Search results for: Biological nutrient removal

Authors: Neslihan Yuca, Nilgün Karatepe, Fahrettin Yakuphanoğlu

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Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess unique structural, mechanical, thermal and electronic properties, and have been proposed to be used for applications in many fields. However, to reach the full potential of the CNTs, many problems still need to be solved, including the development of an easy and effective purification procedure, since synthesized CNTs contain impurities, such as amorphous carbon, carbon nanoparticles and metal particles. Different purification methods yield different CNT characteristics and may be suitable for the production of different types of CNTs. In this study, the effect of different purification chemicals on carbon nanotube quality was investigated. CNTs were firstly synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetylene (C2H2) on a magnesium oxide (MgO) powder impregnated with an iron nitrate (Fe(NO3)3·9H2O) solution. The synthesis parameters were selected as: the synthesis temperature of 800°C, the iron content in the precursor of 5% and the synthesis time of 30 min. The liquid phase oxidation method was applied for the purification of the synthesized CNT materials. Three different acid chemicals (HNO3, H2SO4, and HCl) were used in the removal of the metal catalysts from the synthesized CNT material to investigate the possible effects of each acid solution to the purification step. Purification experiments were carried out at two different temperatures (75 and 120 °C), two different acid concentrations (3 and 6 M) and for three different time intervals (6, 8 and 15 h). A 30% H2O2 : 3M HCl (1:1 v%) solution was also used in the purification step to remove both the metal catalysts and the amorphous carbon. The purifications using this solution were performed at the temperature of 75°C for 8 hours. Purification efficiencies at different conditions were evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis. Thermal and electrical properties of CNTs were also determined. It was found that the obtained electrical conductivity values for the carbon nanotubes were typical for organic semiconductor materials and thermal stabilities were changed depending on the purification chemicals.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes, purification, acid digestion, thermalstability, electrical conductivity

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Authors: Annur Suhadi, Haris B. Harahap, Zaim Arrosyidi, Epan, Darmapala

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Oilfields under waterflood often face the problem of plugging injectors either by internal filtration or external filter cake built up inside pore throats. The content of suspended solids shall be reduced to required level of filtration since corrective action of plugging is costly expensive. The performance of nutshell filters, where filtration takes place, is good using pecan and walnut shells. Candlenut shells were used instead of pecan and walnut shells since they were abundant in Indonesia, Malaysia, and East Africa. Physical and chemical properties of walnut, pecan, and candlenut shells were tested and the results were compared. Testing, using full-scale nutshell filters, was conducted to determine the oil content, turbidity, and suspended solid removal, which was based on designed flux rate. The performance of candlenut shells, which were deeply bedded in nutshell filters for filtration process, was monitored. Cleaned water outgoing nutshell filters had total suspended solids of 17 ppm, while oil content could be reduced to 15.1 ppm. Turbidity, using candlenut shells, was below the specification for injection water, which was less than 10 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU). Turbidity of water, outgoing nutshell filter, was ranged from 1.7-5.0 NTU at various dates of operation. Walnut, pecan, and candlenut shells had moisture content of 8.98 wt%, 10.95 wt%, and 9.95 wt%, respectively. The porosity of walnut, pecan, and candlenut shells was significantly affected by moisture content. Candlenut shells had property of toluene solubility of 7.68 wt%, which was much higher than walnut shells, reflecting more crude oil adsorption. The hardness of candlenut shells was 2.5-3 Mohs, which was close to walnut shells’ hardness. It was advantage to guarantee the cleaning filter cake by fluidization process during backwashing.

Keywords: Candlenut shells, walnut shells, pecan shells, nutshell filter, filtration.

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Authors: S. Mawlood, L. Dennany, N. Watson, B. Pickard

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DNA analysis has been widely accepted as providing valuable evidence concerning the identity of the source of biological traces. Our work has showed that DNA samples can survive on cartridges even after firing. The study also raised the possibility of determining other information such as the age of the donor. Such information may be invaluable in certain cases where spent cartridges from automatic weapons are left behind at the scene of a crime. In spite of the nature of touch evidence and exposure to high chamber temperatures during shooting, we were still capable to retrieve enough DNA for profile typing. In order to estimate age of contributor, DNA methylation levels were analyzed using EpiTect system for retrieved DNA. However, results were not conclusive, due to low amount of input DNA.

Keywords: Age prediction, Fired cartridge, Trace DNA sample.

