Abstract: Liners are made to protect the groundwater table from
the infiltration of leachate which normally carries different kinds of
toxic materials from landfills. Although these liners are engineered to
last for long period of time; unfortunately these liners fail; therefore,
toxic materials pass to groundwater. This paper focuses on the
changes of the hydraulic conductivity of a sand-bentonite liner due to
the infiltration of biofuel and ethanol fuel. Series of laboratory tests
were conducted in 20-cm-high PVC columns. Several compositions
of sand-bentonite liners were tested: 95% sand: 5% bentonite; 90%
sand: 10% bentonite; and 100% sand (passed mesh #40). The
columns were subjected to extreme pressures of 40 kPa, and 100 kPa
to evaluate the transport of alternative fuels (biofuel and ethanol
fuel). For comparative studies, similar tests were carried out using
water. Results showed that hydraulic conductivity increased due to
the infiltration of alternative fuels through the liners. Accordingly,
the increase in the hydraulic conductivity showed significant
dependency on the type of liner mixture and the characteristics of the
liquid. The hydraulic conductivity of a liner (subjected to biofuel
infiltration) consisting of 5% bentonite: 95% sand under pressure of
40 kPa and 100 kPa had increased by one fold. In addition, the
hydraulic conductivity of a liner consisting of 10% bentonite: 90%
sand under pressure of 40 kPa and 100 kPa and infiltrated by biofuel
had increased by three folds. On the other hand, the results obtained
by water infiltration under 40 kPa showed lower hydraulic
conductivities of 1.50×10-5 and 1.37×10-9 cm/s for 5% bentonite:
95% sand, and 10% bentonite: 90% sand, respectively. Similarly,
under 100 kPa, the hydraulic conductivities were 2.30×10-5 and
1.90×10-9 cm/s for 5% bentonite: 95% sand, and 10% bentonite: 90%
sand, respectively.
Abstract: Structured catalysts formed from the growth of
zeolites on substrates is an area of increasing interest due to the
increased efficiency of the catalytic process, and the ability to
provide superior heat transfer and thermal conductivity for both
exothermic and endothermic processes.
However, the generation of structured catalysts represents a
significant challenge when balancing the relationship variables
between materials properties and catalytic performance, with the
Na2O, H2O and Al2O3 gel composition paying a significant role in
this dynamic, thereby affecting the both the type and range of
application.
The structured catalyst films generated as part of this
investigation have been characterised using a range of techniques,
including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron microscopy (SEM),
Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Thermogravimetric
Analysis (TGA), with the transition from oxide-on-alloy wires to
hydrothermally synthesised uniformly zeolite coated surfaces being
demonstrated using both SEM and XRD. The robustness of the
coatings has been ascertained by subjecting these to thermal cycling
(ambient to 550oC), with the results indicating that the synthesis time
and gel compositions have a crucial effect on the quality of zeolite
growth on the FeCrAlloy wires.
Finally, the activity of the structured catalyst was verified by a
series of comparison experiments with standard zeolite Y catalysts in
powdered pelleted forms.
Abstract: This paper deals with modeling and parameter
identification of nonlinear systems described by Hammerstein model
having Piecewise nonlinear characteristics such as Dead-zone
nonlinearity characteristic. The simultaneous use of both an easy
decomposition technique and the triangular basis functions leads to a
particular form of Hammerstein model. The approximation by using
Triangular basis functions for the description of the static nonlinear
block conducts to a linear regressor model, so that least squares
techniques can be used for the parameter estimation. Singular Values
Decomposition (SVD) technique has been applied to separate the
coupled parameters. The proposed approach has been efficiently
tested on academic examples of simulation.
