Search results for: Initial separation
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1437

Search results for: Initial separation

657 Removal of Chromium from Aqueous Solution using Synthesized Polyaniline in Acetonitrile

Authors: Majid Riahi Samani, Seyed Mehdi Borghei

Abstract:

Absorptive characteristics of polyaniline synthesized in mixture of water and acetonitrile in 50/50 volume ratio was studied. Synthesized polyaniline in powder shape is used as an adsorbent to remove toxic hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions. Experiments were conducted in batch mode with different variables such as agitation time, solution pH and initial concentration of hexavalent chromium. Removal mechanism is the combination of surface adsorption and reduction. The equilibrium time for removal of Cr(T) and Cr(VI) was about 2 and 10 minutes respectively. The optimum pH for total chromium removal occurred at pH 7 and maximum hexavalent chromium removal took place under acidic condition at pH 3. Investigating the isothermal characteristics showed that the equilibrium adsorption data fitted both Freundlich-s and Langmuir-s isotherms. The maximum adsorption of chromium was calculated 36.1 mg/g for polyaniline

Keywords: Polyaniline, Chromium, acetonitrile, Adsorption

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656 Eisenhower’s Farewell Speech: Initial and Continuing Communication Effects

Authors: B. Kuiper

Abstract:

When Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his final Presidential speech in 1961, he was using the opportunity to bid farewell to America, but he was also trying to warn his fellow countrymen about deeper challenges threatening the country. In this analysis, Eisenhower’s speech is examined in light of the impact it had on American culture, communication concepts, and political ramifications. The paper initially highlights the previous literature on the speech, especially in light of its 50th anniversary, and reveals a man whose main concern was how the speech’s words would affect his beloved country. The painstaking approach to the wording of the speech to reveal the intent is key, particularly in light of analyzing the motivations according to “virtuous communication.” This philosophical construct indicates that Eisenhower’s Farewell Address was crafted carefully according to a departing President’s deepest values and concerns, concepts that he wanted to pass along to his successor, to his country, and even to the world.

Keywords: Eisenhower, mass communication, political speech, rhetoric.

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655 Robotic Hands: Design Review and Proposal of New Design Process

Authors: Jimmy W. Soto Martell, Giuseppina Gini

Abstract:

In this paper we intend to ascertain the state of the art on multifingered end-effectors, also known as robotic hands or dexterous robot hands, and propose an experimental setup for an innovative task based design approach, involving cutting edge technologies in motion capture. After an initial description of the capabilities and complexity of a human hand when grasping objects, in order to point out the importance of replicating it, we analyze the mechanical and kinematical structure of some important works carried out all around the world in the last three decades and also review the actuators and sensing technologies used. Finally we describe a new design philosophy proposing an experimental setup for the first stage using recent developments in human body motion capture systems that might lead to lighter and always more dexterous robotic hands.

Keywords: Dexterous manipulation, grasp, multifingered endeffector, robotic hand.

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654 Implementation of Response Surface Methodology using in Small Brown Rice Peeling Machine: Part I

Authors: S. Bangphan, P. Bangphan, T.Boonkang

Abstract:

Implementation of response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to study the effects of two factor (rubber clearance and round per minute) in brown rice peeling machine of The optimal BROKENS yield (19.02, average of three repeats),.The optimized composition derived from RSM regression was analyzed using Regression analysis and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). At a significant level α = 0.05, the values of Regression coefficient, R 2 (adj)were 97.35 % and standard deviation were 1.09513. The independent variables are initial rubber clearance, and round per minute parameters namely. The investigating responses are final rubber clearance, and round per minute (RPM). The restriction of the optimization is the designated.

Keywords: Brown rice, Response surface methodology(RSM), Rubber clearance, Round per minute (RPM), Peeling machine.

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653 Testing of Materials for Rapid Prototyping Fused Deposition Modelling Technology

Authors: L. Novakova-Marcincinova, J. Novak-Marcincin

Abstract:

Paper presents knowledge about types of test in area of materials properties of selected methods of rapid prototyping technologies. In today used rapid prototyping technologies for production of models and final parts are used materials in initial state as solid, liquid or powder material structure. In solid state are used various forms such as pellets, wire or laminates. Basic range materials include paper, nylon, wax, resins, metals and ceramics. In Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) rapid prototyping technology are mainly used as basic materials ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), polyamide, polycarbonate, polyethylene and polypropylene. For advanced FDM applications are used special materials as silicon nitrate, PZT (Piezoceramic Material - Lead Zirconate Titanate), aluminium oxide, hydroxypatite and stainless steel.

