Search results for: Arab region
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1399

Search results for: Arab region

829 Maximum Norm Analysis of a Nonmatching Grids Method for Nonlinear Elliptic Boundary Value Problem −Δu = f(u)

Authors: Abida Harbi

Abstract:

We provide a maximum norm analysis of a finite element Schwarz alternating method for a nonlinear elliptic boundary value problem of the form -Δu = f(u), on two overlapping sub domains with non matching grids. We consider a domain which is the union of two overlapping sub domains where each sub domain has its own independently generated grid. The two meshes being mutually independent on the overlap region, a triangle belonging to one triangulation does not necessarily belong to the other one. Under a Lipschitz assumption on the nonlinearity, we establish, on each sub domain, an optimal L∞ error estimate between the discrete Schwarz sequence and the exact solution of the boundary value problem.

Keywords: Error estimates, Finite elements, Nonlinear PDEs, Schwarz method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2750
828 Bioactive Compounds Content of Citrus Peel as Affected by Drying Processes

Authors: Azza A. Abou-Arab, Marwa H. Mahmoud, Ferial M. Abu-Salem

Abstract:

The present investigation studied the content of bioactive compounds as ascorbic acid, β-carotene, and flavonoids, and the effect of drying methods (microwave, solar, and air oven drying) on its level in citrus peel. These levels were decreased significantly (p <0.05) due to the dried methods. The percentage of ascorbic acid content loss of orange C. Valencia were 46.64, 52.95 and 68.83% with microwave, solar and air oven methods, respectively comparing to fresh samples. Also, the percentages of β- carotene loss of orange C. Valencia were 38.89, 52.42 and 87.14% with microwave, solar and air oven methods, respectively. Total flavonoid content recorded 453.33, 396.67 and 327.50 mg QE/100g dw, with dried by microwave, solar and oven methods, respectively compared with control in orange, C. valencia. These results revealed that microwave drying procedure was the most effective method which maintained citrus bioactive compounds content (ascorbic acid, β-carotene and flavonoid) followed by solar. On the other hand, air oven drying came in the last order due to direct heat treatment.

Keywords: Ascorbic acid, β-carotene, flavonoids, microwave, solar, air oven drying.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2433
827 A Comparative Study of Electrical Transport Phenomena in Ultrathin vs. Nanoscale SOI MOSFETs Devices

Authors: A. Karsenty, A. Chelly

Abstract:

Ultrathin (UTD) and Nanoscale (NSD) SOI-MOSFET devices, sharing a similar W/L but with a channel thickness of 46nm and 1.6nm respectively, were fabricated using a selective “gate recessed” process on the same silicon wafer. The electrical transport characterization at room temperature has shown a large difference between the two kinds of devices and has been interpreted in terms of a huge unexpected series resistance. Electrical characteristics of the Nanoscale device, taken in the linear region, can be analytically derived from the ultrathin device ones. A comparison of the structure and composition of the layers, using advanced techniques such as Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and High Resolution TEM (HRTEM) coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), contributes an explanation as to the difference of transport between the devices.

Keywords: Nanoscale Devices, SOI MOSFET, Analytical Model, Electron Transport.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1990
826 A Multilevel Analysis of Predictors of Early Antenatal Care Visits among Women of Reproductive Age in Benin: 2017/2018 Benin Demographic and Health Survey

Authors: Ebenezer Kwesi Armah-Ansah, Kenneth Fosu Oteng, Esther Selasi Avinu, Eugene Budu, Edward Kwabena Ameyaw

Abstract:

Maternal mortality, particularly in Benin, is a major public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa. To provide a positive pregnancy experience and reduce maternal morbidities, all pregnant women must get appropriate and timely prenatal support. However, many pregnant women in developing countries, including Benin, begin Antenatal Care (ANC) late. There is a paucity of empirical literature on the prevalence and predictors of early ANC visits in Benin. As a result, the purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence and predictors of early ANC visits among women of productive age in Benin. This is a secondary analysis of the 2017/2018 Benin Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) data. The study involved 6,919 eligible women. Data analysis was conducted using Stata version 14.2 for Mac OS. We adopted a multilevel logistic regression to examine the predictors of early ANC visits in Benin. The results were presented as odds ratios (ORs) associated with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and p-value < 0.05 to determine the significant associations. The prevalence of early ANC visits among pregnant women in Benin was 57.03% [95% CI: 55.41-58.64]. In the final multilevel logistic regression, early ANC visit was higher among women aged 30-34 [aOR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.17-2.18] compared to those aged 15-19, women with primary education [aOR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.06-142] compared to the non-educated women, women who were covered by health insurance [aOR = 3.03, 95% CI = 1.35-6.76], women without a big problem in getting the money needed for treatment [aOR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.16-1.49], distance to the health facility, not a big problem [aOR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.08-1.41], and women whose partners had secondary/higher education [aOR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.15-1.57] compared with those who were not covered by health insurance, had big problem in getting money needed for treatment, distance to health facility is a big problem and whose partners had no education respectively. However, women who had four or more births [aOR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.48-0.74] and those in Atacora Region [aOR = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.37-0.68] had lower odds of early ANC visit. This study revealed a relatively high prevalence of early ANC visits among women of reproductive age in Benin. Women's age, educational status of women and their partners, parity, health insurance coverage, distance to health facilities, and region were all associated with early ANC visits among women of reproductive in Benin. These factors ought to be taken into account when developing ANC policies and strategies in order to boost early ANC visits among women in Benin. This will significantly reduce maternal and newborn mortality and help achieve the World Health Organization’s recommendation that all pregnant women should initiate early ANC visits within the first three months of pregnancy.

Keywords: Antenatal care, Benin, maternal health, pregnancy, DHS, public health.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 47
825 Simulation of Immiscibility Regions in Sodium Borosilicate Glasses

Authors: D. Aboutaleb, B. Safi

Abstract:

In this paper, sodium borosilicates glasses were prepared by melting in air. These heat-resistant transparent glasses have subjected subsequently isothermal treatments at different times, which have transformed them at opaque glass (milky white color). Such changes indicate that these glasses showed clearly phase separation (immiscibility). The immiscibility region in a sodium borosilicate ternary system was investigated in this work, i.e. to determine the regions from which some compositions can show phase separation. For this we went through the conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium, which were translated later by mathematical equations to find an approximate solution. The latter has been translated in a simulation which was established thereafter to find the immiscibility regions in this type of special glasses.

Keywords: Sodium borosilicate, heat-resistant, isothermal treatments, immiscibility, thermodynamics four.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1519
824 Tuning a Fractional Order PID Controller with Lead Compensator in Frequency Domain

Authors: Tahmine. V. Moghaddam, N. Bigdeli, K. Afshar

Abstract:

To achieve the desired specifications of gain and phase margins for plants with time-delay that stabilized with FO-PID controller a lead compensator is designed. At first the range of controlled system stability based on stability boundary criteria is determined. Using stability boundary locus method in frequency domain the fractional order controller parameters are tuned and then with drawing bode diagram in frequency domain accessing to desired gain and phase margin are shown. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the shapes of the stabilizing region and to show the design procedure.

Keywords: Fractional controller, Lead compensator, Stabilityregions, Stability boundary locus

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2578
823 Prediction of Basic Wind Speed for Ayeyarwady

Authors: Chaw Su Mon

Abstract:

Abstract— The paper presents a preliminary study on modeling and estimation of basic wind speed ( extreme wind gusts ) for the consideration of vulnerability and design of building in Ayeyarwady Region. The establishment of appropriate design wind speeds is a critical step towards the calculation of design wind loads for structures. In this paper the extreme value analysis of this prediction work is based on the anemometer data (1970-2009) maintained by the department of meteorology and hydrology of Pathein. Statistical and probabilistic approaches are used to derive formulas for estimating 3-second gusts from recorded data (10-minute sustained mean wind speeds).

