Search results for: chemical stage

Authors: Yeskendirov N.R., Karjaubaeva S.K., Ahmet A. K.

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A number of theoretical and methodological problems connected with substantiation of a new approach and searches of a new research paradigm and the analysis of features of formation and development of the Kazakh stage are considered in the article. The wide spectrum of questions connected with genesis of the Kazakh stage art has caused necessity of consideration of world outlook and social cultural aspects which have affected formation of the given phenomenon in the Kazakh culture. But how can we define the form of expression and aesthetics of the national theatre? Probably, the answer to this question we will find if we apply to deep world view sources, and, as a consequence, it is necessary to study deeply the plot dramaturgy, which is based on myths, rites and eposes, mastering of symbolic gestures and mimics, allegory of a word, etc.

Keywords: Tradition, theater, art, culture, nomadic Kazakhs.

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Authors: D. Lepe-Cervantes, E. Leon-Becerril, J. Gomez-Romero, O. Garcia-Depraect, A. Lopez-Lopez

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In this study, raw coffee wastewater (CWW) was used as a complex substrate for anaerobic digestion. The inoculum adaptation stage, microbial diversity analysis and biomethane potential (BMP) tests were performed. A fast inoculum adaptation stage was used by the replacement of vinasse to CWW in an anaerobic sequential batch reactor (AnSBR) operated at mesophilic conditions. Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to analyze the microbial diversity. While, BMP tests using inoculum adapted to CWW were carried out at different inoculum to substrate (I/S) ratios (2:1, 3:1 and 4:1, on a VS basis). Results show that the adaptability percentage was increased gradually until it reaches the highest theoretical value in a short time of 10 d; with a methane yield of 359.10 NmL CH₄/g COD-removed; Methanobacterium beijingense was the most abundant microbial (75%) and the greatest specific methane production was achieved at I/S ratio 4:1, whereas the lowest was obtained at 2:1, with BMP values of 320 NmL CH₄/g VS and 151 NmL CH₄/g VS, respectively. In conclusion, gradual replacement of substrate was a feasible method to adapt the inoculum in a short time even using complex raw substrates, whereas in the BMP tests, the specific methane production was proportional to the initial amount of inoculum.

Keywords: Fast inoculum adaptation, coffee wastewater, biomethane potential test, anaerobic digestion.

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Authors: Zerrin Erginkaya, Gözde Konuray

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Microbial degradation of foods is defined as a decrease of food safety due to microorganism activity. Organic acids, sulfur dioxide, sulfide, nitrate, nitrite, dimethyl dicarbonate and several preservative gases have been used as chemical preservatives in foods as well as natural preservatives which are indigenous in foods. It is determined that usage of herbal preservatives such as blueberry, dried grape, prune, garlic, mustard, spices inhibited several microorganisms. Moreover, it is determined that animal origin preservatives such as whey, honey, lysosomes of duck egg and chicken egg, chitosan have antimicrobial effect. Other than indigenous antimicrobials in foods, antimicrobial agents produced by microorganisms could be used as natural preservatives. The antimicrobial feature of preservatives depends on the antimicrobial spectrum, chemical and physical features of material, concentration, mode of action, components of food, process conditions, and pH and storage temperature. In this review, studies about antimicrobial components which are indigenous in food (such as herbal and animal origin antimicrobial agents), antimicrobial materials synthesized by microorganisms, and their usage as an antimicrobial agent to preserve foods are discussed.

Keywords: Animal origin preservatives, antimicrobial, chemical preservatives, herbal preservatives.

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Authors: E. Diryak, P. Lefley, L. Petkovska, G. Cvetkovski

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This paper presents the optimum design for a double stator, cup rotor machine; a novel type of BLDC PM Machine. The optimization approach is divided into two stages: the first stage is calculating the machine configuration using Matlab, and the second stage is the optimization of the machine using Finite Element Modeling (FEM). Under the design specifications, the machine model will be selected from three pole numbers, namely, 8, 10 and 12 with an appropriate slot number. A double stator brushless DC permanent magnet machine is designed to achieve low cogging torque; high electromagnetic torque and low ripple torque.

Keywords: Permanent magnet machine, low- cogging torque, low- ripple torque, high- electromagnetic torque, design optimization.

