Search results for: natural extract
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2108

Search results for: natural extract

1538 Tropical Peat Soil Stabilization using Class F Pond Ash from Coal Fired Power Plant

Authors: Kolay, P.K., Sii, H. Y., Taib, S.N.L.

Abstract:

This paper presents the stabilization potential of Class F pond ash (PA) from a coal fired thermal power station on tropical peat soil. Peat or highly organic soils are well known for their high compressibility, natural moisture content, low shear strength and long-term settlement. This study investigates the effect of different amount (i.e., 5, 10, 15 and 20%) of PA on peat soil, collected from Sarawak, Malaysia, mainly compaction and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) properties. The amounts of PA added to the peat soil sample as percentage of the dry peat soil mass. With the increase in PA content, the maximum dry density (MDD) of peat soil increases, while the optimum moisture content (OMC) decreases. The UCS value of the peat soils increases significantly with the increase of PA content and also with curing periods. This improvement on compressive strength of tropical peat soils indicates that PA has the potential to be used as a stabilizer for tropical peat soil. Also, the use of PA in soil stabilization helps in reducing the pond volume and achieving environment friendly as well as a sustainable development of natural resources.

Keywords: Compaction, Peat soil, Pond ash, Stabilization.

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1537 Education in Technology for Sustainable Development Applied to School Gardens

Authors: Sara Blanc, José V. Benlloch-Dualde, Laura Grindei, Ana C. Torres, Angélica Monteiro

Abstract:

This paper presents a study that leads an experience by introducing digital learning applied to a case study focused on primary and secondary school garden-based education. The approach represents an example for interaction among different education and research agents at different countries and levels, such as universities, public and private researches and schools, to get involved in the implementation of education for sustainable development that will make students become more sensible to natural environment, more responsible for their consumption, more aware about waste reduction and recycling, more conscious of the sustainable use of natural resources and, at the same time, more ‘digitally competent’. The experience was designed attending to the European digital education context and OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) directives in transversal skills education. The paper presents the methodology carried out in the study as well as outcomes obtained from the experience.

Keywords: School gardens, primary education, secondary education, science technology and innovation in education, digital learning, sustainable development goals, university, knowledge transference.

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1536 Data Mining in Oral Medicine Using Decision Trees

Authors: Fahad Shahbaz Khan, Rao Muhammad Anwer, Olof Torgersson, Göran Falkman

Abstract:

Data mining has been used very frequently to extract hidden information from large databases. This paper suggests the use of decision trees for continuously extracting the clinical reasoning in the form of medical expert-s actions that is inherent in large number of EMRs (Electronic Medical records). In this way the extracted data could be used to teach students of oral medicine a number of orderly processes for dealing with patients who represent with different problems within the practice context over time.

Keywords: Data mining, Oral Medicine, Decision Trees, WEKA.

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1535 Measurement of Convective Heat Transfer from a Vertical Flat Plate Using Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with Wedge Fringe Setting

Authors: Divya Haridas, C. B. Sobhan

Abstract:

Laser interferometric methods have been utilized for the measurement of natural convection heat transfer from a heated vertical flat plate, in the investigation presented here. The study mainly aims at comparing two different fringe orientations in the wedge fringe setting of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), used for the measurements. The interference fringes are set in horizontal and vertical orientations with respect to the heated surface, and two different fringe analysis methods, namely the stepping method and the method proposed by Naylor and Duarte, are used to obtain the heat transfer coefficients. The experimental system is benchmarked with theoretical results, thus validating its reliability in heat transfer measurements. The interference fringe patterns are analyzed digitally using MATLAB 7 and MOTIC Plus softwares, which ensure improved efficiency in fringe analysis, hence reducing the errors associated with conventional fringe tracing. The work also discuss the relative merits and limitations of the two methods used.

Keywords: MZI, Natural Convection, Naylor Method, Vertical Flat Plate.

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1534 Unified Method to Block Pornographic Images in Websites

Authors: Sakthi Priya Balaji R., Vijayendar G.

