Search results for: laboratory test

Authors: E. Soboleva, E. Sergachyova, S. G. Davydenko, T. V. Meledina

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Problem of food preservation is extremely important for mankind. Viscous damage ("illness") of bread results from development of Bacillus spp. bacteria. High temperature resistant spores of this microorganism are steady against 120°C) and remain in bread during pastries, potentially causing spoilage of the final product. Scientists are interested in further characterization of bread spoiling Bacillus spp. species. Our aim was to find weather yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that are able to produce natural antimicrobial killer factor can preserve bread illness. By diffusion method, we showed yeast antagonistic activity against spore-forming bacteria. Experimental technological parameters were the same as for bakers' yeasts production on the industrial scale. Risograph test during dough fermentation demonstrated gas production. The major finding of the study was a clear indication of the presence of killer yeast strain antagonistic activity against rope in bread causing bacteria. After demonstrating antagonistic effect of S. cerevisiae on bacteria using solid nutrient medium, we tested baked bread under provocative conditions. We also measured formation of carbon dioxide in the dough, dough-making duration and quality of the final products, when using different strains of S. cerevisiae. It is determined that the use of yeast S. cerevisiae RCAM 01730 killer strain inhibits appearance of rope in bread. Thus, natural yeast antimicrobial killer toxin, produced by some S. cerevisiae strains is an anti-rope in bread protector.

Keywords: Bakers' yeasts, rope in bread, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

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Authors: Mi Sook Lee

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The number of the companies accepting RFID in Korea has been increased continuously due to the domestic development of information technology. The acceptance of RFID by companies in Korea enabled them to do business with many global enterprises in a much more efficient and effective way. According to a survey[33, p76], many companies in Korea have used RFID for inventory or distribution manages. But, the use of RFID in the companies in Korea is in the early stages and its potential value hasn-t fully been realized yet. At this time, it would be very important to investigate the factors that affect RFID acceptance. For this study, many previous studies were referenced and some RFID experts were interviewed. Through the pilot test, four factors were selected - Security Trust, Employee Knowledge, Partner Influence, Service Provider Trust - affecting RFID acceptance and an extended technology acceptance model(e-TAM) was presented with those factors. The proposed model was empirically tested using data collected from employees in companies or public enterprises. In order to analyze some relationships between exogenous variables and four variables in TAM, structural equation modeling(SEM) was developed and SPSS12.0 and AMOS 7.0 were used for analyses. The results are summarized as follows: 1) security trust perceived by employees positively influences on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use; 2) employee-s knowledge on RFID positively influences on only perceived ease of use; 3) a partner-s influence for RFID acceptance positively influences on only perceived usefulness; 4) service provider trust very positively influences on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use 5) the relationships between TAM variables are the same as the previous studies.

Keywords: RFID, TAM, Security Trust, Employee Knowledge, Partner Influence, Service Provider Trust.

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Authors: Guarry Montrose, Ted Soubdhan

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In the fight against climate change, the energy consuming building sector must also be taken into account to solve this problem. In this case thermal insulation of buildings using bio-based materials is an interesting solution. Therefore, the thermal performance of some materials of this type has been studied. The advantages of these natural materials of plant origin are multiple, biodegradable, low economic cost, renewable and readily available. The use of biobased materials is widespread in the building sector in order to replace conventional insulation materials with natural materials. Vegetable fibers are very important because they have good thermal behaviour and good insulating properties. The aim of using bio-sourced materials is in line with the logic of energy control and environmental protection, the approach is to make the inhabitants of the houses comfortable and reduce their energy consumption (energy efficiency). In this research we will present the results of studies carried out on the thermal conductivity of banana leaves, latan leaves, vetivers fibers, palm kernel fibers, sargassum, coconut leaves, sawdust and bulk sugarcane leaves. The study on thermal conductivity was carried out in two ways, on the one hand using the flash method, and on the other hand a so-called hot box experiment was carried out. We will discuss and highlight a number of influential factors such as moisture and air pockets present in the samples on the thermophysical properties of these materials, in particular thermal conductivity. Finally, the result of a thermal performance test of banana leaves on a roof in Haiti will also be presented in this work.

Keywords: Buildings, insulating properties, natural materials of plant origin, thermal performance.

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Authors: P. Thepnarintra, S. Nikorn

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Agricultural machinery industry plays an important role in the industrial development especially the production industry of the country. There has been continuing development responding to the higher demand of the production. However, the problem in agricultural machinery production still exists. Thus, the purpose of this research is to investigate problems on fundamental factors of industry based on the entrepreneurs’ point of view. The focus was on the small and medium size industry receiving factory license type number 0660 from the Department of Industrial Works. The investigation was on the comparison between the management of the small and medium size agricultural industry in 3 provinces in the central region of Thailand. Population in this study consisted of 189 company managers or managing directors, of which 101 were from the small size and 88 were from the medium size industry. The data were analyzed to find percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation with independent sample T-test at the statistical significance .05. The results showed that the small and medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers in the central region of Thailand reported high problems in every aspect. When compared the problems on basic factors in running the business, it was found that there was no statistically difference at .05 in managing of the small and medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the small and medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers on the aspect of policy and services of the government. The problems reported by the small and medium size agricultural machinery manufacturers were the services on public tap water and the problem on politic and stability of the country.

Keywords: Agricultural machinery, manufacturers, problems, on running the business.

