Abstract: The radiative heat transfer problem is investigated numerically for 2D complex geometry biomass pyrolysis reactor composed of two pyrolysis chambers and a heat recuperator. The fumes are a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapor charged with absorbing and scattering particles and soot. In order to increase gases residence time and heat transfer, the heat recuperator is provided with many inclined, vertical, horizontal, diffuse and grey baffles of finite thickness and has a complex geometry. The Finite Volume Method (FVM) is applied to study radiative heat transfer. The blocked-off region procedure is used to treat the geometrical irregularities. Eight cases are considered in order to demonstrate the effect of adding baffles on the walls of the heat recuperator and on the walls of the pyrolysis rooms then choose the best case giving the maximum heat flux transferred to the biomass in the pyrolysis chambers. Ray effect due to the presence of baffles is studied and demonstrated to have a crucial effect on radiative heat flux on the walls of the pyrolysis rooms. Shadow effect caused by the presence of the baffles is also studied. The non grey radiative heat transfer is studied for the real existent configuration. The Weighted Sum of The Grey Gases (WSGG) Model of Kim and Song is used as non grey model. The effect of soot volumetric fraction on the non grey radiative heat flux is investigated and discussed.
Abstract: The paper discusses the design of a .NET Windows Service based agent system called MACS (Multi-Agent Classification System). MACS is a system aims to accurately classify spreadsheet developers competency over a network. It is designed to automatically and autonomously monitor spreadsheet users and gather their development activities based on the utilization of the software multi-agent technology (MAS). This is accomplished in such a way that makes management capable to efficiently allow for precise tailor training activities for future spreadsheet development. The monitoring agents of MACS are intended to be distributed over the WWW in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. The Prometheus methodology is used for the design of the agents of MACS. Prometheus has been used to undertake this phase of the system design because it is developed specifically for specifying and designing agent-oriented systems. Additionally, Prometheus specifies also the communication needed between the agents in order to coordinate to achieve their delegated tasks.
Abstract: Recent concerns of the growing impact of aviation on
climate change has prompted the emergence of a field referred to as
Sustainable or “Green” Aviation dedicated to mitigating the harmful
impact of aviation related CO2 emissions and noise pollution on
the environment. In the current paper, a unique “green” business
jet aircraft called the TransAtlantic was designed (using analytical
formulation common in conceptual design) in order to show the
feasibility for transatlantic passenger air travel with an aircraft
weighing less than 10,000 pounds takeoff weight. Such an advance in
fuel efficiency will require development and integration of advanced
and emerging aerospace technologies. The TransAtlantic design is
intended to serve as a research platform for the development of
technologies such as active flow control. Recent advances in the field
of active flow control and how this technology can be integrated
on a sub-scale flight demonstrator are discussed in this paper. Flow
control is a technique to modify the behavior of coherent structures
in wall-bounded flows (over aerodynamic surfaces such as wings and
turbine nozzles) resulting in improved aerodynamic cruise and flight
control efficiency. One of the key challenges to application in manned
aircraft is development of a robust high-momentum actuator that
can penetrate the boundary layer flowing over aerodynamic surfaces.
These deficiencies may be overcome in the current development
and testing of a novel electromagnetic synthetic jet actuator which
replaces piezoelectric materials as the driving diaphragm. One of
the overarching goals of the TranAtlantic research platform include
fostering national and international collaboration to demonstrate (in
numerical and experimental models) reduced CO2/ noise pollution
via development and integration of technologies and methodologies
in design optimization, fluid dynamics, structures/ composites,
propulsion, and controls.
Abstract: Multilevel inverter is a promising inverter topology for high voltage and high power applications. This inverter synthesizes several different levels of DC voltages to produce a stepped AC output that approaches the pure sine waveform. The three different topologies, diode-clamped inverter, capacitor-clamped inverter and cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter are widely used in these multilevel inverters. Among the three topologies, cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter is more suitable for photovoltaic applications since each PV array can act as a separate dc source for each h-bridge module. This research especially focus on photovoltaic power source as input to the system and shows the potential of a Single Phase Cascaded H-bridge Eleven level inverter governed by the fuzzy logic controller to improve the power quality by reducing the total harmonic distortion at the output voltage. Hence the efficiency of the system will be improved. Simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK has been done to verify the performance of cascaded h-bridge eleven level inverter using sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique. The simulated output shows very favorable result.
