Search results for: entropic weight method
8512 Microencapsulation of Probiotic, Evaluation for Viability and Cytotoxic Activities of Its Postbiotic Metabolites on MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell Line
Authors: N. V. Enwuru, B. Nkeki, E. A. Adekoya, O. A. Adebesin, B. O. Ojo, R. F. Peters, V. A. Aikhomu, U. E. Mendie, O. Akinloye
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Awareness about probiotic health benefits is increasing tremendously. However, cell viability is often low due to harsh conditions exposed during processing, handling, storage, and gastrointestinal transit. Thus, encapsulation is a promising technique that increases cell viability. The study aims to encapsulate the probiotic, evaluate its viability and cytotoxic activity of its postbiotic on the Michigan Cancer Foundation (MCF)-7 breast cancer cell line. Human and animal raw milk was sampled for lactic acid bacteria. Isolated bacteria were identified using conventional and VITEK 2 systems. The identified bacteria were encapsulated using the spray-drying method. The free and encapsulated probiotic cells were exposed to simulated gastric intestinal (SGI) fluid conditions and different storage conditions for their viability. The properties of the formed probiotic granules, their disintegration time, and the weight uniformity of the microcapsules were tested. Furthermore, the postbiotic of the free cells was extracted, and its cytotoxic effect on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line was tested through [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT) assay. The bacteria isolated were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum. The size of the formed probiotic granules ranges within 0.71-1.00 mm in diameter, and disintegration time ranges from 2.14 ± 0.045 to 2.91 ± 0.293 minutes, while the average weight is 502.1 mg. The viability of encapsulated cells stored at refrigerated condition (4oC) was higher than that of cells stored at room temperature (25 oC). The encapsulated probiotic cells exhibited better viability after exposure to SGI solution at different pH levels than free cells. The Postbiotic Metabolites (PM) of L. plantarum produced a cytotoxic effect that shows significant activity similar to 5FU, a standard antineoplastic agent. The inhibition concentration of 50% growth (IC50) of postbiotic metabolite was consistent with the IC50 of the positive control (Cisplatin). Lactobacillus plantarum postbiotic exhibited a cytotoxic effect on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and could be used as combined adjuvant therapy in breast cancer management. The microencapsulation technique protects the probiotics and maintains their viability.
Keywords: Cytotoxicity effect, encapsulation, postbiotic, probiotic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1098511 Isolation and Characterization of Collagen from Chicken Feet
Authors: P. Hashim, M. S. Mohd Ridzwan, J. Bakar
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Collagen was isolated from chicken feet by using papain and pepsin enzymes in acetic acid solution at 4°C for 24h with a yield of 18.16% and 22.94% by dry weight, respectively. Chemical composition and characteristics of chicken feet collagen such as amino acid composition, SDS-PAGE patterns, FTIR spectra and thermal properties were evaluated. The chicken feet collagen is rich in the amino acids glycine, glutamic acid, proline and hydroxyproline. Electrophoresis pattern demonstrated two distinct α-chains (α1 and α2) and β chain, indicating that type I collagen is a major component of chicken feet collagen. The thermal stability of collagen isolated by papain and pepsin revealed stable denaturation temperatures of 48.40 and 53.35°C, respectively. The FTIR spectra of both collagens were similar with amide regions in A, B, I, II and III. The study demonstrated that chicken feet collagen using papain isolation method is possible as commercial alternative ingredient.
