Search results for: Production planning and control

Authors: L. Bouqbis, H.W. Koyro, M. C. Harrouni, S. Daoud, L. F. Z. Ainlhout, C. I. Kammann

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The application of biochar to soils is becoming more and more common. Its application which is generally reported to improve the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils, has an indirect effect on soil health and increased crop yields. However, many of the previous results are highly variable and dependent mainly on the initial soil properties, biochar characteristics, and production conditions. In this study, two biochars which are biochar II (BC II) derived from a blend of paper sludge and wheat husks and biochar 005 (BC 005) derived from sewage sludge with a KCl additive, are used, and the physical and chemical properties of BC II are characterized. To determine the potential impact of salt stress and toxic and volatile substances, the second part of this study focused on the effect biochars have on germination of salad (Lactuca sativa L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and cress (Lepidium sativum) respectively. Our results indicate that Biochar II showed some unique properties compared to the soil, such as high EC, high content of K, Na, Mg, and low content of heavy metals. Concerning salad and barley germination test, no negative effect of BC II and BC 005 was observed. However, a negative effect of BC 005 at 8% level was revealed. The test of the effect of volatile substances on germination of cress revealed a positive effect of BC II, while a negative effect was observed for BC 005. Moreover, the water holding capacities of biochar-sand mixtures increased with increasing biochar application. Collectively, BC II could be safely used for agriculture and could provide the potential for a better plant growth.

Keywords: Biochar, phytotoxic tests, seedlings growth, water holding capacity.

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Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Lobna A. El Etreby, Rehan M. Saleh, Ghada Abdrabou, Somia I. Salama, Amira Orabi, Mohamed Abdelrahman

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Hepatitis C virus infection is a public health threat in Egypt. To control infection, efforts should be spent to encourage healthy behavior. This study aimed to assess the level of behavioral development in order to create a positive environment for the adoption of the recommended behaviors. The study was conducted over one year from Jan. 2011 till Jan. 2012.Knowledge, attitude and behavior of 540 HCV patients and 102 of their contacts were assessed and the level of behavioral development was determined. The study revealed that the majority of patients and contacts knew that HCV infection is dangerous with perceived concern for early diagnosis and treatment. More than 75% knew the correct modes of transmission. The assessment showed positive attitudes towards the recommended practices with intention to adopt those practices. Strategies of creating opportunities to continue the recommended behaviors should be adopted together with the reinforcement of social support.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus, Level of behavioral development, recommended behaviors.

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Authors: M. P. Chakravarthy, N. Ramanaiah, B. S. K.Sundara Siva Rao

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Taguchi approach was applied to determine the most influential control factors which will yield better tensile strength of the joints of pulse TIG welded 70/30 Cu-Ni alloy. In order to evaluate the effect of process parameters such as pulse frequency, peak current, base current and welding speed on tensile strength of Pulsed current TIG welded 70/30 Cu-Ni alloy of 5 mm thickness, Taguchi parametric design and optimization approach was used. Through the Taguchi parametric design approach, the optimum levels of process parameters were determined at 95% confidence level. The results indicate that the Pulse frequency, peak current, welding speed and base current are the significant parameters in deciding the tensile strength of the joint. The predicted optimal values of tensile strength of Pulsed current Gas tungsten arc welding (PC GTAW) of 70/30 Cu-Ni alloy welds are 368.8MPa.

Keywords: 70/30 Cu-Ni alloy, pulsed current GTAW, mechanical properties, Taguchi technique, analysis of variance.

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Authors: Wichian Sriprachan, Chutikarn Sriviboon

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The objectives of this research were to study the management of local towns and to develop a better model of town management according to the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy. This study utilized qualitative research, field research, as well as documentary research at the same time. A total of 10 local towns or Tambons of Supanburi province, Thailand were selected for an in-depth interview. The findings revealed that the model of local town management according to Philosophy of Sufficient Economy was in a level of “good” and the model of management has the five basic guidelines: 1) ability to manage budget information and keep it up-to-date, 2) ability to decision making according to democracy rules, 3) ability to use check and balance system, 4) ability to control, follow, and evaluation, and 5) ability to allow the general public to participate. In addition, the findings also revealed that the human resource management according to Philosophy of Sufficient Economy includes obeying laws, using proper knowledge, and having integrity in five areas: plan, recruit, select, train, and maintain human resources.  

Keywords: Management, Local Town (Tambon), Principles of Sufficiency Economy.

