Search results for: Currency exchange rate

Authors: Dae Won Lee, Ji Hyung Park, Sinae Eom, Syung Hyun Cho, Jong Soo Lee, Han Sung Kim

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The autonomic nervous system has a regulatory structure that helps people adapt to changes in their environment by adjusting or modifying some functions in response to stress, and regulating involuntary function of human organs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of combined stimulation, both far-infrared heating and chiropractic, on the autonomic nervous system activities using thermal image and heart rate variability. Six healthy subjects participated in this test. We compared the before and after autonomic nervous system activities through obtaining thermal image and photoplethysmogram signal. The thermal images showed that the combined stimulation changed subject-s body temperature more highly and widely than before. The result of heart rate variability indicated that LF/HF ratio decreased. We concluded that combined stimulation activates autonomic nervous system, and expected other possibilities of this combined stimulation.

Keywords: Far-infrared heating, Chiropractic, Autonomic nervous system, Heart rate variability

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Authors: Sopalun K., Thammasiri K., Ishikawa K.

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The effects of chitosan, a biodegradable polymer, were studied in Grammatophyllum speciosum protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) in vitro culture. The chitosan concentration of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50 or 100 mg/l were supplemented in half-strength Murashige and Skoog (1/2 MS) liquid or on agar media containing 2% (w/v) sucrose. The results showed that liquid medium supplemented with 15 mg/l chitosan showed the highest relative growth rate (7-fold increase) of PLBs. On 1/2 MS agar medium supplemented with 25 mg/l chitosan gave the highest relative growth rate (4-fold increase). The relative growth rate of G. speciosum PLBs on agar medium was significantly lower than that in liquid medium. Moreover, chitosan, supplemented to agar medium promoted shoot formation but not rooting. However, supplementation at too high a level, such as 100 mg/l can inhibit growth and kill PLBs.

Keywords: Chitosan, Grammatophyllum speciosum, Growth stimulator

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Authors: Saeid Khajehmandali, Fattah Mollakarimi, Zohreh Seyf

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There was a high rate of corrosion in Pyrolysis Gasoline Hydrogenation (PGH) unit of Arak Petrochemical Company (ARPC), and it caused some operational problem in this plant. A commercial chemical had been used as anti-corrosion in the depentanizer column overhead in order to control the corrosion rate. Injection of commercial corrosion inhibitor caused some operational problems such as fouling in some heat exchangers. It was proposed to replace this commercial material with another more effective trouble free, and well-known additive by R&D and operation specialists. At first, the system was simulated by commercial simulation software in electrolytic system to specify low pH points inside the plant. After a very comprehensive study of the situation and technical investigations ,ammonia / monoethanol amine solution was proposed as neutralizer or corrosion inhibitor to be injected in a suitable point of the plant. For this purpose, the depentanizer column and its accessories system was simulated again in case of this solution injection. According to the simulation results, injection of new anticorrosion substance has no any side effect on C5 cut product and operating conditions of the column. The corrosion rate will be cotrolled, if the pH remains at the range of 6.5 to 8 . Aactual plant test run was also carried out by injection of ammonia / monoethanol amine solution at the rate of 0.6 Kg/hr and the results of iron content of water samples and corrosion test coupons confirmed the simulation results. Now, ammonia / monoethanol amine solution is injected to a suitable pint inside the plant and corrosion rate has decreased significantly.

Keywords: Corrosion, Pyrolysis Gasoline, Simulation, Corrosion test copoun.

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Authors: Ratanaporn Leesing, Ratanaporn Baojungharn

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Microbial oil was produced by soil isolated oleaginous yeast YU5/2 in flask-batch fermentation. The yeast was identified by molecular genetics technique based on sequence analysis of the variable D1/D2 domain of the large subunit (26S) ribosomal DNA and it was identified as Torulaspora globosa. T. globosa YU5/2 supported maximum values of 0.520 g/L/d, 0.472 g lipid/g cells, 4.16 g/L, and 0.156 g/L/d for volumetric lipid production rate, and specific yield of lipid, lipid concentration, and specific rate of lipid production respectively, when culture was performed in nitrogen-limiting medium supplemented with 80g/L glucose. Among the carbon sources tested, maximum cell yield coefficient (YX/S, g/L), maximum specific yield of lipid (YP/X, g lipid/g cells) and volumetric lipid production rate (QP, g/L/d) were found of 0.728, 0.237, and 0.619, respectively, using sweet potato tubers hydrolysates as carbon source.

