Abstract: The development of value added composite products from bamboo with the application of gluing technology can play a vital role in economic development and also in forest resource conservation of any country. In this study, the gluability of Bambusa balcooa and Bambusa vulgaris, two locally grown bamboo species of Bangladesh was assessed. As the culm wall thickness of bamboos decreases from bottom to top, a culm portion of up to 5.4 m and 3.6 m were used from the base of B. balcooa and B. vulgaris, respectively, to get rectangular strips of uniform thickness. The color of the B. vulgaris strips was yellowish brown and that of B. balcooa was reddish brown. The strips were treated in borax-boric, bleaching and carbonization for extending the service life of the laminates. The preservative treatments changed the color of the strips. Borax–boric acid treated strips were reddish brown. When bleached with hydrogen peroxide, the color of the strips turned into whitish yellow. Carbonization produced dark brownish strips having coffee flavor. Chemical constituents for untreated and treated strips were determined. B. vulgaris was more acidic than B. balcooa. Then the treated strips were used to develop three-layered bamboo laminated panel. Urea formaldehyde (UF) and polyvinyl acetate (PVA) were used as binder. The shear strength and abrasive resistance of the panel were evaluated. It was found that the shear strength of the UF-panel was higher than the PVA-panel for all treatments. Between the species, gluability of B. vulgaris was better and in some cases better than hardwood species. The abrasive resistance of B. balcooa is slightly higher than B. vulgaris; however, the latter was preferred as it showed well gluability. The panels could be used as structural panel, floor tiles, flat pack furniture component, and wall panel etc. However, further research on durability and creep behavior of the product in service condition is warranted.
Abstract: We treat the two-dimensional bin packing problem which involves packing a given set of rectangles into a minimum number of larger identical rectangles called bins. This combinatorial problem is NP-hard. We propose a pretreatment for the oriented version of the problem that allows the valorization of the lost areas in the bins and the reduction of the size problem. A heuristic method based on the strategy first-fit adapted to this problem is presented. We present an approach of resolution by bee colony optimization. Computational results express a comparison of the number of bins used with and without pretreatment.
Abstract: In this work, firstly we have studied the potential of raw sediments and sediments treated with lime or cement for use in a foundation layer and the base layer of a roadway. Secondly, we have examined mineral changes caused by the addition of lime or cement in order to explain the mechanical performance of stabilized sediments. After determining the amount of lime and cement required stabilizing the sediments, the compaction characteristics and Immediate Bearing Capacity (IBI) were studied using the Modified Proctor method. Then, the evolution of the three parameters, which are optimum water content, maximum dry density and IBI, were determined. Mechanical performances can be evaluated through resistance to compression, resistance under traction and the elasticity modulus. The resistances of the formulations treated with ROLAC®645 increase with the amount of ROLAC®645. Traction resistance and the elastic modulus were used to evaluate the potential of the formulations as road construction materials using the classification diagram. The results show that all the other formulations with ROLAC®645 can be used in subgrades and foundation layers for roads.
Abstract: Centrifugal pumps are complex machines which can experience different types of fault. Condition monitoring can be used in centrifugal pump fault detection through vibration analysis for mechanical and hydraulic forces. Vibration analysis methods have the potential to be combined with artificial intelligence systems where an automatic diagnostic method can be approached. An automatic fault diagnosis approach could be a good option to minimize human error and to provide a precise machine fault classification. This work aims to introduce an approach to centrifugal pump fault diagnosis based on artificial intelligence and genetic algorithm systems. An overview of the future works, research methodology and proposed experimental setup is presented and discussed. The expected results and outcomes based on the experimental work are illustrated.
Abstract: Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new norm of networks. It is designed to facilitate the way of managing, measuring, debugging and controlling the network dynamically, and to make it suitable for the modern applications. Generally, measurement methods can be divided into two categories: Active and passive methods. Active measurement method is employed to inject test packets into the network in order to monitor their behaviour (ping tool as an example). Meanwhile the passive measurement method is used to monitor the traffic for the purpose of deriving measurement values. The measurement methods, both active and passive, are useful for the collection of traffic statistics, and monitoring of the network traffic. Although there has been a work focusing on measuring traffic statistics in SDN environment, it was only meant for measuring packets and bytes rates for non-web traffic. In this study, a feasible method will be designed to measure the number of packets and bytes in a certain time, and facilitate obtaining statistics for both web traffic and non-web traffic. Web traffic refers to HTTP requests that use application layer; while non-web traffic refers to ICMP and TCP requests. Thus, this work is going to be more comprehensive than previous works. With a developed module on POX OpenFlow controller, information will be collected from each active flow in the OpenFlow switch, and presented on Command Line Interface (CLI) and wireshark interface. Obviously, statistics that will be displayed on CLI and on wireshark interfaces include type of protocol, number of bytes and number of packets, among others. Besides, this module will show the number of flows added to the switch whenever traffic is generated from and to hosts in the same statistics list. In order to carry out this work effectively, our Python module will send a statistics request message to the switch requesting its current ports and flows statistics in every five seconds; while the switch will reply with the required information in a message called statistics reply message. Thus, POX controller will be notified and updated with any changes could happen in the entire network in a very short time. Therefore, our aim of this study is to prepare a list for the important statistics elements that are collected from the whole network, to be used for any further researches; particularly, those that are dealing with the detection of the network attacks that cause a sudden rise in the number of packets and bytes like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).
