Abstract: The equilibrium, thermodynamics and kinetics of the
biosorption of Cd (II) and Pb(II) by a Spore Forming Bacillus (MGL
75) were investigated at different experimental conditions. The
Langmuir and Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R)
equilibrium adsorption models were applied to describe the
biosorption of the metal ions by MGL 75 biomass. The Langmuir
model fitted the equilibrium data better than the other models.
Maximum adsorption capacities q max for lead (II) and cadmium (II)
were found equal to 158.73mg/g and 91.74 mg/g by Langmuir model.
The values of the mean free energy determined with the D-R equation
showed that adsorption process is a physiosorption process. The
thermodynamic parameters Gibbs free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°),
and entropy (ΔS°) changes were also calculated, and the values
indicated that the biosorption process was exothermic and
spontaneous. Experiment data were also used to study biosorption
kinetics using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic
models. Kinetic parameters, rate constants, equilibrium sorption
capacities and related correlation coefficients were calculated and
discussed. The results showed that the biosorption processes of both
metal ions followed well pseudo-second-order kinetics.
Abstract: In this paper, we consider the problem of logic simplification for a special class of logic functions, namely complementary Boolean functions (CBF), targeting low power implementation using static CMOS logic style. The functions are uniquely characterized by the presence of terms, where for a canonical binary 2-tuple, D(mj) ∪ D(mk) = { } and therefore, we have | D(mj) ∪ D(mk) | = 0 [19]. Similarly, D(Mj) ∪ D(Mk) = { } and hence | D(Mj) ∪ D(Mk) | = 0. Here, 'mk' and 'Mk' represent a minterm and maxterm respectively. We compare the circuits minimized with our proposed method with those corresponding to factored Reed-Muller (f-RM) form, factored Pseudo Kronecker Reed-Muller (f-PKRM) form, and factored Generalized Reed-Muller (f-GRM) form. We have opted for algebraic factorization of the Reed-Muller (RM) form and its different variants, using the factorization rules of [1], as it is simple and requires much less CPU execution time compared to Boolean factorization operations. This technique has enabled us to greatly reduce the literal count as well as the gate count needed for such RM realizations, which are generally prone to consuming more cells and subsequently more power consumption. However, this leads to a drawback in terms of the design-for-test attribute associated with the various RM forms. Though we still preserve the definition of those forms viz. realizing such functionality with only select types of logic gates (AND gate and XOR gate), the structural integrity of the logic levels is not preserved. This would consequently alter the testability properties of such circuits i.e. it may increase/decrease/maintain the same number of test input vectors needed for their exhaustive testability, subsequently affecting their generalized test vector computation. We do not consider the issue of design-for-testability here, but, instead focus on the power consumption of the final logic implementation, after realization with a conventional CMOS process technology (0.35 micron TSMC process). The quality of the resulting circuits evaluated on the basis of an established cost metric viz., power consumption, demonstrate average savings by 26.79% for the samples considered in this work, besides reduction in number of gates and input literals by 39.66% and 12.98% respectively, in comparison with other factored RM forms.
Abstract: In the present work we report a gram negative
bacterial isolate, from soil of a dye industry, with promising
biorefining and bioremediation potential. This isolate (GBS.5) could
utilize carbazole (nitrogen containing polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbon) as the sole source of nitrogen and carbon and utilize
almost 98% of 3mM carbazole in 100 hours. The specific activity of
our GBS.5 isolate for carbazole degradation at 30°C and pH 7.0 was
found to be 11.36 μmol/min/g dry cell weight as compared to 10.4
μmol/min/g dry cell weight, the highest reported specific activity till
date. The presence of car genes (the genes involved in
denitrogenation of carbazole) was confirmed through PCR
amplification.
Abstract: DNA shuffling is a powerful method used for in vitro
evolute molecules with specific functions and has application in areas
such as, for example, pharmaceutical, medical and agricultural
research. The success of such experiments is dependent on a variety
of parameters and conditions that, sometimes, can not be properly
pre-established. Here, two computational models predicting DNA
shuffling results is presented and their use and results are evaluated
against an empirical experiment. The in silico and in vitro results
show agreement indicating the importance of these two models and
motivating the study and development of new models.