Keywords: Basic Wind Speed, Building, Gusts, Statistical and probabilistic approaches

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1270
822 Characterization of Antioxidant Peptides of Soybean Protein Hydrolysate

Authors: Ferial M. Abu-Salem, Marwa H. Mahmoud, M. H. El-Kalyoub, A. Y. Gibriel, Azza Abou-Arab

Abstract:

In order to characterize the soy protein hydrolysate obtained in this study, gel chromatography on Sephadex G-25 was used to perform the separation of the peptide mixture and electrophoresis in SDS-polyacrylamide gel has been employed. Protein hydrolysate gave high antioxidant activities, but didn't give any antimicrobial activities. The antioxidant activities of protein hydrolysate was in the same trend of peptide content which gave high antioxidant activities and high peptide content between fractions 15 to 50. With increasing peptide concentrations, the scavenging effect on DPPH radical increased until about 70%, thereafter reaching a plateau. In compare to different concentrations of BHA, which exhibited higher activity (90%), soybean protein hydrolysate exhibited high antioxidant activities (70%) at a concentration of 1.45 mg/ml at fraction 25. Electrophoresis analysis indicated that, low- MW hydrolysate fractions (F1) appeared, on average, to have higher DPPH scavenging activities than high-MW fractions. These results revealed that soybean peptides probably contain substances that were proton donors and could react with free radicals to convert them to stable diamagnetic molecules. 

Keywords: Antioxidant peptides, hydrolysis, protein hydrolysate, peptide fractions.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4771
821 Artificial Neural Network Approach for Short Term Load Forecasting for Illam Region

Authors: Mohsen Hayati, Yazdan Shirvany

Abstract:

In this paper, the application of neural networks to study the design of short-term load forecasting (STLF) Systems for Illam state located in west of Iran was explored. One important architecture of neural networks named Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) to model STLF systems was used. Our study based on MLP was trained and tested using three years (2004-2006) data. The results show that MLP network has the minimum forecasting error and can be considered as a good method to model the STLF systems.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, Forecasting, Multi-layer perceptron.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2767
820 Determination of a Fair Price for Blood Transportation by Applying the Vehicle Routing Problem: A Case for National Blood Center, Thailand

Authors: S. Pathomsiri, P. Sukaboon

Abstract:

The National Blood Center, Thai Red Cross Society is responsible for providing blood to hospitals all over the country. When any hospital needs blood, it will have to send the vehicle to pick up at the NBC. There are a lot of vehicles to pick up blood at the NBC every day. Each vehicle is usually empty for inbound trip and a little loaded for outbound. The NBC realized such waste or loss and there have been the third party offered to distribute blood and charge for fee. This paper proposes to apply the vehicle routing problem (VRP) for estimating the fair price. The idea is tested with the real data during seven-day period of 6 – 12 July 2010 to estimate the fair price for transporting blood in Bangkok Metropolitan Region.

Keywords: Blood Supply Chain, Vehicle Routing Problem, Heuristic, Saving Algorithm, Fair Price.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2034
819 Chemical Characterization of Submicron Aerosol in Kanpur Region: a Source Apportionment Study

Authors: A. Chakraborty, T. Gupta

Abstract:

Several studies have shown the association between ambient particulate matter (PM) and adverse health effects and climate change, thus highlighting the need to limit the anthropogenic sources of PM. PM Exposure is commonly monitored as mass concentration of PM10 (particle aerodynamic diameter < 10μm) or PM2.5 (particle aerodynamic diameter < 2.5μm), although increasing toxicity with decreasing aerodynamic diameter has been reported due to increased surface area and enhanced chemical reactivity with other species. Additionally, the light scattering properties of PM increases with decreasing size. Hence, it is important to study the chemical characterization of finer fraction of the particulate matter and to identify their sources so that they can be controlled appropriately to a large extent at the sources before reaching to the receptors.

