Search results for: evaporation reside
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 125

Search results for: evaporation reside

95 Application of Molecular Materials in the Manufacture of Flexible and Organic Devices for Photovoltaic Applications

Authors: M. Gómez-Gómez, M. E. Sánchez-Vergara

Abstract:

Many sustainable approaches to generate electric energy have emerged in the last few decades; one of them is through solar cells. Yet, this also has the disadvantage of highly polluting inorganic semiconductor manufacturing processes. Therefore, the use of molecular semiconductors must be considered. In this work, allene compounds C24H26O4 and C24H26O5 were used as dopants to manufacture semiconductor films based on PbPc by high-vacuum evaporation technique. IR spectroscopy was carried out to determine the phase and any significant chemical changes which may occur during the thermal evaporation. According to UV-visible spectroscopy and Tauc’s model, the deposition process generated thin films with an activation energy range of 1.47 eV to 1.55 eV for direct transitions and 1.29 eV to 1.33 eV for indirect transitions. These values place the manufactured films within the range of low bandgap semiconductors. The flexible devices were manufactured: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Indium tin oxide (ITO)/organic semiconductor/Cubic Close Packed (CCP). The characterization of the devices was carried out by evaluating electrical conductivity using the four-probe collinear method. I-V curves were obtained under different lighting conditions at room temperature. OS1 (PbPc/C24H26O4) showed an Ohmic behavior, while OS2 (PbPc/C24H26O5) reached higher current values at lower voltages. The results obtained show that the semiconductor devices doped with allene compounds can be used in the manufacture of optoelectronic devices.

Keywords: Electrical properties, optical gap, phthalocyanine, thin film.

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94 Water Saving in Arid Regions: Comparison of Innovative Techniques for Irrigation of Young Date Palms

Authors: R. Bourziza, A. Hammani, M. Kuper, A. Bouaziz

Abstract:

In oases, the surface water resources are becoming increasingly scarce and groundwater resources, which generally have a poor quality due to the high levels of salinity, are often overexploited. Water saving have therefore become imperative for better oases sustainability. If drip irrigation is currently recommended in Morocco for saving water and valuing, its use in the sub-desert areas does not keep water safe from high evaporation rates. An alternative to this system would be the use of subsurface drip irrigation. This technique is defined as an application of water under the soil surface through drippers, which deliver water at rates generally similar to surface drip irrigation. As subsurface drip irrigation is a recently introduced in Morocco, a better understanding of the infiltration process around a buried source, in local conditions, and its impact on plant growth is necessarily required. This study aims to contribute to improving the water use efficiency by testing the performance of subsurface irrigation system, especially in areas where water is a limited source. The objectives of this research are performance evaluation in arid conditions of the subsurface drip irrigation system for young date palms compared to the surface drip. In this context, an experimental test is installed at a farmer’s field in the area of Erfoud (Errachidia Province, southeastern Morocco), using the subsurface drip irrigation system in comparison with the classic drip system for young date palms. Flow measurement to calculate the uniformity of the application of water was done through two methods: a flow measurement of drippers above the surface and another one underground. The latter method has also helped us to estimate losses through evaporation for both irrigation techniques. In order to compare the effect of two irrigation modes, plants were identified for each type of irrigation to monitor certain agronomic parameters (cumulative numbers of palms and roots development). Experimentation referred to a distribution uniformity of about 88%; considered acceptable for subsurface drip irrigation while it is around 80% for the surface drip irrigation. The results also show an increase in root development and in the number of palm, as well as a substantial water savings due to lower evaporation losses compared to the classic drip irrigation. The results of this study showed that subsurface drip irrigation is an efficient technique, which allows sustainable irrigation in arid areas.

Keywords: Subsurface drip irrigation, Water conservation, Arid areas, Young date palms.

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93 Development of High Strength Self Curing Concrete Using Super Absorbing Polymer

Authors: K. Bala Subramanian, A. Siva, S. Swaminathan, Arul. M. G. Ajin

Abstract:

Concrete is an essential building material which is widely used in construction industry all over the world due to its compressible strength. Curing of concrete plays a vital role in durability and other performance necessities. Improper curing can affect the concrete performance and durability easily. When areas like scarcity of water, structures is not accessible by humans external curing cannot be performed, so we opt for internal curing. Internal curing (or) self curing plays a major role in developing the concrete pore structure and microstructure. The concept of internal curing is to enhance the hydration process to maintain the temperature uniformly. The evaporation of water in the concrete is reduced by self curing agent (Super Absorbing Polymer – SAP) there by increasing the water retention capacity of the concrete. The research work was carried out to reduce water, which is prime material used for concrete in the construction industry. Concrete curing plays a major role in developing hydration process. Concept of self curing will reduce the evaporation of water from concrete. Self curing will increase water retention capacity as compared to the conventional concrete. Proper self curing (or) internal curing increases the strength, durability and performance of concrete. Super absorbing Polymer (SAP) used as internal curing agent. In this study 0.2% to 0.4% of SAP was varied in different grade of high strength concrete. In the experiment replacement of cement by silica fumes with 5%, 10% and 15% are studied. It is found that replacement of silica fumes by 10 % gives more strength and durability when compared to others.

