Search results for: Compound growth rate

Authors: M. Ghasemi-Varnamkhasti, S. H. Yoosefian, A. Mohammad-Razdari

Abstract:

This study investigated the effects of Ag nanoparticle polyethylene film and active modified atmosphere on the postharvest quality of tomatoes stored at 6 ºC. The atmosphere composition used in the packaging was 7% O₂ + 7% CO₂ + 86% N₂, and synthetic air (control). The variables measured were weight loss, firmness, color and respiration rate over 21 days. The results showed that the combination of Ag nanoparticle polyethylene film and modified atmosphere could extend the shelf life of tomatoes to 21 days and could influence the postharvest quality of tomatoes. Also, existence of Ag nanoparticles caused preventing from increasing weight loss, a*, b*, Chroma, Hue angle and reducing firmness and L*. As well as, tomatoes at Ag nanoparticle polyethylene films had lower respiration rate than Polyethylene and paper bags to 13.27% and 23.50%, respectively. The combination of Ag nanoparticle polyethylene film and active modified atmosphere was effective with regard to delaying maturity during the storage period, and preserving the quality of tomatoes.

Keywords: Ag nanoparticles, modified atmosphere, polyethylene film, tomato.

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Authors: Supriyono, Sumardiyono, Rendy J. Pramono

Abstract:

Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels promising for substituting petrodiesel as energy source which has an advantage as it is sustainable and eco-friendly. Due to the raw material that tends to decompose during storage, biodiesel also has the same characteristic that tends to decompose during storage. Biodiesel decomposition will form higher acid value as the result of oxidation to double bond on a fatty acid compound on biodiesel. Thus, free fatty acid value could be used to evaluate degradation of biodiesel due to the oxidation process. High free fatty acid on biodiesel could impact on the engine performance. Decomposition of biodiesel due to oxidation reaction could prevent by introducing a small amount of antioxidant. The origin of raw materials and the process for producing biodiesel will determine the effectiveness of antioxidant. Biodiesel made from high free fatty acid (FFA) crude palm oil (CPO) by using two steps esterification is vulnerable to oxidation process which is resulted in increasing on the FFA value. Tocopherol also known as vitamin E is one of the antioxidant that could improve the stability of biodiesel due to decomposition by the oxidation process. Tocopherol 0.5% concentration on palm oil biodiesel could reduce 13% of increasing FFA under temperature 80 °C and exposing time 180 minute.

Keywords: Antioxidant, biodiesel, decomposition, oxidation, tocopherol.

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Authors: Supriyono, Sumardiyono, Rendy J. Pramono

Abstract:

Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels promising for substituting petrodiesel as energy source which has an advantage as it is sustainable and eco-friendly. Due to the raw material that tends to decompose during storage, biodiesel also has the same characteristic that tends to decompose during storage. Biodiesel decomposition will form higher acid value as the result of oxidation to double bond on a fatty acid compound on biodiesel. Thus, free fatty acid value could be used to evaluate degradation of biodiesel due to the oxidation process. High free fatty acid on biodiesel could impact on the engine performance. Decomposition of biodiesel due to oxidation reaction could prevent by introducing a small amount of antioxidant. The origin of raw materials and the process for producing biodiesel will determine the effectiveness of antioxidant. Biodiesel made from high free fatty acid (FFA) crude palm oil (CPO) by using two steps esterification is vulnerable to oxidation process which is resulted in increasing on the FFA value. Tocopherol also known as vitamin E is one of the antioxidant that could improve the stability of biodiesel due to decomposition by the oxidation process. Tocopherol 0.5% concentration on palm oil biodiesel could reduce 13% of increasing FFA under temperature 80 °C and exposing time 180 minute.

Keywords: Antioxidant, biodiesel, decomposition, oxidation, tocopherol.

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Authors: Elizabeth B. Varghese, M. Wilscy

Abstract:

A face recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame. A lot of algorithms have been proposed for face recognition. Vector Quantization (VQ) based face recognition is a novel approach for face recognition. Here a new codebook generation for VQ based face recognition using Integrated Adaptive Fuzzy Clustering (IAFC) is proposed. IAFC is a fuzzy neural network which incorporates a fuzzy learning rule into a competitive neural network. The performance of proposed algorithm is demonstrated by using publicly available AT&T database, Yale database, Indian Face database and a small face database, DCSKU database created in our lab. In all the databases the proposed approach got a higher recognition rate than most of the existing methods. In terms of Equal Error Rate (ERR) also the proposed codebook is better than the existing methods.

