Search results for: technique effect
4346 Is Curcumine Effect Comparable to 5- Aminosalicylic Acid or Budesonide on a Rat Model of Ulcerative Colitis Induced by Trinitrobenzene Sulfonic Acid?
Authors: Inas E. Darwish, Alia M. Arab, Tarek A. Azeim, Teshreen M. Zeitoun, Wafaa A. Hewedy, Moemen A. Heiba, Iman S. Emara
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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic relapsing-remitting condition that afflicts millions of people throughout the world and impairs their daily functions and quality of life. Treatment of IBD depends largely on 5-aminosalicylic acid (5- ASA) and corticosteroids. The present study aimed to clarify the effects of 5-aminosalicylic acid, budesonide and currcumin on 90 male albino rats against trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNB) induced colitis. TNB was injected intrarectally to 50 rats. The other 40 rats served as control groups. Both 5-ASA (in a dose of 120 mg/kg) and budesonide (in a dose of 0.1 mg/kg) were administered daily for one week whereas currcumin was injected intraperitonially (in a dose of 30 mg/kg daily) for 14 days after injection of either TNB in the colitis rats (group B) or saline in control groups (group A). The study included estimation of macroscopic score index, histological examination of H&E stained sections of the colonic tissue, biochemical estimation of myeloperoxidase (MPO), nitric oxide (NO), and caspase-3 levels, in addition to studying the effect of tested drugs on colonic motility. It was found that budesonide and curcumin improved mucosal healing, reduced both NO production and caspase- 3 level. They had the best impact on the disturbed colonic motility in TNBS-model of colitis.
Keywords: Colitis, curcumin, nitric oxide.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16714345 Extended Release System of Hypoglycemic Agent Containing Solid Dispersions: Strategies and Mechanisms
Authors: Amit Kumar, Ramendeep Grawal, Peeyush Sharma, Dinesh Puri, Anil Bhandari
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The main perspective of the present study aims at overcoming solubility problems by using the technique of solid dispersion. Repaglinide is a BCS Class II drug, having low aqueous solubility and therefore, low bioavailability. Solid dispersions of repaglinide with different carriers Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) and Ethyl Cellulose (EC) in different ratios were prepared by suspending method and Dissolving methods. In vitro release studies revealed that the F7 formulation showed extended drug release. So, the dissolution profile of solid dispersion containing EC and PVP K30 (1: 3) was selected as the best formulation because of its extended drug release among all formulations. In conclusion, solid dispersions of Repaglinide in PVP have shown to be a promising approach to improve the bioavailability of Repaglinide.
Keywords: Ethyl Cellulose, Glibenclamide, Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone, Repaglinide, Solid Dispersion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26424344 A Multiobjective Damping Function for Coordinated Control of Power System Stabilizer and Power Oscillation Damping
Authors: Jose D. Herrera, Mario A. Rios
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This paper deals with the coordinated tuning of the Power System Stabilizer (PSS) controller and Power Oscillation Damping (POD) Controller of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) in a multi-machine power systems. The coordinated tuning is based on the critical eigenvalues of the power system and a model reduction technique where the Hankel Singular Value method is applied. Through the linearized system model and the parameter-constrained nonlinear optimization algorithm, it can compute the parameters of both controllers. Moreover, the parameters are optimized simultaneously obtaining the gains of both controllers. Then, the nonlinear simulation to observe the time response of the controller is performed.
Keywords: Balanced realization, controllability Grammian, electromechanical oscillations, FACTS, Hankel singular values, observability Grammian, POD, PSS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11454343 Experimental Investigation on the Shear Strength Parameters of Sand-Slag Mixtures
Authors: Ayad Salih Sabbar, Amin Chegenizadeh, Hamid Nikraz
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Utilizing waste materials in civil engineering applications has a positive influence on the environment by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and issues associated with waste disposal. Granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) is a by-product of the iron and steel industry, with millions of tons of slag being annually produced worldwide. Slag has been widely used in structural engineering and for stabilizing clay soils; however, studies on the effect of slag on sandy soils are scarce. This article investigates the effect of slag content on shear strength parameters through direct shear tests and unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests on mixtures of Perth sand and slag. For this purpose, sand-slag mixtures, with slag contents of 2%, 4%, and 6% by weight of samples, were tested with direct shear tests under three normal stress values, namely 100 kPa, 150 kPa, and 200 kPa. Unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests were performed under a single confining pressure of 100 kPa and relative density of 80%. The internal friction angles and shear stresses of the mixtures were determined via the direct shear tests, demonstrating that shear stresses increased with increasing normal stress and the internal friction angles and cohesion increased with increasing slag. There were no significant differences in shear stresses parameters when slag content rose from 4% to 6%. The unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests demonstrated that shear strength increased with increasing slag content.
