Search results for: minimum inhibitory concentration

Authors: Weifeng Wang, Xianwei Zeng, Jianping Ding

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Nanomaterials have attracted considerable attention during the last two decades, due to their unusual electrical, mechanical and other physical properties as compared with their bulky counterparts. The mechanical properties of nanostructured materials show strong size dependency, which has been explained within the framework of continuum mechanics by including the effects of surface stress. The size-dependent deformations of two-dimensional nanosized structures with surface effects are investigated in the paper by the finite element method. Truss element is used to evaluate the contribution of surface stress to the total potential energy and the Gurtin and Murdoch surface stress model is implemented with ANSYS through its user programmable features. The proposed approach is used to investigate size-dependent stress concentration around a nanosized circular hole and the size-dependent effective moduli of nanoporous materials. Numerical results are compared with available analytical results to validate the proposed modeling approach.

Keywords: Nanomaterials, finite element method, sizedependency, surface stress

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Authors: Ali A. Alshatwi, Vaiyapuri S. Periasamy, Jegan Athinarayanan

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Engineered nanoparticles’ usage rapidly increased in various applications in the last decade due to their unusual properties. However, there is an ever increasing concern to understand their toxicological effect in human health. Particularly, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles have been used in various sectors including biomedical, food and agriculture. But their impact on human health is yet to be fully understood. In this present investigation, we assessed the toxic effect of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) including Ag, MgO and Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) on human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) adopting cell viability and cellular morphological changes as tools The results suggested that silver NPs are more toxic than MgO and Co3O4NPs. The ENPs induced cytotoxicity and nuclear morphological changes in hMSC depending on dose. The cell viability decreases with increase in concentration of ENPs. The cellular morphology studies revealed that ENPs damaged the cells. These preliminary findings have implications for the use of these nanoparticles in food industry with systematic regulations.

Keywords: Cobalt oxide, Human mesenchymal stem cells, MgO, Silver.

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Authors: Tatyana Alexandrova, Alexandr Alexandrov, Nadezhda Nikolaeva

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A problem of complex mineral resources development is urgent and priority, it is aimed at realization of the processes of their ecologically safe development, one of its components is revealing the influence of the forms of element compounds in raw materials and in the processing products. In view of depletion of the precious metal reserves at the traditional deposits in the XXI century the large-size open cast deposits, localized in black shale strata begin to play the leading role. Carbonaceous (black) shales carry a heightened metallogenic potential. Black shales with high content of carbon are widely distributed within the scope of Bureinsky massif. According to academician Hanchuk`s data black shales of Sutirskaya series contain generally PGEs native form. The presence of high absorptive towards carbonaceous matter gold and PGEs compounds in crude ore results in decrease of valuable components extraction because of their sorption into dissipated carbonaceous matter.

Keywords: Сarbonaceous rocks, bitumens, precious metals, concentration, extraction.

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Authors: A. Hemmati, H. Mirsaeedghazi, M. Aboonajmi

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Carrot juice is one of the most nutritious foods that are consumed around the world. Large particles in carrot juice causing turbid appearance make some problems in the concentration process such as off-flavor due to the large particles burnt on the walls of evaporators. Microfiltration (MF) is a pressure driven membrane separation method that can clarify fruit juices without enzymatic treatment. Fouling is the main problem in the membrane process causing reduction of permeate flux. Ultrasound as a cleaning technique was applied at 20 kHz to reduce fouling in membrane clarification of carrot juice using dead-end MF system with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. Results showed that application of ultrasound waves reduce diphasic characteristic of carrot juice and permeate flux increased. Evaluation of different membrane fouling mechanisms showed that application of ultrasound waves changed creation time of each fouling mechanism. Also, its behavior was changed with varying transmembrane pressure.

Keywords: Carrot juice, dead end, microfiltration, ultrasound.

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Authors: Boonyisa Wanitwattanarumlug, Apanee Luengnaruemitchai, Sujitra Wongkasemjit

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The complexity of lignocellulosic biomass requires a pretreatment step to improve the yield of fermentable sugars. The efficient pretreatment of corn cobs using microwave and potassium hydroxide and enzymatic hydrolysis was investigated. The objective of this work was to characterize the optimal condition of pretreatment of corn cobs using microwave and potassium hydroxide enhance enzymatic hydrolysis. Corn cobs were submerged in different potassium hydroxide concentration at varies temperature and resident time. The pretreated corn cobs were hydrolyzed to produce the reducing sugar for analysis. The morphology and microstructure of samples were investigated by Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that lignin and hemicellulose were removed by microwave/potassium hydroxide pretreatment. The crystallinity of the pretreated corn cobs was higher than the untreated. This method was compared with autoclave and conventional heating method. The results indicated that microwave-alkali treatment was an efficient way to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis rate by increasing its accessibility hydrolysis enzymes.

