Search results for: agent programming

Authors: Nazym Shedenova, Aigul Beimisheva

Abstract:

The improvement of quality of life is the main visible integrated indicator of state well-being. More and more states pay attention to define and to achieve social standards of quality of life as social-economic strategy of development. These standards are determinate by state features, complex of needs and interests of individual, family and society. It still remains in open question: “What is middle class" in contemporary Kazakhstan. Appearance of new social standards of quality of life is important indicator of its successful establishment. The middle class as agent of social, politic and economic reforms promotes to improve the quality of life of the country. But if consider a low and a middle stratums of middle class, we can see that high social expectations and real achievements are still significantly different. The article relies on the sociological data, collected during of search of household-s standards of living in Almaty city and Almaty region, and case-study of cottage city “Jana Kuat".

Keywords: the quality of life, the social standards of life, the middle class of Kazakhstan, the economic behavior of households.

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Authors: Usha Sridhar, Sridhar Mandyam

Abstract:

We propose a multi-agent based utilitarian approach to model and understand information flows in social networks that lead to Pareto optimal informational exchanges. We model the individual expected utility function of the agents to reflect the net value of information received. We show how this model, adapted from a theorem by Karl Borch dealing with an actuarial Risk Exchange concept in the Insurance industry, can be used for social network analysis. We develop a utilitarian framework that allows us to interpret Pareto optimal exchanges of value as potential information flows, while achieving a maximization of a sum of expected utilities of information of the group of agents. We examine some interesting conditions on the utility function under which the flows are optimal. We illustrate the promise of this new approach to attach economic value to information in networks with a synthetic example.

Keywords: Borch's Theorem , Economic value of information, Information Exchange, Pareto Optimal Solution, Social Networks, Utility Functions

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Authors: Pedro Padilha Gonçalves, Doris C. C. K. Kowaltowski, Benjamin Cleveland

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Trends in education affect schooling, needing incorporation into design concepts to support desired learning processes with appropriate and stimulating environments. A design process for school architecture demands research, debates, reflections, and efficient decision-making methods. This paper presents research on evidence-based design, related to middle schools, based on a systematic literature review and the elaboration of a set of architectural design patterns, through a graphic translation of new concepts for classroom configurations, to support programming debates and the synthesis phase of design. The investigation resulted in nine patterns that configure the concepts of boundaries, flexibility, levels of openness, mindsets, neighborhoods, movement and interaction, territories, opportunities for learning, and sightlines for classrooms. The research is part of a continuous investigation of design methods, on contemporary school architecture to produce an architectural pattern matrix based on scientific information translated into an insightful graphic design language.

Keywords: School architecture, design process, design patterns, evidence-based design.

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Authors: Junghoon Lee, Gyung-Leen Park, Ho-Young Kwak, Cheol Min Kim

Abstract:

This paper presents the design and implements the prototype of an intelligent data processing framework in ubiquitous sensor networks. Much focus is put on how to handle the sensor data stream as well as the interoperability between the low-level sensor data and application clients. Our framework first addresses systematic middleware which mitigates the interaction between the application layer and low-level sensors, for the sake of analyzing a great volume of sensor data by filtering and integrating to create value-added context information. Then, an agent-based architecture is proposed for real-time data distribution to efficiently forward a specific event to the appropriate application registered in the directory service via the open interface. The prototype implementation demonstrates that our framework can host a sophisticated application on the ubiquitous sensor network and it can autonomously evolve to new middleware, taking advantages of promising technologies such as software agents, XML, cloud computing, and the like.

