Abstract: There is a world-wide need for the development of sustainable management strategies to control pest infestation and the development of phosphine (PH3) resistance in lesser grain borer (Rhyzopertha dominica). Computer simulation models can provide a relatively fast, safe and inexpensive way to weigh the merits of various management options. However, the usefulness of simulation models relies on the accurate estimation of important model parameters, such as mortality. Concentration and time of exposure are both important in determining mortality in response to a toxic agent. Recent research indicated the existence of two resistance phenotypes in R. dominica in Australia, weak and strong, and revealed that the presence of resistance alleles at two loci confers strong resistance, thus motivating the construction of a two-locus model of resistance. Experimental data sets on purified pest strains, each corresponding to a single genotype of our two-locus model, were also available. Hence it became possible to explicitly include mortalities of the different genotypes in the model. In this paper we described how we used two generalized linear models (GLM), probit and logistic models, to fit the available experimental data sets. We used a direct algebraic approach generalized inverse matrix technique, rather than the traditional maximum likelihood estimation, to estimate the model parameters. The results show that both probit and logistic models fit the data sets well but the former is much better in terms of small least squares (numerical) errors. Meanwhile, the generalized inverse matrix technique achieved similar accuracy results to those from the maximum likelihood estimation, but is less time consuming and computationally demanding.
Abstract: The scroll pump belongs to the category of positive
displacement pump can be used for continuous pumping of gases at
low pressure apart from general vacuum application. The shape of
volume occupied by the gas moves and deforms continuously as the
spiral orbits. To capture flow features in such domain where mesh
deformation varies with time in a complicated manner, mesh less
solver was found to be very useful. Least Squares Kinetic Upwind
Method (LSKUM) is a kinetic theory based mesh free Euler solver
working on arbitrary distribution of points. Here upwind is enforced
in molecular level based on kinetic flux vector splitting scheme
(KFVS). In the present study we extended the LSKUM to moving
node viscous flow application. This new code LSKUM-NS-MN for
moving node viscous flow is validated for standard airfoil pitching
test case. Simulation performed for flow through scroll pump using
LSKUM-NS-MN code agrees well with the experimental pumping
speed data.
Abstract: In this paper, for the understanding of the phytoplankton dynamics in marine ecosystem, a susceptible and an infected class of phytoplankton population is considered in spatiotemporal domain.
Here, the susceptible phytoplankton is growing logistically and the
growth of infected phytoplankton is due to the instantaneous Holling
type-II infection response function. The dynamics are studied in terms of the local and global stabilities for the system and further
explore the possibility of Hopf -bifurcation, taking the half saturation period as (i.e., ) the bifurcation parameter in temporal domain.
It is also observe that the reaction diffusion system exhibits spatiotemporal
chaos and pattern formation in phytoplankton dynamics,
which is particularly important role play for the spatially extended phytoplankton system. Also the effect of the diffusion coefficient
on the spatial system for both one and two dimensional case is obtained. Furthermore, we explore the higher-order stability analysis
of the spatial phytoplankton system for both linear and no-linear system. Finally, few numerical simulations are carried out for pattern
formation.
Abstract: Both image steganography and image encryption have
advantages and disadvantages. Steganograhy allows us to hide a
desired image containing confidential information in a covered or
host image while image encryption is decomposing the desired image
to a non-readable, non-comprehended manner. The encryption
methods are usually much more robust than the steganographic ones.
However, they have a high visibility and would provoke the attackers
easily since it usually is obvious from an encrypted image that
something is hidden! The combination of steganography and
encryption will cover both of their weaknesses and therefore, it
increases the security. In this paper an image encryption method
based on sinc-convolution along with using an encryption key of 128
bit length is introduced. Then, the encrypted image is covered by a
host image using a modified version of JSteg steganography
algorithm. This method could be applied to almost all image formats
including TIF, BMP, GIF and JPEG. The experiment results show
that our method is able to hide a desired image with high security and
low visibility.
