Search results for: Optimum sample size

Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Ravshan M. Nuraliev, Raissa A. Muzychkina

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In this research paper were investigated the main regularities of a radical bromination reaction of decalin. There had been studied the temperature effect, durations of reaction, frequency rate of process, a ratio of initial components, type and number of the initiator on decalin bromination degree. There were specified optimum conditions of synthesis of a perbromodecalin by the method of a decalin bromination. There are developed the technological flowchart of receiving a perbromodecalin and the mass balance of process on the first and the subsequent loadings of components. The results of research of antibacterial and antifungal activity of synthesized bromoderivatives have been represented.

Keywords: Decalin, optimum technology, perbromodecalin, radical bromination.

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Authors: Tanzeel bin Abdul Rauf Patker, Saba Mateen

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This research investigates the impact of Brand Loyalty on the product performance and the factors those are considered more important in brand reputation. Variables selected for this research are Brand quality, Brand Equity, Brand Reputation to explore the impact of these variables on Product performance. For this purpose, primary research has been conducted. The questionnaire survey for this research study was administered among the population mainly at the shopping malls. For this research study, a sample size of 250 respondents has been taken into consideration. Customers from the shopping malls and university students constitute the sample for this research study using random sampling (non-probabilistic) used as a sampling technique for conducting the research survey. According to the results obtained from the collected data, it is interpreted that product performance shares a direct relationship with brand quality, brand quality, and brand reputation. Result also showed that brand quality and brand equity has a significant effect on product performance, whereas brand reputation has an insignificant effect on product performance.

Keywords: Product performance, brand quality, brand equity and brand reputation.

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Authors: P. B. Sob, A. A. Alugongo, T. B. Tengen

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Mechanical behavior of 6082T6 aluminum is investigated at different temperatures. The strain rate sensitivity is investigated at different temperatures on the grain size variants. The sensitivity of the measured grain size variants on 3-D grain is discussed. It is shown that the strain rate sensitivities are negative for the grain size variants during the deformation of nanostructured materials. It is also observed that the strain rate sensitivities vary in different ways with the equivalent radius, semi minor axis radius, semi major axis radius and major axis radius. From the obtained results, it is shown that the variation of strain rate sensitivity with temperature suggests that the strain rate sensitivity at the low and the high temperature ends of the 6082T6 aluminum range is different. The obtained results revealed transition at different temperature from negative strain rate sensitivity as temperature increased on the grain size variants.

Keywords: Nanostructured materials, grain size variants, temperature, yield stress, strain rate sensitivity.

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Authors: Muhammad Abdullah Arafat, Nahrin Nowrose

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Wireless charging of electric vehicles is becoming more and more attractive as large amount of power can now be transferred to a reasonable distance using magnetic resonance coupling method. However, proper tuning of the compensation network is required to achieve maximum power transmission. Due to the variation of coil distance from the nominal value as a result of change in tire condition, change in weight or uneven road condition, the tuning of the compensation network has become challenging. In this paper, a tuning method has been described to determine the optimum values of the compensation network in order to maximize the average output power. The simulation results show that 5.2% increase in average output power is obtained for 10% variation in coupling coefficient using the optimum values without the need of additional space and electro-mechanical components. The proposed method is applicable to both static and dynamic charging of electric vehicles.

Keywords: Coupling coefficient, electric vehicles, magnetic resonance coupling, tuning capacitor, wireless power transfer.

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Authors: Reza Sedaghati

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Given the increasing energy demand in the world as well as limited fossil energy fuel resources, it is necessary to use renewable energy resources more than ever. Developing a hybrid energy system is suggested to overcome the intermittence of renewable energy resources such as sun and wind, in which the excess electrical energy can be converted and stored. While these resources store the energy, they can provide a more reliable system that is really suitable for off-grid applications. In hybrid systems, a methodology for optimal sizing of power generation systems components is of great importance in terms of economic aspects and efficiency. In this study, a hybrid energy system is designed to supply an off-grid sample load pattern with the aim of supplying necessary energy and minimizing the total production cost throughout the system life as well as increasing the reliability. For this purpose, the optimal size and the cost function of these resources is determined and minimized using evolutionary algorithms and system efficiency is studied with real-time load and meteorological information of Kazerun, a city in southern Iran under different conditions.