Abstract:

This paper proposes a technique to block adult images displayed in websites. The filter is designed so as to perform even in exceptional cases such as, where face detection is not possible or improper face visibility. This is achieved by using an alternative phase to extract the MFC (Most Frequent Color) from the Human Body regions estimated using a biometric of anthropometric distances between fixed rigidly connected body locations. The logical results generated can be protected from overriding by a firewall or intrusion, by encrypting the result in a SSH data packet.

Keywords: Face detection, characteristics extraction andclassification, Component based shape analysis and classification, open source SSH V2 protocol

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1533 The Antioxidant Capacity of Beverage Blends Made from Cocoa, Zobo and Ginger

Authors: Folasade F. Awe, Tayo N. Fagbemi, Comfort F. Ajibola, Adebanjo A. Badejo

Abstract:

The antioxidant capability of beverage blends made from cocoa, zobo and ginger with standard antioxidant assay procedures was investigated. The DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl) scavenging capacity ranged from 21.2-25.8% in comparison with GSH of 37.1%. The ferric reducing ability was highest in the zobo drink and lowest in ginger. The superoxide scavenging capacity was also highest in the zobo drink followed by the drink with alkalized cocoa. The metal chelating power decreased as the level of zobo in the blends decreases. The chelating power of zobo and ginger were significantly lower than the natural and alkalized cocoa. The 100% zobo drink inhibited linoleic acid till the fifth day while natural and alkalized cocoa as well as the blend with 50% alkalized cocoa inhibited linoleic acid greatly till the sixth day. The finding describes the potential health benefit of the phytochemical antioxidants of cocoa:zobo:ginger beverage blends.

Keywords: Antioxidant, cocoa, ginger, health benefit, zobo blend.

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1532 Classification of Radio Communication Signals using Fuzzy Logic

Authors: Zuzana Dideková, Beata Mikovičová

Abstract:

Characterization of radio communication signals aims at automatic recognition of different characteristics of radio signals in order to detect their modulation type, the central frequency, and the level. Our purpose is to apply techniques used in image processing in order to extract pertinent characteristics. To the single analysis, we add several rules for checking the consistency of hypotheses using fuzzy logic. This allows taking into account ambiguity and uncertainty that may remain after the extraction of individual characteristics. The aim is to improve the process of radio communications characterization.

Keywords: fuzzy classification, fuzzy inference system, radio communication signals, telecommunications

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1531 Numerical Investigation of Multiphase Flow in Pipelines

Authors: Gozel Judakova, Markus Bause

Abstract:

We present and analyze reliable numerical techniques for simulating complex flow and transport phenomena related to natural gas transportation in pipelines. Such kind of problems are of high interest in the field of petroleum and environmental engineering. Modeling and understanding natural gas flow and transformation processes during transportation is important for the sake of physical realism and the design and operation of pipeline systems. In our approach a two fluid flow model based on a system of coupled hyperbolic conservation laws is considered for describing natural gas flow undergoing hydratization. The accurate numerical approximation of two-phase gas flow remains subject of strong interest in the scientific community. Such hyperbolic problems are characterized by solutions with steep gradients or discontinuities, and their approximation by standard finite element techniques typically gives rise to spurious oscillations and numerical artefacts. Recently, stabilized and discontinuous Galerkin finite element techniques have attracted researchers’ interest. They are highly adapted to the hyperbolic nature of our two-phase flow model. In the presentation a streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin approach and a discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the numerical approximation of our flow model of two coupled systems of Euler equations are presented. Then the efficiency and reliability of stabilized continuous and discontinous finite element methods for the approximation is carefully analyzed and the potential of the either classes of numerical schemes is investigated. In particular, standard benchmark problems of two-phase flow like the shock tube problem are used for the comparative numerical study.

Keywords: Discontinuous Galerkin method, Euler system, inviscid two-fluid model, streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin method, two-phase flow.

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1530 A Learning Agent for Knowledge Extraction from an Active Semantic Network

Authors: Simon Thiel, Stavros Dalakakis, Dieter Roller

Abstract:

This paper outlines the development of a learning retrieval agent. Task of this agent is to extract knowledge of the Active Semantic Network in respect to user-requests. Based on a reinforcement learning approach, the agent learns to interpret the user-s intention. Especially, the learning algorithm focuses on the retrieval of complex long distant relations. Increasing its learnt knowledge with every request-result-evaluation sequence, the agent enhances his capability in finding the intended information.

