Abstract: The wrinkling of a thin elastic bi-annular plate with piecewise-constant mechanical properties, subjected to radial stretching, is considered. The critical wrinkling stretching loading and the corresponding wrinkling patterns are extensively investigated, together with the roles played by both the geometrical and mechanical parameters.
Abstract: The usefulness of weaning foods to meet the nutrient
needs of children is well recognized, and most of them are precooked
roller dried mixtures of cereal and/or legume flours which posses a
high viscosity and bulk when reconstituted. The objective of this study
was to formulate composite weaning foods using cereals, malted
legumes and vegetable powders and analyze them for nutrients,
functional properties and sensory attributes. Selected legumes (green
gram and lentil) were germinated, dried and dehulled. Roasted wheat,
rice, carrot powder and skim milk powder also were used. All the
ingredients were mixed in different proportions to get four
formulations, made into 30% slurry and dried in roller drier. The
products were analyzed for proximate principles, mineral content,
functional and sensory qualities. The results of analysis showed
following range of constituents per 100g of formulations on dry
weight basis, protein, 18.1-18.9 g ; fat, 0.78-1.36 g ; iron, 5.09-6.53
mg; calcium, 265-310 mg. The lowest water absorption capacity was
in case of wheat green gram based and the highest was in rice lentil
based sample. Overall sensory qualities of all foods were graded as
“good" and “very good" with no significant differences. The results
confirm that formulated weaning foods were nutritionally superior,
functionally appropriate and organoleptically acceptable.
Abstract: It-s known that incorporating prior knowledge into support
vector regression (SVR) can help to improve the approximation
performance. Most of researches are concerned with the incorporation
of knowledge in form of numerical relationships. Little work,
however, has been done to incorporate the prior knowledge on the
structural relationships among the variables (referred as to Structural
Prior Knowledge, SPK). This paper explores the incorporation of SPK
in SVR by constructing appropriate admissible support vector kernel
(SV kernel) based on the properties of reproducing kernel (R.K).
Three-levels specifications of SPK are studies with the corresponding
sub-levels of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method.
These include Hierarchical SPK (HSPK), Interactional SPK (ISPK)
consisting of independence, global and local interaction, Functional
SPK (FSPK) composed of exterior-FSPK and interior-FSPK. A
convenient tool for describing the SPK, namely Description Matrix
of SPK is introduced. Subsequently, a new SVR, namely Motivated
Support Vector Regression (MSVR) whose structure is motivated
in part by SPK, is proposed. Synthetic examples show that it is
possible to incorporate a wide variety of SPK and helpful to improve
the approximation performance in complex cases. The benefits of
MSVR are finally shown on a real-life military application, Air-toground
battle simulation, which shows great potential for MSVR to
the complex military applications.
Abstract: The plant world is the source of many medicines.
Recently, researchers have estimated that there are approximately
400,000 plant species worldwide, of which about a quarter or a third
have been used by societies for medicinal purposes. The human uses
of plants for thousands of years to treat various ailments, in many
developing countries, much of the population trust in traditional
doctors and their collections of medicinal plants to treat them.
Essential oils have many therapeutic properties. In herbal medicine,
they are used for their antiseptic properties against infectious
diseases of fungal origin, against dermatophytes, those of bacterial
origin. The aim of our study is to determine the antimicrobial effect
of essential oils of the plant Trigonella focnum greacum on some
pathogenic bacteria, it is a medicinal plant used in traditional
therapy. The test adopted is based on the diffusion method on solid
medium (Antibiogram), this method determines the sensitivity or
resistance of a microorganism vis-à-vis the extract studied. Our study
reveals that the essential oil of the plant Trigonella focnum greacum
has a different effect on the resistance of germs. For staphiloccocus
Pseudomonnas aeroginosa and Krebsilla, are moderately sensitive
strains, also Escherichia coli and Candida albicans represents a high
sensitivity. By against Proteus is a strain that represents a weak
sensitivity.