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Authors: Weifeng Pan

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Complex networks have been intensively studied across many fields, especially in Internet technology, biological engineering, and nonlinear science. Software is built up out of many interacting components at various levels of granularity, such as functions, classes, and packages, representing another important class of complex networks. It can also be studied using complex network theory. Over the last decade, many papers on the interdisciplinary research between software engineering and complex networks have been published. It provides a different dimension to our understanding of software and also is very useful for the design and development of software systems. This paper will explore how to use the complex network theory to analyze software structure, and briefly review the main advances in corresponding aspects.

Keywords: Metrics, measurement, complex networks, software.

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Authors: Johannes Partzsch, Christian Mayr, Rene Schuffny

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Starting from a biologically inspired framework, Gabor filters were built up from retinal filters via LMSE algorithms. Asubset of retinal filter kernels was chosen to form a particular Gabor filter by using a weighted sum. One-dimensional optimization approaches were shown to be inappropriate for the problem. All model parameters were fixed with biological or image processing constraints. Detailed analysis of the optimization procedure led to the introduction of a minimization constraint. Finally, quantization of weighting factors was investigated. This resulted in an optimized cascaded structure of a Gabor filter bank implementation with lower computational cost.

Keywords: Gabor filter, image processing, optimization

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Authors: Manfred Szerencsits, Christine Weinberger, Maximilian Kuderna, Franz Feichtinger, Eva Erhart, Stephan Maier

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Cover or catch crops have beneficial effects for soil, water, erosion, etc. If harvested, they also provide feedstock for biogas without competition for arable land in regions, where only one main crop can be produced per year. On average gross energy yields of approx. 1300 m³ methane (CH₄) ha^-1 can be expected from 4.5 tonnes (t) of cover crop dry matter (DM) in Austria. Considering the total energy invested from cultivation to compression for biofuel use a net energy yield of about 1000 m³ CH₄ ha^-1 is remaining. With the straw of grain maize or Corn Cob Mix (CCM) similar energy yields can be achieved. In comparison to catch crops remaining on the field as green manure or to complete fallow between main crops the effects on soil, water and climate can be improved if cover crops are harvested without soil compaction and digestate is returned to the field in an amount equivalent to cover crop removal. In this way, the risk of nitrate leaching can be reduced approx. by 25% in comparison to full fallow. The risk of nitrous oxide emissions may be reduced up to 50% by contrast with cover crops serving as green manure. The effects on humus content and erosion are similar or better than those of cover crops used as green manure when the same amount of biomass was produced. With higher biomass production the positive effects increase even if cover crops are harvested and the only digestate is brought back to the fields. The ecological footprint of arable farming can be reduced by approx. 50% considering the substitution of natural gas with CH₄ produced from cover crops.

Keywords: Biogas, cover crops, catch crops, land use competition, sustainable agriculture.

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Authors: Wenbin Zhang, Hantian Wu, Jian Tang

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An artificial neural network is a mathematical model inspired by biological neural networks. There are several kinds of neural networks and they are widely used in many areas, such as: prediction, detection, and classification. Meanwhile, in day to day life, people always have to make many difficult decisions. For example, the coach of a soccer club has to decide which offensive player to be selected to play in a certain game. This work describes a novel Neural Network using a combination of the General Regression Neural Network and the Probabilistic Neural Networks to help a soccer coach make an informed decision.

Keywords: General Regression Neural Network, Probabilistic Neural Networks, Neural function.

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Authors: Yuhei Kunihiro, Sorin V. Sabau, Kazuhiro Shibuya

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We study the molecular evolution of insulin from metric geometry point of view. In mathematics, and in particular in geometry, distances and metrics between objects are of fundamental importance. Using a weaker notion than the classical distance, namely the weighted quasi-metrics, one can study the geometry of biological sequences (DNA, mRNA, or proteins) space. We analyze from geometrical point of view a family of 60 insulin homologous sequences ranging on a large variety of living organisms from human to the nematode C. elegans. We show that the distances between sequences provide important information about the evolution and function of insulin.

Keywords: Metric geometry, evolution, insulin.

