Search results for: hydraulic form loss coefficient
1835 Stability and Kinetic Analysis during Vermicomposting of Sewage Sludge
Authors: Ashish Kumar Nayak, Dhamodharan K., Ajay S. Kalamdhad
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The present study is aimed at alteration of sewage sludge into stable compost product using vermicomposting of sewage sludge mixed with cattle manure and saw dust in five different proportions based on C/N ratios (C/N 15 (R1), 20 (R2), 25 (R3) and 30 (R4); and control (R5)) by employing an epigeic earthworm Eisenia fetida. Higher reductions in C/N ratio, CO2 evolution and OUR were observed in R4 demonstrated the compost stability. In addition, R4 proved to be best combination for the growth of the earthworms. In order to observe the optimal degradation, kinetics for degradation of organic matter in vermicomposting were quantitatively evaluated. An approach model was developed by assuming that composting process is carried out in a homogeneous way and the kinetics for decomposition reaction is represented by a Monod-type equation. The results exhibit comparable variations in the kinetic constants Km and K3 under varying parameters during vermicomposting process. Results suggested that higher R2 value in R4, enhanced suitability towards Lineweaver-Burke plot. R4 yields higher degradability coefficient (K) reveals that the occurrence of optimal nutrient balance, which not only enhanced the affinity of enzymes towards substrate but also improved its degradation process. Therefore, it can be proved that R4 provided to be the best feed combination for vermicomposting process as compared to other reactors.
Keywords: Vermicomposting, Eisenia fetida, Sewage sludge, C/N ratio, Stability, Enzyme kinetics concept.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23501834 Face Texture Reconstruction for Illumination Variant Face Recognition
Authors: Pengfei Xiong, Lei Huang, Changping Liu
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In illumination variant face recognition, existing methods extracting face albedo as light normalized image may lead to loss of extensive facial details, with light template discarded. To improve that, a novel approach for realistic facial texture reconstruction by combining original image and albedo image is proposed. First, light subspaces of different identities are established from the given reference face images; then by projecting the original and albedo image into each light subspace respectively, texture reference images with corresponding lighting are reconstructed and two texture subspaces are formed. According to the projections in texture subspaces, facial texture with normal light can be synthesized. Due to the combination of original image, facial details can be preserved with face albedo. In addition, image partition is applied to improve the synthesization performance. Experiments on Yale B and CMUPIE databases demonstrate that this algorithm outperforms the others both in image representation and in face recognition.Keywords: texture reconstruction, illumination, face recognition, subspaces
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14821833 Emulation of a Wind Turbine Using Induction Motor Driven by Field Oriented Control
Authors: L. Benaaouinate, M. Khafallah, A. Martinez, A. Mesbahi, T. Bouragba
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This paper concerns with the modeling, simulation, and emulation of a wind turbine emulator for standalone wind energy conversion systems. By using emulation system, we aim to reproduce the dynamic behavior of the wind turbine torque on the generator shaft: it provides the testing facilities to optimize generator control strategies in a controlled environment, without reliance on natural resources. The aerodynamic, mechanical, electrical models have been detailed as well as the control of pitch angle using Fuzzy Logic for horizontal axis wind turbines. The wind turbine emulator consists mainly of an induction motor with AC power drive with torque control. The control of the induction motor and the mathematical models of the wind turbine are designed with MATLAB/Simulink environment. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the induction motor control system and the functionality of the wind turbine emulator for providing all necessary parameters of the wind turbine system such as wind speed, output torque, power coefficient and tip speed ratio. The findings are of direct practical relevance.
