Search results for: excess molar volume

Authors: Kazuhisa Koda, Tsutomu Kobayashi

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Laura Island, which is located about 50 km away from downtown, is a source of water supply in Majuro atoll, which is the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Low and flat Majuro atoll has neither river nor lake. It is very important for Majuro atoll to ensure the conservation of its water resources. However, upconing, which is the process of partial rising of the freshwater-saltwater boundary near the water-supply well, was caused by the excess pumping from it during the severe drought in 1998. Upconing will make the water usage of the freshwater lens difficult. Thus, appropriate water usage is required to prevent up coning in the freshwater lens because there is no other water source during drought. Numerical simulation of water usage applying SEAWAT model was conducted at the central part of Laura Island, including the water supply well, which was affected by upconing. The freshwater lens was created as a result of infiltration of consistent average rainfall. The lens shape was almost the same as the one in 1985. 0 of monthly rainfall and variable daily pump discharge were used to calculate the sustainable pump discharge from the water supply well. Consequently, the total amount of pump discharge was increased as the daily pump discharge was increased, indicating that it needs more time to recover from upconing. Thus, a pump standard to reduce the pump intensity is being proposed, which is based on numerical simulation concerning the occurrence of the up-coning phenomenon in Laura Island during the drought.

Keywords: Freshwater lens, islands, numerical simulation, sustainable water use.

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Authors: C. Caçador, M. J. Reis Lima, J. Oliveira, M. J. Veiga, M. Teixeira Veríssimo, F. Ramos, M. C. Castilho, E. Teixeira-Lemos

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In the present study we evaluated the nutritional status of 214 institutionalized elderly residents of both genders, aged 65 years and older of 11 care homes located in the district of Viseu (center of Portugal). The evaluation was based on anthropometric measurements and the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) score.

The mean age of the subjects was 82.3 ± 6.1 years-old. Most of the elderly residents were female (72.0%). The majority had 4 years of formal education (51.9%) and was widowed (74.3%) or married (14.0%).

Men presented a mean age of 81.2±8.5 years-old, weight 69.3±14.5 kg and BMI 25.33±6.5 kg/m². In women, the mean age was 84.5±8.2 years-old, weight 61.2±14.7 kg and BMI 27.43±5.6 kg/m².

The evaluation of the nutritional status using the MNA score showed that 24.0% of the residents show a risk of undernutrition and 76.0% of them were well nourished.

There was a high prevalence of obese (24.8%) and overweight residents (33.2%) according to the BMI. 7.5% were considered underweight.

We also found that according to their waist circumference measurements 88.3% of the residents were at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 64.0% of them presented very high risk for CVD (WC≥88 cm for women and WC ≥102 cm for men).

The present study revealed the coexistence of a dual form of malnutrition (undernourished and overweight) among the institutionalized Portuguese concomitantly with an excess of abdominal adiposity. The high prevalence of residents at high risk for CVD should not be overlooked.

Given the vulnerability of the group of institutionalized elderly, our study highlights the importance of the classification of nutritional status based on both instruments: the BMI and the MNA.

Keywords: Nutritional status, MNA, BMI, elderly.

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Authors: Tatyana T. Tabakova, Elitsa N. Kolentsova, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Yordanka G. Karakirova, Petya Cv. Petrova, Georgi V. Avdeev

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The catalytic oxidation of CO and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is considered as one of the most efficient ways to reduce harmful emissions from various chemical industries. The effectiveness of gold-based catalysts for many reactions of environmental significance was proven during the past three decades. The aim of this work was to combine the favorable features of Au and Cu-Ce mixed oxides in the design of new catalytic materials of improved efficiency and economic viability for removal of air pollutants in waste gases from formaldehyde production. Supported oxides of copper and cerium with Cu: Ce molar ratio 2:1 and 1:5 were prepared by wet impregnation of g-alumina. Gold (2 wt.%) catalysts were synthesized by a deposition-precipitation method. Catalysts characterization was carried out by texture measurements, powder X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The catalytic activity in the oxidation of CO, CH₃OH and (CH₃)₂O was measured using continuous flow equipment with fixed bed reactor. Both Cu-Ce/alumina samples demonstrated similar catalytic behavior. The addition of gold caused significant enhancement of CO and methanol oxidation activity (100 % degree of CO and CH₃OH conversion at about 60 and 140 ^oC, respectively). The composition of Cu-Ce mixed oxides affected the performance of gold-based samples considerably. Gold catalyst on Cu-Ce/γ-Al₂O₃ 1:5 exhibited higher activity for CO and CH₃OH oxidation in comparison with Au on Cu-Ce/γ-Al₂O₃ 2:1. The better performance of Au/Cu-Ce 1:5 was related to the availability of highly dispersed gold particles and copper oxide clusters in close contact with ceria.

Keywords: CO and VOCs oxidation, copper oxide, ceria, gold catalysts.