Abstract: Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) has become a
popular non-invasive tool for assessing the activities of autonomic
nervous system. Most of the methods were hired from techniques
used for time series analysis. Currently used methods are time
domain, frequency domain, geometrical and fractal methods. A new
technique, which searches for pattern repeatability in a time series, is
proposed for quantifying heart rate (HR) time series. These set of
indices, which are termed as pattern repeatability measure and
pattern repeatability ratio are able to distinguish HR data clearly
from noise and electroencephalogram (EEG). The results of analysis
using these measures give an insight into the fundamental difference
between the composition of HR time series with respect to EEG and
noise.
Abstract: In analyzing large scale nonlinear dynamical systems,
it is often desirable to treat the overall system as a collection of
interconnected subsystems. Solutions properties of the large scale
system are then deduced from the solution properties of the
individual subsystems and the nature of the interconnections. In this
paper a new approach is proposed for the stability analysis of large
scale systems, which is based upon the concept of vector Lyapunov
functions and the decomposition methods. The present results make
use of graph theoretic decomposition techniques in which the overall
system is partitioned into a hierarchy of strongly connected
components. We show then, that under very reasonable assumptions,
the overall system is stable once the strongly connected subsystems
are stables. Finally an example is given to illustrate the constructive
methodology proposed.
Abstract: The Zung self-depression scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used both to study the depression and anxiety levels of Armenian Crohn’s disease patients, and to reveal the relation between emotional status and placebo effect of these patients. On the other hand, the blood cell analyses and gut bacteria investigations were used to assess the placebo effect on ESR, and haemoglobin-s and leukocyte-s levels as well as gut commensal E. coli quantities of these patients. Despite of registered high levels of depression and anxiety, the high placebo effect on psychoemotional status for investigated patients during the investigations was described. On the other hand, no positive effect of placebo on measurements of ESP and hemoglobin-s levels of Crohn’s disease patients was revealed. The importance of use of psychotherapies for optimal outcomes during treatments of Crohn’s disease is discussed.
Abstract: In this note first we define the notions of intuitionistic
fuzzy dual positive implicative hyper K-ideals of types
1,2,3,4 and intuitionistic fuzzy dual hyper K-ideals. Then we
give some classifications about these notions according to the
level subsets. Also by given some examples we show that these
notions are not equivalent, however we prove some theorems
which show that there are some relationships between these
notions. Finally we define the notions of product and antiproduct
of two fuzzy subsets and then give some theorems
about the relationships between the intuitionistic fuzzy dual
positive implicative hyper K-ideal of types 1,2,3,4 and their
(anti-)products, in particular we give a main decomposition
theorem.
Abstract: Materials used on exterior spacecraft surfaces are subjected to many environmental threats which can cause degradation, atomic oxygen is one of the most threats. We prepared organic silicon atomic-oxygen-protection film using method of polymerization. This paper presented the effects on the film structure and its durability of the preparation processing, and analyzed the polymerization theory, the film structure and composition of the film. At last, we tested the film in our ground based atomic oxygen simulator, and indicated that the film worked well.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to investigate biodegradation of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to produce bioethanol using dilute-acid pretreatment (1% sulfuric acid) results in high hemicellulose decomposition and using yeast (Pachysolen tannophilus) as bioethanol producing strain. A maximum ethanol yield of 1.14g/L with coefficient, 0.24g g-1; productivity, 0.015g l-1h-1 was comparable to predicted value 32.05g/L obtained by Central Composite Design (CCD). Maximum ethanol yield coefficient was comparable to those obtained through enzymatic saccharification and fermentation of acid hydrolysate using fully equipped fermentor. Although maximum ethanol concentration was low in lab scale, the improvement of lignocellulosic ethanol yield is necessary for large scale production.
Abstract: This study was carried out to reveal the bacterial composition of aerosol in the studied abattoirs. Bacteria isolated were characterized according to microbiological standards. Factors such as temperature and distance were considered as variable in this study. The isolation was carried out at different temperatures such as 27oC, 31oC and 29oC and at various distances of 100meters and 200meters away from the slaughter sites. Result obtained showed that strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus alimentarius and Micrococcus sp. were identified. The total viable counts showed that more microorganisms were present in the morning while the least viable count of 388cfu was recorded in the evening period of this study. This study also showed that more microbial loads were recorded the further the distance is to the slaughter site. Conclusively, the array of bacteria isolated suggests that abattoir sites may be a potential source of pathogenic organisms to commuters if located within residential environment.