Abstract: A semi-analytic boundary discretization method, the Method of Auxiliary Sources (MAS) is used to analyze Optical Antennas consisting of metallic parts. In addition to standard dipoletype antennas, consisting of two pieces of metal, a new structure consisting of a single metal piece with a tiny groove in the center is analyzed. It is demonstrated that difficult numerical problems are caused because optical antennas exhibit strong material dispersion, loss, and plasmon-polariton effects that require a very accurate numerical simulation. This structure takes advantage of the Channel Plasmon-Polariton (CPP) effect and exhibits a strong enhancement of the electric field in the groove. Also primitive 3D antenna model with spherical nano particles is analyzed.
Abstract: The microbial production of ethanol from biodiesel¬derived crude glycerol by Enterobacter aerogenes TISTR1468, under micro-aerobic and anaerobic conditions, was investigated. The experimental results showed that micro-aerobic conditions were more favorable for cellular growth (4.0 g/L DCW), ethanol production (20.7 g/L) as well as the ethanol yield (0.47 g/g glycerol) than anaerobic conditions (1.2 g/L DCW, 6.3 g/L ethanol and 0.72 g/g glycerol, respectively). Crude glycerol (100 g/L) was consumed completely with the rate of 1.80 g/L/h. Two-stage fermentation (combination of micro-aerobic and anaerobic condition) exhibited higher ethanol production (24.5 g/L) than using one-stage fermentation (either micro-aerobic or anaerobic condition. The two- stage configuration, exhibited slightly higher crude glycerol consumption rate (1.81 g/L/h), as well as ethanol yield (0.56 g/g) than the one-stage configuration. Therefore, two-stage process was selected for ethanol production from E. aerogenes TISTR1468 in scale-up studies.
Abstract: During signal transmission, the combined effect of the
transmitter filter, the transmission medium, and additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) are included in the channel which distort
and add noise to the signal. This causes the well defined signal
constellation to spread causing errors in bit detection. A compact pi
neural network with minimum number of nodes is proposed. The
replacement of summation at each node by multiplication results in
more powerful mapping. The resultant pi network is tested on six
different channels.
Abstract: Point quad tree is considered as one of the most
common data organizations to deal with spatial data & can be used to
increase the efficiency for searching the point features. As the
efficiency of the searching technique depends on the height of the
tree, arbitrary insertion of the point features may make the tree
unbalanced and lead to higher time of searching. This paper attempts
to design an algorithm to make a nearly balanced quad tree. Point
pattern analysis technique has been applied for this purpose which
shows a significant enhancement of the performance and the results
are also included in the paper for the sake of completeness.
Abstract: Production of biogas from bakery waste was enhanced
by additional bacterial cell. This study was divided into 2 steps. First
step, grease waste from bakery industry-s grease trap was initially
degraded by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The concentration of byproduct,
especially glycerol, was determined and found that glycerol
concentration increased from 12.83% to 48.10%. Secondary step, 3
biodigesters were set up in 3 different substrates: non-degraded waste
as substrate in first biodigester, degraded waste as substrate in
secondary biodigester, and degraded waste mixed with swine manure
in ratio 1:1 as substrate in third biodigester. The highest
concentration of biogas was found in third biodigester that was
44.33% of methane and 63.71% of carbon dioxide. The lower
concentration at 24.90% of methane and 18.98% of carbon dioxide
was exhibited in secondary biodigester whereas the lowest was found
in non-degraded waste biodigester. It was demonstrated that the
biogas production was greatly increased with the initial grease waste
degradation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Abstract: In this paper, the babbitting of a bearing in boiler feed pump of an electromotor has been studied. These bearings have an important role in reducing the shut down times in the pumps, compressors and turbines. The most conventional method in babbitting is casting as a melting method. The comparison between thermal spray and casting methods in babbitting shows that the thermal spraying babbitt layer has better performance and tribological behavior. The metallurgical and tribological analysis such as SEM, EDS and wet chemical analysis has been made in the Babbitt alloys and worn surfaces. Two type of babbitt materials: tinbase and lead-base babbitt was used. The benefits of thermally sprayed babbitt layers are completely clear especially in large bearings.
Abstract: This paper explores an application of an adaptive learning mechanism for robots based on the natural immune system. Most of the research carried out so far are based either on the innate or adaptive characteristics of the immune system, we present a combination of these to achieve behavior arbitration wherein a robot learns to detect vulnerable areas of a track and adapts to the required speed over such portions. The test bed comprises of two Lego robots deployed simultaneously on two predefined near concentric tracks with the outer robot capable of helping the inner one when it misaligns. The helper robot works in a damage-control mode by realigning itself to guide the other robot back onto its track. The panic-stricken robot records the conditions under which it was misaligned and learns to detect and adapt under similar conditions thereby making the overall system immune to such failures.