Keywords: Microbial oil, oleaginous yeast, Torulasporaglobosa YU5/2, sweet potato tubers, kinetic parameters.

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Authors: Eisa Noveiri, Adel Taheri Nia

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The Non-Rotating Adjustable Stabilizer / Directional Solution (NAS/DS) is the imitation of a mechanical process or an object by a directional drilling operation that causes a respond mathematically and graphically to data and decision to choose the best conditions compared to the previous mode. The NAS/DS Auto Guide rotary steerable tool is undergoing final field trials. The point-the-bit tool can use any bit, work at any rotating speed, work with any MWD/LWD system, and there is no pressure drop through the tool. It is a fully closed-loop system that automatically maintains a specified curvature rate. The Non–Rotating Adjustable stabilizer (NAS) can be controls curvature rate by exactly positioning and run with the optimum bit, use the most effective weight (WOB) and rotary speed (RPM) and apply all of the available hydraulic energy to the bit. The directional simulator allowed to specify the size of the curvature rate performance errors of the NAS tool and the magnitude of the random errors in the survey measurements called the Directional Solution (DS). The combination of these technologies (NAS/DS) will provide smoother bore holes, reduced drilling time, reduced drilling cost and incredible targeting precision. This simulator controls curvature rate by precisely adjusting the radial extension of stabilizer blades on a near bit Non-Rotating Stabilizer and control process corrects for the secondary effects caused by formation characteristics, bit and tool wear, and manufacturing tolerances.

Keywords: non-rotating, Adjustable stabilizer, simulator, Directional Drilling, optimization, Oil Well Drilling

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Authors: Swati Khanna, Arun Goyal, Vijayanand S. Moholkar

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Batch fermentation of 5, 10 and 25 g/L biodiesel derived crude glycerol was carried out at 30, 37 and 450C by Clostridium pasteurianum cells immobilized on silica. Maximum yield of 1,3-propanediol (PDO) (0.60 mol/mol), and ethanol (0.26 mol/mol) were obtained from 10 g/L crude glycerol at 30 and 370C respectively. Maximum yield of butanol (0.28 mol/mol substrate added) was obtained at 370C with 25 g/L substrate. None of the three products were detected at 45oC even after 10 days of fermentation. Only traces of ethanol (0.01 mol/mol) were detected at 450C with 5 g/L substrate. The results obtained for 25 g/L substrate utilization were fitted in first order rate equation to obtain the values of rate constant at three different temperatures for bioconversion of glycerol. First order rate constants for bioconversion of glycerol at 30, 37 and 45oC were found to be 0.198, 0.294 and 0.029/day respectively. Activation energy (Ea) for crude glycerol bioconversion was calculated to be 57.62 kcal/mol.

Keywords: activation energy, Clostridium pasteurianum, crude glycerol, immobilization

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Authors: Hilary Rutto, John Kabuba

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Sulphur dioxide is a harmful gaseous product that needs to be minimized in the atmosphere. This research work investigates the use of zeolite as a possible additive that can improve the sulphur dioxide capture in wet flue gas desulphurisation dissolution process. This work determines the effect of temperature, solid to liquid ratio, acid concentration and stirring speed on the leaching of zeolite using a pH stat apparatus. The atomic absorption spectrometer was used to measure the calcium ions from the solution. It was found that the dissolution rate of zeolite decreased with increase in solid to liquid ratio and increases with increase in temperature, stirring speed and acid concentration. The activation energy for the dissolution rate of zeolite in hydrochloric acid was found to be 9.29kJ/mol. and therefore the product layer diffusion was the rate limiting step.

Keywords: Calcium ion, pH stat apparatus, wet flue gas desulphurization, zeolite.