Keywords: Face Recognition, Vector Quantization, Integrated Adaptive Fuzzy Clustering, Self Organization Map.

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Authors: Irina Mikajlo, Jaroslav Záhora, Helena Dvořáčková, Jaroslav Hynšt, Jakub Elbl

Abstract:

Strong anthropogenic impact has uncontrolled consequences on the nature of the soil. Hence, up-to-date sustainable methods of soil state improvement are essential. Investigators provide the evidence that biochar can positively effects physical, chemical, and biological soil properties and the abundance of mycorrhizal fungi which are in the focus of this study. The main aim of the present investigation is to demonstrate the effect of two types of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) inoculums along with the beech wood biochar and mineral N additives on mycorrhizal colonization. Experiment has been set up in laboratory conditions with containers filled with arable soil from the protection zone of the main water source “Brezova nad Svitavou”. Lactuca sativa (lettuce) has been selected as a model plant. Based on the obtained data, it can be concluded that mycorrhizal colonization increased as the result of combined influence of biochar and PGPB inoculums amendment. In addition, correlation analyses showed that the numbers of main groups of cultivated bacteria were dependent on the degree of mycorrhizal colonization.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhiza, biochar, PGPB inoculum, soil microorganisms.

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Authors: R. Srinivasa Rao

Abstract:

This paper presents a new method which applies an artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) for capacitor placement in distribution systems with an objective of improving the voltage profile and reduction of power loss. The ABC algorithm is a new population based meta heuristic approach inspired by intelligent foraging behavior of honeybee swarm. The advantage of ABC algorithm is that it does not require external parameters such as cross over rate and mutation rate as in case of genetic algorithm and differential evolution and it is hard to determine these parameters in prior. The other advantage is that the global search ability in the algorithm is implemented by introducing neighborhood source production mechanism which is a similar to mutation process. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm, computer simulations are carried out on 69-bus system and compared the results with the other approach available in the literature. The proposed method has outperformed the other methods in terms of the quality of solution and computational efficiency.

Keywords: Distribution system, Capacitor Placement, Loss reduction, Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm.

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Authors: Vishnu Pratap Singh Kirar

Abstract:

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) can be trained using back propagation (BP). It is the most widely used algorithm for supervised learning with multi-layered feed-forward networks. Efficient learning by the BP algorithm is required for many practical applications. The BP algorithm calculates the weight changes of artificial neural networks, and a common approach is to use a twoterm algorithm consisting of a learning rate (LR) and a momentum factor (MF). The major drawbacks of the two-term BP learning algorithm are the problems of local minima and slow convergence speeds, which limit the scope for real-time applications. Recently the addition of an extra term, called a proportional factor (PF), to the two-term BP algorithm was proposed. The third increases the speed of the BP algorithm. However, the PF term also reduces the convergence of the BP algorithm, and criteria for evaluating convergence are required to facilitate the application of the three terms BP algorithm. Although these two seem to be closely related, as described later, we summarize various improvements to overcome the drawbacks. Here we compare the different methods of convergence of the new three-term BP algorithm.

Keywords: Neural Network, Backpropagation, Local Minima, Fast Convergence Rate.

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Authors: K. Diwakar, N. Vasudevan, C. Senthilpari

Abstract:

This paper presents MOSFET based analog to digital converter which is simple in design, has high resolution, and conversion rate better than dual slope ADC. It has no DAC which will limit the performance, no error in conversion, can operate for wide range of inputs and never become unstable. One of the industrial applications, where the proposed high resolution MOSFET ADC can be used is, for the positioning of control valves in a multi channel data acquisition and control system (DACS), using stepper motors as actuators of control valves. It is observed that in a DACS having ten control valves, 0.02% of positional accuracy of control valves can be achieved with the data update period of 250ms and with stepper motors of maximum pulse rate 20 Kpulses per sec. and minimum pulse width of 2.5 μsec. The reported accuracy so far by other authors is 0.2%, with update period of 255 ms and with 8 bit DAC. The accuracy in the proposed configuration is limited by the available precision stepper motor and not by the MOSFET based ADC.

Keywords: MOSFET based ADC, Actuators, Positional accuracy, Stepper Motors.