Abstract: A large part of Russia is located in permafrost areas. These areas are widely used because there are concentrated valuable natural resources. Therefore to explore of cryosols it is important due to the significant increase of anthropogenic stress as well as the problem of global climate change. In the north of Western Siberia permafrost phenomena is widespread. Permafrost as a factor of soil formation and cryogenesis as a process have a great impact on the soil formation of these areas. Based on the research results of permafrost-affected soils tundra landscapes formed in the central part of the Tazovskiy Peninsula in cryogenic conditions, data were obtained which characterize the morphological features of soils. The specificity of soil cover distribution and manifestation of soil-forming processes within the study area are noted. Permafrost features such as frost cracking, cryoturbation, thixotropy, movement of humus are formed. The formation of these features is increased with the development of the territory. As a consequence, there is a change in the components of the environment and the destruction of the soil cover.
Abstract: Humic acids (HA) were produced by a Trichoderma
viride strain under submerged fermentation in a medium based on the
oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and the main variables of the
process were optimized by using response surface methodology. A
temperature of 40°C and concentrations of 50g/L EFB, 5.7g/L potato
peptone and 0.11g/L (NH4)2SO4 were the optimum levels of the
variables that maximize the HA production, within the
physicochemical and biological limits of the process. The optimized
conditions led to an experimental HA concentration of 428.4±17.5
mg/L, which validated the prediction from the statistical model of
412.0mg/L. This optimization increased about 7–fold the HA
production previously reported in the literature. Additionally, the
time profiles of HA production and fungal growth confirmed our
previous findings that HA production preferably occurs during fungal
sporulation. The present study demonstrated that T. viride
successfully produced HA via the submerged fermentation of EFB
and the process parameters were successfully optimized using a
statistics-based response surface model. To the best of our
knowledge, the present work is the first report on the optimization of
HA production from EFB by a biotechnological process, whose
feasibility was only pointed out in previous works.
Abstract: The effects of soil inoculation with phosphorien-containing phosphate-dissolving bacteria (PDB) and/or magnesium (Mg) foliar application at the rates of 0, 0.5 and 1mM on growth, green pod and seed yields, and chemical constituents of Pisum sativum L. grown on a sandy calcareous soil were investigated. Results indicated that PDB and/or Mg significantly increased shoot length, number of branches plant–1, total leaf area plant–1 and canopy dry weight plant–1, leaf contents of pigments, soluble sugars, free proline, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, and Ca/Na ratio, while leaf Na content was reduced. PDB and/or Mg also increased green pod and seed yields. We concluded that PDB and Mg have pronounced positive effects on Pisum sativum L. plants grown on sandy calcareous soil. PDB and Mg, therefore, have the potential to be applied for various crops to overcome the adverse effects of the newly-reclaimed sandy calcareous soils.
Abstract: The study realized on alive lambs in two different areas mountain and plain in Batna region, aims to demonstrate the possible effect of field type on cupric status of lambs, through evaluation of copper contents in the chain: soil – plant – animal by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. This comparative study also allowed the investigation of the influence of the age and the season. The results obtained show that contents of copper in the soil, forage in the same way as in the plasma of lambs are higher in the plain than in the mountainous area; however, the difference is significant only between the values of feed.
Abstract: Occupational Self Efficacy (OSE) reflects the
conviction of a person’s ability to fulfill his job related behavior at a
perfectly acceptable level to the employer. Transformational
leadership improves followers’ commitment by influencing their
needs, values, and self-esteem. Employees also develop a dyadic
relationship with their immediate superiors. Study was conducted
amongst one hundred and twenty two (122) bank managers in Sri
Lanka. They were selected based on multi-stage (seniority in the
hierarchy, gender, department-wise etc.) stratified random sampling.
Major objectives of this study were to analyze the impact of
Transformational leadership style, and OSE along with Sociodemographic
factors, and Career, Job and Organizational experience,
to the Career satisfaction of managers. SPSS software was used for
parametric and non-parametric statistical analyses. Career satisfaction
had positive impacts with their Transformational leadership style, and
their relationships with the immediate superior. Impact of sociodemographic
factors, and career exposure to career satisfaction was
assessed.