Keywords: Rapid prototyping, materials, testing of materials.

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652 Efficiency of Membrane Distillation to Produce Fresh Water

Authors: Sabri Mrayed, David Maccioni, Greg Leslie

Abstract:

Seawater desalination has been accepted as one of the most effective solutions to the growing problem of a diminishing clean drinking water supply. Currently two desalination technologies dominate the market – the thermally driven multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) and the membrane based reverse osmosis (RO). However, in recent years membrane distillation (MD) has emerged as a potential alternative to the established means of desalination. This research project intended to determine the viability of MD as an alternative process to MSF and RO for seawater desalination. Specifically the project involves conducting thermodynamic analysis of the process based on the second law of thermodynamics to determine the efficiency of the MD. Data was obtained from experiments carried out on a laboratory rig. To determine exergy values required for the exergy analysis, two separate models were built in Engineering Equation Solver – the ’Minimum Separation Work Model’ and the ‘Stream Exergy Model’. The efficiency of MD process was found to be 17.3 % and the energy consumption was determined to be 4.5 kWh to produce one cubic meter of fresh water. The results indicate MD has potential as a technique for seawater desalination compared to RO and MSF. However it was shown that this was only the case if an alternate energy source such as green or waste energy was available to provide the thermal energy input to the process. If the process was required to power itself, it was shown to be highly inefficient and in no way thermodynamically viable as a commercial desalination process.

Keywords: Desalination, Exergy, Membrane distillation, Second law efficiency.

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651 Computational Analysis of Cavity Effect over Aircraft Wing

Authors: P. Booma Devi, Dilip A. Shah

Abstract:

This paper seeks the potentials of studying aerodynamic characteristics of inward cavities called dimples, as an alternative to the classical vortex generators. Increasing stalling angle is a greater challenge in wing design. But our examination is primarily focused on increasing lift. In this paper, enhancement of lift is mainly done by introduction of dimple or cavity in a wing. In general, aircraft performance can be enhanced by increasing aerodynamic efficiency that is lift to drag ratio of an aircraft wing. Efficiency improvement can be achieved by improving the maximum lift co-efficient or by reducing the drag co-efficient. At the time of landing aircraft, high angle of attack may lead to stalling of aircraft. To avoid this kind of situation, increase in the stalling angle is warranted. Hence, improved stalling characteristic is the best way to ease landing complexity. Computational analysis is done for the wing segment made of NACA 0012. Simulation is carried out for 30 m/s free stream velocity over plain airfoil and different types of cavities. The wing is modeled in CATIA V5R20 and analyses are carried out using ANSYS CFX. Triangle and square shapes are used as cavities for analysis. Simulations revealed that cavity placed on wing segment shows an increase of maximum lift co-efficient when compared to normal wing configuration. Flow separation is delayed at downstream of the wing by the presence of cavities up to a particular angle of attack.

Keywords: Lift, square and rectangle dimples, enhancement of stall angle, cavity.

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650 Worth of Sick Building Syndrome and Enhance the Quality of Life in Green Building

Authors: Kamyar Kabirifar, Majid Azarniush, Behbood Maashkar

Abstract:

A proper house is a suitable residential area which provides comfort, proper accessibility, security, stability and permanence of structure, enough lighting, proper initial infrastructures and ventilation for its inhabitants and the most important of all, it should be proportional to the family’s financial power .

Saving energy and making optimal usage of it and also taking advantage of stable energies are the bases of green buildings. Making green building will help the health of a person living in it and in its surrounding. It will support the people and provoke their satisfaction. Not only it will bring about the raise of level of the quality of life for building inhabitants, but it will cause the promotion of quality level of life of the people living in the surrounding area and in general the society. 

 

Keywords: Quality of Life, Green Building, environment pollution, Sick Building.