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Authors: Guclu Insel, Efe Gumuslu, Gulten Yuksek, Nilay Sayi Ucar, Emine Ubay Cokgor, Tugba Olmez Hanci, Didem Okutman Tas, Fatos Germirli Babuna, Derya Firat Ertem, Okmen Yildirim, Ozge Erturan, Betul Kirci

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In order to eliminate water scarcity problems, effective precautions must be taken. Growing competition for water is increasingly forcing facilities to tackle their own water scarcity problems. At this point, application of wastewater reclamation and reuse results in considerable economic advantageous. In this study, an enamel coating facility, which is one of the high water consumed facilities, is evaluated in terms of its wastewater reuse potential. Wastewater reclamation and reuse can be defined as one of the best available techniques for this sector. Hence, process and pollution profiles together with detailed characterization of segregated wastewater sources are appraised in a way to find out the recoverable effluent streams arising from enamel coating operations. Daily, 170 m³ of process water is required and 160 m³ of wastewater is generated. The segregated streams generated by two enamel coating processes are characterized in terms of conventional parameters. Relatively clean segregated wastewater streams (reusable wastewaters) are separately collected and experimental treatability studies are conducted on it. The results reflected that the reusable wastewater fraction has an approximate amount of 110 m³/day that accounts for 68% of the total wastewaters. The need for treatment applicable on reusable wastewaters is determined by considering water quality requirements of various operations and characterization of reusable wastewater streams. Ultra-filtration (UF), Nano-filtration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes are subsequently applied on reusable effluent fraction. Adequate organic matter removal is not obtained with the mentioned treatment sequence.

Keywords: enamel coating, membrane, reuse, wastewater

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Authors: Seung Pil Pack

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Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) has been focused as biological catalysis for CO2 sequestration process because it can catalyze the conversion of CO2 to bicarbonate. Here, codon-optimized sequence of α type-CA cloned from Duneliala species. (DsCAopt) was constructed, expressed, and characterized. The expression level in E. coli BL21(DE3) was better for codon-optimized DsCAopt than intact sequence of DsCAopt. DsCAopt enzyme shows high-stability at pH 7.6/10.0. In final, we demonstrated that in the Ca2+ solution, DsCAopt enzyme can catalyze well the conversion of CO2 to CaCO3, as the calcite form.

Keywords: Carbonic anhydrase, Codon-optimization, Duneliala species, CO2 sequestration

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Authors: V. Veeraprathap, G. S. Harish, G. Narendra Kumar

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Uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung in the form of tumor can be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Patients with Lung Cancer (LC) have an average of five years life span expectancy provided diagnosis, detection and prediction, which reduces many treatment options to risk of invasive surgery increasing survival rate. Computed Tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for earlier detection of cancer are common. Gaussian filter along with median filter used for smoothing and noise removal, Histogram Equalization (HE) for image enhancement gives the best results without inviting further opinions. Lung cavities are extracted and the background portion other than two lung cavities is completely removed with right and left lungs segmented separately. Region properties measurements area, perimeter, diameter, centroid and eccentricity measured for the tumor segmented image, while texture is characterized by Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) functions, feature extraction provides Region of Interest (ROI) given as input to classifier. Two levels of classifications, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) is used for determining patient condition as normal or abnormal, while Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is used for identifying the cancer stage is employed. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) algorithm is used for the main feature extraction leading to best efficiency. The developed technology finds encouraging results for real time information and on line detection for future research.

Keywords: ANN, DWT, GLCM, KNN, ROI, artificial neural networks, discrete wavelet transform, gray-level co-occurrence matrix, k-nearest neighbor, region of interest.

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Authors: John Justo Ambuchi, Zhaohan Zhang, Yujie Feng

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Quick development and usage of nanotechnology have resulted to massive use of various nanoparticles, such as iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Thus, this study investigated the role of IONPs and MWCNTs in enhancing bioenergy recovery. Results show that IONPs at a concentration of 750 mg/L and MWCNTs at a concentration of 1500 mg/L induced faster substrate utilization and biogas production rates than the control. IONPs exhibited higher carbon oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency than MWCNTs while on the contrary, MWCNT performance on biogas generation was remarkable than IONPs. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation revealed extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) excretion from AGS had an interaction with nanoparticles. This interaction created a protective barrier to microbial consortia hence reducing their cytotoxicity. Microbial community analyses revealed genus predominance of bacteria of Anaerolineaceae and Longilinea. Their role in biodegradation of the substrate could have highly been boosted by nanoparticles. The archaea predominance of the genus level of Methanosaeta and Methanobacterium enhanced methanation process. The presence of bacteria of genus Geobacter was also reported. Their presence might have significantly contributed to direct interspecies electron transfer in the system. Exposure of AGS to nanoparticles promoted direct interspecies electron transfer among the anaerobic fermenting bacteria and their counterpart methanogens during the anaerobic digestion process. This results provide useful insightful information in understanding the response of microorganisms to IONPs and MWCNTs in the complex natural environment.

Keywords: Anaerobic granular sludge, extracellular polymeric substances, iron oxide nanoparticles, multi-wall carbon nanotubes.