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Authors: M. P. Valles-González, A. González Meije, A. Pastor Muro, M. García-Martínez, B. González Caballero

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This paper studies a failure case of a fuel pressure supply tube from an aircraft engine. Multiple fracture cases of the fuel pressure control tube from aircraft engines have been reported. The studied set was composed by the mentioned tube, a welded connecting pipe, where the fracture has been produced, and a union nut. The fracture has been produced in one of the most critical zones of the tube, in a region next to the supporting body of the union nut to the connector. The tube material was X6CrNiTi18-10, an austenitic stainless steel. Chemical composition was determined using an X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) and combustion equipment. Furthermore, the material was characterized mechanically, by a hardness test, and microstructurally using a stereo microscope and an optical microscope. The results confirmed that the material was within specifications. To determine the macrofractographic features, a visual examination and an observation using a stereo microscope of the tube fracture surface were carried out. The results revealed a tube plastic macrodeformation, surface damaged and signs of a possible corrosion process. Fracture surface was also inspected by scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis system (EDX), to determine the microfractographic features in order to find out the failure mechanism involved in the fracture. Fatigue striations, which are typical from a progressive fracture by a fatigue mechanism, were observed. The origin of the fracture was placed in defects located on the outer wall of the tube, leading to a final overload fracture.

Keywords: Aircraft Engine, microstructure, fatigue, FE-SEM, fractography, fracture, fuel tube, stainless steel.

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Authors: Bülent Dilmaç, Didem Aydoğan

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The use of new technologies such internet (e-mail, chat rooms) and cell phones has steeply increased in recent years. Especially among children and young people, use of technological tools and equipments is widespread. Although many teachers and administrators now recognize the problem of school bullying, few are aware that students are being harassed through electronic communication. Referred to as electronic bullying, cyber bullying, or online social cruelty, this phenomenon includes bullying through email, instant messaging, in a chat room, on a website, or through digital messages or images sent to a cell phone. Cyber bullying is defined as causing deliberate/intentional harm to others using internet or other digital technologies. It has a quantitative research design nd uses relational survey as its method. The participants consisted of 300 secondary school students in the city of Konya, Turkey. 195 (64.8%) participants were female and 105 (35.2%) were male. 39 (13%) students were at grade 1, 187 (62.1%) were at grade 2 and 74 (24.6%) were at grade 3. The “Cyber Bullying Question List" developed by Ar─▒cak (2009) was given to students. Following questions about demographics, a functional definition of cyber bullying was provided. In order to specify students- human values, “Human Values Scale (HVS)" developed by Dilmaç (2007) for secondary school students was administered. The scale consists of 42 items in six dimensions. Data analysis was conducted by the primary investigator of the study using SPSS 14.00 statistical analysis software. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the analysis of students- cyber bullying behaviour and simple regression analysis was conducted in order to test whether each value in the scale could explain cyber bullying behaviour.

Keywords: Cyber bullying, Values, Secondary SchoolStudents

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Authors: J. Bernasovska, I. Boronova, J. Poracova, M. Mydlarova Blascakova, V. Szabadosova, P. Ruzbarsky, E. Petrejcikova, I. Bernasovsky

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The paper presents the results of the molecular genetics analysis in sports research, with special emphasis to use genetic information in diagnosing of motoric predispositions in Roma boys from East Slovakia. The ability and move are the basic characteristics of all living organisms. The phenotypes are influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Genetic tests differ in principle from the traditional motoric tests, because the DNA of an individual does not change during life. The aim of the presented study was to examine motion abilities and to determine the frequency of ACTN3 (R577X) gene in Roma children. Genotype data were obtained from 138 Roma and 155 Slovak boys from 7 to 15 years old. Children were investigated on physical performance level in association with their genotype. Biological material for genetic analyses comprised samples of buccal swabs. Genotypes were determined using Real Time High resolution melting PCR method (Rotor-Gene 6000 Corbett and Light Cycler 480 Roche). The software allows creating reports of any analysis, where information of the specific analysis, normalized and differential graphs and many information of the samples are shown. Roma children of analyzed group legged to non-Romany children at the same age in all the compared tests. The % distribution of R and X alleles in Roma children was different from controls. The frequency of XX genotype was 9.26%, RX 46.33% and RR was 44.41%. The frequency of XX genotype was 9.26% which is comparable to a frequency of an Indian population. Data were analyzed with the ANOVA test.

Keywords: ACTN3 gene, R577X polymorphism, Roma children, Slovakia, sports performance.

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Authors: Eun Mi Ryu, Ah Young An, Ji Yeon Kang, Yeong Soo Shin, Hee Sun Kim

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When high strength reinforced concrete is exposed to high temperature due to a fire, deteriorations occur such as loss in strength and elastic modulus, cracking and spalling of the concrete. Therefore, it is important to understand risk of structural safety in building structures by studying structural behaviors and rehabilitation of fire damaged high strength concrete structures. This paper aims at investigating rehabilitation effect on fire damaged high strength concrete beams using experimental and analytical methods. In the experiments, flexural specimens with high strength concrete are exposed to high temperatures according to ISO 834 standard time temperature curve. From four-point loading test, results show that maximum loads of the rehabilitated beams are similar to or higher than those of the non-fire damaged RC beam. In addition, structural analyses are performed using ABAQUS 6.10-3 with same conditions as experiments to provide accurate predictions on structural and mechanical behaviors of rehabilitated RC beams. The parameters are the fire cover thickness and strengths of repairing mortar. Analytical results show good rehabilitation effects, when the results predicted from the rehabilitated models are compared to structural behaviors of the non-damaged RC beams. In this study, fire damaged high strength concrete beams are rehabilitated using polymeric cement mortar. The predictions from the finite element (FE) models show good agreements with the experimental results and the modeling approaches can be used to investigate applicability of various rehabilitation methods for further study.

