Abstract: The consumption of food contaminated with molds
(microscopic filamentous fungi) and their toxic metabolites results in
the development of food-borne mycotoxicosis. The spores of molds
are ubiquitously spread in the environment and can be detected
everywhere. Ochratoxin A is a toxic and potentially carcinogenic
fungal toxin found in a variety of food commodities. In this study, the
mycological quality of various ready-to-eat local and imported pork
meat and meat byproducts sold in Egyptian markets were assessed
and the presence of various molds was determined in pork used as a
raw material, edible organs as liver and kidney as well as in
fermented raw meat by-products. The study assessed the mycological
quality of pork raw meat and their by-products sold in commercial
shops in Cairo, Egypt. Mycological analysis was conducted on
(n=110) samples which included pig’s livers and kidneys from
Egyptian Bassatin slaughter house; local and imported processed
pork meat by-products from Egyptian pork markets. The isolates
were identified using traditional mycological and biochemical tests.
All kidney and liver samples were positive to molds growth while all
byproducts were negative. Ochratoxin A levels were quantitatively
analyzed using the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
and the highest results were present in kidney 7.51 part per billion
(ppb) followed by minced meat 6.19 ppb generally the local samples
showed higher levels than the imported ones. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first report on mycotoxins detection and
quantification from pork by-products in Egypt.
Abstract: This paper illustrates the background of various
concepts, approaches, terminologies used to describe the basic
framework of an Islamic Hotel Room design. This paper reviews the
theoretical views in establishing a suitable and optimum environment
for Muslim as well as non-Muslim guests in hotel rooms while
according to shariah. It involves a few research methodologies that
requires the researcher to study on a few characteristics needed to
create more efficient rooms in terms of social interaction, economic
growth and other tolerable elements. This paper intends on revealing
the elements that are vital and may contribute for hotels in achieving
a more conclusive research on space planning for hotel rooms
focusing on the shariah and Muslim guests. Malaysia is an Islamic
country and has billion of tourists coming over for business and
recreational purposes. Therefore, having a righteous environment that
best suit this target user is important in terms of generating the
economy as well as providing a better understanding to the
community on the benefits of applying these qualities in a
conventional resort design.
Abstract: This paper contributes to the ongoing debate as to the relevance of translation studies to professional practitioners. It exposes the various misconceptions permeating the links between theory and practice in the translation landscape in the Arab World. It is a thesis of this paper that specialization in translation should be redefined; taking account of the fact, that specialized knowledge alone is neither crucial nor sufficient in technical translation. It should be tested against the readability of the translated text, the appropriateness of its style and the usability of its content by endusers to carry out their intended tasks. The paper also proposes a preliminary model to establish a working link between theory and practice from the perspective of professional trainers and practitioners, calling for the latter to participate in the production of knowledge in a systematic fashion. While this proposal is driven by a rather intuitive conviction, a research line is needed to specify the methodological moves to establish the mediation strategies that would relate the components in the model of knowledge transfer proposed in this paper.
Abstract: In the past few years, high consumption of soft drinks
has attracted negative attention world-wide due to its possible
adverse effects, leading the health conscious people to find
alternative nutraceutical or herbal health drinks. In the present study,
a nutraceutical soft drink was developed utilizing some easily
available and well known traditional herbs having nutritional
potential. The key ingredients were selected as bael, amla, lemon
juice, ashwagandha and poppy seeds based on their household routine
use in the summer with proven refreshing, cooling and energetic
feeling since ages. After several trials made, the final composition of
nutraceutical summer soft drink was selected as most suitable
combination based on the taste, physicochemical, microbial and
organoleptic point of view. The physicochemical analysis of the
prepared drink found to contain optimum level of titratable acidity,
total soluble solids and pH which were in accordance of the
commercial recommendations. There were no bacterial colonies
found in the product therefore found within limits. During the nine
point’s hedonic scale sensory evaluation, the drink was strongly liked
for colour, taste, flavour and texture. The formulation was found to
contain flavonoids (80mg/100ml), phenolics (103mg/100ml), vitamin
C (250mg/100ml) and has antioxidant potential (75.52%) apart from
providing several other essential vitamins, minerals and healthy
components. The developed nutraceutical drink provides an
economical and feasible option for the consumers with very good
taste combined with potential health benefits. The present drink is
potentially capable to replace the synthetic soft drinks available in the
market.