Keywords: Chicken feet, collagen, papain, pepsin.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 83828510 Agro-Morphological Characterization of Vicia faba L. Accessions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Authors: Zia Amjad, Salem S. Alghamdi
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The study was conducted at the student educational farm at the College of Food and Agriculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aim of study was to characterize 154 Vicia faba L. accessions using agro-morphological traits based on The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) descriptors. This research is significant as it contributes to the understanding of the genetic diversity and potential yield of V. faba in Saudi Arabia. In the study, 24 agro-morphological characters including 11 quantitative and 13 qualitative were observed for genetic variation. All the results were analyzed using multivariate analysis i.e., principal component analysis (PCA). First, six principal components (PC) had eigenvalues greater than one; accounted for 72% of available V. faba genetic diversity. However, first three components revealed more than 10% of genetic diversity each i.e., 22.36%, 15.86% and 10.89% respectively. PCA distributed the V. faba accessions into different groups based on their performance for the characters under observation. PC-1, which represented 22.36% of the genetic diversity, was positively associated with stipule spot pigmentation, intensity of streaks, pod degree of curvature and to some extent with 100 seed weight. PC-2 covered 15.86 of the genetic diversity and showed positive association for average seed weight per plant, pod length, number of seeds per plant, 100 seed weight, stipule spot pigmentation, intensity of streaks (same as in PC-1) and to some extent for pod degree of curvature and number of pods per plant. PC-3 revealed 10.89% of genetic diversity and expressed positive association for number of pods per plant and number of leaflets per plant. This study contributes to the understanding of the genetic diversity and potential yield of V. faba in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By establishing a core collection of V. faba, the research provides a valuable resource for future conservation and utilization of this crop worldwide.
Keywords: Agro-morphological characterization, genetic diversity, core collection, PCA, Vicia faba L.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2038509 A Novel Method for the Characterization of Synchronization and Coupling in Multichannel EEG and ECoG
Authors: Manfred Hartmann, Andreas Graef, Hannes Perko, Christoph Baumgartner, Tilmann Kluge
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In this paper we introduce a novel method for the characterization of synchronziation and coupling effects in multivariate time series that can be used for the analysis of EEG or ECoG signals recorded during epileptic seizures. The method allows to visualize the spatio-temporal evolution of synchronization and coupling effects that are characteristic for epileptic seizures. Similar to other methods proposed for this purpose our method is based on a regression analysis. However, a more general definition of the regression together with an effective channel selection procedure allows to use the method even for time series that are highly correlated, which is commonly the case in EEG/ECoG recordings with large numbers of electrodes. The method was experimentally tested on ECoG recordings of epileptic seizures from patients with temporal lobe epilepsies. A comparision with the results from a independent visual inspection by clinical experts showed an excellent agreement with the patterns obtained with the proposed method.Keywords: EEG, epilepsy, regression analysis, seizurepropagation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14348508 Development of Variable Stepsize Variable Order Block Method in Divided Difference Form for the Numerical Solution of Delay Differential Equations
Authors: Fuziyah Ishak, Mohamed B. Suleiman, Zanariah A. Majid, Khairil I. Othman
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This paper considers the development of a two-point predictor-corrector block method for solving delay differential equations. The formulae are represented in divided difference form and the algorithm is implemented in variable stepsize variable order technique. The block method produces two new values at a single integration step. Numerical results are compared with existing methods and it is evident that the block method performs very well. Stability regions of the block method are also investigated.Keywords: block method, delay differential equations, predictor-corrector, stability region, variable stepsize variable order.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14758507 Investigating the Thermal Characteristics of Reclaimed Solid Waste from a Landfill Site Using Thermogravimetry
Authors: S. M. Al-Salem, G.A. Leeke, H. J. Karam, R. Al-Enzi, A. T. Al-Dhafeeri, J. Wang
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Thermogravimetry has been popularized as a thermal characterization technique since the 1950s. It aims at investigating the weight loss against both reaction time and temperature, whilst being able to characterize the evolved gases from the volatile components of the organic material being tested using an appropriate hyphenated analytical technique. In an effort to characterize and identify the reclaimed waste from an unsanitary landfill site, this approach was initiated. Solid waste (SW) reclaimed from an active landfill site in the State of Kuwait was collected and prepared for characterization in accordance with international protocols. The SW was segregated and its major components were identified after washing and air drying. Shredding and cryomilling was conducted on the plastic solid waste (PSW) component to yield a material that is representative for further testing and characterization. The material was subjected to five heating rates (b) with minimal repeatable weight for high accuracy thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) following the recommendation of the International Confederation for Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (ICTAC). The TGA yielded thermograms that showed an off-set from typical behavior of commercial grade resin which was attributed to contact of material with soil and thermal/photo-degradation.