Keywords: sensor network, intelligent farm, middleware, event detection

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Authors: Hazim Saadoon Aljewari, Mohammed Ibraheem Nader, Abdul Hussain M. Alfaisal, NatthidaWeerapreeyakul, Sahapat

Abstract:

L-asparaginase was extracted from pathogenic Escherichia coli which was isolated from urinary tract infection patients. L-asparaginase was purified 96-fold by ultrafiltration, ion exchange and gel filtration giving 39.19% yield with final specific activity of 178.57 IU/mg. L-asparaginase showed 138,356±1,000 Dalton molecular weight with 31024±100 Dalton molecular mass. Kinetic properties of enzyme resulting 1.25×10-5 mM Km and 2.5×10-3 M/min Vmax. L-asparaginase showed a maximum activity at pH 7.5 when incubated at 37 ºC for 30 min and illustrated its full activity (100%) after 15 min incubation at 20-37 ºC, while 70% of its activity was lost when incubated at 60 ºC. L-asparaginase showed cytotoxicity to U937 cell line with IC50 0.5±0.19 IU/ml, and selectivity index (SI=7.6) about 8 time higher selectivity over the lymphocyte cells. Therefore, the local pathogenic E. coli strains may be used as a source of high yield of L-asparaginase to produce anti cancer agent with high selectivity.

Keywords: L-asparaginase, Purification, Cytotoxicity, selectivity index

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Authors: Chueh-Jung Huang, Chia-Hung Li, Hsueh-Lung Wang, Tsun-Nan Lin

Abstract:

Zinc oxide thin films with various microstructures were grown on substrates by using HCOOH-sols. The reaction mechanism of the sol system was investigated by performing an XPS analysis of as-synthesized films, due to the products of hydrolysis and condensation in the sol system contributing to the chemical state of the as-synthesized films. The chemical structures of the assynthesized films related to the microstructures of the final annealed films were also studied. The results of the Zn 2p3/2, C 1s and O1s XPS patterns indicate that the hydrolysis reaction in the sol system is strongly influenced by the HCOOH agent. The results of XRD and FE-SEM demonstrated the microstructures of the annealed films are related to the content of hydrolyzed zinc hydrate (Zn-OH) species present, and that content of the Zn-OH species in the sol system increases the HCOOH adding, and these Zn-OH species existing in the sol phase are responsible for large ZnO crystallites in the final annealed films.

Keywords: zinc oxide, hydrolysis catalyst, zinc acetate source, formic acid.

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Authors: Po-Yun Chen, Jui-Liang Yen, Chang-Ping Chang, Wen-Hua Hu, Yu-Liang Chen, Yih-Ming Liu, Chin-Yi Chou, Ming-Der Ger

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The stab resistance performance of newly developed fabric composites composed of hexagonal paper honeycombs, filled with shear thickening fluid (STF), and woven Kevlar® fabric or UHMPE was investigated in this study. The STF was prepared by dispersing submicron SiO2 particles into polyethylene glycol (PEG). Our results indicate that the STF-Kevlar composite possessed lower penetration depth than that of neat Kevlar. In other words, the STF-Kevlar composite can attain the same energy level in stab-resistance test with fewer layers of Kevlar fabrics than that of the neat Kevlar fabrics. It also indicates that STF can be used for the fabrication of flexible body armors and can provide improved protection against stab threats. We found that the stab resistance of the STF-Kevlar composite increases with the increase of SiO2 concentration in STF. Moreover, the silica particles functionalized with silane coupling agent can further improve the stab resistance.

Keywords: shear thickening fluid, SiO2, Kevlar, stab

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Authors: Kaibalya Prasad Panda, Nirakar Behera, Kamal Lochan Biswal

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to combine the concept of wireless power transfer and GSM controlled robot for the application of home automation. The wireless power transfer concept can be well utilized to charge battery of the GSM controlled robot. When the robot has completed its task, it can come to the origin where it can charge itself. Robot can be charged wirelessly, when it is not performing any task. Combination of GSM controlled robot and wireless power transfer provides greater advantage such as; no wastage of charge stored in the battery when the robot is not doing any task. This provides greater reliability that at any instant, robot can do its work once it receives a message through GSM module. GSM module of the robot and user mobile phone must be interfaced properly, so that robot can do task when it receives message from same user mobile phone, not from any other phone. This paper approaches a robotic movement control through the smart phone and control of GSM robot is done by programming in Arduino environment. The commands used in controlling the robot movement are also explained.

