Search results for: anthropogenic and natural sources
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2404

Search results for: anthropogenic and natural sources

1174 Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater by Adsorption and Membrane Processes: a Comparative Study

Authors: Nermen N. Maximous, George F. Nakhla, W. K. Wan

Abstract:

This research aimed at investigating the Cr (III), Cd (II) and Pb (II) removal efficiencies by using the newly synthesized metal oxides/ polyethersulfone (PES), Al2O3/PES and ZrO2/PES, membranes from synthetic wastewater and exploring fouling mechanisms. A Comparative study between the removal efficiencies of Cr (III), Cd (II) and Pb (II) from synthetic and natural wastewater by using adsorption onto agricultural by products and the newly synthesized Al2O3/PES and ZrO2/PES membranes was conducted to assess the advantages and limitations of using the metal oxides/PES membranes for heavy metals removal. The results showed that about 99 % and 88 % removal efficiencies were achieved by the tested membranes for Pb (II) and Cr (III), respectively.

Keywords: Adsorption, metals removal, ultrafiltrationmembranes, wastewater

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1173 Smart Sustainable Cities: An Integrated Planning Approach towards Sustainable Urban Energy Systems, India

Authors: Adinarayanane Ramamurthy, Monsingh D. Devadas

Abstract:

Cities denote instantaneously a challenge and an opportunity for climate change policy. Cities are the place where most energy services are needed because urbanization is closely linked to high population densities and concentration of economic activities and production (Urban energy demand). Consequently, it is critical to explain about the role of cities within the world-s energy systems and its correlation with the climate change issue. With more than half of the world-s population already living in urban areas, and that percentage expected to rise to 75 per cent by 2050, it is clear that the path to sustainable development must pass through cities. Cities expanding in size and population pose increased challenges to the environment, of which energy is part as a natural resource, and to the quality of life. Nowadays, most cities have already understood the importance of sustainability, both at their local scale as in terms of their contribution to sustainability at higher geographical scales. It requires the perception of a city as a complex and dynamic ecosystem, an open system, or cluster of systems, where the energy as well as the other natural resources is transformed to satisfy the needs of the different urban activities. In fact, buildings and transportation generally represent most of cities direct energy demand, i.e., between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of the overall consumption. Buildings, both residential and services are usually influenced by the local physical and social conditions. In terms of transport, the energy demand is also strongly linked with the specific characteristics of a city (urban mobility).The concept of a “smart city" builds on statistics as seven key axes of a city-s success in moving towards common platform (brain nerve)of sustainable urban energy systems. With the aforesaid knowledge, the authors have suggested a frame work to role of cities, as energy actors for smart city management. The authors have discusses the potential elements needed for energy in smart cities and also identified potential energy actions and relevant barriers. Furthermore, three levels of city smartness in cities actions to overcome market /institutional failures with a local approach are distinguished. The authors have made an attempt to conceive and implement concepts of city smartness by adopting the city or local government as nerve center through an integrated planning approach. Finally, concluding with recommendations for the organization of the Smart Sustainable Cities for positive changes of urban India.

Keywords: Urbanization, Urban Energy Demand, Sustainable Urban Energy Systems, Integrated Planning Approach, Smart Sustainable City.

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1172 A Review on the Outlook of the Circular Economy in the Automotive Industry

Authors: A. Buruzs, A. Torma

Abstract:

The relationship of the automotive industry with raw material supply is a major challenge and presents obstacles. Automobiles are ones of the most complex products using a large variety of materials. Safety, eco-friendliness and comfort requirements, physical, chemical and economic limitations set the framework in which this industry continuously optimizes the efficient and responsible use of resources. The concept of circular economy covers the issues of waste generation, resource scarcity and economic advantages. However, circularity is already known for the automobile industry – several efforts are done to foster material reuse, product remanufacturing and recycling. The aim of this study is to give an overview on how the producers comply with the growing demands on one hand, and gain efficiency and increase profitability on the other hand from circular economy.