Keywords: Direct shear, shear strength, slag, UU test.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17034342 Exercise and Cognitive Function: Time Course of the Effects
Authors: Simon B. Cooper, Stephan Bandelow, Maria L. Nute, John G. Morris, Mary E. Nevill
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Previous research has indicated a variable effect of exercise on adolescents’ cognitive function. However, comparisons between studies are difficult to make due to differences in: the mode, intensity and duration of exercise employed; the components of cognitive function measured (and the tests used to assess them); and the timing of the cognitive function tests in relation to the exercise. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the time course (10 and 60min post-exercise) of the effects of 15min intermittent exercise on cognitive function in adolescents. 45 adolescents were recruited to participate in the study and completed two main trials (exercise and resting) in a counterbalanced crossover design. Participants completed 15min of intermittent exercise (in cycles of 1 min exercise, 30s rest). A battery of computer based cognitive function tests (Stroop test, Sternberg paradigm and visual search test) were completed 30 min pre- and 10 and 60min post-exercise (to assess attention, working memory and perception respectively).The findings of the present study indicate that on the baseline level of the Stroop test, 10min following exercise response times were slower than at any other time point on either trial (trial by session time interaction, p = 0.0308). However, this slowing of responses also tended to produce enhanced accuracy 10min post-exercise on the baseline level of the Stroop test (trial by session time interaction, p = 0.0780). Similarly, on the complex level of the visual search test there was a slowing of response times 10 min post-exercise (trial by session time interaction, p = 0.0199). However, this was not coupled with an improvement in accuracy (trial by session time interaction, p = 0.2349). The mid-morning bout of exercise did not affect response times or accuracy across the morning on the Sternberg paradigm. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggest an equivocal effect of exercise on adolescents' cognitive function. The mid-morning bout of exercise appears to cause a speed-accuracy trade off immediately following exercise on the Stroop test (participants become slower but more accurate), whilst slowing response times on the visual search test and having no effect on performance on the Sternberg paradigm. Furthermore, this work highlights the importance of the timing of the cognitive function tests relative to the exercise and the components of cognitive function examined in future studies.
Keywords: Adolescents, cognitive function, exercise.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31384341 Object Recognition Approach Based on Generalized Hough Transform and Color Distribution Serving in Generating Arabic Sentences
Authors: Nada Farhani, Naim Terbeh, Mounir Zrigui
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The recognition of the objects contained in images has always presented a challenge in the field of research because of several difficulties that the researcher can envisage because of the variability of shape, position, contrast of objects, etc. In this paper, we will be interested in the recognition of objects. The classical Hough Transform (HT) presented a tool for detecting straight line segments in images. The technique of HT has been generalized (GHT) for the detection of arbitrary forms. With GHT, the forms sought are not necessarily defined analytically but rather by a particular silhouette. For more precision, we proposed to combine the results from the GHT with the results from a calculation of similarity between the histograms and the spatiograms of the images. The main purpose of our work is to use the concepts from recognition to generate sentences in Arabic that summarize the content of the image.
Keywords: Recognition of shape, generalized hough transformation, histogram, Spatiogram, learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6184340 Reversible Signed Division for Computing Systems
Authors: D. Krishnaveni, M. Geetha Priya
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Applications of reversible logic gates in the design of complex integrated circuits provide power optimization. This technique finds a great use in low power CMOS design, optical computing, quantum computing and nanotechnology. This paper proposes a reversible signed division circuit that can divide an n-bit signed dividend with an n-bit signed divisor using non-restoration division logic. The proposed design adequately addresses the ‘delay’ there by improving the efficiency of the circuit. An attempt is made to design a reversible signed division circuit. This paper provides a threshold to build more complex arithmetic systems using reversible logic, thus increasing the performance of computing systems.
