Abstract: Bacterial strains capable of degradation of malathion
from the domestic sewage were isolated by an enrichment culture
technique. Three bacterial strains were screened and identified as
Acinetobacter baumannii (AFA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PS1),
and Pseudomonas mendocina (PS2) based on morphological,
biochemical identification and 16S rRNA sequence analysis.
Acinetobacter baumannii AFA was the most efficient malathion
degrading bacterium, so used for further biodegradation study. AFA
was able to grow in mineral salt medium (MSM) supplemented with
malathion (100 mg/l) as a sole carbon source, and within 14 days,
84% of the initial dose was degraded by the isolate measured by high
performance liquid chromatography. Strain AFA could also degrade
other organophosphorus compounds including diazinon, chlorpyrifos
and fenitrothion. The effect of different culture conditions on the
degradation of malathion like inoculum density, other carbon or
nitrogen sources, temperature and shaking were examined.
Degradation of malathion and bacterial cell growth were accelerated
when culture media were supplemented with yeast extract, glucose
and citrate. The optimum conditions for malathion degradation by
strain AFA were; an inoculum density of 1.5x 10^12CFU/ml at 30°C
with shaking. A specific polymerase chain reaction primers were
designed manually using multiple sequence alignment of the
corresponding carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter species.
Sequencing result of amplified PCR product and phylogenetic
analysis showed low degree of homology with the other
carboxylesterase enzymes of Acinetobacter strains, so we suggested
that this enzyme is a novel esterase enzyme. Isolated bacterial strains
may have potential role for use in bioremediation of malathion
contaminated.
Abstract: The development, operation and maintenance of
Integrated Waste Management Systems (IWMS) affects essentially
the sustainable concern of every region. The features of such systems
have great influence on all of the components of sustainability. In
order to reach the optimal way of processes, a comprehensive
mapping of the variables affecting the future efficiency of the system
is needed such as analysis of the interconnections among the
components and modeling of their interactions. The planning of a
IWMS is based fundamentally on technical and economical
opportunities and the legal framework. Modeling the sustainability
and operation effectiveness of a certain IWMS is not in the scope of
the present research. The complexity of the systems and the large
number of the variables require the utilization of a complex approach
to model the outcomes and future risks. This complex method should
be able to evaluate the logical framework of the factors composing
the system and the interconnections between them. The authors of
this paper studied the usability of the Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM)
approach modeling the future operation of IWMS’s. The approach
requires two input data set. One is the connection matrix containing
all the factors affecting the system in focus with all the
interconnections. The other input data set is the time series, a
retrospective reconstruction of the weights and roles of the factors.
This paper introduces a novel method to develop time series by
content analysis.
Abstract: Fracture in hot precision forging of engine valves was
investigated in this paper. The entire valve forging procedure was
described and the possible cause of the fracture was proposed. Finite
Element simulation was conducted for the forging process, with
commercial Finite Element code DEFORMTM. The effects of
material properties, the effect of strain rate and temperature were
considered in the FE simulation. Two fracture criteria were discussed
and compared, based on the accuracy and reliability of the FE
simulation results. The selected criterion predicted the fracture
location and shows the trend of damage increasing with good
accuracy, which matches the experimental observation. Additional
modification of the punch shapes was proposed to further reduce the
tendency of fracture in forging. Finite Element comparison shows a
great potential of such application in the mass production.
Abstract: In this work, we study the behavior of introducing
atomic size vacancy in a graphene nanoribbon superlattice. Our
investigations are based on the density functional theory (DFT) with
the Local Density Approximation in Atomistix Toolkit (ATK). We
show that, in addition to its shape, the position of vacancy has a
major impact on the electrical properties of a graphene nanoribbon
superlattice. We show that the band gap of an armchair graphene
nanoribbon may be tuned by introducing an appropriate periodic
pattern of vacancies. The band gap changes in a zig-zag manner
similar to the variation of band gap of a graphene nanoribbon by
changing its width.
Abstract: Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are produced from
sucrose by Aureobasidium pullulans in yields between 40-60%
(w/w). To increase the amount of FOS it is necessary to remove the
small, non-prebiotic sugars, present. Two methods for producing
high-purity FOS have been developed: the use of microorganisms
able to consume small saccharides; and the use of continuous
chromatography to separate sugars: simulated moving bed (SMB). It
is herein proposed the combination of both methods. The aim of this
study is to optimize the composition of the fermentative broth (in
terms of salts and sugars) that will be further purified by SMB. A
yield of 0.63 gFOS.gSucrose^-1 was obtained with A. pullulans using low
amounts of salts in the initial fermentative broth. By removing the
small sugars, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zymomonas mobilis
increased the percentage of FOS from around 56.0% to 83% (w/w) in
average, losing only 10% (w/w) of FOS during the recovery process.