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Authors: Patcharee Intanoo, Jittipan Chavadej, Sumaeth Chavadej

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The objective of this study was to investigate hydrogen production from alcohol wastewater by anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) under thermophillic operation. The ASBR unit used in this study had a liquid holding volume of 4 L and was operated at 6 cycles per day. The seed sludge taken from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket unit treating the same wastewater was boiled at 95 °C for 15 min before being fed to the ASBR unit. The ASBR system was operated at different COD loading rates at a thermophillic temperature (55 °C), and controlled pH of 5.5. When the system was operated under optimum conditions (providing maximum hydrogen production performance) at a feed COD of 60 000 mg/l, and a COD loading rate of 68 kg/m3 d, the produced gas contained 43 % H2 content in the produced gas. Moreover, the hydrogen yield and the specific hydrogen production rate (SHPR) were 130 ml H2/g COD removed and 2100 ml H2/l d, respectively.

Keywords: Biohydrogen, Alcohol wastewater, Anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR), Thermophillic operation

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Authors: Mohammad T. Shervani-Tabar, Navid Shervani-Tabar

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Tip vortex cavitation is one of well known patterns of cavitation phenomenon which occurs in axial pumps. This pattern of cavitation occurs due to pressure difference between the pressure and suction sides of blades of an axial pump. Since the pressure in the pressure side of the blade is higher than the pressure in its suction side, thus a very small portion of liquid flow flows back from pressure side to the suction side. This fact is cause of tip vortex cavitation and gap cavitation that may occur in axial pumps. In this paper the results of our experimental investigation about movement of tip vortex cavitation along blade edge due to reduction of pump flow rate in an axial pump is reported. Results show that reduction of pump flow rate in conjunction with increasing of outlet pressure causes movement of tip vortex cavitation along blade edge towards the blade tip. Results also show that by approaching tip vortex cavitation to the blade tip, vortex tip pattern of cavitation replaces with a cavitation phenomenon on the blade tip. Furthermore by further reduction of pump flow rate and increasing of outlet pressure, an unstable cavitation phenomenon occurs between each blade leading edge and the next blade trailing edge.

Keywords: Axial Flow Pump, Cavitation, Gap Cavitation, Tip Vortex Cavitation.

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Authors: Wen Po Cheng, Chi Hua Fu, Ping Hung Chen, Ruey Fang Yu

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Aluminum salt that is generally presents as a solid phase in the water purification sludge (WPS) can be dissolved, recovering a liquid phase, by adding strong acid to the sludge solution. According to the reaction kinetics, when reactant is in the form of small particles with a large specific surface area, or when the reaction temperature is high, the quantity of dissolved aluminum salt or reaction rate, respectively are high. Therefore, in this investigation, water purification sludge (WPS) solution was treated with ultrasonic waves to break down the sludge, and different acids (1 N HCl and 1 N H2SO4) were used to acidify it. Acid dosages that yielded the solution pH of less than two were used. The results thus obtained indicate that the quantity of dissolved aluminum in H2SO4-acidified solution exceeded that in HCl-acidified solution. Additionally, ultrasonic treatment increased the rate of dissolution of aluminum and the amount dissolved. The quantity of aluminum dissolved at 60℃ was 1.5 to 2.0 times higher than that at 25℃.

Keywords: Coagulant, Aluminum, Ultrasonic, Acidification, Temperature, Sludge.

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Authors: Justinian Anatory, Nelson Theethayi, M. M. Kissaka, N. H. Mvungi

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Power line channel is proposed as an alternative for broadband data transmission especially in developing countries like Tanzania [1]. However the channel is affected by stochastic attenuation and deep notches which can lead to the limitation of channel capacity and achievable data rate. Various studies have characterized the channel without giving exactly the maximum performance and limitation in data transfer rate may be this is due to complexity of channel modeling being used. In this paper the channel performance of medium voltage, low voltage and indoor power line channel is presented. In the investigations orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with phase shift keying (PSK) as carrier modulation schemes is considered, for indoor, medium and low voltage channels with typical ten branches and also Golay coding is applied for medium voltage channel. From channels, frequency response deep notches are observed in various frequencies which can lead to reduce the achievable data rate. However, is observed that data rate up to 240Mbps is realized for a signal to noise ratio of about 50dB for indoor and low voltage channels, however for medium voltage a typical link with ten branches is affected by strong multipath and coding is required for feasible broadband data transfer.