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Authors: Rathapon Asasutjarit, Chayanid Sorrachaitawatwong, Nardauma Tipchuwong, Sirijit Pouthai

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This study was conducted to formulate diclofenac sodium-loaded chitosan nanoparticles and to study the effect of formulation compositions on particle size and zeta potential of chitosan nanoparticles (CSN) containing diclofenac sodium (DC) prepared by ionotropic gelation method. It was found that the formulations containing chitosan, DC and tripolyphosphate (TPP) at a weight ratio of 4:1:1, respectively, with various pH provided various systems. At pH 5.0 and 6.0, the obtained systems were turbid because of precipitation of DC and chitosan, respectively. However, the dispersed system of CSN possessing diameter of 108±1 nm and zeta potential of 19±1 mV could be obtained at pH 5.5. These CSN also showed spherical morphology observed via a transmission scanning electron microscope. Change in weight ratio of chitosan:DC:TPP i.e. 1:1:1, 2:1:1, 3:1:1 and 4:1:1 showed that these ratios led to precipitation of particles except for the ratio of 4:1:1 providing CSN properly. The effect of Tween 80 as a stabilizer was also determined. It suggested that increment of Tween 80 concentration to 0.02% w/v could stabilize CSN at least 48 hours. However, increment of Tween 80 to 0.03% w/v led to quick precipitation of particles. The study of effect of TPP suggested that increment of TPP concentration increased particle size but decreased zeta potential. The excess TPP caused precipitation of CSN. Therefore, the optimized CSN was the CSN containing chitosan, DC and TPP at the ratio of 4:1:1and 0.02% w/v Tween 80 prepared at pH 5.5. Their particle size, zeta potential and entrapment efficiency were 128±1 nm, 15±1 mV and 45.8±2.6%, respectively.

Keywords: Chitosan nanoparticles, diclofenac sodium, size, zeta potential.

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Authors: Hilal A. Abdelwali, Elsayed E.M. Ellaimony, Ahmad E.M. Murad, Jasem M.S. Al-Rajhi

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Due to the excess of a vehicle operation through its life, some elements may face failure and deteriorate with time. This leads us to carry out maintenance, repair, tune up or full overhaul. After a certain period, the vehicle elements deteriorations increase with time which causes a very high increase of doing the maintenance operations and their costs. However, the logic decision at this point is to replace the current vehicle by a new one with minimum failure and maximum income. The importance of studying vehicle replacement problems come from the increase of stopping days due to many deteriorations in the vehicle parts. These deteriorations increase year after year causing an increase of operating costs and decrease the vehicle income. Vehicle replacement aims to determine the optimum time to keep, maintain, overhaul, renew and replace vehicles. This leads to an improvement in vehicle income, total operating costs, maintenance cost, fuel and oil costs, ton-kilometers, vehicle and engine performance, vehicle noise, vibration, and pollution. The aim of this paper is to find the optimum replacement policies of Kuwait Passenger Transport Company (KPTCP) fleet of busses. The objective of these policies is to maximize the busses pure profits. The dynamic programming (D.P.) technique is used to generate the busses optimal replacement policies

Keywords: Replacement Problem, Automotive Replacement, Dynamic Programming, Equipment Replacement, K.P.T.C.

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Authors: Aïssa Rezzoug

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This paper is aimed to bring new elements that demonstrate the tide caused the groundwater to rise in the shoreline band, on which the urban areas occurs, especially in the western coastal cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia like Jeddah. The reason for the last events of Jeddah inundation was the groundwater rise in the city coupled at the same time to a strong precipitation event. This paper will illustrate the tide participation in increasing the groundwater level significantly. It shows that the reason for internal groundwater recharge within the urban area is not only the excess of the water supply coming from surrounding areas, due to the human activity, with lack of sufficient and efficient sewage system, but also due to tide effect. The research study follows a quantitative method to assess groundwater level rise risks through many in-situ measurements and mathematical modelling. The proposed approach highlights groundwater level, in the urban areas of the city on the shoreline band, reaching the high tide level without considering any input from precipitation. Despite the small tide in the Red Sea compared to other oceanic coasts, the groundwater level is considerably enhanced by the tide from the seaside and by the freshwater table from the landside of the city. In these conditions, the groundwater level becomes high in the city and prevents the soil to evacuate quickly enough the surface flow caused by the storm event, as it was observed in the last historical flood catastrophe of Jeddah in 2009.

Keywords: Flood, groundwater rise, Jeddah, tide.

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Authors: Y. N. Phang, E. F. Loh

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Many researchers have suggested the use of zero inflated Poisson (ZIP) and zero inflated negative binomial (ZINB) models in modeling overdispersed medical count data with extra variations caused by extra zeros and unobserved heterogeneity. The studies indicate that ZIP and ZINB always provide better fit than using the normal Poisson and negative binomial models in modeling overdispersed medical count data. In this study, we proposed the use of Zero Inflated Inverse Trinomial (ZIIT), Zero Inflated Poisson Inverse Gaussian (ZIPIG) and zero inflated strict arcsine models in modeling overdispered medical count data. These proposed models are not widely used by many researchers especially in the medical field. The results show that these three suggested models can serve as alternative models in modeling overdispersed medical count data. This is supported by the application of these suggested models to a real life medical data set. Inverse trinomial, Poisson inverse Gaussian and strict arcsine are discrete distributions with cubic variance function of mean. Therefore, ZIIT, ZIPIG and ZISA are able to accommodate data with excess zeros and very heavy tailed. They are recommended to be used in modeling overdispersed medical count data when ZIP and ZINB are inadequate.

