Search results for: Effect of gas lift valve port size
3721 Quality and Quantity in the Strategic Network of Higher Education Institutions
Authors: Juha Kettunen
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This study analyzes the quality and the size of the strategic network of higher education institutions. The study analyses the concept of fitness for purpose in quality assurance. It also analyses the transaction costs of networking that have consequences on the number of members in the network. Empirical evidence is presented of the Consortium on Applied Research and Professional Education, which is a European strategic network of six higher education institutions. The results of the study support the argument that the number of members in the strategic network should be relatively small to provide high quality results. The practical importance is that networking has been able to promote international research and development projects. The results of this study are important for those who want to design and improve international networks in higher education.
Keywords: Higher education, network, research and development, strategic management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15193720 Characterization of 3D Printed Re-Entrant Chiral Auxetic Geometries
Authors: Tatheer Zahra
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Auxetic materials have counteractive properties due to re-entrant geometry that enables them to possess Negative Poisson’s Ratio (NPR). These materials have better energy absorbing and shock resistance capabilities as compared to conventional positive Poisson’s ratio materials. The re-entrant geometry can be created through 3D printing for convenient application of these materials. This paper investigates the mechanical properties of 3D printed chiral auxetic geometries of various sizes. Small scale samples were printed using an ordinary 3D printer and were tested under compression and tension to ascertain their strength and deformation characteristics. A maximum NPR of -9 was obtained under compression and tension. The re-entrant chiral cell size has been shown to affect the mechanical properties of the re-entrant chiral auxetics.Keywords: Auxetic materials, 3D printing, Negative Poisson’s Ratio, re-entrant chiral auxetics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6953719 The Pack-Bed Sphere Liquid Porous Burner
Authors: B. Krittacom, P. Amatachaya, W. Srimuang, K. Inla
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The combustion of liquid fuel in the porous burner (PB) was experimented to investigate evaporation mechanism and combustion behavior. The diesel oil was used as fuel and the pebbles carefully chosen in the same size like the solid sphere homogeneously was adopted as the porous media. Two structures of the liquid porous burner, i.e. the PB without and with installation of porous emitter (PE), were performed. PE was installed by lower than PB with distance of 20 cm. The pebbles having porosity (φ) of 0.45 and 0.52 were, respectively, used in PB and PE. The fuel was supplied dropwise from the top through the PB and the combustion was occurred between PB and PE. Axial profiles of temperature along the burner length were measured to clarify the evaporation and combustion phenomena. The pollutant emission characteristics were monitored at the burner exit. From the experiment, it was found that the temperature profiles of both structures decreased with the three ways swirling air flows (QA) increasing. On the other hand, the temperature profiles increased with fuel heat input (QF). Obviously, the profile of the porous burner installed with PE was higher than that of the porous burner without PEKeywords: Liquid fuel, Porous burner, Temperature profile.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17623718 Boria: A Conventional Theatre in Malaysia
Authors: Farideh Alizadeh, Mohd Effindi Samsuddin
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This study this is considering Boria as a conventional performance in Malaysia. Boria is a folk performance unique to Penang. This theatre style reached Penang in the mid-19th century and is believed to be derived from the Shia Islamic Passion play performed during the Muslim month of Muharram to commemorate the martyrs of Kerbela. These days in Malaysia (especially Penang) Boria mentions to a choral street performance performed annually by a number of groups composed mostly of Sunni Malaysian. Boria are performed for entertainment and often include an annual singing competition. The size, membership, themes and movements of each Boria troupe may vary from year to year. Similarly, the themes and contents of the Boria performed by the different troupes also changes each year and can have a comical, political or satirical notion. It is common to most groups during the first ten days of Muharram Boria generally is done.
Keywords: Boria, conventional performance, ritual, Passion play, theatre.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22283717 Recursive Wiener-Khintchine Theorem
Authors: Khalid M. Aamir, Mohammad A. Maud
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Power Spectral Density (PSD) computed by taking the Fourier transform of auto-correlation functions (Wiener-Khintchine Theorem) gives better result, in case of noisy data, as compared to the Periodogram approach. However, the computational complexity of Wiener-Khintchine approach is more than that of the Periodogram approach. For the computation of short time Fourier transform (STFT), this problem becomes even more prominent where computation of PSD is required after every shift in the window under analysis. In this paper, recursive version of the Wiener-Khintchine theorem has been derived by using the sliding DFT approach meant for computation of STFT. The computational complexity of the proposed recursive Wiener-Khintchine algorithm, for a window size of N, is O(N).
