Search results for: bone tissue mineral density

Authors: Turan Çalban, Nursel Keskin, Sabri Çolak, Soner Kuşlu

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Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) is a mineral that is found in large quantities in the Turkey and in the World. In this study, the dissolution of this mineral in the diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions has been studied. The dissolution and dissolution kinetics of gypsum in diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions will be useful for evaluating of solid wastes containing gypsum. Parameters such as diammonium hydrogen phosphate concentration, temperature and stirring speed affecting on the dissolution rate of the gypsum in diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions were investigated. In experimental studies have researched effectiveness of the selected parameters. The dissolution of gypsum were examined in two parts at low and high temperatures. The experimental results were successfully correlated by linear regression using Statistica program. Dissolution curves were evaluated shrinking core models for solidfluid systems. The activation energy was found to be 34.58 kJ/mol and 44.45 kJ/mol for the low and the high temperatures. The dissolution of gypsum was controlled by chemical reaction both low temperatures and high temperatures.

Keywords: Diammonium hydrogen phosphate, Dissolution, Gypsum, Kinetics.

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Authors: Ekta Singh, M. P. Singh

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The habitat where the present study has been carried out is productive in relation to nutrient quality and they may perform several useful functions, but are also threatened for their existence. Hence, the proposed work, will add much new information about biodiversity of macrophytes in drains and their embankment. All the species were identified with their different stages of growth which encountered on the three selected sites (I, II and III). The number of species occurring at each site is grouped seasonally, i.e. summer, rainy and winter season and the species were further recorded for the study of phytosociology. Phytosociological characters such as frequency, density and abundance were influenced by the climatic, anthropogenic and biotic stresses prevailing at the three study sites. All the species present at the study sites have shown maximum values of frequency, density and abundance in rainy season in comparison to that of summer and winter seasons.

Keywords: Abundance, Biodiversity, Density, Frequency, Macrophytes, Phytosociology.

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Authors: Sundararajan Sangeetha, Joseph Jesu Christopher, Swaminathan Ramakrishnan

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In this work, the primary compressive strength components of human femur trabecular bone are qualitatively assessed using image processing and wavelet analysis. The Primary Compressive (PC) component in planar radiographic femur trabecular images (N=50) is delineated by semi-automatic image processing procedure. Auto threshold binarization algorithm is employed to recognize the presence of mineralization in the digitized images. The qualitative parameters such as apparent mineralization and total area associated with the PC region are derived for normal and abnormal images.The two-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms are utilized to obtain appropriate features that quantify texture changes in medical images .The normal and abnormal samples of the human femur are comprehensively analyzed using Harr wavelet.The six statistical parameters such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, mean absolute deviation and median absolute deviation are derived at level 4 decomposition for both approximation and horizontal wavelet coefficients. The correlation coefficient of various wavelet derived parameters with normal and abnormal for both approximated and horizontal coefficients are estimated. It is seen that in almost all cases the abnormal show higher degree of correlation than normals. Further the parameters derived from approximation coefficient show more correlation than those derived from the horizontal coefficients. The parameters mean and median computed at the output of level 4 Harr wavelet channel was found to be a useful predictor to delineate the normal and the abnormal groups.

Keywords: Image processing, planar radiographs, trabecular bone and wavelet analysis.

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Authors: D. E. Omomo, R. M. Sunday, I. Kareem

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This study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional composition of the African River Prawn (Macrobrachium vollenhovenii) in relation to Chokor (traditional) and Altona (improved traditional) drying techniques used in the preservation and processing of prawns by carrying out proximate composition analysis. The value obtained for the proximate analysis of Chokor and Altona smoke dried prawns were; Moisture (14.90% and 15.15%), Dry matter (85.10% and 84.85%), Protein (55.80% and 58.87%), Crude fat (1.95% and 1.98%), Crude fibre (21.40% and 13.11%), Carbohydrate (0.54% and 0.54%) and Ash (19.76% and 15.86%) respectively. The proximate mineral composition of Chokor and Altona smoke dried prawns were; Calcium (5.66% and 4.20%) and Phosphorus (9. 22% and 6.34%) respectively. Result shows there was no loss of nutritional value with respect to Chokor and Altona drying techniques used in the processing of prawns.

Keywords: Altona, Chokor, Macrobrachium vollenhovenii, Proximate composition, Smoke drying.