Keywords: Powerline Communications, branched network, channel model, modulation, channel performance, OFDM.

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Authors: Karuppasamy Pandian. M, Krishna Raj. K, Sabarinath. K, Sandeep. G, Sanal Kumar. V.R.

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Numerical studies have been carried out using a two dimensional code to examine the influence of pressure / thrust transient of solid propellant rockets at liftoff. This code solves unsteady Reynolds-averaged thin-layer Navier–Stokes equations by an implicit LU-factorization time-integration method. The results from the parametric study indicate that when the port is narrow there is a possibility of increase in pressure / thrust-rise rate due to relatively high flame spread rate. Parametric studies further reveal that flame spread rate can be altered by altering the propellant properties, igniter jet characteristics and nozzle closure burst pressure without altering the grain configuration and/or the mission demanding thrust transient. We observed that when the igniter turbulent intensity is relatively low the vehicle could liftoff early due to the early flow choking of the rocket nozzle. We concluded that the high pressurization-rate has structural implications at liftoff in addition to transient burning effect. Therefore prudent selection of the port geometry and the igniter, for meeting the mission requirements, within the given envelop are meaningful objectives for any designer for the smooth liftoff of solid propellant rockets.

Keywords: Igniter Characteristics, Solid Propellant Rocket, SRM Liftoff, Starting Thrust Transient.

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Authors: Naveen Beri, S. Maheshwari, C. Sharma, Anil Kumar

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In this paper an attempt has been made to correlate the usefulness of electrodes made through powder metallurgy (PM) in comparison with conventional copper electrode during electric discharge machining. Experimental results are presented on electric discharge machining of AISI D2 steel in kerosene with copper tungsten (30% Cu and 70% W) tool electrode made through powder metallurgy (PM) technique and Cu electrode. An L18 (21 37) orthogonal array of Taguchi methodology was used to identify the effect of process input factors (viz. current, duty cycle and flushing pressure) on the output factors {viz. material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR)}. It was found that CuW electrode (made through PM) gives high surface finish where as the Cu electrode is better for higher material removal rate.

Keywords: Electrical discharge machining (EDM), Powder Metallurgy (PM), Taguchi method, Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (SR).

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Authors: Is Fatimah, Winda Novita, Yopi Andika, Imam Sahroni, Basitoh Djaelani, Yuyun Yunani N.

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Contamination of aromatic compounds in water can cause severe long-lasting effects not only for biotic organism but also on human health. Several alternative technologies for remediation of polluted water have been attempted. One of these is adsorption process of aromatic compounds by using organic modified clay mineral. Porous structure of clay is potential properties for molecular adsorptivity and it can be increased by immobilizing hydrophobic structure to attract organic compounds. In this work natural montmorillonite were modified with cetyltrimethylammonium (CTMA+) and was evaluated for use as adsorbents of aromatic compounds: benzene, toluene, and 2-chloro phenol in its single and multicomponent solution by ethanol:water solvent. Preparation of CTMA-montmorillonite was conducted by simple ion exchange procedure and characterization was conducted by using x-day diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infra red (FTIR) and gas sorption analysis. The influence of structural modification of montmorillonite on its adsorption capacity and adsorption affinity of organic compound were studied. It was shown that adsorptivity of montmorillonite was increased by modification associated with arrangements of CTMA+ in the structure even the specific surface area of modified montmorillonite was lower than raw montmorillonite. Adsorption rate indicated that material has affinity to adsorb compound by following order: benzene> toluene > 2-chloro phenol. The adsorption isotherms of benzene and toluene showed 1st order adsorption kinetic indicating a partition phenomenon of compounds between the aqueous and organophilic CTMAmontmorillonite.

Keywords: Adsorption, Desorption, Montmorillonite, Organoclay, Surfactant.