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Authors: Khamael M. Abualnaja, Lidija Šiller, Benjamin R. Horrocks

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Alkylated silicon nanocrystals (C11-SiNCs) were prepared successfully by galvanostatic etching of p-Si(100) wafers followed by a thermal hydrosilation reaction of 1-undecene in refluxing toluene in order to extract C11-SiNCs from porous silicon. Erbium trichloride was added to alkylated SiNCs using a simple mixing chemical route. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation on mixing SiNCs with erbium ions (III) by this chemical method. The chemical characterization of C11-SiNCs and their mixtures with Er3+(Er/C11-SiNCs) were carried out using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The optical properties of C11- SiNCs and their mixtures with Er3+ were investigated using Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). The erbium mixed alkylated SiNCs shows an orange PL emission peak at around 595 nm that originates from radiative recombination of Si. Er/C11-SiNCs mixture also exhibits a weak PL emission peak at 1536 nm that originates from the intra-4f transition in erbium ions (Er3+). The PL peak of Si in Er/C11-SiNCs mixture is increased in the intensity up to three times as compared to pure C11-SiNCs. The collected data suggest that this chemical mixing route leads instead to a transfer of energy from erbium ions to alkylated SiNCs.

Keywords: Photoluminescence, Silicon Nanocrystals, Erbium, Raman Spectroscopy.

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Authors: Neelam Vats, Madhvi Pathak Pillai, Rajender Lal, Indu Dabas

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The pressure of scoring higher marks to be able to get admission in a higher ranked institution has become a social stigma for school students. It leads to various social and academic pressures on them, causing psychological anxiety. This undue stress on students sometimes may even steer to aggressive behavior or suicidal tendencies. Human mind is always surrounded by the some desires, emotions and passions, which usually disturbs our mental peace. In such a scenario, we look for a solution that helps in removing all the obstacles of mind and make us mentally peaceful and strong enough to be able to deal with all kind of pressure. Preksha meditation is one such technique which aims at bringing the positive changes for overall transformation of personality. Hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the impact of Preksha Meditation on the academic anxiety on female teenagers. The study was conducted on 120 high school students from the capital city of India. All students were in the age group of 13-15 years. They also belonged to similar social as well as economic status. The sample was equally divided into two groups i.e. experimental group (N = 60) and control group (N = 60). Subjects of the experimental group were given the intervention of Preksha Meditation practice by the trained instructor for one hour per day, six days a week, for three months for the first experimental stage and another three months for the second experimental stage. The subjects of the control group were not assigned any specific type of activity rather they continued doing their normal official activities as usual. The Academic Anxiety Scale was used to collect data during multi-level stages i.e. pre-experimental stage, post-experimental stage phase-I, and post-experimental stage phase-II. The data were statistically analyzed by computing the two-tailed-‘t’ test for inter group comparison and Sandler’s ‘A’ test with alpha = or p < 0.05 for intra-group comparisons. The study concluded that the practice for longer duration of Preksha Meditation practice brings about very significant and beneficial changes in the pattern of academic anxiety.

Keywords: Academic anxiety, academic pressure, Preksha, meditation.

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Authors: Farshideh Einsele, Rolf Ingold

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Current OCR technology does not allow to accurately recognizing small text images, such as those found in web images. Our goal is to investigate new approaches to recognize very low resolution text images containing antialiased character shapes. This paper presents a preliminary study on the variability of such characters and the feasibility to discriminate them by using geometrical features. In a first stage we analyze the distribution of these features. In a second stage we present a study on the discriminative power for recognizing isolated characters, using various rendering methods and font properties. Finally we present interesting results of our evaluation tests leading to our conclusion and future focus.

Keywords: World Wide Web, document analysis, pattern recognition, Optical Character Recognition.

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Authors: A. Diaf, H. Aburideh, Z.Tigrine, D. Tassalit, F.Alaoui

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The tray/multi-tray distillation process is a topic that has been investigated to great detail over the last decade by many teams such as Jubran et al. [1], Adhikari et al. [2], Mowla et al. [3], Shatat et al. [4] and Fath [5] to name a few. A significant amount of work and effort was spent focusing on modeling and/simulation of specific distillation hardware designs. In this work, we have focused our efforts on investigating and gathering experimental data on several engineering and design variables to quantify their influence on the yield of the multi-tray distillation process. Our goals are to generate experimental performance data to bridge some existing gaps in the design, engineering, optimization and theoretical modeling aspects of the multi-tray distillation process.