Keywords: Polymer, TGA, Pollution, Landfill, Waste, Plastic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7048506 Effect of Nanobentonite Particles on Geotechnical Properties of Kerman Clay
Authors: A. Ghasemipanah, R. Ziaie Moayed, H. Niroumand
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Improving the geotechnical properties of soil has always been one of the issues in geotechnical engineering. Traditional materials have been used to improve and stabilize soils to date, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Although the soil stabilization by adding materials such as cement, lime, bitumen, etc. is one of the effective methods to improve the geotechnical properties of soil, but nanoparticles are one of the newest additives which can improve the loose soils. This research is intended to study the effect of adding nanobentonite on soil engineering properties, especially the unconfined compression strength and maximum dry unit weight, using clayey soil with low liquid limit (CL) from Kerman (Iran). Nanobentonite was mixed with soil in three different percentages (i.e. 3, 5, 7% by weight of the parent soil) with different curing time (1, 7 and 28 days). The unconfined compression strength, liquid and plastic limits and plasticity index of treated specimens were measured by unconfined compression and Atterberg limits test. It was found that increase in nanobentonite content resulted in increase in the unconfined compression strength, liquid and plastic limits of the clayey soil and reduce in plasticity index.
Keywords: Nanobentonite particles, clayey soil, unconfined compression stress, soil improvement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6838505 An Efficient Segmentation Method Based on Local Entropy Characteristics of Iris Biometrics
Authors: Ali Shojaee Bakhtiari, Ali Asghar Beheshti Shirazi, Amir Sepasi Zahmati
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An efficient iris segmentation method based on analyzing the local entropy characteristic of the iris image, is proposed in this paper and the strength and weaknesses of the method are analyzed for practical purposes. The method shows special strength in providing designers with an adequate degree of freedom in choosing the proper sections of the iris for their application purposes.Keywords: Iris segmentation, entropy, biocryptosystem, biometric identification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14298504 Effects of Coupling Agent on the Properties of Henequen Microfiber (NF) Filled High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Composites
Authors: Pravin Gaikwad, Prakash Mahanwar
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The main objective of incorporating natural fibers such as Henequen microfibers (NF) into the High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) polymer matrix is to reduce the cost and to enhance the mechanical as well as other properties. The Henequen microfibers were chopped manually to 5-7mm in length and added into the polymer matrix at the optimized concentration of 8 wt %. In order to facilitate the link between Henequen microfibers (NF) and HDPE matrix, coupling agent such as Glycidoxy (Epoxy) Functional Methoxy Silane (GPTS) at various concentrations from 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5%, 0.7%, 0.9% and 1% by weight to the total fibers were added. The tensile strength of the composite increased marginally while % elongation at break of the composites decreased with increase in silane loading by wt %. Tensile modulus and stiffness observed increased at 0.9 wt % GPTS loading. Flexural as well as impact strength of the composite decreased with increase in GPTS loading by weight %. Dielectric strength of the composite also found increased marginally up to 0.5wt % silane loading and thereafter remained constant.
Keywords: Henequen microfibers (NF), polymer composites, HDPE, coupling agent, GPTS
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24258503 A Novel Eccentric Lapping Method with Two Rotatable Lapping Plates for Finishing Cemented Carbide Balls
Authors: C. C. Lv, Y. L. Sun, D. W. Zuo
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Cemented carbide balls are usually implemented in industry under the environment of high speed, high temperature, corrosiveness and strong collisions. However, its application is limited due to high fabrication cost, processing efficiency and quality. A novel eccentric lapping method with two rotatable lapping plates was proposed in this paper. A mathematical model was constructed to analyze the influence of each design parameter on this lapping method. To validate this new lapping method, an orthogonal experiment was conducted with cemented carbide balls (YG6). The simulation model was verified and the optimal lapping parameters were derived. The results show that the surface roundness of the balls reaches to 0.65um from 2um in 1 hour using this lapping method. So, using this novel lapping method, it can effectively improve the machining precision and efficiency of cemented carbide balls.
