Search results for: Cell mechanics

Authors: Cheng Zhang, James Marco, Walid Allafi, Truong Q. Dinh, W. D. Widanage

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Equivalent circuit models (ECMs) are widely used in battery management systems in electric vehicles and other battery energy storage systems. The battery dynamics and the model parameters vary under different working conditions, such as different temperature and state of charge (SOC) levels, and therefore online parameter identification can improve the modelling accuracy. This paper presents a way of online ECM parameter identification using a continuous time (CT) estimation method. The CT estimation method has several advantages over discrete time (DT) estimation methods for ECM parameter identification due to the widely separated battery dynamic modes and fast sampling. The presented method can be used for online SOC estimation. Test data are collected using a lithium ion cell, and the experimental results show that the presented CT method achieves better modelling accuracy compared with the conventional DT recursive least square method. The effectiveness of the presented method for online SOC estimation is also verified on test data.

Keywords: Equivalent circuit model, continuous time domain estimation, linear integral filter method, parameter and SOC estimation, recursive least square.

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Authors: Cecilia Nugraheni, Luciana Abednego

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Sudoku is a kind of logic puzzles. Each puzzle consists of a board, which is a 9×9 cells, divided into nine 3×3 subblocks and a set of numbers from 1 to 9. The aim of this puzzle is to fill in every cell of the board with a number from 1 to 9 such that in every row, every column, and every subblock contains each number exactly one. Sudoku puzzles belong to combinatorial problem (NP complete). Sudoku puzzles can be solved by using a variety of techniques/algorithms such as genetic algorithms, heuristics, integer programming, and so on. In this paper, we propose a new approach for solving Sudoku which is by modelling them as block-world problems. In block-world problems, there are a number of boxes on the table with a particular order or arrangement. The objective of this problem is to change this arrangement into the targeted arrangement with the help of two types of robots. In this paper, we present three models for Sudoku. We modellized Sudoku as parameterized multi-agent systems. A parameterized multi-agent system is a multi-agent system which consists of several uniform/similar agents and the number of the agents in the system is stated as the parameter of this system. We use Temporal Logic of Actions (TLA) for formalizing our models.

Keywords: Sudoku puzzle, block world problem, parameterized multi agent systems modelling, Temporal Logic of Actions.

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Authors: Tatiana L. Gorbunova

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The research is dedicated to the study of the polluted river inflow impact on the Black Sea coastal marine environment within the watercourse’s plumes in the Greater Sochi area applying bioassay methods with using freshwater and marine microalgae. River waters were analyzed using microalgae Chlorella vulgaris Beijer and sea waters were tested with marine diatoms Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin. Experiments included algae cells abundancy growth assessments in acute (24 hours), sub-acute (72 hours) and chronic (168 hours/7 days) tests. The increase in algal cell growth rates compared to the control in the summer period was detected as a consequence of the recreational activities intensification during the tourism seasonal peak. Most of the analyzed samples demonstrated a significant effect of algae cells growth stimulation compared to the control. It is established that under the impact of contaminants carried by river’s drain to the sea, the capacity of the coastal marine ecosystem is partially capable to compensate its effect on the coastal biocenosis, but the general trends of the impact processes remain constant.

Keywords: Algae abundance growth, bioassay, microalgae, modeling.

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Authors: Arvind Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Dattatraya H. Nagaraj, Amanpreet Singh, Jayanthi Prattapati

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The purpose of this paper is to study and compare two maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms in a photovoltaic simulation system and also show a simulation study of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for photovoltaic systems using perturb and observe algorithm and Incremental conductance algorithm. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) plays an important role in photovoltaic systems because it maximize the power output from a PV system for a given set of conditions, and therefore maximize the array efficiency and minimize the overall system cost. Since the maximum power point (MPP) varies, based on the irradiation and cell temperature, appropriate algorithms must be utilized to track the (MPP) and maintain the operation of the system in it. MATLAB/Simulink is used to establish a model of photovoltaic system with (MPPT) function. This system is developed by combining the models established of solar PV module and DC-DC Boost converter. The system is simulated under different climate conditions. Simulation results show that the photovoltaic simulation system can track the maximum power point accurately.

Keywords: Incremental conductance Algorithm, Perturb and Observe Algorithm, Photovoltaic System and Simulation Results.

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Authors: Carine Moussaed, Stephen Wornom, Bruno Koobus, Maria Vittoria Salvetti, Alain Dervieux,

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The effects of dynamic subgrid scale (SGS) models are investigated in variational multiscale (VMS) LES simulations of bluff body flows. The spatial discretization is based on a mixed finite element/finite volume formulation on unstructured grids. In the VMS approach used in this work, the separation between the largest and the smallest resolved scales is obtained through a variational projection operator and a finite volume cell agglomeration. The dynamic version of Smagorinsky and WALE SGS models are used to account for the effects of the unresolved scales. In the VMS approach, these effects are only modeled in the smallest resolved scales. The dynamic VMS-LES approach is applied to the simulation of the flow around a circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers 3900 and 20000 and to the flow around a square cylinder at Reynolds numbers 22000 and 175000. It is observed as in previous studies that the dynamic SGS procedure has a smaller impact on the results within the VMS approach than in LES. But improvements are demonstrated for important feature like recirculating part of the flow. The global prediction is improved for a small computational extra cost.

