Search results for: Plant diversity conservation

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

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

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

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Authors: Jakub Elbl, Lukas Plošek, Antonín Kintl, Jaroslav Záhora, Jitka Přichystalová, Jaroslav Hynšt

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Application of compost in agriculture is very desirable worldwide. In the Czech Republic, compost is the most often used to improve soil structure and increase the content of soil organic matter, but the effects of compost addition on the fate of mineral nitrogen are only scarcely described. This paper deals with possibility of using combined application of compost, mineral and organic fertilizers to reduce the leaching of mineral nitrogen from arable land. To demonstrate the effect of compost addition on leaching of mineral nitrogen, we performed the pot experiment. As a model crop, Lactuca sativa L. was used and cultivated for 35 days in climate chamber in thoroughly homogenized arable soil. Ten variants of the experiment were prepared; two control variants (pure arable soil and arable soil with added compost), four variants with different doses of mineral and organic fertilizers and four variants of the same doses of mineral and organic fertilizers with the addition of compos. The highest decrease of mineral nitrogen leaching was observed by the simultaneous applications of soluble humic substances and compost to soil samples, about 417% in comparison with the control variant. Application of these organic compounds also supported microbial activity and nitrogen immobilization documented by the highest soil respiration and by the highest value of the index of nitrogen availability. The production of plant biomass after this application was not the highest due to microbial competition for the nutrients in soil, but was 24% higher in comparison with the control variant. To support these promising results the experiment should be repeated in field conditions.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Compost, Salad, Arable land.

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Authors: Jafar Ahmadi, Zhohreh Asiaban, Sedigheh Fabriki Ourang

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Brassinosteroids (BRs) regulate cell elongation, vascular differentiation, senescence, and stress responses. BRs signal through the BES1/BZR1 family of transcription factors, which regulate hundreds of target genes involved in this pathway. In this research a comprehensive genome-wide analysis was carried out in BES1/BZR1 gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana, Cucumis sativus, Vitis vinifera, Glycin max and Brachypodium distachyon. Specifications of the desired sequences, dot plot and hydropathy plot were analyzed in the protein and genome sequences of five plant species. The maximum amino acid length was attributed to protein sequence Brdic3g with 374aa and the minimum amino acid length was attributed to protein sequence Gm7g with 163aa. The maximum Instability index was attributed to protein sequence AT1G19350 equal with 79.99 and the minimum Instability index was attributed to protein sequence Gm5g equal with 33.22. Aliphatic index of these protein sequences ranged from 47.82 to 78.79 in Arabidopsis thaliana, 49.91 to 57.50 in Vitis vinifera, 55.09 to 82.43 in Glycin max, 54.09 to 54.28 in Brachypodium distachyon 55.36 to 56.83 in Cucumis sativus. Overall, data obtained from our investigation contributes a better understanding of the complexity of the BES1/BZR1 gene family and provides the first step towards directing future experimental designs to perform systematic analysis of the functions of the BES1/BZR1 gene family.

Keywords: BES1/BZR1, Brassinosteroids, Phylogenetic analysis, Transcription factor.

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Authors: Wichai Pattanapol, Sarah J. Wakes, Michael J. Hilton, Katharine J.M. Dickinson

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Turbulence modeling of large-scale flow over a vegetated surface is complex. Such problems involve large scale computational domains, while the characteristics of flow near the surface are also involved. In modeling large scale flow, surface roughness including vegetation is generally taken into account by mean of roughness parameters in the modified law of the wall. However, the turbulence structure within the canopy region cannot be captured with this method, another method which applies source/sink terms to model plant drag can be used. These models have been developed and tested intensively but with a simple surface geometry. This paper aims to compare the use of roughness parameter, and additional source/sink terms in modeling the effect of plant drag on wind flow over a complex vegetated surface. The RNG k-ε turbulence model with the non-equilibrium wall function was tested with both cases. In addition, the k-ω turbulence model, which is claimed to be computationally stable, was also investigated with the source/sink terms. All numerical results were compared to the experimental results obtained at the study site Mason Bay, Stewart Island, New Zealand. In the near-surface region, it is found that the results obtained by using the source/sink term are more accurate than those using roughness parameters. The k-ω turbulence model with source/sink term is more appropriate as it is more accurate and more computationally stable than the RNG k-ε turbulence model. At higher region, there is no significant difference amongst the results obtained from all simulations.

Keywords: CFD, canopy flow, surface roughness, turbulence models.