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Authors: Ragi Poyyara, Vijaya Patnana, Mohammed Alam

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When acid is pumped into damaged reservoirs for damage removal/stimulation, distorted inflow of acid into the formation occurs caused by acid preferentially traveling into highly permeable regions over low permeable regions, or (in general) into the path of least resistance. This can lead to poor zonal coverage and hence warrants diversion to carry out an effective placement of acid. Diversion is desirably a reversible technique of temporarily reducing the permeability of high perm zones, thereby forcing the acid into lower perm zones. The uniqueness of each reservoir can pose several challenges to engineers attempting to devise optimum and effective diversion strategies. Diversion techniques include mechanical placement and/or chemical diversion of treatment fluids, further sub-classified into ball sealers, bridge plugs, packers, particulate diverters, viscous gels, crosslinked gels, relative permeability modifiers (RPMs), foams, and/or the use of placement techniques, such as coiled tubing (CT) and the maximum pressure difference and injection rate (MAPDIR) methodology. It is not always realized that the effectiveness of diverters greatly depends on reservoir properties, such as formation type, temperature, reservoir permeability, heterogeneity, and physical well characteristics (e.g., completion type, well deviation, length of treatment interval, multiple intervals, etc.). This paper reviews the mechanisms by which each variety of diverter functions and discusses the effect of various reservoir properties on the efficiency of diversion techniques. Guidelines are recommended to help enhance productivity from zones of interest by choosing the best methods of diversion while pumping an optimized amount of treatment fluid. The success of an overall acid treatment often depends on the effectiveness of the diverting agents.

Keywords: Acid treatment, carbonate, diversion, sandstone.

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Authors: Md. Z. Alam, Amal A. Elgharbawy, Muhammad Moniruzzaman, Nassereldeen A. Kabbashi, Parveen Jamal

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The enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is one of the obstacles in the process of sugar production, due to the presence of lignin that protects the cellulose molecules against cellulases. Although the pretreatment of lignocellulose in ionic liquid (IL) system has been receiving a lot of interest; however, it requires IL removal with an anti-solvent in order to proceed with the enzymatic hydrolysis. At this point, introducing a compatible cellulase enzyme seems more efficient in this process. A cellulase enzyme that was produced by Trichoderma reesei on palm kernel cake (PKC) exhibited a promising stability in several ILs. The enzyme called PKC-Cel was tested for its optimum pH and temperature as well as its molecular weight. One among evaluated ILs, 1,3-diethylimidazolium dimethyl phosphate [DEMIM] DMP was applied in this study. Evaluation of six factors was executed in Stat-Ease Design Expert V.9, definitive screening design, which are IL/ buffer ratio, temperature, hydrolysis retention time, biomass loading, cellulase loading and empty fruit bunches (EFB) particle size. According to the obtained data, IL-enzyme system shows the highest sugar concentration at 70 °C, 27 hours, 10% IL-buffer, 35% biomass loading, 60 Units/g cellulase and 200 μm particle size. As concluded from the obtained data, not only the PKC-Cel was stable in the presence of the IL, also it was actually stable at a higher temperature than its optimum one. The reducing sugar obtained was 53.468±4.58 g/L which was equivalent to 0.3055 g reducing sugar/g EFB. This approach opens an insight for more studies in order to understand the actual effect of ILs on cellulases and their interactions in the aqueous system. It could also benefit in an efficient production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass.

Keywords: Cellulase, hydrolysis, lignocellulose, pretreatment, stability.

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Authors: Xiang Zhang, Daohong Yang, Ziyuan Wu, Lei Li, Wanting Zhou

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Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) uses cameras to gather information in unknown environments to achieve simultaneous localization and mapping of the environment. This technology has a wide range of applications in autonomous driving, virtual reality, and other related fields. Currently, the research advancements related to VSLAM can maintain high accuracy in static environments. But in dynamic environments, the presence of moving objects in the scene can reduce the stability of the VSLAM system, leading to inaccurate localization and mapping, or even system failure. In this paper, a robust VSLAM method was proposed to effectively address the challenges in dynamic environments. We proposed a dynamic region removal scheme based on a semantic segmentation neural network and geometric constraints. Firstly, a semantic segmentation neural network is used to extract the prior active motion region, prior static region, and prior passive motion region in the environment. Then, the lightweight frame tracking module initializes the transform pose between the previous frame and the current frame on the prior static region. A motion consistency detection module based on multi-view geometry and scene flow is used to divide the environment into static regions and dynamic regions. Thus, the dynamic object region was successfully eliminated. Finally, only the static region is used for tracking thread. Our research is based on the ORBSLAM3 system, which is one of the most effective VSLAM systems available. We evaluated our method on the TUM RGB-D benchmark and the results demonstrate that the proposed VSLAM method improves the accuracy of the original ORBSLAM3 by 70%˜98.5% under a high dynamic environment.