Keywords: Cemented carbide balls, eccentric lapping, high precision, lapping tracks, V-groove.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25218502 Radiation Heat Transfer Effect in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell: Application of the Lattice Boltzmann Method
Authors: Imen Mejri, Ahmed Mahmoudi, Mohamed A. Abbassi, Ahmed Omri
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The radiation effect within the solid anode, electrolyte, and cathode SOFC layers problem has been investigated in this paper. Energy equation is solved by the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The Rosseland method is used to model the radiative transfer in the electrodes. The Schuster-Schwarzschild method is used to model the radiative transfer in the electrolyte. Without radiative effect, the found results are in good agreement with those published. The obtained results show that the radiative effect can be neglected.
Keywords: SOFC, lattice Boltzmann method, conduction, radiation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24518501 Dynamics and Feedback Control for a New Hyperchaotic System
Authors: Kejun Zhuang, Hailong Zhu
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In this paper, stability and Hopf bifurcation analysis of a novel hyperchaotic system are investigated. Four feedback control strategies, the linear feedback control method, enhancing feedback control method, speed feedback control method and delayed feedback control method, are used to control the hyperchaotic attractor to unstable equilibrium. Moreover numerical simulations are given to verify the theoretical results.Keywords: Feedback control, Hopf bifurcation, hyperchaotic system, stability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17608500 Physical and Rheological Properties of Asphalt Modified with Cellulose Date Palm Fibers
Authors: Howaidi M. Al-Otaibi, Abdulrahman S. Al-Suhaibani, Hamad A. Alsoliman
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Fibers are extensively used in civil engineering applications for many years. In this study, empty fruit bunch of date palm trees were used to produce cellulose fiber that were used as additives in the asphalt binder. Two sizes (coarse and fine) of cellulose fibers were pre-blended in PG64-22 binder with various contents of 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%, 6%, and 7.5% by weight of asphalt binder. The physical and rheological properties of fiber modified asphalt binders were tested by using conventional tests such as penetration, softening point and viscosity; and SHRP test such as dynamic shear rheometer. The results indicated that the fiber modified asphalt binders were higher in softening point, viscosity, and complex shear modulus, and lower in penetration compared to pure asphalt. The fiber modified binders showed an improvement in rheological properties since it was possible to raise the control binder (pure asphalt) PG from 64 to 70 by adding 6% (by weight) of either fine or coarse fibers. Such improvement in stiffness of fiber modified binder is expected to improve pavement resistance to rutting.
Keywords: Cellulose date palm fiber, fiber modified asphalt, physical properties, rheological properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18578499 Degradation Propensity of Welded Mild Steel in Coastal Soil of University of Lagos
Authors: S. O. Adeosun, O. S. Sanni
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Study on corrosion propensity of welded mild steel- bar in soil media around the coastal area of University of Lagos has been carried out using gravimetric method. Six (6) samples each for welded and unwelded mild steels were cut, their initial weights were recorded and buried in two selected soil. The weight losses of these coupons were measured at regular intervals for a period of six months (180 days).
The corrosiveness of the soil media varied widely depending on the potency level of its constituents. The results revealed that soil in the studied area have marked variations in composition and contents. Soil medium with a lower pH and higher chloride ion concentration aggressively attacked the coupons with the welded steel coupon corroding faster than unwelded one. The medium resistivity to the flow of current is another strong factor affecting corrosion rate.