Abstract: The theory of Groebner Bases, which has recently been
honored with the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award,
has become a crucial building block to computer algebra, and is
widely used in science, engineering, and computer science. It is wellknown
that Groebner bases computation is EXP-SPACE in a general
polynomial ring setting.
However, for many important applications in computer science
such as satisfiability and automated verification of hardware and
software, computations are performed in a Boolean ring. In this paper,
we give an algorithm to show that Groebner bases computation is PSPACE
in Boolean rings. We also show that with this discovery,
the Groebner bases method can theoretically be as efficient as
other methods for automated verification of hardware and software.
Additionally, many useful and interesting properties of Groebner
bases including the ability to efficiently convert the bases for different
orders of variables making Groebner bases a promising method in
automated verification.
Abstract: Sinc-collocation scheme is one of the new techniques
used in solving numerical problems involving integral equations. This
method has been shown to be a powerful numerical tool for finding
fast and accurate solutions. So, in this paper, some properties of the
Sinc-collocation method required for our subsequent development
are given and are utilized to reduce integral equation of the first
kind to some algebraic equations. Then convergence with exponential
rate is proved by a theorem to guarantee applicability of numerical
technique. Finally, numerical examples are included to demonstrate
the validity and applicability of the technique.
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: Bentonitic material from South Aswan, Egypt was evaluated in terms of mineral-ogy and chemical composition as bleaching clay in refining of transformer oil before and after acid activation and thermal treatment followed by acid leaching using HCl and H2SO4 for different contact times. Structural modification and refining power of bento-nite were investigated during modification by means of X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. The results revealed that the activated bentonite could be used for refining of transformer oil. The oil parameters such as; dielectric strength, viscosity and flash point had been improved. The dielectric breakdown strength of used oil increased from 29 kV for used oil treated with unactivated bentonite to 74 kV after treatment with activated bentonite. Kinematic Viscosity changed from 19 to 11 mm2 /s after treatment with activated bentonite. However, flash point achieved 149 ºC.
Abstract: In this study, hydrogels consisted of polyvinyl alcohol,
propylene glycol and β-glucan were developed by radiation technique
for wound dressing. The prepared hydrogels were characterized by
examining of physical properties such as gel fraction and absorption
ratio. The gel fraction and absorption ratio were dependent on the
crosslinking density. On observing the wound healing of rat skin, the
resulting hydrogels accelerated the wound healing comparing to cotton
gauze. Therefore, the PVA/propylene glycol/β-glucan blended
hydrogels can greatly accelerate the healing without causing irritation.
Abstract: Permeability reduction induced by asphaltene
precipitation during gas injection is one of the serious problems in
the oil industry. This problem can lead to formation damage and
decrease the oil production rate. In this work, Malaysian light oil
sample has been used to investigate the effect CO2 injection and
Water Alternating Gas (WAG) injection on permeability reduction.
In this work, dynamic core flooding experiments were conducted to
study the effect of CO2 and WAG injection on the amount of
asphaltene precipitated. Core properties after displacement were
inspected for any permeability reduction to study the effect of
asphaltene precipitation on rock properties.
The results showed that WAG injection gave less asphaltene
precipitation and formation damage compared to CO2 injection. The
study suggested that WAG injection can be one of the important
factors of managing asphaltene precipitation.
Abstract: The fixed partial dentures are mainly used in the frontal
part of the dental arch because of their great esthetics. There are
several factors that are associated with the stress state created in
ceramic restorations, including: thickness of ceramic layers,
mechanical properties of the materials, elastic modulus of the
supporting substrate material, direction, magnitude and frequency of
applied load, size and location of occlusal contact areas, residual
stresses induced by processing or pores, restoration-cement
interfacial defects and environmental defects. The purpose of this
study is to evaluate the capability of Polarization Sensitive Optical
Coherence Tomography (PSOCT) in detection and analysis of
possible material defects in metal-ceramic and integral ceramic fixed
partial dentures. As a conclusion, it is important to have a non
invasive method to investigate fixed partial prostheses before their
insertion in the oral cavity in order to satisfy the high stress
requirements and the esthetic function.
