Search results for: organic cell.

Authors: C. W. Lin, S.W. Chen

Abstract:

This study describes the preparation of a novel proton conducting membranes based on bacterial cellulose (BC) modified by grafting of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1 -propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) through UV-induced graft polymerization. These AMPS-g-BC membranes have been characterized by various techniques including FTIR, SEM and TGA, to find their successful grafting of AMPS on BC, surface morphology and thermal stability, respectively. Physical properties of AMPS-g-BC membranes have been assessed in terms of Lamda value( λ ), ion exchange capacity(IEC) and proton conductivity. The relationship between degree of grafting and AMPS concentration used for grafting has been determined by weight gain method. An optimum proton conductivity equal to 2.89x10-2 S cm-1 and IEC value equal to 1.79 mmol g-1 have been obtained when 20 wt% AMPS concentration is used for grafting (i.e. the corresponding membrane is notated as AMPS20-g-BC).

Keywords: Bacterial cellulose, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid, Proton conducting membrane, Self diffusioncoefficient, Fuel cell

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Authors: S. Lakestani, B. Karakas, S. Acar Vaizoglu, B. Guciz Dogan, C. Guler, B. Sekerel, A. Taner, G. Gullu

Abstract:

Abstract–Indoor air (VOCs) samples were collected simultaneously from variety of indoors (e.g. living rooms, baby-s rooms) and outdoor environments which were voluntarily selected from the houses in which pregnant residents live throughout Ankara. This is the first comprehensive study done in Turkey starting from prenatal period and continued till the babies had one year old. VOCs levels were measured over 76 homes. Air samples were collected in Tenax TA sorbent filled tubes with active sampling method and analyzed with Thermal Desorber and Gas Chromatography/Mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS). At the first sampling period in the baby-s rooms maximum concentration of toluene was measured about 240.77μg.m-3 and in the living rooms maximum concentration of naphthalene was 180.24μg.m-3. At the second sampling period in the baby-s rooms maximum concentration of toluene was measured about 144.97μg.m-3 and in the living rooms maximum concentration of naphthalene was 247.89μg.m-3. Concentration of TVOCs in the first period was generally higher than the second period.

Keywords: Indoor Air, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Gas Chromatography

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Authors: N. Daneshvar, S. Aber, M. S. Seyed Dorraji, A. R. Khataee, M. H. Rasoulifard

Abstract:

ZnO nanocrystals with mean diameter size 14 nm have been prepared by precipitation method, and examined as photocatalyst for the UV-induced degradation of insecticide diazinon as deputy of organic pollutant in aqueous solution. The effects of various parameters, such as illumination time, the amount of photocatalyst, initial pH values and initial concentration of insecticide on the photocatalytic degradation diazinon were investigated to find desired conditions. In this case, the desired parameters were also tested for the treatment of real water containing the insecticide. Photodegradation efficiency of diazinon was compared between commercial and prepared ZnO nanocrystals. The results indicated that UV/ZnO process applying prepared nanocrystalline ZnO offered electrical energy efficiency and quantum yield better than commercial ZnO. The present study, on the base of Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism, illustrated a pseudo first-order kinetic model with rate constant of surface reaction equal to 0.209 mg l-1 min-1 and adsorption equilibrium constant of 0.124 l mg-1.

Keywords: Zinc oxide nanopowder, Electricity consumption, Quantum yield, Nanoparticles, Photodegradation, Kinetic model, Insecticide.

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Authors: Zerrin Erginkaya, Gözde Konuray

Abstract:

Microbial degradation of foods is defined as a decrease of food safety due to microorganism activity. Organic acids, sulfur dioxide, sulfide, nitrate, nitrite, dimethyl dicarbonate and several preservative gases have been used as chemical preservatives in foods as well as natural preservatives which are indigenous in foods. It is determined that usage of herbal preservatives such as blueberry, dried grape, prune, garlic, mustard, spices inhibited several microorganisms. Moreover, it is determined that animal origin preservatives such as whey, honey, lysosomes of duck egg and chicken egg, chitosan have antimicrobial effect. Other than indigenous antimicrobials in foods, antimicrobial agents produced by microorganisms could be used as natural preservatives. The antimicrobial feature of preservatives depends on the antimicrobial spectrum, chemical and physical features of material, concentration, mode of action, components of food, process conditions, and pH and storage temperature. In this review, studies about antimicrobial components which are indigenous in food (such as herbal and animal origin antimicrobial agents), antimicrobial materials synthesized by microorganisms, and their usage as an antimicrobial agent to preserve foods are discussed.