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Authors: Figen Eraslan, Abdel Karim Hassan Awad Elkarim, Aydın Gunes, Ali Inal

Abstract:

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different types of nutrients induced salinity on the growth, membrane permeability, nitrate reductase activity, proline content and macronutrient concentrations of tomato plants. The plants were subjected to six different treatments: 1 (control) containing basic solution, 2 basic solution+40mM of NaCl, 3 basic solution+40 mM of KNO3, 4 basic solution+20 mM of Ca(NO3)2.4H2O, 5 basic solution+20 mM of Mg(NO3)2.6H2O and 6 basic solution+20 mM of KNO3+5 mM of Ca(NO3)2.4H2O+5 mM of Mg(NO3)2.6H2O. Membrane permeability was increased significantly only with addition of NaCl, and then decreased to its lower level with addition of Ca(NO3)2.4H2O and Mg(NO3)2.6H2O. Proline accumulation were followed the same trend of results when they had been exposed to NaCl salinity. Nitrate reductase activity (NRA) was significantly affected by addition of different types of nutrient induced salinity.

Keywords: Membrane Permeability, Nitrate Reductase Activity, Nutrient induced salinity, Proline.

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Authors: Juraj Belan, Lenka Hurtalová, Eva Tillová, Alan Vaško, Milan Uhríčik

Abstract:

High pressure turbine (HPT) blades of DV – 2 jet engines are made from Ni – based superalloy. This alloy was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union and referred as ŽS6K. For improving alloy’s high temperature resistance are blades coated with Al – Si diffusion layer. A regular operation temperature of HPT blades vary from 705°C to 750°C depending on jet engine regime. An overcrossing working temperature range causes degradation of the protective coating as well as base material which microstructure is formed by the gamma matrix and strengthening phase gamma prime (forming small particles in the microstructure). Diffusion processes inside the material during exposition of the material to high temperatures causes mainly coarsening of the gamma prime particles, thus decreasing its strengthening effect. Degradation of the Al – Si coating caused its thickness growth. All the microstructure changes and coating layer thickness growth results in decreasing of the turbine blade operation lifetime.

Keywords: Alitize coating layer, gamma prime phase, high temperature degradation, Ni – base superalloy ŽS6K, turbine blade.

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Authors: Akhilesh Khapre, Basudeb Munshi

Abstract:

A computational fluid dynamics simulation is done for non-Newtonian fluid in a baffled stirred tank. The CMC solution is taken as non-Newtonian shear thinning fluid for simulation. The Reynolds Average Navier Stocks equation with steady state multi reference frame approach is used to simulate flow in the stirred tank. The turbulent flow field is modelled using realizable k-ε turbulence model. The simulated velocity profiles of Rushton turbine is validated with literature data. Then, the simulated flow field of CD-6 impeller is compared with the Rushton turbine. The flow field generated by CD-6 impeller is less in magnitude than the Rushton turbine. The impeller global parameter, power number and flow number, and entropy generation due to viscous dissipation rate is also reported.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, non-Newtonian, Rushton turbine, CD-6 impeller, power number, flow number, viscous dissipation rate.

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Authors: Zare Aliabadi, Hassan, Mirzaei, Somaye

Abstract:

The use of amine mixtures employing methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), monoethanolamine (MEA), and diethanolamine (DEA) have been investigated for a variety of cases using a process simulation program called HYSYS. The results show that, at high pressures, amine mixtures have little or no advantage in the cases studied. As the pressure is lowered, it becomes more difficult for MDEA to meet residual gas requirements and mixtures can usually improve plant performance. Since the CO2 reaction rate with the primary and secondary amines is much faster than with MDEA, the addition of small amounts of primary or secondary amines to an MDEA based solution should greatly improve the overall reaction rate of CO2 with the amine solution. The addition of MEA caused the CO2 to be absorbed more strongly in the upper portion of the column than for MDEA along. On the other hand, raising the concentration for MEA to 11%wt, CO2 is almost completely absorbed in the lower portion of the column. The addition of MEA would be most advantageous. Thus, in areas where MDEA cannot meet the residual gas requirements, the use of amine mixtures can usually improve the plant performance.

