Search results for: Capacity Building

Authors: Ming-Hua Fu

Abstract:

No negative control nor control to prevent microbes from escaping was set when the S-shaped flask experiments were performed by Pasteur. Microscope was not used to observe the media in the flasks. Louis Pasteur’s S-shaped flask experiment was re-examined by using U-shaped flasks, modified S-shaped flasks and microscope. A mixture of microbes was isolated from the room air, from which one rod-shaped Bacillus species with proposed name Bacillus gaso-mobilis sp nov and one grape-shaped Staphylococcus species with proposed name of Staphylococcus gaso-mobilis sp nov were identified. Their penicillin and ampicillin resistant strains containing plasmids were isolated. These bacteria could change color, produce odor and automatically move in the air. They did not form colonies on solid media. They had a high suspension capacity in liquid media. Their light absorbance peaked at the wave length of 320 nm.  It was concluded that there were flaws with Louis Pasteur’s S-shaped flask experiments. 

Keywords: Bacteria, gaso-mobile, re-examine, S-shaped flasks.

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Authors: Eiad Yafi, Ahmed Sultan Al-Hegami, M. A. Alam, Ranjit Biswas

Abstract:

Association rules are an important problem in data mining. Massively increasing volume of data in real life databases has motivated researchers to design novel and incremental algorithms for association rules mining. In this paper, we propose an incremental association rules mining algorithm that integrates shocking interestingness criterion during the process of building the model. A new interesting measure called shocking measure is introduced. One of the main features of the proposed approach is to capture the user background knowledge, which is monotonically augmented. The incremental model that reflects the changing data and the user beliefs is attractive in order to make the over all KDD process more effective and efficient. We implemented the proposed approach and experiment it with some public datasets and found the results quite promising.

Keywords: Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD), Data mining, Incremental Association rules, Domain knowledge, Interestingness, Shocking rules (SHR).

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Authors: Victor Onomza Waziri, John K. Alhassan, Idris Ismaila, Moses Noel Dogonyaro

Abstract:

This paper describes the problem of building secure computational services for encrypted information in the Cloud Computing without decrypting the encrypted data; therefore, it meets the yearning of computational encryption algorithmic aspiration model that could enhance the security of big data for privacy, confidentiality, availability of the users. The cryptographic model applied for the computational process of the encrypted data is the Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme. We contribute a theoretical presentations in a high-level computational processes that are based on number theory and algebra that can easily be integrated and leveraged in the Cloud computing with detail theoretic mathematical concepts to the fully homomorphic encryption models. This contribution enhances the full implementation of big data analytics based cryptographic security algorithm.

Keywords: Data Analytics, Security, Privacy, Bootstrapping, and Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme.

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Authors: Maha Idrissi Aouad, Rene Schott, Olivier Zendra

Abstract:

Reducing energy consumption of embedded systems requires careful memory management. It has been shown that Scratch- Pad Memories (SPMs) are low size, low cost, efficient (i.e. energy saving) data structures directly managed at the software level. In this paper, the focus is on heuristic methods for SPMs management. A method is efficient if the number of accesses to SPM is as large as possible and if all available space (i.e. bits) is used. A Tabu Search (TS) approach for memory management is proposed which is, to the best of our knowledge, a new original alternative to the best known existing heuristic (BEH). In fact, experimentations performed on benchmarks show that the Tabu Search method is as efficient as BEH (in terms of energy consumption) but BEH requires a sorting which can be computationally expensive for a large amount of data. TS is easy to implement and since no sorting is necessary, unlike BEH, the corresponding sorting time is saved. In addition to that, in a dynamic perspective where the maximum capacity of the SPM is not known in advance, the TS heuristic will perform better than BEH.

Keywords: Energy consumption, memory allocation management, optimization, tabu search heuristic.