Keywords: Automotive industry, circular economy, international requirements, natural resources.

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1171 Improvement in Power Transformer Intelligent Dissolved Gas Analysis Method

Authors: S. Qaedi, S. Seyedtabaii

Abstract:

Non-Destructive evaluation of in-service power transformer condition is necessary for avoiding catastrophic failures. Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) is one of the important methods. Traditional, statistical and intelligent DGA approaches have been adopted for accurate classification of incipient fault sources. Unfortunately, there are not often enough faulty patterns required for sufficient training of intelligent systems. By bootstrapping the shortcoming is expected to be alleviated and algorithms with better classification success rates to be obtained. In this paper the performance of an artificial neural network, K-Nearest Neighbour and support vector machine methods using bootstrapped data are detailed and shown that while the success rate of the ANN algorithms improves remarkably, the outcome of the others do not benefit so much from the provided enlarged data space. For assessment, two databases are employed: IEC TC10 and a dataset collected from reported data in papers. High average test success rate well exhibits the remarkable outcome.

Keywords: Dissolved gas analysis, Transformer incipient fault, Artificial Neural Network, Support Vector Machine (SVM), KNearest Neighbor (KNN)

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1170 Comparing the Durability of Saudi Silica Sands for Use in Foundry Processing

Authors: Mahdi Alsagour, Sam Ramrattan

Abstract:

This paper was developed to investigate two types of sands from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for potential use in the global metal casting industry. Four types of sands were selected for study, two of the sand systems investigated are natural sands from the KSA. The third sand sample is a heat processed synthetic sand and the last sample is commercially available US silica sand that is used as a control in the study. The purpose of this study is to define the durability of the four sand systems selected for foundry usage. Additionally, chemical analysis of the sand systems is presented before and after elevated temperature exposure. Results show that Saudi silica sands are durable and can be used in foundry processing.

Keywords: Alternative molding media, foundry sand, reclamation, silica sand, specialty sand.

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1169 Sport Facilities and Social Change: European Funds as an Opportunity for Urban Regeneration

Authors: Lorenzo Maiorino, Fabio Fortuna, Giovanni Panebianco, Marco Sanzari, Gabriella Arcese, Valerio Maria Paolozzi

Abstract:

It is well known that sport is a factor of social cohesion and the breaking down of barriers between people. From this point of view, the aim is to demonstrate how, through the (re)generation of sustainable structures, it is possible to give life to a new social, cultural and economic pathway, where possible, in peripheral areas with problems of abandonment and degradation. The aim of this paper is therefore to study realities such as European programs and funds and to highlight the ways in which planning can be used to respond to critical issues such as urban decay, abandonment, and the mitigation of social differences. For this reason, the analysis will be carried out through the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) package, the next generation EU, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund, and other managed funds. The procedure will rely on sources and data of unquestionable origin, and the relation to the object of study in question will be highlighted. The project lends itself to be ambitious and explore a further aspect of the sports theme, which as we know, is one of the foundations for a healthy society

.

Keywords: Sport, social inclusion, urban regeneration, sport facilities, European funds.

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1168 Development of a Real-Time Energy Models for Photovoltaic Water Pumping System

Authors: Ammar Mahjoubi, Ridha Fethi Mechlouch, Belgacem Mahdhaoui, Ammar Ben Brahim

Abstract:

This purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a model to accurately predict the cell temperature of a PV module that adapts to various mounting configurations, mounting locations, and climates while only requiring readily available data from the module manufacturer. Results from this model are also compared to results from published cell temperature models. The models were used to predict real-time performance from a PV water pumping systems in the desert of Medenine, south of Tunisia using 60-min intervals of measured performance data during one complete year. Statistical analysis of the predicted results and measured data highlight possible sources of errors and the limitations and/or adequacy of existing models, to describe the temperature and efficiency of PV-cells and consequently, the accuracy of performance of PV water pumping systems prediction models.