Keywords: Zero inflated, inverse trinomial distribution, Poisson inverse Gaussian distribution, strict arcsine distribution, Pearson’s goodness of fit.

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Authors: G. Bumanis, D. Bajare

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With demand for primary energy continuously growing, search for renewable and efficient energy sources has been high on agenda of our society. One of the most promising energy sources is biogas technology. Residues coming from dairy industry and milk processing could be used in biogas production; however, low efficiency and high cost impede wide application of such technology. One of the main problems is management and conversion of organic residues through the anaerobic digestion process which is characterized by acidic environment due to the low whey pH (<6) whereas additional pH control system is required. Low buffering capacity of whey is responsible for the rapid acidification in biological treatments; therefore alkali activated material is a promising solution of this problem. Alkali activated material is formed using SiO2 and Al2O3 rich materials under highly alkaline solution. After material structure forming process is completed, free alkalis remain in the structure of materials which are available for leaching and could provide buffer capacity potential. In this research porous alkali activated material was investigated. Highly porous material structure ensures gradual leaching of alkalis during time which is important in biogas digestion process. Research of mixture composition and SiO2/Na2O and SiO2/Al2O ratio was studied to test the buffer capacity potential of alkali activated material. This research has proved that by changing molar ratio of components it is possible to obtain a material with different buffer capacity, and this novel material was seen to have considerable potential for using it in processes where buffer capacity and pH control is vitally important.

Keywords: Alkaline material, buffer capacity, biogas production.

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Authors: Ime R. Udotong, Justina I. R. Udotong

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Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and the highest crude oil & condensate producer in Nigeria has its operational base and an oil terminal, the Qua Iboe terminal (QIT) located at Ibeno, Nigeria. Other oil companies like Network Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, Frontier Oil Ltd; Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd; Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd and Nigerian Agip Energy, a subsidiary of the Italian ENI E&P operate onshore, on the continental shelf and in deep offshore of the Atlantic Ocean, respectively with the coastal waters of Ibeno, Nigeria as the nearest shoreline. This study was designed to delineate the oil-polluted sites in Ibeno, Nigeria using microbiological and physico-chemical characterization of soils, sediments and ground and surface water samples from the study area. Results obtained revealed that there have been significant recent hydrocarbon inputs into this environment as observed from the high counts of hydrocarbonoclastic microorganisms in excess of 1% at all the stations sampled. Moreover, high concentrations of THC, BTEX and heavy metals contents in all the samples analyzed corroborate the high recent crude oil input into the study area. The results also showed that the pollution of the different environmental media sampled were of varying degrees, following the trend: ground water > surface water > sediments > soils.

Keywords: Microbiological characterization, oil-polluted sites, physico-chemical analyses, total hydrocarbon content.

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Authors: Edison Muzenda, Corina M Mateescu

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Group contribution methods such as the UNIFAC are very useful to researchers and engineers involved in synthesis, feasibility studies, design and optimization of separation processes. They can be applied successfully to predict phase equilibrium and excess properties in the development of chemical and separation processes. The main focus of this work was to investigate the possibility of absorbing selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using three selected UNIFAC group contribution methods. Absorption followed by subsequent stripping is the predominant available abatement technology of VOCs from flue gases prior to their release into the atmosphere. The original, modified and effective UNIFAC models were used in this work. The thirteen selected VOCs that have been considered in this research are: pentane, hexane, heptanes, trimethylamine, toluene, xylene, cyclohexane, butyl acetate, diethyl acetate, chloroform, acetone, ethyl methyl ketone and isobutyl methyl ketone. The computation was done for solute VOC concentration of 8.55x10-8 which is well in the infinite dilution region. The results obtained in this study compare very well with those published in literature obtained through both measurements and predictions. The phase equilibrium obtained in this study show that PDMS is a good absorbent for the removal of VOCs from contaminated air streams through physical absorption.

Keywords: Absorption, Computation, Feasibility studies, Infinite dilution, Volatile organic compounds

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Authors: Chewa Thassana, Wicharn Techitdheera

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The spin (ms) and orbital (mo) magnetic moment of the antiferromagnetic NiO and MnO have been studied in the local spin density approximation (LSDA+U) within full potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO method with in the coulomb interaction U varying from 0 to 10eV, exchange interaction J, from 0 to 1.0eV, and volume compression VC in range of 0 to 80%. Our calculated results shown that the spin magnetic moments and the orbital magnetic moments increase linearly with increasing U and J. While the interesting behaviour appears when volume compression is greater than 70% for NiO and 50% for MnO at which ms collapses. Further increase of volume compression to be at 80% leads to the disappearance of both magnetic moments.