Keywords: Animal origin preservatives, antimicrobial, chemical preservatives, herbal preservatives.

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Authors: Lorenzo Putzu, Cecilia Di Ruberto

Abstract:

The counting and analysis of blood cells allows the evaluation and diagnosis of a vast number of diseases. In particular, the analysis of white blood cells (WBCs) is a topic of great interest to hematologists. Nowadays the morphological analysis of blood cells is performed manually by skilled operators. This involves numerous drawbacks, such as slowness of the analysis and a nonstandard accuracy, dependent on the operator skills. In literature there are only few examples of automated systems in order to analyze the white blood cells, most of which only partial. This paper presents a complete and fully automatic method for white blood cells identification from microscopic images. The proposed method firstly individuates white blood cells from which, subsequently, nucleus and cytoplasm are extracted. The whole work has been developed using MATLAB environment, in particular the Image Processing Toolbox.

Keywords: Automatic detection, Biomedical image processing, Segmentation, White blood cell analysis.

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Authors: A. Guechi, M. Chegaar

Abstract:

This study investigates how AlGaAs/GaAs thin film solar cells perform under varying global solar spectrum due to the changes of environmental parameters such as the air mass and the atmospheric turbidity. The solar irradiance striking the solar cell is simulated using the spectral irradiance model SMARTS2 (Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine) for clear skies on the site of Setif (Algeria). The results show a reduction in the short circuit current due to increasing atmospheric turbidity, it is 63.09% under global radiation. However increasing air mass leads to a reduction in the short circuit current of 81.73%. The efficiency decreases with increasing atmospheric turbidity and air mass.

Keywords: AlGaAs/GaAs, Solar Cells, Environmental parameters, Spectral Variation, SMARTS.

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Authors: N. Ghatwary, A. Ahmed, H. Jalab

Abstract:

In this paper, an approach for the liver tumor detection in computed tomography (CT) images is represented. The detection process is based on classifying the features of target liver cell to either tumor or non-tumor. Fractional differential (FD) is applied for enhancement of Liver CT images, with the aim of enhancing texture and edge features. Later on, a fusion method is applied to merge between the various enhanced images and produce a variety of feature improvement, which will increase the accuracy of classification. Each image is divided into NxN non-overlapping blocks, to extract the desired features. Support vector machines (SVM) classifier is trained later on a supplied dataset different from the tested one. Finally, the block cells are identified whether they are classified as tumor or not. Our approach is validated on a group of patients’ CT liver tumor datasets. The experiment results demonstrated the efficiency of detection in the proposed technique.

Keywords: Fractional differential (FD), Computed Tomography (CT), fusion.

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Authors: S. J. Mitchual, K. Frimpong-Mensah, N. A. Darkwa

Abstract:

The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia africana were studied. Properties studied included species density, gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash content, organic carbon and elemental composition. Fuel properties were determined using standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the gross calorific value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22 MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane. The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%, and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the properties of the six biomass materials suggested that Piptadenia africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before selecting it for fuel purpose.

Keywords: Ash content, Briquette, Calorific value, Elemental composition, Species, Volatile matter.