Keywords: Corn cobs, Enzymatic hydrolysis, Microwave, Potassium hydroxide, Pretreatment.

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Authors: Fridhi Hadia, Soua Wadhah, Hidouri Ammar, Omri Ahmed

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In order to understand the auto-ignition process in a HCCI engine better, the influence of some important parameters on the auto-ignition is investigated. The inlet temperature, the inlet pressure, and the compression ratio were varied and their influence on the ignition delays and emission characteristics were studied. The inlet temperature was changed from 400 K to 460 K (in step of 15 K), the inlet pressure from 0.9 to 3 atm, while the compression ratio varied from 15 to 23. The fuel that was investigated is isooctane. The inlet temperature, the inlet pressure, and the compression ratio appeared to decrease the ignition delays, with the inlet pressure having the least influence and the compression ratio the most. The effect of these parameters on emissions’ characteristics were also investigated. Results indicate that increasing the compression ratio results in increasing the concentration of all the species.

Keywords: Compression Ratio, intake temperature, intake pressure, HCCI engine, isooctane.

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Authors: Brian H. Marsh, John H. Grove

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Gypsum is being applied to ameliorate subsoil acidity and to overcome the problem of very slow lime movement from surface lime applications. Reduced Crude Conversion Spent Lime (RCCSL) containing anhydrite was evaluated for use as a liming material with specific consideration given to the movement of sulfate into the acid subsoil. Agricultural lime and RCCSL were applied at 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 times the lime requirement of 6.72 Mg ha^-1 to an acid Trappist silt loam (TypicHapuldult). Corn [Zea mays (L.)]was grown following lime material application and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]was grown in the second year.Soil pH increased rapidly with the addition of the RCCSL material. Over time there was no difference in soil pH between the materials but there was with increasing rate. None of the observed changes in plant nutrient concentration had an impact on yield. Grain yield was higher for the RCCSL amended treatments in the first year but not in the second. There was a significant increase in soybean grain yield from the full lime requirement treatments over no lime.

Keywords: Soil acidity, corn, soybean, liming materials.

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Authors: Giacomo Barbieri

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In soilless culture, the management of the nutrient solution is the most important aspect for crop growing. Fertigation dose, frequency and nutrient concentration must be planned with the objective of reaching an optimal crop growth by limiting the utilized resources and the associated costs. The definition of efficient fertigation strategies is a complex problem since fertigation requirements vary on the basis of different factors, and crops are sensitive to small variations on fertigation parameters. To the best of author knowledge, a small-scale test bench that is flexible for both nutrient solution preparation and precise irrigation is currently missing, limiting the investigations in standard practices for soilless culture. Starting from the analysis of the state of the art, this paper proposes a small-scale system that is potentially able to concurrently test different fertigation strategies. The system will be designed and implemented throughout a three year project started on August 2018. However, due to the importance of the topic within current challenges as food security and climate change, this work is spread considering that may inspire other universities and organizations.

Keywords: Soilless culture, fertigation, test bench, small-scale, automation.

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Authors: Ana Lambelho

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In an economic crisis such as the one that shook (and still shake) Europe, one does not question the importance of the measures that encourage the hiring and integration of young people into the labour market. In the mentioned context, enterprises tend to reduce the cost of labour and to seek flexible contracting instruments. The professional internships allow innovation and creativity at low cost, because, as they are not labour contracts, the enterprises do not have to respect the minimum standards related to wages, working time duration and so on. In Portugal, we observe a widespread existence of training contracts in which the trainee worked several hours without salary or was paid below the legally prescribed for the function and the work period. For this reason, under the tripartite agreement for a new system of regulation of labour relations, employment policies and social protection, between the Government and the social partners, in June 2008, foresaw a prohibition of professional internships unpaid and the legal regulation of the mandatory internships for access to an activity. The first Act about private internship contracts, i.e., internships without public funding was embodied in the Decree-Law N. 66/2011, of 1^st June. This work is dedicated to the study of the legal regime of the internship contract in Portugal, by analysing the problems brought by the new set of rules and especially those which remains unresolved. In fact, we can conclude that the number of situations covered by the Act is much lower than what was expected, because of the exclusion of the mandatory internship for access to a profession when the activity is developed autonomously. Since the majority of the activities can be developed both autonomously or subordinated, it is quite easy to out of the Act requirements and, so, out of the protection that it confers to the intern. In order to complete this study, we considered not only the mentioned legal Act, but also the few doctrine and jurisprudence about the theme.