Keywords: Distillation, Desalination, Multi-Stage still, Solar Energy

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Authors: Zayed N. Alsulami, Asma F. Aldosseri, Ahmed S. Ezziden, Abdulrahman K. Alonazi

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Children are more susceptible to medication errors than adults. Medication administration process is the last stage in the medication treatment process and most of the errors detected in this stage. Little research has been undertaken about medication errors in children in the Middle East countries. This study was aimed to evaluate how the paediatric nurses adhere to the medication administration policy and also to identify any medication preparation and administration errors or any risk factors. An observational, prospective study of medication administration process from when the nurses preparing patient medication until administration stage (May to August 2014) was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Twelve paediatric nurses serving 90 paediatric patients were observed. 456 drug administered doses were evaluated. Adherence rate was variable in 7 steps out of 16 steps. Patient allergy information, dose calculation, drug expiry date were the steps in medication administration with lowest adherence rates. 63 medication preparation and administration errors were identified with error rate 13.8% of medication administrations. No potentially life-threating errors were witnessed. Few logistic and administrative factors were reported. The results showed that the medication administration policy and procedure need an urgent revision to be more sensible for nurses in practice. Nurses’ knowledge and skills regarding to the medication administration process should be improved.

Keywords: Double checking, Medication administration errors, Medication safety, Nurses.

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Authors: N. Phattanakulkaewmorie, T. Paseephol, A.Moongngarm

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This study investigated the effect of germination on chemical compositions, physio-chemical properties of malted (germinated) red sorghum flours and evaluated characteristics of gluten free breads from sorghum flour. Results showed that germinated sorghum flour had higher amylase activity, swelling power and solubility at 95°C, but lower in the peak, break down, final and set back viscosities than ungerminated sample (p≤0.05). Five gluten free breads made from sorghum flour blends, with different ratios of ungerminated and germinated sorghum flour, were compared for the physical properties with those made from wheat flour. Crumb hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness of sorghum breads were found significantly higher than those of wheat bread. With increasing of ungerminated flour proportion, the bread hardness increased while the cohesiveness declined. Sorghum breads appeared red to human eyes with a*values of 10.41-15.77.Their crust and crumb colors differed significantly from those of wheat bread.

Keywords: Flour, germination, gluten free bread, sorghum.

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Authors: Hiraku Nunomiya, Takuo Ichiju, Yoshiyuki Higuchi

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In the management of industrial waste, conversion from the use of paper invoices to electronic forms is currently under way in developed countries. Difficulties in such computerization include the lack of synchronization between the actual goods and the corresponding data managed by the server. Consequently, a system which utilizes the incorporation of a QR code in connection with the waste material has been developed. The code is read at each stage, from discharge until disposal, and progress at each stage can be easily reported. This system can be linked with Japanese public digital authentication service of waste, taking advantage of its good points, and can be used to submit reports to the regulatory authorities. Its usefulness was confirmed by a verification test, and put into actual practice.

Keywords: Infectious Waste, Electronic Manifest, Real Time Management, QR code.

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Authors: Junko Hara, Yoshishige Kawabe, Takeshi Komai, Chihiro Inoue

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The chemical degradation of dieldrin in ferric sulfide and iron powder aqueous suspension was investigated in laboratory batch type experiments. To identify the reaction mechanism, reduced copper was used as reductant. More than 90% of dieldrin was degraded using both reaction systems after 29 days. Initial degradation rate of the pesticide using ferric sulfide was superior to that using iron powder. The reaction schemes were completely dissimilar even though the ferric ion plays an important role in both reaction systems. In the case of metallic iron powder, dieldrin undergoes partial dechlorination. This reaction proceeded by reductive hydrodechlorination with the generation of H+, which arise by oxidation of ferric iron. This reductive reaction was accelerated by reductant but mono-dechlorination intermediates were accumulated. On the other hand, oxidative degradation was observed in the reaction with ferric sulfide, and the stable chemical structure of dieldrin was decomposed into water-soluble intermediates. These reaction intermediates have no chemical structure of drin class. This dehalogenation reaction assumes to occur via the adsorbed hydroxyl radial generated on the surface of ferric sulfide.