Keywords: Temperature of a photovoltaic module, Predicted models, PV water pumping systems efficiency, Simulation, Desert of southern Tunisia.

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1167 Alternating Implicit Block FDTD Method For Scalar Wave Equation

Authors: N. M. Nusi, M. Othman, M. Suleiman, F. Ismail, N. Alias

Abstract:

In this paper, an alternating implicit block method for solving two dimensional scalar wave equation is presented. The new method consist of two stages for each time step implemented in alternating directions which are very simple in computation. To increase the speed of computation, a group of adjacent points is computed simultaneously. It is shown that the presented method increase the maximum time step size and more accurate than the conventional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method and other existing method of natural ordering.

Keywords: FDTD, Scalar wave equation, alternating direction implicit (ADI), alternating group explicit (AGE), asymmetric approximation.

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1166 Determining Senses for Word Sense Disambiguation in Turkish

Authors: Zeynep Orhan, Zeynep Altan

Abstract:

Word sense disambiguation is an important intermediate stage for many natural language processing applications. The senses of an ambiguous word are the classification of usages for that specific word. This paper deals with the methodologies of determining the senses for a given word if they can not be obtained from an already available resource like WordNet. We offer a method that helps us to determine the sense boundaries gradually. In this method, first we decide on some features that are thought to be effective on the senses and divide the instances first into two, then according to the results of evaluations we continue dividing instances gradually. In a second method we use the pseudo words. We devise artificial words depending on some criteria and evaluate classification algorithms on these previously classified words.

Keywords: Word sense disambiguation, sense determination, pseudo words, sense granularity.

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1165 Equilibrium Modeling of Cu and Ni Removal from Aqueous Solutions: Influence of Salinity

Authors: Tomáš Bakalár, Milan Búgel, Henrieta Pavolová

Abstract:

This study deals with evaluation of influence of salinity (NaCl) onto equilibrium of Cu and Ni removal from aqueous solutions by natural sorbent – zeolite. Equilibrium data were obtained by batch experiments. The salinity of the aqueous solution was influenced by dissolving NaCl in distilled water. It was studied in the range of NaCl concentrations from 1 g.l-1 to 100g.l-1. For Cu sorption there is a significant influence of salinity. The maximum capacity of zeolite for Cu was decreasing with growing concentration of NaCl. For Ni sorption there is not so significant influence of salinity as for Cu. The maximum capacity of zeolite for Ni was slightly decreasing with growing concentration of NaCl.

Keywords: Cu, Ni, sorption, zeolite.

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1164 Nano-Alumina Sulfuric Acid: An Efficient Catalyst for the Synthesis of α-Aminonitriles Derivatives

Authors: Abbas Teimouri, Alireza Najafi Chermahini, Leila Ghorbanian

Abstract:

An efficient and green protocol for the synthesis of α- aminonitriles derivatives by one-pot reaction of different aldehydes with amines and trimethylsilyl cyanides has been developed using natural alumina, alumina sulfuric acid (ASA), nano-γ-alumina, nanoalumina sulfuric acid (nano-ASA) under microwave irradiation and solvent-free conditions. The advantages of methods are short reaction times, high yields, milder conditions and easy work up. The catalysts can be recovered for the subsequent reactions and reused without any appreciable loss of efficiency.

Keywords: Nano-γ-alumina, nano-alumina sulfuric acid, green synthesis, microwave irradiation, α-aminonitriles derivatives.