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Authors: F. Pourhasanzade, S. H. Sabzpoushan

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Computer modeling has played a unique role in understanding electrocardiography. Modeling and simulating cardiac action potential propagation is suitable for studying normal and pathological cardiac activation. This paper presents a 2-D Cellular Automata model for simulating action potential propagation in cardiac tissue. We demonstrate a novel algorithm in order to use minimum neighbors. This algorithm uses the summation of the excitability attributes of excited neighboring cells. We try to eliminate flat edges in the result patterns by inserting probability to the model. We also preserve the real shape of action potential by using linear curve fitting of one well known electrophysiological model.

Keywords: Cellular Automata, Action Potential Propagation, cardiac tissue, Isotropic Pattern, accurate shape of cardiac actionpotential.

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Authors: Akbar Cahyadhi Pratama Putra, Tantri Utami Widhaningtyas, M. Randy Aswin

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Indonesia, as an archipelagic nation, has a very long coastline with significant potential for marine resources, including mangrove ecosystems. The Lapindo mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, resulted in mudflow being discharged into the sea through the Brantas and Porong rivers. The mud material transported by the river flow is feared to be dangerous because it contains harmful substances such as heavy metals. This study aims to map the mangrove ecosystem in terms of its density and assess the impact of the Lapindo mud disaster on the mangrove ecosystem, along with efforts to sustain its continuity. The mapping of the coastal mangrove conditions in Sidoarjo was carried out using remote sensing products, specifically Landsat 7 ETM+ images, taken during dry months in 2002, 2006, 2009, and 2014. The density of mangroves was determined using NDVI, which utilizes band 3 (the red channel) and band 4 (the near IR channel). Image processing to generate NDVI was performed using ENVI 5.1 software. The NDVI results were used to assess mangrove density on a scale from 0 to 1. The growth of mangrove ecosystems, both in terms of area and density, showed a significant increase from year to year. The development of mangrove ecosystems was influenced by the deposition of Lapindo mud in the estuaries of the Porong and Brantas rivers, where the silt provided a suitable medium for the growth of the mangrove ecosystem, leading to an increase in its density. The rise in density was supported by public awareness to mitigate heavy metal contamination, allowing for mangrove breeding near the affected areas.

Keywords: Archipelagic nation, Mangrove, Lapindo mudflow disaster, NDVI.

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Authors: S. O. Adeosun, O. I. Sekunowo, O. P. Gbenebor, W. A. Ayoola, A. O. Odunade, T. A. Idowu

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Sand cast samples of the as-received 66/34Mg-Al alloy were first homogenized at 4900C and then divided into three groups on which annealing, normalising and artificial ageing were respectively carried out. Thermal ageing of the samples involved treatment at 5000C, soaked for 4 hours and quenched in water at ambient temperature followed by tempering at 2000C for 2 hours. Test specimens were subjected to microstructure and mechanical analyses and the results compared. Precipitation of significant volume of stable Mg17Al12 crystals in the aged specimen’s matrix conferred superior mechanical characteristics compared with the annealed, normalized and as-cast specimens. The ultimate tensile strength was 93.4MPa with micro-hardness of 64.9HRC and impact energy (toughness) of 4.05J. In particular, its Young modulus was 10.4GPa which compared well with that of cortical (trabecule) bone’s modulus that varies from 12-17GPa.

Keywords: Mg-Al alloy, artificial ageing, medical implant, cortical bone, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Abdusalam Gsiea, Ramadan Al-habashi, Mohamed Atumi, Khaled Atmimi

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We present a theoretical investigation on the structural, electronic properties and vibrational mode of nitrogen impurities in ZnO. The atomic structures, formation and transition energies and vibrational modes of (NO3)i interstitial or NO4 substituting on an oxygen site ZnO were computed using ab initio total energy methods. Based on Local density functional theory, our calculations are in agreement with one interpretation of bound-excition photoluminescence for N-doped ZnO. First-principles calculations show that (NO3)i defects interstitial or NO4 substituting on an Oxygen site in ZnO are important suitable impurity for p-type doping in ZnO. However, many experimental efforts have not resulted in reproducible p-type material with N2 and N2O doping. by means of first-principle pseudo-potential calculation we find that the use of NO or NO2 with O gas might help the experimental research to resolve the challenge of achieving p-type ZnO.

Keywords: Density functional theory, nitrogen, p-type, ZnO.

