Abstract: In the article the experience of principle new
technology development of ethnopsychological experiment on the
basis of using other virtual independent experimental variables is
presented. It is shown that ethnic prejudices are the result of forming
and development of specific semantic barriers, arising up in the
conditions of interethnic co-operation and people-s communication.
Their overcoming is more successful in the conditions of the special
organized process of teaching in a polyethnic environment,
characteristic for the modern institute
Abstract: According to the European laws, there is the
possibility of reusing the washing wastes for the environmental
requalification of quarry lakes. The paper deals with the
hydrogeological aspects involved in this possibility, as the
introduction of finest wastes in the quarry lakes can generate
alterations of the hydrogeological setting of the area, and problems
for the future accessibility of the zone. To evaluate the
hydrogeological compatibility of the washing wastes reuse in quarry
lakes a groundwater numerical model was carried out, pointing out
both the hydrogeological feasibility of this intervention and some
guide lines for its optimization, in terms of inflow point with regard
the groundwater flow direction and loss of volume in the quarry lake.
Abstract: This experiment was conducted to investigate the
effect of different levels of dietary chromium yeast (Cr-yeast) on
thigh meat quality of broiler chicks reared under heat stress
condition. Two hundred and forty Ross male chickens in heat stress
condition (33±3°C) were allocated to five treatments in a completely
randomized design. Treatments were supplemented with 0 (control),
200, 400, 800 and 1200 μg kg-1 Cr in the form of Cr yeast. Twelve
chicks from each treatment were slaughtered at 42 d, to evaluate
moisture, protein, lipid, pH and lipid oxidation of thigh meat.
Protein, moisture, lipid and pH of thigh meat were not affected by
supplemental Cr. Thigh meat lipid tended to decrease in broilers
received 1200 μg kg-1. Storage time increased lipid oxidation of
meat (P
Abstract: Transdermal delivery of ondansetron hydrochloride (OdHCl) can prevent the problems encountered with oral ondansetron. In previously conducted studies, effect of amount of polyvinyl pyrrolidone, permeation enhancer and casting solvent on the physicochemical properties on OdHCl were investigated. It is feasible to develop ondansetron transdermal patch by using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone with dibutyl pthalate as plasticizer, however, the desired flux is not achieved. The primary aim of this study is to use dimethyl succinate (DMS) and propylene glycol that are not incorporated in previous studies to determine their effect on the physicochemical properties of an OdHCl transdermal patch using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. This study also investigates the effect of permeation enhancer (eugenol and phosphatidylcholine) on the release of OdHCl. The results showed that propylene glycol is a more suitable plasticizer compared to DMS in the fabrication of OdHCl transdermal patch using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone as polymers. Propylene glycol containing patch has optimum drug content, thickness, moisture content and water absorption, tensile strength, and a better release profile than DMS. Eugenol and phosphatidylcholine can increase release of OdHCl from the patches. From the physicochemical result and permeation profile, a combination of 350mg of ethyl cellulose, 150mg polyvinyl pyrrolidone, 3% of total polymer weight of eugenol, and 40% of total polymer weight of propylene glycol is the most suitable formulation to develop an OdHCl patch. OdHCl release did not increase with increasing the percentage of plasticiser. DMS 4, PG 4, DMS 9, PG 9, DMS 14, and PG 14 gave better release profiles where using 300mg: 0mg, 300mg: 100mg, and 350mg: 150mg of EC: PVP. Thus, 40% of PG or DMS appeared to be the optimum amount of plasticiser when the above combination where EC: PVP was used. It was concluded from the study that a patch formulation containing 350mg EC, 150mg PVP, 40% PG and 3% eugenol is the best transdermal matrix patch compositions for the uniform and continuous release/permeation of OdHCl over an extended period. This patch design can be used for further pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies in suitable animal models.
Abstract: This paper aims to argue that religion and Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) contribute to building democratic process through the provision of education in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002 and about 70 percent of the population lives in poverty. While the government has been in the process of rebuilding the nation, many forms of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including FBOs, have played a significant role in promoting social development. Education plays an important role in supporting people-s democratic movements through knowledge acquisition, spiritual enlightenment and empowerment. This paper discusses religious tolerance in Sierra Leone and how FBOs have contributed to the provision of primary education in Sierra Leone. This study is based on the author-s field research, which involved interviews with teachers and development stakeholders, notably government officials, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and FBOs, as well as questionnaires completed by pupils, parents and teachers.
Abstract: An accurate procedure to determine free vibrations of
beams and plates is presented.
The natural frequencies are exact solutions of governing vibration
equations witch load to a nonlinear homogeny system.