Keywords: Hybrid energy system, intelligent method, optimal size, minimal.

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Authors: Andrey V. Timofeev, Dmitry V. Egorov

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The practical efficient approach is suggested for estimation of the seismoacoustic sources energy in C-OTDR monitoring systems. This approach is represents the sequential plan for confidence estimation both the seismoacoustic sources energy, as well the absorption coefficient of the soil. The sequential plan delivers the non-asymptotic guaranteed accuracy of obtained estimates in the form of non-asymptotic confidence regions with prescribed sizes. These confidence regions are valid for a finite sample size when the distributions of the observations are unknown. Thus, suggested estimates are non-asymptotic and nonparametric, and also these estimates guarantee the prescribed estimation accuracy in form of prior prescribed size of confidence regions, and prescribed confidence coefficient value.

Keywords: C-OTDR-system, guaranteed estimates, nonparametric estimation, sequential confidence estimation, multichannel monitoring systems.

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Authors: P. S. Rajinikanth, Yeoh Suyu, Sanjay Garg

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The present study is aim to prepare and evaluate the selfnanoemulsifying drug delivery (SNEDDS) system of a poorly water soluble drug valsartan in order to achieve a better dissolution rate which would further help in enhancing oral bioavailability. The present research work describes a SNEDDS of valsartan using labrafil M 1944 CS, Tween 80 and Transcutol HP. The pseudoternary phase diagrams with presence and absence of drug were plotted to check for the emulsification range and also to evaluate the effect of valsartan on the emulsification behavior of the phases. The mixtures consisting of oil (labrafil M 1944 CS) with surfactant (tween 80), co-surfactant (Transcutol HP) were found to be optimum formulations. Prepared formulations were evaluated for its particle size distribution, nanoemulsifying properties, robustness to dilution, self emulsication time, turbidity measurement, drug content and invitro dissolution. The optimized formulations are further evaluated for heating cooling cycle, centrifugation studies, freeze thaw cycling, particle size distribution and zeta potential were carried out to confirm the stability of the formed SNEDDS formulations. The prepared formulation revealed t a significant improvement in terms of the drug solubility as compared with marketed tablet and pure drug.

Keywords: Self Emulsifying Drug Delivery System, Valsartan, Bioavailability, poorly soluble drug.

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Authors: Susovan Chakrabortty, Madhumangal Pal, Prasun Kumar Nayak

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A manufacturing inventory model with shortages with carrying cost, shortage cost, setup cost and demand quantity as imprecise numbers, instead of real numbers, namely interval number is considered here. First, a brief survey of the existing works on comparing and ranking any two interval numbers on the real line is presented. A common algorithm for the optimum production quantity (Economic lot-size) per cycle of a single product (so as to minimize the total average cost) is developed which works well on interval number optimization under consideration. Finally, the designed algorithm is illustrated with numerical example.

Keywords: EOQ, Inventory, Interval Number, Demand, Production, Simulation

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Authors: W.M.F. Wan Ishak, N. A. Rowson

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The aim of this study is to compare the effect of the ultrasonic pre treatment on the removal of heavy metals (Iron, Zinc and Copper) from Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) by Denver Cell flotation. Synthetic AMD and individual metal solutions are used in the initial experiments to optimise the process conditions for real AMD. Three different process methods, ultrasound treatment followed by Denver flotation cell, Denver flotation cell alone and ultrasonic treatments run simultaneously with the Denver flotation cell were tested for every sample. Precipitation of the metal solutions by using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and application of the optimum frother dosage followed by flotation significantly reduced the metal content of the AMD.

Keywords: Ultrasound, Denver cell, Flotation, Heavy metals, AMD

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Authors: T. Kishore Kumar

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Speech enhancement is the process of eliminating noise and increasing the quality of a speech signal, which is contaminated with other kinds of distortions. This paper is on developing an optimum cascaded system for speech enhancement. This aim is attained without diminishing any relevant speech information and without much computational and time complexity. LMS algorithm, Spectral Subtraction and Kalman filter have been deployed as the main de-noising algorithms in this work. Since these algorithms suffer from respective shortcomings, this work has been undertaken to design cascaded systems in different combinations and the evaluation of such cascades by qualitative (listening) and quantitative (SNR) tests.