Abstract: Review of studies carried out on the use of bagasse
ash for the improvement of deficient soils in Nigeria, with emphasis
on lateritic and black cotton soils is presented. Although, the bagasse
ash is mostly used as additive to the conventional soil stabilizers
(cement and lime), the studies generally showed improvement in the
geotechnical properties of the soils, either modified or stabilized with
the ash. This showed the potentials of using this agricultural waste
(bagasse ash) in the improvement of geotechnical properties of
deficient soils, thus suggesting that using this material at large scale
level in geotechnical engineering practice could help in the provision
of stable and durable structures, reduce cost of soil improvement and
also reduces environmental nuisance caused by the unused waste in
Nigeria.
Abstract: For a rigid body sliding on a rough surface, a range of
uncertainty or non-uniqueness of solution could be found, which is
termed: Painlevé paradox. Painlevé paradox is the reason of a wide
range of bouncing motion, observed during sliding of robotic
manipulators on rough surfaces. In this research work, the existence
of the paradox zone during the sliding motion of a two-link (P-R)
robotic manipulator with a unilateral constraint is investigated.
Parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of friction,
link-length ratio, total height and link-mass ratio on the paradox zone.
Abstract: Milk is considered as an essential and complete food.
The present study was conducted at Milk Plant Mohali especially in
reference to the procurement section where the cash inflow was
maximum, with the objective to achieve higher productivity and
reduce wastage of milk. In milk plant it was observed that during the
month of Jan-2014 to March-2014 the average procurement of milk
was Rs. 4, 19, 361 liter per month and cost of procurement of milk is
Rs 35/- per liter. The total cost of procurement thereby equal to Rs.
1crore 46 lakh per month, but there was mismatch in procurementproduction
of milk, which leads to an average loss of Rs. 12, 94, 405
per month. To solve the procurement-production problem Quality
Control Tools like brainstorming, Flow Chart, Cause effect diagram
and Pareto analysis are applied wherever applicable. With the
successful implementation of Quality Control tools an average saving
of Rs. 4, 59, 445 per month is done.
Abstract: This research will give the introductory ideas for
cultural adaption of B2C E-Service design in Germany. By the
intense competition of E-Service development, many companies have
realized the importance of understanding the emotional and cultural
characteristics of their customers. Ignoring customers’ needs and
requirements throughout the E-Service design can lead to faults,
mistakes, and gaps. The term of E-Service usability now is changed
not only to develop high quality E-Services, but also to be extended
to include customer satisfaction and provide for them to feel local.
Abstract: This study was to explore and utilize the fresh rind of
mangosteen Index Colour 5 as an upcoming raw material for the
production of natural dyes. Rind from the fresh mangosteen Index
Colour 5 was utilized to extract the dyes. The established extracts
were experimented on silk fabrics via three types of mordanting and
dyeing procedures; pre-mordanting, simultaneous mordanting and
post-mordanting. As a result, the applications of the freeze-drying
methodology and mechanizable equipment have helped to produce
excellent range of natural colours. Silk fabric treated simultaneously
with mordanting and dyeing with extract dye Index Colour 5
produced a brilliant shade of the red colour and the colour from this
index is also discovered sensitive to light and washing during the
fastness tests. The preliminary evaluation and instrumentation
analysis allowed us to examine whether the application of different
mordanting and dyeing procedures with the same extract samples and
concentrations affected the colours and shades of the fabric samples.
Abstract: The aims of study were investigation on chemical
composition essential oil and the effect of extract of Coronilla varia
on antimicrobial and cytotoxicity activity. The essential oils of
Coronilla varia is obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by
(GC/MS) for determining their chemical composition and
identification of their components. Antibacterial activity of plant
extract was determined by disc diffusion method and anticancer
activity measured by MTT assay. The major components in essential
oil were Caryophyllene Oxide (60.19%), Alphacadinol (4.13%) and
Homoadantaneca Robexylic Acid (3.31%). The extracts from
Coronilla varia had interesting activity against Proteus mirabilis in
the concentration of 700 μg/disc and did not show any activity
against Staphylococus aureus, Bacillus subtillis, Klebsiella
pneumonia and Entrobacter cloacae. The positive control,
Ampicillin, Chloramphenicol and Cenphalothin had shown zone of
inhibition resistant all bacteria. The ethanol extract of Corohilla varia
inhibited on MCF7 cell lines. IC50 0.6(mg/ml) was the optimum
concentration of extract from Coronilla varia inhibition of cell line
growth. The MCF7 cancer cell line and Proteus mirabilis were more
sensitive to Coronilla varia ethanol extract.