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Authors: Lakshmi Keshav, V. G. Srisanthi

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In this experimental investigation shake table tests were conducted on two reduced models that represent normal single room building constructed by Compressed Stabilized Earth Block (CSEB) from locally available soil. One model was constructed with earthquake resisting features (EQRF) having sill band, lintel band and vertical bands to control the building vibration and another one was without Earthquake Resisting Features. To examine the seismic capacity of the models particularly when it is subjected to long-period ground motion by large amplitude by many cycles of repeated loading, the test specimen was shaken repeatedly until the failure. The test results from Hi-end Data Acquisition system show that model with EQRF behave better than without EQRF. This modified masonry model with new material combined with new bands is used to improve the behavior of masonry building.

Keywords: Earth Quake Resisting Features, Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks, Masonry structures, Shake table testing, Horizontal and vertical bands.

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Authors: Olatunde I. Sekunowo, Stephen I. Durowaye, Oluwashina P. Gbenebor

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Copper being one of the major intrinsic residual impurities in steel possesses the tendency to induce severe microstructural distortions if not controlled within certain limits. Hence, this paper investigates the effect of this element on the mechanical properties of construction steel with a view to ascertain its safe limits for effective control. The experiment entails collection of statistically scheduled samples of hot rolled profiles with varied copper concentrations in the range of 0.12-0.39 wt. %. From these samples were prepared standard test specimens subjected to tensile, impact, hardness and microstructural analyses. Results show a rather huge compromise in mechanical properties as the specimens demonstrated 54.3%, 74.2% and 64.9% reduction in tensile strength, impact energy and hardness respectively as copper content increases from 0.12 wt. % to 0.39 wt. %. The steel’s abysmal performance is due to the severe distortion of the microstructure occasioned by the development of incoherent complex compounds which weaken the pearlite reinforcing phase. It is concluded that the presence of copper above 0.22 wt. % is deleterious to construction steel performance.

Keywords: Construction steel, mechanical properties, processing method, trace elements.

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Authors: Muhammad Anjum Aqueel, Zaighum Abbas, Mubasshir Sohail, Muhammad Abubakar, Hafiz Khurram Shurjeel, Abu Bakar Muhammad Raza, Muhammad Afzal, Sami Ullah

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Keeping in view the increasing demand, queen of Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was reared artificially in this experiment at varying diets including royal jelly. Larval duration, pupal duration, weight, and size of pupae were evaluated at different diets including royal jelly. Queen larvae were raised by Doo Little grafting method. Four different diets were mixed with royal jelly and applied to larvae. Fructose, sugar, yeast, and honey were provided to rearing queen larvae along with same amount of royal jelly. Larval and pupal duration were longest (6.15 and 7.5 days, respectively) at yeast and shortest on honey (5.05 and 7.02 days, respectively). Heavier and bigger pupae were recorded on yeast (168.14 mg and 1.76 cm, respectively) followed by diets having sugar and honey. Due to production of heavier and bigger pupae, yeast was considered as best artificial diet for the growing queen larvae. So, in the second part of experiment, different amounts of yeast were provided to growing larvae along with fixed amount (0.5 g) of royal jelly. Survival rates of the larvae and queen bee were 70% and 40% in the 4-g food, 86.7% and 53.3% in the 6-g food, and 76.7% and 50% in the 8-g food. Weight of adult queen bee (1.459±0.191 g) and the number of ovarioles (41.7±21.3) were highest at 8 g of food. Results of this study are helpful for bee-keepers in producing fitter queen bees.

Keywords: Apis melifera L., dietary effect, survival and development, honey bee queen.

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Authors: S. Murr, S. Phillips