Abstract: InGaAsN and GaAsN epitaxial layers with similar
nitrogen compositions in a sample were successfully grown on a
GaAs (001) substrate by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. An
electron cyclotron resonance nitrogen plasma source has been used to
generate atomic nitrogen during the growth of the nitride layers. The
indium composition changed from sample to sample to give
compressive and tensile strained InGaAsN layers. Layer
characteristics have been assessed by high-resolution x-ray
diffraction to determine the relationship between the lattice constant
of the GaAs1-yNy layer and the fraction x of In. The objective was to
determine the In fraction x in an InxGa1-xAs1-yNy epitaxial layer which
exactly cancels the strain present in a GaAs1-yNy epitaxial layer with
the same nitrogen content when grown on a GaAs substrate.
Abstract: This paper makes a detailed analysis regarding the definition of the intrinsic mode function and proves that Condition 1 of the intrinsic mode function can really be deduced from Condition 2. Finally, an improved definition of the intrinsic mode function is given.
Abstract: As a method of expanding a higher-order tensor data to tensor products of vectors we have proposed the Third-order Orthogonal Tensor Product Expansion (3OTPE) that did similar expansion as Higher-Order Singular Value Decomposition (HOSVD). In this paper we provide a computation algorithm to improve our previous method, in which SVD is applied to the matrix that constituted by the contraction of original tensor data and one of the expansion vector obtained. The residual of the improved method is smaller than the previous method, truncating the expanding tensor products to the same number of terms. Moreover, the residual is smaller than HOSVD when applying to color image data. It is able to be confirmed that the computing time of improved method is the same as the previous method and considerably better than HOSVD.
Abstract: Lighvan cheese is basically made from sheep milk in
the area of Sahand mountainside which is located in the North West
of Iran. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect
of enterococci isolated from traditional Lighvan cheese on the quality
of Iranian UF white during ripening. The experimental design was
split plot based on randomized complete blocks, main plots were four
types of starters and subplots were different ripening durations.
Addition of Enterococcus spp. did not significantly (P
Abstract: The presented work is motivated by a French law
regarding nuclear waste management. A new conceptual Accelerator
Driven System (ADS) designed for the Minor Actinides (MA)
transmutation has been assessed by numerical simulation. The
MUltiple Spallation Target (MUST) ADS combines high thermal power (up to 1.4 GWth) and high specific power. A 30 mA and 1
GeV proton beam is divided into three secondary beams transmitted on three liquid lead-bismuth spallation targets. Neutron and thermalhydraulic
simulations have been performed with the code MURE, based on the Monte-Carlo transport code MCNPX. A methodology has been developed to define characteristic of the MUST ADS concept according to a specific transmutation scenario. The reference
scenario is based on a MA flux (neptunium, americium and curium)
providing from European Fast Reactor (EPR) and a plutonium multireprocessing
strategy is accounted for. The MUST ADS reference
concept is a sodium cooled fast reactor. The MA fuel at equilibrium is mixed with MgO inert matrix to limit the core reactivity and
improve the fuel thermal conductivity. The fuel is irradiated over five
years. Five years of cooling and two years for the fuel fabrication are
taken into account. The MUST ADS reference concept burns about 50% of the initial MA inventory during a complete cycle. In term of
mass, up to 570 kg/year are transmuted in one concept. The methodology to design the MUST ADS and to calculate fuel
composition at equilibrium is precisely described in the paper. A detailed fuel evolution analysis is performed and the reference scenario is compared to a scenario where only americium transmutation is performed.
