematical Model of Smoking Time Temperature Effect on Ribbed Smoked Sheets Quality

Authors: Rifah Ediati, Jajang

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The quality of Ribbed Smoked Sheets (RSS) primarily based on color, dryness, and the presence or absence of fungus and bubbles. This quality is strongly influenced by the drying and fumigation process namely smoking process. Smoking that is held in high temperature long time will result scorched dark brown sheets, whereas if the temperature is too low or slow drying rate would resulted in less mature sheets and growth of fungus. Therefore need to find the time and temperature for optimum quality of sheets. Enhance, unmonitored heat and mass transfer during smoking process lead to high losses of energy balance. This research aims to generate simple empirical mathematical model describing the effect of smoking time and temperature to RSS quality of color, water content, fungus and bubbles. The second goal of study was to analyze energy balance during smoking process. Experimental study was conducted by measuring temperature, residence time and quality parameters of 16 sheets sample in smoking rooms. Data for energy consumption balance such as mass of fuel wood, mass of sheets being smoked, construction temperature, ambient temperature and relative humidity were taken directly along the smoking process. It was found that mathematical model correlating smoking temperature and time with color is Color = -169 - 0.184 T4 - 0.193 T3 - 0.160 0.405 T1 + T2 + 0.388 t1 +3.11 t2 + 3.92t3 + 0.215 t4 with R square 50.8% and with moisture is Moisture = -1.40-0.00123 T4 + 0.00032 T3 + 0.00260 T2 - 0.00292 T1 - 0.0105 t1 + 0.0290 t2 + 0.0452 t3 + 0.00061 t4 with R square of 49.9%. Smoking room energy analysis found useful energy was 27.8%. The energy stored in the material construction 7.3%. Lost of energy in conversion of wood combustion, ventilation and others were 16.6%. The energy flowed out through the contact of material construction with the ambient air was found to be the highest contribution to energy losses, it reached 48.3%.

Keywords: RSS quality, temperature, time, smoking room, energy

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128 21st Century Biotechnological Research and Development Advancements for Industrial Development in India

Authors: Monisha Isaac

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Biotechnology is a discipline which explains the use of living organisms and systems to construct a product, or we can define it as an application or technology developed to use biological systems and organisms processes for a specific use. Particularly, it includes cells and its components use for new technologies and inventions. The tools developed can be further used in diverse fields such as agriculture, industry, research and hospitals etc. The 21st century has seen a drastic development and advancement in biotechnology in India. Significant increase in Government of India’s outlays for biotechnology over the past decade has been observed. A sectoral break up of biotechnology-based companies in India shows that most of the companies are agriculture-based companies having interests ranging from tissue culture to biopesticides. Major attention has been given by the companies in health related activities and in environmental biotechnology. The biopharmaceutical, which comprises of vaccines, diagnostic, and recombinant products is the most reliable and largest segment of the Indian Biotech industry. India has developed its vaccine markets and supplies them to various countries. Then there are the bio-services, which mainly comprise of contract researches and manufacturing services. India has made noticeable developments in the field of bio industries including manufacturing of enzymes, biofuels and biopolymers. Biotechnology is also playing a crucial and significant role in the field of agriculture. Traditional methods have been replaced by new technologies that mainly focus on GM crops, marker assisted technologies and the use of biotechnological tools to improve the quality of fertilizers and soil. It may only be a small contributor but has shown to have huge potential for growth. Bioinformatics is a computational method which helps to store, manage, arrange and design tools to interpret the extensive data gathered through experimental trials, making it important in the design of drugs.

Keywords: Biotechnology, advancement, agriculture, bio-services, bio-industries, bio-pharmaceuticals.

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127 Sustainability Assessment of Agriculture and Biodiversity Issues through an Innovative Knowledge Mediation System Using Deliberation Support Tools and INTEGRAAL Method Based on Stakeholder Involvement

Authors: Ashiquer Rahman

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The cutting edge knowledge mediation system called ‘ePLANETe’ provides a framework for building knowledge, tools, and methods for education, research, and sustainable practices, as well as the deliberative assessment support for Higher Education, Research Institutions, and elsewhere e.g., the collaborative learning and research on sustainability and biodiversity issues of territorial development sectors. The paper is to present the analytical perspective of the ‘ePLANETe’ concept and functionalities as an experimental platform for contributing to sustainability assessment. Now the ‘ePLANETe’ can be seen as experimentation of the challenges of “ICT for Green”. The digital technologies of ‘ePLANETe’ are exploited (i) to facilitate collaborative research, learning tools, and knowledge for sustainability challenges, and (ii) as deliberation support tools in pursuing of sustainability performance and practices in territorial governance, public policy, and business strategy, as well as in the higher education sectors itself. The paper investigates the dealing capacity of qualitative and quantitative assessment of agriculture sustainability through the stakeholder-based integrated assessment. Specifically, this paper focuses on integrating system methodologies with Deliberation Support Tools (DST) and INTEGRAAL method for collective assessment and decision-making in implementing regional plans. The report aims to identify the effective knowledge and tools to enable deliberations methodologies regarding practices on the sustainability of agriculture and biodiversity issues, societal responsibilities, and regional planning, concentrating on the question: “How to effectively mobilize resources (knowledge, tools, and methods) from different sources and at different scales regarding on agriculture and biodiversity issues to address sustainability challenges” that will create the scope for qualitative and quantitative assessments of sustainability as a new landmark of the agriculture sector.

