Search results for: phase equilibrium
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1907

Search results for: phase equilibrium

1337 Traffic Noise under Stop and Go Conditions in Intersections – A Case Study

Authors: Nima Jahandar, Amin Hosseinpour, Mohammad Ali Sahraei

Abstract:

Whit the increasing of traffic, noise emanated from motor vehicles increases as well, which subsequently causes adding to the stress of modern city. Thus, it is needed to look for most critical areas in terms of environmental and social impact of noise. There are several critical situations for noise emanated from motor vehicles such as stop and go situation which usually occurs near junctions or at-grade intersections. This study was conducted in two locations, most common types of intersections, crossroads and Tjunctions. The highest average noise levels are recorded during Go phase for T-junction, 64.4 dB, and Drive phase for crossroad, 64 dB. It implies that the existence of intersection caused the noise level to increase. The vehicles starting to move produce more sound than when they travel at a constant speed along the intersection. It is suggested that special considerations and priority of allocating funds should be given to these critical spots.

Keywords: Crossroad, T-junction, Traffic Noise, Stop and Go, Urban noise

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1336 Exploring Socio-Economic Barriers of Green Entrepreneurship in Iran and Their Interactions Using Interpretive Structural Modeling

Authors: Younis Jabarzadeh, Rahim Sarvari, Negar Ahmadi Alghalandis

Abstract:

Entrepreneurship at both individual and organizational level is one of the most driving forces in economic development and leads to growth and competition, job generation and social development. Especially in developing countries, the role of entrepreneurship in economic and social prosperity is more emphasized. But the effect of global economic development on the environment is undeniable, especially in negative ways, and there is a need to rethink current business models and the way entrepreneurs act to introduce new businesses to address and embed environmental issues in order to achieve sustainable development. In this paper, green or sustainable entrepreneurship is addressed in Iran to identify challenges and barriers entrepreneurs in the economic and social sectors face in developing green business solutions. Sustainable or green entrepreneurship has been gaining interest among scholars in recent years and addressing its challenges and barriers need much more attention to fill the gap in the literature and facilitate the way those entrepreneurs are pursuing. This research comprised of two main phases: qualitative and quantitative. At qualitative phase, after a thorough literature review, fuzzy Delphi method is utilized to verify those challenges and barriers by gathering a panel of experts and surveying them. In this phase, several other contextually related factors were added to the list of identified barriers and challenges mentioned in the literature. Then, at the quantitative phase, Interpretive Structural Modeling is applied to construct a network of interactions among those barriers identified at the previous phase. Again, a panel of subject matter experts comprised of academic and industry experts was surveyed. The results of this study can be used by policymakers in both the public and industry sector, to introduce more systematic solutions to eliminate those barriers and help entrepreneurs overcome challenges of sustainable entrepreneurship. It also contributes to the literature as the first research in this type which deals with the barriers of sustainable entrepreneurship and explores their interaction.

Keywords: Green entrepreneurship, barriers, Fuzzy Delphi Method, interpretive structural modeling.

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1335 Sustainable Hydrogel Nanocomposites Based on Grafted Chitosan and Clay for Effective Adsorption of Cationic Dye

Authors: H. Ferfera-Harrar, T. Benhalima, D. Lerari

Abstract:

Contamination of water, due to the discharge of untreated industrial wastewaters into the ecosystem, has become a serious problem for many countries. In this study, bioadsorbents based on chitosan-g-poly(acrylamide) and montmorillonite (MMt) clay (CTS-g-PAAm/MMt) hydrogel nanocomposites were prepared via free‐radical grafting copolymerization and crosslinking of acrylamide monomer (AAm) onto natural polysaccharide chitosan (CTS) as backbone, in presence of various contents of MMt clay as nanofiller. Then, they were hydrolyzed to obtain highly functionalized pH‐sensitive nanomaterials with uppermost swelling properties. Their structure characterization was conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. The adsorption performances of the developed nanohybrids were examined for removal of methylene blue (MB) cationic dye from aqueous solutions. The factors affecting the removal of MB, such as clay content, pH medium, adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration and temperature were explored. The adsorption process was found to be highly pH dependent. From adsorption kinetic results, the prepared adsorbents showed remarkable adsorption capacity and fast adsorption rate, mainly more than 88% of MB removal efficiency was reached after 50 min in 200 mg L-1 of dye solution. In addition, the incorporating of various content of clay has enhanced adsorption capacity of CTS-g-PAAm matrix from 1685 to a highest value of 1749 mg g-1 for the optimized nanocomposite containing 2 wt.% of MMt. The experimental kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model, while the equilibrium data were represented perfectly by Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum Langmuir equilibrium adsorption capacity (qm) was found to increase from 2173 mg g−1 until 2221 mg g−1 by adding 2 wt.% of clay nanofiller. Thermodynamic parameters revealed the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the process. In addition, the reusability study revealed that these bioadsorbents could be well regenerated with desorption efficiency overhead 87% and without any obvious decrease of removal efficiency as compared to starting ones even after four consecutive adsorption/desorption cycles, which exceeded 64%. These results suggest that the optimized nanocomposites are promising as low cost bioadsorbents.