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1163 Comparison of Bayesian and Regression Schemes to Model Public Health Services

Authors: Sotirios Raptis

Abstract:

Bayesian reasoning (BR) or Linear (Auto) Regression (AR/LR) can predict different sources of data using priors or other data, and can link social service demands in cohorts, while their consideration in isolation (self-prediction) may lead to service misuse ignoring the context. The paper advocates that BR with Binomial (BD), or Normal (ND) models or raw data (.D) as probabilistic updates can be compared to AR/LR to link services in Scotland and reduce cost by sharing healthcare (HC) resources. Clustering, cross-correlation, along with BR, LR, AR can better predict demand. Insurance companies and policymakers can link such services, and examples include those offered to the elderly, and low-income people, smoking-related services linked to mental health services, or epidemiological weight in children. 22 service packs are used that are published by Public Health Services (PHS) Scotland and Scottish Government (SG) from 1981 to 2019, broken into 110 year series (factors), joined using LR, AR, BR. The Primary component analysis found 11 significant factors, while C-Means (CM) clustering gave five major clusters.

Keywords: Bayesian probability, cohorts, data frames, regression, services, prediction.

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1162 Produced Gas Conversion of Microwave Carbon Receptor Reforming

Authors: Young Nam Chun, Mun Sup Lim

Abstract:

Carbon dioxide and methane, the major components of biomass pyrolysis/gasification gas and biogas, top the list of substances that cause climate change, but they are also among the most important renewable energy sources in modern society. The purpose of this study is to convert carbon dioxide and methane into high-quality energy using char and commercial activated carbon obtained from biomass pyrolysis as a microwave receptor. The methane reforming process produces hydrogen and carbon. This carbon is deposited in the pores of the microwave receptor and lowers catalytic activity, thereby reducing the methane conversion rate. The deposited carbon was removed by carbon gasification due to the supply of carbon dioxide, which solved the problem of microwave receptor inactivity. In particular, the conversion rate remained stable at over 90% when the ratio of carbon dioxide to methane was 1:1. When the reforming results of carbon dioxide and methane were compared after fabricating nickel and iron catalysts using commercial activated carbon as a carrier, the conversion rate was higher in the iron catalyst than in the nickel catalyst and when no catalyst was used. 

Keywords: Microwave, gas reforming, greenhouse gas, microwave receptor, catalyst.

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1161 Kinetics Study of Ammonia Removal from Synthetic Waste Water

Authors: Edison Muzenda, John Kabuba, Freeman Ntuli, Mansoor Mollagee

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate ammonium exchange capacity of natural and activated clinoptilolite from Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa. X – ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis showed that the clinoptilolite contained exchangeable ions of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. This analysis also confirmed that the zeolite sample had a high silicon composition compared to aluminium. Batch equilibrium studies were performed in an orbital shaker and the data fitted the Langmuir isotherm very well. The ammonium exchange capacity was found to increase with pH and temperature. Clinoptilolite functionalization with hydrochloric acid increased its ammonia uptake ability.

Keywords: Activated clinoptilolite, Ammonium exchange, Equilibrium, Functionalization, Langmuir isotherm

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1160 Network Analysis in a Natural Perturbed Ecosystem

Authors: Nelson F.F. Ebecken, Gilberto C. Pereira

Abstract:

The objective of this work is to explicit knowledge on the interactions between the chlorophyll-a and nine meroplankton larvae of epibenthonic fauna. The studied case is the Arraial do Cabo upwelling system, Southeastern of Brazil, which provides different environmental conditions. To assess this information a network approach based in probability estimative was used. Comparisons among the generated graphs are made in the light of different water masses, application of Shannon biodiversity index, and the closeness and betweenness centralities measurements. Our results show the main pattern among different water masses and how the core organisms belonging to the network skeleton are correlated to the main environmental variable. We conclude that the approach of complex networks is a promising tool for environmental diagnostic.

Keywords: Coastal upwelling, Ecological networks, Plankton - interactions, Environmental analysis.