Keywords: CO2, H2S, Methyldiethanolamine, Monoethanolamine

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Authors: M. Fette, J. P. Wulfsberg, A. Herrmann, R.-H. Ladstaetter

Abstract:

Lightweight design represents an important key to successful implementation of energy-saving, fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly means of transport in the aerospace and automotive industry. In this context the use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) which are distinguished by their outstanding mechanical properties at relatively low weight, promise significant improvements. Due to the reduction of the total mass, with the resulting lowered fuel or energy consumption and CO2 emissions during the operational phase, commercial aircraft will increasingly be made of CFRP. An auspicious technology for the efficient and economic production of high performance thermoset composites and hybrid structures for future lightweight applications is the combination of carbon fibre sheet moulding compound, tailored continuous carbon fibre reinforcements and metallic components in a one-shot pressing and curing process. This paper deals with a hybrid composite technology for aerospace industries, which was developed with the help of a special innovation and development system.

Keywords: Composite, development, hybrid, innovation, system.

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Authors: Nichanant Sermsri, Chananchida Yuktirat

Abstract:

This research was the experimental research. Its purpose was to find out how coconut shells can be adapted to be equipment for foot and calf reflexology. The sample group was 58 female street vendors in Thewet Market, Bangkok, selected by selection criteria and voluntary. The data collecting tool was the Visual Analogue Scale. The massaging tool made from coconut shells was the key equipment for this research. The research team assessed the level of exhaustion and heart rate among sample group before and after the massage, then analyzed the data by mean, standard deviation and paired sample t-test.

We found out from the research that

1. The level of exhaustion decreased 4.529 levels after the massage and the standard deviation was 1.6195. The heart rates went down 11.67 times/minute and the standard deviation was 6.742.
2. The level of exhaustion and heart rate after the massage decreased with the statistically significance at 0.01

Keywords: Coconut Shells, Foot Massage, Foot Reflexology, Massaging Plate.

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Authors: Ayman El Sabagh, Sobhy Sorour, Abd Elhamid Omar, Adel Ragab, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Celaleddin Barutçular, Akihiro Ueda, Hirofumi Saneoka

Abstract:

Salinity is one of the major factors limiting crop production in an arid environment. Despite its global importance soybean production suffer the problems of salinity stress causing damages at plant development. So it is implacable to either search for salinity enhancement of soybean plants. Therefore, in the current study we try to clarify the mechanism that might be involved in the ameliorating effects of osmo-protectants such as proline and glycine betaine as well as, compost application on soybean plants grown under salinity stress. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions at the Graduate School of Biosphere Science Laboratory of Hiroshima University, Japan in 2011. The experiment was designed as a spilt-split plot based on randomized complete block design with four replications. The treatments could be summarized as follows; (i) salinity concentrations (0 and 15 mM), (ii) compost treatments (0 and 24 t ha-1) and (iii) the exogenous, proline and glycine betaine concentrations (0 mM and 25 mM) for each. Results indicated that salinity stress induced reduction in growth and physiological aspects (dry weight per plant, chlorophyll content, N and K+ content) of soybean plant compared with those of the unstressed plants. On the other hand, salinity stress led to increases in the electrolyte leakage ratio, Na and proline contents. Special attention was paid to, the tolerance against salt stress was observed, the improvement of salt tolerance resulted from proline, glycine betaine and compost were accompanied with improved K+, and proline accumulation. While, significantly decreased electrolyte leakage ratio and Na+ content. These results clearly demonstrate that harmful effect of salinity could reduce on growth aspects of soybean. Consequently, exogenous osmoprotectants combine with compost will effectively solve seasonal salinity stress problem and are a good strategy to increase salinity resistance of soybean in the drylands.

Keywords: Compost, glycine betaine, growth, proline, salinity tolerance, soybean.

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Authors: Azadeh Vaziri

Abstract:

Using effluent as a sustainable water resource for agriculture not only could provide part of water needs but also would save the existing water resources, durably. Vinasse, the effluent of ethyl alcohol factories, a by-product, which is derived from sugarcane molasses, is one of the water resources that could be effectively utilized for agricultural purposes. In the present study in order to investigate the application of different ratios of water: vinasse on germination and growth of barley seedlings an experiment was designed in pots with completely randomized design with three replications and control treatment. The consequences of four irrigation levels were studied with different water: effluent ratios (100% water, 90% water & 10% effluent, 75% water & 25% effluent, 50% water & 50% effluent) on germination and growth of barley seedling components in sandy-loam soil. The results showed that, with increasing the percentage of vinasse in the irrigation admixture, the germination percentage in barley seedlings decreased, significantly, so that the decrease in germination in comparison with the control samples in the second and third treatments was 20% and 93.33%, respectively. Seed germination percentage was about 46.66. The average stem length in seedlings was 14.3 mm and the average root length was 9.37 mm. The averages of the soils Electrical Conductivity (EC) and pH which were under irrigation with different ratios of vinasse (dSm-1) were 5.85 and 7.32, respectively, which showed a 76.2% increase in soil salinity.