Keywords: Chitosan, clay, dye adsorption, hydrogels nanocomposites.

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1334 Equilibrium Modeling of Carbon Dioxide Adsorption on Zeolites

Authors: Alireza Behvandi, Somayeh Tourani

Abstract:

High pressure adsorption of carbon dioxide on zeolite 13X was investigated in the pressure range (0 to 4) Mpa and temperatures 298, 308 and 323K. The data fitting is accomplished with the Toth, UNILAN, Dubinin-Astakhov and virial adsorption models which are generally used for micro porous adsorbents such as zeolites. Comparison with experimental data from the literature indicated that the virial model would best determine results. These results may be partly attributed to the flexibility of the virial model which can accommodate as many constants as the data warrants.

Keywords: adsorption models, zeolite, carbon dioxide

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1333 Bifurcations for a FitzHugh-Nagumo Model with Time Delays

Authors: Changjin Xu, Peiluan Li

Abstract:

In this paper, a FitzHugh-Nagumo model with time delays is investigated. The linear stability of the equilibrium and the existence of Hopf bifurcation with delay τ is investigated. By applying Nyquist criterion, the length of delay is estimated for which stability continues to hold. Numerical simulations for justifying the theoretical results are illustrated. Finally, main conclusions are given.

Keywords: FitzHugh-Nagumo model, Time delay, Stability, Hopf bifurcation.

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1332 Enhanced Magnetoelastic Response near Morphotropic Phase Boundary in Ferromagnetic Materials: Experimental and Theoretical Analysis

Authors: Murtaza Adil, Sen Yang, Zhou Chao, Song Xiaoping

Abstract:

The morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) recently has attracted constant interest in ferromagnetic systems for obtaining enhanced large magnetoelastic response. In the present study, structural and magnetoelastic properties of MPB involved ferromagnetic Tb1-xGdxFe2 (0≤x≤1) system has been investigated. The change of easy magnetic direction from <111> to <100> with increasing x up MPB composition of x=0.9 is detected by step-scanned [440] synchrotron X-ray diffraction reflections. The Gd substitution for Tb changes the composition for the anisotropy compensation near MPB composition of x=0.9, which was confirmed by the analysis of detailed scanned XRD, magnetization curves and the calculation of the first anisotropy constant K1. The spin configuration diagram accompanied with different crystal structures for Tb1-xGdxFe2 was designed. The calculated first anisotropy constant K1 shows a minimum value at MPB composition of x=0.9. In addition, the large ratio between magnetostriction, and the absolute values of the first anisotropy constant │λS∕K1│ appears at MPB composition, which makes it a potential material for magnetostrictive application. Based on experimental results, a theoretically approach was also proposed to signify that the facilitated magnetization rotation and enhanced magnetoelastic effect near MPB composition are a consequence of the anisotropic flattening of free energy of ferromagnetic crystal. Our work specifies the universal existence of MPB in ferromagnetic materials which is important for substantial improvement of magnetic and magnetostrictive properties and may provide a new route to develop advanced functional materials.

Keywords: Free energy, lattice distortion, magnetic anisotropy, magnetostriction, morphotropic phase boundary.

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1331 A Linear Relation for Voltage Unbalance Factor Evaluation in Three-Phase Electrical Power System Using Space Vector

Authors: Dana M. Ragab, Jasim A Ghaeb

Abstract:

The Voltage Unbalance Factor (VUF) index is recommended to evaluate system performance under unbalanced operation. However, its calculation requires complex algebra which limits its use in the field. Furthermore, one system cycle is required at least to detect unbalance using the VUF. Ideally unbalance mitigation must be performed within 10 ms for 50 Hz systems. In this work, a linear relation for VUF evaluation in three-phase electrical power system using space vector (SV) is derived. It is proposed to determine the voltage unbalance quickly and accurately and to overcome the constraints associated with the traditional methods of VUF evaluation. Aqaba-Qatrana-South Amman (AQSA) power system is considered to study the system performance under unbalanced conditions. The results show that both the complexity of calculations and the time required to evaluate VUF are reduced significantly.

Keywords: Power quality, space vector, unbalance evaluation.