Keywords: Biodiversity, Deliberation Support Tools, INTEGRAAL, stakeholder.

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126 Utilization of Cement Kiln Dust in Adsorption Technology

Authors: Yousef Swesi, Asia Elmeshergi, Abdelati Elalem, Walid Alfoghy

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This paper involves a study of the heavy metal pollution of the soils around one of cement plants in Libya called Suk-Alkhameas and surrounding urban areas caused by cement kiln dust (CKD) emitted. Samples of soil was collected from sites at four directions around the cement factory at distances 250m, 1000m, and 3000m from the factory and at (0-10)cm deep in the soil. These samples are analyzed for Fe (iii), Zn(ii), and Pb (ii) as major pollutants. These values are compared with soils at 25 Km distances from the factory as a reference or control samples. The results show that the concentration of Fe ions in the surface soil was within the acceptable range of 1000ppm. However, for Zn and Pb ions the concentrations at the east and north sides of the factory were found six fold higher than the benchmark level. This high value was attributed to the wind which blows usually from south to north and from west to east. This work includes an investigation of the adsorption isotherms and adsorption efficiency of CKD as adsorbent of heavy metal ions (Fe (iii), Zn(ii), and Pb(ii)) from the polluted soils of Suk-Alkameas city. The investigation was conducted in batch and fixed bed column flow technique. The adsorption efficiency of the studied heavy metals ions removals onto CKD depends on the pH of the solution. The optimum pH values are found to be in the ranges of 8-10 and decreases at lower pH values. The removal efficiency of these heavy metals ions ranged from 93% for Pb, 94% for Zn, and 98% for Fe ions for 10 g.l-1 adsorbent concentration. The maximum removal efficiency of these ions was achieved at 50-60 minutes contact times at which equilibrium is reached. Fixed bed column experimental measurements are also made to evaluate CKD as an adsorbent for the heavy metals. Results obtained are with good agreement with Langmuir and Drachsal assumption of multilayer formation on the adsorbent surface.

Keywords: Adsorption, Cement Kiln dust (CKD & CAC), Isotherms, Zn and Pb ions.

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125 In vitro Effects of Salvia officinalis on Bovine Spermatozoa

Authors: Eva Tvrdá, Boris Botman, Marek Halenár, Tomáš Slanina, Norbert Lukáč

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In vitro storage and processing of animal semen represents a risk factor to spermatozoa vitality, potentially leading to reduced fertility. A variety of substances isolated from natural sources may exhibit protective or antioxidant properties on the spermatozoon, thus extending the lifespan of stored ejaculates. This study compared the ability of different concentrations of the Salvia officinalis extract on the motility, mitochondrial activity, viability and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by bovine spermatozoa during different time periods (0, 2, 6 and 24 h) of in vitro culture. Spermatozoa motility was assessed using the Computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system. Cell viability was examined using the metabolic activity MTT assay, the eosin-nigrosin staining technique was used to evaluate the sperm viability and ROS generation was quantified using luminometry. The CASA analysis revealed that the motility in the experimental groups supplemented with 0.5-2 µg/mL Salvia extract was significantly lower in comparison with the control (P<0.05; Time 24 h). At the same time, a long-term exposure of spermatozoa to concentrations ranging between 0.05 µg/mL and 2 µg/mL had a negative impact on the mitochondrial metabolism (P<0.05; Time 24 h). The viability staining revealed that 0.001-1 µg/mL Salvia extract had no effects on bovine male gametes, however 2 µg/mL Salvia had a persisting negative effect on spermatozoa (P<0.05). Furthermore 0.05-2 µg/mL Salvia exhibited an immediate ROS-promoting effect on the sperm culture (P>0.05; Time 0 h and 2 h), which remained significant throughout the entire in vitro culture (P<0.05; Time 24 h). Our results point out to the necessity to examine specific effects the biomolecules present in Salvia officinalis may have individually or collectively on the in vitro sperm vitality and oxidative profile.

Keywords: Bulls, CASA, MTT test, reactive oxygen species, sage, Salvia officinalis, spermatozoa.

