Abstract: The principal objective of this study is to be able to
extract niobium oxide from columbite-tantalite concentrate of Thayet
Kon Area in Nay Phi Taw. It is recovered from columbite-tantalite
concentrate which contains 19.29 % Nb2O5.The recovery of niobium
oxide from columbite-tantalite concentrate can be divided into three
main sections, namely, digestion of the concentrate, recovery from
the leached solution and precipitation and calcinations. The
concentrate was digested with hydrofluoric acid and sulfuric acid. Of
the various parameters that effect acidity and time were studied. In
the recovery section solvent extraction process using methyl isobutyl
ketone was investigated. Ammonium hydroxide was used as a
precipitating agent and the precipitate was later calcined. The
percentage of niobium oxide is 74%.
Abstract: The problem of frequent pattern discovery is defined
as the process of searching for patterns such as sets of features or items that appear in data frequently. Finding such frequent patterns
has become an important data mining task because it reveals associations, correlations, and many other interesting relationships
hidden in a database. Most of the proposed frequent pattern mining
algorithms have been implemented with imperative programming
languages. Such paradigm is inefficient when set of patterns is large
and the frequent pattern is long. We suggest a high-level declarative
style of programming apply to the problem of frequent pattern
discovery. We consider two languages: Haskell and Prolog. Our
intuitive idea is that the problem of finding frequent patterns should
be efficiently and concisely implemented via a declarative paradigm
since pattern matching is a fundamental feature supported by most
functional languages and Prolog. Our frequent pattern mining
implementation using the Haskell and Prolog languages confirms our
hypothesis about conciseness of the program. The comparative
performance studies on line-of-code, speed and memory usage of
declarative versus imperative programming have been reported in the
paper.
Abstract: The availability of water in adequate quantity and
quality is imperative for sustainable development. Worldwide,
significant imbalance exists with regards to sustainable development
particularly from a water and sanitation perspective. Water is a
critical component of public health, and failure to supply safe water
will place a heavy burden on the entire population. Although the 21st
century has witnessed wealth and advanced development, it has not
been realized everywhere. Billions of people are still striving to
access the most basic human needs which are food, shelter, safe
drinking water and adequate sanitation. The global picture conceals
various inequalities particularly with regards to sanitation coverage in
rural and urban areas. Currently, water scarcity and in particular
water governance is the main challenge which will cause a threat to
sustainable development goals. Within the context of water,
sanitation and health, sustainable development is a confusing concept
primarily when examined from the viewpoint of policy options for
developing countries. This perspective paper aims to summarize and
critically evaluate evidence of published studies in relation to water,
sanitation and health and to identify relevant solutions to reduce
public health impacts. Evidently, improving water and sanitation
services will result in significant and lasting gains in health and
economic development.
Abstract: In this paper is reported an analysis about the outdoor air pollution of the urban centre of the city of Messina. The variations of the most critical pollutants concentrations (PM10, O3, CO, C6H6) and their trends respect of climatic parameters and vehicular traffic have been studied. Linear regressions have been effectuated for representing the relations among the pollutants; the differences between pollutants concentrations on weekend/weekday were also analyzed. In order to evaluate air pollution and its effects on human health, a method for calculating a pollution index was implemented and applied in the urban centre of the city. This index is based on the weighted mean of the most detrimental air pollutants concentrations respect of their limit values for protection of human health. The analyzed data of the polluting substances were collected by the Assessorship of the Environment of the Regional Province of Messina in the year 2004. A statistical analysis of the air quality index trends is also reported.
Abstract: Sophorolipids (SLs) production by the yeast Candida
bombicola was studied in batch shake flasks using synthetic dairy
wastewaters (SDWW) with or without any added external carbon and
nitrogen sources. A maximum SLs production of 38.76 g/l was
observed with the SDWW supplemented with low cost substrate of
sugarcane molasses at 50 g/l and soybean oil at 50 g/l. When the
SDWW was supplemented with more costly glucose, yeast extract,
urea and soybean oil, the production, however, got lowered to only
29.49 g/l, but with a maximum biomass production of 17.38 g/l
together with a complete utilization of the carbon sources.
Abstract: Without uncertainty by applying external loads on
beams, bending is created. The created bending in I-beams, puts one
of the flanges in tension and the other one in compression. With increasing of bending, compression flange buckled and beam in out
of its plane direction twisted, this twisting well-known as Lateral Torsional Buckling. Providing bending moment varieties along the
beam, the critical moment is greater than the case its under pure bending. In other words, the value of bending gradient coefficient is
always greater than unite. In this article by the use of " ANSYS 10.0" software near 80 3-D finite element models developed for the
propose of analyzing beams` lateral torsional buckling and surveying influence of slenderness on beams' bending gradient coefficient.
Results show that, presented Cb coefficient via AISC is not correct for some of beams and value of this coefficient is smaller than what proposed by AISC. Therefore instead of using a constant Cb for each
case of loading , a function with two criterion for calculation of Cb coefficient for some cases is proposed.