Keywords: Power Spectral Density (PSD), Wiener-KhintchineTheorem, Periodogram, Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT), TheSliding DFT.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24843716 Awareness of Value Addition of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) In Osun State, Nigeria
Authors: A. M. Omoare, E. O. Fakoya, O. E. Fapojuwo, W. O. Oyediran
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Awareness of value addition of sweet potato has received comparatively little attention in Nigeria despite its potential to reduce perishability and enhanced utilization of the crop in diverse products forms. This study assessed the awareness of value addition of sweet potato in Osun State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents for the study. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Findings showed that most (75.00%) of the respondents were male with mean age of 42.10 years and 96.70% of the respondents had formal education. The mean farm size was 2.30 hectares. Majority (75.00%) of the respondents had more than 10 years farming experience. Awareness of value addition of sweet potato was very low among the respondents. It was recommended that sweet potato farmers should be empowered through effective and efficient extension training on the use of modern processing techniques in order to enhance value addition of sweet potato.
Keywords: Awareness, value addition, sweet potato, perishability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29323715 Investigation of the Effect of Number of Story on Different Structural Components of RC Building
Authors: Zasiah Tafheem, Mahadee Hasan Shourav, Zahidul Islam, Saima Islam Tumpa
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The paper aims at investigating the effect of number of story on different structural components of reinforced concrete building due to gravity and lateral loading. For the study, three building models having same building plan of three, six and nine stories are analyzed and designed using software package. All the buildings are residential and are located in Dhaka city of Bangladesh. Lateral load including wind and earthquake loading are applied to the building along both longitudinal and transverse direction as per Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC, 2006). Equivalent static force method is followed for the applied seismic loading. The present study investigates as well as compares mainly total steel requirement in different structural components for those buildings. It has been found that total longitudinal steel requirement for beams at each floor is 48.57% for three storied building, 61.36% for six storied building when the total percentage is taken as 100% in case of nine storied building. For an exterior column, the steel ratio is 2.1%, 3.06%, 4.55% for three, six and nine storied building respectively for the first three floors. In addition, it has been noted that total weight of longitudinal reinforcement of an interior column is 14.02 % for threestoried building and 43.12% for six storied building when the total reinforcement is considered 100% for nine storied building for the first three floors.Keywords: Equivalent Static Force Method, longitudinal reinforcement, seismic loading, steel ratio.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17863714 Cut Flower Production: A Source of Incremental Income for the Marginal Farmers of the State of West Bengal in India
Authors: Ruma Bhattacharyya
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The basic objective of this paper is to measure and compare the profitability of investments made by the small and marginal farmers of the state of West Bengal in floriculture shifting from the traditional cultivation of paddy. A comparison of IRR is made to establish the fact that cultivation of flowers yield higher returns farmers whose land size is so small that viability of paddy cultivation is raising a question mark. A detailed study of the price behavior of the flower crop has been carried out in which the factors leading to the volatility of the price and the dispersion of the range have also been discussed. Finally the incremental incomes of the farmers have been calculated with the help of imputed income from paddy cultivation and the reported income from the selected flowers. The study shows that the farmers stand gainers if they opt for flower cultivation.Keywords: Bazar Samity, Floriculture, Marginal Farmers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36793713 Generalized Vortex Lattice Method for Predicting Characteristics of Wings with Flap and Aileron Deflection
Authors: Mondher Yahyaoui
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A generalized vortex lattice method for complex lifting surfaces with flap and aileron deflection is formulated. The method is not restricted by the linearized theory assumption and accounts for all standard geometric lifting surface parameters: camber, taper, sweep, washout, dihedral, in addition to flap and aileron deflection. Thickness is not accounted for since the physical lifting body is replaced by a lattice of panels located on the mean camber surface. This panel lattice setup and the treatment of different wake geometries is what distinguish the present work form the overwhelming majority of previous solutions based on the vortex lattice method. A MATLAB code implementing the proposed formulation is developed and validated by comparing our results to existing experimental and numerical ones and good agreement is demonstrated. It is then used to study the accuracy of the widely used classical vortex-lattice method. It is shown that the classical approach gives good agreement in the clean configuration but is off by as much as 30% when a flap or aileron deflection of 30° is imposed. This discrepancy is mainly due the linearized theory assumption associated with the conventional method. A comparison of the effect of four different wake geometries on the values of aerodynamic coefficients was also carried out and it is found that the choice of the wake shape had very little effect on the results.