Keywords: spin-orbital magnetic moment, Coulomb interaction U and exchange interaction J, volume compression VC, LSDA+U.

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Authors: M. Abdul-Rani, K. K. Chong, A. F. M. Hani, Y. B. Yap, A. Jamil

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Imaging is defined as the process of obtaining geometric images either two dimensional or three dimensional by scanning or digitizing the existing objects or products. In this research, it applied to retrieve 3D information of the human skin surface in medical application. This research focuses on analyzing and determining volume of leg ulcers using imaging devices. Volume determination is one of the important criteria in clinical assessment of leg ulcer. The volume and size of the leg ulcer wound will give the indication on responding to treatment whether healing or worsening. Different imaging techniques are expected to give different result (and accuracies) in generating data and images. Midpoint projection algorithm was used to reconstruct the cavity to solid model and compute the volume. Misinterpretation of the results can affect the treatment efficacy. The objectives of this paper is to compare the accuracy between two 3D data acquisition method, which is laser triangulation and structured light methods, It was shown that using models with known volume, that structured-light-based 3D technique produces better accuracy compared with laser triangulation data acquisition method for leg ulcer volume determination.

Keywords: Imaging, Laser Triangulation, Structured Light, Volume Determination.

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Authors: HaeNa Lee, Sun K. Yoo

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Volume rendering is widely used in medical CT image visualization. Applying 3D image visualization to diagnosis application can require accurate volume rendering with high resolution. Interpolation is important in medical image processing applications such as image compression or volume resampling. However, it can distort the original image data because of edge blurring or blocking effects when image enhancement procedures were applied. In this paper, we proposed adaptive tension control method exploiting gradient information to achieve high resolution medical image enhancement in volume visualization, where restored images are similar to original images as much as possible. The experimental results show that the proposed method can improve image quality associated with the adaptive tension control efficacy.

Keywords: Tension control, Interpolation, Ray-casting, Medical imaging analysis.

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Authors: Amir Moslemi, Amir Movafeghi, Shahab Moradi

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One of the most important challenging factors in medical images is nominated as noise. Image denoising refers to the improvement of a digital medical image that has been infected by Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The digital medical image or video can be affected by different types of noises. They are impulse noise, Poisson noise and AWGN. Computed tomography (CT) images are subjects to low quality due to the noise. Quality of CT images is dependent on absorbed dose to patients directly in such a way that increase in absorbed radiation, consequently absorbed dose to patients (ADP), enhances the CT images quality. In this manner, noise reduction techniques on purpose of images quality enhancement exposing no excess radiation to patients is one the challenging problems for CT images processing. In this work, noise reduction in CT images was performed using two different directional 2 dimensional (2D) transformations; i.e., Curvelet and Contourlet and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) thresholding methods of BayesShrink and AdaptShrink, compared to each other and we proposed a new threshold in wavelet domain for not only noise reduction but also edge retaining, consequently the proposed method retains the modified coefficients significantly that result good visual quality. Data evaluations were accomplished by using two criterions; namely, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and Structure similarity (Ssim).

Keywords: Computed Tomography (CT), noise reduction, curve-let, contour-let, Signal to Noise Peak-Peak Ratio (PSNR), Structure Similarity (Ssim), Absorbed Dose to Patient (ADP).

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Authors: R. D. Kulkarni, Mayur Chaudhari, S. Mishra

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Curing of paints by exposure to UV radiations is emerging as one of the best film forming technique as an alternative to traditional solvent borne oxidative and thermal curing coatings. The composition and chemistry of UV curable coatings and role of multifunctional and monofunctional monomers, oligomers, and photoinitiators have been discussed. The limitations imposed by thermodynamic equilibrium and tendency for acrylic double bond polymerizations during synthesis of multifunctional acrylates have been presented. Aim of present investigation was thus to explore the reaction variables associated with synthesis of multifunctional acrylates. Zirconium oxychloride was evaluated as catalyst against regular acid functional catalyst. The catalyzed synthesis of glyceryl acrylate and neopentyl glycol acrylate was conducted by variation of following reaction parameters: two different reactant molar ratios- 1:4 and 1:6; catalyst usage in % by moles on polyol- 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 and two different reaction temperatures- 45 and 75 0C. The reaction was monitored by determination of acid value and hydroxy value at regular intervals, besides TLC, HPLC, and FTIR analysis of intermediates and products. On the basis of determination of reaction progress over 1-60 hrs, the esterification reaction was observed to follow 2nd order kinetics with rate constant varying from 1*10-4 to 7*10-4. The thermal and catalytic components of second order rate constant and energy of activation were also determined. Uses of these kinetic and thermodynamic parameters in design of reactor for manufacture of multifunctional acrylate ester have been presented. The synthesized multifunctional acrylates were used to formulate and apply UV curable clear coat followed by determination of curing characteristics and mechanical properties of cured film. The overall curing rates less than 05 min. were easily attained indicating economical viability of radiation curable system due to faster production schedules

Keywords: glyceryl acrylate, neopentyl glycol acrylate, kinetic modeling, zirconium oxychloride.