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649 Mathematical Modeling of Asphaltene Precipitation: A Review

Authors: Josefina Barnachea Janier, Radzuan B. Razali, Afza Shafie, Brahim Belhaouari Samir

Abstract:

In the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) method, use of Carbon dioxide flooding whereby CO2 is injected into an oil reservoir to increase output when extracting oil resulted significant recovery worldwide. The carbon dioxide function as a pressurizing agent when mixed into the underground crude oil will reduce its viscosity and will enable a rapid oil flow. Despite the CO2’s advantage in the oil recovery, it may result to asphaltene precipitation a problem that will cause the reduction of oil produced from oil wells. In severe cases, asphaltene precipitation can cause costly blockages in oil pipes and machinery. This paper presents reviews of several studies done on mathematical modeling of asphaltene precipitation. The synthesized result from several researches done on this topic can be used as guide in order to better understand asphaltene precipitation. Likewise, this can be used as initial reference for students, and new researchers doing study on asphaltene precipitation.

Keywords: Asphaltene precipitation, crude oil, carbon dioxide flooding, enhanced oil recovery.

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648 An Investigation into the Application of Artificial Neural Networks to the Prediction of Injuries in Sport

Authors: J. McCullagh, T. Whitfort

Abstract:

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been used successfully in many scientific, industrial and business domains as a method for extracting knowledge from vast amounts of data. However the use of ANN techniques in the sporting domain has been limited. In professional sport, data is stored on many aspects of teams, games, training and players. Sporting organisations have begun to realise that there is a wealth of untapped knowledge contained in the data and there is great interest in techniques to utilise this data. This study will use player data from the elite Australian Football League (AFL) competition to train and test ANNs with the aim to predict the onset of injuries. The results demonstrate that an accuracy of 82.9% was achieved by the ANNs’ predictions across all examples with 94.5% of all injuries correctly predicted. These initial findings suggest that ANNs may have the potential to assist sporting clubs in the prediction of injuries.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, data, injuries, sport

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647 Extractive Fermentation of Ethanol Using Vacuum Fractionation Technique

Authors: Weeraya Samnuknit, Apichat Boontawan

Abstract:

A vacuum fractionation technique was introduced to remove ethanol from fermentation broth. The effect of initial glucose and ethanol concentrations were investigated for specific productivity. The inhibitory ethanol concentration was observed at 100 g/L. In order to increase the fermentation performance, the ethanol product was removed as soon as it is produced. The broth was boiled at 35oC by reducing the pressure to 65 mBar. The ethanol/water vapor was fractionated for up to 90 wt% before leaving the column. Ethanol concentration in the broth was kept lower than 25 g/L, thus minimized the product inhibition effect to the yeast cells. For batch extractive fermentation, a high substrate utilization rate was obtained at 26.6 g/L.h and most of glucose was consumed within 21 h. For repeated-batch extractive fermentation, addition of glucose was carried out up to 9 times and ethanol was produced more than 8-fold higher than batch fermentation.

Keywords: Ethanol, Extractive fermentation, Product inhibition, Vacuum fractionation.

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646 Motion Control of an Autonomous Surface Vessel for Enhanced Situational Awareness

Authors: Igor Astrov, Mikhail Pikkov, Rein Paluoja

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the critical components of the situational awareness (SA), the controls of position and orientation of an autonomous surface vessel (ASV). Moving of vessel into desired area in particular sea is a challenging but important task for ASVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, the approach motion by neural control of an initial stage of an ASV trajectory using neural network predictive controller and the circular motion by control of yaw moment in the final stage of trajectory were proposed. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of maritime maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the fast SA of similar ASVs with economy in energy can be asserted during the maritime missions in search-and-rescue operations.

Keywords: Autonomous surface vessels, neurocontrollers, situational awareness.

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645 Effect of Utilization of Geosynthetic on Reducing the Required Thickness of Subbase Layer of a Two Layered Soil

Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, M. Nazari

Abstract:

This paper tries to study the effect of geosynthetic inclusion on the improvement of the load-settlement characters of two layered soil. In addition, the effect of geogrid and geotextile in reduction of the required thickness of subbase layer in unpaved roads is studied. Considering the vast application of bearing ratio tests in road construction projects, this test is used in present investigation. Bearing ratio tests were performed on two layered soil including a granular soil layer at the top (as the subbase layer) and a weak clayey soil placed at the bottom (as the subgrade layer). These tests were performed for different conditions including unreinforced and reinforced by geogrid and geotextile and three thicknesses for top layer soil (subbase layer). In the reinforced condition the reinforcing element was placed on the interface of the top granular layer and the beneath clayey layer to study the separation effect of geosynthetics. In all tests the soils (both granular and clayey soil layers) were compacted according to optimum water content. At the end, the diagrams were plotted and were compared with each other. Furthermore, a comparison between geogrids and geotextiles behaviors on two layer soil is done in this paper. The results show an increase in compression strength of reinforced specimen in comparison with unreinforced soil sample. The effect of geosynthetic inclusion reduces by increasing the subbase thickness. In addition it was found that geogrids have more desirable behavior rather than geotextiles due to interlocking with the subbase layer aggregates.