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Authors: H. Mukhtar, N. M. Noor, R. Nasir, D. F. Mohshim

Abstract:

The main aim of this work is to develop a model of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) separation from natural gas by using membrane separation technology. The model is developed by incorporating three diffusion mechanisms which are Knudsen, viscous and surface diffusion towards membrane selectivity and permeability. The findings from the simulation result shows that the permeability of the gas is dependent toward the pore size of the membrane, operating pressure, operating temperature as well as feed composition. The permeability of methane has the highest value for Poly (1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne ) PTMSP membrane at pore size of 0.1nm and decreasing toward a minimum peak at pore range 1 to 1.5 nm as pore size increased before it increase again for pore size is greater than 1.5 nm. On the other hand, the permeability of hydrogen sulfide is found to increase almost proportionally with the increase of membrane pore size. Generally, the increase of pressure will increase the permeability of gas since more driving force is provided to the system while increasing of temperature would decrease the permeability due to the surface diffusion drop off effect. A corroboration of the simulation result also showed a good agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords: Hydrogen Sulfide, Methane, Inorganic Membrane, Organic Membrane, Pore Model

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Authors: Tatheer Zahra

Abstract:

Auxetic materials have counteractive properties due to re-entrant geometry that enables them to possess Negative Poisson’s Ratio (NPR). These materials have better energy absorbing and shock resistance capabilities as compared to conventional positive Poisson’s ratio materials. The re-entrant geometry can be created through 3D printing for convenient application of these materials. This paper investigates the mechanical properties of 3D printed chiral auxetic geometries of various sizes. Small scale samples were printed using an ordinary 3D printer and were tested under compression and tension to ascertain their strength and deformation characteristics. A maximum NPR of -9 was obtained under compression and tension. The re-entrant chiral cell size has been shown to affect the mechanical properties of the re-entrant chiral auxetics.

Keywords: Auxetic materials, 3D printing, Negative Poisson’s Ratio, re-entrant chiral auxetics.

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Authors: Bireswar Paul, Amitava Datta

Abstract:

Indoor air environment is a big concern in the last few decades in the developing countries, with increased focus on monitoring the air quality. In this work, an experimental study has been conducted to establish the existence of carbon nanoparticles below the size range of 10 nm in the non-sooting zone of a LPG/air partially premixed flame. Mainly, four optical techniques, UV absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering and TEM have been used to characterize and measure the size of carbon nanoparticles in the sampled materials collected from the inner surface of the flame front. The existence of the carbon nanoparticles in the sampled material has been confirmed with the typical nature of the absorption and fluorescence spectra already reported in the literature. The band gap energy shows that the particles are made up of three to six aromatic rings. The size measurement by DLS technique also shows that the particles below the size range of 10 nm. The results of DLS are also corroborated by the TEM image of the same material. 

Keywords: Indoor air, carbon nanoparticles, LPG, partially premixed flame, optical techniques.

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Authors: Daomao Yang, Qizhi Wang

Abstract:

Monoterpenoids are mainly found in plant essential oils and they are ideal substrates for biotransformation into oxygen-containing derivatives with important commercial value due to their low price and simple structure. In this paper, eleven strains of endophytic fungi from Praxelis clematidea were used as test strains to conduct the whole cell biotransformation of the monoterpenoids: (+)-limonene, (-)-limonene and myrcene. The fungi were inoculated in 50 ml Sabouraud medium and incubated at 30 ℃ with the agitation of 150 r/min for 6 d, and then 0.5% (v/v) substrates were added into the medium and biotransformed for further 3 d. Afterwards the cultures were filtered, and extracted using equal volume of ethyl acetate. The metabolites were analyzed by GC-MS technique with NIST database. The Total Ion Chromatogram of the extractions from the eleven strains showed that the main product of (+)- and (-)-limonene biotransformation was limonene-1,2-diol, while it is limonene and linalool oxide for biotransformation of myrcene. This work will help screen the microorganisms to biotransform the monoterpenes.

Keywords: Endophytic fungi, (+)–limonene, (-)–limonene, myrcene.

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Authors: Shan-Jen Cheng, Te-Jen Chang, Kuang-Hsiung Tan, Shou-Ling Kuo

Abstract:

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is such a time-vary nonlinear dynamic system. The traditional linear modeling approach is hard to estimate structure correctly of PEMFC system. From this reason, this paper presents a nonlinear modeling of the PEMFC using Neural Network Auto-regressive model with eXogenous inputs (NNARX) approach. The multilayer perception (MLP) network is applied to evaluate the structure of the NNARX model of PEMFC. The validity and accuracy of NNARX model are tested by one step ahead relating output voltage to input current from measured experimental of PEMFC. The results show that the obtained nonlinear NNARX model can efficiently approximate the dynamic mode of the PEMFC and model output and system measured output consistently.

