Abstract: In this study, the ability of Aspergillus niger and
Penicillium simplicissimum to extract heavy metals from a spent
refinery catalyst was investigated. For the first step, a spent
processing catalyst from one of the oil refineries in Iran was
physically and chemically characterized. Aspergillus niger and
Penicillium simplicissimum were used to mobilize Al/Co/Mo/Ni from
hazardous spent catalysts. The fungi were adapted to the mixture of
metals at 100-800 mg L-1 with increments in concentration of 100 mg
L-1. Bioleaching experiments were carried out in batch cultures. To
investigate the production of organic acids in sucrose medium,
analyses of the culture medium by HPLC were performed at specific
time intervals after inoculation. The results obtained from Inductive
coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) showed
that after the one-step bioleaching process using Aspergillus niger,
maximum removal efficiencies of 27%, 66%, 62% and 38% were
achieved for Al, Co, Mo and Ni, respectively. However, the highest
removal efficiencies using Penicillium simplicissimum were of 32%,
67%, 65% and 38% for Al, Co, Mo and Ni, respectively
Abstract: This paper examines the concept of simulation from
a modelling viewpoint. How can one Mealy machine simulate the other one? We create formalism for simulation of Mealy machines.
The injective s–morphism of the machine semigroups induces the simulation of machines [1]. We present the example of s–morphism
such that it is not a homomorphism of semigroups. The story for the
surjective s–morphisms is quite different. These are homomorphisms
of semigroups but there exists the surjective s–morphism such that it does not induce the simulation.
Abstract: According to the masonry standard the compressive
strength is basically dependent on factors such as the mortar strength
and the relative values of unit and mortar strength. However
interlocking brick has none or less use of mortar. Therefore there is a need to investigate the behavior of masonry walls using interlocking
bricks. In this study a series of tests have been conducted; physical
properties and compressive strength of brick units and masonry walls
were constructed from interlocking bricks and tested under constant
vertical load at different eccentricities. The purpose of the
experimental investigations is to obtain the force displacement curves, analyze the behavior of masonry walls. The results showed
that the brick is categorized as common brick (BS 3921:1985) and severe weathering grade (ASTM C62). The maximum compressive stress of interlocking brick wall is 3.6 N/mm2 and fulfilled the requirement of standard for residential building.
Abstract: Chatter vibration has been a troublesome problem for a
machine tool toward the high precision and high speed machining.
Essentially, the machining performance is determined by the dynamic
characteristics of the machine tool structure and dynamics of cutting
process. Therefore the dynamic vibration behavior of spindle tool
system greatly determines the performance of machine tool. The
purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of the machine
frame structure on the dynamic frequency of spindle tool unit through
finite element modeling approach. To this end, a realistic finite
element model of the vertical milling system was created by
incorporated the spindle-bearing model into the spindle head stock of
the machine frame. Using this model, the dynamic characteristics of
the milling machines with different structural designs of spindle head
stock and identical spindle tool unit were demonstrated. The results of
the finite element modeling reveal that the spindle tool unit behaves
more compliant when the excited frequency approaches the natural
mode of the spindle tool; while the spindle tool show a higher dynamic
stiffness at lower frequency that may be initiated by the structural
mode of milling head. Under this condition, it is concluded that the
structural configuration of spindle head stock associated with the
vertical column of milling machine plays an important role in
determining the machining dynamics of the spindle unit.
Abstract: In this paper a new approach for transmission pricing
is presented. The main idea is voltage angle allocation, i.e.
determining the contribution of each contract on the voltage angle of
each bus. DC power flow is used to compute a primary solution for
angle decomposition. To consider the impacts of system non-linearity
on angle decomposition, the primary solution is corrected in different
iterations of decoupled Newton-Raphson power flow. Then, the
contribution of each contract on power flow of each transmission line
is computed based on angle decomposition. Contract-related flows
are used as a measure for “extent of use" of transmission network
capacity and consequently transmission pricing. The presented
approach is applied to a 4-bus test system and IEEE 30-bus test
system.
Abstract: The Economic factors are leading to the rise of
infrastructures provides software and computing facilities as a
service, known as cloud services or cloud computing. Cloud services
can provide efficiencies for application providers, both by limiting
up-front capital expenses, and by reducing the cost of ownership over
time. Such services are made available in a data center, using shared
commodity hardware for computation and storage. There is a varied
set of cloud services available today, including application services
(salesforce.com), storage services (Amazon S3), compute services
(Google App Engine, Amazon EC2) and data services (Amazon
SimpleDB, Microsoft SQL Server Data Services, Google-s Data
store). These services represent a variety of reformations of data
management architectures, and more are on the horizon.
Abstract: In this paper a class of analog algorithms based on the
concept of Cellular Neural Network (CNN) is applied in some
processing operations of some important medical images, namely
retina images, for detecting various symptoms connected with
diabetic retinopathy. Some specific processing tasks like
morphological operations, linear filtering and thresholding are
proposed, the corresponding template values are given and
simulations on real retina images are provided.