Abstract: Organic compounds in wastewaters coming from textile and pharmaceutical industry generated multiple harmful effects on the environment and the human health. One of them is the methyl orange (MeO), an azoic dye considered to be a recalcitrant compound. The heterogeneous photocatalysis emerges as an alternative for treating this type of hazardous compounds, through the generation of OH radicals using radiation and a semiconductor oxide. According to the author’s knowledge, catalysts such as TiO2 doped with metals show high efficiency in degrading MeO; however, this presents economic limitations on industrial scale. Black sand can be considered as a naturally doped catalyst because in its structure is common to find compounds such as titanium, iron and aluminum oxides, also elements such as zircon, cadmium, manganese, etc. This study reports the photocatalytic activity of the mineral black sand used as semiconductor in the discoloration of MeO by oxidation and reduction photocatalytic techniques. For this, magnetic composites from the mineral were prepared (RM, M1, M2 and NM) and their activity were tested through MeO discoloration while TiO2 was used as reference. For the fractions, chemical, morphological and structural characterizations were performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis. M2 fraction showed higher MeO discoloration (93%) in oxidation conditions at pH 2 and it could be due to the presence of ferric oxides. However, the best result to reduction process was using M1 fraction (20%) at pH 2, which contains a higher titanium percentage. In the first process, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was used as electron donor agent. According to the results, black sand mineral can be used as natural semiconductor in photocatalytic process. It could be considered as a photocatalyst precursor in such processes, due to its low cost and easy access.
Abstract: In this paper, two bandstop filters resonating at 5.25 GHz and 7.3 GHz using Defected Microstrip Structure (DMS) are discussed. These slots are incorporated in the feed lines of filters to perform a serious LC resonance property in certain frequency and suppress the spurious signals. Therefore, this method keeps the filter size unchanged and makes a resonance frequency that is due to the abrupt change of the current path of the filter. If the application requires elimination of this band of frequencies, additional filter elements are required, which can only be accomplished by adding this DMS element resonant at desired frequency band rejection. The filters are optimized and simulated with Computer Simulation Technology (CST) tool.
Abstract: Among renewable energy sources, solar energy is the one that has stood out. Solar radiation can be used as a thermal energy source and can also be converted into electricity by means of effects on certain materials, such as thermoelectric and photovoltaic panels. These panels are often used to generate energy in homes, buildings, arenas, etc., and have low pollution emissions. Thus, a technological prospecting was performed to find patents related to the use of photovoltaic plates in urban residences. The patent search was based on ESPACENET, associating the keywords photovoltaic and home, where we found 136 patent documents in the period of 1994-2015 in the fields title and abstract. Note that the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 had the highest number of applicants, with respectively, 11, 13, 23, 29, 15 and 21. Regarding the country that deposited about this technology, it is clear that China leads with 67 patent deposits, followed by Japan with 38 patents applications. It is important to note that most depositors, 50% are companies, 44% are individual inventors and only 6% are universities. On the International Patent classification (IPC) codes, we noted that the most present classification in results was H02J3/38, which represents provisions in parallel to feed a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers. Among all categories, there is the H session, which means Electricity, with 70% of the patents.
Abstract: Museums play a significant role in their communities with respect to culture, history, environment, and social development. They are considered as important sites for families, tourists, school groups, cultural visitors and individuals, looking to enjoy, learn and expand their horizons. Aim of audience development programs is to support individuals and organizations to work together to deliver messages that will raise museums' profile for both existing and potential visitors. They recognize the particular role that museums play for communities, the audiences they seek to reach, the experience they seek to offer and the extent and nature of their collections. This study aims at using both the qualitative and quantitative approach to explore the important role that audience development programs in museums can play in raising awareness in their communities concerning cultural heritage preservation and tourism. The Alexandria National Museum is considered as a valuable case study. In depth interviews with museum managers and staff was conducted as well as an online questionnaire. The study also includes suggestions and guidelines for applying audience development programs in Egyptian museums.