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1159 Assessment of Climate Policy and Sustainability in Hungary

Authors: M. Csete, G. Szendrö

Abstract:

The last Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stating that the greatest risk in climate change affects sustainability is now widely known and accepted. However, it has not provoked substantial reaction and attention in Hungary, while international and national efforts have also not achieved expected results so far. Still, there are numerous examples on different levels (national, regional, local, household) making considerable progress in limiting their own emissions and making steps toward mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. The local level is exceptionally important in sustainability adaptation, as local communities are often able to adapt more flexibly to changes in the natural environment.The aim of this paper is to attempt a review of the national climate policy and the local climate change strategies in Hungary considering sustainable development.

Keywords: adaptation, climate policy, mitigation, localsustainability.

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1158 Using Data Mining Techniques for Estimating Minimum, Maximum and Average Daily Temperature Values

Authors: S. Kotsiantis, A. Kostoulas, S. Lykoudis, A. Argiriou, K. Menagias

Abstract:

Estimates of temperature values at a specific time of day, from daytime and daily profiles, are needed for a number of environmental, ecological, agricultural and technical applications, ranging from natural hazards assessments, crop growth forecasting to design of solar energy systems. The scope of this research is to investigate the efficiency of data mining techniques in estimating minimum, maximum and mean temperature values. For this reason, a number of experiments have been conducted with well-known regression algorithms using temperature data from the city of Patras in Greece. The performance of these algorithms has been evaluated using standard statistical indicators, such as Correlation Coefficient, Root Mean Squared Error, etc.

Keywords: regression algorithms, supervised machine learning.

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1157 Quantitative Analysis of Construction Waste in the City of Novi Sad, Serbia

Authors: Nikola Karanovic, Aleksandar Djuric

Abstract:

This paper introduces a method of calculating the quantities of construction materials and construction waste on site in city of Novi Sad. In buildings is about 40% of the total weight of materials that are in circulation in the world economic space. The best solution for this waste is to be stored at source, at the point of generation. There are several treatment options for this type of waste, reduction at source, reuse, recycling. Beside its negative effects on the environment, construction waste can be and resource. Novi Sad is divided in 16 single family resident zones and 10 multi family resident zones. For every zone of the city, quantities of used construction materials and construction waste were obtained. Rational use of natural resources is an essential factor in applying the principles of development with savings.

Keywords: Construction materials, Construction waste, Novi Sad, Recycling

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1156 Estimation of Uncertainty of Thermal Conductivity Measurement with Single Laboratory Validation Approach

Authors: Saowaluck Ukrisdawithid

Abstract:

The thermal conductivity of thermal insulation materials are measured by Heat Flow Meter (HFM) apparatus. The components of uncertainty are complex and difficult on routine measurement by modelling approach. In this study, uncertainty of thermal conductivity measurement was estimated by single laboratory validation approach. The within-laboratory reproducibility was 1.1%. The standard uncertainty of method and laboratory bias by using SRM1453 expanded polystyrene board was dominant at 1.4%. However, it was assessed that there was no significant bias. For sample measurement, the sources of uncertainty were repeatability, density of sample and thermal conductivity resolution of HFM. From this approach to sample measurements, the combined uncertainty was calculated. In summary, the thermal conductivity of sample, polystyrene foam, was reported as 0.03367 W/m·K ± 3.5% (k = 2) at mean temperature 23.5 °C. The single laboratory validation approach is simple key of routine testing laboratory for estimation uncertainty of thermal conductivity measurement by using HFM, according to ISO/IEC 17025-2017 requirements. These are meaningful for laboratory competent improvement, quality control on products, and conformity assessment.

Keywords: Single laboratory validation approach, within-laboratory reproducibility, method and laboratory bias, certified reference material.