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Authors: Mohammad Abdollahi

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Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most popular, widely grown and the second most important vegetable crop, after potatoes. Nematodes have been identified as one of the major pests affecting tomato production throughout the world. The most destructive nematodes are the genus Meloidogyne. Most widespread and devastating species of this genus are M. incognita, M. javanica, and M. arenaria. These species can cause complete crop loss under adverse growing conditions. There are several potential methods for management of the root knot nematodes. Although the chemicals are widely used against the phytonematodes, because of hazardous effects of these compounds on non-target organisms and on the environment, there is a need to develop other control strategies. Nowadays, non-chemical measures are widely used to control the plant parasitic nematodes. Biocontrol of phytonematodes is an important method among environment-friendly measures of nematode management. There are some soil-inhabiting fungi that have biocontrol potential on phytonematodes, which can be used in nematode management program. The fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, originally is an entomopathogenic bioagent. Biocontrol potential of this fungus on some phytonematodes has been reported earlier. Recently, use of organic soil amendments as well as the use of bioagents is under special attention in sustainable agriculture. This research aimed to reduce the pesticide use in control of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica in tomato. The effects of M. anisopliae IMI 330189 and different levels of oak tree debris on M. javanica were determined. The combination effect of the fungus as well as the different rates of soil amendments was determined. Pots were filled with steam pasteurized soil mixture and the six leaf tomato seedlings were inoculated with 3000 second stage larvae of M. javanica/kg of soil. After eight weeks, plant growth parameters and nematode reproduction factors were compared. Based on the results of our experiment, combination of M. anisopliae IMI 330189 and oak debris caused more than 90% reduction in reproduction factor of nematode, at the rates of 100 and 150 g/kg soil (P ≤ 0.05). As compared to control, the reduction in number of galls was 76%. It was 86% for nematode reproduction factor, showing the significance of combined effect of both tested agents. Our results showed that plant debris can increase the biological activity of the tested bioagent. It was also proved that there was no adverse effect of oak debris, which potentially has antimicrobial activity, on antagonistic power of applied bioagent.

Keywords: Biological control, nematode management, organic soil, Quercus branti, root knot nematode, soil amendment.

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Authors: N. Nim-on, A. Oonsivilai

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In this paper, the application of GRNN in modeling of SOFC fuel cells were studied. The parameters are of interested as voltage and power value and the current changes are investigated. In addition, the comparison between GRNN neural network application and conventional method was made. The error value showed the superlative results.

Keywords: SOFC, GRNN, Fuel cells.

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Authors: S. B. Kotsiantis, P. E. Pintelas

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Bagging and boosting are among the most popular resampling ensemble methods that generate and combine a diversity of classifiers using the same learning algorithm for the base-classifiers. Boosting algorithms are considered stronger than bagging on noisefree data. However, there are strong empirical indications that bagging is much more robust than boosting in noisy settings. For this reason, in this work we built an ensemble using a voting methodology of bagging and boosting ensembles with 10 subclassifiers in each one. We performed a comparison with simple bagging and boosting ensembles with 25 sub-classifiers, as well as other well known combining methods, on standard benchmark datasets and the proposed technique was the most accurate.

Keywords: data mining, machine learning, pattern recognition.

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Authors: Susanta Kumar Gachhayat, S. K. Dash

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Multi objective non-convex economic dispatch problems of a thermal power plant are of grave concern for deciding the cost of generation and reduction of emission level for diminishing the global warming level for improving green-house effect. This paper deals with ramp rate constraints for achieving better inequality constraints so as to incorporate valve point loading for cost of generation in thermal power plant through ramp rate biogeography based optimization involving mutation and migration. Through 50 out of 100 trials, the cost function and emission objective function were found to have outperformed other classical methods such as lambda iteration method, quadratic programming method and many heuristic methods like particle swarm optimization method, weight improved particle swarm optimization method, constriction factor based particle swarm optimization method, moderate random particle swarm optimization method etc. Ramp rate biogeography based optimization applications prove quite advantageous in solving non convex multi objective economic dispatch problems subjected to nonlinear loads that pollute the source giving rise to third harmonic distortions and other such disturbances.