Keywords: Fire, High strength concrete, Rehabilitation, Reinforced concrete beam.

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Authors: Nardine El Bardisy, Wolf Reuter, Ayat Ismail

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In Egypt, there is continuous housing demand as a result of rapid population growth. In 1979, this forced the government to establish new urban communities in order to decrease stress around delta. New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) was formulated to take the responsibly of this new policy. These communities suffer from social life deficiency due to their typology, which is separated island with barriers. New urban communities’ typology results from the influence of neoliberalism movement and modern city planning forms. The lack of social interaction in these communities at present should be enhanced in the future. On a global perspective, sustainable development calls for creating more sustainable communities which include social, economic and environmental aspects. From 1960, planners were highly focusing on the promotion of the social dimension in urban development plans. The research hypothesis states: “It is possible to promote social interaction in new urban communities through a set of socio-spatial recommended strategies that are tailored for Greater Cairo Region context”. In order to test this hypothesis, the case of El-Sherouk city is selected, which represents the typical NUCA development plans. Social interaction indicators were derived from literature and used to explore different social dynamics in the selected case. The tools used for exploring case study are online questionnaires, face to face questionnaires, interviews, and observations. These investigations were analyzed, conclusions and recommendations were set to improve social interaction.

Keywords: New urban communities, modern planning, social Interaction, Social life.

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Authors: Jailan Mohamed El Demerdash

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Millennials are a distinctive and dominant consumer group whose behavior, preferences and purchase decisions are broadly explored but not fully understood yet. Making up the largest market segment in the world, and in Egypt, they have the power to reinvent the hospitality industry and contribute to forming prospective demand for green hotels by showing willingness to adopting their environmental-friendly practices. The current study aims to enhance better understanding of Millennials' perception about sustainable initiatives and to increase the prediction power of their intentions regarding green hotel practices in Egypt. In doing so, the study is exploring the relation among different factors; Millennials' environmental awareness, their acceptance of green practices and their willingness to pay more for them. Millennials' profile, their preferences and environmental decision-making process are brought under light to stimulate actions of hospitality decision-makers and hoteliers. Bearing in mind that responsible consumerism is depending on understanding the different influences on consumption. The study questionnaire was composed of four sections and it was distributed to random Egyptian travelers' blogs and Facebook groups, with approximately 8000 members. Analysis of variance test (ANOVA) was used to examine the study variables. The findings indicated that Millennials' environmental awareness will not be a significant factor in their acceptance of hotel green practices, as well as, their willingness to pay more for them. However, Millennials' acceptance of the level of hotel green practices will have an impact on their willingness to pay more. Millennials were found to have a noticeable level of environmental awareness but lack commitment to tolerating hotel green practices and their associated high prices.

Keywords: Millennials, environment, awareness, green practices, paying more, Egypt.

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Authors: Ek-Uma Imkome, Jintana Yunibhand, Waraporn Chaiyawat

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Background: Persons with schizophrenia patient and misusing methamphetamines suffering from social dysfunction that impact on their quality of life. Knowledge of factors related to social dysfunction will guide the effective intervention. Objectives: To determine the direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of an acerbate Psychotics’ Symptoms, Social Support, Stressful life events, Medication use self-efficacy impact on social dysfunction in Thai schizophrenic patient and methamphetamine misuse. Methods: Data were collected from schizophrenic and methamphetamine misuse patient by self report. A linear structural relationship was used to test the hypothesized path model. Results: The hypothesized model was found to fit the empirical data and explained 54% of the variance of the psychotic symptoms (X² = 114.35, df = 92, p-value = 0.05, X² /df = 1.24, GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.92, CFI = 1.00, NFI = 0.99, NNFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.02). The highest total effect on social dysfunction was psychotic symptoms (0.67, p<0.05). Medication use self-efficacy had a direct effect on psychotic symptoms (-0.25, p<0.01), and social support had direct effect on medication use self efficacy (0.36, p <0.01). Conclusions: Psychotic symptoms and stressful life events were the significance factors that influenced direct on social dysfunctioning. Therefore, interventions that are designed to manage these factors are crucial in order to enhance social functioning in this population.

Keywords: Psychotic symptoms, methamphetamine, schizophrenia, stressful life events, social dysfunction, social support, medication use self-efficacy.

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Authors: Alia Alghosoun, Ashraf Osman, Mohammed Seaid

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A coupled two-layer finite volume/finite element method was proposed for solving dam-break flow problem over deformable beds. The governing equations consist of the well-balanced two-layer shallow water equations for the water flow and a linear elastic model for the bed deformations. Deformations in the topography can be caused by a brutal localized force or simply by a class of sliding displacements on the bathymetry. This deformation in the bed is a source of perturbations, on the water surface generating water waves which propagate with different amplitudes and frequencies. Coupling conditions at the interface are also investigated in the current study and two mesh procedure is proposed for the transfer of information through the interface. In the present work a new procedure is implemented at the soil-water interface using the finite element and two-layer finite volume meshes with a conservative distribution of the forces at their intersections. The finite element method employs quadratic elements in an unstructured triangular mesh and the finite volume method uses the Rusanove to reconstruct the numerical fluxes. The numerical coupled method is highly efficient, accurate, well balanced, and it can handle complex geometries as well as rapidly varying flows. Numerical results are presented for several test examples of dam-break flows over deformable beds. Mesh convergence study is performed for both methods, the overall model provides new insight into the problems at minimal computational cost.