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Authors: Hani M. Aburas

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“Dengue" is an African word meaning “bone breaking" because it causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking. It is an infectious disease mainly transmitted by female mosquito, Aedes aegypti, and causes four serotypes of dengue viruses. In recent years, a dramatic increase in the dengue fever confirmed cases around the equator-s belt has been reported. Several conventional indices have been designed so far to monitor the transmitting vector populations known as House Index (HI), Container Index (CI), Breteau Index (BI). However, none of them describes the adult mosquito population size which is important to direct and guide comprehensive control strategy operations since number of infected people has a direct relationship with the vector density. Therefore, it is crucial to know the population size of the transmitting vector in order to design a suitable and effective control program. In this context, a study is carried out to report a new statistical index, ABURAS Index, using Poisson distribution based on the collection of vector population in Jeddah Governorate, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Poisson distribution, statistical index, prediction, Aedes aegypti.

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Authors: R. Sabre

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This work focuses on the symmetric alpha stable process with continuous time frequently used in modeling the signal with indefinitely growing variance, often observed with an unknown additive error. The objective of this paper is to estimate this error from discrete observations of the signal. For that, we propose a method based on the smoothing of the observations via Jackson polynomial kernel and taking into account the width of the interval where the spectral density is non-zero. This technique allows avoiding the “Aliasing phenomenon” encountered when the estimation is made from the discrete observations of a process with continuous time. We have studied the convergence rate of the estimator and have shown that the convergence rate improves in the case where the spectral density is zero at the origin. Thus, we set up an estimator of the additive error that can be subtracted for approaching the original signal without error.

Keywords: Spectral density, stable processes, aliasing, p-adic.

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Authors: F. Kashanian, M. M. Masoudi, A. Akbari, A. Shamloo, M. R. Zand, S. S. Salehi

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Nano-sized materials present new opportunities in biology and medicine and they are used as biomedical tools for investigation, separation of molecules and cells. To achieve more effective cancer therapy, it is essential to select cancer cells exactly. This research suggests that using the antibody-functionalized nontoxic Arginine-doped magnetic nanoparticles (A-MNPs), has been prosperous in detection, capture, and magnetic separation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in tumor tissue. In this study, A-MNPs were synthesized via a simple precipitation reaction and directly immobilized Ep-CAM EBA-1 antibodies over superparamagnetic A-MNPs for Mucin BCA-225 in breast cancer cell. The samples were characterized by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), FT-IR spectroscopy, Tunneling Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). These antibody-functionalized nontoxic A-MNPs were used to capture breast cancer cell. Through employing a strong permanent magnet, the magnetic separation was achieved within a few seconds. Antibody-Conjugated nontoxic Arginine-doped Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles have the potential for the future study to capture CTCs which are released from tumor tissue and for drug delivery, and these results demonstrate that the antibody-conjugated A-MNPs can be used in magnetic hyperthermia techniques for cancer treatment.

Keywords: Tumor tissue, antibody, magnetic nanoparticle, CTCs capturing.

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Authors: Ismail Hakki Kalyoncu, Nilda Ersoy, Ayse Yalcin Elidemir, Inci Tolay

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In this study, The physico-chemical and nutritional properties of `Musmula` Medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) fruit and seed grown in Northeast Anatolia was investigated. In the fruit, length, width, thickness, weight, total soluble solids, colour (1), colour (2) [L, a, b values], protein, crude ash, crude fiber, crude oil, texture and pH were determinated as 4.34 cm, 4.22 cm, 3.67 cm, 38.36 g, 23.97 %, S60O60Y41,, [53.85, 17.15, 33.75], 1.06 %, 0.79 %, 4.24 %, 0.005 %, 1.21 kg/cm2 and 4.26 respectively. Also, pulp ratio, seed ratio and pulp/seed ratio were found to be 92.88 %, 7.11 % and 14.07 %, respectively. In addition, the mineral composition of medlar fruit in Northeast Anatolia was studied. In the fruit, 23 minerals were analyzed and 19 minerals were present at detectable levels. The medlar fruit was richest in potassium (6962 ppm), calcium (1186.378 ppm), magnesium (1070.08 ppm) and phosphor (763.425 ppm).

Keywords: Fruits, Mespilus germanica L., mineral compounds, physico-chemical properties.