Keywords: Dynamic scene, dynamic visual SLAM, semantic segmentation, scene flow, VSLAM.

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Authors: Hisham Nuri Akrim, Abubaker Edkymish, Nissreen Gryani

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Repeated additions of the unfertilized bacteria led to increase the activity of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the root zone with drip irrigation system compared to traditional manual vaccination to increase the proportion of Nitrogen from 29% to 64%, and the efficiency of adding Nitrogen fertilizer did not exceed 9.5% while dropped to 4%, due to the amount of fertilizer added was not exceed 20kg N/h, and the second was the existence of a large amount of available Nitrogen in the soil by fixation, while the efficiency of irrigation system between 2.08 to 2.26 kg/m3.

Keywords: Drip irrigation system, Nitrogen Biological Fixation, Neutron Probe, N-15 Tracer Techniques

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Authors: M. I. Ribah, M. Jibir, Y. A. Bashar, S. S. Manga

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Food safety is a significant and growing public health problem in the world and Nigeria as a developing country, since food-borne diseases are important contributors to the huge burden of sickness and death of humans. In Nigeria, traditional ready-to-eat meat products (RTE-MPs) like balangu, tsire, guru and dried meat products like kilishi, dambun nama, banda, were reported to be highly appreciated because of their eating qualities. The consumption of these products was considered as safe due to the treatments that are usually involved during their production process. However, during processing and handling, the products could be contaminated by pathogens that could cause food poisoning. Therefore, a hazard identification for pathogenic bacteria on some traditional RTE-MPs was conducted in Kebbi and Sokoto States, Nigeria. A total of 116 RTE-MPs (balangu-38, kilishi-39 and tsire-39) samples were obtained from retail outlets and analyzed using standard cultural microbiological procedures in general and selective enrichment media to isolate the target pathogens. A six-fold serial dilution was prepared and using the pour plating method, colonies were counted. Serial dilutions were selected based on the prepared pre-labeled Petri dishes for each sample. A volume of 10-12 ml of molten Nutrient agar cooled to 42-45°C was poured into each Petri dish and 1 ml each from dilutions of 102, 104 and 106 for every sample was respectively poured on a pre-labeled Petri plate after which colonies were counted. The isolated pathogens were identified and confirmed after series of biochemical tests. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the presence of pathogens. The General Linear Model was used to analyze data on pathogen presence according to RTE-MPs and means were separated using the Tukey test at 0.05 confidence level. Of the 116 RTE-MPs samples collected, 35 (30.17%) samples were found to be contaminated with some tested pathogens. Prevalence results showed that Escherichia coli, salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus were present in the samples. Mean total bacterial count was 23.82×106 cfu/g. The frequency of individual pathogens isolated was; Staphylococcus aureus 18 (15.51%), Escherichia coli 12 (10.34%) and Salmonella 5 (4.31%). Also, among the RTE-MPs tested, the total bacterial counts were found to differ significantly (P < 0.05), with 1.81, 2.41 and 2.9×104 cfu/g for tsire, kilishi, and balangu, respectively. The study concluded that the presence of pathogenic bacteria in balangu could pose grave health risks to consumers, and hence, recommended good manufacturing practices in the production of balangu to improve the products’ safety.

Keywords: Ready-to-eat meat products, retail outlets, safety assessment, public health.

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Authors: Moses C. Siame, Kazutoshi Haga, Atsushi Shibayama

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This study investigates the removal of silica, alumina and phosphorus as impurities from Sanje iron ore using wet high-intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS). Sanje iron ore contains low-grade hematite ore found in Nampundwe area of Zambia from which iron is to be used as the feed in the steelmaking process. The chemical composition analysis using X-ray Florence spectrometer showed that Sanje low-grade ore contains 48.90 mass% of hematite (Fe₂O₃) with 34.18 mass% as an iron grade. The ore also contains silica (SiO₂) and alumina (Al₂O₃) of 31.10 mass% and 7.65 mass% respectively. The mineralogical analysis using X-ray diffraction spectrometer showed hematite and silica as the major mineral components of the ore while magnetite and alumina exist as minor mineral components. Mineral particle distribution analysis was done using scanning electron microscope with an X-ray energy dispersion spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and images showed that the average mineral size distribution of alumina-silicate gangue particles is in order of 100 μm and exists as iron-bearing interlocked particles. Magnetic separation was done using series L model 4 Magnetic Separator. The effect of various magnetic separation parameters such as magnetic flux density, particle size, and pulp density of the feed was studied during magnetic separation experiments. The ore with average particle size of 25 µm and pulp density of 2.5% was concentrated using pulp flow of 7 L/min. The results showed that 10 T was optimal magnetic flux density which enhanced the recovery of 93.08% of iron with 53.22 mass% grade. The gangue mineral particles containing 12 mass% silica and 3.94 mass% alumna remained in the concentrate, therefore the concentrate was further treated in the second stage WHIMS using the same parameters from the first stage. The second stage process recovered 83.41% of iron with 67.07 mass% grade. Silica was reduced to 2.14 mass% and alumina to 1.30 mass%. Accordingly, phosphorus was also reduced to 0.02 mass%. Therefore, the two stage magnetic separation process was established using these results.