Keywords: Dam-break flows, deformable beds, finite element method, finite volume method, linear elasticity, Shallow water equations.

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Authors: Jameela Ali Alkrimi, Hamid A. Jalab, Loay E. George, Abdul Rahim Ahmad, Azizah Suliman, Karim Al-Jashamy

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Red blood cells (RBC) are the most common types of blood cells and are the most intensively studied in cell biology. The lack of RBCs is a condition in which the amount of hemoglobin level is lower than normal and is referred to as “anemia”. Abnormalities in RBCs will affect the exchange of oxygen. This paper presents a comparative study for various techniques for classifying the RBCs as normal or abnormal (anemic) using WEKA. WEKA is an open source consists of different machine learning algorithms for data mining applications. The algorithms tested are Radial Basis Function neural network, Support vector machine, and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm. Two sets of combined features were utilized for classification of blood cells images. The first set, exclusively consist of geometrical features, was used to identify whether the tested blood cell has a spherical shape or non-spherical cells. While the second set, consist mainly of textural features was used to recognize the types of the spherical cells. We have provided an evaluation based on applying these classification methods to our RBCs image dataset which were obtained from Serdang Hospital - Malaysia, and measuring the accuracy of test results. The best achieved classification rates are 97%, 98%, and 79% for Support vector machines, Radial Basis Function neural network, and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm respectively.

Keywords: K-Nearest Neighbors, Neural Network, Radial Basis Function, Red blood cells, Support vector machine.

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Authors: Ali Shubbar, Hassnen M. Jafer, Anmar Dulaimi, William Atherton, Ali Al-Rifaie

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This research represents experimental work for investigation of the influence of utilising Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) and High Calcium Fly Ash (HCFA) as a partial replacement for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and produce a low carbon cementitious material with comparable compressive strength to OPC. Firstly, GGBS was used as a partial replacement to OPC to produce a binary blended cementitious material (BBCM); the replacements were 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50% by the dry mass of OPC. The optimum BBCM was mixed with HCFA to produce a ternary blended cementitious material (TBCM). The replacements were 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50% by the dry mass of BBCM. The compressive strength at ages of 7 and 28 days was utilised for assessing the performance of the test specimens in comparison to the reference mixture using 100% OPC as a binder. The results showed that the optimum BBCM was the mix produced from 25% GGBS and 75% OPC with compressive strength of 32.2 MPa at the age of 28 days. In addition, the results of the TBCM have shown that the addition of 10, 15, 20 and 25% of HCFA to the optimum BBCM improved the compressive strength by 22.7, 11.3, 5.2 and 2.1% respectively at 28 days. However, the replacement of optimum BBCM with more than 25% HCFA have showed a gradual drop in the compressive strength in comparison to the control mix. TBCM with 25% HCFA was considered to be the optimum as it showed better compressive strength than the control mix and at the same time reduced the amount of cement to 56%. Reducing the cement content to 56% will contribute to decrease the cost of construction materials, provide better compressive strength and also reduce the CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere.

Keywords: Cementitious material, compressive strength, GGBS, HCFA, OPC.

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Authors: Anamika Jain, A. S. Thoke, R. N. Patel

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This paper addresses the problems encountered by conventional distance relays when protecting double-circuit transmission lines. The problems arise principally as a result of the mutual coupling between the two circuits under different fault conditions; this mutual coupling is highly nonlinear in nature. An adaptive protection scheme is proposed for such lines based on application of artificial neural network (ANN). ANN has the ability to classify the nonlinear relationship between measured signals by identifying different patterns of the associated signals. One of the key points of the present work is that only current signals measured at local end have been used to detect and classify the faults in the double circuit transmission line with double end infeed. The adaptive protection scheme is tested under a specific fault type, but varying fault location, fault resistance, fault inception angle and with remote end infeed. An improved performance is experienced once the neural network is trained adequately, which performs precisely when faced with different system parameters and conditions. The entire test results clearly show that the fault is detected and classified within a quarter cycle; thus the proposed adaptive protection technique is well suited for double circuit transmission line fault detection & classification. Results of performance studies show that the proposed neural network-based module can improve the performance of conventional fault selection algorithms.

Keywords: Double circuit transmission line, Fault detection and classification, High impedance fault and Artificial Neural Network.

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Authors: Talal S. Abdullah, Shahin Mehraban, Geraint Lodwig, Nicholas P. Lavery

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The defining property of Interstitial Free (IF) steels is formability, comprehensively measured using the Lankford coefficient (r-value) on uniaxial tensile test data. The contributing factors supporting this feature are grain size, orientation, and elemental additions. The processes that effectively modulate these factors are the casting procedure, hot rolling, and heat treatment. An existing methodology is well-practised in the steel industry; however, large-scale production and experimentation consume significant proportions of time, money, and material. Introducing small-scale rapid alloy prototyping (RAP) as an alternative process would considerably reduce the drawbacks relative to standard practices. The aim is to finetune the existing fundamental procedures implemented in the industrial plant to adapt to the RAP route. IF material is remelted in the 80-gram coil induction melting (CIM) glovebox. To birth small grains, maximum deformation must be induced onto the cast material during the hot rolling process. The rolled strip must then satisfy the polycrystalline behaviour of the bulk material by displaying a resemblance in microstructure, hardness, and formability to that of the literature and actual plant steel. A successful outcome of this work is that small-scale RAP can achieve target compositions with similar microstructures and statistically consistent mechanical properties which complements and accelerates the development of novel steel grades.