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1155 Ultrasonic Intensification of the Chemical Degradation of Methyl Violet: An Experimental Study

Authors: N. P. Dhanalakshmi, R. Nagarajan

Abstract:

The sonochemical decolorization and degradation of azo dye Methyl violet using Fenton-s reagent in the presence of a high-frequency acoustic field has been investigated. Dyeing and textile effluents are the major sources of azo dyes, and are most troublesome among industrial wastewaters, causing imbalance in the eco-system. The effect of various operating conditions (initial concentration of dye, liquid-phase temperature, ultrasonic power and frequency and process time) on sonochemical degradation was investigated. Conversion was found to increase with increase in initial concentration, temperature, power level and frequency. Both horntype and tank-type sonicators were used, at various power levels (250W, 400W and 500W) for frequencies ranging from 20 kHz - 1000 kHz. A 'Process Intensification' parameter PI, was defined to quantify the enhancement of the degradation reaction by ultrasound when compared to control (i.e., without ultrasound). The present work clearly demonstrates that a high-frequency ultrasonic bath can be used to achieve higher process throughput and energy efficiency at a larger scale of operation.

Keywords: Fenton oxidation, process intensification, sonochemical degradation of MV, ultrasonic frequency.

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1154 Designing a Rescue System for Earthquake-Stricken Area with the Aim of Facilitation and Accelerating Accessibilities (Case Study: City of Tehran)

Authors: Naeleh Motamedi, Masoud Mahmoudkhan Shirazi, Nima Nouraei

Abstract:

Natural disasters, including earthquake, kill many people around the world every year. Society rescue actions, which start after the earthquake and are called LAST in abbreviation, include locating, access, stabilization and transportation. In the present article, we have studied the process of local accessibility to the injured and transporting them to health care centers. With regard the heavy traffic load due to earthquake, the destruction of connecting roads and bridges and the heavy debris in alleys and street, which put the lives of the injured and the people buried under the debris in danger, accelerating the rescue actions and facilitating the accessibilities are of great importance, obviously. Tehran, the capital of Iran, is among the crowded cities in the world and is the center of extensive economic, political, cultural and social activities. Tehran has a population of about 9.5 millions and because of the immigration of people from the surrounding cities. Furthermore, considering the fact that Tehran is located on two important and large faults, a 6 Richter magnitude earthquake in this city could lead to the greatest catastrophe during the entire human history. The present study is a kind of review and a major part of the required information for it, has been obtained from libraries all of the rescue vehicles around the world, including rescue helicopters, ambulances, fire fighting vehicles and rescue boats, and their applied technology, and also the robots specifically designed for the rescue system and the advantages and disadvantages of them, have been investigated. The studies show that there is a significant relationship between the rescue team-s arrival time at the incident zone and the number of saved people; so that, if the duration of burial under debris 30 minutes, the probability of survival is %99.3, after a day is %81, after 2days is %19 and after 5days is %7.4. The exiting transport systems all have some defects. If these defects are removed, more people could be saved each hour and the preparedness against natural disasters is increased. In this study, transport system has been designed for the rescue team and the injured; which could carry the rescue team to the incident zone and the injured to the health care centers. In addition, this system is able to fly in the air and move on the earth as well; so that the destruction of roads and the heavy traffic load could not prevent the rescue team from arriving early at the incident zone. The system also has the equipment required firebird for debris removing, optimum transport of the injured and first aid.

Keywords: earthquake, accelerating, accessibilities transportation, rescue system

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1153 Identification of Arglecins B and C and Actinofuranosin A from a Termite Gut-Associated Streptomyces Species

Authors: Christian A. Romero, Tanja Grkovic, John. R. J. French, D. İpek. Kurtböke, Ronald J. Quinn

Abstract:

A high-throughput and automated 1H NMR metabolic fingerprinting dereplication approach was used to accelerate the discovery of unknown bioactive secondary metabolites. The applied dereplication strategy accelerated the discovery of new natural products, provided rapid and competent identification and quantification of the known secondary metabolites and avoided time-consuming isolation procedures. The effectiveness of the technique was demonstrated by the isolation and elucidation of arglecins B (1), C (2) and actinofuranosin A (3) from a termite-gut associated Streptomyces sp. (USC 597) grown under solid state fermentation. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by extensive interpretation of 1H, 13C and 2D NMR spectroscopic data. These represent the first report of arglecin analogues isolated from a termite gut-associated Streptomyces species.