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1330 An Approach to Secure Mobile Agent Communication in Multi-Agent Systems

Authors: Olumide Simeon Ogunnusi, Shukor Abd Razak, Michael Kolade Adu

Abstract:

Inter-agent communication manager facilitates communication among mobile agents via message passing mechanism. Until now, all Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) compliant agent systems are capable of exchanging messages following the standard format of sending and receiving messages. Previous works tend to secure messages to be exchanged among a community of collaborative agents commissioned to perform specific tasks using cryptosystems. However, the approach is characterized by computational complexity due to the encryption and decryption processes required at the two ends. The proposed approach to secure agent communication allows only agents that are created by the host agent server to communicate via the agent communication channel provided by the host agent platform. These agents are assumed to be harmless. Therefore, to secure communication of legitimate agents from intrusion by external agents, a 2-phase policy enforcement system was developed. The first phase constrains the external agent to run only on the network server while the second phase confines the activities of the external agent to its execution environment. To implement the proposed policy, a controller agent was charged with the task of screening any external agent entering the local area network and preventing it from migrating to the agent execution host where the legitimate agents are running. On arrival of the external agent at the host network server, an introspector agent was charged to monitor and restrain its activities. This approach secures legitimate agent communication from Man-in-the Middle and Replay attacks.

Keywords: Agent communication, introspective agent, isolation of agent, policy enforcement system.

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1329 Optimization of the Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction Gas Chromatography for Volatile Compounds Determination in Phytophthora Cinnamomi Rands

Authors: Rui Qiu, Giles Hardy, Dong Qu, Robert Trengove, Manjree Agarwal, YongLin Ren

Abstract:

Phytophthora cinnamomi (P. c) is a plant pathogenic oomycete that is capable of damaging plants in commercial production systems and natural ecosystems worldwide. The most common methods for the detection and diagnosis of P. c infection are expensive, elaborate and time consuming. This study was carried out to examine whether species specific and life cycle specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be absorbed by solid-phase microextraction fibers and detected by gas chromatography that are produced by P. c and another oomycete Pythium dissotocum. A headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) together with gas chromatography (GC) method was developed and optimized for the identification of the VOCs released by P. c. The optimized parameters included type of fiber, exposure time, desorption temperature and desorption time. Optimization was achieved with the analytes of P. c+V8A and V8A alone. To perform the HS-SPME, six types of fiber were assayed and compared: 7μm Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), 100μm Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), 50/30μm Divinylbenzene/CarboxenTM/Polydimethylsiloxane DVB/CAR/PDMS), 65μm Polydimethylsiloxane/Divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB), 85μm Polyacrylate (PA) fibre and 85μm CarboxenTM/ Polydimethylsiloxane (Carboxen™/PDMS). In a comparison of the efficacy of the fibers, the bipolar fiber DVB/CAR/PDMS had a higher extraction efficiency than the other fibers. An exposure time of 16h with DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber in the sample headspace was enough to reach the maximum extraction efficiency. A desorption time of 3min in the GC injector with the desorption temperature of 250°C was enough for the fiber to desorb the compounds of interest. The chromatograms and morphology study confirmed that the VOCs from P. c+V8A had distinct differences from V8A alone, as did different life cycle stages of P. c and different taxa such as Pythium dissotocum. The study proved that P. c has species and life cycle specific VOCs, which in turn demonstrated the feasibility of this method as means of

Keywords: Gas chromatography, headspace solid-phase microextraction, optimization, volatile compounds.

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1328 Production and Purification of Monosaccharides by Hydrolysis of Sugar Cane Bagasse in an Ionic Liquid Medium

Authors: T. R. Bandara, H. Jaelani, G. J. Griffin

Abstract:

The conversion of lignocellulosic waste materials, such as sugar cane bagasse, to biofuels such as ethanol has attracted significant interest as a potential element for transforming transport fuel supplies to totally renewable sources. However, the refractory nature of the cellulosic structure of lignocellulosic materials has impeded progress on developing an economic process, whereby the cellulose component may be effectively broken down to glucose monosaccharides and then purified to allow downstream fermentation. Ionic liquid (IL) treatment of lignocellulosic biomass has been shown to disrupt the crystalline structure of cellulose thus potentially enabling the cellulose to be more readily hydrolysed to monosaccharides. Furthermore, conventional hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials yields byproducts that are inhibitors for efficient fermentation of the monosaccharides. However, selective extraction of monosaccharides from an aqueous/IL phase into an organic phase utilizing a combination of boronic acids and quaternary amines has shown promise as a purification process. Hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse immersed in an aqueous solution with IL (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate) was conducted at different pH and temperature below 100 ºC. It was found that the use of a high concentration of hydrochloric acid to acidify the solution inhibited the hydrolysis of bagasse. At high pH (i.e. basic conditions), using sodium hydroxide, catalyst yields were reduced for total reducing sugars (TRS) due to the rapid degradation of the sugars formed. For purification trials, a supported liquid membrane (SLM) apparatus was constructed, whereby a synthetic solution containing xylose and glucose in an aqueous IL phase was transported across a membrane impregnated with phenyl boronic acid/Aliquat 336 to an aqueous phase. The transport rate of xylose was generally higher than that of glucose indicating that a SLM scheme may not only be useful for purifying sugars from undesirable toxic compounds, but also for fractionating sugars to improve fermentation efficiency.