Keywords: Low power CMOS, quantum computing, reversible logic gates, shift register, signed division.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12634339 Ultraviolet Lasing from Vertically-Aligned ZnO Nanowall Array
Authors: Masahiro Takahashi, Kosuke Harada, Shihomi Nakao, Mitsuhiro Higashihata, Hiroshi Ikenoue, Daisuke Nakamura, Tatsuo Okada
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Zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the light emitting materials in ultraviolet (UV) region. In addition, ZnO nanostructures are also attracting increasing research interest as buildingblocks for UV optoelectronic applications. We have succeeded in synthesizing vertically-aligned ZnO nanostructures by laser interference patterning, which is catalyst-free and non-contact technique. In this study, vertically-aligned ZnO nanowall arrays were synthesized using two-beam interference. The maximum height and average thickness of the ZnO nanowalls were about 4.5µm and 200 nm, respectively.UV lasing from a piece of the ZnO nanowall was obtained under the third harmonic of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser excitation, and the estimated threshold power density for lasing was about 150 kW/cm2. Furthermore, UV lasing from the vertically-aligned ZnO nanowall was also achieved. The results indicate that ZnO nanowalls can be applied to random laser.
Keywords: Zinc Oxide, nanowall, interference laser, UV lasing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20774338 Simulink Model of Reference Frame Theory Based Three Phase Shunt Active Filter
Authors: P. Nammalvar, P. Meganathan, A. Balamuguran
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Among various active filters, shunt active filter is a viable solution for reactive power and harmonics compensation. In this paper, the SRF plan is used to generate current reference for compensation and conventional PI controllers were used as the controller to compensate the reactive power. The design of the closed loop controllers is reserved simple by modeling them as first order systems. Computationally uncomplicated and efficient SVM system is used in the present work for better utilization of dc bus voltage. The rating of shunt active filter has been finalized based on the reactive power demand of the selected reactive load. The proposed control and SVM technique are validated by simulating in MATLAB software.Keywords: Shunt Active Filter, Space vector pulse width modulation, Voltage Source Converter, Reactive Power, Synchronous Reference Frame, Point of common coupling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25874337 Viral Advertising: Popularity and Willingness to Share among the Czech Internet Population
Authors: Martin Klepek
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This paper presents results of primary quantitative research on viral advertising with focus on popularity and willingness to share viral video among Czech Internet population. It starts with brief theoretical debate on viral advertising, which is used for the comparison of the results. For purpose of collecting data, online questionnaire survey was given to 384 respondents. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, correlation and Pearson’s Chi-square test. Data was evaluated using SPSS software. The research analysis disclosed high popularity of viral advertising video among Czech Internet population but implies lower willingness to share it. Significant relationship between likability of viral video technique and age of the viewer was found.
Keywords: Internet advertising, Internet population, promotion, marketing communication, viral advertising, viral video.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20174336 Analyses for Primary Coolant Pump Coastdown Phenomena for Jordan Research and Training Reactor
Authors: Yazan M. Alatrash, Han-ok Kang, Hyun-gi Yoon, Shen Zhang, Juhyeon Yoon
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Flow coastdown phenomena are very important to secure nuclear fuel integrity during loss of off-site power accidents. In this study, primary coolant flow coastdown phenomena are investigated for the Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR) using a simulation software package, Modular Modeling System (MMS). Two MMS models are built. The first one is a simple model to investigate the characteristics of the primary coolant pump only. The second one is a model for a simulation of the Primary Coolant System (PCS) loop, in which all the detailed design data of the JRTR PCS system are modeled, including the geometrical arrangement data. The same design data for a PCS pump are used for both models. Coastdown curves obtained from the two models are compared to study the PCS loop coolant inertia effect on a flow coastdown. Results showed that the loop coolant inertia effect is found to be small in the JRTR PCS loop, i.e., about one second increases in a coastdown half time required to halve the coolant flow rate. The effects of different flywheel inertia on the flow coastdown are also investigated. It is demonstrated that the coastdown half time increases with the flywheel inertia linearly. The designed coastdown half time is proved to be well above the design requirement for the fuel integrity.