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Authors: Samy Sadek, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Bernd Michaelis, Usama Sayed

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a supervised method for color image classification based on a multilevel sigmoidal neural network (MSNN) model. In this method, images are classified into five categories, i.e., “Car", “Building", “Mountain", “Farm" and “Coast". This classification is performed without any segmentation processes. To verify the learning capabilities of the proposed method, we compare our MSNN model with the traditional Sigmoidal Neural Network (SNN) model. Results of comparison have shown that the MSNN model performs better than the traditional SNN model in the context of training run time and classification rate. Both color moments and multi-level wavelets decomposition technique are used to extract features from images. The proposed method has been tested on a variety of real and synthetic images.

Keywords: Image classification, multi-level neural networks, feature extraction, wavelets decomposition.

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Authors: P. Suntivarakorn, S. Satmarong, C. Benjapiyaporn, S. Theerakulpisut

Abstract:

This paper was to study the clothes dryer using waste heat from a split type air conditioner with a capacity of 12,648 btu/h. The drying chamber had a minimum cross section area with the size of 0.5 x 1.0 m2. The chamber was constructed by sailcloth and was inside folded with aluminium foil. Then, it was connected to the condensing unit of an air conditioner. The experiment was carried out in two aspects which were the clothes drying with and without auxiliary fan unit. The results showed that the drying rate of clothes in the chamber installed with and without auxiliary fan unit were 2.26 and 1.1 kg/h, respectively. In case of the chamber installed with a auxiliary fan unit, the additional power of 0.011 kWh was consumed and the drying rate was higher than that of clothes drying without auxiliary fan unit. Without auxiliary fan unit installation, no energy was required but there was a portion of hot air leaks away through the punctured holes at the wall of the drying chamber, hence the drying rate was dropped below. The drying rate of clothes drying using waste heat was higher than natural indoor drying and commercial dryer which their drying rate were 0.17 and 1.9 kg/h, respectively. It was noted that the COP of the air conditioner did not change during the operating of clothes drying.

Keywords: Drying Rate, Clothes Dryer, COP, Air Conditioner.

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Authors: Quoc-Nam Tran

Abstract:

The theory of Groebner Bases, which has recently been honored with the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award, has become a crucial building block to computer algebra, and is widely used in science, engineering, and computer science. It is wellknown that Groebner bases computation is EXP-SPACE in a general polynomial ring setting. However, for many important applications in computer science such as satisfiability and automated verification of hardware and software, computations are performed in a Boolean ring. In this paper, we give an algorithm to show that Groebner bases computation is PSPACE in Boolean rings. We also show that with this discovery, the Groebner bases method can theoretically be as efficient as other methods for automated verification of hardware and software. Additionally, many useful and interesting properties of Groebner bases including the ability to efficiently convert the bases for different orders of variables making Groebner bases a promising method in automated verification.

Keywords: Algorithm, Complexity, Groebner basis, Applications of Computer Science.

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Authors: Elnura Assyltayeva, Zhanar Aldubasheva, Zhengisbek Tolen

Abstract:

An attempt has been made several times to identify and discuss the U.S. experience on the formation of political nation in political science. The purpose of this research paper is to identify the main aspects of the formation of civic identity in the United States and Kazakhstan, through the identification of similarities and differences that can get practical application in making decisions of national policy issues in the context of globalization, as well as to answer the questions “What should unite the citizens of Kazakhstan to the nation?" and “What should be the dominant identity: civil or ethnic (national) one?" Can Kazakhstan being multiethnic country like America, adopt its experience in the formation of a civic nation? Since it is believed that the “multi-ethnic state of the population is a characteristic feature of most modern countries in the world," it states that “inter-ethnic integration is one of the most important aspects of the problem of forming a new social community (metaetnic - Kazakh people, Kazakh nation" [1].

Keywords: nation, civic identity, nation building, globalization, interethnic relations, patriotism

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Authors: Seung Woo Lee, So Jeong Nam, Jai-Kyung Lee

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It can be said that the business sector is faced with a range of challenges–a rapidly changing business environment, an increase and diversification of customers- demands and the consequent need for quick response–for having in place flexible management and production info systems. As a matter of fact, many manufacturers have adopted production info management systems such as MES and ERP. Nevertheless, managers are having difficulties obtaining ever-changing production process information in real time, or responding quickly to any change in production related needs on the basis of such information. This is because they rely on poor production info systems which are not capable of providing real-time factory settings. If the manufacturer doesn-t have a capacity for collecting or digitalizing the 4 Ms (Man, Machine, Material, Method), which are resources for production, on a real time basis, it might to difficult to effectively maintain the information on production process. In this regard, this paper will introduce some new alternatives to the existing methods of collecting the 4 Ms in real time, which are currently comprise the production field.