Keywords: Interstitial free, miniaturized tensile specimen, plastic anisotropy, rapid alloy prototyping.

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Authors: Ying-Chang Yu, Yuan-Lung Lo

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Building ventilation performance is an important indicator of indoor comfort. However, in addition to the geometry of the building or the proportion of the opening, the ventilation performance is also very much related to the actual wind pressure of the building. There are more and more contemporary building designs built with multi-layer exterior envelope. Due to ventilation and view observatory requirement, the porous outer layer of the building is commonly adopted and has a significant wind damping effect, causing the phenomenon of actual wind pressure loss. However, the relationship between the wind damping effect and the actual wind pressure is not linear. This effect can make the indoor ventilation of the building rationalized to reasonable range under the condition of high wind pressure, and also maintain a good amount of ventilation performance under the condition of low wind pressure. In this study, wind tunnel experiments were carried out to simulate the different wind pressures flow through the porous outer layer, and observe the actual wind pressure strength engage with the window layer to find the decreasing relationship between the damping effect of the porous shell and the wind pressure. Experiment specimen scale was designed to be 1:50 for testing real-world building conditions; the study found that the porous enclosure has protective shielding without affecting low-pressure ventilation. Current study observed the porous skin may damp more wind energy to ease the wind pressure under high-speed wind. Differential wind speed may drop the pressure into similar pressure level by using porous skin. The actual mechanism and value of this phenomenon will need further study in the future.

Keywords: Renault number, porous media, wind damping, wind tunnel test, building ventilation.

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Authors: Erfan Niazi, Marianne Fenech

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Red Blood Cells (RBCs) or erythrocytes tend to form chain-like aggregates under low shear rate called rouleaux. This is a reversible process and rouleaux disaggregate in high shear rates. Therefore, RBCs aggregation occurs in the microcirculation where low shear rates are present but does not occur under normal physiological conditions in large arteries. Numerical modeling of RBCs interactions is fundamental in analytical models of a blood flow in microcirculation. Population Balance Modeling (PBM) is particularly useful for studying problems where particles agglomerate and break in a two phase flow systems to find flow characteristics. In this method, the elementary particles lose their individual identity due to continuous destructions and recreations by break-up and agglomeration. The aim of this study is to find RBCs aggregation in a dynamic situation. Simplified PBM was used previously to find the aggregation rate on a static observation of the RBCs aggregation in a drop of blood under the microscope. To find aggregation rate in a dynamic situation we propose an experimental set up testing RBCs sedimentation. In this test, RBCs interact and aggregate to form rouleaux. In this configuration, disaggregation can be neglected due to low shear stress. A high-speed camera is used to acquire video-microscopic pictures of the process. The sizes of the aggregates and velocity of sedimentation are extracted using an image processing techniques. Based on the data collection from 5 healthy human blood samples, the aggregation rate was estimated as 2.7x10³(±0.3 x10³) 1/s.

Keywords: Red blood cell, Rouleaux, microfluidics, image processing, population balance modeling.

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Authors: Lukas Horny, Rudolf Zitny, Hynek Chlup, Tomas Adamek, Michal Sara

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An inflation–extension test with human vena cava inferior was performed with the aim to fit a material model. The vein was modeled as a thick–walled tube loaded by internal pressure and axial force. The material was assumed to be an incompressible hyperelastic fiber reinforced continuum. Fibers are supposed to be arranged in two families of anti–symmetric helices. Considered anisotropy corresponds to local orthotropy. Used strain energy density function was based on a concept of limiting strain extensibility. The pressurization was comprised by four pre–cycles under physiological venous loading (0 – 4kPa) and four cycles under nonphysiological loading (0 – 21kPa). Each overloading cycle was performed with different value of axial weight. Overloading data were used in regression analysis to fit material model. Considered model did not fit experimental data so good. Especially predictions of axial force failed. It was hypothesized that due to nonphysiological values of loading pressure and different values of axial weight the material was not preconditioned enough and some damage occurred inside the wall. A limiting fiber extensibility parameter Jm was assumed to be in relation to supposed damage. Each of overloading cycles was fitted separately with different values of Jm. Other parameters were held the same. This approach turned out to be successful. Variable value of Jm can describe changes in the axial force – axial stretch response and satisfy pressure – radius dependence simultaneously.

Keywords: Constitutive model, damage, fiber reinforcedcomposite, limiting fiber extensibility, preconditioning, vena cavainferior.

