Abstract: Diesel Engines emit complex mixtures of inorganic
and organic compounds in the form of both solid and vapour phase
particles. Most of the particulates released are ultrafine nanoparticles
which are detrimental to human health and can easily enter the body
by respiration. The emissions standards on particulate matter release
from diesel engines are constantly upgraded within the European
Union and with future regulations based on the particles numbers
released instead of merely mass, the need for effective aftertreatment
devices will increase. Standard particulate filters in the form of wall
flow filters can have problems with high soot accumulation,
producing a large exhaust backpressure. A potential solution would
be to combine the standard filter with a flow through filter to reduce
the load on the wall flow filter. In this paper soot particle trapping has
been simulated in different continuous flow filters of monolithic
structure including the use of promoters, at laminar flow conditions.
An Euler Lagrange model, the discrete phase model in Ansys used
with user defined functions for forces acting on particles. A method
to quickly screen trapping of 5 nm and 10 nm particles in different
catalysts designs with tracers was also developed.
Simulations of square duct monoliths with promoters show that the
strength of the vortices produced are not enough to give a high
amount of particle deposition on the catalyst walls. The smallest
particles in the simulations, 5 and 10 nm particles were trapped to a
higher extent, than larger particles up to 1000 nm, in all studied
geometries with the predominant deposition mechanism being
Brownian diffusion. The comparison of the different filters designed
with a wall flow filter does show that the options for altering a design
of a flow through filter, without imposing a too large pressure drop
penalty are good.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present the design and
instrumentation of a new benchmark multivariable nonlinear control
laboratory. The mathematical model of this system may be used to
test the applicability and performance of various nonlinear control
procedures. The system is a two degree-of-freedom robotic arm with
soft and hard (discontinuous) nonlinear terms. Two novel
mechanisms are designed to allow the implementation of adjustable
Coulomb friction and backlash.
Abstract: Polypropylene blended with natural oil and pigment additives has been studied. Different formulations for each compound were made into polybag used for cultivation of oil palm seedlings for strength and mechanical properties studies. One group of sample was exposed under normal sunlight to initiate degradation and another group of sample was placed under shaded area for five months. All samples were tested for tensile strength to determine the degradation effects. The tensile strength of directly exposed sunlight samples and shaded area showed up to 50% and 25% degradation respectively. However, similar reduction of Young’s modulus for all samples was found for both exposures. Structural investigations were done using FTIR to detect deformation. The natural additives that were used in the studies were all natural and environmental friendly
Abstract: In this study, we present a new and fast algorithm for lung segmentation using CTA images. This process is quite important especially at lung vessel segmentation, detection of pulmonary emboly, finding nodules or segmentation of airways. Applied method has been carried out at four steps. At first step, images have been applied optimal threshold. At the second one, the subsegment vessels, which have a place in lung region and which are in small dimension, have been removed. At the third one, identifying and segmentation of lungs and airway edges have been carried out. Lastly, by throwing away the airway, lung segmentation has been presented.
Abstract: An experiment was performed in the south of
Morocco in order to evaluate the effect of deficit irrigation by treated
wastewater on chickpea production. We applied six irrigation
treatments on a local variety of chickpea by supplying alternatively
50 or 100% of ETm in a completely randomized design.
We found a highly significant difference between treatments in
terms of biomass production. Drought stress during the vegetative
period showed highest yield with 6.5 t/ha which was more than the
yield obtained for the control (4.9 t/ha). The optimal crop stage in
which deficit irrigation can be applied is the vegetative growth stage,
as the crop has a chance to develop its root system, to be able to
cover the plant needs for water and nutrient supply during the rest of
cycle, and non stress conditions during the flowering and seed filling
stages allow the plant to optimize its photosynthesis and carbon
translocation, therefore increase its productivity.
Abstract: In this study the extracts of the Iraqi herb Tribulus
terrestris (Al-Hassage or Al-Kutub) was done by using of polar and
non polar solvents, then the biological activity of these extractants
was studied in three fields, First, the antibacterial activity (in vitro)
on gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus), and gram
negative bacteria (E. coli, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas
aerugiuosa, and Klebsiella), all extracts showed considerable activity
against all bacteria. Second, the effect of extracts on free serum
testosterone level in male mice (in vivo), the alcoholic, and
acetonitrilic extracts showed significant (P < 0.05) increase in free
serum testosterone level, and we found that the extracts contained
compounds with less genotoxic effects in mice germ cells. 3rd, was to
study the effect of methanolic extract of T. terrestris in diabetes
management.
Abstract: The many feasible alternatives and conflicting
objectives make equipment selection in materials handling a
complicated task. This paper presents utilizing Monte Carlo (MC)
simulation combined with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to
evaluate and select the most appropriate Material Handling
Equipment (MHE). The proposed hybrid model was built on the base
of material handling equation to identify main and sub criteria critical
to MHE selection. The criteria illustrate the properties of the material
to be moved, characteristics of the move, and the means by which the
materials will be moved. The use of MC simulation beside the AHP
is very powerful where it allows the decision maker to represent
his/her possible preference judgments as random variables. This will
reduce the uncertainty of single point judgment at conventional AHP,
and provide more confidence in the decision problem results. A small
business pharmaceutical company is used as an example to illustrate
the development and application of the proposed model.