Keywords: Wind turbine, modeling, emulator, electrical generator, renewable energy, induction motor drive, field oriented control, real time control, wind turbine emulator, pitch angle control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13751832 Automated Detection of Alzheimer Disease Using Region Growing technique and Artificial Neural Network
Authors: B. Al-Naami, N. Gharaibeh, A. AlRazzaq Kheshman
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Alzheimer is known as the loss of mental functions such as thinking, memory, and reasoning that is severe enough to interfere with a person's daily functioning. The appearance of Alzheimer Disease symptoms (AD) are resulted based on which part of the brain has a variety of infection or damage. In this case, the MRI is the best biomedical instrumentation can be ever used to discover the AD existence. Therefore, this paper proposed a fusion method to distinguish between the normal and (AD) MRIs. In this combined method around 27 MRIs collected from Jordanian Hospitals are analyzed based on the use of Low pass -morphological filters to get the extracted statistical outputs through intensity histogram to be employed by the descriptive box plot. Also, the artificial neural network (ANN) is applied to test the performance of this approach. Finally, the obtained result of t-test with confidence accuracy (95%) has compared with classification accuracy of ANN (100 %). The robust of the developed method can be considered effectively to diagnose and determine the type of AD image.Keywords: Alzheimer disease, Brain MRI analysis, Morphological filter, Box plot, Intensity histogram, ANN.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31421831 Profitability Assessment of Granite Aggregate Production and the Development of a Profit Assessment Model
Authors: Melodi Mbuyi Mata, Blessing Olamide Taiwo, Afolabi Ayodele David
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The purpose of this research is to create empirical models for assessing the profitability of granite aggregate production in Akure, Ondo state aggregate quarries. In addition, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model and multivariate predicting models for granite profitability were developed in the study. A formal survey questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The data extracted from the case study mine for this study include granite marketing operations, royalty, production costs, and mine production information. The following methods were used to achieve the goal of this study: descriptive statistics, MATLAB 2017, and SPSS16.0 software in analyzing and modeling the data collected from granite traders in the study areas. The ANN and Multi Variant Regression models' prediction accuracy was compared using a coefficient of determination (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and mean square error (MSE). Due to the high prediction error, the model evaluation indices revealed that the ANN model was suitable for predicting generated profit in a typical quarry. More quarries in Nigeria's southwest region and other geopolitical zones should be considered to improve ANN prediction accuracy.
Keywords: National development, granite, profitability assessment, ANN models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 831830 Composite Distributed Generation and Transmission Expansion Planning Considering Security
Authors: Amir Lotfi, Seyed Hamid Hosseini
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During the recent past, due to the increase of electrical energy demand and governmental resources constraints in creating additional capacity in the generation, transmission, and distribution, privatization, and restructuring in electrical industry have been considered. So, in most of the countries, different parts of electrical industry like generation, transmission, and distribution have been separated in order to create competition. Considering these changes, environmental issues, energy growth, investment of private equity in energy generation units and difficulties of transmission lines expansion, distributed generation (DG) units have been used in power systems. Moreover, reduction in the need for transmission and distribution, the increase of reliability, improvement of power quality, and reduction of power loss have caused DG to be placed in power systems. On the other hand, considering low liquidity need, private investors tend to spend their money for DGs. In this project, the main goal is to offer an algorithm for planning and placing DGs in order to reduce the need for transmission and distribution network.Keywords: Planning, transmission, distributed generation, power security, power systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11321829 Statistical Relation between Vegetation Cover and Land Surface Temperature in Phnom Penh City
Authors: Gulam Mohiuddin, Jan-Peter Mund
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This study assessed the correlation between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) in Phnom Penh City (Cambodia) from 2016 to 2020. Understanding the LST and NDVI can be helpful to understand the Urban Heat Island (UHI) scenario, and it can contribute to planning urban greening and combating the effects of UHI. The study used Landsat-8 images as the data for analysis. They have 100 m spatial resolution (per pixel) in the thermal band. The current study used an approach for the statistical analysis that considers every pixel from the study area instead of taking few sample points or analyzing descriptive statistics. Also, this study is examining the correlation between NDVI and LST with a spatially explicit approach. The study found a strong negative correlation between NDVI and LST (coefficient range -0.56 to -0.59), and this relationship is linear. This study showed a way to avoid the probable error from the sample-based approach in examining two spatial variables. The method is reproducible for a similar type of analysis on the correlation between spatial phenomena. The findings of this study will be used further to understand the causation behind LST change in that area triangulating LST, NDVI and land-use changes.