Abstract: We propose an integral tracking control method for a piezoelectric actuator system. The proposed method achieves the output tracking without requiring any hysteresis observer or schemes to compensate the hysteresis effect. With the proposed control law, the system is converted into the standard singularly perturbed model. Using Tikhonov-s theorem, we guarantee that the tracking error can be reduced to arbitrarily small bound. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Abstract: In the past 20 years the economy of the Czech
Republic has experienced substantial changes. In the 1990s the
development was affected by the transformation which sought to
establish the right conditions for privatization and creation of
elementary market relations. In the last decade the characteristic
elements such as private ownership and corresponding institutional
framework have been strengthened. This development was marked by
the accession of the Czech Republic to the EU. The Czech Republic
is striving to reduce the difference between its level of economic
development and the quality of institutional framework in
comparison with other developed countries. The process of finding
the adequate solutions has been hampered by the negative impact of
the world financial crisis on the Czech Republic and the standard of
living of its inhabitants. This contribution seeks to address the
question of whether and to which extent the economic development
of the transitive Czech economy is affected by the change in
behaviour of households and their tendency to consumption, i.e. in
the sense of reduction or increase in demand for goods and services.
It aims to verify whether the increasing trend of household
indebtedness and decreasing trend of saving pose a significant risk in
the Czech Republic. At a general level the analysis aims to contribute
to finding an answer to the question of whether the debt increase of
Czech households is connected to the risk of "eating through" the
borrowed money and whether Czech households risk falling into a
debt trap. In addition to household indebtedness risks in the Czech
Republic the analysis will focus on identification of specifics of the
transformation phase of the Czech economy in comparison with the
EU countries, or selected OECD countries.
Abstract: Nonlinear solitary structures of electron plasma waves
have been investigated by using nonlinear quantum fluid equations for electrons with an arbitrary temperature. It is shown that the electron degeneracy parameter has significant effects on the linear and nonlinear properties of electron plasma waves. Depending on its
value both compressive and rarefactive solitons can be excited in the model plasma under consideration.
Abstract: We demonstrate the synthesis of intermediary views
within a sequence of color encoded, materials discriminating, X-ray
images that exhibit animated depth in a visual display. During the
image acquisition process, the requirement for a linear X-ray detector
array is replaced by synthetic image. Scale Invariant Feature
Transform, SIFT, in combination with material segmented morphing
is employed to produce synthetic imagery. A quantitative analysis of
the feature matching performance of the SIFT is presented along with
a comparative study of the synthetic imagery. We show that the total
number of matches produced by SIFT reduces as the angular
separation between the generating views increases. This effect is
accompanied by an increase in the total number of synthetic pixel
errors. The trends observed are obtained from 15 different luggage
items. This programme of research is in collaboration with the UK
Home Office and the US Dept. of Homeland Security.
Abstract: Atherosclerosis was identified as a chronic inflammatory process resulting from interactions between plasma lipoproteins, cellular components (monocyte, macrophages, T lymphocytes, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells) and the extracellular matrix of the arterial wall. Several types of genes were known to express during formation of atherosclerosis. This study is carried out to identify unknown differentially expressed gene (DEG) in atherogenesis. Rabbit’s aorta tissues were stained by H&E for histomorphology. GeneFishing™ PCR analysis was performed from total RNA extracted from the aorta tissues. The DNA fragment from DEG was cloned, sequenced and validated by Real-time PCR. Histomorphology showed intimal thickening in the aorta. DEG detected from ACP-41 was identified as cathepsin B gene and showed upregulation at week-8 and week-12 of atherogenesis. Therefore, ACP-based GeneFishing™ PCR facilitated identification of cathepsin B gene which was differentially expressed during development of atherosclerosis.