Keywords: LMS, Kalman filter, Speech Enhancement and Spectral Subtraction.

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Authors: Hanifa Taher, Sulaiman Al-Zuhair, Ali H. Al-Marzouqi, Yousef Haik, Mohammed Farid

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Biodiesel, as an alternative renewable fuel, has been receiving increasing attention due to the limited supply of fossil fuels and the increasing need for energy. Microalgae are promising source for lipids, which can be converted to biodiesel. The biodiesel production from microalgae lipids using lipase catalyzed reaction in supercritical CO2 medium has several advantages over conventional production processes. However, identifying the optimum microalgae lipid extraction and transesterification conditions is still a challenge. In this study, the quality of biodiesel produced from lipids extracted from Scenedesmus sp. and their enzymatic transesterification using supercritical carbon dioxide have been investigated. At the optimum conditions, the highest biodiesel production yield was found to be 82%. The fuel properties of the produced biodiesel, without any separation step, at optimum reaction condition, were determined and compared to ASTM standards. The properties were found to comply with the limits, and showed a low glycerol content, without any separation step.

Keywords: Biodiesel, fuel standards, lipase, microalgae, Supercritical CO2.

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Authors: Rathnayaka D. D. T., Vidanage P. W., Wasalathilake K. C., Wickramasingha H. W., Wijayarathne U. P. L, Perera S. A. S.

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This paper describes the research carried out to develop a process to increase the NaCl percentage of crude salt which is obtained from the conventional solar evaporation process. In this study refined salt was produced from crude solar salt by a chemico-physical method which consists of coagulation, precipitation and filtration. Initially crude salt crystals were crushed and dissolved in water. Optimum amounts of calcium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and Polyaluminiumchloride (PAC) were added to the solution respectively.

Refined NaCl solution was separated out by a filtration process. The solution was tested for Total Suspended Solids, SO₄^2-, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺. With optimum dosage of reagents, the results showed that a level of 99.60% NaCl could be achieved. Further this paper discusses the economic viability of the proposed process. A 83% profit margin can be achieved by this process and it is an increase of 112.3% compared to the traditional process.

Keywords: Chemico-physical, Economic, Optimum, Refined, Solar Salt.

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Authors: A. R. Seifi

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This work presents a new algorithm based on a combination of fuzzy (FUZ), Dynamic Programming (DP), and Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach for capacitor allocation in distribution feeders. The problem formulation considers two distinct objectives related to total cost of power loss and total cost of capacitors including the purchase and installation costs. The novel formulation is a multi-objective and non-differentiable optimization problem. The proposed method of this article uses fuzzy reasoning for sitting of capacitors in radial distribution feeders, DP for sizing and finally GA for finding the optimum shape of membership functions which are used in fuzzy reasoning stage. The proposed method has been implemented in a software package and its effectiveness has been verified through a 9-bus radial distribution feeder for the sake of conclusions supports. A comparison has been done among the proposed method of this paper and similar methods in other research works that shows the effectiveness of the proposed method of this paper for solving optimum capacitor planning problem.

Keywords: Capacitor planning, Fuzzy logic method, Genetic Algorithm, Dynamic programming, Radial Distribution feeder

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Authors: S. Mosadegh Sedghi, Y. Mortazavi, A. Khodadadi, O. Alizadeh Sahraei, M. Vesali Naseh