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Authors: Pavlo Selyshchev

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Irradiated material is a typical example of a complex system with nonlinear coupling between its elements. During irradiation the radiation damage is developed and this development has bifurcations and qualitatively different kinds of behavior. The accumulation of primary defects in irradiated crystals is considered in frame work of nonlinear evolution of complex system. The thermo-concentration nonlinear feedback is carried out as a mechanism of self-oscillation development. It is shown that there are two ways of the defect density evolution under stationary irradiation. The first is the accumulation of defects; defect density monotonically grows and tends to its stationary state for some system parameters. Another way that takes place for opportune parameters is the development of self-oscillations of the defect density. The stationary state, its stability and type are found. The bifurcation values of parameters (environment temperature, defect generation rate, etc.) are obtained. The frequency of the selfoscillation and the conditions of their development is found and rated. It is shown that defect density, heat fluxes and temperature during self-oscillations can reach much higher values than the expected steady-state values. It can lead to a change of typical operation and an accident, e.g. for nuclear equipment.

Keywords: Irradiation, Primary Defects, Solids, Self-oscillation.

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Authors: Helena M. Wilhelm, Paulo O. Fernandes, Laís P. Dill, Kethlyn G. Moscon

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The use of vegetable oil (or natural ester) as an insulating fluid in electrical transformers is a trend that aims to contribute to environmental preservation since it is biodegradable and non-toxic. Besides, vegetable oil has high flash and combustion points, being considered a fire safety fluid. However, vegetable oil is usually less stable towards oxidation than mineral oil. Both insulating fluids, mineral and vegetable oils, need to be tested periodically according to specific standards. Oxidation stability can be determined by the induction period measured by conductivity method (Rancimat) by monitoring the effectivity of oil’s antioxidant additives, a methodology already developed for food application and biodiesel but still not standardized for insulating fluids. Besides adequate oxidation stability, fluids must be compatible with transformer's construction materials under normal operating conditions to ensure that damage to the oil and parts of the transformer does not occur. ASTM standard and Brazilian normative differ in parameters evaluated, which reveals the need to regulate tests for each oil type. The aim of this study was to assess oxidation stability and compatibility of vegetable oils to suggest the best way to assure a viable performance of vegetable oil as transformer insulating fluid. The determination of the induction period for several vegetable insulating oils from the local market by using Rancimat was carried out according to BS EN 14112 standard, at different temperatures (110, 120, and 130 °C). Also, the compatibility of vegetable oil was assessed according to ASTM and ABNT NBR standards. The main results showed that the best temperature for use in the Rancimat test is 130 °C, which allows a better observation of conductivity change. The compatibility test results presented differences between vegetable and mineral oil standards that should be taken into account in oil testing since materials compatibility and oxidation stability are essential for equipment reliability.

Keywords: Compatibility, Rancimat, natural ester, vegetable oil.

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Authors: Majid Mirzaei, Saeid Samiezadeh , Abbas Khodadadi, Mohammad R. Ghazavi

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This paper presents a novel method for prediction of the mechanical behavior of proximal femur using the general framework of the quantitative computed tomography (QCT)-based finite element Analysis (FEA). A systematic imaging and modeling procedure was developed for reliable correspondence between the QCT-based FEA and the in-vitro mechanical testing. A speciallydesigned holding frame was used to define and maintain a unique geometrical reference system during the analysis and testing. The QCT images were directly converted into voxel-based 3D finite element models for linear and nonlinear analyses. The equivalent plastic strain and the strain energy density measures were used to identify the critical elements and predict the failure patterns. The samples were destructively tested using a specially-designed gripping fixture (with five degrees of freedom) mounted within a universal mechanical testing machine. Very good agreements were found between the experimental and the predicted failure patterns and the associated load levels.

Keywords: Bone, Osteoporosis, Noninvasive methods, Failure Analysis

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Authors: Emma K. Sales, Nilda G. Butardo

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The project was undertaken to determine the effects of modified tissue culture protocols e.g. age of culture and hormone levels (2,4-D) in generating somaclonal variation. Moreover, the utility of molecular markers (SSR and MSAP) in sorting off types/somaclones were investigated.

Results show that somaclonal variation is in effect due to prolonged subculture and high 2,4-D concentration. The resultant variation was observed to be due to high level of methylation events specifically cytosine methylation either at the internal or external cytosine and was identified by methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP).Simple sequence repeats (SSR) on the other hand, was able to associate a marker to a trait of interest.

These therefore, show that molecular markers can be an important tool in sorting out variation/mutants at an early stage.

Keywords: Methylation, MSAP, somaclones, SSR, subculture, 2, 4-D.

