Dependence of Equilibrium, Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Zn (II) Ions Sorption from Water on Particle Size of Natural Hydroxyapatite Extracted from Bone Ash

Heavy metals have bad effects on environment and soils and it can uptake by natural HAP .natural Hap is an inexpensive material that uptake large amounts of various heavy metals like Zn (II) .Natural HAP (N-HAP), extracted from bovine cortical bone ash, is a good choice for substitution of commercial HAP. Several experiments were done to investigate the sorption capacity of Zn (II) to N-HAP in various particles sizes, temperatures, initial concentrations, pH and reaction times. In this study, the sorption of Zinc ions from a Zn solution onto HAP particles with sizes of 1537.6 nm and 47.6 nm at three initial pH values of 4.50, 6.00 and 7.50 was studied. The results showed that better performance was obtained through a 47.6 nm particle size and higher pH values. The experimental data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Arrhenius equations for equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies. The analysis showed a maximum adsorption capacity of NHAP as being 1.562 mmol/g at a pH of 7.5 and small particle size. Kinetically, the prepared N-HAP is a feasible sorbent that retains Zn (II) ions through a favorable and spontaneous sorption process.

Three Dimensional Analysis of Sequential Quasi Isotropic Composite Disc for Rotating Machine Application

Composite laminates are relatively weak in out of plane loading, inter-laminar stress, stress concentration near the edge and stress singularities. This paper develops a new analytical formulation for laminated composite rotating disc fabricated from symmetric sequential quasi isotropic layers to predict three dimensional stress and deformation. This analysis is necessary to evaluate mechanical integrity of fiber reinforced multi-layer laminates used for high speed rotating applications such as high speed impellers. Three dimensional governing equations are written for rotating composite disc. Explicit solution is obtained with "Frobenius" expansion series. Based on analytical results, there are two separate zones of three dimensional stress fields in centre and edge of rotating disc. For thin discs, out of plane deformations and stresses are small in comparison with plane ones. For relatively thick discs deformation and stress fields are three dimensional.

Marketing Segmentation of Students Willing to Study Abroad based on Cluster Analysis

Market segmentation is one of the most fundamental strategic marketing concepts. The better the segment which is chosen for targeting by a particular organisation, the more successful the organisation is assumed to be in the marketplace. Also higher education institutions have to improve their marketing tools for attracting foreign students, particularly when demanding tuition fees. This contribution aims at demonstrating the proper usage of the cluster analysis for segmentation (represented by students' willingness to study abroad) and also, based on large international survey, offers some practical marketing implications.

On the Prediction of Transmembrane Helical Segments in Membrane Proteins

The prediction of transmembrane helical segments (TMHs) in membrane proteins is an important field in the bioinformatics research. In this paper, a method based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has been developed to predict the number and location of TMHs in membrane proteins. PDB coded as 1F88 was chosen as an example to describe the prediction of the number and location of TMHs in membrane proteins by using this method. One group of test data sets that contain total 19 protein sequences was utilized to access the effect of this method. Compared with the prediction results of DAS, PRED-TMR2, SOSUI, HMMTOP2.0 and TMHMM2.0, the obtained results indicate that the presented method has higher prediction accuracy.

Identification of Anaerobic Microorganisms for Converting Kitchen Waste to Biogas

Anaerobic digestion process is one of the alternative methods to convert organic waste into methane gas which is a fuel and energy source. Activities of various kinds of microorganisms are the main factor for anaerobic digestion which produces methane gas. Therefore, in this study a modified Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) with working volume of 50 liters was designed to identify the microorganisms through biogas production. The mixture of 75% kitchen waste and 25% sewage sludge was used as substrate. Observations on microorganisms in the ABR showed that there exists a small amount of protozoa (5%) and fungi (2%) in the system, but almost 93% of the microorganism population consists of bacteria. It is definitely clear that bacteria are responsible for anaerobic biodegradation of kitchen waste. Results show that in the acidification zone of the ABR (front compartments of reactor) fast growing bacteria capable of growth at high substrate levels and reduced pH was dominant. A shift to slower growing scavenging bacteria that grow better at higher pH was occurring towards the end of the reactor. Due to the ability of activity in acetate environment the percentages of Methanococcus, Methanosarcina and Methanotrix were higher than other kinds of methane former in the system.

Numerical Investigation of High Attack Angle Flow on 760/450 Double-Delta Wing in Incompressible Flow

Along with increasing development of generation of supersonic planes especially fighters and request for increasing the performance and maneuverability scientists and engineers suggested the delta and double delta wing design. One of the areas which was necessary to be researched, was the Aerodynamic review of this type of wings in high angles of attack at low speeds that was very important in landing and takeoff the planes and maneuvers. Leading Edges of the wings,cause the separation flow from wing surface and then formation of powerful vortex with high rotational speed which studing the mechanism and location of formation and also the position of the vortex breakdown in high angles of attack is very important. In this research, a double delta wing with 76o/45o sweep angles at high angle of attack in steady state and incompressible flow were numerically analyzed with Fluent software. With analaysis of the numerical results, we arrived the most important characteristic of the double delta wings which is keeping of lift at high angles of attacks.