Abstract: With the technological development and rise of virtual worlds, these spaces are becoming more and more attractive for cybercriminals, hidden behind avatars and fictitious identities. Since access to these spaces is not restricted or controlled, some impostors take advantage of gaining unauthorized access and practicing cyber criminality. This paper proposes an identity management approach for securing access to virtual worlds. The major purpose of the suggested solution is to install a strong security mechanism to protect virtual identities represented by avatars. Thus, only legitimate users, through their corresponding avatars, are allowed to access the platform resources. Access is controlled by integrating an authentication process based on biometrics. In the request process for registration, a user fingerprint is enrolled and then encrypted into a watermark utilizing a cancelable and non-invertible algorithm for its protection. After a user personalizes their representative character, the biometric mark is embedded into the avatar through a watermarking procedure. The authenticity of the avatar identity is verified when it requests authorization for access. We have evaluated the proposed approach on a dataset of avatars from various virtual worlds, and we have registered promising performance results in terms of authentication accuracy, acceptation and rejection rates.
Abstract: Shear stresses generate frictional forces thus lead to the reduction of engine performance due to the power losses. This friction can also cause damage to the piston material. Thus, the choice of an optimal material for the piston is necessary to improve the elastohydrodynamical contacts of the piston. In this study, to achieve this objective, an elastohydrodynamical lubrication model that satisfies the best tribological behavior of the piston with the optimum choice of material is developed. Several aluminum alloys composed of different components are studied in this simulation. An application is made on the piston 60 x 120 mm Diesel engine type F8L413 currently mounted on Deutz trucks TB230 by using different aluminum alloys where alloys based on aluminum-silicon have better tribological performance.
Abstract: High-speed transportation is a growing concern. To develop high-speed rails and to increase high-speed efficiencies, the idea of Hyperloop was introduced. The challenge is to overcome the difficulties of managing friction and air-resistance which become substantial when vehicles approach high speeds. In this paper, we are presenting the methodologies of the capsule design which got a design concept innovation award at SpaceX competition in January, 2016. MATLAB scripts are written for the levitation and propulsion calculations and iterations. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate the air flow around the capsule considering the effect of the axial-flow air compressor and the levitation cushion on the air flow. The design procedures of a single-sided linear induction motor are analyzed in detail and its geometric and magnetic parameters are determined. A structural design is introduced and Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to analyze the stresses in different parts. The configuration and the arrangement of the components are illustrated. Moreover, comments on manufacturing are made.
Abstract: Nowadays, e-commerce shopping websites have experienced noticeable growth. These websites have gained consumers’ trust. After purchasing a product, many consumers share comments where opinions are usually embedded about the given product. Research on the automatic management of opinions that gives suggestions to potential consumers and portrays an image of the product to manufactures has been growing recently. After launching the product in the market, the reviews generated around it do not usually contain helpful information or generic opinions about this product (e.g. telephone: great phone...); in the sense that the product is still in the launching phase in the market. Within time, the product becomes old. Therefore, consumers perceive the advantages/ disadvantages about each specific product feature. Therefore, they will generate comments that contain their sentiments about these features. In this paper, we present an unsupervised method to extract different product features hidden in the opinions which influence its purchase, and that combines Time Weighting (TW) which depends on the time opinions were expressed with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). We conduct several experiments using two different datasets about cell phones and hotels. The results show the effectiveness of our automatic feature extraction, as well as its domain independent characteristic.
Abstract: Traditionally, the dimensioning of storage tanks is conducted with a deterministic approach based on partial coefficients of safety. These coefficients are applied to take into account the uncertainties related to hazards on properties of materials used and applied loads. However, the use of these safety factors in the design process does not assure an optimal and reliable solution and can sometimes lead to a lack of robustness of the structure. The reliability theory based on a probabilistic formulation of constructions safety can respond in an adapted manner. It allows constructing a modelling in which uncertain data are represented by random variables, and therefore allows a better appreciation of safety margins with confidence indicators. The work presented in this paper consists of a mecano-reliability analysis of a concrete storage tank placed on ground. The classical method of Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the failure probability of concrete tank by considering the seismic acceleration as random variable.