Abstract: Cities expansion, urban travels increase, the
technology development, the automobile price cheapen, and the
families' income ascending cause the considerable increase in
automobile numbers of the city. This fact has led to the traffic
creation and the automobile parking site shortage in the city. Also in
Esfahan metropolis, the parking lots shortage has been the great
problem of this town; in addition, in designing and constructing of
the parking sites the traditional methods are utilized which do not
have a reasonable and optimized usage of the valuable urban lands. In
this article, by introducing the prefabricate mechanized parking
system which is inexpensive, simple and quick, and occupies very
small space, therefore provides the high content of parking site for
the cities, we can eliminate the parking space shortage difficulty of
the cities. The achieved results of this research represent that an
optimized utilization of the existent urban spaces for parking site
construction has not been accomplished. By employing the new
parking site technologies such as mechanization categorized parking
sites and the capacity prefabricate mechanized of each parking space
have become 8 multiples; in this case, the valuable urban lands can
be used in an optimized way.
Abstract: This presentation narrates the comparative analysis of
the dissolution data nimesulide microparticles prepared with
ethylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, chitosan and
Poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) as polymers. The analysis of release
profiles showed that the variations noted in the release behavior of
nimesulide from various microparticulate formulations are due to the
nature of used polymer. In addition, maximum retardation in the
nimesulide release was observed with HPMC (floating particles).
Thus HPMC miacroparticles may be preferably employed for
sustained release dosage form development.
Abstract: A new design approach for three-stage operational
amplifiers (op-amps) is proposed. It allows to actually implement a
symmetrical push-pull class-AB amplifier output stage for wellestablished
three-stage amplifiers using a feedforward
transconductance stage. Compared with the conventional design
practice, the proposed approach leads to a significant
improvement of the symmetry between the positive and the
negative op-amp step response, resulting in similar values of the
positive/negative settling time. The new approach proves to be very
useful in order to fully exploit the potentiality allowed by the op-amp
in terms of speed performances. Design examples in a commercial
0.35-μm CMOS prove the effectiveness of theproposed strategy.
Abstract: In this work we report the recent progresses that have been achieved by our group in the last half decade on the field of computational proteomics. Specifically, we discuss the application of Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Electronic Structure Calculations in drug design, in the clarification of the structural and dynamic properties of proteins and enzymes and in the understanding of the catalytic and inhibition mechanism of cancer-related enzymes. A set of examples illustrate the concepts and help to introduce the reader into this important and fast moving field.
Abstract: Dehydration behavior gives a hint about thermal properties of materials. It is important for the usage areas and transportation of minerals. Magnesium borates can be used as additive materials in areas such as in the production of superconducting materials, in the composition of detergents, due to the content of boron in the friction-reducing additives in oils and insulating coating compositions due to their good mechanic and thermal properties.
In this study, thermal dehydration behavior of admontite (MgO(B2O3)3.7(H2O)), which is a kind of magnesium borate mineral, is experimented by microwave energy at 360W. Structure of admontite is suitable for the investigation of dehydration behavior by microwave because of its seven moles of crystal water. It is seen that admontite lost its 28.7% of weight at the end of the 120 minutes heating in microwave furnace.
Abstract: According to Rostler method (ASTM D 2006), saturates content of bitumen is determined based on its reactivity to sulphuric acid. While Corbett method (ASTM D 4124) based on its polarity level. This paper presents results from the study on the effect of saturates content determined by two different fractionation methods on the rheological and aging characteristics of bitumen. The result indicated that the increment of saturates content tended to reduce all the rheological characteristics concerned. Bitumen became less elastic, less viscous, and less resistant to plastic deformation, but became more resistant to fatigue cracking. After short and long term aging process, the treatment effect coefficients of saturates decreased, saturates became thicker due to aging process. This study concludes that saturates is not really stable or reactive in aging process. Therefore, the reactivity of saturates should be considered in bitumen aging index
Abstract: Magnesium wastes are produced by many industrial activities. This waste problem is becoming a future problem for the world. Magnesium borates have many advantages such as; high corrosion resistance, heat resistance, high coefficient of elasticity and can also be used in the production of material against radiation. Addition, magnesium borates have great potential in sectors
including ceramic and detergents industry and superconducting materials.
In this study, using the starting materials of waste magnesium and H3BO3 the hydrothermal method was applied at a moderate
temperature of 70oC. Several mole ratios of waste magnesium to H3BO3 are selected as; 1:2, 1:4, 1:6, 1:8, 1:10. Reaction time was determined as 1 hour. After the synthesis, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques are applied to products. As a result the forms of mcallisterite “Mg2(B6O7(OH)6)2.9(H2O)”, admontite “MgO(B2O3)3.7(H2O)” and magnesium boron hydrate (MgO(B2O3)3.6(H2O)” are obtained.