Keywords: Land Surface Temperature, NDVI, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, remote sensing, methodological development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4701828 Development of Prediction Models of Day-Ahead Hourly Building Electricity Consumption and Peak Power Demand Using the Machine Learning Method
Authors: Dalin Si, Azizan Aziz, Bertrand Lasternas
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To encourage building owners to purchase electricity at the wholesale market and reduce building peak demand, this study aims to develop models that predict day-ahead hourly electricity consumption and demand using artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM). All prediction models are built in Python, with tool Scikit-learn and Pybrain. The input data for both consumption and demand prediction are time stamp, outdoor dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, air handling unit (AHU), supply air temperature and solar radiation. Solar radiation, which is unavailable a day-ahead, is predicted at first, and then this estimation is used as an input to predict consumption and demand. Models to predict consumption and demand are trained in both SVM and ANN, and depend on cooling or heating, weekdays or weekends. The results show that ANN is the better option for both consumption and demand prediction. It can achieve 15.50% to 20.03% coefficient of variance of root mean square error (CVRMSE) for consumption prediction and 22.89% to 32.42% CVRMSE for demand prediction, respectively. To conclude, the presented models have potential to help building owners to purchase electricity at the wholesale market, but they are not robust when used in demand response control.
Keywords: Building energy prediction, data mining, demand response, electricity market.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22051827 Aerodynamic Prediction and Performance Analysis for Mars Science Laboratory Entry Vehicle
Authors: Tang Wei, Yang Xiaofeng, Gui Yewei, Du Yanxia
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Complex lifting entry was selected for precise landing performance during the Mars Science Laboratory entry. This study aims to develop the three-dimensional numerical method for precise computation and the surface panel method for rapid engineering prediction. Detailed flow field analysis for Mars exploration mission was performed by carrying on a series of fully three-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations. The static aerodynamic performance was then discussed, including the surface pressure, lift and drag coefficient, lift-to-drag ratio with the numerical and engineering method. Computation results shown that the shock layer is thin because of lower effective specific heat ratio, and that calculated results from both methods agree well with each other, and is consistent with the reference data. Aerodynamic performance analysis shows that CG location determines trim characteristics and pitch stability, and certain radially and axially shift of the CG location can alter the capsule lifting entry performance, which is of vital significance for the aerodynamic configuration design and inner instrument layout of the Mars entry capsule.Keywords: Mars entry capsule, static aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, hypersonic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30341826 Enhanced Traveling Salesman Problem Solving by Genetic Algorithm Technique (TSPGA)
Authors: Buthainah Fahran Al-Dulaimi, Hamza A. Ali
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The well known NP-complete problem of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is coded in genetic form. A software system is proposed to determine the optimum route for a Traveling Salesman Problem using Genetic Algorithm technique. The system starts from a matrix of the calculated Euclidean distances between the cities to be visited by the traveling salesman and a randomly chosen city order as the initial population. Then new generations are then created repeatedly until the proper path is reached upon reaching a stopping criterion. This search is guided by a solution evaluation function.
Keywords: Genetic algorithms, traveling salesman problem solving, optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25591825 Theme Park Investments: How to Beat the Average - A Case Study from the Netherlands
Authors: Pieter C. M. Cornelis
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(European) theme parks invest approximately 10 percent of their yearly turnover into new rides and park improvements. Without these investments these parks assume not to be a very competitive and appealing daytrip for their target audiences. However, the impact of investments in attracting new visitors is not well-known and seems to differ dramatically between parks. This paper presents a case study from the Netherlands in which a small amusement park applied a suggested, not yet proven, investment method. The results of the investment are discussed in (a) the form of return on investment and (b) the success of the predictions with regard to this investment. Suggestions for future research are presented.