Abstract: Structural behavior of ring stiffened thick walled
cylinders made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) is
investigated in this paper. Functionally graded materials are inhomogeneous composites which are usually made from a mixture
of metal and ceramic. The gradient compositional variation of the
constituents from one surface to the other provides an elegant solution to the problem of high transverse shear stresses that are
induced when two dissimilar materials with large differences in material properties are bonded. FGM formation of the cylinder is
modeled by power-law exponent and the variation of characteristics is supposed to be in radial direction.
A finite element formulation is derived for the analysis. According to the property variation of the constituent materials in the radial
direction of the wall, it is not convenient to use conventional elements to model and analyze the structure of the stiffened FGM
cylinders. In this paper a new cylindrical super-element is used to model the finite element formulation and analyze the static and
modal behavior of stiffened FGM thick walled cylinders. By using
this super-element the number of elements, which are needed for
modeling, will reduce significantly and the process time is less in comparison with conventional finite element formulations. Results for static and modal analysis are evaluated and verified by
comparison to finite element formulation with conventional
elements. Comparison indicates a good conformity between results.
Abstract: This paper features the modeling and design of a Fast
Output Sampling (FOS) Feedback control technique for the Active
Vibration Control (AVC) of a smart flexible aluminium cantilever
beam for a Single Input Single Output (SISO) case. Controllers are
designed for the beam by bonding patches of piezoelectric layer as
sensor / actuator to the master structure at different locations along
the length of the beam by retaining the first 2 dominant vibratory
modes. The entire structure is modeled in state space form using the
concept of piezoelectric theory, Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, Finite
Element Method (FEM) and the state space techniques by dividing
the structure into 3, 4, 5 finite elements, thus giving rise to three
types of systems, viz., system 1 (beam divided into 3 finite
elements), system 2 (4 finite elements), system 3 (5 finite elements).
The effect of placing the sensor / actuator at various locations along
the length of the beam for all the 3 types of systems considered is
observed and the conclusions are drawn for the best performance and
for the smallest magnitude of the control input required to control the
vibrations of the beam. Simulations are performed in MATLAB. The
open loop responses, closed loop responses and the tip displacements
with and without the controller are obtained and the performance of
the proposed smart system is evaluated for vibration control.
Abstract: Goat milk has an hypoallergenic effects, and allergic
diseases related to abnormal of intestinal flora. Probiotic microorganisms
do exert an activity on the immune system in the skin of
the individual.The purpose of this study are to determine the number
of leukocyte and lymphocyte proliferation in rat supplemented with
fermented goat milk (acidophilus milk and kefir) and sensitized with
dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Female Wistar rats 6-8 weeks olds
were divided into 3 treatment groups. The first group supplemented
goat milk kefir, second group acidophilus goat milk, and third group
as control. During 28-day experiment, on day 15 rat sensitized with
allergen DNCB on the dorsal of the body, and on day 24 was
challenged with DNCB on the ear. Sampling of blood and tissue of
intestinal Peyer'patch (PP) were performed on day 14 (before DNCB
sensitized) and on day 28 (after DNCB sensitized). The results
showed the number of neutrophils in rats supplemented with
acidophilus milk was higher (P
Abstract: The precision of heat flux simulation influences the
temperature field and test aberration for TB test and also reflects the
test level for spacecraft development. This paper describes TB tests for
a small satellite using solar simulator, electric heaters, calrod heaters
to evaluate the difference of the three methods. Under the same
boundary condition, calrod heaters cases were about 6oC higher than
solar simulator cases and electric heaters cases for
non-external-heat-flux cases (extreme low temperature cases). While
calrod heaters cases and electric heaters cases were 5~7oC and 2~3oC
lower than solar simulator cases respectively for high temperature
cases. The results show that the solar simulator is better than calrod
heaters for its better collimation, non-homogeneity and stability.