Keywords: 4M, Acquisition of Data on shop-floor, Real-time machine interface

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Authors: Prompt Udomdech, Eleni Papadonikolaki, Andrew Davies

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the major technological trend among built environment organisations. Digitalising businesses and operations, BIM brings forth a digital transformation in any built environment industry. The adoption of BIM presents challenges for organisations, especially Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The main problem for built environment SMEs is the lack of project actors with adequate BIM competences. The research highlights learning in projects as the key and explores into the learning of BIM in projects of designers and engineers within Thai design and engineering SMEs. The study uncovers three impeding attributes which are: a) lack of English proficiency; b) unfamiliarity with digital technologies; and c) absence of public standards. This research expands on the literature of BIM competences and adoption.

Keywords: BIM competences and adoption, digital transformation, learning in projects, SMEs, and developing built environment industry.

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Authors: Constantia Achilleos, Diofantos G. Hadjimitsis

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Road industry has challenged the prospect of ecoconstruction. Pavements may fit within the framework of sustainable development. Hence, research implements assessments of conventional pavements impacts on environment in use of life cycle approach. To meet global, and often national, targets on pollution control, newly introduced pavement designs are under study. This is the case of Cyprus demonstration, which occurred within EcoLanes project work. This alternative pavement differs on concrete layer reinforced with tire recycling product. Processing of post-consumer tires produces steel fibers improving strength capacity against cracking. Thus maintenance works are relevantly limited in comparison to flexible pavement. This enables to be more ecofriendly, referenced to current study outputs. More specific, proposed concrete pavement life cycle processes emits 15 % less air pollutants and consumes 28 % less embodied energy than those of the asphalt pavement. In addition there is also a reduction on costs by 0.06 %.

Keywords: Environmental impact assessment, life cycle, tirerecycling, transportation pavement.

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Authors: Mahmoud Miri, Morteza Naghipour, Amir Kashiryfar

Abstract:

The unanticipated destruct of more of the steel moment frames in Northridge earthquake, altered class of regard to the beamto- column connections in moment frames. Panel zone is one the significant part of joints which, it-s stiffness and rigidity has an important effect on the behavior and ductility of the frame. Specifically that behavior of panel zone has a very significant effect on the special moment frames. In this paper , meanwhile the relations for modeling of panel zone in frames are expressed , special moment frames with different spans and stories were studied in the way of performance-based design. The frames designed in according with Iranian steel building code. The effect of panel zone is also considered and in the case of non-existence of performance level, by changing in intimacies and parameter of panel zone, performance level is considered.

Keywords: steel moment frame, panel zone, performance based design

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Authors: Qinghua Zhang, Yanhe Zhu, Xiang Zhao, Yeqin Yang, Hongwei Jing, Guoan Zhang, Jie Zhao

Abstract:

This paper presents a wearable reconfigurable supernumerary robotic limb with differential actuated joints, which is lightweight, compact and comfortable for the wearers. Compared to the existing supernumerary robotic limbs which mostly adopted series structure with large movement space but poor carrying capacity, a prototype with the series-parallel configuration to better adapt to different task requirements has been developed in this design. To achieve a compact structure, two kinds of cable-driven mechanical structures based on guide pulleys and differential actuated joints were designed. Moreover, two different tension devices were also designed to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the cable-driven transmission. The proposed device also employed self-designed bearings which greatly simplified the structure and reduced the cost.

Keywords: Cable-driven, differential actuated joints, reconfigurable, supernumerary robotic limb.