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In this study, a low temperature sensor highly selective to CO in presence of methane is fabricated by using 4 nm SnO2 quantum dots (QDs) prepared by sonication assisted precipitation. SnCl4 aqueous solution was precipitated by ammonia under sonication, which continued for 2 h. A part of the sample was then dried and calcined at 400°C for 1.5 h and characterized by XRD and BET. The average particle size and the specific surface area of the SnO2 QDs as well as their sensing properties were compared with the SnO2 nano-particles which were prepared by conventional sol-gel method. The BET surface area of sonochemically as-prepared product and the one calcined at 400°C after 1.5 hr are 257 m2/gr and 212 m2/gr respectively while the specific surface area for SnO2 nanoparticles prepared by conventional sol-gel method is about 80m2/gr. XRD spectra revealed pure crystalline phase of SnO2 is formed for both as-prepared and calcined samples of SnO2 QDs. However, for the sample prepared by sol-gel method and calcined at 400°C SnO crystals are detected along with those of SnO2. Quantum dots of SnO2 show exceedingly high sensitivity to CO with different concentrations of 100, 300 and 1000 ppm in whole range of temperature (25- 350°C). At 50°C a sensitivity of 27 was obtained for 1000 ppm CO, which increases to a maximum of 147 when the temperature rises to 225°C and then drops off while the maximum sensitivity for the SnO2 sample prepared by the sol-gel method was obtained at 300°C with the amount of 47.2. At the same time no sensitivity to methane is observed in whole range of temperatures for SnO2 QDs. The response and recovery times of the sensor sharply decreases with temperature, while the high selectivity to CO does not deteriorate.

Keywords: Sonochemical, SnO2 QDs, SnO2 gas sensor

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Authors: K. V. Pagalthivarthi, R. J. Visintainer

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Two-dimensional Eulerian (volume-averaged) continuity and momentum equations governing multi-size slurry flow through pump casings are solved by applying a penalty finite element formulation. The computational strategy validated for multi-phase flow through rectangular channels is adapted to the present study.   The flow fields of the carrier, mixture and each solids species, and the concentration field of each species are determined sequentially in an iterative manner. The eddy viscosity field computed using Spalart-Allmaras model for the pure carrier phase is modified for the presence of particles. Streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin formulation is used for all the momentum equations for the carrier, mixture and each solids species and the concentration field for each species. After ensuring mesh-independence of solutions, results of multi-size particulate flow simulation are presented to bring out the effect of bulk flow rate, average inlet concentration, and inlet particle size distribution. Mono-size computations using (1) the concentration-weighted mean diameter of the slurry and (2) the D50 size of the slurry are also presented for comparison with multi-size results.

Keywords: Eulerian-Eulerian model, Multi-size particulate flow, Penalty finite elements, Pump casing, Spalart-Allmaras.

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Authors: H. A. Taner, V. Önen

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A suitable choice of flotation parameters and reagents have a strong effect on the effectiveness of flotation process. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the flotation of chalcopyrite with the different conditions and dispersants. Flotation parameters such as grinding time, pH, type, and dosage of dispersant were investigated. In order to understand the interaction of some dispersants, sodium silicate, sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium polyphosphate were used. The optimum results were obtained at a pH of 11.5 and a grinding time of 10 minutes. A copper concentrate was produced assaying 29.85% CuFeS₂ and 65.97% flotation recovery under optimum rougher flotation conditions with sodium silicate.

Keywords: Chalcopyrite, dispersant, flotation, copper.

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Authors: H. Arabi, A.R. Kamali Asl

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The purpose of this work is measurement of the system presampling MTF of a variable resolution x-ray (VRX) CT scanner. In this paper, we used the parameters of an actual VRX CT scanner for simulation and study of effect of different focal spot sizes on system presampling MTF by Monte Carlo method (GATE simulation software). Focal spot size of 0.6 mm limited the spatial resolution of the system to 5.5 cy/mm at incident angles of below 17º for cell#1. By focal spot size of 0.3 mm the spatial resolution increased up to 11 cy/mm and the limiting effect of focal spot size appeared at incident angles of below 9º. The focal spot size of 0.3 mm could improve the spatial resolution to some extent but because of magnification non-uniformity, there is a 10 cy/mm difference between spatial resolution of cell#1 and cell#256. The focal spot size of 0.1 mm acted as an ideal point source for this system. The spatial resolution increased to more than 35 cy/mm and at all incident angles the spatial resolution was a function of incident angle. By the way focal spot size of 0.1 mm minimized the effect of magnification nonuniformity.

Keywords: Focal spot, Spatial resolution, Monte Carlosimulation, Variable resolution x-ray (VRX) CT.