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Authors: Lorenzo Casagrande, Antonio Bonati, Ferdinando Auricchio, Antonio Occhiuzzi

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This paper summarizes the results of a survey on smart non-structural element dynamic dissipation when installed in modern high-rise mega-frame prototypes. An innovative glazed curtain wall was designed using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) joints in order to increase the energy dissipation and enhance the seismic/wind response of the structures. The studied buildings consisted of thirty- and sixty-storey planar frames, extracted from reference three-dimensional steel Moment Resisting Frame (MRF) with outriggers and belt trusses. The internal core was composed of a CBF system, whilst outriggers were placed every fifteen stories to limit second order effects and inter-storey drifts. These structural systems were designed in accordance with European rules and numerical FE models were developed with an open-source code, able to account for geometric and material nonlinearities. With regard to the characterization of non-structural building components, full-scale crescendo tests were performed on aluminium/glass curtain wall units at the laboratory of the Construction Technologies Institute (ITC) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), deriving force-displacement curves. Three-dimensional brick-based inelastic FE models were calibrated according to experimental results, simulating the fac¸ade response. Since recent seismic events and extreme dynamic wind loads have generated the large occurrence of non-structural components failure, which causes sensitive economic losses and represents a hazard for pedestrians safety, a more dissipative glazed curtain wall was studied. Taking advantage of the mechanical properties of SMA, advanced smart joints were designed with the aim to enhance both the dynamic performance of the single non-structural unit and the global behavior. Thus, three-dimensional brick-based plastic FE models were produced, based on the innovated non-structural system, simulating the evolution of mechanical degradation in aluminium-to-glass and SMA-to-glass connections when high deformations occurred. Consequently, equivalent nonlinear links were calibrated to reproduce the behavior of both tested and smart designed units, and implemented on the thirty- and sixty-storey structural planar frame FE models. Nonlinear time history analyses (NLTHAs) were performed to quantify the potential of the new system, when considered in the lateral resisting frame system (LRFS) of modern high-rise MRFs. Sensitivity to the structure height was explored comparing the responses of the two prototypes. Trends in global and local performance were discussed to show that, if accurately designed, advanced materials in non-structural elements provide new sources of energy dissipation.

Keywords: Advanced technologies, glazed curtain walls, non-structural elements, seismic-action reduction, shape memory alloy.

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Authors: Michael Zenker, Henrik Prinzhorn, Christian Böning, Tom Strating

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Large-scale products are often assembled according to the job-site principle, meaning that during the assembly the product is located at a fixed position, while the area requirements are constantly changing. On one hand, the product itself is growing with each assembly step, whereas varying areas for storage, machines or working areas are temporarily required. This is an important factor when arranging products to be assembled within the factory. Currently, it is common to reserve a fixed area for each product to avoid overlaps or collisions with the other assemblies. Intending to be large enough to include the product and all adjacent areas, this reserved area corresponds to the superposition of the maximum extents of all required areas of the product. In this procedure, the reserved area is usually poorly utilized over the course of the entire assembly process; instead a large part of it remains unused. If the available area is a limited resource, a systematic arrangement of the products, which complies with the dynamic area requirements, will lead to an increased area utilization and productivity. This paper presents the results of a study on the arrangement of assembly objects assuming dynamic, competing area requirements. First, the problem situation is extensively explained, and existing research on associated topics is described and evaluated on the possibility of an adaptation. Then, a newly developed mathematical optimization model is introduced. This model allows an optimal arrangement of dynamic areas, considering logical and practical constraints. Finally, in order to quantify the potential of the developed method, some test series results are presented, showing the possible increase in area utilization.

Keywords: Dynamic area requirements, facility layout problem, optimization model, product assembly.

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Authors: V. G. Cappellesso, D. M. G. da Silva, J. A. Arndt, N. dos Santos Petry, A. B. Masuero, D. C. C. Dal Molin

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Concrete elements are subject to cracking, which can be an access point for deleterious agents that can trigger pathological manifestations reducing the service life of these structures. Finding ways to minimize or eliminate the effects of this aggressive agents’ penetration, such as the sealing of these cracks, is a manner of contributing to the durability of these structures. The cementitious self-healing phenomenon can be classified in two different processes. The autogenous self-healing that can be defined as a natural process in which the sealing of this cracks occurs without the stimulation of external agents, meaning, without different materials being added to the mixture, while on the other hand, the autonomous seal-healing phenomenon depends on the insertion of a specific engineered material added to the cement matrix in order to promote its recovery. This work aims to evaluate the autogenous self-healing of concretes produced with different water/cement ratios and exposed to wet/dry cycles, considering two ages of crack openings, 3 days and 28 days. The self-healing phenomenon was evaluated using two techniques: crack healing measurement using ultrasonic waves and image analysis performed with an optical microscope. It is possible to observe that by both methods, it possible to observe the self-healing phenomenon of the cracks. For young ages of crack openings and lower water/cement ratios, the self-healing capacity is higher when compared to advanced ages of crack openings and higher water/cement ratios. Regardless of the crack opening age, these concretes were found to stabilize the self-healing processes after 80 days or 90 days.

Keywords: Self-healing, autogenous, water/cement ratio, curing cycles, test methods.

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Authors: Haji M Shoaib Khan, Naveed Akhtar, Fatima Rasool, Barkat Ali Khan, Tariq Mahmood, Muhammad Shuaib Khan

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Antioxidants contribute to endogenous photoprotection and are important for the maintenance of skin health. The study was carried out to compare the skin hydration and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) effects of a stable cosmetic preparation containing flavonoids, following two applications a day over a period of tenth week. The skin trans-epidermal water loss and skin hydration effect was measured at the beginning and up to the end of study period of ten weeks. Any effect produced was measured by Corneometer and TEWA meter (Non-invasive probe). Two formulations were developed for this study design. Formulation one the control formulation in which no apple juice extract( Flavonoids) was incorporated while second one was the active formulation in which the apple juice extract (3%) containing flavonoids was incorporated into water in oil emulsion using Abil EM 90 as an emulsifier. Stable formulations (control and Active) were applied on human cheeks (n = 12) for a study period of 10 weeks. Result of each volunteer of skin hydration and TEWL was measured by corneometer and TEWA meter. By using ANOVA and Paired sample t test as a statistical evaluation, result of both base and formulation were compared. Statistical significant results (p≤0.05) were observed regarding skin hydration and TEWL when two creams, control and Formulation were compared. It showed that desired formulation (Active) may have interesting application as an active moisturizing cream on healthy skin.