Abstract: In this paper, model order reduction method is used
for approximation in linear and nonlinearity aspects in some
experimental data. This method can be used for obtaining offline
reduced model for approximation of experimental data and can
produce and follow the data and order of system and also it can
match to experimental data in some frequency ratios. In this study,
the method is compared in different experimental data and influence
of choosing of order of the model reduction for obtaining the best and
sufficient matching condition for following the data is investigated in
format of imaginary and reality part of the frequency response curve
and finally the effect and important parameter of number of order
reduction in nonlinear experimental data is explained further.
Abstract: At certain depths during large diameter displacement
pile driving, rebound well over 0.25 inches was experienced,
followed by a small permanent-set during each hammer blow. High
pile rebound (HPR) soils may stop the pile driving and results in a
limited pile capacity. In some cases, rebound leads to pile damage,
delaying the construction project, and the requiring foundations
redesign. HPR was evaluated at seven Florida sites, during driving of
square precast, prestressed concrete piles driven into saturated, fine
silty to clayey sands and sandy clays. Pile Driving Analyzer (PDA)
deflection versus time data recorded during installation, was used to
develop correlations between cone penetrometer (CPT) pore-water
pressures, pile displacements and rebound. At five sites where piles
experienced excessive HPR with minimal set, the pore pressure
yielded very high positive values of greater than 20 tsf. However, at
the site where the pile rebounded, followed by an acceptable
permanent-set, the measured pore pressure ranged between 5 and 20
tsf. The pore pressure exhibited values of less than 5 tsf at the site
where no rebound was noticed. In summary, direct correlations
between CPTu pore pressure and rebound were produced, allowing
identification of soils that produce HPR.
Abstract: Text mining techniques are generally applied for
classifying the text, finding fuzzy relations and structures in data
sets. This research provides plenty text mining capabilities. One
common application is text classification and event extraction,
which encompass deducing specific knowledge concerning incidents
referred to in texts. The main contribution of this paper is the
clarification of a concept graph generation mechanism, which is based
on a text classification and optimal fuzzy relationship extraction.
Furthermore, the work presented in this paper explains the application
of fuzzy relationship extraction and branch and bound (BB) method
to simplify the texts.
Abstract: Negative pressure phenomenon appears in many
thermodynamic, geophysical and biophysical processes in the Nature
and technological systems. For more than 100 years of the laboratory
researches beginning from F. M. Donny’s tests, the great values of
negative pressure have been achieved. But this phenomenon has not
been practically applied, being only a nice lab toy due to the special
demands for the purity and homogeneity of the liquids for its
appearance. The possibility of creation of direct wave of negative
pressure in real heterogeneous liquid systems was confirmed
experimentally under the certain kinetic and hydraulic conditions.
The negative pressure can be considered as the factor of both useful
and destroying energies. The new approach to generation of the
negative pressure waves in impure, unclean fluids has allowed the
creation of principally new energy saving technologies and
installations to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of different
production processes. It was proved that the negative pressure is one
of the main factors causing hard troubles in some technological and
natural processes. Received results emphasize the necessity to take
into account the role of the negative pressure as an energy factor in
evaluation of many transient thermohydrodynamic processes in the
Nature and production systems.
Abstract: In and around Erode District, it is estimated that more
than 1250 chemical and allied textile processing fabric industries are
affected, partially closed and shut off for various reasons such as poor
management, poor supplier performance, lack of planning for
productivity, fluctuation of output, poor investment, waste analysis,
labor problems, capital/labor ratio, accumulation of stocks, poor
maintenance of resources, deficiencies in the quality of fabric, low
capacity utilization, age of plant and equipment, high investment and
input but low throughput, poor research and development, lack of
energy, workers’ fear of loss of jobs, work force mix and work ethic.
The main objective of this work is to analyze the existing conditions
in textile fabric sector, validate the break even of Total Productivity
(TP), analyze, design and implement fuzzy sets and mathematical
programming for improvement of productivity and quality
dimensions in the fabric processing industry. It needs to be
compatible with the reality of textile and fabric processing industries.
The highly risk events from productivity and quality dimension were
found by fuzzy systems and results are wrapped up among the textile
fabric processing industry.