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One of the biggest challenges entering a market with a carsharing or any other shared mobility (SM) service is sound investment decision-making. To support this process, the authors think that a city index evaluating different criteria is necessary. The goal of such an index is to benchmark cities along a set of external measures to answer the main two challenges: financially viability and the understanding of its specific requirements. The authors have consulted several shared mobility projects and industry experts to create such a Shared Mobility City Index (SMCI). The current proposal of the SMCI consists of 11 individual index measures: general data (demographics, geography, climate and city culture), shared mobility landscape (current SM providers, public transit options, commuting patterns and driving culture) and political vision and goals (vision of the Mayor, sustainability plan, bylaws/tenders supporting SM). To evaluate the suitability of the index, 16 cities on the East Coast of North America were selected and secondary research was conducted. The main sources of this study were census data, organisational records, independent press releases and informational websites. Only non-academic sources where used because the relevant data for the chosen cities is not published in academia. Applying the index measures to the selected cities resulted in three major findings. Firstly, density (city area divided by number of inhabitants) is not an indicator for the number of SM services offered: the city with the lowest density has five bike and carsharing options. Secondly, there is a direct correlation between commuting patterns and how many shared mobility services are offered. New York, Toronto and Washington DC have the highest public transit ridership and the most shared mobility providers. Lastly, except one, all surveyed cities support shared mobility with their sustainability plan. The current version of the shared mobility index is proving a practical tool to evaluate cities, and to understand functional, political, social and environmental considerations. More cities will have to be evaluated to refine the criteria further. However, the current version of the index can be used to assess cities on their suitability for shared mobility services and will assist investors deciding which city is a financially viable market.

Keywords: Carsharing, transportation, urban planning, shared mobility city index.

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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Integration sustainability outcomes give attention to construction ecology in the design review of urban environments to comply with Earth’s System that is composed of integral parts of the (i.e., physical, chemical and biological components). Naturally, exchange patterns of industrial ecology have consistent and periodic cycles to preserve energy flows and materials in Earth’s System. When engineering topology is affecting internal and external processes in system networks, it postulated the valence of the first-level spatial outcome (i.e., project compatibility success). These instrumentalities are dependent on relating the second-level outcome (i.e., participant security satisfaction). The construction ecology-based topology (i.e., as feedback energy system) flows from biotic and abiotic resources in the entire Earth’s ecosystems. These spatial outcomes are providing an innovation, as entails a wide range of interactions to state, regulate and feedback “topology” to flow as “interdisciplinary equilibrium” of ecosystems. The interrelation dynamics of ecosystems are performing a process in a certain location within an appropriate time for characterizing their unique structure in “equilibrium patterns”, such as biosphere and collecting a composite structure of many distributed feedback flows. These interdisciplinary systems regulate their dynamics within complex structures. These dynamic mechanisms of the ecosystem regulate physical and chemical properties to enable a gradual and prolonged incremental pattern to develop a stable structure. The engineering topology of construction ecology for integration sustainability outcomes offers an interesting tool for ecologists and engineers in the simulation paradigm as an initial form of development structure within compatible computer software. This approach argues from ecology, resource savings, static load design, financial other pragmatic reasons, while an artistic/architectural perspective, these are not decisive. The paper described an attempt to unify analytic and analogical spatial modeling in developing urban environments as a relational setting, using optimization software and applied as an example of integrated industrial ecology where the construction process is based on a topology optimization approach.

Keywords: Construction ecology, industrial ecology, urban topology, environmental planning.

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Authors: Talal S. Abdullah, Shahin Mehraban, Geraint Lodwig, Nicholas P. Lavery

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The defining property of Interstitial Free (IF) steels is formability, comprehensively measured using the Lankford coefficient (r-value) on uniaxial tensile test data. The contributing factors supporting this feature are grain size, orientation, and elemental additions. The processes that effectively modulate these factors are the casting procedure, hot rolling, and heat treatment. An existing methodology is well-practised in the steel industry; however, large-scale production and experimentation consume significant proportions of time, money, and material. Introducing small-scale rapid alloy prototyping (RAP) as an alternative process would considerably reduce the drawbacks relative to standard practices. The aim is to finetune the existing fundamental procedures implemented in the industrial plant to adapt to the RAP route. IF material is remelted in the 80-gram coil induction melting (CIM) glovebox. To birth small grains, maximum deformation must be induced onto the cast material during the hot rolling process. The rolled strip must then satisfy the polycrystalline behaviour of the bulk material by displaying a resemblance in microstructure, hardness, and formability to that of the literature and actual plant steel. A successful outcome of this work is that small-scale RAP can achieve target compositions with similar microstructures and statistically consistent mechanical properties which complements and accelerates the development of novel steel grades.

Keywords: Interstitial free, miniaturized tensile specimen, plastic anisotropy, rapid alloy prototyping.