The bilinear and linear structures considered simulate a bridge.
The dynamic behavior of this one is analyzed by using the theory of
the orthotropic plate simply supported on two sides and free on the
two others. The plate can be excited by a convoy of constant or
harmonic loads. The determination of the dynamic response of the
structures considered requires knowledge of the free frequencies and
the shape modes of vibrations. Our work is in this context. Indeed,
we are interested to develop a self-consistent calculation of the Eigen
frequencies.
The formulation is based on the determination of the solution of
the differential equations of vibrations. The boundary conditions
corresponding to the shape modes permit to lead to a homogeneous
system. Determination of the noncommonplace solutions of this
system led to a nonlinear problem in Eigen frequencies.
We thus, develop a computer code for the determination of the
eigenvalues. It is based on a method of bisection with interpolation
whose precision reaches 10 -12. Moreover, to determine the
corresponding modes, the calculation algorithm that we develop uses
the method of Gauss with a partial optimization of the "pivots"
combined with an inverse power procedure. The Eigen frequencies
of a plate simply supported along two opposite sides while
considering the two other free sides are thus analyzed. The results
could be generalized with the case of a beam by regarding it as a
plate with low width.
We give, in this paper, some examples of treated cases. The
comparison with results presented in the literature is completely
satisfactory.
Abstract: Since atmosphere pressure field is an actual envoy of
climatic signal the atmospheric Highs and Lows should be attributed
to the key active focal points within the ocean-atmosphere interplay
system. Here we were set a task to determine how the dynamics of
those centres of action relates to the climate change both on regional
and global scales. For this target the near-surface temperature and
atmospheric pressure differences between the Icelandic Low and the
Azores High were considered. The secular term of phase states of the
system under consideration was found divided into three
nonintersecting subsets. Each of that was put in consequence with
one of three climatic scenarios related to the periods of 1905-1935
(relatively warm phase), 1940-1970 (cold phase) and 1980-2000
(warm phase).
Abstract: Spray chilling using air-mist nozzles has received
much attention in the food processing industry because of the
benefits it has shown over forced air convection. These benefits
include an increase in the heat transfer coefficient and a reduction in
the water loss by the product during cooling. However, few studies
have simulated the heat transfer and aerodynamics phenomena of the
air-mist chilling process for optimal operating conditions. The study
provides insight into the optimal conditions for spray impaction, heat
transfer efficiency and control of surface flooding. A computational
fluid dynamics model using a two-phase flow composed of water
droplets injected with air is developed to simulate the air-mist
chilling of food products. The model takes into consideration
droplet-to-surface interaction, water-film accumulation and surface
runoff. The results of this study lead to a better understanding of the
heat transfer enhancement, water conservation, and to a clear
direction for the optimal design of air-mist chilling systems that can
be used in commercial applications in the food and meat processing
industries.
Abstract: The compatibility of optical resonators with microfluidic systems may be relevant for chemical and biological applications. Here, a fluorescent-core microcavity (FCM) is investigated as a refractometric sensor for heavy oils. A high-index film of silicon quantum dots (QDs) was formed inside the capillary, supporting cylindrical fluorescence whispering gallery modes (WGMs). A set of standard refractive index oils was injected into a capillary, causing a shift of the WGM resonances toward longer wavelengths. A maximum sensitivity of 240 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) was found for a nominal oil index of 1.74. As well, a sensitivity of 22 nm/RIU was obtained for a lower index of 1.48, more typical of fuel hydrocarbons. Furthermore, the observed spectra and sensitivities were compared to theoretical predictions and reproduced via FDTD simulations, showing in general an excellent agreement. This work demonstrates the potential use of FCMs for oil sensing applications and the more generally for detecting liquid solutions with a high refractive index or high viscosity.
Abstract: New regulations and standards for noise emission increasingly compel the automotive firms to make some improvements about decreasing the engine noise. Nowadays, the perforated reactive mufflers which have an effective damping capability are specifically used for this purpose. New designs should be analyzed with respect to both acoustics and back pressure. In this study, a reactive perforated muffler is investigated numerically and experimentally. For an acoustical analysis, the transmission loss which is independent of sound source of the present cross flow, the perforated muffler was analyzed by COMSOL. To be able to validate the numerical results, transmission loss was measured experimentally. Back pressure was obtained based on the flow field analysis and was also compared with experimental results. Numerical results have an approximate error of 20% compared to experimental results.
Abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate the
chemical and biological properties of local cowpea seed protein
cultivated in Gizan region. The results showed that the cowpea and
its products contain high level of protein (22.9-77.6%), high
carbohydrates (9.4-64.3%) and low fats (0.1-0.3%). The trypsin and
chymotrypsin activities were found to be 32.2 and 15.2 units,
respectively. These activities were not affected in both defatted and
protein concentrate whereas they were significantly reduced in
isolated protein and cooked samples. The phytate content of cooked
and concentrated cowpea samples varied from 0.25% -0.32%,
respectively. Tannin content was found to be 0.4% and 0.23% for
cooked and raw samples, respectively. The in vitro protein
digestibility was very high in cowpea seeds (75.04-78.76%). The
biological evaluation using rats showed that the group fed with
animal feed containing casein gain more weight than those fed with
that containing cowpea. However, the group fed with cooked cowpea
gain more weight than those fed with uncooked cowpea. On the
other hand, in vivo digestion showed high value (98.33%) among the
group consumed casein compared to other groups those consumed
cowpea contains feed. This could be attributed to low antinutritional
factors in casein contains feed compared to those of cowpea contains
feed because cooking significantly increased the digestion rate
(80.8% to 83.5%) of cowpea contains feed. Furthermore, the
biological evaluation was high (91.67%) of casein containing feed
compared to that of cowpea containing feed (80.83%-87.5%). The
net protein utilization (NPU) was higher (89.67%) in the group fed
with casein containing feed than that of cowpea containing feed
(56.33%-69.67%).
Abstract: The flow field over a flat roof model building has been numerically investigated in order to determine threedimensional CFD guidelines for the calculation of the turbulent flow over a structure immersed in an atmospheric boundary layer. To this purpose, a complete validation campaign has been performed through a systematic comparison of numerical simulations with wind tunnel experimental data. Wind tunnel measurements and numerical predictions have been compared for five different vertical positions, respectively from the upstream leading edge to the downstream bottom edge of the analyzed model. Flow field characteristics in the neighborhood of the building model have been numerically investigated, allowing a quantification of the capabilities of the CFD code to predict the flow separation and the extension of the recirculation regions. The proposed calculations have allowed the development of a preliminary procedure to be used as guidance in selecting the appropriate grid configuration and corresponding turbulence model for the prediction of the flow field over a three-dimensional roof architecture dominated by flow separation.
Abstract: Principally, plants grown in soilless culture may be
attacked by the same pests and diseases as cultivated traditionally in
soil. The most destructive phytopathogens are fungi, such as
Phythium, Phytophthora and Fusarium, followed by viruses, bacteria
and nematodes. We investigated effect of carbon nanotube filters on
disease management of soilless culture. Tomato seedlings transplant
in plastic pots filled with a soilless media of vermiculite. The crop
irrigated and fertilized using a hydroponic nutrient solution. We used
carbon nanotube filters for nutrient solution disinfection. Our results
show that carbon nanotube filtration significantly reduces pathogens
on tomato plants. Fungal elimination (Fusarium oxysporum and
Pythium spp.) was usually successful at about 96 to 99.9% all over
the cultural season. It is seem that in tomato soilless culture,
nanofiltration constitutes a reliable method that allows control of the
development of diseases caused by pathogenic fungi
Abstract: Two Amphiphilic catalysts, iron (III) dodecylbenzene
sulfonate and nickel (II) dodecylbenzene sulfonate, were synthesized
and used in the catalytic aquathermolysis of heavy crude oil to reduce
its viscosity. The prepared catalysts exhibited good performance in
the aquathermolysis and the viscosity is reduced by ~ 78.9 % for
Egyptian heavy crude oil. The chemical and physical properties of
heavy oil both before and after reaction were investigated by FT-IR,
dynamic viscosity, molecular weight and SARA analysis. The results
indicated that the content of resin, asphaltene, average molecular
weight and sulfur content of heavy oil is reduced after the catalytic
aquathermolysis.
Abstract: The Far From Most Strings Problem (FFMSP) is to obtain a string which is far from as many as possible of a given set of strings. All the input and the output strings are of the same length, and two strings are said to be far if their hamming distance is greater than or equal to a given positive integer. FFMSP belongs to the class of sequences consensus problems which have applications in molecular biology. The problem is NP-hard; it does not admit a constant-ratio approximation either, unless P = NP. Therefore, in addition to exact and approximate algorithms, (meta)heuristic algorithms have been proposed for the problem in recent years. On the other hand, in the recent years, hybrid algorithms have been proposed and successfully used for many hard problems in a variety of domains. In this paper, a new metaheuristic algorithm, called Constructive Beam and Local Search (CBLS), is investigated for the problem, which is a hybridization of constructive beam search and local search algorithms. More specifically, the proposed algorithm consists of two phases, the first phase is to obtain several candidate solutions via the constructive beam search and the second phase is to apply local search to the candidate solutions obtained by the first phase. The best solution found is returned as the final solution to the problem. The proposed algorithm is also similar to memetic algorithms in the sense that both use local search to further improve individual solutions. The CBLS algorithm is compared with the most recent published algorithm for the problem, GRASP, with significantly positive results; the improvement is by order of magnitudes in most cases.