Abstract: The aim of this descriptive study was to determine the perception of 21st century skills among nursing professors and nursing students at Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Chonburi. A total of 38 nursing professors and 75 second year nursing students took part in the study. Data were collected by 21st century skills questionnaires comprised of 63 items. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the findings. The results have shown that the overall mean scores of the perception of nursing professors on 21st century skills were at a high level. The highest mean scores were recorded for computing and ICT literacy, and career and leaning skills. The lowest mean scores were recorded for reading and writing and mathematics. The overall mean scores on perception of nursing students on 21st century skills were at a high level. The highest mean scores were recorded for computer and ICT literacy, for which the highest item mean scores were recorded for competency on computer programs. The lowest mean scores were recorded for the reading, writing, and mathematics components, in which the highest item mean score was reading Thai correctly, and the lowest item mean score was English reading and translate to other correctly. The findings from this study have shown that the perceptions of nursing professors were consistent with those of nursing students. Moreover, any activities aiming to raise capacity on English reading and translate information to others should be taken into the consideration.
Abstract: Fluid intelligence declines along with age, but it can be developed. For this reason, increasing fluid intelligence in young adults can be possible. This study examined the effects of a two-month treadmill exercise program on fluid intelligence. The researcher designed a treadmill exercise program to promote cardiorespiratory fitness. Thirty-eight healthy voluntary students from the Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Chon Buri were assigned randomly to an exercise group (n=18) and a control group (n=20). The experiment consisted of three sessions: The baseline session consisted of measuring the VO2max, electroencephalogram and behavioral response during performed the Raven Progressive Matrices (RPM) test, a measure of fluid intelligence. For the exercise session, an experimental group exercises using treadmill training at 60 % to 80 % maximum heart rate for 30 mins, three times per week, whereas the control group did not exercise. For the following two sessions, each participant was measured the same as baseline testing. The data were analyzed using the t-test to examine whether there is significant difference between the means of the two groups. The results showed that the mean VO2 max in the experimental group were significantly more than the control group (p
Abstract: This paper reports on the performance of deliberately unbalanced, reliable, non-automated and assembly lines that merge, whose workstations differ in terms of their mean operation times. Simulations are carried out on 5- and 8-station lines with 1, 2 and 4 buffer capacity units, % degrees of line imbalance of 2, 5 and 12, and 24 different patterns of means imbalance. Data on two performance measures, namely throughput and average buffer level were gathered, statistically analysed and compared to a merging balanced line counterpart. It was found that the best configurations are a balanced line arrangement and a monotone decreasing order for each of the parallel merging lines, with the first generally resulting in a lower throughput and the second leading to a lower average buffer level than those of a balanced line.
Abstract: Optical Intersatellite Links (OISLs) are wireless communications using optical signals to interconnect satellites. It is expected to be the next generation wireless communication technology according to its inherent characteristics like: an increased bandwidth, a high data rate, a data transmission security, an immunity to interference, and an unregulated spectrum etc. Optical space links are the best choice for the classical communication schemes due to its distinctive properties; high frequency, small antenna diameter and lowest transmitted power, which are critical factors to define a space communication. This paper discusses the development of free space technology and analyses the parameters and factors to establish a reliable intersatellite links using an optical signal to exchange data between satellites.
Abstract: Elastic scattering of Protons and deuterons from 11B nuclei at different p, d energies have been analyzed within the framework of optical model code (ECIS88). The elastic scattering of 3He+11B nuclear system at different 3He energies have been analyzed using double folding model code (FRESCO). The real potential obtained from the folding model was supplemented by a phenomenological imaginary potential, and during the fitting process the real potential was normalized and the imaginary potential optimized. Volumetric integrals of the real and imaginary potential depths (JR, JW) have been calculated for 3He+11B system. The agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical calculations in the whole angular range is fairly good. Normalization factor Nr is calculated in the range between 0.70 and 1.236.
Abstract: Intense oxidative stress, increased glycated hemoglobin and mineral imbalance represent risk factors for complications in diabetic patients. Cardiovascular complications are most common in these patients, including nephropathy. This study was conducted in 2015 at the Procardia Laboratory in Tîrgu Mureș, Romania on 40 type 2 diabetic adults. Routine biochemical tests were performed on the Konleab 20XTi analyzer (serum glucose, total cholesterol, LDL and HDL cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine, urea). We also measured serum uric acid, magnesium and calcium concentration by photometric procedures, potassium, sodium and chloride by ion selective electrode, and chromium by atomic absorption spectrometry in a group of patients. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) dosage was made by reflectometry. Urine analysis was performed using the HandUReader equipment. The level of oxidative stress was measured by serum malondialdehyde dosage using the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances method. MDRD (Modification of Diet in Renal Disease) formula was applied for calculation of creatinine-derived glomerular filtration rate. GraphPad InStat software was used for statistical analysis of the data. The diabetic subject included in the study presented high MDA concentrations, showing intense oxidative stress. Calcium was deficient in 5% of the patients, chromium deficiency was present in 28%. The atherogenic cholesterol fraction was elevated in 13% of the patients. Positive correlation was found between creatinine and MDRD-creatinine values (p