Keywords: PEMFC, neural network, nonlinear identification, NNARX.

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Authors: Reinhard Haas, Amela Ajanovic

Abstract:

In recent years various types of electric vehicles has gained again increasing attention as an environmentally benign technology in transport. Especially for urban areas with high local pollution this Zero-emission technology (at the point of use) is considered to provide proper solutions. Yet, the bad economics and the limited driving ranges are still major barriers for a broader market penetration of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and of fuel cell vehicles (FCV). The major result of our analyses is that the most important precondition for a further dissemination of BEV in urban areas are emission-free zones. This is an instrument which allows the promotion of BEV without providing excessive subsidies. In addition, it is important to note that the full benefits of EV can only be harvested if the electricity used is produced from renewable energy sources. That is to say, it has to be ensured that the use of BEV in urban areas is clearly linked to a green electricity purchase model. And moreover, the introduction of a CO2- emission-based tax system would support this requirement.

Keywords: Electric vehicles, economics, policies, history.

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Authors: S. Dehghan, B. Kiani, A. Kazemi, A. Parizad

Abstract:

The utilization of renewable energy sources in electric power systems is increasing quickly because of public apprehensions for unpleasant environmental impacts and increase in the energy costs involved with the use of conventional energy sources. Despite the application of these energy sources can considerably diminish the system fuel costs, they can also have significant influence on the system reliability. Therefore an appropriate combination of the system reliability indices level and capital investment costs of system is vital. This paper presents a hybrid wind/photovoltaic plant, with the aim of supplying IEEE reliability test system load pattern while the plant capital investment costs is minimized by applying a hybrid particle swarm optimization (PSO) / harmony search (HS) approach, and the system fulfills the appropriate level of reliability.

Keywords: Distributed Generation, Fuel Cell, HS, Hybrid Power Plant, PSO, Photovoltaic, Reliability.

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Authors: Nicole Pearcy, Jonathan J. Crofts, Nadia Chuzhanova

Abstract:

In this paper, we employ a directed hypergraph model to investigate the extent to which environmental variability influences the set of available biochemical reactions within a living cell. Such an approach avoids the limitations of the usual complex network formalism by allowing for the multilateral relationships (i.e. connections involving more than two nodes) that naturally occur within many biological processes. More specifically, we extend the concept of network reciprocity to complex hyper-networks, thus enabling us to characterise a network in terms of the existence of mutual hyper-connections, which may be considered a proxy for metabolic network complexity. To demonstrate these ideas, we study 115 metabolic hyper-networks of bacteria, each of which can be classified into one of 6 increasingly varied habitats. In particular, we found that reciprocity increases significantly with increased environmental variability, supporting the view that organism adaptability leads to increased complexities in the resultant biochemical networks.

Keywords: Complexity, hypergraphs, reciprocity, metabolism.

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Authors: Ding Guo-hao, Li Hua, Wang Wen-long

Abstract:

A parallel computational fluid dynamics code has been developed for the study of aerodynamic heating problem in hypersonic flows. The code employs the 3D Navier-Stokes equations as the basic governing equations to simulate the laminar hypersonic flow. The cell centered finite volume method based on structured grid is applied for spatial discretization. The AUSMPW+ scheme is used for the inviscid fluxes, and the MUSCL approach is used for higher order spatial accuracy. The implicit LU-SGS scheme is applied for time integration to accelerate the convergence of computations in steady flows. A parallel programming method based on MPI is employed to shorten the computing time. The validity of the code is demonstrated by comparing the numerical calculation result with the experimental data of a hypersonic flow field around a blunt body.