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Authors: M. Rodionov, Z. Dedovets

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The article analyses the composition and structure of the motivationally oriented methodological system of teaching mathematics (purpose, content, methods, forms, and means of teaching), viewed through the prism of the student as the subject of the learning process. Particular attention is paid to the problem of methods of teaching mathematics, which are represented in the form of an ordered triad of attributes corresponding to the selected characteristics. A systematic analysis of possible options and their methodological interpretation enriched existing ideas about known methods and technologies of training, and significantly expanded their nomenclature by including previously unstudied combinations of characteristics. In addition, examples outlined in this article illustrate the possibilities of enhancing the motivational capacity of a particular method or technology in the real learning practice of teaching mathematics through more free goal-setting and varying the conditions of the problem situations. The authors recommend the implementation of different strategies according to their characteristics in teaching and learning mathematics in secondary schools.

Keywords: Education, methodological system, teaching of mathematics, teachers, lesson, students motivation, secondary school.

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Authors: Ishrar Tabassum, Jay Andrew Saptok, Khalid Raihan Kabir, Elmee Tabassum

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The purpose of this study is to bring light to the current state of the working environments in the corporate environment and other such institutions with a particular focus on the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) and its guidelines for accommodating the physically disabled. Data were collected via semi-formal interviews, site visits and focus groups conducted using a preset questionnaire as the guidelines. After conducting surveys at corporate offices of 20 organizations from major commercial sectors in Dhaka city, the auditing showed many inadequacies, as aside from the larger corporate offices, the offices have little to no accessibility for the physically disabled. This study hopes to shed light on the fact that the existing BNBCs lack of emphasis on ensuring the accessibility of the handicapped in corporate buildings in the hope that, in the future, the physically disabled will have greater opportunities at being productive members of the workforce.

Keywords: Person with disability, PWD, corporate buildings, Dhaka City.

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Authors: K. M. Doraiswamy, Lakshminarayana Merugu, B. C. Jinaga

Abstract:

This paper explains the cause of nonlinearity in floor attenuation hither to left unexplained. The performance degradation occurring in air interface for GSM signals is quantitatively analysed using the concept of Radiating Columns of buildings. The signal levels were measured using Wireless Network Optimising Drive Test Tool (E6474A of Agilent Technologies). The measurements were taken in reflected signal environment under usual fading conditions on actual GSM signals radiated from base stations. A mathematical model is derived from the measurements to predict the GSM signal levels in different floors. It was applied on three buildings and found that the predicted signal levels deviated from the measured levels with in +/- 2 dB for all floors. It is more accurate than the prediction models based on Floor Attenuation Factor. It can be used for planning proper indoor coverage in multi storey buildings.

Keywords: GSM air interface, nonlinear attenuation, multistory building, radiating columns, ground conduction and floor attenuation factor.

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Authors: Usa Sutthisakorn, Samchai Jirapatarasil

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This paper aims to present knowledge management for solving economic problem and poverty in Thai community. A community in Thailand is studied as a case study for master plan or social and economic plan which derived form the research people conducted by themselves in their community. The result shows that community uses knowledge management in recording income and expense, analyzing their consumption, and then systematic planning of the production, distribution and consumption in the community. Besides, community enterprises, that people create as the by-products of master plan, can facilitate diverse economic activities which are able to reduce economic problem and poverty. The knowledge that people gain from solving their problem through building community enterprises are both tacit and explicit knowledge. Four styles of knowledge conversion: socialization,externalization, combination and internalization, are used. Besides, knowledge sharing inside the organization, between organizations and its environment are found. Keywordsknowledge management, community enterprise, Thailand.

Keywords: knowledge management, community enterprise, Thailand

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Authors: Nopparat Pochai

Abstract:

Smoke discharging is a main reason of air pollution problem from industrial plants. The obstacle of a building has an affect with the air pollutant discharge. In this research, a mathematical model of the smoke dispersion from two sources and one source with a structural obstacle is considered. The governing equation of the model is an isothermal mass transfer model in a viscous fluid. The finite element method is used to approximate the solutions of the model. The triangular linear elements have been used for discretising the domain, and time integration has been carried out by semi-implicit finite difference method. The simulations of smoke dispersion in cases of one chimney and two chimneys are presented. The maximum calculated smoke concentration of both cases are compared. It is then used to make the decision for smoke discharging and air pollutant control problems on industrial area.