Keywords: Compressive Strength, High strength Concrete Rapid chloride permeability, Super Absorbing Polymer.

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92 Effect of High Injection Pressure on Mixture Formation, Burning Process and Combustion Characteristics in Diesel Combustion

Authors: Amir Khalid, B. Manshoor

Abstract:

The mixture formation prior to the ignition process plays as a key element in the diesel combustion. Parametric studies of mixture formation and ignition process in various injection parameter has received considerable attention in potential for reducing emissions. Purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of injection pressure on mixture formation and ignition especially during ignition delay period, which have to be significantly influences throughout the combustion process and exhaust emissions. This study investigated the effects of injection pressure on diesel combustion fundamentally using rapid compression machine. The detail behavior of mixture formation during ignition delay period was investigated using the schlieren photography system with a high speed camera. This method can capture spray evaporation, spray interference, mixture formation and flame development clearly with real images. Ignition process and flame development were investigated by direct photography method using a light sensitive high-speed color digital video camera. The injection pressure and air motion are important variable that strongly affect to the fuel evaporation, endothermic and prolysis process during ignition delay. An increased injection pressure makes spray tip penetration longer and promotes a greater amount of fuel-air mixing occurs during ignition delay. A greater quantity of fuel prepared during ignition delay period thus predominantly promotes more rapid heat release.

Keywords: Mixture Formation, Diesel Combustion, Ignition Process, Spray, Rapid Compression Machine.

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91 Fuzzy Control of Thermally Isolated Greenhouse Building by Utilizing Underground Heat Exchanger and Outside Weather Conditions

Authors: Raghad Alhusari, Farag Omar, Moustafa Fadel

Abstract:

A traditional greenhouse is a metal frame agricultural building used for cultivation plants in a controlled environment isolated from external climatic changes. Using greenhouses in agriculture is an efficient way to reduce the water consumption, where agriculture field is considered the biggest water consumer world widely. Controlling greenhouse environment yields better productivity of plants but demands an increase of electric power. Although various control approaches have been used towards greenhouse automation, most of them are applied to traditional greenhouses with ventilation fans and/or evaporation cooling system. Such approaches are still demanding high energy and water consumption. The aim of this research is to develop a fuzzy control system that minimizes water and energy consumption by utilizing outside weather conditions and underground heat exchanger to maintain the optimum climate of the greenhouse. The proposed control system is implemented on an experimental model of thermally isolated greenhouse structure with dimensions of 6x5x2.8 meters. It uses fans for extracting heat from the ground heat exchanger system, motors for automatic open/close of the greenhouse windows and LED as lighting system. The controller is integrated also with environmental condition sensors. It was found that using the air-to-air horizontal ground heat exchanger with 90 mm diameter and 2 mm thickness placed 2.5 m below the ground surface results in decreasing the greenhouse temperature of 3.28 ˚C which saves around 3 kW of consumed energy. It also eliminated the water consumption needed in evaporation cooling systems which are traditionally used for cooling the greenhouse environment.

Keywords: Automation, earth-to-air heat exchangers, fuzzy control, greenhouse, sustainable buildings.

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90 Visual Study on Flow Patterns and Heat Transfer during Convective Boiling Inside Horizontal Smooth and Microfin Tubes

Authors: V.D. Hatamipour, M.A. Akhavan-Behabadi

Abstract:

Evaporator is an important and widely used heat exchanger in air conditioning and refrigeration industries. Different methods have been used by investigators to increase the heat transfer rates in evaporators. One of the passive techniques to enhance heat transfer coefficient is the application of microfin tubes. The mechanism of heat transfer augmentation in microfin tubes is dependent on the flow regime of two-phase flow. Therefore many investigations of the flow patterns for in-tube evaporation have been reported in literatures. The gravitational force, surface tension and the vapor-liquid interfacial shear stress are known as three dominant factors controlling the vapor and liquid distribution inside the tube. A review of the existing literature reveals that the previous investigations were concerned with the two-phase flow pattern for flow boiling in horizontal tubes [12], [9]. Therefore, the objective of the present investigation is to obtain information about the two-phase flow patterns for evaporation of R-134a inside horizontal smooth and microfin tubes. Also Investigation of heat transfer during flow boiling of R-134a inside horizontal microfin and smooth tube have been carried out experimentally The heat transfer coefficients for annular flow in the smooth tube is shown to agree well with Gungor and Winterton-s correlation [4]. All the flow patterns occurred in the test can be divided into three dominant regimes, i.e., stratified-wavy flow, wavy-annular flow and annular flow. Experimental data are plotted in two kinds of flow maps, i.e., Weber number for the vapor versus weber number for the liquid flow map and mass flux versus vapor quality flow map. The transition from wavy-annular flow to annular or stratified-wavy flow is identified in the flow maps.