Keywords: Apple juice extract, TEWL, Corneometer, flavonoids.

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Authors: Radha Krishan, Deepak Khare, Bhaskar R. Nikam, Ayush Chandrakar

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Every irrigation project is planned considering long-term historical climatic conditions; however, the prompt climatic shift and change has come out with such circumstances which were inconceivable in the past. Considering this fact, scrutiny of rainfall and temperature trend has been carried out over the command area of Eastern Ganga Canal project for pre-climate shift period and post-climate shift periods in the present study. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall and Sen’s methods have been applied to study the trends in annual rainfall, seasonal rainfall, annual rainy day, monsoonal rainy days, average annual temperature and seasonal temperature. The results showed decreasing trend of 48.11 to 42.17 mm/decade in annual rainfall and 79.78 tSo 49.67 mm/decade in monsoon rainfall in pre-climate to post-climate shift periods, respectively. The decreasing trend of 1 to 4 days/decade has been observed in annual rainy days from pre-climate to post-climate shift period. Trends in temperature revealed that there were significant decreasing trends in annual (-0.03 ºC/yr), Kharif (-0.02 ºC/yr), Rabi (-0.04 ºC/yr) and summer (-0.02 ºC/yr) season temperature during pre-climate shift period, whereas the significant increasing trend (0.02 ºC/yr) has been observed in all the four parameters during post climate shift period. These results will help project managers in understanding the climate shift and lead them to develop alternative water management strategies.

Keywords: Climate shift, Rainfall trend, temperature trend, Mann-Kendall test, Sen slope estimator, Eastern Ganga Canal command.

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Authors: Robson C. Santos, Julio C. P. Ribeiro, Iorran M. de Castro, Luan C. F. Rodrigues, Sandro R. L. Silva, Diego M. Quesada

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The work aims to develop a robot in the form of autonomous vehicle to detect, inspection and mapping of underground pipelines through the ATmega328 Arduino platform. Hardware prototyping is very similar to C / C ++ language that facilitates its use in robotics open source, resembles PLC used in large industrial processes. The robot will traverse the surface independently of direct human action, in order to automate the process of detecting buried pipes, guided by electromagnetic induction. The induction comes from coils that send the signal to the Arduino microcontroller contained in that will make the difference in intensity and the treatment of the information, and then this determines actions to electrical components such as relays and motors, allowing the prototype to move on the surface and getting the necessary information. This change of direction is performed by a stepper motor with a servo motor. The robot was developed by electrical and electronic assemblies that allowed test your application. The assembly is made up of metal detector coils, circuit boards and microprocessor, which interconnected circuits previously developed can determine, process control and mechanical actions for a robot (autonomous car) that will make the detection and mapping of buried pipelines plates. This type of prototype can prevent and identifies possible landslides and they can prevent the buried pipelines suffer an external pressure on the walls with the possibility of oil leakage and thus pollute the environment.

Keywords: Robotic, metal detector, embedded system, pipeline.

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Authors: S. Rao Rayapudi

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Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) is a method of determining the most efficient, low-cost and reliable operation of a power system by dispatching available electricity generation resources to supply load on the system. The primary objective of economic dispatch is to minimize total cost of generation while honoring operational constraints of available generation resources. In this paper an intelligent water drop (IWD) algorithm has been proposed to solve ELD problem with an objective of minimizing the total cost of generation. Intelligent water drop algorithm is a swarm-based natureinspired optimization algorithm, which has been inspired from natural rivers. A natural river often finds good paths among lots of possible paths in its ways from source to destination and finally find almost optimal path to their destination. These ideas are embedded into the proposed algorithm for solving economic load dispatch problem. The main advantage of the proposed technique is easy is implement and capable of finding feasible near global optimal solution with less computational effort. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, it has been tested on 6-unit and 20-unit test systems with incremental fuel cost functions taking into account the valve point-point loading effects. Numerical results shows that the proposed method has good convergence property and better in quality of solution than other algorithms reported in recent literature.

Keywords: Economic load dispatch, Transmission loss, Optimization, Valve point loading, Intelligent Water Drop Algorithm.

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Authors: S. D. El Wakil

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The research work reported here was aimed at investigating the feasibility of joining high-porosity stainless steel discs and wrought iron bars by friction welding. The sound friction-welded joints were then subjected to a metallurgical investigation and an analysis of failure resulting from tensile loading. Discs having 50 mm diameter and 10 mm thickness were produced by loose sintering of stainless steel powder at a temperature of 1350 ^oC in an argon atmosphere for one hour. Minor machining was then carried out to control the dimensions of the discs, and the density of each disc could then be determined. The level of porosity was calculated and was found to be about 40% in all of those discs. Solid wrought iron bars were also machined to facilitate tensile testing of the joints produced by friction welding. Using our previously gained experience, the porous stainless steel disc and the wrought iron tube were successfully friction welded. SEM was employed to examine the fracture surface after a tensile test of the joint in order to determine the type of failure. It revealed that the failure did not occur in the joint, but rather in the in the porous metal in the area adjacent to the joint. The load carrying capacity was actually determined by the strength of the porous metal and not by that of the welded joint. Macroscopic and microscopic metallographic examinations were also performed and showed that the welded joint involved a dense heat-affected zone where the porous metal underwent densification at elevated temperature, explaining and supporting the findings of the SEM study.