Keywords: Arduino, automation, GSM controlled robot, GSM module, wireless power transfer.

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Authors: Mohamed H. Gabr, Kiyoshi Uzawa

Abstract:

The current study aims to investigate the effect of fillers with different geometries and sizes on the interfacial shear properties of PA6 composites with de-sized carbon fiber. The fillers which have been investigated are namely; nano-layer silicates (nanoclay), sub-micro aluminum titanium (ALTi) particles, and multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT). By means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), epoxide group which defined as a sizing agent, has been removed. Sizing removal can reduce the acid parameter of carbon fibers surface promoting bonding strength at the fiber/matrix interface which is a desirable property for the carbon fiber composites. Microdroplet test showed that the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) has been enhanced with the addition of 10wt% ALTi by about 23% comparing with neat PA6. However, with including other types of fillers into PA6, the results did not show enhancement of IFSS.

Keywords: Sub-micro-filler, nano-composites, interfacial shear strength, polyamide.

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Authors: Ali Fellah Jahromi, Wen Fang Xie, Rama B. Bhat

Abstract:

A semi-active control strategy for suspension systems of passenger cars is presented employing Magnetorheological (MR) dampers. The vehicle is modeled with seven DOFs including the, roll pitch and bounce of car body, and the vertical motion of the four tires. In order to design an optimal controller based on the actuator constraints, a Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is designed. The design procedure of the LQR consists of selecting two weighting matrices to minimize the energy of the control system. This paper presents a hybrid optimization procedure which is a combination of gradient-based and evolutionary algorithms to choose the weighting matrices with regards to the actuator constraint. The optimization algorithm is defined based on maximum comfort and actuator constraints. It is noted that utilizing the present control algorithm may significantly reduce the vibration response of the passenger car, thus, providing a comfortable ride.

Keywords: Full car model, Linear Quadratic Regulator, Sequential Quadratic Programming, Genetic Algorithm

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Authors: M. E. Silva, I. Brás

Abstract:

The aim of this work was to study the viability of recycling the residual yeast and diatomaceous earth (RYDE) slurry generated by the beer brewing industry by composting with animal manures, as well as to evaluate the quality of the composts obtained. Two pilot composting trials were carried out with different mixes: cow manure/RYDE slurry (Pile CM) and sheep manure/RYDE slurry (Pile SM). For all piles, wood chips were applied as bulking agent. The process was monitored by evaluating standard physical and chemical parameters. The compost quality was assessed by the heavy metals content and phytotoxicity. Both piles reached a thermophilic phase in the first day, however having different trends. The pH showed a slight alkaline character. The C/N reached values lower than 19 at the end of composting process. Generally, all the piles exhibited absence of heavy metals. However, the pile SM exhibited phytotoxicity. This study showed that RYDE slurry can be valorized by composting with cow manure.

Keywords: Beer brewing wastes, compost; quality, valorization.

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Authors: Henrik L. Funke, Lars Ulke-Winter, Sandra Gelbrich, Lothar Kroll

Abstract:

This work reports about an approach for an automatic adaptation of concrete formulations based on genetic algorithms (GA) to optimize a wide range of different fit-functions. In order to achieve the goal, a method was developed which provides a numerical description of a fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) mixture regarding the production technology and the property spectrum of the concrete. In a first step, the FRC mixture with seven fixed components was characterized by varying amounts of the components. For that purpose, ten concrete mixtures were prepared and tested. The testing procedure comprised flow spread, compressive and bending tensile strength. The analysis and approximation of the determined data was carried out by GAs. The aim was to obtain a closed mathematical expression which best describes the given seven-point cloud of FRC by applying a Gene Expression Programming with Free Coefficients (GEP-FC) strategy. The seven-parametric FRC-mixtures model which is generated according to this method correlated well with the measured data. The developed procedure can be used for concrete mixtures finding closed mathematical expressions, which are based on the measured data.