Abstract: The Internet is the global data communications
infrastructure based on the interconnection of both public and private
networks using protocols that implement Internetworking on a global
scale. Hence the control of protocol and infrastructure development,
resource allocation and network operation are crucial and interlinked
aspects. Internet Governance is the hotly debated and contentious
subject that refers to the global control and operation of key Internet
infrastructure such as domain name servers and resources such as
domain names. It is impossible to separate technical and political
positions as they are interlinked. Furthermore the existence of a
global market, transparency and competition impact upon Internet
Governance and related topics such as network neutrality and
security. Current trends and developments regarding Internet
governance with a focus on the policy-making process, security and
control have been observed to evaluate current and future
implications on the Internet. The multi stakeholder approach to
Internet Governance discussed in this paper presents a number of
opportunities, issues and developments that will affect the future
direction of the Internet. Internet operation, maintenance and
advisory organisations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) or the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF) are currently in the process of formulating policies for future
Internet Governance. Given the controversial nature of the issues at
stake and the current lack of agreement it is predicted that
institutional as well as market governance will remain present for the
network access and content.
Abstract: In this paper electrical characteristics of various kinds
of multiple-gate silicon nanowire transistors (SNWT) with the
channel length equal to 7 nm are compared. A fully ballistic quantum
mechanical transport approach based on NEGF was employed to
analyses electrical characteristics of rectangular and cylindrical
silicon nanowire transistors as well as a Double gate MOS FET. A
double gate, triple gate, and gate all around nano wires were studied
to investigate the impact of increasing the number of gates on the
control of the short channel effect which is important in nanoscale
devices. Also in the case of triple gate rectangular SNWT inserting
extra gates on the bottom of device can improve the application of
device. The results indicate that by using gate all around structures
short channel effects such as DIBL, subthreshold swing and delay
reduces.
Abstract: To evaluate the ability to predict xerostomia after
radiotherapy, we constructed and compared neural network and
logistic regression models. In this study, 61 patients who completed a
questionnaire about their quality of life (QoL) before and after a full
course of radiation therapy were included. Based on this questionnaire,
some statistical data about the condition of the patients’ salivary
glands were obtained, and these subjects were included as the inputs of
the neural network and logistic regression models in order to predict
the probability of xerostomia. Seven variables were then selected from
the statistical data according to Cramer’s V and point-biserial
correlation values and were trained by each model to obtain the
respective outputs which were 0.88 and 0.89 for AUC, 9.20 and 7.65
for SSE, and 13.7% and 19.0% for MAPE, respectively. These
parameters demonstrate that both neural network and logistic
regression methods are effective for predicting conditions of parotid
glands.
Abstract: In this study, active tendons with Proportional Integral
Derivation type controllers were applied to a SDOF and a MDOF
building model. Physical models of buildings were constituted with
virtual springs, dampers and rigid masses. After that, equations of
motion of all degrees of freedoms were obtained. Matlab Simulink
was utilized to obtain the block diagrams for these equations of
motion. Parameters for controller actions were found by using a trial
method. After earthquake acceleration data were applied to the
systems, building characteristics such as displacements, velocities,
accelerations and transfer functions were analyzed for all degrees of
freedoms. Comparisons on displacement vs. time, velocity vs. time,
acceleration vs. time and transfer function (Db) vs. frequency (Hz)
were made for uncontrolled and controlled buildings. The results
show that the method seems feasible.
Abstract: This paper suggests an improved integer frequency
offset (IFO) estimation scheme using P1 symbol for orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based the second generation
terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T2) system. Proposed
IFO estimator is designed by a low-complexity blind IFO estimation
scheme, which is implemented with complex additions. Also, we
propose active carriers (ACs) selection scheme in order to prevent
performance degradation in blind IFO estimation. The simulation
results show that under the AWGN and TU6 channels, the proposed
method has low complexity than conventional method and almost
similar performance in comparison with the conventional method.
Abstract: PPX(Pretty Printer for XML) is a query language that offers a concise description method of formatting the XML data into HTML. In this paper, we propose a simple specification of formatting method that is a combination description of automatic layout operators and variables in the layout expression of the GENERATE clause of PPX. This method can automatically format irregular XML data included in a part of XML with layout decision rule that is referred to DTD. In the experiment, a quick comparison shows that PPX requires far less description compared to XSLT or XQuery programs doing same tasks.