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Authors: Mohammad-Eghbal Ghobadi, Mokhtar Ghobadi

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Coriander is an annual and herbaceous plant, belong to the apiaceae family. This plant is cultivated world widely. It is well known for having medicinal properties. The aim of this experiment was to study seed quality of species grown in Kermanshah conditions. The experiment was carried out in research farm, Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Coriander (local type) was grown in late spring May (5th and 20th) and Jun (4th and 19th), and plant density (10, 30, 50 and 70 plants m-2) in 2009. The experimental plots were laid out in a factorial according to a randomized complete block design with three replications. The fruits were harvest between 83.5 – 106.5 days after sowing. The essential oil and oil content was extracted by Clevenger and Soxhlet apparatuses, respectively. Results showed that delay at planting date increased the oil content. Also, with the increase at plant density was decreased oil content and essential oil.

Keywords: coriander, late sowing, plant density, oil content, essential oil

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Authors: A. Jamekhorshid, G. Karimi, I. Noshadi, A. Jahangiri

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Non-uniform current distribution in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells results in local over-heating, accelerated ageing, and lower power output than expected. This issue is very critical when fuel cell experiences water flooding. In this work, the performance of a PEM fuel cell is investigated under cathode flooding conditions. Two-dimensional partially flooded GDL models based on the conservation laws and electrochemical relations are proposed to study local current density distributions along flow fields over a wide range of cell operating conditions. The model results show a direct association between cathode inlet humidity increases and that of average current density but the system becomes more sensitive to flooding. The anode inlet relative humidity shows a similar effect. Operating the cell at higher temperatures would lead to higher average current densities and the chance of system being flooded is reduced. In addition, higher cathode stoichiometries prevent system flooding but the average current density remains almost constant. The higher anode stoichiometry leads to higher average current density and higher sensitivity to cathode flooding.

Keywords: Current distribution, Flooding, Hydrogen energysystem, PEM fuel cell.

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Authors: Hemant Kumar, R. N. K. Sharma, A. P. Krishna

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The study has been carried out on the Saranda in Jharkhand and a part of Odisha state. Geospatial data of Hyperion, a remote sensing satellite, have been used. This study has used a wide variety of patterns related to image processing to enhance and extract the mining class of Fe and Mn ores.Landsat-8, OLI sensor data have also been used to correctly explore related minerals. In this way, various processes have been applied to increase the mineralogy class and comparative evaluation with related frequency done. The Hyperion dataset for hyperspectral remote sensing has been specifically verified as an effective tool for mineral or rock information extraction within the band range of shortwave infrared used. The abundant spatial and spectral information contained in hyperspectral images enables the differentiation of different objects of any object into targeted applications for exploration such as exploration detection, mining.

Keywords: Hyperion, hyperspectral, sensor, Landsat-8.

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Authors: Ali A. Sayadi, Thomas R. Neitzert, G. Charles Clifton

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Lightweight concrete is being used in the construction industry as a building material in its own right. Ultra-lightweight concrete can be applied as a filler and support material for the manufacturing of composite building materials. This paper is about the development of a stable and reproducible ultra-lightweight concrete with the inclusion of poly-lactic acid (PLA) beads and assessing the feasibility of PLA as a lightweight aggregate that will deliver advantages such as a more eco-friendly concrete and a non-petroleum polymer aggregate. In total, sixty-three samples were prepared and the effectiveness of mineral admixture, curing conditions, water-cement ratio, PLA ratio, EPS ratio and perlite ratio on compressive strength of perlite concrete are studied. The results show that PLA particles are sensitive to alkali environment of cement paste and considerably shrank and lost their strength. A higher compressive strength and a lower density was observed when expanded polystyrene (EPS) particles replaced PLA beads. In addition, a set of equations is proposed to estimate the water-cement ratio, cement content and compressive strength of perlite concrete.

Keywords: Perlite concrete, poly-lactic acid, expanded polystyrene, concrete.