Keywords: Aileron deflection, camber-surface-bound vortices, classical VLM, Generalized VLM, flap deflection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 50563712 Formulation and in vitro Evaluation of Ondansetron Hydrochloride Matrix Transdermal Systems Using Ethyl Cellulose/Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone Polymer Blends
Authors: Rajan Rajabalaya, Li-Qun Tor, Sheba David
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Transdermal delivery of ondansetron hydrochloride (OdHCl) can prevent the problems encountered with oral ondansetron. In previously conducted studies, effect of amount of polyvinyl pyrrolidone, permeation enhancer and casting solvent on the physicochemical properties on OdHCl were investigated. It is feasible to develop ondansetron transdermal patch by using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone with dibutyl pthalate as plasticizer, however, the desired flux is not achieved. The primary aim of this study is to use dimethyl succinate (DMS) and propylene glycol that are not incorporated in previous studies to determine their effect on the physicochemical properties of an OdHCl transdermal patch using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. This study also investigates the effect of permeation enhancer (eugenol and phosphatidylcholine) on the release of OdHCl. The results showed that propylene glycol is a more suitable plasticizer compared to DMS in the fabrication of OdHCl transdermal patch using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone as polymers. Propylene glycol containing patch has optimum drug content, thickness, moisture content and water absorption, tensile strength, and a better release profile than DMS. Eugenol and phosphatidylcholine can increase release of OdHCl from the patches. From the physicochemical result and permeation profile, a combination of 350mg of ethyl cellulose, 150mg polyvinyl pyrrolidone, 3% of total polymer weight of eugenol, and 40% of total polymer weight of propylene glycol is the most suitable formulation to develop an OdHCl patch. OdHCl release did not increase with increasing the percentage of plasticiser. DMS 4, PG 4, DMS 9, PG 9, DMS 14, and PG 14 gave better release profiles where using 300mg: 0mg, 300mg: 100mg, and 350mg: 150mg of EC: PVP. Thus, 40% of PG or DMS appeared to be the optimum amount of plasticiser when the above combination where EC: PVP was used. It was concluded from the study that a patch formulation containing 350mg EC, 150mg PVP, 40% PG and 3% eugenol is the best transdermal matrix patch compositions for the uniform and continuous release/permeation of OdHCl over an extended period. This patch design can be used for further pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies in suitable animal models.
Keywords: Ondansetron hydrochloride, dimethyl succinate, eugenol.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24623711 Embedded Semantic Segmentation Network Optimized for Matrix Multiplication Accelerator
Authors: Jaeyoung Lee
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Autonomous driving systems require high reliability to provide people with a safe and comfortable driving experience. However, despite the development of a number of vehicle sensors, it is difficult to always provide high perceived performance in driving environments that vary from time to season. The image segmentation method using deep learning, which has recently evolved rapidly, provides high recognition performance in various road environments stably. However, since the system controls a vehicle in real time, a highly complex deep learning network cannot be used due to time and memory constraints. Moreover, efficient networks are optimized for GPU environments, which degrade performance in embedded processor environments equipped simple hardware accelerators. In this paper, a semantic segmentation network, matrix multiplication accelerator network (MMANet), optimized for matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA) on Texas instrument digital signal processors (TI DSP) is proposed to improve the recognition performance of autonomous driving system. The proposed method is designed to maximize the number of layers that can be performed in a limited time to provide reliable driving environment information in real time. First, the number of channels in the activation map is fixed to fit the structure of MMA. By increasing the number of parallel branches, the lack of information caused by fixing the number of channels is resolved. Second, an efficient convolution is selected depending on the size of the activation. Since MMA is a fixed, it may be more efficient for normal convolution than depthwise separable convolution depending on memory access overhead. Thus, a convolution type is decided according to output stride to increase network depth. In addition, memory access time is minimized by processing operations only in L3 cache. Lastly, reliable contexts are extracted using the extended atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP). The suggested method gets stable features from an extended path by increasing the kernel size and accessing consecutive data. In addition, it consists of two ASPPs to obtain high quality contexts using the restored shape without global average pooling paths since the layer uses MMA as a simple adder. To verify the proposed method, an experiment is conducted using perfsim, a timing simulator, and the Cityscapes validation sets. The proposed network can process an image with 640 x 480 resolution for 6.67 ms, so six cameras can be used to identify the surroundings of the vehicle as 20 frame per second (FPS). In addition, it achieves 73.1% mean intersection over union (mIoU) which is the highest recognition rate among embedded networks on the Cityscapes validation set.