Abstract: At present, the severe oil crisis and greenhouse effect are booming, which is a growing worry for China. Over a long period of study, choosing the development of biological diesel is a feasible way in the desertification region in China. With considering the adaptability of Micro-algae in desertification region and analyzing energy consumption and carbon calculations of Micro-algae biodiesel produced by JJ company , this paper, make the microalgae our optimal choice to develop biological diesel in china's desertification region.
Abstract: The inhibition effect of brazilin to human bladder
tumor cell line T24 in vitro and in vivo was studied. The results of the
in vitro experiments showed that brazilin has strong inhibition activity
on the target cells. The inhibition ratio of 100 μg/mL brazilin and 100
μg/mL mitomycin to the target cells was 90.90 % and 63.24 %
respectively, which showed that brazilin has higher inhibition activity
than mitomycin under the same concentration. Brazilin could induce
cell apoptosis in T24 cells. Significant antitumor activity of brazilin
was also showed in the animals experiments. The life extention rate of
200 mg/mL, 300 mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg brazilin intraperitoneally
injected into Balb/c-nu-nu nude mice that with human bladder cancer
were 51.50 %, 56.90 %, and 58.42 %（P
Abstract: This research paper is based upon the simulation of
gradient of mathematical functions and scalar fields using MATLAB.
Scalar fields, their gradient, contours and mesh/surfaces are
simulated using different related MATLAB tools and commands for
convenient presentation and understanding. Different mathematical
functions and scalar fields are examined here by taking their
gradient, visualizing results in 3D with different color shadings and
using other necessary relevant commands. In this way the outputs of
required functions help us to analyze and understand in a better way
as compared to just theoretical study of gradient.
Abstract: Data mining has been integrated into application systems to enhance the quality of the decision-making process. This study aims to focus on the integration of data mining technology and Knowledge Management System (KMS), due to the ability of data mining technology to create useful knowledge from large volumes of data. Meanwhile, KMS vitally support the creation and use of knowledge. The integration of data mining technology and KMS are popularly used in business for enhancing and sustaining organizational performance. However, there is a lack of studies that applied data mining technology and KMS in the education sector; particularly students- academic performance since this could reflect the IHL performance. Realizing its importance, this study seeks to integrate data mining technology and KMS to promote an effective management of knowledge within IHLs. Several concepts from literature are adapted, for proposing the new integrative data mining technology and KMS framework to an IHL.
Abstract: Database management systems that integrate user preferences promise better solution for personalization, greater flexibility and higher quality of query responses. This paper presents a tentative work that studies and investigates approaches to express user preferences in queries. We sketch an extend capabilities of SQLf language that uses the fuzzy set theory in order to define the user preferences. For that, two essential points are considered: the first concerns the expression of user preferences in SQLf by so-called fuzzy commensurable predicates set. The second concerns the bipolar way in which these user preferences are expressed on mandatory and/or optional preferences.
Abstract: This paper deals with a design method of a discrete
modified Internal Model Control (IMC) for a plant with an integrator
and dead time. If there is a load disturbance in the input or output side
of the plant, the proposed control system can eliminate the steady-state
error caused by it. The disturbance compensator in this method is
simple and its order is low regardless of that of a plant. The simulation
studies show that the proposed method has superior performance for a
load disturbance rejection and robustness.
Abstract: This study describes a micro device integrated with
multi-chamber for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with different
annealing temperatures. The device consists of the reaction
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip, a cover glass chip, and is
equipped with cartridge heaters, fans, and thermocouples for
temperature control. In this prototype, commercial software is utilized
to determine the geometric and operational parameters those are
responsible for creating the denaturation, annealing, and extension
temperatures within the chip. Two cartridge heaters are placed at two
sides of the chip and maintained at two different temperatures to
achieve a thermal gradient on the chip during the annealing step. The
temperatures on the chip surface are measured via an infrared imager.
Some thermocouples inserted into the reaction chambers are used to
obtain the transient temperature profiles of the reaction chambers
during several thermal cycles. The experimental temperatures
compared to the simulated results show a similar trend. This work
should be interesting to persons involved in the high-temperature
based reactions and genomics or cell analysis.
Abstract: Consumer behaviour analysis represents an important
field of study in marketing. Particularly strategy development for
marketing and communications will be more focused and effective
when marketers have an understanding of the motivations, behaviour
and psychology of consumers. While materialism has been found to
be one of the important elements in consumer behaviour, compulsive
consumption represents another aspect that has recently attracted
more attention. This is because of the growing prevalence of
dysfunctional buying that has raised concern in consumer societies.
Present studies and analyses on origins and motivations of
compulsive buying have mainly focused on either individual factors
or groups of related factors and hence a need for a holistic view
exists. This paper provides a comprehensive perspective on
compulsive consumption and establishes relevant propositions
keeping the family life cycle stages as a reference for the incidence of
chronic consumer states and their influence on compulsive
consumption.