Keywords: Intern, internship contact, labour law, Portugal.

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Authors: M. Donmez, F. Akbal

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In this study arsenate [As(V)] removal from drinking water by coagulation process was investigated. Ferric chloride (FeCl3.6H2O) and ferrous sulfate (FeSO4.7H2O) were used as coagulant. The effects of major operating variables such as coagulant dose (1–30 mg/L) and pH (5.5–9.5) were investigated. Ferric chloride and ferrous sulfate were found as effective and reliable coagulant due to required dose, residual arsenate and coagulant concentration. Optimum pH values for maximum arsenate removal for ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride were found as 8 and 7.5. The arsenate removal efficiency decreased at neutral and acidic pH values for Fe(II) and at the high acidic and high alkaline pH for Fe(III). It was found that the increase of coagulant dose caused a substantial increase in the arsenate removal. But above a certain ferric chloride and ferrous sulfate dosage, the increase in arsenate removal was not significant. Ferric chloride and ferrous sulfate dose above 8 mg/L slightly increased arsenate removal.

Keywords: Arsenic removal, coagulation, ıron salts, drinking water.

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Authors: Chinedu Ejike

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The United States is now energy self-sufficient due to the production of shale oil reserves. With more than half of it being tapped daily in the United States, these unconventional reserves are massive and provide immense potential for future energy demands. Drilling horizontal wells and fracking are the primary methods for developing these reserves. Regrettably, recovery efficiency is rarely greater than 10%. Gas injection enhanced oil recovery offers a significant benefit in optimizing recovery of shale oil. This could be either through huff and puff, gas flooding, and cyclic gas injection. Methane, nitrogen, and carbon (IV) oxide, among other high-pressure gases, can be injected. Operators use Darcy's law to assess a reservoir's productive capacity, but they are unaware that the law may not apply to shale oil reserves. This is due to the fact that, unlike pressure differences alone, diffusion, concentration, and gas selection all play a role in the flow of gas injected into the wellbore. The reservoir drainage and oil sweep efficiency rates are determined by the transport method. This research evaluates the parameters that influence gas injection transport mechanism. Understanding the process could accelerate recovery by two to three times.

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery, gas injection, shale oil, transport mechanism, unconventional reservoir

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Authors: Syed Zohaib Javaid Zaidi, W. Iqbal

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The industrial automation is dependent upon pneumatic control systems. The industrial units are now controlled with digital control systems to tackle the process variables like Temperature, Pressure, Flow rates and Composition.

This research work produces an evaluation of the response time fluctuations for proportional mode, proportional integral and proportional integral derivative modes of automated chemical process control. The controller output is measured for different values of gain with respect to time in three modes (P, PI and PID). In case of P-mode for different values of gain the controller output has negligible change. When the controller output of PI-mode is checked for constant gain, it can be seen that by decreasing the integral time the controller output has showed more fluctuations. The PID mode results have found to be more interesting in a way that when rate minute has changed, the controller output has also showed fluctuations with respect to time.  The controller output for integral mode and derivative mode are observed with lesser steady state error, minimum offset and larger response time to control the process variable.   The tuning parameters in case of P-mode are only steady state gain with greater errors with respect to controller output. The integral mode showed controller outputs with intermediate responses during integral gain (ki).  By increasing the rate minute the derivative gain (kd) also increased which showed the controlled oscillations in case of PID mode and lesser overshoot.

Keywords: Controller Output, P, PI &PID modes, Steady state gain.

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Authors: Darn H. Hsiao, Zhu-Yun Zheng

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Since Taiwan is located between the Eurasian and Filipino plates and earthquakes often thus occur. The coastal plains in western Taiwan are alluvial plains, and the soils of the alluvium are mostly from the Lao-Shan belt in the central mountainous area of ​​southern Taiwan. It could come mostly from sand/shale and slate. The previous investigation found that the soils in the Kaohsiung area of ​​southern Taiwan are mainly composed of slate, shale, quartz, low-plastic clay, silt, silty sand and so on. It can also be found from the past earthquakes that the soil in Kaohsiung is highly susceptible to soil subsidence due to liquefaction. Insufficient bearing capacity of building will cause soil liquefaction disasters. In this study, the boring drilling data from nine districts among the Love River Basin in the city center, and some factors affecting liquefaction include the content of fines (FC), standard penetration test N value (SPT N), the thickness of clay layer near ground-surface, and the thickness of possible liquefied soil were further discussed for liquefaction potential as well as groundwater level. The results show that the liquefaction potential is higher in the areas near the riverside, the backfill area, and the west area of ​​the study area. This paper also uses the old paleo-geological map, soil particle distribution curve, compared with LPI map calculated from the analysis results. After all the parameters finally were studied for five sub zones in the Love River Basin by maximum-minimum method, it is found that both of standard penetration test N value and the thickness of the clay layer will be most influential.