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Authors: T. B. Karu Jayasundara

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The Earth’s gravity is not uniform. The satellite imageries of the Earth’s surface from NASA reveal a number of different gravity anomaly regions all over the globe. When the moon rotates around the earth, its gravity has a major physical influence on a number of regions on the earth. This physical change can be seen by the tides. The tides make sea levels high and low in coastal regions. During high tide, the gravitational force of the Moon pulls the Earth’s gravity so that the total gravitational intensity of Earth is reduced; it is further reduced in the low gravity regions of Earth. This reduction in gravity helps keep the suspended particles such as dust in the atmosphere, sand grains in the sea water for longer. Dramatic differences can be seen from the floating dust in the low gravity regions when compared with other regions. The above phenomena can be demonstrated from experiments. The experiments have to be done in high and low gravity regions of the earth during high and low tide, which will assist in comparing the final results. One of the experiments that can be done is by using a water filled cylinder about 80 cm tall, a few particles, which have the same density and same diameter (about 1 mm) and a stop watch. The selected particles were dropped from the surface of the water in the cylinder and the time taken for the particles to reach the bottom of the cylinder was measured using the stop watch. The times of high and low tide charts can be obtained from the regional government authorities. This concept is demonstrated by the particle drop times taken at high and low tides. The result of the experiment shows that the particle settlement time is less in low tide and high in high tide. The experiment for dust particles in air can be collected on filters, which are cellulose ester membranes and using a vacuum pump. The dust on filters can be used to make slides according to the NOHSC method. Counting the dust particles on the slides can be done using a phase contrast microscope. The results show that the concentration of dust is high at high tide and low in low tide. As a result of the high tides, a high concentration of heavy minerals deposit on placer deposits and dust particles retain in the atmosphere for longer in low gravity regions. These conditions are remarkably exhibited in the lowest low gravity region of the earth, mainly in the regions of India, Sri Lanka and in the middle part of the Indian Ocean. The biggest heavy mineral placer deposits are found in coastal regions of India and Sri Lanka and heavy dust particles are found in the atmosphere of India, particularly in the Delhi region.

Keywords: Dust particles, high and low tides, heavy minerals. low gravity.

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Authors: Banti Sidhiwala, T. C. S. M. Gupta

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Mineral oils of naphthenic and paraffinic type are in use as insulating liquids in the transformer applications to protect solid insulation from moisture and ensures effective heat transfer/cooling. The performance of these type of oils have been proven in the field over many decades and the condition monitoring and diagnosis of transformer performance have been successfully monitored through oil properties and dissolved gas analysis methods successfully. Different types of gases can represent various types of faults that may occur due to faulty components or unfavorable operating conditions. A large amount of database has been generated in the industry for dissolved gas analysis in mineral oil-based transformer oils, and various models have been developed to predict faults and analyze data. Additionally, oil specifications and standards have been updated to include stray gassing limits that cover low-temperature faults. This modification has become an effective preventative maintenance tool that can help greatly in understanding the reasons for breakdowns of electrical insulating materials and related components. Natural esters have seen a rise in popularity in recent years due to their "green" credentials. Some of its benefits include biodegradability, a higher fire point, improvement in load capability of transformer and improved solid insulation life than mineral oils. However, the stray gassing test shows that hydrogen and hydrocarbons like methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6) show very high values which are much higher than the limits of mineral oil standards. Though the standards for these types of esters are yet to be evolved, the higher values of hydrocarbon gases that are available in the market is of concern which might be interpreted as a fault in transformer operation. The current paper focuses on developing a class of natural esters with low levels of stray gassing by American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and International Electric Council (IEC) methods much lower values compared to the natural ester-based products reported in the literature. The experimental results of products are explained.

Keywords: Biodegradability, fire point, dissolved gas analysis, natural ester, stray gassing.

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Authors: Anja Kurz, Marc Flynn, Tobias Good, Marco Caversaccio, Martin Kompis

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Bone Anchored Hearing Implants (BAHI) are  routinely used in patients with conductive or mixed hearing loss, e.g.  if conventional air conduction hearing aids cannot be used. New  sound processors and new fitting software now allow the adjustment  of parameters such as loudness compression ratios or maximum  power output separately. Today it is unclear, how the choice of these  parameters influences aided speech understanding in BAHI users.  In this prospective experimental study, the effect of varying the  compression ratio and lowering the maximum power output in a  BAHI were investigated.  Twelve experienced adult subjects with a mixed hearing loss  participated in this study. Four different compression ratios (1.0; 1.3;  1.6; 2.0) were tested along with two different maximum power output  settings, resulting in a total of eight different programs. Each  participant tested each program during two weeks. A blinded Latin  square design was used to minimize bias.  For each of the eight programs, speech understanding in quiet and  in noise was assessed. For speech in quiet, the Freiburg number test  and the Freiburg monosyllabic word test at 50, 65, and 80 dB SPL  were used. For speech in noise, the Oldenburg sentence test was  administered.  Speech understanding in quiet and in noise was improved  significantly in the aided condition in any program, when compared  to the unaided condition. However, no significant differences were  found between any of the eight programs. In contrast, on a subjective  level there was a significant preference for medium compression  ratios of 1.3 to 1.6 and higher maximum power output.