Keywords: Biomass, bagasse, hydrolysis, monosaccharide, supported liquid membrane, purification.

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1327 Linear Stability Characteristics of Wake-Shear Layers in Two-Phase Shallow Flows

Authors: Inta Volodko, Valentina Koliskina

Abstract:

Linear stability of wake-shear layers in two-phase shallow flows is analyzed in the present paper. Stability analysis is based on two-dimensional shallow water equations. It is assumed that the fluid contains uniformly distributed solid particles. No dynamic interaction between the carrier fluid and particles is expected in the initial moment. Linear stability curves are obtained for different values of the particle loading parameter, the velocity ratio and the velocity deficit. It is shown that the increase in the velocity ratio destabilizes the flow. The particle loading parameter has a stabilizing effect on the flow. The role of the velocity deficit is also destabilizing: the increase of the velocity deficit leads to less stable flow.

Keywords: Linear stability, Shallow flows, Wake-shear flows.

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1326 Effect of Nanoparticles on Wheat Seed Germination and Seedling Growth

Authors: Pankaj Singh Rawat, Rajeew Kumar, Pradeep Ram, Priyanka Pandey

Abstract:

Wheat is an important cereal crop for food security. Boosting the wheat production and productivity is the major challenge across the nation. Good quality of seed is required for maintaining optimum plant stand which ultimately increases grain yield. Ensuring a good germination is one of the key steps to ensure proper plant stand and moisture assurance during seed germination may help to speed up the germination. The tiny size of nanoparticles may help in entry of water into seed without disturbing their internal structure. Considering above, a laboratory experiment was conducted during 2012-13 at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. The completely randomized design was used for statistical analysis. The experiment was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the appropriate concentration of nanoparticles for seed treatment was screened. In second phase seed soaking hours of nanoparticles for better seed germination were standardized. Wheat variety UP2526 was taken as test crop. Four nanoparticles (TiO2, ZnO, nickel and chitosan) were taken for study. The crop germination studies were done in petri dishes and standard package and practices were used to raise the seedlings. The germination studies were done by following standard procedure. In first phase of the experiment, seeds were treated with 50 and 300 ppm of nanoparticles and control was also maintained for comparison. In the second phase of experiment, seeds were soaked for 4 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours with 50 ppm nanoparticles of TiO2, ZnO, nickel and chitosan along with control treatment to identify the soaking time for better seed germination. Experiment revealed that the application of nanoparticles help to enhance seed germination. The study revealed that seed treatment with  nanoparticles at 50 ppm concentration increases root length, shoot length, seedling length, shoot dry weight, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index I and seedling vigour index II as compared to seed soaking at 300 ppm concentration. This experiment showed that seed soaking up to 4 hr was better as compared to 6 and 8 hrs. Seed soaking with nanoparticles specially TiO2, ZnO, and chitosan proved to enhance germination and seedling growth indices of wheat crop.

Keywords: Nanoparticles, seed germination, seed soaking, wheat.

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1325 Multichannel Image Mosaicing of Stem Cells

Authors: Alessandro Bevilacqua, Alessandro Gherardi, Filippo Piccinini

Abstract:

Image mosaicing techniques are usually employed to offer researchers a wider field of view of microscopic image of biological samples. a mosaic is commonly achieved using automated microscopes and often with one “color" channel, whether it refers to natural or fluorescent analysis. In this work we present a method to achieve three subsequent mosaics of the same part of a stem cell culture analyzed in phase contrast and in fluorescence, with a common non-automated inverted microscope. The mosaics obtained are then merged together to mark, in the original contrast phase images, nuclei and cytoplasm of the cells referring to a mosaic of the culture, rather than to single images. The experiments carried out prove the effectiveness of our approach with cultures of cells stained with calcein (green/cytoplasm and nuclei) and hoechst (blue/nuclei) probes.

Keywords: Microscopy, image mosaicing, fluorescence, stem cells.

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1324 Separation of Vitamin B2 and B12 byImpregnate HPTLC Plates with Boric Acid

Authors: Homayon Ahmad Panahi, Hossein Sid Kalal, Atyeh Rahimi

Abstract:

A high performance thin layer chromatography system (HPTLC) for the separation of vitamin B2 and B12 has been developed. The separation was successfully using a solvent system of methanol, water, ammonia 7.3.1 (V/V) as mobile phase on HPTLC plates impregnated with boric acid. The effect of other mobile phases on the separation of vitamins was also examined. The method is based on different behavior of investigated compounds in impregnated TLC plates with different amount of boric acid. The Rf values of vitamin B2 and B12 are considered on non impregnated and impregnated silica gel HPTLC plate with boric acid. The effect of boric acid in the mobile phase and on HPTLC plates on the RF values of the vitamins has also been studied.