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Authors: Saurabh Chanana, Monika Arora

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Demand response is getting increased attention these days due to the increase in electricity demand and introduction of renewable resources in the existing power grid. Traditionally demand response programs involve large industrial consumers but with technological advancement, demand response is being implemented for small residential and commercial consumers also. In this paper, demand response program aims to reduce the peak demand as well as overall energy consumption of the residential customers. Air conditioners are the major reason of peak load in residential sector in summer, so a dynamic model of air conditioning load with thermostat action has been considered for applying demand response programs. A programmable communicating thermostat (PCT) is a device that uses real time pricing (RTP) signals to control the thermostat setting. A new model incorporating PCT in air conditioning load has been proposed in this paper. Results show that introduction of PCT in air conditioner is useful in reducing the electricity payments of customers as well as reducing the peak demand. 

Keywords: Demand response, Home energy management Programmable communicating thermostat, Thermostatically controlled appliances.

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Authors: Wooseok Song, Sunjung Park, Jongkwon Lee, Jaye Koo

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The objective of this paper is to observe the effects of injection conditions on flame structures in gas-centered swirl coaxial injector. Gaseous oxygen and liquid kerosene were used as propellants. For different injection conditions, two types of injector, which only differ in the diameter of the tangential inlet, were used in this study. In addition, oxidizer injection pressure was varied to control the combustion chamber pressure in different types of injector. In order to analyze the combustion instability intensity, the dynamic pressure was measured in both the combustion chamber and propellants lines. With the increase in differential pressure between the propellant injection pressure and the combustion chamber pressure, the combustion instability intensity increased. In addition, the flame structure was recorded using a high-speed camera to detect CH* chemiluminescence intensity. With the change in the injection conditions in the gas-centered swirl coaxial injector, the flame structure changed.

Keywords: Liquid rocket engine, flame structure, combustion instability, dynamic pressure.

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Authors: F. Atheer, Al-Saoudi, Robin Kalfat, Riadh Al-Mahaidi

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Over the last two decades, externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites bonded to concrete substrates has become a popular method for strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) highway and railway bridges. Such structures are exposed to severe cyclic loading throughout their lifetime often resulting in fatigue damage to structural components and a reduction in the service life of the structure. Since experimental and numerical results on the fatigue performance of FRP-to-concrete joints are still limited, the current research focuses on assessing the fatigue performance of externally bonded FRP-to-concrete joints using a direct shear test. Some early results indicate that the stress ratio and the applied cyclic stress level have a direct influence on the fatigue life of the externally bonded FRP. In addition, a calibrated finite element model is developed to provide further insight into the influence of certain parameters such as: concrete strength, FRP thickness, number of cycles, frequency, and stiffness on the fatigue life of the FRP-toconcrete joints.

Keywords: FRP, concrete bond, control, fatigue, finite element model.

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Authors: Fardin Boustani, Mohammad Hosein Hojati

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Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Niriz plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 9.1 meters during 1997 to 2004. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Niriz Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.

Keywords: Aquifer, ground water depletion, water table

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Authors: T. Costa, D. Narvaez, K. Melo, M. Villalva

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Installation of micro-generators based on renewable energy in power distribution system has increased in recent years, with the main renewable sources being solar and wind. Due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, such micro-generators produce time-varying energy which does not correspond at certain times of the day to the peak energy consumption of end users. For this reason, the use of energy storage units next to the grid contributes to the proper leveling of the buses’ voltage level according to Brazilian energy quality standards. In this work, the effect of the addition of a photovoltaic solar generator and a store of energy in the busbar voltages of an electric system is analyzed. The consumption profile is defined as the average hourly use of appliances in a common residence, and the generation profile is defined as a function of the solar irradiation available in a locality. The power summation method is validated with analytical calculation and is used to calculate the modules and angles of the voltages in the buses of an electrical system based on the IEEE standard, at each hour of the day and with defined load and generation profiles. The results show that bus 5 presents the worst voltage level at the power consumption peaks and stabilizes at the appropriate range with the inclusion of the energy storage during the night time period. Solar generator maintains improvement of the voltage level during the period when it receives solar irradiation, having peaks of production during the 12 pm (without exceeding the appropriate maximum levels of tension).

Keywords: Energy storage, power distribution system, solar generator, voltage level.