Keywords: Reinforcement learning, learning retrieval agent, search in semantic networks.

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1529 Deployment of Service Quality Characteristics

Authors: Shuki Dror

Abstract:

This work discusses an innovative methodology for deployment of service quality characteristics. Four groups of organizational features that may influence the quality of services are identified: human resource, technology, planning, and organizational relationships. A House of Service Quality (HOSQ) matrix is built to extract the desired improvement in the service quality characteristics and to translate them into a hierarchy of important organizational features. The Mean Square Error (MSE) criterion enables the pinpointing of the few essential service quality characteristics to be improved as well as selection of the vital organizational features. The method was implemented in an engineering supply enterprise and provides useful information on its vital service dimensions.

Keywords: HOQ, organizational features, service quality.

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1528 MHD Natural Convection Flow of Tangent Hyperbolic Nanofluid Past a Vertical Permeable Cone

Authors: A. Mahdy

Abstract:

In this paper, a non-similraity analysis has been presented to exhibit the two-dimensional boundary layer flow of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection of tangent hyperbolic nanofluid nearby a vertical permeable cone in the presence of variable wall temperature impact. The mutated boundary layer nonlinear governing equations are solved numerically by the an efficient implicit finite difference procedure. For both nanofluid effective viscosity and nanofluid thermal conductivity, a number of experimental relations have been recognized. For characterizing the nanofluid, the compatible nanoparticle volume fraction model has been used. Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient are calculated for some values of Weissenberg number W, surface temperature exponent n, magnetic field parameter Mg, power law index m and Prandtl number Pr as functions of suction parameter. The rate of heat transfer from a vertical permeable cone in a regular fluid is less than that in nanofluids. A best convection has been presented by Copper nanoparticle among all the used nanoparticles.

Keywords: Tangent hyperbolic nanofluid, finite difference, non-similarity, isothermal cone.

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1527 Determination of Moisture Content and Liquid Limit of Foundations Soils, using Microwave Radiation, in the Different Locations of Sulaimani Governorate, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Authors: Heyam Daod

Abstract:

Soils are normally dried in either a convection oven or stove. Laboratory moisture content testing indicated that the typical drying durations for a convection oven were, 24 hours. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy and soil drying duration of both, moisture content and liquid limit using microwave radiation. The soils were tested with both, convection and microwave ovens. The convection oven was considered to produce the true values for both, natural moisture content and liquid limit of soils; it was, therefore, used as a basis for comparison for the results of the microwave ovens. The samples used in this study were obtained from different projects of Consulting Engineering Bureau of College of Engineering of Sulaimani University. These samples were collected from different locations and at the different depths and consist mostly of brown and light brown clay and silty clay. A total of 102 samples were prepared. 26 of them were tested for natural moisture determination, while the other 76 were used for liquid limits determination

Keywords: Fine-grained soils, liquid limit, microwave drying,

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1526 A Study of Computational Organizational Narrative Generation for Decision Support

Authors: Yeung C.L., Cheung C.F., Wang W.M., Tsui E.

Abstract:

Narratives are invaluable assets of human lives. Due to the distinct features of narratives, they are useful for supporting human reasoning processes. However, many useful narratives become residuals in organizations or human minds nowadays. Researchers have contributed effort to investigate and improve narrative generation processes. This paper attempts to contemplate essential components in narratives and explore a computational approach to acquire and extract knowledge to generate narratives. The methodology and significant benefit for decision support are presented.