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Authors: Aravindkumar B. Harwalkar, S. S. Awanti

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Use of fly ash as a supplementary cementing material in large volumes can bring both technological and economic benefits for concrete industry. In this investigation mix proportions for high volume fly ash concrete were determined at cement replacement levels of 50%, 55%, 60% and 65% with low calcium fly ash. Flexural and compressive strengths of different mixes were measured at ages of 7, 28 and 90 days. Flexural strength of composite section prepared from pavement quality and lean high volume fly ash concrete was determined at the age of 28 days. High volume fly ash concrete mixes exhibited higher rate of strength gain and age factors than corresponding reference concrete mixes. The optimum cement replacement level for pavement quality concrete was found to be 60%. The consideration of bond between pavement quality and lean of high volume fly ash concrete will be beneficial in design of rigid pavements.

Keywords: Keywords—Composite section, Compressive strength, Flexural strength, Fly ash.

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Authors: Debolina Chatterjee, Suhita Chopra Chatterjee

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Imprisonment is an expansive concept, as it is regulated by laws under criminal justice system of the state. The state sets principles of punishment to control offenders and also puts limits to excess punitive control. One significant way through which it exercises control is through rules governing healthcare of imprisoned population. Prisons signify specialized settings which accommodate both medical and legal concerns. The provision of care operates within the institutional paradigm of punishment. This requires the state to negotiate adequately between goals of punishment and fulfilment of basic human rights of offenders. The present study is based on a critical analysis of prison healthcare standards in India, which include government policies and guidelines. It also demonstrates how healthcare is delivered by drawing insights from a primary study conducted in a correctional home in the state of West Bengal, India, which houses both male and female inmates. Forty women were interviewed through semi-structured interviews, followed by focus group discussions. Doctors and administrative personnel were also interviewed. Findings show how institutional practices control women through subversion of the role of doctors to prison administration. Also, poor healthcare infrastructure, unavailability of specialized services, hierarchies between personnel and inmates make prisons unlikely sites for therapeutic intervention. The paper further discusses how institutional practices foster gender-based discriminatory practices.

Keywords: Imprisonment, imprisoned women, prison healthcare, prison policies.

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Authors: Juliana A. Knocikova, Yann Bouret, Médéric Argentina, Laurent Counillon

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Cell volume, together with membrane potential and intracellular hydrogen ion concentration, is an essential biophysical parameter for normal cellular activity. Cell volumes can be altered by osmotically active compounds and extracellular tonicity. In this study, a simple mathematical model of osmotically induced cell swelling and shrinking is presented. Emphasis is given to water diffusion across the membrane. The mathematical description of the cellular behavior consists in a system of coupled ordinary differential equations. We compare experimental data of cell volume alterations driven by differences in osmotic pressure with mathematical simulations under hypotonic and hypertonic conditions. Implications for a future model are also discussed.

Keywords: Eukaryotic cell, mathematical modeling, osmosis, volume alterations.

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Authors: Amina Amirat, Abdelfettah Bouri

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If price and quantity are the fundamental building blocks of any theory of market interactions, the importance of trading volume in understanding the behavior of financial markets is clear. However, while many economic models of financial markets have been developed to explain the behavior of prices -predictability, variability, and information content- far less attention has been devoted to explaining the behavior of trading volume. In this article, we hope to expand our understanding of trading volume by developing a new measure of herding behavior based on a cross sectional dispersion of volumes betas. We apply our measure to the Toronto stock exchange using monthly data from January 2000 to December 2002. Our findings show that the herd phenomenon consists of three essential components: stationary herding, intentional herding and the feedback herding.

Keywords: Herding behavior, market return, trading volume.

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Authors: Oluyemi O. Awolusi, Abimbola M. Enitan, Sheena Kumari, Faizal Bux

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Nitrification is essential to biological processes designed to remove ammonia and/or total nitrogen. It removes excess nitrogenous compound in wastewater which could be very toxic to the aquatic fauna or cause serious imbalance of such aquatic ecosystem. Efficient nitrification is linked to an in-depth knowledge of the structure and dynamics of the nitrifying community structure within the wastewater treatment systems. In this study, molecular technique was employed for characterizing the microbial structure of activated sludge [ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB)] in a municipal wastewater treatment with intention of linking it to the plant efficiency. PCR based phylogenetic analysis was also carried out. The average operating and environmental parameters as well as specific nitrification rate of plant was investigated during the study. During the investigation the average temperature was 23±1.5oC. Other operational parameters such as mixed liquor suspended solids and chemical oxygen demand inversely correlated with ammonia removal. The dissolved oxygen level in the plant was constantly lower than the optimum (between 0.24 and 1.267 mg/l) during this study. The plant was treating wastewater with influent ammonia concentration of 31.69 and 24.47 mg/L. The influent flow rates (ML/Day) was 96.81 during period. The dominant nitrifiers include: Nitrosomonas spp. Nitrobacter spp. and Nitrospira spp. The AOB had correlation with nitrification efficiency and temperature. This study shows that the specific ammonia oxidizing rate and the specific nitrate formation rates can serve as good indicator of the plant overall nitrification performance.