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Authors: Mehdi Modabberifar, Milad Roodi, Ehsan Souri

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In recent years, honeycomb fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) sandwich panels have been increasingly used in various industries. Low weight, low price and high mechanical strength are the benefits of these structures. However, their mechanical properties and behavior have not been fully explored. The objective of this study is to conduct a combined numerical-statistical investigation of honeycomb FRP sandwich beams subject to torsion load. In this paper, the effect of geometric parameters of sandwich panel on maximum shear strain in both face and core and angle of torsion in a honeycomb FRP sandwich structures in torsion is investigated. The effect of Parameters including core thickness, face skin thickness, cell shape, cell size, and cell thickness on mechanical behavior of the structure were numerically investigated. Main effects of factors were considered in this paper and regression equations were derived. Taguchi method was employed as experimental design and an optimum parameter combination for the maximum structure stiffness has been obtained. The results showed that cell size and face skin thickness have the most significant impacts on torsion angle, maximum shear strain in face and core.

Keywords: Finite element, honeycomb FRP sandwich panel, torsion, civil engineering.

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Authors: Akmaluddin, Koichiro Watanabe, Akihiro Kano, Wartono Rahardjo

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Oxygen and carbon isotopes records of multi-species planktonic, benthic foraminifera and bulk carbonate sample from Central Java Indonesia demonstrate that warm sea surface temperature occurred during the Miocene. Planktonic δ18O values from this study consistently lighter (-4 to -3 ‰PDB) than previous studies that indicate sea surface temperature during Miocene in this area was warm than tropical/equatorial localities. A surprising decrease of oxygen isotopic composition was recorded at ±14 Ma where the maximum of δ18O values is -4.87 ‰PDB for Orbulina universa, -5.02 ‰PDB for Globigerinoides sacculifer and -4.30 ‰PDB for Globoquadrina dehiscens, this event we predict as Middle Miocene Optimum. Warming of sea surface temperature we interpret as related to the development of Western Pacific Warm Pool where warm water from Pacific Ocean through the Indonesian seaway appears to remain during Miocene. Our result also show increasing suddenly of oxygen isotope values of planktic, benthic and bulk carbonate sample from ± 12 Ma, the increasing cooled surface water relatively high degree with Late Miocene global cooling climate or we predict that due to closing of Indonesian Gateway.

Keywords: Oxygen isotope, Foraminifera, Miocene, Paleoclimate, Indonesian.

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Authors: R. Joseph Raviselvan, K. Ramanathan, P. Perumal, M. R. Thansekhar

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Hard coatings are widely used in cutting and forming tool industries. Titanium Nitride (TiN) possesses good hardness, strength, and corrosion resistance. The coating properties are influenced by many process parameters. The coatings were deposited on steel substrate by changing the process parameters such as substrate temperature, nitrogen flow rate and target power in a D.C planer magnetron sputtering. The structure of coatings were analysed using XRD. The hardness of coatings was found using Micro hardness tester. From the experimental data, a regression model was developed and the optimum response was determined using Response Surface Methodology (RSM).

Keywords: Hardness, RSM, sputtering, TiN XRD.

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Authors: Vitalice K. Oduol, C. Ardil

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The transient analysis of a queuing system with fixed-size batch Poisson arrivals and a single server with exponential service times is presented. The focus of the paper is on the use of the functions that arise in the analysis of the transient behaviour of the queuing system. These functions are shown to be a generalization of the modified Bessel functions of the first kind, with the batch size B as the generalizing parameter. Results for the case of single-packet arrivals are obtained first. The similarities between the two families of functions are then used to obtain results for the general case of batch arrival queue with a batch size larger than one.

Keywords: batch arrivals, generalized Bessel functions, queuetransient analysis, time-varying probabilities.

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Authors: M. S. Thakur, Mohit Shukla

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A channel/tunnel, which carries the water to the penstock/pressure shaft is called headrace tunnel (HRT). It is necessary to know the general topography, geology of the area, state of stress and other mechanical properties of the strata. For this certain topographical and geological investigations, in-situ and laboratory tests, and observations are required to be done. These investigations play an important role in a tunnel design as these help in deciding the optimum layout, shape and size and support requirements of the tunnel. The paper includes inputs from Nathpa Jhakri Hydeoelectric project which is India’s highest capacity (1500 MW) operating hydroelectric project. The paper would help the design engineers with various new concepts and preparedness against geological surprises.