Keywords: Decision Support, Knowledge Management, Knowledge-based Systems, Narrative Generation

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1525 Environmental Accounting: A Conceptual Study of Indian Context

Authors: Pradip Kumar Das

Abstract:

As the entire world continues its rapid move towards industrialization, it has seriously threatened mankind’s ability to maintain an ecological balance. Geographical and natural forces have a significant influence on the location of industries. Industrialization is the foundation stone of the development of any country, while the unplanned industrialization and discharge of waste by industries is the cause of environmental pollution. There is growing degree of awareness and concern globally among nations about environmental degradation or pollution. Environmental resources endowed by the gift of nature and not manmade are invaluable natural resources of a country like India. Any developmental activity is directly related to natural and environmental resources. Economic development without environmental considerations brings about environmental crises and damages the quality of life of present, as well as future generation. As corporate sectors in the global market, especially in India, are becoming anxious about environmental degradation, naturally more and more emphasis will be ascribed to how environment-friendly the outcomes are. Maintaining accounts of such environmental and natural resources in the country has become more urgent. Moreover, international awareness and acceptance of the importance of environmental issues has motivated the development of a branch of accounting called “Environmental Accounting”. Environmental accounting attempts to detect and focus the resources consumed and the costs rendered by an industrial unit to the environment. For the sustainable development of mankind, a healthy environment is indispensable. Gradually, therefore, in many countries including India, environment matters are being given top most priority. Accounting and disclosure of environmental matters have been increasingly manifesting as an important dimension of corporate accounting and reporting practices. But, as conventional accounting deals with mainly non-living things, the formulation of valuation, and measurement and accounting techniques for incorporating environment-related matters in the corporate financial statement sometimes creates problems for the accountant. In the light of this situation, the conceptual analysis of the study is concerned with the rationale of environmental accounting on the economy and society as a whole, and focuses the failures of the traditional accounting system. A modest attempt has been made to throw light on the environmental awareness in developing nations like India and discuss the problems associated with the implementation of environmental accounting. The conceptual study also reflects that despite different anomalies, environmental accounting is becoming an increasing important aspect of the accounting agenda within the corporate sector in India. Lastly, a conclusion, along with recommendations, has been given to overcome the situation.

Keywords: Environmental accounting, environmental degradation, environmental management, environmental resources.

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1524 Sensitivity Analysis of the Heat Exchanger Design in Net Power Oxy-Combustion Cycle for Carbon Capture

Authors: Hirbod Varasteh, Hamidreza Gohari Darabkhani

Abstract:

The global warming and its impact on climate change is one of main challenges for current century. Global warming is mainly due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and carbon dioxide (CO2) is known to be the major contributor to the GHG emission profile. Whilst the energy sector is the primary source for CO2 emission, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) are believed to be the solution for controlling this emission. Oxyfuel combustion (Oxy-combustion) is one of the major technologies for capturing CO2 from power plants. For gas turbines, several Oxy-combustion power cycles (Oxyturbine cycles) have been investigated by means of thermodynamic analysis. NetPower cycle is one of the leading oxyturbine power cycles with almost full carbon capture capability from a natural gas fired power plant. In this manuscript, sensitivity analysis of the heat exchanger design in NetPower cycle is completed by means of process modelling. The heat capacity variation and supercritical CO2 with gaseous admixtures are considered for multi-zone analysis with Aspen Plus software. It is found that the heat exchanger design has a major role to increase the efficiency of NetPower cycle. The pinch-point analysis is done to extract the composite and grand composite curve for the heat exchanger. In this paper, relationship between the cycle efficiency and the minimum approach temperature (∆Tmin) of the heat exchanger has also been evaluated.  Increase in ∆Tmin causes a decrease in the temperature of the recycle flue gases (RFG) and an overall decrease in the required power for the recycled gas compressor. The main challenge in the design of heat exchangers in power plants is a tradeoff between the capital and operational costs. To achieve lower ∆Tmin, larger size of heat exchanger is required. This means a higher capital cost but leading to a better heat recovery and lower operational cost. To achieve this, ∆Tmin is selected from the minimum point in the diagrams of capital and operational costs. This study provides an insight into the NetPower Oxy-combustion cycle’s performance analysis and operational condition based on its heat exchanger design.

Keywords: Carbon capture and storage, oxy-combustion, netpower cycle, oxyturbine power cycles, heat exchanger design, supercritical carbon dioxide, pinch point analysis.