Keywords: Concrete design, fibre reinforced concrete, genetic algorithms, GEP-FC.

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Authors: Hiroki Yoshikai, Shin’ichi Arakawa, Tetsuya Takine, Masayuki Murata

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API (Application Programming Interface) economy is expected to create new value by converting corporate services such as information processing and data provision into APIs and using these APIs to connect services. Understanding dynamics of a market of API economy under strategies of participants is crucial to fully maximize the values of API economy. To capture the behavior of a market in which the number of participants changes over time, we present a time-evolving market model for a platform in which API providers who provide APIs to service providers participate in addition to service providers and consumers. Then, we use the market model to clarify the role API providers play in expanding market participants and forming ecosystems. The results show that the platform with API providers increased the number of market participants by 67% and decreased the cost to develop services by 25% compared to the platform without API providers. Furthermore, during the expansion phase of the market, it is found that the profits of participants are mostly the same when 70% of the revenue from consumers is distributed to service providers and API providers. It is also found that, when the market is mature, the profits of the service provider and API provider will decrease significantly due to their competitions and the profit of the platform increases.

Keywords: API Economy, ecosystem, platform, API providers.

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Authors: Jito Vanualailai, Bibhya Sharma

Abstract:

Swarm principles are increasingly being used to design controllers for the coordination of multi-robot systems or, in general, multi-agent systems. This paper proposes a two-dimensional Lagrangian swarm model that enables the planar agents, modeled as point masses, to swarm whilst effectively avoiding each other and obstacles in the environment. A novel method, based on an extended Lyapunov approach, is used to construct the model. Importantly, the Lyapunov method ensures a form of practical stability that guarantees an emergent behavior, namely, a cohesive and wellspaced swarm with a constant arrangement of individuals about the swarm centroid. Computer simulations illustrate this basic feature of collective behavior. As an application, we show how multiple planar mobile unicycle-like robots swarm to eventually form patterns in which their velocities and orientations stabilize.

Keywords: Attractive-repulsive swarm model, individual-based swarm model, Lagrangian swarm model, Lyapunov stability, Lyapunov-like function, practical stability, unicycle.

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Authors: S. S. Mahlangu, R. K. K. Mbaya, D. D. Delport, H. Van. Zyl

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The degrading effect due to bacterial growth on the structural integrity of concrete floor surfaces is predictable; this consequently cause development of surface micro cracks in which organisms penetrate through resulting in surface spalling. Hence, the need to develop mix design meeting the requirement of floor surfaces exposed to aggressive agent to improve certain material properties with good workability, extended lifespan and low cost is essential. In this work, tests were performed to examine the microbial activity on kitchen floor surfaces and the effect of adding admixtures. The biochemical test shows the existence of microorganisms (E.coli, Streptococcus) on newly casted structure. Of up to 6% porosity was reduced and improvement on structural integrity was observed upon adding mineral admixtures from the concrete mortar. The SEM result after 84 days of curing specimens, shows that chemical admixtures have significant role to enable retard bacterial penetration and good quality structure is achieved.

Keywords: Admixture, organisms, porosity and strength.

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Authors: Mohammad A. Khasawneh

Abstract:

The design of high pressure water jet based polishing equipment and its fabrication conducted in this study is reported herein, together with some preliminary test results for assessing its applicability for HMA surface polishing. This study also provides preliminary findings concerning the test variables, such as the rotational speed, the water jet pressure, the abrasive agent used, and the impact angel that were experimentally investigated in this study. The preliminary findings based on four trial tests (two on large slab specimens and two on small size gyratory compacted specimens), however, indicate that both friction and texture values tend to increase with the polishing durations for two combinations of pressure and rotation speed of the rotary deck. It seems that the more polishing action the specimen is subjected to; the aggregate edges are created such that the surface texture values are increased with the accompanied increase in friction values. It may be of interest (but which is outside the scope of this study) to investigate if the similar trend exist for HMA prepared with aggregate source that is sand and gravel.

Keywords: High-pressure, water jet, Friction, Texture, Polishing, Statistical Analysis.