Keywords: variational multiscale LES, dynamic SGS model, unstructured grids, circular cylinder, square cylinder.

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Authors: Mutiyaporn Puangbut, Ratanaporn Leesing

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The objective of this research is to study of microbial lipid production by locally photosynthetic microalgae and oleaginous yeast via integrated cultivation technique using CO2 emissions from yeast fermentation. A maximum specific growth rate of Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 of 0.284 (1/d) was obtained under an integrated cultivation and a maximum lipid yield of 1.339g/L was found after cultivation for 5 days, while 0.969g/L of lipid yield was obtained after day 6 of cultivation time by using CO2 from air. A high value of volumetric lipid production rate (QP, 0.223 g/L/d), specific product yield (YP/X, 0.194), volumetric cell mass production rate (QX, 1.153 g/L/d) were found by using ambient air CO2 coupled with CO2 emissions from yeast fermentation. Overall lipid yield of 8.33 g/L was obtained (1.339 g/L of Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and 7.06g/L of T. maleeae Y30) while low lipid yield of 0.969g/L was found using non-integrated cultivation technique. To our knowledge this is the unique report about the lipid production from locally microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and yeast T. maleeae Y30 in an integrated technique to improve the biomass and lipid yield by using CO2 emissions from yeast fermentation.

Keywords: Microbial lipid, Chlorella sp. KKU-S2, Torulaspora maleeae Y30, oleaginous yeast, biodiesel, CO2 emissions

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Authors: Wei Hua Ho

Abstract:

Vortices can develop in intakes of turbojet and turbo fan aero engines during high power operation in the vicinity of solid surfaces. These vortices can cause catastrophic damage to the engine. The factors determining the formation of the vortex include both geometric dimensions as well as flow parameters. It was shown that the threshold at which the vortex forms or disappears is also dependent on the initial flow condition (i.e. whether a vortex forms after stabilised non vortex flow or vice-versa). A computational fluid dynamics study was conducted to determine the difference in thresholds between the two conditions. This is the first reported numerical investigation of the “memory effect". The numerical results reproduce the phenomenon reported in previous experimental studies and additional factors, which had not been previously studied, were investigated. They are the rate at which ambient velocity changes and the initial value of ambient velocity. The former was found to cause a shift in the threshold but not the later. It was also found that the varying condition thresholds are not symmetrical about the neutral threshold. The vortex to no vortex threshold lie slightly further away from the neutral threshold compared to the no vortex to vortex threshold. The results suggests that experimental investigation of vortex formation threshold performed either in vortex to no vortex conditions, or vice versa, solely may introduce mis-predictions greater than 10%.

Keywords: Jet Engine Test Cell, Unsteady flow, Inlet Vortex

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Authors: Fawzi Irshaid, Fatiha Dilmi, Khaled Tarawneh, Raji Hadeth, Adnan Jaran, Ahad Al-Khatib

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P16/INK4A is tumor suppressor protein that plays a critical role in cell cycle regulation. Loss of P16 protein expression has been implicated in pathogenesis of many cancers, including lymphoma. Therefore, we sought to investigate if loss of P16 protein expression is associated with lymphoma and/or any specific lymphoma subtypes (Hodgkin-s lymphoma (HL) and nonHodgkin-s lymphoma (NHL)). Fifty-five lymphoma cases consisted of 30 cases of HL and 25 cases of NHL, with an age range of 3 to 78 years, were examined for loss of P16 by immunohistochemical technique using a specific antibody reacting against P16. In total, P16 loss was seen in 33% of all lymphoma cases. P16 loss was identified in 47.7% of HL cases. In contrast, only 16% of NHL showed loss of P16. Loss of P16 was seen in 67% of HL patients with 50 years of age or older, whereas P16 loss was found in only 42% of HL patients with less than 50 years of age. P16 loss in HL is somewhat higher in male (55%) than in female (30%). In subtypes of HL, P16 loss was found exclusively in all cases of lymphocyte depletion, lymphocyte predominance and unclassified cases, whereas P16 loss was seen in 39% of mixed cellularity and 29% of nodular sclerosis cases. In low grade NHL patients, P16 loss was seen in approximately one-third of cases, whereas no or very rare of P16 loss was found in intermediate and high grade cases. P16 loss did not show any correlation with age or gender of NHL patients. In conclusion, the high rate of P16 loss seen in our study suggests that loss of P16 expression plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of lymphoma, particularly with HL.