Keywords: Sanje iron ore, magnetic separation, silica, alumina, recovery.

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Authors: Archana Mukherjee, Aruna Korde, Sudipta Chakraborty, H. D. Sarma, Grace Samuel, M. R. A. Pillai

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Radiolabeled cyclic RGD peptides targeting integrin αvβ3 are reported as promising agents for the early diagnosis of metastatic tumors. With an aim to improve tumor uptake and retention of the peptide, cyclic RGD peptide dimer E[c (RGDfK)] 2 (E = Glutamic acid, f = phenyl alanine, K = lysine) coupled to the bifunctional chelator DOTA was custom synthesized and radiolabelled with 68Ga. Radiolabelling of cyclic RGD peptide dimer with 68Ga was carried out using HEPES buffer and biological evaluation of the complex was done in nude mice bearing HT29 tumors.

Keywords: 68Ga peptides, Angiogenesis imaging, Cyclic RGD peptides, PET Imaging.

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Authors: Anuj K. Sharma, Amit Sharma, Kulbhushan Agnihotri

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In this work, we propose and analyze a model of Phytoplankton-Zooplankton interaction with harvesting considering that some species are exploited commercially for food. Criteria for local stability, instability and global stability are derived and some threshold harvesting levels are explored to maintain the population at an appropriate equilibrium level even if the species are exploited continuously.Further,biological and bionomic equilibria of the system are obtained and an optimal harvesting policy is also analysed using the Pantryagin’s Maximum Principle.Finally analytical findings are also supported by some numerical simulations.

Keywords: Phytoplankton-Zooplankton, Global stability, Bionomic Equilibrium, Pontrying-Maximum Principal.

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Authors: Mareli Hattingh, I. Jaco Van der Walt, Frans B. Waanders

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A waste-to-energy plasma system was designed by Necsa for commercial use to create electricity from unsorted municipal waste. Fly ash particles must be removed from the syngas stream at operating temperatures of 1000 °C and recycled back into the reactor for complete combustion. A 2D2D high efficiency cyclone separator was chosen for this purpose. During this study, two cyclone design methods were explored: The Classic Empirical Method (smaller cyclone) and the Flow Characteristics Method (larger cyclone). These designs were optimized with regard to efficiency, so as to remove at minimum 90% of the fly ash particles of average size 10 μm by 50 μm. Wood was used as feed source at a concentration of 20 g/m³ syngas. The two designs were then compared at room temperature, using Perspex test units and three feed gases of different densities, namely nitrogen, helium and air. System conditions were imitated by adapting the gas feed velocity and particle load for each gas respectively. Helium, the least dense of the three gases, would simulate higher temperatures, whereas air, the densest gas, simulates a lower temperature. The average cyclone efficiencies ranged between 94.96% and 98.37%, reaching up to 99.89% in individual runs. The lowest efficiency attained was 94.00%. Furthermore, the design of the smaller cyclone proved to be more robust, while the larger cyclone demonstrated a stronger correlation between its separation efficiency and the feed temperatures. The larger cyclone can be assumed to achieve slightly higher efficiencies at elevated temperatures. However, both design methods led to good designs. At room temperature, the difference in efficiency between the two cyclones was almost negligible. At higher temperatures, however, these general tendencies are expected to be amplified so that the difference between the two design methods will become more obvious. Though the design specifications were met for both designs, the smaller cyclone is recommended as default particle separator for the plasma system due to its robust nature.

Keywords: Cyclone, design, plasma, renewable energy, solid separation, waste processing.