Keywords: Liquefaction, western Taiwan, liquefaction potential map, factors influence high liquefaction potential areas, LPI analysis.

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Authors: Sh. Ranjbar-Bahadori, N. Farhadifar, L. Mohammadyar

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Plant preparations from thyme and garlic have been shown to be effective acaricides against the poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae. In a layer house with a history of D. gallinae problem, mites were detected in the monitoring traps for the first time and number of them was counted. Then, some rows of layer house was sprayed twice using a concentration of 0.21 mg/cm² thyme essential oil and 0.07 mg/cm² garlic juice and a similar row was used as an untreated control group. Red mite traps made of cardboard were used to assess the mite density during days 1 and 7 after treatment and always removed after 24 h. the collected mites were counted and the efficacy against all mite stages (larvae, nymphs and adults) was calculated. Results showed that on day 1 and 7 after the administration of garlic extract efficacy rate was 92.05% and 74.62%, respectively. Moreover, efficacy rate on day 1 and 7 was 89.4% and 95.37% when treatment was done with thyme essential oil. It is concluded that using garlic juice to control of D. gallinae is more effective on short time. But thyme essential oil has a long time effect in compare to garlic preparation.

Keywords: Dermanyssus gallinae, Essential oil, Garlic, Thyme, Efficacy.

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Authors: Vikram Jeganathan, A. V. Sai Balasubramanian, N. Ravi Shankar, S. Subbaraman, R. Rengaraj

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Heating systems are a necessity for regions which brace extreme cold weather throughout the year. To maintain a comfortable temperature inside a given place, heating systems making use of- Hydronic boilers- are used. The principle of a single pipe system serves as a base for their working. It is mandatory for these heating systems to control the room temperature, thus maintaining a warm environment. In this paper, the concept of regulation of the room temperature over a wide range is established by using an Adaptive Fuzzy Controller (AFC). This fuzzy controller automatically detects the changes in the outside temperatures and correspondingly maintains the inside temperature to a palatial value. Two separate AFC's are put to use to carry out this function: one to determine the quantity of heat needed to reach the prospective temperature required and to set the desired temperature; the other to control the position of the valve, which is directly proportional to the error between the present room temperature and the user desired temperature. The fuzzy logic controls the position of the valve as per the requirement of the heat. The amount by which the valve opens or closes is controlled by 5 knob positions, which vary from minimum to maximum, thereby regulating the amount of heat flowing through the valve. For the given test system data, different de-fuzzifier methods have been implemented and the results are compared. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a fuzzy controller has been designed by obtaining a test data from a real time system. The simulations are performed in MATLAB and are verified with standard system data. The proposed approach can be implemented for real time applications.

Keywords: Adaptive fuzzy controller, Hydronic heating system

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Authors: P. Abachi, T. W. Coyle, P. S. Musavi Gharavi

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By applying coating onto a structural component, the corrosion and/or wear resistance requirements of the surface can be fulfilled. Since the layer adhesion of the coating influences the mechanical integrity of the coat/substrate interface during the service time, it should be examined accurately. At the present work, the tensile bonding strength of the 316 stainless steel plasma sprayed coating on aluminum substrate was determined by using tensile adhesion test, TAT, specimen. The interfacial fracture toughness was specified using four-point bend specimen containing a saw notch and modified chevron-notched short-bar (SB) specimen. The coating microstructure and fractured specimen surface were examined by using scanning electron- and optical-microscopy. The investigation of coated surface after tensile adhesion test indicates that the failure mechanism is mostly cohesive and rarely adhesive type. The calculated value of critical strain energy release rate proposes relatively good interface status. It seems that four-point bending test offers a potentially more sensitive means for evaluation of mechanical integrity of coating/substrate interfaces than is possible with the tensile test. The fracture toughness value reported for the modified chevron-notched short-bar specimen testing cannot be taken as absolute value because its calculation is based on the minimum stress intensity coefficient value which has been suggested for the fracture toughness determination of homogeneous parts in the ASTM E1304-97 standard. 