Keywords: B-cells, immunostaining, P16 protein, Reed-Sternberg cells, tumors.

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Authors: G. V. Novikov, V. S. Sivozhelezov, S. S. Kolesnikov, K. V. Shaitan

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The study reports about the influence of binding of orthosteric ligands as well as point mutations on the conformational dynamics of β-2-adrenoreceptor. Using molecular dynamics simulation we found that there was a little fraction of active states of the receptor in its apo (ligand free) ensemble corresponded to its constitutive activity. Analysis of MD trajectories indicated that such spontaneous activation of the receptor is accompanied by the motion in intracellular part of its alpha-helices. Thus receptor’s constitutive activity directly results from its conformational dynamics. On the other hand the binding of a full agonist resulted in a significant shift of the initial equilibrium towards its active state. Finally, the binding of the inverse agonist stabilized the receptor in its inactive state. It is likely that the binding of inverse agonists might be a universal way of constitutive activity inhibition in vivo. Our results indicate that ligand binding redistribute pre-existing conformational degrees of freedom (in accordance to the Monod-Wyman-Changeux-Model) of the receptor rather than cause induced fit in it. Therefore, the ensemble of biologically relevant receptor conformations is encoded in its spatial structure, and individual conformations from that ensemble might be used by the cell in conformity with the physiological behavior.

Keywords: Seven-transmembrane receptors, constitutive activity, activation, x-ray crystallography, principal component analysis, molecular dynamics simulation.

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Authors: Jihad S. Daba, J. P. Dubois, Yvette Antar

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With the exponential growth of cellular users, a new generation of cellular networks is needed to enhance the required peak data rates. The co-channel interference between neighboring base stations inhibits peak data rate increase. To overcome this interference, multi-cell cooperation known as coordinated multipoint transmission is proposed. Such a solution makes use of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems under two different structures: Micro- and macro-diversity. In this paper, we study the capacity and bit error rate in cellular networks using MIMO technology. We analyse both micro- and macro-diversity schemes and develop a hybrid model that switches between macro- and micro-diversity in the case of hard handoff based on a cut-off range of signal-to-noise ratio values. We conclude that our hybrid switched micro-macro MIMO system outperforms classical MIMO systems at the cost of increased hardware and software complexity.

Keywords: Cooperative multipoint transmission, ergodic capacity, hard handoff, macro-diversity, micro-diversity, multiple-input-multiple-output systems, MIMO, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM.

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Authors: T. Shyam Ramanath, A. Sudharsan, A. Kavitha

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As is needless to say; a majority of accidents, which occur, are due to drunk driving. As such, there is no effective mechanism to prevent this. Here we have designed an integrated system for the same purpose. Alcohol content in the driver-s body is detected by means of an infrared breath analyzer placed at the steering wheel. An infrared cell directs infrared energy through the sample and any unabsorbed energy at the other side is detected. The higher the concentration of ethanol, the more infrared absorption occurs (in much the same way that a sunglass lens absorbs visible light, alcohol absorbs infrared light). Thus the alcohol level of the driver is continuously monitored and calibrated on a scale. When it exceeds a particular limit the fuel supply is cutoff. If the device is removed also, the fuel supply will be automatically cut off or an alarm is sounded depending upon the requirement. This does not happen abruptly and special indicators are fixed at the back to avoid inconvenience to other drivers using the highway signals. Frame work for integration of sensors and control module in a scalable multi-agent system is provided .A SMS which contains the current GPS location of the vehicle is sent via a GSM module to the police control room to alert the police. The system is foolproof and the driver cannot tamper with it easily. Thus it provides an effective and cost effective solution for the problem of drunk driving in vehicles.

Keywords: Global system monitoring, global positioning system.

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Authors: Marek Halenár, Eva Tvrdá, Tomáš Slanina, Ľubomír Ondruška, Eduard Kolesár, Peter Massányi, Adriana Kolesárová

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The present in vitro study was designed to reveal whether amygdalin (AMG) is able to cause changes to the motility, viability and mitochondrial activity of rabbit spermatozoa. New Zealand White rabbits (n = 10) aged four months were used in the study. Semen samples were collected from each animal and used for the in vitro incubation. The samples were divided into five equal parts and diluted with saline supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1, 2.5 and 5 mg/mL AMG. At times 0h, 3h and 5h spermatozoa motion parameters were assessed using the SpermVision™ computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA) system, cell viability was examined with the metabolic activity (MTT) assay, and the eosin-nigrosin staining technique was used to evaluate the viability of rabbit spermatozoa. All AMG concentrations exhibited stimulating effects on the spermatozoa activity, as shown by a significant preservation of the motility (P<0.05 with respect to 0.5 mg/mL and 1 mg/mL AMG; Time 5 h) and mitochondrial activity (P< 0.05 in case of 0.5 mg/mL AMG; P< 0.01 in case of 1 mg/mL AMG; P < 0.001 with respect to 2.5 mg/mL and 5 mg/mL AMG; Time 5 h). None of the AMG doses supplemented had any significant impact of the spermatozoa viability. In conclusion, the data revealed that short-term co-incubation of spermatozoa with AMG may result in a higher preservation of the sperm structural integrity and functional activity.