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Authors: A. Al Hinai, H. Jayasuriya, H. Kotagama

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Most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with oil-based economy like Oman are looking for other potential revenue generation options as the crude oil price is regularly fluctuating due to changing geopolitical environment. Oman has advantage of possessing world-heritage nature tourism hotspots around the country and the government is making investments and strategies to uplift the tourism industry following Oman Vision 2040 strategies. Oman’s agriculture is not significantly contributing to the economy, but possesses specific and diversified arid cropping systems. Oman has modern farms; nevertheless some of the agricultural production activities are done with cultural practices and styles that would be attractive to tourists. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potentials for promoting agritourism industry in Oman; recognize potential sites, commodities and activities, and predict potential revenue generation as a projection from that of the tourism sector. Moreover, the study enables to foresee possible auxiliary advantages of agritourism such as, empowerment of women and youth, enhancement in the value-addition industry for agricultural produce through technology transfer and capacity building, and producing export quality products. Agritourism could increase employability, empowerment of women and youth, improve value-addition industry and export-oriented agribusiness. These efforts including provision of necessary technology-transfer and capacity-building should be rendered by the collaboration of academic institutions, relevant ministries and other public and private sector stakeholders.

Keywords: Agritourism, nature-based tourism, potentials, revenue generation, value addition.

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Authors: Spiros Mazarakis, George Matzavinos, Peter P. Groumpos

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Economic models are complex dynamic systems with a lot of uncertainties and fuzzy data. Conventional modeling approaches using well known methods and techniques cannot provide realistic and satisfactory answers to today-s challenging economic problems. Qualitative modeling using fuzzy logic and intelligent system theories can be used to model macroeconomic models. Fuzzy Cognitive maps (FCM) is a new method been used to model the dynamic behavior of complex systems. For the first time FCMs and the Mamdani Model of Intelligent control is used to model macroeconomic models. This new model is referred as the Mamdani Rule-Based Fuzzy Cognitive Map (MBFCM) and provides the academic and research community with a new promising integrated advanced computational model. A new economic model is developed for a qualitative approach to Macroeconomic modeling. Fuzzy Controllers for such models are designed. Simulation results for an economic scenario are provided and extensively discussed

Keywords: Macroeconomic Models, Mamdani Rule Based- FCMs(MBFCMs), Qualitative and Dynamics System, Simulation.

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Authors: Sin J. Chen, Jyh J. Chen

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This study describes a micro device integrated with multi-chamber for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with different annealing temperatures. The device consists of the reaction polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip, a cover glass chip, and is equipped with cartridge heaters, fans, and thermocouples for temperature control. In this prototype, commercial software is utilized to determine the geometric and operational parameters those are responsible for creating the denaturation, annealing, and extension temperatures within the chip. Two cartridge heaters are placed at two sides of the chip and maintained at two different temperatures to achieve a thermal gradient on the chip during the annealing step. The temperatures on the chip surface are measured via an infrared imager. Some thermocouples inserted into the reaction chambers are used to obtain the transient temperature profiles of the reaction chambers during several thermal cycles. The experimental temperatures compared to the simulated results show a similar trend. This work should be interesting to persons involved in the high-temperature based reactions and genomics or cell analysis.

Keywords: Polymerase chain reaction, thermal cycles, temperature gradient, micro-fabrication.

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Authors: Ayub V. O. Ofulla, Jackson H. O. Onyuka, Samuel Wagai, Douglas Anyona, Gabriel O. Dida, John Gichuki

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This study was set to determine the antimicrobial activities of brine salting, chlorinated solution, and oil frying treatments on enteric bacteria and fungi in Rastrineobola argentea fish from fish landing beaches within L. Victoria basin of western Kenya. Statistical differences in effectiveness of the different treatment methods was determined by single factor ANOVA, and paired two-tail t-Test was performed to compare the differences in moisture contents before and after storage. Oil fried fish recorded the lowest microbial loads, sodium chloride at 10% concentration was the second most effective and chlorinated solution even at 150ppm was the least effective against the bacteria and fungi in fish. Moisture contents of the control and treated fish were significantly lower after storage. These results show that oil frying of fish should be adopted for processing and preserving Rastrineobola argentea which is the most abundant and affordable fish species from Lake Victoria.

Keywords: Fish landing beaches, Lake Victoria, oil frying, preservatives.