Keywords: Bonding strength, four-point bend test, interfacial fracture toughness, modified chevron-notched short-bar specimen, plasma sprayed coating.

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Authors: I. Krasnova, L. Dukalska, D. Seglina, K. Juhnevica, E. Sne, D. Karklina

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Experiments were carried out at the Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing in 2011. Fresh-cut minimally processed apple and pear mixed salad were packed by passive modified atmosphere (MAP) in PP containers, which were hermetically sealed by breathable conventional BOPP PropafreshTM P2GAF, and Amcor Agrifresh films. Biodegradable NatureFlexTM NVS INNOVIA Films and VC999 BioPack PLA films coated with a barrier of pure silicon oxide (SiOx) were used to compare the fresh-cut produce quality with this packed in conventional packaging films. Samples were cold stored at temperature +4.0±0.5 °C up to 10 days. The quality of salad was evaluated by physicochemical properties – weight losses, moisture, firmness, the effect of packaging modes on the colour, dynamics in headspace atmosphere concentration (CO2 and O2), titratable acidity values, as well as by microbiological contamination (yeasts, moulds and total bacteria count) of salads, analyzing before packaging and after 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 storage days.

Keywords: Biodegradable packaging, conventional, fresh-cut fruit salad

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Authors: M. Meriem-Benziane, Sabah A. Abdul-Wahab, H. Zahloul, M. Belhadri

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This paper made an attempt to investigate the problem associated with enhancement of emulsions of light crude oil-water recovery in an oil field of Algerian Sahara. Measurements were taken through experiments using RheoStress (RS600). Factors such as shear rate, temperature and light oil concentration on the viscosity behavior were considered. Experimental measurements were performed in terms of shear stress–shear rate, yield stress and flow index on mixture of light crude oil–water. The rheological behavior of emulsion showed Non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior (Herschel-Bulkley). The experiments done in the laboratory showed the stability of some water in light crude oil emulsions form during consolidate oil recovery process. To break the emulsion using additives may involve higher cost and could be very expensive. Therefore, further research should be directed to find solution of these problems that have been encountered.

Keywords: Emulsion, Flow index, Herschel-Bulkley model, Newton model, Oil field, Rheology, Yield stress

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Authors: Ploysai Ohama, Nattida Tumpat

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Natural dye extracted from Caesalpinia sappan Linn. was applied to a cotton fabric and silk yarn by dyeing process. The dyestuff component of Caesalpinia sappan Linn. was extracted using water and ethanol. Analytical studies such as UV–VIS spectrophotometry and gravimetric analysis were performed on the extracts. Brazilein, the major dyestuff component of Caesalpinia sappan Linn. was confirmed in both aqueous and ethanolic extracts by UV–VIS spectrum. The color of each dyed material was investigated in terms of the CIELAB (L*, a* and b*) and K/S values. Cotton fabric dyed without mordant had a shade of reddish-brown, while those post-mordanted with aluminum potassium sulfate, ferrous sulfate and copper sulfate produced a variety of wine red to dark purple color shades. Cotton fabric and silk yarn dyeing was studied using aluminum potassium sulfate as a mordant. The observed color strength was enhanced with increase in mordant concentration.

Keywords: Natural dyes, Plant materials, Dyeing, Mordant.

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Authors: E.Kvesitadze, T.Sadunishvili, G.Kvesitadze

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As a result of urbanization, the unpredictable growth of industry and transport, production of chemicals, military activities, etc. the concentration of anthropogenic toxicants spread in nature exceeds all the permissible standards. Most dangerous among these contaminants are organic compounds having great persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity along with our awareness of their prominent occurrence in the environment and food chain. Among natural ecological tools, plants still occupying above 40% of the world land, until recently, were considered as organisms having only a limited ecological potential, accumulating in plant biomass and partially volatilizing contaminants of different structure. However, analysis of experimental data of the last two decades revealed the essential role of plants in environment remediation due to ability to carry out intracellular degradation processes leading to partial or complete decomposition of carbon skeleton of different structure contaminants. Though, phytoremediation technologies still are in research and development, their various applications have been successfully used. The paper aims to analyze mechanisms of organic contaminants uptake and detoxification in plants, being the less studied issue in evaluation and exploration of plants potential for environment remediation.

Keywords: organic contaminants, Detoxification, metalloenzymes, plant ultrastructure.