Keywords: Amygdalin, CASA, mitochondrial activity, motility, rabbits, spermatozoa, viability.

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Authors: Laila Seada, Hanan Oreiby, Fawaz Al Rashid, Ashraf Negm

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Background and Objective: In most areas of the world, the incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing over the last decade, mostly due to a combination of early detection of the neoplasm resulting from sensitive procedures and increased population exposure to radiation and unrecognized carcinogens. Methods: Cases of thyroid cancer have been retrieved from the cancer registry at King Khalid Hospital during the period from August 2012 to April 2016. Age, gender and histopathologic types have been recorded. Results: Thyroid carcinoma ranked as the second most common malignancy in females (25%) after breast cancer (31%). It constituted 20.8% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases. As for males, it ranked the 4^th type of malignancy after gastrointestinal cancer, lymphomas and soft tissue sarcomas. Mean age for females and males was 38.7 +/- 13.2 and 60.25 +/- 11.5 years, respectively, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p value = 0.0001). Fifty-five (82%) were papillary carcinomas including 10 follicular variant of papillary (FVPC), and eight papillary micro carcinomas (PMC) and two tall cell/oncocytic variants. Follicular carcinomas constituted two (3.1%), while two (3.1%) were anaplastic, and two (3.1%) were medullary. Conclusion: Thyroid cancer incidence in Hail is ranking as the 2^nd most common female malignancy similar to other regions in the Kingdom. However, this high incidence contrasts with much lower rates worldwide.

Keywords: Thyroid, Hail, papillary, micro carcinoma.

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Authors: Payel Ghosh, Rama Chandra Pradhan, Sabyasachi Mishra

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Jamun (Syzygium cuminii L.) is one of the important indigenous minor fruit with high medicinal value. The jamun cultivation is unorganized and there is huge loss of this fruit every year. The perishable nature of the fruit makes its postharvest management further difficult. Due to the strong cell wall structure of pectin-protein bonds and hard seeds, extraction of juice becomes difficult. Enzymatic treatment has been commercially used for improvement of juice quality with high yield. The objective of the study was to optimize the best treatment method for juice extraction. Enzymes (Pectinase and Tannase) from different stains had been used and for each enzyme, best result obtained by using response surface methodology. Optimization had been done on the basis of physicochemical property, nutritional property, sensory quality and cost estimation. According to quality aspect, cost analysis and sensory evaluation, the optimizing enzymatic treatment was obtained by Pectinase from Aspergillus aculeatus strain. The optimum condition for the treatment was 44 ^oC with 80 minute with a concentration of 0.05% (w/w). At these conditions, 75% of yield with turbidity of 32.21NTU, clarity of 74.39%T, polyphenol content of 115.31 mg GAE/g, protein content of 102.43 mg/g have been obtained with a significant difference in overall acceptability.

Keywords: Jamun, enzymatic treatment, physicochemical property, sensory analysis, optimization.

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Authors: Faizal A. Samman, Thomas Hollstein, Manfred Glesner

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A synchronous network-on-chip using wormhole packet switching and supporting guaranteed-completion best-effort with low-priority (LP) and high-priority (HP) wormhole packet delivery service is presented in this paper. Both our proposed LP and HP message services deliver a good quality of service in term of lossless packet completion and in-order message data delivery. However, the LP message service does not guarantee minimal completion bound. The HP packets will absolutely use 100% bandwidth of their reserved links if the HP packets are injected from the source node with maximum injection. Hence, the service are suitable for small size messages (less than hundred bytes). Otherwise the other HP and LP messages, which require also the links, will experience relatively high latency depending on the size of the HP message. The LP packets are routed using a minimal adaptive routing, while the HP packets are routed using a non-minimal adaptive routing algorithm. Therefore, an additional 3-bit field, identifying the packet type, is introduced in their packet headers to classify and to determine the type of service committed to the packet. Our NoC prototypes have been also synthesized using a 180-nm CMOS standard-cell technology to evaluate the cost of implementing the combination of both services.

Keywords: Network-on-Chip, Parallel Pipeline Router Architecture, Wormhole Switching, Two-Level Priority Service.