Abstract: In this paper, we consider nested sliding mode control of SISO nonlinear systems, perturbed by bounded matched and unmatched uncertainties. The systems are assumed to be in strict-feedback form. A step wise procedure is introduced to obtain the controller. In each step, a continuous sliding mode controller is designed as virtual control law. Then the next step sliding surface is defined by using this virtual controller. These sliding surfaces are selected as nonlinear static functions of the system states. Finally in the last step, smooth static state feedback control law is determined such that the output reaches the desired set-point while the system is forced arbitrary close to the intersection of sliding surfaces and the states remain bounded.
Abstract: Yogurt is a coagulated milk product obtained from
the lactic acid fermentation by the action of Lactobacillus
bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The additions of fruits
into milk may enhance the taste and the therapeutical values of milk
products. However fruits also may change the fermentation
behaviour. In this present study, the changes in physicochemical, the
peptide concentration, total phenolics content and the antioxidant
potential of yogurt upon the addition of Hylocereus polyrhizus and
Hylocereus undatus (white and red dragon fruit) were investigated.
Fruits enriched yogurt (10%, 20%, 30% w/w) were prepared and the
pH, TTA, syneresis measurement, peptide concentration, total
phenolics content and DPPH antioxidant inhibition percentage were
determined. Milk fermentation rate was enhanced in red dragon fruit
yogurt for all doses (-0.3606 - -0.4126 pH/h) while only white
dragon fruit yogurt with 20% and 30% (w/w) composition showed
increment in fermentation rate (-0.3471 - -0.3609 pH/h) compared to
plain yogurt (-0.3369pH/h). All dragon fruit enriched yogurts
generally showed lower pH readings (pH 3.95 - 4.03) compared to
plain yogurt (pH 4.05). Both fruit yogurts showed a higher lactic
acid percentage (1.14-1.23%) compared to plain yogurt (1.08%).
Significantly higher syneresis percentage (57.19 - 70.32%)
compared to plain yogurt (52.93%) were seen in all fruit enriched
yogurts. The antioxidant activity of plain yogurt (19.16%) was
enhanced by the presence of white and red dragon fruit (24.97-
45.74%). All fruit enriched yogurt showed an increment in total
phenolic content (36.44 - 64.43mg/ml) compared to plain yogurt
(20.25mg/ml). However, the addition of white and red dragon fruit
did not enhance the proteolysis of milk during fermentation.
Therefore, it could be concluded that the addition of white and red
dragon fruit into yogurt enhanced the milk fermentation rate, lactic
acid content, syneresis percentage, antioxidant activity, and total
phenolics content in yogurt.
Abstract: Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are known to be
persistent and bioaccumulative toxicants that may cause reproductive
impairments in wildlife as well as human. The current study uses the
snail-eating turtle Malayemys macrocephala, a long-lived animal
commonly distribute in rice field habitat in central part of Thailand,
as a sentinel to monitor OCP contamination in environment. The
nest soil, complete clutch of eggs, and blood of the turtle were
collected from agricultural areas in the Chao Phraya River Basin,
Thailand during the nesting season of 2007-2008. The novel
methods for tissue extraction by an accelerated solvent extractor
(ASE, for egg) and liquid-liquid extraction (for blood) have been
developed. The nineteen OCP residues were analyzed by gas
chromatography with micro-electron captured detector (GC-μECD).
The validated methods have met requirements of the AOAC
standard. The results indicated that significant amounts of OCPs are
still contaminated in nest soil and eggs of the turtle even though the
OCPs had been banned in this area for many years. This suggested
the potential risk to health of wildlife as well as human in the area.
Abstract: Anti-allergic effects of royal jelly were evaluated in a human-like mouse model of atopic dermatitis. NC/Nga mice were cutaneously applied with royal jelly for 6 weeks. Royal jelly-treated mice exhibited lower levels of serum total immunoglobulin E in comparison with controls. We found that the treatment decreased (11% to the control) expression of mRNA for aquaporin-3, which is involved in the modulation of epidermal hydration. Microarray analysis revealed more than 10-fold changes in the expression of several genes, such as transglutaminase 2, repetin, and keratins. In normal human epidermal keratinocytes, royal jelly extract suppressed interleukin-8 elevation induced by TNF-α and interferon-γ, suggesting direct anti-inflammatory activity in keratinocytes. Collectively, topical application of royal jelly may be useful for amelioration of lesions and inflammation in atopic dermatitis.