Keywords: Economic load dispatch, Biogeography based optimization, Ramp rate biogeography based optimization, Valve Point loading, Moderate random particle swarm optimization method, Weight improved particle swarm optimization method

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Authors: A.K. Tangirala, S. Babji

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In the last few years, three multivariate spectral analysis techniques namely, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) have emerged as effective tools for oscillation detection and isolation. While the first method is used in determining the number of oscillatory sources, the latter two methods are used to identify source signatures by formulating the detection problem as a source identification problem in the spectral domain. In this paper, we present a critical drawback of the underlying linear (mixing) model which strongly limits the ability of the associated source separation methods to determine the number of sources and/or identify the physical source signatures. It is shown that the assumed mixing model is only valid if each unit of the process gives equal weighting (all-pass filter) to all oscillatory components in its inputs. This is in contrast to the fact that each unit, in general, acts as a filter with non-uniform frequency response. Thus, the model can only facilitate correct identification of a source with a single frequency component, which is again unrealistic. To overcome this deficiency, an iterative post-processing algorithm that correctly identifies the physical source(s) is developed. An additional issue with the existing methods is that they lack a procedure to pre-screen non-oscillatory/noisy measurements which obscure the identification of oscillatory sources. In this regard, a pre-screening procedure is prescribed based on the notion of sparseness index to eliminate the noisy and non-oscillatory measurements from the data set used for analysis.

Keywords: non-negative matrix factorization, PCA, source separation, plant-wide diagnosis

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Authors: Roberto de Lieto Vollaro, Emanuele de Lieto Vollaro, Gianluca Coltrinari

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The building sector is responsible, in many industrialized countries, for about 40% of the total energy requirements, so it seems necessary to devote some efforts in this area in order to achieve a significant reduction of energy consumption and of greenhouse gases emissions. The paper presents a study aiming at providing a design methodology able to identify the best configuration of the system building/plant, from a technical, economic and environmentally point of view. Normally, the classical approach involves a building's energy loads analysis under steady state conditions, and subsequent selection of measures aimed at improving the energy performance, based on previous experience made by architects and engineers in the design team. Instead, the proposed approach uses a sequence of two wellknown scientifically validated calculation methods (TRNSYS and RETScreen), that allow quite a detailed feasibility analysis. To assess the validity of the calculation model, an existing, historical building in Central Italy, that will be the object of restoration and preservative redevelopment, was selected as a casestudy. The building is made of a basement and three floors, with a total floor area of about 3,000 square meters. The first step has been the determination of the heating and cooling energy loads of the building in a dynamic regime by means, which allows simulating the real energy needs of the building in function of its use. Traditional methodologies, based as they are on steady-state conditions, cannot faithfully reproduce the effects of varying climatic conditions and of inertial properties of the structure. With this model is possible to obtain quite accurate and reliable results that allow identifying effective combinations building-HVAC system. The second step has consisted of using output data obtained as input to the calculation model, which enables to compare different system configurations from the energy, environmental and financial point of view, with an analysis of investment, and operation and maintenance costs, so allowing determining the economic benefit of possible interventions. The classical methodology often leads to the choice of conventional plant systems, while our calculation model provides a financial-economic assessment for innovative energy systems and low environmental impact. Computational analysis can help in the design phase, particularly in the case of complex structures with centralized plant systems, by comparing the data returned by the calculation model for different design options.

Keywords: Energy, Buildings, Systems, Evaluation.

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Authors: Hui Chen, Xiao Feng

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Depressurization and pressurization streams in industrial systems constitute a work exchange network (WEN). In this paper, a novel graphical approach for targeting energy conservation potential of a WEN is proposed. Through constructing the composite work curves in the pressure-work diagram and assuming all of the mechanical energy of the depressurization streams is recovered by expanders, the maximum work target of a WEN can be determined via the proposed targeting steps. A WEN in an ammonia production process is used as a case study to illustrate the applicability of the proposed graphical approach.

Keywords: Expanders, Graphical approach, Pressure-work diagram, Work exchange network, Work target

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Authors: Riham A. Ragheb

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Tourism can do a great deal of good in destinations, whether it be by bringing economic benefits to local communities, helping with conservation efforts or in placing a value on aspects of cultural heritage. As responsive travelers, we must all try to do more of the good and less of the negative. This is simply description of the sustainable tourism. This paper aims to set some criteria of successful sustainable tourism development and then through these criteria analyzing the development of some resorts in Egypt known as sustainable resorts. Hence, a comprehensive improvement of the touristic areas is certainly needed to ensure a successful sustainable tourism development radiated the sense of uniformity and coherence. Egypt can benefit from these criteria to develop its resorts in order to preserve and revitalize its unique natural character and achieve mixed uses and tourism development.