Keywords: Edge network, embedded network, MMA, matrix multiplication accelerator and semantic segmentation network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4673710 Effect of Cocoa Pod Ash and Poultry Manure on Soil Properties and Cocoyam Productivity of Nutrient-Depleted Tropical Alfisol
Authors: T. M. Agbede, A. O. Adekiya
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An experiment was carried out for three consecutive years at Owo, southwest Nigeria. The objective of the investigation was to determine the effect of Cocoa Pod Ash (CPA) and Poultry Manure (PM) applied solely and their combined form, as sources of fertilizers on soil properties, leaf nutrient composition, growth and yield of cocoyam. Three soil amendments: CPA, PM (sole forms), CPA and PM (mixture), were applied at 7.5 t ha-1 with an inorganic fertilizer (NPK 15-15-15) at 400 kg ha-1 as a reference and a natural soil fertility, NSF (control), arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results showed that soil amendments significantly increased (p = 0.05) corm and cormel weights and growth of cocoyam, soil and leaf N, P, K, Ca and Mg, soil pH and organic carbon (OC) concentrations compared with the NSF (control). The mixture of CPA+PM treatment increased corm and cormel weights, plant height and leaf area of cocoyam by 40, 39, 42, and 48%, respectively, compared with inorganic fertilizer (NPK) and 13, 12, 15 and 7%, respectively, compared with PM alone. Sole or mixed forms of soil amendments showed remarkable improvement in soil physical properties compared with NPK and the NSF (control). The mixture of CPA+PM applied at 7.5 t ha-1 was the most effective treatment in improving cocoyam yield and growth parameters, soil and leaf nutrient composition.
Keywords: Cocoa pod ash, cocoyam, poultry manure, soil and leaf nutrient composition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17543709 Effect of Cooling Rate on base Metals Recovery from Copper Matte Smelting Slags
Authors: N. Tshiongo , R K.K. Mbaya , K Maweja, L.C. Tshabalala
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Slag sample from copper smelting operation in a water jacket furnace from DRC plant was used. The study intends to determine the effect of cooling in the extraction of base metals. The cooling methods investigated were water quenching, air cooling and furnace cooling. The latter cooling ways were compared to the original as received slag. It was observed that, the cooling rate of the slag affected the leaching of base metals as it changed the phase distribution in the slag and the base metals distribution within the phases. It was also found that fast cooling of slag prevented crystallization and produced an amorphous phase that encloses the base metals. The amorphous slags from the slag dumps were more leachable in acidic medium (HNO3) which leached 46%Cu, 95% Co, 85% Zn, 92% Pb and 79% Fe with no selectivity at pH0, than in basic medium (NH4OH). The leachability was vice versa for the modified slags by quenching in water which leached 89%Cu with a high selectivity as metal extractions are less than 1% for Co, Zn, Pb and Fe at ambient temperature and pH12. For the crystallized slags, leaching of base metals increased with the increase of temperature from ambient temperature to 60°C and decreased at the higher temperature of 80°C due to the evaporation of the ammonia solution used for basic leaching, the total amounts of base metals that were leached in slow cooled slags were very low compared to the quenched slag samples.Keywords: copper slag, leaching, amorphous, cooling rate
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37663708 Using Focus Group Method to Identify Citizen Requirements to Saudi Mobile Government Services
Authors: S. Alotaibi, D. Roussinov
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Mobile government services implementation faces several challenges in developing countries. This paper studies some of those challenges in the context of Saudi Arabia. The study aims to investigate factors affecting m-government acceptance in Saudi Arabia, including ease of use, usefulness, service quality, trust, intention to use and users’ satisfaction. Our investigation will help in integrating the m-government services in citizens’ everyday life. We collected and analyzed our data from focus groups. These focus groups are from King Saud University and Imam Muhammed Bin Saud University, so the samples size are five and seven participants, respectively. We found that there are some factors to identifying citizen requirements to Saudi mobile government services. These services should be easy to use and not require too much effort. Also, these services must be fully trusted.Keywords: E-government, M-government, focus group, Saudi mobile government services.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9853707 Optimal Risk Reduction in the Railway Industry by Using Dynamic Programming