Keywords: Flow boiling, Flow pattern, Heat transfer, Horizontal, Smooth tube, Microfin tube.

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89 Carbamazepine Co-crystal Screening with Dicarboxylic Acids Co-Crystal Formers

Authors: Syarifah Abd Rahim, Fatinah Ab Rahman, Engku N. E. M. Nasir, Noor A. Ramle

Abstract:

Co-crystal is believed to improve the solubility and dissolution rates and thus, enhanced the bioavailability of poor water soluble drugs particularly during the oral route of administration. With the existing of poorly soluble drugs in pharmaceutical industry, the screening of co-crystal formation using carbamazepine (CBZ) as a model drug compound with dicarboxylic acids co-crystal formers (CCF) namely fumaric (FA) and succinic (SA) acids in ethanol has been studied. The co-crystal formations were studied by varying the mol ratio values of CCF to CBZ to access the effect of CCF concentration on the formation of the co-crystal. Solvent evaporation, slurry and cooling crystallization which representing the solution based method co-crystal screening were used. Based on the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, the melting point of CBZ-SA in different ratio was in the range between 188oC-189oC. For CBZ-FA form A and CBZ-FA form B the melting point in different ratio were in the range of 174oC-175oC and 185oC-186oC respectively. The product crystal from the screening was also characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). The XRPD pattern profile analysis has shown that the CBZ co-crystals with FA and SA were successfully formed for all ratios studied. The findings revealed that CBZ-FA co-crystal were formed in two different polymorphs. It was found that CBZ-FA form A and form B were formed from evaporation and slurry crystallization methods respectively. On the other hand, in cooling crystallization method, CBZ-FA form A was formed at lower mol ratio of CCF to CBZ and vice versa. This study disclosed that different methods and mol ratios during the co-crystal screening can affect the outcome of co-crystal produced such as polymorphic forms of co-crystal and thereof. Thus, it was suggested that careful attentions is needed during the screening since the co-crystal formation is currently one of the promising approach to be considered in research and development for pharmaceutical industry to improve the poorly soluble drugs.

Keywords: Carbamazepine, co-crystal, co-crystal former, dicarboxylic acid.

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88 Enabling Automated Deployment for Cluster Computing in Distributed PC Classrooms

Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Ying-Chuan Chen, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

The rapid improvement of the microprocessor and network has made it possible for the PC cluster to compete with conventional supercomputers. Lots of high throughput type of applications can be satisfied by using the current desktop PCs, especially for those in PC classrooms, and leave the supercomputers for the demands from large scale high performance parallel computations. This paper presents our development on enabling an automated deployment mechanism for cluster computing to utilize the computing power of PCs such as reside in PC classroom. After well deployment, these PCs can be transformed into a pre-configured cluster computing resource immediately without touching the existing education/training environment installed on these PCs. Thus, the training activities will not be affected by this additional activity to harvest idle computing cycles. The time and manpower required to build and manage a computing platform in geographically distributed PC classrooms also can be reduced by this development.

Keywords: PC cluster, automated deployment, cluster computing, PC classroom.

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87 Computational Identification of MicroRNAs and their Targets in two Species of Evergreen Spruce Tree (Picea)

Authors: Muhammad Y.K. Barozai, Ifthikhar A. Baloch, M. Din

Abstract:

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding and regulatory RNAs about 20 to 24 nucleotides long. Their conserved nature among the various organisms makes them a good source of new miRNAs discovery by comparative genomics approach. The study resulted in 21 miRNAs of 20 pre-miRNAs belonging to 16 families (miR156, 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 172, 319, 390, 393, 394, 395, 400, 472 and 861) in evergreen spruce tree (Picea). The miRNA families; miR 157, 158, 164, 165, 168, 169, 319, 390, 393, 394, 400, 472 and 861 are reported for the first time in the Picea. All 20 miRNA precursors form stable minimum free energy stem-loop structure as their orthologues form in Arabidopsis and the mature miRNA reside in the stem portion of the stem loop structure. Sixteen (16) miRNAs are from Picea glauca and five (5) belong to Picea sitchensis. Their targets consist of transcription factors, growth related, stressed related and hypothetical proteins.