Keywords: Bearing ratio, Subgrade, Subbase, Sand layer thickness, Geosynthetic.

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644 Pomelo Peel: Agricultural Waste for Biosorption of Cadmium Ions from Aqueous Solutions

Authors: Wanna Saikaew, Pairat Kaewsarn, Wuthikorn Saikaew

Abstract:

The ability of pomelo peel, a natural biosorbent, to remove Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution by biosorption was investigated. The experiments were carried out by batch method at 25 °C. The influence of solution pH, initial cadmium ion concentrations and contact times were evaluated. Cadmium ion removal increased significantly as the pH of the solution increased from pH 1 to pH 5. At pH 5, the cadmium ion removal reached a maximum value. The equilibrium process was described well by the Langmuir isotherm model, with a maximum biosorption capacity of 21.83 mg/g. The biosorption was relatively quick, (approx. 20 min). Biosorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second-order model. The result showed that pomelo peel was effective as a biosorbent for removing cadmium ions from aqueous solution. It is a low cost material that shows potential to be applied in wastewater technology for remediation of heavy metal contamination.

Keywords: Pomelo peel, biosorption, Cadmium ions.

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643 Uniform Heating during Focused Ultrasound Thermal Therapy

Authors: To-Yuan Chen, Tzu-Ching Shih, Hao-Li Liu, Kuen-Cheng Ju

Abstract:

The focal spot of a high intensity focused ultrasound transducer is small. To heat a large target volume, multiple treatment spots are required. If the power of each treatment spot is fixed, it could results in insufficient heating of initial spots and over-heating of later ones, which is caused by the thermal diffusion. Hence, to produce a uniform heated volume, the delivered energy of each treatment spot should be properly adjusted. In this study, we proposed an iterative, extrapolation technique to adjust the required ultrasound energy of each treatment spot. Three different scanning pathways were used to evaluate the performance of this technique. Results indicate that by using the proposed technique, uniform heating volume could be obtained.

Keywords: focused ultrasound, thermal therapy, uniform heating, iteration, extrapolation, scan

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642 Contribution to Energy Management in Hybrid Energy Systems Based on Agents Coordination

Authors: Djamel Saba, Fatima Zohra Laallam, Brahim Berbaoui

Abstract:

This paper presents a contribution to the design of a multi-agent for the energy management system in a hybrid energy system (SEH). The multi-agent-based energy-coordination management system (MA-ECMS) is based mainly on coordination between agents. The agents share the tasks and exchange information through communications protocols to achieve the main goal. This intelligent system can fully manage the consumption and production or simply to make proposals for action he thinks is best. The initial step is to give a presentation for the system that we want to model in order to understand all the details as much as possible. In our case, it is to implement a system for simulating a process control of energy management.

Keywords: Multi agents system, hybrid energy system, communications protocols, modelization, simulation, control process, energy management.

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641 The Checkout and Separation of Environmental Hazards of the Range Overlooking the Meshkin City

Authors: F. Esfandyari Darabad, Z. Samadi

Abstract:

Natural environments have always been affected by one of the most important natural hazards, which is called, the mass movements that cause instability. Identifying the unstable regions and separating them so as to detect and determine the risk of environmental factors is one of the important issues in mountainous areas development. In this study, the northwest of Sabalan hillsides overlooking the Meshkin city and the surrounding area of that have been delimitated, in order to analyze the range processes such as landslides and debris flows based on structural and geomorphological conditions, by means of using GIS. This area due to the high slope of the hillsides and height of the region and the poor localization of roads and so because of them destabilizing the ranges own an inappropriate situation. This study is done with the purpose of identifying the effective factors in the range motion and determining the areas with high potential for zoning these movements by using GIS. The results showed that the most common range movements in the area, are debris flows, rocks falling and landslides. The effective factors in each one of the mass movements, considering a small amount of weight for each factor, the weight map of each factor and finally, the map of risk zoning for the range movements were provided. Based on the zoning map resulted in the study area, the risking level of damaging has specified into the four zones of very high risk, high risk, medium risk, low risk, in which areas with very high and high risk are settled near the road and along the Khyav river and in the  mountainous district.