Authors: Michael Todinov, Eberechi Weli
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The paper suggests for the first time the use of dynamic programming techniques for optimal risk reduction in the railway industry. It is shown that by using the concept ‘amount of removed risk by a risk reduction option’, the problem related to optimal allocation of a fixed budget to achieve a maximum risk reduction in the railway industry can be reduced to an optimisation problem from dynamic programming. For n risk reduction options and size of the available risk reduction budget B (expressed as integer number), the worst-case running time of the proposed algorithm is O (n x (B+1)), which makes the proposed method a very efficient tool for solving the optimal risk reduction problem in the railway industry.
Keywords: Optimisation, railway risk reduction, budget constraints, dynamic programming.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21813706 Indicator of Small Calcification Detection in Ultrasonography using Decorrelation of Forward Scattered Waves
Authors: Hirofumi Taki, Takuya Sakamoto, Makoto Yamakawa, Tsuyoshi Shiina, Toru Sato
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For the improvement of the ability in detecting small calcifications using Ultrasonography (US) we propose a novel indicator of calcifications in an ultrasound B-mode image without decrease in frame rate. Since the waveform of an ultrasound pulse changes at a calcification position, the decorrelation of adjacent scan lines occurs behind a calcification. Therefore, we employ the decorrelation of adjacent scan lines as an indicator of a calcification. The proposed indicator depicted wires 0.05 mm in diameter at 2 cm depth with a sensitivity of 86.7% and a specificity of 100%, which were hardly detected in ultrasound B-mode images. This study shows the potential of the proposed indicator to approximate the detectable calcification size using an US device to that of an X-ray imager, implying the possibility that an US device will become a convenient, safe, and principal clinical tool for the screening of breast cancer.Keywords: Ultrasonography, Calcification, Decorrelation, Forward scattered wave
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14523705 Assuming the Decision of Having One (More) Child: The New Dimensions of the Post Communist Romanian Family
Authors: Raluca-Ioana Horea-Şerban, Marinela Istrate
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The first part of the paper analyzes the dynamics of the total fertility rate both at the national and regional level, pointing out the regional disparities in the distribution of this indicator. At the same time, we also focus on the collapse of the number of live births, on the changes in the fertility rate by birth rank, as well as on the failure of acquiring the desired number of children. The second part of the study centres upon a survey applied to urban families with 3 and more than 3 offspring. The preliminary analysis highlights the fact that an increased fertility (more than 3rd rank) is triggered by the parents’ above the average material condition and superior education. The current situation of Romania, which is still passing through a period of relatively rapid demographic changes, marked by numerous convulsions, requires a new approach, in compliance with the recent interpretations appropriate to a new post-transitional demographic regime.Keywords: Family size intention, fertility rate, regional disparities, third birth rank.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17193704 Plate-Laminated Slotted-Waveguide Fed 2×3 Planar Inverted F Antenna Array
Authors: Badar Muneer, Waseem Shabir, Faisal Karim Shaikh
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Substrate Integrated waveguide based 6-element array of Planar Inverted F antenna (PIFA) has been presented and analyzed parametrically in this paper. The antenna is fed with coupled transverse slots on a plate laminated waveguide cavity to ensure wide bandwidth and simplicity of feeding network. The two-layer structure has one layer dedicated for feeding network and the top layer dedicated for radiating elements. It has been demonstrated that the presented feeding technique for feeding such class of array antennas can be far simple in structure and miniaturized in size when it comes to designing large phased array antenna systems. A good return loss and standing wave ratio of 2:1 has been achieved while maintaining properties of typical PIFA.