Keywords: Flow Coastdown, Loop Coolant Inertia, Modeling, Research Reactor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37964335 Solving Facility Location Problem on Cluster Computing
Authors: Ei Phyo Wai, Nay Min Tun
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Computation of facility location problem for every location in the country is not easy simultaneously. Solving the problem is described by using cluster computing. A technique is to design parallel algorithm by using local search with single swap method in order to solve that problem on clusters. Parallel implementation is done by the use of portable parallel programming, Message Passing Interface (MPI), on Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster. In this paper, it presents the algorithm that used local search with single swap method and implementation of the system of a facility to be opened by using MPI on cluster. If large datasets are considered, the process of calculating a reasonable cost for a facility becomes time consuming. The result shows parallel computation of facility location problem on cluster speedups and scales well as problem size increases.Keywords: cluster, cost, demand, facility location
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14864334 Characterization of Carbon Based Nanometer Scale Coil Growth
Authors: C. C. Su, S. H. Chang
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The carbon based coils with the nanometer scale have the 3 dimension helix geometry. We synthesized the carbon nano-coils by the use of chemical vapor deposition technique with iron and tin as the catalysts. The fabricated coils have the external diameter of ranging few hundred nm to few thousand nm. The Scanning Electro-Microscope (SEM) and Tunneling Electro-Microscope has shown detail images of the coil-s structure. The fabrication of the carbon nano-coils can be grown on the metal and non-metal substrates, such as the stainless steel and silicon substrates. Besides growth on the flat substrate; they also can be grown on the stainless steel wires. After the synthesis of the coils, the mechanical and electro-mechanical property is measured. The experimental results were reported.Keywords: Carbon nanocoils, chemical vapor deposition, nano-materials
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14014333 Manufacturing Process of S-Glass Fiber Reinforced PEKK Prepregs
Authors: Nassier A. Nassir, Robert Birch, Zhongwei Guan
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The aim of this study is to investigate the fundamental science/technology related to novel S-glass fiber reinforced polyether- ketone-ketone (GF/PEKK) composites and to gain insight into bonding strength and failure mechanisms. Different manufacturing techniques to make this high-temperature pre-impregnated composite (prepreg) were conducted i.e. mechanical deposition, electrostatic powder deposition, and dry powder prepregging techniques. Generally, the results of this investigation showed that it was difficult to control the distribution of the resin powder evenly on the both sides of the fibers within a specific percentage. Most successful approach was by using a dry powder prepregging where the fibers were coated evenly with an adhesive that served as a temporary binder to hold the resin powder in place onto the glass fiber fabric.Keywords: Dry powder technique, PEKK, S-glass, thermoplastic prepreg.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10724332 Test Method Development for Evaluation of Process and Design Effect on Reinforced Tube
Authors: Cathal Merz, Gareth O’Donnell
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Coil reinforced thin-walled (CRTW) tubes are used in medicine to treat problems affecting blood vessels within the body through minimally invasive procedures. The CRTW tube considered in this research makes up part of such a device and is inserted into the patient via their femoral or brachial arteries and manually navigated to the site in need of treatment. This procedure replaces the requirement to perform open surgery but is limited by reduction of blood vessel lumen diameter and increase in tortuosity of blood vessels deep in the brain. In order to maximize the capability of these procedures, CRTW tube devices are being manufactured with decreasing wall thicknesses in order to deliver treatment deeper into the body and to allow passage of other devices through its inner diameter. This introduces significant stresses to the device materials which have resulted in an observed increase in the breaking of the proximal segment of the device into two separate pieces after it has failed by buckling. As there is currently no international standard for measuring the mechanical properties of these CRTW tube devices, it is difficult to accurately analyze this problem. The aim of the current work is to address this discrepancy in the biomedical device industry by developing a measurement system that can be used to quantify the effect of process and design changes on CRTW tube performance, aiding in the development of better performing, next generation devices. Using materials testing frames, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) imaging, experiment planning, analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-tests and regression analysis, test methods have been developed for assessing the impact of process and design changes on the device. The major findings of this study have been an insight into the suitability of buckle and three-point bend tests for the measurement of the effect of varying processing factors on the device’s performance, and guidelines for interpreting the output data from the test methods. The findings of this study are of significant interest with respect to verifying and validating key process and design changes associated with the device structure and material condition. Test method integrity evaluation is explored throughout.
Keywords: Buckling, coil reinforced thin-walled tubes, fracture, test method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6994331 Sprayer Boom Active Suspension Using Intelligent Active Force Control
Authors: M. Tahmasebi, R.A. Rahman, M. Mailah, M. Gohari
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The control of sprayer boom undesired vibrations pose a great challenge to investigators due to various disturbances and conditions. Sprayer boom movements lead to reduce of spread efficiency and crop yield. This paper describes the design of a novel control method for an active suspension system applying proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller with an active force control (AFC) scheme integration of an iterative learning algorithm employed to a sprayer boom. The iterative learning as an intelligent method is principally used as a method to calculate the best value of the estimated inertia of the sprayer boom needed for the AFC loop. Results show that the proposed AFC-based scheme performs much better than the standard PID control technique. Also, this shows that the system is more robust and accurate.