 

Keywords: Bone Anchored Hearing Implant, Compression, Maximum Power Output, Speech understanding.

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Authors: Manoochehr Gholipoor

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The response of growth and yield of rainfed-chickpea to population density should be evaluated based on long-term experiments to include the climate variability. This is achievable just by simulation. In this simulation study, this evaluation was done by running the CYRUS model for long-term daily weather data of five locations in Iran. The tested population densities were 7 to 59 (with interval of 2) stands per square meter. Various functions, including quadratic, segmented, beta, broken linear, and dent-like functions, were tested. Considering root mean square of deviations and linear regression statistics [intercept (a), slope (b), and correlation coefficient (r)] for predicted versus observed variables, the quadratic and broken linear functions appeared to be appropriate for describing the changes in biomass and grain yield, and in harvest index, respectively. Results indicated that in all locations, grain yield tends to show increasing trend with crowding the population, but subsequently decreases. This was also true for biomass in five locations. The harvest index appeared to have plateau state across low population densities, but decreasing trend with more increasing density. The turning point (optimum population density) for grain yield was 30.68 stands per square meter in Isfahan, 30.54 in Shiraz, 31.47 in Kermanshah, 34.85 in Tabriz, and 32.00 in Mashhad. The optimum population density for biomass ranged from 24.6 (in Tabriz) to 35.3 stands per square meter (Mashhad). For harvest index it varied between 35.87 and 40.12 stands per square meter.

Keywords: Rainfed-chickpea, biomass, harvest index, grain yield, simulation.

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Authors: Diptendu Das, Vikas Kumar Rahi, V. A. Juvekar, R. Bhattacharya

Abstract:

Extraction of Fe(III) from aqueous solution using Trin- butyl Phosphate (TBP) as carrier needs a highly acidic medium (>6N) as it favours formation of chelating complex FeCl3.TBP. Similarly, stripping of Iron(III) from loaded organic solvents requires neutral pH or alkaline medium to dissociate the same complex. It is observed that TBP co-extracts acids along with metal, which causes reversal of driving force of extraction and iron(III) is re-extracted back from the strip phase into the feed phase during Liquid Emulsion Membrane (LEM) pertraction. Therefore, rate of extraction of different mineral acids (HCl, HNO3, H2SO4) using TBP with and without presence of metal Fe(III) was examined. It is revealed that in presence of metal acid extraction is enhanced. Determination of mass transfer coefficient of both acid and metal extraction was performed by using Bulk Liquid Membrane (BLM). The average mass transfer coefficient was obtained by fitting the derived model equation with experimentally obtained data. The mass transfer coefficient of the mineral acid extraction is in the order of kHNO3 = 3.3x10-6m/s > kHCl = 6.05x10-7m/s > kH2SO4 = 1.85x10-7m/s. The distribution equilibria of the above mentioned acids between aqueous feed solution and a solution of tri-n-butyl-phosphate (TBP) in organic solvents have been investigated. The stoichiometry of acid extraction reveals the formation of TBP.2HCl, HNO3.2TBP, and TBP.H2SO4 complexes. Moreover, extraction of Iron(III) by TBP in HCl aqueous solution forms complex FeCl3.TBP.2HCl while in HNO3 medium forms complex 3FeCl3.TBP.2HNO3

Keywords: Bulk Liquid Membrane (BLM) Transport, Iron(III) extraction, Tri-n-butyl Phosphate, Mass Transfer coefficient.

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Authors: Baghdasaryan Marinka

Abstract:

Monitoring the distribution of electric power consumption in the technological process of ore grinding is conducted. As a result, the impacts of the mill filling rate, the productivity of the ore supply, the volumetric density of the grinding balls, the specific density of the ground ore, and the relative speed of the mill rotation on the specific consumption of electric power have been studied. The power and technological factors affecting the reactive power generated by the synchronous motors, operating within the technological scheme are studied. A block diagram for evaluating the power consumption modes of the technological process is presented, which includes the analysis of the technological scheme, the determination of the place and volumetric density of the ore-grinding mill, the evaluation of the technological and power factors affecting the energy saving process, as well as the assessment of the electric power standards.