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Authors: Dilek Nartop, Nurşen Sarı, Hatice Öğütçü

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Novel polystrene-bound Schiff bases and their Pt(IV) complexes have been prepared from condensation reaction of polystyrene-A-NH2 with 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 5-fluoro-3- bromo-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde. The structures of Pt(IV) complexes with polystyrene including Schiff bases have been determined by elemental analyses, magnetic susceptibility, IR, 1H-NMR, UV-vis, TG/DTA and AAS. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the synthesized compounds have been studied by the well-diffusion method against some selected microorganisms: (Bacillus cereus spp., Listeria monocytogenes 4b, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermis, Brucella abortus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas putida spp., Shigella dysenteria type 10, Salmonella typhi H).

Keywords: Polymer-bound Schiff bases, polystyrene-A-NH2, Pt(IV) complexes, biological activity.

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Authors: Agata M. Kołodziejczyk, Mateusz Harasymczuk, Pierre-Yves Girardin, Lucie Davidová

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Subjective time perception implies connection to cognitive functions, attention, memory and awareness, but a little is known about connections with homeostatic states of the body coordinated by circadian clock. In this paper, we present results from experimental study of subjective time perception in volunteers performing physical activity on treadmill in various phases of their circadian rhythms. Subjects were exposed to several time illusions simulated by programmed timing systems. This study brings better understanding for further improvement of of work quality in isolated areas. 

Keywords: Biological clock, light, time illusions, treadmill.

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Authors: N. Santatriniaina, J. Deseure, T.Q. Nguyen, H. Fontaine, C. Beitia, L. Rakotomanana

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Nowadays, with the increasing of the wafer's size and the decreasing of critical size of integrated circuit manufacturing in modern high-tech, microelectronics industry needs a maximum attention to challenge the contamination control. The move to 300 [mm] is accompanied by the use of Front Opening Unified Pods for wafer and his storage. In these pods an airborne cross contamination may occur between wafers and the pods. A predictive approach using modeling and computational methods is very powerful method to understand and qualify the AMCs cross contamination processes. This work investigates the required numerical tools which are employed in order to study the AMCs cross-contamination transfer phenomena between wafers and FOUPs. Numerical optimization and finite element formulation in transient analysis were established. Analytical solution of one dimensional problem was developed and the calibration process of physical constants was performed. The least square distance between the model (analytical 1D solution) and the experimental data are minimized. The behavior of the AMCs intransient analysis was determined. The model framework preserves the classical forms of the diffusion and convection-diffusion equations and yields to consistent form of the Fick's law. The adsorption process and the surface roughness effect were also traduced as a boundary condition using the switch condition Dirichlet to Neumann and the interface condition. The methodology is applied, first using the optimization methods with analytical solution to define physical constants, and second using finite element method including adsorption kinetic and the switch of Dirichlet to Neumann condition.

Keywords: AMCs, FOUP, cross-contamination, adsorption, diffusion, numerical analysis, wafers, Dirichlet to Neumann, finite elements methods, Fick’s law, optimization.

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Authors: J. X. Dong, C. J. An, Z. Chen, E. H. Owens, M. C. Boufadel, E. Taylor, K. Lee

Abstract:

Shorelines are vulnerable to significant environmental impacts from oil spills. Stranded oil can cause potential short- to long-term detrimental effects along beaches that include injuries to ecosystem, socio-economic and cultural resources. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical modeling approach is developed to evaluate the fate and transport of spilled oil for hypothetical oiled shoreline cases under various combinations of beach geomorphology and environmental conditions. The developed model estimates the spatial and temporal distribution of spilled oil for the various test conditions, using the finite volume method and considering the physical transport (dispersion and advection), sinks, and sorption processes. The model includes a user-friendly interface for data input on variables such as beach properties, environmental conditions, and physical-chemical properties of spilled oil. An experimental meso-scale tank design was used to test the developed model for dissolved petroleum hydrocarbon within shorelines. The simulated results for effects of different sediment substrates, oil types, and shoreline features for the transport of spilled oil are comparable to that obtained with a commercially available model. Results show that the properties of substrates and the oil removal by shoreline effects have significant impacts on oil transport in the beach area. Sensitivity analysis, through the application of the one-step-at-a-time method (OAT), for the 3D model identified hydraulic conductivity as the most sensitive parameter. The 3D numerical model allows users to examine the behavior of oil on and within beaches, assess potential environmental impacts, and provide technical support for decisions related to shoreline clean-up operations.

Keywords: dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons, environmental multimedia model, finite volume method, FVM, sensitivity analysis, total petroleum hydrocarbons, TPH

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Authors: T. Mahalakshmi, Aswathi B. L., Achuthsankar S. Nair

Abstract:

Transcription factors are a group of proteins that helps for interpreting the genetic information in DNA. Protein-protein interactions play a major role in the execution of key biological functions of a cell. These interactions are represented in the form of a graph with nodes and edges. Studies have showed that some nodes have high degree of connectivity and such nodes, known as hub nodes, are the inevitable parts of the network. In the present paper a method is proposed to identify hub transcription factor proteins using sequence information. On a complete data set of transcription factor proteins available from the APID database, the proposed method showed an accuracy of 77%, sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 76%.