Keywords: Debris flow, environmental hazards, GIS, landslide.

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640 Role-Specific Target-Systems in Professional Bureaucracies: A Qualitative Analysis in the OR

Authors: Kirsten Hoeper, Maike Kriependorf

Abstract:

This paper firstly discusses the initial situation and problems. Afterward, it defines professional bureaucracies and shows their impact for the OR-work. The OR-center and its actors are shown. Finally, the paper provides the empiric design for detecting the target systems of the different work groups within the OR, the quality criteria in qualitative research and empirical results. It is shown that different groups have different targets in their daily work and that helps for a better understanding. More precisely, by detecting the target systems of these experts, we can ‘bridge’ the different points of view to create a common basis for the work in the OR. One of the aims was to find bridges to overcome separating factors. This paper describes the situation in Germany focusing the Hannover Medical School. It can be assumed that the results can be transferred to other countries using the DRG-System (Diagnosis Related Groups).

Keywords: Hospital, OR, professional bureaucracies, target systems.

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639 Heat and Mass Transfer over an Unsteady Stretching Surface Embedded in a Porous Medium in the Presence of Variable Chemical Reaction

Authors: T. G. Emam

Abstract:

The effect of variable chemical reaction on heat and mass transfer characteristics over unsteady stretching surface embedded in a porus medium is studied. The governing time dependent boundary layer equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations containing chemical reaction parameter, unsteadiness parameter, Prandtl number and Schmidt number. These equations have been transformed into a system of first order differential equations. MATHEMATICA has been used to solve this system after obtaining the missed initial conditions. The velocity gradient, temperature, and concentration profiles are computed and discussed in details for various values of the different parameters.

Keywords: Heat and mass transfer, stretching surface, chemical reaction, porus medium.

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638 Multiuser Detection in CDMA Fast Fading Multipath Channel using Heuristic Genetic Algorithms

Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Syed Ismail Shah, Habibullah Jamal

Abstract:

In this paper, a simple heuristic genetic algorithm is used for Multistage Multiuser detection in fast fading environments. Multipath channels, multiple access interference (MAI) and near far effect cause the performance of the conventional detector to degrade. Heuristic Genetic algorithms, a rapidly growing area of artificial intelligence, uses evolutionary programming for initial search, which not only helps to converge the solution towards near optimal performance efficiently but also at a very low complexity as compared with optimal detector. This holds true for Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and multipath fading channels. Experimental results are presented to show the superior performance of the proposed techque over the existing methods.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm (GA), Multiple AccessInterference (MAI), Multistage Detectors (MSD), SuccessiveInterference Cancellation.

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637 Simulation and Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Separation by Piperazine Blended Solutions Using E-NRTL and Peng-Robinson Models: A Study of Regeneration Heat Duty

Authors: Arash Esmaeili, Zhibang Liu, Yang Xiang, Jimmy Yun, Lei Shao

Abstract:

High pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption from a specific off-gas in a conventional column has been evaluated for the environmental concerns by the Aspen HYSYS simulator using a wide range of single absorbents and piperazine (PZ) blended solutions to estimate the outlet CO2 concentration, CO2 loading, reboiler power supply and regeneration heat duty to choose the most efficient solution in terms of CO2 removal and required heat duty. The property package, which is compatible with all applied solutions for the simulation in this study, estimates the properties based on electrolyte non-random two-liquid (E-NRTL) model for electrolyte thermodynamics and Peng-Robinson equation of state for vapor phase and liquid hydrocarbon phase properties. The results of the simulation indicate that PZ in addition to the mixture of PZ and monoethanolamine (MEA) demand the highest regeneration heat duty compared with other studied single and blended amine solutions respectively. The blended amine solutions with the lowest PZ concentrations (5wt% and 10wt%) were considered and compared to reduce the cost of process, among which the blended solution of 10wt%PZ+35wt%MDEA (methyldiethanolamine) was found as the most appropriate solution in terms of CO2 content in the outlet gas, rich-CO2 loading and regeneration heat duty.