Abstract: Many footbridges have natural frequencies that
coincide with the dominant frequencies of the pedestrian-induced
load and therefore they have a potential to suffer excessive vibrations
under dynamic loads induced by pedestrians. Some of the design
standards introduce load models for pedestrian loads applicable for
simple structures. Load modeling for more complex structures, on the
other hand, is most often left to the designer. The main focus of this
paper is on the human induced forces transmitted to a footbridge and
on the ways these loads can be modeled to be used in the dynamic
design of footbridges. Also design criteria and load models proposed
by widely used standards were introduced and a comparison was
made. The dynamic analysis of the suspension bridge in Kolin in the
Czech Republic was performed on detailed FEM model using the
ANSYS program system. An attempt to model the load imposed by a
single person and a crowd of pedestrians resulted in displacements
and accelerations that are compared with serviceability criteria.
Abstract: In this investigation, types of commercial and special
polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers contain sodium 2-methyl-2-
acrylamidopropane sulfonate (SAMPS) and itaconic acid (IA)
comonomers were studied by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)
spectroscopy. The study of FT-IR spectra of PAN fibers samples
with different comonomers shows that during stabilization of PAN
fibers, the peaks related to C≡N bonds and CH2 are reduced sharply.
These reductions are related to cyclization of nitrile groups and
stabilization procedure. This reduction in PAN fibers contain IA
comonomer is very intense in comparison with PAN fibers contain
SAMPS comonomer. This fact indicates the cycling and stabilization
for sample contain IA comonomer have been conducted more
completely. Therefore the carbon fibers produced from this material
have higher tensile strength due to suitable stabilization.
Abstract: This paper presents the buckling analysis of short and
long functionally graded cylindrical shells under thermal and
mechanical loads. The shell properties are assumed to vary
continuously from the inner surface to the outer surface of the shell.
The equilibrium and stability equations are derived using the total
potential energy equations, Euler equations and first order shear
deformation theory assumptions. The resulting equations are solved
for simply supported boundary conditions. The critical temperature
and pressure loads are calculated for both short and long cylindrical
shells. Comparison studies show the effects of functionally graded
index, loading type and shell geometry on critical buckling loads of
short and long functionally graded cylindrical shells.
Abstract: In this paper we present a method for gene ranking
from DNA microarray data. More precisely, we calculate the correlation
networks, which are unweighted and undirected graphs, from
microarray data of cervical cancer whereas each network represents
a tissue of a certain tumor stage and each node in the network
represents a gene. From these networks we extract one tree for
each gene by a local decomposition of the correlation network. The
interpretation of a tree is that it represents the n-nearest neighbor
genes on the n-th level of a tree, measured by the Dijkstra distance,
and, hence, gives the local embedding of a gene within the correlation
network. For the obtained trees we measure the pairwise similarity
between trees rooted by the same gene from normal to cancerous
tissues. This evaluates the modification of the tree topology due to
progression of the tumor. Finally, we rank the obtained similarity
values from all tissue comparisons and select the top ranked genes.
For these genes the local neighborhood in the correlation networks
changes most between normal and cancerous tissues. As a result
we find that the top ranked genes are candidates suspected to be
involved in tumor growth and, hence, indicates that our method
captures essential information from the underlying DNA microarray
data of cervical cancer.
Abstract: In this article, a method has been offered to classify
normal and defective tiles using wavelet transform and artificial
neural networks. The proposed algorithm calculates max and min
medians as well as the standard deviation and average of detail
images obtained from wavelet filters, then comes by feature vectors
and attempts to classify the given tile using a Perceptron neural
network with a single hidden layer. In this study along with the
proposal of using median of optimum points as the basic feature and
its comparison with the rest of the statistical features in the wavelet
field, the relational advantages of Haar wavelet is investigated. This
method has been experimented on a number of various tile designs
and in average, it has been valid for over 90% of the cases. Amongst
the other advantages, high speed and low calculating load are
prominent.
Abstract: In this paper, a plane-strain orthotropic elasto-plastic
dynamic constitutive model is established, and with this constitutive
model, the thermal shock wave induced by intense pulsed X-ray
radiation in cylinder shell composite is simulated by the finite element
code, then the properties of thermal shock wave propagation are
discussed. The results show that the thermal shock wave exhibit
different shapes under the radiation of soft and hard X-ray, and while
the composite is radiated along different principal axes, great
differences exist in some aspects, such as attenuation of the peak stress
value, spallation and so on.