Search results for: California red scale

Authors: Xiaobai Li, Li Li, Yujin Hu, Weiming Deng, Zhe Ding

Abstract:

A size-dependent Euler–Bernoulli beam model, which accounts for nonlocal stress field, strain gradient field and higher order inertia force field, is derived based on the nonlocal strain gradient theory considering velocity gradient effect. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived both in dimensional and dimensionless form by employed the Hamilton principle. The analytical solutions based on different continuum theories are compared. The effect of higher order inertia terms is extremely significant in high frequency range. It is found that there exists an asymptotic frequency for the proposed beam model, while for the nonlocal strain gradient theory the solutions diverge. The effect of strain gradient field in thickness direction is significant in low frequencies domain and it cannot be neglected when the material strain length scale parameter is considerable with beam thickness. The influence of each of three size effect parameters on the natural frequencies are investigated. The natural frequencies increase with the increasing material strain gradient length scale parameter or decreasing velocity gradient length scale parameter and nonlocal parameter.

Keywords: Euler-Bernoulli Beams, free vibration, higher order inertia, nonlocal strain gradient theory, velocity gradient.

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Authors: Angie M. Wolf, Angie Del Prado Lippman, DeVone Boggan, Caroline Glesmann, Estivaliz Castro

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This paper highlights an innovative and nontraditional violence prevention program that is making a noticeable impact in what was once one of the country’s most violent communities. With unique and tailored strategies, the Operation Peacemaker Fellowship, established in Richmond, California, combines components of evidence-based practices with a community-oriented focus on relationships and mentoring to fill a gap in services and increase community safety. In an effort to highlight these unique strategies and provide a blueprint for other communities with violent crime problems, the authors of this paper hope to clearly delineate how one community is moving forward with vanguard approaches to invest in the lives of young men who once were labeled their community’s most violent, even most deadly, youth. The impact of this program is evidenced through the fellows’ own voices as they illuminate the experience of being in the Fellowship. In interviews, fellows describe how participating in this program has transformed their lives and the lives of those they love. The authors of this article spent more than two years researching this Fellowship program in order to conduct an evaluation of it and, ultimately, to demonstrate how this program is a testament to the power of relationships and love combined with evidence-based practices, consequently enriching the lives of youth and the community that embraces them.

Keywords: Community violence, firearm violence, interventions for violent crime, violence prevention.

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Authors: R. Krishnamoorthy, N. Amudhavalli, M.K. Sivakkolunthu

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X-ray mammography is the most effective method for the early detection of breast diseases. However, the typical diagnostic signs such as microcalcifications and masses are difficult to detect because mammograms are of low-contrast and noisy. In this paper, a new algorithm for image denoising and enhancement in Orthogonal Polynomials Transformation (OPT) is proposed for radiologists to screen mammograms. In this method, a set of OPT edge coefficients are scaled to a new set by a scale factor called OPT scale factor. The new set of coefficients is then inverse transformed resulting in contrast improved image. Applications of the proposed method to mammograms with subtle lesions are shown. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we compare the results to those obtained by the Histogram Equalization (HE) and the Unsharp Masking (UM) methods. Our preliminary results strongly suggest that the proposed method offers considerably improved enhancement capability over the HE and UM methods.

Keywords: mammograms, image enhancement, orthogonalpolynomials, contrast improvement

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Authors: Ilze Gramatina, Jelena Zagorska, Evita Straumite, Svetlana Sarvi

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In the meat processing industry the substitution of meat with non-meat ingredients is considered an important strategy for reducing overall production costs. The main purpose of the current research was to evaluate differences in physical-chemical composition of cooked sausage with different legumes additions. Peas (Pisum sativum), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and lentil (Lens culinaris) were used in preparation of sausages. The legumes at proportion of 20% of the total weight of meat were added in sausages. The whole ingredients were mixed, filled into casing, compressed, cooked and cooled. After storage the samples were sensory evaluated. The sensory evaluation was carried out using the nine point hedonic scale and line scale. Sausages without legumes flour was used as control sample. The main conclusion of the current research the legumes flour can be successfully used for cooked sausages production.

Keywords: Legumes, cooked sausages.

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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.