Abstract: Conceptualization strengthens intelligent systems in generalization skill, effective knowledge representation, real-time inference, and managing uncertain and indefinite situations in addition to facilitating knowledge communication for learning agents situated in real world. Concept learning introduces a way of abstraction by which the continuous state is formed as entities called concepts which are connected to the action space and thus, they illustrate somehow the complex action space. Of computational concept learning approaches, action-based conceptualization is favored because of its simplicity and mirror neuron foundations in neuroscience. In this paper, a new biologically inspired concept learning approach based on the probabilistic framework is proposed. This approach exploits and extends the mirror neuron-s role in conceptualization for a reinforcement learning agent in nondeterministic environments. In the proposed method, instead of building a huge numerical knowledge, the concepts are learnt gradually from rewards through interaction with the environment. Moreover the probabilistic formation of the concepts is employed to deal with uncertain and dynamic nature of real problems in addition to the ability of generalization. These characteristics as a whole distinguish the proposed learning algorithm from both a pure classification algorithm and typical reinforcement learning. Simulation results show advantages of the proposed framework in terms of convergence speed as well as generalization and asymptotic behavior because of utilizing both success and failures attempts through received rewards. Experimental results, on the other hand, show the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method in continuous and noisy environments for a real robotic task such as maze as well as the benefits of implementing an incremental learning scenario in artificial agents.
Abstract: A multi-rate discrete-time model, whose response
agrees exactly with that of a continuous-time original at all sampling
instants for any sampling periods, is developed for a linear system,
which is assumed to have multiple real eigenvalues. The sampling
rates can be chosen arbitrarily and individually, so that their ratios
can even be irrational. The state space model is obtained as a
combination of a linear diagonal state equation and a nonlinear output
equation. Unlike the usual lifted model, the order of the proposed
model is the same as the number of sampling rates, which is less than
or equal to the order of the original continuous-time system. The
method is based on a nonlinear variable transformation, which can be
considered as a generalization of linear similarity transformation,
which cannot be applied to systems with multiple eigenvalues in
general. An example and its simulation result show that the proposed
multi-rate model gives exact responses at all sampling instants.
Abstract: The significance of emissions from the road transport
sector (such as air pollution, noise, etc) has grown considerably in
recent years. In Australia, 14.3% of national greenhouse gas
emissions in 2000 were the transport sector-s share which 12.9% of
net national emissions were related to a road transport alone.
Considering the growing attention to the green house gas(GHG)
emissions, this paper attempts to provide air pollution modeling
aspects of environmental consequences of the road transport by using
one of the best computer based tools including the Geographic
Information System (GIS). In other word, in this study, GIS and its
applications is explained, models which are used to model air
pollution and GHG emissions from vehicles are described and GIS is
applied in real case study that attempts to forecast GHG emission
from people who travel to work by car in 2031 in Melbourne for
analysing results as thematic maps.
Abstract: Time interleaved sigma-delta (TIΣΔ) architecture is a
potential candidate for high bandwidth analog to digital converters
(ADC) which remains a bottleneck for software and cognitive radio
receivers. However, the performance of the TIΣΔ architecture is
limited by the unavoidable gain and offset mismatches resulting
from the manufacturing process. This paper presents a novel digital
calibration method to compensate the gain and offset mismatch
effect. The proposed method takes advantage of the reconstruction
digital signal processing on each channel and requires only few logic
components for implementation. The run time calibration is estimated
to 10 and 15 clock cycles for offset cancellation and gain mismatch
calibration respectively.
Abstract: In this paper, the innovative intelligent fuzzy weighted
input estimation method (FWIEM) can be applied to the inverse heat
transfer conduction problem (IHCP) to estimate the unknown
time-varying heat flux efficiently as presented. The feasibility of this
method can be verified by adopting the temperature measurement
experiment. We would like to focus attention on the heat flux
estimation to three kinds of samples (Copper, Iron and Steel/AISI 304)
with the same 3mm thickness. The temperature measurements are then
regarded as the inputs into the FWIEM to estimate the heat flux. The
experiment results show that the proposed algorithm can estimate the
unknown time-varying heat flux on-line.