Keywords: Transcription Factor Proteins, Hub Proteins, Shannon Index, Transfer Free Energy to Surface (TFES).

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Authors: Abdelkader Magdy, Magdy Saeb, A. Baith Mohamed, Ahmed Khadragi

Abstract:

The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) which is a doublestranded helix of nucleotides consists of: Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G) and Thymine (T). In this work, we convert this genetic code into an equivalent digital signal representation. Applying a wavelet transform, such as Haar wavelet, we will be able to extract details that are not so clear in the original genetic code. We compare between different organisms using the results of the Haar wavelet Transform. This is achieved by using the trend part of the signal since the trend part bears the most energy of the digital signal representation. Consequently, we will be able to quantitatively reconstruct different biological families.

Keywords: Digital Signal, DNA, Fluctuation part, Haar wavelet, Nucleotides, Trend part.

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Authors: Snezana Rajkovic, Miroslava Markovic, Radoslav Rajkovic, Ljubinko Rakonjac

Abstract:

Grey mold on grape is caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea Pers. Trichodex WP, a new biofungicide, that contains fungal spores of Trichoderma harzianum Rifai, was used for biological control of Grey mold on grape. The efficacy of Trichodex WP has been reported from many experiments. Experiments were carried out in the locality – Banatski Karlovac, on grapevine species – talijanski rizling. The trials were set according to instructions of methods PP1/152(2) and PP1/17(3) , according to a fully randomized block design. Phytotoxicity was estimated by PP methods 1/135(2), the intensity of infection according to Towsend Heuberger , the efficiency by Abbott, the analysis of variance with Duncan test and PP/181(2). Application of Trichodex WP is limited to the first two treatments. Other treatments are performed with the fungicides based on a.i. procymidone, vinclozoline and iprodione.

Keywords: Biofungicides, efficacy, grey mold, Trichodex WP.

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Authors: Matheus Müller, Delma Vidal

Abstract:

The present paper aims to expose two techniques of dewatering for sludge, analyzing its operations and dewatering processes, aiming at improving the conditions of disposal of residues with high liquid content. It describes the field tests performed on two geotextile systems, a closed geotextile tube and an open geotextile drying bed, both of which are submitted to two filling cycles. The sludge used in the filling cycles for the field trials is from the water treatment plant of the Technological Center of Aeronautics – CTA, in São José dos Campos, Brazil. Data about volume and height abatement due to the dewatering and consolidation were collected per time, until it was observed constancy. With the laboratory analysis of the sludge allied to the data collected in the field, it was possible to perform a critical comparative study between the observed and the scientific literature, in this way, this paper expresses the data obtained and compares them with the bibliography. The tests were carried out on three fronts: field tests, including the filling cycles of the systems with the sludge from CTA, taking measurements of filling time per cycle and maximum filling height per cycle, heights against the abatement by dewatering of the systems over time; tests carried out in the laboratory, including the characterization of the sludge and removal of material samples from the systems to ascertain the solids content within the systems per time and; comparing the data obtained in the field and laboratory tests with the scientific literature. Through the study, it was possible to perceive that the process of densification of the material inside a closed system, such as the geotextile tube, occurs faster than the observed in the drying bed system. This process of accelerated densification can be brought about by the pumping pressure of the sludge in its filling and by the confinement of the residue through the permeable geotextile membrane (allowing water to pass through), accelerating the process of densification and dewatering by its own weight after the filling with sludge.

Keywords: Consolidation, dewatering, geotextile drying bed, geotextile tube.

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Authors: U. Kairov, T. Karpenyuk, E. Ramanculov, A. Zinovyev

Abstract:

The most common result of analysis of highthroughput data in molecular biology represents a global list of genes, ranked accordingly to a certain score. The score can be a measure of differential expression. Recent work proposed a new method for selecting a number of genes in a ranked gene list from microarray gene expression data such that this set forms the Optimally Functionally Enriched Network (OFTEN), formed by known physical interactions between genes or their products. Here we present calculation results of relative connectivity of genes from META-OFTEN network and tentative biological interpretation of the most reproducible signal. The relative connectivity and inbetweenness values of genes from META-OFTEN network were estimated.

Keywords: Microarray, META-OFTEN, gene network.

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