Keywords: Entertainment industry, innovation, investments, theme parks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 48511824 The Impact of the Interest Rates on Investments in the Context of Financial Crisis
Authors: Joanna Stawska
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The main objective of this article is to examine the impact of interest rates on investments in Poland in the context of financial crisis. The paper also investigates the dependence of bank loans to enterprises on interbank market rates. The article studies the impact of interbank market rate on the level of investments in Poland. Besides, this article focuses on the research of the correlation between the level of corporate loans and the amount of investments in Poland in order to determine the indirect impact of central bank interest rates through the transmission mechanism of monetary policy on the real economy. To achieve the objective we have used econometric and statistical research methods like: econometric model and Pearson correlation coefficient. This analysis suggests that the central bank reference rate inversely proportionally affects the level of investments in Poland and this dependence is moderate. This is also important issue because it is related to preparing of Poland to accession to euro area. The research is important from both theoretical and empirical points of view. The formulated conclusions and recommendations determine the practical significance of the paper which may be used in the decision making process of monetary and economic authorities of the country.Keywords: Central bank, financial crisis, interest rate, investments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15951823 FEA-Based Calculation of Performances of IPM Machines with Five Topologies for Hybrid- Electric Vehicle Traction
Authors: Aimeng Wang, Dejun Ma, Hui Wang
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The paper presents a detailed calculation of characteristic of five different topology permanent magnet machines for high performance traction including hybrid -electric vehicles using finite element analysis (FEA) method. These machines include V-shape single layer interior PM, W-shape single-layer interior PM, Segment interior PM and surface PM on the rotor and with distributed winding on the stator. The performance characteristics which include the back-emf voltage and its harmonic, magnet mass, iron loss and ripple torque are compared and analyzed. One of a 7.5kW IPM prototype was tested and verified finite-element analysis results. The aim of the paper is given some guidance and reference for machine designer which are interested in IPM machine selection for high performance traction application.
Keywords: Interior permanent magnet machine, finite-element analysis (FEA), five topologies, electric vehicle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 39251822 Effects of Particle Size Distribution of Binders on the Performance of Slag-Limestone Ternary Cement
Authors: Zhuomin Zou, Thijs Van Landeghem, Elke Gruyaert
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Using supplementary cementitious materials, such as ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and limestone to replace Portland cement (PC) is a promising method to reduce the carbon emissions from cement production. To efficiently use GGBFS and limestone, it is necessary to carefully select the particle size distribution (PSD) of the binders. This study investigated the effects of the PSD of binders on the performance of slag-limestone ternary cement. Based on the PSD parameters of the binders, three types of ternary cements with a similar overall PSD were designed, i.e., No.1 fine GGBFS, medium PC, and coarse limestone; No.2 fine limestone, medium PC, and coarse GGBFS; No.3. fine PC, medium GGBFS, and coarse limestone. The binder contents in the ternary cements were 50% PC, 40% slag, and 10% limestone. The mortar performance of the three ternary cements was investigated in terms of flow table value, strength at 28 days, carbonation resistance and non-steady state chloride migration resistance at 28 days. Results show that ternary cement with fine limestone (No.2) has the weakest performance among the three ternary cements. Ternary cements with fine slag (No.1) show an overall comparable performance to ternary cement with fine PC (No.3). Moreover, the chloride migration coefficient of ternary cements with fine slag (No.1) is significantly lower than the other two ternary cements.
Keywords: Limestone, particle size distribution, slag, ternary cement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3551821 Improving the Performance of Gas Turbine Power Plant by Modified Axial Turbine
Authors: Hakim T. Kadhim, Faris A. Jabbar, Aldo Rona, Audrius Bagdanaviciu
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Computer-based optimization techniques can be employed to improve the efficiency of energy conversions processes, including reducing the aerodynamic loss in a thermal power plant turbomachine. In this paper, towards mitigating secondary flow losses, a design optimization workflow is implemented for the casing geometry of a 1.5 stage axial flow turbine that improves the turbine isentropic efficiency. The improved turbine is used in an open thermodynamic gas cycle with regeneration and cogeneration. Performance estimates are obtained by the commercial software Cycle – Tempo. Design and off design conditions are considered as well as variations in inlet air temperature. Reductions in both the natural gas specific fuel consumption and in CO2 emissions are predicted by using the gas turbine cycle fitted with the new casing design. These gains are attractive towards enhancing the competitiveness and reducing the environmental impact of thermal power plant.