Abstract: Obesity is frequent attendant phenomenon of patients
with endocrinological disease. Between BMI and endocrinological
diseases is close correlation. In thesis we focused on the allocation of
hormone concentration – PTH and TSH, CHOL a mineral element Ca
in a blood serum. The examined group was formed by 100
respondents (women) aged 36 – 83 years, who were divided into two
groups – control group (CG), group with diagnosed endocrine disease
(DED). The concentration of PTH and TSH, Ca and CHOL was
measured through the medium of analyzers Cobas e411 (Japan);
Cobas Integra 400 (Switzerland). At individuals was measured body
weight as well as stature and thereupon from those data we
enumerated BMI. On the basis of Student T-test in biochemical
parameter of PTH and Ca we found out significantly meaningful
difference (p
Abstract: This paper presents a new approach for intelligent agent communication based on ontology for agent community. DARPA agent markup language (DAML) is used to build the community ontology. This paper extends the agent management specification by the foundation for intelligent physical agents (FIPA) to develop an agent role called community facilitator (CF) that manages community directory and community ontology. CF helps build agent community. Precise description of agent service in this community can thus be achieved. This facilitates agent communication. Furthermore, through ontology update, agents with different ontology are capable of communicating with each other. An example of advanced traveler information system is included to illustrate practicality of this approach.
Abstract: The bromination of five selected pharmaceuticals
(metoprolol, naproxen, amoxicillin, hydrochlorotiazide and
phenacetin) in ultrapure water and in three water matrices (a
groundwater, a surface water from a public reservoir and a secondary
effluent from a WWTP) was investigated. The apparent rate
constants for the bromination reaction were determined as a function
of the pH, and the sequence obtained for the reaction rate was
amoxicillin > naproxen >> hydrochlorotiazide ≈ phenacetin ≈
metoprolol. The proposal of a kinetic mechanism, which specifies the
dissociation of bromine and each pharmaceutical according to their
pKa values and the pH allowed the determination of the intrinsic rate
constants for every elementary reaction. The influence of the main
operating conditions (pH, initial bromine dose, and the water matrix)
on the degradation of pharmaceuticals was established. In addition,
the presence of bromide in chlorination experiments was
investigated. The presence of bromide in wastewaters and drinking
waters in the range of 10 to several hundred μg L-1 accelerated
slightly the oxidation of the selected pharmaceuticals during chorine
disinfection.
Abstract: The main goal in this paper is to quantify the quality of
different techniques for radiation treatment plans, a back-propagation
artificial neural network (ANN) combined with biomedicine theory
was used to model thirteen dosimetric parameters and to calculate
two dosimetric indices. The correlations between dosimetric indices
and quality of life were extracted as the features and used in the ANN
model to make decisions in the clinic. The simulation results show
that a trained multilayer back-propagation neural network model can
help a doctor accept or reject a plan efficiently. In addition, the
models are flexible and whenever a new treatment technique enters
the market, the feature variables simply need to be imported and the
model re-trained for it to be ready for use.
Abstract: Air bending is one of the important metal forming
processes, because of its simplicity and large field application.
Accuracy of analytical and empirical models reported for the analysis
of bending processes is governed by simplifying assumption and do
not consider the effect of dynamic parameters. Number of researches
is reported on the finite element analysis (FEA) of V-bending, Ubending,
and air V-bending processes. FEA of bending is found to be
very sensitive to many physical and numerical parameters. FE
models must be computationally efficient for practical use. Reported
work shows the 3D FEA of air bending process using Hyperform LSDYNA
and its comparison with, published 3D FEA results of air
bending in Ansys LS-DYNA and experimental results. Observing the
planer symmetry and based on the assumption of plane strain
condition, air bending problem was modeled in 2D with symmetric
boundary condition in width. Stress-strain results of 2D FEA were
compared with 3D FEA results and experiments. Simplification of
air bending problem from 3D to 2D resulted into tremendous
reduction in the solution time with only marginal effect on stressstrain
results. FE model simplification by studying the problem
symmetry is more efficient and practical approach for solution of
more complex large dimensions slow forming processes.
Abstract: This paper focuses on PSS/E modeling of wind farms
of Doubly-fed Induction Generator (DFIG) type and their impact on
issues of power system operation. Since Wind Turbine Generators
(WTG) don-t have the same characteristics as synchronous
generators, the appropriate modeling of wind farms is essential for
transmission system operators to analyze the best options of
transmission grid reinforcements as well as to evaluate the wind
power impact on reliability and security of supply. With the high
excepted penetration of wind power into the power system a
simultaneous loss of Wind Farm generation will put at risk power
system security and reliability. Therefore, the main wind grid code
requirements concern the fault ride through capability and frequency
operation range of wind turbines. In case of grid faults wind turbines
have to supply a definite reactive power depending on the
instantaneous voltage and to return quickly to normal operation.
Abstract: Data Structures and Algorithms is a module in most
Computer Science or Information Technology curricula. It is one of
the modules most students identify as being difficult. This paper
demonstrates how programming a solution for Sudoku can make
abstract concepts more concrete. The paper relates concepts of a
typical Data Structures and Algorithms module to a step by step
solution for Sudoku in a human type as opposed to a computer
oriented solution.