Keywords: PM1, PCA, source apportionment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1645
818 Analysing the Cost of Immigrants to the National Health System in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace

Authors: T. Theodosiou, P. Polychronidou, A. G. Karasavvoglou

Abstract:

The latest years the number of immigrants at Greece has increased dramatically. Their impact on the National Health System (NHS) has not been yet thoroughly investigated. This paper analyses the cost of immigrants to the NHS hospitals of the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The data are collected from 2005 to 2011 from five different hospitals and are analysed using linear mixed effects models in order to investigate the effects of nationality and year on the cost of hospitalization and treatment. The results show that generally the Greek nationality patients have a higher mean cost of hospitalization compared to the immigrants and that there is an increasing trend for the cost except for the year 2010.

Keywords: Cost, Eastern Macedonia, Thrace, immigrants, national health system.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1528
817 Bioclimatic Principles and Urban Open Spaces: The Case of Xanthi

Authors: Maria Giannopoulou

Abstract:

Open urban public spaces comprise an important element for the development of social, cultural and economic activities of the population in the modern cities. These spaces are also considered regulators of the region-s climate conditions, providing better thermal, visual and auditory conditions which can be optimized by the application of appropriate strategies of bioclimatic design. The paper focuses on the analysis and evaluation of the recent unification of the open spaces in the centre of Xanthi, a medium – size city in northern Greece, from a bioclimatic perspective, as well as in the creation of suitable methodology. It is based both on qualitative observation of the interventions by fieldwork research and assessment and on quantitative analysis and modeling of the research area.

Keywords: Bioclimatic principles, Quantitative analysis, Sustainability, TownScope III, Urban open spaces

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2779
816 A Survey on Early Screen Exposure during Infancy and Autism

Authors: I. Mahmood

Abstract:

This survey was conducted to explore the hypothesis that excessive screen exposure combined with a subsequent decrease in parent-child interaction during infancy might be associated with autism. The main questions being asked are: Were children with autism exposed to long hours of screen time during the first 2 years of life? And what was the reason(s) for exposure at such an early age? Other variables were also addressed in this survey. An Arabic questionnaire was administered online (June 2019) via a Facebook page, relatively well-known in Arab countries. 1725 parents of children diagnosed with autism participated in this survey. Results show that 80.9% of children surveyed who were diagnosed with autism had been exposed to screens for long periods of time during the first 2 years of life. It can be inferred from the results of this survey that over-exposure to screens disrupt the parent-child interaction which is shown to be associated with ASD. The results of this survey highlight the harmful effects of screen exposure during infancy and the importance of parent-child interaction during the critical period of brain development. This paper attempts to further explore the connection between parent-child interaction and ASD, as well as serve as a call for further research and investigation of the relation between screens and parent-child interactions during infancy and Autism.

Keywords: Attachment disorder, autism, screen exposure, virtual autism.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 811
815 Effect of Isfahan Refinery, Power Plant and Petrochemical on Borkhar District Soil

Authors: A. Gandomkar

Abstract:

This study aimed to evaluate regional soil Borkhar of the metals Lead has been made. In this field study fires visits to the regions. The limit of this study located in the East refineries, petrochemical and power plant to 20 km was selected. The 41 soil samples from depths of 0 to 10 cm in area and were randomized. Soil samples were transported to the laboratory and by air was dry and passed through 2-mil thickness sieve. In the laboratory of physical and chemical characteristics and concentrations of total absorption was measured. The results showed that the amount of lead in soil in many parts of the range higher than the standard limit. Survey maps show that the lead spatial distribution of the region does not special pattern.

Keywords: Soil Pollution, Heavy Metals, Borkhar District, Soil Sampling.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1159
814 Regional Convergence in per Capita Personal Income in the US and Canada

Authors: Ilona Shiller

Abstract:

This study examines regional convergence in per capita personal income in the US and Canada. We find that the disparity in real per capita income levels across US states (Canadian provinces) has declined, but income levels are not identical. Income levels become more aligned once costs of living are accounted for in relative per capita income series. US states (Canadian provinces) converge at an annual rate of between 1.3% and 2.04% (between 2.15% and 2.37%). A pattern of σ and β-convergence in per capita personal income across regions evident over the entire sample period, is reversed over 1979-1989 (1976-1990) period. The reversal may be due to sectoral or region-specific shocks that have highly persistent effects. The latter explanation might be true for half of the US and most of Canada.