Keywords: BLAST, Comparative Genomics, Micro-RNAs, Spruce

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86 Understanding the Silence: When Courts Don-t Speak About Religion

Authors: Kalindi Kokal

Abstract:

India recognizes the personal laws of the various religious communities that reside in the country. At the same time all the institutions of the state in India are committed to the value of secularism. This paper has been developed on the basis of a case study that indicates the dynamics of religion in the working of the lower judiciary in India. Majority of the commentary on religion and the judiciary has focused on debates surrounding the existence and application of personal laws. This paper, through a case study in the lower judiciary, makes an attempt to examine whether the interface between religion and the judiciary goes beyond personal laws. The first part of this paper explains the history and application of personal laws in social, political and legal contexts in India. The second part examines the case study located in two courts of first instance, following into the third part which provides an analysis of the empirical evidence. The fourth part focuses on preliminary observations about why there is a hesitancy to speak about religion in relation to the working of the judicial system.

Keywords: Lower Courts, India, Legal Pluralism, Personal Law.

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85 Old Age Home Organizer

Authors: Vicky Suri, Monika Suri Grover, Raghav Gupta, Shipra Asija, Sulabh Arya, Sushant Jain

Abstract:

With today's fast lifestyles and busy schedule, nuclear families are becoming popular. Thus, the elderly members of these families are often neglected. This has lead to the popularity of the concept of Community living for the aged. The elders reside at a centre, which is controlled by the MANAGER. The manager takes responsibility of the functioning of the centre which includes taking care of 'residents' at the centre along with managing the daily chores of the centre, which he accomplishes with the help of a number of staff members and volunteers Often the Manager is not an employee but a volunteer. In such cases especially, time is an important constraint. A system, which provides an easy and efficient manner of managing the working of an old age home in detail, will prove to be of great benefit. We have developed a P.C. based organizer used to monitor the various activities of an old age home. It is an effective and easy-to-use system which will enable the manager to keep an account of all the residents, their accounts, staff members, volunteers, the centre-s logistic requirements etc. It is thus, a comprehensive 'Organizer' for Old Age Homes.

Keywords: Old Age Home Organizer, HelpAge India.

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84 Low Energy Technology for Leachate Valorisation

Authors: Jesús M. Martín, Francisco Corona, Dolores Hidalgo

Abstract:

Landfills present long-term threats to soil, air, groundwater and surface water due to the formation of greenhouse gases (methane gas and carbon dioxide) and leachate from decomposing garbage. The composition of leachate differs from site to site and also within the landfill. The leachates alter with time (from weeks to years) since the landfilled waste is biologically highly active and their composition varies. Mainly, the composition of the leachate depends on factors such as characteristics of the waste, the moisture content, climatic conditions, degree of compaction and the age of the landfill. Therefore, the leachate composition cannot be generalized and the traditional treatment models should be adapted in each case. Although leachate composition is highly variable, what different leachates have in common is hazardous constituents and their potential eco-toxicological effects on human health and on terrestrial ecosystems. Since leachate has distinct compositions, each landfill or dumping site would represent a different type of risk on its environment. Nevertheless, leachates consist always of high organic concentration, conductivity, heavy metals and ammonia nitrogen. Leachate could affect the current and future quality of water bodies due to uncontrolled infiltrations. Therefore, control and treatment of leachate is one of the biggest issues in urban solid waste treatment plants and landfills design and management. This work presents a treatment model that will be carried out "in-situ" using a cost-effective novel technology that combines solar evaporation/condensation plus forward osmosis. The plant is powered by renewable energies (solar energy, biomass and residual heat), which will minimize the carbon footprint of the process. The final effluent quality is very high, allowing reuse (preferred) or discharge into watercourses. In the particular case of this work, the final effluents will be reused for cleaning and gardening purposes. A minority semi-solid residual stream is also generated in the process. Due to its special composition (rich in metals and inorganic elements), this stream will be valorized in ceramic industries to improve the final products characteristics.

Keywords: Forward osmosis, landfills, leachate valorization, solar evaporation.

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83 Wet Strength Improvement of Pineapple Leaf Paper for Evaporative Cooling Pad

Authors: T. Khampan, N. Thavarungkul, J. Tiansuwan, S. Kamthai

Abstract:

This research aimed to modify pineapple leaf paper (PALP) for using as wet media in the evaporation cooling system by improving wet mechanical property (tensile strength) without compromising water absorption property. Polyamideamineepichorohydrin resin (PAE) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) were used to strengthen the paper, and the PAE and CMC ratio of 80:20 showed the optimum wet and dry tensile index values, which were higher than those of the commercial cooling pad (CCP). Compared with CCP, PALP itself and all the PAE/CMC modified PALP possessed better water absorption. The PAE/CMC modified PALP had potential to become a new type of wet media.