Keywords: Active force control, sprayer boom, active suspension, iterative learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23004330 Ellagic Acid Enhanced Apoptotic Radiosensitivity via G1 Cell Cycle Arrest and γ-H2AX Foci Formation in HeLa Cells in vitro
Authors: V. R. Ahire, A. Kumar, B. N. Pandey, K. P. Mishra, G. R. Kulkarni
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Radiation therapy is an effective vital strategy used globally in the treatment of cervical cancer. However, radiation efficacy principally depends on the radiosensitivity of the tumor, and not all patient exhibit significant response to irradiation. A radiosensitive tumor is easier to cure than a radioresistant tumor which later advances to local recurrence and metastasis. Herbal polyphenols are gaining attention for exhibiting radiosensitization through various signaling. Current work focuses to study the radiosensitization effect of ellagic acid (EA), on HeLa cells. EA intermediated radiosensitization of HeLa cells was due to the induction γ-H2AX foci formation, G1 phase cell cycle arrest, and loss of reproductive potential, growth inhibition, drop in the mitochondrial membrane potential and protein expression studies that eventually induced apoptosis. Irradiation of HeLa in presence of EA (10 μM) to doses of 2 and 4 Gy γ-radiation produced marked tumor cytotoxicity. EA also demonstrated radio-protective effect on normal cell, NIH3T3 and aided recovery from the radiation damage. Our results advocate EA to be an effective adjuvant for improving cancer radiotherapy as it displays striking tumor cytotoxicity and reduced normal cell damage instigated by irradiation.Keywords: Apoptotic radiosensitivity, ellagic acid, mitochondrial potential, cell-cycle arrest.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8764329 Obtaining Composite Cotton Fabric by Cyclodextrin Grafting
Authors: U. K. Sahin, N. Erdumlu, C. Saricam, I. Gocek, M. H. Arslan, H. Acikgoz-Tufan, B. Kalav
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Finishing is an important part of fabric processing with which a wide range of features are imparted to greige or colored fabrics for various end-uses. Especially, by the addition or impartation of nano-scaled particles to the fabric structure composite fabrics, a kind of composite materials can be acquired. Composite materials, generally shortened as composites or in other words composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more component materials with significantly different physical, mechanical or chemical characteristics remaining separate and distinctive at the macroscopic or microscopic scale within the end product structure. Therefore, the technique finishing which is one of the fundamental methods to be applied on fabrics for obtainment of composite fabrics with many functionalities was used in the current study with the same purpose. However, regardless of the finishing materials applied, the efficient life of finished product on offering desired feature is low, since the durability of finishes on the material is limited. Any increase in durability of these finishes on textiles would enhance the life of use for textiles, which will result in happier users. Therefore, in this study, since higher durability was desired for the finishing materials fixed on the fabrics, nano-scaled hollow structured cyclodextrins were chemically imparted by grafting to the structure of conventional cotton fabrics by the help of finishing technique in order to be fixed permanently. By this way, a processed and functionalized base fabric having potential to be treated in the subsequent processes with many different finishing agents and nanomaterials could be obtained. Henceforth, this fabric can be used as a multi-functional fabric due to the encapturing ability of cyclodextrins to molecules/particles via physical/chemical means. In this study, scoured and rinsed woven bleached plain weave 100% cotton fabrics were utilized because textiles made of cotton are the most demanded textile products in the textile market by the textile consumers in daily life. Cotton fabric samples were immersed in treating baths containing β-cyclodextrin and 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid and to reduce the curing temperature the catalyst sodium hypophosphite monohydrate was used. All impregnated fabric samples were pre-dried. The reaction of grafting was performed in dry state. The treated and cured fabric samples were rinsed with warm distilled water and dried. The samples were dried for 4 h and weighed before and after finishing and rinsing. Stability and durability of β-cyclodextrins on fabric surface against external factors such as washing as well as strength of functionalized fabric in terms of tensile and tear strength were tested. Presence and homogeneity of distribution of β-cyclodextrins on fabric surface were characterized.