Abstract: Water resource systems modeling has constantly been
a challenge through history for human beings. As the innovative
methodological development is evolving alongside computer sciences
on one hand, researches are likely to confront more complex and
larger water resources systems due to new challenges regarding
increased water demands, climate change and human interventions,
socio-economic concerns, and environment protection and
sustainability. In this research, an automatic calibration scheme has
been applied on the Gilan’s large-scale water resource model using
mathematical programming. The water resource model’s calibration
is developed in order to attune unknown water return flows from
demand sites in the complex Sefidroud irrigation network and other
related areas. The calibration procedure is validated by comparing
several gauged river outflows from the system in the past with model
results. The calibration results are pleasantly reasonable presenting a
rational insight of the system. Subsequently, the unknown optimized
parameters were used in a basin-scale linear optimization model with
the ability to evaluate the system’s performance against a reduced
inflow scenario in future. Results showed an acceptable match
between predicted and observed outflows from the system at selected
hydrometric stations. Moreover, an efficient operating policy was
determined for Sefidroud dam leading to a minimum water shortage
in the reduced inflow scenario.
Abstract: In recent decades, probabilistic constrained optimal
control problems have attracted much attention in many research
fields. Although probabilistic constraints are generally intractable
in an optimization problem, several tractable methods haven been
proposed to handle probabilistic constraints. In most methods,
probabilistic constraints are reduced to deterministic constraints
that are tractable in an optimization problem. However, there is a
gap between the transformed deterministic constraints in case of
known and unknown probability distribution. This paper examines
the conservativeness of probabilistic constrained optimization method
for unknown probability distribution. The objective of this paper is
to provide a quantitative assessment of the conservatism for tractable
constraints in probabilistic constrained optimization with unknown
probability distribution.
Abstract: Anammox is a novel and promising technology that has changed the traditional concept of biological nitrogen removal. The process facilitates direct oxidation of ammonical nitrogen under anaerobic conditions with nitrite as an electron acceptor without addition of external carbon sources. The present study investigated the feasibility of Anammox Hybrid Reactor (AHR) combining the dual advantages of suspended and attached growth media for biodegradation of ammonical nitrogen in wastewater. Experimental unit consisted of 4 nos. of 5L capacity AHR inoculated with mixed seed culture containing anoxic and activated sludge (1:1). The process was established by feeding the reactors with synthetic wastewater containing NH4-H and NO2-N in the ratio 1:1 at HRT (hydraulic retention time) of 1 day. The reactors were gradually acclimated to higher ammonium concentration till it attained pseudo steady state removal at a total nitrogen concentration of 1200 mg/l. During this period, the performance of the AHR was monitored at twelve different HRTs varying from 0.25-3.0 d with increasing NLR from 0.4 to 4.8 kg N/m3d. AHR demonstrated significantly higher nitrogen removal (95.1%) at optimal HRT of 1 day. Filter media in AHR contributed an additional 27.2% ammonium removal in addition to 72% reduction in the sludge washout rate. This may be attributed to the functional mechanism of filter media which acts as a mechanical sieve and reduces the sludge washout rate many folds. This enhances the biomass retention capacity of the reactor by 25%, which is the key parameter for successful operation of high rate bioreactors. The effluent nitrate concentration, which is one of the bottlenecks of anammox process was also minimised significantly (42.3-52.3 mg/L). Process kinetics was evaluated using first order and Grau-second order models. The first-order substrate removal rate constant was found as 13.0 d-1. Model validation revealed that Grau second order model was more precise and predicted effluent nitrogen concentration with least error (1.84±10%). A new mathematical model based on mass balance was developed to predict N2 gas in AHR. The mass balance model derived from total nitrogen dictated significantly higher correlation (R2=0.986) and predicted N2 gas with least error of precision (0.12±8.49%). SEM study of biomass indicated the presence of heterogeneous population of cocci and rod shaped bacteria of average diameter varying from 1.2-1.5 mm. Owing to enhanced NRE coupled with meagre production of effluent nitrate and its ability to retain high biomass, AHR proved to be the most competitive reactor configuration for dealing with nitrogen laden wastewater.
Abstract: This paper presents the influence of the vertical
seismic component on the non-linear dynamics analysis of three
different structures. The subject structures were analyzed and
designed according to recent codes. This paper considers three types
of buildings: 5-, 10-, and 15-story buildings. The non-linear dynamics
analysis of the structures with assuming elastic-perfectly-plastic
behavior was performed using RAM PERFORM-3D software; the
horizontal component was taken into consideration with and without
the incorporation of the corresponding vertical component. Dynamic
responses obtained for the horizontal component acting alone were
compared with those obtained from the simultaneous application of
both seismic components. The results show that the effect of the
vertical component of ground motion may increase the axial load
significantly in the interior columns and, consequently, the stories.
The plastic mechanisms would be changed. The P-Delta effect is
expected to increase. The punching base plate shear of the columns
should be considered. Moreover, the vertical component increases the
input energy when the structures exhibit inelastic behavior and are
taller.