Abstract: Nowadays, with the increasing of the wafer's size and
the decreasing of critical size of integrated circuit manufacturing in
modern high-tech, microelectronics industry needs a maximum
attention to challenge the contamination control. The move to 300
[mm] is accompanied by the use of Front Opening Unified Pods for
wafer and his storage. In these pods an airborne cross contamination
may occur between wafers and the pods. A predictive approach using
modeling and computational methods is very powerful method to
understand and qualify the AMCs cross contamination processes.
This work investigates the required numerical tools which are
employed in order to study the AMCs cross-contamination transfer
phenomena between wafers and FOUPs. Numerical optimization and
finite element formulation in transient analysis were established.
Analytical solution of one dimensional problem was developed and
the calibration process of physical constants was performed. The least
square distance between the model (analytical 1D solution) and the
experimental data are minimized. The behavior of the AMCs
intransient analysis was determined. The model framework preserves
the classical forms of the diffusion and convection-diffusion
equations and yields to consistent form of the Fick's law. The
adsorption process and the surface roughness effect were also
traduced as a boundary condition using the switch condition Dirichlet
to Neumann and the interface condition. The methodology is applied,
first using the optimization methods with analytical solution to define
physical constants, and second using finite element method including
adsorption kinetic and the switch of Dirichlet to Neumann condition.
Abstract: Universities have different offices such as educational, research, student, administrative, and financial offices. This paper considers universities as groups of decision making units (DMUs) in which DMUs are their offices. This approach gives us with a more just evaluation of universities instead of separate evaluation of the offices of universities. The proposed approach to evaluate group performance of universities is based on common set of weights method in DEA. The suggested method not only can compare groups and measure their efficiencies, but also can calculate the efficiency of units within group and efficiency spread of groups. At last, the suggested method is applied for the analysis of the performance of universities in 14th district of Islamic Azad University as groups under evaluation.
Abstract: The objective of this work is to use the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to investigate the behavior of a kerosene small-scale fire. FDS is a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool developed specifically for fire applications. Throughout its development, FDS is used for the resolution of practical problems in fire protection engineering. At the same time FDS is used to study fundamental fire dynamics and combustion. Predictions are based on Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with a Smagorinsky turbulence model. LES directly computes the large-scale eddies and the sub-grid scale dissipative processes are modeled. This technique is the default turbulence model which was used in this study. The validation of the numerical prediction is done using a direct comparison of combustion output variables to experimental measurements. Effect of the mesh size on the temperature evolutions is investigated and optimum grid size is suggested. Effect of width openings is investigated. Temperature distribution and species flow are presented for different operating conditions. The effect of the composition of the used fuel on atmospheric pollution is also a focus point within this work. Good predictions are obtained where the size of the computational cells within the fire compartment is less than 1/10th of the characteristic fire diameter.
Abstract: In this paper, five ontologies are described, which include the event concepts. The paper provides an overview and comparison of existing event models. The main criteria for comparison are that there should be possibilities to model events with stretch in the time and location and participation of objects; however, there are other factors that should be taken into account as well. The paper also shows an example of using ontologies in complex event processing.
Abstract: In this work sensory characteristics of cookies with different amount of chestnut flour were determined by sensory and instrumental methods. The wheat flour for cookies was substituted with chestnut flour in three different levels (20, 40 and 60%) and the dough moisture was 22%. The control sample was with 100% of wheat flour. Sensory quality of the cookies was described using quantity descriptive method (QDA) by six trained members of descriptive panel. Instrumental evaluation included texture characterization by texture analyzer, the color measurements (CIE L*a*b* system) and determination by videometer.
The samples with 20% of chestnut flour were with highest ponderated score for overall sensory impression (17.6), which is very close to score for control sample (18). Increase in amount of chestnut flour caused decrease in scores for all sensory properties, thus overall sensory score decreased also. Compared to control sample and with increase in amount of chestnut flour, instrumental determination of the samples confirmed the sensory analysis results. The hardness of the cookies increased, as well as the values of red a* and yellow (b*) component coordinate, but the values for lightness (L*) decreased. Also the values, evaluated by videometer at defined wavelength, were the highest for control cookies and decreased with increase in amount of chestnut flour.