Abstract: Leukaemia is a blood cancer disease that contributes
to the increment of mortality rate in Malaysia each year. There are
two main categories for leukaemia, which are acute and chronic
leukaemia. The production and development of acute leukaemia cells
occurs rapidly and uncontrollable. Therefore, if the identification of
acute leukaemia cells could be done fast and effectively, proper
treatment and medicine could be delivered. Due to the requirement of
prompt and accurate diagnosis of leukaemia, the current study has
proposed unsupervised pixel segmentation based on clustering
algorithm in order to obtain a fully segmented abnormal white blood
cell (blast) in acute leukaemia image. In order to obtain the
segmented blast, the current study proposed three clustering
algorithms which are k-means, fuzzy c-means and moving k-means
algorithms have been applied on the saturation component image.
Then, median filter and seeded region growing area extraction
algorithms have been applied, to smooth the region of segmented
blast and to remove the large unwanted regions from the image,
respectively. Comparisons among the three clustering algorithms are
made in order to measure the performance of each clustering
algorithm on segmenting the blast area. Based on the good sensitivity
value that has been obtained, the results indicate that moving kmeans
clustering algorithm has successfully produced the fully
segmented blast region in acute leukaemia image. Hence, indicating
that the resultant images could be helpful to haematologists for
further analysis of acute leukaemia.
Abstract: Assembly line balancing problem is aimed to divide
the tasks among the stations in assembly lines and optimize some
objectives. In assembly lines the workload on stations is different
from each other due to different tasks times and the difference in
workloads between stations can cause blockage or starvation in some
stations in assembly lines. Buffers are used to store the semi-finished
parts between the stations and can help to smooth the assembly
production. The assembly line balancing and buffer sizing problem
can affect the throughput of the assembly lines. Assembly line
balancing and buffer sizing problems have been studied separately in
literature and due to their collective contribution in throughput rate of
assembly lines, balancing and buffer sizing problem are desired to
study simultaneously and therefore they are considered concurrently
in current research. Current research is aimed to maximize
throughput, minimize total size of buffers in assembly line and
minimize workload variations in assembly line simultaneously. A
multi objective optimization objective is designed which can give
better Pareto solutions from the Pareto front and a simple example
problem is solved for assembly line balancing and buffer sizing
simultaneously. Current research is significant for assembly line
balancing research and it can be significant to introduce optimization
approaches which can optimize current multi objective problem in
future.
Abstract: Risperidone (RISP) is an antipsychotic agent and has
low water solubility and nontargeted delivery results in numerous
side effects. Hence, an attempt was made to develop SLNs hydrogel
for intranasal delivery of RISP to achieve maximum bioavailability
and reduction of side effects. RISP loaded SLNs composed of 1.65%
(w/v) lipid mass were produced by high shear homogenization (HSH)
coupled ultrasound (US) method using glycerylmonostearate (GMS)
or Imwitor 900K (solid lipid). The particles were loaded with 0.2%
(w/v) of the RISP & surface-tailored with a 2.02% (w/v) non-ionic
surfactant Tween® 80. Optimization was done using 32 factorial
design using Design Expert® software. The prepared SLNs
dispersion incorporated into Polycarbophil AA1 hydrogel (0.5%
w/v). The final gel formulation was evaluated for entrapment
efficiency, particle size, rheological properties, X ray diffraction, in
vitro diffusion, ex vivo permeation using sheep nasal mucosa and
histopathological studies for nasocilliary toxicity. The entrapment
efficiency of optimized SLNs was found to be 76 ± 2%,
polydispersity index
Abstract: The problem of psychologist training remains a key
priority in Armenia. During the Soviet period, the notion of a
psychologist was obscure not only in Armenia but also in other
Soviet republics. The breakup of the Soviet Union triggered a gradual
change in this area activating the cooperation with specialists from
other countries. The need for recovery from the psychological trauma
caused by the 1988 earthquake pushed forward the development of
practical psychology in Armenia. This phenomenon led to positive
changes in perception of and interest to a psychologist
profession.Armenian universities started designing special programs
for psychologists’ preparation. Armenian psychologists combined
their efforts in the field of training relevant specialists.
During the recent years, the Bologna educational system was
introduced in Armenia which led to implementation of education
quality improvement programs. Nevertheless, even today the issue of
psychologists’ training is not yet settled in Armenian universities. So
far graduate psychologists haven’t got a clear idea of personal and
professional qualities of a psychologist. Recently, as a result of
educational reforms, the psychology curricula underwent changes,
but so far they have not led to a desired outcome. Almost all curricula
in certain specialties are aimed to form professional competencies
and strengthen practical skills.