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Authors: J. K Adedeji, O. H Olowomofe, C. O Alo, S.T Ijatuyi

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The issue of high blood sugar level, the effects of which might end up as diabetes mellitus, is now becoming a rampant cardiovascular disorder in our community. In recent times, a lack of awareness among most people makes this disease a silent killer. The situation calls for urgency, hence the need to design a device that serves as a monitoring tool such as a wrist watch to give an alert of the danger a head of time to those living with high blood glucose, as well as to introduce a mechanism for checks and balances. The neural network architecture assumed 8-15-10 configuration with eight neurons at the input stage including a bias, 15 neurons at the hidden layer at the processing stage, and 10 neurons at the output stage indicating likely symptoms cases. The inputs are formed using the exclusive OR (XOR), with the expectation of getting an XOR output as the threshold value for diabetic symptom cases. The neural algorithm is coded in Java language with 1000 epoch runs to bring the errors into the barest minimum. The internal circuitry of the device comprises the compatible hardware requirement that matches the nature of each of the input neurons. The light emitting diodes (LED) of red, green, and yellow colors are used as the output for the neural network to show pattern recognition for severe cases, pre-hypertensive cases and normal without the traces of diabetes mellitus. The research concluded that neural network is an efficient Accu-Chek design tool for the proper monitoring of high glucose levels than the conventional methods of carrying out blood test.

Keywords: Accu-Chek, diabetes, neural network, pattern recognition.

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Authors: Ayub V. O. Ofulla, Jackson H. O. Onyuka, Samuel Wagai, Douglas Anyona, Gabriel O. Dida, John Gichuki

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This study was set to determine the antimicrobial activities of brine salting, chlorinated solution, and oil frying treatments on enteric bacteria and fungi in Rastrineobola argentea fish from fish landing beaches within L. Victoria basin of western Kenya. Statistical differences in effectiveness of the different treatment methods was determined by single factor ANOVA, and paired two-tail t-Test was performed to compare the differences in moisture contents before and after storage. Oil fried fish recorded the lowest microbial loads, sodium chloride at 10% concentration was the second most effective and chlorinated solution even at 150ppm was the least effective against the bacteria and fungi in fish. Moisture contents of the control and treated fish were significantly lower after storage. These results show that oil frying of fish should be adopted for processing and preserving Rastrineobola argentea which is the most abundant and affordable fish species from Lake Victoria.

Keywords: Fish landing beaches, Lake Victoria, oil frying, preservatives.

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Authors: Navneet Singh Deora, Aastha Deswal, H. N. Mishra

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Pasta is one of the most widely consumed food products around the world. Rapid determination of the moisture content in pasta will assist food processors to provide online quality control of pasta during large scale production. Rapid Fourier transform near-infrared method (FT-NIR) was developed for determining moisture content in pasta. A calibration set of 150 samples, a validation set of 30 samples and a prediction set of 25 samples of pasta were used. The diffuse reflection spectra of different types of pastas were measured by FT-NIR analyzer in the 4,000-12,000cm^-1 spectral range. Calibration and validation sets were designed for the conception and evaluation of the method adequacy in the range of moisture content 10 to 15 percent (w.b) of the pasta. The prediction models based on partial least squares (PLS) regression, were developed in the near-infrared. Conventional criteria such as the R², the root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV), root mean square errors of estimation (RMSEE) as well as the number of PLS factors were considered for the selection of three pre-processing (vector normalization, minimum-maximum normalization and multiplicative scatter correction) methods. Spectra of pasta sample were treated with different mathematic pre-treatments before being used to build models between the spectral information and moisture content. The moisture content in pasta predicted by FT-NIR methods had very good correlation with their values determined via traditional methods (R² = 0.983), which clearly indicated that FT-NIR methods could be used as an effective tool for rapid determination of moisture content in pasta. The best calibration model was developed with min-max normalization (MMN) spectral pre-processing (R² = 0.9775). The MMN pre-processing method was found most suitable and the maximum coefficient of determination (R²) value of 0.9875 was obtained for the calibration model developed.

Keywords: FT-NIR, Pasta, moisture determination.