Keywords: Dieldrin, kinetics, pesticide residue, soil remediation

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Authors: A. Khelassi, R. Bendib

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The paper considers the effect of feed plate location on the interactions in a seven plate binary distillation column. The mathematical model of the distillation column is deduced based on the equations of mass and energy balances for each stage, detailed model for both reboiler and condenser, and heat transfer equations. The Dynamic Relative Magnitude Criterion, DRMC is used to assess the interactions in different feed plate locations for a seven plate (Benzene-Toluene) binary distillation column ( the feed plate is originally at stage 4). The results show that whenever we go far from the optimum feed plate position, the level of interaction augments.

Keywords: Distillation column, assessment of interactions, feedplate location, DRMC.

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Authors: Anat Thapinta

Abstract:

This research aimed to study on the potential of recycling organic waste in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University as compost. In doing so, the composition of solid waste generated in the campus was investigated while physical and chemical properties of organic waste were analyzed in order to evaluate the portion of waste suitable for recycling as compost. As a result of the study, it was found that (1) the amount of organic waste was averaged at 299.8 kg/day in which mixed food wastes had the highest amount of 191.9 kg/day followed by mixed leave & yard wastes and mixed fruit & vegetable wastes at the amount of 66.3 and 41.6 kg/day respectively; (2) physical and chemical properties of organic waste in terms of moisture content was between 69.54 to 78.15%, major elements for plant as N, P and K were 0.14 to 0.17%, 0.46 to 0.52% and 0.16 to 0.18% respectively, and carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N) was about 15:1 to 17.5:1; (3) recycling organic waste as compost was designed by aerobic decomposition using mixed food wastes : mixed leave & yard wastes : mixed fruit & vegetable wastes at the portion of 3:2:1 by weight in accordance with the potential of their amounts and their physical and chemical properties.

Keywords: Compost, Organic waste, Physical and chemical properties, Recycling.

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Authors: A.Diaf, Z.Tigrine, H. Aburideh, D.Tassalit , F.Alaoui, B .Abbad

Abstract:

The distillation process in the general sense is a relatively simple technique from the standpoints of its principles. When dedicating distillation to water treatment and specifically producing fresh water from sea, ocean and/ briny waters it is interesting to notice that distillation has no limitations or domains of applicability regarding the nature or the type of the feedstock water. This is not the case however for other techniques that are technologically quite complex, necessitate bigger capital investments and are limited in their usability. In a previous paper we have explored some of the effects of temperature on yield. In this paper, we continue building onto that knowledge base and focus on the effects of several additional engineering and design variables on productivity.

Keywords: Distillation, Desalination, Multi-Stage still, Solar Energy

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Authors: S. Usha, S. Arumugam

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Cancer affects people globally with breast cancer being a leading killer. Breast cancer is due to the uncontrollable multiplication of cells resulting in a tumour or neoplasm. Tumours are called ‘benign’ when cancerous cells do not ravage other body tissues and ‘malignant’ if they do so. As mammography is an effective breast cancer detection tool at an early stage which is the most treatable stage it is the primary imaging modality for screening and diagnosis of this cancer type. This paper presents an automatic mammogram classification technique using wavelet and Gabor filter. Correlation feature selection is used to reduce the feature set and selected features are classified using different decision trees.

Keywords: Breast Cancer, Mammogram, Symlet Wavelets, Gabor Filters, Decision Trees

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Authors: Chandrakant R Kini, Satish Shenoy B, Yagnesh Sharma N.

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In a bid to improve turbine entry temperature for maximizing the thermal efficiency of the HP stage gas turbine blade, an attempt is made in this paper to compare the performance of helicoidal ducted blade cooling with turbulator of different geometric proportion. It is found from analysis that there is significant improvement in cooling characteristics for turbine blade with turbulator geometry having larger e/D ratio. Also it is found from analysis, performance is vastly improved for greater thickness of turbulator geometry.

Keywords: Conjugate heat transfer, turbine blade cooling, helicoidal cooling duct, turbulator.

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Authors: Khosro Mohammadi

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Fertilization plays an important role in crop growth and soil improvement. This study was conducted to determine the best fertilization system for wheat production. Experiments were arranged in a complete block design with three replications in two years. Main plots consisted of six methods of fertilization including (N1): farmyard manure; (N2): compost; (N3): chemical fertilizers; (N4): farmyard manure + compost; (N5): farmyard manure + compost + chemical fertilizers and (N6): control were arranged in sub plots. The addition of compost or farm yard manure significantly increased the soil microbial biomass carbon in comparison to the chemical fertilizer. The dehydrogenase, phosphatase and urease activities in the N3 treatment were significantly lower than in the farm yard manure and compost treatments.