Keywords: Air pollution, Smoke dispersion, Finite element method, Stream function, Vorticity equation, Convection-diffusion equation, Semi-implicit method

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Authors: Esra E. Aleisa

Abstract:

A local municipality has decided to build a sewage pit to receive residential sewage waste arriving by tank trucks. Daily accumulated waste are to be pumped to a nearby waste water treatment facility to be re-consumed for agricultural and construction projects. A discrete-event simulation model using Arena Software was constructed to assist in defining the capacity of the system in cubic meters, number of tank trucks to use the system, number of unload docks required, number of standby areas needed and manpower required for data collection at entrance checkpoint and truck tank load toxicity testing. The results of the model are statistically validated. Simulation turned out to be an excellent tool in the facility planning effort for the pit project, as it insured smooth flow lines of tank trucks load discharge and best utilization of facilities on site.

Keywords: Discrete-event simulation, Facilities Planning, Layout, Pit, Sewage management.

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Authors: Sannikumar Patel, Brian Nolan, Markus Hofmann, Philip Owende, Kunjan Patel

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Sentiment analysis and opinion mining have become emerging topics of research in recent years but most of the work is focused on data in the English language. A comprehensive research and analysis are essential which considers multiple languages, machine translation techniques, and different classifiers. This paper presents, a comparative analysis of different approaches for multilingual sentiment analysis. These approaches are divided into two parts: one using classification of text without language translation and second using the translation of testing data to a target language, such as English, before classification. The presented research and results are useful for understanding whether machine translation should be used for multilingual sentiment analysis or building language specific sentiment classification systems is a better approach. The effects of language translation techniques, features, and accuracy of various classifiers for multilingual sentiment analysis is also discussed in this study.

Keywords: Cross-language analysis, machine learning, machine translation, sentiment analysis.

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Authors: Ning Xue, Srinivas Merugu, Ignacio Delgado Martinez, Tao Sun, John Tsang, Shih-Cheng Yen

Abstract:

We have developed a polyimide based neural interface electrode to record nerve signals from the sciatic nerve of a rat. The neural interface electrode has a split-ring shape, with four protruding gold electrodes for recording, and two reference gold electrodes around the split-ring. The split-ring electrode can be opened up to encircle the sciatic nerve. The four electrodes can be bent to sit on top of the nerve and hold the device in position, while the split-ring frame remains flat. In comparison, while traditional cuff electrodes can only fit certain sizes of the nerve, the developed device can fit a variety of rat sciatic nerve dimensions from 0.6 mm to 1.0 mm, and adapt to the chronic changes in the nerve as the electrode tips are bendable. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement was conducted. The gold electrode impedance is on the order of 10 kΩ, showing excellent charge injection capacity to record neural signals.

Keywords: Impedance, neural interface, split-ring electrode.

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Authors: M. Hajzler, J. Klimesova, T. Streda, K. Vejrazka, V. Marecek, T. Cholastova

Abstract:

The most planted cover crops in the Czech Republic are mustard (Sinapis alba) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.). A field trial was executed to evaluate root system size (RSS) in eight varieties of mustard and five varieties of phacelia on two locations, in three BBCH phases and in two years. The relationship between RSS and aboveground biomass was inquired. The root system was assessed by measuring its electric capacity. Aboveground mass and root samples to be evaluated by means of a digital image analysis were recovered in the BBCH phase 70. The yield of aboveground biomass of mustard was always statistically significantly higher than that of phacelia. Mustard showed a statistically significant negative correlation between root length density (RLD) within 10 cm and aboveground biomass weight (r = - 0.46*). Phacelia featured a statistically significant correlation between aboveground biomass production and nitrate nitrogen content in soil (r=0.782**).