Keywords: Cotton fabric, cyclodextrin, improved durability, multifunctional composite textile.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13014328 An Experimental Study on the Effect of EGR and Engine Speed on CO and HC Emissions of Dual Fuel HCCI Engine
Authors: M. Ghazikhani, M. R. Kalateh, Y. K. Toroghi, M. Dehnavi
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In this study, effects of EGR on CO and HC emissions of a dual fuel HCCI-DI engine are investigated. Tests were conducted on a single-cylinder variable compression ratio (VCR) diesel engine with compression ratio of 17.5. Premixed gasoline is provided by a carburetor connected to intake manifold and equipped with a screw to adjust premixed air-fuel ratio, and diesel fuel is injected directly into the cylinder through an injector at pressure of 250 bars. A heater placed at inlet manifold is used to control the intake charge temperature. Optimal intake charge temperature was 110-115ºC due to better formation of a homogeneous mixture causing HCCI combustion. Timing of diesel fuel injection has a great effect on stratification of in-cylinder charge in HCCI combustion. Experiments indicated 35 BTDC as the optimum injection timing. Coolant temperature was maintained 50ºC during the tests. Results show that increasing engine speed at a constant EGR rate leads to increase in CO and UHC emissions due to the incomplete combustion caused by shorter combustion duration and less homogeneous mixture. Results also show that increasing EGR reduces the amount of oxygen and leads to incomplete combustion and therefore increases CO emission due to lower combustion temperature. HC emission also increases as a result of lower combustion temperatures.Keywords: Dual fuel HCCI engine, EGR, engine speed, CO andUHC emissions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23654327 Developing ESL Students' Writing
Authors: Esmaeil Hassannejad
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Some of the students' problems in writing skill stem from inadequate preparation for the writing assignment. Students should be taught how to write well when they arrive in language classes. Having selected a topic, the students examine and explore the theme from as large a variety of viewpoints as their background and imagination make possible. Another strategy is that the students prepare an Outline before writing the paper. The comparison between the two mentioned thought provoking techniques was carried out between the two class groups –students of Islamic Azad University of Dezful who were studying “Writing 2" as their main course. Each class group was assigned to write five compositions separately in different periods of time. Then a t-test for each pair of exams between the two class groups showed that the t-observed in each pair was more than the t-critical. Consequently, the first hypothesis which states those who utilize Brainstorming as a thought provoking technique in prewriting phase are more successful than those who outline the papers before writing was verified.Keywords: Brainstorming, Outlining, Prewriting, Thought provoking techniques
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13634326 QSI Dynamical Fetch Policy for SMT
Authors: Shu-Chiao Yang, Jong-Jiann Shieh
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A Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) Processor is capable of executing instructions from multiple threads in the same cycle. SMT in fact was introduced as a powerful architecture to superscalar to increase the throughput of the processor. Simultaneous Multithreading is a technique that permits multiple instructions from multiple independent applications or threads to compete limited resources each cycle. While the fetch unit has been identified as one of the major bottlenecks of SMT architecture, several fetch schemes were proposed by prior works to enhance the fetching efficiency and overall performance. In this paper, we propose a novel fetch policy called queue situation identifier (QSI) which counts some kind of long latency instructions of each thread each cycle then properly selects which threads to fetch next cycle. Simulation results show that in best case our fetch policy can achieve 30% on speedup and also can reduce the data cache level 1 miss rate.Keywords: SMT, QSI, DL1 miss rate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12694325 Application of Multi-Dimensional Principal Component Analysis to Medical Data
Authors: Naoki Yamamoto, Jun Murakami, Chiharu Okuma, Yutaro Shigeto, Satoko Saito, Takashi Izumi, Nozomi Hayashida
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Multi-dimensional principal component analysis (PCA) is the extension of the PCA, which is used widely as the dimensionality reduction technique in multivariate data analysis, to handle multi-dimensional data. To calculate the PCA the singular value decomposition (SVD) is commonly employed by the reason of its numerical stability. The multi-dimensional PCA can be calculated by using the higher-order SVD (HOSVD), which is proposed by Lathauwer et al., similarly with the case of ordinary PCA. In this paper, we apply the multi-dimensional PCA to the multi-dimensional medical data including the functional independence measure (FIM) score, and describe the results of experimental analysis.Keywords: multi-dimensional principal component analysis, higher-order SVD (HOSVD), functional independence measure (FIM), medical data, tensor decomposition
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25024324 Hysteresis Control of Power Conditioning Unit for Fuel Cell Distributed Generation System
Authors: Kanhu Charan Bhuyan, Subhransu Padhee, Rajesh Kumar Patjoshi, Kamalakanta Mahapatra
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Fuel cell is an emerging technology in the field of renewable energy sources which has the capacity to replace conventional energy generation sources. Fuel cell utilizes hydrogen energy to produce electricity. The electricity generated by the fuel cell can’t be directly used for a specific application as it needs proper power conditioning. Moreover, the output power fluctuates with different operating conditions. To get a stable output power at an economic rate, power conditioning circuit is essential for fuel cell. This paper implements a two-staged power conditioning unit for fuel cell based distributed generation using hysteresis current control technique.