Keywords: Tunnelling, geology, head race tunnel, rockmass.

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Authors: Kongsheng Zhang, Li Ge

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It is a one-sided hypothesis testing process for assessing bioequivalence. Bootstrap and modified large-sample(MLS) methods are considered to study individual bioequivalence(IBE), type I error and power of hypothesis tests are simulated and compared with FDA(2001). The results show that modified large-sample method is equivalent to the method of FDA(2001) .

Keywords: Individual bioequivalence, bootstrap, Bayesian bootstrap, modified large-sample.

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Authors: Khawla Ben Abderrahim

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In order to define a new model of Tunisian foot sizes and for building the most comfortable shoes, Tunisian industrialists must be able to offer for their customers products able to put on and adjust the majority of the target population concerned. Moreover, the use of models of shoes, mainly from others country, causes a mismatch between the foot and comfort of the Tunisian shoes. But every foot is unique; these models become uncomfortable for the Tunisian foot. We have a set of measures produced from a 3D scan of the feet of a diverse population (women, men ...) and we try to analyze this data to define a model of foot specific to the Tunisian footwear design. In this paper we propose tow new approaches to modeling a new foot sizes model. We used, indeed, the neural networks, and specially the Kohonen network. Next, we combine neural networks with the concept of half-foot size to improve the models already found. Finally, it was necessary to compare the results obtained by applying each approach and we decide what-s the best approach that give us the most model of foot improving more comfortable shoes.

Keywords: Morphology of the foot, foot size, half foot size, neural network, Kohonen network, model of foot size.

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, S. P. Emadoleslami Oskoei, S. D. Beladi Mousavi, A. Taleb Beydokhti

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There have been many reports of the destructive effects of cement on the environment in recent years. In the present research, it has been attempted to reduce the destructive effects of cement by replacing silica fume as adhesive materials instead of cement. The present study has attempted to improve the mechanical properties of cement slurry by using waste material from a glass production factory, located in Qazvin city of Iran, in which accumulation volume has become an environmental threat. The chemical analysis of the waste material indicates that this material contains about 94% of SiO₂ and AL₂O₃ and has a close structure to silica fume. Also, the particle grain size test was performed on the mentioned waste. Then, the unconfined compressive strength test of the slurry was performed by preparing a mixture of water and adhesives with different percentages of cement and silica fume. The water to an adhesive ratio of this mixture is 1:3, and the curing process last 28 days. It was found that the sample had an unconfined compressive strength of about 300 kg/cm² in a mixture with equal proportions of cement and silica fume. Besides, the sample had a brittle fracture in the slurry sample made of pure cement, however, the fracture in cement-silica fume slurry mixture is flexible and the structure of the specimen remains coherent after fracture. Therefore, considering the flexibility that is achieved by replacing this waste, it can be used to stabilize soils with cracking potential.

Keywords: Cement replacement, cement slurry, environmental threat, natural pozzolan, silica fume, waste material.

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Authors: Jhalique Jane R. Fojas, Ernesto J. Del Rosario

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The dilute acid pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic substrate, cogon grass (Imperata cylindrical, L.) was optimized prior ethanol fermentation using simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) method. The optimum pretreatment conditions, temperature, sulfuric acid concentration, and reaction time were evaluated by determining the maximum sugar yield at constant enzyme loading. Cogon grass, at 10% w/v substrate loading, has optimum pretreatment conditions of 126°C, 0.6% v/v H2SO4, and 20min reaction time. These pretreatment conditions were used to optimize enzymatic saccharification using different enzyme combinations. The maximum saccharification yield of 36.68mg/mL (71.29% reducing sugar) was obtained using 25FPU/g-cellulose cellulase complex combined with 1.1% w/w of cellobiase, ß-glucosidase, and 0.225% w/w of hemicellulase complex, after 96 hours of saccharification. Using the optimum pretreatment and saccharification conditions, SSF of treated substrates was done at 37°C for 120 hours using industrial yeast strain HBY3, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The ethanol yield for cogon grass at 4% w/w loading was 9.11g/L with 5.74mg/mL total residual sugar.

Keywords: Acid pretreatment, bioethanol, biomass, cogon grass, fermentation, lignocellylose, SSF.