Keywords: Absorption, amine solutions, Aspen HYSYS, CO2 loading, piperazine, regeneration heat duty.

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636 Creating a Virtual Perception for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Authors: Nina Robson, Kenneth John Faller II, Vishalkumar Ahir, Arthur Ricardo Deps Miguel Ferreira, John Buchanan, Amarnath Banerjee

Abstract:

This paper describes the development of a virtual-reality system ARWED, which will be used in physical rehabilitation of patients with reduced upper extremity mobility to increase limb Active Range of Motion (AROM). The ARWED system performs a symmetric reflection and real-time mapping of the patient’s healthy limb on to their most affected limb, tapping into the mirror neuron system and facilitating the initial learning phase. Using the ARWED, future experiments will test the extension of the action-observation priming effect linked to the mirror-neuron system on healthy subjects and then stroke patients.

Keywords: Physical rehabilitation, mirror neuron, virtual reality, stroke therapy.

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635 Automatic Classification of Initial Categories of Alzheimer's Disease from Structural MRI Phase Images: A Comparison of PSVM, KNN and ANN Methods

Authors: Ahsan Bin Tufail, Ali Abidi, Adil Masood Siddiqui, Muhammad Shahzad Younis

Abstract:

An early and accurate detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an important stage in the treatment of individuals suffering from AD. We present an approach based on the use of structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) phase images to distinguish between normal controls (NC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD patients with clinical dementia rating (CDR) of 1. Independent component analysis (ICA) technique is used for extracting useful features which form the inputs to the support vector machines (SVM), K nearest neighbour (kNN) and multilayer artificial neural network (ANN) classifiers to discriminate between the three classes. The obtained results are encouraging in terms of classification accuracy and effectively ascertain the usefulness of phase images for the classification of different stages of Alzheimer-s disease.

Keywords: Biomedical image processing, classification algorithms, feature extraction, statistical learning.

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634 Stand Alone Multiple Trough Solar Desalination with Heat Storage

Authors: Abderrahmane Diaf, Kamel Benabdellaziz

Abstract:

Remote arid areas of the vast expanses of the African deserts hold huge subterranean reserves of brackish water resources waiting for economic development. This work presents design guidelines as well as initial performance data of new autonomous solar desalination equipment which could help local communities produce their own fresh water using solar energy only and, why not, contribute to transforming desert lands into lush gardens. The output of solar distillation equipments are typically low and in the range of 3 l/m2/day on the average. This new design with an integrated, water based, environmentally-friendly solar heat storage system produced 5 l/m2/day in early spring weather. Equipment output during summer exceeded 9 liters per m2 per day.

Keywords: Multiple trough distillation, solar desalination, solar distillation with heat storage, water based heat storage system.

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633 Application of Moringa oleifera Seed in Removing Colloids from Turbid Wastewater

Authors: H. Zemmouri, H. Lounic, N. Mameri

Abstract:

The present study aims to investigate the performance of Moringa oleifera seed extract as natural coagulant in clarification of secondary wastewater treatment plant (MWWTP) located in East of Algiers, Algeria. Coagulation flocculation performance of Moringa oleifera was evaluated through supernatant residual turbidity after jar test trials. Various influence parameters namely Moringa oleifera dosage and pH have been considered. Tests on Reghaia wastewater, having 129 NTU of initial turbidity, showed a removal of 69.45% of residual turbidity with only 1.5 mg/l of Moringa oleifera. This sufficient removal capability encourages the use of this bioflocculant for treatment of turbid waters. Indeed, Moringa oleifera which is a natural resource available locally (South of Algeria) coupled to the non-toxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability, may be a very interesting alternative to the conventional coagulants used so far.

Keywords: Coagulation flocculation, colloids, Moringa oleifera, secondary wastewater.

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632 A New Approach to Design Policies for the Adoption of Alternative Fuel-Technology Powertrains

Authors: Reza Fazeli, Vitor Leal, Jorge Pinho de Sousa

Abstract:

Planning the transition period for the adoption of alternative fuel-technology powertrains is a challenging task that requires sophisticated analysis tools. In this study, a system dynamic approach was applied to analyze the bi-directional interaction between the development of the refueling station network and vehicle sales. Besides, the developed model was used to estimate the transition cost to reach a predefined target (share of alternative fuel vehicles) in different scenarios. Several scenarios have been analyzed to investigate the effectiveness and cost of incentives on the initial price of vehicles, and on the evolution of fuel and refueling stations. Obtained results show that a combined set of incentives will be more effective than just a single specific type of incentives.