Keywords: Ammonia monooxygenase α-subunit (amoA) gene, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), specific nitrification rate, PCR.

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

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The activation volume of 6082T6 aluminum is investigated at different temperatures for grain size variants. The deformation activation volume was computed on the basis of the relationship between the Boltzmann’s constant k, the testing temperatures, the material strain rate sensitivity and the material yield stress grain size variants. The material strain rate sensitivity is computed as a function of yield stress and strain rate grain size variants. The effect of the material strain rate sensitivity and the deformation activation volume of 6082T6 aluminum at different temperatures of 3-D grain are discussed. It is shown that the strain rate sensitivities and activation volume are negative for the grain size variants during the deformation of nanostructured materials. It is also observed that the activation volume vary in different ways with the equivalent radius, semi minor axis radius, semi major axis radius and major axis radius. From the obtained results it is shown that the variation of activation volume increase and decrease with the testing temperature. It was revealed that, increase in strain rate sensitivity led to decrease in activation volume whereas increase in activation volume led to decrease in strain rate sensitivity.

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

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Authors: M. Z. Bin Mohd Ghazali, N. C. Wilson, A. F. Bin Ahmad Fuad, M. A. H. B. Musa, M. U. Mohamad Sani, F. Zulkifli, M. S. Zainal Abidin

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Physical activity levels are low in Malaysia and this study was undertaken to determine if a four week work-based intervention program would be effective in changing physical activity levels. The study was conducted in a Malaysian Government Department and had three stages: baseline data collection, four-week intervention and two-month post intervention data collection. During the intervention and two-month post intervention phases, physical activity levels (determined by a pedometer) and basic health profiles (BMI, abdominal obesity, blood pressure) were measured. Staff (58 males, 47 females) with an average age of 33 years completed baseline data collection. Pedometer steps averaged 7,102 steps/day at baseline, although male step counts were significantly higher than females (7,861 vs. 6114). Health profiles were poor: over 50% were overweight/obese (males 66%, females 40%); hypertension (males 23%, females 6%); excess waist circumference (males 52%, females 17%). While 86 staff participated in the intervention, only 49 regularly reported their steps. There was a significant increase (17%) in average daily steps from 8,965 (week 1) to 10,436 (week 4). Unfortunately, participation in the intervention program was avoided by the less healthy staff. Two months after the intervention there was no significant difference in average steps/day, despite the fact that 89% of staff reporting they planned to make long-term changes to their lifestyle. An unexpected average increase of 2kg in body weight occurred in participants, although this was less than the 5.6kg in non-participants. A number of recommendations are made for future interventions, including the conclusion that pedometers were a useful tool and popular with participants.

Keywords: Pedometers, walking, health, intervention.

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Authors: S. S. Awanti, Aravindakumar B. Harwalkar

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Concrete construction in future has to be environmental friendly apart from being safe so that society at large is benefited by the huge investments made in the infrastructure projects. To achieve this, component materials of the concrete system have to be optimized with reference to sustainability. This paper presents a study on development of mix proportions of high volume fly ash concrete (HFC). A series of HFC mixtures with cement replacement levels varying between 50% and 65% were prepared with water/binder ratios of 0.3 and 0.35. Compressive strength values were obtained at different ages. From the experimental results, pozzolanic efficiency ratios and mix design curves for HFC were established.

Keywords: Age factor, compressive strength, high volume fly ash concrete, pozzolanic efficiency ratio.

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Authors: Henry Munoz, Muhammad Mohsan, Takashi Kiyota

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Strength and deformability characteristics of a liquefiable sand deposit including the development of earthquake-induced shear stress and shear strain as well as soil softening via the progressive degradation of shear modulus were studied via shaking table experiments. To do so, a model of a liquefiable sand deposit was constructed and densely instrumented where accelerations, pressures, and displacements at different locations were continuously monitored. Furthermore, the confinement effects on the strength and deformation characteristics of the liquefiable sand deposit due to an external surcharge by placing a heavy concrete slab (i.e. the model of an actual structural rigid pavement) on the ground surface were examined. The results indicate that as the number of seismic-loading cycles increases, the sand deposit softens progressively as large shear strains take place in different sand elements. Liquefaction state is reached after the combined effects of the progressive degradation of the initial shear modulus associated with the continuous decrease in the mean principal stress, and the buildup of the excess of pore pressure takes place in the sand deposit. Finally, the confinement effects given by a concrete slab placed on the surface of the sand deposit resulted in a favorable increasing in the initial shear modulus, an increase in the mean principal stress and a decrease in the softening rate (i.e. the decreasing rate in shear modulus) of the sand, thus making the onset of liquefaction to take place at a later stage. This is, only after the sand deposit having a concrete slab experienced a higher number of seismic loading cycles liquefaction took place, in contrast to an ordinary sand deposit having no concrete slab.