Keywords: regional convergence, regional disparities, per capita income.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1725
813 Image Similarity: A Genetic Algorithm Based Approach

Authors: R. C. Joshi, Shashikala Tapaswi

Abstract:

The paper proposes an approach using genetic algorithm for computing the region based image similarity. The image is denoted using a set of segmented regions reflecting color and texture properties of an image. An image is associated with a family of image features corresponding to the regions. The resemblance of two images is then defined as the overall similarity between two families of image features, and quantified by a similarity measure, which integrates properties of all the regions in the images. A genetic algorithm is applied to decide the most plausible matching. The performance of the proposed method is illustrated using examples from an image database of general-purpose images, and is shown to produce good results.

Keywords: Image Features, color descriptor, segmented classes, texture descriptors, genetic algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2317
812 Factors of Competitiveness in the Wine Industry: an Analysis of Innovation Strategy

Authors: Mª del Valle Fernández Moreno; Isidro Peña García-Pardo; Jesús David Sánchez de Pablo González del Campo

Abstract:

The search for competitive advantages as one of the main activities of a company has become a principle of contemporary theories on Strategic Management. Innovation facilitates a company's adaptation to the global competitive environment, representing the important strategic role that it has to play in relation to managerial performance and, as such, underlines the growing importance of innovation and the use of a company's technological assets. This paper therefore studies the effect in the results of four dimensions of technological innovation strategy on a sample of Spanish wineries, situated in the Castilla La-Mancha region of Spain, all of which are registered under the La Mancha Designation of Origin (DO).

Keywords: Company's strategy, factors of competitiveness, innovation strategy, wine industry

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2474
811 Image Segmentation Using the K-means Algorithm for Texture Features

Authors: Wan-Ting Lin, Chuen-Horng Lin, Tsung-Ho Wu, Yung-Kuan Chan

Abstract:

This study aims to segment objects using the K-means algorithm for texture features. Firstly, the algorithm transforms color images into gray images. This paper describes a novel technique for the extraction of texture features in an image. Then, in a group of similar features, objects and backgrounds are differentiated by using the K-means algorithm. Finally, this paper proposes a new object segmentation algorithm using the morphological technique. The experiments described include the segmentation of single and multiple objects featured in this paper. The region of an object can be accurately segmented out. The results can help to perform image retrieval and analyze features of an object, as are shown in this paper.

Keywords: k-mean, multiple objects, segmentation, texturefeatures.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2815
810 Building and Tree Detection Using Multiscale Matched Filtering

Authors: Abdullah H. Özcan, Dilara Hisar, Yetkin Sayar, Cem Ünsalan

Abstract:

In this study, an automated building and tree detection method is proposed using DSM data and true orthophoto image. A multiscale matched filtering is used on DSM data. Therefore, first watershed transform is applied. Then, Otsu’s thresholding method is used as an adaptive threshold to segment each watershed region. Detected objects are masked with NDVI to separate buildings and trees. The proposed method is able to detect buildings and trees without entering any elevation threshold. We tested our method on ISPRS semantic labeling dataset and obtained promising results.

Keywords: Building detection, tree detection, matched filtering, multiscale, local maximum filtering, watershed segmentation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 541
809 Effect of Cement-kiln Dust Pollution on The Vegetation in The Western Mediterranean Desert of Egypt

Authors: Amal, M. Fakhry, M. M. Migahid

Abstract:

This study investigated the ecological effects of particulate pollution from a cement factory on the vegetation in the western Mediterranean coastal desert of Egypt. Variations in vegetation, soil chemical characters, and some responses of Atriplex halimus, as a dominant species in the study area, were investigated in some sites located in different directions from the cement factory between Burg El-Arab in the east and El-Hammam in the west. The results showed an obvious decrease in vegetation diversity, in response to cement-kiln dust pollution, that accompanied by a high dominance attributed to the high contribution of Atriplex halimus. Annual species were found to be more sensitive to cement dust pollution as they all failed to persist in highly disturbed sites. It is remarkable that cover and phytomass of Atriplex halimus were increased greatly in response to cement dust pollution, and this was accompanied by a reduction in the mature seeds and leaf-area of the plant. The few seeds of the affected individuals seemed to be more fertile and attained higher germination percentages and exhibited hardening against drought stress.