Keywords: wet strength, evaporative cooling, pineapple leaves, polyamideamine-epichorohydrin, carboxymethylcellulose.

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82 Protein Delivery from Polymeric Nanoparticles

Authors: G. Spada, E. Gavini, P. Giunchedi

Abstract:

Aim of this work was to compare the efficacy of two loading methods of proteins onto polymeric nanocarriers: adsorption and encapsulation methods. Preliminary studies of protein loading were done using Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) as model protein. Nanocarriers were prepared starting from polylactic co-glycolic acid (PLGA) polymer; production methods used are two different variants of emulsion evaporation method. Nanoparticles obtained were analyzed in terms of dimensions by Dynamic Light Scattering and Loading Efficiency of BSA by Bradford Assay. Loaded nanoparticles were then submitted to in-vitro protein dissolution test in order to study the effect of the delivery system on the release rate of the protein.

Keywords: Drug delivery, nanoparticles, PLGA, proteinadsorption, protein encapsulation.

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81 Deep Injection Wells for Flood Prevention and Groundwater Management

Authors: Mohammad R. Jafari, Francois G. Bernardeau

Abstract:

With its arid climate, Qatar experiences low annual rainfall, intense storms, and high evaporation rates. However, the fast-paced rate of infrastructure development in the capital city of Doha has led to recurring instances of surface water flooding as well as rising groundwater levels. Public Work Authority (PWA/ASHGHAL) has implemented an approach to collect and discharge the flood water into a) positive gravity systems; b) Emergency Flooding Area (EFA) – Evaporation, Infiltration or Storage off-site using tankers; and c) Discharge to deep injection wells. As part of the flood prevention scheme, 21 deep injection wells have been constructed to discharge the collected surface and groundwater table in Doha city. These injection wells function as an alternative in localities that do not possess either positive gravity systems or downstream networks that can accommodate additional loads. These injection wells are 400-m deep and are constructed in a complex karstic subsurface condition with large cavities. The injection well system will discharge collected groundwater and storm surface runoff into the permeable Umm Er Radhuma Formation, which is an aquifer present throughout the Persian Gulf Region. The Umm Er Radhuma formation contains saline water that is not being used for water supply. The injection zone is separated by an impervious gypsum formation which acts as a barrier between upper and lower aquifer. State of the art drilling, grouting, and geophysical techniques have been implemented in construction of the wells to assure that the shallow aquifer would not be contaminated and impacted by injected water. Injection and pumping tests were performed to evaluate injection well functionality (injectability). The results of these tests indicated that majority of the wells can accept injection rate of 200 to 300 m3 /h (56 to 83 l/s) under gravity with average value of 250 m3 /h (70 l/s) compared to design value of 50 l/s. This paper presents design and construction process and issues associated with these injection wells, performing injection/pumping tests to determine capacity and effectiveness of the injection wells, the detailed design of collection system and conveying system into the injection wells, and the operation and maintenance process. This system is completed now and is under operation, and therefore, construction of injection wells is an effective option for flood control.

Keywords: Deep injection well, wellhead assembly system, emergency flood area, flood prevention scheme, geophysical tests, pumping and injection tests, Qatar geology.

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80 Numerical Modelling of Surface Waves Generated by Low Frequency Electromagnetic Field for Silicon Refinement Process

Authors: V. Geza, J. Vencels, G. Zageris, S. Pavlovs

Abstract:

One of the most perspective methods to produce SoG-Si is refinement via metallurgical route. The most critical part of this route is refinement from boron and phosphorus. Therefore, a new approach could address this problem. We propose an approach of creating surface waves on silicon melt’s surface in order to enlarge its area and accelerate removal of boron via chemical reactions and evaporation of phosphorus. A two dimensional numerical model is created which includes coupling of electromagnetic and fluid dynamic simulations with free surface dynamics. First results show behaviour similar to experimental results from literature.

Keywords: Numerical modelling, silicon refinement, surface waves, VOF method.