Keywords: Electrical Conductivity, effluent, germination, vinasse, barley.

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Authors: N. A. Zainuddin, I. Norhuda, I. S. Adeib, A. N. Mustapa, S. H. Sarijo

Abstract:

Recently, RESS (Rapid Expansion Supercritical Solution) method has been used by researchers to produce fine particles for pharmaceutical drug substances. Since RESS technology acknowledges a lot of benefits compare to conventional method of ginger extraction, it is suggested to use this method to explore particle formation of bioactive compound from powder ginger. The objective of this research is to produce direct solid oil particles formation from ginger rhizome which contains valuable compounds by using RESS-CO₂ process. RESS experiments were carried using extraction pressure of 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000psi and at different extraction temperature of 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70°C for 40 minutes extraction time and contant flowrate (24ml/min). From the studies conducted, it was found that at extraction pressure 5000psi and temperature 40°C, the smallest particle size obtained was 2.22μm on 99 % reduction from the original size of 370μm.

Keywords: Particle size, RESS, solid oil particle, supercritical carbon dioxide.

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Authors: Yahia M., Chaoui N., Chaouch A., Massinissa Yahia

Abstract:

Our study was designed to determine the metabolic  changes of some biochemical parameters (cholesterol, triglyceride,  Iron, uric acid, Urea and folic acid) and highlight their changes in 57  women of the region Batna, during the first trimester of pregnancy.  This practical work was done with 27 women with missed  miscarriage, compared with 30 control subjects of normal pregnant  women. The assay results revealed a highly significant difference (P  = 0.0006) between the two groups in serum iron (64.00 vs 93.54) and  in the rate of folate (6.70 vs 9.22) (P <0.001) but no difference was  found regarding the rate of Ca (9.69 vs 10.20), urea (0.19 vs 0.17),  UA (33.96 vs 32.76), CH (1.283 vs 1.431), and TG (0.8852 vs  0.8290). The present study indicates that iron deficiency and folate  are associated with missed miscarriage, but no direct  pathophysiological link has been determined. Further in-depth studies  are needed to determine the exact mechanism by which these deficits  lead to a missed miscarriage.

Keywords: Biochemical parameters, pregnant women, missed miscarriage.

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Authors: Takeshi Sato, Mizuki Nakajima, Macky Kato, Shoji Igawa

Abstract:

The purpose of study was to investigate the effect of varying pole weights on energy expenditure, upper limb and lower limb muscle activity as Electromyogram during Nordic walking (NW). Four healthy men [age = 22.5 (±1.0) years, body mass = 61.4 (±3.6) kg, height = 170.3 (±4.3) cm] and three healthy women [age = 22.7 (±2.9) years, body mass = 53.0 (±1.7) kg, height = 156.7 (±4.5) cm] participated in the experiments after informed consent. Seven healthy subjects were tested on the treadmill, walking, walking (W) with Nordic Poles (NW) and walking with 1kg weight Nordic Poles (NW+1). Walking speed was 6 km per hours in all trials. Eight EMG activities were recorded by bipolar surface methods in biceps brachii, triceps brachii, trapezius, deltoideus, tibialis anterior, medial gastrocnemius, rectus femoris and biceps femoris muscles. And heart rate (HR), oxygen uptake (VO₂), and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured. The level of significance was set at a = 0.05, with p < 0.05 regarded as statistically significant. Our results confirmed that use of NW poles increased HR at a given upper arm muscle activity but decreased lower limb EMGs in comparison with W. Moreover NW was able to increase more step lengths with hip joint extension during NW rather than W. Also, EMG revealed higher activation of upper limb for almost all NW and 1kgNW tests plus added masses compared to W (p < 0.05). Therefore, it was thought either of NW and 1kgNW were to have benefit as a physical exercise for safe, feasible, and readily training for a wide range of aged people in the quality of daily life. However, there was no significant effected in leg muscles activity by using 1kgNW except for upper arm muscle activity during Nordic pole walking.

Keywords: Nordic walking, electromyogram, heart rate.