Keywords: Coastal area, corrosion rate, mild steel, soil media, welds.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23468498 The Method of Evaluation Artery Diameter from Ultrasound Video
Authors: U. Rubins, Z. Marcinkevics, K.Volceka
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The cardiovascular system has become the most important subject of clinical research, particularly measurement of arterial blood flow. Therefore correct determination of arterial diameter is crucial. We propose a novel, semi-automatic method for artery lumen detection. The method is based on Gaussian probability function. Usability of our proposed method was assessed by analyzing ultrasound B-mode CFA video sequences acquired from eleven healthy volunteers. The correlation coefficient between the manual and semi-automatic measurement of arterial diameter was 0.996. Our proposed method for detecting artery boundary is novel and accurate enough for the measurement of artery diameter.Keywords: Ultrasound, boundary detection, artery diameter, curve fitting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15938497 Generalized Chebyshev Collocation Method
Authors: Junghan Kim, Wonkyu Chung, Sunyoung Bu, Philsu Kim
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In this paper, we introduce a generalized Chebyshev collocation method (GCCM) based on the generalized Chebyshev polynomials for solving stiff systems. For employing a technique of the embedded Runge-Kutta method used in explicit schemes, the property of the generalized Chebyshev polynomials is used, in which the nodes for the higher degree polynomial are overlapped with those for the lower degree polynomial. The constructed algorithm controls both the error and the time step size simultaneously and further the errors at each integration step are embedded in the algorithm itself, which provides the efficiency of the computational cost. For the assessment of the effectiveness, numerical results obtained by the proposed method and the Radau IIA are presented and compared.
Keywords: Generalized Chebyshev Collocation method, Generalized Chebyshev Polynomial, Initial value problem.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26418496 An Improved Algorithm for Calculation of the Third-order Orthogonal Tensor Product Expansion by Using Singular Value Decomposition
Authors: Chiharu Okuma, Naoki Yamamoto, Jun Murakami
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As a method of expanding a higher-order tensor data to tensor products of vectors we have proposed the Third-order Orthogonal Tensor Product Expansion (3OTPE) that did similar expansion as Higher-Order Singular Value Decomposition (HOSVD). In this paper we provide a computation algorithm to improve our previous method, in which SVD is applied to the matrix that constituted by the contraction of original tensor data and one of the expansion vector obtained. The residual of the improved method is smaller than the previous method, truncating the expanding tensor products to the same number of terms. Moreover, the residual is smaller than HOSVD when applying to color image data. It is able to be confirmed that the computing time of improved method is the same as the previous method and considerably better than HOSVD.
Keywords: Singular value decomposition (SVD), higher-orderSVD (HOSVD), outer product expansion, power method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16918495 Lagrangian Method for Solving Unsteady Gas Equation
Authors: Amir Taghavi, kourosh Parand, Hosein Fani
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In this paper we propose, a Lagrangian method to solve unsteady gas equation which is a nonlinear ordinary differential equation on semi-infnite interval. This approach is based on Modified generalized Laguerre functions. This method reduces the solution of this problem to the solution of a system of algebraic equations. We also compare this work with some other numerical results. The findings show that the present solution is highly accurate.
Keywords: Unsteady gas equation, Generalized Laguerre functions, Lagrangian method, Nonlinear ODE.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15248494 Generation of Numerical Data for the Facilitation of the Personalized Hyperthermic Treatment of Cancer with An Interstital Antenna Array Using the Method of Symmetrical Components
Authors: Prodromos E. Atlamazoglou
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The method of moments combined with the method of symmetrical components is used for the analysis of interstitial hyperthermia applicators. The basis and testing functions are both piecewise sinusoids, qualifying our technique as a Galerkin one. The dielectric coatings are modeled by equivalent volume polarization currents, which are simply related to the conduction current distribution, avoiding in that way the introduction of additional unknowns or numerical integrations. The results of our method for a four dipole circular array, are in agreement with those already published in literature for a same hyperthermia configuration. Apart from being accurate, our approach is more general, more computationally efficient and takes into account the coupling between the antennas.Keywords: Hyperthermia, integral equations, insulated antennas, method of symmetrical components.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6968493 Extend Three-wave Method for the (3+1)-Dimensional Soliton Equation
Authors: Somayeh Arbabi Mohammad-Abadi, Maliheh Najafi
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In this paper, we study (3+1)-dimensional Soliton equation. We employ the Hirota-s bilinear method to obtain the bilinear form of (3+1)-dimensional Soliton equation. Then by the idea of extended three-wave method, some exact soliton solutions including breather type solutions are presented.