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79 Caffeine Content Investigation in the Turkish Black Teas

Authors: E. Moroydor Derun, A. S. Kipcak, O. Dere Ozdemir, F. Demir, M. Karakoc, S. Piskin

Abstract:

Tea is a widely consumed beverage that contains many components. Caffeine belongs to this group of components called alkaloids contain nitrogen. In this study caffeine contents of three types of Turkish teas are determined by using extraction method. After condensation process, residue of caffeine and oil are obtained with evaporation. The oil which is in the residue is removed by hot water. Extraction process performed by using chloroform and the crude caffeine is obtained. From the results of experiments, caffeine contents are found in black tea, green tea and earl grey tea as 3.57±0.43%, 3.11±0.02%, 4.29±0.27%, respectively. Caffeine contents which are found in 1, 5 and 10 cups of tea are calculated. Furthermore, the daily intake of caffeine from black teas that affects human health is investigated.

Keywords: Caffeine, extraction, tea, health.

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78 Ethnographic Exploration of Elderly Residents' Perceptions and Utilization of Health Care to Improve Their Quality of Life

Authors: Seyed Ziya Tabatabaei, Azimi Bin Hj Hamzah, Fatemeh Ebrahimi

Abstract:

The increase in proportion of older people in Malaysia has led to a significant growth of health care demands. The aim of this study is to explore how perceived health care needs influence on quality of life among elderly Malay residents who reside in a Malaysian residential home. This study employed a method known as ethnographic research from May 2011 to January 2012. Four data collection strategies were selected as the main data-collecting tools including participant observation, field notes, in-depth interviews, and review of related documents. The nine knowledgeable participants for the present study were selected using the purposive sampling method. Two themes were identified: (1) Medical concerns: Feeling secure, lack of information, inadequate medical staff; and (2) Health promotion: Body condition, health education, physiotherapy and rehabilitation. These results could evoke the attention of policy-makers and care providers to better meet elderly residents’ health care needs.

Keywords: Ethnographic study, health care needs, elderly Malay people, Malaysia, quality of life, residential home.

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77 The Effect of Peer Support to Interpersonal Problem Solving Tendencies and Skills in Nursing Students

Authors: B. Özlük, A. Karaaslan

Abstract:

This study has been conducted as a supplementary and relationship seeking study with the purpose of measuring the tendency and success of support among peers amid nursing students studying at university in solving interpersonal problems. The population of the study (N:279) is comprised of nursing students who are studying at one state and one private university in the province of Konya, while its sample is comprised of 231 nursing students who agreed to take part in the study voluntarily. As a result of this study, it has been determined that the peer support and interpersonal problem solving characteristics among students were at medium levels and that the interpersonal problem solving skills of students studying in the third year were higher than those of first and second year students. While the interpersonal problem solving characteristics of students who are aged 20 and over were found to be higher, no difference could be determined in terms of the interpersonal problem solving skills and tendencies among students, based on their gender and where they reside. A positive – to a medium degree – and significant relationship was determined between peer support and interpersonal problem solving skills, and it is possible to say that as peer support increases, so do the skills and tendencies to solve problems.

Keywords: Interpersonal problem, nursing students, peer support, problem solving.

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76 NDENet: End-to-End Nighttime Dehazing and Enhancement

Authors: H. Baskar, A. S. Chakravarthy, P. Garg, D. Goel, A. S. Raj, K. Kumar, Lakshya, R. Parvatham, V. Sushant, B. Kumar Rout

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a computer vision task called nighttime dehaze-enhancement. This task aims to jointly perform dehazing and lightness enhancement. Our task fundamentally differs from nighttime dehazing – our goal is to jointly dehaze and enhance scenes, while nighttime dehazing aims to dehaze scenes under a nighttime setting. In order to facilitate further research on this task, we release a benchmark dataset called Reside-β Night dataset, consisting of 4122 nighttime hazed images from 2061 scenes and 2061 ground truth images. Moreover, we also propose a network called NDENet (Nighttime Dehaze-Enhancement Network), which jointly performs dehazing and low-light enhancement in an end-to-end manner. We evaluate our method on the proposed benchmark and achieve Structural Index Similarity (SSIM) of 0.8962 and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) of 26.25. We also compare our network with other baseline networks on our benchmark to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. We believe that nighttime dehaze-enhancement is an essential task particularly for autonomous navigation applications, and hope that our work will open up new frontiers in research. The code for our network is made publicly available.

Keywords: Dehazing, image enhancement, nighttime, computer vision.

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75 Daily Global Solar Radiation Modeling Using Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Networks

Authors: Seyed Fazel Ziaei Asl, Ali Karami, Gholamreza Ashari, Azam Behrang, Arezoo Assareh, N.Hedayat

Abstract:

Predict daily global solar radiation (GSR) based on meteorological variables, using Multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks is the main objective of this study. Daily mean air temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours, evaporation, wind speed, and soil temperature values between 2002 and 2006 for Dezful city in Iran (32° 16' N, 48° 25' E), are used in this study. The measured data between 2002 and 2005 are used to train the neural networks while the data for 214 days from 2006 are used as testing data.