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124 An Investigation on the Sandwich Panels with Flexible and Toughened Adhesives under Flexural Loading

Authors: Emre Kara, Şura Karakuzu, Ahmet F. Geylan, Metehan Demir, Kadir Koç, Halil Aykul

Abstract:

The material selection in the design of the sandwich structures is very crucial aspect because of the positive or negative influences of the base materials to the mechanical properties of the entire panel. In the literature, it was presented that the selection of the skin and core materials plays very important role on the behavior of the sandwich. Beside this, the use of the correct adhesive can make the whole structure to show better mechanical results and behavior. In the present work, the static three-point bending tests were performed on the sandwiches having an aluminum alloy foam core, the skins made of three different types of fabrics and two different commercial adhesives (flexible polyurethane and toughened epoxy based) at different values of support span distances by aiming the analyses of their flexural performance in terms of absorbed energy, peak force values and collapse mechanisms. The main results of the flexural loading are: force-displacement curves obtained after the bending tests, peak force and absorbed energy values, collapse mechanisms and adhesion quality. The experimental results presented that the sandwiches with epoxy based toughened adhesive and the skins made of S-Glass Woven fabrics indicated the best adhesion quality and mechanical properties. The sandwiches with toughened adhesive exhibited higher peak force and energy absorption values compared to the sandwiches with flexible adhesive. The use of these sandwich structures can lead to a weight reduction of the transport vehicles, providing an adequate structural strength under operating conditions.

Keywords: Adhesive and adhesion, Aluminum foam, Bending, Collapse mechanisms.

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123 Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Different Levels of Black Seed (Nigella Sativa L.) on Growth Performance, Immunological, Hematological and Carcass Parameters of Broiler Chicks

Authors: R. S. Shewita, A. E. Taha

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This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of different levels of black seed (Nigella sativa L.) on the performance and immune response of broiler chicks. A total 240 day-old broiler chicks were used and randomly allotted equally into six experimental groups designated as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 having black seed at the rate of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 g /kg diet respectively. The study was lasted for 42 days. Average body weight, weight gain, relative growth rate, feed conversion, antibody titer against Newcastle disease, phagocytic activity and phagocytic index, some blood parameters(GOT, GPT, Glucose, Cholesterol, Triglyceride, Total protein, Albumen, WBCs, RBCs, Hb and PCV), dressing percentage, weight of different body organs, abdominal fat weight, were determined. It was found that, N. Sativa significantly improved final body weight, total body gain and feed conversion ratio of groups 2 and 3 when compared with the control group. Higher levels of N. Sativa did not improve growth performance of the chicks. Non significant differences were observed for antibody titer against Newcastle virus, WBCs count, serum GOT, glucose level, dressing %, relative liver, spleen, heart and head percentages. Lymphoid organs (Bursa and Thymus) improved significantly with increasing N. Sativa level in all supplemented groups. Serum cholesterol, triglyceride and visible fat % significantly decreased with Nigella sativa supplementation while serum GPT level significantly increased with nigella sativa supplementation.

Keywords: Nigella Sativa, broiler, growth, carcass traits, serum, blood

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122 Effect of Impact Angle on Erosive Abrasive Wear of Ductile and Brittle Materials

Authors: Ergin Kosa, Ali Göksenli

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Erosion and abrasion are wear mechanisms reducing the lifetime of machine elements like valves, pump and pipe systems. Both wear mechanisms are acting at the same time, causing a “Synergy” effect, which leads to a rapid damage of the surface. Different parameters are effective on erosive abrasive wear rate. In this study effect of particle impact angle on wear rate and wear mechanism of ductile and brittle materials was investigated. A new slurry pot was designed for experimental investigation. As abrasive particle, silica sand was used. Particle size was ranking between 200- 500 μm. All tests were carried out in a sand-water mixture of 20% concentration for four hours. Impact velocities of the particles were 4.76 m/s. As ductile material steel St 37 with Vickers Hardness Number (VHN) of 245 and quenched St 37 with 510 VHN was used as brittle material. After wear tests, morphology of the eroded surfaces were investigated for better understanding of the wear mechanisms acting at different impact angles by using Scanning Electron Microscope. The results indicated that wear rate of ductile material was higher than brittle material. Maximum wear rate was observed by ductile material at a particle impact angle of 300 and decreased further by an increase in attack angle. Maximum wear rate by brittle materials was by impact angle of 450 and decreased further up to 900. Ploughing was the dominant wear mechanism by ductile material. Microcracks on the surface were detected by ductile materials, which are nucleation centers for crater formation. Number of craters decreased and depth of craters increased by ductile materials by attack angle higher than 300. Deformation wear mechanism was observed by brittle materials. Number and depth of pits decreased by brittle materials by impact angles higher than 450. At the end it is concluded that wear rate could not be directly related to impact angle of particles due to the different reaction of ductile and brittle materials.

Keywords: Erosive wear, particle impact angle, silica sand, wear rate, ductile-brittle material.

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