Keywords: Axial flow turbine, computational fluid dynamics, gas turbine power plant, optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10721820 Source of Oseltamivir Resistance Due to R152K Mutation of Influenza B Virus Neuraminidase: Molecular Modeling
Authors: J. Tengrang, T. Rungrotmongkol, S. Hannongbua
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Every 2-3 years the influenza B virus serves epidemics. Neuraminidase (NA) is an important target for influenza drug design. Although, oseltamivir, an oral neuraminidase drug, has been shown good inhibitory efficiency against wild-type of influenza B virus, the lower susceptibility to the R152K mutation has been reported. Better understanding of oseltamivir efficiency and resistance toward the influenza B NA wild-type and R152K mutant, respectively, could be useful for rational drug design. Here, two complex systems of wild-type and R152K NAs with oseltamivir bound were studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Based on 5-ns MD simulation, the loss of notable hydrogen bond and decrease in per-residue decomposition energy from the mutated residue K152 contributed to drug compared to those of R152 in wildtype were found to be a primary source of high-level of oseltamivir resistance due to the R152K mutation.Keywords: Influenza B neuraminidase, Molecular dynamics simulation, Oseltamivir resistance, R152K mutant
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19101819 Eco-Friendly Preservative Treated Bamboo Culm: Compressive Strength Analysis
Authors: Perminder JitKaur, Santosh Satya, K. K. Pant, S. N. Naik
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Bamboo is extensively used in construction industry. Low durability of bamboo due to fungus infestation and termites attack under storage puts certain constrains for it usage as modern structural material. Looking at many chemical formulations for bamboo treatment leading to severe harmful environment effects, research on eco-friendly preservatives for bamboo treatment has been initiated world-over. In the present studies, eco-friendly preservative for bamboo treatment has been developed. To validate its application for structural purposes, investigation of effect of treatment on compressive strength has been investigated. Neemoil (25%) integrated with copper naphthenate (0.3%) on dilution with kerosene oil impregnated into bamboo culm at 2 bar pressure, has shown weight loss of only 3.15% in soil block analysis method. The results from compressive strength analysis using HEICO Automatic Compression Testing Machine reveal that preservative treatment has not altered the structural properties of bamboo culms. Compressive strength of control (11.72 N/mm2) and above treated samples (11.71 N/mm2) was found to be comparable.
Keywords: Compressive strength, D. strictus bamboo, Ecofriendly treatment, neem oil.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34451818 Performance of Heat Pump Dryer for Kaffir Lime Leaves and Quality of Dried Products under Different Temperatures and Media
Authors: N. Poomsa-ad, K. Deejing, L. Wiset
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This research is to study the performance of heat pump dryer for drying of kaffir lime leaves under different media and to compare the color values and essential oil content of final products after drying. In the experiments, kaffir lime leaves were dried in the closed-loop system at drying temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 oC. The drying media used in this study were hot air, CO2 and N2 gases. The velocity of drying media in the drying chamber was 0.4 m/s with bypass ratio of 30%. The initial moisture content of kaffir lime leaves was approximately 180-190 % d.b. It was dried until down to a final moisture content of 10% d.b. From the experiments, the results showed that drying rate, the coefficient of performance (COP) and specific energy consumption (SEC) depended on drying temperature. While drying media did not affect on drying rate. The time for kaffir lime leaves drying at 40, 50 and 60 oC was 10, 5 and 3 hours, respectively. The performance of the heat pump system decreased with drying temperature in the range of 2.20-3.51. In the aspect of final product color, the greenness and overall color had a great change under drying temperature at 60 oC rather than drying at 40 and 50 oC. When compared among drying media, the greenness and overall color of product dried with hot air at 60 oC had a great change rather than dried with CO2 and N2.Keywords: airless drying, drying rate, essential oil content
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22451817 A Comparison of Double Sided Friction Stir Welding in Air and Underwater for 6mm S275 Steel Plate
Authors: Philip Baillie, Stuart W. Campbell, Alexander M. Galloway, Stephen R. Cater, Norman A. McPherson
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This study compared the mechanical and microstructural properties produced during friction stir welding (FSW) of S275 structural steel in air and underwater. Post weld tests assessed the tensile strength, micro-hardness, distortion, Charpy impact toughness and fatigue performance in each case. The study showed that there was no significant difference in the strength, hardness or fatigue life of the air and underwater specimens. However, Charpy impact toughness was shown to decrease for the underwater specimens and was attributed to a lower degree of recrystallization caused by the higher rate of heat loss experienced when welding underwater. Reduced angular and longitudinal distortion was observed in the underwater welded plate compared to the plate welded in air.