Keywords: Actinomycetes, actinofuranosin, antibiotics, arglecins, NMR spectroscopy.

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1152 DACS3: Embedding Individual Ant Behavior in Ant Colony System

Authors: Zulaiha Ali Othman, Helmi Md Rais, Abdul Razak Hamdan

Abstract:

Ants are fascinating creatures that demonstrate the ability to find food and bring it back to their nest. Their ability as a colony, to find paths to food sources has inspired the development of algorithms known as Ant Colony Systems (ACS). The principle of cooperation forms the backbone of such algorithms, commonly used to find solutions to problems such as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Ants communicate to each other through chemical substances called pheromones. Modeling individual ants- ability to manipulate this substance can help an ACS find the best solution. This paper introduces a Dynamic Ant Colony System with threelevel updates (DACS3) that enhance an existing ACS. Experiments were conducted to observe single ant behavior in a colony of Malaysian House Red Ants. Such behavior was incorporated into the DACS3 algorithm. We benchmark the performance of DACS3 versus DACS on TSP instances ranging from 14 to 100 cities. The result shows that the DACS3 algorithm can achieve shorter distance in most cases and also performs considerably faster than DACS.

Keywords: Dynamic Ant Colony System (DACS), TravelingSalesmen Problem (TSP), Optimization, Swarm Intelligent.

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1151 Experimental Study of Steel Slag Used as Aggregate in Asphalt Mixture

Authors: Magdi M. E. Zumrawi, Faiza O. A. Khalill

Abstract:

Steel slag is a by-product of the steel industry and can be used potentially as aggregate in the asphalt mixture. This study evaluates the use of Steel Slag Aggregates (SSA) as a substitute for natural aggregates in the production of hot mix asphalt (HMA) for road construction. Based on intensive laboratory testing program, the characteristic properties of SSA were assessed to determine its suitability to be used in HMA. Four different percentages (0, 50, 75, and 100%) of SSA were used, and the proposed mix designs for HMA were conducted in accordance with Marshall mix design. The experiment results revealed that the addition of SSA has a significant improvement on the properties of HMA. An increase in density and stability and a reduction in flow and air voids values were clearly observed in specimens prepared with 100% SSA. It is concluded that the steel slag can be considered reasonable alternative source of aggregate for concrete asphalt mixture production.

Keywords: Aggregate, asphalt mixture, stability, steel slag.

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1150 Survey on the Possibility of Post -Earthquake Quick Inspection of Damaged Building by Ordinary People Using the European Macro-Seismic Scale 1998 (EMS-98)

Authors: Douangmala Kousnana, Toru Takahashi

Abstract:

In recent years, the number of natural disasters in the world has occurred frequently. After a strong earthquake occurs, multiple disasters due to tsunami, strong aftershocks or heavy snow can possible to occur. To prevent a secondary disaster and to save a life, the quick inspection of the damaged building is necessary. This paper investigated on a possibility of post earthquake quick inspection of damaged building by ordinary people which used the European Macro- Seismic Scale 1998 (EMS-98).

Keywords: Quick Assessment, EMS-98, Ordinary People, Post-Earthquake

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1149 Chinese Event Detection Technique Based on Dependency Parsing and Rule Matching

Authors: Weitao Lin

Abstract:

To quickly extract adequate information from large-scale unstructured text data, this paper studies the representation of events in Chinese scenarios and performs the regularized abstraction. It proposes a Chinese event detection technique based on dependency parsing and rule matching. The method first performs dependency parsing on the original utterance, then performs pattern matching at the word or phrase granularity based on the results of dependent syntactic analysis, filters out the utterances with prominent non-event characteristics, and obtains the final results. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the method.