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Authors: Tirthankar Ghosh, Dilip Roy, Nimai Kumar Chandra

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Sometime it is difficult to determine the exact reliability for complex systems in analytical procedures. Approximate solution of this problem can be provided through discretization of random variables. In this paper we describe the usefulness of discretization of a random variable using the reversed hazard rate function of its continuous version. Discretization of the exponential distribution has been demonstrated. Applications of this approach have also been cited. Numerical calculations indicate that the proposed approach gives very good approximation of reliability of complex systems under stress-strength set-up. The performance of the proposed approach is better than the existing discrete concentration method of discretization. This approach is conceptually simple, handles analytic intractability and reduces computational time. The approach can be applied in manufacturing industries for producing high-reliable items.

Keywords: Discretization, Reversed Hazard Rate, Exponential distribution, reliability approximation, engineering item.

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Authors: Michael J. Hamlin, Mick Grimley, Vicki Cowley, Chris D. Price, Jill M. Hargreaves, Jenny J. Ross

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The aim of this study was to examine current levels of physical activity determined via heart rate monitoring. A total of 176 children (85 boys, 91 girls) aged 5-13 years wore sealed Polar heart rate monitors for at least 10 hours per day on at least 3 days. Mean daily minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity was 65 ± 43 (mean ± SD) for boys and 54 ± 37 for girls. Daily minutes of vigorous-intensity activity was 31 ± 24 and 24 ± 21 for boys and girls respectively. Significant differences in physical activity levels were observed between school day and weekends, boys and girls, and among age and geographical groups. Only 36% of boys and 22% of girls met the New Zealand physical activity guideline. This research indicates that a large proportion of New Zealand children are not meeting physical activity recommendations.

Keywords: activity guidelines, moderate activity, sedentary, vigorous activity

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Authors: Bhaskar M., Venkataramani B.

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In the literature, surfing technique has been proposed for single ended wave-pipelined serial interconnects to increase the data transfer rate. In this paper a novel surfing technique is proposed for differential wave-pipelined serial interconnects, which uses a 'Controllable inverter pair' for surfing. To evaluate the efficiency of this technique, a transceiver with transmitter, receiver, delay locked loop (DLL) along with 40mm metal 4 interconnects using the proposed surfing technique is implemented in UMC 180nm technology and their performances are studied through post layout simulations. From the study, it is observed that the proposed scheme permits 1.875 times higher data transmission rate compared to the single ended scheme whose maximum data transfer rate is 1.33 GB/s. The proposed scheme has the ability to receive the correct data even with stuck-at-faults in the complementary line.

Keywords: Controllable inverter pair, differential interconnect, serial link, surfing, wave pipelining.

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Authors: Marwa Ben Abdessalem, Amin Zribi, Ammar Bouallègue

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In this paper, a Joint Source Channel coding scheme based on LDPC codes is investigated. We consider two concatenated LDPC codes, one allows to compress a correlated source and the second to protect it against channel degradations. The original information can be reconstructed at the receiver by a joint decoder, where the source decoder and the channel decoder run in parallel by transferring extrinsic information. We investigate the performance of the JSC LDPC code in terms of Bit-Error Rate (BER) in the case of transmission over an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel, and for different source and channel rate parameters. We emphasize how JSC LDPC presents a performance tradeoff depending on the channel state and on the source correlation. We show that, the JSC LDPC is an efficient solution for a relatively low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) channel, especially with highly correlated sources. Finally, a source-channel rate optimization has to be applied to guarantee the best JSC LDPC system performance for a given channel.

Keywords: AWGN channel, belief propagation, joint source channel coding, LDPC codes.

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Authors: Amit Kohli, Aashim Wadhwa, Tapan Virmani, Ujjwal Jain

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The objective of present work is to stimulate the machining of material by electrical discharge machining (EDM) to give effect of input parameters like discharge current (Ip), pulse on time (Ton), pulse off time (Toff) which can bring about changes in the output parameter, i.e. material removal rate. Experimental data was gathered from die sinking EDM process using copper electrode and Medium Carbon Steel (AISI 1040) as work-piece. The rules of membership function (MF) and the degree of closeness to the optimum value of the MMR are within the upper and lower range of the process parameters. It was found that proposed fuzzy model is in close agreement with the experimental results. By Intelligent, model based design and control of EDM process parameters in this study will help to enable dramatically decreased product and process development cycle times.

Keywords: Electrical discharge Machining (EDM), Fuzzy Logic, Material removal rate (MRR), Membership functions (MF).