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Authors: M. Chaichanyut, S. Tungjitkusolmun

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This paper is concerned with microwave (MW) ablation for a liver cancer tissue by using helix antenna. The antenna structure supports the propagation of microwave energy at 2.45 GHz. A 1½ turn spiral catheter-based microwave antenna applicator has been developed. We utilize the three-dimensional finite element method (3D FEM) simulation to analyze where the tissue heat flux, lesion pattern and volume destruction during MW ablation. The configurations of helix antenna where Helix air-core antenna and Helix Dielectric-core antenna. The 3D FEMs solutions were based on Maxwell and bio-heat equations. The simulation protocol was power control (10 W, 300s). Our simulation result, both helix antennas have heat flux occurred around the helix antenna and that can be induced the temperature distribution similar (teardrop). The region where the temperature exceeds 50°C the microwave ablation was successful (i.e. complete destruction). The Helix air-core antenna and Helix Dielectric-core antenna, ablation zone or axial ratios (Widest/length) were respectively 0.82 and 0.85; the complete destructions were respectively 4.18 cm³ and 5.64 cm³

Keywords: Liver cancer, Helix antenna, Finite element, Microwave ablation.

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Authors: D. Nouri, M.R. Sabour, M. Ghanbarzadeh Lak

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Proper management of residues originated from industrial activities is considered as one of the serious challenges faced by industrial societies due to their potential hazards to the environment. Common disposal methods for industrial solid wastes (ISWs) encompass various combinations of solely management options, i.e. recycling, incineration, composting, and sanitary landfilling. Indeed, the procedure used to evaluate and nominate the best practical methods should be based on environmental, technical, economical, and social assessments. In this paper an environmentaltechnical assessment model is developed using analytical network process (ANP) to facilitate the decision making practice for ISWs generated at Gilan province, Iran. Using the results of performed surveys on industrial units located at Gilan, the various groups of solid wastes in the research area were characterized, and four different ISW management scenarios were studied. The evaluation process was conducted using the above-mentioned model in the Super Decisions software (version 2.0.8) environment. The results indicates that the best ISW management scenario for Gilan province is consist of recycling the metal industries residues, composting the putrescible portion of ISWs, combustion of paper, wood, fabric and polymeric wastes as well as energy extraction in the incineration plant, and finally landfilling the rest of the waste stream in addition with rejected materials from recycling and compost production plants and ashes from the incineration unit.

Keywords: Analytical Network Process, Disposal Scenario, Gilan Province, Industrial Waste.

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Authors: Wullapa Wongsinlatam

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Back propagation algorithm (BP) is a widely used technique in artificial neural network and has been used as a tool for solving the time series problems, such as decreasing training time, maximizing the ability to fall into local minima, and optimizing sensitivity of the initial weights and bias. This paper proposes an improvement of a BP technique which is called IM-COH algorithm (IM-COH). By combining IM-COH algorithm with cuckoo search algorithm (CS), the result is cuckoo search improved control output hidden layer algorithm (CS-IM-COH). This new algorithm has a better ability in optimizing sensitivity of the initial weights and bias than the original BP algorithm. In this research, the algorithm of CS-IM-COH is compared with the original BP, the IM-COH, and the original BP with CS (CS-BP). Furthermore, the selected benchmarks, four time series samples, are shown in this research for illustration. The research shows that the CS-IM-COH algorithm give the best forecasting results compared with the selected samples.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, back propagation algorithm, time series, local minima problem, metaheuristic optimization.

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Authors: Mukhtar H. Hassan, Muhammed A. Basher, Elhadi E. Saad, Almahdi M. Almahdi

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The aim of this study was to demonstrate the possible effect of some variables such as age, gender, blood sugar level, and duration of diabetes on the serum level of zinc in diabetic individuals from Murzuk area. Serum zinc (Zn), Fasting blood sugar (FBS), hemoglobin HbA1c (HbA1c) were evaluated in 46 type I diabetic subjects (group 1), 48 type II diabetic subjects (group 2) and 43 healthy individuals (control) of both genders aged (30-81) years. Data showed that both diabetic groups have significantly higher (P<0.05) serum levels of Zn, FBS and HbA1c compared with controls. No significant (p>0.05) differences in serum Zn levels were observed between Males and Females. Serum Zn levels were non-significantly decreased with increasing age. In type II diabetic subjects, serum Zn levels were non-significantly decreased with increasing duration of disease whereas those in type I were non-significantly increased.

Keywords: Blood sugar, diabetes, HbA1c, zinc.