Keywords: Three-wave method, (3+1)-dimensional Soliton equation, Hirota's bilinear form.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15608492 Application of Four-electrode Method to Analysis Resistance Characteristics of Conductive Concrete
Authors: Chun-Yao Lee, Siang-Ren Wang
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of resistance characteristic on the high conductive concrete considering the various voltage and environment. The four-electrode method is applied to the tailor-made high conductive concrete with appropriate proportion. The curve of resistivity with the changes of voltage and environment is plotted and the changes of resistivity are explored. The result based on the methods reveals that resistivity is less affected by the temperature factor, and the four-electrode method would be an applicable measurement method on a site inspection.Keywords: Conductive concrete, Resistivity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16048491 Effect of Cowpea (Vigna sinensis L.) with Maize (Zea mays L.) Intercropping on Yield and Its Components
Authors: W. A. Hamd Alla, E. M. Shalaby, R. A. Dawood, A. A. Zohry
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A field experiment was carried out at Arab El- Awammer Research Station, Agric. Res. Center. Assiut Governorate during summer seasons of 2013 and 2014. The present study assessed the effect of cowpea with maize intercropping on yield and its components. The experiment comprised of three treatments (sole cowpea, sole maize and cowpea-maize intercrop). The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replications. Results indicated that intercropped maize plants with cowpea, exhibited greater potentiality and resulted in higher values of most of the studied criteria viz., plant height, number of ears/plant, number of rows/ear, number of grains/row, grains weight/ear, 100–grain weight and straw and grain yields. Fresh and dry forage yields of cowpea were lower in intercropping with maize than sole. Furthermore, the combined of the two seasons revealed that the total Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) between cowpea and maize was 1.65. The Aggressivity (A) maize was 0.45 and cowpea was -0.45. This showed that maize was the dominant crop, whereas cowpea was the dominated. The Competitive Ratio (CR) indicated that maize more competitive than cowpea, maize was 1.75 and cowpea was 0.57. The Actual Yield Loss (AYL) maize was 0.05 and cowpea was -0.40. The Monetary Advantage Index (MAI) was 2360.80.
Keywords: Intercropping, cowpea, maize, land equivalent ratio (LER).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 52028490 Improvement of MLLR Speaker Adaptation Using a Novel Method
Authors: Ing-Jr Ding
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This paper presents a technical speaker adaptation method called WMLLR, which is based on maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR). In MLLR, a linear regression-based transform which adapted the HMM mean vectors was calculated to maximize the likelihood of adaptation data. In this paper, the prior knowledge of the initial model is adequately incorporated into the adaptation. A series of speaker adaptation experiments are carried out at a 30 famous city names database to investigate the efficiency of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the WMLLR method outperforms the conventional MLLR method, especially when only few utterances from a new speaker are available for adaptation.Keywords: hidden Markov model, maximum likelihood linearregression, speech recognition, speaker adaptation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18428489 Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis: Teachings of the Thermal Energy and Power Engineering Course
Authors: Junjie Chen
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It is usually difficult for students to understand some basic theories in learning thermal energy and power engineering course. A new teaching method was proposed that we should introduce the comparison research method of those theories to help them being understood. “Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis” teaching is analyzed as an example by comparison research method.