Keywords: High performance thin layer chromatography, HPTLC, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Separation.

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1323 Inhibiting Gene for a Late-Heading Gene Responsible for Photoperiod Sensitivity in Rice (Oryza sativa)

Authors: Amol Dahal, Shunsuke Hori, Haruki Nakazawa, Kazumitsu Onishi, Toshio Kawano, Masayuki Murai

Abstract:

Two indica varieties, IR36 and ‘Suweon 258’ (“S”) are middle-heading in southern Japan. 36U, also middle-heading, is an isogenic line of IR36 carrying Ur1 (Undulate rachis-1) gene. However, late-heading plants segregated in the F2 population from the F1 of S × 36U, and so did in the following generations. The concerning lateness gene is designated as Ex. From the F8 generation, isogenic-line pair of early-heading and late-heading lines, denoted by “E” (ex/ex) and “L” (Ex/Ex), were developed. Genetic analyses of heading time were conducted, using F1s and F2s among L, E, S and 36U. The following inferences were drawn from the experimental results: 1) L, and both of E and 36U harbor Ex and ex, respectively; 2) Besides Ex, S harbors an inhibitor gene to it, i.e. I-Ex which is a novel finding of the present study. 3) Ex is a dominant allele at the E1 locus.

Keywords: Basic vegetative phase, heading time, lateness gene, photoperiod-sensitive phase.

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1322 Synthesis and Characterization of PEG-Silane Functionalized Iron Oxide Nanoparticle as MRI T2 Contrast Agent

Authors: Mu-Jen Young, Cheng-Yen Wu, Wen-Yuan Hsieh

Abstract:

Iron oxide nanoparticle was synthesized by reactive-precipitation method followed by high speed centrifuge and phase transfer in order to stabilized nanoparticles in the solvent. Particle size of SPIO was 8.2 nm by SEM, and the hydraulic radius was 17.5 nm by dynamic light scattering method. Coercivity and saturated magnetism were determined by VSM (vibrating sample magnetometer), coercivity of nanoparticle was lower than 10 Hc, and the saturated magnetism was higher than 65 emu/g. Stabilized SPIO was then transferred to aqueous phase by reacted with excess amount of poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) silane. After filtration and dialysis, the SPIO T2 contrast agent was ready to use. The hydraulic radius of final product was about 70~100 nm, the relaxation rates R2 (1/T2) measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was larger than 200(sec-1).

Keywords: Contrast Agent, Iron Oxide Nanoparticle, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nanoparticle Stabilization

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1321 Evaluation of a Dual-Fluid Cold-Gas Thruster Concept

Authors: J. D. Burges, M. J. Hall, E. G. Lightsey

Abstract:

A new dual-fluid concept was studied that could eventually find application for cold-gas propulsion for small space satellites or other constant flow applications. In basic form, the concept uses two different refrigerant working fluids, each having a different saturation vapor pressure. The higher vapor pressure refrigerant remains in the saturation phase and is used to pressurize the lower saturation vapor pressure fluid (the propellant) which remains in the compressed liquid phase. A demonstration thruster concept based on this principle was designed and built to study its operating characteristics. An automotive-type electronic fuel injector was used to meter and deliver the propellant. Ejected propellant mass and momentum were measured for several combinations of refrigerants and hydrocarbon fluids. The thruster has the advantage of delivering relatively large total impulse at low tank pressure within a small volume.

Keywords: cold-gas, nano-satellite, R134a, thruster

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1320 Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network Comparative Analysis: Modulation Formats and Channel Spacings

Authors: A. Fayad, Q. Alqhazaly, T. Cinkler

Abstract:

In light of the substantial increase in end-user requirements and the incessant need of network operators to upgrade the capabilities of access networks, in this paper, the performance of the different modulation formats on eight-channels Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network (TWDM-PON) transmission system has been examined and compared. Limitations and features of modulation formats have been determined to outline the most suitable design to enhance the data rate and transmission reach to obtain the best performance of the network. The considered modulation formats are On-Off Keying Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ-OOK), Carrier Suppressed Return to Zero (CSRZ), Duo Binary (DB), Modified Duo Binary (MODB), Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), and Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK). The performance has been analyzed by varying transmission distances and bit rates under different channel spacing. Furthermore, the system is evaluated in terms of minimum Bit Error Rate (BER) and Quality factor (Qf) without applying any dispersion compensation technique, or any optical amplifier. Optisystem software was used for simulation purposes.