Keywords: Fracture of friction-welded joints, metallurgy of friction welding, solid-porous structures, strength of joint.

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Authors: Wehash, F. E., Ismail I. Abo-Ghanema, Rasha Mohamed Saleh

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This study was conducted to evaluate the anti-diabetic properties of ethanolic extract of two plants commonly used in folk medicine, Mormodica charantia (bitter melon) and Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek). The study was performed on STZinduced diabetic rats (DM type-I). Plant extracts of these two plants were given to STZ diabetic rats at the concentration of 500 mg/kg body weight ,50 mg/kg body weight respectively. Cidophage® (metformin HCl) were administered to another group to support the results at a dose of 500 mg/kg body weight, the ethanolic extracts and Cidophage administered orally once a day for four weeks using a stomach tube and; serum samples were obtained for biochemical analysis. The extracts caused significant decreases in glucose levels compared with diabetic control rats. Insulin secretions were increased after 4 weeks of treatment with Cidophage® compared with the control non-diabetic rats. Levels of AST and ALT liver enzymes were normalized by all treatments. Decreases in liver cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL in diabetic rats were observed with all treatments. HDL levels were increased by the treatments in the following order: bitter melon, Cidophage®, and fenugreek. Creatinine levels were reduced by all treatments. Serum nitric oxide and malonaldehyde levels were reduced by all extracts. GSH levels were increased by all extracts. Extravasation as measured by the Evans Blue test increased significantly in STZ-induced diabetic animals. This effect was reversed by ethanolic extracts of bitter melon or fenugreek.

Keywords: Cidophage®, Diabetic rats, Mormodica charantia, Trigonella foenum-graecum

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Authors: Charawee Butbumrung

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This paper aimed to study the factors that relate to working behavior of employees at Pakkred Municipality, Nonthaburi Province. A questionnaire was utilized as the tool in collecting information. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Independent- sample t- test, analysis of variance and Pearson Correlation were also used. The findings of this research revealed that the majority of the respondents were female, between 25- 35 years old, married, with a Bachelor degree. The average monthly salary of respondents was between 8,001- 12,000 Baht, and having about 4-7 years of working experience. Regarding the overall working motivation factors, the findings showed that interrelationship, respect, and acceptance were ranked as highly important factors, whereas motivation, remunerations & welfare, career growth, and working conditions were ranked as moderately important factors. Also, overall working behavior was ranked as high. The hypotheses testing revealed that different genders had a different working behavior and had a different way of working as a team, which was significant at the 0.05 confidence level, Moreover, there was a difference among employees with different monthly salary in working behavior, problem- solving and decision making, which all were significant at the 0.05 confidence level. Employees with different years of working experience were found to have work working behavior both individual and as a team at the statistical significance level of 0.01 and 0.05. The result of testing the relationship between motivation in overall working revealed that interrelationship, respect and acceptance from others, career growth, and working conditions related to working behavior at a moderate level, while motivation in performing duties and remunerations and welfares related to working behavior towards the same direction at a low level, with a statistical significance of 0.01.

Keywords: Employees of Pakkred Municipality, Factors, Nonthaburi Province, Working Behavior.

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Authors: R. S. A. Nesbitt, J. Macione, A. Debroy, S. P. Kotha

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Bones are dynamic and responsive organs, they regulate their strength and mass according to the loads which they are subjected. Because, the Wnt/β-catenin pathway has profound effects on the regulation of bone mass, we hypothesized that mechanical loading of bone cells stimulates Wnt/β-catenin signaling, which results in the generation of new bone mass. Mechanical loading triggers the secretion of the Wnt molecule, which after binding to transmembrane proteins, causes GSK-3β (Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta) to cease the phosphorylation of β-catenin. β-catenin accumulation in the cytoplasm, followed by its transport into the nucleus, binding to transcription factors (TCF/LEF) that initiate transcription of genes related to bone formation. To test this hypothesis, we used TOPGAL (Tcf Optimal Promoter β-galactosidase) mice in an experiment in which cyclic loads were applied to the forearm. TOPGAL mice are reporters for cells effected by the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. TOPGAL mice are genetically engineered mice in which transcriptional activation of β- catenin, results in the production of an enzyme, β-galactosidase. The presence of this enzyme allows us to localize transcriptional activation of β-catenin to individual cells, thereby, allowing us to quantify the effects that mechanical loading has on the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and new bone formation. The ulnae of loaded TOPGAL mice were excised and transverse slices along different parts of the ulnar shaft were assayed for the presence of β-galactosidase. Our results indicate that loading increases β-catenin transcriptional activity in regions where this pathway is already primed (i.e. where basal activity is already higher) in a load magnitude dependent manner. Further experiments are needed to determine the temporal and spatial activation of this signaling in relation to bone formation.

Keywords: Bone Resorption and Formation, Mechanical Loading of Bone, Wnt Signaling Pathway & β-catenin.

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