Keywords: Egypt, resorts, sustainable tourism, tourism development.

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Authors: Manouchehr Amiri

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This article presents a general notion of physical bit information that is compatible with the basics of quantum mechanics and incorporates the Shannon entropy as a special case. This notion of physical information leads to the Binary Data Matrix model (BDM), which predicts the basic results of quantum mechanics, general relativity, and black hole thermodynamics. The compatibility of the model with holographic, information conservation, and Landauer’s principle is investigated. After deriving the “Bit Information principle” as a consequence of BDM, the fundamental equations of Planck, De Broglie, Bekenstein, and mass-energy equivalence are derived.

Keywords: Physical theory of information, binary data matrix model, Shannon information theory, bit information principle.

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Authors: S. Fore, L. Zuze

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Frequent machine breakdowns, low plant availability and increased overtime are a great threat to a manufacturing plant as they increase operating costs of an industry. The main aim of this study was to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) at a manufacturing company through the implementation of innovative maintenance strategies. A case study approach was used. The paper focuses on improving the maintenance in a manufacturing set up using an innovative maintenance regime mix to improve overall equipment effectiveness. Interviews, reviewing documentation and historical records, direct and participatory observation were used as data collection methods during the research. Usually production is based on the total kilowatt of motors produced per day. The target kilowatt at 91% availability is 75 Kilowatts a day. Reduced demand and lack of raw materials particularly imported items are adversely affecting the manufacturing operations. The company had to reset its targets from the usual figure of 250 Kilowatt per day to mere 75 per day due to lower availability of machines as result of breakdowns as well as lack of raw materials. The price reductions and uncertainties as well as general machine breakdowns further lowered production. Some recommendations were given. For instance, employee empowerment in the company will enhance responsibility and authority to improve and totally eliminate the six big losses. If the maintenance department is to realise its proper function in a progressive, innovative industrial society, then its personnel must be continuously trained to meet current needs as well as future requirements. To make the maintenance planning system effective, it is essential to keep track of all the corrective maintenance jobs and preventive maintenance inspections. For large processing plants these cannot be handled manually. It was therefore recommended that the company implement (Computerised Maintenance Management System) CMMS.

Keywords: Maintenance, Manufacturing, Overall Equipment Effectiveness

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Authors: Ching-Tsan Tsai, Sih-Rong Chen, Chi-Hung Hsieh

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The technique of inducing micro ecosystem restoration is one of aquatic ecology engineering methods used to retrieve the polluted water. Batch scale study, pilot plant study, and field study were carried out to observe the eutrophication using the Inducing Ecology Restorative Symbiosis Agent (IERSA) consisting mainly degraded products by using lactobacillus, saccharomycete, and phycomycete. The results obtained from the experiments of the batch scale and pilot plant study allowed us to development the parameters for the field study. A pond, 5 m to the outlet of a lake, with an area of 500 m2 and depth of 0.6-1.2 m containing about 500 tons of water was selected as a model. After the treatment with 10 mg IERSA/L water twice a week for 70 days, the micro restoration mechanisms consisted of three stages (i.e., restoration, impact maintenance, and ecology recovery experiment after impact). The COD, TN, TKN, and chlorophyll a were reduced significantly in the first week. Although the unexpected heavy rain and contaminate from sewage system might slow the ecology restoration. However, the self-cleaning function continued and the chlorophyll a reduced for 50% in one month. In the 4th week, amoeba, paramecium, rotifer, and red wriggle worm reappeared, and the number of fish flies appeared up to1000 fish fries/m3. Those results proved that inducing restorative mechanism can be applied to improve the eutrophication and to control the growth of algae in the lakes by gaining the selfcleaning through inducing and competition of microbes. The situation for growth of fishes also can reach an excellent result due to the improvement of water quality.

Keywords: Ecosystem restoration, eutrophication, lake.

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Authors: Nathaniel Bryan

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American public schools should be the place that reflects America-s diverse society. The recent Supreme Court decision to discontinue the use of race as a factor in school admission policies has caused major setbacks in America-s effort to repair its racial divide, to improve public schools, and to provide opportunities for all people, regardless of race or creed. However, educators should not allow such legal decision to hinder their ability to teach children tolerance of others in schools and classrooms in America.

Keywords: Race, Supreme Court, injustice, racial quotas.