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1523 Saving Energy through Scalable Architecture

Authors: John Lamb, Robert Epstein, Vasundhara L. Bhupathi, Sanjeev Kumar Marimekala

Abstract:

In this paper, we focus on the importance of scalable architecture for data centers and buildings in general to help an enterprise achieve environmental sustainability. The scalable architecture helps in many ways, such as adaptability to the business and user requirements, promotes high availability and disaster recovery solutions that are cost effective and low maintenance. The scalable architecture also plays a vital role in three core areas of sustainability: economy, environment, and social, which are also known as the 3 pillars of a sustainability model. If the architecture is scalable, it has many advantages. A few examples are that scalable architecture helps businesses and industries to adapt to changing technology, drive innovation, promote platform independence, and build resilience against natural disasters. Most importantly, having a scalable architecture helps industries bring in cost-effective measures for energy consumption, reduce wastage, increase productivity, and enable a robust environment. It also helps in the reduction of carbon emissions with advanced monitoring and metering capabilities. Scalable architectures help in reducing waste by optimizing the designs to utilize materials efficiently, minimize resources, decrease carbon footprints by using low-impact materials that are environmentally friendly. In this paper we also emphasize the importance of cultural shift towards the reuse and recycling of natural resources for a balanced ecosystem and maintain a circular economy. Also, since all of us are involved in the use of computers, much of the scalable architecture we have studied is related to data centers.

Keywords: Scalable Architectures, Sustainability, Application Design, Disruptive Technology, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, AI, Social Media Platform, Cloud Computing, Advanced Networking, Storage Devices, Advanced Monitoring, Metering Infrastructure, Climate change.

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1522 Effect of Prandtl Number on Natural Convection Heat Transfer from a Heated Semi-Circular Cylinder

Authors: Avinash Chandra, R. P. Chhabra

Abstract:

Natural convection heat transfer from a heated horizontal semi-circular cylinder (flat surface upward) has been investigated for the following ranges of conditions; Grashof number, and Prandtl number. The governing partial differential equations (continuity, Navier-Stokes and energy equations) have been solved numerically using a finite volume formulation. In addition, the role of the type of the thermal boundary condition imposed at cylinder surface, namely, constant wall temperature (CWT) and constant heat flux (CHF) are explored. Natural convection heat transfer from a heated horizontal semi-circular cylinder (flat surface upward) has been investigated for the following ranges of conditions; Grashof number, and Prandtl number, . The governing partial differential equations (continuity, Navier-Stokes and energy equations) have been solved numerically using a finite volume formulation. In addition, the role of the type of the thermal boundary condition imposed at cylinder surface, namely, constant wall temperature (CWT) and constant heat flux (CHF) are explored. The resulting flow and temperature fields are visualized in terms of the streamline and isotherm patterns in the proximity of the cylinder. The flow remains attached to the cylinder surface over the range of conditions spanned here except that for and ; at these conditions, a separated flow region is observed when the condition of the constant wall temperature is prescribed on the surface of the cylinder. The heat transfer characteristics are analyzed in terms of the local and average Nusselt numbers. The maximum value of the local Nusselt number always occurs at the corner points whereas it is found to be minimum at the rear stagnation point on the flat surface. Overall, the average Nusselt number increases with Grashof number and/ or Prandtl number in accordance with the scaling considerations. The numerical results are used to develop simple correlations as functions of Grashof and Prandtl number thereby enabling the interpolation of the present numerical results for the intermediate values of the Prandtl or Grashof numbers for both thermal boundary conditions.

Keywords: Constant heat flux, Constant surface temperature, Grashof number, natural convection, Prandtl number, Semi-circular cylinder

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1521 Vibration of Functionally Graded Cylindrical Shells Under Effect Clamped-Free Boundary Conditions Using Hamilton's Principle

Authors: M.R. Isvandzibaei, M.R. Alinaghizadeh, A.H. Zaman

Abstract:

In the present work, study of the vibration of thin cylindrical shells made of a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. Material properties are graded in the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law distribution. The objective is to study the natural frequencies, the influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of boundary conditions on the natural frequencies of the FG cylindrical shell. The study is carried out using third order shear deformation shell theory. The analysis is carried out using Hamilton's principle. The governing equations of motion of FG cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of clamped-free boundary conditions

Keywords: Vibration, FGM, cylindrical shell, Hamilton's principle, clamped supported.