Abstract: Non-invasive Brain Computer Interface like Electroencephalography (EEG) which directly taps neurological signals, is being widely explored these days to connect paralytic patients/elderly with the external environment. However, in India the research is confined to laboratory settings and is not reaching the mass for rehabilitation purposes. An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze real time acquired EEG signal using cost effective and portable headset unit EMOTIV. Signal processing of real time acquired EEG is done using EEGLAB in MATLAB and EDF Browser application software platforms. Independent Component Analysis algorithm of EEGLAB is explored to identify deliberate eye blink in the attained neural signal. Time Frequency transforms and Data statistics obtained using EEGLAB along with component activation results of EDF browser clearly indicate voluntary eye blink in AF3 channel. The spectral analysis indicates dominant frequency component at 1.536000Hz representing the delta wave component of EEG during voluntary eye blink action. An algorithm is further designed to generate an active high signal based on thoughtful eye blink that can be used for plethora of control applications for rehabilitation.
Abstract: In today’s world, internal fraud remains one of the most challenging problems within companies worldwide and despite investment in controls and attention given to the problem, the instances of internal fraud has not abated. To the contrary it appears that internal fraud is on the rise especially in the wake of the economic downturn.
Leadership within companies believes that the more sophisticated the controls employed the less likely it would be for employees to pilfer. This is a very antiquated view as investment in controls may not be enough to curtail internal fraud; however, ensuring that a company drives the correct culture and behavior within the organization is likely to yield desired results.
This research aims to understand how creating a strong ethical culture and embedding the principle of good corporate governance impacts on levels of internal fraud with an organization (a South African Bank).
Abstract: The groundwater quality was assessed nearby places of Nagalkeni, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The selected physico-chemical parameters were pH, EC, TDS, total hardness (TH), anions like Ca, Mg, Na and K, and cations like SO4, NO3, Cl2, HCO3, and CO3, and Cr(VI). In order to suit the groundwater for drinking and irrigation purposes, compared the value of selected parameters with the value of selected parameters from BIS drinking water quality standard and irrigation water quality indices. The physico-chemical study of the groundwater systems of selected sites of nearby places of Nagalkeni showed that the groundwater is nearly acidic and mostly oxidizing in nature and hence, water is not suitable for drinking purpose directly. The results of the irrigation indices indicated that the groundwater samples in the study area found to be brackish water, results, groundwater from the study area is also not suitable for irrigation purpose directly, but the groundwater may be used after implementing some suitable treatment techniques.
Abstract: The numerical simulation of electromagnetic interactions is still a challenging problem, especially in problems that result in fully three dimensional mathematical models.
The goal of this work is to use mathematical modeling to characterize the reliability and capacity of eddy current technique to detect and characterize defects embedded in aeronautical in-service pieces.
The finite element method is used for describing the eddy current technique in a mathematical model by the prediction of the eddy current interaction with defects. However, this model is an approximation of the full Maxwell equations.
In this study, the analysis of the problem is based on a three dimensional finite element model that computes directly the electromagnetic field distortions due to defects.
Abstract: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) among the wired and wireless networks, it still has a practical problem; where the congestion control mechanism does not permit the data stream to get complete bandwidth over the existing network links. To solve this problem, many TCP protocols have been introduced with high speed performance. Therefore, an enhanced congestion window (cwnd) for the congestion control mechanism is proposed in this article to improve the performance of TCP by increasing the number of cycles of the new window to improve the transmitted packet number. The proposed algorithm used a new mechanism based on the available bandwidth of the connection to detect the capacity of network path in order to improve the regular clocking of congestion avoidance mechanism. The work in this paper based on using Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) to simulate the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: These SOAP project Pacific Ocean measurements reveal that phytoplankton blooms with sunny conditions make possible secondary organic contribution to ultrafine particles size and composition, and thus on cloud formation ability, and finally on climate. This is in agreement with other biologically active region observations about the presence of secondary organics even the exact fraction is also depending on the local marine life (e.g. plankton blooms, seaweeds, corals). An organic contribution is clearly needed to add to CLAW hypothesis.