Keywords: Aerodynamic Heating, AUSMPW+, MPI, ParallelComputation

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Authors: M. M. Isa, R. Abd-Rahman, H. H. Goh

Abstract:

A compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is a wellknown non-imaging concentrator that will concentrate the solar radiation onto receiver (PV cell). One of disadvantage of CPC is has tall and narrow height compared to its diameter entry aperture area. Therefore, for economic reason, a truncation had been done by removed from the top of the full height CPC. This also will lead to the decreases of concentration ratio but it will be negligible. In this paper, the flux distribution of untruncated and truncated 2-D hollow compound parabolic trough concentrator (hCPTC) design is presented. The untruncated design has initial height H=193.4mm with concentration ratio C_(2-D)=4. This paper presents the optical simulation of compound parabolic trough concentrator using raytracing software TracePro. Results showed that, after the truncation, the height of CPC reduced 45% from initial height with the geometrical concentration ratio only decrease 10%. Thus, the cost of reflector and material dielectric usage can be saved especially at manufacturing site.

Keywords: Compound parabolic trough concentrator, optical modelling, ray-tracing analysis.

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Authors: Ayesha Sohail, Khadija Maqbool, Anila Asif, Haroon Ahmad

Abstract:

These days, the field of tissue engineering is getting serious attention due to its usefulness. Bone tissue engineering helps to address and sort-out the critical sized and non-healing orthopedic problems by the creation of manmade bone tissue. We will design and validate an efficient numerical model, which will simulate the effective diffusivity in bone tissue engineering. Our numerical model will be based on the finite element analysis of the diffusion-reaction equations. It will have the ability to optimize the diffusivity, even at multi-scale, with the variation of time. It will also have a special feature “parametric sweep”, with which we will be able to predict the oxygen, glucose and cell density dynamics, more accurately. We will fix these problems by modifying the governing equations, by selecting appropriate spatio-temporal finite element schemes and by transient analysis.

Keywords: Bone tissue engineering, Transient Analysis, Scaffolds, fabrication techniques.

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Authors: A. Won-Yong Chae, B. Hyung-Nam Kim, C. Kyoung-Jun Lee, D. Hee-Je Kim

Abstract:

The renewable energy has been attracting attention as a new alternative energy due to the problem of environmental pollution and resource depletion. In particular, daylighting and PV system are regarded as the solutions. In this paper, the hybrid dimming control system supplied by solar cell and daylighting system was designed. Daylighting system is main source and PV system is spare source. PV system operates the LED lamp which supports daylighting system because daylighting system is unstable due to the variation of irradiance. In addition, PV system has a role charging batteries. Battery charging has a benefit that PV system operate LED lamp in the bad weather. However, LED lamp always can`t turn on that-s why dimming control system was designed. In particular, the solar charging robot was designed to check the interior irradiance intensity. These systems and the application of the solar charging robot are expected to contribute developing alternative energy in the near future.

Keywords: Daylighting system, PV system, LED lamp, Suntracking robot.

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Authors: Mokhtar Ghobadi, Saeed Khosravi, Danial Kahrizi, Firooz Shirvani

Abstract:

The objective of this experiment was to study of water relations and chlorophyll in different wheat genotypes and their correlations with grain and biological yields. 21 genotypes of bread wheat were compared in a field experiment as randomized complete blocks design with four replications. The results showed that relative water deficit, relative water loss, excised leaf water retention, cell membrane stability, chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, total chlorophyll, grain yield and biological yield were different significantly among wheat genotypes, but SPAD-chlorophyll index, relative water content and chlorophyll florescence were not. Significant correlations were not observed among above mentioned water relations and chlorophyll characteristics with grain yield, but there was a positive and significant correlation between biological yield and grain yield.

Keywords: Wheat, water relations, chlorophyll, yield

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Authors: T. Hirata, G. H. Yokoyama, L. H. M. Duque

Abstract:

The posteroanterior manipulation technique is usually include in the procedure of the lumbar spine to evaluate the intervertebral motion according to mechanical resistance. The mechanical device with visual feedback was proposed that allows one to analysis the lumbar segments mobility “in vivo" facilitating for the therapist to take its treatment evolution. The measuring system uses load cell and displacement sensor to estimate spine stiffness. In this work, the device was tested by 2 therapists, female, applying posteroanterior force techniques to 5 volunteers, female, with frequency of approximately 1.2-1.8 Hz. A test-retest procedure was used for 2 periods of day. The visual feedback results small variation of forces and cycle time during 6 cycles rhythmic application. The stiffness values showed good agreement between test-retest procedures when used same order of maximum forces.