Keywords: Aboveground Biomass, Cover crop, Nitrogen content, Root system size

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Authors: Elias O. Tembe, Hussain A. Al-Salamin

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There is decagram of strategic decisions of operations and production/service management (POSM) within operational research (OR) which must collate, namely: design, inventory, quality, location, process and capacity, layout, scheduling, maintain ace, and supply chain. This paper presents an architectural configuration conceptual framework of a decagram of sets decisions in a form of mathematical complete graph and abelian graph. Mathematically, a complete graph is undirected (UDG), and directed (DG) a relationship where every pair of vertices is connected, collated, confluent, and holomorphic. There has not been any study conducted which, however, prioritizes the holomorphic sets which of POMS within OR field of study. The study utilizes OR structured technique known as The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis for organizing, sorting and prioritizing(ranking) the sets within the decagram of POMS according to their attribution (propensity), and provides an analysis how the prioritization has real-world application within the 21st century.

Keywords: AHP analysis, Decagram, Decagon, Holomorphic.

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Authors: Muhammad Hazwan H., Azlina M.F., Hasfalina C.M., Zurina Z.A., Hishamuddin J

Abstract:

Gaharu that produced by Aquilaria spp. is classified as one of the most valuable forest products traded internationally as it is very resinous, fragrant and highly valuable heartwood. Gaharu has been widely used in aromatheraphy, medicine, perfume and religious practices. This work aimed to determine the factors affecting solid liquid extraction of gaharu oil using hexane as solvent under experimental condition. The kinetics of extraction was assumed and verified based on a second-order mechanism. The effect of three main factors, which were temperature, reaction time and solvent to solid ratio were investigated to achieve maximum oil yield. The optimum condition were found at temperature 65°C, 9 hours reaction time and solvent to solid ratio of 12:1 with 14.5% oil yield. The kinetics experimental data agrees and well fitted with the second order extraction model. The initial extraction rate (h) was 0.0115 gmL-1min-1; the extraction capacity (Cs) was 1.282gmL-1; the second order extraction constant (k) was 0.007 mLg-1min-1 and coefficient of determination, R2 was 0.945.

Keywords: Gaharu, solid liquid extraction, optimization, kinetics.

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Authors: Nashwa Kamel Ibrahim

Abstract:

Kombucha Tea Ferment (KT), was given to male albino rats, (1ml/Kg of body weight), via gavages, during 2 weeks before intraperitoneal administration of 3.5 mg/Kg body weight CdCl2 and/or whole body γ-irradiation with 4Gy, and during 4 weeks after each treatment. Hepatic and nephritic pathological changes included significant increases of serum alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities, and creatinine and urea contents with significant decrease in serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Increase in oxidative stress markers in liver and kidney tissues expressed by significant increase in malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) contents associated to significant depletion in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, and reduced glutathione (GSH) content were recorded. KT administration results in recovery of all the pathological changes. It could be concluded that KT might protect liver and kidney from oxidative damage induced by exposure to cadmium and/ or γ-irradiation.

Keywords: Cadmium, Kombucha, radiation, rats

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Authors: Ilario Gabriele Gerloni, Vincenza Carchiolo, Alessandro Longheu, Ugo Becciani, Eva Sciacca, Fabio Vitello

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ICT tools and platforms endorse more and more educational process. Many models and techniques for people to be educated and trained about specific topics and skills do exist, as classroom lectures with textbooks, computers, handheld devices and others. The choice to what extent ICT is applied within learning contexts is related to personal access to technologies as well as to the infrastructure surrounding environment. Among recent techniques, the adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) provides significant impulse in fully engaging users senses. In this paper, an application of AR/VR within Geographic Information Systems (GIS) context is presented. It aims to provide immersive environment experiences for educational and training purposes (e.g. for civil protection personnel), useful especially for situations where real scenarios are not easily accessible by humans. First acknowledgments are promising for building an effective tool that helps civil protection personnel training with risk reduction.

Keywords: Education, virtual reality, augmented reality, civil protection.