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Authors: Haidy S. Ghali, Engy Serag, A. Samer Ezeldin

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Copper is an essential raw material used in the construction industry. During 2021 and the first half of 2022, the global market suffered from a significant fluctuation in copper raw material prices due to the aftermath of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which exposed its consumers to an unexpected financial risk. Thereto, this paper aims to develop two hybrid price prediction models using artificial neural network and long short-term memory (ANN-LSTM), by Python, that can forecast the average monthly copper prices, traded in the London Metal Exchange; the first model is a multivariate model that forecasts the copper price of the next 1-month and the second is a univariate model that predicts the copper prices of the upcoming three months. Historical data of average monthly London Metal Exchange copper prices are collected from January 2009 till July 2022 and potential external factors are identified and employed in the multivariate model. These factors lie under three main categories: energy prices, and economic indicators of the three major exporting countries of copper depending on the data availability. Before developing the LSTM models, the collected external parameters are analyzed with respect to the copper prices using correlation, and multicollinearity tests in R software; then, the parameters are further screened to select the parameters that influence the copper prices. Then, the two LSTM models are developed, and the dataset is divided into training, validation, and testing sets. The results show that the performance of the 3-month prediction model is better than the 1-month prediction model; but still, both models can act as predicting tools for diverse economic situations.

Keywords: Copper prices, prediction model, neural network, time series forecasting.

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Authors: H. Wasag

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The removal of hydrogen sulphide is required for reasons of health, odour problems, safety and corrosivity problems. The means of removing hydrogen sulphide mainly depend on its concentration and kind of medium to be purified. The paper deals with a method of hydrogen sulphide removal from the air by its catalytic oxidation to elemental sulphur with the use of Fe-EDTA complex. The possibility of obtaining fibrous filtering materials able to remove small concentrations of H2S from the air were described. The base of these materials is fibrous ion exchanger with Fe(III)- EDTA complex immobilized on their functional groups. The complex of trivalent iron converts hydrogen sulphide to elemental sulphur. Bivalent iron formed in the reaction is oxidized by the atmospheric oxygen, so complex of trivalent iron is continuously regenerated and the overall process can be accounted as pseudocatalytic. In the present paper properties of several fibrous catalysts based on ion exchangers with different chemical nature (weak acid,weak base and strong base) were described. It was shown that the main parameters affecting the process of catalytic oxidation are:concentration of hydrogen sulphide in the air, relative humidity of the purified air, the process time and the content of Fe-EDTA complex in the fibres. The data presented show that the filtering layers with anion exchange package are much more active in the catalytic processes of hydrogen sulphide removal than cation exchanger and inert materials. In the addition to the nature of the fibres relative air humidity is a critical factor determining efficiency of the material in the air purification from H2S. It was proved that the most promising carrier of the Fe-EDTA catalyst for hydrogen sulphide oxidation are Fiban A-6 and Fiban AK-22 fibres.

Keywords: hydrogen sulphide, catalytic oxidation, odour control, ion exchange, fibrous ion exchangers, air deodorization

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Authors: Steve Fish, Chris Lambert

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Cumbria is a geo-political county in Northwest England within which the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site is located. Whilst the area has a formidable reputation for natural beauty and historic assets, the innovation ecosystem is described as ‘patchy’ for a number of reasons. The county is one of the largest in England by area and is sparsely populated. This paper describes the needs, development and delivery of an SME business-support programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria. The Cumbria Innovations Platform (CUSP) Project has been designed to respond to the nuanced needs of SMEs in this locale, whilst promoting the adoption of research and innovation. CUSP utilizes a funnel method to support rural businesses with access to university innovation intervention. CUSP has been built on a three-tier model: Communicate, Collaborate and Create. The paper describes this project in detail and presents results in terms of output indicators achieved, a beneficiary telephone survey and wider economic forecasts. From a pragmatic point-of-view, the paper provides experiences and reflections of those people who are delivering and evaluating knowledge exchange. The authors discuss some of the benefits, challenges and implications for both policy makers and practitioners. Finally, the paper aims to serve as an invitation to others who may consider adopting a similar method of university-industry collaboration in their own region.