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Authors: S. Kumar, R. Sultana

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Aspergillus species on acridid populations which are major agricultural pests of rice, sugarcane, wheat, maize and fodder crops in Pakistan. Three and replicates i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus and A. niger, excluding the control, were held under laboratory conditions. It was observed that consumption faecal production of acridids was significantly reduced after the pathogenic application of Aspergillus. In the control replicate, the mortality ratio for stage (N₄-N₆) was maximum on day 2^nd i.e. [F_10.7 = 18.33, P < 0.05] followed by [F_4.20 = 07.85, P < 0.05] and [F_3.77 = 06.11, P < 0.05] on 4^th and 3^rd day, respectively. Similarly, it was a minimum i.e. [F_0.48 = 84.65, P < 0.05] on the 1^st day. It was also noted that faecal production of Acridid nymphs was not significantly affected when treated with conidial concentration in H₂O formulation; however, it was significantly reduced after the contamination with conidial concentration in oil. The high morality of acridids after contamination of Aspergillus supports their use as bio-control agent for reducing pest population. The present study recommends that exploration and screening must be conducted to provide additional pathogens for evaluation as potential biological control against grasshoppers and locusts.

Keywords: Acridid, agriculture, Aspergillus, formulation, Grasshoppers.

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Authors: Mohammad Amin Safi, Mahmud Ashrafizaadeh, Amir Ali Ashrafizaadeh

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A highly optimized implementation of binary mixture diffusion with no initial bulk velocity on graphics processors is presented. The lattice Boltzmann model is employed for simulating the binary diffusion of oxygen and nitrogen into each other with different initial concentration distributions. Simulations have been performed using the latest proposed lattice Boltzmann model that satisfies both the indifferentiability principle and the H-theorem for multi-component gas mixtures. Contemporary numerical optimization techniques such as memory alignment and increasing the multiprocessor occupancy are exploited along with some novel optimization strategies to enhance the computational performance on graphics processors using the C for CUDA programming language. Speedup of more than two orders of magnitude over single-core processors is achieved on a variety of Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) devices ranging from conventional graphics cards to advanced, high-end GPUs, while the numerical results are in excellent agreement with the available analytical and numerical data in the literature.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann model, Graphical processing unit, Binary mixture diffusion, 2D flow simulations, Optimized algorithm.

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Authors: Jehad A. H. Hammad, Nur'Aini binti Abdul Rashid

Abstract:

With the rapid development in the field of life sciences and the flooding of genomic information, the need for faster and scalable searching methods has become urgent. One of the approaches that were investigated is indexing. The indexing methods have been categorized into three categories which are the lengthbased index algorithms, transformation-based algorithms and mixed techniques-based algorithms. In this research, we focused on the transformation based methods. We embedded the N-gram method into the transformation-based method to build an inverted index table. We then applied the parallel methods to speed up the index building time and to reduce the overall retrieval time when querying the genomic database. Our experiments show that the use of N-Gram transformation algorithm is an economical solution; it saves time and space too. The result shows that the size of the index is smaller than the size of the dataset when the size of N-Gram is 5 and 6. The parallel N-Gram transformation algorithm-s results indicate that the uses of parallel programming with large dataset are promising which can be improved further.

Keywords: Biological sequence, Database index, N-gram indexing, Parallel computing, Sequence retrieval.

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Authors: Kimia Khoshdel Vajari, Saber Saffar

Abstract:

Reducing the residual stresses caused by welding is desirable for the industry. The effect of welding sequence, as well as the effect of yield stress on the number of residual stresses generated in Inconel X750 superalloy sheets and beams, have been investigated. The finite element model used in this research is a three-dimensional thermal and mechanical model, and the type of analysis is indirect coupling. This analysis is done in two stages. First, thermal analysis is performed, and then the thermal changes of the first analysis are used as the applied load in the second analysis. ABAQUS has been used for modeling, and the Dflux subroutine has been used in the Fortran programming environment to move the arc and the molten pool. The results of this study show that the amount of tensile residual stress in symmetric, discontinuous, and symmetric-discontinuous welds is reduced to a maximum of 27%, 54%, and 37% compared to direct welding, respectively. The results also show that the amount of residual stresses created by welding increases linearly with increasing yield stress with a slope of 40%.