Keywords: Enzyme activity, fertilization, microbial biomasscarbon, wheat.

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Authors: A. U. Moreh, M. Momoh, H. N. Yahya, B. Hamza, I. G. Saidu, S. Abdullahi

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This work studies the effect of thickness on structural and electrical properties of CuAlS2 thin films grown by two stage vacuum thermal evaporation technique. CuAlS2 thin films of thicknesses 50nm, 100nm and 200nm were deposited on suitably cleaned corning 7059 glass substrate at room temperature (RT). In the first stage Cu-Al precursors were grown at room temperature by thermal evaporation and in the second stage Cu-Al precursors were converted to CuAlS2 thin films by sulfurisation under sulfur atmosphere at the temperature of 673K. The structural properties of the films were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique while electrical properties of the specimens were studied using four point probe method. The XRD studies revealed that the films are of crystalline in nature having tetragonal structure. The variations of the micro-structural parameters, such as crystallite size (D), dislocation density ( ), and micro-strain ( ), with film thickness were investigated. The results showed that the crystallite sizes increase as the thickness of the film increases. The dislocation density and micro-strain decreases as the thickness increases. The resistivity (  ) of CuAlS2 film is found to decrease with increase in film thickness, which is related to the increase of carrier concentration with film thickness. Thus thicker films exhibit the lowest resistivity and high carrier concentration, implying these are the most conductive films. Low electrical resistivity and high carrier concentration are widely used as the essential components in various optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting diode and photovoltaic cells.

Keywords: Crystalline, CuAlS2, evaporation, resistivity, sulfurisation, thickness.

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Authors: A. M. Pashayev, D. D. Askerov, C. Ardil, R. A. Sadiqov, P. S. Abdullayev

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Researches show that probability-statistical methods application, especially at the early stage of the aviation Gas Turbine Engine (GTE) technical condition diagnosing, when the flight information has property of the fuzzy, limitation and uncertainty is unfounded. Hence the efficiency of application of new technology Soft Computing at these diagnosing stages with the using of the Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks methods is considered. According to the purpose of this problem training with high accuracy of fuzzy multiple linear and non-linear models (fuzzy regression equations) which received on the statistical fuzzy data basis is made. For GTE technical condition more adequate model making dynamics of skewness and kurtosis coefficients- changes are analysed. Researches of skewness and kurtosis coefficients values- changes show that, distributions of GTE workand output parameters of the multiple linear and non-linear generalised models at presence of noise measured (the new recursive Least Squares Method (LSM)). The developed GTE condition monitoring system provides stage-by-stage estimation of engine technical conditions. As application of the given technique the estimation of the new operating aviation engine technical condition was made.

Keywords: aviation gas turbine engine, technical condition, fuzzy logic, neural networks, fuzzy statistics

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Authors: H.Hosseini, A.A. Azemati

Abstract:

The fundamental defect inherent to the thermoforming technology is wall-thickness variation of the products due to inadequate thermal processing during production of polymer. A nonlinear viscoelastic rheological model is implemented for developing the process model. This model describes deformation process of a sheet in thermoforming process. Because of relaxation pause after plug-assist stage and also implementation of two stage thermoforming process have minor wall-thickness variation and consequently better mechanical properties of polymeric articles. For model validation, a comparative analysis of the theoretical and experimental data is presented.

Keywords: High-quality polymeric article, Thermal Processing, Rheological model, Minor wall-thickness variation.

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Authors: Taisir Eldos, Aws Kanan, Waleed Nazih, Ahmad Khatatbih

Abstract:

Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) is an optimization metaheuristic inspired by the nature of chemical reactions as a natural process of transforming the substances from unstable to stable states. Starting with some unstable molecules with excessive energy, a sequence of interactions takes the set to a state of minimum energy. Researchers reported successful application of the algorithm in solving some engineering problems, like the quadratic assignment problem, with superior performance when compared with other optimization algorithms. We adapted this optimization algorithm to the Printed Circuit Board Drilling Problem (PCBDP) towards reducing the drilling time and hence improving the PCB manufacturing throughput. Although the PCBDP can be viewed as instance of the popular Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), it has some characteristics that would require special attention to the transactions that explore the solution landscape. Experimental test results using the standard CROToolBox are not promising for practically sized problems, while it could find optimal solutions for artificial problems and small benchmarks as a proof of concept.