Abstract: Background noise is particularly damaging to speech
intelligibility for people with hearing loss especially for sensorineural
loss patients. Several investigations on speech intelligibility have
demonstrated sensorineural loss patients need 5-15 dB higher SNR
than the normal hearing subjects. This paper describes Discrete
Cosine Transform Power Normalized Least Mean Square algorithm
to improve the SNR and to reduce the convergence rate of the LMS
for Sensory neural loss patients. Since it requires only real arithmetic,
it establishes the faster convergence rate as compare to time domain
LMS and also this transformation improves the eigenvalue
distribution of the input autocorrelation matrix of the LMS filter.
The DCT has good ortho-normal, separable, and energy compaction
property. Although the DCT does not separate frequencies, it is a
powerful signal decorrelator. It is a real valued function and thus
can be effectively used in real-time operation. The advantages of
DCT-LMS as compared to standard LMS algorithm are shown via
SNR and eigenvalue ratio computations. . Exploiting the symmetry
of the basis functions, the DCT transform matrix [AN] can be
factored into a series of ±1 butterflies and rotation angles. This
factorization results in one of the fastest DCT implementation. There
are different ways to obtain factorizations. This work uses the fast
factored DCT algorithm developed by Chen and company. The
computer simulations results show superior convergence
characteristics of the proposed algorithm by improving the SNR at
least 10 dB for input SNR less than and equal to 0 dB, faster
convergence speed and better time and frequency characteristics.
Abstract: Copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS) were successfully synthesized by the pulsed plasma in liquid method, using two copper rod electrodes submerged in molten sulfur. Low electrical energy and no high temperature were applied for synthesis. Obtained CuS nanoparticles were then analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction, Low and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, Electron Diffraction, X-ray Photoelectron, Raman Spectroscopies and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. XRD analysis revealed peaks for CuS with hexagonal phase composition. TEM and HRTEM studies showed that sizes of CuS nanoparticles ranged between 10-60 nm, with the average size of about 20 nm. Copper sulfide nanoparticles have short nanorod-like structure. Raman spectroscopy found peak for CuS at 474.2cm-1of Raman region.
Abstract: The Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) plays a
vital role in automation and process control. Grafcet is used for
representing the control logic, and traditional programming
languages are used for describing the pure algorithms. Grafcet is used
for dividing the process to be automated in elementary sequences that
can be easily implemented. Each sequence represent a step that has
associated actions programmed using textual or graphical languages
after case. The programming task is simplified by using a set of
subroutines that are used in several steps. The paper presents an
example of implementation for a punching machine for sheets and
plates. The use the graphical languages the programming of a
complex sequential process is a necessary solution. The state of
Grafcet can be used for debugging and malfunction determination.
The use of the method combined with a set of knowledge acquisition
for process application reduces the downtime of the machine and
improve the productivity.
Abstract: In the era of great competition, understanding and satisfying
customers- requirements are the critical tasks for a company
to make a profits. Customer relationship management (CRM) thus
becomes an important business issue at present. With the help of
the data mining techniques, the manager can explore and analyze
from a large quantity of data to discover meaningful patterns and
rules. Among all methods, well-known association rule is most
commonly seen. This paper is based on Apriori algorithm and uses
genetic algorithms combining a data mining method to discover fuzzy
classification rules. The mined results can be applied in CRM to
help decision marker make correct business decisions for marketing
strategies.
Abstract: Different methods containing biometric algorithms are
presented for the representation of eigenfaces detection including
face recognition, are identification and verification. Our theme of this
research is to manage the critical processing stages (accuracy, speed,
security and monitoring) of face activities with the flexibility of
searching and edit the secure authorized database. In this paper we
implement different techniques such as eigenfaces vector reduction
by using texture and shape vector phenomenon for complexity
removal, while density matching score with Face Boundary Fixation
(FBF) extracted the most likelihood characteristics in this media
processing contents. We examine the development and performance
efficiency of the database by applying our creative algorithms in both
recognition and detection phenomenon. Our results show the
performance accuracy and security gain with better achievement than
a number of previous approaches in all the above processes in an
encouraging mode.
Abstract: On the territory of France fenugreek is spread since long on a line from the Gironde to the Italian border. In Belarus experimental cultivation has begun since 2004. Experiments with fenugreek variety Ovari 4 were conducted about time of sowing in order to study their growth, development, and evaluation of productivity in the North-east part of Belarus and Central part of France. Reaching full ripeness of seeds the plants of fenugreek in the Central part of France requires about 94-97 days. Average seeds yield of 2011-2012 is 1259 kg/ha. Plant height is about 36,8 cm. Plants were affected by aphid and in the high moist agro-climatic conditions by powdery mildew. In North-east part of Belarus plants need 86-93 days to full ripeness. Plants of fenugreek have steam about 59 cm. The average seeds yield of 2007-2009 was about 723 kg/ha. Plants were resistant to aphid and diseases.