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Authors: Shi Chen, Zi Y. Chen, Jian K. Dan, Jian F. Li

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Evolution of one-dimensional electron system under high-energy-density (HED) conditions is investigated, using the principle of least-action and variational method. In a single-mode modulation model, the amplitude and spatial wavelength of the modulation are chosen to be general coordinates. Equations of motion are derived by considering energy conservation and force balance. Numerical results show that under HED conditions, electron density modulation could exist. Time dependences of amplitude and wavelength are both positively related to the rate of energy input. Besides, initial loading speed has a significant effect on modulation amplitude, while wavelength relies more on loading duration.

Keywords: Electron density modulation, HED, nonlinearevolution, plasmas.

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Authors: José Maria A. Pangilinan, Gerrit K. Janssens

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This paper presents an overview of the multiobjective shortest path problem (MSPP) and a review of essential and recent issues regarding the methods to its solution. The paper further explores a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm as applied to the MSPP and describes its behavior in terms of diversity of solutions, computational complexity, and optimality of solutions. Results show that the evolutionary algorithm can find diverse solutions to the MSPP in polynomial time (based on several network instances) and can be an alternative when other methods are trapped by the tractability problem.

Keywords: Multiobjective evolutionary optimization, geneticalgorithms, shortest paths.

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Authors: Ali Mchirgui, Nejib Hidouri, Mourad Magherbi, Ammar Ben Brahim

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The paper provides a numerical investigation of the entropy generation analysis due to natural convection in an inclined square porous cavity. The coupled equations of mass, momentum, energy and species conservation are solved using the Control Volume Finite-Element Method. Effect of medium permeability and inclination angle on entropy generation is analysed. It was found that according to the Darcy number and the porous thermal Raleigh number values, the entropy generation could be mainly due to heat transfer or to fluid friction irreversibility and that entropy generation reaches extremum values for specific inclination angles.

Keywords: Porous media, entropy generation, convection, numerical method.

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Authors: A. Irina Mikajlo, B. Jakub Elbl, C. Antonín Kintl, D. Jindřich Kynický, E. Martin Brtnický, F. Jaroslav Záhora

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Present work deals with the possible use of fertigation in agriculture and its impact on the availability of mineral nitrogen (Nmin) in topsoil and subsoil horizons. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the effect of the organic matter presence in fertigation on microbial transformation and availability of mineral nitrogen forms. The main investigation reason is the potential use of pretreated waste water, as a source of organic carbon (Corg) and residual nutrients (Nmin) for fertigation. Laboratory experiment has been conducted to demonstrate the effect of the arable land fertilization method on the Nmin availability in different depths of the soil with the usage of model experimental containers filled with soil from topsoil and podsoil horizons that were taken from the precise area. Tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa) has been chosen as a model plant. The water source protection zone Brezova nad Svitavou has been a research area where significant underground reservoirs of drinking water of the highest quality are located. From the second half of the last century local sources of drinking water show nitrogenous compounds increase that get here almost only from arable lands. Therefore, an attention of the following text focuses on the fate of mineral nitrogen in the complex plant-soil. Research results show that the fertigation application with Corg in a combination with mineral fertilizer can reduce the amount of Nmin leached from topsoil horizon of agricultural soils. In addition, some plants biomass production reduces may occur.

Keywords: Fertigation, fertilizers, mineral nitrogen, soil microorganisms.

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Authors: A. Norezzine, N. Y. Rebouh, M. Souadkia, D. Parpura, A. Gadzhikurbanov, E. A. Gladyr, P. M. Klenovitsky, A. A. Nikishov, A. Dranidis

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This article deals with the genetic characteristics of samples Schwyz-zebu cattle from three farms of the Republic of Tajikistan on 10 microsatellite markers (STS). Hence, the present study was carried out to evaluate the heterozygosity in the population and to characterize this breed by identifying DNA markers using microstatellites. Microsatellites often have multiple alleles and may have heterozygosity frequencies of 70% or more. This makes them highly informative for genetic analysis. A total of ten microsatellite primers were used for microsatellite analysis in genomic DNA of Zebu cattle. The amplified products were analysed for polymorphic alleles and their frequencies. The resulting information can be used in dealing with the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of the Tajik Schwyz-zebu cattle.

Keywords: DNA, gene pool, Schwyz-zebu cattle, microsatellite loci.

