Abstract: In the present study Schwertmannite (an iron oxide
hydroxide) is selected as an adsorbent for defluoridation of water.
The adsorbent was prepared by wet chemical process and was
characterized by SEM, XRD and BET. The fluoride adsorption
efficiency of the prepared adsorbent was determined with respect to
contact time, initial fluoride concentration, adsorbent dose and pH of
the solution. The batch adsorption data revealed that the fluoride
adsorption efficiency was highly influenced by the studied factors.
Equilibrium was attained within one hour of contact time indicating
fast kinetics and the adsorption data followed pseudo second order
kinetic model. Equilibrium isotherm data fitted to both Langmuir and
Freundlich isotherm models for a concentration range of 5-30 mg/L.
The adsorption system followed Langmuir isotherm model with
maximum adsorption capacity of 11.3 mg/g. The high adsorption
capacity of Schwertmannite points towards the potential of this
adsorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous medium.
Abstract: This paper presents the idea of a rough controller with application to control the overhead traveling crane system. The structure of such a controller is based on a suggested concept of a fuzzy logic controller. A measure of fuzziness in rough sets is introduced. A comparison between fuzzy logic controller and rough controller has been demonstrated. The results of a simulation comparing the performance of both controllers are shown. From these results we infer that the performance of the proposed rough controller is satisfactory.
Abstract: In this research, CaO-ZnO catalysts (with various
Ca:Zn atomic ratios of 1:5, 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1) prepared by incipientwetness
impregnation (IWI) and co-precipitation (CP) methods were
used as a catalyst in the transesterification of palm oil with methanol
for biodiesel production. The catalysts were characterized by several
techniques, including BET method, CO2-TPD, and Hemmett
Indicator. The effects of precursor concentration, and calcination
temperature on the catalytic performance were studied under reaction
conditions of a 15:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 6 wt% catalyst,
reaction temperature of 60°C, and reaction time of 8 h. At Ca:Zn
atomic ratio of 1:3 gave the highest FAME value owing to a basic
properties and surface area of the prepared catalyst.
Abstract: The purpose of the study is to determine the primary mathematics student teachers- views related to use instructional technology tools in course of the learning process and to reveal how the sample presentations towards different mathematical concepts affect their views. This is a qualitative study involving twelve mathematics students from a public university. The data gathered from two semi-structural interviews. The first one was realized in the beginning of the study. After that the representations prepared by the researchers were showed to the participants. These representations contain animations, Geometer-s Sketchpad activities, video-clips, spreadsheets, and power-point presentations. The last interview was realized at the end of these representations. The data from the interviews and content analyses were transcribed and read and reread to explore the major themes. Findings revealed that the views of the students changed in this process and they believed that the instructional technology tools should be used in their classroom.
Abstract: This paper reports the results of an experimental work
conducted to investigate the effect of curing conditions on the
compressive strength of self-compacting geopolymer concrete
prepared by using fly ash as base material and combination of sodium
hydroxide and sodium silicate as alkaline activator. The experiments
were conducted by varying the curing time and curing temperature in
the range of 24-96 hours and 60-90°C respectively. The essential
workability properties of freshly prepared Self-compacting
Geopolymer concrete such as filling ability, passing ability and
segregation resistance were evaluated by using Slump flow,
V-funnel, L-box and J-ring test methods. The fundamental
requirements of high flowability and resistance to segregation as
specified by guidelines on Self-compacting Concrete by EFNARC
were satisfied. Test results indicate that longer curing time and curing
the concrete specimens at higher temperatures result in higher
compressive strength. There was increase in compressive strength
with the increase in curing time; however increase in compressive
strength after 48 hours was not significant. Concrete specimens cured
at 70°C produced the highest compressive strength as compared to
specimens cured at 60°C, 80°C and 90°C.