Keywords: Fuel cell, power conditioning unit, hysteresis control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24234323 Designing Social Media into Higher Education Courses
Authors: Thapanee Seechaliao
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This research paper presents guiding on how to design social media into higher education courses. The research methodology used a survey approach. The research instrument was a questionnaire about guiding on how to design social media into higher education courses. Thirty-one lecturers completed the questionnaire. The data were scored by frequency and percentage. The research results were the lecturers’ opinions concerning the designing social media into higher education courses as follows: 1) Lecturers deem that the most suitable learning theory is Collaborative Learning. 2) Lecturers consider that the most important learning and innovation Skill in the 21st century is communication and collaboration skills. 3) Lecturers think that the most suitable evaluation technique is authentic assessment. 4) Lecturers consider that the most appropriate portion used as blended learning should be 70% in the classroom setting and 30% online.Keywords: Instructional design, social media, courses, higher education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20474322 Numerical Study of Some Coupled PDEs by using Differential Transformation Method
Authors: Reza Abazari, Rasool Abazari
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In this paper, the two-dimension differential transformation method (DTM) is employed to obtain the closed form solutions of the three famous coupled partial differential equation with physical interest namely, the coupled Korteweg-de Vries(KdV) equations, the coupled Burgers equations and coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We begin by showing that how the differential transformation method applies to a linear and non-linear part of any PDEs and apply on these coupled PDEs to illustrate the sufficiency of the method for this kind of nonlinear differential equations. The results obtained are in good agreement with the exact solution. These results show that the technique introduced here is accurate and easy to apply.
Keywords: Coupled Korteweg-de Vries(KdV) equation, Coupled Burgers equation, Coupled Schrödinger equation, differential transformation method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30024321 Harrison’s Stolen: Addressing Aboriginal and Indigenous Islanders Human Rights
Authors: M. Shukry
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According to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, every human being is entitled to rights in life that should be respected by others and protected by the state and community. Such rights are inherent regardless of colour, ethnicity, gender, religion or otherwise, and it is expected that all humans alike have the right to live without discrimination of any sort. However, that has not been the case with Aborigines in Australia. Over a long period of time, the governments of the State and the Territories and the Australian Commonwealth denied the Aboriginal and Indigenous inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands such rights. Past Australian governments set policies and laws that enabled them to forcefully remove Indigenous children from their parents, which resulted in creating lost generations living the trauma of the loss of cultural identity, alienation and even their own selfhood. Intending to reduce that population of natives and their Aboriginal culture while, on the other hand, assimilate them into mainstream society, they gave themselves the right to remove them from their families with no hope of return. That practice has led to tragic consequences due to the trauma that has affected those children, an experience that is depicted by Jane Harrison in her play Stolen. The drama is the outcome of a six-year project on lost children and which was first performed in 1997 in Melbourne. Five actors only appear on the stage, playing the role of all the different characters, whether the main protagonists or the remaining cast, present or non-present ones as voices. The play outlines the life of five children who have been taken from their parents at an early age, entailing a disastrous negative impact that differs from one to the other. Unknown to each other, what connects between them is being put in a children’s home. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the play’s text in light of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, using it as a lens that reflects the atrocities practiced against the Aborigines. It highlights how such practices formed an outrageous violation of those natives’ rights as human beings. Harrison’s dramatic technique in conveying the children’s experiences is through a non-linear structure, fluctuating between past and present that are linked together within each of the five characters, reflecting their suffering and pain to create an emotional link between them and the audience. Her dramatic handling of the issue by fusing tragedy with humour as well as symbolism is a successful technique in revealing the traumatic memory of those children and their present life. The play has made a difference in commencing to address the problem of the right of all children to be with their families, which renders the real meaning of having a home and an identity as people.