Keywords: Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Networks;Global Solar Radiation (GSR), Meteorological Parameters, Prediction.

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74 Thermodynamic Analysis of Ammonia-Water Based Regenerative Rankine Cycle with Partial Evaporation

Authors: Kyoung Hoon Kim

Abstract:

A thermodynamic analysis of a partial evaporating Rankine cycle with regeneration using zeotropic ammonia-water mixture as a working fluid is presented in this paper. The thermodynamic laws were applied to evaluate the system performance. Based on the thermodynamic model, the effects of the vapor quality and the ammonia mass fraction on the system performance were extensively investigated. The results showed that thermal efficiency has a peak value with respect to the vapor quality as well as the ammonia mass fraction. The partial evaporating ammonia based Rankine cycle has a potential to improve recovery of low-grade finite heat source.

Keywords: Ammonia-water, Rankine cycle, partial evaporating, thermodynamic performance.

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73 Influence of Flash Temperature on Exergetical Performance of Organic Flash Cycle

Authors: Kyoung Hoon Kim, Chul Ho Han

Abstract:

Organic Flash Cycle (OFC) has potential of improving efficiency for recovery of low temperature heat sources mainly due to reducing temperature mismatch in the heat exchanger. In this work exergetical performance analysis of ORC is conducted for recovery of low grade heat source. Effects of system parameters such as flash evaporation temperature or heating temperature are theoretically investigated on the exergy destructions (anergies) at various components of the system as well as exergy efficiency. Results show that exergy efficiency has a peak with respect to the flash temperature, and the optimum flash temperature increases with the heating temperature. The component where the largest exergy destruction occurs varies with the flash temperature or heating temperature.

Keywords: Organic flash cycle (OFC), low grade heat source, exergy, anergy, flash temperature.

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72 A Deep Learning Framework for Polarimetric SAR Change Detection Using Capsule Network

Authors: Sanae Attioui, Said Najah

Abstract:

The Earth's surface is constantly changing through forces of nature and human activities. Reliable, accurate, and timely change detection is critical to environmental monitoring, resource management, and planning activities. Recently, interest in deep learning algorithms, especially convolutional neural networks, has increased in the field of image change detection due to their powerful ability to extract multi-level image features automatically. However, these networks are prone to drawbacks that limit their applications, which reside in their inability to capture spatial relationships between image instances, as this necessitates a large amount of training data. As an alternative, Capsule Network has been proposed to overcome these shortcomings. Although its effectiveness in remote sensing image analysis has been experimentally verified, its application in change detection tasks remains very sparse. Motivated by its greater robustness towards improved hierarchical object representation, this study aims to apply a capsule network for PolSAR image Change Detection. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed change detection method can yield a significantly higher detection rate compared to methods based on convolutional neural networks.

Keywords: Change detection, capsule network, deep network, Convolutional Neural Networks, polarimetric synthetic aperture radar images, PolSAR images.

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71 Transformability in Post-Earthquake Houses in Iran: with Special Focus on Lar City

Authors: M. Parva, K. Dola, F. Pour Rahimian

Abstract:

Earthquake is considered as one of the most catastrophic disasters in Iran, in terms of both short-term and long-term hazards. Due to the particular financial and time constraints in Iran, quickly constructed post-earthquake houses (PEHs) do not fulfill the minimum requirements to be considered as comfortable dwellings for people. Consequently, people often transform PEHs after they start to reside. However, lack of understanding about process, motivation, and results of housing transformation leads to construction of some houses not suitable for future transformations, hence resulting in eventually demolished or abandoned PEHs. This study investigated housing transformations in a natural bed of post-earthquake Lar. This paper reports results of the conducted survey for comparing normal condition housing transformation with post-earthquake housing transformation in order to reveal the factors that affect post-earthquake housing transformation in Iran. The findings proposed the use of a combination of ‘Temporary’ and ‘Permanent’ housing reconstruction models in Iran to provide victims with basic but permanent post-disaster dwellings. It is also suggested that needs for future transformation should be predicted and addressed during early stages of design and development. This study contributes to both research and practice regarding post-earthquake housing reconstruction in Iran by proposing new design approaches and guidelines.

Keywords: Housing transformation, Iran, Lar, post-earthquake housing.