Keywords: adoption of Alternative Fuel Vehicles, System Dynamic Analysis, Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles

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631 An Intelligent Fuzzy-Neural Diagnostic System for Osteoporosis Risk Assessment

Authors: Chin-Ming Hong, Chin-Teng Lin, Chao-Yen Huang, Yi-Ming Lin

Abstract:

In this article, we propose an Intelligent Medical Diagnostic System (IMDS) accessible through common web-based interface, to on-line perform initial screening for osteoporosis. The fundamental approaches which construct the proposed system are mainly based on the fuzzy-neural theory, which can exhibit superiority over other conventional technologies in many fields. In diagnosis process, users simply answer a series of directed questions to the system, and then they will immediately receive a list of results which represents the risk degrees of osteoporosis. According to clinical testing results, it is shown that the proposed system can provide the general public or even health care providers with a convenient, reliable, inexpensive approach to osteoporosis risk assessment.

Keywords: BMD, osteoporosis, IMDS, fuzzy-neural theory, web interface.

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630 Rigid Registration of Reduced Dimension Images using 1D Binary Projections

Authors: Panos D. Kotsas, Tony Dodd

Abstract:

The purpose of this work is to present a method for rigid registration of medical images using 1D binary projections when a part of one of the two images is missing. We use 1D binary projections and we adjust the projection limits according to the reduced image in order to perform accurate registration. We use the variance of the weighted ratio as a registration function which we have shown is able to register 2D and 3D images more accurately and robustly than mutual information methods. The function is computed explicitly for n=5 Chebyshev points in a [-9,+9] interval and it is approximated using Chebyshev polynomials for all other points. The images used are MR scans of the head. We find that the method is able to register the two images with average accuracy 0.3degrees for rotations and 0.2 pixels for translations for a y dimension of 156 with initial dimension 256. For y dimension 128/256 the accuracy decreases to 0.7 degrees for rotations and 0.6 pixels for translations.

Keywords: binary projections, image registration, reduceddimension images.

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629 Photocatalytic Oxidation of Gaseous Formaldehyde Using the TiO2 Coated SF Filter

Authors: Janjira Triped, Wipada Sanongraj, Wipawee Khamwichit

Abstract:

The research work covered in this study includes the morphological structure and optical properties of TiO2-coated silk fibroin (SF) filters at 2.5% wt. TiO2/vol. PVA solution. SEM micrographs revealed the fibrous morphology of the TiO2-coated SF filters. An average diameter of the SF fiber was estimated to be approximately 10µm. Also, it was confirmed that TiO2 can be adhered more on SF filter surface at higher TiO2 dosages. The activity of semiconductor materials was studied by UV-VIS spectrophotometer method. The spectral data recorded shows the strong cut off at 390 nm. The calculated band-gap energy was about 3.19 eV. The photocatalytic activity of the filter was tested for gaseous formaldehyde removal in a modeling room with the total volume of 2.66 m3. The highest removal efficiency (54.72 ± 1.75%) was obtained at the initial formaldehyde concentration of about 5.00 ± 0.50ppm.

Keywords: Photocatalytic oxidation process, Formaldehyde (HCHO), Silk fibroin (SF), Titanium dioxide (TiO2).

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628 A Family of Zero Stable Block Integrator for the Solutions of Ordinary Differential Equations

Authors: A. M. Sagir

Abstract:

In this paper, linear multistep technique using power series as the basis function is used to develop the block methods which are suitable for generating direct solution of the special second order ordinary differential equations with associated initial or boundary conditions. The continuous hybrid formulations enable us to differentiate and evaluate at some grids and off – grid points to obtain two different four discrete schemes, each of order (5,5,5,5)T, which were used in block form for parallel or sequential solutions of the problems. The computational burden and computer time wastage involved in the usual reduction of second order problem into system of first order equations are avoided by this approach. Furthermore, a stability analysis and efficiency of the block methods are tested on linear and non-linear ordinary differential equations and the results obtained compared favorably with the exact solution.

Keywords: Block Method, Hybrid, Linear Multistep Method, Self – starting, Special Second Order.

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