Keywords: Aboriginal, audience, Australia, children, culture, drama, home, human rights, identity, indigenous, Jane Harrison, memory, scenic effects, setting, stage, stage directions, Stolen, trauma.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16884320 The Efficacy of Neurological Impress Method and Repeated Reading on Reading Fluency of Children with Learning Disabilities in Oyo State, Nigeria
Authors: A. O. Oladele
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The purpose of this study was to find out the effectiveness of neurological impress method and repeated reading technique on reading fluency of children with learning disabilities. Thirty primary four pupils in three public primary schools participated in the study. There were two experimental groups and a control. This research employed a 3 by 2 factorial matrix and the participants were taught for one session. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the research. T-test was used to analyse the data gathered, and data analysis revealed that pupils exposed to the two treatment strategies had improvement in their reading fluency. It was recommended that the two strategies used in the study can be used to intervene in reading fluency problems in children with learning disabilities.Keywords: Learning disabilities, neurological impress method, repeated reading, reading fluency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38014319 Microwave Assisted Solvent-Free Catalytic Transesterification of Glycerol to Glycerol Carbonate
Authors: Wai Keng Teng, Gek Cheng Ngoh, Rozita Yusoff, Mohamed Kheireddine Aroua, Joe Shen Heng
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As a by-product of the biodiesel industries, glycerol has been vastly generated which surpasses the market demand. It is imperative to develop an efficient glycerol valorization processes in minimizing the net energy requirement and intensifying the biodiesel production. In this study, base-catalyzed transesterification of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate using microwave irradiation as heating method to produce glycerol carbonate was conducted by varying grades of glycerol, i.e. 70%, 86% and 99% purity, that is obtained from biodiesel plant. Metal oxide catalysts were used with varying operating parameters including reaction time, DMC/glycerol molar ratio, catalyst weight %, temperature and stirring speed. From the study on the effect of different operating parameters it was found that the type of catalyst used has the most significant effect on the transesterification reaction. Amidst the metal oxide catalysts examined, CaO gave the best performance. This study indicates the feasibility of producing glycerol carbonate using different grade of glycerol in both conventional thermal activation and microwave irradiation with CaO as catalyst. Microwave assisted transesterification (MAT) of glycerol into glycerol carbonate has demonstrated itself as an energy efficient route by achieving 94.2% yield of GC at 65°C, 5 minutes reaction time, 1 wt% CaO and DMC/glycerol molar ratio of 2. The advantages of MAT transesterification route has made the direct utilization of bioglycerol from biodiesel production without the need of purification. This has marked a more economical and less-energy intensive glycerol carbonate synthesis route.Keywords: Biodiesel, glycerol, glycerol carbonate, microwave irradiation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29014318 Fatigue Life of an Anti-Roll Bar of a Passenger Vehicle
Authors: J. Marzbanrad, A. Yadollahi
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In the present paper, Fatigue life assessment of an anti-roll bar component of a passenger vehicle, is investigated by ANSYS 11 software. A stress analysis is also carried out by the finite element technique for the determination of highly stressed regions on the bar. Anti-roll bar is a suspension element used at the front, rear, or at both ends of a car that reduces body roll by resisting any unequal vertical motion between the pair of wheels to which it is connected. As a first stage, fatigue damage models proposed by some well-known references and the corresponding assumptions are discussed and some enhancements are proposed. Then, fracture analysis of an anti-roll bar of an automobile is carried out. The analysed type of the anti-roll bar is especially important as many cases are reported about the fracture after a 100,000 km of travel fatigue and fracture conditions. This paper demonstrates fatigue life of an anti-roll bar and then evaluated by experimental analytically results from other researcher.Keywords: Anti-roll bar, Fracture, Fatigue life, Random loading
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35524317 Effects of Oilfield Water Treated by Electroflocculation and Reverse Osmosis in a Typical Brazilian Semiarid Soil
Authors: P. S. A. Souza, M. R. C. Marques, M. M. Rigo, A. A. Cerqueira, J. L. Paiva, F. Merçon, D. V. Perez
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Produced water (PW), which is water extracted along with oil, is the largest waste stream in the oil and gas industry. With the proper treatment, this wastewater can be used in agricultural irrigation. This study evaluated the effects the application of PW treated by electroflocculation (EF) and combined electroflocculation-reverse osmosis (EF-RO) on soil salinity and sodification parameters. Excessive sodium levels in PW treated by EF may affect soil structural stability and plant growth, and tends to accumulate in upper layers, displacing the nutrient K to deeper layers of the soil profile. PW treated by EF-RO did not promote salinization and soil sodification, indicating that this combined technique may be a viable alternative for oily water treatment aiming at irrigation use in semiarid regions.
Keywords: Electroflocculation, irrigation, produced water, reverse osmosis, soil.
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