Abstract: NFκB is a transcription factor regulating many
function of the vessel wall. In the normal condition , NFκB is
revealed diffuse cytoplasmic expressionsuggesting that the system is
inactive. The presence of activation NFκB provide a potential
pathway for the rapid transcriptional of a variety of genes encoding
cytokines, growth factors, adhesion molecules and procoagulatory
factors. It is likely to play an important role in chronic inflamatory
disease involved atherosclerosis. There are many stimuli with the
potential to active NFκB, including hyperlipidemia. We used 24 mice
which was divided in 6 groups. The HFD given by et libitum
procedure during 2, 4, and 6 months. The parameters in this study
were the amount of NFKB activation ,H2O2 as ROS and VCAM-1 as
a product of NFKB activation. H2O2 colorimetryc assay performed
directly using Anti Rat H2O2 ELISA Kit. The NFKB and VCAM-1
detection obtained from aorta mice, measured by ELISA kit and
imunohistochemistry. There was a significant difference activation of
H2O2, NFKB and VCAM-1 level at induce HFD after 2, 4 and 6
months. It suggest that HFD induce ROS formation and increase the
activation of NFKB as one of atherosclerosis marker that caused by
hyperlipidemia as classical atheroschlerosis risk factor.
Abstract: This study was conducted to evaluate factors
regulating groundwater quality in an area with agriculture as main
use. Under this study twelve groundwater samples have been
collected from Padra taluka, Dabhoi taluka and Savli taluka of
Vadodara district. Groundwater samples were chemically analyzed
for major physicochemical parameter in order to understand the
different geochemical processes affecting the groundwater quality.
The analytical results shows higher concentration of total dissolved
solids (16.67%), electrical conductivity (25%) and magnesium
(8.33%) for pre monsoon and total dissolved solids (16.67%),
electrical conductivity (33.3%) and magnesium (8.33%) for post
monsoon which indicates signs of deterioration as per WHO and BIS
standards. On the other hand, 50% groundwater sample is unsuitable
for irrigation purposes based on irrigation quality parameters. The
study revealed that application of fertilizer for agricultural
contributing the higher concentration of ions in aquifer of Vadodara
district.
Abstract: Not with standing the importance of foreign highly
skilled professionals for host economies, there is a paucity of
research studies investigating the role of the corporate social context
during the integration process. This research aims to address this
paucity by exploring the role of social capital in the integration of
foreign health professionals. It does so by using a qualitative research
approach. In this pilot study the hospital sector forms this study-s
sample and interviews were conducted with HR managers, foreign
health professionals and external HR consultants. It was found that
most of the participating hospitals had not established specific HR
practices and had only partly linked the development of
organisational social capital with a successful integration process.
This research contributes, for example, to the HR literature on the
integration of self-initiated expatriates by analysing the role of HRM
in generating organisational social capital needed for a successful
integration process.
Abstract: Fecal coliform bacteria are widely used as indicators of
sewage contamination in surface water. However, there are some
disadvantages in these microbial techniques including time consuming
(18-48h) and inability in discriminating between human and animal
fecal material sources. Therefore, it is necessary to seek a more
specific indicator of human sanitary waste. In this study, the feasibility
was investigated to apply caffeine and human pharmaceutical
compounds to identify the human-source contamination. The
correlation between caffeine and fecal coliform was also explored.
Surface water samples were collected from upstream, middle-stream
and downstream points respectively, along Rochor Canal, as well as 8
locations of Marina Bay. Results indicate that caffeine is a suitable
chemical tracer in Singapore because of its easy detection (in the range
of 0.30-2.0 ng/mL), compared with other chemicals monitored.
Relative low concentrations of human pharmaceutical compounds (<
0.07 ng/mL) in Rochor Canal and Marina Bay water samples make
them hard to be detected and difficult to be chemical tracer. However,
their existence can help to validate sewage contamination. In addition,
it was discovered the high correlation exists between caffeine
concentration and fecal coliform density in the Rochor Canal water
samples, demonstrating that caffeine is highly related to the
human-source contamination.
Abstract: In this paper, in addition to introducing good urban planning and its effects on globalization, some new methodologies in urban management and another urban aspects has been presented. Some new concerns in increasing of urban population , metropolitans and its relations on big problems has been focused in this paper. It is very important matter that future urban planning with based on globalization will be with full of basically changes in its management and perspectives.
Abstract: The aim of the research is to understand whether the accuracy of customer detection of employee emotional labor strategy would influence the overall service satisfaction. From path analysis, it was found that employee-s positive emotions positively influenced service quality. Service quality in turn influenced Customer detection of employee emotional deep action strategy and Customer detection of employee emotional surface action strategy. Lastly, Customer detection of employee emotional deep action strategy and Customer detection of employee emotional surface action strategy positively influenced service satisfaction. Based on the analysis results, suggestions are proposed to provide reference for human resource management and use in relative fields.