Keywords: Homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, thermal energy and power engineering, teaching method, comparison research method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 55848488 Inhibition of Pipelines Corrosion Using Natural Extracts
Authors: Eman Alzahrani, Hala M. Abo-Dief, Ashraf T. Mohamed
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The present work is aimed at examining carbon steel oil pipelines corrosion using three natural extracts (Eruca Sativa, Rosell and Mango peels) that are used as inhibitors of different concentrations ranging from 0.05-0.1wt. %. Two sulphur compounds are used as corrosion mediums. Weight loss method was used for measuring the corrosion rate of the carbon steel specimens immersed in technical white oil at 100ºC at various time intervals in absence and presence of the two sulphur compounds. The corroded specimens are examined using the chemical wear test, scratch test and hardness test. The scratch test is carried out using scratch loads from 0.5 Kg to 2.0 Kg. The scratch width is obtained at various scratch load and test conditions. The Brinell hardness test is carried out and investigated for both corroded and inhibited specimens. The results showed that three natural extracts can be used as environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitors.Keywords: Inhibition, natural extract, pipelines corrosion, sulphur compounds.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20748487 A Fully Implicit Finite-Difference Solution to One Dimensional Coupled Nonlinear Burgers’ Equations
Authors: Vineet K. Srivastava, Mukesh K. Awasthi, Mohammad Tamsir
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A fully implicit finite-difference method has been proposed for the numerical solutions of one dimensional coupled nonlinear Burgers’ equations on the uniform mesh points. The method forms a system of nonlinear difference equations which is to be solved at each iteration. Newton’s iterative method has been implemented to solve this nonlinear assembled system of equations. The linear system has been solved by Gauss elimination method with partial pivoting algorithm at each iteration of Newton’s method. Three test examples have been carried out to illustrate the accuracy of the method. Computed solutions obtained by proposed scheme have been compared with analytical solutions and those already available in the literature by finding L2 and L∞ errors.
Keywords: Burgers’ equation, Implicit Finite-difference method, Newton’s method, Gauss elimination with partial pivoting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 59468486 On a Pitch Duration Technique for Prosody Control
Authors: JongKuk Kim, HernSoo Hahn, Uei-Joong Yoo, MyungJin Bae
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In this paper, we propose a method of alter duration in frequency domain that control prosody in real time after pitch alteration. If there has a method to alteration duration freely among prosody information, that may used in several fields such as speech impediment person's pronunciation proof reading or language study. The pitch alteration method used control prosody altered by PSOLA synthesis method which is in time domain processing method. However, the duration of pitch alteration speech is changed by the frequency domain. In this paper, we altered the duration with the method of duration alteration by Fast Fourier Transformation in frequency domain. Consequently, the intelligibility of the pitch and duration are controlled has a slight decrease than the case when only pitch is changed, but the proposed algorithm obtained the higher MOS score about naturalness.Keywords: PSOLA, Pitch Alteration, Duration Control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16878485 On the Solution of Fully Fuzzy Linear Systems
Authors: Hsuan-Ku Liu
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A linear system is called a fully fuzzy linear system (FFLS) if quantities in this system are all fuzzy numbers. For the FFLS, we investigate its solution and develop a new approximate method for solving the FFLS. Observing the numerical results, we find that our method is accurate than the iterative Jacobi and Gauss- Seidel methods on approximating the solution of FFLS.
Keywords: Fully fuzzy linear equations, iterative method, homotopy perturbation method, approximate solutions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17488484 Continuity of Defuzzification and Its Application to Fuzzy Control
Authors: Takashi Mitsuishi, Kiyoshi Sawada, Yasunari Shidama
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The mathematical framework for studying of a fuzzy approximate reasoning is presented in this paper. Two important defuzzification methods (Area defuzzification and Height defuzzification) besides the center of gravity method which is the best well known defuzzification method are described. The continuity of the defuzzification methods and its application to a fuzzy feedback control are discussed.
Keywords: Fuzzy approximate reasoning, defuzzification, area method, height method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16768483 Convergence and Comparison Theorems of the Modified Gauss-Seidel Method
Authors: Zhouji Chen
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In this paper, the modified Gauss-Seidel method with the new preconditioner for solving the linear system Ax = b, where A is a nonsingular M-matrix with unit diagonal, is considered. The convergence property and the comparison theorems of the proposed method are established. Two examples are given to show the efficiency and effectiveness of the modified Gauss-Seidel method with the presented new preconditioner.
Keywords: Preconditioned linear system, M-matrix, Convergence, Comparison theorem.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1505