Keywords: Natural Language Processing, Chinese event detection, rules matching, dependency parsing.

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1148 Effects of Superheating on Thermodynamic Performance of Organic Rankine Cycles

Authors: Kyoung Hoon Kim

Abstract:

Recently ORC(Organic Rankine Cycle) has attracted much attention due to its potential in reducing consumption of fossil fuels and its favorable characteristics to exploit low-grade heat sources. In this work thermodynamic performance of ORC with superheating of vapor is comparatively assessed for various working fluids. Special attention is paid to the effects of system parameters such as the evaporating temperature and the turbine inlet temperature on the characteristics of the system such as maximum possible work extraction from the given source, volumetric flow rate per 1 kW of net work and quality of the working fluid at turbine exit as well as thermal and exergy efficiencies. Results show that for a given source the thermal efficiency increases with decrease of the superheating but exergy efficiency may have a maximum value with respect to the superheating of the working fluid. Results also show that in selection of working fluid it is required to consider various criteria of performance characteristics as well as thermal efficiency.

Keywords: organic Rankine cycle (ORC), low-grade energysource, Patel-Teja equation, thermodynamic performance

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1147 Fermat’s Last Theorem a Simple Demonstration

Authors: Jose William Porras Ferreira

Abstract:

This paper presents two solutions to the Fermat’s Last Theorem (FLT). The first one using some algebraic basis related to the Pythagorean theorem, expression of equations, an analysis of their behavior, when compared with power  and power  and using " the “Well Ordering Principle” of natural numbers it is demonstrated that in Fermat equation . The second one solution is using the connection between  and power  through the Pascal’s triangle or  Newton’s binomial coefficients, where de Fermat equation do not fulfill the first coefficient, then it is impossible that:

zn=xn+yn for n>2 and (x, y, z) E Z+ - {0}

 

Keywords: Fermat’s Last Theorem, Pythagorean Theorem, Newton Binomial Coefficients, Pascal’s Triangle, Well Ordering Principle.

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1146 Evaluating 8D Reports Using Text-Mining

Authors: Benjamin Kuester, Bjoern Eilert, Malte Stonis, Ludger Overmeyer

Abstract:

Increasing quality requirements make reliable and effective quality management indispensable. This includes the complaint handling in which the 8D method is widely used. The 8D report as a written documentation of the 8D method is one of the key quality documents as it internally secures the quality standards and acts as a communication medium to the customer. In practice, however, the 8D report is mostly faulty and of poor quality. There is no quality control of 8D reports today. This paper describes the use of natural language processing for the automated evaluation of 8D reports. Based on semantic analysis and text-mining algorithms the presented system is able to uncover content and formal quality deficiencies and thus increases the quality of the complaint processing in the long term.

Keywords: 8D report, complaint management, evaluation system, text-mining.

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1145 Flexible Cities: A Multisided Spatial Application of Tracking Livability of Urban Environment

Authors: Maria Christofi, George Plastiras, Rafaella Elia, Vaggelis Tsiourtis, Theocharis Theocharides, Miltiadis Katsaros

Abstract:

The rapidly expanding urban areas of the world constitute a challenge of how we need to make the transition to "the next urbanization", which will be defined by new analytical tools and new sources of data. This paper is about the production of a spatial application, the ‘FUMapp’, where space and its initiative will be available literally, in meters, but also abstractly, at a sensed level. While existing spatial applications typically focus on illustrations of the urban infrastructure, the suggested application goes beyond the existing: It investigates how our environment's perception adapts to the alterations of the built environment through a dataset construction of biophysical measurements (eye-tracking, heart beating), and physical metrics (spatial characteristics, size of stimuli, rhythm of mobility). It explores the intersections between architecture, cognition, and computing where future design can be improved and identifies the flexibility and livability of the ‘available space’ of specific examined urban paths.

Keywords: Biophysical data, flexibility of urban, livability, next urbanization, spatial application.

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