Keywords: Feeding network, laminated waveguide, PIFA, transverse slots.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9413703 Effects of Carbonation on the Microstructure and Macro Physical Properties of Cement Mortar
Authors: Son Tung Pham, William Prince
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The objective of this work was to examine the changes in the microstructure and macro physical properties caused by the carbonation of normalised CEM II mortar. Samples were prepared and subjected to accelerated carbonation at 20°C, 65% relative humidity and 20% CO2 concentration. On the microstructure scale, the evolutions of the cumulative pore volume, pore size distribution, and specific surface area during carbonation were calculated from the adsorption desorption isotherms of nitrogen. We also examined the evolution of macro physical properties such as the porosity accessible to water, the gas permeability, and thermal conductivity. The conflict between the results of nitrogen porosity and water porosity indicated that the porous domains explored using these two techniques are different and help to complementarily evaluate the effects of carbonation. This is a multi-scale study where results on microstructural changes can help to explain the evolution of macro physical properties.Keywords: Carbonation, cement mortar, microstructure, physical properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18953702 Inhibitory Effect of Helichrysum arenarium Essential Oil on the Growth of Food Contaminated Microorganisms
Authors: Ali Mohamadi Sani
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The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial effect of Helichrysum arenarium L. essential oil in "in-vitro" condition on the growth of seven microbial species including Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Saccharomyces cereviciae, Candida albicans, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus using micro-dilution method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal or fungicidal concentration (MBC, MFC) were determined for the essential oil at ten concentrations. Finally, the sensitivity of tested microbes to essential oil of H. arenarium was investigated. Results showed that Bacillus subtilis (MIC=781.25 and MBC=6250 µg/ml) was more resistance than two other bacterial species. Among the tested yeasts, Saccharomyces cereviciae (MIC=97.65 and MFC=781.25 µg/ml) was more sensitive than Candida albicans while among the fungal species, growth of Aspergillus parasiticus inhibited at lower concentration of oil than the Aspergillus flavus. The extracted essential oil exhibited the same MIC value in the liquid medium against all fungal strains (48.82 µg/ml), while different activity against A. flavus and A. parasiticus was observed in this medium with MFC values of 6250 and 390.625µg/ml, respectively. The results of the present study indicated that Helichrysum arenarium L essential oil had significant (P<0.05) antimicrobial activity; therefore, it can be used as a natural preservation to increase the shelf life of food products.
Keywords: Helichrysum arenarium, Antimicrobial agent, Essential oil, MIC.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28553701 Detection of Moving Images Using Neural Network
Authors: P. Latha, L. Ganesan, N. Ramaraj, P. V. Hari Venkatesh
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Motion detection is a basic operation in the selection of significant segments of the video signals. For an effective Human Computer Intelligent Interaction, the computer needs to recognize the motion and track the moving object. Here an efficient neural network system is proposed for motion detection from the static background. This method mainly consists of four parts like Frame Separation, Rough Motion Detection, Network Formation and Training, Object Tracking. This paper can be used to verify real time detections in such a way that it can be used in defense applications, bio-medical applications and robotics. This can also be used for obtaining detection information related to the size, location and direction of motion of moving objects for assessment purposes. The time taken for video tracking by this Neural Network is only few seconds.