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Authors: Chiung-Tsun Kuoa, Tzu-Hao Liu, Fang-Yi Lin, Tai-Hao Hsu, Hui-Yin Chen

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Hyperglycemia-mediated accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) play a pivotal role in the development of diabetic complications by inducing inflammation. In the present study, we evaluated the possible effects of water/ethanol (1/1, v/v) extracts (WEE) and its fractions from Canarium album Raeusch. (Chinese olive) which is a fruit used on AGEs-stimulated oxidative stress and inflammation in monocytes and vascular endothelial cells. Co-incubation of EA.hy926 endothelial cells with WEE and its fractions for 24h resulted in a significant decrease of monocyte–endothelial cell adhesion, the expression of ICAM-1, generation of intracellular ROS and depletion of GSH induced by AGEs. Chinese olive fruit extracts also reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory mediates, such as TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 in THP-1 cells. These findings suggested that Chinese olive fruit was able to protect vascular endothelium from dysfunction induced by AGEs. 

Keywords: Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), Canarium album Raeusch, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation.

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Authors: J. Barilla, M. Lokajíček, H. Pisaková, P. Simr

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The final biological effect of ionizing particles may be influenced strongly by some chemical substances present in cells mainly in the case of low-LET radiation. The influence of oxygen may by particularly important because oxygen is always present in living cells. The corresponding processes are then running mainly in the chemical stage of radiobiological mechanism.

The radical clusters formed by densely ionizing ends of primary or secondary charged particles are mainly responsible for final biological effect. The damage effect depends then on radical concentration at a time when the cluster meets a DNA molecule. It may be strongly influenced by oxygen present in a cell as oxygen may act in different directions: at small concentration of it the interaction with hydrogen radicals prevails while at higher concentrations additional efficient oxygen radicals may be formed.

The basic radical concentration in individual clusters diminishes, which is influenced by two parallel processes: chemical reactions and diffusion of corresponding clusters. The given simultaneous evolution may be modeled and analyzed well with the help of Continuous Petri nets. The influence of other substances present in cells during irradiation may be studied, too. Some results concerning the impact of oxygen content will be presented.

Keywords: DSB formation, chemical stage, Petri nets, radiobiological mechanism.

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Authors: Irnie Zakaria, W. A. N. W Mohamed, W. H. Azmi

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Thermal enhancement of a single mini channel in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) cooling plate is numerically investigated. In this study, low concentration of Al2O3 in Water - Ethylene Glycol mixtures is used as coolant in single channel of carbon graphite plate to mimic the mini channels in PEMFC cooling plate. A steady and incompressible flow with constant heat flux is assumed in the channel of 1mm x 5mm x 100mm. Nano particle of Al2O3 used ranges from 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 vol % concentration and then dispersed in 60:40 (water: Ethylene Glycol) mixture. The effect of different flow rates to fluid flow and heat transfer enhancement in Re number range of 20 to 140 was observed. The result showed that heat transfer coefficient was improved by 18.11%, 9.86% and 5.37% for 0.5, 0.3 and 0.1 vol. % Al2O3 in 60:40 (water: EG) as compared to base fluid of 60:40 (water: EG). It is also showed that the higher vol. % concentration of Al2O3 performed better in term of thermal enhancement but at the expense of higher pumping power required due to increase in pressure drop experienced. Maximum additional pumping power of 0.0012W was required for 0.5 vol % Al2O3 in 60:40 (water: EG) at Re number 140.

Keywords: Heat transfer, mini channel, nanofluid, PEMFC.

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Authors: Mehdi Modabberifar, Sanaz Jabary, Mojtaba Ghodsi

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Stiffness sensing is an important issue in medical diagnostic, robotics surgery, safe handling, and safe grasping of objects in production lines. Detecting and obtaining the characteristics in dwelling lumps embedded in a soft tissue and safe removing and handling of detected lumps is needed in surgery. Also in industry, grasping and handling an object without damaging in a place where it is not possible to access a human operator is very important. In this paper, a method for object handling is presented. It is based on the use of an intelligent gripper to detect the object stiffness and then setting a programmable force for grasping the object to move it. The main components of this system includes sensors (sensors for measuring force and displacement), electrical (electrical and electronic circuits, tactile data processing and force control system), mechanical (gripper mechanism and driving system for the gripper) and the display unit. The system uses a rotary potentiometer for measuring gripper displacement. A microcontroller using the feedback received by the load cell, mounted on the finger of the gripper, calculates the amount of stiffness, and then commands the gripper motor to apply a certain force on the object. Results of Experiments on some samples with different stiffness show that the gripper works successfully. The gripper can be used in haptic interfaces or robotic systems used for object handling.

Keywords: Gripper, haptic, stiffness, robotic.