Abstract: Dual phase steels (DPS)s have a microstructure
consisting of a hard second phase called Martensite in the soft Ferrite
matrix. In recent years, there has been interest in dual-phase steels,
because the application of these materials has made significant usage;
particularly in the automotive sector Composite microstructure of
(DPS)s exhibit interesting characteristic mechanical properties such
as continuous yielding, low yield stress to tensile strength
ratios(YS/UTS), and relatively high formability; which offer
advantages compared with conventional high strength low alloy
steels(HSLAS). The research dealt with the characterization of
damage in (DPS)s. In this study by review the mechanisms of failure
due to volume fraction of martensite second phase; a new method is
introduced to identifying the mechanisms of failure in the various
phases of these types of steels. In this method the acoustic emission
(AE) technique was used to detect damage progression. These failure
mechanisms consist of Ferrite-Martensite interface decohesion and/or
martensite phase fracture. For this aim, dual phase steels with
different volume fraction of martensite second phase has provided by
various heat treatment methods on a low carbon steel (0.1% C), and
then AE monitoring is used during tensile test of these DPSs. From
AE measurements and an energy ratio curve elaborated from the
value of AE energy (it was obtained as the ratio between the strain
energy to the acoustic energy), that allows detecting important
events, corresponding to the sudden drops. These AE signals events
associated with various failure mechanisms are classified for ferrite
and (DPS)s with various amount of Vm and different martensite
morphology. It is found that AE energy increase with increasing Vm.
This increasing of AE energy is because of more contribution of
martensite fracture in the failure of samples with higher Vm. Final
results show a good relationship between the AE signals and the
mechanisms of failure.
Abstract: The hot deformation behavior of high strength low
alloy (HSLA) steels with different chemical compositions under hot
working conditions in the temperature range of 900 to 1100℃ and
strain rate range from 0.1 to 10 s-1 has been studied by performing a
series of hot compression tests. The dynamic materials model has been
employed for developing the processing maps, which show variation
of the efficiency of power dissipation with temperature and strain rate.
Also the Kumar-s model has been used for developing the instability
map, which shows variation of the instability for plastic deformation
with temperature and strain rate. The efficiency of power dissipation
increased with decreasing strain rate and increasing temperature in the
steel with higher Cr and Ti content. High efficiency of power
dissipation over 20 % was obtained at a finite strain level of 0.1 under
the conditions of strain rate lower than 1 s-1 and temperature higher
than 1050 ℃ . Plastic instability was expected in the regime of
temperatures lower than 1000 ℃ and strain rate lower than 0.3 s-1. Steel
with lower Cr and Ti contents showed high efficiency of power
dissipation at higher strain rate and lower temperature conditions.
Abstract: One of the most important requirements for the
operation and planning activities of an electrical utility is the
prediction of load for the next hour to several days out, known as
short term load forecasting. This paper presents the development of
an artificial neural network based short-term load forecasting model.
The model can forecast daily load profiles with a load time of one
day for next 24 hours. In this method can divide days of year with
using average temperature. Groups make according linearity rate of
curve. Ultimate forecast for each group obtain with considering
weekday and weekend. This paper investigates effects of temperature
and humidity on consuming curve. For forecasting load curve of
holidays at first forecast pick and valley and then the neural network
forecast is re-shaped with the new data. The ANN-based load models
are trained using hourly historical. Load data and daily historical
max/min temperature and humidity data. The results of testing the
system on data from Yazd utility are reported.
Abstract: The halophilic proteinase showed a maximal activity
at 50°C and pH 9~10, in 20% NaCl and was highly stabilized by
NaCl. It was able to hydrolyse natural actomyosin (NAM), collagen
and anchovy protein. For NAM hydrolysis, the myosin heavy chain
was completely digested by halophilic proteinase as evidenced by the
lowest band intensity remaining, but partially hydrolysed actin. The
SR5-3 proteinase was also capable hydrolyzing two major
components of collagen, β- and α-compounds, effectively. The
degree of hydrolysis (DH) of the halophilic proteinase and
commercial proteinases (Novozyme, Neutrase, chymotrypsin and
Flavourzyme) on the anchovy protein, were compared, and it was
found that the proteinase showed a greater degree of hydrolysis
towards anchovy protein than that from commercial proteinases. DH
of halophilic proteinase was sharply enhanced according to the
increase in the concentration of enzyme from 0.035 U to 0.105 U.