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Authors: Amit Kamra, V. K. Jain, Pragya

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Mammography is widely used technique for breast cancer screening. There are various other techniques for breast cancer screening but mammography is the most reliable and effective technique. The images obtained through mammography are of low contrast which causes problem for the radiologists to interpret. Hence, a high quality image is mandatory for the processing of the image for extracting any kind of information from it. Many contrast enhancement algorithms have been developed over the years. In the present work, an efficient morphology based technique is proposed for contrast enhancement of masses in mammographic images. The proposed method is based on Multiscale Morphology and it takes into consideration the scale of the structuring element. The proposed method is compared with other stateof- the-art techniques. The experimental results show that the proposed method is better both qualitatively and quantitatively than the other standard contrast enhancement techniques.

Keywords: Enhancement, mammography, multi-scale, mathematical morphology.

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Authors: Noor Ayuni Che Zakaria, Takashi Komeda, Cheng Yee Low, Kaoru Inoue, Fazah Akhtar Hanapiah

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Previous studies have shown that there are arguments regarding the reliability and validity of the Ashworth and Modified Ashworth Scale towards evaluating patients diagnosed with upper limb disorders. These evaluations depended on the raters’ experiences. This initiated us to develop an upper limb disorder part-task trainer that is able to simulate consistent upper limb disorders, such as spasticity and rigidity signs, based on the Modified Ashworth Scale to improve the variability occurring between raters and intra-raters themselves. By providing consistent signs, novice therapists would be able to increase training frequency and exposure towards various levels of signs. A total of 22 physiotherapists and occupational therapists participated in the study. The majority of the therapists agreed that with current therapy education, they still face problems with inter-raters and intra-raters variability (strongly agree 54%; n = 12/22, agree 27%; n = 6/22) in evaluating patients’ conditions. The therapists strongly agreed (72%; n = 16/22) that therapy trainees needed to increase their frequency of training; therefore believe that our initiative to develop an upper limb disorder training tool will help in improving the clinical education field (strongly agree and agree 63%; n = 14/22).

Keywords: Upper limb disorders, Clinical education tool, Inter/intra-raters variability, Spasticity, Modified Ashworth Scale.

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Authors: Walid S. Alfuhaid, Saud A. Alghamdi, John M. Watkins, M. Edwin Sawan

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Designing a controller for stochastic decentralized interconnected large scale systems usually involves a high degree of complexity and computation ability. Noise, observability, and controllability of all system states, connectivity, and channel bandwidth are other constraints to design procedures for distributed large scale systems. The quasi-steady state model investigated in this paper is a reduced order model of the original system using singular perturbation techniques. This paper results in an optimal control synthesis to design an observer based feedback controller by standard stochastic control theory techniques using Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) approach and Kalman filter design with less complexity and computation requirements. Numerical example is given at the end to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: Decentralized, optimal control, output, singular perturb.

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Authors: Gül Tekin Temur, Tolga Kaya, Serpil Öktem, Sıtkı Gözlü

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The purpose of this study is to reveal the principles, which have the highest impact on determining the Strategic Quality Management (SQM) implementation perceptions of managers. In order to accomplish this goal, first of all, a factor analysis is conducted on the attitudes of managers at 80 large-scale firms in Turkey for SQM principles. Secondly, utilizing t tests and discriminant analysis, the most effective items are determined. The results show that “process improvement" and “assessment of competitiveness" are the management principles, which have the highest impact on determining the SQM implementation perceptions of Turkish managers.

Keywords: Assessment of Competitiveness, Process Improvement, Strategic Quality Management.

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Authors: A. Errasti, F. Doffagne, O. Foucrier, S. Kao, A. Meigne, H. Pellae, T. Rouland

Abstract:

Renewable energy recovery is an important domain of research in past few years in view of protection of our ecosystem. Several industrial companies are setting up widespread recovery systems to exploit wave energy. Most of them have a large size, are implanted near the shores and exploit current flows. However, as oceans represent 70% of Earth surface, a huge space is still unexploited to produce energy. Present analysis focuses on surface small scale wave energy recovery. The principle is exactly the opposite of wheel damper for a car on a road. Instead of maintaining the car body as non-oscillatory as possible by adapted control, a system is designed so that its oscillation amplitude under wave action will be maximized with respect to a boat carrying it in view of differential potential energy recuperation. From parametric analysis of system equations, interesting domains have been selected and expected energy output has been evaluated.