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Authors: J. P. Dubois, H. M. Chiu

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In this paper, we study statistical multiplexing of VBR video in ATM networks. ATM promises to provide high speed realtime multi-point to central video transmission for telemedicine applications in rural hospitals and in emergency medical services. Video coders are known to produce variable bit rate (VBR) signals and the effects of aggregating these VBR signals need to be determined in order to design a telemedicine network infrastructure capable of carrying these signals. We first model the VBR video signal and simulate it using a generic continuous-data autoregressive (AR) scheme. We carry out the queueing analysis by the Fluid Approximation Model (FAM) and the Markov Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP). The study has shown a trade off: multiplexing VBR signals reduces burstiness and improves resource utilization, however, the buffer size needs to be increased with an associated economic cost. We also show that the MMPP model and the Fluid Approximation model fit best, respectively, the cell region and the burst region. Therefore, a hybrid MMPP and FAM completely characterizes the overall performance of the ATM statistical multiplexer. The ramifications of this technology are clear: speed, reliability (lower loss rate and jitter), and increased capacity in video transmission for telemedicine. With migration to full IP-based networks still a long way to achieving both high speed and high quality of service, the proposed ATM architecture will remain of significant use for telemedicine.

Keywords: ATM, multiplexing, queueing, telemedicine, VBR.

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Authors: Al-Falahi Amir, Yusoff M. Z, Yusaf T

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The aim of this paper is to develop a new two dimensional time accurate Euler solver for shock tube applications. The solver was developed to study the performance of a newly built short-duration hypersonic test facility at Universiti Tenaga Nasional “UNITEN" in Malaysia. The facility has been designed, built, and commissioned for different values of diaphragm pressure ratios in order to get wide range of Mach number. The developed solver uses second order accurate cell-vertex finite volume spatial discretization and forth order accurate Runge-Kutta temporal integration and it is designed to simulate the flow process for similar driver/driven gases (e.g. air-air as working fluids). The solver is validated against analytical solution and experimental measurements in the high speed flow test facility. Further investigations were made on the flow process inside the shock tube by using the solver. The shock wave motion, reflection and interaction were investigated and their influence on the performance of the shock tube was determined. The results provide very good estimates for both shock speed and shock pressure obtained after diaphragm rupture. Also detailed information on the gasdynamic processes over the full length of the facility is available. The agreements obtained have been reasonable.

Keywords: shock tunnel, shock tube, shock wave, CFD.

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Authors: M. S. Sivagamasundari, P. Melba Mary

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Multilevel inverter is a promising inverter topology for high voltage and high power applications. This inverter synthesizes several different levels of DC voltages to produce a stepped AC output that approaches the pure sine waveform. The three different topologies, diode-clamped inverter, capacitor-clamped inverter and cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter are widely used in these multilevel inverters. Among the three topologies, cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter is more suitable for photovoltaic applications since each PV array can act as a separate dc source for each h-bridge module. This research especially focus on photovoltaic power source as input to the system and shows the potential of a Single Phase Cascaded H-bridge Eleven level inverter governed by the fuzzy logic controller to improve the power quality by reducing the total harmonic distortion at the output voltage. Hence the efficiency of the system will be improved. Simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK has been done to verify the performance of cascaded h-bridge eleven level inverter using sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique. The simulated output shows very favorable result.

Keywords: Multilevel inverter, Cascaded H-Bridge multilevel inverter, Total Harmonic Distortion, Photovoltaic cell, Sinusoidal pulse width modulation.

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Authors: Anders Schou Simonsen, Thomas Condra, Kim Sørensen

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Various processes are modelled using a discrete phase, where particles are seeded from a source. Such particles can represent liquid water droplets, which are affecting the continuous phase by exchanging thermal energy, momentum, species etc. Discrete phases are typically modelled using parcel, which represents a collection of particles, which share properties such as temperature, velocity etc. When coupling the phases, the exchange rates are integrated over the cell, in which the parcel is located. This can cause spikes and fluctuating exchange rates. This paper presents an alternative method of coupling a discrete and a continuous plug flow phase. This is done using triangular parcels, which span between nodes following the dynamics of single droplets. Thus, the triangular parcels are propagated using the corner nodes. At each time step, the exchange rates are spatially integrated over the surface of the triangular parcels, which yields a smooth continuous exchange rate to the continuous phase. The results shows that the method is more stable, converges slightly faster and yields smooth exchange rates compared with the steam tube approach. However, the computational requirements are about five times greater, so the applicability of the alternative method should be limited to processes, where the exchange rates are important. The overall balances of the exchanged properties did not change significantly using the new approach.

Keywords: CFD, coupling, discrete phase, parcel.