Keywords: Evolutionary Algorithms, Chemical Reaction Optimization, Traveling Salesman, Board Drilling.

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Authors: Mahmoud Elmezain, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Bernd Michaelis

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Hand gesture is an active area of research in the vision community, mainly for the purpose of sign language recognition and Human Computer Interaction. In this paper, we propose a system to recognize alphabet characters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9) in real-time from stereo color image sequences using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Our system is based on three main stages; automatic segmentation and preprocessing of the hand regions, feature extraction and classification. In automatic segmentation and preprocessing stage, color and 3D depth map are used to detect hands where the hand trajectory will take place in further step using Mean-shift algorithm and Kalman filter. In the feature extraction stage, 3D combined features of location, orientation and velocity with respected to Cartesian systems are used. And then, k-means clustering is employed for HMMs codeword. The final stage so-called classification, Baum- Welch algorithm is used to do a full train for HMMs parameters. The gesture of alphabets and numbers is recognized using Left-Right Banded model in conjunction with Viterbi algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that, our system can successfully recognize hand gestures with 98.33% recognition rate.

Keywords: Gesture Recognition, Computer Vision & Image Processing, Pattern Recognition.

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Authors: Assem M. F. Sallam, Ah. El-S. Makled

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This paper presents a study on the trajectory of a two stage launch vehicle. The study includes dynamic responses of motion parameters as well as the variation of angles affecting the orientation of the launch vehicle (LV). LV dynamic characteristics including state vector variation with corresponding altitude and velocity for the different LV stages separation, as well as the angle of attack and flight path angles are also discussed. A flight trajectory study for the drop zone of first stage and the jettisoning of fairing are introduced in the mathematical modeling to study their effect. To increase the accuracy of the LV model, atmospheric model is used taking into consideration geographical location and the values of solar flux related to the date and time of launch, accurate atmospheric model leads to enhancement of the calculation of Mach number, which affects the drag force over the LV. The mathematical model is implemented on MATLAB based software (Simulink). The real available experimental data are compared with results obtained from the theoretical computation model. The comparison shows good agreement, which proves the validity of the developed simulation model; the maximum error noticed was generally less than 10%, which is a result that can lead to future works and enhancement to decrease this level of error.

Keywords: Launch vehicle modeling, launch vehicle trajectory, mathematical modeling, MATLAB-Simulink.

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Authors: A. Brouri, F. Giri, A. Mkhida, F. Z. Chaoui, A. Elkarkri, M. L. Chhibat

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Standard Hammerstein-Wiener models consist of a linear subsystem sandwiched by two memoryless nonlinearities. The problem of identifying Hammerstein-Wiener systems is addressed in the presence of linear subsystem of structure totally unknown and polynomial input and output nonlinearities. Presently, the system nonlinearities are allowed to be noninvertible. The system identification problem is dealt by developing a two-stage frequency identification method. First, the parameters of system nonlinearities are identified. In the second stage, a frequency approach is designed to estimate the linear subsystem frequency gain. All involved estimators are proved to be consistent.

Keywords: Nonlinear system identification, Hammerstein systems, Wiener systems, frequency identification.

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Authors: Ane Larrea, Victor Sebastian, Manuel Arruebo, Jesus Santamaria

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We present a gas-liquid microfluidic system as a reactor to obtain magnetite nanoparticles with an excellent degree of control regarding their crystalline phase, shape and size. Several types of microflow approaches were selected to prevent nanomaterial aggregation and to promote homogenous size distribution. The selected reactor consists of a mixer stage aided by ultrasound waves and a reaction stage using a N2-liquid segmented flow to prevent magnetite oxidation to non-magnetic phases. A milli-fluidic reactor was developed to increase the production rate where a magnetite throughput close to 450 mg/h in a continuous fashion was obtained.

Keywords: Microfluidics, magnetic nanoparticles, continuous production, nanomaterials.