Keywords: Frame separation, Correlation Network, Neural network training, Radial Basis Function, object tracking, Motion Detection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31503700 Shape Memory alloy Actuator System Optimization for New Hand Prostheses
Authors: Mogeeb A. Ahmed, Mona F. Taher, Sayed M. Metwalli
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Shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators have found a wide range of applications due to their unique properties such as high force, small size, lightweight and silent operation. This paper presents the development of compact (SMA) actuator and cooling system in one unit. This actuator is developed for multi-fingered hand. It consists of nickel-titanium (Nitinol) SMA wires in compact forming. The new arrangement insulates SMA wires from the human body by housing it in a heat sink and uses a thermoelectric device for rejecting heat to improve the actuator performance. The study uses optimization methods for selecting the SMA wires geometrical parameters and the material of a heat sink. The experimental work implements the actuator prototype and measures its response.Keywords: Optimization, Prosthetic hand, Shape memory alloy, Thermoelectric device, Actuator system
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20513699 Simulation Study of DFIG Wind Turbine under Grid Fault
Authors: N. Zerzouri, H. Labar, S. Kechida
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During recent years wind turbine technology has undergone rapid developments. Growth in size and the optimization of wind turbines has enabled wind energy to become increasingly competitive with conventional energy sources. As a result today-s wind turbines participate actively in the power production of several countries around the world. These developments raise a number of challenges to be dealt with now and in the future. The penetration of wind energy in the grid raises questions about the compatibility of the wind turbine power production with the grid. In particular, the contribution to grid stability, power quality and behavior during fault situations plays therefore as important a role as the reliability. In the present work, we addressed two fault situations that have shown their influence on the generator and the behavior of the wind over the defects which are briefly discussed based on simulation results.Keywords: Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), Wind energy, grid fault
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24203698 Towards Synthesis of Atropodiastereomeric Indolostilbenes Hybrids: A New Class of Oligostilbenoids
Authors: K. Ahmad, M. Suhaimi, Mohamad N. Azmi, K. Awang, Mohd A. Nafiah
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The conceptually construction of axially chiral indolostilbenesi.eN-(2-{(E)-2-[2'-(1-Acetyl-1H-indol-2-yl)-3'chloro-4,4',6,6'-tetramethoxy[1,1'-biphenyl]-2yl]ethenyl}phenyl)acetamide and N-(2-{(E)-2-[2'-(1-Acetyl-1H-indol-2-yl)-3'-chloro-2,4',6,6'-tetramethoxy[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl]ethenyl}phenyl) acetamide are described in this paper. These structure, were obtained by the tactical combination of palladium-catalyzed coupling which produced 10-acetamido-3,5-dimethoxystilbene, follow by FeCl3-induced oxidative cyclization/dimerisation. All structures were unambiguously confirmed by 1D (1H, 13C) and 2D NMR experiment, (COSY, HMQC, HMBC) and mass spectrometry.
Keywords: Indolostilbene, FeCl3-oxidative cyclization, Oligostilbenooids, Oxidative cyclization/dimerization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15173697 Corrosion Fatigue Crack Growth Studies in Ni-Cr-Mn Steel
Authors: Chinnaiah Madduri, Raghu V. Prakash
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This paper presents the results of corrosion fatigue crack growth behaviour of a Ni-Cr-Mn steel commonly used in marine applications. The effect of mechanical variables such as frequency and load ratio on fatigue crack growth rate at various stages has been studied using compact tension (C(T)) specimens along the rolling direction of steel plate under 3.5% saturated NaCl aqueous environment. The significance of crack closure on corrosion fatigue, and the validity of Elber-s empirical linear crack closure model with the ASTM compliance offset method have been examined. Fatigue crack growth rate is higher and threshold stress intensities are lower in aqueous environment compared to the lab air conditions. It is also observed that the crack growth rate increases at lower frequencies. The higher stress ratio promotes the crack growth. The effect of oxidization and corrosion pit formation is very less as the stress ratio is increased. It is observed that as stress ratios are increased, the Elber-s crack closure model agrees well with the crack closure estimated by the ASTM compliance offset method for tests conducted at 5Hz frequency compared to tests conducted at 1Hz in corrosive environment.Keywords: Corrosion fatigue, oxide induced crack closure, Elber's crack closure, ASTM compliance offset method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21503696 Post Mining- Discovering Valid Rules from Different Sized Data Sources
Authors: R. Nedunchezhian, K. Anbumani
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A big organization may have multiple branches spread across different locations. Processing of data from these branches becomes a huge task when innumerable transactions take place. Also, branches may be reluctant to forward their data for centralized processing but are ready to pass their association rules. Local mining may also generate a large amount of rules. Further, it is not practically possible for all local data sources to be of the same size. A model is proposed for discovering valid rules from different sized data sources where the valid rules are high weighted rules. These rules can be obtained from the high frequency rules generated from each of the data sources. A data source selection procedure is considered in order to efficiently synthesize rules. Support Equalization is another method proposed which focuses on eliminating low frequency rules at the local sites itself thus reducing the rules by a significant amount.