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70 Influence of Thermal Annealing on The Structural Properties of Vanadyl Phthalocyanine Thin Films: A Comparative Study

Authors: Fakhra Aziz, K. Sulaiman, M. R. Muhammad, M. Hassan Sayyad, Kh. Karimov

Abstract:

This paper presents a comparative study on Vanadyl Phthalocyanine (VOPc) thin films deposited by thermal evaporation and spin coating techniques. The samples were prepared on cleaned glass substrates and annealed at various temperatures ranging form 95oC to 155oC. To obtain the morphological and structural properties of VOPc thin films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been implied. The AFM topographic images show a very slight difference in the thermally grown films, before and after annealing, however best results are achieved for the spin-cast film annealed at 125oC. The XRD spectra show no existence of the sharp peaks, suggesting the material to be amorphous. The humps in the XRD patterns indicate the presence of some crystallites.

Keywords: Annealing, optical properties, thin films, Vanadylphthalocyanine.

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69 A Paradigm for Characterization and Checking of a Human Noise Behavior

Authors: Himanshu Dehra

Abstract:

This paper presents a paradigm for characterization and checking of human noise behavior. The definitions of ‘Noise’ and ‘Noise Behavior’ are devised. The concept of characterization and examining of Noise Behavior is obtained from the proposed paradigm of Psychoacoustics. The measurement of human noise behavior is discussed through definitions of noise sources and noise measurements. The noise sources, noise measurement equations and noise filters are further illustrated through examples. The theory and significance of solar energy acoustics is presented for life and its activities. Human comfort and health are correlated with human brain through physiological responses and noise protection. Examples of heat stress, intense heat, sweating and evaporation are also enumerated.

Keywords: Human brain, noise behavior, noise characterization, noise filters, physiological responses, psychoacoustics.

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68 An Investigation on the Effects of Injection Spray Cone on Propulsive Droplets in a Duct

Authors: M. Mojtahedpoor

Abstract:

This paper addresses one important aspect of combustion system analysis, the spray evaporation and dispersion modeling. In this study we assume an empty cylinder which is as a simulator for a ramjet engine and the cylinder has been studied by cold flow. Four nozzles have the duties of injection which are located in the entrance of cylinder. The air flow comes into the cylinder from one side and injection operation will be done. By changing injection velocity and entrance air flow velocity, we have studied droplet sizing and efficient mass fraction of fuel vapor near and at the exit area. We named the mass of fuel vapor inside the flammability limit as the efficient mass fraction. Further, we decreased the initial temperature of fuel droplets and we have repeated the investigating again. To fulfill the calculation we used a modified version of KIVA-3V.

Keywords: Ramjet, droplet sizing, injection velocity, air flowvelocity, efficient mass fraction..

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67 Investigation on the Fate Pesticides in Water and Sediments Iraqi Marshland

Authors: Abdal-Kader Saeed Latif, Reyam Naji Ajmi, Huda Farooq Zeki, Wathiq Abaas Hatit

Abstract:

These studies have been carried out on the behavior of pesticides in aquatic environments of marshes to monitoring water and sediment. A total of 25 water and 25 sediment samples were collected at five sampling station during April, June and September. 2013 the levels of organochlorine (OCP) pesticide as a case study to find out the extent of pesticide contamination and accumulation, in water was the concentration of OCPs (0.02, 0.066, 0.7, 0.8, 0.072, 0.058) ppb. In sediment was the concentration of OCPs (5.897, 10.987, 0.089, 0.096, 7.897, and 12.389) ppb respectively in DDT, DDE, Chlordane, Heptachlor, Lindane, and Endosulfan. There is a relationship between pesticides and sediment and water with physical properties because the concentrations of pesticide in water and sediment are not always in equilibrium Furthermore, when sediments are smaller, the rate of deposition is slower. There the wetlands of pesticides due to factors of high temperature and evaporation but used in the control of pesticides in water and sediment also there still exist a variety of organochlorine pesticide residues in water and sediments of wetlands.

Keywords: Bioindicators, Iraqi marshes, Pesticides, Sediment, Water.

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66 Effects of Injection Velocity and Entrance Airflow Velocity on Droplets Sizing in a Duct

Authors: M. M. Doustdar , M. Mojtahedpoor

Abstract:

This paper addresses one important aspect of combustion system analysis, the spray evaporation and dispersion modeling. In this study we assume an empty cylinder which is as a simulator for a ramjet engine and the cylinder has been studied by cold flow. Four nozzles have the duties of injection which are located in the entrance of cylinder. The air flow comes into the cylinder from one side and injection operation will be done. By changing injection velocity and entrance air flow velocity, we have studied droplet sizing and efficient mass fraction of fuel vapor near and at the exit area. We named the mass of fuel vapor inside the flammability limit as the efficient mass fraction. Further, we decreased the initial temperature of fuel droplets and we have repeated the investigating again. To fulfill the calculation we used a modified version of KIVA-3V.

Keywords: Ramjet, droplet sizing, injection velocity, air flow velocity, efficient mass fraction.

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