Keywords: Biomechanics, lumber spine stiffness, intervertebral manipulation device, visual feedback

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Authors: A. Malakahmad, S.M. Zain, N.E. Ahmad Basri, S. R. Mohamed Kutty, M. H. Isa

Abstract:

Anaerobic digestion process is one of the alternative methods to convert organic waste into methane gas which is a fuel and energy source. Activities of various kinds of microorganisms are the main factor for anaerobic digestion which produces methane gas. Therefore, in this study a modified Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) with working volume of 50 liters was designed to identify the microorganisms through biogas production. The mixture of 75% kitchen waste and 25% sewage sludge was used as substrate. Observations on microorganisms in the ABR showed that there exists a small amount of protozoa (5%) and fungi (2%) in the system, but almost 93% of the microorganism population consists of bacteria. It is definitely clear that bacteria are responsible for anaerobic biodegradation of kitchen waste. Results show that in the acidification zone of the ABR (front compartments of reactor) fast growing bacteria capable of growth at high substrate levels and reduced pH was dominant. A shift to slower growing scavenging bacteria that grow better at higher pH was occurring towards the end of the reactor. Due to the ability of activity in acetate environment the percentages of Methanococcus, Methanosarcina and Methanotrix were higher than other kinds of methane former in the system.

Keywords: Anaerobic microorganism identification, Kitchenwaste, Biogas.

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Authors: Min-Ah Woo, Min-Cheol Lim, Hyun-Joo Chang, Sung-Wook Choi

Abstract:

We developed a paper-based colorimetric sensor utilizing magnetic nanoparticles conjugated with aptamers (MNP-Apts) against E. coli O157:H7. The MNP-Apts were applied to a test sample solution containing the target cells, and the solution was simply dropped onto PVDF (polyvinylidene difluoride) membrane. The membrane moves the sample radially to form the sample spots of different compounds as concentric rings, thus the MNP-Apts on the membrane enabled specific recognition of the target cells through a color ring generation by MNP-promoted colorimetric reaction of TMB (3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine) and H₂O₂. This method could be applied to rapidly and visually detect various bacterial pathogens in less than 1 h without cell culturing.

Keywords: Aptamer, colorimetric sensor, E. coli O157:H7, magnetic nanoparticle, polyvinylidene difluoride.

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Authors: A. Kasmi, N. E. Abriak, M. Benzerzour, I. Shahrour

Abstract:

Large volumes of river sediments are dredged each year in Europe in order to maintain harbour activities and prevent floods. The management of this sediment has become increasingly complex. Several European projects were implemented to find environmentally sound solutions for these materials. The main objective of this study is to show the ability of river sediment to be used in road. Since sediments contain a high amount of water, then a dehydrating treatment by addition of the flocculation aid has been used. Firstly, a lot of physical characteristics are measured and discussed for a better identification of the raw sediment and this dehydrated sediment by addition the flocculation aid. The identified parameters are, for example, the initial water content, the density, the organic matter content, the grain size distribution, the liquid limit and plastic limit and geotechnical parameters. The environmental impacts of the used material were evaluated. The results obtained show that there is a slight change on the physical-chemical and geotechnical characteristics of sediment after dehydration by the addition of polymer. However, these sediments cannot be used in road construction.

Keywords: River sediment, dehydration, flocculation aid, characteristics, environmental impacts, road construction.

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Authors: Alessandro Bevilacqua, Alessandro Gherardi, Filippo Piccinini

Abstract:

Image mosaicing techniques are usually employed to offer researchers a wider field of view of microscopic image of biological samples. a mosaic is commonly achieved using automated microscopes and often with one “color" channel, whether it refers to natural or fluorescent analysis. In this work we present a method to achieve three subsequent mosaics of the same part of a stem cell culture analyzed in phase contrast and in fluorescence, with a common non-automated inverted microscope. The mosaics obtained are then merged together to mark, in the original contrast phase images, nuclei and cytoplasm of the cells referring to a mosaic of the culture, rather than to single images. The experiments carried out prove the effectiveness of our approach with cultures of cells stained with calcein (green/cytoplasm and nuclei) and hoechst (blue/nuclei) probes.