Mechanical Behaviour of Sisal Fibre Reinforced Cement Composites

Emphasis on the advancement of new materials and technology has been there for the past few decades. The global development towards using cheap and durable materials from renewable resources contributes to sustainable development. An experimental investigation of mechanical behaviour of sisal fibre-reinforced concrete is reported for making a suitable building material in terms of reinforcement. Fibre reinforced Composite is one such material, which has reformed the concept of high strength. Sisal fibres are abundantly available in the hot areas. Sisal fibre has emerged as a reinforcing material for concretes, used in civil structures. In this work, properties such as hardness and tensile strength of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites with 6, 12, 18 and 24% by weight of sisal fibres were assessed. Sisal fibre reinforced cement composite slabs with long sisal fibres were manufactured using a cast hand lay up technique. Mechanical response was measured under tension. The high energy absorption capacity of the developed composite system was reflected in high toughness values under tension respectively. 

Learning FCM by Tabu Search

Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) is a causal graph, which shows the relations between essential components in complex systems. Experts who are familiar with the system components and their relations can generate a related FCM. There is a big gap when human experts cannot produce FCM or even there is no expert to produce the related FCM. Therefore, a new mechanism must be used to bridge this gap. In this paper, a novel learning method is proposed to construct causal graph based on historical data and by using metaheuristic such Tabu Search (TS). The efficiency of the proposed method is shown via comparison of its results of some numerical examples with those of some other methods.

Effect of Chemical Pretreatments and Dehydration Methods on Quality Characteristics of Tomato Powder and Its Storage Stability

Dehydration process was carried out for tomato slices of var. Avinash after giving different pre-treatments such as calcium chloride (CaCl2), potassium metabisulphite (KMS), calcium chloride and potassium metabisulphite (CaCl2 +KMS), and sodium chloride (NaCl). Untreated samples served as control. Solar drier and continuous conveyor (tunnel) drier were used for dehydration. Quality characteristics of tomato slices viz. moisture content, sugar, titratable acidity, lycopene content, dehydration ratio, rehydration ratio and non-enzymatic browning as affected by dehydration process were studied. Storage study was also carried out for a period of six months for tomato powder packed into different types of packaging materials viz. metalized polyester (MP) film and low density poly ethylene (LDPE). Changes in lycopene content and non-enzymatic browning (NEB) were estimated during storage at room temperature. Pretreatment of 5 mm thickness of tomato slices with calcium chloride in combination with potassium metabisulphite and drying using a tunnel drier with subsequent storage of product in metalized polyester bags was selected as the best process.

Distributional Semantics Approach to Thai Word Sense Disambiguation

Word sense disambiguation is one of the most important open problems in natural language processing applications such as information retrieval and machine translation. Many approach strategies can be employed to resolve word ambiguity with a reasonable degree of accuracy. These strategies are: knowledgebased, corpus-based, and hybrid-based. This paper pays attention to the corpus-based strategy that employs an unsupervised learning method for disambiguation. We report our investigation of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), an information retrieval technique and unsupervised learning, to the task of Thai noun and verbal word sense disambiguation. The Latent Semantic Indexing has been shown to be efficient and effective for Information Retrieval. For the purposes of this research, we report experiments on two Thai polysemous words, namely  /hua4/ and /kep1/ that are used as a representative of Thai nouns and verbs respectively. The results of these experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and indicate the potential of applying vector-based distributional information measures to semantic disambiguation.

Experimental Investigations on the Use of Preheated Neat Karanja Oil as Fuel in a Compression Ignition Engine

The concerns about clean environment and high oil prices driving forces for the research on alternative fuels. The research efforts directed towards improving the performance of C.I engines using vegetable oil as fuel. The paper deals results of performance of a four stroke, single cylinder C.I. engine by preheated neat Karanja oil is done from 30 o C to 100 o C. The performance of the engine was studied for a speed range between 1500 to 4000 rpm, with the engine operated under full load conditions. The performance parameters considered for comparing are brake specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, brake power, Nox emission of the engine. The engine offers lower thermal efficiency when it is powered by preheated neat Karanja oil at higher speed. The power developed and Nox emission increase with the increase in the fuel inlet temperature and the specific fuel consumption is higher than diesel fuel operation at all elevated fuel inlet temperature.

In Vitro and Experimental Screening of Mangrove Herbal Extract against Vibrio Alginolyticus in Marine Ornamental Fish

Present study summarizes the control of Vibrio alginolyticus infection in hatchery reared Clownfish, Amphiprion sebae with the extract of the mangrove plant, Avicennia marina. Fishes with visible symptoms of hemorrhagic spots were chosen and the genomic DNA of the causative bacterium was isolated and sequenced based on 16S rDNA gene. The in vitro assay revealed that a fraction of A. marina leaf extract elucidated with ethyl acetate: methanol (6:4) showed a high activity (28 mm) at 125 μg/ml concentrations. About 4 % of the fraction fed along with live V. alginolyticus was significantly decreased the cumulative mortality (P

Lightweight Materials Obtained by Utilization of Agricultural Waste

Lightweight ceramic materials in the form of bricks and blocks are widely used in modern construction. They may be obtained by adding of rice husk, rye straw, etc, as porous forming materials. Rice husk is a major by-product of the rice milling industry. Its utilization as a valuable product has always been a problem. Various technologies for utilization of rice husk through biological and thermochemical conversion are being developed. The purpose of this work is to develop lightweight ceramic materials with clay matrix and filler of rice husk and examine their main physicomechanical properties. The results obtained allow to suppose that the materials synthesized on the basis of waste materials can be used as lightweight materials for construction purpose.