Keywords: Bit Error Rate, BER, Carrier Suppressed Return to Zero, CSRZ, Duo Binary, DB, Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying, DQPSK, Modified Duo Binary, MODB, On-Off Keying Non-Return-to-Zero, NRZ-OOK, Quality factor, Qf, Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network, TWDM-PON.

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1319 Modeling Non-Darcy Natural Convection Flow of a Micropolar Dusty Fluid with Convective Boundary Condition

Authors: F. M. Hady, A. Mahdy, R. A. Mohamed, Omima A. Abo Zaid

Abstract:

A numerical approach of the effectiveness of numerous parameters on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection heat and mass transfer problem of a dusty micropolar fluid in a non-Darcy porous regime is prepared in the current paper. In addition, a convective boundary condition is scrutinized into the micropolar dusty fluid model. The governing boundary layer equations are converted utilizing similarity transformations to a system of dimensionless equations to be convenient for numerical treatment. The resulting equations for fluid phase and dust phases of momentum, angular momentum, energy, and concentration with the appropriate boundary conditions are solved numerically applying the Runge-Kutta method of fourth-order. In accordance with the numerical study, it is obtained that the magnitude of the velocity of both fluid phase and particle phase reduces with an increasing magnetic parameter, the mass concentration of the dust particles, and Forchheimer number. While rises due to an increment in convective parameter and Darcy number. Also, the results refer that high values of the magnetic parameter, convective parameter, and Forchheimer number support the temperature distributions. However, deterioration occurs as the mass concentration of the dust particles and Darcy number increases. The angular velocity behavior is described by progress when studying the effect of the magnetic parameter and microrotation parameter.

Keywords: Micropolar dusty fluid, convective heating, natural convection, MHD, porous media.

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1318 Performance of Random Diagonal Codes for Spectral Amplitude Coding Optical CDMA Systems

Authors: Hilal A. Fadhil, Syed A. Aljunid, R. Badlishah Ahmed

Abstract:

In this paper we study the use of a new code called Random Diagonal (RD) code for Spectral Amplitude Coding (SAC) optical Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, using Fiber Bragg-Grating (FBG), FBG consists of a fiber segment whose index of reflection varies periodically along its length. RD code is constructed using code level and data level, one of the important properties of this code is that the cross correlation at data level is always zero, which means that Phase intensity Induced Phase (PIIN) is reduced. We find that the performance of the RD code will be better than Modified Frequency Hopping (MFH) and Hadamard code It has been observed through experimental and theoretical simulation that BER for RD code perform significantly better than other codes. Proof –of-principle simulations of encoding with 3 channels, and 10 Gbps data transmission have been successfully demonstrated together with FBG decoding scheme for canceling the code level from SAC-signal.

Keywords: FBG, MFH, OCDMA, PIIN, BER.

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1317 High Performance Liquid Chromatography Determination of Urinary Hippuric Acid and Benzoic Acid as Indices for Glue Sniffer Urine

Authors: Abdul Rahim Yacob, Mohamad Raizul Zinalibdin

Abstract:

A simple method for the simultaneous determination of hippuric acid and benzoic acid in urine using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography was described. Chromatography was performed on a Nova-Pak C18 (3.9 x 150 mm) column with a mobile phase of mixed solution methanol: water: acetic acid (20:80:0.2) and UV detection at 254 nm. The calibration curve was linear within concentration range at 0.125 to 6.0 mg/ml of hippuric acid and benzoic acid. The recovery, accuracy and coefficient variance of hippuric acid were 104.54%, 0.2% and 0.2% respectively and for benzoic acid were 98.48%, 1.25% and 0.60% respectively. The detection limit of this method was 0.01ng/l for hippuric acid and 0.06ng/l for benzoic acid. This method has been applied to the analysis of urine samples from the suspected of toluene abuser or glue sniffer among secondary school students at Johor Bahru.

Keywords: Glue sniffer, High Performance LiquidChromatography, Hippuric Acid, Toluene, Urine.

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1316 Blood Lymphocyte and Neutrophil Response of Cultured Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, Administered Varying Dosages of an Oral Immunomodulator – ‘Fin-Immune™’

Authors: Duane Barker, John Holliday

Abstract:

In a 10-week (May – August, 2008) Phase I trial, 840, 1+ rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, received a commercial oral immunomodulator, Fin Immune™, at four different dosages (0, 10, 20 and 30 mg g-1) to evaluate immune response and growth. The overall objective of was to determine an optimal dosage of this product for rainbow trout that provides enhanced immunity with maximal growth and health. Biweekly blood samples were taken from 10 randomly selected fish in each tank (30 samples per treatment) to evaluate the duration of enhanced immunity conferred by Fin-Immune™. The immunological assessment included serum white blood cell (lymphocyte, neutrophil) densities and blood hematocrit (packed cell volume %). Of these three variables, only lymphocyte density increased significantly among trout fed Fin- Immune™ at 20 and 30 mg g-1 which peaked at week 6. At week 7, all trout were switched to regular feed (lacking Fin-Immune™) and by week 10, lymphocyte levels decreased among all levels but were still greater than at week 0. There was growth impairment at the highest dose of Fin-Immune™ tested (30 mg g-1) which can be associated with a physiological compensatory mechanism due to a dose-specific threshold level. Thus, our main objective of this Phase I study was achieved, the 20 mg g-1 dose of Fin-Immune™ should be the most efficacious (of those we tested) to use for a Phase II disease challenge trial.