Keywords: Association rules, multiple data stores, synthesizing, valid rules.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14043695 FEM Simulation of Triple Diffusive Magnetohydrodynamics Effect of Nanofluid Flow over a Nonlinear Stretching Sheet
Authors: Rangoli Goyal, Rama Bhargava
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The triple diffusive boundary layer flow of nanofluid under the action of constant magnetic field over a non-linear stretching sheet has been investigated numerically. The model includes the effect of Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and cross-diffusion; slip mechanisms which are primarily responsible for the enhancement of the convective features of nanofluid. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations (by using group theory transformations) and solved numerically by using variational finite element method. The effects of various controlling parameters, such as the magnetic influence number, thermophoresis parameter, Brownian motion parameter, modified Dufour parameter, and Dufour solutal Lewis number, on the fluid flow as well as on heat and mass transfer coefficients (both of solute and nanofluid) are presented graphically and discussed quantitatively. The present study has industrial applications in aerodynamic extrusion of plastic sheets, coating and suspensions, melt spinning, hot rolling, wire drawing, glass-fibre production, and manufacture of polymer and rubber sheets, where the quality of the desired product depends on the stretching rate as well as external field including magnetic effects.Keywords: FEM, Thermophoresis, Diffusiophoresis, Brownian motion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14513694 Multirate Neural Control for AUV's Increased Situational Awareness during Diving Tasks Using Stochastic Model
Authors: Igor Astrov, Andrus Pedai
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This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the neural control of depth flight of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Constant depth flight is a challenging but important task for AUVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, we proposed a multirate neural control of an AUV trajectory for a nontrivial mid-small size AUV “r2D4" stochastic model. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of diving maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the chosen AUV model is stable in the presence of noises, and also can be concluded that the proposed research technique will be useful for fast SA of similar AUV systems in real-time search-and-rescue operations.
Keywords: Autonomous underwater vehicles, multirate systems, neurocontrollers, situational awareness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15903693 Modelling of Energy Consumption in Wheat Production Using Neural Networks “Case Study in Canterbury Province, New Zealand“
Authors: M. Safa, S. Samarasinghe
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An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model the energy consumption of wheat production. This study was conducted over 35,300 hectares of irrigated and dry land wheat fields in Canterbury in the 2007-2008 harvest year.1 In this study several direct and indirect factors have been used to create an artificial neural networks model to predict energy use in wheat production. The final model can predict energy consumption by using farm condition (size of wheat area and number paddocks), farmers- social properties (education), and energy inputs (N and P use, fungicide consumption, seed consumption, and irrigation frequency), it can also predict energy use in Canterbury wheat farms with error margin of ±7% (± 1600 MJ/ha).
Keywords: Artificial neural network, Canterbury, energy consumption, modelling, New Zealand, wheat.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14173692 Fuzzy Inference System Based Unhealthy Region Classification in Plant Leaf Image
Authors: K. Muthukannan, P. Latha
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In addition to environmental parameters like rain, temperature diseases on crop is a major factor which affects production quality & quantity of crop yield. Hence disease management is a key issue in agriculture. For the management of disease, it needs to be detected at early stage. So, treat it properly & control spread of the disease. Now a day, it is possible to use the images of diseased leaf to detect the type of disease by using image processing techniques. This can be achieved by extracting features from the images which can be further used with classification algorithms or content based image retrieval systems. In this paper, color image is used to extract the features such as mean and standard deviation after the process of region cropping. The selected features are taken from the cropped image with different image size samples. Then, the extracted features are taken in to the account for classification using Fuzzy Inference System (FIS).Keywords: Image Cropping, Classification, Color, Fuzzy Rule, Feature Extraction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1889