Investigation of Gas Phase Composition During Carbon Nanotube Production

Chemical vapor deposition method was used to produce carbon nanotubes on an iron based catalyst from acetylene. Gas-phase samples collected from the different positions of the tubular reactor were analyzed by GC/MS. A variety of species ranging from hydrogen to naphthalene were observed and changes in their concentrations were plotted against the reactor position. Briefly benzene, toluene, styrene, indene and naphthalene were the main higher molecular weight species and vinylacetylene and diacetylene were the important intermediates. Nanotube characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Rapeseed Oil and Biodiesel from Winter Rape Produced in Romania

The environmental performance of rapeseed oil (RO) and rapeseed methyl ester(RME) from winter rape as fuels produced in Romanian agroclimate is analyzed in this paper. The proposed methodology is life cycle assessment (LCA) and takes into consideration the influence of grain production and agroclimatic conditions. This study shows favorable results first for RO and then for RME. When compared to diesel fuel, both studied biofuels show better results in the following impact categories: Abiotic depletion potential (ADP), Ozone layer depletion (ODP) and Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP).Furthermore, the environmental performance of the two biofuels studied can be improved by changing the type of fertilizer used and also by using biofuels instead of diesel in the field works.

Efficient CNC Milling by Adjusting Material Removal Rate

This paper describes a combined mathematicalgraphical approach for optimum tool path planning in order to improve machining efficiency. A methodology has been used that stabilizes machining operations by adjusting material removal rate in pocket milling operations while keeping cutting forces within limits. This increases the life of cutting tool and reduces the risk of tool breakage, machining vibration, and chatter. Case studies reveal the fact that application of this approach could result in a slight increase of machining time, however, a considerable reduction of tooling cost, machining vibration, noise and chatter can be achieved in addition to producing a better surface finish.

On Stability of Stiffened Cylindrical Shells with Varying Material Properties

The static stability analysis of stiffened functionally graded cylindrical shells by isotropic rings and stringers subjected to axial compression is presented in this paper. The Young's modulus of the shell is taken to be function of the thickness coordinate. The fundamental relations, the equilibrium and stability equations are derived using the Sander's assumption. Resulting equations are employed to obtain the closed-form solution for the critical axial loads. The effects of material properties, geometric size and different material coefficient on the critical axial loads are examined. The analytical results are compared and validated using the finite element model.

Multipath Routing Sensor Network for Finding Crack in Metallic Structure Using Fuzzy Logic

For collecting data from all sensor nodes, some changes in Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol is proposed. At each hop level, route-ranking technique is used for distributing packets to different selected routes dynamically. For calculating rank of a route, different parameters like: delay, residual energy and probability of packet loss are used. A hybrid topology of DMPR(Disjoint Multi Path Routing) and MMPR(Meshed Multi Path Routing) is formed, where braided topology is used in different faulty zones of network. For reducing energy consumption, variant transmission ranges is used instead of fixed transmission range. For reducing number of packet drop, a fuzzy logic inference scheme is used to insert different types of delays dynamically. A rule based system infers membership function strength which is used to calculate the final delay amount to be inserted into each of the node at different clusters. In braided path, a proposed 'Dual Line ACK Link'scheme is proposed for sending ACK signal from a damaged node or link to a parent node to ensure that any error in link or any node-failure message may not be lost anyway. This paper tries to design the theoretical aspects of a model which may be applied for collecting data from any large hanging iron structure with the help of wireless sensor network. But analyzing these data is the subject of material science and civil structural construction technology, that part is out of scope of this paper.

Bactericidal Properties of Carbohydrate-Stabilized Platinum Oxide Nanoparticles

Platinum oxide nanoparticles were prepared by a simple hydrothermal route and chemical reduction using carbohydrates (Fructose and sucrose) as the reducing and stabilizing agents. The crystallite size of these nanoparticles was evaluated from X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and was found to be 10 nm as shown in figure 1, which is the demonstration of EM bright field and transmission electron microscopy. The effect of carbohydrates on the morphology of the nanoparticles was studied using TEM (Figure 1). The nanoparticles (100 μg/ml) were administered to the Pseudomonas Stutzeri and Lactobacillus cultures and the incubation was done at 35 oC for 24 hours. The nanocomposites exhibited interesting inhibitory as well as bactericidal activity against P. Stutzeri and and Lactobacillus species. Incorporation of nanoparticles also increased the thermal stability of the carbohydrates.