Keywords: Charpy impact toughness, distortion, fatigue, friction stir welding (FSW), micro-hardness, underwater.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27331816 Weight Loss Degradation of Hybrid Blends LLDPE/Starch/PVA upon Exposure to UV Light and Soil Burial
Authors: M. Rahmah, Noor Zuhaira Abd Aziz, M. Mohd Muizz Fahimi, M. Farhan
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Poly bag and mulch films for agricultural field caused pose environmental problem due to the non-degradable plastics wastes upon disposal. Thus, a degradable poly bag was designed with hybrid sago starch (SS) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Two Different blended compositions of SS and PVA hybrid have been compounded. Then, the hybrids blended are mixed with linear line density polyethylene (LLDPE) resin to fabricate poly bag film through conventional film blowing process. Samples of LLDPE, SS and PVA hybrid film were exposed to UV light and soil burial. The weight losses were determined during degradation process. Hybrid film by degradation of starch was found to hydrolyze and hydroxyl groups decrease on esterification upon exposure to soil burial and uv radiation. It was found out that, the hybrid film for 60% of SS composition showed greatest degradation in soil and UV radiation.
Keywords: LLDPE, PVA, sago starch, degradation, soil burial, UV radiation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23511815 Phage Capsid for Efficient Delivery of Cytotoxic Drugs
Authors: Simona Dostalova, Ana Maria Jimenez Jimenez, Marketa Vaculovicova, Vojtech Adam, Rene Kizek
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Various nanomaterials can be used as a drug delivery vehicles in nanomedicine, called nanocarriers. They can either be organic or inorganic, synthetic or natural-based. Although synthetic nanocarriers are easier to produce, they can often be toxic for the organism and thus not suitable for use in treatment. From naturalbased nanocarriers, the most commonly used are protein cages or viral capsids. In this work, virus bacteriophage λ was used for delivery of different cytotoxic drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin and doxorubicin). Large quantities of phage λ were obtained from phage λ-producing strain of E. coli cultivated in medium with 0.2% maltose. After killing of E. coli with chloroform and its removal by centrifugation, the phage was concentrated by ultracentrifugation at 130 000×g and 4°C for 3 h. The encapsulation of the drugs was performed by infusion method and four different concentrations of the drugs were encapsulated (200; 100; 50; 25 μg·mL-1). Free drug molecules were removed by filtration. The encapsulation was verified using the absorbance for doxorubicin and atomic absorption spectrometry for platinum cytostatics. The amount of encapsulated drug linearly increased with the increasing concentration of applied drug with the determination coefficient R2=0.989 for doxorubicin; R2=0.967 for cisplatin; R2=0.989 for carboplatin and R2=0.996 for oxaliplatin. The overall encapsulation efficiency was calculated as 50% for doxorubicin; 8% for cisplatin; 6% for carboplatin and 10% for oxaliplatin.Keywords: Bacteriophage λ, doxorubicin, platinum cytostatics, protein-based nanocarrier, viral capsid.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17651814 Fuzzy Processing of Uncertain Data
Authors: Petr Morávek, Miloš Šeda
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In practice, we often come across situations where it is necessary to make decisions based on incomplete or uncertain data. In control systems it may be due to the unknown exact mathematical model, or its excessive complexity (e.g. nonlinearity) when it is necessary to simplify it, respectively, to solve it using a rule base. In the case of databases, searching data we compare a similarity measure with of the requirements of the selection with stored data, where both the select query and the data itself may contain vague terms, for example in the form of linguistic qualifiers. In this paper, we focus on the processing of uncertain data in databases and demonstrate it on the example multi-criteria decision making in the selection of variants, specified by higher number of technical parameters.Keywords: fuzzy logic, linguistic variable, multicriteria decision
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14181813 Solution of Nonlinear Second-Order Pantograph Equations via Differential Transformation Method
Authors: Nemat Abazari, Reza Abazari
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In this work, we successfully extended one-dimensional differential transform method (DTM), by presenting and proving some theorems, to solving nonlinear high-order multi-pantograph equations. This technique provides a sequence of functions which converges to the exact solution of the problem. Some examples are given to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the present method and a comparison is made with existing results.