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Authors: Nour Ismail, Sahar El Kardawy, Bassant Badwy

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Radiofrequency (RF) lesioning of nerves have been commonly used to alleviate chronic pain, where RF current preventing transmission of pain signals through the nerve by heating the nerve causing the pain. There are some factors that affect the temperature distribution and the nerve lesion size, one of these factors is the inhomogeneities in the tissue medium. Our objective is to calculate the temperature distribution and the nerve lesion size in an inhomogeneous medium surrounding the RF electrode. A two 3-D finite element models are used to compare the temperature distribution in the homogeneous and inhomogeneous medium. Also the effect of temperature-dependent electric conductivity on maximum temperature and lesion size is observed. Results show that the presence of an inhomogeneous medium around the RF electrode has a valuable effect on the temperature distribution and lesion size. The dependency of electric conductivity on tissue temperature increased lesion size.

Keywords: Finite element model, nerve lesioning, pain relief, radiofrequency lesion.

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Authors: H. Naghawi, R. Al-Ajarmeh, R. Allouzi, A. AlKlub, K. Masarwah, A. AL-Quraini, M. Abu-Sarhan

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The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the use of plastic waste as a low cost asphalt binder modifier. For this purpose Marshall mix design procedure was used. Marshall mix design procedure seeks to select the Optimum Binder Content (OBC) to be added to a specific aggregate blend resulting in a mixture that satisfies the desired properties of strength and durability. In order to evaluate the plastic waste modified (PWM) asphalt mixtures, the OBC for the conventional asphalt mix was first identified, and then different percentages of crushed plastic waste by weight of the identified OBC were tested. Marshall test results for the modified asphalt mixtures were analyzed to find the optimum PWM content. Finally, the static indirect tensile strength (IDT) was determined for all mixtures using the splitting tensile test. It was found that PWM content of 7.43% by weight of OBC is recommended as the optimum PWM content needed for enhancing the performance of asphalt mixtures. It enhanced stability by 42.56%, flow by 89.91% and strength by 13.54%. This would lead to a more durable pavement by improving the pavement resistance to fatigue cracking and rutting.

Keywords: Binder content modifier, Marshall test, plastic waste, polyethylene terephthalate.

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Authors: N. R. Putra, A. H. Abdul Aziz, A. S. Zaini, Z. Idham, F. Idrus, M. Z. Bin Zullyadini, M. A. Che Yunus

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The content of omega-3 in soybean oil is important in the development of infants and is an alternative for the omega-3 in fish oils. The investigation of extraction of soybean oil is needed to obtain the bioactive compound in the extract. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is modern and green technology to extract herbs and plants to obtain high quality extract due to high diffusivity and solubility of the solvent. The aim of this study was to obtain the optimum condition of soybean oil extraction by modified supercritical carbon dioxide. The soybean oil was extracted by using modified supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) under the temperatures of 40, 60, 80 °C, pressures of 150, 250, 350 Bar, and constant flow-rate of 10 g/min as the parameters of extraction processes. An experimental design was performed in order to optimize three important parameters of SC-CO₂ extraction which are pressure (X₁), temperature (X₂) to achieve optimum yields of soybean oil. Box Behnken Design was applied for experimental design. From the optimization process, the optimum condition of extraction of soybean oil was obtained at pressure 338 Bar and temperature 80 °C with oil yield of 2.713 g. Effect of pressure is significant on the extraction of soybean oil by modified supercritical carbon dioxide. Increasing of pressure will increase the oil yield of soybean oil.

Keywords: Soybean oil, SC-CO2 extraction, yield, optimization.

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Authors: Anant Oonsivilai, Wichai Srisuruk, Boonruang Marungsri, Thanatchai Kulworawanichpong

Abstract:

Optimal routing in communication networks is a major issue to be solved. In this paper, the application of Tabu Search (TS) in the optimum routing problem where the aim is to minimize the computational time and improvement of quality of the solution in the communication have been addressed. The goal is to minimize the average delays in the communication. The effectiveness of Tabu Search method is shown by the results of simulation to solve the shortest path problem. Through this approach computational cost can be reduced.

Keywords: Communication networks, optimum routing network, tabu search algorithm, shortest path.

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