Abstract: This paper presents a study on the thermodynamics
and transport properties of hot potassium carbonate aqueous system
(HPC) using electrolyte non-random two liquid, (ELECNRTL)
model. The operation conditions are varied to determine the system
liquid phase stability range at the standard and critical conditions. A
case study involving 30 wt% K2CO3, H2O standard system at
pressure of 1 bar and temperature range from 280.15 to 366.15 K has
been studied. The estimated solubility index, viscosity, water
activity, and density which obtained from the simulation showed a
good agreement with the experimental work. Furthermore, the
saturation temperature of the solution has been estimated.
Abstract: In the present study, the incorporation of graphene
into blends of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer with
polypropylene (ABS/PP) was investigated focusing on the
improvement of their thermomechanical characteristics and the effect
on their rheological behavior. The blends were prepared by melt
mixing in a twin-screw extruder and were characterized by measuring
the MFI as well as by performing DSC, TGA and mechanical tests.
The addition of graphene to ABS/PP blends tends to increase their
melt viscosity, due to the confinement of polymer chains motion.
Also, graphene causes an increment of the crystallization temperature
(Tc), especially in blends with higher PP content, because of the
reduction of surface energy of PP nucleation, which is a consequence
of the attachment of PP chains to the surface of graphene through the
intermolecular CH-π interaction. Moreover, the above nanofiller
improves the thermal stability of PP and increases the residue of
thermal degradation at all the investigated compositions of blends,
due to the thermal isolation effect and the mass transport barrier
effect. Regarding the mechanical properties, the addition of graphene
improves the elastic modulus, because of its intrinsic mechanical
characteristics and its rigidity, and this effect is particularly strong in
the case of pure PP.
Abstract: Reinforced concrete crash barriers used in road traffic
must meet a number of criteria. Crash barriers are laid lengthwise,
one behind another, and joined using specially designed steel locks.
While developing BSV reinforced concrete crash barriers (type
ŽPSV), experiments and calculations aimed to optimize the shape of
a newly designed lock and the reinforcement quantity and
distribution in a crash barrier were carried out. The tension carrying
capacity of two parallelly joined locks was solved experimentally.
Based on the performed experiments, adjustments of nonlinear
properties of steel were performed in the calculations. The obtained
results served as a basis to optimize the lock design using a
computational model that takes into account the plastic behaviour of
steel and the influence of the surrounding concrete [6]. The response
to the vehicle impact has been analyzed using a specially elaborated
complex computational model, comprising both the nonlinear model
of the damping wall or crash barrier and the detailed model of the
vehicle [7].
Abstract: This paper deals with the evaluation of flow properties
of polymeric matrix with natural animal fillers. Technical university
of Liberec cooperates on the long-term development of “green
materials“ that should replace conventionally used materials
(especially in automotive industry). Natural fibres (of animal and
plant origin) from all over the world are collected and adapted
(drying, cutting etc.) for extrusion processing. Inside the extruder
these natural additives are blended with polymeric (synthetic and
biodegradable - PLA) matrix and created compound is subsequently
cut for pellets in the wet way. These green materials with unique
recipes are then studied and their mechanical, physical and
processing properties are determined. The main goal of this research
is to develop new ecological materials very similar to unfilled
polymers. In this article the rheological behaviour of chosen natural
animal fibres is introduced considering their shape and surface that
were observed with use of SEM microscopy.
Abstract: This research aimed to study on the potential of
recycling organic waste in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University as
compost. In doing so, the composition of solid waste generated in the
campus was investigated while physical and chemical properties of
organic waste were analyzed in order to evaluate the portion of waste
suitable for recycling as compost. As a result of the study, it was
found that (1) the amount of organic waste was averaged at 299.8
kg/day in which mixed food wastes had the highest amount of 191.9
kg/day followed by mixed leave & yard wastes and mixed fruit &
vegetable wastes at the amount of 66.3 and 41.6 kg/day respectively;
(2) physical and chemical properties of organic waste in terms of
moisture content was between 69.54 to 78.15%, major elements for
plant as N, P and K were 0.14 to 0.17%, 0.46 to 0.52% and 0.16 to
0.18% respectively, and carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N) was about 15:1
to 17.5:1; (3) recycling organic waste as compost was designed by
aerobic decomposition using mixed food wastes : mixed leave & yard
wastes : mixed fruit & vegetable wastes at the portion of 3:2:1 by
weight in accordance with the potential of their amounts and their
physical and chemical properties.