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Authors: S. Vijayakumar, R. Vinoth, K. Abilash, P. Praveen

Abstract:

Effects of insertion of coiled wire in juxtaposition with twisted tapes on heat transfer rate and solar radiation without disturbing the flow inside the riser tubes in a solar flat plate collector is experimentally reconnoitered in this present work. The wire coil used as a turbulator is placed inside the riser tube while the twisted tape is inserted into the wire coil to create a continuous swirling flow along the tube wall. The results of the heat transfer have been compared well with the available results. The heat transfer rate in the collector has been found to be increased by 18% to 70%. Solar water heaters having inserts in the flow tubes perform better than the conventional plain ones. It has been observed that heat losses are reduced consequently increasing the thermal performance about 30% over the plain water heaters under the same operating conditions. The effect of twisted tape with wire coils, flow Reynolds number, and the intensity of solar radiation on the thermal performance of the solar water heater has been presented. Effects of insertion of coiled wire in juxtaposition with twisted tapes on heat transfer rate and solar radiation without disturbing the flow inside the riser tubes in a solar flat plate collector is experimentally reconnoitered in this present work. The wire coil used as a turbulator is placed inside the riser tube while the twisted tape is inserted into the wire coil to create a continuous swirling flow along the tube wall. The results of the heat transfer have been compared well with the available results. The heat transfer rate in the collector has been found to be increased by 18% to 70%. Solar water heaters having inserts in the flow tubes perform better than the conventional plain ones. It has been observed that heat losses are reduced consequently increasing the thermal performance about 30% over the plain water heaters under the same operating conditions. The effect of twisted tape with wire coils, flow Reynolds number, and the intensity of solar radiation on the thermal performance of the solar water heater has been presented.

Keywords: Solar Flat Plate Collector, Heat Transfer, Twisted tape, Wire coiled turbulators

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Authors: M. H. Lai, D. S. Gunawardena, K. S. Lim, H. Ahmad

Abstract:

In this paper, we have reported birefringence manipulation in regenerated high birefringent fiber Bragg grating (RPMG) by using CO2 laser annealing method. The results indicate that the birefringence of RPMG remains unchanged after CO2 laser annealing followed by slow cooling process, but reduced after fast cooling process (~5.6×10-5). After a series of annealing procedures with different cooling rates, the obtained results show that slower the cooling rate, higher the birefringence of RPMG. The volume, thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) and glass transition temperature (Tg) change of stress applying part in RPMG during cooling process are responsible for the birefringence change. Therefore, these findings are important to the RPMG sensor in high and dynamic temperature environment. The measuring accuracy, range and sensitivity of RPMG sensor is greatly affected by its birefringence value. This work also opens up a new application of CO2 laser for fiber annealing and birefringence modification.

Keywords: Birefringence, CO2 laser annealing, regenerated gratings, thermal stress.

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Authors: Rana Th. A. Al-Rubaye, Burcin Atilgan, Richard J. Holmes, Arthur A. Garforth

Abstract:

Structured catalysts formed from the growth of zeolites on substrates is an area of increasing interest due to the increased efficiency of the catalytic process, and the ability to provide superior heat transfer and thermal conductivity for both exothermic and endothermic processes. However, the generation of structured catalysts represents a significant challenge when balancing the relationship variables between materials properties and catalytic performance, with the Na2O, H2O and Al2O3 gel composition paying a significant role in this dynamic, thereby affecting the both the type and range of application. The structured catalyst films generated as part of this investigation have been characterised using a range of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), with the transition from oxide-on-alloy wires to hydrothermally synthesised uniformly zeolite coated surfaces being demonstrated using both SEM and XRD. The robustness of the coatings has been ascertained by subjecting these to thermal cycling (ambient to 550oC), with the results indicating that the synthesis time and gel compositions have a crucial effect on the quality of zeolite growth on the FeCrAlloy wires. Finally, the activity of the structured catalyst was verified by a series of comparison experiments with standard zeolite Y catalysts in powdered pelleted forms.

Keywords: FeCrAlloy, Structured catalyst, and Zeolite Y.