Abstract: This project aims to investigate the potential of
torrefaction to improve the properties of Malaysian palm kernel shell
(PKS) as a solid fuel. A study towards torrefaction of PKS was
performed under various temperature and residence time of 240, 260,
and 280oC and 30, 60, and 90 minutes respectively. The torrefied
PKS was characterized in terms of the mass yield, energy yield,
elemental composition analysis, calorific value analysis, moisture and
volatile matter contents, and ash and fixed carbon contents. The mass
and energy yield changes in the torrefied PKS were observed to
prove that the temperature has more effect compare to residence time
in the torrefaction process. The C content of PKS increases while H
and O contents decrease after torrefaction, which resulted in higher
heating value between 5 to 16%. Meanwhile, torrefaction caused the
ash and fixed carbon content of PKS to increase, and the moisture
and volatile matter to decrease.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to test whether the Attention
Networks Test (ANT) showed temporal decrements in performance.
Vigilance tasks typically show such decrements, which may reflect
impairments in executive control resulting from cognitive fatigue.
The ANT assesses executive control, as well as alerting and
orienting. Thus, it was hypothesized that ANT executive control
would deteriorate over time. Manipulations including task condition
(trial composition) and masking were included in the experimental
design in an attempt to increase performance decrements. However,
results showed that there is no temporal decrement on the ANT. The
roles of task demands, cognitive fatigue and participant motivation in
producing this result are discussed. The ANT may not be an effective
tool for investigating temporal decrement in attention.
Abstract: For improving the efficiency of human 3D tracking, we
present an algorithm to track 3D Arm Motion. First, the Hierarchy
Limb Model (HLM) is proposed based on the human 3D skeleton
model. Second, via graph decomposition, the arm motion state space,
modeled by HLM, can be discomposed into two low dimension
subspaces: root nodes and leaf nodes. Finally, Rao-Blackwellised
Particle Filter is used to estimate the 3D arm motion. The result of
experiment shows that our algorithm can advance the computation
efficiency.
Abstract: Sixteen selected deep-sea fish obtained from Southern
Java Ocean and Western Sumatra Ocean was analyzed to determine
its proximate, fatty acid and mineral composition. The moisture
content was ranged from 64.38 to 86.04 %, ash from 0.17 to 0.69 %,
the fat content was 1.54 – 13.30 % while the protein content varied
from 15.84 to 23.60%. Among the fatty acids, oleic acid and palmitic
acid was the dominant MUFA and SFA. Linoleic acid was the
highest PUFA found at the selected deep-sea fish. Phospor was the
highest macroelement concentration on selected deep-sea fish,
followed by K, Ca, Mg and Iod, Fe and Zn among microelement. The
trace concentration was found at Se microelement.
Abstract: The nutrient composition and sensory properties of
poultry-based patties (PBPs) incorporated with various levels of grey
oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju, PSC) were studied. The
PBPs were formulated with either 0%, 25% or 50% of fresh ground
PSC. Results show poultry patty formulated with 25% PSC had
protein content of 17.46% lower than the control patty which had
18.13% but it was not significant. Meanwhile, both cooked poultry
patties containing 25% and 50% PSC significantly recorded lower
concentration of fat at 10.67% and 7.15%, respectively. On the other
hand, poultry patty added with 50% ground PSC shows the highest
concentration of total dietary fibre (TDF) of 4.90 g/100g compared to
poultry patty containing 25% of mushroom (3.40 g/100g) and to the
control (1.90g/100g). In addition, patty incorporated with 25% PSC
had moisture content of 57.91% which is significantly lower than
patty formulated with 50% which had moisture of 61.80%. In the
sensory evaluation, there were no differences recorded in all sensory
attributes of PSC-based patties judged by untrained panelists. In
conclusion, the addition of PSC to replace poultry meat can be
recommended for the purpose of lowering production cost, enhancing
nutritional composition and maintaining the acceptability of poultry
patties.