Keywords: Small scale wave, potential energy, optimized energy recovery, auto-adaptive system.

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Authors: Bahi brahim, El hassane Ibn Elhaj, Driss Aboutajdine

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In this paper we propose a Multiple Description Image Coding(MDIC) scheme to generate two compressed and balanced rates descriptions in the wavelet domain (Daubechies biorthogonal (9, 7) wavelet) using pairwise correlating transform optimal and application method for Generalized Multiple Description Coding (GMDC) to image coding in the wavelet domain. The GMDC produces statistically correlated streams such that lost streams can be estimated from the received data. Our performance test shown that the proposed method gives more improvement and good quality of the reconstructed image when the wavelet coefficients are normalized by Gaussian Scale Mixture (GSM) model then the Gaussian one ,.

Keywords: Multiple description coding (MDC), gaussian scale mixture (GSM) model, joint source-channel coding, pairwise correlating transform, GMDCT.

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Authors: Bülent Dilmaç, Didem Aydoğan

Abstract:

The use of new technologies such internet (e-mail, chat rooms) and cell phones has steeply increased in recent years. Especially among children and young people, use of technological tools and equipments is widespread. Although many teachers and administrators now recognize the problem of school bullying, few are aware that students are being harassed through electronic communication. Referred to as electronic bullying, cyber bullying, or online social cruelty, this phenomenon includes bullying through email, instant messaging, in a chat room, on a website, or through digital messages or images sent to a cell phone. Cyber bullying is defined as causing deliberate/intentional harm to others using internet or other digital technologies. It has a quantitative research design nd uses relational survey as its method. The participants consisted of 300 secondary school students in the city of Konya, Turkey. 195 (64.8%) participants were female and 105 (35.2%) were male. 39 (13%) students were at grade 1, 187 (62.1%) were at grade 2 and 74 (24.6%) were at grade 3. The “Cyber Bullying Question List" developed by Ar─▒cak (2009) was given to students. Following questions about demographics, a functional definition of cyber bullying was provided. In order to specify students- human values, “Human Values Scale (HVS)" developed by Dilmaç (2007) for secondary school students was administered. The scale consists of 42 items in six dimensions. Data analysis was conducted by the primary investigator of the study using SPSS 14.00 statistical analysis software. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the analysis of students- cyber bullying behaviour and simple regression analysis was conducted in order to test whether each value in the scale could explain cyber bullying behaviour.

Keywords: Cyber bullying, Values, Secondary SchoolStudents

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Authors: Petruzzelli G., Pedron F., Rosellini I., Tassi E., Gorini F., Barbafieri M.

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This work involved the use of phytoremediation to remediate an aged soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). At microcosm scale, tests were prepared using soil samples that have been collected in an industrial area with a total PCBs concentration of about 250 μg kg-1. Medicago sativa and Lolium italicum were the species selected in this study that is used as “feasibility test" for full scale remediation. The experiment was carried out with the addition of a mixture of randomly methylatedbeta- cyclodextrins (RAMEB). At the end of the experiment analysis of soil samples showed that in general the presence of plants has led to a higher degradation of most congeners with respect to not vegetated soil. The two plant species efficiencies were comparable and improved by RAMEB addition with a final reduction of total PCBs near to 50%. With increasing the chlorination of the congeners the removal percentage of PCBs progressively decreased.

Keywords: contaminated soil, feasibility test, phytoremediation, polychlorinated biphenyls

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Authors: H. Unger, H. Coltzau

Abstract:

In Peer-to-Peer service networks, where peers offer any kind of publicly available services or applications, intuitive navigation through all services in the network becomes more difficult as the number of services increases. In this article, a concept is discussed that enables users to intuitively browse and use large scale P2P service networks. The concept extends the idea of creating virtual 3D-environments solely based on Peer-to-Peer technologies. Aside from browsing, users shall have the possibility to emphasize services of interest using their own semantic criteria. The appearance of the virtual world shall intuitively reflect network properties that may be of interest for the user. Additionally, the concept comprises options for load- and traffic-balancing. In this article, the requirements concerning the underlying infrastructure and the graphical user interface are defined. First impressions of the appearance of future systems are presented and the next steps towards a prototypical implementation are discussed.