Keywords: Electric power standard, factor, ore grinding, power consumption, reactive power, technological.

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Authors: Nasrin Bakhshizadeh, Ashkan Forootan

Abstract:

A major problem that affects the quality control of polymer in the industrial polymerization is the lack of suitable on-line measurement tools to evaluate the properties of the polymer such as melt and density indices. Controlling the polymerization in ordinary method is performed manually by taking samples, measuring the quality of polymer in the lab and registry of results. This method is highly time consuming and leads to producing large number of incompatible products. An online application for estimating melt index and density proposed in this study is a neural network based on the input-output data of the polyethylene production plant. Temperature, the level of reactors' bed, the intensity of ethylene mass flow, hydrogen and butene-1, the molar concentration of ethylene, hydrogen and butene-1 are used for the process to establish the neural model. The neural network is taught based on the actual operational data and back-propagation and Levenberg-Marquart techniques. The simulated results indicate that the neural network process model established with three layers (one hidden layer) for forecasting the density and the four layers for the melt index is able to successfully predict those quality properties.

Keywords: Polyethylene, polymerization, density, melt index, neural network.

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Authors: Abdelouahab Moussaoui, Nabila Ferahta, Victor Chen

Abstract:

The development of aid's systems for the medical diagnosis is not easy thing because of presence of inhomogeneities in the MRI, the variability of the data from a sequence to the other as well as of other different source distortions that accentuate this difficulty. A new automatic, contextual, adaptive and robust segmentation procedure by MRI brain tissue classification is described in this article. A first phase consists in estimating the density of probability of the data by the Parzen-Rozenblatt method. The classification procedure is completely automatic and doesn't make any assumptions nor on the clusters number nor on the prototypes of these clusters since these last are detected in an automatic manner by an operator of mathematical morphology called skeleton by influence zones detection (SKIZ). The problem of initialization of the prototypes as well as their number is transformed in an optimization problem; in more the procedure is adaptive since it takes in consideration the contextual information presents in every voxel by an adaptive and robust non parametric model by the Markov fields (MF). The number of bad classifications is reduced by the use of the criteria of MPM minimization (Maximum Posterior Marginal).

Keywords: Clustering, Automatic Classification, SKIZ, MarkovFields, Image segmentation, Maximum Posterior Marginal (MPM).

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Authors: Mina Alibeigi, Sattar Hashemi, Ali Hamzeh

Abstract:

Since dealing with high dimensional data is computationally complex and sometimes even intractable, recently several feature reductions methods have been developed to reduce the dimensionality of the data in order to simplify the calculation analysis in various applications such as text categorization, signal processing, image retrieval, gene expressions and etc. Among feature reduction techniques, feature selection is one the most popular methods due to the preservation of the original features. In this paper, we propose a new unsupervised feature selection method which will remove redundant features from the original feature space by the use of probability density functions of various features. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, popular feature selection methods have been implemented and compared. Experimental results on the several datasets derived from UCI repository database, illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods in comparison with the other compared methods in terms of both classification accuracy and the number of selected features.

Keywords: Feature, Feature Selection, Filter, Probability Density Function

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Authors: R. S. A. Nesbitt, J. Macione, E. Babollah, B. Adu-baffour, S. P. Kotha

Abstract:

F-actin fibrils are the cytoskeleton of osteocytes. They react in a dynamic manner to mechanical loading, and strength and reposition their efforts to reinforce the cells structure. We hypothesize that f-actin is temporarly disrupted after loading and repolymerizes in a new orientation to oppose the applied load. In vitro studies are conducted to determine f-actin disruption after varying mechanical stimulus parameters that are known to affect bone formation. Results indicate that the f-actin cytoskeleton is disrupted in vitro as a function of applied mechanical stimulus parameters and that the f-actin bundles reassemble after loading induced disruption within 3 minutes after cessation of loading. The disruption of the factin cytoskeleton depends on the magnitude of stretch, the numbers of loading cycles, frequency, the insertion of rest between loading cycles and extracellular calcium. In vivo studies also demonstrate disruption of the f-actin cytoskeleton in cells embedded in the bone matrix immediately after mechanical loading. These studies suggest that adaptation of the f-actin fiber bundles of the cytoskeleton in response to applied loads occurs by disruption and subsequent repolymerization.

Keywords: Mechanical loading of osteocytes, f-actin cytoskeleton, disruption, re-polymerization.

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