Keywords: Liquefaction, shaking table, shear modulus degradation, earthquake.

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Authors: Samah Jawad Jabari

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Water is the most important and valuable resource not only for human life but also for all living things on the planet. The water supply utilities should fulfill the water requirement quantitatively and qualitatively. Drinking water systems are exposed to both natural (hurricanes and flood) and manmade hazards (risks) that are common in Palestine. Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is a manmade risk which remains a major concern in Palestine, as the NRW levels are estimated to be at a high level. In this research, Hebron city water distribution network was taken as a case study to estimate and audit the NRW levels. The research also investigated the state of the existing water distribution system in the study area by investigating the water losses and obtained more information on NRW prevention and management practices. Data and information have been collected from the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and Hebron Municipality (HM) archive. In addition to that, a questionnaire has been designed and administered by the researcher in order to collect the necessary data for water auditing. The questionnaire also assessed the views of stakeholder in PWA and HM (staff) on the current status of the NRW in the Hebron water distribution system. The important result obtained by this research shows that NRW in Hebron city was high and in excess of 30%. The main factors that contribute to NRW were the inaccuracies in billing volumes, unauthorized consumption, and the method of estimating consumptions through faulty meters. Policy for NRW reduction is available in Palestine; however, it is clear that the number of qualified staff available to carry out the activities related to leak detection is low, and that there is a lack of appropriate technologies to reduce water losses and undertake sufficient system maintenance, which needs to be improved to enhance the performance of the network and decrease the level of NRW losses.

Keywords: Non-revenue water, water auditing, leak detection, water meters.

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Authors: El-Said. I. Shabana, Mohammad S. Tayeb, Maher M. T. Qutub, Abdulraheem A. Kinsara

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Usually, phosphate deposits contain ²³⁸U and ²³²Th in addition to their decay products. Due to their different pathways in the environment, the ²³⁸U/²³²Th activity concentration ratio usually found to be greater than unity in phosphate sediments. The presence of these radionuclides creates a potential need to control exposure of workers in the mining and processing activities of the phosphate minerals in accordance with IAEA safety standards. The greatest dose to workers comes from exposure to radon, especially ²²²Rn from the uranium series, and has to be controlled. In this regard, radon (²²²Rn) was measured in the atmosphere (indoor and outdoor) of Al-Jalamid phosphate-mines working area using a portable radon-measurement instrument RAD7, in a purpose of radiation protection. Radon was measured in 61 sites inside the open phosphate mines, the phosphate upgrading facility (offices and rooms of the workers, and in some open-air sites) and in the dwellings of the workers residence-village that lies at about 3 km from the mines working area. The obtained results indicated that the average indoor radon concentration was about 48.4 Bq/m³. Inside the upgrading facility, the average outdoor concentrations were 10.8 and 9.7 Bq/m³ in the concentrate piles and crushing areas, respectively. It was 12.3 Bq/m³ in the atmosphere of the open mines. These values are comparable with the global average values. Based on the average values, the annual effective dose due to radon inhalation was calculated and risk estimates have been done. The average annual effective dose to workers due to the radon inhalation was estimated by 1.32 mSv. The potential excess risk of lung cancer mortality that could be attributed to radon, when considering the lifetime exposure, was estimated by 53.0x10^-4. The results have been discussed in detail.

Keywords: Dosimetry, environmental monitoring, phosphate deposits, radiation protection, radon-22.

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Authors: Keisuke Konishi, Yoshinari Hiroshiro, Kento Terashima, Atsushi Tsutsumi

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Imazu Bay plays an important role for endangered species such as horseshoe crabs and black-faced spoonbills that stay in the bay for spawning or the passing of winter. However, this bay is semi-enclosed with slow water exchange, which could lead to eutrophication under the condition of excess nutrient inflow to the bay. Therefore, quantification of nutrient inflow is of great importance. Generally, analysis of nutrient inflow to the bays takes into consideration nutrient inflow from only the river, but that from groundwater should not be ignored for more accurate results. The main objective of this study is to estimate the amounts of nutrient inflow from river and groundwater to Imazu Bay by analyzing water budget in Zuibaiji River Basin and loads of T-N, T-P, NO3-N and NH4-N. The water budget computation in the basin is performed using groundwater recharge model and quasi three-dimensional two-phase groundwater flow model, and the multiplication of the measured amount of nutrient inflow with the computed discharge gives the total amount of nutrient inflow to the bay. In addition, in order to evaluate nutrient inflow to the bay, the result is compared with nutrient inflow from geologically similar river basins. The result shows that the discharge is 3.50×107 m3/year from the river and 1.04×107 m3/year from groundwater. The submarine groundwater discharge accounts for approximately 23 % of the total discharge, which is large compared to the other river basins. It is also revealed that the total nutrient inflow is not particularly large. The sum of NO3-N and NH4-N loadings from groundwater is less than 10 % of that from the river because of denitrification in groundwater. The Shin Seibu Sewage Treatment Plant located below the observation points discharges treated water of 15,400 m3/day and plans to increase it. However, the loads of T-N and T-P from the treatment plant are 3.9 mg/L and 0.19 mg/L, so that it does not contribute a lot to eutrophication.