Keywords: Blood Lymphocyte, Neutrophil Response of Cultured Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, Oral Immunomodulator – 'Fin-ImmuneTM'.

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1315 Calculation of the Thermal Stresses in an Elastoplastic Plate Heated by Local Heat Source

Authors: M. Khaing, A. V. Tkacheva

Abstract:

The work is devoted to solving the problem of temperature stresses, caused by the heating point of the round plate. The plate is made of elastoplastic material, so the Prandtl-Reis model is used. A piecewise-linear condition of the Ishlinsky-Ivlev flow is taken as the loading surface, in which the yield stress depends on the temperature. Piecewise-linear conditions (Treska or Ishlinsky-Ivlev), in contrast to the Mises condition, make it possible to obtain solutions of the equilibrium equation in an analytical form. In the problem under consideration, using the conditions of Tresca, it is impossible to obtain a solution. This is due to the fact that the equation of equilibrium ceases to be satisfied when the two Tresca conditions are fulfilled at once. Using the conditions of plastic flow Ishlinsky-Ivlev allows one to solve the problem. At the same time, there are also no solutions on the edge of the Ishlinsky-Ivlev hexagon in the plane-stressed state. Therefore, the authors of the article propose to jump from the edge to the edge of the mine edge, which gives an opportunity to obtain an analytical solution. At the same time, there is also no solution on the edge of the Ishlinsky-Ivlev hexagon in a plane stressed state; therefore, in this paper, the authors of the article propose to jump from the side to the side of the mine edge, which gives an opportunity to receive an analytical solution. The paper compares solutions of the problem of plate thermal deformation. One of the solutions was obtained under the condition that the elastic moduli (Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio) which depend on temperature. The yield point is assumed to be parabolically temperature dependent. The main results of the comparisons are that the region of irreversible deformation is larger in the calculations obtained for solving the problem with constant elastic moduli. There is no repeated plastic flow in the solution of the problem with elastic moduli depending on temperature. The absolute value of the irreversible deformations is higher for the solution of the problem in which the elastic moduli are constant; there are also insignificant differences in the distribution of the residual stresses.

Keywords: Temperature stresses, elasticity, plasticity, Ishlinsky-Ivlev condition, plate, annular heating, elastic moduli.

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1314 Fuzzy Logic Controlled Shunt Active Power Filter for Three-phase Four-wire Systems with Balanced and Unbalanced Loads

Authors: Ahmed A. Helal, Nahla E. Zakzouk, Yasser G. Desouky

Abstract:

This paper presents a fuzzy logic controlled shunt active power filter used to compensate for harmonic distortion in three-phase four-wire systems. The shunt active filter employs a simple method for the calculation of the reference compensation current based of Fast Fourier Transform. This presented filter is able to operate in both balanced and unbalanced load conditions. A fuzzy logic based current controller strategy is used to regulate the filter current and hence ensure harmonic free supply current. The validity of the presented approach in harmonic mitigation is verified via simulation results of the proposed test system under different loading conditions.

Keywords: Active power filters, Fuzzy logic controller, Power quality

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1313 Numerical Investigation of Pressure Drop and Erosion Wear by Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation

Authors: Praveen Kumar, Nitin Kumar, Hemant Kumar

Abstract:

The modernization of computer technology and commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation has given better detailed results as compared to experimental investigation techniques. CFD techniques are widely used in different field due to its flexibility and performance. Evaluation of pipeline erosion is complex phenomenon to solve by numerical arithmetic technique, whereas CFD simulation is an easy tool to resolve that type of problem. Erosion wear behaviour due to solid–liquid mixture in the slurry pipeline has been investigated using commercial CFD code in FLUENT. Multi-phase Euler-Lagrange model was adopted to predict the solid particle erosion wear in 22.5° pipe bend for the flow of bottom ash-water suspension. The present study addresses erosion prediction in three dimensional 22.5° pipe bend for two-phase (solid and liquid) flow using finite volume method with standard k-ε turbulence, discrete phase model and evaluation of erosion wear rate with varying velocity 2-4 m/s. The result shows that velocity of solid-liquid mixture found to be highly dominating parameter as compared to solid concentration, density, and particle size. At low velocity, settling takes place in the pipe bend due to low inertia and gravitational effect on solid particulate which leads to high erosion at bottom side of pipeline.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, erosion, slurry transportation, k-ε Model.