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Authors: Jameela Ali Alkrimi, Loay E. George, Azizah Suliman, Abdul Rahim Ahmad, Karim Al-Jashamy

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Red blood cells (RBCs) are among the most commonly and intensively studied type of blood cells in cell biology. Anemia is a lack of RBCs is characterized by its level compared to the normal hemoglobin level. In this study, a system based image processing methodology was developed to localize and extract RBCs from microscopic images. Also, the machine learning approach is adopted to classify the localized anemic RBCs images. Several textural and geometrical features are calculated for each extracted RBCs. The training set of features was analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA). With the proposed method, RBCs were isolated in 4.3secondsfrom an image containing 18 to 27 cells. The reasons behind using PCA are its low computation complexity and suitability to find the most discriminating features which can lead to accurate classification decisions. Our classifier algorithm yielded accuracy rates of 100%, 99.99%, and 96.50% for K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) algorithm, support vector machine (SVM), and neural network RBFNN, respectively. Classification was evaluated in highly sensitivity, specificity, and kappa statistical parameters. In conclusion, the classification results were obtained within short time period, and the results became better when PCA was used.

Keywords: Red blood cells, pre-processing image algorithms, classification algorithms, principal component analysis PCA, confusion matrix, kappa statistical parameters, ROC.

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Authors: T. Wresdiyati, S. Sa’diah, A. Winarto

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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease that can be indicated by the high level of blood glucose. The objective of this study was to observe the antidiabetic properties of ethanolic extract of Indonesian Swietenia mahagoni Jacq. seed on the profile of pancreatic superoxide dismutase and β-cells in the alloxan- experimental diabetic rats. The Swietenia mahagoni seed was obtained from Leuwiliang-Bogor, Indonesia. Extraction of Swietenia mahagoni was done by using ethanol with maceration methods. A total of 25 male Sprague dawley rats were divided into five groups; (a) negative control group, (b) positive control group (DM), (c) DM group that was treated with Swietenia mahagoni seed extract, (d) DM group that was treated with acarbose, and (e) non-DM group that was treated with Swietenia mahagoni seed extract. The DM groups were induced by alloxan (110 mg/kgBW). The extract was orally administrated to diabetic rats 500 mg/kg/BW/day for 28 days. The extract showed hypoglycemic effect, increased body weight, increased the content of superoxide dismutase in the pancreatic tissue, and delayed the rate of β-cells damage of experimental diabetic rats. These results suggested that the ethanolic extract of Indonesian Swietenia mahagoni Jacq. seed could be proposed as a potential anti-diabetic agent.

Keywords: β-cell, diabetes mellitus, superoxide dismutase, Swietenia mahagoni.

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Authors: Tomio Iwasaki, Yosuke Kawahito

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The adhesion strength and wettability at the interfaces between a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) resin and titanium dioxide (TiO2) have become more important because direct joining of PEEK resin and titanium (Ti), whose surface has usually the oxide (TiO2), is needed not only in vehicles such as airplanes, automobiles, and space vehicles, but also in medical devices such as implants. To realize strong joint between the PEEK resin and TiO2, the dependence of the adhesion strength and wettability on crystal orientations of rutile TiO2 were investigated by using molecular simulations. Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted by combining quantum-mechanics equation of electrons with Newton’s equation of motion of nuclear coordinates (atomic coordinates). By putting a PEEK-resin sphere on a rutile TiO2 surface and by heating the system to 650 K, the contact angles at the interfaces were calculated to evaluate the wettability. After the system is cooled to 300 K from 650 K, to evaluate the adhesin strength, the adhesive fracture energy is calculated as the difference between the energy of the PEEK-TiO2 attached state and that of the PEEK-TiO2 detached state. The results of the contact angles showed that PEEK resin on the TiO2(100) and that on the TiO2(001) surface has low wettability with large contact angles. On the other hand, PEEK resin on the TiO2(110) surface has high wettability with a small contact angle. The results of the adhesive fracture energies showed that the adhesion at the PEEK-resin/TiO2(100) and PEEK-resin/TiO2(001) interfaces are weak. On the other hand, the adhesion at the PEEK-resin/TiO2(110) interface is strong. To clarify the reason that the higher wettability and stronger adhesion are obtained at the PEEK/TiO2(110) interface than at the at the PEEK/TiO2(100) and PEEK/TiO2(001) interfaces, atomic configurations at the interfaces were visualized. The atomic configuration at the PEEK/TiO2(110) interface showed that the lattice-matched coherent interface is realized, and the atomic density is high. On the other hand, the atomic configuration at the PEEK/TiO2(001) interface showed the lattice-unmatched incoherent interface. The atomic configuration at the PEEK/TiO2(100) interface showed that the atomic density is very low although the lattice-matched interface is realized. Therefore, the lattice matching and the high atomic density at the PEEK/TiO2(001) interface are considered to be dominant factors in the high wettability and strong adhesion.

Keywords: Adhesion, direct joining, PEEK, TiO2, wettability.