Keywords: Internet Operating System, Peer-To-Peer, Service Exploration

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Authors: Ahmet Diken, Tahsin Karabulut

Abstract:

The factor which developing countries are in need is capital. Such countries make an effort to increase their income in order to meet their expenses for employment, infrastructure, superstructure investments, education, health and defense. The sole income of the countries is taxes collected from businesses. The businesses should drive profit and return in order to be able to toll. In a world where competition exists, different strategies may be followed by business in developing countries and they must specify their target markets. İn order to minimize cost and maximize profit, SMEs have to concentrate on target markets and select cost oriented strategy. In this study, a theoretical model is suggested that SME firms have to act as cluster between each other, and also must be optimal provider for large scale firms. SMEs’ policy must be supported by public. This relationship can benefit large scale firms to have brand over the world, and this organization increases value added for developing countries.

Keywords: Competitiveness, sustainability, SMEs, developing countries.

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Authors: Mingyu Xie, Mietek Brdys

Abstract:

The paper develops a Non-Linear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) of water quality in Drinking Water Distribution Systems (DWDS) based on the advanced non-linear quality dynamics model including disinfections by-products (DBPs). A special attention is paid to the analysis of an impact of the flow trajectories prescribed by an upper control level of the recently developed two-time scale architecture of an integrated quality and quantity control in DWDS. The new quality controller is to operate within this architecture in the fast time scale as the lower level quality controller. The controller performance is validated by a comprehensive simulation study based on an example case study DWDS.

Keywords: Model predictive control, hierarchical control structure, genetic algorithm, water quality with DBPs objectives.

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Authors: A. Driouiche, S. Mohareb, A. Hadfi

Abstract:

In Morocco’s Agadir region, the reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation of green spaces has faced the problem of scaling of the pipes of these waters. This research paper aims at studying the phenomenon of scaling caused by the treated wastewater from the Mzar sewage treatment plant. These waters are used in the irrigation of golf turf for the Ocean Golf Resort. Ocean Golf, located about 10 km from the center of the city of Agadir, is one of the most important recreation centers in Morocco. The course is a Belt Collins design with 27 holes, and is quite open with deep challenging bunkers. The formation of solid deposits in the irrigation systems has led to a decrease in their lifetime and, consequently, a loss of load and performance. Thus, the sprinklers used in golf turf irrigation are plugged in the first weeks of operation. To study this phenomenon, the wastewater used for the irrigation of the golf turf was taken and analyzed at various points, and also samples of scale formed in the circuits of the passage of these waters were characterized. This characterization of the scale was performed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of the physicochemical analysis of the waters show that they are full of bicarbonates (653 mg/L), chloride (478 mg/L), nitrate (412 mg/L), sodium (425 mg/L) and calcium (199mg/L). Their pH is slightly alkaline. The analysis of the scale reveals that it is rich in calcium and phosphorus. It is formed of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), silica (SiO₂), calcium silicate (Ca₂SiO₄), hydroxylapatite (Ca₁₀P₆O₂₆), calcium carbonate and phosphate (Ca₁₀(PO₄) 6CO₃) and silicate calcium and magnesium (Ca₅MgSi₃O₁₂).

Keywords: Agadir, irrigation, scaling water, wastewater.

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Authors: Wichai Pattanapol, Sarah J. Wakes, Michael J. Hilton, Katharine J.M. Dickinson

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Turbulence modeling of large-scale flow over a vegetated surface is complex. Such problems involve large scale computational domains, while the characteristics of flow near the surface are also involved. In modeling large scale flow, surface roughness including vegetation is generally taken into account by mean of roughness parameters in the modified law of the wall. However, the turbulence structure within the canopy region cannot be captured with this method, another method which applies source/sink terms to model plant drag can be used. These models have been developed and tested intensively but with a simple surface geometry. This paper aims to compare the use of roughness parameter, and additional source/sink terms in modeling the effect of plant drag on wind flow over a complex vegetated surface. The RNG k-ε turbulence model with the non-equilibrium wall function was tested with both cases. In addition, the k-ω turbulence model, which is claimed to be computationally stable, was also investigated with the source/sink terms. All numerical results were compared to the experimental results obtained at the study site Mason Bay, Stewart Island, New Zealand. In the near-surface region, it is found that the results obtained by using the source/sink term are more accurate than those using roughness parameters. The k-ω turbulence model with source/sink term is more appropriate as it is more accurate and more computationally stable than the RNG k-ε turbulence model. At higher region, there is no significant difference amongst the results obtained from all simulations.