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Authors: Marut Pichetvit

Abstract:

The research objective aims to search information about storytelling and fable associated with fireflies in Amphawa community, in order to design and create a story book which is appropriate for the interests of children in early childhood. This book should help building the development of learning about the natural environment, imagination, and creativity among children, which then, brings about the promotion of the development, conservation and dissemination of cultural values and uniqueness of the Amphawa community. The population used in this study were 30 students in early childhood aged between 6-8 years-old, grade 1-3 from the Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The method used for this study was purposive sampling and the research conducted by the query and analysis of data from both the document and the narrative field tales and fable associated with the fireflies of Amphawa community. Then, using the results to synthesize and create a conceptual design in a form of 8 visual images which were later applied to 1 illustrated children’s book and presented to the experts to evaluate and test this media.

Keywords: Children’s illustrated book, Fireflies, Amphawa.

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Authors: Immanuel I. Bitto, Thomas Agam

Abstract:

28 healthy adult Maradi bucks were used to evaluate sperm production and sperm storage capacity in the breed. Daily sperm production (DSP) averaged 0.55±0.05x109, while the daily sperm production/g (DSP/g) was 1.37±0.12 x107. Gonadal sperm reserve was 1.99±0.18 x109, while the caput, upper corpus and lower corpus averaged 0.58±0.04 x109, 0.36±0.02 x109 and 0.33±0.08 x109 respectively. The proximal cauda, mid cauda, distal cauda and ductus deferens had values of 0.68±0.10 x109, 1.23±0.16 x109,1.87±0. x109and 0.17±0.05 x109 respectively. The relative contributions of the respective epididymal sections and ductus deferens to the total extragonadal sperm reserves were, 11.11%, 6.89%, 6.32%, 13.03%, 23.56%, 35.82% and 3.26% respectively. Gonadal sperm reserves were significantly higher (p<0.05) than caput reserves, upper corpus reserves, lower corpus reserves, proximal cauda reserves and ductus deferens reserves. Gonadal reserves were however similar (p>0.05) to mid cauda and distal cauda epididymal reserves.

Keywords: Goats, Reserves, Sperm, Tropics

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Authors: M.C.S. Ribeiro, J.P. Meixedo, A. Fiúza, M.L. Dinis, Ana C. Meira Castro, F.J.G. Silva, C. Costa, F. Ferreira, M.R. Alvim

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In this study the effect of incorporation of recycled glass-fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) waste materials, obtained by means of milling processes, on mechanical behaviour of polyester polymer mortars was assessed. For this purpose, different contents of recycled GFRP waste powder and fibres, with distinct size gradings, were incorporated into polyester based mortars as sand aggregates and filler replacements. Flexural and compressive loading capacities were evaluated and found better than unmodified polymer mortars. GFRP modified polyester based mortars also show a less brittle behaviour, with retention of some loading capacity after peak load. Obtained results highlight the high potential of recycled GFRP waste materials as efficient and sustainable reinforcement and admixture for polymer concrete and mortars composites, constituting an emergent waste management solution.

Keywords: GFRP waste, Mechanical behaviour, Polymer mortars, Recyclability.

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Authors: A. Khebli, S. Aguib, Y. Kateb, L. Guenfoud, N. Chikh, M. Tourab, T. Djedid, W. Dilmi, A. Hadidi, H. Meglouli

Abstract:

Composite structures based on magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are widely used in many industrial sectors, such as automotive, naval, railway, aeronautical, aerospace, and building industries because of their adjustable mechanical properties by an external stimulus. In this work, experimental tests and numerical simulations carried out have shown that the use of these new structures, developed from honeycomb core, and MRE with aluminum skins, make it possible to improve particularly the overall rigidity and to reduce the vibration amplitudes. The results found showed that these hybrid structures have a very good mechanical resistance due mainly to the honeycomb core, and a very good shock absorber due mainly to the core of the MRE. The elaborated composite structure is intended to be used in industrial sectors subject to great efforts and a high amplitude of vibration such as helicopter wings and air turbines.

Keywords: Hybrid sandwich structures, magnetorheological elastomer, honeycomb, 3-point bending, mechanical strength.

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