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Authors: Ratanaporn Leesing, Rattanaporn Baojungharn, Thidarat Papone

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Compared to oil production from microorganisms, little work has been performed for mixed culture of microalgae and yeast. In this article it is aimed to show high oil accumulation potential of mixed culture of microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and oleaginous yeast Torulaspora maleeae Y30 using sugarcane molasses as substrate. The monoculture of T. maleeae Y30 grew faster than that of microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2. In monoculture of yeast, a biomass of 6.4g/L with specific growth rate (m) of 0.265 (1/d) and lipid yield of 0.466g/L were obtained, while 2.53g/L of biomass with m of 0.133 (1/d) and lipid yield of 0.132g/L were obtained for monoculture of Chlorella sp. KKU-S2. The biomass concentration in the mixed culture of T. maleeae Y30 with Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 increased faster and was higher compared with that in the monoculture and mixed culture of microalgae. In mixed culture of microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and C. vulgaris TISTR8580, a biomass of 3.47g/L and lipid yield of 0.123 g/L were obtained. In mixed culture of T. maleeae Y30 with Chlorella sp. KKU-S2, a maximum biomass of 7.33 g/L and lipid yield of 0.808g/L were obtained. Maximum cell yield coefficient (YX/S, 0.229g/L), specific yield of lipid (YP/X, 0.11g lipid/g cells) and volumetric lipid production rate (QP, 0.115 g/L/d) were obtained in mixed culture of yeast and microalgae. Clearly, T. maleeae Y30 and Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 use sugarcane molasses as organic nutrients efficiently in mixed culture under mixotrophic growth. The biomass productivity and lipid yield are notably enhanced in comparison with monoculture.

Keywords: Microbial oil, Chlorella sp. KKU-S2, Chlorella vulgaris, Torulaspora maleeae Y30, mixed culture, biodiesel.

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Authors: R. Bharanidaran, B. T. Ramesh

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High precision in motion is required to manipulate the micro objects in precision industries for micro assembly, cell manipulation etc. Precision manipulation is achieved based on the appropriate mechanism design of micro devices such as microgrippers. Design of a compliant based mechanism is the better option to achieve a highly precised and controlled motion. This research article highlights the method of designing a compliant based three fingered microgripper suitable for holding asymmetric objects. Topological optimization technique, a systematic method is implemented in this research work to arrive a topologically optimized design of the mechanism needed to perform the required micro motion of the gripper. Optimization technique has a drawback of generating senseless regions such as node to node connectivity and staircase effect at the boundaries. Hence, it is required to have post processing of the design to make it manufacturable. To reduce the effect of post processing stage and to preserve the edges of the image, a cubic spline interpolation technique is introduced in the MATLAB program. Structural performance of the topologically developed mechanism design is tested using finite element method (FEM) software. Further the microgripper structure is examined to find its fatigue life and vibration characteristics.

Keywords: Compliant mechanism, Cubic spline interpolation, FEM, Topology optimization.

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Authors: Kafuko M. Maria, Namisango Fatuma, Byomire Gorretti

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Mobile learning (m-learning) is steadily growing and has undoubtedly derived benefits to learners and tutors in different learning environments. This paper investigates the variation in benefits derived from enhanced classroom learning through use of m-learning platforms in the context of a developing country owing to the fact that it is still in its initial stages. The study focused on how basic technology-enhanced pedagogic innovation like cell phone-based learning is enhancing classroom learning from the learners’ perspective. The paper explicitly indicates the opportunities presented by enhanced learning to a conventional learning environment like a physical classroom. The findings were obtained through a survey of two universities in Uganda in which data was quantitatively collected, analyzed and presented in a three banded diagram depicting the variation in the obtainable benefits. Learners indicated that a smartphone is the most commonly used device. Learners also indicate that straight lectures, student to student plus student to lecturer communication, accessing learning material and assignments are core activities. In a TEL environment support by smartphones, learners indicated that they conveniently achieve the prior activities plus discussions and group work. Learners seemed not attracted to the possibility of using TEL environment to take lectures, as well as make class presentations. The less attractiveness of these two factors may be due to the teacher centered approach commonly applied in the country’s education system.

Keywords: Technology enhanced learning, mobile learning classroom learning, perceived benefits.

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Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Li Zhang, Naveed Nawaz

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Small cell deployment in 5G networks is a promising technology to enhance the capacity and coverage. However, unplanned deployment may cause high interference levels and high number of unnecessary handovers, which in turn result in an increase in the signalling overhead. To guarantee service continuity, minimize unnecessary handovers and reduce signalling overhead in heterogeneous networks, it is essential to properly model the handover decision problem. In this paper, we model the handover decision problem using Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method, specifically Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and propose a hybrid TOPSIS method to control the handover in heterogeneous network. The proposed method adopts a hybrid weighting policy, which is a combination of entropy and standard deviation. A hybrid weighting control parameter is introduced to balance the impact of the standard deviation and entropy weighting on the network selection process and the overall performance. Our proposed method show better performance, in terms of the number of frequent handovers and the mean user throughput, compared to the existing methods.

Keywords: Handover, HetNets, interference, MADM, small cells, TOPSIS, weight.

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