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Authors: Mohammad D. AL-Tahat, Shahnaz M. Alkhalil

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International markets driven forces are changing continuously, therefore companies need to gain a competitive edge in such markets. Improving the company's products, processes and practices is no longer auxiliary. Lean production is a production management philosophy that consolidates work tasks with minimum waste resulting in improved productivity. Lean production practices can be mapped into many production areas. One of these is Manufacturing Equipment and Technology (MET). Many lean production practices can be implemented in MET, namely, specific equipment configurations, total preventive maintenance, visual control, new equipment/ technologies, production process reengineering and shared vision of perfection.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation level of these six practices in Jordanian industries. To achieve that a questionnaire survey has been designed according to five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire is validated through pilot study and through experts review. A sample of 350 Jordanian companies were surveyed, the response rate was 83%. The respondents were asked to rate the extent of implementation for each of practices. A relationship conceptual model is developed, hypotheses are proposed, and consequently the essential statistical analyses are then performed. An assessment tool that enables management to monitor the progress and the effectiveness of lean practices implementation is designed and presented. Consequently, the results show that the average implementation level of lean practices in MET is 77%, Jordanian companies are implementing successfully the considered lean production practices, and the presented model has Cronbach-s alpha value of 0.87 which is good evidence on model consistency and results validation.

Keywords: Lean Production, SME applications, Visual Control, New equipment/technologies, Specific equipment configurations, Jordan

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Authors: M. S. Agha, A. M. Eshahiry, S. A. Aldabbar, Z. M. Alshahri

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The propagation of microwave is affected by rain and dust particles causing signal attenuation and de-polarization. Computations of these effects require knowledge of the propagation characteristics of microwave and millimeter wave energy in the climate conditions of the studied region. This paper presents effect of wind and humidity on wireless communication such as microwave links in the North West region of Libya (Al-Khoms). The experimental procedure is done on three selected antennae towers (Nagaza station, Al-Khoms center station, Al-Khoms gateway station) for determining the attenuation loss per unit length and cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) change. Dust particles are collected along the region of the study, to measure the particle size distribution (PSD), calculate the concentration, and chemically analyze the contents, then the dielectric constant can be calculated. The results show that humidity and dust, antenna height and the visibility affect both attenuation and phase shift; in which, a few considerations must be taken into account in the communication power budget.

Keywords: Attenuation, scattering, transmission loss.

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Authors: Farhad Hekmatipour, M. A. Akhavan-Behabadi, Farzad Hekmatipour

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In this paper, experiments were conducted to investigate the heat transfer of Copper Oxide-Heat Transfer Oil (CuO-HTO) nanofluid laminar flow in vertical smooth and microfin tubes as the surface temperature is constant. The effect of adding the nanoparticle to base fluid and Richardson number on the heat transfer enhancement is investigated as Richardson number increases from 0.1 to 0.7. The experimental results demonstrate that the combined forced-natural convection heat transfer rate may be improved significantly with an increment of mass nanoparticle concentration from 0% to 1.5%. In this experiment, a correlation is also proposed to predict the mixed convection heat transfer rate of CuO-HTO nanofluid flow. The maximum deviation of both correlations is less than 14%. Moreover, a correlation is presented to estimate the Nusselt number inside vertical smooth and microfin tubes as Rayleigh number is between 2´105 and 6.8´106 with the maximum deviation of 12%.

Keywords: Nanofluid, heat transfer oil, mixed convection, vertical tube, laminar flow.

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Authors: Mikko Mäkelä, Risto Pöykiö, Gary Watkins, Hannu Nurmesniemi, Olli Dahl

Abstract:

Trace element speciation of an integrated soil amendment matrix was studied with a modified BCR sequential extraction procedure. The analysis included pseudo-total concentration determinations according to USEPA 3051A and relevant physicochemical properties by standardized methods. Based on the results, the soil amendment matrix possessed neutralization capacity comparable to commercial fertilizers. Additionally, the pseudo-total concentrations of all trace elements included in the Finnish regulation for agricultural fertilizers were lower than the respective statutory limit values. According to chemical speciation, the lability of trace elements increased in the following order: Hg < Cr < Co < Cu < As < Zn < Ni < Pb < Cd < V < Mo < Ba. The validity of the BCR approach as a tool for chemical speciation was confirmed by the additional acid digestion phase. Recovery of trace elements during the procedure assured the validity of the approach and indicated good quality of the analytical work.