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1520 Effect of Eccentricity on Conjugate Natural Convection in Vertical Eccentric Annuli

Authors: A. Jamal, M. A. I. El-Shaarawi, E. M. A. Mokheimer

Abstract:

Combined conduction-free convection heat transfer in vertical eccentric annuli is numerically investigated using a finitedifference technique. Numerical results, representing the heat transfer parameters such as annulus walls temperature, heat flux, and heat absorbed in the developing region of the annulus, are presented for a Newtonian fluid of Prandtl number 0.7, fluid-annulus radius ratio 0.5, solid-fluid thermal conductivity ratio 10, inner and outer wall dimensionless thicknesses 0.1 and 0.2, respectively, and dimensionless eccentricities 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7. The annulus walls are subjected to thermal boundary conditions, which are obtained by heating one wall isothermally whereas keeping the other wall at inlet fluid temperature. In the present paper, the annulus heights required to achieve thermal full development for prescribed eccentricities are obtained. Furthermore, the variation in the height of thermal full development as function of the geometrical parameter, i.e., eccentricity is also investigated.

Keywords: Conjugate natural convection, eccentricity, heat transfer, vertical eccentric annuli.

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1519 Vibration of Functionally Graded Cylindrical Shells under Effects Free-free and Clamed-clamped Boundary Conditions

Authors: M. R.Isvandzibaei, A.Jahani

Abstract:

In the present work, study of the vibration of thin cylindrical shells made of a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. Material properties are graded in the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law distribution. The objective is to study the natural frequencies, the influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of boundary conditions on the natural frequencies of the FG cylindrical shell. The study is carried out using third order shear deformation shell theory. The analysis is carried out using Hamilton's principle. The governing equations of motion of FG cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of free-free and clamped-clamped boundary conditions.

Keywords: Vibration, FGM, cylindrical shell, Hamilton's principle.

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1518 Radiation Workers’ Occupational Doses: Are We Really Careful or Overconscious

Authors: Sajjad A. Memon, Sadaf T. Qureshi, Naeem A. Laghari, Noor M. Khuhro

Abstract:

The present study represents the occupational radiation doses received by selected workers of Nuclear Institute of Medicine and Radiotherapy (NIMRA) Jamshoro Pakistan and conducted to discuss about how we be careful and try to avoid make ourselves overconscious. Film badges with unique identification number were issued to radiation worker to detect occupational radiation doses. In this study, only 08 workers with high radiation doses were assessed amongst 35 radiation workers during the period of January 2012 to December 2012. The selected radiation workers’ occupational doses were according to designated work areas and in the range of 1.21 to 7.78 mSv (mili Sieveret) out of the annual dose limit of 20 mSv. By the comparison of different studies and earth’s HNBR (High Natural Background Radiation) locations’ doses, it is concluded that the worker’s high doses are of magnitude of HNBR Regions and were in the acceptable range of National and International regulatory bodies so we must not to show any type of overconsciousness but be careful in handling the radioactive sources.

Keywords: Natural background radiation, Occupational dose, Overconscious, Personal monitoring.

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1517 A Review on Image Segmentation Techniques and Performance Measures

Authors: David Libouga Li Gwet, Marius Otesteanu, Ideal Oscar Libouga, Laurent Bitjoka, Gheorghe D. Popa

Abstract:

Image segmentation is a method to extract regions of interest from an image. It remains a fundamental problem in computer vision. The increasing diversity and the complexity of segmentation algorithms have led us firstly, to make a review and classify segmentation techniques, secondly to identify the most used measures of segmentation performance and thirdly, discuss deeply on segmentation philosophy in order to help the choice of adequate segmentation techniques for some applications. To justify the relevance of our analysis, recent algorithms of segmentation are presented through the proposed classification.

Keywords: Classification, image segmentation, measures of performance.