Keywords: Residual stress, X750 superalloy, finite element, welding, thermal analysis.

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Authors: Hafizuddin W. Yussof, Syamsutajri S. Bahri, Adam P. Harvey

Abstract:

Strong anion exchange resins with QN+OH-, have the potential to be developed and employed as heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification, as they are chemically stable to leaching of the functional group. Nine different SIERs (SIER1-9) with QN+OH-were prepared by suspension polymerization of vinylbenzyl chloridedivinylbenzene (VBC-DVB) copolymers in the presence of n-heptane (pore-forming agent). The amine group was successfully grafted into the polymeric resin beads through functionalization with trimethylamine. These SIERs are then used as a catalyst for the transesterification of triacetin with methanol. A set of differential equations that represents the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen- Watson (LHHW) and Eley-Rideal (ER) models for the transesterification reaction were developed. These kinetic models of LHHW and ER were fitted to the experimental data. Overall, the synthesized ion exchange resin-catalyzed reaction were welldescribed by the Eley-Rideal model compared to LHHW models, with sum of square error (SSE) of 0.742 and 0.996, respectively.

Keywords: Anion exchange resin, Eley-Rideal, Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson, transesterification.

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Authors: Ishak, L., McHenry, M. T., Brown, P. H.

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Organic farming systems still depend on intensive, mechanical soil tillage. Frequent passes by machinery traffic cause substantial soil compaction that threatens soil health. Adopting practices as reduced tillage and organic matter retention on the soil surface are considered effective ways to control soil compaction. In tropical regions, however, the acceleration of soil organic matter decomposition and soil carbon turnover on the topsoil layer is influenced more rapidly by the oscillation process of drying and wetting. It is hypothesized therefore, that rapid reduction in soil organic matter hastens the potential for compaction to occur in organic farming systems. Compaction changes soil physical properties and as a consequence it has been implicated as a causal agent in the inhibition of natural disease suppression in soils. Here we describe relationships between soil management in organic vegetable systems, soil compaction, and declining soil capacity to suppress pathogenic microorganisms.

Keywords: Organic farming systems, soil compaction, soil disease suppression, tropical regions.

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Authors: Syed Bahari Ramadzan Syed Adnan, Nor Sabirin Mohamed, Norwati K.A

Abstract:

In this study, Li4SiO4 powder was successfully synthesized via sol gel method followed by drying at 150oC. Lithium oxide, Li2O and silicon oxide, SiO2 were used as the starting materials with citric acid as the chelating agent. The obtained powder was then sintered at various temperatures. Crystallographic phase analysis, morphology and ionic conductivity were investigated systematically employing X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared, Scanning Electron Microscopy and AC impedance spectroscopy. XRD result showed the formation of pure monoclinic Li4SiO4 crystal structure with lattice parameters a = 5.140 Å, b = 6.094 Å, c = 5.293 Å, β = 90o in the sample sintered at 750oC. This observation was confirmed by FTIR analysis. The bulk conductivity of this sample at room temperature was 3.35 × 10-6 S cm-1 and the highest bulk conductivity of 1.16 × 10-4 S cm-1 was obtained at 100°C. The results indicated that, the Li4SiO4 compound has potential to be used as host for LISICON structured solid electrolyte for low temperature application.

Keywords: Conductivity, LISICON, Li4SiO4, Solid electrolyte, Structure.