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

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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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Authors: Fang Shu, Li Lihua, Zhang Ping

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A general stochastic spatial MIMO channel model is proposed for evaluating various MIMO techniques in this paper. It can generate MIMO channels complying with various MIMO configurations such as smart antenna, spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing. The modeling method produces the stochastic fading involving delay spread, Doppler spread, DOA (direction of arrival), AS (angle spread), PAS (power azimuth Spectrum) of the scatterers, antenna spacing and the wavelength. It can be applied in various MIMO technique researches flexibly with low computing complexity.

Keywords: MIMO channel, Spatial Correlation, DOA, AS, PAS.

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Authors: T.C. Manjunath, B. Bandyopadhyay

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This paper features the modeling and design of a Robust Decentralized Fast Output Sampling (RDFOS) Feedback control technique for the active vibration control of a smart flexible multimodel Euler-Bernoulli cantilever beams for a multivariable (MIMO) case by retaining the first 6 vibratory modes. The beam structure is modeled in state space form using the concept of piezoelectric theory, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Finite Element Method (FEM) technique by dividing the beam into 4 finite elements and placing the piezoelectric sensor / actuator at two finite element locations (positions 2 and 4) as collocated pairs, i.e., as surface mounted sensor / actuator, thus giving rise to a multivariable model of the smart structure plant with two inputs and two outputs. Five such multivariable models are obtained by varying the dimensions (aspect ratios) of the aluminium beam. Using model order reduction technique, the reduced order model of the higher order system is obtained based on dominant Eigen value retention and the Davison technique. RDFOS feedback controllers are designed for the above 5 multivariable-multimodel plant. The closed loop responses with the RDFOS feedback gain and the magnitudes of the control input are obtained and the performance of the proposed multimodel smart structure system is evaluated for vibration control.

Keywords: Smart structure, Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, Fastoutput sampling feedback control, Finite Element Method, Statespace model, Vibration control, LMI, Model order Reduction.

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Authors: Mohamed Rashad, Mohamed Hafez, Mohamed Emran, Emad Aboukila, Ibrahim Nassar

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Environment-friendly organic wastes of Brewers' spent grain, a byproduct of the brewing process, have recently used as soil amendment to improve soil fertility and plant production. In this work, treatments of 1% (T1) and 2% (T2) of spent grains, 1% (C1) and 2% (C2) of compost and mix of both sources (C1T1) were used and compared to the control for growing Zea mays L. on sandy soil under arid Mediterranean climate. Soils were previously incubated at 65% saturation capacity for a month. The most relevant soil physical and chemical parameters were analysed. Water holding capacity and soil organic matter (OM) increased significantly along the treatments with the highest values in T2. Soil pH decreased along the treatments and the lowest pH was in C1T1. Bicarbonate decreased by 69% in C1T1 comparing to control. Total nitrogen (TN) and available P varied significantly among all treatments and T2, C1T1 and C2 treatments increased 25, 17 and 11 folds in TN and 1.2, 0.6 and 0.3 folds in P, respectively related to control. Available K showed the highest values in C1T1. Soil micronutrients increased significantly along all treatments with the highest values in T2. After corn germination, significant variation was observed in the velocity of germination coefficients (VGC) among all treatments in the order of C1T1>T2>T1>C2>C1>control. The highest records of final germination and germination index were in C1T1 and T2. The spent grains may compensate deficiencies of macro and micronutrients in newly reclaimed sandy soils without adverse effects to sustain crop production with a rider that excessive or continuous use need to be circumvented.

Keywords: Spent grain, compost, micronutrients, macronutrients, water holding capacity, plant growth.

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Authors: Paisarn Larpsomboonchai

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Agro-industry is one of major industries that have strong impacts on national economic incomes, growth, stability, and sustainable development. Moreover, this industry also has strong influences on social, cultural and political issues. Furthermore, this industry, as producing primary and secondary products, is facing challenges from such diverse factors such as demand inconsistency, intense international competition, technological advancements and new competitors. In order to maintain and to improve industry’s competitiveness in both domestics and international markets, science and technology are key factors. Besides hard sciences and technologies, modern industrial engineering concepts such as Just in Time (JIT) Total Quality Management (TQM), Quick Response (QR), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Lean can be very effective to support to increase efficiency and effectiveness of these agricultural products on world stage. Onion is one of Thailand’s major export products which bring back national incomes. But, it is also facing challenges in many ways. This paper focused its interests in onion packing process and its related activities such as storage and shipment from one of major packing plant and storage in Mae Wang District, Chiang Mai, Thailand, by applying Toyota Production System (TPS) or Lean concepts, to improve process capability throughout the entire packing and distribution process which will be profitable for the whole onion supply chain. And it will be beneficial to other related agricultural products in Thailand and other ASEAN countries.