A survey conducted in Armenia aimed to identify what are the
ideas of young psychology specialists on the image of a psychologist.
The survey respondents were 45 specialists holding bachelor’s degree
as well as 30 master degree graduates, who have not been working
yet. The research reveals that we need to change the approach of
preparing psychology practitioners in the universities of Armenia.
Such an approach to psychologist training will make it possible to
train qualified specialists for enhancement of modern psychology
theory and practice.
Abstract: Compositions of different molar ratios of
polymethylmethacrylate-co-methacrylic acid (PMMA-co-MAA)
were synthesized via free-radical polymerization. Polymer coated
surfaces have been produced on silicon wafers. Coated samples were
analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results have shown
that the roughness of the surfaces have increased by increasing the
molar ratio of monomer methacrylic acid (MAA). This study reveals
that the gradual increase in surface roughness is due to the fact that
carboxylic functional groups have been generated by MAA segments.
Such surfaces can be desirable platforms for fabrication of the
biosensors for detection of the viruses and diseases.
Abstract: This paper will examine the need for more aggressive
public policies around bodily, reproductive and sexual health
education for young people with disabilities in the United States.
This paper will consider the policies around sexuality education
for students in the United States and the recommendation for national
standards around sexuality education. We will investigate the
intersection of these policies and recommendations for students with
disabilities and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA): what this means for students with disabilities’ access to
comprehensive sexuality education and how it affects their behaviors
and outcomes.
Abstract: Reverse Logistics (RL) Network is considered as
complex and dynamic network that involves many stakeholders such
as: suppliers, manufactures, warehouse, retails and costumers, this
complexity is inherent in such process due to lack of perfect
knowledge or conflicting information. Ontologies on the other hand
can be considered as an approach to overcome the problem of sharing
knowledge and communication among the various reverse logistics
partners. In this paper we propose a semantic representation based on
hybrid architecture for building the Ontologies in ascendant way, this
method facilitates the semantic reconciliation between the
heterogeneous information systems that support reverse logistics
processes and product data.
Abstract: The contact resistance between source/drain electrodes
and semiconductor layer is an important parameter affecting electron
transporting performance in the thin film transistor (TFT). In this
work, we introduced a transparent and the solution prossable
single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/Al-doped ZnO nano particle
(AZO NP) bilayer electrodes showing low contact resistance with
indium-oxide (In2O3) sol gel thin film. By inserting low work function
AZO NPs into the interface between the SWCNTs and the In2O3 which
has a high energy barrier, we could obtain an electrical Ohmic contact
between them. Finally, with the SWCNT-AZO NP bilayer electrodes,
we successfully fabricated a TFT showing a field effect mobility of
5.38 cm2/V·s at 250°C.
Abstract: Contracting authorities in the public sector are
obligated to apply the principles provided for in the Polish law for the
evaluation and selection of contractors. In order to analyse the
methods of contractors selecting applied in practice by public clients,
the notices of contract award results for construction works were
analysed. The analysis shows that the procedure selected more and
more often is open competitive bidding, where the assessment of the
competence of contractors is not very precise, as well as noncompetitive
bidding, i.e. single source procurement. The share of
procurement procedures, where the only criterion is price, is
increasing. The solution to the problems existing here might be the
introduction of one of the forms of pre-selection of contractors. The
article also briefly discusses verification systems for companies
applying for public contracts used in EU countries.
Abstract: Anthocyanins are natural pigments with effective UV
protection but their topical use could be limited due to their
physicochemical characteristics. An attempt to overcome such
limitations by complexation of 2 major anthocyanin-rich sources, C.
ternatea and Z. mays, has potentiated its use as topical antiinflammatory.
Cell studies indicate no cytotoxicity of the
anthocyanin complex (AC) up to 1 mg/ml tested in HaCaT and
human fore head fibroblasts by MTT. Croton oil-induced ear edema
in Wistar rats suggests an effective dose of 5 mg/cm2 of AC as a
topical anti-inflammatory in comparison to 0.5 mg/cm2 of
fluocinolone acetonide. Niosomal encapsulation of the AC
significantly prolonged the anti-inflammatory activity particularly at
8 h after topical application (p = 0.0001). The AC was not cytotoxic
and its anti-inflammatory and activity was dose-dependent and
prolonged by niosomal encapsulation. It has also shown to promote
collagen type 1 production in cell culture. Thus, AC could be a
potential candidate for topical anti-inflammatory agent from natural
resources.