Keywords: Regional business support, rural business support, university-industry collaboration, collaborative R&D, SMEs, knowledge exchange.

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Authors: Yasmin Yahya, Roslan Ismail, Samreth Vanna, Khorn Saret

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The study on the tree growth for four species groups of commercial timber in Koh Kong province, Cambodia-s tropical rainforest is described. The simulation for these four groups had been successfully developed in the 5-year interval through year-60. Data were obtained from twenty permanent sample plots in the duration of thirteen years. The aim for this study was to develop stand table simulation system of tree growth by the species group. There were five steps involved in the development of the tree growth simulation: aggregate the tree species into meaningful groups by using cluster analysis; allocate the trees in the diameter classes by the species group; observe the diameter movement of the species group. The diameter growth rate, mortality rate and recruitment rate were calculated by using some mathematical formula. Simulation equation had been created by combining those parameters. Result showed the dissimilarity of the diameter growth among species groups.

Keywords: cluster analysis, diameter growth, simulation

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Authors: J. Sarkar, Souvik Bhattacharyya, M. Ramgopal

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This paper presents the experimental as well as the simulated performance studies on the transcritical CO2 heat pumps for simultaneous water cooling and heating; effects of water mass flow rates and water inlet temperatures of both evaporator and gas cooler on the cooling and heating capacities, system COP and water outlets temperatures are investigated. Study shows that both the water mass flow rate and inlet temperature have significant effect on system performances. Test results show that the effect of evaporator water mass flow rate on the system performances and water outlet temperatures is more pronounced (COP increases 0.6 for 1 kg/min) compared to the gas cooler water mass flow rate (COP increases 0.4 for 1 kg/min) and the effect of gas cooler water inlet temperature is more significant (COP decreases 0.48 for given ranges) compared to the evaporator water inlet temperature (COP increases 0.43 for given ranges). Comparisons of experimental values with simulated results show the maximum deviation of 5% for cooling capacity, 10% for heating capacity, 16% for system COP. This study offers useful guidelines for selecting appropriate water mass flow rate to obtain required system performance.

Keywords: CO2 heat pump, experiment, simulation, performance characteristics.

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Authors: Bashirah Ishak, Jacyln JiaYing Thye, Bariah Mohd Ali, Norhani Mohidin

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Background Contact lens (CL) wear can cause changes in blinking and corneal staining. Aims and Objectives To determine the effects of CL materials (HEMA and SiHy) on spontaneous blink rate, blinking patterns and corneal staining after 2 months of wear. Methods Ninety subjects in 3 groups (control, HEMA and SiHy) were assessed at baseline and 2-months. Blink rate was recorded using a video camera. Blinking patterns were assessed with digital camera and slit lamp biomicroscope. Corneal staining was graded using IER grading scale Results There were no significant differences in all parameters at baseline. At 2 months, CL wearers showed significant increment in average blink rate (F1.626, 47.141 = 7.250, p = 0.003; F2,58 = 6.240, p = 0.004) and corneal staining (χ2 2, n=30 = 31.921, p < 0.001; χ2 2, n=30 = 26.909, p < 0.001). Conclusion Blinking characteristics and corneal staining were not influence by soft CL materials.

Keywords: Spontaneous blinking, cornea staining, grading, soft contact lenses.

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Authors: Ibrahim S. Alnomay, Jihad Y. Alhammad

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Lately, an interest has grown greatly in the usages of RFID in an un-presidential applications. It is shown in the adaptation of major software companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle the RFID capabilities in their major software products. For example Microsoft SharePoints 2010 workflow is now fully compatible with RFID platform. In addition, Microsoft BizTalk server is also capable of all RFID sensors data acquisition. This will lead to applications that required high bit rate, long range and a multimedia content in nature. Higher frequencies of operation have been designated for RFID tags, among them are the 2.45 and 5.8 GHz. The higher the frequency means higher range, and higher bit rate, but the drawback is the greater cost. In this paper we present a single layer, low profile patch antenna operates at 5.8 GHz with pure resistive input impedance of 50 and close to directive radiation. Also, we propose a modification to the design in order to improve the operation band width from 8.7 to 13.8

Keywords: Microstrip Antenna, RFID, U-shaped, double layer, circular antenna.