Keywords: Nonlinear multi-pantograph equation, delay differential equation, differential transformation method, proportional delay conditions, closed form solution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25591812 Factors Paving the Way towards Islamic Banking in Pakistan
Authors: Muhammad Mazhar Manzoor, Muhammad Aqeel, Abdul Sattar
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Islamic banking is one the most blossoming doctrine in economic system of the world. The Fast growing awareness about Islamic financial system has brought strong feeling to Muslims to confront the western interest-based economic cycle. The Islamic economic system is emerging as a reliable alternative to the interest based system. This study is proposed to ascertain the motivational factors encouraging people to go for Islamic banking in Pakistan. These pulsing factors are determined by generation of hypothesis that there are certain factors which are urging people to opt Islamic banking system and to see the differences in their ranking by applying Friedman test. These factors include: Economically derived factors such as stability of Islamic banks in crisis, profit and loss sharing doctrine and equity sharing etc. This study also highlights the religiously derived factors such as interest free banking, Shariah tenets and supervisory of Islamic Shariah board and sociopsychological factors.Keywords: Islamic banking, motivational factors, religiousfactors, socio-psychological factors and economic factors
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23731811 Academic Influence of Social Network Sites on the Collegiate Performance of Technical College Students
Authors: Jameson McFarlane, Thorne J. McFarlane, Leon Bernard
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Social network sites (SNS) is an emerging phenomenon that is here to stay. The popularity and the ubiquity of the SNS technology are undeniable. Because most SNS are free and easy to use people from all walks of life and from almost any age are attracted to that technology. College age students are by far the largest segment of the population using SNS. Since most SNS have been adapted for mobile devices, not only do you find students using this technology in their study, while working on labs or on projects, a substantial number of students have been found to use SNS even while listening to lectures. This study found that SNS use has a significant negative impact on the grade point average of college students particularly in the first semester. However, this negative impact is greatly diminished by the end of the third semester partly because the students have adjusted satisfactorily to the challenges of college or because they have learned how to adequately manage their time. It was established that the kinds of activities the students are engaged in during the SNS use are the leading factor affecting academic performance. Of those activities, using SNS during a lecture or while studying is the foremost contributing factor to lower academic performance. This is due to “cognitive” or “information” bottleneck, a condition in which the students find it very difficult to multitask or to switch between resources leading to inefficiency in information retention and thus, educational performance.