Keywords: Eutrophication, groundwater recharge model, nutrient inflow, quasi three-dimensional two-phase groundwater flow model, Submarine groundwater discharge.

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Authors: Fernando Seabra, Giulia P. Flores, Karolina C. Gomes

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Trade liberalizations measures, as import tariff cuts, are not a sufficient trigger for trade growth. Given that price margins are narrow, traders and cargo operators tend to opt out of markets where the process of goods clearance is slow and costly. Excess paperwork and slow customs dispatch not only lead to institutional breakdowns and corruption but also to increasing transaction cost and trade constraints. The objective of this paper is, therefore, two-fold: First, to evaluate the relationship between institutional and infrastructural performance indexes and trade growth in container throughput; and, second, to investigate the causes for differences in container demurrage and detention fees in Latin American countries (using other emerging countries as benchmarking). The analysis is focused on manufactured goods, typically transported by containers. Institutional and infrastructure bottlenecks and, therefore, the country logistics efficiency – measured by the Logistics Performance Index (LPI, World Bank-WB) – are compared with other indexes, such as the Doing Business index (WB) and the Corruption Perception Index (Transparency International). The main results based on the comparison between Latin American countries and the others emerging countries point out in that the growth in containers trade is directly related to LPI performance. It has also been found that the main hypothesis is valid as aspects that more specifically identify trade facilitation and corruption are significant drivers of logistics performance. The exam of port efficiency (demurrage and detention fees) has demonstrated that not necessarily higher level of efficiency is related to lower charges; however, reductions in fees have been more significant within non-Latin American emerging countries.

Keywords: Container throughput, logistics performance, corruption, Latin America.

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Authors: A. Ashok, K.Satapathy, B. Prerana Nashine

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The objective of this research work is to investigate for one dimensional transient radiative transfer equations with conduction using finite volume method. Within the infrastructure of finite-volume, we obtain the conservative discretization of the terms in order to preserve the overall conservative property of finitevolume schemes. Coupling of conductive and radiative equation resulting in fluxes is governed by the magnitude of emissivity, extinction coefficient, and temperature of the medium as well as geometry of the problem. The problem under consideration has been solved, for a slab dominating radiation coupled with transient conduction based on finite volume method. The boundary conditions are also chosen so as to give a good model of the discretized form of radiation transfer equation. The important feature of the present method is flexibility in specifying the control angles in the FVM, while keeping the simplicity in the solution procedure. Effects of various model parameters are examined on the distributions of temperature, radiative and conductive heat fluxes and incident radiation energy etc. The finite volume method is considered to effectively evaluate the propagation of radiation intensity through a participating medium.

Keywords: Radiative transfer equation, finite volume method, conduction, transient radiation.

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Authors: Prasad Senadheera, Younousse Saidi, Frans JM Maathuis

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Rice seed expression (cDNA) library in the Lambda Zap 11® phage constructed from the developing grain 10-20 days after flowering was transformed into yeast for functional complementation assays in three salt sensitive yeast mutants S. cerevisiae strain CY162, G19 and Axt3K. Transformed cells of G19 and Axt3K with pYES vector with cDNA inserts showed enhance tolerance than those with empty pYes vector. Sequencing of the cDNA inserts revealed that they encode for the putative proteins with the sequence homologous to rice putative protein PROLM24 (Os06g31070), a prolamin precursor. Expression of this cDNA did not affect yeast growth in absence of salt. Axt3k and G19 strains expressing the PROLM24 were able to grow upto 400 mM and 600 mM of NaCl respectively. Similarly, Axt3k mutant with PROLM24 expression showed comparatively higher growth rate in the medium with excess LiCl (50 mM). The observation that expression of PROLM24 rescued the salt sensitive phenotypes of G19 and Axt3k indicates the existence of a regulatory system that ameliorates the effect of salt stress in the transformed yeast mutants. However, the exact function of the cDNA sequence, which shows partial sequence homology to yeast UTR1 is not clear. Although UTR1 involved in ferrous uptake and iron homeostasis in yeast cells, there is no evidence to prove its role in Na+ homeostasis in yeast cells. Absence of transmembrane regions in Os06g31070 protein indicates that salt tolerance is achieved not through the direct functional complementation of the mutant genes but through an alternative mechanism.

Keywords: Rice seed expression, salt stress, prolamin, salinitytolerance, Oryza sativa

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