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Authors: P. Waiyawuththanapoom

Abstract:

This research is objected to study the pattern and channel of distribution of Ang Thong’s court doll OTOP product and try to develop the quality of distribution of the court doll product. The population of this research is 50 court doll manufacturers of Ang Thong’s court doll. The data and information was collected by using the questionnaire and use percentage, mean and standard deviation as an analysis tools. The distribution channel of Ang Thong’s court doll can be separated into 3 channels which are direct distribution from the manufacturer, via the middleman and via the co-operated manufacturing group. In the direct distribution from the manufacturer channel, it was found that the manufacturer is given the highest rate of importance to how they keep the inventory. In the distribution via the middleman channel, it was found that the manufacturer is given the highest rate of importance to the distribution efficiency. But in the distribution via the co-operated manufacturing group, it was found that the manufacturer is given the highest rate of importance to the public relationship.

Keywords: Distribution, Court Doll, Ang Thong Province.

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Authors: Gurinder Singh Brar, Sarbjeet Singh, Harry Garg

Abstract:

Wire Electric Discharge Machining (WEDM) is thermal machining process capable of machining very hard electrically conductive material irrespective of their hardness. WEDM is being widely used to machine micro scale parts with the high dimensional accuracy and surface finish. The objective of this paper is to optimize the process parameters of wire EDM to fabricate the micro channels and to calculate the surface finish and material removal rate of micro channels fabricated using wire EDM. The material used is aluminum 6061 alloy. The experiments were performed using CNC wire cut electric discharge machine. The effect of various parameters of WEDM like pulse on time (TON) with the levels (100, 150, 200), pulse off time (TOFF) with the levels (25, 35, 45) and current (IP) with the levels (105, 110, 115) were investigated to study the effect on output parameter i.e. Surface Roughness and Material Removal Rate (MRR). Each experiment was conducted under different conditions of pulse on time, pulse off time and peak current. For material removal rate, TON and Ip were the most significant process parameter. MRR increases with the increase in TON and Ip and decreases with the increase in TOFF. For surface roughness, TON and Ip have the maximum effect and TOFF was found out to be less effective.

Keywords: Micro Channels, Wire Electric Discharge Machining (WEDM), Metal Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Finish.

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Authors: Bita Mashayekhi, Seyed Meisam Tabatabaie Nasab

Abstract:

Intellectual capital is one of the most valuable and important parts of the intangible assets of enterprises especially in knowledge-based enterprises. With respect to increasing gap between the market value and the book value of the companies, intellectual capital is one of the components that can be placed in this gap. This paper uses the value added efficiency of the three components, capital employed, human capital and structural capital, to measure the intellectual capital efficiency of Iranian industries groups, listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), using a 8 years period data set from 2005 to 2012. In order to analyze the effect of intellectual capital on the market-to-book value ratio of the companies, the data set was divided into 10 industries, Banking, Pharmaceutical, Metals & Mineral Nonmetallic, Food, Computer, Building, Investments, Chemical, Cement and Automotive, and the panel data method was applied to estimating pooled OLS. The results exhibited that value added of capital employed has a positive significant relation with increasing market value in the industries, Banking, Metals & Mineral Nonmetallic, Food, Computer, Chemical and Cement, and also, showed that value added efficiency of structural capital has a positive significant relation with increasing market value in the Banking, Pharmaceutical and Computer industries groups. The results of the value added showed a negative relation with the Banking and Pharmaceutical industries groups and a positive relation with computer and Automotive industries groups. Among the studied industries, computer industry has placed the widest gap between the market value and book value in its intellectual capital.

Keywords: Capital Employed, Human Capital, Intellectual Capital, Market-to-Book Value, Structural Capital, Value Added Efficiency.

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Authors: Ling Liu, Yuan Ye

Abstract:

In this paper, a discrete-time SIR epidemic model with nonlinear incidence rate, time delays and impulses is investigated. Sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of periodic solutions are obtained by using contraction theorem and inequality techniques. An example is employed to illustrate our results.

Keywords: Discrete-time SIR epidemic model, time delay, nonlinear incidence rate, impulse.

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