Abstract: The properties of hollow sandcrete blocks produced in
Minna, Nigeria are presented. Sandcrete block is made of cement,
water and sand binded together in certain mix proportions. For the
purpose of this work, fifty (50) commercial sandcrete block industries
were visited in Minna, Nigeria to obtain block samples and
aggregates used for the manufacture, and to take inventory of the mix
composition and the production process. Sieve analysis tests were
conduction on the soil sample from various block industries to
ascertain their quality to be used for block making. The mix ratios
were also investigated. Five (5) nine inches (9’’ or 225mm) blocks
were obtained from each block industry and tested for dimensional
compliance and compressive strength. The results of the soil test
shows that the grading fall within the limit for natural aggregate and
can easily are used to obtain workable mix. Physical examinations of
the block sizes show slight deviation from the standard requirement
in NIS 87:2000. Compressive strength of hollow sandcrete blocks in
range of 0.12 N/mm2 to 0.54 N/mm2 was obtained which is below the
recommendable value of 3.45 N/mm2 for load bearing hollow
sandcrete blocks. This indicates that these blocks are below the
standard for load-bearing sandcrete blocks and cannot be used as load
bearing walling units. The mix composition also indicated low
cement content resulting in low compressive strength. Most of the
commercial block industries visited does not take curing very serious.
Water were only sprinkled ones or twice before the blocks were
stacked and made readily available for sale. It is recommended that a
mix ratio of 1:4 to 1:6 should be used for the production of sandcrete
blocks and proper curing practice should be adhered. Blocks should
also be cured for 14 days before making them available for
consumers.
Abstract: The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species
namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria
robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia
africana were studied. Properties studied included species density,
gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash content, organic carbon and
elemental composition. Fuel properties were determined using
standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the gross
calorific value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22
MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the
GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass
materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane.
The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%,
and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the
properties of the six biomass materials suggested that Piptadenia
africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and
Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a
holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before
selecting it for fuel purpose.
Abstract: Natural dyes are gaining interest due their expected
low risk to human health and to the environment. In this study, the
wash fastness of a natural coloring matter from the liquid waste
produced in the steam treatment of eucalyptus wood in textile fabrics
was investigated. Specifically, eucalyptus wood extract was used to
dye cotton, nylon and wool in an exhaust dyeing process without the
addition of the traditional mordanting agents and then submitted to
wash fastness analysis. The resulting dyed fabrics were evaluated for
color fastness. It was found that wash fastness of dyed fabrics was
very good to cotton and excellent to nylon and wool.
Abstract: This survey paper shows the recent state of model
comparison as it’s applies to Model Driven engineering. In Model
Driven Engineering to calculate the difference between the models is
a very important and challenging task. There are number of tasks
involved in model differencing that firstly starts with identifying and
matching the elements of the model. In this paper, we discuss how
model matching is accomplished, the strategies, techniques and the
types of the model. We also discuss the future direction. We found
out that many of the latest model comparison strategies are geared
near enabling Meta model and similarity based matching. Therefore
model versioning is the most dominant application of the model
comparison. Recently to work on comparison for versioning has
begun to deteriorate, giving way to different applications. Ultimately
there is wide change among the tools in the measure of client exertion
needed to perform model comparisons, as some require more push to
encourage more sweeping statement and expressive force.
Abstract: The LSTF experiment simulating the SGTR accident at
the Mihama Unit-2 reactor is analyzed using the RELAP5/MOD3.3
code. In the accident, and thus in the experiment, the ECC water was
injected not only into the cold legs but into the upper plenum. Overall
transients during the experiment such as pressures and fluid
temperatures are simulated well by the code. The cold-leg fluid
temperatures are shown to decrease if the upper plenum injection
system is connected to the cold leg. It is found that the cold-leg fluid
temperatures also decrease if the upper-plenum injection is not used
and the cold-leg injection alone is actuated.
Abstract: The present work is aimed at examining carbon steel
oil pipelines corrosion using three natural extracts (Eruca Sativa,
Rosell and Mango peels) that are used as inhibitors of different
concentrations ranging from 0.05-0.1wt. %. Two sulphur compounds
are used as corrosion mediums. Weight loss method was used for
measuring the corrosion rate of the carbon steel specimens immersed
in technical white oil at 100ºC at various time intervals in absence
and presence of the two sulphur compounds. The corroded specimens
are examined using the chemical wear test, scratch test and hardness
test. The scratch test is carried out using scratch loads from 0.5 Kg to
2.0 Kg. The scratch width is obtained at various scratch load and test
conditions. The Brinell hardness test is carried out and investigated
for both corroded and inhibited specimens. The results showed that
three natural extracts can be used as environmentally friendly
corrosion inhibitors.