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Authors: M. Othman, N. Bhuiyan, G. J. Gouw

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In today-s competitive market, most companies develop manufacturing systems that can help in cost reduction and maximum quality. Human issues are an important part of manufacturing systems, yet most companies ignore their effects on production performance. This paper aims to developing an integrated workforce planning system that incorporates the human being. Therefore, a multi-objective mixed integer nonlinear programming model is developed to determine the amount of hiring, firing, training, overtime for each worker type. This paper considers a workforce planning model including human aspects such as skills, training, workers- personalities, capacity, motivation, and learning rates. This model helps to minimize the hiring, firing, training and overtime costs, and maximize the workers- performance. The results indicate that the workers- differences should be considered in workforce scheduling to generate realistic plans with minimum costs. This paper also investigates the effects of human learning rates on the performance of the production systems.

Keywords: Human Factors, Learning Curves, Workers' Differences, Workforce Scheduling

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Authors: K. Soya, N. Mihara, D. Kuchar, M. Kubota, H. Matsuda, T. Fukuta

Abstract:

The present work is concerned with sulfidation of Cu, Zn and Ni containing plating wastewater with CaS. The sulfidation experiments were carried out at a room temperature by adding solid CaS to simulated metal solution containing either single-metal of Ni, Zn and Cu, or Ni-Zn-Cu mixture. At first, the experiments were conducted without pH adjustment and it was found that the complete sulfidation of Zn and Ni was achieved at an equimolar ratio of CaS to a particular metal. However, in the case of Cu, a complete copper sulfidation was achieved at CaS to Cu molar ratio of about 2. In the case of the selective sulfidation, a simulated plating solution containing Cu, Zn and Ni at the concentration of 100 mg/dm3 was treated with CaS under various pH conditions. As a result, selective precipitation of metal sulfides was achieved by a sulfidation treatment at different pH values. Further, the precipitation agents of NaOH, Na2S and CaS were compared in terms of the average specific filtration resistance and compressibility coefficients of metal sulfide slurry. Consequently, based on the lowest filtration parameters of the produced metal sulfides, it was concluded that CaS was the most effective precipitation agent for separation and recovery of Cu, Zn and Ni.

Keywords: Calcium sulfide, Plating Wastewater, Filtrationcharacteristics, Heavy metals, Sulfidation.

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Authors: Prachi Singh

Abstract:

This paper presents a low-cost, eco-friendly and reproducible microbe mediated biosynthesis of TiO₂ nanoparticles. TiO₂ nanoparticles synthesized using the bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, from titanium as a precursor, were confirmed by TEM analysis. The morphological characteristics state spherical shape, with the size of individual or aggregate nanoparticles, around 30-40 nm. Microbial resistance represents a challenge for the scientific community to develop new bioactive compounds. Here, the antibacterial effect of TiO₂ nanoparticles on Escherichia coli was investigated, which was confirmed by CFU (Colony-forming unit). Further, growth curve study of E. coli Hb101 in the presence and absence of TiO₂ nanoparticles was done. Optical density decrease was observed with the increase in the concentration of TiO₂. It could be attributed to the inactivation of cellular enzymes and DNA by binding to electron-donating groups such as carboxylates, amides, indoles, hydroxyls, thiols, etc. which cause little pores in bacterial cell walls, leading to increased permeability and cell death. This justifies that TiO₂ nanoparticles have efficient antibacterial effect and have potential to be used as an antibacterial agent for different purposes.

Keywords: Antibacterial effect, CFU, Escherichia coli Hb101, growth curve, TEM, TiO2 nanoparticle, toxicity, UV-Vis.

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Authors: Edikan E. Akpanibah, Ogunmodimu Dupe Catherine

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The relevance of geometric Brownian motion (GBM) in modelling the behaviour of stock market prices (SMP) cannot be over emphasized taking into consideration the volatility of the SMP. Consequently, there is need to investigate how GBM models are being estimated and used in financial market to predict SMP. To achieve this, the GBM estimation and its application to the SMP of some selected companies are studied. The normal and log-normal distributions were used to determine the expected value, variance and co-variance. Furthermore, the GBM model was used to predict the SMP of some selected companies over a period of time and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) were calculated and used to determine the accuracy of the GBM model in predicting the SMP of the four companies under consideration. It was observed that for all the four companies, their MAPE values were within the region of acceptance. Also, the MAPE values of our data were compared to an existing literature to test the accuracy of our prediction with respect to time of investment. Finally, some numerical simulations of the graphs of the SMP, expectations and variance of the four companies over a period of time were presented using MATLAB programming software.