Keywords: CFD, canopy flow, surface roughness, turbulence models.

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Authors: Zundong Zhang, Limin Jia, Xiaoliang Sun

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The Beijing road traffic system, as a typical huge urban traffic system, provides a platform for analyzing the complex characteristics and the evolving mechanisms of urban traffic systems. Based on dynamic network theory, we construct the dynamic model of the Beijing road traffic system in which the dynamical properties are described completely. Furthermore, we come into the conclusion that urban traffic systems can be viewed as static networks, stochastic networks and complex networks at different system phases by analyzing the structural randomness. As well as, we demonstrate the evolving process of the Beijing road traffic network based on real traffic data, validate the stochastic characteristics and the scale-free property of the network at different phases

Keywords: Dynamic Network Models, Structural Randomness, Scale-free Property, Multi-mode character

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Authors: M. Yoneda

Abstract:

In this paper, a lateral walking design force per person is proposed and compared with Imperial College test results. Numerical simulations considering the proposed walking design force which is incorporated into the neural-oscillator model are carried out placing much emphasis on the synchronization (the lock-in phenomenon) for a pedestrian bridge model with the span length of 50 m. Numerical analyses are also conducted for an existing pedestrian suspension bridge. As compared with full scale measurements for this suspension bridge, it is confirmed that the analytical method based on the neural-oscillator model might be one of the useful ways to explain the synchronization (the lock-in phenomenon) of pedestrians being on the bridge.

Keywords: Pedestrian bridge, human-induced lateral vibration, neural-oscillator, full scale measurement, dynamic response analysis.

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Authors: Hala Abdel hameed, Hazem M. El-Bakry, Torky Sultan

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There are many issues that affect modeling and designing real-time databases. One of those issues is maintaining consistency between the actual state of the real-time object of the external environment and its images as reflected by all its replicas distributed over multiple nodes. The need to improve the scalability is another important issue. In this paper, we present a general framework to design a replicated real-time database for small to medium scale systems and maintain all timing constrains. In order to extend the idea for modeling a large scale database, we present a general outline that consider improving the scalability by using an existing static segmentation algorithm applied on the whole database, with the intent to lower the degree of replication, enables segments to have individual degrees of replication with the purpose of avoiding excessive resource usage, which all together contribute in solving the scalability problem for DRTDBS.

Keywords: Database modeling, Distributed database, Real time databases, Replication

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Authors: Rajeshkumar U. Sambhe

Abstract:

Large scale Indian manufacturers started implementing Six Sigma to their supply core to fulfill the endless need of high quality products. As well, they initiated encouraging their suppliers to apply the well-ascertain SS management practice and kept no resource for supplier enterprises, generally small midsized enterprises to think for the admittance of Six Sigma as a quality promotion drive. There are many issues to study for requisite changes before the introduction of Six Sigma in auto SMEs. This paper converges on impeding factors while implementing SS drive and also pinpoints the gains achieved through successful implementation. The result of this study suggest some operational guidelines for effective implementation of Six Sigma from evidences acquired through research questionnaire and interviews with industrial professionals, apportioned to assort auto sector mid-sized enterprises (MSEs) in India.

Keywords: Indian automotive SMEs, quality management practices, six sigma imperatives, problems faced in six sigma implementation, benefits, some guidelines for implementation.

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Authors: A. Manivannan, R. T. Narendhirakannan

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The objective of this research was to investigate biodegradation of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to produce bioethanol using dilute-acid pretreatment (1% sulfuric acid) results in high hemicellulose decomposition and using yeast (Pachysolen tannophilus) as bioethanol producing strain. A maximum ethanol yield of 1.14g/L with coefficient, 0.24g g^-1; productivity, 0.015g l^-1h^-1 was comparable to predicted value 32.05g/L obtained by Central Composite Design (CCD). Maximum ethanol yield coefficient was comparable to those obtained through enzymatic saccharification and fermentation of acid hydrolysate using fully equipped fermentor. Although maximum ethanol concentration was low in lab scale, the improvement of lignocellulosic ethanol yield is necessary for large scale production.