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Authors: M. F. Miah, K. M. A. Zinnah, M. J. Raihan, H. Ali, M. N. Naser

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As genetic diversity is most important for existing, breeding and production of any fish; this study was undertaken for investigating genetic diversity of freshwater mud eel, Monopterus cuchia at population level where three ecological populations such as flooded area of Sylhet (P1), open water of Moulvibazar (P2) and open water of Sunamganj (P3) districts of Bangladesh were considered. Four arbitrary RAPD primers (OPB-12, C0-4, B-03 and OPB-08) were screened and RAPD banding patterns were analyzed among the populations considering 15 individuals of each population. In total 174, 138 and 149 bands were detected in the populations of P1, P2 and P3 respectively; however, each primer revealed less number of bands in each population. 100% polymorphic loci were recorded in P2 and P3 whereas only one monomorphic locus was observed in P1, recorded 97.5% polymorphism. Different genetic parameters such as inter-individual pairwise similarity, genetic distance, Nei genetic similarity, linkage distances, cluster analysis and allelic information, etc. were considered for measuring genetic diversity. The average inter-individual pairwise similarity was recorded 2.98, 1.47 and 1.35 in P1, P2 and P3 respectively. Considering genetic distance analysis, the highest distance 1 was recorded in P2 and P3 and the lowest genetic distance 0.444 was found in P2. The average Nei genetic similarity was observed 0.19, 0.16 and 0.13 in P1, P2 and P3, respectively; however, the average linkage distance was recorded 24.92, 17.14 and 15.28 in P1, P3 and P2 respectively. Based on linkage distance, genetic clusters were generated in three populations where 6 clades and 7 clusters were found in P1, 3 clades and 5 clusters were observed in P2 and 4 clades and 7 clusters were detected in P3. In addition, allelic information was observed where the frequency of p and q alleles were observed 0.093 and 0.907 in P1, 0.076 and 0.924 in P2, 0.074 and 0.926 in P3 respectively. The average gene diversity was observed highest in P2 (0.132) followed by P3 (0.131) and P1 (0.121) respectively.

Keywords: Genetic diversity, Monopterus cuchia, population, RAPD, Bangladesh.

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Authors: Ambalika Ekka

Abstract:

In today’s world, the growing demand for urban built forms has resulted in the production and consumption of building materials i.e. embodied energy in building construction, leading to pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, new buildings will offer a unique opportunity to implement more energy efficient building without compromising on building performance of the building. Embodied energy of building materials forms major contribution to embodied energy in buildings. The paper results in an approach towards designing an energy efficient apartment building through embodied energy assessment. This paper discusses the trend of residential development in Rourkela, which includes three case studies of the contemporary houses, followed by architectural elements, number of storeys, predominant material use and plot sizes using primary data. It results in identification of predominant material used and other characteristics in urban area. Further, the embodied energy coefficients of various dominant building materials and alternative materials manufactured in Indian Industry is taken in consideration from secondary source i.e. literature study. The paper analyses the embodied energy by estimating materials and operational energy of proposed building followed by altering the specifications of the materials based on the building components i.e. walls, flooring, windows, insulation and roof through res build India software and comparison of different options is assessed with consideration of sustainable parameters. This paper results that autoclaved aerated concrete block only reaches the energy performance Index benchmark i.e. 69.35 kWh/m² yr i.e. by saving 4% of operational energy and as embodied energy has no particular index, out of all materials it has the highest EE 23206202.43  MJ.

Keywords: Energy efficient, embodied energy, energy performance index, building materials.

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Authors: Junki Miyamoto, Mariko Kiyomi, Yuuki Nagashio, Takuya Suzuki, Soichi Tanabe

Abstract:

Anti-allergic effects of royal jelly were evaluated in a human-like mouse model of atopic dermatitis. NC/Nga mice were cutaneously applied with royal jelly for 6 weeks. Royal jelly-treated mice exhibited lower levels of serum total immunoglobulin E in comparison with controls. We found that the treatment decreased (11% to the control) expression of mRNA for aquaporin-3, which is involved in the modulation of epidermal hydration. Microarray analysis revealed more than 10-fold changes in the expression of several genes, such as transglutaminase 2, repetin, and keratins. In normal human epidermal keratinocytes, royal jelly extract suppressed interleukin-8 elevation induced by TNF-α and interferon-γ, suggesting direct anti-inflammatory activity in keratinocytes. Collectively, topical application of royal jelly may be useful for amelioration of lesions and inflammation in atopic dermatitis.

Keywords: Aquaporin 3, immunoglobulin E, NC/Nga, royal jelly.