Keywords: BCR, bioavailability, trace element, industrialresidue, sequential extraction

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Authors: Ajay Kushwaha, Hemen Kalita, M. Aslam

Abstract:

Post growth annealing of solution grown ZnO nanowire array is performed under controlled oxygen ambience. The role of annealing over surface defects and their consequence on dark/photo-conductivity and photosensitivity of nanowire array is investigated. Surface defect properties are explored using various measurement tools such as contact angle, photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy and XPS measurements. The contact angle of the NW films reduces due to oxygen annealing and nanowire film surface changes from hydrophobic (96°) to hydrophilic (16°). Raman and XPS spectroscopy reveal that oxygen annealing improves the crystal quality of the nanowire films. The defect band emission intensity (relative to band edge emission, ID/IUV) reduces from 1.3 to 0.2 after annealing at 600 °C at 10 SCCM flow of oxygen. An order enhancement in dark conductivity is observed in O2 annealed samples, while photoconductivity is found to be slightly reduced due to lower concentration of surface related oxygen defects.

Keywords: Zinc Oxide, Surface defects, Photoluminescence, Photoconductivity, Photosensor and Nanowire thin film.

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Authors: N. K. Ambujam, V. Sudha

Abstract:

Reservoirs are being contaminated all around the world with point source and Non-Point Source (NPS) pollution. The most common NPS pollutants are sediments and nutrients. Krishnagiri Reservoir (KR) has been chosen for the present case study, which is located in the tropical semi-arid climatic zone of Tamil Nadu, South India. It is the main source of surface water in Krishnagiri district to meet the freshwater demands. The reservoir has lost about 40% of its water holding capacity due to sedimentation over the period of 50 years. Hence, from the research and management perspective, there is a need for a sound knowledge on the spatial and seasonal variations of KR water quality. The present study encompasses the specific objectives as (i) to investigate the longitudinal heterogeneity and seasonal variations of physicochemical parameters, nutrients and biological characteristics of KR water and (ii) to examine the extent of degradation of water quality in KR. 15 sampling points were identified by uniform stratified method and a systematic monthly sampling strategy was selected due to high dynamic nature in its hydrological characteristics. The physicochemical parameters, major ions, nutrients and Chlorophyll a (Chl a) were analysed. Trophic status of KR was classified by using Carlson's Trophic State Index (TSI). All statistical analyses were performed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences programme, version-16.0. Spatial maps were prepared for Chl a using Arc GIS. Observations in KR pointed out that electrical conductivity and major ions are highly variable factors as it receives inflow from the catchment with different land use activities. The study of major ions in KR exhibited different trends in their values and it could be concluded that as the monsoon progresses the major ions in the water decreases or water quality stabilizes. The inflow point of KR showed comparatively higher concentration of nutrients including nitrate, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total phosphors (TP), total suspended phosphorus (TSP) and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) during monsoon seasons. This evidently showed the input of significant amount of nutrients from the catchment side through agricultural runoff. High concentration of TDP and TSP at the lacustrine zone of the reservoir during summer season evidently revealed that there was a significant release of phosphorus from the bottom sediments. Carlson’s TSI of KR ranged between 81 and 92 during northeast monsoon and summer seasons. High and permanent Cyanobacterial bloom in KR could be mainly due to the internal loading of phosphorus from the bottom sediments. According to Carlson’s TSI classification Krishnagiri reservoir was ranked in the hyper-eutrophic category. This study provides necessary basic data on the spatio-temporal variations of water quality in KR and also proves the impact of point and NPS pollution from the catchment area. High TSI warrants a greater threat for the recovery of internal P loading and hyper-eutrophic condition of KR. Several expensive internal measures for the reduction of internal loading of P were introduced by many scientists. However, the outcome of the present research suggests for the innovative algae harvesting technique for the removal of sediment nutrients.

Keywords: Hyper-eutrophication, Krishnagiri reservoir, nutrients, NPS pollution.

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Authors: Arash Esmaeili, Zhibang Liu, Yang Xiang, Jimmy Yun, Lei Shao

Abstract:

A high pressure carbon dioxide (CO₂) absorption from a specific gas in a conventional column has been evaluated by the Aspen HYSYS simulator using a wide range of single absorbents and blended solutions to estimate the outlet CO₂ concentration, absorption efficiency and CO₂ loading to choose the most proper solution in terms of CO₂ capture for environmental concerns. The property package (Acid Gas-Chemical Solvent) which is compatible with all applied solutions for the simulation in this study, estimates the properties based on an electrolyte non-random two-liquid (E-NRTL) model for electrolyte thermodynamics and Peng-Robinson equation of state for the vapor and liquid hydrocarbon phases. Among all the investigated single amines as well as blended solutions, piperazine (PZ) and the mixture of piperazine and monoethanolamine (MEA) have been found as the most effective absorbents respectively for CO₂ absorption with high reactivity based on the simulated operational conditions.

Keywords: Absorption, amine solutions, Aspen HYSYS, carbon dioxide, simulation.

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