Abstract: Offset Double-Disk Opener (DDO) is a popular
furrow opener in conservation tillage. It has some limitations such as
negative suction to penetrate in the soil, hair pinning and mixing seed
and fertilizer in the slot. Because of importance of separation of seed
and fertilizer in the slot, by adding two horizontal mini disks to DDO
a modified opener was made (MDO) which placed the fertilizer
between and under two rows of seed. To consider performance of
novel opener an indoor comparison test between DDO and MDO was
performed at soil bin. The experiment was conducted with three
working speeds (3, 6 and 8 km h-1), two bulk densities of soil (1.1
and 1.4 Mg m-3) and two levels of residues (1 and 2 ton ha-1). The
experimental design consisted in a (3×2×2) complete randomized
factorial with three replicates for each test. Moisture of seed furrow,
separation of seed and fertilizer, hair pinning and resultant forces
acting on the openers were used as assessing indexes. There was no
significant difference between soil moisture content in slots created
by DDO and MDO at 0-4 cm depth, but at 4-8 cm the in the slot
created by MDO moisture content was higher about 9%. Horizontal
force for both openers increased with increasing speed and soil bulk
density. Vertical force for DDO was negative so it needed additional
weight for penetrating in the soil, but vertical force for MDO was
positive and, which can solve the challenge of penetration in the soil
in DDO. In soft soil with heavy residues some trash was pushed by
DDO into seed furrow (hair pinning) but at MDO seed were placed at
clean groove. Lateral and vertical separation of seed and fertilizer
was performed effectively by MDO (4.5 and 5 cm, respectively)
while DDO put seed and fertilizer close to each other. Overall, the
Modified Offset Double-disks (MDO) had better performance. So by
adapting this opener with no-tillage drillers it would possible to have
higher yield in conservation tillage where the most appropriate
opener is disk type.
Abstract: The fractal-shaped orifices are assumed to have a
significant effect on the pressure drop downstream pipe flow due to
their edge self-similarity shape which enhances the mixing
properties. Here, we investigate the pressure drop after these fractals
using a digital micro-manometer at different stations downstream a
turbulent flow pipe then a direct comparison has been made with the
pressure drop measured from regular orifices with the same flow
area. Our results showed that the fractal-shaped orifices have a
significant effect on the pressure drop downstream the flow. Also
the pressure drop measured across the fractal-shaped orifices is
noticed to be lower that that from ordinary orifices of the same flow
areas. This result could be important in designing piping systems
from point of view of losses consideration with the same flow
control area. This is promising to use the fractal-shaped orifices as
flowmeters as they can sense the pressure drop across them
accurately with minimum losses than the regular ones.
Abstract: Dynamic location referencing method is an important technology to shield map differences. These method references objects of the road network by utilizing condensed selection of its real-world geographic properties stored in a digital map database, which overcomes the defections existing in pre-coded location referencing methods. The high attributes completeness requirements and complicated reference point selection algorithm are the main problems of recent researches. Therefore, a dynamic location referencing algorithm combining intersection points selected at the extremities compulsively and road link points selected according to link partition principle was proposed. An experimental system based on this theory was implemented. The tests using Beijing digital map database showed satisfied results and thus verified the feasibility and practicability of this method.
Abstract: In this study, the adhesion of ice to solid substrates
with different surface properties is compared. Clear ice, similar to
atmospheric in-flight icing encounters, is accreted on the different
substrates under controlled conditions. The ice adhesion behavior is
investigated by means of a dynamic vibration testing technique with
an electromagnetic shaker initiating ice de-bonding in the interface
between the substrate and the ice. The results of the experiments
reveal that the affinity for ice accretion is significantly influenced by
the water contact angle of the respective sample.