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Authors: Seyed Ali Jafari, Mohammad Ghomi Avili, Emad Benhelal

Abstract:

In this study, a mathematical model was proposed and the accuracy of this model was assessed to predict the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and rhamnolipid production under nitrogen limiting (sodium nitrate) fed-batch fermentation. All of the parameters used in this model were achieved individually without using any data from the literature. The overall growth kinetic of the strain was evaluated using a dual-parallel substrate Monod equation which was described by several batch experimental data. Fed-batch data under different glycerol (as the sole carbon source, C/N=10) concentrations and feed flow rates were used to describe the proposed fed-batch model and other parameters. In order to verify the accuracy of the proposed model several verification experiments were performed in a vast range of initial glycerol concentrations. While the results showed an acceptable prediction for rhamnolipid production (less than 10% error), in case of biomass prediction the errors were less than 23%. It was also found that the rhamnolipid production by P. aeruginosa was more sensitive at low glycerol concentrations. Based on the findings of this work, it was concluded that the proposed model could effectively be employed for rhamnolipid production by this strain under fed-batch fermentation on up to 80 g l- 1 glycerol.

Keywords: Fed-batch culture, glycerol, kinetic parameters, modelling, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, rhamnolipid.

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Authors: Chareerut Phruksaniyom, Khwanthana Grataitong, Permphan Dharmasaroja, Surapol Issaragrisil

Abstract:

Bone marrow-derived stem cells have been widely studied as an alternative source of stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were mostly investigated and studies showed MSCs can promote neurogenesis. Little is known about the non-mesenchymal mononuclear cell fraction, which contains both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells, including monocytes and endothelial progenitor cells. This study focused on unfractionated bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs), which remained 72 h after MSCs were adhered to the culture plates. We showed that BMMC-conditioned medium promoted morphological changes of human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells from an epithelial-like phenotype towards a neuron-like phenotype as indicated by an increase in neurite outgrowth, like those observed in retinoic acid (RA)-treated cells. The result could be explained by the effects of trophic factors released from BMMCs, as shown in the RT-PCR results that BMMCs expressed nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). Similar results on the cell proliferation rate were also observed between RA-treated cells and cells cultured in BMMC-conditioned medium, suggesting that cells creased proliferating and differentiated into a neuronal phenotype. Using real-time RT-PCR, a significantly increased expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) mRNA in SHSY5Y cells indicated that BMMC-conditioned medium induced catecholaminergic identities in differentiated SH-SY5Y cells.

Keywords: bone marrow, neuronal differentiation, neurite outgrowth, trophic factor, tyrosine hydroxylase

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Authors: Manvjeet Kaur, Mukhwinder Singh, Akshay Girdhar, Parvinder S. Sandhu

Abstract:

Most fingerprint recognition techniques are based on minutiae matching and have been well studied. However, this technology still suffers from problems associated with the handling of poor quality impressions. One problem besetting fingerprint matching is distortion. Distortion changes both geometric position and orientation, and leads to difficulties in establishing a match among multiple impressions acquired from the same finger tip. Marking all the minutiae accurately as well as rejecting false minutiae is another issue still under research. Our work has combined many methods to build a minutia extractor and a minutia matcher. The combination of multiple methods comes from a wide investigation into research papers. Also some novel changes like segmentation using Morphological operations, improved thinning, false minutiae removal methods, minutia marking with special considering the triple branch counting, minutia unification by decomposing a branch into three terminations, and matching in the unified x-y coordinate system after a two-step transformation are used in the work.

Keywords: Biometrics, Minutiae, Crossing number, False Accept Rate (FAR), False Reject Rate (FRR).

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Authors: Abiodun M. Aibinu, Momoh J. E. Salami, Amir A. Shafie, Athaur Rahman Najeeb

Abstract:

In this paper, novel techniques in increasing the accuracy and speed of convergence of a Feed forward Back propagation Artificial Neural Network (FFBPNN) with polynomial activation function reported in literature is presented. These technique was subsequently used to determine the coefficients of Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) and Autoregressive (AR) system. The results obtained by introducing sequential and batch method of weight initialization, batch method of weight and coefficient update, adaptive momentum and learning rate technique gives more accurate result and significant reduction in convergence time when compared t the traditional method of back propagation algorithm, thereby making FFBPNN an appropriate technique for online ARMA coefficient determination.

Keywords: Adaptive Learning rate, Adaptive momentum, Autoregressive, Modeling, Neural Network.

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Authors: J. Tonkonogij, A. Pedišius, A. Stankevičius

Abstract:

The new semi-experimental method for simulation of the turbine flow meters rotation in the transitional flow has been developed. The method is based on the experimentally established exponential low of changing of dimensionless relative turbine gas meter rotation frequency and meter inertia time constant. For experimental evaluation of the meter time constant special facility has been developed. The facility ensures instant switching of turbine meter under test from one channel to the other channel with different flow rate and measuring the meter response. The developed method can be used for evaluation and predication of the turbine meters response and dynamic error in the transitional flow with any arbitrary law of flow rate changing. The examples of the method application are presented.