Keywords: Lean Concepts, Lean in Agro-industries Activities, Packing Process, Toyota Production System (TPS), Waste Reduction.

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Authors: Mihai Caramihai, Irina Severin

Abstract:

Bioprocesses are appreciated as difficult to control because their dynamic behavior is highly nonlinear and time varying, in particular, when they are operating in fed batch mode. The research objective of this study was to develop an appropriate control method for a complex bioprocess and to implement it on a laboratory plant. Hence, an intelligent control structure has been designed in order to produce biomass and to maximize the specific growth rate.

Keywords: Fed batch bioprocess, mass-balance model, fuzzy control

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Authors: Keunhong Chae, Seokho Yoon

Abstract:

This paper proposes a cooperative Alamouti space time transmission scheme with low relay complexity for the cooperative communication systems. In the proposed scheme, the source node combines the data symbols to construct the Alamouti-coded form at the destination node, while the conventional scheme performs the corresponding operations at the relay nodes. In simulation results, it is shown that the proposed scheme achieves the second order cooperative diversity while maintaining the same bit error rate (BER) performance as that of the conventional scheme.

Keywords: Space-time transmission, cooperative communication system, MIMO.

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Authors: Amit Keshav, Alok Sharma, Bidyut Mazumdar

Abstract:

Colocasia esculenta leaves and roots are widely used in Asian countries, such as, India, Srilanka and Pakistan, as food and feed material. The root is high in carbohydrates and rich in zinc. The leaves and stalks are often traditionally preserved to be eaten in dry season. Leaf juice is stimulant, expectorant, astringent, appetizer, and otalgia. Looking at the medicinal uses of the plant leaves; phytochemicals were extracted from the plant leaves and were characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to find the functional groups. Phytochemical analysis of Colocasia esculenta (L.) leaf was studied using three solvents (methanol, chloroform, and ethanol) with soxhlet apparatus. Powder of the leaves was employed to obtain the extracts, which was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed for phytochemical content using standard methods. Phytochemical constituents were abundant in the leave extract. Leaf was found to have various phytochemicals such as alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, oxalates and phenols etc., which could have lot of medicinal benefits such as reducing headache, treatment of congestive heart failure, prevent oxidative cell damage etc. These phytochemicals were identified using UV spectrophotometer and results were presented. In order to find the antioxidant activity of the extract, DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) method was employed using ascorbic acid as standard. DPPH scavenging activity of ascorbic acid was found to be 84%, whereas for ethanol it was observed to be 78.92%, for methanol: 76.46% and for chloroform: 72.46%. Looking at the high antioxidant activity, Colocasia esculenta may be recommended for medicinal applications. The characterizations of functional groups were analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, Colocasia esculenta, leaves, characterization, FTIR.

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Authors: K. Mohammed, M. Agarwal, J. Mewman, Y. Ren

Abstract:

An optimum technic has been developed for extracting volatile organic compounds which contribute to the aroma of lime fruit (Citrus aurantifolia). The volatile organic compounds of healthy and infested lime fruit with California red scale Aonidiella aurantii were characterized using headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography (GC) coupled flame ionization detection (FID) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) as a very simple, efficient and nondestructive extraction method. A three-phase 50/30 μm PDV/DVB/CAR fibre was used for the extraction process. The optimal sealing and fibre exposure time for volatiles reaching equilibrium from whole lime fruit in the headspace of the chamber was 16 and 4 hours respectively. 5 min was selected as desorption time of the three-phase fibre. Herbivorous activity induces indirect plant defenses, as the emission of herbivorous-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), which could be used by natural enemies for host location. GC-MS analysis showed qualitative differences among volatiles emitted by infested and healthy lime fruit. The GC-MS analysis allowed the initial identification of 18 compounds, with similarities higher than 85%, in accordance with the NIST mass spectral library. One of these were increased by A. aurantii infestation, D-limonene, and three were decreased, Undecane, α-Farnesene and 7-epi-α-selinene. From an applied point of view, the application of the above-mentioned VOCs may help boost the efficiency of biocontrol programs and natural enemies’ production techniques.

Keywords: Lime fruit, Citrus aurantifolia, California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii, VOCs, HS-SPME/GC-FID-MS.

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