Keywords: Acid hydrolysis, Biodegradation, Hemicellulose, Pachysolen tannophilus, Water hyacinth.

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Authors: Samee Ullah Khan, C.Ardil

Abstract:

With data centers, end-users can realize the pervasiveness of services that will be one day the cornerstone of our lives. However, data centers are often classified as computing systems that consume the most amounts of power. To circumvent such a problem, we propose a self-adaptive weighted sum methodology that jointly optimizes the performance and power consumption of any given data center. Compared to traditional methodologies for multi-objective optimization problems, the proposed self-adaptive weighted sum technique does not rely on a systematical change of weights during the optimization procedure. The proposed technique is compared with the greedy and LR heuristics for large-scale problems, and the optimal solution for small-scale problems implemented in LINDO. the experimental results revealed that the proposed selfadaptive weighted sum technique outperforms both of the heuristics and projects a competitive performance compared to the optimal solution.

Keywords: Meta-heuristics, distributed systems, adaptive methods, resource allocation.

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Authors: Tahsien Mohamed Okasha, Warda Youssef Mohamed Morsy, Hanan Elsayed Zaghla

Abstract:

We hypothesized that post cardiac arrest patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of less than 8 and who will be exposed to therapeutic hypothermia protocol will exhibit improvement in their neurological performance. 17 subjects were enrolled in this study all over one year. The study was carried out using Quasi-experimental research design. Four tools were used for data collection of this study: Demographic and medical data sheet, Post cardiac arrest health assessment sheet, Bedside Shivering Assessment Scale (BSAS), and Glasgow Pittsburgh cerebral performance category scale (CPC). The mean age was X̅ ± SD = 53 ± 8.122 years, 47.1% were arrested because of cardiac etiology. 35.3% subjects were initially arrested in form of ventricular tachycardia (VT), 23.5% initially arrested in form of ventricular fibrillation (VF), and 29.4% in form of A-Systole. Favorable neurological outcome was seen among 70.6%. There was significant statistical difference in WBC, Platelets, blood gases value, random blood sugar. Also, initial arrest rhythm, etiology of cardiac arrest, and shivering status were significantly correlated with cerebral performance categories score. Therapeutic hypothermia has positive effects on neurological performance among post cardiac arrest patients with GCS score of less than 8. Replication of the study on larger probability sample, with randomized control trial design is recommended with further study for suggesting nursing protocol for patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia is recommended.

Keywords: Therapeutic hypothermia, neurological performance, after resuscitation from cardiac arrest, initial arrest rhythm.

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Authors: Shahryar Aftabi, Saeed Fathi, Mohammad H. Aminfar

Abstract:

It is well known that cemented sand is one of the best approaches for soil stabilization. In some cases, a blend of sand, cement and other pozzolan materials such as zeolite, nano-particles and fiber can be widely (commercially) available and be effectively used in soil stabilization, especially in road construction. In this research, we investigate the effects of CaO which is based on the geotechnical characteristics of zeolite composition with sandy silt soil. Zeolites have low amount of CaO in their structures, that is, varying from 3% to 10%, and by removing the cement paste, we want to investigate the effect of zeolite pozzolan without any activator on soil samples strength. In this research, experiments are concentrated on various weight percentages of zeolite in the soil to examine the effect of the zeolite on drainage shear strength and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) both with and without curing. The study also investigates their liquid limit and plastic limit behavior and makes a comparative result by using Feng's and Wroth-Wood's methods in fall cone (cone penetrometer) device; in the final the SEM images have been presented. The results show that by increasing the percentage of zeolite in without-curing samples, the fine zeolite particles increase some soil's strength, but in the curing-state we can see a relatively higher strength toward without-curing state, since the zeolites have no plastic behavior, the pozzolanic property of zeolites plays a much higher role than cementing properties. Indeed, it is better to combine zeolite particle with activator material such as cement or lime to gain better results.

Keywords: CBR, direct shear, fall-cone, sandy-silt, SEM, zeolite.