The results warranting that the acceleration of the production of fish
sauce with higher quality, may be achieved by adding of the
halophilic proteinase from this bacterium.
Abstract: The dental composites are preferably used as filling
materials due to their esthetic appearances. Nevertheless one of the
major problems, during the application of the dental composites, is
shape change named as “polymerisation shrinkage" affecting clinical
success of the dental restoration while photo-polymerisation.
Polymerisation shrinkage of composites arises basically from the
formation of a polymer due to the monomer transformation which
composes of an organic matrix phase. It was sought, throughout this
study, to detect and evaluate the structural polymerisation shrinkage
of prepared dental composites in order to optimize the effects of
various fillers included in hydroxyapatite (HA)-reinforced dental
composites and hence to find a means to modify the properties of
these dental composites prepared with defined parameters. As a
result, the shrinkage values of the experimental dental composites
were decreased by increasing the filler content of composites and the
composition of different fillers used had effect on the shrinkage of
the prepared composite systems.
Abstract: As seen in literature, about 70% of the improvement initiatives fail, and a significant number do not even get started. This paper analyses the problem of failing initiatives on Software Process Improvement (SPI), and proposes good practices supported by motivational tools that can help minimizing failures. It elaborates on the hypothesis that human factors are poorly addressed by deployers, especially because implementation guides usually emphasize only technical factors. This research was conducted with SPI deployers and analyses 32 SPI initiatives. The results indicate that although human factors are not commonly highlighted in guidelines, the successful initiatives usually address human factors implicitly. This research shows that practices based on human factors indeed perform a crucial role on successful implantations of SPI, proposes change management as a theoretical framework to introduce those practices in the SPI context and suggests some motivational tools based on SPI deployers experience to support it.
Abstract: This paper presents the applicability of artificial
neural networks for 24 hour ahead solar power generation forecasting
of a 20 kW photovoltaic system, the developed forecasting is suitable
for a reliable Microgrid energy management. In total four neural
networks were proposed, namely: multi-layred perceptron, radial
basis function, recurrent and a neural network ensemble consisting in
ensemble of bagged networks. Forecasting reliability of the proposed
neural networks was carried out in terms forecasting error
performance basing on statistical and graphical methods. The
experimental results showed that all the proposed networks achieved
an acceptable forecasting accuracy. In term of comparison the neural
network ensemble gives the highest precision forecasting comparing
to the conventional networks. In fact, each network of the ensemble
over-fits to some extent and leads to a diversity which enhances the
noise tolerance and the forecasting generalization performance
comparing to the conventional networks.
Abstract: This paper fist examines three set of bivariate cointegrations between any two of current accounts, stock markets, and currency exchange markets in ten Asian countries. Furthermore, we examined the effect of country characters on this bivariate cointegration. Our findings suggest that for three sets of cointegration test, each sample country at least exists one cointegration. India consistently exhibited a bi-directional causal relationship between any two of three indicators. Unlike Pan et al. (2007) and Phylaktis and Ravazzolo (2005), we found that such cointegration is influenced by three characteristics: capital control; flexibility in foreign exchange rates; and the ratio of trade to GDP. These characteristics are the result of liberalization in each Asian country. This implies that liberalization policies are effective on improving the cointegration between any two of financial markets and current account for ten Asian countries.
Abstract: Although the World Wide Web is considered the
largest source of information there exists nowadays, due to its
inherent dynamic characteristics, the task of finding useful and
qualified information can become a very frustrating experience. This
study presents a research on the information mining systems in the
Web; and proposes an implementation of these systems by means of
components that can be built using the technology of Web services.
This implies that they can encompass features offered by a services
oriented architecture (SOA) and specific components may be used by
other tools, independent of platforms or programming languages.
Hence, the main objective of this work is to provide an architecture
to Web mining systems, divided into stages, where each step is a
component that will incorporate the characteristics of SOA. The
separation of these steps was designed based upon the existing
literature. Interesting results were obtained and are shown here.