Abstract: DG application has received increasing attention during
recent years. The impact of DG on various aspects of distribution system
operation, such as reliability and energy loss, depend highly on DG
location in distribution feeder. Optimal DG placement is an important
subject which has not been fully discussed yet.
This paper presents an optimization method to determine optimal DG
placement, based on a cost/worth analysis approach. This method
considers technical and economical factors such as energy loss, load point
reliability indices and DG costs, and particularly, portability of DG. The
proposed method is applied to a test system and the impacts of different
parameters such as load growth rate and load forecast uncertainty (LFU)
on optimum DG location are studied.
Abstract: Various formal and informal brand alliances are being formed in professional service firms. Professional service corporate brand is heavily dependent on brands of professional employees who comprise them, and professional employee brands are in turn dependent on the corporate brand. Prior work provides limited scientific evidence of brand alliance effects in professional service area – i.e., how professional service corporate-employee brand allies are affected by an alliance, what are brand attitude effects after alliance formation and how these effects vary with different strengths of an ally. Scientific literature analysis and theoretical modeling are the main methods of the current study. As a result, a theoretical model is constructed for estimating spillover effects of professional service corporate-employee brand alliances and for comparison among different professional service firm expertise practice models – from “brains" to “procedure" model. The resulting theoretical model lays basis for future experimental studies.
Abstract: Volume rendering is widely used in medical CT image
visualization. Applying 3D image visualization to diagnosis
application can require accurate volume rendering with high
resolution. Interpolation is important in medical image processing
applications such as image compression or volume resampling.
However, it can distort the original image data because of edge
blurring or blocking effects when image enhancement procedures
were applied. In this paper, we proposed adaptive tension control
method exploiting gradient information to achieve high resolution
medical image enhancement in volume visualization, where restored
images are similar to original images as much as possible. The
experimental results show that the proposed method can improve
image quality associated with the adaptive tension control efficacy.
Abstract: The experiment was conducted to study the effect of
rearing systems on fatty acid composition and cholesterol content of
Thai indigenous chicken meat. Three hundred and sixty chicks were
allocated to 2 different rearing systems: conventional, housing in an
indoor pen (5 birds/m2); free-range, housing in an indoor pen (5
birds/m2) with access to a grass paddock (1 bird/m2) from 8 wk of age
until slaughter. All birds were provided with the same diet during the
experimental period. At 16 wk of age, 24 birds per group were
slaughtered to evaluate the fatty acid composition and cholesterol
content of breast and thigh meat. The results showed that the
proportion of SFA, MUFA and PUFA in breast and thigh meat were
not different among groups (P>0.05). However, the proportion of n-3
fatty acids was higher and the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids was lower
in free-range system than in conventional system (P0.05). The data indicated that the free-range system
could increase the proportion of n-3 fatty acids, but no effect on
cholesterol content in Thai indigenous chicken meat.
Abstract: In this work, the condensation fraction and transition
temperature of neutral many bosonic system are studied within the
static fluctuation approximation (SFA). The effect of the potential
parameters such as the strength and range on the condensate fraction
was investigated. A model potential consisting of a repulsive step
potential and an attractive potential well was used. As the potential
strength or the core radius of the repulsive part increases, the
condensation fraction is found to be decreased at the same
temperature. Also, as the potential depth or the range of the attractive
part increases, the condensation fraction is found to be increased. The
transition temperature is decreased as the potential strength or the
core radius of the repulsive part increases, and it increases as the
potential depth or the range of the attractive part increases.
Abstract: One of the basic concepts in marketing is the concept
of meeting customers- needs. Since customer satisfaction is essential
for lasting survival and development of a business, screening and
observing customer satisfaction and recognizing its underlying
factors must be one of the key activities of every business.
The purpose of this study is to recognize the drivers that effect
customer satisfaction in a business-to-business situation in order to
improve marketing activities. We conducted a survey in which 93
business customers of a manufacturer of Diesel Generator in Iran
participated and they talked about their ideas and satisfaction of
supplier-s services related to its products. We developed the measures
for drivers of satisfaction first by as investigative research (by means
of feedback from executives and customers of sponsoring firm). Then
based on these measures, we created a mail survey, and asked the
respondents to explain their opinion about the sponsoring firm which
was a supplier of diesel generator and similar products. Furthermore,
the survey required the participants to mention their functional areas
and their company features.
In Conclusion we found that there are three drivers for customer
satisfaction, which are reliability, information about product, and
commercial features. Buyers/users from different functional areas
attribute different degree of importance to the last two drivers. For
instance, people from buying and management areas believe that
commercial features are more important than information about
products. But people in engineering, maintenance and production
areas believe that having information about products is more
important than commercial aspects. Marketing experts should
consider the attribute of customers regarding information about the
product and commercial features to improve market share.