Keywords: Stock Market, Geometric Brownian Motion, normal and log-normal distribution, mean absolute percentage error.

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Authors: Faten. A. Khorshid, Gehan. A. Raouf, Salem. M. El-Hamidy, Gehan. S. Al-amri, Nourah. A. Alotaibi, Taha A. Kumosani

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Cancer becomes one of the leading cause of death in many countries over the world. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of human lung cancer cells (A549) treated with PMF (natural product extracted from PM 701) for different time intervals were examined. Second derivative and difference method were taken in comparison studies. Cesium (Cs) and Rubidium (Rb) nanoparticles in PMF were detected by Energy Dispersive X-ray attached to Scanning Electron Microscope SEM-EDX. Characteristic changes in protein secondary structure, lipid profile and changes in the intensities of DNA bands were identified in treated A549 cells spectra. A characteristic internucleosomal ladder of DNA fragmentation was also observed after 30 min of treatment. Moreover, the pH values were significantly increases upon treatment due to the presence of Cs and Rb nanoparticles in the PMF fraction. These results support the previous findings that PMF is selective anticancer agent and can produce apoptosis to A549 cells.

Keywords: Apoptosis, FTIR spectroscopy, pH therapy, Scanning Electron Microscope- Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEMEDX).

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Authors: S. O. Adeosun, E. I. Akpan, S. A. Balogun, A. S. Abdulmunim

Abstract:

SiC reinforced Aluminum samples were produced by stir casting of liquid AA1200 aluminum alloy at 600-650ºC casting temperature. 83µm SiC particles were rinsed in 10g/l, 20g/l and 30g/l molar concentration of Sncl₂ through cleaning times of 0, 60, 120, and 180 minutes. Some cast samples were tested for mechanical properties and some were subjected to heat treatment before testing. The SnCl₂ rinsed SiC reinforced aluminum exhibited higher yield strength, hardness, stiffness and elongation which increases with cleaning concentration and time up to 120 minutes, compared to composite with untreated SiC. However, the impact energy resistance decreases with cleaning concentration and time. The improved properties were attributed to good wettability and mechanical adhesion at the fiber-matrix interface. Quenching and annealing the composite samples further improve the tensile/yield strengths, elongation, stiffness, hardness similar to those of the as-cast samples.

Keywords: Al-SIC, Aluminum, Composites, Intermetallic, Reinforcement, Tensile Strength, Wetting.

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Authors: Javier Sánchez, Laura Elena De León Prado, Dora Alicia Cortés Hernández

Abstract:

Magnetic spinel ferrites are materials that possess size, magnetic properties and heating ability adequate for their potential use in biomedical applications. The Mn_0.5Ga_0.5Fe₂O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized by sol-gel method using citric acid as chelating agent of metallic precursors. The synthesized samples were identified by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) as an inverse spinel structure with no secondary phases. Saturation magnetization (Ms) of crystalline powders was 45.9 emu/g, which was higher than those corresponding to GaFe₂O₄ (14.2 emu/g) and MnFe₂O₄ (40.2 emu/g) synthesized under similar conditions, while the coercivity field (Hc) was 27.9 Oe. The average particle size was 18 ± 7 nm. The heating ability of the MNPs was enough to increase the surrounding temperature up to 43.5 °C in 7 min when a quantity of 4.5 mg of MNPs per mL of liquid medium was tested. Cytotoxic effect (hemolysis assay) of MNPs was determined and the results showed hemolytic values below 1% in all tested cases. According to the results obtained, these synthesized nanoparticles can be potentially used as thermoseeds for hyperthermia therapy.

Keywords: Cytotoxicity, heating ability, manganese-gallium ferrite, magnetic hyperthermia.

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