Keywords: Atriplex halimus, Alpha diversity, Cement dustpollution.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2845
808 Ultrafast Transistor Laser Containing Graded Index Separate Confinement Heterostructure

Authors: Mohammad Hosseini

Abstract:

Ultrafast transistor laser investigated here has the graded index separate confinement heterostructure (GRIN-SCH) in its base region. Resonance-free optical frequency response with -3 dB bandwidth of more than 26 GHz has been achieved for a single quantum well transistor laser by using graded index layers of AlξGa1-ξAs (ξ: 0.1→0) in the left side of quantum well and AlξGa1-ξAs (ξ: 0.05→0) in the right side of quantum well. All required parameters, including quantum well and base transit time, optical confinement factor and spontaneous recombination lifetime, have been calculated using a self-consistent charge control model.

Keywords: Transistor laser, ultrafast, GRIN-SCH, -3db optical bandwidth, AlξGa1-ξAs.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 158
807 Segmentation of Ascending and Descending Aorta in CTA Images

Authors: H. Özkan

Abstract:

In this study, a new and fast algorithm for Ascending Aorta (AscA) and Descending Aorta (DesA) segmentation is presented using Computed Tomography Angiography images. This process is quite important especially at the detection of aortic plaques, aneurysms, calcification or stenosis. The applied method has been carried out at four steps. At first step, lung segmentation is achieved. At the second one, Mediastinum Region (MR) is detected to use in the segmentation. At the third one, images have been applied optimal threshold and components which are outside of the MR were removed. Lastly, identifying and segmentation of AscA and DesA have been carried out. The performance of the applied method is found quite well for radiologists and it gives enough results to the surgeries medically.

Keywords: Ascending aorta (AscA), Descending aorta (DesA), Computed tomography angiography (CTA), Computer aided detection (CAD), Segmentation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1826
806 Impacts of Biofuels on Air Quality: Northern Portugal Case Study

Authors: Ribeiro I., Tavares A.M., Sá E., Lopes M.

Abstract:

The increased use of biodiesel implies variations on both greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions. Some studies point out that the use of biodiesel blends on diesel can help in controlling air pollution and promote a reduction of CO2 emissions. Reductions on PM, SO2, VOC and CO emissions are also expected, however NOx emissions may increase, which may potentiate O3 formation. This work aims to assess the impact of the biodiesel use on air quality, through a numerical modeling study, taking the Northern region of Portugal as a case study. The emission scenarios are focused on 2008 (baseline year) and 2020 (target year of Renewable Energy Directive-RED) and on three biodiesel blends (B0, B10 and B20). In a general way the use of biodiesel by 2020 will reduce the CO2 and air pollutants emissions in the Northern Portugal, improving air quality. However it will be in a very small extension.

Keywords: air quality, biodiesel, emission scenarios, RED.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1787
805 Multiphase Coexistence for Aqueous System with Hydrophilic Agent

Authors: G. B. Hong, H. W. Chen

Abstract:

Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium (LLE) data are measured for the ternary mixtures of water + 1-butanol + butyl acetate and quaternary mixtures of water + 1-butanol + butyl acetate + glycerol at atmospheric pressure at 313.15 K. In addition, isothermal vapor–liquid–liquid equilibrium (VLLE) data are determined experimentally at 333.15 K. The region of heterogeneity is found to increase as the hydrophilic agent (glycerol) is introduced into the aqueous mixtures. The experimental data are correlated with the NRTL model. The predicted results from the solution model with the model parameters determined from the constituent binaries are also compared with the experimental values.