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Authors: Alexander Efremov

Abstract:

A system for market identification (SMI) is presented. The resulting representations are multivariable dynamic demand models. The market specifics are analyzed. Appropriate models and identification techniques are chosen. Multivariate static and dynamic models are used to represent the market behavior. The steps of the first stage of SMI, named data preprocessing, are mentioned. Next, the second stage, which is the model estimation, is considered in more details. Stepwise linear regression (SWR) is used to determine the significant cross-effects and the orders of the model polynomials. The estimates of the model parameters are obtained by a numerically stable estimator. Real market data is used to analyze SMI performance. The main conclusion is related to the applicability of multivariate dynamic models for representation of market systems.

Keywords: market identification, dynamic models, stepwise regression.

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Authors: M. Jouki, N. Khazaei , A. Kalbasi , H. Tavakolipour, S. Rajabifar, F. Motamedi. Sedeh, A. Jouki

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Irradiation is considered one of the most efficient technological processes for the reduction of microorganisms in food. It can be used to improve the safety of food products, and to extend their shelf lives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of gamma irradiation for improvement of saffron shelf life. Samples were treated with 0 (none irradiated), 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 kGy of gamma irradiation and held for 2 months. The control and irradiated samples were underwent microbial analysis, chemical characteristics and sensory evaluation at 30 days intervals. Microbial analysis indicated that irradiation had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on the reduction of microbial loads. There was no significant difference in sensory quality and chemical characteristics during storage in saffron.

Keywords: gamma irradiation, saffron, microbes, contamination.

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Authors: E. Tarantino, G. Disciglio, G. Gatta, L. Frabboni, A. Libutti, A. Tarantino

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Worldwide, about two-thirds of industrial and domestic wastewater effluent is discharged without treatment, which can cause contamination and eutrophication of the water. In particular, for Mediterranean countries, irrigation with treated wastewater would mitigate the water stress and support the agricultural sector. Changing global weather patterns will make the situation worse, due to increased susceptibility to drought, which can cause major environmental, social, and economic problems. The study was carried out in open field in an intensive agricultural area of the Apulian region in Southern Italy where freshwater resources are often scarce. As well as providing a water resource, irrigation with treated wastewater represents a significant source of nutrients for soil–plant systems. However, the use of wastewater might have further effects on soil. This study thus investigated the long-term impact of irrigation with reclaimed agro-industrial wastewater on the chemical characteristics of the soil. Two crops (processing tomato and broccoli) were cultivated in succession in Stornarella (Foggia) over four years from 2012 to 2016 using two types of irrigation water: groundwater and tertiary treated agro-industrial wastewater that had undergone an activated sludge process, sedimentation filtration, and UV radiation. Chemical analyses were performed on the irrigation waters and soil samples. The treated wastewater was characterised by high levels of several chemical parameters including TSS, EC, COD, BOD₅, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, NH₄-N, PO₄-P, K⁺, SAR and CaCO₃, as compared with the groundwater. However, despite these higher levels, the mean content of several chemical parameters in the soil did not show relevant differences between the irrigation treatments, in terms of the chemical features of the soil.

Keywords: Agro-industrial wastewater, broccoli, long-term re-use, tomato.

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Authors: Pei-Ti Hsu, I-Ju Chen, Jeu-Jung Chen, Cheng-Fen Chang, Shiu-Yan Yang

Abstract:

Background: Taiwan now is an aging society. Research on the elderly should not be confined to caring for seniors, but should also be focused on ways to improve health and the quality of life. Senior citizens who participate in volunteer services could become less lonely, have new growth opportunities, and regain a sense of accomplishment. Thus, the question of how to get the elderly to participate in volunteer service is worth exploring. Objective: Apply the Transtheoretical Model to understand stages of change in regular volunteer service and voluntary service behaviour among the seniors. Methods: 1525 adults over the age of 65 from the Renai district of Keelung City were interviewed. The research tool was a self-constructed questionnaire, and individual interviews were conducted to collect data. Then the data was processed and analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version) statistical software program. Results: In the past six months, research subjects averaged 9.92 days of volunteer services. A majority of these elderly individuals had no intention to change their regular volunteer services. We discovered that during the maintenance stage, the self-efficacy for volunteer services was higher than during all other stages, but self-perceived barriers were less during the preparation stage and action stage. Self-perceived benefits were found to have an important predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in the previous stage, and self-efficacy was found to have an important predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in later stages. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The research results support the conclusion that community nursing staff should group elders based on their regular volunteer services change stages and design appropriate behavioral change strategies.

Keywords: Seniors, stages of change in regular volunteer services, volunteer service behavior, self-efficacy, self-perceived benefits.

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