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1516 Bedouin Weaving Techniques: Source of Textile Innovation

Authors: Omaymah AlAzhari

Abstract:

Nomadic tribes have always had the need to relocate and build shelters, moving from one site to another in search of food, water, and natural resources. They are affected by weather and seasonal changes and consequently started innovating textiles to build better shelters. Their solutions came from the observation of their natural environment, material, and surroundings. ‘AlRahala’ Nomadic Bedouin tribes from the Middle East and North African region have used textiles as a fundamental architectural element in their tent structure, ‘Bayt AlShar’ (House of Hair). The nomadic tribe has innovated their textile to create a fabric that is more suited to change in climatic and weather conditions. They used sheep, goat, or camel hair to weave the textiles to make their shelters. The research is based on existing literature on the weaving technicalities used by these tribes, based on their available materials encountered during travel. To conclude how they create the traditional textiles and use in the tents are a rich source of information for designers to create innovative solutions of modern-day textiles and environmentally responsive products.

Keywords: AlRahala Nomadic Tribes, Bayt AlShar, tent structure, textile innovation.

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1515 Sinusoidal Roughness Elements in a Square Cavity

Authors: M. Yousaf, S. Usman

Abstract:

Numerical studies were conducted using Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) to study the natural convection in a square cavity in the presence of roughness. An algorithm based on a single relaxation time Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model of Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was developed. Roughness was introduced on both the hot and cold walls in the form of sinusoidal roughness elements. The study was conducted for a Newtonian fluid of Prandtl number (Pr) 1.0. The range of Ra number was explored from 10^3 to 10^6 in a laminar region. Thermal and hydrodynamic behavior of fluid was analyzed using a differentially heated square cavity with roughness elements present on both the hot and cold wall. Neumann boundary conditions were introduced on horizontal walls with vertical walls as isothermal. The roughness elements were at the same boundary condition as corresponding walls. Computational algorithm was validated against previous benchmark studies performed with different numerical methods, and a good agreement was found to exist. Results indicate that the maximum reduction in the average heat transfer was 16.66 percent at Ra number 10^5.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann Method Natural convection, Nusselt Number Rayleigh number, Roughness.

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1514 A New Approach for the Fingerprint Classification Based On Gray-Level Co- Occurrence Matrix

Authors: Mehran Yazdi, Kazem Gheysari

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose an approach for the classification of fingerprint databases. It is based on the fact that a fingerprint image is composed of regular texture regions that can be successfully represented by co-occurrence matrices. So, we first extract the features based on certain characteristics of the cooccurrence matrix and then we use these features to train a neural network for classifying fingerprints into four common classes. The obtained results compared with the existing approaches demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed approach.

Keywords: Biometrics, fingerprint classification, gray level cooccurrence matrix, regular texture representation.

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1513 Reduce of Fermentation Time in Composting Process by Using a Special Microbial Consortium

Authors: S.H. Mirdamadian, S.M. Khayam-Nekoui, H. Ghanavati

Abstract:

Composting is the process in which municipal solid waste (MSW) and other organic waste materials such as biosolids and manures are decomposed through the action of bacteria and other microorganisms into a stable granular material which, applied to land, as soil conditioner. Microorganisms, especially those that are able to degrade polymeric organic material have a key role in speed up this process. The aim of this study has been established to isolation of microorganisms with high ability to production extracellular enzymes for degradation of natural polymers that are exists in MSW for decreasing time of degradation phase. Our experimental study for isolation designed in two phases: in first phase we isolated degrading microorganism with selected media that consist a special natural polymer such as cellulose, starch, lipids and etc as sole source of carbon. In second phase we selected microorganism that had high degrading enzyme production with enzymatic assay for seed production. However, our findings in pilot scale have indicated that usage of this microbial consortium had high efficiency for decreasing degradation phase.

Keywords: Biodegradation, Compost, Municipal Solid Waste, Waste Management.