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Authors: N.H. Abdurahman, Y. M. Rosli, N. H. Azhari, S. F. Tam

Abstract:

The direct discharge of palm oil mill effluent (POME) wastewater causes serious environmental pollution due to its high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Traditional ways for POME treatment have both economical and environmental disadvantages. In this study, a membrane anaerobic system (MAS) was used as an alternative, cost effective method for treating POME. Six steady states were attained as a part of a kinetic study that considered concentration ranges of 8,220 to 15,400 mg/l for mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) and 6,329 to 13,244 mg/l for mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS). Kinetic equations from Monod, Contois and Chen & Hashimoto were employed to describe the kinetics of POME treatment at organic loading rates ranging from 2 to 13 kg COD/m3/d. throughout the experiment, the removal efficiency of COD was from 94.8 to 96.5% with hydraulic retention time, HRT from 400.6 to 5.7 days. The growth yield coefficient, Y was found to be 0.62gVSS/g COD the specific microorganism decay rate was 0.21 d-1 and the methane gas yield production rate was between 0.25 l/g COD/d and 0.58 l/g COD/d. Steady state influent COD concentrations increased from 18,302 mg/l in the first steady state to 43,500 mg/l in the sixth steady state. The minimum solids retention time, which was obtained from the three kinetic models ranged from 5 to 12.3 days. The k values were in the range of 0.35 – 0.519 g COD/ g VSS • d and values were between 0.26 and 0.379 d-1. The solids retention time (SRT) decreased from 800 days to 11.6 days. The complete treatment reduced the COD content to 2279 mg/l equivalent to a reduction of 94.8% reduction from the original.

Keywords: COD reduction, POME, kinetics, membrane, anaerobic, monod, contois equation.

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Authors: Vickneswaran Jeyabalan, Andrews Samraj, Loo Chu Kiong

Abstract:

The noteworthy point in the advancement of Brain Machine Interface (BMI) research is the ability to accurately extract features of the brain signals and to classify them into targeted control action with the easiest procedures since the expected beneficiaries are of disabled. In this paper, a new feature extraction method using the combination of adaptive band pass filters and adaptive autoregressive (AAR) modelling is proposed and applied to the classification of right and left motor imagery signals extracted from the brain. The introduction of the adaptive bandpass filter improves the characterization process of the autocorrelation functions of the AAR models, as it enhances and strengthens the EEG signal, which is noisy and stochastic in nature. The experimental results on the Graz BCI data set have shown that by implementing the proposed feature extraction method, a LDA and SVM classifier outperforms other AAR approaches of the BCI 2003 competition in terms of the mutual information, the competition criterion, or misclassification rate.

Keywords: Adaptive autoregressive, adaptive bandpass filter, brain machine Interface, EEG, motor imaginary.

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Authors: Leila Jafari, Viliam Makis, Akram Khaleghei G.B.

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a maintenance model of a two-unit series system with economic dependence. Unit#1 which is considered to be more expensive and more important, is subject to condition monitoring (CM) at equidistant, discrete time epochs and unit#2, which is not subject to CM has a general lifetime distribution. The multivariate observation vectors obtained through condition monitoring carry partial information about the hidden state of unit#1, which can be in a healthy or a warning state while operating. Only the failure state is assumed to be observable for both units. The objective is to find an optimal opportunistic maintenance policy minimizing the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the partially observable semi-Markov decision process framework. An effective computational algorithm for finding the optimal policy and the minimum average cost is developed, illustrated by a numerical example.

Keywords: Condition-Based Maintenance, Semi-Markov Decision Process, Multivariate Bayesian Control Chart, Partially Observable System, Two-unit System.

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Authors: Dingding Chen, Kazuo Arakawa, Masakazu Uchino, Changheng Xu

Abstract:

Vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM) is a promising manufacture process for making large and complex fiber reinforced composite structures. However, the complexity of the flow of the resin in the infusion stage usually leads to nonuniform property distribution of the produced composite part. In order to control the flow of the resin, the situation of flow should be mastered. For the safety of the usage of the produced composite in practice, the understanding of the property distribution is essential. In this paper, we did some trials on monitoring the resin infusion stage and evaluation for the fiber volume fraction distribution of the VARTM produced composite using the digital image correlation methods. The results showthat3D-DIC is valid on monitoring the resin infusion stage and it is possible to use 2D-DIC to estimate the distribution of the fiber volume fraction on a FRP plate.

Keywords: Digital image correlation, VARTM, FRP, fiber volume fraction.

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