Keywords: LLE, VLLE, hydrophilic agent, NRTL.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1281
804 Image Enhancement Algorithm of Photoacoustic Tomography Using Active Contour Filtering

Authors: Prasannakumar Palaniappan, Dong Ho Shin, Chul Gyu Song

Abstract:

The photoacoustic images are obtained from a custom developed linear array photoacoustic tomography system. The biological specimens are imitated by conducting phantom tests in order to retrieve a fully functional photoacoustic image. The acquired image undergoes the active region based contour filtering to remove the noise and accurately segment the object area for further processing. The universal back projection method is used as the image reconstruction algorithm. The active contour filtering is analyzed by evaluating the signal to noise ratio and comparing it with the other filtering methods.

Keywords: Contour filtering, linear array, photoacoustic tomography, universal back projection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1834
803 Bioinformatics Profiling of Missense Mutations

Authors: I. Nassiri, B. Goliaei, M. Tavassoli

Abstract:

The ability to distinguish missense nucleotide substitutions that contribute to harmful effect from those that do not is a difficult problem usually accomplished through functional in vivo analyses. In this study, instead current biochemical methods, the effects of missense mutations upon protein structure and function were assayed by means of computational methods and information from the databases. For this order, the effects of new missense mutations in exon 5 of PTEN gene upon protein structure and function were examined. The gene coding for PTEN was identified and localized on chromosome region 10q23.3 as the tumor suppressor gene. The utilization of these methods were shown that c.319G>A and c.341T>G missense mutations that were recognized in patients with breast cancer and Cowden disease, could be pathogenic. This method could be use for analysis of missense mutation in others genes.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, missense mutations, PTEN tumorsuppressor gene.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2384
802 Motion Detection Techniques Using Optical Flow

Authors: A. A. Shafie, Fadhlan Hafiz, M. H. Ali

Abstract:

Motion detection is very important in image processing. One way of detecting motion is using optical flow. Optical flow cannot be computed locally, since only one independent measurement is available from the image sequence at a point, while the flow velocity has two components. A second constraint is needed. The method used for finding the optical flow in this project is assuming that the apparent velocity of the brightness pattern varies smoothly almost everywhere in the image. This technique is later used in developing software for motion detection which has the capability to carry out four types of motion detection. The motion detection software presented in this project also can highlight motion region, count motion level as well as counting object numbers. Many objects such as vehicles and human from video streams can be recognized by applying optical flow technique.

Keywords: Background modeling, Motion detection, Optical flow, Velocity smoothness constant, motion trajectories.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5374
801 Signal Transmission Analysis of Differential Pairs Using Semicircle-Shaped Via Structure

Authors: Moonjung Kim, Chang-Ho Hyun, Won-Ho Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, the signal transmission analysis of the semicircle-shaped via structure for the differential pairs is presented in the frequency range up to 10 GHz. In order to improve the signal transmission properties in the differential pairs, single via is separated centrally into two semicircle-shaped sections, which are interconnected with the traces of differential pairs respectively. This via structure make possible to route differential pairs using only one via. In addition, it can improve impedance discontinuity around its region and then enhance the signal transmission properties in the differential pairs. The electrical analysis such as S-parameter calculation and eye diagram simulation has been performed to investigate the improvement of the signal transmission property in the differential pairs with new via structure.

Keywords: Differential pairs, signal transmission property, via, S-parameter.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3919
800 A New Predictor of Coding Regions in Genomic Sequences using a Combination of Different Approaches

Authors: Aníbal Rodríguez Fuentes, Juan V. Lorenzo Ginori, Ricardo Grau Ábalo

Abstract:

Identifying protein coding regions in DNA sequences is a basic step in the location of genes. Several approaches based on signal processing tools have been applied to solve this problem, trying to achieve more accurate predictions. This paper presents a new predictor that improves the efficacy of three techniques that use the Fourier Transform to predict coding regions, and that could be computed using an algorithm that reduces the computation load. Some ideas about the combination of the predictor with other methods are discussed. ROC curves are used to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed predictor, based on the computation of 25 DNA sequences from three different organisms.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, Coding region prediction, Computational load reduction, Digital Signal Processing, Fourier Transform.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1657