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Authors: Bohsiu Wu

Abstract:

Among serious crimes, child homicide is a rather rare event. However, the killing of children stirs up a special type of emotion in society that pales other criminal acts. This study examines the relevancy of three possible community-level explanations for child homicide: social deprivation, female empowerment, and social isolation. The social deprivation hypothesis posits that child homicide results from lack of resources in communities. The female empowerment hypothesis argues that a higher female status translates into a higher level of capability to prevent child homicide. Finally, the social isolation hypothesis regards child homicide as a result of lack of social connectivity. Child homicide data, aggregated by US postal ZIP codes in California from 1990 to 1999, were analyzed with a negative binomial regression. The results of the negative binomial analysis demonstrate that social deprivation is the most salient and consistent predictor among all other factors in explaining child homicide victimization at the ZIP-code level. Both social isolation and female labor force participation are weak predictors of child homicide victimization across communities. Further, results from the negative binomial regression show that it is the communities with a higher, not lower, degree of female labor force participation that are associated with a higher count of child homicide. It is possible that poor communities with a higher level of female employment have a lesser capacity to provide the necessary care and protection for the children. Policies aiming at reducing social deprivation and strengthening female empowerment possess the potential to reduce child homicide in the community.

Keywords: Child homicide, deprivation, empowerment, isolation.

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Authors: Kuvshinov, D., Siswanto, A., Lozano-Parada, J., Zimmerman, W. B.

Abstract:

Ozone is well known as a powerful, fast reacting oxidant. Ozone based processes produce no by-product residual as non-reacted ozone decomposes to molecular oxygen. Therefore an application of ozone is widely accepted as one of the main approaches for a Sustainable and Clean Technologies development.

There are number of technologies which require ozone to be delivered to specific points of a production network or reactors construction. Due to space constraints, high reactivity and short life time of ozone the use of ozone generators even of a bench top scale is practically limited. This requires development of mini/micro scale ozone generator which can be directly incorporated into production units.

Our report presents a feasibility study of a new micro scale rector for ozone generation (MROG). Data on MROG calibration and indigo decomposition at different operation conditions are presented.

At selected operation conditions with residence time of 0.25 s the process of ozone generation is not limited by reaction rate and the amount of ozone produced is a function of power applied. It was shown that the MROG is capable to produce ozone at voltage level starting from 3.5kV with ozone concentration of 5.28*10^-6 (mol/L) at 5kV. This is in line with data presented on numerical investigation for a MROG. It was shown that in compare to a conventional ozone generator, MROG has lower power consumption at low voltages and atmospheric pressure.

The MROG construction makes it applicable for both submerged and dry systems. With a robust compact design MROG can be used as an integrated module for production lines of high complexity.

Keywords: DBD, micro reactor, ozone, plasma.

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Authors: H. Zainuddin, M. S. Yahaya, J. M. Lazi, M. F. M. Basar, Z. Ibrahim

Abstract:

This paper describes the design and development of pico-hydro generation system using consuming water distributed to houses. Water flow in the domestic pipes has kinetic energy that potential to generate electricity for energy storage purposes in addition to the routine activities such as laundry, cook and bathe. The inherent water pressure and flow inside the pipe from utility-s main tank that used for those usual activities is also used to rotate small scale hydro turbine to drive a generator for electrical power generation. Hence, this project is conducted to develop a small scale hydro generation system using consuming water distributed to houses as an alternative electrical energy source for residential use.

Keywords: Alternative Energy, Energy storage, Permanent Magnet DC Generator, Pico-Hydro Generation System.

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Authors: J. Ranjbarn, A. Alibeigloo

Abstract:

In this paper, we present an analytical method for analysis of nano-scale spherical shell subjected to thermo-mechanical shocks based on nonlocal elasticity theory. Thermo-mechanical properties of nano shpere is assumed to be temperature dependent. Governing partial differential equation of motion is solved analytically by using Laplace transform for time domain and power series for spacial domain. The results in Laplace domain is transferred to time domain by employing the fast inverse Laplace transform (FLIT) method. Accuracy of present approach is assessed by comparing the the numerical results with the results of published work in literature. Furtheremore, the effects of non-local parameter and wall thickness on the dynamic characteristics of the nano-sphere are studied.

Keywords: Nano-scale spherical shell, nonlocal elasticity theory, thermomechanical shock.

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