Abstract: Many problems in computer vision and image
processing present potential for parallel implementations through one
of the three major paradigms of geometric parallelism, algorithmic
parallelism and processor farming. Static process scheduling
techniques are used successfully to exploit geometric and algorithmic
parallelism, while dynamic process scheduling is better suited to
dealing with the independent processes inherent in the process
farming paradigm. This paper considers the application of parallel or
multi-computers to a class of problems exhibiting spatial data
characteristic of the geometric paradigm. However, by using
processor farming paradigm, a dynamic scheduling technique is
developed to suit the MIMD structure of the multi-computers. A
hybrid scheme of scheduling is also developed and compared with
the other schemes. The specific problem chosen for the investigation
is the Hough transform for line detection.
Abstract: An exploration in the competency of the optical
multilevel Mapping Multiplexing Technique (MMT) system in
tolerating to the impact of nonlinearities as Self Phase Modulation
(SPM) during the presence of dispersion compensation methods. The
existence of high energy pulses stimulates deterioration in the chirp
compression process attained by SPM which introduces an upper
power boundary limit. An evaluation of the post and asymmetric prepost
fiber compensation methods have been deployed on the MMT
system compared with others of the same bit rate modulation formats.
The MMT 40 Gb/s post compensation system has 1.4 dB
enhancements to the 40 Gb/s 4-Arysystem and less than 3.9 dB
penalty compared to the 40 Gb/s OOK-RZsystem. However, the
optimized Pre-Post asymmetric compensation has an enhancement of
4.6 dB compared to the Post compensation MMT configuration for a
30% pre compensation dispersion.
Abstract: Cattle manure and mineral fertilizers are two source
of Nitrogen, which can affect the growth and quantity of potato. In
this research the effects of the use of cattle manure (5, 10, 15 and 20
ton ha-1), Nitrogen fertilizer (50, 100 and 150 kg N ha-1) and their
interaction on potato growth were evaluated during field
experiments in 2008 with the help of Randomized Complete Block
(RCB) with the factorial arrangement of three experimental
replications in Iran. At the 75 th day after emergence, dry weight of
Shoots, leaf area index (LAI) and plant height were recorded. Results
showed that, dry weight of Shoots, LAI and plant height increased
linearly and very significantly in response to the application of
manure and Nitrogen fertilizer. While the interaction between
manure and Nitrogen fertilizer just on the LAI and plant height was
significant, somehow the maximum amount of plant height( 73 cm)
was obtained by using 150 kg Nitrogen + 15 tons of manure per
hectare, and maximum LAI ( 5.36) was obtained by using 150 kg
Nitrogen + 20 tons of manure per hectare. Also in this experiment
maximum tuber yield (36.8 tons ha-1) was obtained by the utilization
of 150 kg Nitrogen per hectare + 20 tons manure.
Abstract: The prediction of meteorological parameters at a
meteorological station is an interesting and open problem. A firstorder
linear dynamic model GM(1,1) is the main component of the
grey system theory. The grey model requires only a few previous data
points in order to make a real-time forecast. In this paper, we
consider the daily average ambient temperature as a time series and
the grey model GM(1,1) applied to local prediction (short-term
prediction) of the temperature. In the same case study we use a fuzzy
predictive model for global prediction. We conclude the paper with a
comparison between local and global prediction schemes.
Abstract: ZnO nanostructure were synthesized via microwave
method using zinc acetate as starting material, guanidinium as
structure directing agents, and water as solvent.. This work
investigates the photodegradation of azo dyes using the ZnO Flowerlike
in aqueous solutions. As synthesized ZnO samples were
characterized using X-Ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning
electron microscopy (SEM), and FTIR spectroscopy.In this work
photodecolorization of congored azo dye under UV irradiation by
nano ZnO was studied.
Abstract: Language Reforms and potential use of ICTs has been a focal area of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Efforts are being accelerated to incorporate fast expanding ICTs to bring qualitative improvement in language instruction in higher education. This paper explores how university teachers are benefitting from ICTs to make their English class effective and what type of problems they face in practicing ICTs during their lectures. An in-depth qualitative study was employed to understand why language teachers tend to use ICTs in their instruction and how they are practicing it. A sample of twenty teachers from five universities located in Islamabad, three from public sector and two from private sector, was selected on non-random (Snowball) sampling basis. An interview with 15 semi-structured items was used as research instruments to collect data. The findings reveal that business English teaching is facilitated and improved through the use of ICTs. The language teachers need special training regarding the practices and implementation of ICTs. It is recommended that initiatives might be taken to equip university language teachers with modern methodology incorporating ICTs as focal area and efforts might be made to remove barriers regarding the training of language teachers and proper usage of ICTs.