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1312 Selective Solvent Extraction of Calcium and Magnesium from Concentrate Nickel Solutions Using Mixtures of Cyanex 272 and D2EHPA

Authors: Alexandre S. Guimarães, Marcelo B. Mansur

Abstract:

The performance of organophosphorus extractants Cyanex 272 and D2EHPA on the purification of concentrate nickel sulfate solutions was evaluated. Batch scale tests were carried out at pH range of 2 to 7 using a laboratory solution simulating concentrate nickel liquors as those typically obtained when sulfate intermediates from nickel laterite are re-leached and treated for the selective removal of cobalt, zinc, manganese and copper with Cyanex 272 ([Ca] = 0.57 g/L, [Mg] = 3.2 g/L, and [Ni] = 88 g/L). The increase on the concentration of D2EHPA favored the calcium extraction. The extraction of magnesium is dependent on the pH and of ratio of extractants D2EHPA and Cyanex 272 in the organic phase. The composition of the investigated organic phase did not affect nickel extraction. The number of stages is dependent on the magnesium extraction. The most favorable operating condition to selectively remove calcium and magnesium was determined.

Keywords: Solvent extraction, organophosphorus extractants, alkaline earth metals, nickel.

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1311 The Impact of Treatment of Latent Tuberculosis on the Incidence : The Case of Algeria

Authors: Schehrazad Selmane

Abstract:

We present a deterministic model which describes the dynamics of tuberculosis in Algerian population where the vaccination program with BCG is in place since 1969 and where the WHO recommendations regarding the DOTS (directly-observed treatment, short course) strategy are in application. The impact of an intervention program, targeting recently infected people among all close contacts of active cases and their treatment to prevent endogenous reactivation, on the incidence of tuberculosis, is investigated. We showed that a widespread treatment of latently infected individuals for some years is recommended to shift from higher to lower equilibrium state and thereafter relaxation is recommended.

Keywords: Deterministic model, reproduction number, stability, tuberculosis.

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1310 Robot Vision Application based on Complex 3D Pose Computation

Authors: F. Rotaru, S. Bejinariu, C. D. Niţâ, R. Luca, I. Pâvâloi, C. Lazâr

Abstract:

The paper presents a technique suitable in robot vision applications where it is not possible to establish the object position from one view. Usually, one view pose calculation methods are based on the correspondence of image features established at a training step and exactly the same image features extracted at the execution step, for a different object pose. When such a correspondence is not feasible because of the lack of specific features a new method is proposed. In the first step the method computes from two views the 3D pose of feature points. Subsequently, using a registration algorithm, the set of 3D feature points extracted at the execution phase is aligned with the set of 3D feature points extracted at the training phase. The result is a Euclidean transform which have to be used by robot head for reorientation at execution step.

Keywords: features correspondence, registration algorithm, robot vision, triangulation method.

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1309 Hydro-Mechanical Behavior of a Tuff and Calcareous Sand Mixture for Use in Pavement in Arid Region

Authors: I. Goual, M. S. Goual, M. K. Gueddouda, Taïbi Saïd, Abou-Bekr Nabil, A. Ferhat

Abstract:

The aim of the paper is to study the hydro-mechanical behavior of a tuff and calcareous sand mixture. A first experimental phase was carried out in order to find the optimal mixture. This showed that the material composed of 80% tuff and 20% calcareous sand provides the maximum mechanical strength. The second experimental phase concerns the study of the drying-wetting behavior of the optimal mixture was carried out on slurry samples and compacted samples at the MPO. Experimental results let to deduce the parameters necessary for the prediction of the hydro-mechanical behavior of pavement formulated from tuff and calcareous sand mixtures, related to moisture. This optimal mixture satisfies the regulation rules and hence constitutes a good local eco-material, abundantly available, for the conception of pavements.

Keywords: Tuff, sandy calcareous, road engineering, hydro mechanical behaviour, suction.

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1308 A New Sufficient Conditions of Stability for Discrete Time Non-autonomous Delayed Hopfield Neural Networks

Authors: Adnene Arbi, Chaouki Aouiti, Abderrahmane Touati

Abstract:

In this paper, we consider the uniform asymptotic stability, global asymptotic stability and global exponential stability of the equilibrium point of discrete Hopfield neural networks with delays. Some new stability criteria for system are derived by using the Lyapunov functional method and the linear matrix inequality approach, for estimating the upper bound of Lyapunov functional derivative.

Keywords: Hopfield neural networks, uniform asymptotic stability, global asymptotic stability, exponential stability.

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