Keywords: Dynamic error, pulsing flow, numerical simulation, response, turbine gas meters.

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Authors: Petr V. Vasilev, Eduard V. Volkov, Alexej N. Godok, Alexej A, Grischschuk, Vitalij A. Rybalchenko

Abstract:

Laser Doppler flowmetry is a modern method of noninvasive microcirculation investigation. The aim of our study was to use this method in the examination of patients with secondary lymphedema of the lower extremities and obliterating atherosclerosis of lower extremities. In the analysis of the amplitude-frequency spectrum of secondary lymphedema patients we have identified remarkable changes. To describe the changes we used a special amplitude rate. In both of patients groups this rate was significally (p<0.05) different with the control group. So the marker phenomena of the amplitude-frequency spectrum of the LDF signal were identified. It is suggested that there is a limfodynamics contribution to the formation of the output signal of laser Doppler flowmetry. These data have fundamental meaning and are interesting for practical medicine, as they give an opportunity to further developments for the use of laser Doppler flowmetry in the diagnostics and monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment.

Keywords: laser Doppler flowmetry, secondary lymphedema of the lower extremities, obliterating atherosclerosis, non-invasive diagnostics.

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Authors: Farid Jamali Sheini, Dilip S. Joag, Mahendra A. More

Abstract:

A simple approach is demonstrated for growing large scale, nearly vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays by thermal oxidation method. To reveal effect of temperature on growth and physical properties of the ZnO nanowires, gold coated zinc substrates were annealed at 300 °C and 400 °C for 4 hours duration in air. Xray diffraction patterns of annealed samples indicated a set of well defined diffraction peaks, indexed to the wurtzite hexagonal phase of ZnO. The scanning electron microscopy studies show formation of ZnO nanowires having length of several microns and average of diameter less than 500 nm. It is found that the areal density of wires is relatively higher, when the annealing is carried out at higher temperature i.e. at 400°C. From the field emission studies, the values of the turn-on and threshold field, required to draw emission current density of 10 μA/cm2 and 100 μA/cm2 are observed to be 1.2 V/μm and 1.7 V/μm for the samples annealed at 300 °C and 2.9 V/μm and 3.7 V/μm for that annealed at 400 °C, respectively. The field emission current stability, investigated over duration of more than 2 hours at the preset value of 1 μA, is found to be fairly good in both cases. The simplicity of the synthesis route coupled with the promising field emission properties offer unprecedented advantage for the use of ZnO field emitters for high current density applications.

Keywords: ZnO, Nanowires, Thermal oxidation, FieldEmission.

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Authors: Aravind Kumar

Abstract:

The high terrains of Garhwal (Uttarakhand) Himalaya are the niches of a number of rare and endemic plant species of great therapeutic importance. However, the wild flora of the area is still under a constant threat due to rapid upsurge in human interferences, especially through multifarious tourism growth and peri-urban encroachments. After getting the status of a ‘Special State’ of the country since its inception in the year 2000, this newly borne State led to very rapid infrastructural growth and development. Consequently, its townships started expanding in an unmanaged way grabbing nearby agricultural lands and forest areas into peri-urban landscapes. Simultaneously, a boom in tourism and pilgrimage in the state and the infrastructural facilities raised by the government for tourists/pilgrims are destroying its biodiversity. Field survey revealed 242 plant species of therapeutic significance naturally growing in the area and being utilized by local inhabitants as traditional medicines. On conservation scale, 6 species (2.2%) were identified as critically endangered, 19 species (7.1%) as the endangered ones, 8 species (3.0%) under rare category, 17 species (6.4%) as threatened and 14 species (5.2%) as vulnerable. The Government of India has brought mega-biodiversity hot spots of the state under Biosphere Reserve, National Parks, etc. restricting all kinds of human interferences; however, the two most sacred shrines of Hindus and Sikhs viz. Shri Badrinath and Shri Hemkunt Sahib, and two great touristic attractions viz. Valley of Flowers and Auli-Joshimath Skiing Track oblige the government to maintain equilibrium between entries of visitors vis-à-vis biodiversity conservation in high terrains of Uttarakhand Himalaya.

Keywords: Biodiversity conservation, ethno-botany, Garhwal (Uttarakhand) Himalaya, peri-urban encroachment, pilgrimage and tourism.

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