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1512 Development of Fake News Model Using Machine Learning through Natural Language Processing

Authors: Sajjad Ahmed, Knut Hinkelmann, Flavio Corradini

Abstract:

Fake news detection research is still in the early stage as this is a relatively new phenomenon in the interest raised by society. Machine learning helps to solve complex problems and to build AI systems nowadays and especially in those cases where we have tacit knowledge or the knowledge that is not known. We used machine learning algorithms and for identification of fake news; we applied three classifiers; Passive Aggressive, Naïve Bayes, and Support Vector Machine. Simple classification is not completely correct in fake news detection because classification methods are not specialized for fake news. With the integration of machine learning and text-based processing, we can detect fake news and build classifiers that can classify the news data. Text classification mainly focuses on extracting various features of text and after that incorporating those features into classification. The big challenge in this area is the lack of an efficient way to differentiate between fake and non-fake due to the unavailability of corpora. We applied three different machine learning classifiers on two publicly available datasets. Experimental analysis based on the existing dataset indicates a very encouraging and improved performance.

Keywords: Fake news detection, types of fake news, machine learning, natural language processing, classification techniques.

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1511 Evaluation on Mechanical Stabilities of Clay-Sand Mixtures Used as Engineered Barrier for Radioactive Waste Disposal

Authors: Ahmet E. Osmanlioglu

Abstract:

In this study, natural bentonite was used as natural clay material and samples were taken from the Kalecik district in Ankara. In this research, bentonite is the subject of an analysis from standpoint of assessing the basic properties of engineered barriers with respect to the buffer material. Bentonite and sand mixtures were prepared for tests. Some of clay minerals give relatively higher hydraulic conductivity and lower swelling pressure. Generally, hydraulic conductivity of these type clays is lower than <10-12 m/s. The hydraulic properties of clay-sand mixtures are evaluated to design engineered barrier specifications. Hydraulic conductivities of bentonite-sand mixture were found in the range of 1.2x10-10 to 9.3x10-10 m/s. Optimum B/S mixture ratio was determined as 35% in terms of hydraulic conductivity and mechanical stability. At the second stage of this study, all samples were compacted into cylindrical shape molds (diameter: 50 mm and length: 120 mm). The strength properties of compacted mixtures were better than the compacted bentonite. In addition, the larger content of the quartz sand in the mixture has the greater thermal conductivity.

Keywords: Bentonite, hydraulic conductivity, clay, nuclear waste disposal.

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1510 Thermosensitive Hydrogel Development for Its Possible Application in Cardiac Cell Therapy

Authors: Lina Paola Orozco-Marín, Yuliet Montoya, John Bustamante

Abstract:

Ischemic events can culminate in acute myocardial infarction with irreversible cardiac lesions that cannot be restored due to the limited regenerative capacity of the heart. Tissue engineering proposes therapeutic alternatives by using biomaterials to resemble the native extracellular medium combined with healthy and functional cells. This research focused on developing a natural thermosensitive hydrogel, its physical-chemical characterization and in vitro biocompatibility determination. Hydrogels’ morphological characterization was carried out through scanning electron microscopy and its chemical characterization by employing Infrared Spectroscopy technic. In addition, the biocompatibility was determined using fetal human ventricular cardiomyocytes cell line RL-14 and the MTT cytotoxicity test according to the ISO 10993-5 standard. Four biocompatible and thermosensitive hydrogels were obtained with a three-dimensional internal structure and two gelation times. The results show the potential of the hydrogel to increase the cell survival rate to the cardiac cell therapies under investigation and lay the foundations to continue with its characterization and biological evaluation both in vitro and in vivo models.

Keywords: cardiac cell therapy, cardiac ischemia, natural polymers, thermosensitive hydrogel

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1509 Extracting Attributes for Twitter Hashtag Communities

Authors: Ashwaq Alsulami, Jianhua Shao

Abstract:

Various organisations often need to understand discussions on social media, such as what trending topics are and characteristics of the people engaged in the discussion. A number of approaches have been proposed to extract attributes that would characterise a discussion group. However, these approaches are largely based on supervised learning, and as such they require a large amount of labelled data. We propose an approach in this paper that does not require labelled data, but rely on lexical sources to detect meaningful attributes for online discussion groups. Our findings show an acceptable level of accuracy in detecting attributes for Twitter discussion groups.

Keywords: Attributed community, attribute detection, community, social network.

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