Keywords: Social network sites, social network analysis, regression coefficient, psychological engagement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9171810 Numerical Simulations of Cross-Flow around Four Square Cylinders in an In-Line Rectangular Configuration
Authors: Shams Ul Islam, Chao Ying Zhou, Farooq Ahmad
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A two-dimensional numerical simulation of crossflow around four cylinders in an in-line rectangular configuration is studied by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Special attention is paid to the effect of the spacing between the cylinders. The Reynolds number ( Re ) is chosen to be e 100 R = and the spacing ratio L / D is set at 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 and 10.0. Results show that, as in the case of four cylinders in an inline rectangular configuration , flow fields show four different features depending on the spacing (single square cylinder, stable shielding flow, wiggling shielding flow and a vortex shedding flow) are observed in this study. The effects of spacing ratio on physical quantities such as mean drag coefficient, Strouhal number and rootmean- square value of the drag and lift coefficients are also presented. There is more than one shedding frequency at small spacing ratios. The mean drag coefficients for downstream cylinders are less than that of the single cylinder for all spacing ratios. The present results using the LBM are compared with some existing experimental data and numerical studies. The comparison shows that the LBM can capture the characteristics of the bluff body flow reasonably well and is a good tool for bluff body flow studies.Keywords: Four square cylinders, Lattice Boltzmann method, rectangular configuration, spacing ratios, vortex shedding.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27011809 Biodiesel Fuel Production by Methanolysis of Fish Oil Derived from the Discarded Parts of Fish Catalyzed by Carica papaya Lipase
Authors: P. Pinyaphong, P. Sriburi, S. Phutrakul
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In this paper, naturally immobilized lipase, Carica papaya lipase, catalyzed biodiesel production from fish oil was studied. The refined fish oil, extracted from the discarded parts of fish, was used as a starting material for biodiesel production. The effects of molar ratio of oil: methanol, lipase dosage, initial water activity of lipase, temperature and solvent were investigated. It was found that Carica papaya lipase was suitable for methanolysis of fish oil to produce methyl ester. The maximum yield of methyl ester could reach up to 83% with the optimal reaction conditions: oil: methanol molar ratio of 1: 4, 20% (based on oil) of lipase, initial water activity of lipase at 0.23 and 20% (based on oil) of tert-butanol at 40oC after 18 h of reaction time. There was negligible loss in lipase activity even after repeated use for 30 cycles.Keywords: biodiesel fuel production, methanolysis, fish oil, Carica papaya lipase.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33251808 Induction Motor Speed Control Using Fuzzy Logic Controller
Authors: V. Chitra, R. S. Prabhakar
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Because of the low maintenance and robustness induction motors have many applications in the industries. The speed control of induction motor is more important to achieve maximum torque and efficiency. Various speed control techniques like, Direct Torque Control, Sensorless Vector Control and Field Oriented Control are discussed in this paper. Soft computing technique – Fuzzy logic is applied in this paper for the speed control of induction motor to achieve maximum torque with minimum loss. The fuzzy logic controller is implemented using the Field Oriented Control technique as it provides better control of motor torque with high dynamic performance. The motor model is designed and membership functions are chosen according to the parameters of the motor model. The simulated design is tested using various tool boxes in MATLAB. The result concludes that the efficiency and reliability of the proposed speed controller is good.
Keywords: Induction motor, Field Oriented Control, Fuzzy logic controller, Maximum torque, Membership function.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32351807 Investigation of the Effect of Phosphorous on the Flame Retardant Polyacrylonitrile Nanofiber
Authors: Mustafa Yılmaz, Ahmet Akar, Nesrin Köken, Nilgün Kızılcan
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Commercially available poly(acrylonitrile-co-vinyl acetate) P(AN-VA) or poly(acrylonitrile-co-methyl acrylate) P(AN-MA) are not satisfactory to meet the demand in flame and fire-resistance. In this work, vinylphosphonic acid is used during polymerization of acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate, methacrylic acid to produce fire-retardant polymers. These phosphorus containing polymers are successfully spun in the form of nanofibers. Properties such as water absorption of polymers are also determined and compared with commercial polymers.
Keywords: Flame retardant, nanofiber, polyacrylonitrile, phosphorous compound, membrane.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8611806 Spherical Spectrum Properties of Quaternionic Operators
Authors: Yiwan Guo, Fahui Zhai
Abstract:
In this paper, the similarity invariant and the upper semi-continuity of spherical spectrum, and the spherical spectrum properties for infinite direct sums of quaternionic operators are characterized, respectively. As an application of some results established, a concrete example about the computation of the spherical spectrum of a compact quaternionic operator with form of infinite direct sums of quaternionic matrices is also given.Keywords: Spherical spectrum, Quaternionic operator, Upper semi-continuity, Direct sum of operators.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1421