Keywords: Microscopy, image mosaicing, fluorescence, stem cells.

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Authors: Radovan Holubek, Matus Vlasek, Peter Kostal

Abstract:

Development of intelligent assembly cell conception includes new solution kind of how to create structures of automated and flexible assembly system. The current trend of the final product quality increasing is affected by time analysis of the entire manufacturing process. The primary requirement of manufacturing is to produce as many products as soon as possible, at the lowest possible cost, but of course with the highest quality. Such requirements may be satisfied only if all the elements entering and affecting the production cycle are in a fully functional condition. These elements consist of sensory equipment and intelligent control elements that are essential for building intelligent manufacturing systems. Intelligent behavior of the system as the control system will repose on monitoring of important parameters of the system in the real time. Intelligent manufacturing system itself should be a system that can flexibly respond to changes in entering and exiting the process in interaction with the surroundings.

Keywords: Control system, intelligent manufacturing / assemble systems, manufacturing, monitoring process.

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Authors: Masaki Tajima, Kenji Imou, Shinya Yokoyama

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It was determined that woody biomass and livestock excreta can be utilized as hydrogen resources and hydrogen produced from such sources can be used to fill fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) at hydrogen stations. It was shown that the biomass transport costs for hydrogen production may be reduced the costs for co-generation. In the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, there are only a few sites capable of producing hydrogen from woody biomass in amounts greater than 200 m3/h-the scale required for a hydrogen station to be operationally practical. However, in the case of livestock excreta, it was shown that 15% of the municipalities in this area are capable of securing sufficient biomass to be operationally practical for hydrogen production. The differences in feasibility of practical operation depend on the type of biomass.

Keywords: Biomass Resources, Hydrogen Production, Hydrogen Station, Transport Cost.

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Authors: J. P. Méreaux, E. Lamy, J. C. Lopez

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In the face of new regulations related to waste management, it has become essential to understand the organizational process that accompanies this change. Through an experiment on the sorting of food waste in the community of Grand Reims, this research explores the acceptability, the behavior and the tools needed to manage the change. Our position within a private company, SUEZ, a key player in the waste management sector, has allowed us to set up a driven team with concerned public organizations. The research was conducted through a theoretical study combined with semi-structured interviews. This qualitative method allowed us to conduct exchanges with users to assess the motivations and obstacles linked to the sorting of bio-waste. The results revealed the action levers necessary for the project's sustainability. Making the sorting gestures accessible and simplified makes it possible to target all populations. Playful communication adapted to each type of persona allows the user and stakeholders to be placed at the heart of the strategy. These recommendations are spotlighted thanks to the combination of theoretical and operational contributions, with the aim of facilitating the new public management and inducing the notion of performance while providing an example of added value.

Keywords: Bio-waste, Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, stakeholders, public policies.

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Authors: J.E. Park, G.R. Kim, D.J. Yoon, C.H. Sin, I.S. Park, T.S. Bea, M.H. Lee

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Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive because of their excellent chemical durability mechanical strength and electrical properties. Therefore there is interest in CNTs for not only electrical and mechanical application, but also biological and medical application. In this study, the dispersion power of surfactant-treated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and their effect on the antibacterial activity were examined. Surfactant was used sodium dodecyl-benzenesulfonate (SDBS). UV-vis absorbance and transmission electron microscopy(TEM) were used to characterize the dispersion of MWCNTs in the aqueous phase, showing that the surfactant molecules had been adsorbed onto the MWCNTs surface. The surfactant-treated MWCNTs exhibited antimicrobial activities to streptococcus mutans. The optical density growth curves and viable cell number determined by the plating method suggested that the antimicrobial activity of surfactant-treated MWCNTs was both concentration and treatment time-dependent.

Keywords: MWCNT, SDBS, surfactant, antibacterial.

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